Endless Online: Oblivion's Blade

by M. H. Johnson

  Shiny white teeth bit his ear. Hard. He hissed, jolted back into focus even as Solena chuckled, caressing his cheeks before standing tall and proud once more.

  "Ah, but of course you want to know where your friends are, and I promised to take you to them." She turned, exchanging a glance and nod with one of her lackeys. "And now that we have finished wiping away all traces of our presence here, I do think it is time to view the main attraction, don't you?"

  And then Val saw it, his mind shuddering in horror even as he sat in an entranced stupor, catching sight of Hank, bruised, battered, much the worse for wear, lying strapped to a table, glaring at the disturbingly pale-faced individual decked in a surgeon's gown holding what looked to be a modified VR helm in his too long fingers, gently putting it on the struggling Hank's head.

  The powerfully built Marine stiffened, and began to twitch and shudder before his spasms eased, all tension melting away from his muscles that had been straining but seconds before. There appeared to be a monitor attached to cables interfacing between helm and body, the henchman nodding his shiny dome several times before turning to face Solena, and Val shuddered even in his stupor.

  The surgeon, or thing pretending to be a surgeon, hardly looked human, with cyber optics glowing like embers for eyes, a shiny chrome cap covering his forehead with multiple nodules that looked optimized for ports of various sorts, and Val caught shiny flashes of chrome between the folds of the gown. Val blinked, awed and horrified in equal measure, forced to finally confront the possibility that Solena's seductive madness might be based on nothing less than the truth.

  "The patient is stabilized." The cyborg turned to gaze carefully at the monitor. "Psion prevalence is at minimum acceptable levels. The patient has now achieved a primary receptive state."

  Solena frowned before giving the faintest of nods. "He is worthless for our primary purpose, but he shows the use of our programs. Good. Leave him with the other serfs and tell the mercenaries to prepare for departure."

  Val forced himself to speak. "What will happen to them?"

  She turned to him, stroking his cheeks once more. "Oh, no need to worry about the discards, my pet. They are useful in their own way. We will be shipping them where they will serve out their lifelong contracts doing what they've always hungered to do, serving their betters in glorious battle as summoned spirits and matrices, glorying as their souls finally attain significance and meaning, for all that their bodies must remain here in mundus."

  Val blinked. "Are you saying they will be playing Endless after all?"

  Solena chuckled. "Endless? Ah yes, that name suits our realm as well as any other. Endless adventure and battles indeed, even as their shells are tended to in Uzbekistan. And yes, my prize, they will be cared for quite diligently in our sanitarium, so their bodies may thrive for as long as possible before eventually withering and dying, as everyone does in this baron corner of existence. But their spirits will get the chance for glory, and the rich data we mine will eventually, one day, allow us to summon millions of spirits to fight for our cause, all in the guise of adventure."

  She flashed a dark smile. "So many worlds our domain encompasses, yet too many suffer only the lightest of leashes, for all that they hold the richest of prizes. No longer! Soon even those worlds richest in artifacts and mana will be forced to bend at the knee, pretexts of trade and civility no longer necessary once we have a legion of spirit knights able to wipe out their wildmages in a single strike! Of course, those humans worthy of being reforged into spirit vessels might find their lives disrupted, yet they will hardly care in the end. We will send them our VR helms for free! All they need is the barest hovel with food enough to sustain them, and praise, glory, and privileges will be their rich rewards for a job well done. After all, we want our slaves to embrace their servitude with fanatic zeal!"

  The room filled with Solena's golden laughter as she stroked Val's neck. He shuddered with something terribly close to ecstasy at her touch.

  "But that's not the fate for a chosen few, my dear Val." Soft whispers caressing his ear. "You, dear little Peter, Julia, and those other worthy souls we have collected will gain the singular honor of serving the needs of Highlords directly. And unless your cyber implants are attuned as the good doctor's is, Psion potential is the only bridge that will let you cross the gap between realms. Without it? Your precious laws of conservation will be rendered nul and void as you cease to exist in all universes."

  Solena chuckled throatily, stroking his head like a favored pet. "How exciting it was to taste your hot fury, your delicious resistance for entire minutes before you finally surrendered, as any good slave or lover must. And you will find, my pet, that the virtues of absolute submission are sweet indeed." Soft words that tickled his ears, sending him near swooning as her hot breath caressed him. "Prepare yourself, Valor, for a life of endless bliss, spiked only with sweetest pain you shall receive from serving me, and me alone."

  Val! Panicked words piercing the fog, an endless distance away. I can't hold on for much longer!

  Soon.

  Solena frowned, then. "Your pathetic, unsightly legs will be regrown, of course, for I doubt even you have the power to reforge yourself during the transition. I think I will keep your beautiful scar, though. A mark of the warrior you once were."

  She turned to the doctor, speaking in a harsh clipped tongue that seemed to convey a wealth of ideas as succinctly as possible. Val blinked, realizing that truth even in his stupor, for all that he had only the foggiest notion of what they were saying.

  Solena smiled. "Come, Val. It is time to gather the harvest and let our serfs do as they must." Solena led them to the far side of the massive chamber, brilliant lights at odd angles serving almost as barriers, cordoning off areas of the chamber, a strange use he had never even fathomed before, hitting him all the harder as he sat in his wheelchair in a dazed stupor, rolled at last before an assembly of near a dozen boys and girls wearing skintight suits and expressions of vacant-eyed bliss.

  Their heads had been completely shaved with bloody bandages wrapped around their skulls. Their pupils were fully dilated, and a few blinked tears of crimson even as they smiled.

  Val felt his heart hammer in his chest, the blissful fog he strode within blown away to reveal the stormy seas of nightmare even as his trembling hand hidden in the tales of his shirt pointed his phone at what had caught his eye, hoping against hope that the boosted signal would actually be received by the stick in a computer room even now covered in blood.

  Julia Petrovsky. Her lithe, cheerleader's frame was showcased by the skintight outfit she wore. Her beautiful auburn locks had been shorn free, her once expressive features now void of all thought, shiny chrome peeking from several of the bandages now wrapped around her skull. He had never before seen her in the flesh, and she looked nothing like the dolled up cosplay pictures she would occasionally send, yet Val recognized perfectly the beautiful green eyes that had teased him in the strange dream he had.

  He blinked and shuddered, suddenly certain that somewhere deep behind those beautiful eyes she was lost to rapturous dreams and waking nightmares he couldn't begin to fathom, a single drop of blood flowing down her cheek.

  For the barest instant Val thought she had recognized him. Then the moment was gone.

  Solena uttered a single guttural command to the cyborg who dipped his head before pulling out a silver filament from a nodule at the base of his spine, then jacking it into what appeared to be a strange amalgamation of crystal and obsidian.

  Val blinked, noting the various monitors flickering strange blue symbols on black screens had all gone white as the light barriers dividing the rooms suddenly turned off, all eyes drawn to the massive arch in the center of the chamber made of similar material to the obelisk the 'doctor' was currently attached to.

  He smelled ozone as the air crackled and flashed with brilliant blue light, and the portal suddenly came alive even as the ground and air vibrated with a strange hum that seemed to r
esonate with itself, an eerie sensation that left Val chilled to the quick. He hissed at a sudden crackle, eyes darting down at the smell of plastic and solder, smoke emitting from his cell phone.

  A single soft chuckle that caressed his spine. "I'm afraid, dearest Val, that all technology failing to take into account higher fields has just been rendered completely... inert." Her grin turned wicked as she nodded at one of the startled looking mercenaries shuffling about.

  "Yuri. Has everything been taken care of?"

  The man gave a curt nod. "Yes, mistress. All your new... employees are now in transit for the ship." He smirked. "That Marine was no trouble at all, once you put that helmet on his head."

  "And did you recognize the driver? The handler?"

  He gave a hesitant nod. "I recognize them, but I cannot vouch for them, since they are not part of my unit."

  "And what is Yusef's status?"

  The rough shaven mercenary glared at Val. "He's dead, mistress. Shock and blood loss. Most of his hand was blown clean off. We suspect bone fragments tore open an artery as well. He expired before we could bring him to your doctor." Yuri spat, nostrils flaring with hate. "Your crippled little pet managed to kill four of my men."

  "Oh yes," Solena purred, stroking Val's spine. "He is a rare treasure. Now assemble your men, all of them here. It is time for payment, and by all means, come armed. What is a relationship without trust, after all?"

  Yuri curled one cracked lip in a cold grin. "Do you have the gold?"

  Solena nodded. "More than enough to last you for the rest of your life."

  The mercenary blinked but nodded, giving a sharp whistle. Ten hard-eyed mercenaries of Slavic decent lined up within seconds, half carrying Tavor TAR-21's, and Val couldn't help nodding in approval. Compact, ergonomic, their bullpup design made them ideal for hiding under coats and use in close quarters, yet they were surprisingly accurate for their size, though not quite so accurate at distance as the M16.

  All of them gave Solena a disciplined salute. Yuri smiled, the show of respect no doubt planned.

  Val frowned even through the fog he felt, knowing something wasn't right, yet another wild card in the chaotic mix in play. Yuri's stare made it clear that Val wasn't long for this world, if the mercenary had his way.

  Solena smiled. "Deference to your betters is good, Yuri. Hired specialists who honor their contracts will always be valued more than serfs, especially when they show proper respect."

  Yuri grinned back. "Show me my gold, Mistress Solena, and you will get all the respect you could want."

  Solena dipped her head. "Of course." She gestured to an exotic looking multisided vessel. Val blinked and rubbed his eyes, oddly sure there were more angles to that container than was normal. Yuri frowned as well, but that didn't stop him from popping the lid, chuckling softly at the treasure gleaming inside.

  Yuri crowed in triumph, pulling out actual gold bricks, as if he had broken into Fort Knox. "My Lady Solena, you have truly given my men a fortune, and honored your word to us." His men gasped and crowded close, admiring the gold.

  Solena's graceful smile didn't reach her cold gaze. "So I have fulfilled my end of our agreement?"

  Yuri's grin only widened as he pulled out a wicked looking double-edged knife; compact, razor sharp, perfect for slamming into kidneys or tearing out wrists or throats. It was identical to the one Val had lifted off the first man who had underestimated him that day, discretely tucked even now between wheelchair and thigh. Yuri put his blade to better use than Val had, deliberately cutting a jagged groove into not one but several bullion bars, his men whistling their approval as the soft gold parted under the grooving cut of the knife. "It's pure," Yuri said. "Proving you to be wealthy, honorable, and a fool."

  Val blinked as the atmosphere gelled. Five Tavors and an equal number of Desert Eagles were now aimed at Solena and the doctor's heads.

  The cyborg's ocular implants dilated. Mistress?

  Val felt his heart start to race, an odd roaring in his ears as Solena's seductive fog was burned away, clear and focused once more, girding himself to spring from his chair, knowing it was a futile gesture as several weapons suddenly turned his way.

  So this is it, he thought to himself, even as death gazed at him from Yuri's snarl.

  Strangely, Solena didn't seen upset at all, even as her hands slipped free what looked to Val like nothing so much as a longsword hilt, for all that there was no blade and only a minimal circular crossguard. She smiled, fearless into Yuri's hot gaze. "Ah. So that's how it is. Your guns are not some odd custom or gesture. Instead you fully intend on breaching our contract? Why, one must ask, when you have already fulfilled your end of the bargain?"

  Yuri barked an odd laugh. "It is a gamble, and a man's word is worth his weight in gold." His grin was wicked, filled with hungry avarice. "And gold you have paid me, far more than mercenaries like us might make in a lifetime. You have made me enough to retire, and I should thank you! But then I asked myself, why, Yuri, must I settle for a quiet little home in the provinces, when the opportunity is there to retire filthy stinking rich, with a mansion and a score of women desperate for my largess!" He shrugged. "Honor? Honor is a tool for the powerless to control those more capable. For bureaucrats to control warriors." He nodded to his men. "To me, they are like brothers. Tighter than any contract."

  He then pointed his gun at the fantastic array of technology and wonder all around him. "This technology here? Incredible! The man who controlled this would be Bill Gates, no?" He smirked. "I am no Bill Gates. But I do have friends with friends in high places, and one friend in particular has made it quite clear that a certain powerful government would pay me billions, no questions asked, and immunity for all past crimes, should I bring them this treasure. So that, Lady Solena, is what I am going to do."

  Yuri chuckled darkly. "You should be thankful. They want you and your Frankensteinien doctor alive and unharmed. And if you do what they tell you, you will find yourself rich with a palace of your own, once our country becomes a world power! They will even let you keep your slaves as well. You will just call them 'assistants' to keep the bureaucrats happy."

  Solena's melodious laughter washed over all assembled. "Well done, Yuri, truly devious. Had you been dealing with the pathetic pawns that make up this dying realm, you might actually have succeeded. I suppose I should salute you. Perhaps even feat you as a dark knight, worthy of blackest honors. But for that, I would need a sword, wouldn't I?"

  Yuri smirked then gasped.

  The air crackled and Val felt a sudden wave of force jolt through him, his eyes snapping wide with wonder and awe.

  A crackling line of darkness that somehow managed to glow tore free of the hilt of Solena's blade. She frowned before at last giving a satisfied nod, smiling at the cyborg. "Very good, Doctor. The proper forces and fields are in alignment once more. And growing ever stronger, just as we had surmised they would."

  Yuri's eyes widened and he snarled, all bonhomie gone. "Put down the toy, witch woman, and surrender. Or I will shoot you dead!"

  Solena's eyes shown with brilliant blue fire as she turned her gaze to the mercenary captain. Her soft lips parted in a warrior's grin as her left hand sparkled, a shimmering distortion two feet in diameter now centered on her tightly gripped left had. Val frowned, realizing that the air distortion was minimal. It was more like he could somehow feel the disk of force centered on her tightly clenched fist as she slid into a fencer's pose. All bonhomie was gone when next she spoke.

  "You have no idea of the honor you have been given, only to squander it so foolishly. You have broken contract and covenant. Your crimes have been revealed. No Highlord has compelled you. No talents have been used upon you without your consent. You have betrayed the Mercenary's Oath, and your life is forfeit. It is time to die, Yuri. I shall savor the taste of your soul."

  Yuri's eyes widened in sudden alarm, he began to back away, gun aimed at her legs. "Shoot them in the legs," he curtly demanded his men, befor
e blinking in disbelief at the series of dry clicks where the loud crack of gunfire would be expected. "What the hell did you..."

  The loud crackle of alien energies ripped through the air. The stink of ozone and a flash of black light and Yuri stumbled back, a fountain of blood where his head should have been, trembling upright for an endless moment before the headless corpse collapsed in a pool of blood, Yuri's head tumbling through the air, and Val could see his eyes widening with impossible surprise, perhaps comprehending all he had lost in that horrific moment as he plopped right into the now blood-slicked container of solid gold bullion. Poetic irony of the darkest sort.

  Solena danced through the furious, terrified men like a maiden of death, spinning about in deadly pirouettes, laughing in the face of men furiously squeezing gun triggers to no effect before her blade tore through them, effortlessly cleaving through flesh and bone with no more effort and to the same effect as Val had once swung swords through melons, only now it was the coppery tang of blood crawling up the back of his throat and the smell of ozone crackling through the air.

  Within moments, the room was filled with cleaved limbs and furiously blinking heads, the floor now slick with gore. The blood and horror affected Solena's movements not in the least as she weaved and spun, laughing still as she dodged every desperate punch and swing with malfunctioning gun or knife, parrying at least one thrust with her shimmering shield before countering with a vicious backhand blow that cleaved her screaming foe in half as effortlessly as Val had once sliced his saber through the air.

  As horrific as the scene of gore and death was, a part of Val's analytical mind couldn't help but appreciate how the crackling blade of midnight hue still had some sort of mass to it, or force that mirrored mass. For Solena did not flick it about like a blade of light, or the slimmest of fencing epee's. Rather she swung it in tightly controlled, circular arcs using wrist and forearm and occasionally from the shoulder, much as one might use an arming sword, saber, or katana. Yet the bodies desperately struggling to escape her wrath had no effect at all on the passage of her deadly blade, even their guns proving worthless, steel cleaved through as effortlessly as the soldiers so desperately holding them.