The New Order by Sean Fay Wolfe Read Free Book Online

of Harming out of their inventory and raised them to their mouths.
    Stan bellowed in rage, and the police threw a storm of Potions of Slowness at the assassins to knock them out before they could drink their potions. But it was too late. The four assassins downed their potions in one gulp, and gave out one last valiant shout of, “VIVA LA NOCTEM!” The four hit the ground face-down at the same time. To be safe, the soldiers and police surrounded the four bodies, weapons at the ready should they be faking death, but when the four assassins disappeared, all doubt vanished.
    As the panel started buzzing like bees, urgently discussing the implications of this latest turn of events, Stan’s faceshowed only grim resolve. He was mortified that this chain of horrific events should happen to him, to his people. He was furious that a new threat had arrived even before the last of King Kev’s supporters had been caught. Stan would not allow the Noctem Alliance to grow into an organization similar to the reign of King Kev. This time, Stan was determined to nip it in the bud.
    The next day, Stan, on his first Proclamation Day of his second term as president, did just that. The court had decided with no doubt that the Noctem Alliance was supporting these assassins, and after a hastily organized council meeting, the Noctem Alliance had been pegged as a terrorist organization. When the citizens had gathered at the foot of Element Castle, Stan announced the new law, which had been implemented unanimously by the council.
    â€œFrom this day forward, it is illegal for anybody in Elementia to be a member of, or to be associated with, or to be sympathetic toward the terrorist group called the Noctem Alliance. This organization has tried to kill me as well as your councilmen, and they are opposed to equality for lower-level players. Any information regarding the Noctem Alliance and its members should be given to a soldier or policeman, and your help in defeating this threat is greatly appreciated.”
    The cheers that reverberated over the packed courtyard seemed hollow and empty to Stan. He couldn’t help butwonder how many of those in the crowd were really advocates of the Noctem Alliance, whose applause of adulation were nothing more than facades, hiding true feelings of hatred, malevolence, and spite.
    Across the server, away from the fertile plains and forests of the motherland of Elementia, past the jungle, across the vast Ender Desert, sat the tundra, a dark plain biome of frigid badlands where no civilization had ever taken hold. There, deep in the most inhospitable stretches of the barren wasteland, another proclamation was imminent. If you looked hard enough through the snow that whipped the face and stung the skin, that kept the sky black even at high noon, you could see it. Indeed, there was a society out in the tundra, which at the moment was nothing more than one grand building, constructed of the finest stone brick and spruce wood. Makeshift dirt shelters speckled the permafrost surrounding the one ornate structure.
    A total of about a hundred and twenty players stood clustered at the foot of the brick building. The wooden balcony above them sheltered them from the snow, and the torches on the walls provided heat. Though the warmth was faint, it was still a welcome break from the cold that these players had endured for months on end.
    As they heard footsteps on the wood above them, therabble of a hundred and twenty frozen players quickly rushed out from below the balcony, forming the rows they were expected to be in when addressed by their superiors.
    Now that they had left the warm haven of the balcony, the players could see the three players standing on the balcony. These were the three generals of the Noctem Alliance, the organization to which all these players had pledged themselves. Barely visible in the torchlight, the players could make out the brown face and ornate armor of General Leonidas at the back