by Rick Scott
Contents
Title
Chapter 1: Onizoso
Chapter 2: Hail Mary
Chapter 3: Contingency
Chapter 4: Near Miss
Chapter 5: Enthalpy
Chapter 6: Bait and Switch
Chapter 7: Angel Farm
Chapter 8: Binary
Chapter 9: Rescue
Chapter 10: Trapped
Chapter 11: Weakness
Chapter 12: Entry
Chapter 13: Learning
Chapter 14: Naked Truth
Chapter 15: Incomprehension
Chapter 16: The Monster in the Room
Chapter 17: Race for Home
Chapter 18: Time Crunch
Chapter 19: Hope
Chapter 20: Spare no Evil
Chapter 21: Shard Wraith
Chapter 22: Relief
Chapter 23: Refuge
Chapter 24: Ice Worm
Chapter 25: Camp Star Fall
Chapter 26: Worm Hole
Chapter 27: Building
Chapter 28: Change
Chapter 29: Deliberations
Chapter 30: Preparations
Chapter 31: Motivations
Chapter 32: Crazy
Chapter 33: Snowblind
Chapter 34: Frost Fire
Chapter 35: High Gear
Chapter 36: Puzzle Piece
Chapter 37: The Crisis before the Storm
Chapter 38: Riot
Chapter 39: A Quick Think
Chapter 40: Attack on Star Fall
Chapter 41: By Slight or by Might
Chapter 42: The Meeting
Chapter 43: Siege War
Chapter 44: Black Ops
Chapter 45: Witgar
Chapter 46: Complication
Chapter 47: 360 Assault
Chapter 48: No Escape
Chapter 49: Last Stand
Chapter 50: Final Delivery
Chapter 51: Freedom
Chapter 52: Epilogue
Author’s Note
Shard Wraith
A LitRPG Novel
Crystal Shards Online Book 3
By
Rick Scott
Cover Art and Design by Alberto Besi
Copyright © 2018 by Rick Scott
All Rights Reserved.
VER 1.00
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of very brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
* * *
Acknowledgments
To my wife and kids. This is all for you guys!
Special thanks to all my alpha and beta readers too numerous to name but who watched me bring this book together from scratch and helped me do it!
You guys did wonders for the book!
Thank you!
For more great GameLit/LitRPG reads, check out
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GameLitSociety/
Will you leave me a review? Your feedback and thoughts really make a difference, especially for people who want to know what the book is about. If you can, please consider leaving a review on Amazon.com.
My eternal thanks in advance if you do so!
-Rick Scott
Chapter 1: Onizoso
I have less than one hour to save my girlfriend’s life.
And a labyrinth to search through to do it.
The two thoughts are the only thing in my mind as I materialize into a new plane of existence. A place called Onizoso.
I feel the weight of Gilly’s body in my arms as my feet touch something solid. But I can’t see yet. Bright white light gives way to a spectrum of colors as my vision finally engages. I open my eyes and at first my mind doesn’t know what to make of what I’m seeing.
Huge objects float in the air, as big as islands, except they’re made out of blue crystal. Like icebergs in the sky. The sky itself, if you could call it that, has a purple hue, like a perpetual twilight.
There’s no sun or any other light source however, not even a horizon.
What I’m standing on is even more strange. It’s a platform, about as big as a soccer pitch and made completely of glass, bordered by a thick trim of brass or gold at the edges. On it is a constantly changing pattern of fluorescent red, green and blue lines, like an optical circuit board. I’m not even sure if it’s really glass I’m standing on. More likely some kind of super-strong transparent material, but I can see straight through it nonetheless. And when I do, my stomach rises into my throat with vertigo.
Far below me is layer upon layer of the same glass platforms with ever-changing patterns, extending out into infinity. My head swims and I get an immediate headache.
I fall to my knees while holding Gilly in my arms, the strain in my head nearly blinding me and I cry out in pain.
[You have lost connection with host domain…reconnecting.]
[Error… Host_Unknown…connection blocked.]
[Critical Error… Kernel pulse not found.]
[Critical Error… Kernel pulse not found.]
[Critical Error… Kernel pulse not found.]
[Critical Error… Kernel pulse not found.]
[Critical Error… Kernel pulse not found.]
[…Stabilizing. ]
[Critical Error… Kernel pulse not found.]
[Critical Error… Kernel pulse not found.]
[Critical Error… Kernel pulse not found.]
[Critical Error… Kernel pulse not found.]
[Critical Error… Kernel pulse not found.]
My head feels like someone is punching it every second—a steady throb in my temples that’s in time with the strange messages that keep popping onto my HUD. I push them aside and then look around for my companions, but I don’t see my friends anywhere.
Where is everyone? Are they still transporting perhaps? But they were all ahead of me. Why aren’t they here? I shake the thought aside for a moment and look down at Gilly. Her pale face stares back at me with lifeless eyes.
I choke back a sob as the realization hits me fresh all over again.
She’s dead.
Gilly’s dead!
Grief rises up in my stomach like a sickness and it takes all my wherewithal not to vomit out my soul. Her white witch’s outfit is stained crimson. Someone must have already removed the jagged piece of crystal that pierced her heart—a piece of crystal that was cast by King Braxus and shot from hundreds of feet away. What kind of coward does something like that?
The kind that knows how to kill his enemies first, I think bitterly.
What I should have done to him, when I had the chance.
Even what I was able to take from him—his right hand, he’d turned into an advantage— made some magic glove that shot the crystal lance that stole Gilly’s life.
Tears run down my face as I replay the moment in my mind. But I can’t let it overcome me. I look on my HUD and see the numbers counting down next to her name.
57:34
…
…
…
57:33
…
…
…
57:32
I watch as they steadily decrease, getting closer to zero. That’s the moment when her life would truly end. If I can’t get her a Raise in time, Gilly will be trapped in that nightmare realm that Aiko saved me from. That Hell Planet where those giants w
ith throats of fire would devour her ceaselessly…time and time again. Just the thought of it has me shaking with rage and fear. I can’t let that happen. I won’t let it happen! But I need to find Aiko’s sister first.
Only she can raise her.
But how the heck am I supposed to do that in a place like this? I can’t even find Aiko, much less her sister!
I cast around me again for any signs of life.
The platforms keep shifting, moving slowly in a rotation as if affixed to some giant invisible Ferris wheel. Both ahead of me and below me I begin to make out a pattern. Concentric rings of platforms move slowly inside one another, and further sets of rings extend outwards toward something I can’t quite make out in the distance. It’s large and spherical, whatever it is. The core perhaps, like a hub, but it’s obscured by all the platforms and floating islands and I can’t truly make out what it is.
But if this was still some kind of game world, then chances were…Becky would be there.
I hope.
The floor trembles, accompanied by a heavy grunt from somewhere behind me.
Your Awareness increases by 0.2.
I sense something large and heavy landing on the platform near me. I prepare to drop Gilly’s body and grab my kunai blades when a familiar voice calls out.
“Reece!”
I look over my shoulder and am relieved to see Val Helena running towards me, her eight-foot-tall, muscle-bound body covering the distance quickly. Her platinum-blonde hair swishes from side to side as she runs, framing a face fit for a goddess. But right now it’s marred with concern as she looks at me with Gilly in my arms. Just the sight of her reaction makes me break down all over again.
I shake my head as my shoulders heave with another sob.
“I messed up, Val,” I say to her when she reaches me. “I messed up big time.”
“Hey, hey…” Val Helena wraps her big arms around me from behind and squeezes both Gilly and I tight. “It’s okay, Reece. It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. I got Gilly killed because I wasn’t strong enough. I was too weak to kill that guy when I had the chance.”
“Don’t talk like that now.”
I melt into the warmth of Val Helena’s embrace as my tears flow and she rocks me for what feels like an hour.
“It’s okay,” she soothes me. “Just let it out.”
I do. All of it.
My grief for Gilly is just the start. I think of my mother, back in Citadel. How much I miss her. How much I desperately need to get back there to save her. I think of all those people we still have yet to save. And then I think back to Lady Diana and Stormwall and that murderous Braxus. A villain I should have done something about. Rage and hate mixes with my sadness, bubbling up in my stomach like fire.
“I’ll kill him,” I say with vehemence. “I’ll kill him when I see him again!”
“Hey…” Val Helena lifts my chin and I stare into her big gray eyes that are filled with concern. “I know it hurts, Reece. And you’re blaming yourself right now. But heading down that road when you’re feeling this way is a dangerous thing. I know because I’ve been there.”
I hear her words but I’m not trying to listen to them right now.
Braxus has got to pay for what he did.
“Let me carry her for you,” Val Helena says, and motions to Gilly, still lifeless in my arms.
My emotions shift back towards grief and an emptiness fills me. Val’s right. I need to remember my priorities: Gilly first and then him. I can’t get so consumed with hatred and self-loathing that I screw up my one chance to save the girl I love.
I need to get my head back into the game.
I need to save Gilly’s life!
I nod. “Thanks, Val,” I say, and offer Gilly to her.
Val Helena materializes a bedroll from her inventory and gingerly wraps Gilly inside. I stifle the emotions bubbling up within me as she covers Gilly’s face and then slings her across her back, securing her tightly with a set of buckles and latches.
“Come on, Reece,” Val Helena says and reaches for my hand, lifting me from the ground. “We need to find the others.”
* * *
Bruce Peters slipped into a state of shock as his world came undone. His mind was so askew he only faintly registered the familiar buzzing sound coming from Gina Roberts’ pocket, sitting on the couch next to him. It was only a minute ago that his own device rang, alerting him to the news he’d been fearing since his daughter was put into stasis.
Something was wrong with Gilly.
Something very, very wrong.
He didn’t want to look at the device to confirm it. To know for sure what his heart already presumed. She can’t be dead. Please… she can’t be dead!
“Bruce?” Gina pulled her own device from her pocket and her vivid blue eyes grew wide with fear. “Bruce, what’s happening?”
Not her boys too…
Were all of them dead?
Bruce forced the rational side of his brain to react. It was the only thing he could do to keep himself from melting into a blubbering mess. He’d come to visit Ryan’s mother less than an hour ago, to give her the early warning device that was now chiming like a death knell. In truth he’d come to bare his soul, but now it seemed the cosmos wanted far more than that.
“We need to get to the observation lounge,” he said, standing. “Get your things. Quickly.”
Gina didn’t move, her face pale, perhaps fearing the truth as much as he was. Bruce reached out for her hand, took it and then told her a lie.
“We’ll find out what’s wrong,” he said. “And then we’ll fix it. Everything will be fine.”
He didn’t want it to be a lie.
He told himself it wasn’t one and held onto it—a faint sliver of hope.
They would fix this…somehow.
Chapter 2: Hail Mary
“Guys, can you hear us?” I yell through the party chat.
I stand with Val Helena on the glass platform, waiting for an answer, but nothing comes.
The names of my teammates are still printed on the side of my HUD: my brother Mike, aka Maxis the PvP king. Rembrandt, the super cool gunslinger from the cyberpunk world of New London. And the newest member to our team, Aiko, a woman I once thought an adversary, but who I’ve come to respect as a mentor and friend. A woman who saved my very life.
But I can’t reach any of them.
“Maybe they’re out of range,” I say.
Val Helena nods as she scans the platforms and floating islands surrounding us. “So many of these stupid things floating around. I can barely see anything.”
She’s right about that. The image is surreal. Like something out of a dream. Or a game. For half a moment I wonder if we’ve left the physical world and are back in the game world again. But if we are, it’s definitely not Crystal Shards Online.
“How did you even manage to find me?” I ask, looking up at Val Helena. She’s still wearing her blue breastplate from earlier, a change from her normal red-leathered Warrior gear. She still looks as stunning as ever, but her hair is mussed from earlier, which tells me for sure that we’re still in the physical realm. Her hair is always perfect when we are in the Shards.
“I spotted you from above and jumped down,” she says.
I check the spacing between the platforms and see it must be a good 50-foot drop between each one, depending on their positioning and rotation. “I’m glad you made it.”
She chuckles. “Me too.”
“Is this what you remember this place looking like?”
Val Helena frowns a bit. “Unfortunately, yes. Trying to jump to another platform is exactly how I lost Becky. She fell just shy and bounced onto a platform really far below me. I tried to get to her, but…I just couldn’t…”
Her big eyes begin to well. She’s probably reliving the moment—the event that started all of this really, my own adventure included.
Val Helena defeated the Shadow King guarding the labyrinth six mo
nths ago, and when she and her sister, Becky, entered, that’s what happened to her, I guess. She lost her. Losing Becky in this place is what led Val Helena to go back to the Crystal Shards to find a team who could defeat the Shadow King again.
That’s where she met me: a noob with a Scroll of Shadow Copy, a pair of gimp legs and a mother to save.
Man, it seems like eons ago, but I know for Val Helena, this moment is what she’s been fighting for this entire time. Struggling for six months for a chance to find her sister and save her again.
I take the giantess’ hand within mine. “Hey. Don’t you go blaming yourself for losing her, Val. We made it in here. That’s the main thing. We’ll find her.”
Val Helena squeezes my hand with a smile and nods.
I smile back at her and then gaze up at our surroundings again. “This place is like nothing I expected, though. It’s more like the inside of a clock than a maze. I was expecting tunnels and stuff, or maybe even a bunch of walls, but nothing like this. How did you even get back out the last time?”
Val Helena points up and behind us. “There’s a portal that appears near the topmost layer of platforms. It moves around though. Looking back, I probably got lucky even making it back out as fast as I did.”
I check the timer next to Gilly’s name.
Down to 55 minutes.
“We’re burning time,” I say. “How are we going to find Becky?”
Val Helena shakes her head with a sigh. “It always seemed so much easier when we were just talking about it.” She grimaces and looks on the verge of tears again. “I’ve got no idea, Reece. I honestly didn’t know if we’d even make it this far. Hell, we can’t even find everyone in our party, much less Becky.”
Crap…this isn’t sounding good.
“We need to figure something out,” I say. “And quick.”
I drop down into a low crouch as I try to puzzle things through. I check my surroundings again, but with an acute eye this time. Jumping from platform to platform doesn’t seem like the way things are supposed to work in here. You could only drop down in that case, and there were platforms both above us and stretching outwards towards that sphere in the center. How are we supposed to get to them?
