The Dead Fortress

by LitRPG Freaks

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying I’m with Valen now, on the winning side of this war. She has plans to make this world so much more than it is.”

  Calista shook her head. “You’ve forgotten who you really are? Completely?”

  “I know exactly who I am.”

  She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but attacking him was doing nothing. “Bishop…Harrison, please. This is insane. You sound insane right now! It’s a computer game that Dennis uploaded his wife’s mind to. She’s been twisted around. None of this makes sense. You have to see that!”

  “I see a world of possibilities that were never open to me before.”

  Maverick whacked him hard on the back of the head, catching him off guard. He stumbled forward, trying to remain standing, but Calista hit him again and he collapsed to the floor. She set her weapons aside and between her and Jimmy, hoisted to his feet, dragging him along.

  “Daemyn, let’s go!” she yelled.

  Tavin and Valen were still locked in a fight, with Daemyn watching transfixed before them. Calista yelled again, but too late. Bishop was awake and he yelled in rage. Power exploded from his hands, sending the three of them soaring away from his body.

  “You will not take me from her side,” he yelled, his eyes flaring green. “You will not harm her!”

  He turned his attention to Tavin, bearing down on Valen, and using his bow fired a shot of green fire right at her. It exploded and she screamed in agony as her body was pinned to the far wall of the throne room.

  “No,” Daemyn said. “No…this isn’t possible.”

  Valen smirked as she stalked towards the struggling Tavin. “The time has come for you to leave. We will meet again soon enough. Bishop? Be a dear and show our guests out.”

  Calista flinched when he turned his bow on them. “Bishop…it’s me, it’s Callie. Please, just come back with us. Come home.”

  His lip twitched in a leer and he slung his bow over his body. “I am home.”

  He clapped his hands and a swirling portal appeared behind them. Jimmy yelped in alarm when it sucked him backwards into the dark void, followed by Maverick. Calista dug her feet in and grabbed hold of the stones of the floor, but the power was too strong and as Bishop mockingly waved good bye to her, it sucked her right out of the fortress, with Daemyn flying in right behind her. She yelled as she was flung around and finally came to land back in Hillside, on her back, staring up at the night sky.

  “What…what happened?” Jimmy sat up. “I don’t understand.”

  “He thinks he’s Bishop,” Calista murmured, not moving. “She’s made him believe he’s actually the character he created and she turned him against us.”

  “Then we can’t get him back,” Maverick mumbled. “He’s stuck here, just like that?”

  “Maybe not,” Daemyn said from beside them. “There is still hope.”

  “What hope?” Calista snapped rounding on him. “He won’t listen to us! He’d rather try to kill us!”

  “In game,” he pointed out gently, “but there is still hope. If he believes he’s part of the game, then a storyline I created but never thought would happen has started.”

  “Explain, now,” Calista said, ready to draw her ax on him.

  “One turned player would become Valen’s right hand man, or woman. He or she would help Valen bring her armies to Samar, but this player had to meet very specific standards for this to happen.”

  “Like Bishop?”

  “No, but Valen has manipulated the system so she could use him.”

  “What’s the point?” Maverick asked.

  “The point is if you play to the end of the game and beat it, beat Valen, the player would be freed from her control.”

  Calista ran her hands through her hair as she realized what this meant. “You’re saying Bishop is stuck here, in this world, until someone beats the game? That’s fifty levels from now!”

  “You’ve already come much farther in less time than I imagined,” he said.

  “This is crazy. You’re crazy and it’s all your fault!”

  Daemyn hung his head. “I know and I’m sorry you have been dragged into this and now, with Valen keeping Tavin, I’m not sure what damage she’ll be able to do to this world. You have to play through and stop her. It’s the only way.”

  Calista exchanged a helpless glance with Maverick and Jimmy as her heart ached in her chest. They had no choice. They had to beat the game and pray they did it in time to save Bishop from Valen’s clutches.

  “What happens if we lose?” Jimmy whispered.

  Daemyn, hesitated, but finally replied, “Then Bishop’s mind may be trapped here, forever.”

  ***

  Bishop grinned as Tavin struggled, still pinned to the wall by his arrow.

  “You are meant to be a hero,” she said, but her words were laced with pain. “You can’t turn your back on Samar now, on your friends.”

  “I don’t deserve friends,” he murmured. “Never did.”

  Valen sighed from her throne and Bishop gladly took his seat beside her. How could he ever think he was meant for greatness in this vast world? He had Demon blood in his veins and a Demon was what he was. Godfrey was merely a puppet. He and Valen would come to rule over everything, in time.

  “Tomorrow, we begin our assault on the world of Samar,” Valen informed him. “With you at the head of my armies, we will be unstoppable.”

  “Don’t listen to her!” Tavin yelled, but Bishop shot another arrow at her, silencing her for a few moments at least.

  “I look forward to it,” he replied to Valen and settled back in his throne. “I look forward to it immensely.”