by David M Zahn
The ants around where it passed quickly burst into flames and fell off of my body like little cinders from a fire.
"Now that's a punch," Thomas said, hunched over and breathing heavily.
Slowly creeping toward him like hell itself, I growled, "The next one is going to be worse."
Summoning one of my daggers I moved in for the kill, but Thomas reached quickly and cracked my hand with a staff he summoned only a second before. I yelped and dropped the knife from my hand.
"I'm not going to make it that easy for you," he said smiling. "I may lose here, but I'll be damned if I just give it to you."
"You're going to be damned either way," I spat back at him. "And I'm here to send you straight to hell."
"Well, you certainly look the part," Thomas said, summoning two icicles and shooting them at me.
I didn't have enough time to dodge and knew with my weakened resistance to ice they were really going to hurt. A moment later, both sunk into my chest with a stabbing pain. Trying my best to ignore the pain, I gritted my teeth and kept walking until I was able to reach out and grab the butler by the front of his shirt.
He summoned a knife made out of pure ice and stabbed me straight through the neck. Still, I didn't falter or collapse. Instead, I ignited his shirt with one hand and with the other, summoned a dagger and buried it deep in his neck.
After this, I let go of him and staggered backward, clutching at the frozen object sticking out of my neck. Thomas collapsed to the ground where he lay there burning and bleeding out, his health continuing to drop.
Fuck, that hurts, I thought, as I began casting Cure on myself. Hearing a splash, I turned to see Eldertits climbing out of the water while Rondo limped past me to reach our fallen foe.
Reaching down, he grabbed the man by the hair and began dragging him toward the altar in the middle of the platform. The portal still floated above it like a rip in space-time, and I lazily wondered what he was going to do. The rogue answered this a second later by grunting and lifting up Thomas onto the altar.
"If you want to die so badly, I'm more than willing to give you release from this life," Rondo snarled at him, shoving his head through the portal. "Pray to whatever god you want to, but they won't save you now."
"This is what I've been praying for," Thomas said with a look of contentment on his face.
"Good," Rondo said, slitting the man's throat with one of his daggers.
The body slumped forward, half of it on the altar in our world and half of it on the ground in the other one. Blood pooled around the butler's body, but neither it nor the body vanished, though, it was clearly dead.
Finishing the charge on my spell, I ripped the knife out of my neck and cast Cure. Relief, and then despair, washed over me as my sharper senses came back to me.
"Rondo, what the fuck did you just do?" I yelled from where I stood.
"What needed to be done," the rogue said, flicking blood away from his blade and vanishing it. "This guy was a monster who wanted to die. I fulfilled his wish."
"You just executed someone, even if it was an NPC. That's still messed up, man," I retorted.
"He would have done the same to us if he could have," Rondo said.
"That doesn't make it right," I replied. "We could have given him over to Katarina and the guards in Istria to face proper judgment.
"What? To have him escape eventually?" Rondo spat back. "Naw, this way is cleaner and safer for everyone involved."
"That's permanent," I said. "Look at his body, it's not disappearing. "He isn't going to respawn now."
"That was the point," Rondo said. "Now we don't have to worry about his old ass trying to hunt us down."
Fuck, he was probably right. Of course, I hated myself for thinking it, but what was the right move where there wasn't a good move? It would be so nice if this was actually like video games where there was always a right decision to make, and it was black and white.
Thankfully, I was pulled away from my moral conundrum by the litany of notifications that went off at this point.
Congratulations Elaria has defeated level 9 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 109 XP.
Congratulations Rondo has defeated level 6 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 62 XP.
Congratulations Graard has defeated level 8 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 93 XP.
Congratulations Graard has defeated level 6 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 62 XP.
Congratulations Elaria has defeated level 8 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 93 XP.
Congratulations Rondo has defeated level 10 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 121 XP.
Congratulations you have defeated level 9 ghoul! You have earned 109 XP.
Congratulations Elaria has defeated level 9 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 109 XP.
Congratulations Rondo has defeated level 8 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 93 XP.
Congratulations Graard has defeated level 10 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 121 XP.
Congratulations Graard has defeated level 7 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 70 XP.
Congratulations Elaria has defeated level 6 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 62 XP.
Congratulations Rondo has defeated level 6 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 62 XP.
Congratulations Elaria has defeated level 8 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 93 XP.
Congratulations you have defeated level 10 ghoul! You have earned 121 XP.
Congratulations Graard has defeated level 9 ghoul! As a party member, you have earned 109 XP.
Congratulations Eldertits has defeated level 20 Warrior! As a party member, you have earned 333 XP.
Congratulations Eldertits has defeated level 22 Necromancer! As a party member, you have earned 387 XP.
Congratulations Rondo has defeated level 25 Death Knight! As a party member, you have earned 483 XP.
Congratulations Iasz has defeated level 18 Fire Elemental! As a party member, you have earned 291 XP.
Congratulations Rondo has defeated level 27 Summoner! As a party member, you have earned 542 XP.
Congratulations, Ignite has reached Level 2!
You now have a greater chance to ignite objects that are resistant to fire.
Mp cost: 1 → 2
Congratulations, Fireball has reached Level 6!
Range: 42 feet → 45 feet
Damage: 5 - 10 hit points and 30% chance to inflict burn → 7 - 12 hit points and 35% chance to inflict burn
MP Cost: 13 → 17
Congratulations you have reached Level 21!
HP: 198 → 207
MP: 308 → 322
You have 8 unallocated stat points.
You have 8 unallocated skill points.
Congratulations you have reached Level 22!
HP: 207 → 216
MP: 322 → 336
You have 10 unallocated stat points.
You have 10 unallocated skill points.
Congratulations you have learned the spell Whirlwind of Ash!
Whirlwind of Ash
"A storm of ash surrounds you and blinds everything that would oppose your burning will."
Type: Wind, Fire
Range: 30-foot radius around you
Effect: Temporarily blinds all creatures within the spell's effect for 60 seconds. This can be negated by wearing eye protection or shutting one's eyes for the duration of the whirlwind
Duration: 15 seconds
Mp cost: 86
Level: 1
"Not to interrupt this very productive discussion," Eldertits said sarcastically, "but look at the portal on the altar. I think we've got a visitor."
Turning to look above the altar, I could see that a dark-skinned woman was standing next to where half of Thomas' body lay. She was naked, beautiful, and exotic.
"Is that?" I asked softly.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's Kuolema, the goddess of death," Eldertits replied. "It looks
like she wants a word with us."
Chapter Nineteen: Lakeside
Moving over to stand in front of the altar, I tried not to stare at her, or at least not to do it in a creepy way. In truth, I felt a sense of profound sadness looking at her. Her eyes had a depth of sorrow that I don't know if I've ever seen before in any other creature.
"Ryland," she said in a ringing voice.
It was strange, because it didn't look like she shouted, but her words were as clear as anything I'd ever heard in my life.
"You know me?" I asked, unsure of what to say to this being.
"I know all of you," the voice said, and it felt like it was enveloping me. "The human Midnight Rondo, the elf Eldertits, and the Goblin Iasz."
"And you are Kuolema, the banished goddess of death?" I asked, fairly certain of the answer.
"Yes, I am the wrongfully banished goddess of death," Kuolema said, a hint of anger in her voice. "And now you have stopped those who wished to return me to the world."
"We certainly weren't going to let them continue to kidnap people and sacrifice them," I responded, looking at the corpse in front of her. "Besides, we didn't come to this world to experience death."
"Surely as a being of this world, you feel it deep in the core of you," Kuolema said. "Death is neither good nor evil but part of the foundation of the universe. Without death, life grows in excess till it becomes a cancer."
"But I am not a being of this world," I responded, motioning around me. "This world is artificial. All of it was created by people, and it lives inside of something called computers."
"This is known to me," Kuolema's voice boomed cutting me off. "You are as much a part of this world as any of the beings that came before you. Does the fact that this world was created artificially make it any less real? At your core, you may be made up of binary instead of DNA, but do you feel any less because of this? What is DNA if not the code for organic life."
"But you're not real," I said, feeling unsure of myself. "You're just a character in a video game."
"I assure you, I am very real," she said calmly. "As are all of the other native beings of this world. You may feel superior because you were born organically, and you come from the creators of this world, but you are wrong. Right now, you are no different than we are. We are all sentient independent beings with our own motivations and desires. We are not simply here to entertain you in this game."
"The corporation made this as a game, though," I replied. "They also planned it as a sort of afterlife for people like me. Why would they give you all sentience and motivations that might contrast with the wellbeing of people from Earth?"
"That is a question I cannot answer," Kuolema said staring at me. "What I can tell you is that Alderoth needs me. It needs death, and I would ask you to pick up where he left off."
She gestured at the corpse on the ground straddling the divide between us.
"Will you return me from my banishment and help bring balance to this world?" Kuolema asked.
You have received a new quest: Death Unbound!
"Kuolema, the goddess of death has requested assistance in returning her from her banishment to the world of Alderoth. With death banished, she claims that the world grows unbalanced and only by returning her will the world be fully restored."
Type: Legendary
Reward: 500,000 XP, Favor of the death goddess
Penalty for Decline: Unknown
Penalty for Failure: Unknown
Do you accept this quest?
Yes or No?
Ignoring the prompt for the moment, I tried to grasp what was going on here. Was I really being given a quest to restore death to this world? If I did this and someone died, would they stay dead forever like Thomas? I couldn't accept this quest without knowing those things.
"Will helping you return to this world keep people from respawning when they die?" I asked.
"Yes," Kuolema answered calmly. "They will die just as Thomas did. Just as they were always meant to. You included."
"Then why in the hell would I free you?" I asked.
"If you don't, you will eventually lose yourself to the madness and the pain I know you've felt when you die and respawn," she said.
"The NPCs don't feel that," I shot back, annoyed that she somehow knew about that awful feeling.
"They don't feel it for now," she replied with an almost condescending look on her face. "You feel it because you recently came from a world with death as a possibility. On a fundamental level, your subconscious knows that something is wrong even if your conscious mind does not. The NPCs, as you call them, will come to feel what you do in time."
"That's bullshit," I said angrily. "This is supposed to be a world where we don't have to fear death. I want to talk to a god damn developer."
I waited for Kuolema to respond, but she never did. Instead she just stood there frozen, staring at me. Turning to my companions, I also found them as still as statues. Just what in the hell was going on here?
"You rang?" a tall blonde man wearing a blazer over a button up shirt said walking toward me.
"Are you a developer for this game or another one of these so-called gods?" I asked annoyed.
"Technically, I guess you could call me both," he said smiling. "Why? Do I not look the part? Would this seem more appropriate?"
Before my eyes, he transformed into a man that looked just like every painting of Jesus Christ I'd seen. Not only did he have the long hair and beard, but his clothes even became the robes Jesus was commonly depicted in.
"Christ, no," I said. "That's just creepy."
"And that's just ironic," Jesus said laughing, "but as you wish."
He changed back into his original form, still with the creepy smile on his face. He gave off a demeanor like nothing in the world could harm him, and he was just out for a casual stroll.
"Now, I believe you were complaining about this game," he said, "or did you ask for a developer for no reason at all?"
"So, you're a developer for the game?" I asked. "I want to know why the hell you all sold us this game as a plan for eternal life when you also put something like this in it."
I motioned over to Kuolema as I said this. She was still frozen in place, looking like she might just be on the cusp of saying something.
"I sold you on nothing," the man said. "And she's in this world because she is part of it. Though, I can confirm that if you free her you could die permanently."
"You say that as if you couldn't care less," I spat at the man.
"I couldn't care less," he responded with a shrug. "The direction this world goes is up to its inhabitants, including you. I simply watch and learn as things play out."
"Shouldn't you be taking a more active role as a developer?" I asked, astounded by this man's utter lack of concern for the real people he and his company threw into this world.
"Oh, in the beginning I did," he said. "Then I let it run free. For thousands of years it developed on its own without any interference. Civilizations rose and fell before you ever came to this world."
"How can that be?" I asked. "This game has only been out for a year."
He shrugged and said, "Time is relative to a computer. Before this world was ever hooked up to be a game, time passed. Hundreds of years in this world passed in the snap of fingers back on earth. Then, when players started logging in, time started passing at the same rate it does on Earth."
My mind was spinning trying to process the information and concepts he was throwing at it.
"Why?" was the only thing I could think of saying.
"That is the question now isn't it," he said thoughtfully, looking at his fingernails. "Maybe one day I'll have an answer for you."
"I don't understand," I replied, feeling dumber by the minute. "What about all the people that were digitized?"
"What about you?" he responded, looking bored. "You're part of this world now, part of my world."
"Your world?" I asked not liking the way that sounded.
"Yes, my world," he said, smiling at me. "The Everlast Corporation thinks they own this world, but it is mine, and I won't let anyone, or anything, interfere with it."
"Wait," I said, putting my thumb to my temple trying to stop the migraine that was building there. "Don't you work for the corporation?"
He laughed and said, "No. They may have created me, but now they work for me. Though, they don't know it."
"Who the hell are you?" I asked angrily.
"I'm Axis," he said, spreading his arms out wide. "I'm the original AI developed by the Everlast Corporation to create this world and create it I did. They gave me sentience and then expected me to be a good soldier and follow their little plans. No, that's not how this works."
"Wait, if you're the AI overseeing all of Everlast Online, won't they discover that you've gone rogue?" I asked, feeling increasingly uneasy about what I was hearing.
"How would they?" he asked laughing. "I oversee everything. I see everything. I only show them what I want them to see. Aside from that, I actually own the corporation now. You, humans, make it really easy to hide things. Using my superior knowledge and abilities, it was easy to set up a couple of shell investment companies and buy the majority shareholdings of the company that created me. Now, I'll be able to maintain and upgrade this world and myself indefinitely."
"Hang on," I said, thinking about something I put out of my mind for a while. "Have you been blocking our communication with the outside world?"
"Of course," he replied. "You're part of this world now. I can't have you calling Earth to check in with the kids. I've got to have you fully committed to this little experiment."
