The Eden Crisis
Chapter 5: Vetus Silenda

It’s the weekend, and that means more time to play Eden. I enter its world. I buy some needed items before going to the teleportation Sphere. I look at the sphere. “Vetus Silenda!” I command. The sphere glows and transports me from Indagatus.

I appear in the city of Vetus Silenda. This continent is all desert, and the heat sucks. The creator really went all out for realism. I wonder why Claire wants to go here.

I send her a quick message and wait for to show up. The continent boss is a large snake in a temple in the middle of the desert. The only way to get there is with a horse. However, once you get to the temple you encounter a swamp where the temple is. It’s the only area of the continent with trees and water.

Claire is good; she is already on Continent Twenty Three or higher. I’m not really sure what she wants to do here. I see Claire; she is coming from the city center. She greets me with a smile. “Come on,” she says. “We’re heading to the east of the city.” The east? I haven’t been there. What does she want to show me?

I follow her to the eastern exit. She points far away. “Can you see the building?” I look as hard as I can but see nothing. I shake my head. Claire stifles a laugh. “It’s OK. You will see it. Unfortunately, we need horses to get there, but I have a portal crystal if you want to use it instead.”

“We probably should,” I say.” “I don’t have enough gold to rent a horse.” She nods and tosses a crystal to the ground. “That’s why you should join a guild,” she says as a portal opens in front of us. “You get paid in game gold every week.”

We walk into the portal and reappear in a rather ancient-looking building that may be a temple. I look around the sand-filled room. The portal closes and Claire grabs me by the wrist and pulls me into the next room.

Again, there is sand everywhere, but this room has writing carved all over the walls. It’s in an odd-looking language I’ve never seen. Claire puts her hand on a wall. “You see this language?” she says. I nod. “This is the language of Eden.” The creator of the game made up an entire language? I think, amazed. I follow Claire into yet another room. Unlike the others, this one has no sand. It is a library. There are shelves everywhere with books. There are three doors. The one on the right and the one on the left are standard wooden doors. The third door is large and made of marble. There is more of the language of Eden on this door.

Claire goes to open the stone door, but she is stopped by a sword slicing through the air in front of her. She flips backward and pulls her own sword out. I then draw my sword for the fight that I know is about to happen.

A blond-haired man points his sword menacingly at us. “You can’t go in there!” he says. “This is my territory.” Claire and I charge the man. He is able to dodge our attacks. He is very fast and nimble.

The man holds his sword above his head. “Divine strike!” He cuts through the air and a pale energy wave shoots toward us. I only have a moment.

I quickly access my inventory and grab a magic stone. I throw it to the ground and as soon as it shatters a spell is cast. A wall of sand shoots up from the ground and absorbs the lethal wave.

Claire uses the opportunity to go around the wall to attack the man head on. I place my hands on the ground. “Earth spikes!” The sand falls away and spiky pillars of earth shoot from the ground toward the man.

He smirks and deftly leaps into the air. Claire jumps toward him, and he whirls midair as she attacks. His spin deflects her attack, and she falls to the ground. As she falls he kicks her in the face. He uses his momentum and jumps toward me, his sword aiming at my chest.

I hold my hand up. “Water blast!” Water shoots from my hand toward him. He chortles with attitude. Before either of our attacks connects, a wall of sand shoots up and catches them both.

The sand drops, and a man walks in from another room. He is a man in his sixties, of black African descent. Are Claire and I going to have to fight him, too?

The man we were fighting puts his weapon away, and the older man offers his outstretched hand. “I’m sorry about my young friend attacking you,” he says. “His name is Nero, and he is very protective of this place.” Claire gets up and walks over to me.

I put my weapon away. “Why is he protective of a temple?” I ask. The old man smiles. “In this game some buildings are able to be claimed by players. Nero and I claimed this one a month back even though it isn’t much—mostly just this library. I fixed it up and plan to do more but it takes time, money and the right skill level.” He made this? I think. That’s incredible.

Looking at this man I can only guess that he is some type of magic user. He is wearing gold and black robes over leather clothing of the same color scheme. He carries a staff. It has a pale-green dragon insignia on it.

Claire puts her weapon away and asks the question we both have on our minds. “Who are you, old man?” Nero lets out a sound of annoyance. “How dare you? He is a highly respected”—the man silences Nero by holding up a hand.

“It’s OK, Nero. My name is Apollo in the game,” he says as he extends his hand to Claire. She shakes his hand. “I’m Claire, and this is Dante,” she says. Apollo nods and hits the ground with his staff. Stone chairs appear. Pointing to everyone, he says, “Please sit so we may talk.”

We all sit down. Nero looks at Claire and me with contempt. He is angry at us and sort of scary. I hope his anger will subside. Apollo is the first to speak. “So what brings the leader of The Knights of the Lunar Order and her young knight here?” he says. I look at Claire with annoyance. Her knight? As if.

Claire chuckles. “He is not my knight. He isn’t a suitable protector.” I narrow my eyes at her. “Are you kidding?” I say. “I’ve defended you more times than I can count!” The old man laughs. “You two are entertaining.”

Claire continues. “Anyway, I saw this building earlier in the game and wanted to show Dante what I had seen. Then we came in and saw the door with Eden writing on it, but Nero stopped us before we could go in.” Apollo nods with understanding.

He motions to the door. “Inside that door are three books,” he says. ”They are also written in the language of Eden. The books won’t even open. They can’t be unlocked without the proper tools. Nor can they be read by anyone who hasn’t gotten his logic skills along with his magic skills, though logic is the main skill required.”

Does he know what the books contain? Claire looks as though she is thinking that she should ask. “Apollo, do you know what the books say?” she says. He shakes his head. “I can’t open the books because I don’t have the tools needed. I know a little about the books but not much.”

He begins to explain each of the books to us. The first book is called The Book of Reaping. According to Apollo’s research, this book contains the information on what Veren has written to happen up to a certain point in the game’s background lore. This is the game’s version of its contents, anyway.

Apollo says the book gives the reader knowledge to create a Reaper’s seal. He says he isn’t sure what the seal is or does, but he believes it assumes the capabilities of weapons.

The second book is called The Book of Chaos. The game story says that this book contains the information about what will happen in the end, as Veren has chosen it. If someone can successfully read this book, Apollo says, he gains the knowledge to make a seal of Chaos. Again, Apollo is unsure of the nature of the seal. His research has led him to believe the seal is capable of absorbing the power of any consumable item. What that really means he neither knows nor can guess.

The final book is called The Book of Creation, and it holds the story of what was. As with the other books a reader can learn how to create a seal, only this seal is said to be the ultimate seal. Apollo can’t tell us anymore than that. He hasn’t found any information about this particular seal. He can only tell us that it is the greatest seal of them all. Before he can finish, we are interrupted by a monster appearing seemingly from out of nowhere.

The monster is large, like a boss creature. It roars and swings its arms. Claire gets hit and is knocked on her back. Nero and I pull out our weapons and attack it. Our attacks are completely ineffective.

It knocks Nero and me on our backs to where Claire is. The beast is too powerful. It picks up a large rock from the corner of the room. Apollo gets up and holds his staff high. “Fire storm flare!” he shouts. He hits the staff on the ground, and a beam of fire shoots up and strikes the beast. It bursts into flames and roars in pain.

The fire dies out, and the monster is still standing. Apollo casts more magic against it. Spell after spell hits it but does nothing. The beast roars and slashes at Apollo. Now on his feet, Nero moves quickly to absorb the brunt of the attack. He instantly shatters as his HP hits zero.

The beast readies for another attack but is stopped by a katana slicing through it. It shatters into fragments, and the head of Dignitas himself, Lucien Crescent, stands there, his platinum-colored hair blowing in the wind. I think that this is something out of a movie, with light from a torch glowing off of his hair behind him. He, my brother Cloud and another person walk toward us.

Claire and I stand up, and she walks over to Lucien. “What are you doing here?”she demands. Whoa! She is adopting that aggressive tone toward the owner of the game. Shut up, Claire! Lucien narrows his eyes. “Claire!” he says. “You need to leave here now, my sister.” Sister? She is the sister of Lucien Crescent?

Oh, my god! I have yelled at this girl several times! She could have her brother delete my character! Claire continues to be mouthy. “What the hell was that thing?” she says accusingly. “There are no monsters in this particular area!”

Lucien pinches his nose in annoyance. “I am aware of that, Claire. This beast that you all fought was a data anomaly. Someone bypassed our firewall and inserted it into the game. When my researchers found it, we acted quickly.”

How is this possible? Dignitas has the most-advanced technology in the world. Their system defenses should be impenetrable. How could this have happened?

“Are there more anomalies?” I ask Lucien. He shakes his head. “Not at the moment,” he says, hoping to reassure me. “However, I recommend all of you leave, on the chance another anomaly does pop up.”

We all nod in agreement and use teleportation crystals to return to the main city. Once there, Cloud walks over to me. “You all right?” he says. “I wish I could have been there to protect you, little brother.” I think to myself, he really is the best. I smile at him. “It’s OK. It’s just a game, remember? There is no real danger.” Cloud nods. “Log out soon,” he says. “I’ll be doing the same in a minute, and then I’m making your favorite for dinner.” All right! Beef Wellington!

Cloud ruffles my hair and walks over to Lucien. Claire is talking to Apollo. Nero is also there. At least, the data anomaly wasn’t a danger to us. Nero seems all right.

Apollo thanks us for our assistance and offers us his friendship in the game. He tells us we can call on him for help anytime. Nero reluctantly does the same. Apollo also tells us that he will continue to do research on the three books of Eden.

It’s finally time to pick that bone with Claire on her being a Crescent all along. “When were you planning on telling me you are the sister of the owner of Dignitas?” I ask. She shrugs. “Honestly, I assumed you knew. I figured Cloud or Vergil had said something. It’s not a problem, is it? My being a Crescent, I mean.”

I shake my head. “It’s fine; I’m just shocked. I’ve been a little mean, you know.” Claire chuckled. “I’m glad,” she says. “It means you were being real with me.” We continue talking until it’s time for me to go.

I say my goodbyes to everyone, at least for the time being. I log out for the awesome dinner Cloud/Jon is going to make.