by R J Triveri
“I’m not leaving. I’d disappoint my audience, Athos.”
“Audience?” Confusion seemed to paint his face as he looked around.
An NPC, River finally concluded. He can’t be that dumb. She sighed, putting her hand on her sword as she stared at him and watched the view count fluctuate. “You can help if you want, but if you’re not going to do that, just get out of the way. Okay? I don’t have time to babysit you.”
Athos looked at her closely. His gaze was unblinking and inquisitive, almost as if he were scanning her. It was a familiar gaze. It made her feel a little more uncomfortable than she’d admit. “I can’t just let you die.”
“Let is a very strong word, Athos,” River pointed out as she took another step forward.
River Hexi => Dante Rior: I’m going to send him a party invite.
Dante Rior => River Hexi: Are you sure?
River Hexi => Dante Rior: He’s alone but can keep his own. We’ll use him to advance to the next floor then wipe him. If he is an escort quest, we’ll get a reward when we win, too.
Dante Rior => River Hexi: I don’t know how that will help our ratings…
River Hexi => Dante Rior: There’s something about him. The views have been skyrocketing ever since they learned his name. If we can take out someone like that, it’ll show what we’ve got. Even if making a party does tip our hand that you’re there.
Dante said nothing from his place in the shadows, so River took it as an approval for her plans.
“How about I let you help us then, Athos?” With a gesture, she opened her windows and sent Athos a party request. As if she had just kicked his favorite puppy, a look of disappointment and fear filled his face as a moment, a fraction of a moment later, the response came hurtling back to River.
Party request denied: User not valid
Error Code: 306694812532
Please contact a system administrator to report this issue.
And it only got worse as the error message continued for River. “What the hell?”
Error: Party system is temporarily unavailable
Error: Party has been disbanded.
Please try reforming your party shortly.
Error: Personal SIFS Connection disabled due to unforeseen errors.
Error: Outside viewing has been disabled from your SIFS connection.
Dante Rior => River Hexi: What just happened?!
River Hexi => Dante Rior: I have no idea!
Athos looked at her, sighed, and shifted a bit in his stance. From his expression, he had a good idea what had just happened. “I really wish you hadn’t done that.”
Did he know that would happen? Did he do it? Was it a trap? Looking up from the red-lettered error message on her window, River’s face bore the twin expressions of confusion and anger quite well. “You did that?”
He shrugged his shoulders. River watched as his stance shifted again. His weight moving to his back foot, preparing to move as he tried to explain things. “It wasn’t on purpose.”
Another moment passed as she tried to re-establish the party and failed. Looking at him standing there as if he’d done this all before, her mind was made up. Pulling out her sword, she let her emotions do the talking. “You’re a trap!”
Pulling his gun to her chest level, the alchemical arm backpedaled a few feet until River was at the edge of his light and stood his ground. “I was trying to help you.”
Her face hardened as she got into her favorite stance. Parting her legs a bit as she balanced her weight forward, River continued her verbal assault. “You were trying to distract us!”
His face fell a bit as the word registered this time. “Us?”
So much for the element of surprise. River’s smile grew all the more smug as he questioned the word. No point in hiding it now. “Do you really think I’d be as stupid as you to be alone in a dungeon?”
It only served to fan the flames of her anger brighter as he nodded in agreement. “You seem the type to do it.”
Dante Rior => River Hexi: He isn’t wrong.
“Shut up, Dante!” River screamed into the darkness as Athos continued to bear the barrel of his gun towards her chest.
“Your partner?” Athos pressed as the gun continued to level against her chest. His eyes darted methodically as he looked at unseen menus.
She stopped herself, almost breaking stance as something seemed to register with her. “He’s none of your concern.”
“Seeing as he probably wants to kill me too, I’d say Dante’s my concern as well.”
“Just shut up and fight me!”
It didn’t take her opponent long to learn her weak spot. Taking the heart on her sleeve as a weapon, he made one final attempt at pushing her back. “It’s not worth it. Why don’t you take your friend and just go?”
But it wasn’t meant to be.
“You first!” It wasn’t the most fear-inducing battle cry, but it was enough for her as she leveled her blade parallel against the ground and her eyes to her target. “Blade rush!”
Unfortunately for River, Athos Aramis was no stranger to combat at this point in his life, and he was ready. As the distance between them closed and the blade came towards him like a guillotine, the alchemical arm uncorked and splashed his bottle of Sol Arum into the air where her head would soon be and quickly sidestepped her assault. With an ear-splitting cry, River swung into empty air and tumbled to the ground as the conditions set in, blinded by the glowing gel that spread across her face and eyes like starlight sludge.
Warning: You have been affected by the condition - Blindness. (Conditional)
Then the pain flared, and the screams began.
Warning: You have been affected by the condition - Chemical Burn. (Conditional)
River Hexi: Damage Received - 95% Integrity Remaining
“River!” Dante’s footsteps broke through the screaming whimpers of River’s voice as Athos took the chance. In the few seconds it took Dante to reach River’s side, all that remained of the alchemical arm was a half bottle of Sol Arum splattered around them and the glowing gel spread across River’s face.
“I can’t see! God-damned-fucking shit! It burns!” River cried as fear dripped from her voice. “I can’t see!”
Reaching her side, Dante quickly pulled a Heal-All from his inventory and poured it across River’s face to clean off the glowing ooze and remove the statuses that plagued her sight. From the way her cursing slowed, Dante was more than glad to have spent the few extra bytes on remedy potions.
You have been cured of Chemical Burn!
“Damn,” came the final curse for the moment as she began wiping her eyes, but Dante pushed her hands away.
“Not yet.”
Tears stained her face as the Sol Arum she couldn’t see staining her cheeks continued to melt back into the code that created it. Strangely, it felt nice, almost relaxing as the condition was cleared, but a voice wouldn’t allow her to rest.
As her vision began to clear and the darkened world came back into focus, a voice bellowed from outside the ring of light that stained the floor around them. “Dante, take her and go.”
Dante continued to pour the bottle of liquid slowly over her eyes and face and looked around. Failing to catch a glimpse of him, he called back into the darkness. “We can’t do that.”
Athos’s response was quick and sharp, seeming to come from nowhere and everywhere at once thanks to the odd shapes in the area around them. “Then leave me alone.”
He seemed to consider the option before turning to River, who answered for the both of them with enough noise to draw anything left on the level to them as she lashed out like a wounded animal, nearly knocking the potion from Dante’s grip as the last drop touched her flesh. “I’ll kill you!”
You have been cured of Blindness!
At her words, Athos laughed from within the shadows. To the ears of the pair, the laugh was not that of something he just found funny. Dante shivered at the unnervingly dark laugh, but River�
�s rage found a new fire as the alchemical arm continued his cold, calculated laugh. “Better than you have, River.”
A moment passed before River’s rage boiled over and blazed against the shadows that made up his voice in her recovering state. “Have what?” When no answer came, she demanded revenge. “Dante, light him up!”
As Dante began to recreate the star of a Fulgoris from earlier, the underground world of Tenebrae illuminated to fill a football field’s worth of the ruin, but there was nothing to see. Athos was long gone, and the Wild Ones were well and truly wiped out for as far as they could see. Only the darkness of the dungeon floor answered for his absence.
“He’s gone,” Dante reported with no small bit of relief in his voice.
“That cheap bastard!” River grunted as she wiped the last of the Sol Arum from her eyes. “I’ve never heard of a Wild One like that.”
Dante shook his head and stopped channeling the spell, letting the darkness of the floor creep back in around them slowly as the power began to wane. The man was more than likely long gone, and Dante was all the better for it.
“He wasn’t a Wild One,” he said cautiously as his thoughts bubbled, and he opened the dungeon Wiki. “At least, he wasn’t one like I’ve ever seen, and the Replica Ones are supposed to be mindless. The shadow spawn didn’t even try to get away from us. There’s nothing on him in here in the dungeon reference either.” Making a note of his name and class, Dante continued his thought and closed the dungeon wiki. “Maybe he’s a wandering boss?”
“I don’t care!” River chided as she picked up the blade she had dropped on the ground next to her. Even without the light, the fire of humiliation on her face might have lit the entire dungeon as the blade returned to her hand. “He ruined everything!” Defeat washed through her voice as she echoed her thoughts from a sitting position on the floor. “He ruined everything.”
Dante’s face twisted just a bit as his mind began to work, analyzing the last encounter to the best of his ability. Through sheer effort of will, he cracked the smallest of smiles. “Your fight didn’t happen until after the SIFS crashed, so I don’t think anyone saw it.” Opening his windows, Dante examined the dungeon status and let his smile take root. “However, crash or not, the event is still going. We still have a chance to finish it!”
Despite his attempt at good news, his words were lost on her as River thought out loud. “Athos said he was going to the next floor… We might still be able to catch him!”
Prodding her with his foot, Dante tried to redirect her to him. “River, are you listening?”
Before Dante could sway her, their thoughts were interrupted by a loud ping quickly followed by a system message:
Area has been secured.
System messages released.
Personal SIFS Stream has ended.
Personal SIFS has been updated with the following:
You have six hundred new messages.
You have ten thousand new followers.
You have three thousand new subscribers.
You have one priority message.
“River? What’s wrong?” Dante asked, unable to read the strange expression painting his friend’s face. “River?”
She hesitated for a moment as she let the message register. “Ten thousand new followers,” River said absently as she checked the last item on the list, “and a priority message…”
His brow arched. Priority messages could only be sent by system administrators, and there were only four possible answers to that. “From whom?”
Her eyes were wide enough to be stars reflecting the light from her windows as she spoke. “Unum!”
Dante’s mouth slacked at the mention of Incipere’s most powerful god. “What?!”
She only smiled for a moment. He could see the letter opened on her screen in front of her. Dante hadn’t even seen her open the window. He didn’t press for answers as he watched her read, but saw a familiar, shit-eating grin grow on her face with each new word.
River Hexi,
You have encountered and engaged something that should not be. We need to speak about your encounter and a reward for your continued service in my efforts. As soon as you are able, come to my temple in Graywall.
I will be waiting.
Unum of Incipere
As she finished reading, River’s grin could have cleaned all of the old world’s pollution. “Athos must have been an event we triggered! Unum himself… itself… wants to see us as soon as possible to discuss our encounter with him and the possibility of advancement in Unum’s standing! Did you get one?”
A moment after she prompted him, her friend searched his messages and found nothing. Dante might have been at a loss for his lack of a message, but it only took a moment for River to reason it out. River was the active streamer and party leader. When they had broken the party, River had been the one to attack. Even knowing that, she couldn’t help but frown in solidarity with her friend. Messages from the temples were rare. Rarer than any item she’d ever sought. One thing didn’t make sense in all of it though, in her eyes. They weren’t even max rank, but why would an event like that have been set here of all places for them?
Finally, Dante settled on a few simple words. “That’s amazing, River!”
Picking herself up and forgetting her anger from before, she shook the Sol Arum from her clothing and smiled. “That bastard can wait. If he’s an event, we’ll see him again soon enough. Let’s finish kicking the asses we planned to!”
Picking up his focus, Dante only matched her grin. “I was hoping you’d say that.” A moment later, the stone focus began to glow with the power of another Fulgoris spell.
Behind the smile of pride and victory, River was still on a hair-trigger as she gripped her sword’s hilt. The alchemical arm was nowhere to be seen, so why did she still feel so unnerved by him? Well, other than the fact that there may or may not be an event creature stalking them in the darkness.
Keeping the thoughts to herself, River showed no signs of hesitation, returning to her old self as pride welled in her voice. Her blade pointed forward and out into the darkness that stood before them. “Lead the way, Sparky.”
Chapter Thirteen : Technical Support
Deep within the core layer of Incipere within the ones and zeroes that made up the genetic code of the world, Ferris Auxi, or more famously Rani of the Moonkin, first goddess of Incipere, simply sighed as she finished sorting out the crashed coding priorities. With a heavy heart, she went about reactivating them one by one as if it were a punishment she had to endure. It wasn’t the most pleasant feeling in the world to have to put the functions back online, and it only created more problems. Two of the biggest questions she had were things that she nor the Unum had been able to accomplish: how had someone or something managed a localized complete crash of multiple core functions, and how in Incipere had that someone also crashed the SIFS without mangling the world at large?
So many interwoven questions lingered as Rani studied the crash logs, but even with her newfound understanding of Incipere’s fundamental laws, no answers came. With a heavy heart, she finished triggering the reboot protocols before the entire world came crashing down. In the code of her emotional matrix, it pained the young Inciperian goddess. Rani wished for nothing more than the ability to just leave the SIFS disabled for all the problems it had caused, but she knew better. If the crash cascaded from its isolated quadrants of the program, she’d have the entire world and countless souls to answer to.
With a heavy heart and a sigh of defeat, she opened the world’s repair log and began her entry.
At the following time, the issues in the region now known as The Ruins of Tenebrae were logged and repaired via an area reboot.
@ 12:43 - Local time
The SIFS connection to Incipere was re-established.
The Party system re-established itself of its own accord. The reason for this is still unknown.
Added notes: The dungeon system and instances for Teneb
rae were reset to re-establish protocol. Though a Pits event was still running, the main event proved to be too much of a strain on the reboot. The Replica Ones were replaced with the instance’s normal Wild Ones to allow for minimal system strain in the area, and the Pits protection was removed to protect those locked in the instance from data corruption. This protection could not be re-established due to the obscure nature of the Pits and its connection to the SIFS systems.
Administrator’s note: If the origin of the crash can be isolated, I need it reported for utilization and study as soon as possible. If such a thing is possible.
With her work completed, Rani sighed and sent the log back into the core’s data. Looking off into the mass of light and data in the center of all things, she longed for the days where things had been so much simpler for her. Back then if anyone could solve their issues, it was Unum.
“Any progress?”
That wasn’t the case for the young goddess anymore.
The light flickered like a frayed, pre-lit Christmas tree before the translation crackled to life inside her head.
No progress has been made, Ferris Auxi. There is no trace of an outside source triggering the event, and there has been no response from Axis as their help line is busy.
Really? thought the secondary administrator. “Can’t you just bypass that and talk to them directly?”
There was no delay in its response this time.
Their systems have been isolated since we made secondary contact. This is the only way to gain their attention and access their systems.
Another sigh passed her lips as she tried to reason out the latest in a long line of annoyances. Of course the systems were isolated. Otherwise, Unum could do whatever it wanted to them.
According to the archives, the Unum’s graciously offered technologies were well beyond the humans at the time, and, of course, how do the humans repay it? They try to show superiority by making their savior wait.
