Defenders of the Realm

by Dave Willmarth

  Geb was nodding his head, a slight smile on his face.

  Alexander added “I trapped them in a dungeon not long ago by placing a thick stone wall right in front of the exit portal. I don’t know how many of them perished when they slammed into the stone. But at least a few.”

  This had the dragons laughing even harder. Barin bowed his head and said. “You shall be known among the dragons as King Alexander the Demonslayer!”

  Alexander grinned at the teasing dragon and gave a mock bow. “I am so honored.”

  Geb interrupted. “Have you considered that a portal works two ways?”

  Alexander turned to face the Guardian. “I have indeed, I questioned the necromancer about his master, and the master’s location. He claims his master is the one known as the ‘Dark One,’ whom I thought I had dealt with already. It seems I was wrong. I was considering using the orb to make a visit to his home. See how he likes intruders.”

  “But there will be a demon horde between you and him when you arrive.” Geb guessed.

  “So says the necromancer, as well. But he was in a bad mood at the time. He could have been lying. Or it may be that the horde will flood through the portal in a suicidal rush. At least, I hope that’s how it goes.”

  Geb resumed his sitting position next to the node crystal. “Then I leave the demon horde in your capable hands, Alexander.”

  Chapter 13

  Fighting Inner Demons

  Alexander teleported himself back up to where his army was gathered in the enclosure. They were all celebrating the completion of the quest he’d given them. The quest experience plus kill bonuses had given some of them multiple levels. And the dwarves were already planning to buy drinks with their 500 gold rewards.

  There was also some whispering about how the dead might have been resurrected. Most seemed to think Alexander was the one who did it, using some new power he’d acquired. His officers were holding their tongues. And he hoped they would continue to do so. The fewer people who knew about Geb the better.

  The dwarves had already filled the breach in the wall to a height of about ten feet. They were busily building a scaffold using branches from the massive tree. Alexander asked Silverbeard to summon the carpenters and loggers to deal with the massive trunk that spanned the courtyard.

  Beatrix and Pollock had made their way back from the keep, and she was loudly lamenting the loss of loot from all the enemies buried under the collapsed roof. As Alexander approached, he teased “I thought you said it was probably going to be all squishy eyeballs and fingernails or something?”

  She looked at him like he was insane. “There’s a market for everything. Even squishy zombie eyeballs.”

  Pollock was joking with his comrades and some of the dwarves, describing what it was like to be trampled by a rotting ogre. He didn’t seem to mind the loss of xp.

  Max and Lainey and the other hunters had joined the army at the mine as soon as they’d disposed of the remaining undead stragglers. Alexander called all of his officers together. They sat on boulders and broken branches as he began to update them.

  “I found the necromancer elf. His plan was to use one of the orbs to open a portal down at the bottom of the pit. I have the orb now, and the activation phrase. We can pick a good spot to activate it. I was thinking in a magma pool or someplace just as deadly. We can open the portal in the middle of the pool and watch the demons burn as they come through. Except, of course the flying ones. We’ll still have to deal with them.”

  Sasha spoke up “Jeeves says there’s still one enemy in the mine. But the quest showed as completed.”

  Alexander grinned “I didn’t kill the elf. I pushed him deep into the stone and left him there to rot.” Brick looked concerned. “What if he gets out? If some miner accidentally digs him out. Or one o’ them demons? I think ye should lemme kill him.”

  Alexander shrugged. “If you like. I proved my point. You can dig him out and finish him next time we’re down there. I’ll show you the spot.”

  Sasha said “Back to the demons. I don’t know of any magma pools around here. What’s your backup plan?”

  Max raised his hand “We could fill a room with spikes like in the Chaos Nation house. Let them kill themselves on those.”

  Sasha shook her head. “The first hundred would die, but their bodies would cover the spikes. The rest could crawl over them.”

  Jules said “What about putting it at the edge of the cliff. The flying ones would still live, but the others would get smushed. And Beatrix and Max could loot them all at the bottom.” To which Brick cleared his throat meaningfully. Jules grinned and added “And Brick can get a few thousand demon horns.”

  Alexander responded “That might work. We’d have the Gryphons and our archers and crossbowmen to deal with any flying ones…”

  Max interrupted. “Let’s not warn anybody at the keep. Just let it start raining demons and watch everyone scramble!”

  Silverbeard, who had just joined them after making Alexander’s other arrangements, replied “Ye be daft! Our poor people’d be crushed. Anyway, yer plan would fail. Besides the flyin demons, many o’ them have magic. They’d be able to float down.”

  The group continued to discuss options, rejecting them one by one. As they were seeming to agree on one, Braxis glided to a landing nearby. He walked over and squawked at Alexander.

  Kai was not available to translate, as Lia had insisted that with a demon army nearby he should stay and protect their offspring in the roost. So Jules stood and approached the gryphon. She placed a hand on his neck and closed her eyes. A moment later she said “He wants you to go with him. He’s showing me images of the demons attempting to dig through the rock slide.”

  Braxis nodded his head, then nuzzled Jules. She hugged his neck before nimbly hopping onto his back. “I’m going too. I want to fly!”

  Alexander boarded the gryphon and a moment later they were airborne, rising above the treetops with just a few beats of Braxis’ powerful wings. Jules was sitting in front of him so he couldn’t see her face. But the euphoric “Wheeeeeeee!” gave him a good idea how she felt about flying. He simply held her close and enjoyed the ride. She spent most of it whispering with Braxis, so that by the time they arrived, she reported leveling her beast master skill twice.

  Braxis hovered high above the demon camp as the two elves looked down. They were indeed trying to dig their way back to the cave from which they exited the mountain. Alexander could see the massive rock slide had covered a good portion of their previous camp. And it looked like maybe 20% of their force had been buried in the slide. Either that or they were scattered out in the forest somewhere.

  There were lines of demons lifting rocks and passing them along to be dumped off to one side. By the progress Alexander could see, they’d be digging for another day, maybe two. “Braxis, do you think your son’s pride could drop some more boulders on the demons? Just to slow them down a bit?”

  Braxis nodded his head emphatically. Two beats of his wings and they were approaching the mountaintop. He swooped down to land among a field of decent sized stones. Taking one between his forepaws, he took to the air again. He circled for a few minutes, looking for a likely spot. When he saw what he was looking for, he let loose the stone. It fell upon a pile of larger stone and shattered with a thunderous crack. The stones beneath shuddered and began to shift. In seconds there was a small landslide tumbling downward, picking up momentum. Those rocks hit more rocks on the way down, and the slide widened. The demons heard the rumbling and began to retreat, but some were too close to make it in time. Maybe forty demons disappeared under the rocks and dust of the slide. Even better, the volume of stone now covering the cave was greatly increased.

  Braxis roared in triumph and turned them back toward the mine. Jules said “He said to tell you, that his descendants will drop rocks on the camp, too. Just to keep the demons watching the sky. He thinks of it as a game.”

  When they arrived back at the mine, Jules filled ev
eryone in on what they saw while Alexander went to work on the walls. He finished the patch on the breached sections, then thickened all the walls and made them ten feet taller. The dwarves quickly fashioned a gate and hinges to close off the mine entrance from the outside. Geb and the dragons now had two lines of defense.

  The dwarves sealed the entrance, and the Elysian miners volunteered to stay as guards. They wanted to hold a private service for their lost comrade, and carve a monument into the wall. Alexander offered to stay and help, but they thanked him kindly and said it was a private matter. Brick opted to stay as well, intending to go finish off the necromancer. Alexander described roughly where he was located, and Brick said he could find him.

  Alexander began teleporting his troops back to the keep. He sent the Elysians and Silverbeard in the first group so that he could make arrangements to house the hundred dwarves from Broken Mountain.

  The hunters said they’d make their own way down, wanting to scout the forest on the way. Max and Lainey joined them.

  Five minutes later, Alexander teleported himself along with the final group. There was a celebration already underway as the Elysians and Broken Mountain Dwarves relieved some of the stress from the day and toasted to their victory.

  One of the dwarves took the time to add the name of the fallen miner to the monument in the druid’s grove, and all the citizens of Elysia took a few moments to honor his sacrifice. Alexander addressed them all with Jeeves’ assistance.

  “Another Elysian has given his life so that our kingdom, our people, might remain free. However, our fight is not over yet. We still face an enemy even more dangerous than the one we defeated today. And I must call upon you all to face that enemy with the same courage, strength, and dedication as the fallen whose names adorn this monument.” He paused for a moment, taking a breath.

  “But if we stand together, take care of one another, and face head-on any enemy that seeks to destroy us; we WILL emerge victorious!” He raised his glass in salute of the fallen as the gathered citizens cheered and raised their own glasses.

  As the crowd dispersed, Jules stood beside him. She took hold of his hand and kissed his cheek. She didn’t offer any words, and he didn’t need any. It was enough that she was there.

  *****

  Richard Greystone was at his desk, watching his son address the crowd in the courtyard. A lump formed in his throat as his son’s words came through the feed. He had always been proud of his son. He was a fighter. A kid who grew up in the shadow of death yet refused to give up. Richard suspected the sorrow his son felt was just as real to him as if he’d lost someone in the real world. Alexander could choose to avoid it. To quit. To come out of immersion and reset everything. Spend his days frolicking through the virtual woods with his friends with no responsibilities whatsoever.

  He was lost in these thoughts when his partner Michael walked into the office. He tapped on the door as he entered, breaking Richard’s reverie and gaining his attention. “We have an… issue.” He said grimly.

  “What is it? Another attack?”

  Michael shook his head. “No, this is about the last attack. About Dayle. He’s become conscious. Well, conscious in VR. He’s aware, and asking questions. The tech who was monitoring him jumped into VR and has been updating him on his condition, as we discussed.”

  Richard saw the look on Michael’s face and assumed the worst. “Has he had a breakdown? We’ve had a concern that the stress would be too much for him.”

  Michael shook his head. “No, he seems quite… lucid. Calm, even. He seems to grasp the situation fully and to be in his right mind. Which is part of the problem.” He paused and walked over to a bar where poured himself several fingers of scotch. Richard followed him and poured one for himself.

  “He wants us to let him die. Turn off the life support functions in his pod and just let him go.”

  Richard’s face fell. His legs felt weak, and he sat down in the closest chair to keep from falling. Both men were silent for a while as Michael let Richard work through the implication in his mind.

  Finally, Richard said “We would be assisting him in committing suicide.”

  Michael refilled his already empty glass and took a seat across from Richard. “Technically, legally, no. Right now we’re taking measures to keep him alive. Without the pod’s life support, his body wouldn’t survive on its own. Assisted suicide implies that the body would continue to survive on its own, and some life-ending procedure is necessary.”

  Richard was silent again for a while. “I don’t like it. I mean, I understand, and in his position, I think I might make the same decision if I didn’t have access to a pod. But he does. He could live a full virtual life until his body heals enough for prosthetics.”

  “I agree on both points. I also think he’s not of sound mind at this moment. How could he be? One minute he’s a healthy middle-aged man playing a game and earning a good living, with a bright future ahead. The next he wakes up with a mangled body being kept alive by a machine. The psychological trauma has to be at least as stressful as the physical.”

  Richard pulled out a pad and started taking notes. “We’ll need legal to look at his contract to see what provisions are included there. And to tell us our liability here, and what options we have. Including pulling the plug if it comes to that. I’ll want our psychologists to speak to him, give us an idea of his mental competence, and to see if they can guide him away from it. I want to talk to him myself, I don’t want him to die. If we can convince him that he can still have a decent life, shouldn’t his sense of self-preservation kick in?”

  Michael gave a small shrug, downing the rest of his drink. “I don’t want him to die either. As for self-preservation… millions have committed suicide for lesser reasons. I think everyone has their own trigger point. But I agree, let us do all we can to help him see that life is still worth living. We are uniquely qualified to keep his body alive while providing his mind something to keep it occupied. Do we encourage him to rejoin Alexander’s group?”

  Richard thought that through for several minutes. Finally, he said “I think not yet. Dayle’s group especially were pretty traumatized by the attack. If he joins them and it doesn’t work… if he still decides to end his life, it could be very bad for them. Better to wait until we think he’s more stable. We can provide him with a solo experience for a while to keep him occupied.” His heart ached with this decision. It was possible after all, that being with his friends in the game might be the one thing that motivates him to want to live. And denying him this could be killing him the same as if Richard unplugged his pod.

  Michael nodded in agreement. He set down his empty glass and got to his feet. Richard rose to walk him out. Michael said “We’ll figure this out. We’ll get the best people possible involved and get some answers. Then we can make an informed decision. Or the decision may be taken out of our hands. That’s about the best we can hope for.”

  Richard watched the door close behind his old friend. “Heimdall, please locate Dr. Feelgood and ask her to join me.” He said as he walked back toward his desk. A quick look at the game feed showed Alexander mingling with his people and smiling.

  A couple taps of the command keys built into the surface of his desk, and his display switched to security monitoring. The security force at Olympus had become quite substantial. Combined with the security personnel at all of their other facilities, as well as those out in the field doing protection work or investigations, he now employed a small army. One that was larger and better funded than those of several small nations.

  Despite that, and the cooperation of the FBI and other national police forces, they had been unable to locate Miriam’s son Matt. The young man responsible for the bomb that had maimed Dayle, killed a young Jupiter technician, and wounded several others.

  They had only captured his father, Howard, because he’d directly confronted Alexander in the game. He exposed himself as the “Dark One” who was employing so many people in his effort
s to take revenge. Howard and his son had obviously been planning their campaign to destroy Richard, his family, and their company for some time. They had the advantage of being prepared.

  Richard worried constantly about where the next attack would come from, and who it would hurt. Matt was still out there, commanding who knew how many people like those who launched the bomb and rocket attack on Olympus.

  How does one defend against zealots willing to sacrifice their own lives and the lives of innocents in order to make their point? One of the people walking these halls could be carrying a bomb or wearing a suicide vest.

  It had been several days since Richard had gotten more than two or three hours of sleep at a time. Like his son, he felt a responsibility for his people. All his people around the globe. And he was going to extraordinary measures to protect them.

  Speaking aloud, he said “Heimdall, get me Chief Talbott please.”

  A moment later Morris Talbott’s voice echoed through the office. “I’m here boss. What’s up?”

  “Morris, how are your men doing on the sweep. I can’t shake the feeling that there are more bombs hidden somewhere here.”

  “I’ve got four teams of EOD specialists sweeping every inch of this place. But it takes time. We’re focusing on the most heavily trafficked areas first, and working our way out from there. One of the teams is focusing on the power plant, water distribution, key infrastructure areas. It’ll be a few more days, at least. This is a big place, boss.”

  “Any way to speed it up? More teams?” Richard asked anxiously.

  “If there were more teams available today I would already have them here, boss. I do have some bomb-sniffing dogs scheduled to arrive in a couple hours. They’ll help move things along.” Talbott replied a little curtly. Richard grinned. Talbott was the best, and didn’t take kindly to being second-guessed.

  “I’m sorry Morris. I know you’re doing all you can. I have complete faith in you. Too much time in my own head. Forgive me.”

  “Nothing to forgive, boss. I know you, and I’m with you. I don’t want anyone else hurt on my watch either. We’ll make sure this place is clear, and we’ll find the little shit that set off that bomb. He’ll pay for what he did… Trust me.” Talbott’s voice had gone grim. Richard had no illusion that when they found Matt he would be turned over to the authorities. Talbott would do his own questioning. If there was anything left of Matt afterwards, the FBI could have him.