“Promise me something,” Brian whispered.
“Anything,” Eliza choked out, feeling new tears springing up in the corners of her eyes.
“Just promise me that you will find your dream someday. And when you do, don’t let anyone or anything stop you from grabbing it with both hands. Don’t ever let it go,” he said, the branches of his face contorting into another sad smile. “Find your own adventure.”
Eliza tried to respond, but he didn’t give her a chance. Without warning, Brian tossed her to the side and slammed down on his arm with his other limb, severing it cleanly. The decapitated branch spun in the air before crashing into the ground. Stiff limbs promptly erupted from the soil, forming a massive protective dome over Eliza and trapping her inside.
“No! Brian, don’t!” she screamed.
He either didn’t hear her, or he simply didn’t acknowledge her pleas. Instead, Brian raced toward the barn, his legs lengthening and stretching with each step. In only moments, he was beside the mold-covered structure. Spindly branches erupted from his back, snatching at the remaining barrels and lifting them into the air. They raced back to his body before embedding themselves in the writhing vegetation that made up his back. In one hand, she could see that he held the familiar branding wand.
Brian spared one last glance at Eliza, his glowing eyes flaring powerfully. Then he turned to the Queen Cluster in the center of the compound. The mold seemed to anticipate what Brian was about to do and it lurched abruptly. The fractures running along the ground widened, shifting the blanket of mold that covered the ground and causing the entire compound to buck and heave. Meanwhile, dozens of sporelings began to take shape, pulling themselves together from the fungus that still lingered on the nearby buildings.
None of this deterred Brian. He raced toward the creatures, his eyes blazing with sapphire energy. Eliza tried to think of something – anything – to help him, but she came up short. She was completely out of mana, and her pack was outside the cage of branches. She was helpless and could only watch as Brian hurtled toward the Queen Cluster and its army of sporelings.
He slammed into the mold creatures without slowing down. The branches that were his arms whipped through the air with blazing speed, cutting many of the sporelings in half and their bodies crumbling lifelessly to the ground. Yet the mold was legion. For every sporeling Brian destroyed, another three filled its place, creating a veritable wall of the creatures in front of the Queen Cluster.
The sporelings raced toward Brian as one, their gangly limbs flailing and the insidious hiss of their breath filling the air in a cacophony of noise. They launched themselves at him without any sense of self-preservation, clawing at his body in a frenzy. He managed to destroy them at a fantastic rate, his arms contorting and whipping at the creatures and his limbs racing away from his torso to destroy any sporelings that managed to circle behind him.
Yet he couldn’t kill them all. Several made it past his defenses, clinging to his skin and covering his body in their insidious spores. Brian might have been resistant to the fungus, but he wasn’t immune. The mold ate into the branches and vines that made up his body and tore at his bark-like skin. He let out a tortured wail as the fungus ate entirely through one of his arms, the branches crashing to the ground.
Eliza could only look on from inside her branch-prison. She wanted to help him. She wanted to rush to his aid. However, she was powerless. In her desperation, her thoughts turned to the Hippie – his irritating face appearing in her mind’s eye. If he really was a god, then maybe he could hear her prayers.
“Please,” she whispered. “Please give me the strength to help him.” She pleaded and begged under her breath. “You have to help.”
Brian stumbled, dropping to his knees under the endless barrage of sporelings.
“Please!” Eliza cried out more urgently. “I’ll do anything!”
“Anything at all…”
And then Hippie answered her call.
A massive torrent of water mana flooded Eliza’s body, rushing through her veins in a tidal wave that she could barely control. The energy was so intense that it was almost painful, the sensation making it difficult to think clearly. A sapphire aura of power enveloped her body, expanding outward in a mist so thick that it began to blot out the scene in the courtyard. And in the center of that maelstrom of power – in the eye of that tornado of energy – she sensed an eerie all-encompassing calm. The feeling was fleeting, like the glimpse of a hummingbird’s wings in the middle of a hurricane.
Then it was gone – replaced with a single notification.
System Notice: Divine Touch
You have prayed to your truly courageous and compassionate god, and he has answered your call – even though, technically, it was past regular business hours. He will be charging you for overtime.
You have been touched by a god – in a totally PG-13 sort of way, of course! Water mana now infuses your very being. For a time, you will be able to cast without mana restrictions. This effect will last sixty seconds.
“Yeah, you totally owe me.” – the Hippie
Eliza swept away the notification without even reviewing the text. She hadn’t forgotten her goal. Her glowing blue eyes rested on Brian’s failing form – nearly buried under the army of sporelings. She raised a hand, and a ball of water mana began to collect in her palm. She let it grow, feeding it every drop of the mana that filled her body; pouring her heart and soul and desperation into the spell.
Then she cast Accelerated Growth one final time.
This was no droplet or trickle. A stream of mana – so dense that it was nearly blinding – rocketed away from Eliza’s palm, the explosion of energy slamming her back into Brian’s protective shield. As the beam struck Brian, his body contorted. His eyes flashed a brilliant sapphire once again, and then his body erupted outward – branches lancing in every direction and destroying the sporelings around him.
Brian’s body grew rapidly in size until he was nearly ten feet tall, his arms and legs thickening and expanding at an unbelievable rate and flowers blooming along his skin. Using his new form, he waded through the sporelings, leaving a path of destruction in his wake as he continued his mad dash toward the Queen Cluster.
The mold seemed to anticipate that he was getting close. Clusters of spores formed in the air, creating a barrier between the bulb and Brian. The wall thickened and grew at an alarming rate. The mold also mutated once again, forming thick spikes along the surface of the wall facing Brian.
He didn’t slow.
Instead, as he approached the barrier, Brian’s legs grew and reformed, shooting him up into the air. As he reached the top of the wall, he severed his own legs with a single well-placed blow of his arm – the extremities already reforming before he hit the ground on the other side of the wall.
And then Brian was at the base of the Queen Cluster. He quickly grabbed the plant, his hands and feet carving holes in its surface as he scaled the monstrous bulb. The mold of this plant must have been more acidic than its underlings because it ate into Brian’s arms faster than he could regenerate – even with Eliza’s assistance.
This didn’t deter Brian. He kept going even as spores ate into his torso and his limbs melted away, reforming over and over again. A few excruciating seconds later, he reached the apex of the bulb. With a final roar, Brian ripped into the plant, carving a massive hole and entering the plant itself.
Seconds ticked by and Eliza’s heart thudded in her chest.
Suddenly, a massive explosion erupted from inside the Queen Cluster, mold spraying in every direction and the sides of the monstrous bulb peeling away before crashing to the ground. The fires raged, spearing into the air and the heat and flames cascading outward in a tidal wave of destruction that incinerated any sporelings standing near the bulb.
The remaining sporelings lingering around the farm promptly collapsed, their bodies crumbling into piles of fungus. Meanwhile, spore plumes rocketed through the compound, released by the
smaller bulbs lingering on the tops of each structure. Yet the mold didn’t make it far. The flames encircling the compound made short work of the insidious substance, and the fires raging through the farm wiped it clean.
In the middle of it all stood Eliza, brilliant sapphire tears streaming down her cheeks as she stared at the roaring flames and the devastation. Her fingers numbly encircled a branch of her cage, and she closed her eyes to blot out the scene around her. She had caused this. She had caused all of this. And Brian had died for her mistake.
Chapter 33 - Victorious
Eliza walked through the ruined remains of Tollhouse Farm. The fire had wiped the compound clean of the mold. All that was left of it were piles of the insidious vegetation that still smoldered on the ground. The buildings were nothing more than rubble now. They had been thoroughly destroyed by both the mold and the fire, creating a large circle of burnt earth and ash where the farm had once stood. As far as she could tell, none of the mold had survived.
Eliza had been saved by her Obscuring Mist, the vapor barely managing to push back at the flames that had ravaged the farm – not that she saw this as a blessing.
She stepped past a burnt corpse, shriveled mold still clinging to its bones – the only evidence that this farm had once been populated by dozens of farmers and staff. Eliza’s stomach boiled at the sight of the blackened skeleton.
Turning away from the corpse, she continued her solemn march toward the center of the farm. In only moments, she identified a large object resting on the ground. It was nearly six feet tall and five feet across, black soot and desiccated fragments of mold covering every inch of its surface. Eliza stepped up to the object, running her hand across the top.
Dust and debris toppled away, revealing a dull metal underneath. Eliza grimaced as she confirmed that she was staring at the farm’s bell. With a few swift gestures, she summoned her Obscuring Mist once more – using the water vapor to clean the surface of the bell. Soon, black soot ran in small rivulets down the metallic surface.
Only a few moments later, the entire bell was revealed. Apparently, neither the mold nor the fire had been enough to warp or damage the metal. The bell was now the last remnant of Tollhouse Farm.
Eliza leaned back against the metallic surface, closing her eyes. She immediately regretted her decision. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Brian’s face – intricately twining branches framing his glowing blue eyes.
“I killed them all,” she whispered in a tortured voice.
Despite Lord Baen’s claims, she suspected that many of these people had been innocent of any wrongdoing. Had they really all known about the smuggling operation? Had Brian? Had those shepherds that gave up their lives to stop the mold? Did she even really have any proof that they had been smuggling anything? What evidence there might have been had been lost to both the fungus and the fire.
Some small voice whispered in the back of her mind, reminding her that this wasn’t real – it was just a game. But she mentally recoiled from that line of reasoning. That had seemed pretty damn real. This wasn’t the same as what she had done to the players. These people didn’t respawn. Their deaths in this world were permanent – just like in real life.
Eliza could feel tears beginning to blossom once more at the corners of her eyes.
“Why the long face?” the Hippie suddenly asked, appearing beside her.
Eliza winced at the sound of his voice, but she refused to open her eyes. A moment later, she felt Fluffy’s wet snout push gently against her hand, but she couldn’t muster the energy to pet the sheep.
“Are we playing the silent game now?” the Hippie inquired, his voice sounding much closer. “Because I am the grandmaster poobah of the silent game! Just ask Fluffy. He never beats me. Never.”
“What do you want?” Eliza finally snapped, opening her eyes and staring at the irritating god that lingered only a few feet away. As usual, a broad smile was painted on his clownish face.
“That’s a good question. World peace? A cure for cancer?” the Hippie replied, cocking his head. “Hmm, if you give me some time, I’ll compile a list. Fair warning, though, it’s going to be a long list.”
Eliza just stared at the young man, waiting for him to get serious – not that she had high hopes. At this stage, she was just mentally done with him.
“You really are a stick in the mud,” the Hippie finally said with a raised eyebrow. He eyed her critically. “And after I helped you… which was totally cheating, by the way.”
“I was only here in the first place because you sent me here,” Eliza said, a dull anger beginning to boil in her veins. “So, you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t exactly bow down in gratitude.”
“Hmm, well my help did allow you to destroy all of the mold,” he commented dryly, glancing around the compound as he ran a finger across the surface of the bell, traces of soot clinging to his finger. “I have to say, Fluffy was getting a bit worried there at the end.” This earned the god a sideways glance from the sheep, who still hovered protectively beside Eliza.
“I wouldn’t have had to create that fungus if you hadn’t sent me on this stupid quest,” she said, marching toward the Hippie and stabbing a finger at him. “If it weren’t for your asinine quest to retrieve a freaking bell, I could have found another way to deal with Lord Baen’s task. These… these people didn’t all have to die.”
The Hippie eyed her appraisingly, his expression suddenly sobering. “Ahh, is that why you seem so upset? The deaths of some farmers?”
“Yes,” Eliza shouted. “I created a mutant fungus that could have wiped out this entire zone – if not the whole continent – and I ended up massacring an entire compound of people. How could that not fucking upset me?!” she demanded, her voice wavering and cracking as she yelled at the Hippie.
The god simply stared at her for a moment before replying. “Like everything else, this was a lesson,” he said quietly, holding her gaze. “Everything dies. Everything. You’re a budding doctor in your world, so I’m sure you understand the concept of entropy. This is a natural cycle – birth and death. There is no defeating it. We can only accept it.”
“Of course, people die,” Eliza snapped, choking back her tears. She didn’t want the god to see her cry. “But I’m the one who killed them.”
“By accident,” the Hippie amended, still watching her with that same eerily sincere expression. “You also had your reasons for pursuing my quest – and Lord Baen’s. And I hear that hindsight is 20/40… wait, I mean 20/20. Or at least I think I do…”
The god shrugged. “In any event, did you know this would happen? Could you have guessed? Would you give up on your goals simply because there is the risk of failure – even if it might be catastrophic? Perhaps just sit down in the middle of your garden and die of starvation for fear that you might inadvertently step on a bug on the way to the nearest inn?”
“I… I,” Eliza began, struggling to come up with answers to his questions.
She wanted to continue ranting at the god and blame him for the deaths of the farmers. However, a part of her knew that he was right – despite how much she might hate to admit it and how much her mind rebelled at the thought that the Hippie could be right about anything. She hadn’t known this would happen. This was just a mistake – a huge mistake. But still a mistake.
“I don’t know,” Eliza finally said.
“Well, I expect that’s the best we can hope for,” the Hippie said, clapping his hands together and causing Eliza to jump in surprise. “But, in any event, you’re wrong.”
Eliza stared at the Hippie, her eyes widening slightly. “Wrong about what?” she asked in a tentative voice.
“You didn’t actually kill everyone,” the god continued, pacing the area around the bell and kicking at the ash that covered the ground. “That’s just so dramatic! It’s like, totally unbecoming of you,” he continued in mock valley-girl accent.
“What… what do you mean?” Eliza asked, ignoring his teasing and lo
oking around in confusion. She had walked through the entire area. She hadn’t seen any survivors – even the shepherds and sheep that they had left in the hills in their haste. Eliza could only assume that they must have fled when they saw the fires.
“Hmm, did you check inside the bell?” the Hippie asked, looking at her with an inquiring expression.
Eliza’s brow furrowed in confusion. Was the god messing with her? He wasn’t above pulling pranks – even at a time like this. However, she still stepped around the bell so that she could see inside. At first, she only saw dark soot and more fragments of mold.
“There isn’t anything…” she began.
“Look closer,” the Hippie interrupted quietly. “You have to look a bit deeper than the surface. You really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, after all.”
Eliza hesitantly reached a hand forward, scraping away at the ash. A few seconds later, she uncovered a small patch of dirt, and she saw a flash of green. She homed in on the foreign object, gently pushing away the loose debris. A moment later, a small sprout came into view – its emerald leaves standing out in stark contrast to the dreary gray ash and soil.
“What is this…?” Eliza whispered. Instinctively, she inspected the sapling.
Strange Sapling – Level Unknown
This sapling appears innocuous at first blush – a simple tendril of life amid the destruction you have caused. Yet a closer inspection reveals that this plant is more than it initially appears. Mana courses through its veins and its leaves feel warm to the touch. If you hold your breath, you can even detect a faint thrumming – the sensation similar to a human heartbeat.
Health – Unknown
Mana – Unknown
Equipment – Unknown
Resistances – Unknown
Awaken Online (Book 3.5): Apathy Page 26
