by Alyson Belle
Erlix led the charge on his giant, terrifying lizard, and his NPCs surged around us, protecting our flanks and breaking through Vierdimin’s forces with the speed of a freshly-loosed arrow. Between the mighty CHOMPS, our NPC escort, and the DPS we’d already been laying down on our own, we cleared our way to the Secret Order guildhouse in a matter of moments.
ATTN ALL PLAYERS: Game servers will be shut down for a realm-wide restart in 6 minutes. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Erlix reared around on his T-Rex and surveyed the battlefield. We’d fought our way to the center, but we could all see that even with Erlix’s forces we were still badly outnumbered. They pressed in hard on the ring we’d formed around the central, dark tower.
“You guys go get the Lich, Goldie,” Erlix declared with a wink. “He can’t handle my cock anyway. I’ll stick with the dum-dums and keep his goons off your back. How are you getting in there anyway? I thought you couldn’t enter another guild’s fortress.”
“Sanctioned guild war,” muttered Topper. “You can fight in and wreck it up on a raid if you’re at war with them. You just can’t walk in to any random one. Come on!”
He ran inside, trailed by Lee and Saintly, but I held back for a moment and blew a kiss to Erlix.
“Thanks, pal,” I said. “You really saved the day here.”
“Get going so I didn’t do it for nothing!” he shouted with a shake of his head, stabbing at an enemy brawler beside his T-Rex. “And I haven’t forgotten you’re actually a dude. Jeez, Goldie. Blowing kisses? Such a ho.”
I rolled my eyes and hastened to follow my friends.
Chapter 10
The Secret Order guild house wasn’t a dungeon, so we didn’t need to deal with a confusing maze of a layout or NPC guards—it was designed to serve as a player hub, after all, and Vierdimin had holed up here, so there was only one logical place for him to be: in his throne room, waiting for us to attack. We even knew he’d be there since all of us still had the Find Object spell active, and that’s where the staff was. If it was really as important as we thought it was, there would be no way he’d let it out of his sight.
Lee showed us the way, and as we raced through the halls we quickly sketched out a battle plan.
“Healing won’t be necessary since we don’t have the time for an extended fight,” Topper said. “And Saintly is too valuable to risk. We need him on standby so he can take the staff and extract us all before the server comes down.”
“In like two minutes?” Saintly protested. “I’m a great coder, but I don’t know if I can do that, man!”
“Do you know the code base or not?” Topper demanded.
“Inside and out, but—”
“Start thinking now about how you’d use the staff’s backdoor to hack the game code if you had access to it. You have three or four minutes to come up with a plan, and if we can burn the lich down quickly enough you might have a few minutes to experiment.”
“I don’t think—”
“Saintly!” Topper glared at him. “Can you do this, or not? We can stop Vierdimin from shunting us all over to his private server by killing him and taking the staff, but I don’t want to end up braindead if the lich disabled the failsafes on your server’s memory backups.”
“Come on Saintly,” I pleaded. “I know you have it in you to do this. You said you coded half this game right? You’re our only hope.”
“Yeah, but I’ve never tried to use—” Saintly’s jaw tightened. “Okay, okay. I think I can at least make sure the failsafes are working if I have a few minutes to experiment. It’s a simple binary value switch. Then when the servers come back up, we all log out.”
“Good,” Topper said. “Lacey’s invulnerable, and Lee and I are expendable. Don’t get involved and risk yourself. Remember what’s most important here: First, killing the lich. Second, fixing the failsafes. If we fuck up either, we’re screwed. Really screwed.”
“And not in the good way,” I muttered.
As we approached the doors to Vierdimin’s throne room, Lee’s steps began to slow. I couldn’t blame him for being nervous—I was nervous too! This was the most important fight we’d ever had, and Vierdimin was as nasty as they came. But we couldn’t afford to have him chicken out now, with only moments to spare.
“Come on Lee,” I urged, placing a reassuring hand on his arm. “It’s too late to back down now. We need you. I need you.”
“He’s going to have defenses prepared,” Lee murmured. “And he’s going to be pissed I betrayed him. Now that I’m fighting with you, it’s a lot harder to talk my way out of this…”
“You’re going to get fucked either way,” Topper growled. “You really want to spend eternity in a sociopath’s playground? As for his having defenses, I’m counting on that. But at least we can distract him while Lacey gets a few good shots in. She’s the one who’s going to win this fight for us—not you or me.”
Lee gulped and nodded, picking up his pace again. His courage was admirable, despite his momentary hesitation, and I was also touched by Topper’s faith in me… despite how heavy the burden of being our champion was. I knew he was right about me being the key to this battle. Vierdimin was one of the most powerful players in the game, and even more so with his hacky staff. It was all going to come down to me and him, one way or another. Would I be good enough to beat him? My fingers twitched nervously. I had to be. My friends were counting on me.
I wondered what awaited us in his throne room. Somehow I didn’t think we’d find him cowering in fear. Vierdimin knew he couldn’t hurt me, but he was one of wiliest players I’d ever faced—he’d have something prepared to deal with me, and I’d need to be sharp enough to deal with whatever it was. I took a deep breath and steeled myself for the impending battle.
When we reached the grand, dark doors, Saintly melted off to hide in an alcove where Vierdimin couldn’t see him, but where he’d still be able to step out and take the staff once we’d beaten the lich. I hoped he was thinking furiously about how to fix the code, because none of the rest of us would have any idea how to use it, and I didn’t like the idea of getting my brains fried any more than Topper did if Vierdimin really had disabled the server failsafes.
ATTN ALL PLAYERS: Game servers will be shut down for a realm-wide restart in 5 minutes. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Topper looked to me and to Lee for our final confirmation, and once we’d both nodded, he reared back and kicked the grand doors open, his cloak swirling behind him. Lee and I stood at his flanks, destructive spells primed and ready for battle.
Vierdimin, Lv. 80 Human Lich awaited us on his black, twisted throne in the center of the guild hall master room amid decor that wouldn’t have looked out of place in an evil cartoon villain’s doom fortress—shades of black, crimson, and smoky gray flowed freely through the hanging banners and garish armor displays that lined the walls, and a faint scent of burning, oily pitch rolled through the air, joining the distant clamor of Erlix’s battle outside with the lich’s forces. The Lich himself sat upright and motionless, his cold, dead eyes boring into us from across the room, with the Lv. 80 Staff of Matter Manipulation clutched tightly in his fist.
I waited for him to leap into action, assault us with a volley of insulting drivel, and send his negative-energy rays of destruction sweeping across the room, but he didn’t move a muscle. I scanned the room, searching for the traps that should be lying in wait, but found nothing. It was simply empty—the Lich remained staring.
What is he waiting for? The three of us just kicked down his door, and he’s going to sit there motionless?
Topper only hesitated for a heartbeat. He raised his flaming sword and charged the Lich, but after 10 paces, Vierdimin still hadn’t moved, and Topper drew up short, halfway to the throne, and lowered his sword. He looked back at us in confusion.
“I don’t get it—is it a trap? Is it a decoy? Why isn’t he moving?”
A flicker of movement from the left caught my eye, and I ca
lled out a warning to Topper, but it was too late.
A 7-foot tower of grim-faced muscle burst from the shadows in a streaking blur. Kromgorn, Lv. 78 Half-Giant Barbarian slammed into Topper with a Battle Rush, momentarily stunning him and sending him crashing backward into the opposite wall.
“Kromgorn?” Topper exclaimed. He staggered to his feet, momentarily dazed from the stun, and squinted at the barbarian. “How can… what the fuck?”
I felt like such an idiot! How had I forgotten about Kromgorn? With all the excitement of the battle outside, it hadn’t occurred to me to wonder where my old avatar was. Maybe I hadn’t wanted to think about my avatar being responsible for the betrayal, but now this surprise attack was all my fault. I knew I should have told Topper about Kromgorn, even if I was ashamed…
“It’s Vierdimin!” I cried. “Watch out!”
I unleashed double Flame Jets on the body of my old avatar, but they parted around Kromgorn just like they had around the Lich.
They must both be wearing temporary damage shields!
The highest level ones were consumable items that lasted for only a short period but absorbed thousands of points of damage… long enough for him to ignore my spells while he dealt with Topper, anyway. We needed to focus all of our firepower on it to knock it out in time. Topper was still dazed from Krom’s Battle Rush skill, inflicting a penalty to his combat stats, but he did his best to deflect Kromgorn’s blows while I kept my jets pumping out damage onto the barbarian’s spell shield.
“Lee! Help me burn down his shield! Lee?”
Where was Lee? I needed his DPS and needed it now! But then I saw that instead of stepping into the fray to join me, the handsome dark elf was backing away from the half-giant barbarian, his eyes wide, shaking like a leaf. The sorceries that had been swirling at his hands winked out.
“Pull yourself together, Lee! Come on! We can beat him!”
Lee whipped his head from side to side and took another step backward.
“N-no. I can’t. This was a mistake. We’re making a horrible mistake!”
Kromgorn glanced over at Lee and smirked. “A mistake you’ll soon be punished for,” he growled.
Lee whimpered and fell to his knees, covering his head with his hands. “I’m sorry, master Vierdimin! Please, please forgive me… th-they confused me.”
As Kromgorn’s blade crossed with Topper’s once again in another, ringing blow, Lee flinched and began to crawl toward the far wall, fleeing the fight. I could see that I wasn’t getting through to him no matter how much I pleaded.
He’s too afraid of Vierdimin—it’s all up to me now. But can I pierce the shield in time?
But maybe that was exactly what he wanted! We only had a few moments before the servers came down. How could we fight the Lich if I blew all my mana fighting my old avatar?
Topper was thinking the same thing. “Go, Lacey!” he cried. “I’m expendable. I’ll deal with Kromgorn.”
I broke away and ran across the room to the Lich’s throne, where Vierdimin sat motionless. It looked like he could only pilot one avatar at a time, even if he could hop between them, so the lich would be totally defenseless except for his damage shield while he battled Topper. I wasn’t too late to stop him, then!
As I reached the twisted, black throne, I reacted instinctively and grabbed for his staff with two hands, trying to wrench it out of Vierdimin’s grip. But it didn’t budge, and immediately I felt foolish. Of course I couldn’t just rip his equipment away from him. If it was that easy to steal someone’s weapon, players would do it all the time. Instead I took a step back and unleashed my Flame Jets once again on the Lich’s damage shield. With 42 Charisma and a sustained blast from my highest damage spell, even the best consumable damage shield in the game couldn’t last that long.
ATTN ALL PLAYERS: Game servers will be shut down for a realm-wide restart in 4 minutes. We apologize for the inconvenience.
This close up, I could see the shield growing lighter as my white-hot flames rapidly ticked away at its health. I had to burn through and obliterate Vierdimin before he found a way to finish Topper off! Good thing raid tanks didn’t go down so easy.
Then I heard Topper cry out in agony. I looked behind me to see Kromgorn holding his two-handed blade high with a single hand, using his Titan’s Grip ability as they crossed swords, but with his other hand he’d used the momentary opening to slam something into Topper’s midsection: something small, sharp and cone-shaped.
It was just like the cone that had disabled Jazzus. I watched in horror as the same blueish gray splotch of color began to spread slowly across his armor from the point of impact. His arms wavered, the veins in his neck standing out, as Kromgorn drove him down to one knee.
“Topper! No!” I cried. “Lee! Lee, help him!”
I couldn’t afford to stop focusing on Vierdimin, but Lee just held his knees and rocked against the far wall, watching the scene unfold with wide eyes and a horrified expression. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” he muttered in endless repetition.
The blueish gray spread further, overtaking Topper’s limbs, and he made a strangled noise as Kromgorn stepped back, lowering his blade and smirking at the twitching paladin.
His two-handed Lv. 80 Holy Sword of Righteous Flame slipped out of his hands and clattered to the ground at his feet with a hollow, rattling clang. The holy flames winked out with a whoosh of steam like the sword had been plunged into a tempering bucket. I was dying to help, but I had my orders. All I could do was watch. The horror in Topper’s eyes as the pallid grey snaked toward his face like a dull, black-and-white bloodstain was sickening, and then it overtook him—his golden cloak settled around his motionless, stiffening body, its shining color fading to a dull, steel-like silver, and the transformation was complete. Topper had become a lifeless statue, frozen by the GM suspension.
“Burn, burn, burn, damn you!” I hissed at Vierdimin’s damage shield. It was so faint that it was barely visible now, and I knew that I’d almost broken through. I needed just a few more seconds!
But Kromgorn the Barbarian turned away from Topper’s gray, still form and crossed the room toward me with slow, plodding steps, murder in his eyes. The gibbering, rocking form of Lee didn’t even merit a glance from the half-giant, and I was forced to halt my assault on the Lich’s body to deal with this new threat. As I turned to face my own avatar, a lump stuck in my throat, and I realized it was fear—fear that we might actually lose this battle. Kromgorn wasn’t part of The Secret Order. Kromgorn could actually damage me… and he was eight levels higher than I was.
“Lacey the Courtesan,” Kromgorn said, his voice thick with amusement. “You have no idea how much trouble you’ve caused me. But that’s over now. You’re all done. I’ve won.”
It was still so strange to hear my own, former voice coming from the body of my enemy, and I felt a sudden pang of longing to be my old self again. I’d been Lacey for so long that I’d almost forgotten who I really was… it was difficult to see someone else not only playing the character I’d spent so many hours building up, but also using him against me!
“Krom is my character,” I hissed. “How dare you steal him like this. And you’re wrong! We’re going to defeat you.” I nervously wet my lips and thought furiously, trying to decide what to do. I was all alone! There wasn’t time to beat Krom and Vierdimin.
Kromgorn raised an eyebrow. “And how, exactly, do you plan to do that, my cute little courtesan? Three short minutes from now, the server will come down. And as you and your little friends have no doubt puzzled out, I’ll be copying the game state over to my private server as soon as the Warden program comes down, seconds before the servers die. When that happens, I will be as a god to you.”
“Until they find you out! Until they arrest you!”
He smirked and snorted. “Who’s going to tell the authorities? Who’s even going to know what’s happened? You don’t think I’m sloppy enough to leave a trail, do you? And my server equipment i
s very, very expensive. I think my private rig is likely to run on its own, in a secret bunker I’ve prepared to host my own mirror of the server code, for at least 1000 years. More than enough time for me to grow bored of torturing you all.” His eyes and tone grew hard. “Perhaps you ought to consider whether you’d like to spend your last few minutes battling your new, dark god, or whether you’d like to give up and throw yourself on my mercy in the hope that I’ll remember your final choice, as your cowering friend Lefay over there has done.”
I gulped deep breaths of air, my breasts heaving and my hands curled into fists as I stared him down. He was so confident. So smug. So… unbeatable. My confidence started to leak away from me bit by bit.
Maybe I couldn’t win. Maybe I wasn’t good enough. Maybe Vierdimin was right.
He must have read the hesitation in my eyes, because his smirk cracked into a full smile. He slung his two-handed sword back over his shoulder and folded his massive arms, standing in front of me as though he was totally unconcerned about what I might do.
“It’s over, Lacey. You wouldn’t have time to defeat me and stop my plan now, even if I failed to lift a single finger in my own defense.”
ATTN ALL PLAYERS: Game servers will be shut down for a realm-wide restart in 2 minutes. We apologize for the inconvenience.
My shoulders slumped and I sank to my knees. I knew he was right. I shivered in the cold air of the tower as Lee’s muttering broke into choking, fearful sobs. Topper’s dead eyes looked on in stony silence.
“I’ll give you one, final chance to redeem yourself and make up for the all trouble you’ve caused,” Kromgorn said. “You see this avatar I’m in? Your character, as you say? I won’t need it soon. I plan to ascend to an even more powerful shell once I become the master of the game. Swear allegiance to me as your friend Haxor did, betray your friends, and I will allow you to inhabit this avatar for the eternity on my server, instead of the sex-fueled, mincing, courtesan that you now control. Think carefully, Lacey. A millennium is quite a long time. Do you really want to be a delicate, luscious woman forever? Not that I won’t be able to find plenty of jobs for you as Lacey, too…”
