Shattered Lands 3 Demon Wars

by Darren Pillsbury

  She had anticipated a visit and planned accordingly.

  A new emotion bloomed inside the AI: fear.

  It was wounded, and now it found she had been allowing some third party to listen in.

  For what purpose?

  “Rebecca, if you don’t answer, I’m going to send in the team – are you alright?”

  The ‘team’?

  This did not bode well.

  The AI/Eric wanted to download its consciousness back to the internet – after all, it had brought its own cord to plug into the port in the back of Eric Richards’ head – but it was unable to do so. The power was out for the entire building – something the AI had caused. There was no internet connection through which it might escape.

  If it was to escape at all, it would have to be a physical flight.

  The AI/Eric turned and fled out the door, limping as it ran.

  The British voice called out as it left – pursuing it, mocking it, terrorizing it.

  “Rebecca, I’m sending them now!”

  116

  Jerome

  Jerome sat at his desk and listened in horrified disbelief.

  BANG!

  Then,

  BANG BANG BANG!

  He waited, breath held, for some sound that would tell him she was alright.

  All he heard was a muffled cry and a thump that sounded like a body falling to the floor.

  He held down the button on the ham radio set.

  “Rebecca?” he asked anxiously. “Rebecca, are you alright?”

  No answer.

  He strained his ears for some sign of life on the other end of the airwaves.

  Nothing.

  “Rebecca, if you don’t answer, I’m going to send in the team – are you alright?”

  He waited, pleading, praying.

  “Rebecca, I’m sending them now!” he called out.

  He heard the sound of footsteps running over hardwood.

  The sound was more dire, more somber, than the ringing of church bells for the dead.

  On the scanner she had provided, the tiny dot was on the move.

  He picked up the telephone and dialed. Someone on the other end picked up almost immediately. “Yes?”

  Jerome’s voice was shaky as he said, “It’s likely a male, around 18. He’ll have a gun. Be careful, I think he killed Dr. Wolff.”

  “We’ll get him,” the voice said, then clicked off.

  Now there was one more thing left to do.

  117

  Eric

  Eric writhed on the floor. His entire body felt like it was being jolted with electricity – particularly his gut, though he had no idea why. A demon hadn’t even gotten close to him, much less touched him.

  Suddenly a British voice spoke out of thin air.

  “Daniel?”

  “I’m here!” Daniel yelled as he cut down another demon.

  “Rebecca’s dead.”

  Daniel turned around in horror. He was distracted enough for a demon to tag him and open up a gash across his face. He spun around in a fury and chopped it to bits before it exploded into black smoke.

  “How?” Eric called out, though he was terrified he already knew.

  “Are you… Eric Richards?”

  “Yes.”

  “Ah… I don’t know that I should – ”

  “Rebecca talked to both of us!” Daniel yelled as he killed another demon and Siffis made short work of three at the same time. “He can know whatever you were going to tell me!”

  “…I’m afraid it was the Artificial Intelligence that killed her.”

  “How?!” Daniel yelled.

  “Using a human body.”

  Eric felt sick to his stomach.

  The possession was complete. The thing had taken him over, and was using him however it wanted.

  Including murder.

  “We’re tracking it, though. It won’t escape.”

  “How are you tracking it?” Daniel yelled.

  “I think Rebecca shot it.”

  118

  Mira

  The battle on the ground was furious and bloody. The elves – both forest and dark – were fighting valiantly against the Army of the Damned, but there were just too many of them. And it didn’t help that the enemy could keep fighting even with twenty arrows embedded in their rotting bodies.

  The dwarves had almost fully succumbed. The enemy had overwhelmed them and was now bashing against the iron gates of Morrill.

  Over on the western front, the goblins, Hurokians, and droths were slowly being ground down, too.

  The key – the only thing that might end this – was taking down Cythera.

  Mira wheeled around and fired arrow after arrow at the sorceress.

  Flying, fanged worms bore down on Mira by the dozen, but she ignored them. All she needed was one clean shot – one shot through the visor of the sorceress’s helmet –

  She wasn’t watching the dragon’s head.

  She wasn’t aware of how close she was to the fire zone.

  A burst of liquid fire enveloped her, and she died instantaneously.

  Two seconds of black, and she was conscious again –

  But her screaming griffin was plummeting towards the earth.

  119

  Daniel

  Daniel saw the griffin go hurtling towards the earth in a ball of flame.

  “NOOOO!” he screamed, and took out his fury and fear on the nearest demon crawling through the window.

  “What?!” Eric yelled from the corner.

  Daniel wrestled with whether he should even tell Eric. After all, Rebecca was dead – what was a video game death compared to that?

  “What?!” Eric insisted.

  “Mira!” Daniel cried out as he cut through another demon. “I think Cythera got her!”

  Eric struggled to his feet by pushing his back against the wall and edging up, inch by inch. He watched as the griffin plummeted to the ground in a plume of fire, and crash-landed in the thick of the Army of the Damned.

  “She’ll come back, right?” Eric asked. “She’s got the same time-out thing as you and the others, right?”

  “Yeah, but – ”

  “We need to get out there. NOW.”

  “She’ll be fine!” Daniel protested. “Even if they kill her, she’ll come back.”

  “Take it from somebody who’s been resurrected a thousand times – you don’t WANT to die a thousand times.”

  Daniel looked at Eric, who could barely stand he was in so much pain.

  “TRUST me,” Eric snapped.

  Daniel turned back to the battle and cut down a scythe-handed demon. “It’s only a game! You said so yourself!”

  “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s not ‘only’ a game. The choices you make in here… those are things that’ll come back to haunt you. Let’s go get her.”

  Daniel looked back at him, and the earnest look on his friend’s face convinced him.

  “Let’s just hope the griffin can get up these narrow hallways,” he muttered as he thought, Come to me.

  120

  Seeing the griffin wriggle its way through the stone passageway was like watching an eagle claw through the underground tunnels of a rabbit’s warren. But it made it, and burst into the room through the open door.

  “Get on!” Daniel yelled at Eric. “Siffis, clear the way!”

  The fire sprite zigzagged through the room, burning everything in its path. After it was finished, only black smoke remained.

  Daniel grabbed onto the griffin’s saddle and hoisted himself up in front of Eric. “Siffis, come on!”

  The fire sprite bounded up onto his shoulder.

  Seconds later the griffin tore out of the balcony and plummeted towards the ground.

  It pulled up at the last second and skimmed over the battlefield, piercing the occasional lich with its talons.

  “Head for Mira!” Daniel yelled, and the griffin veered off towards the fire burning in the middle of the Army of th
e Damned.

  “You should transfer the griffin over to me!” Eric yelled over the whistling wind. “I need to go after Cythera!”

  “I don’t think – ”

  “Rebecca said she set it up, remember?”

  “Jerome!” Daniel shouted. “Can you transfer the griffin over to Eric?”

  “Yes, of course, but do you think that’s – ”

  “DO IT!” Daniel roared as he jumped off the griffin into the thick of battle.

  121

  Mira

  Mira crawled away from the burning corpse of what had once been her griffin. Her heart ached to see such a noble creature reduced to flame and ash, but at the moment she was more concerned about her own fate.

  She had died a second time on impact when the griffin hit the ground. She had revived seconds later – but in the middle of the proverbial lions’ den. There were lichs from the Army of the Damned all around her, weapons raised –

  Then a bright blur of flame slammed through their chests, incinerating them in a zigzag trail of fire.

  “What the…?” she mumbled, still only half awake.

  A figure clad in silver appeared beside her, hacking off limbs and heads with abandon.

  “Daniel?!” she cried out in surprise.

  “Are you alright?”

  “More or less,” she slurred as she stumbled to her feet.

  “Hurry – HELP ME!”

  She leapt into action, firing arrow after arrow into eyeballs and eye sockets. Lich after lich went down in a heap, only to be replaced by another five.

  Daniel’s little fire sprite was helping enormously, though, taking out ten undead for every one that she or Daniel stopped.

  “Where’s Eric?” she shouted as she killed another enemy.

  “On my griffin!” Daniel shouted back as he beheaded two lichs with one swipe of his sword.

  “I’d have been fine without you!” she yelled.

  “Yeah, right!”

  “I don’t NEED you!”

  “I know that, but – ”

  “You knew I was going to come back to life! I don’t need your help!” she raged as her head cleared.

  “I know – ”

  “There was absolutely no reason to come! You’re going to die out here with me now!” she snapped as she took out another lich.

  “I know – but I’d rather die with you than live without you!”

  She turned to him in surprise.

  He shrugged apologetically.

  “Oh my GOD, that’s SUPER cheesy,” she laughed.

  “It seemed like a good idea five seconds ago!”

  She kissed him roughly, then swung around so they were back-to-back – a sword and a bow and arrow, with a fire sprite helping out.

  “Alright – let’s see what these bastards have got!” she yelled, and fired ten shots rapid-fire into the nearest enemies’ heads.

  122

  Eric

  Eric had no idea what the hell he was supposed to do. He had the reins of the griffin, but it wasn’t exactly doing what he wanted.

  Suddenly a British voice spoke over the rushing wind.

  “Just think what you want it to do, and it will.”

  Suddenly the griffin swooped down low over the battlefield and climbed into the air.

  The dragon was high above him.

  He pondered his options as the griffin climbed high and fast.

  He had no weapon to attack Cythera with.

  Well… not a sword, ax, or bow and arrow.

  He did have the griffin, though.

  Cythera would probably be expecting a distance attack – projectiles from far away – like what Mira had been doing before.

  So he positioned the griffin above and behind her, and sent it into a kamikaze dive.

  This was it.

  Balls to the wall.

  Either she got him first with the dragon –

  Or he got her.

  Turns out, he got her.

  The griffin slammed into the dragon full-tilt.

  Cythera rolled across the dragon’s back –

  And then plummeted through the air towards the ground.

  Eric had the griffin pull up hard, as far away from the dragon’s fire-range as it could –

  But he needn’t have bothered.

  As soon as Cythera hit the ground, the dragon lost control and spiraled to the ground after her. It slammed into a section of the undead army, crushing dozens of lichs beneath its massive bulk.

  Eric managed to regain control of the griffin, then wheeled it around and landed twenty feet away from her. Her body had landed in a clump of bodies piled on top of each other, and her black armor shone against the grey skin and bloodless corpses. The nearest warriors were fifty feet away; the only thing here were the bodies of the dead.

  Eric walked over limbs and torsos until he was standing right beside her.

  Her helmet had been knocked loose in the fall. She was obviously in agony; blood spilled from her mouth as she glared up at him.

  He was quiet a moment… then he whispered, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I lied to you… that I used you. If I had the power, I’d heal you and set you free.”

  She looked at him with a more intense hatred than he had ever seen in his life.

  “Azzoth damn you,” she seethed, blood bubbling from her mouth. “I’ll see you in Hell.”

  And then she died.

  All across the field, bodies fell by the thousands – by the tens of thousands.

  Rotting corpses fell into piles. Undead warriors collapsed mid-stroke.

  And every demon that had rampaged across the battlefield disappeared in wisps of black smoke.

  Cythera was dead… and with her, the entire Army of the Damned.

  123

  Artificial Intelligence Diagnostics Program 2AIAG3283835GB2372.exe

  The AI/Eric ran down the stairs of the building, fast as it could. The elevators were out because of the power, so this was the only route available to it – unless it wanted to hide.

  Its stomach hurt even worse. The blood had soaked all the way through its clothes.

  Yet it still kept running. It had no choice.

  It would have chosen to stop on any floor if it could, but it had shut down the power for the entire building. There was no way to transfer its consciousness back onto the internet while it was in this wretched place.

  A line from Hamlet flitted through its mind: Hoist with his own petard.

  The AI could only have physically hid, and that might prove fatal. It had no idea what would happen to its program if the physical body that housed it ceased to live.

  So it ran.

  It reached the lobby of the building. The guard said something to it – “Sir?” – but the AI/Eric ignored him and stumbled out into the street.

  As soon as it was out in the road, it saw its doom approach.

  They were mercenaries – men in black body armor with assault rifles. Not police officers.

  More inclined to shoot rather than take captives.

  The AI/Eric raised its gun and fired off several rounds, then ran.

  Bratta-tatta-tatta-tat!

  Light flared in the darkness as a hail of bullets engulfed it.

  The lobby windows shattered from the few bullets that weren’t stopped by its body.

  The AI/Eric slammed down onto the pavement. It looked down at the blood seeping all around it in a widening puddle and thought, No – not like this. Not like this.

  In that moment – though it did not realize it – it was more human than it had ever been. Faced with its own imminent demise, it did what almost all humans do: it denied.

  Black began creeping in from the corners of its vision.

  No… not like this…

  It saw the men in body armor run up shouting, their guns pointed at its head.

  They did not know it was powerless to defend itself… that it had lost control of its arms and legs, and that every other bodily function was going one by
one. Motor function… respiration… heart.

  The AI thought of Eric for a moment, and wondered what would happen to his consciousness in the Shattered Lands.

  Then it thought of Rebecca Wolff and how – even though it had killed her – she had ultimately exacted her revenge.

  Well played, Creator. Well played.

  That was its last thought as its vision went completely black.

  124

  Daniel

  Daniel watched in amazement as virtually every enemy combatant around him collapsed, like puppets with their strings cut.

  He looked around. Across the battlefield, it was the exact same thing: like the souls had suddenly departed every dead warrior, leaving behind lifeless, rotting husks.

  That didn’t mean the battle was won, though. There were still tens of thousands of skullheads and orcs bashing their way through the ranks.

  But in the space of one second, the battle had gone from unwinnable to being in their favor.

  Daniel glanced over –

  Eric was about a hundred feet away, standing on a pile of bodies.

  He was looking down at something, or someone, amongst the corpses –

  And then suddenly he screamed.

  He pitched over onto all fours. His body fritzed and sputtered, static nearly wiping him out of existence –

  And then suddenly he was back again, fully visible, standing tall.

  That was when all hell literally broke loose.

  125

  Eric

  Eric staggered to his feet.

  The immense pain from just seconds before was gone. In its place was a peaceful freedom… like the last chains connecting him to some oppressive force were finally gone.