Posted 24 August 2014 - 10:57 PM
Another extra long one. Sorry!
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When Talvis broke Kiehl's arm off, it flopped against the ice chunk containing Loomin. In doing so, it smeared ZeroTigress's blood upon its cold surface. As the blood made contact with the ice, the script that Eremes had embedded into ZeroTigress's body activated and bled into the ice towards the pale-haired boy. Once the script made its way into Loomin's body, a heartbeat began to sound from deep within him.
As the Gazettis close in on the party, the heartbeat grew louder and louder until it echoed throughout the cavern. Tkwan and the others look around themselves, wondering where the sound was coming from. HopeSama moves closer to ZeroTigress's body as the heartbeat reached its climax.
Then silence.
Suddenly, chunks of ice flew everywhere as Loomin explodes out of his prison. Tkwan quickly casts Safety Wall on the others and himself before they could be injured by the freezing barrage. The explosion manages to knock Kiehl off the ledge he was on, causing him to fall to his feet on the ground.
"What the hell?" he growls, looking towards the boy.
Loomin floated in the air for a few moments, his body glowing with soft light. Then he slowly descends down on the metal platform beneath him and stands with his eyes still closed. Once he landed, he slowly opens his eyes, revealing sky blue eyes.
"Feh, you're just a runt," sneers Kiehl. He sends a Fire Ball flying at the boy.
The fiery sphere hits an invisible barrier that seems to have been activated instantaneously and explodes on contact. When the smoke clears, Loomin turns his head towards Kiehl and hold up both his little hands at him. A glyph as big as he was forms at his palms and a great wave of energy flows out from it to Kiehl. Kiehl yells out as the wave hits him and he holds up his good arm to try to defend himself from it.
"It can't be!" he screams. "You're forcing me out of the game! IMPOSSIBLE!!"
A giant blue light surrounds Kiehl and in minutes he was no more. The Gazettis have also disappeared from the area.
"What... what just happened?" wonders Talvis with wide eyes.
"I think... I think he just banned the hacker," theorizes Aizenath, lowering his spear. "And destroyed the Gazettis on top of that."
The glyph dissipates from Loomin's palm and he turns to look towards the players. Silently, he steps down from the metal platform with his bare feet and begins to walk towards HopeSama, who had begun clutching ZeroTigress's body close. He goes down on his knees next to ZeroTigress's body and leans over to place his forehead on hers.
"Eonni..." he whispers quietly with closed eyes. "Eonni, come back..."
He then stands back up and looks to Tkwan with a smile. Not sure what to think, the male Archbishop approaches ZeroTigress's body and lifts a hand towards her.
"RESURRECTION!" he shouts as he casted the spell.
A spinning glyph forms beneath the female Assassin Cross's body and in the next moment, an angel appears overhead and disappears as quickly as she came. Everyone looks on with bated breath as the hole in ZeroTigress's chest sealed up and her body was fully restored.
Slowly, ZeroTigress begins breathing and opens her eyes. She turns her head to see Loomin and the others smiling at her and looks up to see HopeSama's eyes well up.
"ZERO!" she shouts as she pulls the female Assassin Cross in for a tight hug.
"Augh, no hugs!" cries out ZeroTigress in surprise.
"GROUP HUG!" yells out Toxn all duckfaced as the rest of the party converged on the poor Assassin Cross.
"NOOOOO!" protests ZeroTigress, looking quite uncomfortable being in the center of a group hug. "Toxn, you suck!!"
Once the overwhelmingly friendly act was over, the group steps away from the female Assassin Cross to let Loomin have a chance. ZeroTigress slowly gets up, with HopeSama and Tkwan's help, and walks over to the little boy. She gets down on one knee and smiles a little at him.
"Nice to meet you at last..." she greets him. "Loomin."
Loomin looks on with a big smile on his face. "Eonni."
"So, you finally made it."
Eremes suddenly appears behind Loomin, who turns around to look at him curiously.
ZeroTigress gets up to her feet and glares at the male Assassin Cross. "Was this your plan all along?"
"I'm a little disappointed it took you this long to figure it out," retorts Eremes. "I expected better from you."
"Wait, so what's the script you put into Zero's body?" asks Talvis. "I'm not quite clear on what's going on."
Eremes lets out a sigh and crosses his arms. "I suppose I'll let you know since you've manage to accomplish what I was aiming for."
He sits down and the players sit down along with him. Loomin goes over to lean on ZeroTigress.
"RO, as you know, was created by my development team and me," begins Eremes. "But... things weren't going so well with the rest of GRAVITY so we left. Some time later, I embedded a special script into Loomin, which gives him power over the world of RO and allows him to change things as he sees fit. However, this programming I gave him would allow him to override any GM commands. Essentially, I've created a god within the game."
"That's..." exclaims Toxn, trying to comprehend what he had just heard. "Why would you do that?"
"Because I knew the fools running GRAVITY would eventually lead RO to its downfall," says Eremes. "Think of Loomin as a sort of fail-safe for the game itself."
"But if you give one NPC complete power over the game, how the heck are you supposed to control it?" asks ShinobiEX3.
"That's where your friend here comes in," answers Eremes, looking over at ZeroTigress. "For years, I've scouted players to find one whose perspectives on RO is the most unbiased, uninfluenced by guild needs or personal desires. Someone neutral. Someone who would put the needs of the game before their own."
"I'm also unstable," notes ZeroTigress. "Not sure if you want someone like me controlling the game."
"Better you than GRAVITY," says Toxn.
"Any thing is better than GRAVITY," scoffs ZeroTigress. "That's not saying much."
"I wasn't looking for a player to control the game," clarifies Eremes. "What I needed was a good base for the god NPC's AI."
"So it was an AI script you put into Zero," asserts Tkwan.
"Yes," confirms Eremes. "I didn't let you in on the details because I wanted the AI script to learn from decisions you make naturally. Make sure as less outside influence as possible is made on the AI."
"Then how do you explain this?" demands ZeroTigress, showing the scar on her chest. "This was left from when Kiehl tried to extract the script from me."
"Loomin is a part of RO as you are a part of the real world," responds Eremes. "Because you are the basis of Loomin's AI, your sprite needed to become part of RO's world. As such, your body will receive damage as if you are part of RO's world, whereas other players' bodies won't."
"Is that permanent?" wonders HopeSama.
"Now that Loomin is no longer dormant, it may be," says Eremes. "But only for ZeroTigress. The rest of you won't be affected."
ZeroTigress looks on as Eremes gets up to his feet. She and the others follow suit.
"Well, that's all there is to say on the matter," begins Eremes. "With the Kiehl hacker gone, you are all free to log out once more. As for me... Consider this our last goodbye."
With that, Eremes logs out of the game, leaving the players to wonder what their next move is.