Chapter 1: Tree of Genesis
The year of 2076 was the year of massive technological and digital advancements, where many new applications and gadgets came in the markets. Among all of these advanced features and products, a famous online game launched its services in the world. The game was a success on its first week and many joined the game for exploration as well as adventures, and they truly enjoyed it.
The gamers loved the breathtaking scenes of various biomes, different creatures, ancient yet mystical sites and playable worlds with each of their own unique bosses. Easy to control, but tough in quests, the game known as Ashwattah was the first choice amongst many online gamers.
According to the lore of Ashwattah online,
"the eternal tree consisted of all the worlds within itself and beyond which there was nothing else. The infinite roots of the tree spreaded in the great emptiness of Akasha, while the branches went to the depths of the great ocean of Garbho-Dakshayi."
The players must explore the deepest secrets of this world tree and find "the cause of Creation", which was the ultimate goal amongst many players.
Aside from that, there were many quests which ended either at a dungeon or some trap, which led them to various bosses of different designs, complex mechanics and loots that was considered as the proof of their great labor and patience.
The player could witness various challenging bosses of many types. Like the raid bosses who could change their locations randomly, the timed bosses who could alter time around them, the event bosses who spawned at the specific dates and the events either organized by the game or not, the conditional bosses who could only be defeated by fulfilling the hidden conditions and mechanics, and their list of types went on.
However, after its 30 years of its services, the game had finally reached its climax.
The Age Of Misery.
This was a special edition that told the end of this ever expansive world was near, and the strengths of many bosses would be boosted to make the game even more difficult than before. It was obvious that the game developers were doing their best to maintain the enjoyments of their players. However, every good thing would end one day and that was same for the game like Ashwattah.
And finally, the day had come when the players stayed in the game for one final time. To commemorate the days they played together, died together and enjoyed together. It was all thanks to the amazing connective features and cyber security system of the game, which let the game to thrive among the youth especially. Though there were still some adult players who played in tens of thousands, it was still insignificant compared to the vast majority of young players.
The amount of fun and mind shaking quests were the most memorable parts of this game. To give a final farewell to this game, seemed legit for the players tonight.
(Scene Change)
In a huge throne room, adorned with complex and well-designed structure that reminded of some ancient hall of a king, there sat a skeletal being on a huge golden throne. The throne had the engravings of Russian calligraphy and precious looking jewels of unearthly beauty. It was wrong to just call it a beautiful royal throne, as it's radiating the prismatic sparkles around the throne room like it was heaven itself. Thus, symbolizing the concept of importance and authoritative upon the figure who sat upon it. This throne which was floating above the ground was known as...
The Throne Of Ages.
It was one of the important artifact in the Ashwattah online. And among all the artifacts of the game, it stood at the highest rank i.e. Divine.
Most known Divine artifacts were considered as special items that could be considered as the pinnacle as well as the origin of all artifacts. An artifact was an indestructible item that were special and had fixed data of their own. Thus, they were also known as changeless items. However, only a foolish player would wear an armor made up entirely of artifacts, as the damage would just phase through them, thus, nobody wore them as gears to protect themselves.
The skeletal figure, sat upon the throne, who wore a jet black academic robes, which covered him from his head to toe. His empty sockets were purely dark that could devour all the light within themselves. A dark violet halo under his hood had been emitting a sense of unholiness about this figure. The golden edges of his robes showed the runic symbols of ever-changing forms.
His skeletal fingers were decorated with differently designed rings, each with its own and unique powers. Pure white bones that could be mistaken for marbles and upon them adorned the jewelleries of many kinds, the skeletal figure was definitely not a normal creature.
However, this skeleton king was silent and unmoving right now. Because it was an NPC of the Ashwattah online.
But dare not make a mistake, as it was no ordinary NPC that anyone could beat. As he was the owner of this place. A conditional type Boss whose name was glowing at the top of his head.
[Koschei : The Immortal - 100]
A mythical name even in the real world. As he was most commonly known as the stereotypical villain like an undead sorcerer whose main job was to do evil and to cause fear in the hearts of his enemies, creating chaos and destruction whether for the sake of evil or for enacting the heinous plan of his.
But to challenge this Boss, one must fulfill the several requirements. The requirements that would many weeks of planning and items for the player groups. If the group disregarded the conditions, then they would be penalized for breaking the rules. Like reducing the powers of the entire group, the loss of their most precious items, or the additional power up for the Boss whom they wanted to defeat.
For someone like Koschei, the conditions were pretty intense, but understandable as he was a level 100 Boss, the highest level of the game bosses.
First, each group of player must consist of 8 players. This requirement signified the activation of the teleportation entry into his domain. As his domain was uncharted in any physical map or paths.
Second, all the players must be capable of bypassing the damage reduction. As all level 100 bosses had the 100% damage reduction as a part of their programmed functions. Therefore, it was necessary for them to be well-equipped with such gears, buffs or classes that could bypass or even negate the said damage.
Third, at the very least one of the player must have a class called Hero. The class would grant the freedom to respawn without any cost if the holder of Hero class was killed by Koschei. The Hero might even choose any 5 characters with whom he could share this special skill.
And last but not the least, the players must solve the riddles and find the phylactery of Koschei, which was awaiting to be discovered, otherwise the immortal Boss like Koshei would truly never die.
Unfortunately, not many players could fulfill these requirements as this puzzle Boss was always an enigma. And even the players who had found its lair, or tried to fulfill its requirements on their own, had kept the exact location of his home a secret, and because destroying his phylactery was the toughest task in all these requirements that would require more than 8 players, he somehow, got the title of a mysterious invincible Boss.
At the end, the Boss remained an unkillable opponent for many players and a source of despair, when they lost their gears or precious levels.
But now, even this great NPC and his dungeon would no longer be in action. The time for his legend has finally come to an end.
Indeed, the game was ending.
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However, there was no change. Everything looked exactly same, except the lack of pixels in this room. The very minute and hard to see pixels that should put the gap between between the reality and virtuality.
And after just few minutes, the skull of the undying king moved !
The Deathless Boss looked around his grand throne room. He stared at the colurful chandeliers hanging from the roof, the massive pillars of crystalline glasses, the hanging flags of smooth silky texture and then finally at his own body.
He moved his own skeletal fingers and sensed the very different form of loneliness, something which he was not used to. It was like he had no longer restrictions to sit at the same place.
He stood up and surveyed around his glorious throne room, just in case if there were players who sneaked into his castle, managed to solve all those traps between him and the outer layer of his fortress, and somehow, entered into his throne room without even opening the gate.
Normally, a Boss like him would be informed of the intruders and present them 9 minutes to set their gears and items, but he didn't sense any of those restrictions being activated right now. It was pretty new for an NPC like him.
Whether he moved on hid own or not, he decided to test the waters himself, and so he warned in his royal baritone,
"To sneak into my castle and dare to ignore my presence. How come you call yourself a hero ?!"
Koschei recited one of his many dialogues with clear anger and disgust. He knew that some heroes would choose stealth and power, over an honorable battle. The type that he truly disliked as he was the villain here. It was his job to cheat, decieve and demonstrate his power hungry dialogues in front of them. If there was still some honor inside this hero or his group, then they would come out and challenge him.
Yet there was no response, which further disappointed the skeleton king.
Not wanting to repeat his words, Koschei activated one of his many Boss functions. It was known as...
[Sight Beyond Sight]
This function was capable enough to even bypass the scry immunity of multiple players. However, he could only use this function for upto 100m radius with 0% chances of failure.
After its activation , the defense-oriented players would divert his attention on themselves, thus, giving their offense or combat players to deal damage upon him, especially the ranged-combat players. The healers must provide the support to their defenders from the onslaught of Koschei and his summons. However, the ranged-combat was also good against him as the players would be able to save themselves, from the range of this function. Therefore, he was a dangerous opponent to the melee-combat players, who might become the victims of this ability of his.
The function itself belonged to the highest grade of rank, called Divine or Almighty rank. The players needed the in-depth information and perfect timing to survive against these unfair powers, otherwise, their game would over. However, even after activating this power, Koschei still didn't find the presence of any player group, and the traps installed in the entire fortress would have destroyed and alerted him of the intruders.
"Is there truly nobody in my castle ? Damn, it's so embarrassing to even think about my past words".
He embarrassingly touched his face and thought about how he looked at that time. As a Boss, Koshei had some level ego of his position too, but to speak in loneliness made him look like an idiot king who himself had no idea of what's going on his domain. Even though there was a limit on how far his [Sight Beyond Sight] could access, he had no reason to just wait for the worst. At the very least, he must do something with this clear blessing of freedom.
He shooed away his embarrassment and thought about his present situation. As he was contemplating over it, many questions erupted in his mind.
What happened to him?
How could he move so freely ?
What is the cause of this change here ?
Koschei was now in great confusion as he could not get any answers. Whether his creator (the game developer) was letting him roam around for free, or this end was just a joke that stemmed out of his creator's mind.
"No! I must look for more proof. My creator may be a sadist to put me as a Boss of this place, but he would never abandon me. It must be some sort of special event that I am unaware of. Yes, it must be the case!"
He reassured himself that this was some sort of event that needed him to move and even speak freely on his own.
"Come to think of it, I never saw the outside of my castle. Perhaps, this event is occurring outside of my domain. I must not waste anymore time here, or he would be disappointed over me."
He muttered to himself and he thought how this idea never came to him. While he was sure curious about how his castle looked from outside. As a Boss, he was restricted to move away from his base. As that would be too confusing to locate him in the time of battle. Though he was cautious of stumbling upon some random players, who would just annoy him with their pesky powers and strategy until Koschei himself would give them the taste of death and humiliation, which was the most merciful level of welcome, given only by him to such annoying yet interesting creatures.
"Well, let's see how my creator has made my home from outside. Hmm, but going alone will be below of my magnificent look and authority. I should bring those two as my bodyguards as well."
He remembered that there were few figures or side bosses who protected this place along with him. They were pretty much dangerous to a certain types of players whose entire build would become or look insignificant against them, just like him.
"But first I need to get out of here. If there are truly no players in my home, then how am I going to open the doors? Hmm, I must take a look at them first."
With those words, he left his divine throne and reached to the doors of the throne room. While his non-existent brain was overflowing with many thoughts, he maintained himself and moved forward.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Vishvarupam
Vishvarupam So what do you think of my story ? You can comment me and motivate me to write more.
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