World-Tree Online

by EA Hooper

  It’s almost like my forge back on Eramar.

  The old man laughed and forced himself to stand once more. Though he carried no scars, the physical and emotional toll had left him drained of his strength. Vincent stood in a slouch, and sweat dripped across his body. Every muscle ached, and the buzzing frequency even gave him a headache. Despite all that, he couldn’t help but laugh and smile at his enemies.

  “What’s so funny?” Fynn asked.

  “You want to defeat the angels, right?” Vincent asked.

  The Wolf Lord narrowed his eyes. “More than anything.”

  “You’re a smart guy,” Vincent told him. “However, if you want to win at this game, you need to get a little creative. Maybe one day, you and I can even work together. How’s that sound?”

  Fynn tilted his head with a curious look. “So, you’ve finally decided to blow yourself up?”

  Vincent equipped a mediocre set of enhanced-verasteel armor and one of his rune hammers. He activated the runes, and the hammer glowed red-hot as it absorbed the buzzing frequency that bounced around the great hall.

  The old man leapt forward and smashed Fynn in the head, splattering his skull with the power the hammer had absorbed. Vincent took his Lotus Capsule and shoved it into Fynn’s mouth as the Wolf Lord’s head restored, before striking Fynn in the jaw with the hammer.

  The Wolf Lord’s body flashed green, and then the explosion tossed Vincent across the room. He unequipped the melted, shattered armor, and the burns on his body disappeared.

  “How’s that possible?” Erik shouted, gaping at the hammer. “You can’t activate enchantments in an anti-spell room.”

  “It’s a rune hammer,” Vincent replied. He held up his hammer and felt the surge of power as it absorbed more bouncing frequencies. “Similar to Lucas’s gauntlet.”

  And while Lucas is skilled with runes, I’m a master of frequencies. He felt the power reverberating off his hammer, and Vincent tried to channel that power. He compacted it around the edge of the hammer, making it glow brighter and hotter. A little more. Just a little more.

  Lucas glared. “Erik, force him to use his mana. He can’t drink potions forever. Eventually he’ll run out.”

  “He’ll slaughter me,” Erik said. “I can’t fight someone that strong.”

  “Just go!” Lucas shouted. “I’ll cover you. I have other spells too.”

  Vincent sidestepped a Mana Magnum fired by Lucas as Erik ran at him. The old man shattered Erik’s longsword with his hammer, and then smashed his brains across the room with a second swipe. When Erik restored, Vincent dropped the hammer on his head again. Rapid mana blasts pelted Vincent, but he ignored them as he smacked Erik around.

  With each strike, Vincent forced the frequencies trapped in the hammer to grow denser and more powerful. He felt the handle quiver with power, but he knew the hammer could handle it, because he’d designed it himself to withstand intense pressure and frequencies.

  Erik screamed, cried, and flailed between each death. He tried to equip new weapons, only to have them smashed to pieces or knocked aside. He went through several suits of armor until he ran out. Vincent chugged ethers between kills, and after mere minutes, the Grand Chancellor fell to his knees and cried.

  “Please, stop,” Erik begged with snot running from his nose. “I can’t take anymore. I give up.”

  “Erik, I command you to rise and fight!” Lucas screamed, his face turning red.

  “I’m s-sorry,” Erik cried. “Just make the pain stop.”

  Vincent took a deep breath and relaxed his body. As he exhaled, he concentrated the powerful frequencies reverberating through the hammer until it felt like he was holding nothing. The hammer’s hotness vanished in an instant, and the pale shimmer of a gravitational distortion appeared around it.

  Erik glanced at the hammer, and then turned his tearful eyes to Vincent. The old man held out his other hand and sent the Grand Chancellor a team invitation. Erik blinked in confusion and accepted it.

  “Rise, Erik!” Lucas shouted. “Don’t make me ban you too.”

  >Vincent: Don’t rise. Let him shoot at you, and I’ll redirect it. If you promise to cooperate, I’ll let you walk away from this mess.

  Erik gaped at Vincent.

  “Erik!” Spit flew from Lucas’s mouth as he screamed. “Are you a traitor, too, just like your brother? I guess it runs in your wicked family.”

  Lucas raised his finger, and Erik’s body tensed with fear. The Grand Chancellor closed his eyes as Lucas cast Mod Gun.

  Vincent saw the shimmer, stepped forward, and struck it with his hammer. The gravitational wave flashed white and black, and then the shimmer flew back at Lucas. He saw the shimmer in the last split-second before it hit, and his face froze with fear.

  Erik whimpered, stood, and then stared at Lucas. “You—you banned him? You actually did it?” He looked at Vincent with terrified eyes. “Please, please don’t hurt me. I did what you told me to. I’ll do whatever you ask. I’m so sorry. I’ve done some many terrible things. To so many worlds. To my own broth—”

  “I don’t care,” Vincent interrupted.

  Erik’s body trembled.

  “Whatever you’ve done, I don’t care about that,” Vincent told him. “You, Fynn, and all the Justiciars. I just want this war to end. I want the people of the World-Tree freed. You understand me?”

  “Y-yes. I—I’ll send out a mass message to all Justiciars once the runes blocking communication are disabled. I’ll tell them Lucas was banned and let them know the Justiciars are to cease operations. Not all of them will listen, but I’m sure—”

  “Valery will take care of that,” Vincent said. “The World-Tree will have a proper moderator for the first time in seven decades. And my team will help her if we need to—once we have that vacation I promised them. But first, I need to free everyone.”

  But what will we do with Lucas? Keep him frozen? He deserves as much, but I don’t like the idea. We could place him in an anti-spell chamber, but his most loyal Justiciars will never stop trying to free him. If only I could get rid of him for good. But I’ve heard attacks and spells don’t work on banned people. Then again, my void powers interfere with mod powers.

  Vincent approached the frozen moderator. He still saw the fear in Lucas’s eyes, but he felt no pity for the man. “How does it feel to be the frozen one? You’ve done so many horrible things to so many people, you realize that? You’re one of the worst dictators in human history. Five hundred million people held hostage to your cruelty. Those people won’t forget that when this update is over. The world won’t forget what you’ve done, Lucas, and they won’t forgive you.”

  Vincent grabbed the gauntlet and hit several switches until the runes deactivated, and he felt his mana returning.

  He pointed two fingers at Lucas’s head. I wonder if this will work? Worst-case scenario, Valery and I camp out at the daiglass tower in two weeks and ban him again.

  Vincent fired Void Gun, and the negative energy disintegrated the top part of Lucas’s head. The bottom of the frozen man’s head lolled backward, but his body remained standing.

  Erik gaped at the body. “He’s not turning to dust? I don’t understand.”

  “You turn to dust to prepare your body to respawn,” Vincent noted. “You can’t respawn if you’re banned. The game won’t let players leave because of the time-dilation, but if he’s dead, the time-dilation should wear off. It might take days or weeks in our time, but I’ll keep watch of him until he vanishes, and I know for good.”

  Erik gasped. “You’re saying—he’s free from the game?”

  “From his point of view, he’ll soon return to his bedroom or parent’s basement or wherever that psycho was when the update started.”

  The Grand Chancellor collapsed to his knees. “Freedom. You’ve discovered a way to free anyone from this game.”

  Vincent paused at the comment. “Yeah, I suppose I have.”

  Across the hall, Quinn’s shield flickered,
and a flash of black and white freed her from her ban. She fell to her knees and gasped once, but then jumped to her feet. Quinn hurried to Vincent and hugged him. “You did it! You defeated Lucas! And more importantly, you’ve discovered a way to escape this game. We can leave, Vincent. We can go home.” Quinn paused, and tears touched the corners of her eyes. “I can see my husband and son again.”

  Vincent cast Zero Field on Xan, Valery, and Harper. All three collapsed and caught their breath.

  “We can go home?” Xan shouted, running to Vincent.

  Harper approached, but then grabbed Erik by the throat. “I won’t forget that you worked for Lucas.” She sighed and released the man. “But if you keep to your word, I’ll try to forget you.”

  Erik nodded. “I’m sending a guild message right now.”

  Quinn grabbed Vincent’s arm. “Send me home, Vince. Please, I need to see my family again.”

  Xan frowned at Quinn. “But what about the other worlds? We have to make sure the Justiciars will truly give up before we escape.”

  “I don’t care about that,” Quinn said. “I started this journey on the off-chance I could escape at the top. But there’s a way to escape right now.”

  “We don’t even know if it works,” Xan said. “We can’t be sure that the time-dilation wore off for Lucas.”

  “That’s true,” Vincent noted. “I didn’t think it through—I just wanted him gone. But for all I know, he’s trapped in darkness for the next three centuries.”

  “I can only hope so,” Harper said. “I hope he can’t breathe. I hope he’s suffering.”

  Quinn released Vincent’s arm and sighed. “Sorry, you’re both right. I just got excited to see my family again. I miss them so badly, but three hundred years of darkness is too big a risk. Besides, it’s only been minutes in real-time since I saw them. I just need to keep reminding myself of that.”

  “It’s difficult, isn’t it?” Valery said. “Imagine what it was like for me. Seventy-two years as a captive. But when I stop to think about it, it only feels like six minutes have actually passed.”

  “That’s right,” Xan said. She turned to Quinn and smiled. “Just think, the next twenty-four will go by in a flash. When you log off, it’ll feel like you saw your family less than an hour ago.”

  Quinn nodded and wiped away her tears. “Yeah, you’re right.” She put an arm around Xan and Vincent and hugged them. “I guess another twenty-four minutes of adventuring with my best friends isn’t so bad. Maybe we’ll even reach the top.”

  “Ooh, screenshot!” Xan said, taking a picture of them with Lucas’s frozen body in the background.

  A few seconds after Xan took her picture, Lucas’s body flickered and vanished.

  Valery stared at where the moderator had been. “No dust? Does that mean he’s out of the game? Or is he trapped in darkness?”

  “Guess we’ll find out in hundreds of years,” Harper said.

  “You don’t want to kill yourself over and over to escape?” Valery asked. “You told me you would if you were ever freed.”

  Harper smiled, and tears twinkled in her eyes. “Lucas isn’t here anymore. The World-Tree is free of him. I’m free of him.” She looked at the Void Knights with tearful eyes. “Thank you so much. You three—you’re real heroes. Not just virtually, you’re actual heroes.”

  “When I log off, my AI Assistant will upload hundreds—maybe thousands—of videos of my time here,” Valery told the Void Knights. “The world will know what you’ve done. Not just my viewers, but Zhang’s too. That guy gets several million views per video. You three will be famous for stopping Lucas. Would you mind telling my viewers why you put yourselves in danger to do all this?”

  “I just wanted to help,” Xan answered.

  “I don’t even know,” Quinn replied. “I’ve made up countless reasons over the years, but really, I just didn’t want to keep climbing the World-Tree without my friends.”

  Vincent shrugged. “I guess what Xan said.” He paused and reflected. “But also, I liked the challenge. I’m an old gamer, and I’ve beaten many video games, but I’ve never gotten to overthrow an actual tyrant before. Besides all the dying, it was pretty fun.”

  Vincent chuckled and put his arms around his friends to take another picture. This is definitely going on my HUD as my new background.

  Chapter 38

  Player: Vincent the Eldritch

  Location: Valahym (World) | Midrun (City) | Town Center (District)

  Class: Ranger

  Subclass: Mage

  Vitality: Lv 165

  Spirit*: Lv 174

  Resolve: Lv 153

  Perception*: Lv 180

  Agility: Lv 163

  Strength: Lv 162

  Vincent stood a short distance from the daiglass tower with Xan and Quinn. Valery, Harper, and Erik stayed closer to the daiglass, and most of the players Vincent had freed from the dungeon made a circle around the structure. As hundreds of Justiciars spawned, Erik yelled at them to surrender and that Lucas had lost. A few of the hardheaded Justiciars tried to grab weapons from daiglass storage, but Valery banned them on the spot.

  Sam and Ryan stood on the opposite side of the tower, making sure no one would grab weapons and run away. Vincent had found them in a dark cell in an unused section of the dungeon while freeing Lucas’s captives.

  “I’ll free you later,” Valery said to Titus the Butcher’s frozen body as two former prisoners dragged him away. “Once you’ve realized you’ve lost and calm yourself down.”

  Vincent had placed the daiglass shard in a safe place at the castle, and members of the Jiminy World Crickets spawned, saw his mass message, and then hurried to the tower. It didn’t take long for May, Keanu, and Jake to rush over.

  “Valery!” Jake shouted, running to hug his friend. “I never gave up searching for you, old friend.”

  Valery hugged him in reply. “I know. Vincent told me.”

  “Is that Sam guy here?” Jake asked. “I need to thank him. He risked his own freedom to help us.”

  “He’s on the other side of the tower,” Valery said. “I’ve thanked him plenty in the last two weeks. He doesn’t say much, but he seems to like my company.”

  Jake chuckled. “You owe that man a date or something.”

  Valery smiled. “I’ve considered it, but he’s very reserved. Maybe I’ll bring him with me to clean up the worlds, which will let us get to know each other better.”

  As time passed, the crowds of respawning players slowed. They had trouble rallying the largest group of Justiciars to quiet and listen, and Erik ended up screaming at several men to silence them. Many of the Justiciars held their head low in defeat and simply wandered away. A few, however, almost seemed happy to escape Lucas’s rule.

  “Many people joined because it was easier to oppress than be oppressed,” Keanu noted. “It’ll be difficult to fix this city along with all the others, but the fact that they’re playing along for now is a good sign.”

  “Despite how serious their crimes are, it might be best to treat this like it’s a game for once,” Vincent said. “Just tell them good game, well played, and move on with our lives.”

  Grinning Gwendolyn respawned, gaped at Valery and the Void Knights, and then laughed. “So, we lost? Oh well. We’re all good, right?”

  Xan glared at the girl. “Just get out of here.”

  Gwendolyn replied with a nervous chuckle before she ran away.

  “Brother!” one of the captives Vincent had freed shouted. The young woman ran toward Quinton as he respawned.

  “Delilah?” Quinton replied. He covered his mouth and tears ran down his face as his sister hugged him. Quinton stared at Vincent. “You did it? You really beat Lucas? Oh, my god. I’m so sorry.”

  “Forget about it,” Vincent replied. “Just take your sister and go live your life.”

  Quinton nodded, hugged his sister, and cried.

  “Xan!” Lloyd shouted as he approached to hug his child. “My magnificent d
aughter! You and your friends actually saved the World-Tree from that tyrant.”

  “Don’t forget that you helped,” Xan told her father. “You organized our army, Dad. We probably couldn’t have won without all that help.”

  Vincent smiled, and then eyed the tower. He waited until Farah and the first half of the elite Justiciars appeared.

  Farah looked around at the disappointed Justiciars, the happy Crickets, and then the Void Knights.

  “You lost,” Vincent said.

  Farah shrugged. “Whatever. It was fun regardless. So, where’s your handsome friend?”

  “He’ll respawn soon enough.”

  “Tell him I’ll see him around.” Farah waved and walked away.

  Many Justiciars departed, and the crowd greatly diminished before Athena and River arrived. Athena hugged her sister and father, and Xan told them how the battle had played out after the two women died.

  “That’s amazing!” Athena said when Xan finished her retelling of the events. “Xanny, I’m so proud of you. And River, your grandfather is so cool.”

  River smirked. “Yeah, he’s something, alright.”

  The remaining elites appeared, and Erik rallied them together to explain what had happened. The men glanced at the Void Knights with furious looks, but then Valery approached to ensure they wouldn’t cause problems. The Justiciars fell silent and nervously agreed to the terms of surrender.

  A few minutes later, Jim strolled toward the tower with a wild grin on his face. “I knew you’d take care of it, Vince. But how’d you do it?”

  “Rune hammer,” Vincent replied. “Once I got a feel for the frequencies of the room, I zeroed them out and redirected his Mod Gun.”

  Jim shook his head. “So, you reflected the final boss’s attack? After all this time, you’re still an old-school gamer, Vince.”

  “Everything seems in order here,” Lloyd noted, staring as the last few Justiciars dispersed. “That’s the last of them, right?”

  “There’s one more,” Vincent said. “Fynn. But he won’t respawn for a few hours.”