The battlefield stretched out beneath a darkened sky, the air thick with the acrid scent of smoke and the sounds of clashing weapons. A sea of monstrous beasts and human soldiers surged forward; their battle cries mingling with the thunderous explosions, lighting up the night. At the center of the chaos stood two figures, each giving off an air of majesty.
On one side, Alchemy Ennis, the Monarch of the Myriad, sat arrogantly on her throne as she idly rested her head on her sword's hilt, its sleek design glinting under the dim light. Her insectoid troops, their carapaces shining with an unnatural glow, advanced with crass and uncanny movements, seemingly untrained but with unmatched numbers.
Tharis, the Draconic Absolutionist, was opposite her, his scales shimmering with a metallic sheen. His weapon, a massive spear that cracked with majestic energy, seemed to pulse in time with the beat of his heart. His fellow dragonoids, fierce and untamed, fought with a primal fury that matched their leader's intensity.
"You think you can keep us under your tyrannical reign forever, Monarch?" Tharis snarled, his voice booming across the battlefield. "We will break your chains and reclaim our freedom!"
Alchemy's eyes narrowed, a smirk playing on her lips. "Your ancestors fell to me with the same attitude, Tharis. They were both smarter and mightier than you. So instead of preaching such uninspired words, prove you deserve what you fight for."
With a roar, Tharis charged, his spear cutting through the air, only for Alchemy to meet his attack head-on. Her own weapon—a blade made of something akin to plasma—humming with the slightest movement. Sparks flew as their weapons clashed, the force of their blows sending shockwaves through the ground.
As Tharis tried to make distance with his superior range, Alchemy grabbed the spear before pivoting off her foot and crushing the weapon. Despite disarming her foe, Tharis quickly retaliated with a bout of fire from his mouth.
The battle raged on around them, each side gaining and losing ground in a brutal dance of death. Alchemy moved with calculated grace, her every strike measured and devastating. Despite his unmatched raw power and relentless attacks, Tharis seemingly could not get a clean hit on Alchemy.
As the two sides vied for an edge, Alchemy suddenly made a gesture with her hand, placing her thumb upside down. This caused the very world itself to aim for Tharis's life as gravity weighed him to the ground.
The crater came with the sound of lightning shattering the ground to pieces as Alchemy stabbed her blade into the fake dragon's leg.
"It's over, Tharis," she said, her voice carrying a finality that brooked no argument. "Yield."
Breathing heavily, Tharis glared up at her. Slowly, reluctantly, he nodded in an attempt to buy time. "You may have won this battle, but the war is far from over."
Curiously, Alchemy took a few steps back, allowing him to rise. "We'll see about that," she replied, her smirk returning. "But for now, you'd best prepare for your next move. After all, it'll be your last."
Pointing upwards, Alchemy caused her foe to look upward, forcing him to see a machine further than even the sky, looming over them and producing a beautiful light.
"W-what is that?" Theris cried out, confused by the object he had never seen before.
Alchemy chuckled at the panicked question. How could she not?
"Your demise, silly."
A loud sound, which could only be described as the whirring of a high-power engine if you put a poor robot filter over it, echoed throughout the land. It, whatever it was, was charging. And not even a dozen seconds later, it fired.
The light came down like a falling star crashing the grand battlefield, beginning to annihilate the reptilian forces as Alchemy's manic giggle could be heard from all angles.
…
Then, corny bold text appeared on the screen: ANCIENTS OF ASCENSION! NEW IDOLS! NEW TECH TREES! AND ALL NEW WORLDS TO EXPLORE!
[Seventeen17](Agent of Chaos | Rank 16): "AHAHAHAHA THAT AWESOME TRAILER JUST FOR THAT GOOFY ASS TEXT TO COME RIGHT AFTER. THAT'S OUR SMALL INDIE COMPANY RIGHT THERE!"
[Nicegal](Queen of Beauty | Rank 44): "I hate that I'm agreeing with you, but jeez. Can someone please make Z.Z Games hire a better… Whoever decided that transition was better? At this rate, even your sorry ass might be a better choice."
[Seventeen17](Agent of Chaos | Rank 16): "stfu crossdresser."
[Seventeen17](Agent of Chaos | Rank 16): "Anyway, Alchy, what were those 1 liners? Is the 'Monarch of BM' back? Tharis would kill you if you said that shit to him in an actual match."
[Bloody_Stream](Inferno Berserker | Rank 21): "Is that what you guys are worried about? Are we not going to talk about the fact that Alchemy can actually act? I thought she was an incompetent gremlin…"
[Alchemy Ennis](Monarch of the Myriad | Rank 1): "Go take your meds old man. I'm surprised you didn't have a heart attack with all that excitement. Turns out your pacemaker is better than I thought…"
Looking at the chat logs, Alchemy couldn't help but let out a small giggle, this one sounding more cute than arrogant, contrary to what her previous iteration would make one think.
As she readjusted her headphones and stretched, her long brown hair fluttered a bit from her sporadic and giddy movement. 5 Years of playing this godforsaken Real-Time Strategy game, finally reaching rank one, and the developers giving her a voice role as herself in their newest trailer? How could she possibly not be over the moon with excitement?
[LukezInsane](Saint Aligned with the Positive 7 | Rank 11): "It was certainly well animated, that's for sure. I didn't know you had any interest in voice acting."
[Kingkongz1](Sinner Aligned with the Negative 7 | Rank 5): "This guy used a comma in his message make fun of him NOW chat."
[Kingkongz1](Sinner Aligned with the Negative 7 | Rank 5): "Also how did you start your sentence with a lowercase letter 17?"
[Kingkongz1](Sinner Aligned with the Negative 7 | Rank 5): "A.O.A has this stupid auto-capitalization thing."
[Seventeen17](Agent of Chaos | Rank 16): "i'm just better ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"
Seeing the banter continue, Alchemy couldn't help but smile like a child who just got a new tablet for Christmas.
[Alchemy Ennis](Monarch of the Myriad | Rank 1): "holy crap guys I can use unicode i must literally be GOD."
[Alchemy Ennis](Monarch of the Myriad | Rank 1): "That aside. I'm so glad you guys enjoyed it. (𓁹◡𓁹) They gave me codes! I have... So many to give out for early access to the update and it comes with a crap ton of skins. They said to use it to give back to my community and I mean that's basically u guys. I plan to drop some during stream but this seems more efficient."
[Nicegal](Queen of Beauty | Rank 44): "Oh shit fr? Can we use them ourselves?"
[Alchemy Ennis](Monarch of the Myriad | Rank 1): They didn't say you couldn't so its not my problem. Just don't sell them lol. Here, I'll post them."
Peering over to her second monitor, Alchemy rummaged through her emails until she found the one containing the codes. Each one was a string of random letters and numbers. Copying all but 1 for herself, she posted the rest in their Alliance chat.
Then, she naturally went to their website and put her code in. She didn't even know what was in the update. Bits and pieces, sure, what the devs were willing to let slip, at least, and she was extremely excited with what little information she had. More than her excitement was a bit of concern, however.
The scale of this update was large. Going from a continental scale board to what? An entire solar system, perhaps even more? That had to be a nightmare to balance.
"They can't possibly make Verminae even worse, right?" She hummed playfully.
She had managed to reach rank 1 with a species that was considered horrible in the higher ranks. If they power crept anything about it, it'd probably be impossible for her to keep her spot. Alchemy couldn't let something like that happen. She had to at least remain in the top 10 for her own self-satisfaction.
Regardless, Alchemy navigated the Ancients of Ascension website until she reached the 'redeem codes' section and pasted her code in there. As she pressed redeem, though, her computer froze.
That wasn't normal. She had just upgraded her PC a couple of days ago. There's no way it was freezing up like this.
However, before she could raise a vocal complaint about it, it unfroze. What it unfroze to wasn't the normal 'Redeem Successful' or 'Redeem Denied' screen. Instead, she was prompted a question.
'Would you like to rule over everything?'
"We doing surveys before rewards can be claimed now, hmm? Alright, I'll bite."
Pressing yes, Alchemy expected another question to appear, but instead, the light from her computer expanded outwards in ways that shouldn't be physically possible. It quickly engulfed her, and while she tried to avoid it instinctively, it was useless. She was absorbed into the light as fast as she pressed the yes option.