World-Tree's End

by E A Hooper

  >Vincent: My bad. Everyone should be respawning now, though.

  >Devon: Guess I should bite the capsule now. I’ll be right there.

  A few seconds later Devon appeared at his Checkpoint Crystal. By that time, Juniper, Keanu, May, and Lloyd had found out they were back and approached them.

  “Did you find my daughter?” Lloyd asked.

  “Yeah, she and everyone else will respawn in two weeks,” Jim explained. “You and I need to have a talk with her and River when they return, however. They were still doing those experiments.”

  “I heard. I stayed silent while you guys were on your mission, but I was listening closely to the team chat,” Lloyd said. “At the very least, those experiments are done for good.”

  “I’m sure Fynn will chew you guys out when he gets back,” Keanu said with a chuckle.

  “I doubt that,” May said. “That guy’s so shifty he’ll probably shrug it off and act like he didn’t really care. Remember his whole turnaround the moment Vince beat him at Lucas’s castle? After he lost, he conveniently had a change of heart.”

  “I think he’s just really stubborn,” Devon said. “He always knows when he’s in the wrong, but he only admits it after the fact.”

  “If he owns up to his mess, I might let it slide,” Jim said. “I know how badly he wants to escape this game, but he should’ve learned by now that there’re lines you shouldn’t cross.”

  “We can talk to Fynn about that later,” Vincent said. “Now that our people are safe from the angels, we should gather everyone in the auditorium again. I need to explain the dilemma with the update.”

  “Hang on, you should let me tell them,” Jim said. “I’ve let this guild fall out of my control in recent decades. I need to stand up and act like a leader again. If I had done that in the first place, they might not have taken their experiments so far. Maybe Xan and Quinn would still be working with us instead of running off on their own.”

  Vincent nodded. “Alright, just leave out the part about you know who.”

  “No problem,” Jim said, shivering for a moment. “I won’t lie, though, that’s still giving me the creeps to think about.”

  “What the hell are you two talking about?” Juniper interrupted.

  “I’ll tell a few of you later,” Vincent said. “There’s something I’d rather not let the whole guild know about.”

  “Ooh, now I’m really curious,” Juniper said, following as Vincent and Jim walked to the guild’s headquarters.

  “June, why do you have to be so nosy all the time?” Keanu questioned. “He’ll tell us when he’s ready.”

  The group continued to talk and playfully bicker as they neared the auditorium, except Lloyd, who remained silent. He stared off as if in a private chat, then pulled Vincent back as everyone entered the hall.

  “Something wrong?” Vincent asked him.

  “I’ve been trying to get hold of Xan,” he replied. “She finally answered me, but something sounded off. She asked me if I was in Edgelight, then asked me to bring a party to that Challenge World she and Quinn are exploring.”

  “Are they in danger?” Vincent asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Lloyd replied. “I asked her if they’d spotted any angels, but she immediately ended the private chat. She won’t respond now.”

  Vincent heard a commotion from the auditorium, and he assumed Jim had told the guild that he had reason to believe the timer on the update was a lie. A few of them questioned how he’d even know that, and he started to glance nervously through the open doorway at Vincent.

  “Uh, I better get in there and help him,” Vincent said, turning back to Lloyd. “If no one else can get ahold of Xan or Quinn by the end of the day, I’ll go to the Challenge World myself. At my speed, it’ll be faster to go alone, no offense.”

  “None taken,” Lloyd replied. “I was little help in that last fight, anyway. Guess I should start level grinding again myself. You go on, then. Sounds like Jim’s really losing the crowd.”

  Vincent hurried into the room and joined Jim at the podium. The Crickets seemed a lot angrier and more disjointed than he’d remembered, and he struggled to keep people calm, especially when he refused to tell them how he’d gotten information about the update.

  After a few minutes of people arguing, different groups stormed out of the room. Most of them seemed to believe him, but Vincent could tell the guild had lost a lot of their faith in him after he’d been gone so long.

  I’ll have to regain their trust. Luckily for me, I have more than enough time.

  Chapter 18

  After half a day of no one hearing from Xan or Quinn, Vincent decided to head for one of the three Challenge Worlds near the top of the World-Tree. One had red petals, and another had blue, but the one the two women had traveled to was orange. It stood out clearly, even with the last world’s rainbow-like aura grabbing his attention every time he looked at the sky.

  A multitude of people had offered to go with Vincent, but he knew most of them would slow him down. The only living guildsmen that could halfway keep up were Jim and Devon, so he allowed them to accompany him on the trip. Most of the time the trio jogged, but sometimes Vincent would speed things along by lifting them with Zero Field.

  It only took them two weeks to travel up the base of the trunk and follow a branch to the Challenge World. They moved so quickly that the trunk wyrms never had a chance to attack them. In that time, Silpher’s Coat reappeared undamaged in his inventory, and the Ranger used ethers to recharge it with mana.

  Vincent found it difficult to keep his eyes off Xenith, the final planet, as he traveled. His eyes traced the plains, lakes, and hills beyond the rainbow aura. Everything about that last world struck him as peaceful, which only made his curiosity grow. However, as he approached the base of the Challenge World, he finally turned his attention to the orange landscape. The petals stuck out more than the world he’d lived on, giving that planet the appearance of towering orange waves when viewed from the stem.

  “So, if this is like the Challenge World you told us about, there should be bosses in the north, south, east, and west, right?” Jim said.

  “I would think so,” Vincent replied.

  “The first boss we come across is going to one-shot me,” Devon said, worriedly. “I just know it.”

  “It might not,” Vincent said. “Maybe we should place Checkpoint Crystals just in case.”

  The three men equipped crystals, activated them, and left them hidden at the bottom of a nearby groove. Once the crystals were placed, they ventured south.

  “If we kill one of those Challenge Bosses, I’ll gain a bunch of levels, right?” Devon asked.

  “The stat boost would be split between the three of us,” Vincent answered. “When it comes to those Challenge Bosses, I don’t know if you have to survive the fight or just be part of the party, though.”

  “I hope it’s the latter,” Devon said. “It’d be cool to level even if I die right away.”

  “Xan and Quinn might have already cleared the bosses,” Vincent noted. “I’m sure they brought enough Checkpoint Crystals to tackle all four.”

  “Yeah, guess you’re right,” Devon said. “I shouldn’t get my hopes up.”

  “Don’t get mopey on us yet, Dev,” Jim said, eyeing the sky. “I think I see one.”

  Vincent stared in the same direction, then spotted a speck in the sky. It appeared to be flying north, although it didn’t seem to be heading toward them.

  “Get low,” Jim said, sliding toward the giant valley where two petals overlapped.

  Vincent and Devon followed Jim, and the two Rangers kept their eyes on the sky. With Vincent’s higher Perception, he could make out more of the creature’s shape, so he relayed what he saw to his teammates.

  “It’s kind of strange looking,” Vincent said. “At first I thought it was a bird, but its face looks like one of those old gas masks. There’s a glimmer of mithril in its hands—I’m thinking either claws or daggers.”<
br />
  Vincent Scanned the monster, but the moment he did so, it turned off its path and faced their direction.

  [Puppet] Searath the Southern Sky (Exotic Boss) – Monster Class: S | Ageless | Sex: Male | Respawn Time: Ten In-Game Years | Personality: Curious

  “It’s heading this way!” Devon said, nervously.

  “I thought you said the bosses stay to their quadrants?” Jim asked Vincent, obviously having Scanned the enemy himself.

  “They did on my Challenge World,” Vincent replied. “Get ready for a fight. If we hit him the moment he’s within range, we might be able to take him down before he kills any of us.”

  “Before he kills me, you mean,” Devon joked.

  The trio equipped weapons and readied themselves, but then the boss turned and flew in a circular pattern out of their range.

  “What’s he waiting for?” Devon asked.

  “I don’t know,” Vincent said. “The other Challenge Bosses had to be triggered through a prompt or an attack. Maybe he’s waiting for us to do something?”

  “If he was a bit closer, I could snipe him out of the sky with Deletion Cannon,” Jim said. “At this range, though, and with his current speed, I don’t think I could get him.” He squinted his eyes, staring at the boss. “Vince, does something about him look odd to you? For a moment, I saw whitish lines shimmering off his body. You think it has something to do with that ‘Puppet’ tag in front of his name?”

  Just as Vincent started to take a closer look himself, a shape in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He looked down the valley to see a knight-like figure charging toward them with superhuman speed.

  “There’s something else coming!” Vincent yelled.

  Before his friends could glance over, two things happened at once. The flying enemy sprayed a cloud of yellow smoke that, like Silpher’s attack, formed into thousands of needles that flew in their direction. Before the needles could reach them, however, the knight swung his sword. His blade sent a huge wave of world magic racing across the ground, making sections of the petal rise and fall like a series of waves.

  Panicking, Devon took cover by encasing himself in a block of Holy Lattice. Jim didn’t notice the knight’s attack, but his Alcubierre Shield sent him flying away before the blast could do harm to him. The only one to take a direct hit was Vincent, who raised his arms in self-defense. The blast sent him sliding backward a dozen meters, but he only sustained minor cuts, in addition to losing the sleeves of his coat.

  The needles landed across the valley, covering the area with explosions. Vincent shrugged them off while trying to keep both enemies in his sight. He noticed Jim’s Deletion Cannon fly toward the skyward foe, but the boss shattered the sound barrier as it narrowly dodged the attack in the split-second it took to reach it.

  In that short amount of time, the knight came barreling through the last few explosions left by the needles. The armored enemy stood about twice Vincent’s height, and his wide-bodied armor looked full of whitish tendrils, almost as if a pale, eldritch creature had been stuffed into the suit of armor. Despite its bloated appearance, the knight seemed just as fast as Vincent, and their blades met with such force it shook the air.

  Vincent Scanned the boss, but he didn’t have time to read the text as their weapons clashed a dozen times in a single second. He only glimpsed the puppet tag in front of its name and confirmed that the boss was the northern one.

  Although the eldritch knight rivaled his speed, it couldn’t match Vincent’s skill or power. He overtook the enemy in a few dozen strikes, then tore through its mithril armor. His blade cut into the pale creature, spilling its glowing blood onto the ground. The enemy let out a noise that sounded like a hundred high-pitched snarls, then leapt away from him. Its helm twisted inhumanly to the right.

  Vincent glanced to the right just in time to see what looked like a wall of basteel run straight into him with the force of a train. The impact slammed him into the petal, pinning him to the ground, and then that new foe started punching the Ranger in his face with gargantuan fists.

  The enemy only got in three strikes before Vincent hit the heavy monster in the side with Voidfire, knocking it off of him. The Ranger saw the beetle-looking enemy had a dark-blue carapace, although its body clearly had a rating somewhere between normal and hardened-basteel. Vincent didn’t have time to True Scan the enemy, but he used the normal variant to check its quadrant.

  [Puppet] Neracule the Northern Nemesis (Exotic Boss) – Monster Class: S | Ageless | Sex: Male | Respawn Time: Ten In-Game Years | Personality: Pompous

  Neracule shrugged off the black flames, and despite missing pieces of matter from his body, he took a heroic pose, giving Vincent time to climb to his feet.

  Two? There are two northern bosses?

  The knight started to move forward, but Neracule raised a large arm to stop him, then pounded on his massive chest in a show of dominance.

  Good, let them fight me one on one. That makes it easier for me.

  Suddenly, the two bosses stiffened, and Vincent saw the shimmer of white strings dancing off their bodies. The foes seemed to forget their squabbles, and they both dove at the Ranger.

  Vincent drew mana from Silpher’s Coat and tossed Greater Voidfire at the ground to intercept the enemies. The massive explosion knocked the Ranger backward and burned half his coat, but he watched the two bosses disappear in the attack.

  Spirit Level Up: 624>625

  Perception Level Up: 617>618

  Your other stats are closer to leveling up.

  A prompt appeared for Vincent to choose an item—out of only one set of equipment—so he waved the screen away, suspecting that one of the bosses had survived. As he tried to drink an ultra-ether, Neracule -barreled through the dying flames, but Devon intercepted him first, wielding a mithril sword he must have chosen as his reward from the knight. He boosted the blade’s rating with Reverse Breaker, which formed blue lines across the weapon.

  Devon leapt and thrust his sword into the boss’s exposed neck where Vincent’s spell had shredded Neracule’s carapace. He clung to the enemy’s back for a second, then caught his footing and used the leverage to decapitate the boss.

  Vitality Level Up: 552>553

  Resolve Level Up: 559>560

  Agility Level Up: 554>555

  Strength Level Up: 548>549

  “Holy shit,” Devon said, watching the boss crumble into dust. “Is this what it’s like being a badass?”

  Spirit Level Up: 625>626

  Perception Level Up: 618>619

  Your other stats are closer to leveling up.

  “Huh, more level gains?” Devon said, gawking at his HUD.

  “Jim must’ve killed the other boss by himself,” Vincent said.

  He looked across the orange landscape until his eyes landed Jim sitting on a hilltop, laying back as if injured. The other men raced over there as Jim drank potion after potion. The guild master had slash marks all over his body, but the ultra-elixirs had already healed everything but scarred lines that raced across his body.

  “For the record, I get all the credit for the bird,” Jim said. “He cut me up real good, though. Turns out he could bypass my Alcubierre Shield by hitting me with supersonic jabs. That fight might have ended quickly, but it was a close one.”

  “I finished off one of the other two!” Devon bragged.

  “Two?” Jim questioned.

  “Yeah, there were two northern ones,” Vincent said. “They both had that puppet tag too. There’s something weird going on with this Challenge World.”

  “You guys check out the cool gear yet?” Devon interrupted. “I took the sword on a whim, but I’m having trouble picking between my other options. These Challenge Bosses have crazy good drops!”

  Vincent checked over the nine items he could choose from the bosses. Nothing impressed him as much as the items he’d gotten from the last Challenge World, however. From the knight’s items, he selected a sword like Devon’s, which increased his
Strength. He took a trio of mithril throwing daggers from the bird that were enchanted to return when thrown.

  The beetle had three unusual item choices, but Vincent ended up taking a Power Capsule that boosted Strength, Agility, and Vitality by fifty levels for thirty minutes. If used, the capsule would return to his inventory after twenty-four hours had passed.

  While his teammates looked over their options, Vincent turned to stare at the landscape. The first thing that caught his attention was a great dragon-shaped kite soaring over the sky.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Vincent said, Scanning it.

  [Puppet] Nihilai the Northern Nylon (Exotic Boss) – Monster Class: S | Ageless | Sex: Female | Respawn Time: Ten In-Game Years | Personality: Graceful

  “Three!” Vincent shouted, growing frustrated. “That makes three northern bosses.”

  “There’s a guy over there trying to sneak up toward us,” Jim said, pointing downhill.

  “Seriously, what’s going on with this world?” Vincent questioned, turning to Scan the monster as it jogged toward them—it was surprisingly slow when compared to the other Challenge World bosses.

  [Puppet] Eggsy the Eastern Eccentric - Monster Class: S | Ageless | Sex: Male | Respawn Time: Ten In-Game Years | Personality: Odd

  As Eggsy neared, Vincent could see the boss looked like one of the Draugr found on some of the Dead-Worlds. However, the eastern boss had a white heart that seemed to pump world magic through his veins. He wore a backpack with numerous canisters sticking out of it, and before he made it up the hillside, he pulled a cord. With an explosive flash, a wave of smoky particles covered the entire hillside and beyond.

  Vincent tried to take a breath, only to cough up blood as he felt the sensation of a hundred needles stabbing him in his chest. Even his eyeballs started to bleed as he searched through the smoke. He heard Jim and Devon gurgling and choking on their own blood, so he used as much mana as he could to cast Zero Field over the entire hillside. Vincent pushed the particles away, and when he finally caught sight of Eggsy again, the draugr looked shocked to see his cloud disperse.