“You have to trust me, please.”
She held out her hand and Bishop wavered between shooting her now or listening to her for just a bit longer.
***
Trajan bashed another Demon in the head with his hammer. XP points exploded in an endless stream around him, as well as coins and Demon Shards continually falling into his bags. Not that it mattered much. Nothing mattered anymore.
“We need to fall back!” Arthur said, grabbing hold of his arm.
Trajan paused in the attack to nod. “Retreat! Fall back!”
They’d been pushed back to the second level already and picked up more of the heroes. If they reached the third, Jimmy and the other exorcists would be ready to attack. Trajan hoped they were ready. Trajan yelled again as he shoved the other heroes ahead of him, up the street, the Demons following them in a massive wave of snarls and jagged swords. A few heroes were down already, but they had to keep going. If Calista caught up to Bishop, she would need time to either convince him this was all a game and he needed to snap out of it, or she would have to finish him off.
They couldn’t hold the Demons for long and continued deeper into Weston. NPCs were being killed, but Trajan had no time to spare them. He swung his hammer wide, taking out a swath of Demons and knocking them down to half health while several Shadow players moved through the crowd invisible and finished them off.
“We have to keep going back,” Arthur told him. “We need the priests.”
“The Hunters, they’re farther up, too.”
Hunters would be useless on a ground attack like this, and most were waiting nearer the castle to attack, scattered amongst the inner walls and rooftops. If they could get the Demons in range, they would have some aid from above.
“Move! Retreat! Keep falling back!” he hollered.
He waited until the heroes moved farther up the road before he too turned and took off after them, but he wasn’t fast enough. A Demon’s axe landed between his shoulder and neck, driving him to his knees with a yell.
“Trajan!” Arthur was ready to rush back into the fray, but Trajan wasn’t going to watch another of his guild die.
“No! Get out of here! Help the others!”
The Demon yanked the axe free and Trajan gasped at the realness of the pain, but this wasn’t his end. If he was going down, he was taking a number of them down with him.
With a loud battle-cry, he swung his hammer in a wide arc, smashing the head of the Demon who had attacked him, exploding it against the cobblestones like a ripe melon. He rolled his injured shoulder, unable to hold the hammer as he usually would, and spat at the feet of the charging enemy.
“Come on then!”
The Demon closest to his fallen comrade roared in rage and lunged for Trajan, claws extended and ready to fight. Trajan took him out with three solid hits, but his power bar was waning as was his HP. He had run out of potions already and had nothing left to boost his morale. Any use of those abilities would drain the last of his power and he’d be down to auto-attacks. The Demons kept coming and Trajan struggled to do any damage at all against their heavy armor and the buffs given to them by their Demon Queen.
The end was near. Trajan grunted as another hit struck him in the side, knocking his health down below half, and another, and another. He was going to die, but the number of dead Demons around him almost made up for it.
A pulse throbbed in the air and every Demon came to a sudden halt as if frozen in time.
Trajan’s breath wheezed from broken ribs as he glanced around, confused. Then he heard it, barely a whisper, but the words were there, old and powerful. “Jimmy,” he whispered in disbelief as one, then two, then more of the priests appeared above him on the rooftops. They lined the street, holding their hands out as white light shot from one to the next until it was all Trajan could see.
The Demons twitched, trying to break through the power, yet it was too strong. The white crackling light split from the priests above and shot down to the Demons below. It jumped from one body to the next, rooting them in place as it sought out the darkness of their souls. Transfixed, all Trajan could do was sit there and watch as the last bit of his life drained away. He flipped off the Demons around him, grinning as he fell back to the cobbles.
“Trajan!” it was Arthur and Nell sprinting towards him, but they were blurry. “No! You have to hold on,” Nell yelled, laying her hands on his chest.
“There’s no time. More Demons are going to break through this line,” he insisted, stopping her.
“I can heal you.”
“It takes nearly a minute for your heal to work to bring me back to full strength. Go.”
She shook her head and Trajan turned his gaze to Arthur. “Get her out of here, now. That’s an order, my last one.”
The Demons’ yells turned to screams of agony as the priests obliterated the darkness within them, along with their bodies.
“Go!” Trajan urged.
Arthur nodded reluctantly and grabbed Nell’s hand. “Come on.”
“No, no! I won’t leave him!” she yelled, but then Arthur picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Her screams of protest eventually faded away and Trajan closed his eyes as the last Demon nearby was destroyed.
He heard Jimmy call out to him, but he had no strength to respond. They had to go. More Demons were coming, he heard them. Then his HP ran out and his player spirit turned into the blue orb that floated over his body. He waited for it to race off towards the holding room, but an excruciating pain that rocked him sent him shooting upright on his table back at his station.
“Eric?” Dennis said immediately as they removed his headgear.
Eric took a deep breath to steady himself, his hands moving over his body as he checked for injuries. “I’m good. Damn that hurt.”
“And the others?”
“Still pushing through. How many did we lose so far?” he asked, staring around the lab.
“Ten, eleven counting you,” Dennis replied. “They’ve gone to the auditorium to watch with the others.”
Eric nodded and hopped off the table, wishing he could be there to finish it off, but at least he could watch. He patted the old man on the shoulder and gave him an encouraging smile. “They’ve got this, don’t worry.”
Dennis failed at returning the smile and Eric left the lab in a hurry, so he could witness the end of Samar.
***
Bishop’s eyes widened at the bright white light washing over the city. “Exorcists.”
“They’re getting closer,” a dwarf named Drake said. “We have to move.”
“Bishop, look at me,” Calista demanded. “You need to snap out of it right now. You have to remember! We’re your family, not that horrible Demon. Please just remember!”
Demons roaring along with the panicked yelling of people had those surrounding Bishop anxious. He didn’t know what to do. His mind raced as more images of him with these people, him with Calista, burst forth from the fog that had clouded his mind. Them together, holding hands; him kissing her well into the night. Their talk of what they would do once they left Samar.
No, not Samar. The facility, the gaming facility.
“When we go back to the real world,” he whispered, face scrunched. “The real world…not this world.”
Calista’s eyes lit and she nodded fiercely.
Bishop ground his teeth as Valen’s warning whispered against his ear again. He couldn’t disobey her…she was his Queen…his Queen…
He raised his bow and took aim, and fired. Calista screamed in panic, but the arrow shot past her right ear and embedded in the head of a Demon ready to stab her. “Move!” he yelled at her as he nocked another shot.
There was no time to celebrate and no time to sift through the muddled thoughts in his mind, but this was right. Saving her was right. The other heroes fell in line beside him as Calista rushed to his side. A mix of heroes and Demons charged up the road, and Bishop wast
ed no time attacking those he had commanded only moments ago.
“Fall back!” Calista yelled and she grabbed Bishop’s shoulder. “Come on!”
“No, let me stay here and hold them off.”
“I’m not leaving you behind! Get your ass moving, Bishop, before I kick it!”
He grinned for the first time in weeks and couldn’t stop himself. He wrapped an arm around her waist and kissed her. She clung to him just as tightly and more of the fog in his mind cleared away. “Callie.”
She pulled back in surprise. “What did you say?”
“Are you two finished making out?” Benji yelled. “Or did you want to die lip-locked?”
Bishop smirked and let her go. He held out his hand for hers and they brought up the rear of the heroes fleeing for the next level of the city. The castle wasn’t far away and, as the nagging voice in his head reminded him of who he was, Bishop stopped being Bishop. He turned on his heel at the archway and ignored Calista as she called out for him. He drew back on Assassin’s Tear and launched it right into the rushing Demon forces. They exploded in a ball of white light, bodies flying every which way. He nodded in approval then went after the others.
They closed the gate and rested against it.
“We don’t have much time,” Bishop announced. “We have to get to the castle and secure the Staff before Valen does.”
Jimmy rushed their way, leading the other priests, and Bishop paused. The last time he had seen this man, his friend, he had tried to kill him. Without a word, he ran for Jimmy and bear hugged his friend. At first, Jimmy panicked and yelled for help, but then he realized Bishop was hugging him and he clapped him on the back.
“You’re back!”
“Mostly, think so,” Bishop said, trying to shake the last of the craziness from his mind. “What the hell happened to me?”
“Long story. We can talk about it later,” Calista promised. “You said she’s after the Staff?”
“Yeah, somewhere in the castle, but I don’t know where.”
“What happens if she gets it?” Jimmy asked.
Bishop wracked his mind as the last bits of his time with her slipped away. “Free…she wants to be free of this world. The Staff…it’s coding…to change something. Damn! I can’t remember!”
“Dennis said there was one final fail-safe in the game and the Staff was it,” Calista whispered. “So if she gets it…she can use it to break free of the game?”
Bishop shrugged along with the others. “I don’t know, but I know it’ll be bad.”
“Then we have to get to it first.” Jimmy slammed his staff into the ground and gave the heroes left a buff that upped their morale and armor for five minutes. “Let’s go get this Staff.”
“Where’s Valen?” Arthur asked, stepping forward.
“Waiting for me to summon her,” Bishop said. “Which I’m not going to do.” He removed the coin she had given him from his inventory and handed it to Calista. “Destroy it.”
She took it and dropped it on the ground. “With pleasure.”
Her fury was still at max and she brought down her axe on the coin, splitting it in half. It flickered green for a few seconds then stopped, the power within it gone.
“Thank you.” Bishop stared from one face to the next and the guilt at what he’d done to them weighed heavily on his shoulders. “I can never say I’m sorry enough.”
“Get us out of this mess and we’ll forgive you.” Jimmy nodded in earnest and strode in the direction of the castle as the Demons slammed into the gate behind them. “We don’t have a lot of time! Maverick will be waiting!”
Bishop grimaced. “She’s going to kick my butt.”
“Probably,” Calista agreed, “but there’s someone else you should probably see to first.”
“Who?”
She pointed towards the shadows and a pair of eyes appeared.
“Willy?” Bishop sank to his knees and the white wolf stalked forward. “Willy, boy, I’m so sorry. Can you forgive—”
The great furry beast tackled him to the cobbles with licks on his face, his tail wagging furiously, as he dropped his weight on Bishop’s chest. He hugged the wolf, burying his face in his fur. How could he have forgotten his friends so easily? His companion and his family? Willy nuzzled him and Bishop wished they could all just leave the game now. But leaving would give Valen access to the Staff far easier. Willy hopped off him and Calista pulled him to his feet.
Or maybe… leaving the game would end it. If no player was in game, everything could be paused, right? He could log out now which meant…which meant all Dennis had to do was unplug the servers.
“What are you doing? We have to move,” Calista urged as Bishop pulled up the menu. “Bishop?’
“Log out, if we all logged out, Dennis could destroy the game. No one would be in it right?” he sighed in relief to see the log out button appear. “We can stop this without fighting.”
“No, we can’t.” She took his hand and his menu closed out. “She’s not just in the servers of the game. She’s found her way into the entire facility. Shutting down the servers would just keep her from the game world, but she can still reach out to us. We have to stop her in the game to stop any chance of her seeping out and escaping.”
Bishop sagged. All he wanted was out of this world, but Valen only got this far because of him. She went after him because he’d been weak, still was weak. She could easily turn him against the others again if he wasn’t careful.
“Whatever you’re thinking, stop it right now,” Calista demanded. “You’re not going to go off and do something crazy heroic because you think this is all your fault.”
“But it is.”
“No, it’s not. Dennis told us about him and his wife when they were younger. You are just as he was at that age and she was drawn to you.”
“But she made me her right-hand man.”
“Using a quest line Dennis embedded into the game for a half-demon player to discover if he met certain qualifications, which you didn’t.” She held his hands firmly in hers. “Bishop, she manipulated the system so it would be you. But you came back to us because you’re stronger than her. We’re going to face her together.”
The gate threatened to give way. They had no time. Together, they sprinted forward to catch up with the remaining heroes at the gate. The Weston guards stared at them all hesitantly, but the Demons attacking changed everything.
“What’s the plan?” Maverick asked, not in beast form.
“Maverick, I’m sorry,” Bishop said and she flinched at the sight of him. He waited for her to say something, but she turned her back on him. He opened his mouth to apologize again, but she whirled back around and punched him square in the face. He clutched at his nose as she shook out her hand and grinned. “Feel better?”
“Much, actually. Now then, what’s the plan?”
“Valen’s coming for the Staff. We have to get it first.” Bishop rubbed his sore nose, realizing he felt acute, actual pain. Everything Valen had done was true then. She had made it so the players felt pain and, when their characters died, there was no coming back.
“Then let’s go find this Staff,” Maverick suggested.
Bishop was in agreement with that and ready to lead the charge into the castle, but an icy gust of wind stopped him. “She’s here,” he whispered, horrified. “Valen’s coming.”
“What? How?”
“I don’t know…I can’t…I can’t move!”
Bishop! You’ve betrayed me, Bishop!
“No… get out of my head!” He clutched at his ears as her words were like jabs to his brain. The pain sent him to his knees and all he wanted to do was disappear, anything to make the hurting stop. “Go away!”
I can’t do that. I told you what would happen. You will regret thinking you could ever fight against me! You will retrieve the Staff and bring it to me!
“Bishop? What’s wrong?” Calista asked, kneelin
g by his side. “Bishop!”
“No! Get back! She’s in my head and I can’t…I can’t get her out!”
A scream jerked his attention towards Maverick, back in human form, and appearing frozen to the spot. “What’s going on?”
She wasn’t the only one. As Bishop watched the nightmare return, every hero was frozen in place. A shadow appeared at their feet and, as he watched, it slowly started to climb up their bodies.
You think you’re the only one I can trap in this world? Get the Staff, or they join you in here, forever!
He collapsed against the stones, but his feet could move. He jumped up and tried to pull Calista away from the shadow. It held her fast though. “I have to…I have to get the Staff, I’m sorry.”
“What? No!” she screamed, but he was already sprinting away. “Bishop!”
“I won’t let her trap you all!” He kept a firm grip on his bow and, as the Weston guards made to attack, he let his shots fly. His horrifying experience would not fall on anyone else. With each guard he killed, he felt Valen grow stronger in his mind, but it didn’t matter. He had to save his family. His power seemed endless and he knew that was a boost from the Demon Queen. He tore through the castle until he reached the throne room and aimed his next shot at Godfrey.
“You, what are you doing here?” he snarled as the few remaining guards closed in around him.
“The Staff of Kings, where is it?” Bishop demanded.
“I don’t know what you speak of!”
He fired a warning Fiery Arrow shot past Godfrey’s ear, thudding home in the back of his high-backed chair. The king jumped in alarm as his queen screamed. “The Staff, now, or I won’t miss again.”
“She has her hold on you, just as she did me,” he muttered with disgust. “I knew you would betray us all. You said you would save us and yet here you are, doing her bidding.”
“She has my family,” he said. “Give me the Staff! Now!”
Godfrey stood and marched across the room to a tapestry on the wall. He pulled it aside and unlocked a door. “It’s in the vault.”
“You’re coming with me,” he ordered and drew his dagger after he slung his bow over his body. He aimed it at Godfrey’s neck and, together, they moved down the narrow steps, into the vault of Weston.
The Final Chapter Page 19
