Disgardium

In a future where noncitizens can only find work inside the virtual world of Disgardium, fifteen-year-old Alex dreams of becoming a space guide. With his family's circumstances forcing his hand, the game is now his only path to that goal. But a Sleeping God's gift marks Alex's character Scyth as a Class-A Threat — and the most powerful clans in the world are beginning to take notice.

Alex's parents are divorcing, and when he turns sixteen he faces a life on the lowest rungs of society. Meanwhile in Disgardium, Scyth's status as a Class-A Threat has made him a target for every preventer clan in the world — while his two patron gods tear at him from the inside and his best friends can no longer be fully trusted. Worse still, the Destroying Plague has designated Scyth as its Emissary, tasked with infecting all of humanity. The city sees him as a savior. The game sees him as a catastrophe waiting to happen.

Having emerged from the sandbox into the wider world of Disgardium, Scyth and his friends find themselves under the watchful eye of the preventers. The strongest clans in the world hunt not only Scyth but also Crag, a fellow 'threat' and member of the Awoken clan. But there are more pressing problems: the Sleeping God has issued another impossible quest, the old enemy Big Po thirsts for vengeance, and the Nucleus of the Destroying Plague prepares to take cruel revenge on its former Herald.

Under the banner of Nergal the Radiant, the armies of the Commonwealth, the Empire, and the neutral factions — along with the game's leading players and preventer clans — have gathered in the Lakharian Desert to wage war against the most terrible enemy of all life: Scyth. Among his supporters are not only wild races but nightmarish monsters: the zombie guitarist Infect, the death mage Crawler, and one undead warrior named Bomber.

Protected by Nergal the Radiant, the alliance's armies march confidently toward Tiamat's temple. Scyth's old tricks are no longer working, and the Legate of the Destroying Plague faces a desperate choice: complete the quest of the Nucleus, surrender to the preventers, or retreat and fight another day. One thing is certain — they are going to need allies. And sometimes, old enemies make the best friends.

Scyth and the followers of the Sleeping Gods have lost the Holy War. The new so-called True Gods celebrate, unaware that one temple remains. But Scyth's enemy Mogwai — once the strongest player on the planet — knows about Kharinza, and grows stronger every day while Scyth has lost his invulnerability. The citizenship tests are approaching, Cali Bottom proves unwelcoming, and Behemoth demands the impossible. Scyth's only hope may lie in the Demonic Games.

Alex flies to the Demonic Games, hoping to achieve the impossible alongside his friends Malik and Tissa. Nearly four hundred of Disgardium's best players have been invited — champions of the Arena and Battlefields, gryphon racers, pet battlers, and grand masters of every profession. All of them await the arrival of Scyth the Class-A Threat, who must now prove his worth without his divine abilities.

Returning to Cali Bottom after the Demonic Games, Alex finds the real challenges have only begun. He must help beta players trapped in the Nether, root out a traitor among his friends, prepare for citizenship tests, and reach the Inferno to obtain Coals of Hellflame to destroy the Nucleus. The Nucleus's legates have gained new powers from a pantheon of dark gods — and there turns out to be far more to the third Sleeping God than anyone suspected.

Scyth, undercover in the Inferno as the tiefling Hakkar, must gain an audience with Prince Belial to claim the Coals of Hellflame. His companions are each fighting their own battles: Crag seeks to create a Rift to the Nether, Bomber races toward the underwater kingdom of the naga, Crawler strives to build a magic tower to five levels, and Tissa and Irita focus on growing the clan. Meanwhile, the legates of the Destroying Plague are raising an undead horde to march on Kharinza.

With a Spark of Hellflame finally in hand, Scyth is ready to conquer Holdest and eliminate the Nucleus of the Destroying Plague. But he still needs to raise a third temple to the Sleepers — and there are no free places of power — while real life demands he fly out for the citizenship tests. For Alex Sheppard, it is shaping up to be the most stressful week of his life. Too much is at stake, the risks are too great, and there is far too little time to prepare.

Alex Sheppard returns to the real world only to realize the game is over for him. At sixteen, he has destroyed the carefully laid plans of the most powerful people on the planet — and they are thirsting for his blood. The criminal Triad, the two-faced Cartel, the hypocritical preventers: all were child's play compared to what faces him now. Operating outside the law, with his sworn enemies ruling the planet, Alex has a score to settle. The hour of reckoning is at hand.

The story of sixteen-year-old Alex Sheppard and his friends is drawing to a close. Scyth must once again do the impossible, and the battle between his allies and the Children of Kratos marks the end of peace in Disgardium. The world will never be the same again.

The path of a hero is often traveled alone, especially when friends, comrades, and allies have been lost. The weight of responsibility is overwhelming, and there is so much at stake that one might feel compelled to howl at the moon — except no moon can be found in the Nether, the Inferno, or Purgatory, nor beneath the twisted dome of Meaz. No matter where Scyth hides, the voice of the Harbinger of Nether will find him: "Die and await Judgment Day."