Attention!
Voltage: 700kV
Voltage: 750kV
Voltage: 800kV
...
Despite his opponent’s strength, the Giant was dominating the fight. Without making a sound, he tore out the Scars’s beard, ripping the meat from his wrinkled face along with it. Scar released his grip on the Giant’s neck from the shock and pain, and the latter immediately dug his hand into his stomach, trying to dig out some of the internal organs. Soon, Scar went limp, and the Giant began to tear the corpse into pieces in a frenzy. After a while, he staggered to his feet and turned to face me.
I was ready.
***
The black rays illuminated the titan standing in the middle of the bloody mess that had once been Scar. For the first time since the failed attack on the City, the Giant seemed to have suffered some serious damage: his sternum was crushed, and his left arm was bent in the opposite direction. A thick liquid dripped from the wound onto the blood-red snow: either fuel or oil... However, his regeneration was amazing. So much so that, right in front of my eyes, the busted limb settled back into place.
He didn’t show any emotion but there was bloodthirst in his eyes now — the look of a maniac. The engine roared again and he came straight at me. I hadn’t been feeling my legs for a while now, nor did I have the strength to continue fighting. So I just waited for him to approach me.
An unsettling image appeared before my eyes.
Attention!
Voltage: 1,300kV
Warning! Your body will self-destruct!
Attention! To prevent core meltdown, release the charge!
When the Giant came close and raised his hand to strike, I activated Visor and, aiming, fired.
***
At first, I thought that Priest’s words made no sense. But now, after the “most important” part of Kay-Si’s story (which, for some reason, he had saved for the end of his monologue), everything fell into place. The artifact implanted in the Giant’s head was a part of the Key. The last fragment necessary for our survival.
The lightning bolt struck the antenna. The shock was so strong that the metal melted in the blink of an eye. A small piece of it fell out of his head and I caught it mid-air. The Giant staggered, losing his bearings, and fell to the ground with a crash, sending snow, guts, and dried blood flying in all directions.
But I wouldn’t be deceived. Third Eye showed that my opponent was alive and didn’t plan on dying for at least another couple of centuries. This was just a temporary reaction of an old organism, which, for the first time in several thousand years, got rid of its master’s influence. Soon, the Giant would wake up, and then... I didn’t want to know what would follow.
Attention! You do not feel your legs anymore.
Almost half of my body had fallen off, crumbling into dozens of dead Black Pilgrims.
It’s fine... I don’t need ‘em anyway.
I picked up Ulter, who had been lurking nearby, and who, since he had been controlling Scar, had moved dangerously close to the Giant, and ran in the direction of the lake, using one hand.
“Loki!” came a voice from behind.
I turned around and saw Fang, sitting astride a Werewolf a little away from the battlefield.
“Goodbye, Loki!” His shout barely reached me, but I could still hear the tremor in his voice.
“Goodbye, friend! The Black Mountain is all yours now!” I roared and started toward the Hall.
***
The excited Willow immediately rushed toward me.
“Did you beat him?!”
I looked around: the Hall was crowded. Out of hundred and fifty of us Grays, there were now only four dozen. And a couple of Beiges.
Kay-Si had said goodbye to us last night, wishing to stay in the Game and continue exploring the world. But I decided to take Ulter with me because the fool would’ve hardly left the battlefield on his own and would’ve ended up suffering the same fate as Scar. The Baroglas have given up on him, and the Goblins were unlikely to be able to handle the slightly deranged mental mage.
“Well? Did you win?” Willow asked, fighting back tears.
“Pft! Of course not. Have you seen that thing?! It turned Scar into minced meat! But, I did get something.” I showed them the last fragment: a small cone covered with odd runes. Even the strongest lighting bolt couldn’t damage it.
***
The bluish outline of the Key appeared in the air above the circle located right in the center of the Hall between two rows of statues.
The pieces slid out of our hands and clicked into their places, combining into a single artifact whose value exceeded anything imaginable. The bluish glow disappeared, and the Key slid smoothly into the opening. There was a click and the circle slid to the side, revealing a black hole.
Congratulations, Gray Faction! You are the second faction that has managed to leave the Game.
You were able to open the door to the Underworld! May the forces of Darkness guide and protect you.
Game Over.
You may proceed.
***
Ladder. A dark spiral staircase leading down to somewhere.
We had been descending for half an hour, occasionally lighting our way with Greek’s searchlight. We didn’t dare use any other source of light: who knew what kind of creatures lived in this strange place? We didn’t want to reveal our presence ahead of time.
Turning the corner, the light illuminated a small humanoid figure. It squinted in the bright light. Before it was discovered, it was drawing something on the wall... with something very similar to blood.
The Red Monk
Level 56
It was the mob from the Tower. This time, however, he wasn’t naked but clad in some untidy-looking robes, tied in the likeness of a chiton. He looked at us with interest and was about to say something when his gaze froze on the Bargola next to me. He was silent for a moment, staring blankly at Ulter, and then he said in a low, hoarse voice:
“Piper... Is that you?”
Epilogue
I breathed a sigh of relief and looked up from the recording device. The long workday was finally over. One of my tentacles slid into my pocket; I took out a small handkerchief and wiped my sweaty forehead.
“Ktorvik! Are you done? The reporters are coming,” Green, (as he was called by everyone) the intern reminded me. His name was actually Kla-Kro Er the Third, member of a noble family and the ancestor of the legendary Abraham Kla-Kro! But who cared about that these days?
Reporters? That’s right. Still, this freaking story needed to be recorded. I wasn’t a big fan of “selling my face.” My job was to compose and voice, but the producer’s request and compensation made me reconsider.
***
The reporters were already crowding the office entrance. There were three of them: the late-night news anchor, Walk Dae (the slippery type), and two cameramen with huge cameras that must’ve cost a fortune each. Competition between channels made them desperate, attracting viewers with high-budget recordings and interesting guests (interviews often cost no less than all the cameras in the studio combined). The questions had been discussed in advance (it was a live broadcast, after all). The audience loved me so they forgave small mistakes like stuttering. All in all, there was nothing to worry about. I smiled and went to meet the reporters.
“Good evening!” The host immediately perked up, beginning to recite into the camera. “We just finished another episode of the biggest reality show in which one hundred and fifty aliens whose homeworlds have been destroyed fight for SURVIVAL! And now we’ll talk to Ktorvik! That’s right, ‘The Voice,’ and the observer of our beloved Loki from the Gray Faction!” The host turned to me. “How are you doing?”
“Not bad, Walk. How are you? Good evening, dear viewers! Yes, it’s my voice that you’ve heard every night on the best VT channel — BBC.”
“Ktorvik, many people are interested in how exactly were you recording Loki’s ‘thoughts’.”
&nb
sp; Walk shoved the microphone in my face. Trying not to react to it, I replied:
“It’s a rather complicated process. We have a picture of what’s happening, we can hear the conversations, but we can’t understand what and how they think. This is probably the hardest part of my job — to imagine what they’re thinking. Everything happens in real-time and we have only a day to make a minimovie about what’s happening in the Game so that we could air it in the evening.”
“I seeeee,” Walk drawled.
I pretended to laugh.
“We want to get it on BBC as soon as possible after all!”
Words couldn’t explain how tired I was of this BBC bullshit. They had bought the right to show the ancient (and at the same time, most popular) show and bragged about it all over the network. But ad revenue was ad revenue. They paid good money for this so I had to endure.
“Will you ever reveal your secret to us?” The pesky Walk winked. “What happened in the Game today? What can we expect in tomorrow’s broadcast?”
“The Giant is getting closer and Loki is preparing for the final battle. Our cameraman took stunning shots of the running monster. Loki looks determined to win! I fear that that’s all that I can tell you. I don’t want to spoil it for you. You’ll find out tomorrow.” I paused. The reporter’s tentacles twitched questioningly, suggesting that I should continue. Cursing, I added: “On BBC, of course!”
Green, who was responsible for analyzing and tracking what the minor characters were doing, suddenly ran into the frame. It seemed that he didn’t realize that he was in a live broadcast or just forgot, busy with something much more important. There was a look of horror in his eyes. His tentacles stood on end, and his swamp-colored jumpsuit — the traditional “uniform” of RT writers — was a mess.
“He...” He tried to catch his breath. “H-He...”
“He what?” I asked, annoyed. “Green, we’re in the middle of a live broadcast.”
The poor sod finally caught his breath and blurted out:
“HE OPENED THE DOOR TO THE UNDERWORLD!”
***
The expensive camera fell out of the dumbfounded cameraman’s hands and hit the concrete floor. The priceless eyepiece that showed 3D images shattered but no one seemed to have noticed.
Opened the door to the Underworld...
We didn’t expect that. Even the oldest and most experienced authors who worked on the previous season... On the other hand, the public always wanted peanuts and circuses. Or rather, blood and death.
What would happen now? I didn’t know. But the ratings would definitely skyrocket and BBC would win back the huge pile of money that it had invested into the show’s production. No sleep for me tonight. I’d have to make the highest-quality movie yet. The last one this season, as it turned out.
Walk didn’t even hide his joy when he said goodbye. He had managed to capture something sensational at the price of an ordinary interview. The excited reporters left, and Green and I, who had let the world in on a secret that wasn’t really worth telling, went to prepare the final episode.
Its title?
Game Over.
END OF BOOK 3
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Reborn: Evolution: A LitRPG Series (Warlock Chronicles Book 3) Page 28
