He could feel the panic inside him grow.
This is it –
And then suddenly there was nothing.
107
Pitch-black silence.
Maybe this is just the mask on my head, Daniel thought. Maybe I’m back in the pod at Varidian.
He tried to move his arms up to take off the VR mask, but nothing happened.
There was no reaction from his body.
Actually, he was pretty sure he didn’t have a body. He sure couldn’t feel it.
He strained his eyes, trying to peer into the darkness –
And then remembered he probably didn’t have eyes at the moment.
So this was dead.
It wasn’t like anything he’d ever expected – at least, not until Eric had described it.
Total blackness.
Absolute silence.
The complete absence of any sensation.
He couldn’t feel anything, smell anything, taste anything, hear anything, see anything.
It was like he was part of the darkness.
He tried to call out Hello? but he had no mouth or tongue or vocal cords to make the sound.
Just his thoughts in endless night, and nothing else.
He began to panic for a moment, wondering if he would be trapped here forever –
And then sight and sound and heat came rushing back.
108
Eric
The next stage of the plan was creating what the Nameless One needed.
First Eric threatened Mike to get the computer password out of him. That part was easy.
Then he lugged the VR unit into the main room of the apartment, put it on, and logged in.
Within seconds he was staring at Mike’s regular apartment. The Dark Figure appeared next to him, a billowing swirl of shadows.
Mike, Eric thought grimly, if you could only see what’s standing in your living room…
“Alright, what do we need to add?” Eric mused aloud as he sat at the computer. He looked at the Dark Figure and said, “Can you show me your code?”
A 3-D hologram of the AI’s computer programming code appeared in the air next to him – but all the words and numbers were packed together into one massive block instead of neatly spaced out. Sort of like if a book removed all the spaces between individual words, and got rid of all the paragraph indents and chapter separations.
Eric guessed that when you were a computer, you really didn’t care about the pretty presentation of coding. You knew what was there intuitively; you didn’t need white space between the lines. A human eating a plate of spaghetti doesn’t separate it all out strand by strand before he puts it in his mouth.
However, there was no way Eric was going to be able to figure anything out in that jumbled mess if the code stayed like that.
“Can you separate out all the functions and put three spaces between them?” he asked. “And every time there’s a semicolon, can you start a new line?”
The Dark Figure complied, and the hologram code immediately began to resolve into distinct blocks.
“Alright… cool…” Eric murmured as he scrolled through the lines of code. “Well, you’ll definitely need TCP, IP, FTP, HTTP, SSL…”
“WHAT ARE THESE THINGS?”
“They’re different protocols for interacting with programs and servers on the internet. Sort of like different languages.”
“WHAT IS A SERVER? IS IT THE SAME AS A SERVANT?”
Oh boy.
Eric was reminded of the joke about two fish who were talking when a third swam by and said, ‘The water’s great today, isn’t it?’ After he’d gone, the first fish turned to the second and asked, ‘What the hell is water?’
“A server is a computer. It’s sort of like the world you’re living in right now… or a dimension. We want to give you the ability to be able to move from dimension to dimension, or world to world.”
Eric began copying different types of code and pasting them in a text file. If he thought the Unnamed One could use it, he added it to the list – even if it was really old and outdated. Wifi, Bluetooth, USB, Spark drive, Bitcoin, Varios, fibre optics… then database protocols: SQL, mSQL, MySQL, and every other flavor; Oracle, Microsoft Access, dBase, Informix…
Just for good measure, he copied and pasted the entire codex and libraries for about a hundred different programming languages: C, C++, Java, Javascript, Magma, NASM, Fortran, Pascal, and too many others to name.
Whatever else, the Unnamed One was going to be the Sorcerer Supreme of accessing data files over the internet.
109
Mira
When Mira came back to the game, the sun was just starting to set, and the sky above her was tinged pink and purple.
She looked at the map and found the name of the forest elves’ city: Aravall.
Her griffin was circling a majestic forest at the bottom of a sheer-walled canyon. She had no idea how long since the griffin had arrived; it might have been ten minutes or ten hours.
The trees beneath her looked to be as big as redwoods, but with far-reaching and intertwined branches. The canopy was almost impenetrable – but she could see individual flames winking through the leaves.
Torches.
Apparently the elves here had some sort of fortress built into the treetops. She hoped the meeting went well; she would love to see how they lived.
The canyon itself was really a valley between a sharp-tipped mountain ridge. There was no plateau for an army to gather, so it would be impossible to use a catapult to attack the forest citadel. An invading army would have to scale one side of the mountain, position themselves on the precarious ridge, and then try to go down the other side.
However, scattered up on the canyon walls were hundreds more torches, one each per outpost carved into the rock. Steps led to some, but other stations seemed accessible only by climbs up sheer stone walls. Though she couldn’t see them in the gloom, she assumed that each post contained at least one archer.
If an invading army tried to come over the sheer walls of the canyon – and the only way Mira could see them doing it was by rappelling down two thousand feet to the valley below – they would have to contend with hundreds of archers ready to cut down their troops.
She figured enemy bowmen could rain down arrows on the forest city from the tops of the canyon ridge – but the forest canopy would be one protection, and she was sure they would have rooftops or barriers erected to make sure nothing else could get through.
All in all, a pretty well-defended set-up. If the city was going to be attacked, it would either have to be from the air – like Mira’s griffin – or by a ground assault.
She was pretty sure Eric could manage either.
Mira guided the griffin down to a clearing outside the main forest, by a stream. The trees were massive – each one was as wide as a two-lane road, and over 200 feet tall – and the forest quickly became dark beyond the most immediate trees on the periphery.
As she was getting out of the saddle, she wondered if she would have to go into the forest to meet the elves – but she didn’t wonder long.
One moment there was only shadows between trees, and then there were two hundred warriors walking out of the tree line, their bows ready and arrows drawn – all pointed at her.
They were tall and lithe and pale-skinned, with pronounced cheekbones and long hair – some golden blond, some jet black. They were dressed in short cloaks with leather belts, leggings, and boots. Their clothes were designed for quick movements. She also noticed that there was an equal distribution of male and females among the archers.
A woman broke away from the pack. She was willowy and blonde with ethereal features, and carried a sword instead of a bow.
“What do you want, dark one?” the woman asked. Her voice was beautiful, though friendly it was not.
And Mira wasn’t sure how much she liked being referred to as ‘dark one’ by a lily white chick.
“My name is Mira,” she started, “and I – ”
“I did not ask your name,” the blonde elf interrupted. “What do you want?”
Mira gritted her teeth, then started again.
“An evil sorcerer has taken over the city of Blackstone with an army from Hell,” she called out, trying to contain her nervousness at speaking in front of so many people. (Computer programs, she reminded herself.) “He crushed Blackstone’s forces in less than an hour. The surviving noblemen are going to surrounding kingdoms to raise an army to march on Blackstone and defeat the sorcerer.”
“Why should this concern us? We care nothing for the follies of men,” the woman answered.
“If they fail and the sorcerer wins, he’s not going to be content with Blackstone. He’ll come here eventually.”
“There are four points of the compass,” the female elf said, “and hundreds of miles between here and Blackstone. No matter how large his army, he cannot attack in every direction. The odds he would come here first are slim.”
“Eventually he will. And in the meantime, many lives will be lost – ”
“Not elven lives.”
Mira frowned. “There are other elves living in Blackstone and the kingdoms around it!”
“That was their choice, and they must live with the consequences,” the woman said haughtily. “If they prefer to live amongst men, they can die with men in their foolish wars.”
“You don’t care that hundreds of thousands of people will die?!”
“By ‘people’ you mean humans? Dwarves? Orcs? Goblins?”
“Yes, and a dozen other races, too!”
“No, I don’t care. In fact, I hope the sorcerer wipes them all out.”
Jesus.
Byrel had told her that the elves wouldn’t want to fight, but nobody had warned her she’d be facing the Shattered Land equivalent of the Aryan Nation.
“Once he does, he’ll come for you,” Mira said.
“Let him come. He shall find it a different proposition to attack the folk of Aravall than other races.”
“What about other elves throughout the Shattered Lands? What if he attacks other cities of our kind?”
“I think you mean of our kind. Not yours.”
Mira gritted her teeth. Racist asshole –
“We are the closest to Blackstone,” the female continued. “If the sorcerer attacks our cousins and we are needed, they will call us, and we will go. But not before then… and we will not go to the aid of any other.”
“But – ”
“Move along, dark one.”
Mira was furious. “Look, you can’t just ignore what’s going on because it’s happening to people you don’t like – ”
The woman raised her hand in the air and gestured with one finger.
Ten arrows ripped through the air and sunk into the ground at Mira’s feet.
Fwip fwip fwip fwip fwip fwip fwip fwip fwip fwip!
Mira stumbled backwards as her griffin screeched and flapped its wings behind her.
The ten who had fired immediately drew another arrow out of their quills – and joined their 190 fellow archers at the ready.
Mira looked around at all the white faces surrounding her, scowling at her, and felt her panic grow.
“Tell your sorcerer that I, Ladriel, and the elves of Aravall await him. If he decides to appear on our doorstep, he will sorely regret it. Until then, dark one, move along,” the female elf said. “And do not return.”
Mira glared at the woman, then climbed back onto the griffin and buckled herself in. Within sixty seconds she was airborne.
The two hundred elven archers kept their arrows trained on her the whole time.
If Eric wins, Mira thought bitterly, I hope he comes for you KKK assholes first.
110
Daniel
When Daniel came to, he was still suspended above the rocky floor of the cave, his silver boots encased in rock and his armor bent 90 degrees at the knees.
He heard a familiar voice: “I think he’s vaking up! Yo, Daniel, cahn you hear me?”
Daniel struggled to pull himself up to a standing position.
“Holy CRAHP, he’s alive!” Drogar hooted.
“Dude, are you alright?!” Vlisil asked, his eyes wide.
Daniel did a brief internal check.
No pain… that was good.
No taste of blood in his mouth.
He felt strong. Alive.
“I think I’m okay,” he said, relieved to hear his own voice.
“Thank God,” Vlisil breathed out.
“Is my throat healed?” Daniel asked, and pulled his chin up as high as he could beyond the neck guard of the armor.
“It’s totally fine, doot,” Drogar said.
“Although your armor’s bloody as hell,” Vlisil said.
Daniel glanced down. What little he could see of his chest plate was covered in sticky crimson.
“How long was I out?”
“Maybe sixty seconds,” Vlisil said.
“Was it… was it scary?” Lotan asked weakly.
Daniel looked over at him with compassion. He knew the droth was on the way out.
“The dying part is scary, just because you’re struggling to stay alive… but once you give up, it’s easy. Peaceful, even.”
“What was it like after that?” Vlisil asked, his voice hushed.
“Endless black. No sensation, no pain, nothing. Just you and your thoughts. It seemed to last maybe sixty seconds, too, so there wasn’t any difference in time.”
Their reactions were as diverse as their appearances: Drogar nodded like he was impressed, Vlisil seemed alarmed, and Lotan looked relieved.
“But it was a total bust,” Daniel said angrily. “I’m still trapped. There’s absolutely nothing we can do to get out.”
“Human,” a tiny, high-pitched voice hissed.
Everyone’s eyes bugged out, then they all whipped their heads around to look at the nearest stalagmite.
Half-hidden behind the rock formation sat a humanoid creature about eighteen inches tall. It was the same size as a capuchin monkey, and had arms and legs and a head, but that’s where the similarity ended.
The thing’s skin looked like fire solidified. Red and orange swirled slowly on yellow, like plasma on the sun’s surface, and flames danced across its body.
Its head was slightly sloped with flaming crests at the back like a triceratops’ skull. Two bright orange embers peered out of the thing’s face, and its mouth was a trapdoor-like jaw underneath the chin.
Everyone stared at the fire monkey as it squatted there on the ground.
“Why did you tell this other one to kill you?” the thing asked. Its voice sounded like the hiss of propane gas formed into words.
“You talk?!” Daniel said excitedly.
“Yes. I have seen many strange things from humans… killing each other, yes… but I have never seen one tell another to kill him.”
Daniel was barely able to contain his excitement; he was absolutely sure this was the game ‘asserting’ itself and trying to lend a hand to getting them out of here. “I was trying to respaw– uh, to die and then come back in another place.”
The thing’s fiery brow furrowed. “It appears you failed.”
“Yeah, it didn’t work,” Daniel admitted.
“Why do you not just leave?”
“We can’t, we’re trapped. Can you help us?”
“The rock binds you?”
“Yeah – can you do something to it?”
The creature walked over to Daniel and touched the black rock around his silver boots. The rocks began to quickly heat up – in fact, within ten seconds they were glowing yellow.
The only problem was, it got intensely hot inside the armor. Which meant that the temperatures the creature was able to generate were extreme. Daniel couldn’t bring up the stats now because the Dark Figure had locked out the menu, but he remembered that his suit added something like +20 Endurance in extremes of heat and cold.
When the tempera
ture became too much, Daniel shouted, “Ow – OW – okay, stop, please, STOP!”
The creature lifted its hand, and the pain faded away as the rock stopped glowing.
“If you cannot bear this, then I cannot help you.”
Daniel began to despair – until he looked up and saw his sword embedded in the stalactite above his head.
“Can you get our weapons out?”
The creature glanced up, then leapt like a money into the air. It grabbed onto the handle of the sword, hoisted itself up so that its clawed feet rested on the pommel, and then touched the sword blade right where it disappeared into the rock.
After a few seconds, the blade began to glow red. Within ten more, it was glowing white.
“Try,” the creature hissed.
Daniel winced and touched the handle – but it wasn’t overly hot, at least not through the armor.
He applied a gentle downward pressure to the handle. Slowly the blade began to pull free, like a spoon stuck in cold caramel.
“Holy crahp,” Drogar whispered.
Red molten rock came along with the sword, slowly oozing out of the stalactite and covering the blade – but within ten seconds the weapon was free. Encased in a cocoon of glowing rock, yes, but no longer stuck in the stalactite.
The creature jumped off the sword to the ground.
Daniel and the others erupted into cheers.
“YES! Thank you!” Daniel cried out happily as he swung the sword through the air.
The creature cocked its head. “What are you doing?”
“Well, I don’t want to harm the blade, so I’m trying to cool it down. I’m afraid I could bend it if I tried hitting anything while it’s hot.”
The creature gestured with its hand – Bring it down here.
Daniel tilted the sword down and the creature touched the glowing mass of rock around the blade.
The rock cocoon immediately turned black, and the blade stopped glowing and returned to its normal silvery sheen.
Daniel frowned in disbelief. He touched the blade and felt nothing through his armor. Then he held it close to his face – not touching it to his skin, but close enough to feel if the metal was hot.
Shattered Lands 2 The Fall Of Blackstone: A LitRPG Series Page 25
