New Game Minus: The Complete LitRPG Fantasy Trilogy

by Sarah Lin

  For a moment it looked as though he was sprinting directly toward a rock wall, but another box proved otherwise. This one clung to a specific point in his vision, with a glowing red arrow pointing toward the spire.

  [Return Point

  Though AdventureCorp encourages all users to complete their adventures to the natural ending location, Return Points are provided in case of emergencies. Accessing the Return Point is likely to permanently end the current set of quests, but should be done if necessary and especially if system notifications have recommended it. AdventureCorp will partially refund the cost of the journey, prorated by resources spent.]

  Then they were finally here. Part of the rock wall opened seamlessly, revealing a blue glow beyond, and Raigar plunged inside before they could stop him. The rocks closed up after him and for a moment Bloodwraith felt despair.

  "The spell needs time to charge!" Gharavi moved her horse alongside his, shouting between them. "But I can already feel it! You might be the only one who can get in - go!"

  The horse beneath him stumbled and nearly fell, having spent itself in the final run. Bloodwraith leapt off it and Izilthor hopped off his back in turn. Gharavi stayed on her horse, drawing her staff and preparing to fire from a distance, but Danniah and Meara came up beside him and struggled off theirs.

  "We have to push through." Meara stared toward the spire entrance grimly. "Unless you're holding back a destructive artifact on us, we need to throw ourselves into the horde to get you there."

  Though he disliked the idea, he agreed that they didn't have a choice. Bloodwraith gestured for them to follow him and they charged into the mass of undead that stood between them and the Return Point.

  At first the charge seemed to go well. He began with an empowered Shout of Rage that sent most of the undead tumbling out of their path, and Gharavi released bolts of lightning to knock away those that tried to fill the gap. But there were simply too many, and soon they were struggling into a brutal melee.

  The ex-mage ghoul emerged on a nearby pillar of rock and began hurling spells at Gharavi, forcing her to retreat. Apparently Raigar had found some way to restore his mana, no doubt another artifact. Though Bloodwraith wanted to stop the mage, he forced himself to press on, knocking more undead out of the way with sheer physical force.

  It worked with the lesser undead, but suddenly he found himself tackled by a large ghoul he recognized as the ex-warrior. Though it had been severely damaged in all the fighting, it managed to endure his elbow to the face without letting go.

  Danniah slammed her shield into it, though it only staggered a short distance away. When Bloodwraith rose and started to unhook his sword, she gestured wildly at him. "Go, go!"

  He knew it was the correct decision, so he plunged forward, but he couldn't help looking behind him as he neared the rock face. The ex-warrior attacked Danniah ferociously and she was soon surrounded. Izilthor attacked at their flanks, drawing some of them away, and Meara distracted more by walking into the horde, but there were still too many.

  When Bloodwraith neared the rock, it retreated so that he could enter. As he rushed through, he looked back one more time... and saw Danniah fall. Undead swarmed her from all sides, slashing and tearing.

  For a moment, he started to turn back. The stone door remained open, so there was nothing stopping him. Yet he found himself going forward to face Raigar, desperately hoping that he wasn't making a mistake. Or worse, a correct decision that he would never be able to forgive himself for.

  "What the fuck is wrong with you?" Raigar stared at him with a desperate look, but Bloodwraith ignored him, staring at the chamber itself.

  The room was a perfect half-sphere, all the walls impossibly smooth. Only one thing broke the unchanging floor: a ring of steel with blue light glowing within. Though the steel was as fine as any he'd ever seen, there was something unnaturally perfect about it, like it was the work not of a mage but of a soulless process. Strange blocky characters ran along the ring like no language he had ever seen, but the box that appeared was unambiguous.

  [Return Point: 86% charged]

  Bloodwraith hurled himself to the side a moment later, barely avoiding the beam of destruction. As he dropped into a roll, he noted that the beam had done no damage at all to the smooth wall. Raigar kept the Scepter of Annihilation pointed at him, eyes hard as Bloodwraith got back to his feet.

  "Not trying to steal my body anymore?"

  "You stole it first! And no, fuck this shit! I'll make them fix whatever is wrong with this run and give me a new character!"

  "Is that really all this is to you? There's no higher purpose?"

  "Higher purpose?" For a moment Raigar just stared at him, then he laughed. "What higher purpose could there be than escaping our shitstain of a world?"

  "Do you me-" He was cut off when Raigar laughed mockingly.

  "No, shut up. I was just buying time until the scepter recharged. I'm not gonna miss this time."

  Bloodwraith laughed back, pouring as much derision into his voice as he could. "You can't count without boxes to keep track, can you? The previous shot was your last. 0/50 charges."

  For a moment, Raigar stared at him in shock. That was enough for Bloodwraith to throw out a hand, a burst of force sending the scepter bouncing across the room, its box still displaying [1/50].

  Though Raigar sprinted for it, Bloodwraith had been anticipating exactly that. He intercepted him with his sword sweeping overhead, catching his opponent in the shoulder and slamming him to the ground. As Raigar crashed against the floor, Bloodwraith didn't let up, striking repeatedly.

  Letting out a cry, Raigar began to fling spells in all directions, but Bloodwraith didn't pull back, just dodged as best he could. His armor could resist the indirect shots, and he knew that he was winning. Even enhanced by the golden-red light, Raigar's bones couldn't endure under such a brutal assault. They started to crack and he only managed to escape by shooting a fireball into the ground, the blast sending him skating across the floor.

  Since Raigar had skidded away from the scepter, Bloodwraith ignored him. He was gasping for breath and the boxes only reinforced how low his Stamina was. Though he wanted to go after Raigar to finish him off or go help Danniah and the others, he forced himself to walk up to the Return Point.

  "Enough of this, boxes! I don't need to go back!"

  [Deactivate use of Return Point?

  Y/N]

  "Yes! Deacti-" Raigar tackled him from the side, and worse, he began draining life with both hands.

  Using the last of his stamina, Bloodwraith desperately kicked him away before he lost his strength. Raigar flew back several steps and struggled to get up, but Bloodwraith wasn't able to chase him. It took all he had just to reach into his bag and find one of Meara's potions. With its strength flowing through him, he managed to pull himself back to his feet.

  "A potion?" Raigar smirked and held his hand in front of him. "I have a better trump card."

  Too late, Bloodwraith realized that it was another Sphere of Enhancement. It shattered and the power flowed into Raigar, lifting his body slightly into the air. He gave an exultant cry, then landed and pushed off the floor.

  Pain shot through Bloodwraith's chest and then he was slamming into the opposite wall of the chamber. Only as he rose to his hands and knees did he realize that Raigar had punched him. When he tried to check his opponent's box, he only caught a glimpse of significantly improved physical skills before Raigar crossed the distance between them again.

  Raigar's boot hit his chest and Bloodwraith heard something crack before he slammed against the wall again. Yet though Raigar kicked away his sword and began beating him, he never went for a fatal attack. Only when Bloodwraith was beaten within an inch of his life did Raigar drag him back toward the center.

  "Return Point, start charging again!" Once it responded, Raigar dragged him toward the entrance, chuckling. "You expected me to kill you? No, I figured out that you stole the Phoenix Amulet from my stash. So instead
, I'll just keep you disabled until I can get out of this place."

  Struggling would be useless, so Bloodwraith let himself be dragged toward the entrance. There Raigar threw him onto his stomach, then came down with a knee on his back and grabbed his head, forcing him to look up toward the battle outside.

  "While we wait, how about we watch your friends die? Looks like the little one is already dead, and the others won't be long. You were always going to fail. You might think you're smart, but you have no idea what you're doing. I've been playing these games since I was a child. I am better at this than you!"

  There was a swarm of undead surrounding where Danniah had fallen, but Bloodwraith saw something else. If his companions had continued to be swarmed as they had been before, they would already be dead. He began to chuckle, and Raigar punched him in the neck.

  "Oh no, you're not going to bluff me again."

  Bloodwraith kept laughing.

  Chapter 29

  For a moment, Meara had truly believed that they were all going to die in front of her. Could she just stand there, watching them die? She longed to do something, yet there were blades and claws passing through her body constantly - dropping her detachment would mean instant death for her as well.

  Would that be better than living with all the rest of them dead?

  Yet then she started to notice it: the battle around them was beginning to shift, the undead pulling away. Meara glanced to Gharavi and saw her nod, so she knew that it had worked. They could still do this, unless Bloodwraith failed to keep Raigar from entering the Return Point. If that had happened, she felt certain that she would have felt it.

  To her surprise, the two of them appeared in the entrance. Bloodwraith's armor was dripping blood, and though Raigar looked damaged, he was clearly in control. He pinned Bloodwraith down and began to mock him, not realizing what was happening.

  Then there was a ringing tone and the mob of undead swarming Danniah's body erupted in a pillar of fire.

  Danniah floated in the pillar, the Phoenix Amulet burning around her neck before it dissolved. Light seemed to burst from within her armor, the slit on her helm glowing red-gold. When she returned to the ground, for a moment she stared down at her hands, but when an undead tried to attack her, she smashed it to pieces with a swing of her mace. Izilthor rushed up to her and wrapped her arms around her neck, screeching.

  Within the spire Raigar started to panic. "To me!" He gestured wildly at the undead, urging them back. "Block the entrance! Stop them!"

  Though the remaining undead rushed toward the entrance, Raigar realized too late what they were actually doing. From her position in back, Gharavi raised the Wand of Undead Dominion and commanded them to attack.

  They collided with Raigar from all sides, driving him off of Bloodwraith and back into the chamber. Meara rushed after them alongside Danniah, who smashed the last undead who remained under Raigar's control. Gharavi caught up to them as well, but just when they were about to enter, two ghouls leapt into their path. One hefted a large sword and the other waved a staff and generated a wall of flame.

  "Those two..." Gharavi shook her head. "I can't control them. They're stronger than the others."

  Danniah stepped up and took a swing, but the ex-fighter flailed his blade at her wildly. She winced and fell back. "Their equipment is really good, I don't think..."

  "Then I'll handle this." Meara reached into her cloak and felt the sapphire sphere Bloodwraith had given her, then crushed it.

  For a moment she lost herself completely as power flooded her. Not mana or strength as her world understood it, but the raw power of the Outsiders' system. It rushed into her, her entire body burning as it searched for conventional skills to improve and found nothing. Though Meara nearly dissolved in the rush of power, she clung to the fragment of the system that had been implanted within her and forced its flow to obey her.

  It rushed into the skills she had obtained, tearing open the system that had been meant for a simple merchant girl. She felt something change within her and nearly tumbled into the form of a warrior, but she struggled away from that outcome, pushing the power into skills that were familiar to her.

  Especially Steal.

  When Meara returned to the world, only a moment had passed. They were still blocked off from the entrance, with the wall of flame and the two ghouls blocking their path. Yet that no longer seemed such an obstacle.

  Meara reached out and felt both ghouls' inventories. Though she struggled to reach into them, they were mindless undead who could not resist her. When she broke through, she saw their equipment represented with boxes that must be like what Bloodwraith saw, each item resting like a card in its slot.

  So she dragged those cards out.

  Suddenly the two ghouls stood separately from their equipment, which hung in the air for a moment before falling into a pile. They reacted too slowly, trying to attack with just their bodies, but that wasn't enough. Without their equipment, they were taken apart in seconds and then the four of them pushed into the central chamber.

  Raigar had fled to the other side of the room and scrabbled at something, but then he rose and pointed the Scepter of Annihilation at them. When they hesitated, he let out a low laugh.

  "Nice try, but this game is all about gear. All of you aren't any good against this, are you?"

  But as he mocked them, he didn't see Bloodwraith lunge up from the floor. His hand closed around the scepter, hurling it away from both of them. Raigar gasped and reached for it, but Bloodwraith grabbed his ankle and pulled him to the ground.

  Then Bloodwraith pulled himself upright, moving on sheer willpower. Raigar tried to attack him, but he was panicking and he flailed desperately. By contrast, Bloodwraith struck slowly and methodically, landing blow after blow until his opponent lay on the ground.

  "You're only better at a very narrow game." As Bloodwraith struck, his voice came low and grim. "All you can imagine is more strength for yourself. That makes you strong, but it limits you. Makes you brittle. And you know what happens to brittle things."

  At last Raigar was a broken lich lying shattered. Though Meara half-expected Bloodwraith to keep beating him until there was nothing left, he stopped after both of Raigar's arms were broken. Slowly straightening, he pulled back and looked to them.

  "We should still try to interrogate him. If we cut off his head, that should disable anything else."

  Yet there was still something wrong... Meara searched toward Raigar and felt something powerful from within him. He still held one more artifact. She tried to reach out and take it, but her will was thrown back and she reeled. When Bloodwraith looked to her in concern, she struggled to call out a warning.

  "Stop him! He has-"

  A sphere of power expanded from Raigar's body as he used the last artifact he carried - it must have been pressed against his skin somewhere. It flung Bloodwraith to the side, where he crumpled against the wall. Danniah rushed to help him, but Meara was more concerned about the sphere.

  It was no brief burst, instead a sphere of emerald fire that burned around him. Though he was severely battered and missing both arms, Raigar began to drag himself across the floor toward the Return Point. The blue within the circle of steel burned brightly, waiting for him, then the sphere of flame surrounded it as well, cutting them off from it. Only empty ground remained between Raigar and his destination.

  Gharavi knelt down, sighted him with her staff, and released a bolt of lightning. Yet it dissipated harmlessly when it met the green fire and Gharavi's eyes widened. "That shield... I think it may be immune to magic."

  "It is." Bloodwraith pulled himself up painfully, staring at it. "He had one last artifact in his possession. The boxes say that resists all magical damage for a time and greatly reduces physical damage."

  "For how long?"

  "Long enough."

  They stared at the creeping sphere in silence for a moment. Could they have come so close only to fail? Meara shook her head, turning to Gharavi.
"Use the undead - throw them against the shield."

  Nodding, Gharavi quickly did so. The undead crowded into the room and began plunging directly into the green flames. Each battered at it for only a few seconds before being consumed, but Meara saw the shield begin to flicker.

  But it wasn't going down. She estimated the number of remaining undead and the shield's strength and she had a terrible feeling that it wouldn't be enough. If only she'd had more time, or they'd had more resources... yet Raigar was crawling across the floor toward the Return Point.

  "What are you doing, Izilthor?" Bloodwraith's voice distracted her and she turned to find that Izzy was perched beside him. Her teeth snapped out, consuming his injuries a bit at a time. "Thank you, but that isn't enough... we can't stop him..."

  Yet Meara slowly realized that he was wrong. As Izilthor ate all the pain and suffering in his wounds, she burned with more and more magic. Soon the air trembled around her body, the power so intense that even the unaided eye could see it.

  As the last of the other undead plunged into the shield, Izzy charged at it. There was no time for anyone to stop her, Bloodwraith merely reaching out after her as she sprinted directly toward the flames.

  Just before she struck, her sword flashed at her own neck. Her head went flying and her body impacted with the side of the shield. The flames finally gave way, collapsing under the sheer force of her charge.

  Without the burning flames of the shield, the room seemed too dark. Raigar lay there, astonishment obvious in his one remaining eye as he realized what had happened. Before he could begin moving, Danniah ran over to him with a scream and smashed her mace down, shattering his skull. This time, he stayed down.

  She dropped and started to cry, but then a voice screeched out. "Danniah!"

  Izzy's skull had bounced to the other side of the chamber. It struggled a bit before moving upright, but it barely moved before Danniah ran up and hugged the ghoul skull.