A Game Of Light And Fire
Title: A Game Of Light And Fire
Rating: pg-13
Pairing: BaekYeol, various pairing
Warning: AU, virtual!genderswitch, language, unbetaed, veryverylong, veryverybadwritten, englishisnotmyfirstlanguage
Summary: Chanyeol is the king of online games, and he should just focus on his sadly lacking love life instead of losing his time on Cyrea: A Dystopian Tale Of Realities. Things become a little dangerous when he tries to beat one of the game developers at his own game and ends up unleashing catastrophe on everyone's reality. VirtualRealityGame!AU
Disclaimer: I own only my twisted fantasy and my poor english. EXO guys belong to themselves and SME.
Prologue
Cyrea, Fallen Woods
The Phoenix hides behind a tree, rummaging through the bag to find some kind of ointment. She feels dizzy, but not from the wound, though she probably has lost a lot of blood. She knows Shadow is out there, and Xiao Lu is probably with him. They’re experienced, strong warriors and they could take her down now that they’ve joined forces. Well, she thinks with a smirk, I surely won’t fall without a fight.
She applies a green powder on her side, where the metal of Shadow’s blade has cut through flesh and muscle. The result is messy, but it can go. It must go, because the oak tree that was Phoenix’s hide suddenly starts to move. In an instant it falls right where Phoenix’s head has been until a moment ago, but she’s already running in the woods.
Shadow snorts, looking at the fallen tree. "She didn’t hear us! We could have taken her if you just…"
Xiao Lu doesn’t even bother him with a response. Shadow is stronger, but Xiao Lu has been a fighter for a very long time and no kid come from who-knows-where can teach him how to found someone in the woods that have been his training camp for half of his life. Shadow is too stubborn, too hot-tempered, too drunk on power and previous victories to truly understand who exactly they’re trying to defeat.
The Phoenix, everyone knows that, is the stronger fighter in Cyrea and she hasn’t been defeated in years. Hell, as far as Xiao Lu knows she’s never been defeated period, and no matter how deep his knowledge of the Fallen Woods is, even if Lu knows every trees and root and even all the secret ways to avoid any possibly painful encounter with the Fallen themselves, Phoenix has something he’ll never ever have. Fire.
Shadow shouts something and Xiao Lu follows his gaze until he sees flash of gold and blue somewhere near the waterfalls. For the whole trip the kid has been trying to behave like an adult, like an old veteran forged by thousand battles, but now his eyes are shining by sheer excitement. "Look, it seems like someone is fighting!" Xiao Lu shushes him and listens for a moment. Over the normal sounds of the forest he can hear a piercing scream, something inhuman and wild. And near the waterfall there’s the nest of a…
He smiles a little. "Let’s run! Looks like our dear friend Phoenix just woke up a Nyla from its beauty sleep!"
Shadows joins him in the run. "I wound her before, she’s weak… Maybe the Nyla will kill her for us!", but Xiao Lu quickly shakes his head. "I don’t think The Phoenix would let herself be beaten up by a big stupid fiend, but it will weaken her. And by the time we’ll get there she’ll be ready to be killed. Just, remember the plan."
Shadows laughs, loud and boisterous, and Xiao Lu has the sudden urge to shut him up for good before he manages to wake up something more dangerous than a Nyla.
-
Phoenix is not amused. She really doesn’t want to waste her forces on the big shiny blue and gold religious mantis-like monster who now wants to eat her for dinner. Not when she has those two other freaks on her tail, probably getting ready to shred in pieces wat will rest of her after the Nyla finishes to eat her guts. She really has lost too much blood and she should just forfeit everything and run to the first security zone she finds to recover himself. Let those two idiots fight on their own, if she’s lucky Xiao Lu will kill those dumb kid before dawn. Or Shadow could have a diva fit about wanting to be the only warrior within a mile range and will consequently try to kill his ally. The Nyla can have the loser’s rest, for all she cares.
But Phoenix can’t really run, not when she knows Snow White is watching her. She’s been dying to meet him, and running away like a dog with its tail between its legs when you’re trying to impress the person you‘ve had have a celebrity crush on for months is not really an option.
She snatches a power-up from her bag and drinks it, trying her best to avoid the Nyla’s fangs. It’s the most expensive item she has, and she really shouldn’t waste her goods like this but it’s not like she can’t afford it. The potion has no taste, as always, but as soon as she drinks it the wound on his hip heals and disappears. Phoenix’s body is hit by a strong surge of energy, and she feels well rested and strong and able to do anything.
She waits for the Wave. The air is crispy, Phoenix feels the familiar sensation of a bubble of pure unconfined power starting to dilate around her body, the magic strong and thick and ready to be used. She waits until the last moment, wanting to hit with the maximum force possible.
The Nyla is running towards her, its bug head open and split in two so she can see the Fallen’s face revealing itself. It probably was a woman, when it was human, but now is only a green undead head trying to get a taste of Phoenix’s blood.
She closes his eyes, the Wave comes and goes forth, she can feel its power bubbling in her fingers and then it snaps. Everything goes on fire.
-
Xiao Lu and Shadow feel the fire even before Phoenix releases it. They knows she’s calling The Wave, they can feel it too. When the fire explodes Shadow just disappear. Xiao Lu ducks behind a tree, not wanting to waste his powers when he’ll need every little bit of it in a few minutes.
When Shadow reappears the Nyla is gone, burnt to the bone. The explosion has destroyed everything around the waterfalls, and now they are, Xiao Lu and Shadow, standing among a lot of burnt trees, and looking in the eyes of a very pissed off Phoenix.
"You know, I didn’t really wanted to use my powers now." she says, sitting down on a stone and crossing her legs, never stopping looking at them. "If you two weren’t chasing me I wouldn’t have to. But now that I’ve released it, better use it all, right?"
A flame run from her legs to her hand where it stills, glowing faintly on Phoenix’s fingers. Phoenix is burning from the inside, the fire threatening to erupt from her body at any moment.
Xiao Lu gulps. Phoenix has always had a kind smile, but it’s not really nice to see it when she’s talking about throwing over you an entire volcano of hot lava. He can always push the fault on Shadow. The kid is a good runner, he’ll probably be able to escape Phoenix’s rage. He absently wonders if Phoenix exactly knows how creepy is that twitching eye thing she does when she’s mad, and ifs he knows if she does it just to scare her victims more.
Suddenly this whole alliance with Shadow to defeat Phoenix seems like a very stupid idea, but it’s a little too late for regrets and Xiao Lu starts calling the Wave himself. He manages to raise a psychic shield just in time to avoid being roasted by the first flare.
He turns around to see if the kid is alright and to ask for his help, but little Shadow is gone. Lu Han inwardly curses.
"Stupid little kids, I should never have trusted a high school guy, I knew, those young kids are so fucked up…"
He avoids another burst of flames, and tries to call the Wave again to initiate a mental attack, but his tempo is a little off and he can’t gain bonus energy. Also, he’s already keeping the shield and with the little energy he can spare the mental blow is soft and light. Phoenix snickers instead of curling onto the ground in pain.
Xiao Lu braces himself for the third flame shot. He hopes Chanyeol won’t go too hard on him, because he really doesn’t have time to deal with the outcome of his now sure defeat again. He closes his eyes as everything becomes dark and then suddenly white.
-
Phoenix slowly walks to Xiao Lu’s corpse and rob him of all his money and items. The Wave is fading, but the lingering trace of the power it generated lingers around Phoenix’s body like a security cover. No Fallens will dare attack her on her way home. And even if they try, Phoenix thinks, it’s not like they can really defeat me, after all.
-
NeoSeoul
Park Chanyeol opened his eyes and slowly helped himself out of Cyrea’s processor. If his mom was to realize he was playing videogames again in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, she would slit his throat, so he casually put the device on standby and went to sleep.
He woke up three hours later with a massive headache, probable result from staying up late, and the first thing he did was checking the mail like the good nerd he was. There was a raging mail from IDeerYou titled with an outraged emoticon and a ridiculous number of exclamative marks, asking if Chanyeol really had to take all the money AND the items from his corpse. Chanyeol shrugged and ignored him because he was sure Lu Han was just a very bad loser.
Nothing from KaiTheShadow, the little coward who dared excape from the fight the night before, but BenFanLi sent a long mail about this new kind of armor he succeeded to mould from his own dragon form’s scales in The Alchemist’s Level.
Then there was, the heaven’s word.
From: lightgod
To: firechosen
Are you sure you wanna try?
You know I created this game so there’s no way for you to beat me, right?
I’m the god of Cyrea and you’re just the best of the best. Not even close.
Well, since you’ clearly the stronger gamer out there I’ll humor you.
Choose day and time, I’ll create the place.
Kisses
Snow White
Author notes: CloH this is your fault. IDEK what I am doing, I8U.