Conrad's eyes opened to the sight of the cover of his tent in his warband's camp. His body was covered in wrappings and his arm had been placed in a makeshift sling. He forced his body to sit up despite the pain his felt from even moving.

"Well look who's up already." The voice of his overseer came to Condard like a train, the feeling of disappointment and irritation could be felt even in his damaged state. "You look like shit… frozen shit at that."

"Rotho, say what you want and get out." Condard wasn't in the mood for the program to shame him. He needed to get better and train, that Netherghul was still out there.

"All I have to say is that you could have died, when the men found you were on the verge of death by frostbite, that's not a way for a man like you to die. At the hands of the enemy sure, at least that has some honor to it, but to die from stupidity… that's beneath you." Rotho said before walking out of the tent leaving Condard alone with his thoughts. Condard knew that what his overseer said was true, dying in the cold was something he faced out in the real world before, he wasn't going to die that way now that he here. Condard groaned and forced himself to stand, every part of him hurt so moving to the mirror was painful. His face was covered in wrappings, he took one of the blades he had laying around and cut one of the bands of cloth and began to unwrap but what he found under shocked him. The first patch of skin that was uncovered was clear, the same light brown of his Hispanic heritage but once he uncovered more he began to see something had changed. He quickly uncovered the rest covering his face and saw the deep blue cracks of frozen flesh run up from his neck. He touched one of the streaks of blue and the cloth on his hand instantly froze and withered away. Condard's eyes widened at this. He hastily opened his player menu to see if something was afflicting him but there was nothing, no curses, diseases, or poison. He then saw that there was an alert to his skills. He opened the tab up to see that he had a new skill.

Frostbitten: Surviving the magically tainted snow of the Frozen Wastes is no small feat and now you are blessed with the marks of that feat. Your body is now infused with magic in the form of body covering frostbite. Contact without Player's consent will cause frost damage. No longer will be effected by cold and frozen effects

Condard smiled at reading this, he now could hunt down Zula and any others in the Frozen Wastes with a real advantage. He quickly covered his neck and his lower face, he didn't want to give away his new skill so soon if ever. After finishing with covering the frostbite he grabbed his sword and made his way out of his tent. His men looked up and the cam went deathly silent as they all looked on their leader with a mix of concern and skepticism. Few among them could ever hope to take his place on the top of the food chain but those that could were smart and knew that this recent loss could either be the best or worst time to make a move. Condard knew this, he had chosen these players for that purpose, it would be these players that kept him working and keep him from growing complacent.

"Cony!" Elis yelled happily as she ran to him. The small teen was among the few kids in the game, she had joined with her parents but now was separated and had found Condard as her surrogate parent. Condard had come to rely on her to watch his back, the girl had a knack for going unnoticed and that helped him listen in on the soldiers and to keep would be assassins at bay. "You woke up, I knew you would." Elis said as she playfully hit Condard's shoulder. "Oh… your still cold."

"Ignore that…" Condard looked back to his men, most of them had returned to their work or various activities but a few still held their eyes on Condard.

Guts, the largest of the players in Condard's Warband was the most obvious of these. A hulking brute of a man he was a no brainer when Condard was choosing players to take with him. He was the only one other than himself to take on trolls regularly in the Arena. But the two always shared a understanding that Condard was the better of the two, Guts could tell that his brute strength and size was better used as a tool for others because Guts knew that he didn't have the mind for leadership and tactical battle. His way to fight was to smash the head and be done. So of all the top players in the Warband he was by far the most loyal but this was only if Condard remained at the top, Guts had made it very clear, he would never try anything but at the same time he wouldn't stop someone else.

Another was Voriel, she was watching for any sign of what was currently in Condard's mind. She was someone that knew when to wait and ready themselves for just the right time to strike. In the Arena she was the favorite among the gamblers, they would never bet against her but instead bet on the minute the round would end, most often it came in single digits. She was in charge of setting traps and plan ambushes and she did her job flawlessly.

Condard couldn't see him but he knew where another of his more capable player was. Maxwell was something of the Warband's resident old wise man and playboy all wrapped into one. He was one of the Bata players and had used that time to learn as much as he could instead of actually play the game. But the twenty-six-year-old college dropout was still just that, a twenty-six-year-old college dropout. He might be a DDO genius but that still didn't make him any less of a dumbass and a vain dumbass at that, the boy wanted nothing more than status and to take the Warband from Condard would certainly improve said status.

And lastly there was Todric and his goons. The man himself was nothing more than a warrior pimp. But he kept thee men in line and knew how to keep the camp stocked with more than the few rations the Empire supplied them with. He was watching Condard the most, he still hated him for that time Condard almost killed him. But he had to play nice now, so long as the Warband did well Todric would continue to enjoy in its success and a strong Condard was needed in that so as long as Condard would give the Warband fame and wins then Todric's scheming would be kept at bay.

The rest of the Warband was well kept under either Condard's thumb or were in too deep in Todric's pocket. So none of them would even think of trying something. Condard walked through the camp giving out death glares to just make sure. He would not have any of his men getting any ideas to visit his tent at night with a dagger in hand. By the end of his little tour through the camp, he ended up on the nearby cliff face looking out over the city of Nordberg. The gates had already been opened and there were quite a large amount of Evil players passing in and out.

"Look at them all… all looking for you." A deep voice came from behind Condard.

"Surly it must have been a difficult trip from the capital, why would the emperor of the Empire come to such a desolate place." Condard said to the magic image of his emperor. He knew that it was simply a illusion, the man would never have come himself.

"I didn't, this is an image projection created by your Warband's Sentinel." Condard's eyes turned back looking at the blue robed being behind the projection. "I heard the Netherworld placed a five thousand bounty on you, an impressive amount considering you have yet to do something to earn it." Condard simply turned his eyes back to the city. "I had expected more from you, so I think I will give you test. You will head east and raze the port of Blackwater, burn it to the ground. The recent increase in troops from your bounty needs a response and this will be it. With the port gone Nordberg will lose one of its largest suppliers of food and life-force. I wait to see your actions." With that the image disappeared. Condard growled and threw a knife into the darkened face of the Sentinel.

"Rotho! Send word, we have orders… oh and request for a new sentinel."

Baltair was hiding from the latest Empire patrol. As a Blue Alpha-Minion he could turn invisible but that cost Mana and he currently was almost empty. The power to turn invisible had gotten him this far, he was able to trick that bloodthirsty gladiator with simple illusion magic and had been able to avoid being spotted so far. Xode's plan was working, he was almost at the War Command building. Once there he could start sending in all sorts of secrets back to Xode. Baltair ducked under a hedge as a group of citizens passed by. He looked across the white tile street to the large imposing building, unlike the roman medieval fusion that composed most of the Empire's city's architecture this building was far different. It was distantly gothic and built to hold up in a siege. Baltair was sure that there was some lore reason for it but he didn't really care, he originally bought this game to unwind, but now he was in a death game and relaxing was far from what he could do now.

Baltair turned invisible once he saw the road was clear, even if there was no one around he still wanted to be sure. He stood by the door of the building waiting for the door to open so he could get inside. Much to his luck and relief it so soon and just before it closed behind the person walking out he slipped in. he ran down the long stone hall and made his way to the upper rafters of the structure where he sighed at the safety of the darkness that covered him. He pulled up his player menu and opened the private message tab.

Xode I'm in the building, I haven't been spotted yet. What now?

Baltair sent the message and waited a few minutes for his leader to respond.

Stay in the shadows, for right now just wait and listen.

After reading Xode's message Baltair was about to close out his menu but then got another message.

Change of plans, go to the War report offices and forge a report saying that a Abyss Rift formed in the Tree of Beginnings.

Baltair didn't understand what Xode wanted from doing this but he wasn't about to question his leader any time soon. After all, Xode was now the only one who could get him out of the city. Baltair needed to make Xode the next Overlord as soon as possible, the way for him to be safe again was once the Netherworld took the Empire's capital.

The walk back to the Netherworld camp was fairly uneventful, the Zone had become more or less easy for Dyrath's group. They all were close to exceeding the level range for the zone. The Forest of Beginnings was a 1-12 zone and other than the PVP and the dungeons much of the Forest was fairly docile. However, from the moment they entered through the gates to say the reaction to Gilna was blatant would be a massive understatement. All the way to the group's own tent they were hounded by the Evil players. As far as Dyrath knew, the idea of taking a Good player as a group slave was a widely known game mechanic but hadn't been done before. There were players throwing things at the dryad and many hoots and hollers from many males who certainly had their own ideas about the use of a slave. But that all stopped when on the way to the tent Remus punched out a guy who very bluntly put out his opinion on the dryad. The four soon reached the tent. Dyrath quickly walked to his quarters and Honic and Remus lounged in the central area of the tent.

Gilna just stood by the door unsure of what to do, everything was changing so fast. Her party had been killed and now she had been taken by Evil Players as a slave. She understood that Evil Players weren't actually Evil, they were just people who had chosen the Evil path in the beginning of the game. But still, she was worried. The walk through the camp had not help but the players that had taken her hadn't done anything to hurt her, and they had spared her before at the temple.

"Okay… we need to get the elephant out of the room." Dyrath said coming back out in a floor length black and green robe. The robe had been a monster drop and while it wasn't good for combat it was very comfortable and to Dyrath looked pretty good. "I pulled up the Slaves and Prisoners of War tab in the game's manual." Dyrath said as he walked over to Honic and Remus. "It say that players can take captives from the other alignment and can either use them as part o the party or sell them off to either the Arena for the good or the Slave Markets in the Netherworld."

"I say sell her." Remus said fully prepared for the coming dirty looks from Dyrath and Honic. "We don't need the trouble and she could kill us in our sleep, I say we take the cash and be done with it."

"She can't kill us; it says that Slaves can't inflict damage to their… owners. And I think that we should keep her, in the markets she could go to some pervert or sadist. I'm not going to have that on my conscious."

"That the thing that tells you right from wrong." Honic jokingly said to Remus.

"Shut up tubby."

"Both of you shut up." Dyrath said taking command of the room. After sighing at the bickering of his party members he turned to Gilna. "Come over here." Gilna nodded and walked over to the three men. "You're going to be working with us from now on. Given how shitty the rest of the Treefolk seemed to have treated you I assume that your willing to help us." Gilna quickly thought about that, it was true. Other than her former group, most of the Treefolk had never been too kind. Pretty much all of the Barkers by the time of the occupation had turned into complete jerks and the Dryads had become increasingly defensive and close-minded. Gilna nodded to Dyrath's question. "Good, then you can start by telling us about yourself." Dyrath asked as he sat down on one of the nearby recliners. Remus grunted and left the tent not too interested in learning about the dryad.

"Um… well my name is Gilna and I just turned eighteen two weeks ago. I'm here because I was going to play with my brother but I'm not sure if he's here. He always tried to get me to go out and meet people, I guess he thought this would be easier for me." Gilna was surprised that they were letting her talk this long.

"Well Gilna, my name is Dyrath and I'm twenty years old and I'm going to be the next Overlord. And that was the only reason why I turned on my NERV Gear on."

"I'm Honic, I'm here because I just love MMOs and I wanted to try VR."

"And the guy that just left was Remus, he's… nice at times when you get to know him." Dyrath slightly joked, but it more like he was trying fix any damage Remus had done to her opinion of him. Something Dyrath thought it would be best to talk about with the other two Evil players of his group was the section just below Slaves and Prisoners of War, the Redemption and Corruption section.

"We don't need the Empire or the Sanctuaries anymore! All we need is the forest! It will keep us safe from the Netherworld!" Vrucis looked down on the speaker. He was one of many Barkers preaching in the Tree of Beginnings for separation. The Treefolk players were ready and willing for a uprising but lacked the opportunity. They all knew that against the full might of the Netherworld without the other Good Factions they would quickly be crushed. But he had a plan for that.

"Boss. Yourrba found the tunnel you talked about." One of Vrucis' Barkers whispered to him.

"Good, how are the numbers looking?"

"The Empire troops number in the hundreds but are currently in the process of rotating out, the troops will be leaving soon and fresh soldiers will be arriving by tomorrow morning. If we're going to make a move it needs to be now." Vrucis looked back the crowd of angry players and then a group of Empire soldiers coming in and trying to arrest the preaching Barker. He smiled, yes now was the right time.

"Ready the boys, things are going to be getting a bit bloody real soon."

The War Command office was going nuts. The several reports of an Abyss rift opening in the Forest of Beginnings had changed everything. To the all the players it was a chance to end this game now, to invade the Infernal Abyss and be one step closer to killing the final boss. Many knew that the Final Boss could never be beaten this early but any information they gain would be invaluable. Already legions of soldiers were being moved to invade the Zone. Messages were being sent to the dwarves and Elves, the Netherworld spies sending back the news to their masters and allies.

Vrucis walked through the deep tunnel that lead to his goal. With the support of the Treefolk players and his current objective he knew that all his plans could be achieved. The tunnel he was walking through was fully made intertwining roots.

"Umm… Boss, what's at the end of this tunnel?"

"Quiet." Vrucis said with a death stare to the Barker who asked. "This tunnel was made to respond any sound higher than a whisper will set off the roots and we'll all be skewered." The rest of the group collectively gulped at this news. The remainder of the walk through the tunnel was in complete and utter silence. But once they exited they entered into a grand chamber and at the center a blue glowing root that traveled down the very top of the tree to the lowest of the roots. The blue root twisted and turned down to the great hole in the middle of the chamber. "Welcome boys! To the central node of the Tree of Beginnings and the Zone's Admin Control Center." Vrucis announced as he walked to the hole in the middle of the chamber. As he walked out on to the hole new roots came to hold his feet up as he walked to the blue root. "This will change everything." Vrucis laughed as the blue root grew out to his hands to form a keyboard and screen. But just before he typed a single key one of his men yelled out to him.

"Hey Boss! Bad news!"

"What?! I'm about to win here!" Vrucis growled out, he had spent the entire time he had been in this game for this moment. It had come a bit earlier than he thought it would.

"Apparently an Abyss rift opened somewhere in the zone and everyone is sending in they got, Empire, Dwarves, Elves, and even the Netherworld are moving to invade in force!"

"What?!" Vrucis looked back to the screen and began thinking "An Abyss Rift… there shouldn't be any Abyss activity for years… could this be caused by Kayaba; the man has disappeared, is he finally making a move. I have check." Vrucis entered his passcode into the Admin's terminal. "Just as I thought, there's no Abyss Rift. This has to be some kind of trick… but the Netherworld is falling for it too, this has to be Kayaba. No one else could possible benefit from this. But now… they all will learn the hard way to stay away from the Forest of Beginnings." Vrucis smiled as he opened the Zone control page. He quickly marked every race and path but the Treefolk path as hostile. And then raised the Zone's own level to that of a hundred. To top everything off he marked his player account as Path leader. "It's done. By the time those forces reach here the forest will be a death trap." Vrucis said with a savage grin on his face.

Author's Notes.

Well sorry for the long wait and sorry even more for the cliff hanger.

Really big thanks to PhazonLordKaito, without his/her help I would have never gotten this out by now and it most likely would have been some patched together nonsense that I would have cooked up just to get me to the next part that I had planned out.

Also if anyone wants me to make a character for them or they have an idea then PM me the info and I'll see if I can include it at some point.