“Stop!” I commanded the denizens of the Underworld.
I opened a portal that would lead the hordes back to the Underworld, then I turned to address them all.
“The sun will soon rise,” I told them. “It is time to return to the Underworld!”
“We will take to the ground,” said a gruff-voiced demon, and I recognized him as the lord of the 3rd level of the Underworld.
“I command you to return,” I said, and the real-world players behind me waited with bated breath.
“You are no longer the Dark Lord,” he said with a sneer. “Now, we follow Kregos, the true ruler of the Underworld.”
“I am the one and true ruler of the Underworld, and I command you now to return!” I bellowed.
“We will never return,” said the Lord. “We will bring darkness to the world. We will blot out the sun, and a new day will daw—”
I blew his head off with a Magic Bolt, then glanced around at the others.
They seemed to share his conviction, however, and they all suddenly attacked.
Spells, arrows, spears, and enchanted bombs sailed toward me, at least a thousand in all, but I lifted my hand and pushed against the onslaught with all my mental might. With a great telekinetic heave I stopped the projectiles in the air, turned them around, and then pushed them back toward the horde.
As the explosions tore through the Underworld ranks, I charged into the army with reckless abandon, hacking, slashing, and exploding heads with my many spells.
“Samson fights for us!” someone in the crowd cried out triumphantly.
The few cheers that rang out for me made my heart surge, but I stuffed down my joy and focused on my anger. I was angry about the hordes ravishing the Surface World. I was angry with my ego. But most of all, I was angry with myself.
I had gone too far in my quest for power and revenge. I had let myself become tainted by the dark side, and for a time, I had reveled in that power. But now I was determined to stop the essence of my ego, no matter the cost to me.
I turned to the crowd of real-world defenders and bowed my head.
“Good people of Rebirth, you have nothing to fear from me or my sons. For I have seen the light. Help me to undo what my egoic manifestation has done! Help me to defend Rebirth!”
The crowd’s cheers redoubled, and I turned to the demonic hordes with determination. More projectiles sailed toward me, and I grinned and shook my head.
Sometimes NPC’s never learned.
I turned the missiles away from me and the defenders, then sent them sailing back toward the attacking army. My sons swooped down and laid waste to the enemies, and I charged with the defenders at my back. I shot across the battlefield, right into the thick of the enemy, then I unleashed Scorched Earth in a hundred-foot-wide swath. Flames leapt twenty feet into the air and engulfed demons, monsters, and the undead alike. I leapt to the south and landed at the center of a thick mass of rotting ghouls, and with a magnificent blast of telekinetic power, I tore their dry bones to pieces and send them sailing on the hot wind.
A thunderous stomping shook the earth, and I turned to face the next opponent. It proved to be a thirty-foot-tall undead mountain troll, which would have been imposing opponent for just about anyone.
But I wasn’t just anyone, I was Samson fucking Sullivan, Hero, King, Dark Lord.
I leapt over the troll’s clumsy strike, landed on its head, and slammed my fist into its thick skull. When I released my Magic Bolt, the head exploded like a pumpkin, and I flew into the sky to face the thousands of harpies doing battle with my demonic sons.
Arcane Lightning shot from my palms and consumed hundreds, a well-placed Nuclear Thunderclap killed twice as many, and when my demonic sons unleashed their barrage of spells, the harpies fell from the sky by the tens of thousands.
Imps, demons, undead dragons, and whip-wielding succubus swarmed us, and it was there in the skies that I found the strongest adversaries. I may have been the Lord of the Underworld, but some of the higher-level demons proved to be nearly as strong as I was.
But I had something that they did not, and that was the ability to become stronger the angrier that I got, and I used it to my advantage.
Rage surged in me when I saw my sons being injured by a monstrosity that can only be described as a winged octopus from hell, and when I saw one of my gilded children fall lifeless to the ground below, my wrath must have been a terrible thing to behold. I shot toward the octo-demon and slashed three of it’s long appendages off with my sword. When it turned its attention to me, I began summoning a Magic Bolt, but a tentacle suddenly wrapped around my waist and squeezed the breath out of me. Spikes suddenly burst from the tentacle, and while they did not penetrate my robes, the pressure was torturous.
With a cry of rage I blasted the bastard right in the middle of it’s deformed head. Then I tore the tentacle in half and swung the dead monster with all my might down toward the attacking army.
An explosion suddenly erupted beside me, and the green flames that followed seared my skin and sent me flailing on scorched wings back through the air. I turned to find who had cast the spell and was hit by another spell. With a growl I brought up my Fire Shield, deflected yet another spell, and looked through my shield with Aura Detection.
“Frig?” I said with a growl as I beheld the little imp.
He was carrying a cannon twice as big as he was, and the barrel was still smoking.
“Hey pussbag!” he yelled with a chittering laugh. “I quit!”
He launched another enchanted cannonball at me, but I easily deflected it with my shield, then I retaliated with Arcane Lightning. The little bastard screamed as my lightning fried him to a crisp, then I watched with satisfaction as the ashes blew away in the wind.
An hour after the battle had begun, it was over, and I floated above the battleground with my guild mates.
“Well that was satisfying,” said Anna as she panted.
“What’s next Big Daddy?” Kit asked.
“Now we give Aeorock back to the defenders,” I said as I set my sights on the dwarven mountain.
Chapter 12
I landed before the defenders and noticed how their eyes narrowed. They were still afraid of my, that much was apparent, but there was also disdain on the faces of many of them.
“Hey Sam,” came a familiar voice, and a moment later Frisco walked out of the crowd and approached me.
“Frisco…” I stammered, choked up by the memory of what I had done to him. “I’m sorry man. I’m really sorry about what I did to you.”
“I know that you are,” he said with a sympathetic smile. “But it wasn’t you. It was the Throne, right?”
“No,” I regretfully admitted. “It was me. There is no NPC program behind the Throne. I learned that the hard way.”
“What do you mean?” he said as he began walking away from the defenders so that we might have some privacy.
“It sounds crazy, but somehow the embodiment of my ego has split from me and become a…shit, I have no idea what he is, or how it is even possible. But Kregos is just a part of me, which means that it was really me who did those things to you. I did all of it, so now I need to undo it.”
“Jesus, you’ve really got some shit luck,” he said, and we both laughed.
“Look, Frisco…” I began when the laughter faded.
“Don’t worry about it man,” he said with a raised hand. “This is a game, right? It’s all good.”
“No, it’s not,” I said shaking my head. “I let things go to far. I hurt those that I love. But I mean to make up for it any way that I can.”
“Well this was a start,” he said as he gazed upon the smoldering corpses that littered the battleground.
“Yeah, but the real test will be defeating Kregos,” I admitted, and even I heard the apprehension in my voice.
“Can you defeat him?” he asked.
“I don’t know. He is the embodiment of my ego, and therefore I have to assume that he has
a lot more anger to tap into than I do.”
“What do you mean? You don’t feel anger without him?”
“No, that’s not it,” I said as I considered how best to explain. “I mean that he is like my subconscious, or you know, the part of me that is always looking out for danger, always alert, and always looking for an enemy. He is the part of me that holds on to all past pains. That’s why I assume that he can summon more power from the Throne buff.”
“Dude,” said Frisco. “None of this makes any sense. How can a part of your mind become an NPC?”
“He’s not an NPC,” I said. “I mean, he could be. But I think that it’s more like the Throne buff created another avatar for me.”
“Then that means that Kregos is really you. It means that you still control him.”
“Yeah, I guess,” I said and shrugged. “But I can’t consciously control him. That’s the weird part. He is a part of my subconscious.”
“What a mind fuck,” Frisco said shaking his head.
“Tell me about it.”
“So, you don’t really need to defeat Kregos in-game. You need to defeat him in your mind.”
“I guess, but I have no idea how to do that,” I admitted. “I mean, I guess I kind of already did, that’s why he split from me. I thought about giving up the power of the Throne, but that might only make me go back to normal, while my subconscious continues to remain intact as Kregos.”
“What if you die and someone else takes up the Throne?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. All I do know is that I need to do what I can to slow Kregos down until I can figure out what to do about him.”
“Well listen, Sam,” Frisco said and glanced back at his guild mates, some of whom looked none too pleased. “I gotta split. If you need anything, just let me know.”
“We’re taking back the Aeorock zone if you want to join us,” I told him.
“Alright, sound like a plan. Good luck,” he said and returned to his guild mates.
“How’s that go?” Anna asked a few minutes later.
I was still absently gazing at the battlefield, and she had given me a slight start.
“Better than I could have hoped,” I said as she snuggled up under my right arm.
“You know,” she said contemplatively. “I miss the old days when we first started out. Everything seemed so much simpler.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” I said with a sigh.
She leaned over and kissed me, and I savored the sweet taste of her full lips.
When we parted, she gazed into my eyes with a look that made my passion stir.
“I wish that I would have kept you to myself for a little while longer back when we met,” she said with a sly grin. “We could have just stayed in that cabin and screwed our brains out. Quest a little, and screw some more.”
“Damn woman,” I said and adjusted my hardening cock. “If you were trying to turn me on, it worked.”
“Really?” she said and surprised me by grabbing ahold of my manhood.
“What’s gotten into you?” I said with a laugh.
“Not you recently,” she said with a faux pout.
I shook my head laughing and glanced around. “I guess we’ve got a few minutes before we head to Aeorock…”
I pulled Anna up onto my lap and let out a joyous laugh when I spread my wings and shot into the sky. We flew up above the clouds and hurriedly dismissed our armor to our inventories. A warm wind washed over us as the clouds slowly moved beneath us, and Anna wasted no time straddling me.
We grinded together in a passionate embrace, and I rhythmically beat my wings with our movement, adding to my thrusting power. Anna held me tight and moaned as our tongues danced in each other’s mouths. She stared into my eyes as she used her arms and legs to pull me deeper inside of her, and I fell in love with her all over again.
Anna’s breathing quickened, and she let out a moan that I knew well, one that told me that she was close to climaxing. I beat my wings hard and gripped her hips as she leaned back arms wide. She let out a cry of passion as I thrust into her, and my own orgasm suddenly hit me like an avalanche.
“Yes, Yes! Give it to me Samson! Oh god yeees!”
Her words put me over the edge, and I pulled her close and came inside her with what felt like a gushing torrent.
“I love you Sam,” she said in my ear in a whisper that bordered on a sob. “No matter what, I’ll always love you…”
“I love you too Anna.”
We kissed, and our tears mingled on our cheeks.
When we returned to the ground and found our guild mates, I wasn’t surprised in the least to see them talking to Doctor Marks, but I was surprised by the hovering eyeballs all around them.
“Hello Sam,” said the doctor.
“Doc,” I said with a nod and gestured to the cameras. “What’s this, a Rebirth Online Network exclusive?”
“Something like that,” he said with small laugh. “But we’re already done.”
“I can’t wait to watch the replay,” I said and glanced at my guild mates, wondering what they might have been talking about.
“I wanted to speak with you in private,” he said kindly.
“Alright,” I said and created a portal behind him. Then I told my guild mates that I’d be back shortly.
I walked through the portal, wondering if the doctor had the balls to follow me. When I stepped out onto the battlements of Samson Tower, I was pleased to see the doctor emerge as well.
“What’s up Doc?” I asked.
“What’s up is that the creation of your alter ego’s identical avatar is unprecedented.”
“I’m assuming that you watched the footage from me in the Throne Room,” I said, gauging his reaction.
“Yes, I have, and I must tell you that it is incredible. Did you know that we cannot see Kregos on the replay at all, and it is not until he emerged from the Underworld before you that we could see him?”
“I kind of figured that,” I said with a shrug. “So what’s the prognosis? Am I completely bat shit crazy or what?”
“No, nothing like that,” he ensured me with a frown.
“Then what the hell is going on? How did Kregos gain a body?”
“That’s an easy one,” he informed me. “The Dark Throne buff is programmed with a dozen random extra scenarios that can play out, and the creation of an alter ego is one of them. It is in the mythos of a lot of different cultures.”
“Random?” I scoffed. “Get the hell out of here. What are the other random scenarios?”
“That’s not important right now.”
“Okay. Then what is?”
“Defeating Kregos.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do,” I told him with a mirthless laugh.
“You need to understand something though,” he said, holding my gaze with his pensive frown. “The two of you are linked. If he dies, then so do you. And if you die, then so does he.”
“And if I reject the power of the Throne, will he too lose strength?”
“No, you must die, and a new Dark Lord must take your place,” the doctor informed me.
“Sounds easy enough.”
He stared at me, as though waiting for a punch line.
“Are you prepared to do that Sam?” he asked.
“Yes, I am,” I told him. “I’m done with this Dark Lord shit. Things got away from me, Doc, and I did a lot of things that I regret. I just want to return to being a normal dude. I just want things to go back to the way that they were.”
“Can things ever be the way they were?” he asked, and I thought of how I had struck him down.
I didn’t answer, the question hadn’t really required one.
“You’ve made the right choice, Sam. Giving up so much power, even if it just in a game, is no small thing. It takes a certain type of person, a man with a strong moral compass.”
“Thanks doc, but I don’t think I’m exactly a virtuous dude,” I said and turned
to gaze upon my kingdom.
“You really created something amazing with Haven,” he said as he came to stand beside me.
“Thanks, but I couldn’t have done it without my demon children, and they are kind of what started me on the path to Dark Lord, so it’s a bit of a double-edged sword.”
He suddenly cracked up, and when I looked at him, he burst out laughing.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he tried but failed to stifle his laughter. “But I can’t believe that you knocked up not one, but two NPC demigods.”
I shook my head, but soon I too was laughing at the absurdity of it all.
“You guys really screwed me over with that NPC’s getting pregnant bullshit. I mean what the fuck doc?”
“It wasn’t my idea,” he said in his defense. “And besides, no one forced you to have sex with them.”
“Uhhh, Megulla kind of totally forced me. Or didn’t you see the footage?”
“We don’t watch that stuff,” he said waving me off.
“Yeah, sure you don’t,” I scoffed.
After a time, we settled into a comfortable silence, and we spent a few minutes watching the citizens of Haven go about their day. Their king may have been the Dark Lord of the Underworld, but you couldn’t tell by looking at them. There were no demons policing the streets, there were no imps whipping old ladies and causing trouble. They place didn’t stink like sulfur or echo with the screams of the tormented. It was a clean, quiet paradise. Everyone had enough to eat, they all had jobs and homes…
And none of them were real.
I let out a sigh and looked to the doctor.
“The day’s waning, and like they say, sun’s out guns out. Any advice on how to kill Kregos? Or do I just off myself?”
“I’m not sure if you could even kill yourself if you tried,” he informed me mirthlessly.
“Seriously? I’m that powerful?”
“More like the Throne buff wouldn’t let you die,” said the doctor.
“But this blade, the Sword of Untold Fates. It can kill me?”
He nodded. “It can sever your connection to the Throne.”
“Then I need to get my hands on it. I’d rather kill Kregos with it than die by it instead.”
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