Realm Wars 6 - Not enough, Es-GNT.

Mariet coughed up water from her belly as she pushed out of the clear waters of the divine stream. Floating dead behind her its black blood burning away in the water were two devils.

Her arms were strained. A gash from the side of her left lower abdomen to her right upper abdomen leaked ichor. The goddess panted as she dragged her soggy form out of the stream and collapsed into a heap of dead demons and Zeukite parts.

Her eyes wavered as she stared up into the nothing wondering what had brought such madness to the peaceful realms.

Peaceful because their wars amongst themselves were nothing but playful. The true skirmishes occur between gods and beasts of the field. The fight for territories easily decided by who first placed a Forest rod.

Expanding as best as possible. Wrecking your fellow gods lining armors and gathering their shards to fuel your armors, sell or absorb to gain stats and maybe perks. The last was frowned upon, after the incident of absorbing the absolute's shard none absorbed shards anymore.

Growing from the killing of the dungeon and field monsters. And themselves. But they'd respawn so it was more an annoyance than anything.

The stakes with these demons were higher.

Mariet sighed as she heard the familiar roar of yet another devil. 'How many are there?'

She was of half the mind to let the Zeukites handle this. Her eyes found the devil as it flew through the sky at her.

'It flies too.' she sighed. Rising slowly she forged the ice daggers in her grip, the other one in some annoying demon somewhere. With the demons already gorging down on the shards from the Zeukites they kept getting stronger and faster. Slowly becoming a problem to even the Zeukites individually.

Mariet was focused on creating a snowstorm to blind the descending enraged devil when the entire realm trembled. Both Mariet and the devil paused as they turned to look around. She barely moved when a bright energy of five lines was carved out, horizontally bisecting mountaintops and hills.

Streaking through the atmosphere and out into the nothingness.

Everyone stopped. Watching with shock.

*

XxSteller was having the time of his life. He loved this event so much. At this point, it was clear to both demons and Devils that the Daemon was a battle maniac. The demons feared him and the Devils were wary but too prideful to run from a mere Daemon.

A being who had less control over divinity and more control over the soul. That was what Daemons were. The very term classified them as the original demons. The true gods of the soul and all its vestiges.

XxStellar didn't care though. He was on a murder streak. Having downed his ninth Devil, the Argonne's predatory eyes roamed for the tenth.

'Just one more' He murmured with apprehension wondering if he would be able to get his tenth.

His feet tapped with nervousness as he looked around begging for the next demon. XxStellar didn't even care about his experience, or maybe he would later. For now, he needed one more kill.

Just one. It never came. What did come was the tremble of the realm. The mountains roared with pain as they were split and the air burned with energy. The energy he recognized was very similar but not the same as his daemon soul prowess.

He watched the energy disappear into the nothingness and he stared jaw-dropping at the sight.

"Fuck yeah I've been streaming. Do you guys see this?" he spoke into his stream. The bird which had been following through his battles aligned itself to peer at the nothingness above.

*****

Jameson frowned while shaking his head. She did it, didn't she? After getting the email and meeting Dester who had arranged everything for Helen, Jameson had been skeptical. The plan to use this as a backstory to let in the beta players had been a huge debate.

Mostly because it would only affect her universe. To send in the beta players it would be a multiverse-wide deployment. But the other universes were not accounted for in this plan. Doing it regardless would have shown a sense of company favorites.

In the end, it came down to Kevin. The man was quicker to adapt. Seeing a sense of drive for the game. A chance to get people clamoring to ride the excitement that was creator online.

The news had gone out instantly that over fifty current beta testers would be entering the game soon.

For those already lined up, it would be a random draw. The news had sent shockwaves through the forums as most had clamored and shouted out the unfairness of choosing most over others.

Kevin's reply had been simple. 'Sometimes luck and fairness work for one and don't work for another.'

The decision though as intended had the other creator players clamoring for their universe's beta testers.

Jameson stared shocked while Kevin smirked.

Now all the Beta players were lined up for entering but the storyline wasn't set. Each universe had only one world at this point. While everyone was unsure of what the players would end up with it was a certainty that it would be a hustle-tussle for space among players.

The streams were still popular with the forest rod events that had occurred in the Star Rings universes. Other universes had done a wide dungeon exploring instead.

So the question remained what would happen and what sort of event was going down in Star Rings that would ascertain the inclusion of the beta player wave?

*

EsGNT

Bertha Ernie exhaled as she glared at the recorders surrounding her. She'd been selected for the crowd love she hogged and had only one assignment today. Get the world to love Creator Online.

How hard could it be?

Very hard if the game was stupidly nonsensical. She could remember the last talk show she had about the same game. The doubt in most people had been clear yet the man, Jameson had been so proud. She thought it was the usual male ego at play.

Imagine her surprise to hear a deal had been signed with the Elder Gods. The now-named executives of the game. Even more, was the slew of other companies trying to get a piece of the pie. Then the madness blew when she was instructed to make sure the world loved the game. Just a night ago.

While she received an apology and explanation that time was faster in the game and as such things had moved quicker than expected she was still annoyed.

What was she expected to say?

'Just wing it'. The talk show had begun and the first thing that shocked her was the crowd. If the first talk show had spotted a thousand the numbers now were easily in the four zeros. That wasn't adding the online spectators.

She looked to the screen where she had a stream about to be played. It was one of the several gods of the Star Ring universe. His stream had been chosen due to his consistency and he already had a contract.

His story didn't matter, what mattered was the ongoing of the universe. With the plan set, he was ordered to alert them to anything.

She frowned as the night began.

"Well, good evening folks. Before you say anything nope I don't know what's going on either. " the crowd chuckled.

"I just woke up to a loud ringing that is my phone to get my ass here to see this sight. Well let's have it.".Bertha shrugged and the screen switched to ads as they awaited the stream.

" Okay, it seems that while the main event is yet to begin a video explaining what is going down is here. "

The screen changed to a sight of a familiar place to most stream watchers but astounding to Bertha. The land was beautiful as far as she could see from the raven. The player was not human. With three eyes, one that was situated on the forehead and two normal ones with long white hair and a beautiful cape of white flowing behind him.

The player was beautiful in an otherworldly way. Bertha watched with everyone as the player marched for a beautiful structure, the lack of gasps from most people told her that this was not an uncommon sight.

'Damn' she thought at the sight of it.

"It seems something happened". Bertha commented as she watched the players in the structure surround a frantic player or NPC. Without a raven, it was hard to know who was player or NPC.

" Something about an attack on his territory. Seems he died and respawned... who the, who is that. Are y'all seeing this".

The crowd and Bertha watched as lightning struck the surroundings without harming anyone and then concentrated into a feminine beast girl.

The crowd went wild with the sight, most chanting a name that Bettha gleamed as the beast girls.

"It seems I'm the only one here who knows nothing. I feel left out," she complained. A few comments alerted her as she learned the name of the girl and a short background of who she was.

"Damn. Arrogant but powerful to back it up. With a slew of brothers too. I'm loving this family. and I've not even seen them all yet". The crowd chuckled and then silenced as the female on the screen spoke.

They all murmured at the instructions and the screen skipped. This time it was to show the players all gathered around a ring of sorts. The bird must have risen higher since the audience got a better view of the scene. The conversation from the crowd told Bertha that this was new.

" It seems like a meeting of sorts. Oh, I have a comment here. They say the arrangement seems to be of the more powerful players and NPCs at the center to the weaker going outward. " Most nodded at the realization.

They watched till the portal appeared and Bertha wasn't the one to ask the question on everyone's minds.

The entity was black-skinned, a mix between a demi giant and a skeleton. It was armorless and yet had no signs of gender. Like a perfectly sculpted mannequin. It held a black sword resting on its shoulder that seemed to suck all light as it appraised the circle of players and NPCs.

"Okay, a comment says it's an unknown. Only seen once in a stream from the very beginning of the alpha players incursion".

They watched as the entity spoke and insulted the players. Most of the audience nodded while the rest bashed at the being for its arrogance.

The video played on till it ended when the players set off.

"It seems getting a scene of what is underway will be harder now with all the players spread out. Have to admit can't see what the hype is about yet" Bertha added.

"Sure a bunch of gods are seemingly at war with devils. Nice concept but most games have fights and wars. So can anyone aid me what the hype is exactly?. Remember no bashing I'm genuinely curious this is my first streaming of this game".

Various comments came from the audience first and then she read from the online spectators too. Yet it was one comment that caught her attention.

*YullFery* --- Honestly. The gameplay is pretty grounded. Less flashy abilities and more realistic power sets. Though the gods seem to lack the ability to use it like the creator gods. Might be due to rank difference".

Most seemed to agree with the comment.

Then the stream started. Bertha was quick to comment on strange things she saw. Like the armors lined up behind the player she learned from the audience was an Undule. A combat finesse race.

Bertha got to learn more about tbe armors as she and the audience fired off talks about the armors.

The armors were empty and only housed shards, or cores that gave life and energy to them. Destroying an armor was as simple as removing its shard from its armor.

Bertha was surprised to learn it was made by the gods.

The next thing she noted was the enemy. Led by a devil. The army of ferocious humanoids and non-humanoid foes spread behind.

The battle was hot, unflashy, and unexpected. The bird took in everything from the army's battle to the player and the devil's fight. There was a less flashy skill set and more blade work.

The player was a God of Valor which gave him high defensive skills the more courageous he was.

"I have to say this game makes me wonder about the distinction between a good player and a good fighter". she announced as she watched the player duck below the hammer of the larger devil and then stab his short sword into his ankle.

"That's got to hurt". the fight ended rather anticlimactic as the devil was crushed by the player's shield while falling from above.

The audience followed more battles as more devils popped up here and there. Finally, they managed to get a new stream that had a different perspective.

They watched from player to player until finally, they arrived at a player who was rolling away from a large streak of energy. The crowd watched the energy disappear into the dark expanse above, the next scene had everyone shouting and Bertha gaping.

"What is that?"

For the first time, both the audience and spectators were silent.