by Simon Archer
“Queenie, you’ll never let me down.” I gave her a deeper kiss before stepping back. “Now, I’ll leave you guys to it and finish up a few things. Just ping me if you need me.”
Leaving them to mess with their new skills, I teleported to Ares and saw pretty much what I’d expected. My minions had delivered more than enough ice to fill in the oceans, and I found myself staring at a lifeless, albeit, relatively habitable planet, assuming, of course, you could breathe carbon dioxide.
Still, it was basically ready to go or would be once the rest of the ice melted. Bonus, we still had a ton of ice left over, and I knew just what to do with it.
“Sweet,” I said before teleporting to the shell world I’d made out of Ares’ Moon and decided to use a portion of the ice to fill in the oceans. I also decided it was time to stop calling it Ares’ moon. After all, if it was going to be a terraformed planetoid, it needed a name of its own.
“I dub thee, Niven,” I said with a smirk while waving my hand in the air like I was a King knighting someone. Then I reached out toward Queenie. “Can you have them deliver ice to Niven, that’s the name I gave Ares’ Moon. They’ll have to leave it outside until we have the tech to actually make a giant airlock, so I’ll teleport it inside when it’s ready. Whatever’s left, just leave in orbit by the Hall.”
“It would be my pleasure, master,” Queenie said, and in an instant, I felt a ton of pings as the ants who had been harvesting the comet and moving things, moved to comply with my orders. On the one hand, I knew I could direct them all myself, but there was always a lot of micromanaging involved in properly using minions to their utmost efficiency, and I was more than happy to leave them to the Ant Queen.
All that done, I did a quick calculation on how much atmosphere I needed for Niven and then teleported to Aphrodite. Thankfully, it was a lot less than I’d needed for Ares, so I wasn’t worrying about overextending myself as I had then.
A quick godly inhale and a teleport had Niven’s encapsulated atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide, and several more teleports after that had enough ice inside to fill the oceans adequately.
“Perfect,” I said as I clapped my hands together. “Now we’re about ready to add life.”
Which was when I got the message I knew would be coming.
A mirror to the Hall of Research has opened up. Would you like to investigate?
“Bingo!” I said with a satisfied nod. “Right on schedule.” With the oceans started and the inevitable rise of a proper atmosphere to follow, this is exactly when that mirror would open in Terra Forma.
6
“What is it, master?” Queenie asked curiously, coming closer as I gestured for both her and Gobta to approach. “Is everything alright?”
I nodded. “Better than that.” I turned to the Hobgoblin King. “We’ve got a new mirror ready, and it’s to the Hall of Research. The first section of it is always devoted to base biological stuff, bacteria, protozoans, all that kind of thing. Your specialty, I think?”
“Indeed, my liege.” Gobta lowered his head reverently. “Mine is the power over life and death, and with that power and this receptacle of knowledge you speak of, we can bring life to your world.”
“Then let’s do it.” I rubbed my hands together. “Hold on to your horses, kids.”
“But we don’t have any horses--” Queenie began, but before she could finish, I teleported us back to the Hall of Mirrors in a flash of godly light.
It was still weird to me how easy it was to tell the infinite, identical mirrors apart from each other. I knew it was all to do with my connection to this as my hub of godliness, my celestial Fortress of not-so-Solitude, but it was still just endless reflective surfaces almost everywhere. To my more human sensibilities, it was like being surrounded by the infinite, and that was never a good feeling. Good thing I had more than human sensibilities in the godly realm.
As before, when entering the Hall, all my other minions were sent back to Auric Limbo, with just Queenie and Gobta at my side. Unlike before, I didn’t bother trying to stare or peer through the mirror to find some hint of what was behind it. These things just didn’t work that way, so without a second thought, I sucked in a deep breath and stepped into the shimmering portal. There was the usual flash, the moment of utter disorientation, and then we were somewhere else.
And God, the smell was horrible. It was as if someone mixed rotten meat, fresh vomit, and the coppery stink of spilled blood then baked it in a desert for a week or so.
As my eyes adjusted from going from infinite godly senses to, well, just Aura-enhanced ones, I quickly summoned Gobta and Queenie from the void since they had, once again, been sent back to Limbo by my journey through the portal.
“Garett,” Gobta’s voice said as he appeared beside me, “I thought you said this was a Hall of Research, which implies an orderly place of learning, science, and magic.”
“I did,” I said before I gasped out a few coughs. That’s when my vision cleared, and I got a good, long look at the current state of the place. “Holy shit.”
“I think that’s an understatement, master,” Queenie gasped as I took in the whole mess.
She was right. What I’d been expecting was what I knew from Terra Forma, an ancient marble edifice decorated with carved depictions of various gods of learning, medicine, and magic. Gold and silver adornments lined the walls, with red silk tapestries hanging down marked with passages spoken by great thinkers from throughout the multiverse. It was a center for learning for all those that fought against Zaxcs’ advance, a neutral ground that, in the game, was a host to a variety of researchers, vendors, and more intellectual puzzles to advance the various tech trees for all aspects of the world-building parts of the game.
Now, though, what lay before us was a hell of blood and terror. As I remembered it, the mirror portal, now dim and lifeless, still opened out to a small entry hall and the grand columns that marked the entrance proper of the Halls, but that’s where everything changed. The walls were splashed with the blood of a dozen colors and the gore of a multitude of alien species. The beautiful tapestries were torn down and shredded, all their wisdom lost to the ages. The starting wing where we currently stood, the Hall of Life, was flanked by statues of Apollo and Hermes, but both were defaced. The Greek sun god’s statue’s head was sundered from its neck, the main part of the body covered in a scrawl of blood that read ‘NO HOPE.’ Hermes’s statue was no better, his caduceus, the snake-twined staff that was a symbol of medicine was broken in half, and both snakes had been beheaded. Another message was written in gore on its chest: IT CANNOT SPREAD.
That’s when a quest flashed before my eyes.
Pathway Quest has been revealed. Will you cleanse the infestation from the Hall of Life? Or will you harvest it as a weapon?
I had never ever encountered a Pathway Quest here in the Halls of Research, but then again, I had never seen it in a state like this. As for the choice, well, on a purely tactical level, whatever could ravage a place like this, filled with the smartest people in the multiverse and armed with startling sorcery and technology, had to be scarily dangerous. To have that kind of power on my side, it might just make defeating Zaxcs a cakewalk.
But what would the cost be? If this was an infestation… and who was I to question the quest info?... who was to say that, if I used this as a weapon, I would be able to control it? What if it were the way Zaxcs would win? Besides, I’d played more than enough Resident Evil games to know that you didn’t play with bioweapons.
Or did you?
As I stepped forward and turned to face Queenie and Gobta, I couldn’t help but smile. “Okay, lady and gent, we’ve got ourselves a big mess to clean up. Some kind of nasty sickness that I think killed everyone here and,” I thumbed the horrific mess behind me, “getting rid of it isn’t going to be easy.”
The Hobgoblin King nodded, his body starting to flare with necromantic power. “Indeed, my liege. I can sense life warped and untamed in the halls beyond. Twis
ted and teeming, a source of potentially unlimited power!” Gobta let out a low chuckle that began to grow into a maniacal laugh… but it was cut off by a sudden smack on the back of his head by Queenie.
“Master already has unlimited power, and I don’t want him, me, or my ants infected by whatever’s growing here!” she cried before turning toward me.
I wasn’t going to clarify that I certainly didn’t have unlimited power, especially because I was happy to see Queenie had her head on straight on this one. “Right. While we do need to find some seeds of life for our little world, we don’t want acid-blooded xenomorphs to be our primary life form.”
Gobta looked sufficiently chastised as he went to one knee before me. “Yes, my liege. My apologies. Old habits are hard to break, you must understand.” He looked up with a sheepish grin which showed a bit of fang. “So, if we are going to cleanse the infection, might I advise we use only those living creatures we absolutely must?”
“What do you mean?” I asked as I looked at him. “I’m the only living one here. You guys are, um…” I waved my hand by way of explanation. “Force ghosts?”
“That may be,” Gobta said as he gestured at the corruption just outside the small safe zone. “But from the way I can feel it reaching out to me, I know that given enough time, it will be able to infect me and corrupt my pattern,” he nodded to Queenie, “and her as well. I don’t believe we should risk using the life-based minions, like her ants,” he gestured at Queenie once more, “when we have other, more suitable minions to use.”
“Okay, that makes sense,” I said as I rubbed my chin. “That means we’re going to have to rely on necromancy, golems, and the minimum number of ‘organic’ units we can.” I glanced over at Queenie, thankful that we apparently had the same little safe space other dungeons had here. “We’ll need Scout to find everything we can here, and probably Scott, Cassie, and Lang for support, but other than that, I don’t think we can risk the others until we know if the corruption will affect them. The last thing I want to do is have their patterns corrupted. I’ve spent way too long power leveling them.”
I flicked my gaze between Gobta and the Ant Queen. “And let me know the instant you feel any kind of tingle from the corruption. I’ll put both of you back in limbo before I risk either of you.”
“I believe I have enough strength to keep all of us from becoming corrupted,” Gobta said as he began to twirl his hands in an intricate motion. “But, my spells will weaken with each unit I need to protect. See for yourself.” He must have finished his cast because as he finished speaking a greenish glow enveloped the three of us before fading away.
You have received the blessing: Gift of Unlife (3). Your resistance to contagion has increased. This spell is currently affecting three units total. For each unit affected, resistance will decrease by five percent. Current Effectiveness: 85%
“Got it,” I said after I finished reading the message. “Let’s just grab Scout for now.” With that, I pulled the Scout Ant from Limbo, and as he appeared beside me, I saw the resistance to contagion drop to eighty percent. “If we need the others, we can pull them out of limbo when we need to.”
“That is a wise decision, my liege,” Gobta said as I pulled the Sword of the Destroyer King from my inventory and hefted it in my hands. It was strange because holding the weapon made me feel strong in a way I couldn’t quite understand. Okay, maybe that wasn’t strange exactly, but at the same time, the weapon didn’t look that special. It was rusted, pitted, and all-around beat up, and when I’d tried to have it fixed, the blacksmith had informed me that it was made of some crazy metal that I’d dubbed Unobtanium because it was virtually impossible to find.
“Thanks.” I nodded to the Goblin King before turning my attention to Queenie. “Can you do your scouting thing? Let me know if you find anything of interest.”
“It would be my pleasure, master.” The Ant Queen smiled brightly at me before reaching out to Scout. As her fingers touched his carapace, she shut her eyes and began soundlessly moving her lips. It wasn’t long before her face twisted into a frown, and she sighed. “I am sorry, master, but I cannot sense anything beyond this zone.” She gestured toward the room where we stood. “And even this room is difficult to sense.” She shook her head. “The corruption is too strong.”
“Well, that’s a slice of awesome,” I said before glancing at Gobta. “Can you tell us anything with your necromancy?”
“No.” Gobta shook his head. “I am not skilled in necromantic tracking yet.” He pulled out his twin blades. “But I do know one thing.” His lips twisted into a gleeful smile as Burningdeath began to blaze with flame. “You can always kill it with fire.”
“Right,” I said with a nod. “Let’s just do that and explore the rooms.” I glanced around. “We can just start with the hall straight ahead.” I glanced at Queenie. “Keep the sense up and let me know if you get anything at all. Gobta can lead, and I’ll take up the rear.”
“Your will be done, my liege,” Gobta said while Queenie merely nodded. Then, as the Hobgoblin King stepped from the safe zone with quick, purposeful strides, the whole of the Hall began to shake violently.
“Greetings, adventurers,” a voice resounded from everywhere and nowhere. “Thank you for entering my humble abode.” There was a sinister cackle. “Do you like what I’ve done with the place?”
“‘Sup, Thrall. I wondered when you’d show up,” I said and gave the empty air a quick salute. “And to answer your question, no, I’m not too keen on William Birkin chic.”
“You dare to call me by name?” the voice intoned, clearly annoyed and pleased. “Why do you speak as though you know me? You are but a tiny--”
“Insignificant little mortal barely fit to be an amoeba beneath the toenails of a bacteria, etc., etc.” I mock yawned. “You can save the ‘generic bad guy’ spiel. No one cares.”
There was dead silence which totally conveyed annoyance, and as we stood there in the defiled halls of research, Gobta nudged me with his elbow. “My liege, what is going on?”
“Oh, it’s simple enough,” I said with a shrug. “This hall is sort of built with levels upon levels, and as I get stronger, we’ll have access to more of them.” I gestured at the room. “Unfortunately, the Halls are very nearly a living thing in themselves, and at times, the caretaker, Thrall, can become corrupted. It’s kind of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde thing--”
Horrible, sinister laughter cut me off as the life around us began to throb and swell, and the pungent, sickly sweet aroma of poison became even stronger.
“If you think the good doctor is here,” Thrall sneered, “you’re dead wrong.” More laughter. “Or at least you will be.” There was even more laughter, but I ignored it and began walking to my left.
While the maps in Terra Forma often changed since each planet and dungeon were procedurally generated, the Halls of Research were a constant in an ever-changing universe. And I knew exactly where to go because I had faced Thrall on level one more than a few times.
As that thought settled over me, something pinged off my senses. It wasn’t much, like the sound of a penny dropping on a tile floor in a distant hallway, but it was something where there should have been nothing.
I spun, the Sword of the Destroyer King raised in front of me as I dropped into a defensive stance. Unfortunately, the only thing I saw was Gobta and Queenie standing there looking concerned.
“Is something there?” the Hobgoblin King asked as he spun in a slow circle, hands clenched tightly around the hilts of his weapons.
“I swear I felt something,” I said, activating the Overdrive on my Sense ability, and as more information began to flow into my brain, I noticed one of the strange plants edge toward us.
“I see it!” Gobta cried as he launched himself into action. “Die!” His twin swords arced through the air and slashed through the plant, causing it to split like an overripe melon that sprayed sickly sweet juice across the ground and him. Rather than seeming perturbed by th
e pungent goop, the Hobgoblin King seemed energized. He roared defiantly and began swinging his swords in reckless abandon that sent chopped-up bits of plant life flying in every direction. “Die! Die! Die!”
“Come on, master. Let’s leave this to the Hobgoblin,” Queenie said from behind me.
“Okay,” I said, and as I turned toward her, the Ant Queen grabbed me by the arm and tugged me to the side.
A lance of white-hot flame scorched the spot where we’d been standing. As an explosion of debris bounced harmlessly off my armor, another fireball surged out of the far end of the hallway. And this time, I knew we couldn’t dodge, not in an enclosed space like this.
So, I did the next best thing. I called upon the cold powers that had been bestowed upon me by Queen Mab and combined that magic with the Auric Armor I’d created around my body. Not a moment too soon, frosty ice encased my body, and I threw my arm up to knock away the attack.
The fireball exploded as the back of my fist smacked into it, sending flame rippling out in every direction, but most of it was easily absorbed by my icy armor. That’s when I saw the perpetrator of the attack.
“A fucking piranha plant, I’ll be damned,” I said with a laugh as I stared at a thing that looked like it had come straight out of Super Mario Brothers.
The creature seemed to inhale then, drawing in oxygen to mix with the napalm-like substance in its mouth that it used to spit flame, so I did the only thing I could. I flung my sword like a boomerang right at it.
The edge of the blade cleaved through the creature’s stem, severing the head in one neat blow that caused blue-green gore to geyser into the air. The head, meanwhile, fell to the ground and bounced a couple of times before sliding to a stop a few feet away.
“Cover me, Queenie,” I said, moving to retrieve my sword, and because I couldn’t help myself, I used Auric Extraction on the piranha plant.
