by Harper North
His command booms over the city, shaking buildings. Wind blasts. The Golgan Drone unfreezes and sails for us. Buildings bleed giant insects, expelling them in a raging flood. Far above, Golgan ships deploy fighters, which swarm and descend like a metal storm.
“We’re screwed,” Atlas shouts.
Coco, Atlas, and I huddle together. Even top-level players wouldn’t stand a chance against this.
“I may . . .” The Hermit says. “I may have more power in this universe than I anticipated. Aldea responds to intelligent AI.”
“Then do something!” I shout.
“And that’s in all caps!” Atlas adds.
The storm closes in as Aldea stands in place, raising his arms and casting his red and black face to the sky. Golgans part around him, racing for us, pincers ready.
The Hermit steps forward and raises a hand.
The onslaught slows to a crawl and freezes. Golgans hover overhead, having frozen in midair. The Fighters do the same. The Drone hovers feet above us, ready to strike but unable.
But I can move.
I can shoot.
I fire at Golgan after Golgan, dropping health bars to nothing as Aldea watches. None of them shatter. Everything has stopped except for us and The Hermit.
“You can’t mess with my universe,” Aldea says. “What do you think you are?”
The Hermit keeps his gloved fist raised. “I am an evolving AI with a quest to understand physical beings and attain enlightenment.”
“I already enlightened you,” Aldea says, dropping his arms among the frozen Golgans. His red eyes flash with rage. “They exist to follow an order. Feed them, and they fall in line!”
“Hermit—” I start.
Throwing his arms out to the side, Aldea equips a pair of metal gloves that glow red on the palms. He smiles as he points each palm at Gen_W’s fighters and the few ICC fighters who have returned. With a twist of his wrists, twin blasts of red energy explode from his gloves, engulfing the fighters. Their forms flash to skeletons—or metal parts, if Android—before snapping to dust and raining to the ground.
Gen_W. All her fighters. The ICC hires. They’re all piles of dust. Aldea’s attack has left only the frozen Golgans alive.
And The Hermit flinches as if something pains him.
“Hermit!” I shout. Sweat snakes between my fingers as I aim my 5th Tier Scope at Aldea. But if I shoot, he’ll turn on us faster.
“He killed them,” The Hermit says. “I sense it in the code. Their DNA is no more.”
“In real life?” Atlas shouts.
My Scope trembles. I’m shaking. Aldea lowers his hands and stares me down. I feel as if he can look into the depth of my being through my Scope.
“Yes,” The Hermit says.
We’re going to die. Aldea is worse than I thought. I can’t see his level, but I have no need. He’s playing on god mode.
He’s the new ICC and he wants everyone.
The Hermit points his fist at Aldea, sending frozen Golgans to crash into him. But the NPC’s never strike. They swirl in a tornado around Aldea as The Hermit trembles, trying to fight back.
“My power does not match Aldea’s,” he says. “I cannot destroy him. You must leave.”
The Hermit is my friend. I trust him.
He whirls and faces us, expressionless. But he raises his hand with care and places it on Coco’s shoulder first. She vanishes as if she’s logged out.
Behind The Hermit, Aldea’s Golgans fall to the ground. He lifts his gloves toward us, which glare like a pair of evil eyes—
“Goodbye for now,” The Hermit says, clamping his hands down on me and Atlas.
Everything fades to black as I fall.
Atlas falls beside me. I reach out, taking his hand as we plummet through darkness. In a gentle whoomph, we land on a grassy plain with two suns overhead and a purplish sky. Coco stands feet away, whirling and surveying our new surroundings.
Aldea’s gone.
“The Hermit!” Atlas shouts.
“He’s not here,” I say, searching the field. Hairless grazing creatures mill around a distant space station, shining in the sunlight.
And then a purple, shimmering glow forms between us and the station. I breathe a huge sigh of relief as I think of Aldea and what he could have done to The Hermit. The black-armored form of the Admin solidifies while lifting one hand in a greeting.
“Goodbye for now?” Atlas says. “More like goodbye for a few seconds.”
“I don’t understand,” The Hermit says. “I meant what I said.”
“You idiot,” I say, spreading my arms for a hug. Yes, a hug. Having been with Atlas first, The Hermit must know what the gesture means.
“I still do not understand.”
“Where are we?” Atlas asks after I give up on the hug.
“Planet Kapapa,” The Hermit explains. “It is far from Planet Golgoro. It seems I now have the ability to teleport players.”
“You have a lot of abilities,” Coco says.
“I have only just begun to discover them. But Aldea is very powerful.”
“Can he find us again?” Atlas asks.
The Hermit shakes his head. “I have used my Admin abilities to once again shield the three of you—”
“Log out,” Coco says. “Renton needs to know his AI is out of control. There’s no telling what it will do.”
I hate to leave The Hermit, but he nods in agreement. “You need to be safe,” he says. “But I am meditating, and—”
“There’s a problem,” Atlas says, waving his arms in an obvious attempt to access his menu.
I do the same, sweeping over my menu and blocking my view of everything else. Just like in the old Binding, blue text on black tells me how long I’ve been in the game, only this time, there’s no message telling me I need to rest. I press the log out option.
ERROR
I press it again.
ERROR
“Are you kidding me?” I ask. “Coco?”
“I think I’m getting what you’re getting,” she says.
“I have meditated, and it seems that Aldea has altered the game’s code,” he says. “The logout option has been disabled.”
“What?” I ask, sweeping my menu out of the way.
My log bursts to life.
Every universe needs conscious life to expand. An old universe dies today. A new one is born. May the conscious minds of the old enter my world and drive it forward. I will feed them wealth and power. They will feed me control, propagating the true balance of things. I seize them, bringing them into my realm.
Forever.
“This is not a good message,” The Hermit says.
“It’s downright bad,” Coco says.
I shift leg to leg. “Does that mean—”
“Look!” Atlas shouts.
All around us, players appear from nowhere, having just logged into the game. I spot the familiar Cyborgs, Androids, Humans, and Merans. All have usernames. Two dozen occupy the field, turning around and facing each other, confused. One Human dodges the large grazing animals.
“What is this?”
“I was just in a raid!”
“Glitch!”
“Where’s an Admin? You! What’s going on?” A female Meran avatar rushes The Hermit, eyes demanding answers.
“It appears,” The Hermit says with calm, “that all of the players in the original Binding have been transported to this new game version, which they cannot escape.”
“So much for tact,” I say.
It’s chaos. Though only two dozen players stand on our map, players must be arriving all over the universe, scattered on various planets and space stations. Aldea is populating his realm as we stand here. Anyone logged in arrives now, and anyone logging in later gets a surprise. I hold Atlas’ hand as I watch a livid Cyborg try to log out, judging from his hand movements. Then he throws a Ground Bomb on the grass and steps on it. The blast empties his health bar and he vanishes.
“Maybe we
can—” Atlas starts.
The Cyborg respawns.
“Are you kidding me?” he shouts to everyone within earshot. “We’re stuck?”
Coco stands beside me. “We’re stuck.”
Her words strike a Laser Blade into my heart. Billions from Earth and Mera now populate Aldea’s twisted universe. The masses have gone from cubicles and tiny apartments to actors in Aldea’s control games. We’re here to feed him, just as we existed to feed the ICC.
“Hermit,” I say. “How much power do you have here?”
He says nothing at first, as if he’s meditating. My heart races. The Hermit is our only hope at surviving what’s to come. In this world, death can play for keeps.
“I am evolving,” he says at last. “I am your friend, and I will help you to escape.” He steps forward and places his hand on the top of his black helmet.
The chatter quiets as people watch.
The Hermit’s Admin form snaps to swirling ones and zeros. At first, I fear he’s found the only way out of Aldea’s realm without us, but as the binary code flies into the sky, I realize a new form stands before us. Shimmering blue and now donning a dark blue robe with light blue stripes, The Hermit resembles a sky-like version of Aldea. Seven feet tall and with bluish skin like that of the Maxa, he faces us and manages a smile. Facial expressions are new for him because he struggles to get it right. But his eyes give off a peaceful blue light, and his form radiates the same energy, as if he’s made of solid light. A single diamond tattoo covers the top of his bald head, an homage to The Binding itself. To the glue that holds the Universe together.
“I have fully meditated on this world’s code,” he says. “I understand everything now.”
“No more meditating,” I say. “Yes!”
“You are happy.”
“Guys,” Coco says, taking a hesitant step back.
The sky darkens. Players peel their gazes from The Hermit and turn toward the sky. Weapons equip.
Swallowing my fear, I look up.
Three city-sized Golgan ships hover far overhead, glowing green as energy trails fade behind them. The giant insect-like craft must hover kilometers above, but I stare at Atlas and equip my 5th Tier Sniper Scope.
Despite The Hermit’s help, Aldea has detected us.
Now he’s coming for the kill.
End of Book Two
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More Titles by Harper North & David R. Bernstein
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Acknowledgements:
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