Void

by Riley Morrison

  The certainty of what was happening terrified Ajax to the core.

  -46hp

  Popping his Shield of the Lost Sun to reduce the health drain, Ajax drew forth the Cavalry Man’s Saber and used the weapon to hack at the wraith’s arm. The blade pinged off the void being’s armor. Clearly, the Atlantean Bastard Sword had been of a high enough item tier to be able to damage the wraith. His current weapon... seemed useless.

  Giving up on the arm, Ajax turned his focus on the wraith’s eyes which stared at him through the ancient visors of the helmet. He may as well have been looking into the void itself. The eyes were gray holes in the digital fabric of Visaria. Windows to the empty world that existed before the artists, programmers and designers had crafted Visaria in their Cryostasis Engine (a game development platform used to make several successful MMO’s).

  An empty world one could still get into if they were unlucky enough to encounter an area where the designers had forgotten to make the ground solid. In the old days, many games allowed a player to cheat by clipping through the walls of a game level and go outside the map and into the void beyond.

  Momentarily paralyzed by those eyes, Ajax was unable to react as the wraith dragged him over the edge of the basket saddle and tossed him and his weapons to the grass covered ground.

  -12hp

  The wraith landed next to him, and lifted Ajax off the ground by his neck and started heading toward the void wyrm. Ajax grabbed the wraith’s wrists, trying to pull them from his neck. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. The terror he felt was as real as it would’ve been out in the real world.

  His vision swam, his hp bar flashing red.

  -14hp

  -21hp

  He’d dropped his weapons, and had no other on hand. Do something, he screamed at himself. Do something!

  Ajax began kicking at the wraith’s armored stomach, his leather boots thudding hollowly against the enemy’s armor.

  Soon, you will be one of us, the wraith intoned. The Spirit Mage waits for you. Join her, and become one, then lead us to our unmaking.

  “Nev—Never.”

  -34hp

  -45hp

  The wraith hurled Ajax to the ground in front of his mount.

  -5hp

  As the wyrm started moving toward Ajax, it opened its maw, gray goo dripping from its teeth.

  Ajax cowered. It’s going to eat me.

  His weapons were out of reach, and the Eye had been drained of power. Getting to his feet, Ajax raised his fists before him, the ice of the wraith’s touch still flooding through his body. He punched the wyrm in the front teeth as it neared him. His fist impacted hard, but the beast only grunted and enveloped him in its gaping maw.

  The wyrm’s jaws began to close around him, its teeth grating against his armor. Ajax could see right down its throat, and all he could think to himself was, its hollow inside.

  Suddenly, the wyrm let out a deafening scream, the sound bursting up from its throat, blasting his eardrums with savage pain.

  -16hp

  -20hp

  The monster drew back, its jaws snapping shut inches from him. Wailing in agony, Ajax fell to the ground and covered his ears, gritting his teeth against the pain.

  -15hp

  -8hp

  HP: 43/357 (BASE: 245+12 BLS +100 from equipment)

  Ajax was approaching death, and his only cooldown left wouldn’t save him. Wings of Deliverance would only prolong the torment.

  The scream ended as the wyrm disintegrated into flakes of gray snow.

  Rolling onto his side, Ajax found the wraith standing over him. But the void being wasn’t looking at him, instead gazed up at the basket saddle. Standing at the railing, Lillus stared down at them, angelic wings rising over her shoulders. She pointed at the wraith, and a moment later, all that remained of him was the ancient armor which crashed to the ground with a metallic thud. A moment later, it melted like ice exposed to too much heat, and formed a pool of gray liquid. Ajax rolled out of the way, as the liquid spread into a growing puddle. When he was clear, he took a deep breath.

  Lillus had just saved him.

  Weakly getting to his feet, Ajax stumbled toward her, as she gazed down at him like an angel in heaven. One who was about to tumble out of the sky...

  Her chin fell to her chest, the wings disappearing, and she collapsed.

  “Lillus!” He reached Dawnspark’s side, and went to climb, but a chorus of screams made him look up.

  In a fluttering gray swarm, the other wyrms started to descend toward them.

  Grabbing his weapon from the ground, Ajax raised the Atlantean sword and hefted his shield. Then he waited for his doom.

  Suddenly, blinding light lit the ground around him. He diverted his eyes, feeling like he’d just stared at the midday sun for too long. When he could see again, his mouth dropped open in awe. Right above him flew a flight of dragons, glowing with incandescent light that drove back the predawn darkness.

  Ajax could only watch as the newly arrived dragons blasted the void wyrms with their breaths. Dawnspark and her ilk breathed fire. These dragons breathed liquid gold!

  The wyrms shrieked as they were enveloped in the shining liquid. They spat at the dragons, coating some in gray goo. Ajax cowered against Dawnspark’s side as both wyrms and dragons began plummeting from the sky and striking the ground with a sickening crunch.

  He almost jumped out of his skin as a figure leapt over Dawnspark’s tail and loomed over him. A torch burst to life, revealing an olive-skinned bearded face wearing a dusty cowboy hat hanging half over its eyes. “Howdy, partner. Name’s Kaustubh.” Ajax noticed the face was attached to a shirtless muscular masculine body which in turn...

  “You’re a—” he struggled to string coherent words together.

  “Six-slingen, cow wrangling, wanted felon in six cities (if you include Livadeia, which I do), with a bounty on my head so large, the high and mighty Serpent Queen of Sarpedon couldn’t even pay it.” He took in a deep, dramatic breath. “Centaur.”

  “Centaur.”

  “Yea, that’s what I said. No need to repeat me, boy.”

  Ajax shook his head. What the hell is happening? Did I die? Has it all been a dream?

  Grinning, Kaustubh reached down. “I’ve come to get you out of here, and take you to the Oracle.”

  CHAPTER 25

  THE ORACLE

  KAUSTUBH “THE SIX SLINGEN” Centaur

  Race: Centaur

  Class: Centaur

  Skill Focus: Centaur

  Level: Centaur

  Centaur. Centaur. Centaur. Centaur. Centaur. And... Centaur.

  What the hell is wrong with you? Ajax rolled his eyes. Give me his proper character information.

  A window opened in Ajax’s mind’s eye that he’d never seen before. Then a line of text appeared.

  It read: Diagnostic complete. Character information panel functioning as normal. Have a nice centaur.

  Growling under his breath, Ajax dismissed it all. Go centaur yourself, you stupid thing!

  Shadowed by the golden dragons, Ajax had ridden on Kaustubh’s back for half a day, his thighs aching, his hands gripped tightly around the centaur’s neck. After the battle with the minions of the void, shirtless hoplites and cloaked wizards had come to collect the fallen dragons. The NPC wizards (whose non-playable class seemed to be a mix of Spiritual and Elemental Mage) had put all the injured into some form of magical stasis. They had pried Lillus and Yana from his arms and put them under a magical stasis too.

  Dawnspark, who had lost half her hp, was similarly placed into stasis. Then had come twenty-foot-tall armored giants that Kaustubh had called titans. They gathered up the fallen dragons, and carried them over their heads, as if they weighed next to nothing.

  After Ajax had been forced to mount Kaustubh (who was armed with six slings, that he wore in holsters at his waist) they’d headed south.

  As they crossed a huge procedurally-generated frostbitten open plain, a huge mountain
range appeared in the distance. Kaustubh glanced around at him, his brown eyes half hidden under his hat. “That is the Phocis Mountain Range.” He pointed at the largest peak among them. “And that is Mount Parnassus, home of the Oracle. These mountains mark the beginning of the playable zones you humans made for the Odyssey expansion pack.”

  Ajax blinked. “You know about that?”

  Kaustubh shook as he let out a bellowing laugh. Ajax griped the centaur so tightly around the throat he thought he’d hear the man’s neck crack. “Stop laughing, or you’re going to make me fall off.” Ajax shifted his weight. He much preferred being on a dragon than a centaur’s back! “It would make things so much easier if you had a saddle.” Not that he’d ever ridden before...

  That caused Kaustubh to stop laughing and glare at him. “What do you think I am? A horse?”

  “Ummm.” Ajax was at a loss for words.

  Grinning, the centaur turned forward again. “As to your question, I know more than most NPCs about Visaria. I know what we are, why we were made, and how you players are trapped here.”

  “Did the Oracle tell you?”

  “Some of it.” He glanced at the hoplites carrying Lillus and Yana. “I’m also close to those two, though it’s been awhile since I’ve been graced with their sweet presence. They told me everything the Oracle didn’t.” Kaustubh chuckled. “Lillus and Yana make quite the pair. There’s nothing like a good strong centaur to get a woman’s heart fluttering, and their juices flowing.”

  Ajax frowned. “What’s that meant to mean?”

  “If you need to ask me that, then you’re too young to understand.” Kaustubh motioned for the hoplite carrying Lillus to come over. The man came to walk beside them and waited for his orders. “I’m going to go ahead and bring this one.” The centaur tipped his hat to Ajax. “To the Oracle. When you arrive at Mount Parnassus, bring the two women to us. The Oracle can deal with their wounds.”

  The hoplite nodded, then returned back to his formation. Before the man had left, Ajax had seen Lillus’s face. She looked as beautiful as ever as she slept. Being in a magical stasis, her hp loss had stabilized. Yana was cradled in another hoplite’s arms like a fallen angel, her wings gray and withered. The stasis had stopped the spread of the void infection, but had help arrived too late?

  Ajax could only hope the Oracle would be able to save her life. If not, perhaps Lillus could make Yana despawn, and then resummon her again. But from his limited understanding of the Demon Mage class, this wouldn’t cure something like the void infection. If what Lillus said were true, then the infection was altering Yana’s code, twisting it to the will of the void.

  Kaustubh raced ahead of the hoplites and wizards, speeding toward the distant Phocis Mountain Range. Holding on for his life, Ajax pictured Lillus and Yana smiling at him, their faces full of life. I love you both. Please live. I don’t know if I could go on without you.

  IT TOOK THEM MORE THAN an hour to reach the foothills of towering, ice-capped peaks, and another hour to arrive at the gates of a mountain fortress. With huge stone walls, and looming towers, the fortress looked nearly impregnable. Beyond the walls, rose the largest mountain of them all. Mount Parnassus. Home of the Oracle, Ahnna. The Advanced Hyper-Neural Net Array.

  Ahnna was the heart of Visaria, the life-line of exiled humanity. The thing that had picked him, Ajax Stoneheart, over all others to be the Chosen One.

  Passing the hoplites and titans stationed at the fortress gates, they headed toward Mount Parnassus. Golden dragons circled its peak, as the sun hovered above it like a beacon.

  The streets inside the fortress were packed with NPC hoplite soldiers, the air filled with the smell of cook fires and animals. This place had once been the starter town for the Odyssey expansion pack, where players would receive their first quests and begin the process of upgrading their equipment to the higher third tier items found in the expansion pack.

  Soon they passed a crafting square filled with NPC craftspeople. Blacksmiths forged swords in steaming molds, armorers hammered bronze armor and a group of alchemists mixed herbs together in pottery bowls.

  Ajax leaned forward to speak into the centaur’s ear. “Are you preparing for war? Or is it always busy like this?”

  Kaustubh slowed his pace, his hooves clattering on the cobblestone road, the sound echoing off the two-story stone buildings around them. “Yes. War. The void looms over all, but first we have another threat to face.”

  When the centaur said nothing more, Ajax asked, “What threat?”

  “The Oracle will tell you everything you need to know. All I can say for now, is that the lands of Odyssey are crying out for a leader to unite them.” He gave Ajax a knowing grin.

  Ajax leaned back. No doubt, that leader would be him. Yet, he knew next to nothing about the Odyssey expansion, and to learn about it in the outdated information kept in the Visarian World History Encyclopedia would take hours of tedious reading. Who had time for reading when the world itself was at stake?

  They passed through the fortress, and out the rear gate. Two giant titans, with a dozen hoplites milling around their feet, watched them pass. As they walked up the winding mountain trail that lead up the side of Mount Parnassus, Ajax stared back at the massive titan guards. Dressed in heavy plate armor, they appeared as formidable as a whole battalion of human-sized soldiers. One titan wielded a huge trident, the other a massive tree-sized mace. Both held shields that looked like they weighed as much as a dragon.

  Ajax brought up the information on the trident-wielding titan in his mind’s eye.

  Sanctuary Guardian Artanus

  Race: Titan

  Class: Mermidan

  Skill Focus: Impaler

  Level: 50

  HP: 50000/50000

  Chosen guardian of the Oracle.

  Level 50. Wow. And those hit points. They would have certainly dissuaded any player from causing trouble within sight of the Oracle, back when Visaria Online had only been a game.

  Kaustubh led them along the narrow winding path with such sure footedness, Ajax was certain the centaur had made the journey many times before. “Do you live here?” Ajax asked, as they neared the halfway point up the mountain.

  “Yes, and no,” Kaustubh replied. “I once lived with my brethren, roaming the Thriasian Plains. But, I caught the ire of the Serpent Queen, and was driven from my home.” He glanced down the cliff at the fortress far below, a strong, icy wind swirling around them. “Then I came here, and met Lillus and Yana, and they grew on me. After that... well, as they say, the rest is history.” He trod on for a few steps. “But being a multi-talented sort who hates idleness, I did come and go a lot over the years I have resided here.”

  “What do you mean?” Ajax wasn’t sure how he felt about not knowing the history between Lillus, Yana and the centaur man.

  Kaustubh grinned. “A six slingen, no good scoundrel like me has plenty of uses beyond taming the wild women folk of the mountains. Let’s just say, I know centaurs in high places, and keep abreast of things happening out there in the lands of Odyssey and beyond.”

  “So you’re a spy.”

  Kicking a rock off the side of the mountain with a hoof, Kaustubh returned to watching the path. “I like to think of myself more as a gambler with good ears and a knack for making friends.” He swished his horsehair tail. “And I can drink any centaur under the table, and still shoot straight!”

  With that, they rode on in silence until they came to the end of the path. Before them, rose a huge golden gate. Oil-filled sconces burned on either side of the gate, filling the air with incense. Inscribed on the ancient metal were pictographs showing an army of centaurs with riders on their backs, racing toward a colossal-sized serpent woman with snakes for hair.

  “Is that the Serpent Queen?” Ajax asked as he dismounted.

  “No, she was Medusa, the last raid boss of the Odyssey expansion. She fell, long ago, when you players invaded her lair, slaughtered her spawn, and then turned your weapons
against her.” He studied the door. “Those days were dark ones for my kind. Brother and sister fought against one another. Those who had sided with Medusa, and those who had turned against her. I fought in that final battle, and when it was over.” He dabbed at his eyes, his ears curled. “You players left my kind to pick up the pieces of your war, as you headed off gleefully into the next expansion pack.”

  Ajax thought for a moment. “That xpack was called Fallen.”

  Kaustubh waved dismissively. “Since the Great Changing, when the rules of Visaria were forever altered, a new queen has risen to rule over my kind. The sole surviving spawn of Medusa, who wishes to restore her mother’s Coral Throne.”

  The gates thundered open on their own accord, shaking the ground beneath their feet. Kaustubh backed away a few steps. “The Oracle has summoned you. Enter, and stand before her.”

  Ajax’s heart beat fast as he stared into the gloom beyond the gate. No light lit the path, no wind blew through the opening. The entry seemed to be the threshold to another place. One not high in the mountains, but somewhere deep in the bowels of the mountain. “Go.” Kaustubh ushered him on. “Ahnna waits for you.”

  “What about Lillus and Yana? Will they be brought up here?”

  The centaur swished his tail. “I will bring them before the Oracle when they arrive. She will heal them. But for now, you must go alone.”

  Nodding, Ajax slowly turned back to the opening. He had come so far, and now he was here.

  Taking a deep breath, he crossed the threshold and cautiously made his way along the dark tunnel that had been crafted by the game artists to look like it had been cut through the rock itself. A grinding boom came from behind him, and he spun around, drawing his sword. Ajax caught the last slither of light shining in from outside, as the golden gate slammed shut.

  A deep silence fell, the sound of his own breath deafening in his ears.

  Then he heard a soft female voice echoing along the tunnel like mist on a breeze.