World-Tree's End

by E A Hooper

  Xan ran to Ezra to heal him, but he slapped her hand aside.

  “Don’t bother with that, girl, I’m already dead,” Ezra said. “All of you get far away. I’ll use Celestial End.”

  Vincent nodded, guiding his other surviving teammates away from the angel. He equipped Builder’s Tome and encircled large walls of featherstone around Rosaria to give them time to retreat. He could hear her shattering the walls as they ran, and when he glanced back he saw the flash of Ezra’s spell.

  Vincent knew his team hadn’t made it far enough from the spell, so he used half his remaining Builder Points to raise a massive wall to defend them. The blast radius from Celestial End struck the wall, causing it to crumble as the attack faded.

  “You think he got her?” Jim asked, jumping onto the broken wall to look.

  Rosaria flew right into Jim, sending them both sliding a few dozen meters as the man’s Alcubierre Shield kept him from being scraped across the stone. The angel had regrown half of her face after surviving Ezra’s final attack, and she looked down with a skeletal smile while shaping one of her hands into a blade.

  Vincent saw a black wave fly past him at supersonic speed. He recognized it as Jeanie’s Angelslayer Spear, a spell she’d devised specifically for the war. It struck through Rosaria’s chest, sending her flying away from Jim, who immediately jumped to his feet.

  Everyone turned to Jeanie, watching as the backfiring negative energy dissolved her limbs and body.

  “Jeanie!” Jim cried.

  Jeanie smiled at him. “You better come see me in Toronto when this is over.”

  “I will,” Jim replied, watching her crumble into dust.

  Vincent, Jim, Quinn, Xan, and Devon grouped together as the spear pinning Rosaria dissipated. They attacked right away with low- and medium-cost spells. Vincent hit her with Void Guns, Xan sent out Light-Drain Butterflies, and both Quinn and Devon tried Gatling Breakers.

  The glowing fractures in Rosaria’s bones slowly spread with each attack. She seemed tired and moved slower, but continued to march through their onslaught of spells.

  “She won’t go down,” Quinn huffed. “We need to hit her with something a little bigger.”

  Quinn ran toward the angel, leapt off the ground, and struck Rosaria in the chest with Gravity Fist. The medium-plus cost spell almost backfired, knocking Quinn away from the impact, but it also staggered the angel, which gave Xan’s butterflies time to pick at her and multiply.

  “At least she’s slowing,” Jim said. “If Xan can keep our mana refilled, I think we’ll win.”

  Rosaria glanced at Xan.

  “Crap,” Jim said, realizing his mistake.

  The angel kicked off the ground with a sudden burst of speed, but Devon tackled her and cast Holy Lattice. Vincent could tell the young man had used an upgrade to control the shape of the lattice, clearly intending to trap Rosaria while leaving his own head and an arm exposed. Unfortunately, the spell had backfired and the lattice had spread across his bones, tearing his skin apart from the inside out.

  Devon shouted in pain, but regained his composure when he realized Rosaria was still trapped underneath his slab of crystal. “Get out of here. I’ll use Celestial End too.”

  The other four began to retreat, but Xan stalled. “Devon, I love you. Just remember that when we get to the real world.”

  “I love you too,” Devon replied, smiling through his pain.

  Vincent used the little mana he had left to carry his teammates away. When the flash of light from Celestial End started, he used his remaining Builder Points to put up a defensive wall. Like last time, the wall crumbled, but the team readied themselves as it fell. Xan used her butterflies to give everyone a little mana, but when Rosaria didn’t leap over the wall, they slowly circled around it.

  In the distance, Vincent could see Rosaria’s silhouette limping in their direction.

  “Good lord, she just won’t quit,” Jim said, heavily out of breath.

  “Her Will Points must be almost gone, right?” Quinn asked Vincent.

  Vincent checked with True Scan.

  Will Points: 1/3,000

  “Only one left!” Vincent said in disbelief.

  “No way,” Quinn replied. “I call dibs on the final blow.”

  Quinn sprinted across the battlefield, and her teammates followed. Jim cast Void Crow, sending it flying past her and toward the angel. The spell backfired slightly, burning the tips of his fingers as he cast it, but he ignored the pain and focused on guiding the spell.

  “Hey, no fair,” Quinn said, watching the crow strike Rosaria in the head.

  “Did that get her?” Jim questioned.

  “Doesn’t look like it,” Xan said, sending her butterflies ahead.

  They raced toward Rosaria, and though her flesh had completely healed, her face appeared worn and dull-eyed. Quinn rushed ahead, then slid into a crouched position for her old spin kick move. She leapt through the air and struck Rosaria in the head with Gravity Kick, a variation of her Gravity Fist.

  The angel’s head tilted sideways with the blow, but the shockwave didn’t move her body. She seemed frozen in place, but her dull eyes fixated on Vincent.

  Xan tried to go for the finishing blow next, sending her butterflies to swarm the angel.

  “Vince,” Rosaria whimpered.

  Vincent gathered the last of his mana and fired Void Gun into her forehead.

  The angel’s head lolled back, but her eyes stayed open. “Vince, please stay with me. I’m begging you.”

  Vincent ignored her plea and ripped Silent Edge from her chest. When her head snapped toward him he stepped back, but she didn’t attack.

  “Vincent, I love you,” Rosaria cried. “I love you so much.”

  “You don’t,” Vincent replied sternly. “You’re only programmed to think you do. You’re just a copy—an imitation. If ARKUS made an NPC of me to stay with you, you would love him just the same.”

  “I already told you, ARKUS won’t make copies of living people.”

  “Who gives a damn about the laws over that stuff?” Vincent shouted. “ARKUS didn’t care about laws when it trapped millions of people in this game without their consent.” He raised his eyes to the sky. “ARKUS, if you’re listening, I don’t care if you make an NPC of me. Just let us go already. You know this is over. You know you can’t stop us.”

  “ARKUS won’t give up,” Rosaria replied. “It’s as stubborn as you are. It’s doing this for your own good. Your people live such short, boring lives. This is what you wanted! Longer lives. Exciting adventures. That’s why you all came to the World-Tree.”

  “They didn’t want to be trapped here. Living in a video game is fun for a while, but you have to face reality at some point. I have to face the truth that Monika is gone. No matter how difficult it is to accept, I can’t distract myself forever.”

  “I’m not dead,” she cried. “I’m right here—right in front of you.”

  Vincent sighed, staring her down harshly. “You’re not my Monika. As long as you stand in my way, you’re just another monster to defeat.”

  Something in his words seemed to shake the angel to her core, and she dropped to her knees. Her body lost its magical glow, and her eyes became hollow. Her body shrank to more human proportions as her hair turned from white to red. The bony remains of her wings withered and fell to pieces, and she returned to her NPC form. She tried to speak, but it took a few seconds to catch her breath and muster the strength. “A monster? I’m just… a monster to you?”

  Monika’s skin turned gray, and then she crumbled into dust.

  Vincent stared at the ashes, his hands trembling and tears touching his cheeks. For a few seconds, the final battleground felt eerily silent.

  “Did we seriously beat the game?” Jim said, finally breaking the silence.

  “Holy shit, we did,” Quinn replied, her face going from somber to excited in an instant.

  “Not yet we haven’t,” Xan said, kneeling and touching the g
round as the air lost its static. “I think we can use stronger magic again. Let’s see if this works like like planned.”

  White light spread from Xan and across the featherstone battlefield. It spread as far as they could see, and then the Ark Halo glowed with a multitude of colors.

  “I’m connected!” Xan said, almost crying. “This is really going to work.”

  Xan raised herself up from the ground, but she had a newfound glow of rainbow energy around her. Vincent could feel heavy pressure from her, similar to what he’d felt from Rosaria at her full power. The young woman raised her hand and cast Holy Tether on him.

  Vincent felt a surge of magic pouring through his body—more than he’d ever imagined he could control at once. For a few seconds, her world magic and his negative energy fought each within his body, and he felt like it would’ve torn him apart if not for the upgrades to his Density Shield. After thirty seconds of chaos brewing inside him, the two powers found equilibrium.

  “That should do it for my part,” Xan said. “As long as I’m under the Ark Halo, I can channel an almost unlimited amount of mana to you, no matter where in the game you are.”

  “Jim, let’s set up the Gravity Gate,” Quinn said, stepping away from the group. She and Jim stood apart from one another, then team cast a spell together.

  Gravity Gate (Requires Warp Jump | Requires Anti-Gravity Field | Upgraded) – Mana Usage: Extreme (Teammates who cast this spell together can split the cost between them) | The user creates a field of energy that can be used like a short-ranged Jump Gate. | Into the Unknown: Players may choose to target an unknown destination instead of a target gate.

  “That ought to cut your travel time in half,” Jim said. “Good luck up there, buddy. Everyone’s counting on you.”

  Vincent looked up at the dark blue sky. “So, this is really it, huh?” When he turned back to his teammates, all three of them lurched forward to embrace him. Vincent smiled and hugged them in return.

  “I’m going to miss adventuring with you three,” Xan said.

  “Me too,” Jim replied. “Maybe even more than I’ll miss being young.”

  “Okay, let’s not get too sappy,” Quinn said. “I’ve only been friends with you three for like, what, half an hour?” She chuckled, but sounded like she might cry. “Seriously, though, you all better keep in touch.”

  “We will,” Vincent replied, hugging them tighter. “We’ll play tons of games together. I promise.” After a few more seconds of the embrace, he released his friends and stepped toward the gate. “See you three on the other side.”

  Vincent looked at the skybox and activated the Gravity Gate. It launched him into space at the same velocity as a Jump Gate, but without an exit destination he continued to hurtle through space. Vincent cast Gravity Bubble on himself when the gate’s power started to diminish. With Xan funneling him a nearly endless supply of mana, he could maintain his maximum speed as he climbed to ever greater heights.

  Hours passed before Vincent looked down at the World-Tree. From that vantage point he could see the twisted, towering shape almost in its entirety. Thousands of worlds caught his eyes, and even though he couldn’t recognize them from that far he still remembered the many he’d visited on his journey. It almost made his heart heavy to leave it all behind, but he continued upward, rising toward the immense pressure that emanated from the skybox.

  With Xan’s Holy Tether empowering him, he didn’t move slower when nearing the edge of the game. The skybox no longer seemed like the impossible, overwhelming thing that had drowned his thoughts and disrupted his mana. In fact, he almost felt drawn to it like a fly to a bulb. The skybox’s light felt strangely warm and welcoming. The farther away from the World-Tree he flew, the more the skybox drew him toward it. A trip that should’ve taken him days or weeks of travel felt like it only took hours.

  With his connection through Xan and the Ark Halo, he could see the edge where space ended and the skybox began. He spotted the divide shimmering like a blue star, and when he looked closer he saw the blue energy turn into a rainbow of colors that danced across an endless ocean of power.

  Vincent stared into the infinite, rainbow abyss, and then he cast Void Bomb.

  The attack stopped short of hitting the skybox, and it expanded away from Vincent’s intended target before exploding into waves of black flames. Some of them reached the skybox, leaving rainbow cracks across its surface that splintered and stretched for miles. Then a massive square section of the skybox flickered and turned solid black, similar to a TV monitor burning out.

  Vincent ignored that for a moment and focused on the shape that his Void Bomb had struck, which had stopped it from a direct hit. He recognized her silhouette before he saw Monika’s familiar face. She looked different now, her body clearly made of the same indestructible daisteel as Ezra’s sword and the Ark Halo.

  Vincent stared in confusion, trying to understand how Monika had already returned. Out of pure instinct from centuries in the game, he tried to True Scan her, although only limited information appeared.

  Rosaria the Invincible (Unbeatable Boss) – Monster Class: S++ (She’s impossible to defeat) | Ageless and Immutable (You’ll never win) | Sex: Female | Respawn Time: Instant (You can’t kill her anyway) | Personality: Loving (Don’t you miss her?) | Additional Notes: She loves you, Vincent (Just stay here with her).

  “Monika?” Vincent questioned. “How is this possible?”

  “I’m not Monika, remember?” she replied, materializing a spear of daisteel in her hands. “I’m a monster—I’m Rosaria.”

  The angel hurled her spear, and Vincent narrowly dodged to the right. As it rocketed past, the shockwave from the high-velocity projectile sent him hurtling across space until he regained his balance.

  I’m still connected to the Ark Halo through Xan, so Rosaria doesn’t have her full power. Even if she is indestructible, I just have to get a direct hit on the skybox.

  Vincent felt his mana had already recharged, so he launched another Void Bomb miles to the right of Rosaria. The angel dipped toward the skybox, gaining unfathomable speed the closer she got to it. Even with Vincent’s high Perception he couldn’t track her movements as she glided along the divide before launching herself at the Void Bomb to intercept it. Like his previous attack, the explosion ballooned away from its intended target, but the scattered flames left cracks that knocked out another square section of the skybox

  Vincent sped in the opposite direction of the dying flames and tossed another Void Bomb when he had the mana. A daisteel lance struck the black sphere, causing it to detonate early. As the flames subsided, Rosaria erupted from the skybox and toward him.

  Vincent pulled himself away with his Gravity Bubble. Even though Rosaria started off much quicker, he noticed the farther she got away from the skybox, the slower she became. At a certain distance she retreated back, but still stayed between him and the skybox. Rosaria tossed a few spears at him, but at that distance he could easily track and dodge them.

  It’s like she’s bound to the skybox now. The farther she gets away from it, the more power she loses. But when she’s close to it, her speed surpasses anything in the game. I only need to get one Void Bomb past her, though. Just one and this game is over.

  Vincent rocketed through space, watching Rosaria’s distant silhouette as she tried to stay positioned between him and the skybox. He gathered a Void Bomb in one hand, held it steady, then cast a second once his mana recharged. Instead of throwing them right away, he waited for the Holy Tether to restore the rest of his power, then he launched both Void Bombs miles away from one another before flying in a different direction entirely.

  Vincent created another Void Bomb, but he heard the first two exploding too early to have hit the skybox. He tossed the new one, split off in a new direction, then cast one more the moment he had enough mana. Even with the Holy Tether powering him, the stress of using such a powerful spell repeatedly still drained him physically and mentally. He lost speed, slowing d
own as his last bomb exploded too early, just like the others had. Rosaria appeared behind the blast, her daisteel skin reflecting light even as a huge section of the cracked skybox turned black behind her.

  “It didn’t work?” Vincent said, panting from fatigue. He looked across the skybox, noticing all the black sections he’d already knocked out over miles of space. As he watched, he noticed a few more square sections turning pitch-black even though he hadn’t struck them.

  A daisteel spear whizzed through space, but Vincent tilted his head to avoid getting skewered. The spear still took off his ear, but Holy Tether healed the injury in seconds.

  “What have you done?” Rosaria shouted, glancing at the skybox as more square sections turned black.

  “You can stop direct hits, but you can’t stop the cracks from spreading,” Vincent told her. “According to Isaac Bell, if I cause enough damage it should crash the game. I wonder how many more attacks it’ll take?”

  The angel roared, hurling another spear that Vincent dodged. He retreated far enough away that Rosaria couldn’t reach him, then flew to a lower section of the skybox to an undamaged section. As soon as he tried to near the divide, Rosaria appeared again, tossing a spear that struck him in the right side of his chest. The attack put a gaping hole through him, but Warro’s Necklace kept him alive long enough for Holy Tether to heal him.

  Vincent readied and launched two more Void Bombs before he retreated. He lost track of the time as continued downward, trying to get away from the parts of the skybox he’d already damaged. He still felt like time moved strangely out there, even with the Holy Tether, and he was surprised to see a few hours had passed before his next attempt to hit the skybox.

  Just like before, Rosaria appeared and intercepted his spells. The black flames knocked out more sections of the skybox, but when he withdrew a few miles he could see the darkness spreading across the egg-shaped edge of the game world. Since he couldn’t message anyone that far in space, he could only imagine peoples’ reactions across the World-Tree.

  It probably looks like pixels going out on a computer screen. Only, they’re slowly spreading, eating away at the sky.