by Prax Venter
“Or the fringe Town would have eventually succumbed to the Corruption,” Velintanna added, shifting her focus between Lex and Jack.
The Supreme Mayor rubbed his finger under his nose a few times and then nodded.
“Unbalanced Town... Hm. What if I refuse to join your Kingdom?”
“Honestly,” Jack said shaking his head, “after what I’ve learned today, I wasn’t even going to ask anymore. Our small corner of the world might need a few seasons of growth before it makes sense to even dream of such distant fantasies. Probably just going to climb the Tower and Feed the Town for a while.”
The crowned Mayor nodded slowly.
“Very good. I wasn’t sure at the start, but I believe you both. You project good intentions. The Kingdom of Blackmoor may merely be a coalition of low-level Towns, but I believe I am prepared to speak more as equals now.”
Jack blinked at the other ruler. That was it?
“Well, after seeing for myself what is possible,” Jack said as he held out a hand to encompass the max-level Town around them, “the real crime here would be not listening to your advice!”
“Ha!” Reedon let out a single sharp laugh that echoed off the flat stone ceiling. “I was hoping I’d take to this brash King and Queen digging up trouble across the world.” He held out his hands to both of them before continuing. “I believe our two spheres of influence can find our own balance. Let us all step into my private spaces and I shall ply your quivering nerves with fermented nectar as we sort out this ‘Our World’ philosophy that disagreeable woman Jesix went on about.”
“Jesix was not pleasant, no,” Lex said. “But I would not be agreeable after losing my husband either. Did the people of Doveport end up somewhere safe?”
Lex could tell something was wrong. He trusted that she’d just play along with him yet couldn’t help noticing the Corrupted Player shift her curiosity back to his wife.
The Supreme Mayor gathered his rich velvet cape and held out an arm to a small side door almost hidden by old, gnarled roots.
“I believe that migrant group found themselves a happy home over at Brittlehorn. But I’d not wish to speak of them or of that cesspit peninsula. I hear all manner of tales from confirmed Dark Tower recaptures to whimsical games of ball and flippers. You must stop antagonizing our natural foe, but first tell me how you acquired blue eggs from the Tower. They are quite the novelty!”
Jack never even got to think of an answer as multiple Gardeners sprung forward as if they’d been waiting in this outdoor pathway like overzealous superfans after a concert.
“Supreme Mayor!” shouted the quickest young man in green robes ahead of several others behind him. “There are seventeen applications bunched up in the Green Hall, and four ownership Job transactions to administer.”
“Before that,” said a woman in full plate armor pushing through to the front, “you need to see old Garis and approve Hero roster changes. It’s been three days, Reedon.”
“Supreme Mayor,” Velintanna said, holding out her palm. “I will escort these foreigner guests to the Valor Sunroom while you perform your duties. We will all converse at length when you return.”
“Gah,” Reedon grunted as he straightened his crown then shot a side-eye to Jack. “If it weren’t for you two evading my summons this morning… Regardless, when I complete-”
“Maybe we could come with you!” Jack blurted out. “You know, learn how Mayoring’s done from the supreme professional?”
That made the older man grin. “I see grand feats in our future, young upstart, but allow me to handle the mundane assignment duties with haste, and then we can sit, confer, and find the roots of our morals.”
Many of the supplicants in the outdoor hallway turned to focus on Jack and Lex for the first time as the fluffy cheery blossom trees rustled in the swelling breeze, but the Mayor had made his decision and began walking away.
The female Hero in full plate lingered behind, her sharp focus locked on this distant royalty with a curious scrutiny, yet her gaze snapped over when the Orchid Oracle spoke in her calm, measured voice.
“Climb the Tower, Feed the Town, Hero.”
“Climb the Tower, Feed the Town,” the other woman repeated with a nod and abruptly turned to clank after the Supreme Mayor through the idyllic open-air hallway with a swiftness in her step.
Jack’s mind stalled with fear, desperate for answers, but he didn’t even know the right questions. He shot his golden-haired wife a subtle look of concern and then turned to face their fate.
One moment Velintanna was standing motionless under a shadow of the afternoon sun, the next she had her gloved hands cinched around both of their throats.
Jack -75 | HP 343/418
“Alert others and you die,” she said, her one visible eye opened wide and wildly shifting between the King and Queen of Blackmoor.
Jack’s mind fought against helpless terror as he pounded on her immovable arm. Lex couldn’t turn to mist if she couldn’t sing, and what could he do but Teleport once every 15 minutes? Neither of them had equipped their full climbing gear, he couldn’t see his party’s Hit points anymore, and his cheating sword was just gone.
“I will release, you will follow. If you do not, or speak one word between you, I will happily carry out my original intention and eradicate such insignificant digital irritants without hesitation.”
He saw Lex nodding in his periphery held up by her soft throat, her black boots scrapping the ground. It was at this moment Jack vowed that he would destroy whatever this was standing before them. There was no ‘people puzzle’ treatment for this creature. With absolute icy certainty, he vowed to Mother Sana he would destroy this Corrupted Half Demon.
Yet they had to live through this first.
Jack loosened the fist he had clenched on Velintanna’s solid forearm, and she reacted by releasing their throats in unison.
“Follow,” she said, then turned away. Jack grabbed Lex’s hand and helped her to her feet as they both hacked and coughed their windpipes back open.
The beautiful Orchid Oracle clicked her high heels into the stone floor as she walked, and Jack noticed a Townsfolk Gardener step out from an archway to search for the commotion he thought he’d just heard. Jack almost tried to get the guy’s attention but decided to get his breathing under control while keeping up with the psychopathic scientist from an alternate future. Once the other man saw who was swaying her hips in his direction, he backed his nose right back to what he was doing.
With Lex fully aware of the danger now and holding her normal protective pattern by his side, Jack turned inward to take full stock of their situation and the tools they had.
The first thing he did was pull up his Inventory and let out a quiet sigh when he found row-after-row of gear. He then checked his abilities and saw everything was the same here too- until he reached his Third Path.
PATH: Dimensional Blade [3]
► Double Strike - [Activated | 5 Mana | Main Hand Damage x2]
~ Your blade becomes a blur attacking the target twice in a single moment.
► Omni Strike - [Activated Charge x 1 | 10 Mana | 20-second recharge | Main Hand damage dealt to every visible enemy | 100% Hit chance | 0% Crit Chance]
~ You are everywhere at once.
► Teleport - [Activated Charge x 1 | 30 Mana | 15-minute recharge | Instantly move to a location in sight]
~ You are somewhere else, at once.
PATH: Data Mining [3]
► Mining Laser - [Channeled | 2 Mana/Second | Main Hand Damage + Hero Level /Second]
~ skill.activation(rewrite_v1.58) include{ error.correction(target, !total, local) unif
► Data Blast - [Activated Charge x 1 | 20 Mana | 2-minute recharge | Main Hand Damage x3 | Damaged Enemies are knocked back]
~ Blast open a way forward. Radius increases at higher Path tiers.
PATH: Data Summoning [error]
► Call Alt – [Activated | Once per Entrance | read.Mainhand(remote deletion p
r)]
~ Summon ARV Alternans to help you fight.
► Alter Alt – [Activated | Once per Floor]
~ I’ll take the form of a chosen Monster previously defeated by Mining Laser
► Any Exit Alt – [Activated | All party members will Exit at selected Tower when an Exit Orb is touched. May only choose Towers Jack has Exited normally.]
Alt’s Path was crossed out as if someone took a hatchet to the black lacquer panel. The words were still legible if he focused, but the strange gouges of scarred system-interface shifted under his gaze, reappearing over and over while he watched. A buzzing in his brain triggered a gut instinct that he really shouldn’t stare at these undetermined quantum bits for too long or he would unravel some important custom parts that kept his mind from leaking out of his virtual skull.
Clenching his teeth, Jack moved on from his abilities and opened his new text panel to find the list of nonsense Haylee could trade for-
His heart skipped a beat when he remembered the others. How was he going to reconnect with Haylee, Ryea, and Jip? Should he even try? What was this crazy corrupted woman going to do with them anyway? Torture them? He had no idea what her real motivations or plans were.
Jack forced all that out of his mind as the sharply dressed monster ahead of them made a right turn to walk in the shadow of some unknown building.
Instead of despair, he began copying down her stats as they walked. She looked more than healthy, but he noted the places she might have corruption such as her neck and left side of her face. If it came down to it, would he be able to expose that she was tainted to someone, maybe the Mayor? Did he know already? Would anything he did matter if partially-corrupted Velintanna had her own overpowered abilities? He still had so many questions about how she fit into everything, so he pushed deeper speculation aside for now and just recorded everything important. Jack was trying to determine what parts of gear provided almost one million Mana when he focused on her shoes peeking through a slit in her long dress.
No one in all of Subroutine Sana had ever worn high heels. He’d seen thousands of Feet-Slot items drop in the Tower and never once had anything with five-inch heels appeared. Did she reinvent them? Jack added the question to his thought-controlled notepad. Apparently, she’d had thousands of years in here.
The dangerous woman casually sashaying ahead led them through several other gardens but the infinite bejeweled Tower behind them always kept him orientated. That was until they passed through an iron door and then down a flight of stone stairs. 208 stairs to be exact.
Jack’s mind continued to race as he noted each twist and turn they took in the permanent memory of his floating text file. More than once he caught Lex’s eye or placed his hand on her back as they tried to act natural, and he knew she was also casting her eyes about for ways to get themselves away from this powerful ancient entity. The further they walked, the less people they saw, and the more certain he became no one was going to stop them.
A small fantasy played out in his mind where Haylee and spaceship-Alt popped around a corner to surprise their foe with ranged attacks while Ryea and Jip came charging in with full plate armor and epic axes, but the idea of causing a distraction so he and Lex could get away started to take root.
Velintanna paused to pull open a simple iron door at the end of a mossy brick hallway and after she moved through without so much as a backward glance, Jack almost tried to yank it closed between them.
Then he caught Lex’s eyes reflecting the torchlight, and there was no way he would try something so stupid. Instead, he grabbed the Bastion’s hand as they both continued toward their potential doom. Maybe no one would ever find them again, but for now, they were both alive and together. They would figure this out.
The claustrophobic maze of silence stretched out in all directions but eventually Jack heard the rushing gurgle of running water behind the ancient walls and kept an eye out for a loose brick or weak point he could kick open.
When they came to a crumbling torchlit bridge over an underground river, it finally clicked that this might be in a custom-built area of Subroutine Sana.
Jack knew the feel of natural, water-carved caves and there were clear signs of inexperienced diggers all over the ceiling of this labyrinthine waterway. His eyes shifted from the black frothy flow up to the partially corrupted Player currently slowing her pace as if she sensed his burgeoning plan to leap in- and dared him to try.
He didn’t, but they’d been walking for over thirty minutes now. If they were going to escape, it needed to happen at some point, and every opportunity deemed too risky added certainty to one unthinkable conclusion; they were out of options.
Clay pots overflowing with dirt and long dead plants lined the hallways while small rooms covered by thick metal doors appeared spaced out along alternating sides of the dank passage. Most were open and appeared to be abandoned storage for gardening, but appearances could be deceiving, and it was clear that these shallow closets with indomitable doors were intended for storing something else entirely. Jack’s eyes flashed around for anything they could abuse and even uselessly catalogued the few trowels or other humble tools seen scattered in dark corners.
There had to be a way to cheese this, right? Some perfect combination of available items, dark hallway, and creative thinking? The harder he focused on working some stroke of genius, the more his mind fell to dwell on all the insane things this unknown creature could do to them over years and years.
Eventually, Velintanna walked them into a dead-end section truncated by massive caved-in bricks where she turned to open a riveted metal door sunk deep into the wall.
The muffled rushing water and wooden clicking sounds Jack had heard jumped in volume and it became near impossible to talk naturally. Velintanna waited for them to go first this time and the King and Queen of Blackmoor stepped past her into an exceedingly small stone brick space that had to be the foundation under a Flour Mill.
Their deranged guide moved into the doorway and began talking to herself, but it was almost impossible to hear her over the water-powered contraption clacking away above them.
“…specimen cages. Something is wrong. Very wrong. …threshold of incredibly novel... unexpected prep time.” She then let out a sudden burst of snarling, screeching laughter that invalidated any assumption that this was a human woman. Her erratic movements also revealed a simple pink birthmark around her milky left eye.
So much for exposing her as a Demon in public. She stopped spasming and turned her dead eye on them both.
“Yet this noise in the subroutine will not extend my I S O L A T I O N…” the creature finished in a terrible alien voice, dragging out the word until she ran out of ragged breath while they both basked in the unknowable horror of her insanity.
The other Player’s virtual face snapped back to the flawless refined mask she wore for the world then slammed the door, leaving the king and queen sealed in darkness.
- 5 -
Jack felt his wife reach for him as he reached for her, and they just held each other under the muted mechanical madness for a few minutes. Two violent impacts sounded against the door from the other side then stopped, and most of the residual terror melted away as frantic gratitude saturated his frayed nerves. He could still feel his Bastion against him and as long as she was in his arms, nothing could really be that bad.
After a handful of moments to just breathe, Lex began healing them both back to full and it gave him time to move one of the few glowing weapons they’d found into-
You cannot remove this item. Please increase [main_hand.eqp error in remote address get(‘ARV Alternis’)] complexity for more options.
“What?” Jack asked the mindless menu that popped in the darkness when he tried to equip the mace.
He swallowed hard, closed the prompt, and equipped the rest of his gear. It helped to focus on Lex’s singing and not on what all this meant for Alt or all the blades he’d shoved into him this whole time. It was no good focusing
on problems he couldn’t do anything about.
Jack did know Alt’s sword form was somehow still equipped but provided no stats- and didn’t really exist. He also knew he was now useless again when it came to dealing any damage.
He waited for Lex to finish her melody then opened a trade window before passing her the Dragonfly Scepter they’d picked up over one of their many climbs. She accepted the trade and a moment later became illuminated by its dim teal glow by her chin.
“What is happening to us?” she asked, her eyes wide. “You know something- what is she?”
“You are probably one of a very few people who could understand what she is. If I were talking to the Lex I knew when we first met, I would try and convince you she was half Corrupted monster and stop there. I don’t know everything; I only know what Alt told me and he had always believed the thirteen crew members from his dimension had all died thousands of years ago. Velintanna was the last one, and if it’s the same mind in the body we saw, she is over 200,000 years old.”
Lex’s lowered brows cast dark shadows in the magic light. “She is shockingly well-kept for 200,000 years old.”
“Exactly,” Jack nodded, “And we have to figure out how to kill something impossibly strong and maybe immortal.”
“And definitely insane…” Lex said, rubbing her throat. “Can you explain half-Corrupted? What does that even mean?”
Jack moved over to the iron door and familiarized himself with its construction and where the hinges were, but he didn’t try and break out with their captor still so close.
“I don’t know,” he said as he turned back to face his wife illuminated in the darkness then they both searched the brick walls around them as he continued his thoughts. “Alt was apparently so surprised to discover his old crewmember standing next to the Supreme Mayor that he may have done some permanent brain damage to hide from her. I can’t unequip whatever blank space is there now, so I get the feeling he’s coming back, maybe. We are all in some serious trouble either way.”
