by D. Levesque
“So will she end up having one like mine here, Bridget?” I ask, pointing at Bridget.
Peter turns to Bridget and inspects her. He even goes so far as to walk up to her and look her up and down. Then he walks around her and does the same thing. Something tells me, though, that Peter isn’t looking at her exterior self.
“Damn, God did a fantastic job on you, Bridget, was it? The complexity and the power God put in you are amazing. I would say you are the best work he has ever done. Wait,” Peter pauses with a frown on his face. He brings up his blue screen once more and places it in front of Bridget’s chest, since he is standing in front of her again. The screen is mostly static, and displaying characters I don’t recognize. “Holy Heaven. Did he give you a context module?” Peter asks her with his mouth open.
“Do you mean do I have context without the experience? Yes. And it’s been annoying at times,” she says with a growl.
“Trust me, without the experience is much better. Wow, I had heard God was working on that, but it is amazing to see it in action. Sorry, I’m getting distracted.”
Peter turns to me. “Back to the Portal. I have no clue what is going on with this one that’s on Boromour. When many of the little Elementals returned to us after their hosts died and told us why, we couldn’t understand it. I contacted other worlds and they are not having the same issue. We are just theorizing, but we think it might be a defense mechanism of this one Portal. It must think that those with Magic inside them can activate it, so it’s killing them off, as I understand that those without Magic inside them aren’t dying. So my suggestion for you is, don’t touch it.”
“Damn, I was hoping it was whoever created the Portal that was doing it, so that me stopping them would stop the Portal from opening,” I tell him.
Shaking his head, Peter says, “No, it shall open on its own one day. That we are sure of. We do not think it will be this year, but it will happen. Did God tell you about the Hell Worlds’ issues?”
“That they are overcrowded, and he was looking for a way to reduce the number of people going there by introducing Blessed Tokens?”
Peter nods. “Yes. But that doesn’t fix the immediate issue, as the Demons don’t die quickly enough to make room. So that means overcrowding becomes an issue.”
“Why does that matter? They are in Hell. Aren’t they supposed to be suffering?”
“True, but the main issue is that when a world, even a Hell world, gets to a specific capacity, it causes that world and its sun to go Nova. In the process, it destroys not just that world, but if another sun and world are within striking distance of that dying Sun’s explosion, they die as well.”
“Oh shit,” I say.
“Eloquently said. Oh shit. So we are trying to avoid that at all costs, as we often have Hell worlds and Heaven worlds beside each other, to make transportation of souls easier.”
“So if a Hell world and its sun go Nova, it could take out a Heaven world,” I ask him to clarify.
“Precisely.”
“That is a dumb system,” I tell him.
“I didn’t create it,” Peter says with a shrug. “But now I need to fix it. Or at least in this world. Which is why I am glad you called me now.”
Chapter Twelve
“You want me to fix this?” I ask him with a raised eyebrow.
“You don’t have to,” Peter says. “You can leave it to Leeha and the races of this world to do it themselves.”
I glare at him and growl, “That’s pretty low.”
“You must understand, Alexandre—,” Peter says.
“Alex,” I correct him, glaring at him once more.
Nodding, Peter says, “Alex. We Angels can do many things on Boromour, but access that lake and the Portal isn’t one of them. We need you to be our representative for this and shut it down.”
“Wait, you have a way to shut it down?” I ask.
At that question, Peter looks uncomfortable. “Well, not so much shut it down, but overload it.”
“With what?” I ask him with a raised eyebrow, as I suspect I know where this is going.
“With your power,” he simply states.
“So, you want me to put my hands on it, never mind the fact that you’ve said it has a defensive mechanism that kills anyone that has magic in them, and push power into it until it blows up? While I am touching it?” I ask him, holding both of my hands out as if I am touching something in front of me.
“Yes, well, we haven’t worked out all the details yet,” Peter says with a frown.
“No shit,” I tell him, rolling my eyes. “I am sorry, but you are asking me to go on a suicide mission.”
“We think your Chakras will help. I honestly am shocked that God gave those to you,” Peter says, shaking his head.
“Why?” I ask Peter with a frown.
“Chakras are only given to Celestial Angels. You aren’t a Celestial Angel, yet you have them. Though, I see he is making you open them slowly. Which makes sense since the body you have can’t handle them. If God had opened all seven Chakras on you at once, your body would have either exploded or imploded. Or both.”
“Is that why my body is transforming? Like my bones changing to steel?” I ask. I mean, it makes sense, right? Get the body slowly ready for whatever this seventh Chakra opening will do. Just opening my third one hurt like a motherfucker.
“Yes, though it’s not steel. The closest material you would know it as is carbon titanium. Your bones are getting ready to support the pressure of the energy.”
“So wait, what happened to me earlier? I understand my bones changed to this carbon titanium, but what happened to my throat? I ended up coughing up something. Bridget had to heal me or I am sure I would have died!”
“May I?” Peter says, walking up to me and lifting his hand near my throat.
“Sure?” I say cautiously.
Peter puts his hand on my throat and closes his eyes. After a good ten seconds, he opens them and nods. “Ah, that would be your throat Chakra. It has gone through its transformation. Bridget healing you simply transformed it faster, but you would not have died. Though the process would have been excruciating,” he says, stepping back.
“All right, but what does it do? She mentioned energy flowing from it when I talk. Does that mean I can tell people what to do and they have to listen?”
Peter laughs. “Heavens, no. If that were the case I could tell you what to do, as I have that same Chakra. I would be able to order you to go do what I want and be done with it. No, that one, as I am sure you noticed, changed your voice?” At my nod, he continues. “The other thing it does is this, with practice,” he says, and my eyes widen in surprise, as he just spoke in my voice!
“Jesus, are you saying I will become an impersonator?”
“Somewhat,” he says with a laugh. “The energy you mentioned is not going to someone. It’s grabbing information. With time, you will be able to impersonate a voice. For an Angel, it’s meant for us to hide our true voices. Most mortals cannot handle our true voice as it’s very powerful. When I came here I used a small percentage of it, but you did not react to it, so that tells me your body is different.”
“How come it didn’t affect Bridget or Leeha?” I ask him, pointing to the two of them. They have been standing there listening in, their heads swiveling between Peter and I, as if they are watching a ping pong game.
“Actually, it did,” Leeha says. “It felt like I was being pushed down to kneel. I almost did.”
“It won’t affect me, as I’m an Elemental,” Bridget says with a grin.
“There you go. Though, I am impressed that Leeha was able to fight it off so well. Her power must be very strong. Since she is with you, I am not surprised.”
“So the more powerful someone is, the easier it is to fight off your voice?” I ask skeptically.
Peter gazes at me for a second, and then says in a powerful voice, “Kneel!”
Without thinking about it, I end up kneeling on one kn
ee, not even noticing until I’m already doing it.
“As you can see, the voice can compel you to do something, but only simple things like this. Sorry about that. But, look at what happens if I say something else.” Peter’s voice gets powerful again. “go do what I bid you to do earlier and go destroy that Portal.” Nothing happens. I simply kneel there and stare at him with a frown. I don’t feel the need to do what he said.
“See? It’s not a voice that commands you to do what I say. God has given everyone free will, and if we had the ability to tell everyone what to do, while it would make our jobs easier, it would take that free will away.”
Standing back up, I nod at him. “It’s still pretty powerful.” I look over and Leeha is standing up as well, but she swallows hard and looks at me. I smile at her to reassure her it’s all good. “So, is there anything you can give me that would help me with all this?”
Peter shakes his head. “No. I cannot. It’s not that I don’t want to. I am not allowed. Rules guide even me, and while I love this world, which is why I want that Portal taken down, I am not looking to get demoted to a Devil.”
“Devil? Wait, there are Devils too? So Angels and Devils? And if there are Demons, these Devils are what? Their overseers?”
“They are essentially Angels like me, but they take care of and watch over the Hell worlds,” he says with a grimace. “It’s not a pleasant job. I did it for over a thousand years. I got into trouble with God, and I was demoted. It was horrible. I don’t ever want that again,” he says, and a visible shiver run down his body.
“So, I only have the tools that God gave me,” I say with a frown.
“Which still makes you, compared to the rest of the people in this world, quite powerful,” he says, nodding at my comment.
“Yeah, I guess,” I tell him with a sigh. “I was just hoping for something powerful so that I could blast my way in, do what I need to do, and get out. Which, by the way, being in here is wasting my time. I should be out there rescuing people.”
“Ah, do not worry, you are not wasting time. There is a time compression bubble around this Dungeon.”
“Wait, I thought God told me he couldn’t play with time? When I died, I asked him if he could go back and fix it so that I wasn’t there and didn’t get shot in the head.” I say to Peter. “Did he lie?”
“No, God cannot himself go back in time. But he can create a bubble of space that is compressed. You can be in here for one year, but outside it would only be one hour. So for the amount of time you will be in here, it will be minutes in the outside world.”
“But what is the point of this Dungeon? I mean, it’s not like I get experience,” I tell him.
Nodding, Peter brings up his screen again and glances at it before answering. “Sorry, to answer that, I needed to check something. I see that you have fought many Cave Rats and Cave Bats. And one Cave Troll, which I see broke, ouch, six ribs? That had to hurt,” he says looking at me.
“Yeah, a lot,” I tell him, grimacing at the memory of the pain.
“So this place does two things. It teaches you combat, and how to survive. You cannot die in here, and also, you can get loot in the way of weapons, armor, and money.”
“Wait, I can’t die in here?” I ask him, making sure I heard him right.
“Correct. Think of it as what you would call a game Dungeon on Earth. You can come in here as much as you want and do what you need to do to learn, and the only consequence is pain. From what I am reading on here, you will die, but it will be temporary, and you will resurrect at the entrance you came in from,” he says, reading off a screen again. “Wow, God really did a good job on this place,” Peter says in an impressed tone.
“So, can others come in here?”
“Not yet. They do not have the capacity as you do, to see notifications. Yet. It seems that God is introducing that slowly.” Peter presses the top right corner on the screen in front of him and it changes, and then he scrolls through it quickly before stopping. “According to the schedule set out here, some people have started getting the Blessed Token option. But not anything else. Leeha is the first to get the upgrade to be able to see notifications, but I think it’s because she is close to you, and since you get them, she gets them by default. Interesting,” he says, rubbing his chin in thought.
“So just how quickly is this world going to turn into a full out game? For me, I mean,” I amend quickly.
“For you, it seems to be going much faster. I see that God gave you a Quest already, which will be finished by destroying that Portal,” he says with a raised eyebrow directed my way. “Also, it seems that the upgrades for you are being pushed through quite quickly. At an alarming rate, really. I wonder if it’s because you are from Earth and understand this game system? We Angels had to do a crash course on it. We even took time to go to Earth and try some of these games.”
“God, I would kill for a wiki of all this shit,” I say in annoyance.
“Hmm,” Peter says thoughtfully. “I think I can help with that. Bridget, can you come here?”
Bridget looks at me for guidance. I nod to her, as I doubt Peter would do anything to hurt her. She walks over to him with a questioning look.
Peter reaches out and places his large hand on her head. With her being so small compared to him, his hand engulfs her head. He frowns, and with his other hand he opens his screen and starts pressing a bunch of buttons on it.
“Damn, God did a good job on Bridget. She is more advanced than I previously thought. I am trying,” he says, typing away one-handed on a keyboard that had popped up, “to modify her access, but I am having to do it through a different channel. It won’t be perfect, but it should suffice. I am also sending a request to have something like this added to the system. I enjoyed having this when I was playing on Earth, so I might as well see if God can implement it here whenever this is over. And there we go,” he says triumphantly with a big smile on his Angelic face.
“What did you do?” I ask him, concerned now for Bridget, as her eyes are crossed and she is swaying.
“I gave her a partial wiki. She has some information, but not all that I have, as I can’t seem to give it all to her. I was able to transfer some over though. She doesn’t have any communication channels I can access directly, so I hope it’s enough,” Peter says with a sigh, nodding my way.
“Can I ask one more question?” I blurt out.
“Of course,” Peter says, nodding at me again.
“Are you all robots?” I ask. I mean, he is talking about communication channels, upgrades, and all this shit. They must be robots!
“What?” Peter says, stunned, but then he lets out a huge belly laugh. “Oh God, no. God created us, yes. But we are not robots. The closest analogy I can think of from Earth is artificial beings. If you cut me, I bleed. However, it would take a powerful weapon. I cannot die from old age, but I can die from battle. We are just as alive as you, Leeha, or any other race. We are just more powerful.”
“Damn, but you make it sound like you’re robots when you speak about upgrades and shit,” I tell him.
“Ah, but everyone on this planet, or any planet really, can be upgraded. It’s whether or not God lets them. This world, Boromour, is the first world to get that option turned on. These are exciting times. We are the envy of all the other Angels in the universe!”
“Great,” I tell him with a scowl. “We are a Beta Test world?”
Peter’s grin gets more prominent at the term, and he cries out, “Exactly!”
Chapter Thirteen
Once Peter is gone, after telling me that was all he was permitted to do, I walk over to Bridget and lift her chin up, so she is looking into my eyes.
“Are you all right?” I ask her. She is still in a daze, and her eyes have that faraway look that she gets sometimes. Leeha had walked up with me, and she places a hand on Bridget’s back, concern in her eyes.
After a minute, Bridget’s gaze focuses on me, and she breathes deeply. “Yes. Wow, tha
t was. Intense. I mean, not intense like the orgasms you gave me, but still intense. Or yours,” she says, turning to Leeha with a grin. “All that information flowing into me was unexpected.”
“So, you have information about the mechanics of this world now?” I ask her.
“Sort of,” she says with a confused frown.
“What do you mean, sort of?” Leeha asks her.
“The information is there,” she says, turning to Leeha and then back to me. “But it’s a jumble. I think it’s only there when you ask for it. And I can’t offer it to you until you ask for it.”
“Oh, for fucksakes,” I cry up at the ceiling. “Thanks, Peter!” I shout sarcastically.
I look back down at Bridget. “So you can’t offer me anything unless I ask for it, specifically.”
“Pretty much,” she says with a pout, but then she smiles up at me radiantly. “But you’re smart. You will know what questions to ask!”
In her Elven form, with her red hair, she is beautiful, and when she smiles like that, it’s even more pronounced. I’m glad, in a way, that she goes into Elf form instead of human form, as to me, this is more pleasing.
“I guess the first thing we need to do is get out of here,” I say, looking around the cave. “I mean, I doubt it’s safe for us to sleep in here for the night.”
Leeha looks around critically and nods. “The last thing I want is to have a Cave Troll smash my body while I am sleeping. Or a Cave Bat try to suck me dry,” she says, putting a hand to her neck. We found out that was its mode of attack. It will try to suck you dry. Thank God we had no problems killing them.
“Well,” Bridget says, turning in a circle and looking around as well. “I don’t know how far we are from the exit. But I would say it seems the Dungeon is leading us that way,” she says, pointing deeper into the cave system.
“Figures,” I say with a sigh. “Can you zip up front and check?” I ask her.
“No, I need to have been there at least once, and doing it is energy intensive for me. I will need to disappear soon, so I can re-energize,” she says with a sigh.
