World-Tree's End

by E A Hooper

  By the seventh week of partying, almost the entire guild had blacked out or called it quits beside Vincent, Jim, Quinn, and Xan. The four of them had slowed their drinking while they reminisced about their early adventures on the World-Tree. Jim poured them drinks from the very last barrel, and there was barely enough left to serve himself a cup.

  Vincent sipped on his drink while Quinn retold the story of some dungeon he only half-remembered, where they’d been chased in circles by direcats. They laughed at the adventure’s conclusion, and then Xan started telling another one. Soon their drinks were finished, but they continued reminiscing. Even after sobering up, none of them seemed to want the stories to come to an end.

  Chapter 30

  The day of the war—the last war Vincent hoped he would ever fight on the World-Tree—had come, and he watched his guildsmen gather at the Jump Gate. Isaac and Archie had already left to join with the Elder Gods. They would inform Jim when the Gods started their preemptive attack, which would ideally distract the angels long enough for the players to reach the battlefields at the top half of Xenith. Vincent knew they’d all be split up when they first arrived, but as long as his team continued to push toward the top he felt confident they could beat Rosaria together. They’d put together the same team they’d used to fight the Elder Gods, since those players were still the strongest twelve, but looking at their stats made him realize just how far they’d come since then.

  Team Power Rankings:

  #1: Old Man Vincent – 995

  #2: Ezra the Tempered – 952

  #3: Pale Alexandria – 940

  #4: Quinn the Breaker – 903

  #5: Ice Knight Zhang – 898

  #6: Dragonspear Jeanie – 876

  #7: Crow-Foot Jim – 871

  #8: Devon in Shining Armor – 865

  #9: River Will Drown You – 843

  #10: Athena the Fair – 832

  #11: Worldly Ryker – 821

  #12: Fynn the Wolf Lord – 809

  Everyone had dressed in normal, everyday attire, knowing that when they first reached Xenith they’d temporarily lose their powers and the strength acquired from stat gains. Only Vincent wore his normal outfit with Silpher’s Coat, Eferia’s Boots, Warro’s Necklace, and some zenfabric clothing.

  Like everyone else, Vincent’s inventory was full of potions, extra equipment, and most importantly, Checkpoint Crystals. In the last century, he had barely used any of the thousands he’d gotten from King Rosebriar’s treasury. Their top players had a few dozen each, and Vincent distributed many of his to the fifteen hundred players that had joined them for the war.

  Everyone crowded onto the Jump Gate and stood in silence. Their eyes stayed fixed on Jim as he waited to hear from Isaac. Vincent could see a mixed range of emotions on his guildsmen’s faces. Keith the Bold looked like he was going to vomit. Grinning Gwendolyn was giddy with excitement. Spellslingin’ Antonio appeared as tense as Vincent had ever seen him. Bombardier Quinton’s face had turned pale with anxiety. Blade-Master Lloyd kept his head down as though he were either meditating or praying. Big Keanu had a sad, contemplative expression that caught Vincent’s attention.

  “You worried we’ll lose?” Vincent asked him.

  “Not at all,” Keanu replied. “I think we’re going to win.”

  “Then what’s with the sad look?”

  “Oh, I just realized this is our last hurrah. As much as I want to go home, I’m going to miss the lot of you.”

  “Don’t get all mopey on us,” Juniper told him. “We might still lose this war and end up stuck here a thousand more years.”

  “Hey, don’t jinx us,” Keanu said, pausing a moment. “Then again, I guess it’d be good for you if we lost.”

  Juniper shook her head, and Vincent almost thought she might cry. “No, I want to go home. Even if I don’t make it to adulthood, at least I’ll get a couple more years with family and friends in the real world. I can’t stay here forever.”

  Keanu nodded, but it looked like he was holding back tears.

  Everyone became quiet again, and then a few minutes later Jim stared off as if in a private chat. All eyes turned back to him.

  Jim looked over the crowd and took a long breath. “It’s started. Let’s go beat this game.”

  Vincent and the crowd readied their Jump Crystals, opening their own stairways to Xenith. He hurried through his personal gateway, stepping out on a random location on the lower side of the planet. His magic and power had left him, but he ignored that and looked around as he tried to find other members of his guild. He spotted a couple of people on hills in the distance, but they were already running toward north toward the Warp Pillars.

  Vincent spotted one of the limestone-looking stones nearby, and he sprinted past it. The world around him changed into a blizzard landscape, and a skyscraper-sized centipede boss rose from the ground. He flew by it with Gravity Bubble and killed it with Greater Voidfire almost as an after-thought.

  As long as each player beat the boss in one of the warped regions, their next pillar would skip them several miles north. The plan was for the players to slowly regroup as they moved toward the battlefield that made up the top half of the world.

  Vincent stopped at the edge of that region, refilled his mana with the Fast Injector, then stepped across, finding himself in a valley surrounded by trees. He ran at a normal human pace until he reached the next pillar. Before crossing, he glanced back to see a few other guildsmen appearing after defeating their own bosses. They gathered into a small group and followed after him.

  By the time the group could even catch up to Vincent, he crossed through the next invisible gateway, one-shot the King-Kong-sized gorilla boss, and flown to the next pillar. That time, he crossed it to discover a beautiful meadow just beyond the forest. It was a longer run to the next pillar, taking him a few minutes to reach the end of the field. He stopped before the Warp Pillar to peer around. At least a dozen of his fellow guildsmen, including Keanu, were running in his direction. He went on ahead to the volcanic realm beyond the gate, only to find a huge castle sitting at the end of a long road, and a massive dragon resting atop the structure.

  Not wanting to waste time, Vincent took the sky with Gravity Bubble and tossed a Void Bomb at the castle. He Fast Injected a few potions while the black explosion turned the dragon and its entire domain into a large crater. By that point, those dozen guildsmen had caught up, and together they raced across the crater to the next pillar. Vincent sped past them, only slowing so he didn’t warp across with too much momentum. He didn’t want to risk hurtling his unleveled body across a field at supersonic speed.

  When Vincent stepped through, however, he noticed right away he still had his power and all of his levels. Behind him he saw a sea of limestone monuments, stretching like a great divide across the planet. When he looked ahead, he saw Lamat the World Serpent encircling the northern half the world several times over, and Chloris’s titanic form swatting angels from the sky.

  White light danced across both Elder Gods, who had already been blown nearly to pieces. Even the two Gods didn’t seem to stand a chance against the angel army. When Vincent flew higher, he saw explosions dancing across the world. Forces of devils, moss-men, automatons, and angels battled over hills, valleys, rivers, and even the sky.

  With the last of his strength, Lamat unleashed a final wave of Vaporizes at the densest clump of angel forces as mountains of his flesh sloughed from his body. Rivers of his blood poured into the craters left by explosions, turning the once-idyllic world into a hellish wasteland in minutes. With the World Serpent gone, the angels directed their power against Chloris, reducing her towering form into a mountain of ash.

  Vincent turned his attention back to the guildsmen crossing the Warp Pillars. Those with Gravity Field picked up groups of players, hurrying to form into a larger battalion. Altogether, they manage to gather about two hundred players that included Devon, Jeanie, Fynn, Keanu, Antonio, and Keith.

  Vincent and t
he Rangers in the battalion cast Frequency Network. That spell had proven useful at strengthening Ezra’s Puppet String power. With it, someone with extremely high Perception could easily coordinate and control multiple players at once.

  One of their players cast a beacon spell, and they waited until Archie and Isaac teleported to them as planned. Isaac cast Puppet Strings on Vincent, connecting him to the grid of players they’d already added, and then the developer bridged their Frequency Network to the greater one being formed by the rest of the guild.

  “We’re going to go add the rest of the guildsmen,” Isaac told Vincent. “Once everyone’s connected to the hive mind we’ll come back to help guard you.”

  Vincent nodded as he and the rest of the battalion set Checkpoint Crystals. After Isaac and Archie disappeared into sparkling dust, Vincent took over the mages in the battalion and had them lift the three-hundred-man group into the sky with overlapping Zero Fields. The Clerics and Wardens worked to create layers of shields and world magic bubbles around the battalion as they flew north toward the fighting.

  The farther north they flew, the smaller the divide between the rest of the guild became. He saw another battalion in the distant east, and a third appeared over the hills in the west. The three groups quickly converged on one another. Up ahead, he saw angels wiping out crowds of devils and automatons with ease. The only thing that gave them any trouble was the moss-men, but it looked like the Paladins were slowly overtaking their enemies.

  The three battalions merged into one, forming about a third of the guild’s entire fighting power. They’d even picked up Ezra, Fynn, Ryker, and Juniper. However, by the time they’d formed together, the angels had wiped out most of the Elder God’s forces. Everything to the north already looked like a wasteland of craters, blood, and rubble. The sky had turned black with smoke, although the light of the angels pierced through it.

  At the northernmost part of the world, Vincent could see the Ark Halo—a kind of circlet made of crystallized world magic that was several miles across. The limestone-like material that made up the Warp Pillars also covered the ground below the Ark Halo.

  When Vincent watched through the eyes of the hive mind, he saw their guild had formed into three large battalions, all separated by many miles of land. The angels had already pinned down one group, and soon his battalion and the farthest one from his were bombarded by long-ranged attacks. Ryker and a few Wardens cast Greater Flattens, using those to hold back the immense wave of attacks coming from hundreds of angels at once.

  Vincent kept control of the mages, forcing them to carry their battalion onward. The angels had better range than them, but once the Crickets were closer he believed they could overpower the enemies. However, when he checked through the hive mind again, he saw the pinned-down battalion had been overrun by Paladins.

  The Puppet Strings would allow Vincent to cast spells through a controlled player at an increased cost, so he looked over the cornered group for someone to control. Xan led that group, and she and the other Cleric-Wardens were doing everything in their power to keep raising World Walls. Vincent found Grinning Gwendolyn in the crowd, and he used their connection through the Puppet Strings to take over her avatar.

  ***

  > Gwendolyn: Hey, now, I was doing a good job on my own. Take over someone else.

  >Vincent: There’s no time to argue. You were the simplest choice.

  >Gwendolyn: Ugh, fiiiiine.

  Vincent used his own mana to cast Gravity Bubble around Gwendolyn. He sent her hurtling past angel attacks and used Zero Field to slow any enemy spells that neared her. Since she had an Alcubierre Shield, those slowed attacks didn’t do much against her. When the young woman neared a Watcher, Vincent had her cast her signature Void Grenade, sticking several to the eye-covered angel. The angel tried to paralyze her, but its world magic gaze didn’t penetrate the bubble, which pulled Gwendolyn away before the explosions tore the angel to shreds.

  Vincent had her follow the same pattern, striking down three more Watchers before a dozen Paladins finally speared the girl through and tore her to pieces. With the last of her strength, Gwendolyn shrugged off Vincent’s control and used her most powerful spell.

  Self-Annihilation (Requires Self-Destruct | Requires Void Grenade) – Mana Usage: Very High | The user’s body oscillates with negative energy, then detonates with a large explosion of void energy.

  ***

  Vincent shifted his control to Quinton and watched the explosion take out a few of the weaker angels. The gunslinger had been duel-wielding Fynntech hand cannons, and the old man quickly had him take aim at the nearest Watcher. Quinton fired away, but the Watcher brought up a wall of world magic too strong for the shots to break, so Vincent channeled Greater Voidfire through him. It broke the angel’s shield, and then a double headshot from the gunslinger disintegrated the angel’s skull.

  Vincent took control of a few more sharpshooters and focused on clearing out more Watchers. He could feel his own mana regaining quickly as teammates near his body cast various magic tethers to feed him mana. His focus almost broke for a moment as the attacks against his battalion intensified, but their defenses held for the moment.

  Thanks to his high Perception, Vincent noticed the flicker of light coming toward the pinned-down group from the Ark Halo. He switched control from Quinton to Xan to cast her strongest defense.

  Divine Monument (Requires World Wall | Requires Holy Dome) – Mana Usage: Very High+ | Creates a pillar of crystallized world magic at target location. A cone-shaped area behind the pillar is defended by waves of protective world magic for the next thirty seconds.

  An intense flash of white light brought the monument of crystallized world magic into existence, almost as if a god had cast it down from the heavens. It split the earth where it landed, and tidal waves of world magic rose around the battalion in the split-second before Rosaria’s Lance of Longing reached them. Although the waves evaporated in the explosion, the monument survived. Everyone hiding behind it lived, but dozens of players at the edges of the protective area died.

  Through Vincent’s real eyes, he saw white light circle around the Ark Halo’s entire length as Rosaria charged her next attack. He could feel Ezra and Isaac using tethers through the Puppet Strings to recharge Xan’s mana, but the other angels used that opportunity to blast her battalion to pieces. She raised another Divine Monument to stop the next Lance of Longing, but many of the players with her realized they were losing and launched suicide attacks at the nearest angels.

  Vincent released control of Quinton, and the freed man overcharged his two Fynntech weapons, setting them to detonate within seconds, then dove into a crowd of Paladins.

  ***

  Back in his own body, Vincent saw a light fly from the Ark Halo in the direction of Xan’s battalion. It exploded with a brilliant flash, and he saw the last of those players disappear from the hive mind’s white void. The players that surrounded and protected Vincent had come to a stop as they reached magic walls the Watchers had cast to stop them from proceeding. He saw thousands of angels lined up across the sky, creating a fragmented ring around the Ark Halo a few miles away.

  The Ranger noticed none of the lesser angels would go any farther north, as if there was an invisible barrier separating them from Rosaria’s territory. He saw light circling the Ark Halo as she prepared her next attack.

  Vincent cast Gravity Bubble around himself and split away from his battalion. With the closest angels focusing all their strength on defenses, he knew only a few could afford to attack him at that moment. A few dozen flashes of light zipped toward him, but he zigzagged past most of them, although a few burned holes in his clothes.

  Knowing Silpher’s Coat wouldn’t last long, Vincent drew all the mana from it and cast Void Bomb at the angels’ defenses. All the nearby Watchers tried to buffer their walls before it struck, but then his pitch-black explosion swallowed everything in sight. Most of the lesser angels fled from the sphere at supersonic speed, but
at least a hundred Watchers died trying to hold back his attack. All of their defenses evaporated in seconds, and that was when Vincent’s battalion unleashed their strongest attacks.

  Most of the lesser angels scattered from Vincent’s path, but a hundred Paladins dove right for him. The Ranger equipped Song of the End and Silent Edge, and then he danced around the never-ending flood of assailants.

  Whenever he saw an opening, he would shoot an angel in the head or slice through their brain. No matter how many attacked at once, the angels couldn’t seem to touch Vincent—all thanks to his Gravity Bubble’s mobility and his high Perception. For a few minutes he owned the sky like a storm, and he struck down any angel that neared him.

  A few of the Watchers finally boxed in the fearsome Ranger, creating a massive cube of world magic around him and several dozen angels. He thought about breaking the cube with Voidfire, but then he realized it only made it easier for him to focus on the enemies trapped with him.

  For the next minute, Vincent almost lost himself in the chaos of white explosions and clashing blades. He forgot about the Puppet Strings connecting him to his allies—he forgot he even had allies. His sword, which had an edge almost as black as the void, cut through angel after angel until all their sparkling blood, white lights, and mithril masks blurred together. Even the Watchers fell before him, unable to slow him for more than a moment.

  Finally, Vincent found himself alone in that giant sky cube. He had slaughtered every last one of the fifty or sixty angels that had been in there with him, and they had barely drawn blood from him. He took a few seconds to catch his breath and wipe away the sweat before shattering the cube with Voidfire.

  The gargantuan cube evaporated, and Vincent saw thousands of angels still littering the sky. They’d spread out a lot more while chasing his guildsmen across the planet. The war had enveloped every hill and valley from the Warp Pillars to the Ark Halo. Even guildsmen that respawned quickly found themselves in another battle.