World-Tree's End

by E A Hooper

“Who cares about trust?” Fynn asked her. “I didn’t trust Lucas when I worked for him. Vincent didn’t have a reason to trust me after I killed him a hundred times. Hell, half our team barely trusts each other. Working together is a necessity. You don’t have to trust us, and I’ll never trust you either, but if you’re half as smart as Euclid you’ll realize that working with us is the only way to get rid of us.”

  “That’s all you humans care about, isn’t it?” Chloris questioned. “Not what’s right, but what’s necessary. Is there any line you wouldn’t cross to get back to your son?”

  “What a stupid question,” Fynn said. “You should be asking yourself how far you’ll go to protect your daughter from me. If you care about her, then agreeing to Vincent’s pact is a necessity. Do you really give a damn if it’s right or not?”

  Chloris paused, turned to Vincent, and shook his hand.

  “That’s what I thought,” Fynn said triumphantly.

  Quest Update: World-Tree’s End (NPC Quest) – Chloris has agreed to Euclid’s contract. If you free her she’ll assist you on your mission, and her children will avoid attacking players except in self-defense.

  The leaves holding Fynn began to turn brown and crumble, and he fell to the bridge. “This is the part where we kill you, right?” Fynn said, brandishing a longsword.

  Chloris’s face turned sad, and Vincent realized the black toxins had spread over her body in vein-like patterns. “You already broke my will,” she replied. Then she turned to Vincent, saying, “Just don’t let him—any of them—hurt my daughter again.”

  “I’ll make sure my guild avoids that planet,” Vincent said, watching as the Goddess’s body began to crumble like her leaves.

  “I still don’t trust you,” she mumbled, growing weaker, “but I’d love it if you proved me wrong.”

  Chloris turned to dust, and then the leaf bridge and the entire titan fell apart. Before Fynn fell more than a few meters Vincent grabbed him with Zero Field and carried him to the ground. By the time they reached the bark, the world melted away, and they found themselves on the Jump Gate in Edgelight. Vincent ignored the pop-up telling him he’d received Chloris’s Blessing and gained some levels.

  “That’s five Elder Gods down,” Quinn said. “Let’s go knock out the last one.”

  “Wait just a moment,” Fynn said, turning to Vincent. “You told Chloris you’d have our people off the World-Tree in a hundred thirty years. Why not earlier?”

  “I meant we’d be gone before then,” Vincent said. “If we stay past the original three hundred sixty years, all the players in the game will start to panic.”

  “I don’t buy that answer,” Fynn replied. “You said a hundred thirty years like that was specifically the plan. Why not shoot for a flat hundred? Or eighty? Hell, fifty would be even better.”

  “It’ll take me longer than that to finish my spell,” Vincent explained. “The more powerful the void spell, the longer it takes to complete it. I’m just estimating here.”

  Fynn gave him a doubtful look. “It didn’t sound like an estimation when you were talking to Chloris. You said you’d have your people gone in a hundred thirty years. Not about that long. Not before that time. Just tell me something, and you’d best be honest. If you finish your spell in the next few decades, are you going to break us out of the game as soon as you can?”

  “Fynn, would you chill out?” Quinn asked. “Of course he’ll break us out of here as fast as possible. You’re overthinking things like usual.”

  “I don’t think I am,” Fynn said, staring down Vincent. “I remember you as an honest man back when we first met. If you look me in the eyes and tell me I’m wrong, then I’ll drop this conversation and never bring it up again.”

  Vincent sighed and shook his head. “Look… it’s complicated.”

  “What the hell, Vince?” Quinn asked. “It’s not complicated at all. Tell Fynn he’s wrong.”

  “Vince, let’s just tell them,” Jim said, stepping forward. “Listen up, everyone. This doesn’t leave the party, okay?” He paused, looking around to see if anyone else was near the Jump Gate, and noticed a crowd of NPCs had gathered to watch them. “What’re all those people doing?”

  “Forget them,” Fynn said, ignoring the NPCs. “Why do we have to wait a hundred thirty years?”

  “Hang on, Fynn, this is weird,” Jim replied, staring at the crowd. “In all my decades of living in Edgelight I’ve never seen the NPCs crowd around the Jump Gate like this.”

  “Then scare them off,” Fynn said, equipping a longsword. He hopped off the platform and approached the crowd. “Get out of here!”

  The NPCs continued to stand and stare without fear. Even when Fynn got into someone’s face, equipped his wolf helm, and headbutted the man, the crowd barely reacted. The NPC stood and wiped the blood from his forehead, but his eyes stayed on Fynn.

  “What the hell do you all want?” the Wolf Lord shouted. “We’re in the middle of something important.”

  “Lloyd posted a few hours ago on the guild page that the NPCs are acting weird,” Jim noted. “Maybe this has something to do with us getting five blessings. We’re only one away from being able to jump to Xenith.”

  All the NPCs focused their gaze on Jim as he mentioned the final world.

  “I’m calling people down here to guard the gate,” Jeanie said. “There’s no telling how many of these NPCs are angels in hibernation.”

  “Honestly, we should just round them all up and put them in cages,” Fynn replied, jumping back onto the platform. “They can’t take angel form in the city, so we might reduce the angels’ numbers that way.”

  “Won’t work,” Jim replied. “They don’t have their angel powers, but they can still teleport out of the city whenever they want. That’s why we try to keep an eye on the ones we’ve confirmed are angels.”

  “We need to do something about them,” Fynn said. “Every NPC besides Archie is an enemy spy as far as I’m concerned.”

  Zhang motioned at the guildsmen heading toward the gate that had responded to Jeanie’s message. They formed a line between the gate and the NPCs and pushed back the crowd. “We can worry about the NPCs later,” the Ice Knight told his teammates. “We only need one more blessing. Let’s focus on that.”

  “I’m not jumping until Jim tells me what he and Vincent are hiding,” Fynn replied.

  >Jim: Fine, but let’s talk over voice chat so the NPCs can’t hear us. It’s not anything nefarious, Fynn, but I asked Vince not to break the skybox until we neared the end of the timer.

  >Fynn: Why does it matter? The timer is a lie.

  >Jim: Yeah, but most of the players don’t know that. The whole reason ARKUS trapped us here was so dying players could live longer. Some of them are pretty happy about this trapped-in-the-game stuff. I figured we could give them that long.

  >Fynn: What about the millions of other people trapped here? It’s not right to force them to remain in the game to benefit a few dying players. We have families out there.

  >Jim: I’ve met people that were literally on their deathbeds when the update started. There are people in this game that will take that headset off and live their last day. All I’m asking is to give them that last hundred thirty years that they think they have.

  >Fynn: I can’t stay in the game that long. My old life is already getting blurry.

  >Jim: When you log off, your memories here will be condensed. Your real life will come flooding back to you—at least that’s what Isaac says will happen. It’ll feel like only thirty minutes have passed, but those dying people will have a ton of new experiences they would’ve otherwise missed.

  >Fynn: Vince, I can’t believe you’re siding with him. You said you’d break us free!

  >Vincent: I will, but in a hundred thirty years. To be honest, I don’t completely agree with Jim on this, but I made him a promise.

  Fynn covered his face and groaned with frustration.

  >Fynn: Did you even consider your spell might not c
rash the game? If the timer ends and your spell isn’t enough, I’ll need to continue my weapon research. We might get stuck here a lot longer than planned. At least now that I know, I can continue my research and have it ready for when the timer ends.

  >Jim: You’re not continuing your research—not on the moss-men anyway.

  >Fynn: You two are really something else. You’d have us all trapped for thousands of years just because you’re afraid of hurting goddammed computer code.

  >Vincent: They’re more than computer code. Some of these monsters are thinking, feeling creatures. Chloris cares as much for her daughter as you do your son. How is torturing her any different than when you worked for Lucas? I thought you regretted all the bad you did then.

  Fynn looked up at the World-Tree and sighed.

  >Fynn: I just want to see my son again. It’s already been so long, and you’re asking me to wait even longer just so people that are doomed to die will have a few more life experiences. You want me to abandon my weapon research because it hurts monsters that were programmed to fight us anyways. You’re asking me to sit and wait, hoping your spell works, with no backup plan. Do you not realize how ridiculous all of that sounds?

  >Vincent: I understand this is difficult for you. If I were in your shoes, I’d probably do the same thing. Although I wouldn’t test those weapons against intelligent monsters. If there was another way to continue your research, I honestly wouldn’t have a problem with it. It might even be useful.

  >Fynn: It’s impossible to fine tune those weapons without using them against enemies who have world magic. The stronger the world magic, the more likely the monster is to be intelligent. So unless a player that uses world magic lets me kill them repeatedly with experimental weapons, I don’t think I have any other options.

  >Ezra: I have no problem with that.

  Fynn glanced at Ezra.

  >Fynn: I don’t think you fully understand. If I showed you the footage of our previous tests, it’d make your stomach churn. I’m not even sure I have it in me to use those weapons against an actual person.

  >Ezra: Oh, don’t give me that crap. You had no problems using them against intelligent creatures. If you’re going to be a pansy about it, you can always close your eyes while running the tests.

  >Fynn: You wouldn’t last a single day of testing. Even with numbing tablets, it’ll be torture.

  >Ezra: How do you think I got past the angels by myself? I put myself through hell to get this far without a team. If it lets you continue your research without the others whining about it, I’ll gladly offer myself up as a lab rat. It’s not like I’ll have better things to do besides level grind until the timer runs out.

  Fynn stared him down a few seconds longer, but Ezra countered with an unblinking gaze. Finally, the Wolf Lord gave in and turned to Jim.

  >Fynn: If I continue my research in Edgelight, using this guy as my lab rat, is that acceptable?

  >Jim: I’d want one of my people there to oversee things and make sure you don’t cross any more lines.

  >Fynn: Good, then let’s go kill this last Elder God. I have a lot of work to get started on when we get back.

  Everyone readied their Jump Crystals, but Vincent paused for a second when he noticed that the crowd of NPCs had started to disperse. They turned with lifeless gazes and walked up the street in one long line. For the briefest moment, he swore he saw Monika in the crowd, but then his team activated their crystals and the city melted away from his view.

  Chapter 26

  A gray landscape of mouths and teeth stretched before Vincent, and he heard the entire world screaming. Every hill and valley appeared like it had been carved from upside-down chins, and he had to watch where he stepped to avoid the screaming maws.

  As difficult as it was to take his eyes off the mouths, what Vincent saw in the sky disturbed him even more. A hundred eyes the size of mountains hung at the edge of space, all staring down at the intruders of that world. Tethers of red energy connected the eyes together, forming a strange network that encircled the planet.

  >Devon: Oh god, I hate this one so much. I can barely hear myself think over the screaming. Let’s just find its core and kill it.

  >Vincent: Is there any chance of reasoning with Yarmouth? It has mouths, so… maybe it can talk?

  >Devon: As far as I know, all it does is scream.

  “Hello!” Vincent shouted, staring at the eyes in the sky. His teammates tensed—they’d told him it didn’t take much to trigger Yarmouth to attack. “Can you talk? You might know I’ve made deals with the other Elder Gods.”

  A hundred mouths answered at once. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!”

  The team closed their ears until the screaming quieted to its normal levels, but Vincent noticed that, for a second, a wave of frequencies had bombarded him from all directions, making it harder to feel for magic.

  >Vincent: He can block magic, right?

  >Alexandria: Yeah, the eyes create an anti-magic field that grows stronger or weaker depending on Yarmouth’s level of agitation. I’ve tried flying up there to attack them, but they knocked me out of the sky.

  >Vincent: What about digging down? The less-intelligent Elder Gods seem to keep their cores inside the planet.

  >Quinn: Yeah, we tried that. The inside is full of acid. It’s like a big stomach.

  >Jim: The obvious solution is to try and destroy the eyes. I actually tried sniping one with Deletion Cannon and then True Scanning it. Managed to knock off one Will Point before it blocked my magic and obliterated me.

  Vincent watched the eyes, which all seemed to stare back at him. So going up doesn’t work. Going down doesn’t work. Fighting them on the ground doesn’t work. This world feels so oppressive—even the background frequencies seem wrong somehow.

  Vincent paused, trying to feel any frequencies. When he focused, a thousand pinpricks ran across his body and sent a shiver down his spine.

  >Ezra: You’re onto something, aren’t you?

  >Vincent: I think there’s something weird about the frequencies of this world. It must be Yarmouth, but I’m not sure what it means yet.

  >Alexandria: You know, I’ve noticed trouble maintaining connections to world magic here. It’s almost like there’re random spikes in the wavelengths.

  >Vincent: It’s more like nails. I can feel it in the air, poking and prodding at my skin. You really don’t feel that?

  >Alexandria: You have the highest Perception in the game. It’s not surprising you can pick up on something like that.

  >Ezra: Now that you mention it, I think I know what Vincent’s talking about. At first I thought there were raindrops falling on me.

  Vincent focused on the invisible nails, concentrating until he could see faint shimmers in the air. When he followed them upward, he saw one of the massive eyes hanging in the sky above. From there, he could see the ripple of frequencies following the vein-like connections from eye to eye.

  >Vincent: It’s almost like Yarmouth is bleeding drops of dense frequencies from its eyes. They make some kind of weird network too. I wonder if Yarmouth even has a singular core. Maybe the network is what controls it.

  >Ezra: If that’s the case, than the key to breaking its will might be to disrupt the network. I have an idea, but I need you to trust me, Vincent. Let me use Puppet Strings on you, then try to connect you to that network. Your Perception is higher than mine, so you might be able to attack its network like you attacked mine on the Challenge World.

  >Vincent: We can try, but I’m sure that’ll piss off Yarmouth. Everyone will need to watch our backs while we’re focused on that.

  >Alexandria: We should be able to hold off his attacks for at least a few minutes. Ezra, if you connect me too I’ll help you maintain a world magic tether.

  Ezra nodded, then raised his hands to Vincent and Alexandria. He cast Puppet Strings, but both players had to relax and let their guards down for the spell to bypass their shields. Even then, it took several seconds before Vincent saw the white vo
id. When he focused on himself, he could move and control his avatar just like normal, but when he focused on the strings he could follow their paths.

  In the empty white space, Vincent could more clearly see the spikes of frequencies raining downward, almost severing the connections between the trio as the droplets fell between them. It took Ezra a great deal of effort to keep his strings attached, but Vincent sent a spike of negative energy toward the other man.

  >Vincent: Ezra, I need to hijack you to direct your strings.

  >Ezra: Alright, but leave me one arm, otherwise I won’t be able to hold this spell.

  Vincent focused his thoughts on Ezra’s avatar and forced him to raise one hand. The Ranger could feel the raining spikes of frequencies and briefly see a path of weak connections racing between the grounded mouths and the floating eyes.

  >Vincent: There’s definitely a bridge between the mouths and those eyes. I’m going to try and follow it.

  Vincent forced Ezra’s strings to connect the invisible bridge, and he immediately felt a backlash of intense power. All three of the connected players had to steel themselves to keep from getting knocked off their feet by the surge of frequencies and pain. Vincent felt as though a hundred thousand nails had been driven into his body in that brief instant, but he pushed through the pain to send a surge of negative energy toward the nearest eye.

  The sounds of explosions rang in Vincent’s ears, making it hard for him to keep focused on the white void. He saw the shadow of Xan’s body as she cast defensive spells, and when he looked through her eyes he saw Yarmouth’s eyes had turned blood red. Their pupils fired concentrated beams of energy that looked like stronger, faster Vaporizes.

  With Vincent’s superhuman Perception, he found he could split his attention between the eye and his real body. He continued sending negative energy toward the sky, but he also equipped his Builder’s Tome and raised defensive walls in front of his teammate’s shields. A brief look through Xan’s eyes let him see their team was starting to move too far apart. He knew that Ezra’s Puppet Strings would let players cast their own spells through a target they controlled, so he forced Xan to raise her hands and used Zero Field to pull their allies closer together.