“Not anymore,” he growled and barreled down on Jimmy. He raised his sword, ready to take him out for good, when a blow hit him in the back of the head. He staggered, off balance, and Jimmy slipped away from him.
“Come on, you piece of trash!”
“Calista. Why are you doing this? You won’t win.”
“No, looks like you won’t win,” she said, nodding to Rosalyn and Godfrey as those of the guild that could attacked the king, weakening him. “She’ll save him and then your queen won’t have either of them to use. You’re going to fail.”
He tilted his head back and forth, but answered with an attack. He drove her backwards, not taking it easy on her. Soon enough, it would all be over and he needed it to be over. Needed the voice inside his mind to cease, needed to lose this guilt over everything he’d done.
He landed a solid hit, sending her mace skittering across the room, but the ax was buried in his shoulder a moment later. He grunted as she yanked it free, whipped around, and aimed for his sword arm, but he parried it and kicked her hard in the gut.
Fury boiled in him even as the voice in his head shouted in triumph telling him this was the time to change, to turn back, but another voice overrode the nagging. Valenastrious. She was here and she would not tolerate his failure. This was all their fault anyway, the heroes. They needed to die. He attacked with all his strength, punching Calista in the face with the hilt of his sword again and again until she sank to one knee, her ax loose in her limp hand.
“Surrender to me!” he yelled, growling down at her.
“Never,” she spat.
He kicked her in the face and she fell backwards. “You can’t win this fight!”
“I won’t give up on you. Not ever.”
He stomped closer, bellowing in rage and kicked her in the side. “You will die! Is that what you want, huh? Do you want to die? Do you want to watch them all die?”
“If that’s…what it takes to get you back…” she trailed off when he kicked her again, enraged by her lack of care for herself or the others, all because of him. Why did she care so much? Why did they all care?
Rosalyn’s high-pitched scream drew the attention of all in the room as she was surrounded by green fire. Godfrey’s arms were outstretched as he held her down, devouring her power with a malicious grin on his face that was not Godfrey’s, but Valenastrious’. The Demons secured the heroes, holding them at sword point as Bishop placed his blade at Calista’s throat, waiting for his queen to appear.
“I told you,” Valenastrious said through Godfrey. “You should have listened to me when you had the chance.”
“The people will not stand for it,” Rosalyn gasped. “They will stand and fight against you.”
“No, they’ll stand and fight for me. I am their rightful ruler, am I not?”
Calista grunted curses at Bishop’s feet, but she didn’t try to attack him again. Smart woman. This fight was over, but the battle would begin soon enough. Godfrey left Rosalyn trapped within the circle of green flames, clasping his hands behind his back as he reached Bishop.
“You have done well.”
“Thank you, my Queen,” he replied, bowing his head.
Kill her! Kill her and be finished with it or she’ll kill Calista!
“And I see you’ve even caught the heroes. Perhaps this will be the end of our troubles with them.” Godfrey knelt before Calista and she spit in his face. Bishop bristled when Godfrey backhanded her and she winced.
“I need to heal her,” Benji said urgently. “Please.”
Bishop had seen these priests heal the others and his heart pounded harder to hear Calista was that close to the end. Godfrey smiled at Benji, lifted his hand, and struck Calista again. The heroes yelled, cursing them to let her go, but Godfrey didn’t listen. Again and again he struck her until she was on the floor, not moving and barely breathing.
“You heroes are all the same,” Godfrey sighed. “You think you own this world because you’re the good guys. Time to let the villains win.”
Bishop stiffened when Calista still didn’t sit back up.
“Take them and the witch. I have plans for our guests.”
The green flames condensed around Rosalyn, binding her arms to her sides, and forced her to her feet. A portal appeared behind the thrones and Godfrey lifted his hand, driving Rosalyn to march towards it. The Red Witch broke out in a sweat, fighting the pull of the Demon Queen’s power, but she was not strong enough to break through the flames. When she started spewing curses, Godfrey snapped his fingers and another flame crawled up to cover her mouth, preventing her from speaking.
They were near the dais when Bishop saw a blur of movement out of the corner of his eye right as the sword was torn from his hand. “No!”
Calista leapt high into the air without a sound. When she reached her highest point, she twisted and aimed the sword straight down towards Godfrey. Bishop sprinted to try and get to her first, but too late. Fire coiled around Godfrey’s feet like a whip falling from his hand and, just when it looked like Calista might land her hit, the fire lashed out, striking her right down the front. She screamed as the others yelled, watching her body launched across the room to land in a heap that did not get up again.
Bishop skidded to a stop, eyes wide, begging her to get back up. But then everything happened at once. Trajan broke free of the Demon holding him and he wasted no time killing the Demons holding a few of the others hostage. Bishop tried to get his feet to move, to go and join the fight, but his eyes were glued on Calista.
“Get her out of here!” Trajan yelled and two of the heroes sprinted to Calista. They hoisted her up between them and her eyes fluttered open. She looked confused, weak, and Bishop’s chest tightened with an overwhelming pain.
“Bishop, let’s go.” Valenastrious stood by the portal, Godfrey’s body on the ground at her feet. Two Demons charged through first, the Red Witch between them. “We will see them again soon enough.”
Bishop was torn. He took one step then another towards the heroes, but then fiery glare stabbed into his back and he hastened to do his Queen’s bidding before she finished off Calista. Or came after him instead.
“Bishop, wait!” Jimmy yelled, but too late.
Bishop stepped through the portal and the throne room disappeared. He landed beside Valenastrious as the Demons dragged the Red Witch to the manacles hanging from the wall beside Tavin. His mind raced, his head throbbing. All he saw was Calista’s body, broken on the floor, so close to death, a final death she could not come back from.
“You,” Valenastrious snapped, and before he could move, she backhanded him hard enough to send him staggering backwards. “You dare disobey me!”
“I did not such thing,” he snarled.
“You should have killed her when you had the chance. Instead, you let her escape, along with the rest.”
“If you’re so powerful, why didn’t you simply kill them yourself?”
Fire whipped out of her hand and wrapped around his throat, choking him as she dragged him back to her. “When the time is right, I will kill every last hero who stands in my way, but until that time, I expect you to do as you are told.”
The fire vanished and Bishop collapsed to the floor, coughing.
“Disobey me again and I will capture your dear Calista and kill her in front of you, slowly and painfully. Do you understand?”
He nodded. “Yes, my Queen.”
“Get out of my sight. Very soon, we will be making our final move and you need to be prepared, body and mind.” She turned her back on him and Bishop slunk away, happy to be away from her and her rage.
You know what you need to do, the voice whispered, softer than normal.
“I cannot,” he whispered in reply. “She’s too strong.”
You can’t let her win. There’s so much more at risk here than this world and it’s about damn time you remember that!
Bishop reached his room. Once i
nside, he closed and locked the door and fell onto his bed, wishing for this all to end.
***
Calista felt like crap. Benji and Aiden stood before her, healing her as quickly as possible for fear her last bit of health would vanish before they could save her. She sat with her back pressed against the wall as Trajan and Arthur helped Godfrey back to his throne. Guards slowly filtered back to their king, now freed of Valen’s influence.
“So is this a win or a loss?” she mumbled, impatient for her strength to return.
“Loss,” Benji replied. “Rosalyn is gone, Bishop is still gone, and you nearly died.”
“But Godfrey’s not possessed anymore,” Aiden added. “That’s a plus, right?”
“Small one. Wish we could’ve gotten Bishop back.”
Calista agreed with him. Despite how the fight went down, her hopes were lifted when it came to getting Bishop back. She had seen the look on his face when he thought she was going to die. He was worried and furious. Whatever was going on inside his mind was pushing him towards the truth and realizing he was not this character.
“Once you’re healed, we’ve been ordered to leave,” Trajan grunted as he approached. “The King wants nothing to do with us, not anymore.”
“But the armies,” Calista argued. “They’re coming for Weston.”
“Yes, but he seems to think Valen will not break through the city’s walls. Idiot.”
The healing light from Benji and Aiden receded and Calista saw her health bar back to full. She stood, shaking out her arms, and ready to get right back in it, but all her gear was damaged and her weapons were broken. Plus, they needed to regroup desperately and talk to Dennis about this development.
“I guess we head back to the house and go from there,” Trajan suggested, sounding lost. “The attack is coming though, we know this. We won’t have long to prepare.”
“And we don’t know if she’s actually going to attack here. The final dungeon with her is in the Gorgoth Mountains.”
“That was the old script,” Calista told Benji. “The new script is there isn’t one. You really think she’s going to have the final showdown away from the main hub of hero activity? She wants to send a message to Dennis and what better way to do that than to attack Weston and destroy it completely?”
“We can ask for volunteers, send out scouts,” Maverick told them. “Might be our only chance to see what her plan is.”
“And we need to send someone to Hillside again to keep an eye on the place. That’s where the army will be coming from if she is going to attack Weston,” Arthur chimed in. “Once we’re back, I’ll send out a message to see who’s ready to help us end this.”
“I guess for now it’s the best we can do.” Calista mentally willed for Bishop to reappear and tell them all he remembered and was ready to fight Valen with them. They didn’t even need that. If they could get Bishop out of the game, they could shut it down for good without a fight. But the only thing that happened the longer they lingered in the throne room was the intensity of Godfrey’s glare. “I think we’ve overstayed our welcome.”
“Right, move out everyone,” Trajan said. “We have a lot to plan and very little time to do it.”
Calista worried they had even less time than they assumed. Whatever Valenastrious was up to, she had everything she needed to carry out her plans as far as Calista knew. How long would she really wait before breaking free and taking revenge against Dennis?
How long indeed?
Chapter 14
Jimmy and Maverick volunteered to lead a small scouting party to Hillside to see what the army was doing. They crept around to a ridge, giving them a higher vantage point inside the destroyed walls.
“They weren’t kidding,” Jimmy whispered. “That’s a lot of Demons.”
“And clearly they are not waiting for us to attack Valen in Gorgoth.” Maverick attempted a count, but the sheer number of Demons was overwhelming. “This is going to be a nightmare. We won’t have enough people to fight against this with just the heroes.”
“You sure?”
“Do you see their levels? Most of the players aren’t high enough to be in this fight.”
Jimmy puffed out his cheeks then grinned. “What if they weren’t just players?”
“Who did you have in mind?”
“The other priests. High Ridge is full of them. They could easily come to Weston to fight and what about the Order? Just because Winston’s gone doesn’t mean we can’t have them fighting by our side.”
Maverick nodded, a slow smile spreading across her face. “I guess we have some messengers to send out, don’t we?” She glanced at the roster. “Calista hasn’t logged back in yet.”
“What do you think her and Dennis are talking about?”
“A way to stop Valen, hopefully,” Maverick mumbled. “Or something’s wrong with Harrison.”
Jimmy sniffed hard and ignored the worry eating away at him. He wanted this to be over and every instinct told him shit was about to hit the fan. With nothing more to see, Maverick said they should go ahead and get back to Weston. They’d started figuring out a plan of defense, but if the other priests and Knights agreed to come and fight with them, it would increase their numbers exponentially. Jimmy and Maverick reached the guild house just as Calista shimmered into view on the doorstep.
“Hey, how’s Hillside looking?” she asked.
“Full of Demons.”
“She’s going to attack here, I know it.”
“And yet the game says she’s going to hole up in Gorgoth,” Maverick said. “You’re sure you want to keep us all here?”
After the fight to free Godfrey, Valen appeared to the heroes in the city square, challenging them to come and save the Red Witch and Tavin back in Gorgoth. She wanted them to leave the protection of the city, but all the heroes sensed a trap. They waited to make their move until they had more information to go off.
And once Calista explained what Dennis wanted to speak to her about, Jimmy was glad they’d decided to remain where they were. Valen needed an item hidden in the castle to finish her plan. If they left Weston undefended, she would sweep in, take it, and it would be game over for them all.
“She’ll know we’re not going to Gorgoth…but what if we tricked her into thinking we were.”
Calista and Maverick exchanged a curious look before the latter said, “Explain.”
“Well, like I told Maverick, we could bring in the other priests and knights of the Order to help defend the city. And,” he said, holding up his hand when Calista opened her mouth, “we send a small group of heroes, march them towards Gorgoth to set up a fake encampment. The rest of us hide out here in the city.”
He saw the gears turning in Calista’s eyes as she planted her hands on her hips. “Send out messengers. If we can sneak them into the city, and then send out that distraction, we might have a chance.”
“This is a huge city. How are we going to defend it?” Maverick asked.
“I’ve been running through some scenarios with Trajan, but from the way Jimmy’s smiling like a crazy person, I’d say he has some of his own.”
Jimmy smirked. “You know me so well.”
***
Trajan thanked the player as he handed over a rolled-up message. “From the priests,” he said as he joined Calista at the large table they’d been using to map out their battle plan. “They’re in the city, snuck in through one of the old hidden tunnels.”
“And Jimmy’s with them, right?” she asked, running her hand along the roads.
“Yes. The Knights are also waiting for our go ahead to get themselves into position.”
She nodded, eyes narrowed as she studied their strategy one final time. “God I hope this works.”
“It’ll work, just have some faith.”
“I’m trying.” She sank into her chair and looked around the guild house. “This might be the last time we sit in here. It’s so weird.”
“This game definitely turned out to be more than I expected,” Trajan sighed as he sat down across from her. “But we all made one hell of a kickass family.” He held out his hand and Calista shook it. “No matter what happens, we’re in this together, until the end. It was a pleasure playing beside you.”
“Same goes to you,” she said, squeezing his hand. “The fake army will move out tomorrow and then, after that, it’s up to Valen when the final fight comes.”
Calista and Trajan sat in companionable silence, letting time tick by slowly. All they could do was wait. Wait for the final battle. Wait for the game to reach whatever end. There was no more logging out, no more trying to prepare. Everything they had fought for came down to this fight.
Calista hoped she lived to see the end of it.
***
Alone in the throne room, Tavin slipped her hands free of the manacles that she’d broken free of days ago. She stepped away from the wall and moved across the room, pressed in the same stone Valen had many times before, and watched as the wall slid back. She eyed the chains and the numbers running lazily along them. Ensuring she was alone, Tavin reached out, and grabbed hold of the chain. She pulled herself up onto the platform and, with a slight adjustment to what was about to happen, pressed her other hand down on the panel.
Light filled the throne room, and Tavin’s head fell back as a silent scream poured out of her mouth.
Chapter 15
Calista blinked, remembering what it was like to see Bishop the last time, disappearing through that portal of flames, confused and falling apart. He was remembering. She knew he was. All he needed was one more push. Her nearly dying had given him a jolt, but he needed more. Their guild was down three members after their fight against the last Demon Lord, but now all that stood against them was the Queen herself.
And her massive army of Demons, but they didn’t matter in the grand scheme of the game.
“Are you sure about this?” Jimmy asked as they walked cloaked and hooded through the streets of Weston. “What if we’re wrong about everything? What if we’re in the wrong place?”
The Final Chapter Page 17
