Rise Online: Return of the Legendary Player



The dark room was filled with the sound of the combatants' heavy breathing.

For his part, Linus was now unarmed, with an expression of surprise and anger mixed on his face. His gaze met Kaizen's, who was glaring at him.

"You're very skilled, Kaizen... I always knew that, but I must admit I underestimated you. I didn't think you had any friends." Linus said, his voice cold but laden with sarcasm. "Anyway, you're making a big mistake. You don't understand the magnitude of what's at stake here."

Andrew, with his intense eyes and pulsating magical power, approached him, his gaze fixed and penetrating. "It looks like you're about to tell us. We'd be delighted to hear it."

Linus let out a cynical laugh, despite the pain in his wounded arm. "Do you understand? That's what I'm talking about. Ah, my dears, you're all so naive. Don't you realize that we're all dancing on the palms of forces far greater than any of us?"

Xisrith, with his katana still glowing an eternal vibrant red, walked up to Linus and stepped on his leg, threatening to crush it with a stomp if he dared to continue with his antics.

"What do you mean? We're not here by chance. You betrayed Kaizen's trust." She said, although she didn't fully understand the story yet.

"I betrayed him to protect something greater! Something that transcends the limits of our understanding!" Linus exclaimed, his eyes burning with an almost fanatical intensity.

"It sounds more like desperation than conviction, man." Andrew said. "Tell us what's going on, and maybe we can avoid the whole thing."

Linus let out a sigh, seeming to consider Andrew's words for a moment. "All right," he finally said, his voice losing some of its previous harshness. "Have you heard about the prophecy of Ragnarok?"

Kaizen frowned, remembering it easily. "The Prophecy of Ragnarok? The ancient legend about the end of times?"

"It's not just a legend." Linus said with glazed eyes. "And I knew it when I met you, Kaizen. It's real. An ancient force, dormant for eons, is about to awaken. An entity that can destroy this world and all the others in its orbit, and I'm not talking about chaos."

The group was silent for a moment, trying to understand what he was talking about.

"It's the Psyker, of course!" exclaimed Linus. "He'll be the reason everything ends!"

"So, the Mana Crystal..." began Kaizen, his voice a whisper full of understanding.

"The Mana Crystal is the key to opening the door to the only thing that can defeat the Psyker!" Linus continued. "I couldn't trust anyone with this task, not even the Order of Dalamyr, but I tried to tell them, I tried to convince them of it... They wouldn't listen to me and I could even spare them, but they could become allies of yours, and the temptation to become an ally of the Psyker is too great for most people to resist!"

Kaizen looked at Linus, his face a mixture of emotions, but now he was mostly pitying. "What happened to you, Linus? You seemed like a good man."

Linus shook his head slowly. "You did this to me! Your existence! You altered the balance between good and evil, and I just leveled the playing field!"

The room, once so pulsating with combat energy, was now charged with Linus' revelation. The players' eyes were fixed on him as they tried to absorb the magnitude of what had been said. Silence hung heavy in the air, only broken by the sound of crows outside the building and the gentle rattling of the mana crystal.

"Fascinating," Kaizen finally said, his soft voice cutting through the silence. "You really believe that, don't you? That you're 'leveling the playing field', as you say."

Linus let out a dry laugh, his face contorting into a bitter smile. "Believe is too strong a term. I accepted it. I accepted what had to be done to maintain the balance, whatever the cost."

"But betraying your comrades, your own people... That doesn't seem like the right way to achieve that balance you so desire." Xisrith said.

Linus raised his chin in defiance. "You don't understand. You can't understand. Kaizen is not just an enemy. He is a cosmic force, a vortex of destruction. If I had to sacrifice a few to save everything, then so be it."

Andrew intervened, his deep voice laden with patience. "The line between heroes and villains is often blurred. However, you didn't just sacrifice those you killed from the Order of Dalamyr or whatever, do you understand what Mibothen did? You sacrificed hundreds of thousands of people. Sometimes it's about finding a third option, a solution that doesn't require such betrayal."

"Do you really think I killed everyone in the Kingdom of Mibothen?! HAHAHAHA! WHAT FOOLS!" Linus said, making the players look at each other.

"What do you mean? Are you saying that everyone is alive?!" asked Xisrith in surprise.

"Well, for now..."

"What do you mean?" Kaizen asked, lifting Linus by the collar of his shirt.

"Tic, tac! Time is running out, Psyker. Your greatest fear is moving, advancing, shaping, evolving, and when chaos finally gets its physical form again, none of us are ready for what's to come!" Linus retorted, his crazy tone now more evident.

Kaizen took a step back, letting go of Linus with his eyes still fixed on him. "If you had shared your concerns with us from the start, we could have found a solution together. But now, you've put yourself in a position where trust is hard to restore."

The air hung heavy with the truth of Kaizen's words. Linus, sensing the firmness in his former friend's voice, lowered his eyes for a moment before looking back up, a spark of determination burning in his tired gaze. "You don't know how good it will feel to die at the hands of the man I screwed! Come on, Psyker, kill me! Take your revenge and show your friends your true nature!"

Silence filled the chamber as the players' eyes flicked between Kaito and Linus, who stared at Kaizen with a mixture of defiance and despair. Linus' words hung in the air, full of bitterness and disdain. Kaizen, with his grave expression and piercing gaze, considered Linus' words carefully, weighing each syllable. A cold wind hissed through the cracks, letting the cold air in.

It was Andrew who broke the heavy silence, his voice sounding firm despite the tense situation. "Linus, you talk about balance, but your actions show only desperation and madness. There is no wisdom in sacrificing trust for a cause you yourself barely understand."

Linus let out a bitter, ironic laugh. "Ah, but you're all so naive! You can't see what I see, what's lurking in the shadows of the universe! Go on, do it, help Kaito! But remember, when the truth finally comes out, you'll all wish you hadn't been so quick to judge me."

Xisrith, with his perplexed expression, questioned Linus, "What do you mean by 'truth'? What threat are you talking about? Kaizen is a good man, he's saved thousands of people more than once."

Linus laughed again, but this time it was a maniacal laugh, echoing off the walls of the room. "You really have no idea, do you? Kaizen wants to defeat Chaos, the very essence of the universe, and if he succeeds it will be the end, there will be no remedy, he will be the almighty. Without Kaizen, there is a world, because Chaos has always existed, but without Chaos, everything as we know it will change! Chaos isn't just a force, it's an intelligence, a strength, a will!"

Kaizen looked at the other players with a serious look. "He's delusional. We can't take such claims seriously without any evidence."

Linus, noticing the disbelief in the other players' eyes, smiled sarcastically. "Ah, evidence. You'd only believe it if you saw it, wouldn't you? Well, wait until the stars go out and the darkness consumes everything. Then maybe you'll finally understand. Now, come on, Kaizen, kill me!"

Kaizen glared at Linus. "I'm not going to kill you. You deserve to live to pay for everything you've done in life, after all, from what I can see, you won't have any peace." Kaizen says, his eyes shining.

With the <Analyzing Eye>, he can see that around Linus there are countless obsessing spirits, spirits that only serve to cause pain and suffering in those they touch. In this legion, there is a familiar pair of eyes, the eyes of Nairo, a girl from the Order of Dalamyr, who helped him on his first mission for the Order of Dalamyr, the mission of the cursed spirit and the Kulenov Mansion. At that moment, Kaizen could no longer bear to look at that pair of eyes and turned his face away, denying Linus' request once and for all.

"Linus, I hope you never find peace again." Kaizen said, walking towards the Mana Crystal. "Jayaa and Andrew, search him and tie him up. He'll be taken to Alina, who will hold him until we need him again or can use him."

"All right!" They both agreed, because it was the most rational decision.