Chapter 8

The group of three people, two humans and an elf are relaxing by a lighting device that is rather fascinating to Jack so he can't help but ask a few questions regarding it.

"Are you able to make more of these things?" Jack asks while placing his hands around the light to feel if it gives off any heat, surprisingly it's entirely cool to the touch compared to the light that it's giving off.

"These are a simple product that nearly anyone can make outside of cities, all you need to do is place some of these ores within a clear container of water, place a few of these grasses on top depending on how bright you want it. If you want to change the colour…." Arwen starts to talk with pride about how to produce these lighting devices.

It truly is quite simple, one of the most common ores found just below the surface is called 'Luminite' which is unable to be used for forging so it's considered a waste product. Humans don't like to use 'Luminite' because it gives off an odour that only humans can smell after several minutes.

Jack and Jessica both sniff around the bottle and are unable to detect any odour, Arwen watching the combined action of the two of them, crawling around on the ground with their noses inching closer to the bottle, is unable to hold back his laughter and ends up letting out a good bellow.

Embarrassed both Jack and Jessica return to their sitting positions and the conversation goes back to Jack talking about his world with Arwen and Jessica both taking turns in asking questions. The animals are still soundly asleep, looking at them it appears that the smaller horses have accepted the wolf as they're laying on top of each other.

If you look closer though, you would notice that the wolf is being almost crushed under the weight of the horse's heads on its belly. The night quickly progresses and thinking it's about time to log off, Jack decides to do so while Jessica is quickly nodding off.

"I need to head back to my world for tonight, I'll be back in the morning…" Jack says while feeling awkward, he's technically saving himself from the situation and leaving everyone here to fend for themselves.

"Oh, ok...." Jessica says while nodding off, unable to finish her sentence she quickly slumps over with her head resting on Jack's shoulder. He feels bad for leaving her here but he can't do anything about it.

Jack carefully lifts her head off his shoulder and lowers her head to the ground, placing it on a balled-up piece of cloth acting as a pillow while also placing a jacket over her body. He turns his head to look at Arwen who simply meets Jack in the eyes and nods, giving Jack the signal to do as he needs.

He quietly walks over to the wall and proceeds to press the prompt to log off.

Jack's vision shifts away from the dark cave, he's standing in the centre of the crystal room and still understanding none of this room. Looking up at the crystals that are above him, they're all rather dull and not flashing in patterns anymore just some random flickering. The unseen eye is closed right now but if one were to look at it, they would see a new purple tinge to it.

After a couple of minutes of standing around looking at the crystals Jacks vision once again shifts and he returns to his body laying on his bed in his familiar room, with the familiar smells and sounds hitting him all at once.

Lifting the crystal off his forehead, he looks at the time and it's 2am which makes more sense than earlier in the day. Stretching his body, he gets up out of bed and turns on his computer while heading out of the room to look for something to eat.

Immediately the familiar pungent smell hits his nose and peering into the lounge room he can see John sitting there fast asleep, bag of chips still on his chest, holding a lighter while the TV and his computer are still open in front of him.

Shaking his head with a smile, Jack goes into the kitchen to raid the fridge for some supplies. He finds some hotdogs and a few other bits and pieces then starts to heat up some of it in the microwave as he goes to wake up John.

Jack grabs the bag of chips from John and prods his chest a few times causing no reaction, Jack is still almost snoring away. *BEEP BEEP BEEP* The microwave is finished so Jack not wanting to waste anymore time on John just throws a remote control onto his stomach.

John jerks up holding his stomach, looking around the room he sees Jack but he's still half asleep.

"Oi cunt, what's that for?" John asks in almost anger, but quickly calming himself down. He finally recognises that it was Jack that threw the remote onto him and changes his demeanour to a more friendly one.

"You were asleep, it's 2am so don't waste electricity, I pay for it too" Jack replies from the kitchen while putting together his hotdogs and other food.

"2am? Where the hell were you earlier in the day? I thought you said you were going to play 'The World'?" John asks while walking into the kitchen, taking a few pieces of food off Jack's plate. Jack taking a bite has no idea how to respond to this, he was playing 'The World' all day and was on his bed.

"Uhh what?" Jack mutters out with a mouth full of food.

John proceeds to take some more food from Jack's plate and explains, "Some guy in a suit was at the door for you earlier, we went into your room and you weren't there and since you don't have a phone anymore, had no idea how to contact you so just left a note on your desk with the guys details"

Jack is stunned for a few moments; he certainly was in the room all day but if they couldn't find him laying there then something strange is going on. "Uhh, I certainly was in the game all day, I don't know what to say…" Jack mumbles and trails off, feeling somewhat shocked and feeling like something ulterior is going on.

"Weird, well did you manage to get an invite for me?" John asks with a sly smile on his face, rubbing his hands together as though he's found a goldmine. Jack gives himself a quick chuckle and shakes his head to explain.

"The beta isn't worth it; I can give you a special code when the general population is allowed access but not for the beta, sorry" while feeling slightly guilty after seeing the excited reaction of John.

"Ah man, that sucks, you really let me down bro, you better hook me up to make it up to me also get a new god damn phone" John says while leaving the room quickly, he sounds angry but if you look at his face you can see a smirk on it.

Jack lets out a sigh and heads back to his room to finish up eating his food, checking out the usual chatrooms and reading the private forums.

'Buying BETA, The Secret World Online codes, $16,000 in mobile phones'

'Buying exclusive information on 'The World' up to $1000 depending on the information'

'Looking for boyfriend in 'The World' req: 6'6 and has beta access code'

The chatroom is as noisy as always, there's no messages from Tom since last time.

'THE WORLD: A brief history'

'How much money do you have?'

'What do you think is the most attractive race in The World?'

'The secret history of the Elves, exclusive'

The forums have a few interesting topics and upon reading the elves topic, Jack decides to make a post to correct some of the information. He surprisingly doesn't feel tired given the huge day he has had and spends far too much time doing this.

Back in 'The Secret World Online', the cave is the same as Jack had left it, his body is still up against the wall as though he's asleep. Jessica is still curled up on the ground covered by the jacket, as usual drooling away.

The animals have shifted and Fenrir is able to breathe freely, laying on his back and with a leg sticking up like a dog. The horses huddled next to each other for warmth. Arwen is still by the entrance to the cave, his eyes closed tightly but his body giving off the feeling that he's ready to jump into action at any moment.

Time progresses slowly and Jack's body starts to give off a green glow focused especially on his hand, Arwen opens his eyes to look at what's happening to Jack and to see if he has come back to the game but after no movement from Jack, he closes his eyes again.

*Hoot* *Screeeech*

Suddenly two loud sounds can be heard, the first being an Owl with the second being the familiar Eagle that Arwen used earlier to scare off the shadows. Arwen stands up with a frown on his face, the animals have woken up and are looking around the room becoming more alert.

Arwen silently draws out his bow and notches an arrow, aiming down the entrance to the cave. He's not too sure what is happening but he's prepared to defend this location. Jessica still hasn't heard anything and is still sleeping in a ball.

Several shadows can be seen flickering at the front of the cave but they promptly stop before the Holy Water puddles, a tall thin masked man can be seen emerging from the shadows on the ground. This is Bruce, the man that was given the assignment by the mayor's son, he comes to the front of the Holy Water puddle and looks at it.

"Arwen, I will return two of your kin if you turn over those two people to me!" Bruce loudly shouts.

*woosh*

An arrow flies next to Bruce's head but he doesn't react to it as though he expected this response.

Several of the shadows step forward into the puddles of Holy Water, they let out screams but instead of the distorted scream from earlier these sounds like real people. Arwen can hear this and his expression quickly becomes pained and notches another arrow.

Taking aim at some of the shadow, he can see their original faces covered in shadows, he can see several young men and a woman, Arwen is staring at this woman in particular because he recognises her, she was the woman he promised to spend the rest of his life with.

She's the whole reason that he left the forest and sought to find the shadow puppeteers, she is now in front of him crying out in pain because of something that he did, he wants to step forward and relieve her of her pain but Arwen knows that he can't change what has happened.

Arwen shakes his head and takes aim at Bruce again.

*Woosh*

Another arrow is sent flying, this time on a direct course for Bruce's head but instead of making contact with his masked face, it just ends up passing straight through it. Arwen clicks his tongue and let's loose another arrow, this time hitting a bottle on the roof above where Bruce is.

This bottle contains Holy Water and as it cracks and sprinkles everywhere, a sizzling sound can be heard but no screams. Arwen furrows his brow; the holy water should have had a massive effect on him but he seems wholly unaffected.

Bruce just extends his arm out and innumerable shadows proceed into the cave, they simply jump over the Holy Water puddles which causes Arwen to be shocked as people using shadow elements shouldn't be able to leave the ground.

"You made the choice to oppose the Shadow Devil sect Arwen, now you get to live with your choices" Bruce's voice echoes in the cave while his body is sinking back into the shadows. Arwen is just about to move when he feels a sword pressed against his neck, looking at the shadow which is holding the sword, it's the female elf.

Arwen has a bitter smile on his face and doesn't move, the cave is quickly overrun. The animals suppressed and driven into a corner, Jessica is woken up and being held by her scruff, she's kicking and flailing to no avail. Jack's body is still emitting a slight green glow while against the wall.

Jessica's clothes slowly start to rip as she's being held up, a shadow approaches Jack with its sword drawn out cautiously approaching him. The shadow inches closer to Jack and stabs its sword down onto Jacks primary arm but Jack gives no reaction.

Jessica's clothes are about to give way and she lets out a scream, "JACK!" can be heard echoing quite loudly throughout the cave. Jack's body jerks and just as the shadow is about to make another sword strike this time against his head.

Jack's hand reaches out and catches the sword, this shocks the shadow and it tries to pull the sword again but it's unable to. Jack slowly stands up, his hand still holding onto the sword while dripping a lot of blood. The shadow is trying to take the sword back and is unable to.

*BOOM*

Jack lets out a punch and the shadow that was trying to pull back its sword disappears completely, everyone in the cave is shocked by this including Bruce as the shadow should have been intangible to someone's fist.

The shadows draw back from Jack and attempt to encircle him, Jack just blankly stares back at them. His eyes containing a strange red glow, upon seeing this red glow both Arwen and Bruce crease their brows in contemplation. Jack proceeds to let go of the sword in his hand and looks at the cut. He takes a survey of the room; the shadows don't dare to move.

He takes a step forward but a scream is heard shortly after and one of the shadows is pressing a blade to Jessica's neck. This causes Jack to pause for a moment but ultimately, he takes another step, another scream is heard and then *drip drip drip* blood can be heard dripping onto the floor. Jessica's neck has been cut.

Jack sees this and lets out a huge roar.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" lightning crackling can be heard coming from his body and then suddenly.

*BOOM*

A huge explosion similar to what happened in the forest earlier sounds out and everyone's vision turns to white. Everyone is blown far back crashing into the walls of the cave, a huge lightning bolt crashes down from the heavens and lands on Jack's body.

*BOOOM* *Sounds of huge rocks landing far in the distance* *Sounds of rocks sliding down the mountain*

A larger explosion is sounded and a huge pit is dug out the side of the mountain where the cave is, which can't be called a cave anymore. Jack is still standing in the epicentre; his body is charred and his clothes have disintegrated but he's alive.

The red glow in his eyes has become weaker, Sleipner walks up to Jack as he was unaffected by the lightning and nudges him, Jack looks at the horse and then starts to pick up Jessica and Arwen who have now passed out on the ground. The two smaller horses are trying to nudge Fenrir awake but having little luck.

Jack places both of them onto Sleipner's back and takes another look around at what's left on the ground. There are a few dark crystals laying on the ground which Jack collects. Jack helps the smaller horses to place Fenrir on one of their backs and jumps onto the other and sets out.

He hasn't spoken a word to Sleipner but it knows where to go. Slowly the red glow in Jack's eyes disappears and his body slumps over the back of the horse he is riding. Slowly they disappear into the distance.

Crawling out from under the rubble, two shadowy people appear they both are in terrible appearance and look quite hurt. They are Bruce and a shorter, fatter shadowy person.

"Do we report this?" the shorter Shadow asks.

"Report what? We failed to capture two people without even first stage cultivation? We lost two squadrons of puppets including all the elves? You can report it if you're not afraid of the punishment." Bruce says quite bluntly evidently angry.

"What do we do then?" the short shadow asks.

"I don't know" Bruce replies and disappears into the ground. The other shadow shortly follows after him and they disappear.