World Conquest Online

Dom, Alice, Kai and Andrew were all stood outside the Main Building at Central University. They had left his Aunt’s meeting room in silence, her guards outside lowering their heads slightly towards Dom as he left. Dom wasn’t sure if it was respect, sympathy or something else. They had then headed down the stairs and past the small museum like entrance way until they reached outside. No one said a word as they all stood there and looked up at the sun that was in the sky, shining bright down on them. There was a gentle breeze in the air that felt refreshing on Dom’s face as he stood there for a moment with his closest friends, trying to ignore the chaos that seemed to be slowly seeping in to his life.

"How are you feeling?" Kai asked, breaking the short silence between them.

"Surprised." Alice replied, even though Kai had been asking Dom. "I find out one of my best friends has an extremely famous Aunt that he has kept hidden from us, he is the luckiest gamer possible, with a massive Army in his hands and a giant kingdom at his feet. Oh and he is a bigamist."

"I am not a bigamist." Dom replied, ignoring the other comments.

"We should probably have this conversation somewhere more quiet." Kai stated, looking at the mass of people that were gathered around the Main Building.

"Technically, you are a bigamist." Andrew replied with his teasing grin, agreeing with Alice.

"See even this one thinks you are a bigamist, and if he could he would promote it!" Alice stated, pointing at Dom, her voice accusing with a tinge of humour in it, however it was a bit louder than usual and some people looked in their direction.

"It’s legal in my Kingdom." Dom replied, pursing his lips as a cheeky glint appeared in his eyes.

"Oh sorry your highness." Alice replied with a slight bow, causing Andrew and Kai to laugh whilst Kai began walking down the stairs to move their location for the conversation.

"I did not know she was my Aunt until recently." Dom explained as they began walking, his tone a tad more serious than earlier. "Also, I haven’t seen you since I saw her so I couldn’t tell you!"

"There are ways." She replied with a raised eyebrow. "Actually, none of you have contacted me since we finished at the Academy, I felt like I was forgotten!"

"We only met up ourselves over the last couple of days." Andrew explained, taking some of the heat off Dom. "I went to visit my Grandmother and Kai was with his family, plus you will be joining us in the game soon."

"I won’t, I now have to wait for Dom’s Aunt’s instructions. Do you know what happens to people who displease Lady Camilla Mordred? They disappear!" She replied seriously. "My own Grandmother kept our family neutral, that is why she is in education, she will be furious if she finds out I am now involved with a Mordred."

"Actually, it is the Lazarus that is causing you the problems." Andrew laughed, with Kai trying to keep his head down as they headed back towards the Manor, seemingly taking Alice with them.

"Alice when you arrive, I will make sure you get to have as much fun as you want." Dom promised, trying to calm her down and reassure her slightly.

"Oh I will your highness, I will take my Sky Piercer and shove it so far up your." She began, before Kai suddenly stopped as they arrived in a secluded spot on the walk towards the Manor and turned to them all.

"Will you all just stop. Seriously, for once use your brains." He began, his tone serious and for the first time in their experience of knowing him, there was a tinge of threat. Andrew and Dom both looked at him in surprise, whilst Alice’s mouth was wide open, some dribble even dropping from the side of it. "Dom is the number one Lord Player, their will soon be eyes on him. Eyes on him are also eyes on us. We need to take what Lady Camilla said seriously, there are two things that she said that should worry you. Firstly, She explained the situation of the game and reality, and that Dom could soon become an important character, who may need protection. Secondly, she only mentioned that Dom would become an important character."

They all looked at him in confusion for a moment, Alice’s mouth still open, whilst Dom and Andrew looked even more confused than before. Kai shook his head at them for a moment before continuing.

"We are disposable. Dom is her family, we are tools. She has already ordered Alice to wait in Laporte, she has asked me to make sure he has his short list of future wives to her. She is giving us orders as if we work for her, and that also means that if Dom is at risk, she can use us as shields." Kai explained seriously, raising his hand as Dom was about to speak. "I know you won’t allow that Dom, you are practically family to us. However, the world we are now entering is very different to the one that we woke up to this morning."

"So what do we do?" Andrew asked, also putting his hand up as Dom tried to speak.

"Nothing, we continue to live as we normally live." Kai began, pausing as he thought out loud. "We concentrate on doing what Lady Camilla said and protecting ourselves and creating a better location for ourselves in Dom’s Kingdom. However, in reality we keep our heads low and try and go unnoticed. Dom is the famous one, or will be soon enough. We just have to keep ourselves aware of the situation and deal with it when it approaches."

"So what you are saying is, our lives could be in danger and we should just act as normal?" Andrew asked, as Alice looked at Kai with the same questioning look, also putting her finger up to tell Dom to keep quiet whilst they listened.

"I would say we are most likely disposable than in danger." Kai explained as Dom finally tried to speak.

"I get that it was an worrying meeting if you take it that way, but you could be blowing this out of proportion Kai." Dom explained as he put his hand on his friends shoulder. "If it gets to that stage, then we will all just quit the game. It is just a game, we will be fine."

"We will." Andrew agreed, also putting his hand on Kai’s shoulder. "I don’t know what is happening with you at the moment, but you have seemed too mature, we are at University, let’s enjoy it!"

"One for all." Alice said, a light smile on her face.

"And all for one." The rest of them echoed, Kai seemingly having his negativity wash away for a short period of time.

"We need to meet Steven for food, we made him a promise and then we need to log back in." Andrew declared, warming the conversation up.

"Is this your new room mate?" Alice laughed, elbowing Andrew as she said it. "Replacing me already."

"He’s not actually our room mate, I was just trying to save you from that meeting." Andrew replied, before pausing a moment, "But he is a nice guy and we have a spare room."

"I am stood here Andrew, and you can’t expect me to stay in those small rooms they have put us exchange students in temporarily. He can move in when I leave!" Alice declared, as she put her arms around Andrew and Kai’s shoulders, before turning to Dom and smiling. "Come on then, let’s get some food!"

.....

Dom arrived back at the Manor, his stomach full after eating so much with the four of them at the Lakeside Restaurant. Steven was happy to see that they had reunited with an old friend and had been included in their reunion. They spoke about the Military Academy and their time there, whilst Steven laughed along and learnt a lot about the four of them. Alice said that he could have her room when she left, which surprised him as Dom and him hadn’t discussed when he could get him to move in yet and Alice and Andrew had seemed to have done it by accident. It wasn’t as soon as he wanted to, and Dom felt that some protection wouldn’t be something to turn down at the moment.

Alice had headed back to her own accommodation to gather her items and Andrew had arranged for one of the porters to help her as she had supposedly brought a lot with her. The quietness of their Manor would soon disappear with their new housemate, but Dom was surprisingly relieved to have all of his friends with him once again.

He lay on his bed, his Headset in his hand as he looked towards his ceiling. Kai was right about one thing though, things wouldn’t be the same again, not in World Conquest Online anyway. Dom was going to create a Kingdom upon his arrival and that was something that excited him, he wanted to join the game as a Warrior, but instead he had an Army and thousands of Civilians needing him instead.

He grabbed his headset and put it on his head, the normal darkness appearing as he closed his eyes, before the sky formed in front of him, sat in a familiar chair opposite him was a familiar smartly dressed Game Support. She smiled at him, as she put a circular token in to a game in front of her. It was a raised wooden rectangle, seven wide and six high. In front of Game Support were blue painted tokens and in front of Dom were red ones. Game Support’s token had fallen in the centre bottom row as she smiled at him.

"Your turn." She offered as Dom looked at the familiar game he hadn’t played since he was a child.

"What are my chances of winning?" He asked her as he picked up the red token, feeling it in his fingers as he looked at the game she was playing.

"If I am nice, quite high." She teased him as Dom put his token above hers. She dropped hers to the right of her original one and looked at him again.

"So my chances are small then?" Dom replied as he placed his next token to the left of her original one.

"That is harsh, I am often nice." She stated, before looking down as the cloud below them seemingly disappeared and the sight of Dom’s soon to be formed Kingdom appeared. "So what will it be, Lord Lazarus, King Lazarus, Emperor Lazarus? You have Roman’s, maybe you could be Caesar, or a Khan for your Mongol General? You could be a Sultan or a Suzerain?"

Dom looked down at the Lazarus Kingdom below him as well as they seemed to almost zoom out, the wider space blurred as if unexplored and a fog of war was covering it. He understood her message though this time, the Title was meaningless if they couldn’t protect themselves, and they were still very small in the scheme of things.

"It’s good that you understand." She smiled, as if reading his thoughts, which Dom clearly remembered she could. "Well then Player Lazarus, Good Luck."

The chair beneath him disappeared as he fell, but he didn’t fear it anymore as he suddenly awoke in his bed at the Palace in Riverside.