Continue Online The Complete Series

by Stephan Morse

  “It’ll be good gold. I’m sure a lot of people on the black market would pay for a statue of her.” Requiem smiled and stepped back.

  Requiem was probably right. Jean was a fairly good-looking woman, for an untouchable Voice who was already claimed by a wall of muscle. Though I imagined a statue of Vlad would stomp through and recover Jean’s.

  The two sized each other up, one with a smile, the other with disgust.

  “No! I won’t let you do that to her!” Frankenstein said. I couldn’t tell which part of him was acting anymore.

  “Jean probably wouldn’t like it either,” I muttered.

  They were close now. Something was about to happen, and I wanted to be able to get in there.

  “Ahhh!” Frankenstein roared, and that red squiggly energy poured in from all over the castle. “I’ll kill you, brat!”

  “Why is it all you adults think you’re so tough?” Requiem said calmly.

  He started chanting. I shuddered. He would do his chant and pop that black hole, then it would be my time to move. All the other opportunities wouldn’t stack up compared to my plan.

  “I call upon the power that overcomes all!” Requiem shouted.

  I had enough time to mentally barf. [Lithium] was a terrible language to understand.

  Frankenstein kept roaring like something out of a cartoon gone wrong. Bodies from all over the castle collapsed. Red swirls of energy like the ones he used to travel and escape slithered all over the castle.

  “Ghost of a dead sun! Shadow of a singularity! Draw all into your grasp! Let nothing escape!” Requiem pulled out his sword.

  I watched as the blue aura about him brightened and seemed to reach a sky-blue peak. Once again it compressed. First to his arms, then hands, and finally up the sword. His weapon shone like a small blue sun.

  “I’ll never let you take her!” Frankenstein sounded grotesque. Whatever he had done seemed to pump his body up to an incredible size. His body appeared to have cracks where bright red glowed through. His clothes somehow adjusted to fit his new swollen size. A red hulk with a frilly neckpiece and coattails was just wrong.

  Would calling out to Frankenstein be of any use? I could warn him that Requiem was about to suck his face into a black hole. In the time it took me to figure out what was best, Frankenstein charged.

  I bit my nails and worried. Requiem dove in with his one blade. Frankenstein whipped to one side and dodged. The dot of doom stayed on his sword. They bashed around a few more times, each pass making Requiem look more annoyed.

  “Enough!” Requiem shouted and yanked off the necklace. He threw it onto the ground with his free hand.

  Before, the small eyeball necklace had only given single flashes, enough to stun Frankenstein each time he tried to escape using the red energy. This time, the world went white. There was no sound other than both Travelers yelling.

  [Dark Vision] didn’t seem to care. It cleared in time to see Requiem drive his blade into the air before Frankenstein. Blue hung on the blade’s tip like a water drop rolling off. The Traveler who had been my former master hopped back and prepared to lean against the pulse of gravity. This was my chance.

  “Letthestabbingshappen!” I shouted.

  I used two [Blink]s to quickly get behind Requiem. One end of my weapon was planted into the ground as a prop. My strength wasn’t enough to do this alone. The [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] extended in time with a black hole’s pulse.

  As force slammed Requiem back, the tip of my weapon slid through his armor. I watched in happiness as system messages popped up.

  Defender failed awareness check, dodge check, reaction check: [Unexpected Strike] Adds 150% Damage

  Weapon braced, damage added

  Pressure on defender, damage added

  Attacking weapon exceeds remaining armor value

  Requiem’s health bar hit bottom. All of it, all the way down to zero. He had enough left to turn his head in broken confusion and glare at me. I gave a wide smile and displayed all my teeth while waiting out the last of his black hole ability.

  Part of me felt guilty for sitting on the sidelines this entire time. Being a frail [Red Imp] meant I had no good method to solo Requiem. This had been the chance I’d waited for.

  Frankenstein’s health bar also hit zero. Despite my warning of the black hole move, the issue of losing Jean’s statue had turned him inside out with rage. Most of an arm and the side of Frankenstein’s face vanished into the depths of Requiem’s attack. Everything around us had dragged across the landscape because of the pressure extended by a super move.

  It was just me. The entire castle with all these bits and pieces of dead monsters was lifeless. This was a landscape of strange goodies and possible loot items that any other Traveler would be proud of. Both Travelers had been removed from competition, and it was just me.

  I also felt rather sick. It was one thing to try to kill someone, but another to actually do it. What had started with two humans in a forest months ago now ended with me literally stabbing a man in the back. That was when I found out it was possible to feel both repulsed and elated at the same time.

  Slowly, I flew over to Frankenstein to check his body. The Traveler had faded away once his health bar had been brought to zero. Nearby was a clearly glowing object. I lifted it up for an [Inspection].

  There, this was the object that these two had been fighting over. There should be a second one on Requiem’s body. Maybe I could put these two pieces together and complete the quest myself.

  I turned to find Requiem’s half and be done with this whole bit of nonsense. Being a [Red Imp] was neat in some ways, but it was way past time to move on. Everything would be done soon, and Xin would be safe.

  But Requiem’s body was not impaled on the tip of my weapon. The [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] sat there alone, digging into the ground.

  “What? Wheredid hego?” I asked.

  “You,” said a voice shaking with rage.

  “OhVoices, now what?” I managed to get part of a shout out before everything ended in an abrupt squeak. “You!” How on earth was the twerp still alive? It was completely impossible. “You died! I sawyou die!”

  “Give. Me. That. Now.” Requiem was trembling with anger. I had never seen him so upset. His eyes were practically dark bottomless pits.

  He threw me to the ground, and a dazed message popped up on my screen. I tried to focus the [Blink] ability, but failures popped up repeatedly due to the confusion. Requiem yanked the quest piece out of my hand.

  My vision was doubled up. The [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] was out of reach. I tried to focus on activating any ability.

  “And as for you,” Requiem said, squeezing my neck. The [Red Imp] body had tiny hands. They made no dent against the bigger teen’s grip. “Did you think I didn’t know you were still around?”

  “What?”

  “Who’s the stupid one now?” He slapped me again. “Throwing objects? Thinking you’re sneaky?”

  “What isgoing on?” I had believed my meager [Red Imp] form was a low enough profile amid all the chaos going on down here.

  “Thinking I wouldn’t have something prepared in case you dared to show up?” Requiem completely ignored my high-speed protests. “You can’t really kill me.”

  “Howdidyou!” Then I saw it—the glint on his finger. That ring looked almost exactly like the one I had received for a glitch. Now everything made sense. Requiem had the same ring Hermes did, [Howard’s Phylactery].

  I tried to remember exactly how that item worked. My one read through had implied it stored health for a rainy day. That meant Requiem either found his own during the course of gameplay or stumbled across a glitch in the world.

  “No, nonono why doyou! No! Youfound one!” I rambled off a wall of words in panic. Killing him once had been hard enough. There was no more black hole super move. First I had to get away. I tried to focus on triggering [Blink].

  Requiem slammed my body against the ground and my wings were overcome wi
th pain. It felt like my shoulder blades had cracked. “None of that now.”

  “Dammit! Ihateyou!” I screamed between rapid huffs.

  “The feeling’s mutual.” He lifted his blade and got ready to stab it down.

  I focused my attention on the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift]. A spear popped into my hand instantly, but there wasn’t enough durability and time to do more than stab at him. My tail curled, then jabbed into Requiem’s leg. I turned toward his foot and sank my teeth into a toe. My small arms drove the weapon forward without deliberate aim.

  He stumbled and backed off with a snarl. I immediately [Blink]ed and came in behind him. My [Red Imp] body had sharp teeth and I latched onto his neck and tore. We flailed around as he banged into one object after another. I hung on and tried to imagine my tail stabbing him over and over. Hopefully the ARC would pick it up.

  We crashed into a third wall and another dazed message popped up. I had enough time to look up as Requiem twisted his ash blade and slashed downward.

  I put the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] up to defend, but it had no durability. My strength wasn’t enough. The health bar of my [Red Imp] character shattered.

  Summons status being released

  Contract released

  Resurrection not possible

  A blast of sensation crossed my face. Rapidly behind it was a sinking chill. The world went crazy with color. Pulses of energy flew by, distorting Requiem’s face. He looked pained, but the health bar above him showed a sliver of life left. I couldn’t feel my hands or legs. The odd sensation of having a tail and wings vanished as well.

  Above all that was a sense of foreboding. The world snapped into view. The landscape was amazingly bright compared to the dull landscape of Requiem’s portion of the game.

  Quest: Desperate Summons

  Difficulty: High

  Status: Failed

  An entire wall of pop-up items displayed. None of them mattered but the one. The box that spelled an end to all my efforts. There was noise coming from all around me. People were shouting, and it sounded like a war. Name tags floated above people attacking each other.

  It took a moment to register. Like avoiding the realization would prevent anything from going wrong. I mentally tried to back up, to reload from a save point so that everything could be wished away.

  My eyes were glued to the quest notice. A clear sign of my failure. Last time, I had been unaware of her passing until hours later. There had been no one to blame. This time, it was all my fault. I could have saved Xin, but I failed. Everything went white and I screamed.

  Session Thirty-Eight — Insane Reality

  The screaming didn’t help. Facing the consequences of my halfhearted efforts had me so upset that the ARC actually started losing connection. A small message to one side advised me of stability warnings.

  Shazam stood nearby. She wiggled one thumb up, one down in the “which” motion. I felt dizzy and she was moving rapidly. My brain couldn’t keep up. My head hurt and heart felt heavy.

  “Terrible. Terrible. It’s all wrong,” I muttered.

  The admission made Shazam raise an eyebrow. I put up my hand to forestall any more questions. There was too much going on for me to handle explaining it to her on top of everything else.

  I wrote a note to James and chewed my lip. “How can I fix this?” The question should be right up his alley. I closed my eyes and counted, tried to remember dance steps, hummed, anything to distract myself from my clear failure. It felt like sitting in the van again, waiting to identify Xin’s body. To be confronted with reality.

  No. This was a game. Xin was dead. Yet this was like holding on to her memories. Whatever. There was no sane way to justify myself to another human being. Any reasoning being used would be the result of half-desperate madness.

  It was hard to decide if I was angry at the Voices for holding Xin’s recreation and memories over my head. Maybe what I felt was self-loathing for failing. Or frustration at Requiem for being so goddamned self-centered that he needed to bone everyone over to make a few dollars in the real world.

  Heat fed back through my ARC, letting me know about an incoming message. I jerked the tube’s lid off and ripped the page a bit while trembling. The note was short and came with a projection of James’s face.

  Hermes,

  I do not have an answer right now. Deliver your remaining messages if you are able. I will discuss with the others what options remain.

  -James

  Deliver the letters. Okay. I would hand them over personally if that was what it took. If it helped Xin, these scrolls would become suppositories for some poor soul. There were two remaining. Shazam and my autopilot must have taken care of the others.

  My hand shook as I accessed player inventory. Two items with burning borders displayed on the interface. I pulled them out and let the Continue Online world provide me with a quest beacon.

  Both were nearly in the same place. This might be possible. I would deliver the messages promptly. But there was a battlefield between them and me. Most people were divided into two groups with scattered people in between.

  “Goodness.” I really looked at the war in front of me for the first time. The scene was madness incarnate. The castle on one side was under siege.

  Shazam plopped down nearby. I turned away from a field of people yelling to look at her.

  “I need to get in there.” I pointed at the castle. My quest markers clearly bobbed up and down over there. Katelyn and Cathryn were my intended recipients.

  She nodded, then shrugged.

  “Are you going to help?”

  There were at least six creatures that looked like giants. From here, only a few of the fighters were obviously players similar to me. One had a pack of dogs swarming along a flank of the enemy attackers. Spell effects went off as enemy mages cast bolts at each other.

  Her head shook. One finger pointed at me.

  “My problem, huh?” I tried not to be angry with her. Shazam had already done a ton for me as a player and for my autopilot. She’d gathered me a lot of little skill-ups for Hermes while I was away as a [Red Imp]. A good deal in fact. I was still trying to flick away a sea of plus-ones and minor Rank increases.

  Shazam nodded.

  “Did the Voices tell you that?” I asked while popping away something about [Wilderness Survival] increasing.

  She nodded again.

  Great. I had failed to deliver on my second real quest with them. Finding another way through this problem had to be accomplished on my own. My weapon skills showed minor increases. [Blade Dancer] went up along with [Actor]. I tried not to feel upset at gaining all these stupid [Actor] Ranks for being a [Red Imp]. It felt like getting rewarded for failure. Or grade school all over again, where the teacher very happily said “nice try” but handed me a D.

  “Any suggestions?”

  Shazam stood and pantomimed swinging a bat. Armor jingled as her shoulders got into the motion.

  “Go down swinging?” I looked away from my battle with the system messages to focus on her.

  She shook her head again. Then one arced arm pointed far into the distance.

  “Swing for the fences?”

  She nodded and plopped back down. All I had to do was deliver these messages and the Voices might provide me more information. Fine, I could do that. There was precious hope.

  Dusk was conked out nearby. It was hard to tell why he was so exhausted. The little guy had probably terrorized all the small creatures around here for days then decided to take a nap. Maybe he was in a depressive funk. I lifted him gently and handed the small [Messenger’s Pet] over to Shazam.

  “Can you watch him for me? I-I’m not sure what will happen to him down there,” I asked.

  Shazam nodded, then shrugged. Her hand pointed downward a few times. It was hard to see the gesture over the last few messages that had piled up.

  “Yeah, I’ll clear these on the way. Maybe there’s something useful.” I held little hope that anything neat
had happened.

  Her answering thumb-up was the only encouragement I got on the way down the hill.

  I muttered about each silly message. There were bonuses to [Brawn] and [Coordination] among other things. Something in here mentioned a new skill called [Rage]. It was an apt response to my anger, but something about it felt decidedly high school drama.

  That message went away as I neared the end of my pile. The last three made me stop in my descent and stare at the screen.

  Ultimate Edition User Grant Legate,

  It has been brought to the attention of our Problem Resolution Program that your character was somehow bugged or impacted by a systemic error.

  Error noticed: Bi-Location

  This error may have caused issues when attempting to log on to the world of Continue.

  Since your autopilot was still in effect in both locations, we have merged the [Bound] items stored therein. Certain traits and skills have also been migrated over to your primary character.

  This error should not happen again. Thank you for your continued support of Trillium International and the world of Continue Online.

  Note: This message is automated. Any responses will not be addressed.

  – Trillium Problem Resolution Program

  What in the name of all the Voices was this about? Was this their clever way of rewarding me for trying to play the [Red Imp]? My tube heated up and another message popped in from the Voices. Momentarily, I set aside the issue of Xin. I pulled out the message and read it.

  HERMES!

  ACT NOW!

  Ignore him, Hermes. He’s just a little wound up if you know what I mean.

  AWWW YEAH!

  Anyway, we’ve settled on a reward for your earlier suggestion.

  I’M ONLY WEARING A BOW TIE RIGHT NOW!

  So Vlad and I worked within the tools allowed to us to give you a little slice of your Spite character. I think he’s kind of cute too. I may find other uses for him later, and since you’ve lost control, he’s all mine now.

  ENJOY!

  – Jean and Vlad

  “Goodness,” I muttered.