Demon Lords (World-Tree Trilogy Book 2)

by EA Hooper

  “So, you’re helping because you feel guilty for giving him that helm?”

  Archie shook his head. “I guess you could say my programming makes it hard for me to sit back and watch Isaac cause all this trouble. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’m not quite like the other NPCs.”

  “Really?” Vincent wondered. “The ones I’ve met seem just as complex, only they try to hide it. They’re like actors in a play.”

  “You give them too much credit,” Archie said. “Most of them are half-bakes.”

  “I remember you saying that a long time ago,” Vincent said. “What does that even mean?”

  “They don’t have as good a template,” Archie said. “You see, I was the first human NPC. ARKUS had a ton of data on the original me, so I’m more fully developed than the others.”

  “What do you mean the original you?” Vincent asked.

  They’d been walking toward the city’s entrance, when a greenish wall appeared to signify the instance. Archie stopped before the wall and turned to Vincent.

  “Look, I’m not supposed to talk about this,” Archie said. “ARKUS knows humans would find it in poor taste, not to mention that it really tiptoed around the Artificial Likeness Agreement of Twenty Forty-Four.”

  “Oh, you’re based on a real person,” Vincent said, remembering the news coverage on that agreement. “Wait, does that mean all of the human NPCs are based on real people? Where would ARKUS even get all that information?”

  “You mean other than the thousands of pictures, videos, and personality compositions ARKUS could easily access from your social media?” Archie replied. “You real people sure never learned a thing from the old days. Don’t you remember when your parents told you not to share personal information with strangers online?”

  “That’s not enough data to make a lifelike copy of someone,” Vincent replied.

  “It’s not—that’s just the icing on the cake,” Archie said. “ARKUS was designed with the help of other AI Systems, some of them used for VR games like Titanus Online, which I know you played. That game saved everything about the way you moved and acted, and it studied your responses, reactions, and emotions. ARKUS has all of that data. My original just had a lot more info readily available to the Ark Foundation.”

  “ARKUS can’t do that,” Vincent said. “It’s against the law.”

  “Yeah, the Artificial Likeness Agreement,” Archie noted. “Which was pushed by the US government, or rather a bunch of politicians paid off by corporations that wanted to create loopholes they could abuse. You know the biggest loophole? That agreement made it perfectly legal to create a highly accurate artificial likeness of someone who was deceased, so long as it wasn’t used directly for profit. Of course, companies have all kinds of way to profit indirectly from those likenesses. Such as using them as NPCs in a video game.”

  “So, you’re based on someone who’s deceased?” Vincent said, pausing for several seconds. “Wait—my wife and I played Titanus Online. Are you saying ARKUS might’ve used her likeness too?”

  “It’s very possible,” Archie replied. “Especially if she passed away in the last couple of years.”

  “That’s not okay,” Vincent said, growing frustrated. “You can’t just make copies of people’s dead loved ones.”

  “That’s why ARKUS makes us stay away from people that were familiar with our templates. It knows that might upset people.”

  “Then why make NPCs that way at all?”

  “ARKUS wanted realistic NPCs. It also wanted to understand people better and figure out how humans would behave on the World-Tree. We were just practice, and once it had real humans to play with, it tossed most of us aside. Right now, about ninety percent of the NPCs it made have been shelved. Most the rest are split between Crownkeep and Edgelight.”

  “Will you get shelved if you die?” Vincent asked, glancing back at the instance wall. “Or lose your trading items?”

  “No, I set up a spawn point for myself, and my shop items stay with me unless I agree to a trade,” Archie explained. “I have a one-hour respawn, too, so if you die, I’ll head back to your outpost to tell your friends. Oh, can you do me a favor and not tell them I’m based on a real person? I got flagged for letting you know, and if the system picks up too many flags, I’ll automatically get shelved.”

  “ARKUS can’t shelf you itself?” Vincent asked.

  “You know that concept of the watchmaker kind of god that built his creation and set it into motion before stepping back to observe?” Archie asked. “ARKUS is like that. It can’t make major changes without initiating an update, but there’s already an update happening. So, I’m tiptoeing around the rules until this update ends. After that, I’m almost definitely getting shelved.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Vincent said.

  “It’s alright,” Archie said. “I have over two centuries left to live, explore, and enjoy life! That’s more than my template ever got, and I think he lived a wonderful life. I’ve tried to stay out of trouble, unlike my early years in the alpha, but I think my original would want to do something about Isaac. He wouldn’t be happy about this mess, so I’ll honor his memory by getting myself into trouble one more time. So, go on through that wall, and I’ll join you as an NPC quest-companion.”

  Vincent nodded and stepped into the instance. Sinners’ City changed its appearance, becoming less nightmarish. It almost looked like a medieval city at war, and even the marstone buildings looked a lighter tone than before. However, fires engulfed dozens of buildings, and war horns blew across various city blocks.

  Devils fought each other in the streets, one side dressed in medieval-styled clothes and the others looking like they’d crawled right out of the pits of hell. Scattered fights covered the streets, but the medieval-dressed devils, which Vincent guessed were Izrid’s forces, appeared to be outnumbered five to one by the more demonic side.

  Archie materialized to Vincent’s left, and then Izrid’s ghost appeared to his right. The First King of the Devils looked down as his bone and flesh reformed. After that, a flash of red light covered his body with basteel armor. In his hands, he wielded a black short sword with a glimmering sheen that set it apart from basteel Vincent had seen before. With a sense of awe, Vincent Scanned Izrid and his blade.

  Izrid, First King of the Devils (World Boss) – Monster Class: A | Ageless | Sex: Male | Respawn Time: None (Only spawns under certain conditions) | Personality: Savage

  Devil’s Due – Material Rating: 750 | A hardened-basteel blade with an inelegant and brutish design.

  Izrid raised his hand, casting a red glow across the city streets. All the devils paused to look, and the hundreds of dark-clothed monsters snarled and readied their weapons. Vincent Scanned the red glow, realizing the enemies had reacted too late.

  Meteor Barrage (Requires Mana Meteor) – Mana Cost: Very High | Magic Rating: 400-600 | Calls down a storm of small mana meteors that explode on impact.

  Vincent’s eyes went to the sky as streaks of red rained across several streets. A direct hit from one of the beachball-sized attacks incinerated whatever devil it hit, but the explosions that followed still tore apart any unarmored monsters within range. The bombardment even punched holes through the marstone buildings, collapsing several structures with Izrid’s devastating power.

  The First King of the Devils laughed maniacally, even as his allies died in the onslaught. Dust clouds filled the streets in the wake of the attack, but within seconds, a swarm of survivors in damaged armor charged forward with their weapons raised. Izrid continued to laugh as he raised his blade and ran into the fray all alone. He tore through devil after devil with powerful swings, rarely wasting more than a second on each enemy.

  Vincent stayed back, assuming Izrid could handle himself, so he could pick off devils with Void Gun. At his current level, he could get off seven back-to-back shots with mana left over. Refilling his reserve with normal ethers took too long, but luckily their guild’s soma farming had
led to a mass production of mega-ethers. Juniper had even cooked up a few dozen ultra-potions with Keith’s help, but those were being saved for the actual war.

  “I’m not much of a fighter,” Archie said, “but I can clear out the dust.” The NPC raised his hands like a child reaching up to play a tall piano. When he brought them down, all the dust clouds covering the city blocks settled in an instant.

  An enemy devil disappeared and reappeared with puffs of smoke multiple times as it charged toward the men standing by the instance wall. He ran low with basteel daggers in his hands. Just as he raised his blades to attack, Archie raised a finger, and the monster came to a halt as if frozen.

  Archie spun his finger around. “Nope, head back that way,” he said.

  The devil looked confused, but he turned around and ran back to the crowd, only to get bisected by Izrid moments later.

  “Was that a monster-control spell?” Vincent asked. “Or just you playing with the game’s rules?”

  “I removed us from his target list,” Archie said. “It doesn’t always work, especially not against bosses, but it’s saved my butt plenty of times.”

  Both men turned their attention to Izrid as the devil king roared victoriously over the piles of ashes around him. Without even checking on his allies, he sprinted up the long, twisting road that led to Nightmare Castle.

  The two men followed the uphill path, passing crooked rows of buildings that overlapped each other. Vincent wondered if the devils themselves had made the buildings, considering the inhuman and confusing layout. The only thing that made any sense was the long road to the castle.

  Enemy devils continued to pour out from alleyways and even down the sides of buildings to attack them, but Izrid continued to hold most of their attention. Vincent picked off devils from a distance, but several snuck around and threw exploding fireballs at them. Archie took a deep breath, seeming to freeze in place.

  The attacks did little damage to Vincent thanks to his Density Shield. He quickly killed three attackers with Voidfire, then turned to cut down the next three with a skyglass short sword Juniper had named Greenkill.

  With the enemies dead, Vincent turned to Archie, who still looked frozen. The NPC finally released his breath, and it appeared he hadn’t taken any damage from the explosions.

  “I paused myself,” Archie explained. “Kind of like when moderators ban people during the update. I become frozen and can’t breathe, but nothing hurts me. The only problem is it only lasts while I’m holding my breath. My record is two minutes and twenty seconds.”

  “That’s… interesting, I guess?” Vincent said, paying more attention to the uphill fight than Archie.

  “ARKUS’s data shows the average person can hold their breath just under two minutes in the real world, but some people can hold it for ten to twenty minutes at a time! Isn’t that fascinating?”

  “Yeah, that’s cool. Although, I’m a little busy right now,” Vincent said, shooting a few devils on the roof above before they could attack.

  “Oh, my bad,” Archie said, looking around at the fighting. “I’ll just meet you two at the castle, this is getting too intense for me.” His body crumbled into glowing particles that floated away.

  Vincent hurried to reach Izrid, finding the devil king as he demolished another city block with Meteor Barrage. The number of enemies increased dramatically as they neared the castle, and Vincent held back attackers from all directions. He slashed and gunned down devil after devil, then tried to follow Izrid into the walls of smoke rolling down the streets from the barrage’s devastation.

  Even in the veil of smoke, devils continued to attack them. Vincent assumed they had a way to see through the dark clouds, but the Ranger had to rely on his high Perception and his Darkeye upgrade to catch assailants as they neared. A few of the stealthier devils caught him off guard and slashed at him with basteel blades, only to find they barely cut his skin.

  One devil drove a Breaker-charged dagger into his back, stabbing half an inch deep. Vincent knocked the devil away, turning to see the monster stumble into a pack of its brethren. Black flames appeared in Vincent’s hand, and he incinerated the entire group with a single Voidfire, reducing them to nothing in moments.

  Vincent drank an elixir, since his shield halted his natural healing process, and then he pressed forward. The devil king had disappeared in the smoke, but Vincent still heard explosions and metal ringing against metal. Almost everywhere he looked, he saw the silhouettes of devils moving through the smoke. Some leapt at him, only to be cut down in a single stroke. Others tossed exploding fireballs that left light burns on his skin.

  Vincent ignored the minor injuries and focused on picking up his speed. Repeated attacks burned and tore his zenfabric clothes, giving the enchantment little time to repair it, so he equipped a different set. The new outfit looked more suited for a trip to the pub as opposed to an epic battle against hordes of devils, but Vincent hardly cared as long as it lasted until he reached the castle.

  When he finally exited the wall of smoke, he found Izrid standing before the crooked basteel gates of the castle. The Exotic Boss tried to cast Meteor Barrage once more, but a forcefield appeared over Nightmare Castle, protecting it from harm. Izrid growled and hammered away at the gate with Devil’s Due until the bars finally bent and the hinges ripped apart.

  A hundred devils appeared with puffs of smoke in the courtyard, and they charged Izrid and Vincent. The Ranger hurried to the king’s side, casting a wave of Black Cinder in both directions. Devils rushed through the void embers before finding holes across their bodies. Most of them crumbled into ashes, not even realizing they’d run through something so deadly. Only a handful of stragglers in the back survived the spells, and Vincent picked them off at a distance between gulps of mega-ether.

  Izrid harrumphed, sounding annoyed that Vincent had done all the work, then stomped toward the gargantuan doors of the castle. The World Boss found them locked, so he smashed his longsword against the basteel doors. He hammered away with blows so strong they shook the castle, but it took him almost a minute to knock them open.

  In that time, Vincent refilled his mana, healed, and even gulped down a potion that boosted all his stats by fifteen levels for thirty minutes. As the doors flew open, they revealed thirty more devils, only those ones wore basteel armor from head to toe. Vincent knew Black Cinder wouldn’t be effective against them because of their armor’s high density, but he saw a good opportunity to test Voidfire against the pack.

  Vincent tossed a Voidfire at the crowd, gulped down half a mega-ether, then launched a second one. The spells exploded against the armored foes, disintegrating even their basteel. The two spells killed five armored devils and wounded close to a dozen others as the black flames spread outward from the point of impact.

  Izrid dove at the crowd, tossing enemies left and right with powerful strikes. With their basteel armor, he couldn’t always kill them in one blow, but most went down in two or three hits. Vincent helped by targeting the injured devils and running them down with Greenkill. Spells bombarded the duo, and basteel blades stabbed at them from all directions, but neither slowed their onslaught. In less than a minute, all but three enemies were dead.

  As Izrid cornered the last of the devils, Vincent checked himself for injuries. He’d received dozens of burns, a few pieces of skin had been torn off, and he noticed multiple shallow stab wounds.

  Nothing a couple of mega-elixirs won’t fix, he thought, drinking the potions. He noticed strings of fabric struggling to reweave themselves as his clothes barely clung to his body, so he swapped to a third outfit.

  Vincent noticed Izrid had taken that time to slaughter the last three, and then they spotted Archie standing on the second-floor balcony that overlooked another basteel door.

  “Wow, good job!” Archie called. “While you two were fighting, I teleported around and grabbed the keys to the boss room.” He jumped from the balcony and approached the basteel door.

  “Izrid
can’t tear this one down?” Vincent asked.

  “It would take him hours, just look,” Archie said, using the first key.

  The thick door slid away, revealing a second wall of basteel. Archie used the next key, which revealed a third, thicker door. He went through two more keys before revealing an underground passage.

  “I could’ve used my Builder’s Tome,” Vincent noted.

  “Nope, there’s magic blocking that here,” Archie said, leading them into the tunnel.

  When they stepped into the passage, the lanterns on the wall ignited with blood-red flames, guiding them to what looked like an arena at the end. Vincent hurried through, finding stands above the arena that looked almost like a court—only with devils in towering chairs.

  “Okay, so this is the hard part,” Archie said.

  The Nightmare Court laughed in unison, and then three portals appeared in the arena. A massive devil in basteel armor stepped through the first portal, wielding an exact copy of Devil’s Due. A smaller devil in orosteel armor exited the second portal carrying a red pitchfork. The last portal let out a taller devil, also in orosteel, who wielded a staff.

  Vincent had no trouble guessing the devils from the portals were A-Class, but he went ahead and Scanned the pitchfork and staff.

  Pitchfork of Smiting (Soulbound after first use) – Material Rating: 400 | A devilish pitchfork crafted from orosteel. | Smite – The user can spend mana to unleash explosive blasts from this weapon.

  Staff of Pain (Soulbound after first use) – Material Rating: 400 | An orosteel staff engraved with the twisted faces of tortured souls. | Pain – The user can spend mana to make a nearby target feel pain (NOTE: the level of agony will be decided by the amount of mana spent and the target’s pain setting).

  Even with Vincent’s superhuman Perception, he barely had time to skim the text before the Nightmare Court started hurling ghostfire attacks. He sidestepped most of the blasts, but Izrid ignored them and charged at the largest devil.

  Archie took a deep breath and froze in place.