Yvvaros: The Final Transcension

by Alex Mulder

  Luke coughed into his hand, and felt a painful pounding sensation in his temples. This time, it wasn’t from the Progenitor’s Armor.

  My body in the real world…. I still have to take care of it.

  He cursed outloud, and then leaned forward, setting a hand on Tess’s cheek.

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he whispered. “Please… don’t die between now and then.”

  He anxiously bit his lip, and then stepped outside of the tent. Luke put out the fire, not wanting to make it easy for enemies or even other players to stumble upon the campsite by accident. Then, he pulled his character journal out of his bag and signed off.

  Luke was back in his room in the real world, and back in his bed. He was lying down, and it was nighttime, but there was a surprising amount of light in his room.

  That can’t be right…

  He pulled off the headset as he sat up and heard somebody scream from nearby.

  “What the hell?” Luke rubbed his eyes and scanned the room. Sam was sitting in his office chair, and she looked terrified.

  “You…” She shook her head and stared at him in disbelief. “Why can you still log in and out?”

  “Sam, what are you doing here?” he asked.

  “I’m not the one that needs to answer questions right now, Luke!” yelled Sam. “You lied to me! Why the fuck would you hide something like this from me?”

  Luke was silent for a moment.

  “…What would you have thought if I told you?” he asked, quietly. “Yeah, I can still log into Yvvaros, and back out. And no, I don’t know why. I’m trying to figure it out, Sam. I’m trying to fix things.”

  She watched him for a moment, considering his words. Luke hadn’t seen that expression in a long time. It was the same one she’d used on him at the start of each school year, to reevaluate him after a long summer apart.

  “And more importantly,” said Luke, sitting up. “What are you doing in my house?”

  “I…” Sam sighed. “I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

  Wind buffeted Luke’s window. It was pouring rain outside. Even if he’d wanted to, he couldn’t just send her on her way.

  “Fine…” He stood up, setting the headset to the side and walking over to the door of his room. “Let’s see what we can find for food.”

  He led her downstairs and began rifling through the fridge and pantry. Most of the food he had that was still good had been brought to him by Sam days ago. He briefly considered ordering out, before remembering that he had essentially no money, and the world was falling apart at its seams.

  “You aren’t looking in the right places,” said Sam. “Here.”

  She walked over to his pantry, opening the top cupboard, the one that Luke usually skipped over. It was loaded with canned goods, and she took a few of them out and pulled out a pot.

  “I can cook soup, you know,” said Luke.

  “No offense, but I think it’s best if I take the lead on this.” Sam smiled at him.

  Luke was tired, but there was something about talking with Sam, the familiarity they had with each other, that felt refreshing. He sat back in one of the kitchen stools and waited as the smell of chicken soup slowly began to fill the air. Sam was facing away from him, deep in thought.

  “Luke?”

  “Yeah?”

  She turned around.

  “I didn’t have anywhere else to go,” she said. “That’s why I came here.”

  Luke nodded, remembering what she’d told him about her parents before.

  They’re stuck inside a VR world, too.

  “They’re clearing out the hospitals,” said Sam.

  “What?”

  “I was there, watching over my parents.” Sam sighed, circling a spoon through the pot of soup. “A group of government employees showed up and said that all of the locked in people would be transferred to a different facility, for special care.”

  Luke didn’t know what to say.

  “I mean,” continued Sam. “It makes sense, I guess. But they wouldn’t tell me where it is, or what it would be like there. And given just how fucked up the world is right now, I…I…”

  “Hey, it’s okay.” Luke stood up and walked over behind her, setting a hand on her shoulder. Sam set the spoon down and turned around. Before Luke could stop her, she leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips.

  “Sam…”

  “Luke, please,” said Sam. “The real reason I came over here was to get your VR headset. I have a copy of Third Life with me…”

  What?

  “I need to know if they’re okay,” said Sam. “I was going to go in, to check on them. But you… Luke, if you do it for me… maybe you’ll still be able… to log out.”

  Luke stepped back and shook his head.

  “Sam…”

  If I was in her shoes, I’d want the same thing.

  “I can’t,” said Luke, after several seconds. “I just can’t. It’s too big of a risk to take.”

  Sam blinked a few times quickly, and then nodded.

  “Fine,” she said. She turned off the stove and walked through the kitchen. “I’ll do it myself.”

  It took Luke a couple of seconds to process what she’d just said. She was headed up the stairs, back up to his room. Back to where his VR headset and computer were waiting.

  “Sam!” he yelled, heading after her. “Hold on!”

  She sped up, rushing into his room. Luke reached the doorway right as she began to slam it shut. He struggled to push it open, falling forward into his room on the other side.

  “No!” yelled Sam. “I have to!”

  She struggled toward Luke’s computer. He grabbed her arm, and then flinched back in surprise as Sam pushed him backward. The two of them fell to the ground in a jumbled, writhing heap, Sam desperately reaching for the headset.

  “The same thing will happen to you!” said Luke. “I can’t let you do it, Sam!”

  “They’re my parents!” She pounded on of her fists on Luke’s chest, and then buried her head in his shoulder. “Luke, please…”

  Sam stopped struggling. She leaned back slightly, locked eyes with Luke, and then kissed him. He pulled back and shook his head.

  “I… I can’t,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”

  She watched him, scanning his face for any trace of the emotion that lay behind his reaction.

  “It’s all tied together, isn’t it?” Sam sighed, and turned her lips up into a sad smile. “You’re doing all of this for someone…”

  Luke didn’t say anything. Sam represented a life to him, a life that he could have had. A life that would have been simple, uncomplicated, and happy. A life that he couldn’t ever go back and have for himself, now.

  Sam grabbed a pillow of the bed and flung it at him, pulling Luke from his reverie. She glared at him and crossed her arms.

  “Don’t kill yourself over this, Luke,” she said softly. “You can only do so much on your own.”

  She turned and left the room. Luke heard her walk down the stairs, and then out the front door. He sighed and then slowly made his way downstairs, and had some soup.

  CHAPTER 17

  It was difficult, but Luke managed to force himself to get some sleep. He was worried about Tess and Kaoru, and his dreams reflected it, pulling him into a landscape that perfectly mimicked Yvvaros.

  This is… too realistic. What’s going on?

  He was floating in the clouds, formless and weightless. Underneath him, he could see the continent, Kantor floating in the sky, looking almost no different from Stark Town and the settlements on the ground from the height he was at.

  A woman floated by him, toward the western ocean. Luke knew that it was her, even without being able to make out the exact details.

  “Wait!” he shouted. “Where are you going!”

  She took off in a streak of blue light, as though answering his question through demonstration. She flew west, into the Western Sea, toward Azanora Island.


  Azanora Island… I have to remember!

  Luke was falling, and felt vertigo overwhelm him. He woke up right as he struck the ground.

  It was early in the morning, but he felt as though he’d been asleep for an eternity. He coughed and cleared his throat, and then without even climbing completely out of bed, pulled his laptop and VR headset over and got in-game.

  Yvvaros was slightly ahead of the real world. The sun was already rising over the horizon. Luke was just outside of the tent. He peeked his head in and saw Tess and Kaoru, both stirring from their sleep.

  “How are the two of you feeling?” he asked. Luke stepped into the tent and sat down in between them.

  “Ohhh…” moaned Tess. “I feel… I feel like I’m waking up from a coma. What happened?”

  Luke smiled and set his hand on her forehead.

  “The Huzuni tricked us,” he said. “It’s my fault for trusting them when all of my instincts were screaming against it."

  “Uhhhh…” Kaoru was in a similar state on her own bedroll. “Can you get me some water? And some food?”

  Luke smiled and nodded slowly.

  “Sure.”

  He rifled through Tess’s bag, where they kept all of their perishable supplies, and pulled out some bread and a waterskin. He gave each of them a small piece, and lifted the skin so they could sip from it without needing to get up.

  “Thank you,” said Kaoru. “Did you… did you learn anything new? Any new leads on where we should go?”

  Luke thought for a moment, and then nodded.

  “Yes,” he said. “The Huzuni Elder, before I fought her, mentioned something about Azanora Island.”

  Kaoru gave him a surprisingly skeptical look.

  Why does she have to be so good at picking up on white lies?

  “Okay,” she said, after a long pause. “We can head there next.”

  She let out a phlegm filled cough, and Luke handed her the water skin again.

  “Get some rest,” said Luke. “I’ll scout out the area and make sure that we’re in the clear.”

  He looked over at Tess, and she smiled lovingly at him. Brushing his hands off on his leggings, Luke turned around and walked away.

  A strange confidence flooded into him as he stepped outside of the tent. The weight of what he’d done to the Huzuni still hung on his shoulders, but with it came a somber appraisal of his own resolve.

  I’ll do whatever it takes to save Tess and Yvvaros.

  Birds were chirping in the trees nearby. The sun was bright, and the sky was clear. Luke could almost fool himself into thinking that the circumstances of the world had returned it to normal.

  The thought was banished from his mind as he heard a scream in the distance, toward the Inner Plains. He ran forward at an even pace, holding his sword at the ready.

  A medium sized hill marked the boundary between the forested hybrid region in which they’d camped and the Inner Plains proper. Luke made his way to the top of it and scanned the clearing below.

  He saw a group of a dozen Tymians descending on a woman. There was too much distance for him to be able to tell if she was a player or an NPC. Even with Progenitor’s Soul active, Luke couldn’t have made it to her in time.

  He decided to try anyway.

  “No, stop!” The woman was backing away from them, hands extended in front of her. She tripped over a rock and fell to the ground. The Tymians pounced, and began ripping her apart.

  And then Luke arrived on the scene. He slammed into the nearest one, the one raking its claws and needle sharp teeth through her flesh. The others turned and began surrounding him.

  PROGENITOR’S SOUL

  CONJURE SWORD 4

  His magicka bar was full, and it allowed him to use his abilities without being overly concerned about running low. He swung his sword in a wide arc to the left, and then to the right, bunching them together. Immediately after, he launched his blades into the center, connecting with a few of the monsters as though throwing darts.

  “Get up,” he said to the woman. “Run!”

  She didn’t respond. Luke knew in his gut that she was already dead, and there was nothing he could do.

  He threw himself forward into the Tymians, slashing into the creatures and letting out roars of battle as they attempted to fend him off. His sword cut through their bodies like a hot knife through butter. Luke felt anger, and lust for battle taking hold inside of him.

  One of them leaped at him from an opening at the flank. Luke’s swords moved to defend him almost as though they were a part of his body, catching the creature in a spike trap that left it skewered.

  Luke spun, slicing across the chests of several more, and then hopped back. He prepared to move forward and finish off the rest of the group when a loud, ear wrenching screech sounded on the air.

  A Wyllite, one of Yvvaros’s most fearsome flying monsters, soared down from high in the sky. The monster was gigantic, twice the size of the largest whales in the real world. It landed down in the clearing in front of the group, shaking the ground more intensely than a small earthquake.

  Fuck!

  Hundreds of Tymians were riding on its back. They leaped off and charged forward, heading straight for Luke and the campsite. He took a step back. There was no chance that he could fend off so many for more than a few seconds.

  “Luke!” Tess was standing down at the bottom of the other side of the hill. She still looked tired, but waved to him frantically.

  “Run, Tess!” He yelled. “We have to-”

  “Hurry!” She screamed, cutting him off. “Kaoru found what we need!”

  Luke cursed under his breath, but started moving back toward the camp. He’d have a better chance at giving them an opportunity to escape if he could hold off there, anyway.

  He came to a stop in front of where the tent was, or rather, had been set up. Tess waved to him to continue following her, but he shook his head.

  “The two of you need to keep moving,” he said. “If I focus I can buy you enough time to-”

  “Oh, shut up already!” yelled Tess. “Kaoru found us a way to escape.”

  Luke blinked. One of the Tymian front runners crashed through the trees behind him. He dodged its initial strike and speared it through with his sword.

  “Hurry, Luke!” Tess was already heading off into the forest, in the direction of the Huzuni village. Luke bit his lip, but followed after her.

  His skepticism burned out instantly when he reached the village and saw what Kaoru had planned. She was standing on the deck of a small fishing vessel, cutting its moorings from a dock that Luke hadn’t noticed the last time he’d been through the area. Corpses still lay scattered about, but he forced himself to ignore them as he followed after Tess.

  “Get on, now!” yelled Kaoru.

  Luke didn’t object. He helped Tess onto the deck and followed after her, a group of Tymians close on their heels. Kaoru set the sail into position right as one of them attempted to leap across the gap and onto the deck. Luke swung his sword and connected with the creature’s skull, knocking it back like a baseball player hitting a home run.

  LEVEL 28 ATTAINED

  The small fishing boat pushed out away from the shore. Tymians crowded around the dock, watching the three of them escape with unreadable expressions. Luke was tired, and incredibly relieved.

  CHAPTER 18

  “What the hell were you thinking?”

  Tess glared at Luke, her hands set on her hips. He opened his mouth in surprise.

  “…What?”

  Tess pushed him in the chest. He wasn’t all that close to the fishing ship’s railing, but he still flinched in surprise. Kaoru was at the front of the ship, carefully guiding it down the Huzuni River.

  “I don’t know what’s going on inside your head, Luke,” said Tess. “But you need to stop trying to get yourself killed.”

  It’s better than getting other people killed.

  “Look, I was just trying to save the two of you,” he said. �
��I didn’t realize that we had a boat.”

  Tess didn’t say anything. She wasn’t glaring at him, but her gaze had an intensity to it that made him feel as cowed as though she had been.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”

  Tess’s expression softened. She walked over to him and took hold of his hand.

  “I didn’t mean to be that harsh,” she said. “I know you’ve been through a lot.”

  Luke forced himself to smile at her as the faces of the Huzuni, of his mom and dad, and all the people who’d died because of his actions flickered into his mind’s eye.

  “We’re safe now,” he said. “That’s all that matters.”

  He hugged Tess against him, and looked out to the river bank. The Tymians had continued to give chase for a while, running along the land and looking for opportunities to launch onto the ship as it drew close to land. The trees had grown thick enough to slow them, and Kaoru was surprisingly deft when it came to working the rudder.

  “This is nice,” said Kaoru. “Yvvaros is really just a giant island. If I could, all I would do is sail along the coast, run laps and explore.”

  Luke nodded to her.

  “Well, at the very least we’ll be able to do half a lap over the next few days,” he said. “It will be the easiest way for us to get to Azanora Island.”

  Kaoru and Tess both gave him a curious look. Luke felt confident about the lead, maybe a bit overly so given the justification he’d given them.

  “That’s all the way over in the Western Sea,” said Tess. “It’s also a huge island. It’s not going to be easy for us to follow up on this.”

  “We don’t have anything else to go on.” Luke scratched his head and leaned against the railing, staring out into the jungle as the current pushed them swiftly down the river.

  Kaoru turned the boat into one of the river’s tighter turns. Luke steadied himself as the deck shifted underneath him, and Tess pulled in a little closer.

  “How far are we going to go for this, Luke?” she whispered. “This feels like a wild goose chase.”

  “Tess…” Luke frowned at her.

  “I want to find the Universal Truth as much as you do, but what then?” She locked eyes with him, making it clear that she was speaking seriously.