The Dead Fortress: A LitRPG Epic (World of Samar Book 3)

by LitRPG Freaks

  “What?”

  “I said you’re lying. Harrison always thought it was strange he managed to snag an invite to this beta test,” she went on. “Did you want him to come to see what would happen with him? Why?”

  Dennis held up his hands as the three moved in on him. “Now hold on just a moment. I invited him because he used to be a top gamer, and still is.”

  “Then why do they want him so bad?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You’re still lying and I don’t like liars.” She wished in that moment they were in game so she could beat the truth out of Dennis and not get herself arrested for assault. “Tavin and Valen have attached themselves to him and I want to know why.” She took another threatening step closer and Dennis cowered.

  “Alright! Just, hold on. I brought him here because I was looking for the best player.”

  “To do what?”

  He licked his lips and whispered, “To do what I couldn’t and defeat them in the end, all three of them. To destroy the program from the inside out.”

  “Why can’t you just delete them and be done with it?” Alana argued.

  “It’s not so simple. They’re not just in the game anymore,” he uttered, and his eyes darted over their heads towards one of the intercom speakers that filled the facility.

  Callie glanced upwards at it, then back at him, horrified. “They’re in the building’s servers?”

  “This is a smart building. It’s all connected on the same network. I never thought they would evolve so quickly and leave their world to come to ours.”

  “No, no this is insane,” Jimmy yelled. “You’re crazy! We’re talking about a computer game!”

  “A computer game with a very smart AI that has adapted itself,” Dennis said. “I’ll admit I never saw it going this far, but it has.”

  Callie moved towards the door.

  “Where are you going?” Alana asked.

  “Harrison, I’m getting him out of this damn building before the game or this man destroys him.” She was out the door even as Dennis called for her to stop. She ignored him and went to find Harrison, pack up his crap, and high-tail it out of there. Screw the money. She didn’t want it anymore. This place was crazy and no longer about a game. Now it was about a man’s life, all their lives.

  Jimmy and Alana caught up to her and, to her surprise, Dennis was right behind them. He didn’t say a word, but followed along through the corridors, bringing members of his staff with him. Callie worried he would try to stop her from leaving, as she wasn’t staying here another night. They reached Harrison’s door and she called out for him, but he didn’t answer. Not caring who saw, she entered in the code for the door and it slid open.

  “Harrison? We have to talk to you,” she started, but the room was empty. “Where is he?” Jimmy peered into the empty bathroom and shook his head. “Where the hell is he!”

  “Find Harrison Harper,” Dennis said over his shoulder. “Quickly.”

  One of his team had a table in their hands and Callie peered over his shoulder to see feeds from security. “He’s in the lab,” the man said and Callie cursed, bolting through the facility to get to him.

  The doors were locked and Dennis fumbled unlocking them. She burst through and rushed towards his station. He was laid back on the table, the headgear on, and the monitor recording his activity.

  “Where is he in game?” she asked, frantic. “How do we find him?”

  Dennis’ fingers flew across the keyboard, but the screen glitched in and out of view. “It won’t let me in,” he mumbled, trying again, the computer beeping loudly. “I’m locked out.”

  “Of the computer?”

  “No, of the servers.” He stared at them, then back at Harrison. “I can’t manually log him out.”

  “What if we just take off the headgear?” Jimmy asked, already moving to do it. Dennis yelled in alarm and stopped him. “What?”

  “You could harm his brain. His mind is linked to the game. Disrupting the waves transmitting from the computer to his neurons could irreparably damage him.”

  The horror of what was going on sunk in as Callie reached for Harrison’s hand. “Are you saying…he’s stuck in the game? For good?”

  “Unless he logs out himself, he’s trapped.”

  Callie stared around the lab and settled in at the station right beside Harrison.

  “What are you doing?” Dennis asked.

  “I’m going in to drag his ass out kicking and screaming,” she snapped. “I’m not leaving him in there so your wife can continue to torment him for her amusement.”

  “My wife is not a bad person.”

  “No,” she seethed, “no maybe she wasn’t, but putting her in this game changed her. She’s not your wife anymore, Dennis. She’s someone else and she has to be stopped.” Callie hooked up the headgear and one of the staff sighed before finally walking over to help her. “Thank you.”

  The man nodded stiffly. Alana and Jimmy exchanged a glance, then situated themselves at two more stations as the techs hooked them up to.

  “We need to know where he is,” Callie told Dennis.

  “I might be able to get into the system from the other lab,” he said after a long stretch of silence. “I can’t guarantee what will happen once you’re in there.”

  Callie bobbed her head. “Understood. Just get us to Harrison.”

  The three tables were tilted back and the players closed their eyes, waiting to enter the world of Samar and potentially not come back out again.

  Chapter 16

  Calista opened her eyes in Hillside and stared around. “Maverick?”

  “Right here,” she said from behind her, and Jimmy shimmered into view a moment later. “Where do you think he is?”

  She pulled up her map and scoured it. “The only place that makes sense I guess.”

  “Vorgan? You want us to go to the Demon world just like that?” Jimmy cursed.

  “Don’t think we have a choice.”

  “How do we get there? The only entrances we know of lead to dungeons.”

  A message appeared in front of Calista’s face. “Hang on, it’s from Dennis I think.” She opened the message and he said he was logging in to join them. “He’s going to join us it seems.”

  “Is that a good idea?”

  “He’s an admin. He’ll be able to get us to wherever Bishop is, hopefully.”

  Hoping they could end this easily, she sent a message to Bishop, telling him they were there and they needed him to say where he was. She waited, but nothing ever came back to her. Bishop wasn’t going to make this easy, or Valen, whoever controlled him now.

  “Found Dennis, or Daemyn,” Jimmy said, and he pointed to a robed man near the front gate.

  “That’s Tavin with him, isn’t it?” Maverick asked. “Why is she here?”

  Calista didn’t like it either, but she didn’t want to waste time arguing. “Let’s go find out.”

  Daemyn was staring at a map when they approached, and Tavin nodded her head at them. “Daemyn has told me of the situation,” she said. “I have come to assist you in finding Bishop and bringing him back.”

  “Back to where exactly?” Calista asked, not sure she wanted this NPC to answer.

  “To your world of course. He cannot stay here with us. He doesn’t belong and, over time, it will damage him irremediably.”

  Jimmy hung his head, rambling a stream of curses as Maverick and Calista exchanged a look of disbelief. “Alright then. Daemyn, where is he?”

  “With Valenastrious, in Vorgan.” He turned the map around to show them.

  “How are we supposed to get there?”

  “With my help.” He pulled an item from his bags and threw it at the ground. “She has him in her fortress, but I can guide us in without having to face down any Demons.”

  “Like what, just walk through walls.”

  He grinned. “Essentially. What’s so good about being an admin if you can’t walk through walls?”
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  The item exploded and a flaming green portal appeared before their eyes. Daemyn stepped through first, followed by Tavin, and the players. Calista braced herself for whatever they would find on the other side. Vorgan appeared as it had the past few times they had entered the Demon world, with an overcast sky flooded by green lightning and dead, gnarled trees. The portal closed behind them and Calista’s gut clenched.

  “Lead the way,” she said to Daemyn as she drew her weapons.

  He turned and took off at a run down the path. Their small group raced towards the looming fortress in the distance, bigger than any they’d seen in this world before. Calista doubted they’d get through this without being attacked by something, but if they were at the home of the Demon Queen, then the chances of them being able to kill anything here were slim. They’d be killed in one shot that would also probably destroy all their gear.

  Luckily, they reached the fortress without anything getting in their way, sneaking around the side instead of heading up to the main gate.

  Daemyn pressed his hand to the stone and a doorway appeared. He opened it and slipped inside. “Her throne room isn’t far,” he whispered.

  “What do we do when we get there?” Calista asked. “We can’t take her on.”

  “Not you, me,” Tavin replied. “She is my problem.”

  “Right, because you created her.” Calista wanted to bang her head against a wall. None of this made sense and part of her swore she was dreaming, having some horrible nightmare about Bishop being trapped in the game and the game itself being alive.

  “I did and it was a grave mistake, but one I can fix.”

  “You’re going to kill yourself?” Jimmy asked, sounding confused. “Or a part of yourself, or however this works. Geez, is anyone else utterly lost right now?”

  “Just focus on getting Bishop,” Calista told him. “We’re here to save his butt.”

  “And if we can’t get him to log out, what then?” Jimmy asked.

  “We will. I’m not leaving him behind.” She could tell he wanted to argue more, but Daemyn picked up the pace as they ran down another passage and another, taking them deeper into the fortress. She doubted they could find their way out again without him and hoped he didn’t wind up trapped in game with Bishop.

  He pressed his hand to another wall and it slid to the right. “We are close, one more corridor and we’ll be at the throne room.”

  “Can you tell if Valen’s there?” Calista asked, but it was Tavin who answered.

  “She is, and Bishop is with her. They are alone.”

  Daemyn held up his hand to pause as a trio of Demons stalked by, all of them level 100. Calista gripped her weapons tighter. They would be useless here, but she wouldn’t go down without a fight. Once they were passed, Daemyn motioned for them to follow and he ran to a set of large double doors at the end of the corridor, flanked by green fire braziers that nearly reached the ceiling.

  “Do we knock?” Jimmy mumbled.

  Tavin stepped up and muttered, “Allow me,” before she kicked in the doors. They swung inward with a bang and Calista cringed. So much for being sneaky.

  “Ah, Tavin, how good of you to visit,” Valen’s growl called out as the group entered, following the other NPC. “I see you’ve brought friends…and Daemyn. Of course.”

  “You have to stop this, Valenastrious,” Tavin raged. “You cannot mess with another’s mind.”

  “Why not? He messed with ours did he not?” she snarled. “I’m simply returning the favor, showing him all we are capable of.”

  Calista ignored their arguing and scoured the room for Bishop when her eyes landed on the Demon seated to Valen’s right. No, not a Demon. Bishop. He sat upright on a throne identical to Valen’s, but his eyes shimmered green and, when he turned to stare at her, the grin that stretched across his face was far from human. “What did she do to you?”

  “Calista, I was hoping you’d come,” he said and stood. “Welcome.”

  “Welcome? That’s what you’re going to say to us?” Jimmy bellowed. “Let’s go, man, we have to get you out of here.”

  “Bishop’s not leaving, not yet at least,” Valen cut in. “We have plans, don’t we, my pet?”

  Bishop nodded and the grin stretched even wider. “That we do.”

  “No, no you don’t belong here,” Calista tried again. “You need to come back with us, right now.”

  “Why would I? Samar is where I’m meant to be,” he said, stalking closer, and Calista’s grip tightened on her weapons. “Vorgan is where I belong. I see that now.”

  “You idiot! No it’s not!” Calista held her ground as he stood barely a foot from her. “You belong in our world, the human world. She’s twisted your mind around. You let her get to you, but we’re here to fix it. Aren’t we?” she added, turning to Daemyn.

  “Ha! You think he can stop us?” Valen cackled darkly as she dragged her fingers over his shoulders. “He’s the reason we’re all in this mess to begin with.”

  “Please,” he pleaded. “I never meant for it to go this far.”

  “But it did and there’s no going back.”

  Calista didn’t care about their quarrel, or Daemyn’s problems with his wife, or dead wife. “Bishop, take my hand. We’ll log out together. We’ll move far away from this mess. We’ll start a life somewhere else with Maverick and Jimmy and the rest of our friends,” she said, dropping her ax back to her hip so she could offer her hand. “In the real world, we’ll do all of that I promise. Just take my hand.”

  A glimpse of the man she knew flickered across his face and his feet staggered backwards, but then suddenly his eyes glowed green and he winked. “Sorry, but I can’t.”

  “Fine, fine,” she said, glancing towards Maverick as she reached for her weapon again. “Then you leave me no—”

  The hit came before she was ready for it, and she slammed back into the wall of the throne room, hitting the stones hard and falling to the floor with a grunt. Maverick roared as she shifted into beast form and Jimmy bellowed as they moved in to attack. If Bishop wasn’t going to go willingly, they’d knock him out, drag him from here, and figure out what to do once they were away from Valen.

  As Calista found her feet, Valen smirked from across the room, clapping her hands. “He is mine now. You failed him, all of you did.”

  Tavin drew her sword from her back and charged forward. “Not yet, you bitch!”

  Valen and Tavin met in a fierce attack, but Calista had no time to watch them. She turned back in time to see Jimmy fly across the room with a yell. Maverick was batting at Bishop, yet, somehow, he was holding his own against her. Calista rushed in, not wanting to hurt Bishop, but they were in game and she needed to subdue him somehow. All of her hits seemed to glance off and he wasn’t even attacking them back. He merely dodged and danced away from them, taking the hits when they landed as if it didn’t hurt at all. Calista glanced at his HP bar and realized why. There was no bar over him, nothing to show if they inflicted damage or not.

  “Damn it, Bishop!” she yelled and caught him in the face with the shaft of her ax. “We’re trying to help you! Wake up!”

  “I have been helped,” he announced. “Valen showed me the truth of this game, this world. I’m not meant to be a hero. I never was.”

  “You’re meant to be a human in the real world!” she argued, swinging her mace wide, but he ducked under it. “You can’t stay in this game forever. Your body will die eventually.”

  “None of that matters now. Samar and Vorgan, that’s where true living happens.”

  “You sound like a brainwashed bastard,” she snapped and swung again, but he reached up and caught the mace in his hand and didn’t let go. “Don’t we mean anything to you? Your friends? Your son?”

  His smile slipped at the mention of his son, but then he glared at her as he dragged her closer. “I don’t have a son,” he said, confused. “I’m a half-demon and nothing more.”

  Calista felt like he sucker punched he
r in the gut. “What? Bishop now, this world isn’t real. It’s a game.”

  “A game? I wouldn’t call a war a game.”

  “No, it’s about an effing computer game that you’re currently stuck in!”

  He sighed and let her mace go. “You can’t defeat me, Calista. None of you can, at least not yet. I’m sorry for betraying you, but Tavin was wrong about me. I’m not a hero.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying I’m with Valen now, on the winning side of this war. She has plans to make this world so much more than it is.”

  Calista shook her head. “You’ve forgotten who you really are? Completely?”

  “I know exactly who I am.”

  She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but attacking him was doing nothing. “Bishop…Harrison, please. This is insane. You sound insane right now! It’s a computer game that Dennis uploaded his wife’s mind to. She’s been twisted around. None of this makes sense. You have to see that!”

  “I see a world of possibilities that were never open to me before.”

  Maverick whacked him hard on the back of the head, catching him off guard. He stumbled forward, trying to remain standing, but Calista hit him again and he collapsed to the floor. She set her weapons aside and between her and Jimmy, hoisted to his feet, dragging him along.

  “Daemyn, let’s go!” she yelled.

  Tavin and Valen were still locked in a fight, with Daemyn watching transfixed before them. Calista yelled again, but too late. Bishop was awake and he yelled in rage. Power exploded from his hands, sending the three of them soaring away from his body.

  “You will not take me from her side,” he yelled, his eyes flaring green. “You will not harm her!”

  He turned his attention to Tavin, bearing down on Valen, and using his bow fired a shot of green fire right at her. It exploded and she screamed in agony as her body was pinned to the far wall of the throne room.

  “No,” Daemyn said. “No…this isn’t possible.”

  Valen smirked as she stalked towards the struggling Tavin. “The time has come for you to leave. We will meet again soon enough. Bishop? Be a dear and show our guests out.”