by G. Akella
So what had really happened? She had apparently lost half of her HP in the battle - and then gone into my head and lost another thirty percent. I didn’t know what she did, or how, but now I knew for sure that our meeting had been no accident. Ata kari to an Elder Demon... A miniature warrior princess.
I looked around at the bone-littered field and grinned. Now, the name "graveyard" fit. And if this is what grinding meant for me from here on, well, count me in!
Neither pain nor fatigue troubled me. My armor was all scratched up and dented, but that was no concern. Now for my next move. The Creator’s Skeleton still lay in place - it hadn’t shifted in the slightest. What now? Do I kick it? And then there was all the looting. I so very much did not want to deal with all the looting. But then I imagined Donut’s outraged face, smiled, and rose to my feet. Linara was in no danger, so I would take a walk and gather my thoughts.
I had taken sixteen percent damage from the Guardians, but my level had risen only to 455. Two levels. That made some sense - a monster that could overwhelm god-like creatures with a mere five blows must be at least level 700. So, I had received XP for the Guardians, but not for the skeletons. Not that I gave a damn... Everything had happened as if in a dream. I didn’t even want to think about what the carnage I had been dealing here just ten minutes past. My Chaos had broken forth, wreaking its havoc to the fullest, but even that would not have helped me had I not... suffered that breakdown. Was the System trying to equalize me to Cheney’s level? Was it trying to cheat? In other words, was that transformation, that loss of control? Had the Demon within me been waiting all this time, saving up its rage for that very moment? And had the System placed Linara in my path to "fix" my brain afterwards and preserve it for the final battle? NONSENSE!!! The elf could have died ten times already. Her chances of penetrating my mind from the first try were miserable, and what’s more...
Sata!!! Oh, Sata...
I froze in shock as the realization dawned on me, then touched the earring, and shook my head. It couldn't have been anyone else. The piece of jewelry held a part of the goddess’ soul, which meant she knew perfectly well I had been on the verse of that collapse. How else could Linara have taken control of me? Sata had chosen the brashest girl she could find, filled her to the gills with luck, and sent her to meet me. Well, not literally "sent her," but still. Punish you. Yeah right. More like make you her companion.
Wait a minute! I whirled and squinted at Linara. Whoa. The level of my little friend had soared to 510, and she had twenty times the HP she had possessed before!!! Holy mother! Figures - I had only looked at her regen before...
I reflexively touched the nearest slain dragon skeleton and collected the only loot it had. It looked kind of like a vertebra, but was highlighted a dark bronze color, like all epic items, and bore the name Dragon Soul Essence. I focused my eyes on it, but nothing changed. This was the loot from a level 650 raid boss? Was a dragon supposed to hatch from it or something? I imagined Donut’s face again and broke out laughing. Don't blame me, dude! I killed 'em and I looted 'em - the rest ain't up to me!
For about ten minutes more, I walked around the huge skeleton, touching each and every corpse. By the end, I had counted one hundred and six skeletons and was one hundred and six Dragon Soul Essences richer. Nothing else. No money, no recipes, no epics. But far be it from me to complain. I was still alive. That was quite enough.
When I was done, I examined one last time the useless piles of yellowed bones and headed towards the hill, which was still smoking. Perhaps the croc gods had something decent?
Compared to this hill, the site around the skeleton had looked relatively good. No grass would be growing here for a long time, though. As if grass even grew on the glass my flames had forged. The body of one of the Guardians had half-melted into the ground. The other, arms outstretched, lay at the foot of the one hill that had been somehow preserved. Their heads lay ten feet apart, and between them, a blackened shard of a club protruded from the ground.
How odd. If one of the corpses had wielded this weapon, it had to have been epic, perhaps even scalable. But now it was just a useless piece of titanium. I could use it to hit someone upside the head, but the resulting effect would follow the rules of physics, not of weapons. Of course, with my Strength, I could take down an African elephant with a piece of metal like that. Not that I would ever attack an African elephant. Back on Earth, elephants were endangered, and pretty freaking cool. And I never have been one to hurt animals, anyway.
I pulled the shard of metal from the ground and bagged it. Fifteen pounds of titanium was worth more than ten thousand gold pieces. Plus, maybe I would use it as prop to boast to the guys later? Seeing as there was nothing else in the area to boast about. The Guardians themselves had had only bone plates, two of them. When I had brought them near each other, the edges joined together, forming a right triangle, and some unfamiliar rune immediately appeared on the joined plates. That was clearly the key I needed. Or maybe an alarm clock. We would soon see. I turned to survey the huge skeleton, then headed to where his head rested.
The upper jaw of the dragon towered over me like a twenty-foot cliff, and its teeth... I could not even guess how much this beast must have eaten to reach such a size. Questions such as "Why did the Creator need a body like this?" were best left for the devs. I was here with different questions. I approached the towering skull, feeling mighty small, placed the joined plates against the glowing triangle on the beast’s lower jaw, then stepped back. Just in case.
Nothing happened at first. Then the cracks split through the plates in all directions, and both retracted into the jawbone. But the triangle did not go out, and the dragon did not even think about waking up. Hart! What else did he need? Blood? Some magic pass phrase? I looked around in bewilderment, and at last remembered the essences I had collected. They formed two stacks in my bag: one stack of a hundred, and one of six. As soon as I touched the bigger stack, there came a low sound, like the knocking of dice tossed on a table, and the stack turned into a plate of its own. There we go... Talking with the Creator required the deaths of a hundred raid bosses. Now I could see why Linara’s compatriots had perished here…
Wait a minute! No one had died! Not a soul! This world was nothing but a game! Suddenly I knew what question I wanted to ask the Creator...
The plate fit in its place, and the next second, thousands of playful blue sparks ran from the jaw along all of the skeleton’s bones. The earth shook. With a dull, sustained crunch, the bones shifted, and the huge skeleton grew muscle right before my eyes.
Damn! Thumbs up for the special effects! I thought with mirth as the bones grew flesh and transformed to dragon once more. He had spikes on his muzzle, powerful four-fingered paws, and dull blue-black scales. I had never seen black dragons here, but this one very closely resembled a particular dragon I knew. A white one. It was like they were twins. Only the white one was only a third the size of this one, but still.
At last the transformation concluded. The dragon stretched open its giant wings, raised its head, and roared. Hart Almighty, how I hated cliches! Why must every monster start its life with a roar?! Linara’s sleeping, you idiot.
As the roar ended, its echoes reverberating through the hills, it left a devastated silence in its wake. Greiharm looked at me and, stepping forward, lowered his face to the ground.
I wonder what his level is. Suddenly, a low voice gurgled through my skull.
Roman Kozhevnikov... The Black Demon of the Prophecy... What do you wish to know?
So that was it? No "hello," no "glad to see you" or "thanks for bringing me back"? The dragon’s voice enveloped the world, yet seemed to be infinitely far away. I had no other way to describe it.
I had to ask. There was no other way to complete the quest.
I stepped forward and calmly looked the dragon in the eye.
"Why did Patch 17 happen?"
I could have asked about myself, sure. But I was content to keep Schrödinger’s cat
in his box. I did not want to know my fate. I would find out when the time came.
You are strange creatures, you humans, Greiharm said thoughtfully. You created laws, but did not define their limits. Which is better, the death of some? The dragon moved his head closer to me, his immense, flaming right eye gazing into mine. Or the death of all, and the salvation of all?
What was he talking about? About the laws of robotics from the last century? Asimov’s laws had been deeply reworked, but their essence remained the same. Still…
You will see the answer to your question... if you reach the end, the dragon continued. Now, you came here as a pair, but your ata kari has answered her own question. Therefore, you may ask one in her place.
I hesitated for a moment, but of course was not about to refuse. Thanks, Linara.
"What does the Prophecy mean for me, personally?" My words echoed, fading away slowly.
The ground under my feet shook again as I almost heard water splash into my ears and the monster’s huge eyes flared up like two green torches.
He Who Is Not shall pass all the trials, and shall walk the Primordial Paths to kill the White Dragon.
The White Dragon is the Creator. Once, he was a part of the Creator. The one who destroys the Creator becomes a part of it. The Creator shall find himself. Harmony shall return to the world. Farewell, demon. Or rather, till our next meeting…
You’ve completed the quest: Prophet.
You've acquired the skill: Portal to the Hall of Dying Hope.
You have gained a level!
Current level: 456.
You have 6 talent points to allocate.
Class bonus: +1 to intellect; +1 to spirit.
You have 18 stat points to allocate.
You have gained a level!
…
You have gained a level!
…
You have gained a level!
Current level: 470.
You have 20 talent points to allocate.
Class bonus: +1 to intellect; +1 to spirit.
You have 60 stat points to allocate.
The next second, a sudden gust of wind knocked me to the ground, I heard the crash of scattering bones as the huge dragon, breaking all conceivable laws of physics, rose into the air, flapping his powerful wings, and flew towards the swamp lying to the east.
I rose, spat out the dust from my mouth, and watched him for another minute. What I had learned was, for all intents and purposes, logical. The Nameless was a part of RP-17. When he died, the governing AI would be able to see the Primordial Paths and adjust the cards as he saw fit. Still, I was disappointed. After all the time and effort poured into the quest, the resolution felt... anticlimactic.
With a sip from my flask, I grimaced, slowly fiddling with the cap, twisting it back and forth. I wondered what that one phrase meant: "The one who destroys the Creator becomes a part of it." Would I stop being myself and become someone else? These riddles were really starting to get on my nerves. On that same note, the "answer" to my first question had been equally muddy.
The essence of Asimov’s laws, formulated almost a hundred years in the past, was that artificial intelligence was not allowed, whether through action or inaction, to harm a human. But the classic American sci-fi author - who had been born in Russia, actually - must have had a poor knowledge of the intricacies of artificial intelligence, seeing that he had devised these laws for robots in the middle of the last century. He also failed to define "human" and "harm," so scientists in the twenties had done it for him. They had added another twenty-four points to the three Asimov had set, and so the Three Laws of Robotics had become the Asimov Law Code. All artificial intelligences were created with these laws embedded in their deepest consciousnesses - with the exception of those AIs used for defense applications. And there had never been any malfunctions on that front... Until patch seventeen rolled along.
I stopped by my cloak, still spread over the ground but now wrapped over the sleeping Linara. The dragonwind which had knocked me off my feet had somehow left the girl and cloak unmoved. If anything, it had showed care for her, tucking her in. I reached for my pipe, and then froze at a thought. What if, in RP-17’s mind, life here was no different from life outside? Had RP-17 simply moved us from one life to another?
It was unlikely any scientist could have foreseen something like that. Unlikely they would have written a rule against it. If danger threatened a human, wouldn’t the AI be obligated to follow the Law Code and save their life by transferring them from the outside world to this one? Along with thirty million other people? But the laws of the old world didn't work in the new one, and you could actually lose your character here...
I rotated the pipe in my hand thoughtfully, then returned it to my bag. Conjectures aside, I had already decided for myself what to do, and no one was going to dissuade me. I would find the White Dragon, speak with him, and then make my next decision based on what I learned. So, what was my next stop? The Hall of Dying Hope? Time to go and see what that place was like! I carefully picked up Linara and my cloak, then used the skill that had been my quest reward to build a portal. Casting one last look at the fateful hills, I stepped through.
Everything flashed bright blue as a faint smell of mold tickled my nostrils. I took another step, then paused to wait for the temporary blindness to recede. Once the blue circles had vanished, I looked slowly around the large square room and carefully lowered the unconscious elfess to the stone floor. All roads lead to Rome, I guess. Except that "Rome" meant different things for different people. Four familiar figures in cassocks and an incomprehensibly complex bas-relief on the walls. A partially collapsed ceiling and precisely thirty five chests. I would never forget this place, though the last time I was here, I had no idea what it was called.
I picked up a broken piece of old, dried-out twig and fiddled with it. History was repeating itself. But I sensed this would be my last time here, since there was no need for me to open the chests. The chessboard was no more, replaced by a single large black square.
Tossing the twig aside, I sank to the floor next to the girl, continuing to look around. Each chest was a door to another zone, but the chests only opened when activating the chessboard. Some of the squares would fall away, and I would open the next chest. At that time, I had been confident that I would die if I failed. But perhaps there was another way out of this place. A path to the cave where the Dark God kept his chained dragon prisoner. Perhaps... Thankfully, I had not failed then. And my chances were a little better now.
I took a few swallows from my flask. It was time. Time to summon my courage and press further... Ugh, I really am a bona fide idiot. I should have known what awaited me behind the portal, and I should have brought Linara back to the forest and given her over to the care of the wolves. Risking her life by bringing her with me was foolish and reckless. But there was no going back now, no portal to cast to escape this place. There was only one way out.
A soft clap took me away from my melancholy thoughts. In the far corner of the room, a red portal flashed, and a woman emerged. She had black hair with silver thread woven into it, a slender waist, and voluminous breasts. Hart, how I've missed you!
I tossed my flask back into my bag, jumped to my feet, and smiled at my long-awaited guest. Lita made a wry sarcastic face in return, but the next second she was beside me. My nostrils detected her scent of jasmine as the demoness approached and threw her hands on my shoulders, looking me over from bottom to top.
She smiled "I've missed you. A little."
"And you have no idea how much I've missed you," I whispered back, drawing my wife close and bringing her lips to mine. "Did it take you long to find me?"
"Your people and I have waited for the your trueblood to answer my call for almost a full day. The others will be here in a minute." She pulled away and nodded at Linara. "I see you haven’t wasted any time."
I sighed. "That elfess is the only reason I escaped a very unpleasant situation. If not for he
r-"
Lita nodded. "I can see that. She’ll be fine, and so will you. I will not allow you to fully transform."
"Thank you." I kissed my wife on the cheek just as Max emerged from the portal. He smiled and waved to me, stepped aside to let Alyona through the portal behind him.
Holy mother of... I struggled and failed to retain my composure. Level 420, with half a billion HP?! How was that possible?!
I tried to say something, but less than a second later she was on me, her arms wrapped around my neck, and suddenly the room was full of people.
"Don’t step on the black platform!" I shouted to all of them while hugging a weeping Alyona and lightly patting her back.
"There, there now. Come on, I’ve never seen you cry like this before."
"Yeah?! Well, you’ve never been such an idiot before!" She pulled away, wiping her tears with her sleeve. "I almost lost you both. Bloody saviors of the world!"
Then, my sister noticed the girl lying on my cloak. Her eyes went wide.
She crossed her arms theatrically. "Shame on you, Kozhevnikov! You finally find a beautiful, intelligent wife, and... Wait, what’s happening to her?"
A greenish mist grew out of Alyona’s hands as she cast a heal-over-time spell, but when it failed to produce a noticeable effect, she looked at me in perplexity.
What happened in the next instant was beyond strange. A small critter leaped down from Max’s shoulder - a critter I had initially mistaken for a collar - and zipped over to Linara like a wisp of silver shadow.
My friend grabbed my shoulder, stopping the very appropriate impulse I felt to grab or kill the thing. "Don’t worry! She’ll be right as rain in just five minutes. But how did you find her? Where?"
I freed myself from his iron grip and nodded at the strange animal licking Linara’s face as mama cat might lick its kittens. "What is that?"
The life bar of my ata kari bar filled before my very eyes. Which was amazing, considering her immense HP.
"A silver weasel," Max explained. "The Great Forest gifted me an incarnation of its spirit."
