As the old world ended, and a new began, Sean's entire world went black. His vision swam, and his sense of balance distorted before disappearing entirely. He found himself floating and tumbling through an infinite void, aware of nothing but his own shock and terror. His mind reeled with possibilities. Had the dive technology failed in some way? Was this the result of the server shutdown? He even considered the possibility that his headset had somehow short-circuited and electrocuted him. However, after what felt like an eternity of nothingness, his senses returned. What he saw, he could make even less sense of.




[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujWjWcE9wkk][img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/3c/0b/74/3c0b7468bde16394fab4a7ed2fb3f75a--creepy-art-cg-art.jpg[/img][/url][/center]




Suspended in what seemed like a dimension between worlds, Sean found himself staring up at figures so immense that their form was nearly incomprehensible to him. Vaguely humanoid in form, as far as Sean could tell, they were made up of swirling energies and starstuff, their "faces" only malevolent red suns. Despite lacking features of any kind, Sean could feel their gazes upon him, a pressure so immense he thought he might be crushed.

[center][h3][color=black][b]THE OLD WORLD HAS ENDED, AND A NEW IS BORN[/b][/color][/h3][/center]

Words rang through Sean's head, filling his skull with searing pain and wracking his entire body with such waves of intense pressure that he thought he might come apart at the seams. If he had been standing on solid ground, he may have fallen to his knees. Rather, he merely clutched at head, doubling over where he floated in the void. Was this a dream? Or had he died, and this was the horrific afterlife that awaited him?

[center][h3][color=black][b]LORD BAAL, WE HAVE AWAITED YOU[/b][/color][/h3][/center]

Again, the voice spoke, but Sean was caught off guard by what was said this time. It addressed him not by name, but by the alias of his YGGDRASIL character. Was this still part of the game? It couldn't be; YGGDRASIL didn't have that level of sensory interaction, and even if it did, it was almost certainly a malfunction to cause him this level of discomfort. He looked down at his hands, and noticed for the first time that they felt exactly like his own. Flesh and blood, despite being the slender, ivory digits of Azoth Baal. The pieces began to fall together in his mind.

[center][h3][color=black][b]WE TRUST YOU HAVE FOUND OUR POWER TO YOUR LIKING

GREATER WONDERS AWAIT YOU, BUT FIRST WE MUST BE PAID OUR DUES[/b][/color][/h3][/center]

Sean wracked his mind, trying to comprehend the situation he found himself in. It then occurred to him in a flash of inspiration that if he could not make sense of this as Sean Wiseman, he would have to approach the situation as Azoth Baal. He straightened out and gazed up to the otherworldly beings that stared down at him.

"[color=9e0b0f]What would you ask of me?[/color]" He called out in a voice of command.


[center][h3][color=black][b]MAKE TRIBUTE IN OUR HONOR

GIVE US LOYAL SERVANTS, OR FEARFUL SLAVES

ALL SHALL FEAR THE STRENGTH OF CHAOS, THE POWER OF THE VOID[/b][/color][/h3][/center]

There may have been different entities addressing him, but Sean, or rather, Azoth could not distinguish between them. Still this seemed to be working. Whatever they were, they were responsive to him in a way that the so-called gods in YGGDRASIL never had been. He swallowed, trying to think of how to respond.


"[color=9e0b0f]And if I refuse?[/color]"

[center][h3][color=black][b]YOU HAVE NO CHOICE

ALREADY YOUR SOUL BELONGS TO US

EVEN IF YOU HIDE FROM OUR SIGHT, OUR MOST FAVORED DAUGHTER IS YOUR PARTNER IN ETERNITY[/b][/color][/h3][/center]

Favored daughter? Azoth struggled to think what they could mean by this. However, he was not given long to ponder, as he was at once thrust back into a reality that he better understood. Gone were the stars and the void, and in its place was the guildhall that he stood in just before the server shutdown. However, it stood in ruins, apparently the site of some great battle. The other players were nowhere to be found, and Azoth knelt alone in the rubble. How long had he lingered in that forsaken place, with those dark masters?

A feminine voice whispered sweetly into his brain, breaking him from his thoughts, [color=black]"Now, my master. Let us begin the Great Work. In this, I shall be your most trusted partner. Your mightiest ally. Your most loyal confidant. Your most watchful observer."[/color] The voice faded away as it laughed cruelly.

Azoth felt (felt! such an alien experience from what he was used to in these settings) a malevolent presence, practically upon him. It hung at his hip, cold as death and as dark as a starless sky. He realized then that not only had the Masters of the Void become all too real, it was their agent as well that had become bonded to him: Stormsorrow, the Daughter of the Void.