by D. Levesque
I ask Bridget to hide the mess by using Earth Magic to bury it. The last thing I need is to attract some monster in here to my scent or my blood.
“Do you think we will see another Cave Troll?” I ask the girls.
“Maybe,” Leeha says. “I have never fought a troll of any sort before. Good idea about the fire, though. That helped. I’m just sorry I did not see it before it hit you.”
“Same here, Alex. I thought it was a rock until it stood up and swung a fist at you,” Bridget says with a sulk.
“Well, if we see another one I would suggest Bridget use Fire Bullets and keep it blinded, while Leeha and I bring it down slowly,” I offer.
“I would rather not meet another one of those things,” Leeha says with passion. “But that sounds like a good solid plan.”
“I wish that this place had a reason, though!” I say in frustration. “I mean, back on Terra,” I say, remembering to not call it Earth, “the games we would play, when we went into a dungeon,” and my God explaining gaming to Leeha was interesting, “we would go in with the expectation of getting a reward in the way of increased abilities, armor or weapons, or strength.”
“Your Terra is odd,” Leeha says, shaking her head, but she is chuckling. “Weapons and armor from dead bodies.”
“Well, did we try to loot that Cave Troll?” I ask casually, pointing to the large dead Cave Troll body.
“Well, no. We haven’t looted anything,” Leeha says with a frown. “I am not interested in skinning any of them. That Cave Troll has the toughest skin I have ever seen. I’m not sure I could make anything out of it, even if I wanted to.”
“Mind if I check it?” I ask her.
“Be my guest,” she says, waving her hand towards the troll.
Nodding to her with a smile, I walk back to the Cave Troll and look it over. I see what Leeha means. Closer up, its skin looks hard and leathery. It’s also well pockmarked, scarred, and dirty as fuck.
I look over the body and don’t see a bag or anything that would carry valuables. Maybe it fell on it? Doubt it. I know that back on Earth in games, I would need to ‘touch’ the body of whatever I killed to loot it. So I bend down and place my hand on its body, and a smile crosses my face as I get a message.
Do you wish to loot the Cave Troll?
I think no and remove my hand. Still grinning from ear to ear, I look at Leeha. She looks back at me with worry at first, but then her expression turns incredulous.
“No fucking way,” she says, stunned.
Now it’s my turn to wave my hand to the troll. Leeha rushes over and places her hand on it. Then her head whips around to me. “I got a message asking if I wanted to loot the Cave Troll!”
“Think yes,” I tell her, still sitting there with my shit-eating grin on my face.
She must do exactly that, because suddenly a dagger of some sort appears in her hand. The thing is about a foot long with a beautiful blade, and the pommel has a jewel at the end that looks purple in color.
Leeha looks at me in surprise and then opens her other hand, and in it are two gold coins. “Alex, this should not even be possible!”
I answer her with a laugh. “I think my God created an actual Dungeon system here. It’s giving us stuff that will make us stronger. Though, I wonder if someone else who doesn’t see or hear notices about things like damage as we do, or doesn’t cast spells, would they be able to benefit from it?”
“You think that it’s possible that others could benefit from this?” Leeha asks cautiously.
“Well, I wonder. When we first came in here, we figured this cave system was small, like the small hill we saw, and we would go under and be at the beach in no time. But then we hit that tunnel system. I wonder if that tunnel system is new?”
“New? How?” Leeha asks.
“Well, if my God is getting involved and has decided to throw the Horde from Hell at Boromour, and he’s started showing me and you notices, or notifications as we would call them. Why not instanced Dungeons?”
“What’s an instanced?”
“Something like this,” I explain, waving my hand around. “This extensive cave system should not even be here like this. I mean, we have been walking for hours and hours. Just so we could go under the lake? That’s one Hell of a vast lake. We should be out already, I would think.”
“The Lake of Ruins is very wide, though,” Leeha says, nodding.
“Fair enough. If the lake is that wide, it would make it on par with ones on my world that are called the Great Lakes, so I guess it’s possible. I wish I could ask my God what the Hell he is up to. Something must have happened after I died and came to this world, since this wasn’t his original plan. But I have a feeling I won’t be talking to him anytime soon, if ever again. I have a feeling that I am truly on my own.”
“Is that such a bad thing?” Leeha asks. “Most people of this world don’t ever get to see or commune with their Gods. You are special in that you have spoken to your God, not only once but multiple times even.”
Leeha’s words make my brain go into overdrive. Holy shit, I never even thought of that! The Gods of this world may seem like Gods to Leeha, but I have it on good authority that they are really Angels who have been given power from my God to do their job and pretend to be Gods!
“Bridget!” I turn to her quickly. “As an Elemental, do you have access to these Gods!?!”
At first Bridget looks confused at my question, but then her face perks up. “Oh, you mean that because I am of the Elements, and the Gods of this world are also of those Elements of Wind, Fire, Earth, Water, and Mind, I should have access to them?”
“Yes?” I ask her excitedly.
“No,” she says with a sigh of disappointment.
“Damn” I say with a sigh of my own. So much for that.
“Though, Leeha should,” Bridget says after a moment.
“She should?” I blurt out in surprise.
“I am different, in that, while I am an Elemental, I am yours. And don’t ask me to explain that as it doesn’t make sense to me as well. But Leeha’s Elemental is still of this world.”
I turn to Leeha slowly, and she is looking at Bridget and me in confusion.
“What?” she asks us as we both stare at her, me with an intensity that I am sure she isn’t used to when she’s not naked and underneath me.
“I need you to bring your little Elemental out. I need to talk to it,” I say.
“Hmm, sure?” Leeha says. She lifts her hand out with her palm facing upward, and there is suddenly a tiny blue Water Elemental in the shape of a female’s outline sitting there. It’s looking up at Leeha.
“This man here, he wants to talk to you,” she tells it, pointing to me.
The thing looks over at me and waves. I get down on one knee, so I am looking at it face to face.
“Hello there, little one,” I say softly with a smile. “I have a favor to ask you. Think you can try for me?”
It looks up at Leeha, then back at me, and nods quickly. “Thank you. I need you to go talk to your God of water, or Water God, or whatever it calls itself,” I say.
“God of Water,” both Leeha and Bridget interject.
“Right. God of Water. I need you to talk to him or her and say that there is a human from the planet Terra here that wishes to speak to them, as the God that watched over that world isn’t talking to me. Think you can do that?”
The little Water Elemental stares at me in confusion at first, but then it’s face clears up and it nods rapidly.
It looks up at Leeha, and she nods at it. “It’s asking if that is all?”
“Yes, that is all,” I tell the Water Elemental with a smile. “Thank you for your time.”
It nods and disappears. Leeha looks at me for a couple of seconds and then she says, “You really treat everyone nicely, don’t you?”
“Well,” I answer her, getting back up and brushing my knee off. “As long as someone is nice to me, yes. I grew up with a mother who was a nur
se, sorry, someone who made sick people feel better and who helped everyone. When I died, she was working long hours and I barely saw her. It’s the way I was raised.”
“Do you miss your mother?” Leeha asks me softly.
“Sometimes,” I tell her with a nod. “But while I loved her, we had our differences. I mean, I can be all sad that I won’t see her or anyone back on Terra anymore, but that is just useless as I cannot change it. So much has happened to me since then that I haven’t really had a chance to let that part of me being gone, get to me.”
Leeha walks over and hugs me, and looks into my eyes. “If you ever want to talk about it, I am here.”
“And me,” Bridget says, hugging us both.
“Thanks, you two,” I say, bending down and kissing both of them.
Suddenly, we are interrupted by a loud clap of thunder and a bright light, which blinds me. Knowing what this might be, I close my eyes and say, “Really?”
“You dare, mortal!” says a loud and booming voice that almost forces me to my knees.
Blinking my eyes, I don’t answer the voice at first, but instead wait until I can see. Once my eyes clear up, I have to admit the being in front of me looks impressive. It’s a Water Elemental, but it’s big. As in, over 12 feet tall. There’s a small pond at its feet, and the water is swirling around it lazily. Damn, that’s an entrance, although it ruined it with that boom of thunder and the light. That kind of takes away from it. But hey, I am not a God.
“Hi, thanks for coming,” I tell it.
“You dare, mortal, to speak to me as if I am equal to you,” booms the voice.
I shrug. “All right, well strike me dead then.”
“Alex!” both Leeha and Bridget scream.
The being looks down at me, and its face is basically a caricature of a human’s, with eyes and a mouth, all made of water. It’s muscular, and I can see from the shape of it that it’s a male.
“You wished to speak to me, mortal?” it says after a moment.
“Yes, can you tell me what in the actual fuck is going on here in this world? Because what God told me I would find, and what is happening now, differ totally,” I tell him in exasperation.
The God of Water stares down at me, the water in the pond at his feet still slowly circling around him, and then suddenly all of that is gone and in front of me is an Angel with large white wings. He’s wearing a toga and leather sandals, and is still quite muscular, with long blond hair. But all of that is not what has me staring at him. No, what makes my eyes widen in shock is the look on his face. He looks nervous.
“Crap, I was hoping you would be able to tell me,” says the Angel in a deep voice as he walks towards me. “God has gone missing and isn’t answering our communications. And now this world is going to shit.”
Chapter Eleven
Sighing, I look at the Angel and shake my head. Crap, I wanted him to come here and answer my questions, not create more.
“What do you mean God is missing?” I ask him. “I spoke to him like not even a month ago!”
“Yes, we know, as we Angels in this world were involved in your creation. In fact, I was the one who created the body,” he says proudly. “They wanted to make you shorter, but I told them that you needed to be tall.”
“Hmm. Thanks for that? But again, where is God?” Okay, I really did want to thank him for that. I enjoy being taller. My Earth height of five feet five kind of sucked.
“We aren’t sure,” the God of Water says. Or would that be the Angel of Water? “We are, as you can imagine, concerned. It’s not just us. It’s all the worlds. I have reached out to others, and they have no clue what is going on.”
“Damn, I was hoping to find out what is going on with this world, between me getting notifications, this Dungeon which seems to be instanced, and then that black Portal for the Horde from Hell? I mean, I was given a goddamn quest! Oops, sorry,” I cry in annoyance, and I almost cringe. I mean, I just swore against God.
“No worries,” he says in his deep voice, which, now that I think about it, sounds a lot like my new one. “And I know. Those things you mentioned seem to be something he implemented without our knowledge. I have no clue how that Portal got here, and yes, it is concerning. The last time it was here, it was a test that God created to see if he could stabilize the Hell worlds by letting some Demons come through to be killed at the hands of those on this world. When a Demon dies, it’s permanent. Last time, we thought our world of Boromour was ready for it. We were wrong. We ended up having to close it, bury it, and forget out about it.”
“Wait, you created an opening, or Portal, from a Hell world to here, so that those living here would kill off Demons?” I say in disgust. “What about all the people that died here? The races that, according to Leeha, were massacred and are no longer?”
“Trust me, God wasn’t happy about that outcome. Which is why it has never been tried again, ever. God looks at this as a stain on his heart. He has never done that again, anywhere in the universe. If it’s any consolation, all those who died are in a Heaven world, being well taken care of,” he says with a sad sigh.
“Well, not really, but I wasn’t around when it happened. Wow though, that’s what I would call one royal fuckup. But what about now? That Portal is back again?”
“Yes, and that has us concerned, as we cannot get close to it. There is a field around the lake that stops even all us Gods-” he stops and looks down at himself and grins, “Angels, since you know what I am now, from getting within a mile of the Lake of Ruin.”
“Crap, I was hoping you would have answers. Like this notification thing, is it just me and Leeha who will have it?” I ask him.
“No, it seems to be a system-wide, sorry worldwide thing, but it’s starting slow—with little things. I think God told you about the Blessing Tokens? It said he did in our reports,” The God of Water says.
“Yes, he said that it would allow folks to know how close they are to getting into Heaven if they die,” I tell him.
“Right,” he says, nodding. “Oh, by the way, my name is Peter.” He holds up his hand. “Yes, that Peter. I asked for a transfer from your world over 200 years ago. I know they still talk about me. And no, I didn’t watch the gates. That was Pete. They get us mixed up. He’s my brother and he hates that I took that glory from him. Not like I did it on purpose. It’s not my fault he blurted out my name once to a human in your world. Anyhow, I digress. The system you are seeing is something that God proposed to a bunch of worlds. I understand it was thanks to your world’s technology?” Peter asks me.
“Wait, before I answer that, you are saying that the Pearly Gates are real?” I ask him.
“Yes, very much so. It’s where we decide where the soul goes—either to a Heaven world or a Hell one. Though, most times, we already know by the time they get there. Those who end up going to Heaven go through the Gates and are in a Heaven world. Those who are going to a Hell world get transported directly there. Those who are in the sort of in-between stage, they can talk to Pete, who will look at their history and such and then either allow them entry into a Heaven world, or punt them over to a Hell world,” Peter explains.
“Wow, I am not sure what to say about that. I hope my mother is going to a Heaven world,” I say with a sigh.
Suddenly a blue digital screen is hovering in front of him, and a line of text that I can’t understand is moving up with each swipe of his finger.
Peter smiles at me. “I’m not supposed to do this, but I am pretty sure I can make an exception. Let’s see here. Your mother’s name at birth was Glenda Johanne Elliot?” At my nod, he swipes twice more and then stops, his finger running down the list before it stops again, and then he taps a line and something pops up on his screen. This isn’t like a monitor from Earth, it’s actually a screen floating in the air. It seems to be a two-way screen, and on it, from the back, I can now see a picture of my mother.
“Here we go, Glenda Johanne Elliot, mother of Alexandre Joseph Bronson. Yes,
she is going to Heaven. Wow, with the Tokens she has, if they were counting them on Earth, she could bring one other person with her. Free of charge. Impressive,” he says, looking at me with a raised blond eyebrow.
“Yeah,” I chuckle. “My mother was a good person to everyone. That was partly why she got into nursing. Thank you for showing me that. Now, as to your question about the technology. Yes, we have games on Earth that include things like notifications, experience, leveling. I guess that is where God got that idea, or so he says. But what is happening here, though?”
Peter looks at me thoughtfully before answering. “We think that God has decided to try another experiment and is letting us deal with it on our own, with you as the catalyst.”
“What do you mean?” I ask him, not understanding.
“These notifications and quests, and even this Portal, didn’t show up until you were in this world. I’ve been talking to others, and it seems you aren’t the only one that God took from Earth and placed on another world, giving you powers above those of everyone else,” Peter says, scratching his head.
“What?!?” I exclaim, and if he had shown me a pink unicorn, I could not have been more surprised.
“That is why I hoped you would have information. When that little Water Elemental came to say that you wanted to talk to me, I had expected you to know something,” Peter says with a sigh. “I have other worlds contacting me and telling me of a Portal showing up on their worlds as well.”
“But why would your God make it so that people would have to die to open it!” cries Leeha with defiance in her face. Good for you, girl! You tell him.
“Yes, that part we can’t figure out,” Peter answers Leeha with a sad smile. “Because the Portal we used before never used to take the life of someone who had Magic in them. Like I said, we can’t even get close to this one to see what is happening. Our tiny Elementals can, but they aren’t very smart. Though yours seems to be getting more like his,” Peter points to me, “than a normal Elemental. It’s as if you speaking to it and interacting with it, is changing it.”
