The king saw me coming and brought his axe around in a powerful strike, but I was ready for the move, and deflected it easily with my Fire Shield. I retaliated with a Magic Bolt meant for his face, but to my surprise, the king batted it away with his one of his golden gauntlets. He cast a spell of his own, but I suddenly teleported behind him and stabbed him in the back with my enchanted sword. He cried out in pain and spun with his axe, but I once again teleported around him and this time slashed the back of his right knee.
He fell to one knee but quickly rebounded, spinning and lunging for me with his huge arms. We locked arms and I moved with his momentum, using it against him to get around to his back. I hooked an arm around his neck and cranked it back, but his neck was too thick to get a good headlock, and he easily twisted out of it. His armored fist suddenly slammed into my face, and my head snapped back violently as I staggered backward. He charged again and grabbed me around the waist, slamming me to the floor with his superior weight.
You disgrace me with your weakness. Stop fighting the fury that resides within you and strike him down!
The king rained punches down on my face as the hellish battle played out around us. I didn’t know for certain what level he was, but I had never imagined that he was this strong.
Or had I just grown weak in my indecision?
It was true that my heart wasn’t in this fight. The king’s words about once fighting alongside me had done something to me. They had reminded me of the man I had once been in Rebirth Online. I had once stood for justice. I had once walked in the light. But now…now I was on the other side of the fight, and it didn’t feel good at all. I had known in the back of my mind for some time that what I was doing was wrong. But I hadn’t cared. My anger at Dr, Marks and the game masters for what I had perceived as betrayal had sparked a fire of fury that I couldn’t control.
Now, however, it was hard to tap into that power.
As I lay there being pummeled by the dwarf king, I saw my demonic sons slaying dwarven warriors and real-world players that I had once fought alongside. I saw the beautiful dwarven city being destroyed by run-away spells, and it saddened me to know that I was the cause.
Must I do everything myself? Kregos growled menacingly, and I felt his will intrude upon my mind.
“No!” I cried as I felt my control over my own body slipping.
My right arm suddenly punched forward into the King’s gut, and a spell flew out of my hand that sent the king sailing into the high ceiling. I leapt to my feet and flew into the air, but I was no longer in control of my body.
You’re an NPC! I screamed at Kregos. You cannot control me!
I fought for control of my limbs as I flew toward the now falling King, but I couldn’t stop my right arm from thrusting forward. I couldn’t stop the black blade from entering the King’s neck. And I cried out when the blade exploded out of the back of his head.
“Your king is dead!” I heard myself bellow, then Kregos forced me to throw the king to the stone floor.
Terror welled in me when I realized the spell that Kregos was forcing me to cast, but I was helpless to stop it.
A Nuclear Thunderclap screamed out of my right hand, hit the king in the chest, and incinerated everyone in the hall.
Chapter 10
I woke up on the cold ground and groggily raised my head to look around. Dust and smoke clouded my vision, and the scent of sulfur and death permeated the stagnant air. I saw a green glow issuing from behind me, and when I rose to my feet to investigate, I let out an involuntary gasp.
Before me was a portal one-hundred feet in diameter, and all manner of Underworld monsters were pouring out of it.
“What have I done?” I asked myself as I rose into the air on thick black wings.
When I emerged from the smoke and looked down at the scorched world, I saw the remnants of Aeorock. What had once been a magnificent stronghold built into the side of the mountain had been reduced to rubble. I searched the area with Aura Detection, but I saw none alive but the minions that marched from the portal. From my vantage point I saw the truth of the size of the army that I had apparently summoned, and the realization took my breath away.
There must have been tens of thousands of monsters spreading out in all directions through the land, and I tapped on my interface to get an exact count.
Minions Summoned from the Underworld – 2,567,829
“Oh my god…” I gasped.
Kregos…what have you done?
No answer.
Kregos!
Still nothing.
I searched for my guild mates, but I couldn’t find them in the ocean of monsters.
“Father.”
I turned to find Legion floated behind me, and to his right was his silver brother Leviathan.
“What is this?” I asked desperately. “Where are they going?”
Legion looked confused by my questions, and he looked to his brother.
“They are going everywhere,” said Leviathan. “The final battle has begun.”
“Final battle? I didn’t summon them. I didn’t want this,” I said, then I noticed the flashing icon in the top right corner of my interface.
I tapped on it, knowing that I didn’t want to see, but not able to look away.
“It is indeed a dark day for Rebirth Online,” said the Wizard Donovan. He looked beat up and weary, and I felt a pang of guilt begin to grow in my throat.
Footage of the battle for Aeorock began to play behind him, and he droned on with his sad report.
“The Dark Lord Samson has not only destroyed Aeorock, but he has opened a permanent portal linking the Surface world to the Underworld.” The wizard leaned forward and stared into the camera with hound dog eyes shadowed by bushy brows. “Dark times are upon us, my friends. May the gods be with you.
I watched the footage play out, and I couldn’t believe that it was me that I was seeing on the screen. The last memory I had of the battle was unleashing a Nuclear Thunderclap, and it was hard to watch what happened next.
On the replay, a demonic version of myself continued to cast the terrible spell, then I commanded my sons to do the same. Tears came to my eyes when I saw not only the dwarves being incinerated, but my own guild mates as well.
“No…” I gasped when I watched Kit, Anna, and Ember turned to ash before my eyes.
Aeorock collapsed into itself on the replay, and I watched myself land on the scorched earth at the foot of the crumbling mountain. I raised my arms into the sky and bellowed a long string of words that I didn’t even understand, and the portal that now spewed my minions opened before me.
I swiped the replay to the side and felt hot tears spill down my cheeks, where they boiled and evaporated.
“Send them back to the Underworld,” I commanded my sons.
“Father?” said Leviathan.
“Order them back to the Underworld! I bellowed. You are my generals, and I command you to—”
“You have opened the portal, Father, only you can close it,” said Legion.
No, I thought. Only Kregos can close it.
I flew over the monstrous horde marching out of the portal, and they cheered their dark lord as I passed.
“Frig!” I yelled, and the little imp appeared beside me.
“What’s up!” he asked without looking at me as he poured over a ridiculously long scroll.
“How do I reverse this?” I asked.
He raised his eyes and glared at me. “What?”
“I need to send everyone back to the Underworld,” I said desperately.
“What?” he repeated.
I grabbed him by the throat and shook the little bastard.
“I need to send them back!”
“Dude,” he said in a strained voice. “You just summoned everyone here. You ordered me to send them all to every zone…and NOW you want to undo it all! What the fuck is wrong with you?”
I threw him angrily and searched desperately for someone who might be able to help.
I needed to talk to Cecilia, or maybe Nanaya would know something. I opened a portal to Haven that would lead me to the common room and flew through.
When I emerged from the portal, I was relieved to find my guild mates all gathered together, but when they turned their angry gazes my way, all joy fled from me and shame replaced it.
“Guys, I’m sorry…I—”
“You fucking killed us all man!” Tweak screamed, and the good-natured ape’s outrage sobered me quickly.
“It wasn’t me; it was Kregos,” I pleaded with them. “I can’t control him. I…I need help.”
“That is the first step toward change,” came the voice of Doctor Marks.
“What is he doing here?” I asked and backed away from them.
Anna moved toward me cautiously, as if she was approaching an injured wildcat. “He’s here to help, Sam. Please, hear him out.”
Kill them all before they try to poison your mind! The Throne suddenly screamed, and I cried out and pressed my hands against my temples.
“Sam, there’s something that you need to know,” said Anna.
I felt my anger begin to rise, but I choked it down like the venomous bile that it was.
“Big Daddy, you’ve got to hear what he has to say. It’s about the Throne, Sam, it’s about the nature of the throne.”
They are all liars!
I felt Kregos trying to take control, and I knew that the Throne would start commanding me to kill them all.
“Fine,” I told them. “I’ll listen to what he has to say.”
“Nanaya?” said Anna, and the succubus perform the ritual to open a portal.
Doctor Marks walked toward me, and I noticed for the first time that he wasn’t wearing his priest robes. Instead, he had on his hospital scrubs. I glanced around, looking for the winged eyeballs, but it seemed that this wasn’t being broadcast to the rest of the players in game.
“What’s with the clothes? Kind of breaking the fourth wall, aren’t you?” I said, trying to inject a little levity.
“Sam,” he said as he approached cautiously. “I wanted to visit you in my real-world clothes so that you might remember what I am and who I am. I’m your doctor, and right now I am speaking to you as your doctor. Do you understand?”
“Is it the surgery?” I asked as hope swelled in my heart. “Can you fix my spine?”
“No Sam, this is not about your surgery, this is about the Dark Throne program.”
My hope died, and anger replaced it quickly.
“I suppose that you are going to warn me that the NPC program is too powerful to control. Let me guess, you fuckups screwed up the code, and now It’s up to me to save your asses again. But when I do, I won’t get shit for it.”
“There is no Dark Throne program, Sam,” said the doctor.
What?
He said it again, clear and slow so that I would understand.
“There is no Dark Throne program…”
He is a liar. Kill him now!
I stared at the doctor for a moment, not understanding what he was saying.
“What do you mean? Kregos’s voice is in my head. Even now he is telling me to kill you…”
“The Dark Throne is nothing more than a buff,” Doctor Marks explained. “It enhances your power and attributes depending on your emotions. The programmer who wrote the code for that buff wanted to make it a unique situation. He was interested to see what would happen if someone was given absolute power that could be tapped into through their anger. His goal was to create a true dark lord, not an NPC program.”
“If that’s true, that means that I killed Frisco,” I stammered. “It means that I killed my guild mates and leveled Aeorock. I would never do that.”
“The voice in your head is your own, Sam,” said the doctor. “The rage that you feel is your own.”
“No,” I said backing away from them all. “No, that’s not true.”
“We wouldn’t have intervened, Sam, but you’re becoming unstable.”
“No,” it a trick, it’s a trap.”
It’s another betrayal, said the Throne. They’re just trying to slow you down. Kill them all before they speak more lies.
“If what you are telling me is true…if you were really worried about me, why wouldn’t you log me off and talk to me in person about this?”
“I have, Sam,” said the doctor sympathetically.
“You’re a liar,” I suddenly spat. My anger, outrage, and even the fear that what he was saying was true quickly turned to unbridled wrath, and I clenched my teeth and squeezed my fists in an attempt to not fry the doctor right then and there.
“Kregos is nothing more than your ego, Sam. It is nothing more than your pain body manifesting itself in game.”
“What are you talking about? That isn’t possible.”
“Sam!” the doctor bellowed. “Listen to me!”
“No, you’re a liar. You’re all liars!”
Yesss, yesss! Kregos said with malicious glee. Now you see that I am your only ally. I am the only one that you can trust.
“Sam, I can help you. We can salvage the game, but you’ve got to give up the Dark Throne.”
“Do you think that I’m a fool?” I asked angrily.
“I think that you’re a disturbed young man who needs my help,” he said solemnly.
“Sam, please,” said Anna.
“No!” I screamed. “Get away from me!”
I opened a portal to the Underworld and stepped through with the protests of my guild mates echoing behind me. The Dark Tower was cold and quiet, and as I closed the portal behind me, I realized that no sound came from the city outside either. I walked to the balcony as my mind whirled. Dr. Mark’s words echoed in my head and felt like I might throw up. “There is no Dark Throne program, Sam. The voice in your head is your own, Sam. The rage that you feel is your own.”
It is all lies, said Kregos, and I grabbed ahold of the wrought iron rail on the balcony. When I gazed upon my city, a disturbed laugh escaped me.
The city was completely empty.
The entire 7th level was empty…and that meant.
The final battle has begun, said Kregos, and the thought that it was my own internal voice, my own ego that I was hearing made me seriously question my sanity.
Who are you? I asked Kregos, but no answer was forthcoming. Instead, he continued to ramble on about what we could accomplish together.
“WHO ARE YOU!” I screamed.
When still he didn’t answer, I angrily opened a portal and walked through it into the Throne Room. Black, oily walls reflected the green glowing light issuing from the seams in the tall chair, and I looked at it as if for the first time. I had never noticed before that the Throne was made of thousands of human skulls, or that the eyes of those skulls burned with hellish green light.
“Who are you?” I said threateningly and drew my blade.
As one, the skulls all spoke, and their words tore through my mind like the shards of a broken mirror.
“I am you, and you are me, and we are we.”
“No!” I screamed and flew toward the Throne. I landed at the foot of the chair and began hacking, slashing, and stabbing away at the many skulls.
When I stabbed one of the hated eye sockets, I felt a sword stab my own eye. When I hacked at the crown of another, I felt a phantom blade slice through my own head. And when I slashed the jaw of a third, I felt the blade tear my own flesh. The pain was terrible, but I couldn’t accept that the Throne and I were one. I hadn’t killed Frisco. I hadn’t killed my guild mates.
I hadn’t opened a portal to the Underworld…
I fell to my knees sobbing, and no longer able to lie to myself. I had done those things, every one of them. There was no throne, there was only my tortured ego, and it was getting out of control. I had to kill it. I had to kill it now!
But how?
Every blow that I inflicted upon the damned Throne showed up on my own body, and soon I was a bleeding, sobbing mess kneel
ing before the dark torch of power set before me. I gnashed and thrashed about, wallowing in the pain of my existence, but then a voice came to me, one that offered solace, freedom, peace.
Just give in…
Fuck you Kregos!
You don’t believe in me. You think that I am your ego. So why call me Kregos?
Stop talking to me! I pleaded as I stood and sat on the bleeding throne.
Stop talking to yourself, he retorted with a disdainful, but mirth-filled laugh.
I hate you! I screamed, but I might as well have been talking dirty to it.
Yesss, he hissed, and the voice of the Throne reverberated through my body. I realized that I had said the words, all the words…I had spoken each part of the conversation aloud, and that is when I knew that I was truly insane.
What am I doing? I wondered.
I was playing a game that had left me wallowing in hell. Why didn’t I just log out? Why did I continue to play?
Why not?
In the real world I was a vegetable. My days were filled with nurses rolling me over and wiping my ass, exercising my legs and arms to prevent atrophy and blood clots, wiping my nose, and stuffing a catheter up my dick.
My real life was a nightmare, but Rebirth Online had become a living hell.
Why do you struggle so? The Throne asked, but I spoke the words aloud.
“Please, just leave me alone,” I pleaded.
Perhaps you are not cut from the cloth that I thought you were, the Throne lamented, and I couldn’t help but agree.
“No, I’m not. I’m not cut out for this. I just want it all to go back to the way it was before…”
Before what? Before the tournament? Before you met Anna? Before Rebirth Online? Before the accident?
“How do you now about that?” I asked, and terror gripped my heart.
“I know everything?” I said in response.
I lurched away from the Throne and cast a Fireball at it, and when the fire scorched my own face, I ran.
Rebirth Online 6 Page 10
