I leapt off the balcony, but I didn’t spread my wings, instead I plummeted three hundred feet to the jagged volcanic ground below. The impact didn’t so much as break a fingernail, and I leapt from the ground with a growl and went looking for something that I could take my aggression out on.
I opened a portal to the Surface World, intent on stopping what my ego had started, but when I tried to walk through it, my body stopped obeying my commands.
Where do you think you’re going? Kregos asked.
“You can’t control me,” I said defiantly. “I’m the one in control, do you understand?”
“Oh, but I can,” I heard my own voice say, and suddenly a replica of myself was standing in front of me.
“You’re not real,” I said.
“Oh?” My doppelganger cocked his head to the side, grinned, and then cast a Fireball that took me off my feet and slammed me into the opposite wall.
I tried to retaliate with a spell of my own, but my doppelganger Kregos pulled me to him with telekinetic power and stabbed me through the gut with a sword that matched my own. Pain as real as anything that I had ever felt tore through my stomach, and I lashed out with a telekinetic blast of my own.
Kregos flew through the air and slammed into the throne, but he recouped almost instantly and sprang toward me. I unsheathed my own blade and surged toward him. We collided in the middle of the throne room like two tempests and began exchanging blows that could have felled a red oak.
“You’re nothing,” I spat at him as we danced around each other and struck with lightning quick blows.
“Oh, but you are so wrong,” he said with a laugh. “I am everything.
Our swords sparked and our spells burst against Fire Shields, but neither of us could gain an advantage over the other. Kregos was a mirror image of me, and he knew everything that I knew. There was no way to out-smart or out-maneuver him.
“I’ve kept you safe your entire life!” he growled as we became locked in battle. “When you were too weak to deal with life, when the pain of your existence became too much, it was I who shouldered the burden.”
“You are a part of my mind, and I am your master!” I growled right back at him.
I cast a massive Fireball, but so too did he, and when the spells collided, we were both blasted back against opposite walls.
“You are weak!” he screamed as he stalked toward me through the flame. “You do not deserve the power that had been bestowed upon you by the Throne.”
I was keenly aware that I was arguing with a fractured part of my mind that had gone rogue, but I didn’t know how I was supposed to get him under control. I mean, I knew that he wasn’t real, but that knowledge didn’t help me make him go away.
“Kregos,” I said calmly as he continued toward me. “You’ve got to stop this. If we conquer the entire world, then there will be no game left. Don’t you understand? Without Rebirth Online, then we’re right back where we started; we’re right back in that damned hospital bed forever.”
He paused and considered my words, but then…
“Fear has always held you back from greatness,” he said, and I realized that he was preparing to cast a Nuclear Thunderclap.
“Stop!” I bellowed and extended my telekinetic power toward him.
He froze in place and snarled at me like a rabid dog, and I could feel him pushing against my mental spell. I pushed with all my mental might, but he was a part of me, and drew power from the throne as well. Soon I was shaking, and Kregos was beginning to slowly win the battle of wills. His hands came together ever so slowly, and his Nuclear Thunderclap suddenly exploded in my face.
The spell completely destroyed the Throne Room, and I frantically beat my wings as the hot nuclear wind tried to incinerated me. I kept ahead of it, however, and shot out of the tower like a red-hot bullet. When I landed, I looked up at the Dark Tower, surprised to see that the only part of it that had been spared by my doppelganger’s powerful spell was the throne. It sat upon the remnants of the partially destroyed tower, precariously balanced on a half wall.
“If you will not embrace your destiny, then I will,” I heard Kregos bellow.
I searched for him with Aura Detection and found him floating high above the city. He was opening a portal, likely one that would lead him back to the Surface World. I teleported to a spot right behind him, but he must have known what I was thinking, because when I appeared behind him, he was ready with his enchanted black blade.
But I was ready as well.
I blocked the strike with my Fire Shield and struck with my own blade, but when my sword impaled him through the stomach, I felt searing pain rip through my bowels.
“You do not deserve to control our body,” he said with a snarl.
I felt myself begin to weaken. The source of my power was the Throne, but without my malice, without my anger and rage, I was left impotent. Kregos was the embodiment of my ego, and his rage was a never-ending well. If I tapped into that well, I would be giving myself to Kregos.
“Remember…” I croaked as the blade sunk deeper. “Remember love.”
His eyes widened, and I felt his grip on the blade loosen.
I grabbed his head with both of my hands and held him firm.
“Remember Anna, Trinity, Ember, Kit, Cecilia, Nanaya, Zoe, and Stormy. Remember your friend Tweak. Remember Frisco and his guild mates.”
He growled and tried to pull away from me, but I had gotten in his head, and his wide eyes told me that now it was he who was afraid of me.
“Your anger, MY anger is nothing compared to the love that we have known,” I told him calmly. “You’ve always looked out for me; I know that now. And you’ve had to endure terrible pain and remorse since the accident, but now you are the one who is hurting us. Don’t you see?”
“They’ll hurt you…” he said through clenched teeth.
“If you continue on this path, then you will hurt us all,” I warned. “In your quest to extinguish any and all threats, you have also hurt those we hold most dear. We’re going to lose them, Kregos. We’re going to lose them all. The world will be left in darkness, and Rebirth Online will cease to exist. At some point the game masters are going to do what they did to Kincaid’s digital ghost, they’re going to quarantine us to another server, and we’ll be done. No more game, no more power, just a hospital bed and a useless body.”
“But if we undo what we have done.” said Kregos hesitantly. “Then we won’t be special anymore. We will never again know the power that we possess.”
“That may be true, but we will gain so much more,” I said, and I mentally projected images of my eight girls all smiling at me.
The warmth of love flooded through my heart when my women’s smiles turned to joyous laughter, and Kregos’s eyes watered.
“We can do this together, Sam,” I said to myself, for I knew that the name Kregos no longer fit.
“Together,” he said with a smile.
Then he ripped out his dark blade ad thrust it into my chest.
I reeled back holding the wound and gasping for air. My strength left me, and I dropped to my knees, and Kregos stood over me.
“You are weak, Sam. You’ve always been weak. If you will not embrace your destiny, then I will.”
He raised the blade, and anger at his betrayal surged in me. I conjured a Fireball as he swung the blade, and my spell took him off his feet and deposited him on the floor twenty feet away.
“This ends now!” I screamed as I rose to my feet.
Kregos scowled at me as he too rose to his feet, then he thrust his right arm forward and took hold of me with telekinesis. I was pushed through the air and slammed into the throne, and to my horror, arms sprouted from the many skeletal bones and squeezed me tight. They wrapped around my arms and legs, they choked my neck and squeezed my body, holding me in an iron grip.
“Kregos!” I screamed as he turned from me and opened a portal. “Don’t do this!”
“Goodbye Samson. You will be saf
e here until my work is done.”
“Kregos!”
Chapter 11
The embodiment of my ego walked through the portal, leaving me trapped in the skeletal embrace of the Dark Throne. I thrashed and fought the grip of the skeletal arms, but it was no use. I might as well have been trying to break iron rods.
“Kregos!” I screamed in a rage.
He didn’t answer, of course, but I did feel some of my power increase. I realized then that I was still linked to the Throne. He hadn’t taken the power with him, somehow, it had been split between us both.
I roared like a caged beast and lashed out with all my might. At first, I only shook against my bonds, but then I heard a crack, and another. I pushed harder, and the bones began to break. With one last thrust with my arms I shattered the bones that held me and unsheathed my enchanted blade. With it, I severed the rest of the bones and dropped to the floor.
Finally, I was free.
I looked back at the Throne, but there was no voice in my head, no mental connection to what I had once thought to be an NPC. The Dark Throne was nothing more than a buff, Doctor Marks had said, and somehow, my ego had taken a form of its own, independent of my body. I had no idea how that was possible, but I was intent on stopping him.
I returned to Haven through a portal to the Surface World and found my guild mates waiting for me inside Samson Tower. They looked distraught, and my heart broke when I saw fear in their eyes.
“It’s alright,” I told them all with a smile. “It’s just me.”
“Sam…” said Anna as she approached.
“Hey babe.”
“What happened?” she asked as she cautiously approached.
“To tell you the truth, I really don’t know,” I said with a shrug. I told them what had happened in the Throne Room, and when I explained how Kregos had somehow become independent of me, they all just stared.
“What does that mean?” Nanaya asked.
“It means that I’m in full control of my body,” I explained. “And now he has one of his own, and he’s out there somewhere.”
“Is it really you, Big Daddy?” Kit asked apprehensively.
“Yeah, it’s really me,” I said and opened my arms wide.
“Oh Big Daddy,” said Kit as she threw herself toward me and squeezed me tight.
“Sorry if I scared you Kitty Kat.”
“Dude, you scared us all,” said Tweak.
“I know, I’m sorry. I never meant for any of you to get hurt.”
“What happens now?” Ember asked from her perch on the armrest of a couch.
“Now we try to put the lid back on the jar,” I said. “We’ve got to stop the Underworld hordes.”
“Do you still possess the power of the Throne?” Trinity asked.
“Yes. Somehow, Kregos and I both possess the power of the Throne.”
“Then how do we stop him?” Stormy asked.
“The Sword of Untold Fates may be our best shot,” I said and glanced at them all. “Has anyone found it yet?”
“Not that we know of,” said Cecilia. “But I think that if someone kills Kregos with it, then you will die as well. I mean, it makes sense.”
“Nothing about this split personality becoming it’s own person shit makes sense,” Tweak said with a laugh.
“I don’t know how it is possible either,” I admitted. “All I know is that he’s out there, and he intends on taking over the entire game.”
“How do you know that?” Ember asked.
I shrugged. “Because that was my plan while I was being manipulated by him.”
“Wait a minute,” said Zoe. “Kregos isn’t even real. He’s the embodiment of your ego, right? Then how in the hell can he be running around in his own body?”
“I really don’t know,” I said with a shrug. “Maybe he has become an NPC. Maybe it’s the game masters fucking with me. All I know is that he’s real, he’s got his own body, and he wants to extinguish any and all threats.”
“Including you?” Cecilia asked.
“No,” I admitted. “I think that if I die, then so will he.”
“And only the sword of Untold Fates can kill you…” Kit surmised.
“Yeah, I guess. But until the sword is found, we need to try and stop Kregos and the hordes’ advance. But we have to find him first.”
“That won’t be hard,” said Cecilia, and she swiped something on her interface toward the looking glass on the wall of the common room.
Wizard Donovan was on the screen ranting about stopping me and my minions, and behind him, live footage of a demonic looking Kregos appeared.
“That’s the sands of time,” said Tweak.
“He’s trying to get inside the zone,” said Ember. “But look, he can’t.”
We all watched as Kregos cast spell after spell at the energy dome surrounding the Sands of Time, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t break through.
“It looks like the game masters have the shields up around the level 50 and under zones,” I said.
“Thank god,” said Kit.
“Well, we know where he is,” said Stormy. “Let’s go kick his ass.”
“No,” I said. “I’ve got a better idea.”
They all looked to me expectantly.
“We’re all ears,” said Kit, and her cat ears perked up.
“We liberate Aeorock while he’s busy trying to break through to the other zones,” I said. “Then we let him come to us.”
“Can’t you just send the minions back to the Underworld?” Zoe asked.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Besides, even if I can, Kregos can just summon them back. He’s got the same powers that I do.”
“Then what hope do we have in defeating him?” Trinity asked.
“The Sword of Untold Fates,” I said. “But until someone finds it, we’ve got to try and slow him down. It will be dawn soon, and the minions and undead are going to have to go to ground. That should give us some time to take back some of the zones.”
I walked out to the courtyard and summoned my sons, who were scattered throughout the zones. At first nothing happened, and I feared that Kregos had more control over them than I did, but to my relief, they suddenly appeared a few moments later and began circling above the city.
“Father,” said Legion and Leviathan as they came swooping down to kneel before me.
“Hello, my children,” I said with a smile, but they looked confused.
“We have just left your side in the Sands of Time,” said Legion.
“How are you here as well?” Leviathan asked.
“That was not me,” I explained. “That was my…uh, it was Kregos.”
They both glanced at each other, seemingly communicating their confusion.
“The Dark Throne has created another version of me,” I explained. “He’s a double, a fake copy. He’s out of control and must be stopped.”
“Why?” Legion asked. “He is fulfilling your quest to take over the Surface World.”
“I no longer wish to take over the Surface World,” I told them. “I never did. I mean, a part of me did, and now that part has gained its own body. Do you understand?”
They both shook their heads no.
“Kregos is the embodiment of my anger, sorrow, regret… He thinks that he is doing the right thing. But he is wrong. I was wrong. If he continues, he will bring darkness to the world.”
“Darkness?” said Leviathan.
“He wishes to kill the sun?” Legion asked.
“Yes,” I said, knowing the love for the sun that my children possessed. “He wants to kill the sun. He wants to make the surface world like the Underworld, and we can’t let that happen.”
My sons looked at each other and nodded.
“We cannot let that happen,” they said in unison.
“I’m glad that we are on the same page,” I told them, and they cocked their heads curiously.
I turned from them and opened a portal that would lead
to Aeorock and the wintery zone, and my guild mates joined me beside it.
“You guys ready?” I asked.
“Are we ready to liberate the zone that you just took over?” Tweak asked with a scoff. “Yeah, sure.”
“I know that this has been hard for you all, and I’m sorry for the way I acted. But I want to make this right.”
“We know, Big Daddy,” said Kit with a sympathetic smile. “We’re behind you all the way.”
“Are you?” I asked my guild mates.
“Yes,” said Anna with teary eyes.
“Always,” said Trinity.
“It’s good to have you back, Bro,” said Tweak. “But no more weird surprises, alright?”
“No more weird surprises,” I said with a nod.
I turned toward the portal, took a deep breath, and walked through.
When I emerged out of the other side and saw Aeorock still smoldering, I felt a pang in my heart. It was hard to look at what I had done. The once beautiful mountain fortress was nothing but rubble, and the zone that had once been covered in pines and majestic oaks was now nothing but smoldering ash.
Most of the undead minotaurs and Underworld minions were with Kregos outside the Sands of Time, but still thousands remained. I could see them with Aura Detection off in the distance, most likely battling the last remnants of NPC dwarves, and the real-world players who were trying to push them back.
I could see smoke rising in south, where I knew at least one dwarven village was located.
“Come on,” I said. “There are still players battling the hordes, we’ve got to help.”
My guild mates and I took to the sky, they on their winged mounts and me on my black, leathery wings. My thousands of gold and silver sons flew with us, and when we reached the battlefield, I commanded them to attack.
There were about a thousand players and NPC dwarves fighting to protect a small dwarven city from the thousands of undead and monsters that I had summoned less than 24 hours previously.
Guilt gripped my heart, and that guilt turned to anger, rage, and then power.
A horn blared below, and soldiers issued a warning that the Dark Lord had returned, but those cries were silenced when I landed before the front line and sunk my sword into the head of an undead minotaur.
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