Singularity

by Drew Cordell

  Gwen let go of her carbine, flipping it around to her back so it could hang by its sling as we ran. She was clutching what looked to be a flash grenade in her hands, pulling the activation pin and throwing it to the side but holding the lever steady to keep it from cooking. In theory, until she released the lever, the grenade couldn’t detonate. If this worked, then it could buy me the time I needed to hit both bosses with a fully charged Unstable Power. I could only hope the small utility grenade would still function with the electromagnetic onslaught disabling the functionality of our remote comms and the AI link to Ether Rogue.

  I was taking shots where I could as we ran toward the bosses, but I had to be cautious of not hitting Fen with my blaster fire as she fought to protect Brandon and for her own survival. “Back off, Fen!” I yelled between panting breaths, waiting for my mana to creep back up so I could use Mana Ball and Unstable Power. Brandon was still out of the fight, so it was up to me and Gwen to enable this strategy to work in our favor.

  Fen seemed to acknowledge my words, but her movement was impaired as she struggled to disengage the new boss, batting away its melee attacks with fading efforts.

  The Shadow lunged in at Fen with its daggers again, pressing an obvious advantage while its bottom arms worked at the mechanisms of its crossbow simultaneously, preparing another deadly projectile. Fen deflected the twin blades with some strain, flicking her wrist and holding her katana steadfast as the impact of clashing blades rippled over her. She was bleeding badly, and her health dipped below 50% as the damage over time took its toll with no signs of slowing down.

  Fen activated an ability we hadn’t seen her use yet, creating a shimmering copy of herself and slipping through the crystalline projection to appear just behind the Shadow instantly. The Strexian boss whirled, its blades connecting with the mirror image and shattering it into a spray of evaporating shards. Realizing its mistake, the Shadow spun again, shooting wildly with its crossbow in an attempt to hit the real target.

  The crossbow bolt sailed over Fen’s head, missing by a healthy margin while she sunk the length of her blade through the Shadow’s abdomen, burying it to the hilt and twisting it with a quick crank of her wrists that brought the boss’s health down by 20%. Fen withdrew her blade, leaping back as a spray of oil-slick ichor sprayed from the deep wound, coating the surface of the boss’s leather armor as it poured to the ground.

  The Shadow screeched, and the Purveyor was assisting it the next moment, casting a shield on its friend and blasting out at Fen with half-conjured missiles that splashed with liquid mana as they impacted with the arena, closing in on our yōkai friend.

  It was abundantly clear just how unprepared we were for this fight, especially with the raw power of these bosses and the versatile suite of skills and tricks they commanded. I holstered my blaster and conjured my Mana Ball, channeling the power and almost immediately following it up with Unstable Power supercharging my orb of volatile mana and holding it steadfast as I ran as fast as I could. This was it. I was terrified that it wouldn’t be enough—that this would all be taken away from us at the last second.

  As I ran forward with the shimmering orb of pure destruction, I pulled mana from the orb, using it to fuel my spellcasting and protect Fen from further damage from the bosses as her bleeding intensified. The mana I spent would reduce the damage of my spell when it detonated, but it was also Fen’s best chance of making it out of this alive if she was caught in the outer radius of the explosion.

  Gwen sped past me from my side, nearly 20 meters away with her carbine jolting around wildly in its sling. It was now or never—and if our plan backfired, we would be in a world of trouble.

  Fen hadn’t done anything that confirmed that she recognized the intent of our plan as we executed the damn thing. If we were lucky, she had already spotted the small flash grenade canister in Gwen’s hand. If we weren’t, then Fen was going to die.

  Gwen let her grenade fly toward the two bosses and Fen, dropping to the ground and sliding across the slick floor of the arena as a crossbow bolt cut through the air where her body had been only a split-second before—I hadn’t even seen the Shadow reload its archaic weapon.

  Gwen twisted her head away from the point of impact as her grenade bounced off the ground. I materialized my grimy EVA helmet, flipping the solar shielding and blacking out my vision just before the canister popped into a brilliant nova of light. The two bosses screeched, and I let my orb of unstable mana fly in their perceived direction, knowing its detonation was imminent.

  The mana bomb exploded with an impact that thudded in the depths of my chest, but my EVA suit protected me from the brunt of its force, muting the deafening detonation to something much more tolerable. I was throwing off my helmet the next moment, pushing myself to my feet and darting my eyes over the battlefield to analyze the situation.

  The explosion had killed the Purveyor—splashing the charred remnants of half of the boss across an impressive radius on the arena floor. Its scepter, beads, and the Strexian scrollbind were gone, but I had the feeling they would be up for grabs once the fight was finished.

  The satisfaction and excitement I felt were quickly replaced with gnawing fear and anticipation as a silence fell over the arena. I quickly realized that the Shadow was gone, not dead—gone. There were chunks of its leather-like armor spread across the arena near the other boss’s corpse, but its body was missing. The explosion hadn’t been enough to finish it off and it was hiding somewhere, waiting to strike.

  “Brandon, are you good?” I asked, running over and trying to help him up while we had a moment of respite, drawing my blaster and preparing to jump back into combat.

  “I’m fine,” Brandon growled with a weak voice, pushing himself to his feet and reaching for an armor repair kit to break across the surface of his sundered EVA suit, but cursed under his breath when he remembered the Shadow had stolen all of our defensive consumables when it arrived in the fight. “Aghhh, it hurts.” He winced as he gripped his shotgun and held it ready, toggling the flashlight and searching for any signs of the Shadow. He looked like he was going to topple over any second, but the damage from the crossbow bolt had stabilized and his health was holding steady.

  “I know, fight through it. Does anyone see anything?” I asked, doing my best to be encouraging while retaining my focus. My mana was practically empty, and it was clear that none of us were in the best shape for a prolonged fight.

  “I’m not doing well,” Fen said, dropping her blackened katana that was still slick with the Shadow’s blood. The yōkai woman fell to her knees and Gwen ran to help her. Fen was still bleeding; I had forgotten in the chaos of combat, wrongly assuming that the wound she received would stabilize as Brandon’s had. Without access to stimpacks or healing, the damage hadn’t been repaired and the wound kept bleeding.

  “Search your inventories for anything that can help her,” Gwen shouted in desperation. I did, but the Shadow had been thorough in stealing our consumables. Maybe we would get them back if we killed it, but it would be too late. Gwen had pulled Fen’s tantō blade from its sheath and was cutting out sections of Fen’s robe trying to amass enough cloth to form a makeshift bandage pad to try to staunch the bleeding, but I knew it would be too late.

  I turned away, knowing there wasn’t anything I could do to help Fen. All I could do now was try to keep the Shadow off the rest of us and end the fight. If we could kill it before Fen died, there was a chance we could save her. It’s too smart. It knows that she will die if it waits, I realized.

  Something cut across the side of my vision, lancing past me in a blurred black arc. Gwen yelled out in frustration and rage as Fen fell in front of her with the massive feathered shaft of a crossbow bolt jutting out from her chest. She had used her dash ability to save Gwen at the last minute and had died on impact, digitizing and fading away. I whirled, firing my blaster at the now-visible boss. My first shot connected with the Shadow’s head, splitting it open and sending blue chitin and brain matt
er exploding outward. I didn’t stop shooting until my blaster clicked dry.

  Gwen was crying, wiping streaming tears out of her eyes as she ran over and kicked the corpse of the Shadow until she was too tired and collapsed on the floor. I walked over to comfort her, begrudgingly loading a new charge pack into my blaster in case there was more waiting for us. Not that we’d be able to handle more anyway.

  “Where will she respawn?” I asked as I helped Gwen back to her feet, knowing that the situation had to be bad for her to react this way.

  “Vrenn. She’s done. She’s out of the war and I don’t know who she is in real life. There’s nothing we can do to help her unless she can somehow wait this out.”

  “I see,” I said, keeping my voice level. “You know we’re going to do everything to help her, right?”

  Gwen managed a nod, wiping more tears from her eyes as she stood. Resolve washed over her facing, replacing the pain and fear from before.

  Brandon grimaced but said nothing. Fen had a way to contact us, but Dalthaxia would still be swarming Vrenn, and who knew how long it would take for them to lose interest and leave? If Fen did respawn, she would be risking it all if she tried to escape. Gwen was right. Fen was more or less out of the Eternity War unless we could find some way to save her. I hated that we had no way to contact her outside of Eternity Online, but it had been the safe call to protect our real-world identities.

  Whatever happened next would be bittersweet after the loss of Fen.

  “What now?” Brandon asked.

  His question was answered almost immediately, at least in part. The bodies of the bosses started to digitize, glowing white before fading away with all the carcasses of the insects. The Architect appeared once again, descending from the ceiling and floating in front of us. The humanoid-like figure studied us through its ancient mask, waiting to speak for several seconds. Its tone had changed, and I translated its Strexian for my friends.

  “My three champions of Ortonan have fallen, and your trial is complete. You will find no enemy in me. You have proven your worth and claimed this piece of your destiny.”

  43

  The Architect of Ortonan raised both of its hands and started chanting in a language even more ancient than Strexian. I couldn’t understand it but watched in amazement as it conjured an orb of glowing white light, sending the sphere floating to the ground where its light grew in intensity until I had to look away. The nova faded, and a large stone chest etched with ruins waited in its place. The Architect faded the next moment, simply ceasing to exist. It was over, and now the temple’s treasure was ours.

  I looked to Brandon and Gwen, meeting their eyes before stepping forward and setting my hands on the latches of the chest. This was the moment we had worked so hard for. Now it was time to see if our endeavor had been worth it.

  With shaking hands, I opened the chest. The space inside it contained the Strexian Scrollbind, an obsidian blade that would deploy from a wrist-mounted device, and the heavy two-handed crossbow the Shadow had wielded with such devastating results. There was something else underneath, some sort of geometric crystal, but I couldn’t make it out clearly with all the other items on top. I began examining all the items one at a time, passing them out so my friends could do the same.

  Shadowspike (Legendary) - Prestige

  Heavy Crossbow. Strexian. Archaic.

  - Requirements: Level ?, Body ?.

  - Overall Durability: ∞/∞

  - Weight: 8.2 Standard Kg.

  - Range: long-range.

  - Damage: 15-?? physical damage

  Mods

  - Artifice (infused): Shadowspike binds with its wielder, granting them the ability to craft ammunition for this weapon.

  - Malice (infused): Kills with Shadowspike permanently increase its damage and weight. This mod can be reset at any time, reverting this effect.

  - Avarice (infused): Kills with Shadowspike permanently increase its accuracy and range at the cost of reload speed. This mod can be reset at any time, reverting this effect.

  Attributes

  Prestige

  - This item’s stats scale with its wielder’s level.

  Critical Fusion

  - This item’s mods cannot be removed or modified. If this item is destroyed, infused mods will be destroyed with it.

  Obsidian’s Edge (Legendary) - Prestige

  Blade. Weapon. Armor. Strexian. Archaic.

  - Requirements: Level ?, Body ?.

  - Armor: 5.

  - Overall Durability: ∞/∞

  - Weight: 1.5 Standard Kg.

  - Range: CQB.

  - Damage: 30-?? physical damage

  Mods

  - Prismatic Construction (infused): Obsidian’s Edge’s weight is reduced to 1/3rd of the weight of its materials, drastically increasing attack speed, damage, and accuracy.

  - Bloodcoat (infused): Kills with Obsidian’s Edge grant its wielder 10% increased armor for 30 seconds. This effect can stack up to three times. When this effect is triggered, it refreshes the duration of Bloodcoat.

  Attributes

  Prestige

  - This item’s stats scale with its wielder’s level.

  Critical Fusion

  - This item’s mods cannot be removed or modified. If this item is destroyed, infused mods will be destroyed with it.

  Tome of Ortonan (Legendary) - Prestige

  Scrollbind. Strexian. Archaic.

  - Requirements: Level ?, Mind ?.

  - Shielding: 10.

  - Overall Durability: ∞/∞

  - Weight: 3.1 Standard Kg.

  - Spell Slots: 2 (0 available).

  Mods

  - Font of Plenty (infused): While equipped, Tome of Ortonan grants its wielder 30% increased passive resource regeneration rate. This effect does not stack with other similar effects. Font of Plenty only works with Mind-based resources.

  - Avant-Garde (infused): 10% increased spell power. Channeled spells begin to cost 20% less mana when sustained for longer than 5 seconds.

  - Mastery of One (infused): While equipped, the wielder of Tome of Ortonan can select one spell to imbue with a Mark of Strexian Mastery, modifying and enhancing that spell. Higher spell levels will further enhance the effect of Mastery of One. Only one Mark of Strexian Mastery can be active. The active mark cannot be changed to another spell for 24 hours after it is placed.

  Attributes

  Prestige

  - This item’s stats scale with its wielder’s level.

  Critical Fusion

  - This item’s mods cannot be removed or modified. If this item is destroyed, infused mods will be destroyed with it.

  I felt my excitement grow when I realized the tome included new spells. Quickly expanding them, I read the spell information.

  Tome of Ortonan (Legendary) - Prestige Spells

  Strexian Barrage Level 1

  - Mind. Strexian Spell. Magical. Channeled.

  - Requires equipped blaster. Requires at least 20% charge remaining in equipped charge pack.

  - Cost: Variable.

  - No cooldown.

  - Requires one available spell slot to bind.

  - Requires unarmed or spell focus to cast.

  - Range: 50M

  After a brief pause, the character channels Strexian magic, sending a silo of arcane missiles in the direction of their aim. Strexian Barrage can be cast at Rank 1/2/3/4, dealing the character’s Mind Attribute in magic damage per missile hit. Strexian Barrage consumes 4/7/11/16 mana every second. Higher ranks of Strexian Barrage increase projectile accuracy, rate of cast, and spell velocity.

  - 100% progression XP remaining until next level.

  Strexian Pulse Level 1

  - Mind. Strexian Spell. Magical. Channeled.

  - Cost: 25 mana.

  - 30-second cooldown.

  - Requires one available spell slot to bind.

  - Range: 20M

  The character sends a wave of Strexian magic outward in a direction of their choice
, damaging enemies and healing allies caught in the blast. For each living target hit, Strexian Pulse refunds 10% of its mana cost, up to 100% of this spell’s total cost, over five seconds. Strexian Pulse’s effect drops off toward 50% as it approaches its maximum range, ignoring armor and dealing 14% of each enemy’s maximum health and healing friendly targets by 14% of their maximum health. This spell has reduced power on some targets.

  - 100% progression XP remaining until next level.

  It didn’t surprise me that we didn’t get to keep the millions of years of experience the Purveyor of Ortonan had earned on its spells, but that was fine. With my Savant class, I would be able to progress the new spells quickly.

  Even if we ended up selling the legendary gear, the spells in the tome would round out my spell-casting suite, giving me more consistent and stable methods of healing and dealing damage with my magic. It was clear I would have to work harder to effectively manage my mana, even with the generous regeneration buff from the tome and the partial to full refund for maximizing how many targets I hit with Strexian Pulse. Pushing the thoughts aside, I moved to the final item in the chest—likely the one we had come here for. The description was vague, but from the item tags, I still had great hope that it would be worth a fortune.