Apocalypse-I

A war was raging. In the midst of the war were two people reaping the blood of their enemies. One of them was an archer. He held a large wooden bow plated at the end with platinum and on his back was a quiver of an unending cooler of arrows. He wore a bright white armor and gauntlets that were stained red with the blood of his enemies. He was quite tall and was brown skinned. His hair was cut in a military fashion. He had quite a muscular build.

The other was a swordsman. He had two swords in his hands. Each sword almost three-fourths of a meter long. Both of them were deep blue in color with lightning calling through it. He wore a bright orange armor and gauntlet pair, which like his friend's were stained with blood. He was more muscular than the archer.

The archer shot flaming arrows continually which achieved the job of destroying the enemy morale as they couldn't stand the arrow volley. He was stationed at one position but was rotating around to get people from all the sides. While the archer fought at one place, using long-range attacks, the swordsman moved as though he was one with the wind itself. His victims wouldn't see him even when he killed them. The only warning they'd get was a bright blue light and crackling sounds.

I am the swordsman. My name is Charleston SC. Right now, I am in the middle of a war in the game Heavenly Hell. Warfare is far more difficult and enjoyable than I thought it was.

I have killed thousands today and shall continue to kill thousands more. The archer is my Indian friend Aditya. We are in the Indian region of Kurukshetra. I took the name Karthik in the game after being coerced into it by my friend. I say coerced because calling myself that is the Christian equivalent of calling myself, Christ. So I wasn't sure but in fact, my friend himself is named Aditya which happens to be an Indian name for the sun. Many people here are named after Gods.

But nevertheless, here, we are participating in the Mahabharata event which commemorates the eighteen-day Mahabharata War which took place in Kurukshetra. There are similar events throughout this world. I and my friend Aditya are the founders and only members of the guild Heavenly Demons. We are fighting on the Pandava side of the battle. It's a very long Epic poem which if converted into a TV show could run for years without making anything up. There are so many stories here.

But the short version is that there were two sets of brothers, Pandavas, and Kauravas. They fought for the throne of Hastinapura. The Pandavas were the good side, and Kauravas were the bad side. There were a hundred Kauravas and just five Pandavas. The Pandavas created their own land in a place they called Indraprastha, present-day New Delhi. They then built their own empire. The Kauravas got jealous and invited the Pandavas to a game of dice. The Kauravas then won everything from the Pandavas with the help of their cunning uncle Shakuni. They then made the Pandavas bet themselves. Then when they won again, they coerced the Pandavas into betting their wife Draupadi.[For Reference: In her previous life, Draupadi had prayed to the gods for a husband who is very good at heart, a husband who is loyal, a husband who had great valor, a husband who is good looking, a husband who had brilliant insight. The Gods understood it as five husbands and blessed her whereas she wanted one husband with all qualities but worded it wrong so she ended up with five husbands] When they lost in dice yet again, Duryodhana, the eldest Kaurava ordered his younger brother Dushyasan to bring Draupadi to the court and strip her there. She was pulled there by the hair and everyone stayed quiet while it happened. Draupadi then prayed to Krishna, who made two yards of cloth come to Draupadi for every one yard Dushyasan pulled. Eventually, Dushyasan fell after being unable to strip Draupadi. That day the Pandavas were exiled for fourteen years. The Pandavas swore revenge on the Kauravas and then 14 years later they fought the epic battle and gained their revenge.

While the original fighters don't fight in this anymore, they view it as bystanders, sometimes even gamble on who wins. But that doesn't matter. As of now, I, Karthik am surrounded by people trying to murder me and I am enjoying this exp gain. Exp is the reason I participate in events such as these. You get as much as exp as all of your victims gained before dying. Also, an extra amount of exp gained proportionally to the level of your victims. I have killed so many of them and I am going to kill so many more of them. As a swordsman here, speed and accuracy is everything. A closer combatant here is at a severe disadvantage. So if you aren't fast enough, an archer will shoot you to hell. So I trained and trained until I was so fast that the fastest arrows from the average archer of my level were as slow as a snail for me. My swords had reaped the blood of so many now that my level has increased by 2. Considering that I am level 345, now 346 and that this is only the first day. By the end of the eighteenth day, I may even reach level 360. I sweep in to kill another person. All of a sudden, I am hit by a bright ray that blinds me for a while. I am unable to move. I open my status screen to see what the hell is happening. My screen goes blank for a second. The logout button was nowhere to be seen. I looked all over. It gave me nothing. Just my health, level, and other important stats. I click on the icon that says, 'Contact Us'. It is no longer working. I chose it as the light disappears. I defend against some people who try to gain the upper hand on me. I look at them. They all feel so real. For reference, my Wifi is so bad that all I see when I play is average level CGI. I don't see better. But now, it's like I am right over there. I strike at them with my swords. I feel so much freer. I feel like I am actually flowing like the wind like I am one with the wind. I go to chat and connect to Adi( nickname for Aditya), "Is it just me or does everything seem so much more real?"

Adi says, "Nope. Seems the same to me. I don't see any change. Maybe your WiFi got better. That's why we had that big white beam. Your WiFi got better" He said the last part while laughing.

I ignore that as I continue to kill my victims. A slash here and one more guy goes down. I turn around to find another man about to strike me. I intercept his sword with one of mine and stab him in the gut with my other. I remove my sword from his guts. My sword is covered in his blood. I turn to my right as one more person is about to kill me. I intercept him and slash his neck. I run towards an archer who is shooting arrows at me. One of them flings right past my ear. I run towards him. Many others flanking him run towards me. They all wield war axes. I duck below the first one; turn my sword around and stab him in the back and bring him in the front to act as my meat shield. I remove my sword from his back and decapacitate him. Someone stabs my thoracic portion of my vertebral column, i.e, my back between my shoulder blades. I scream in agony. I elbow him and remove the ax painfully from my back. I throw the ax at the archer which breaks his arrow midway and hits his face. I go on to decapacitate more and more people.

I continue on my warpath. Until I am stopped by an archer on the other side. By the looks of it, he is a high-level Rathi.

[For reference, there are six ranks in this region: (i)Infantry the lowest rank. (ii)Cavalry- One Cavalryman can take on ten to fifty infantrymen (iii)Rathi-A warrior on a chariot. When you reach this rank you can use a carrot but it isn't mandatory. You can go on your own even if you are of the rank Rathi. One Rathi can take on hundreds of cavalrymen or thousands of infantrymen (iv) Maharathi- Maha means great. One Maharathi can take on ten or more Rathis. Or ten thousand or more infantrymen. (v) Atimaharathi- Ati means very powerful. One Atimaharathi can take on fifteen or more Maharathis simultaneously. Or, 150000 infantrymen simultaneously. (vi) MahaAtimaharathi - Gods. They can destroy the planet if they wish.

Each of these ranks has many levels. You can gain the next rank by defeating someone of that rank. So to become a Maharathi one must defeat another Maharathi. There are similar levels in each region of the world.]

I am a level 8 Rathi. He must be a little lower because I am the highest ranking Rathi after Adi in this region. Adi is higher cause he is in a chariot and is an archer.

I look at the Rathi. He is wearing golden armor. He says in a deep voice, "Today's your last day in this battle. I'll personally make sure of it, 'The Bloody Azure' ."

[For reference: The Hindu mythology consists of many Gods. Brahma, the creator; Vishnu the preserver and Shiva the destroyer. All the other Gods come under them. Vishnu had ten incarnations or avatars. He incarcerated every time to defeat evil and preserve peace. It is believed that only nine of the avatars have come and the tenth is yet to come. Krishna is the eight avatar. During Krishna's life, the Mahabharata took place. The gist of the story is above. You can get the English translation of it online for free. The five Pandavas were Dharmaraya or Yudishthira son of Yama-God of death; Bhima the son of Vaayu-God of wind; Arjuna son of Indra-King of Gods; Nakul and Shahdev children of the Ashwini twin gods, one of each; Dritharasthra was the father of Kauravas and Pandu the father of Pandavas. Dhritharasthra was married to Gandhari of Gandhar part of present-day Pakistan. They had a hundred kids who became the Kauravas.]