Endless Online: Oblivion's Promise

by M. H. Johnson

  With a furious crack, he snapped his boot into her skull. Elise cried out, collapsing to the ground. Savagely, the panting inquisitor began raining blows upon Elise's curled, sobbing form.

  Two armored guards stood sentinel between the inquisitor's diversion and the rapidly approaching Val and Halvar. The leftmost one nodded. "Good work. Now have Brimir bring the mercenary and the alchemist. We will be leaving this ship as soon as the master's work is complete."

  The other guard frowned, lifting up his reflective visor. "Wait, where is the prisoner?"

  100 Psion reserved. Psiblade activated!

  The inquisitor suddenly hissed, backing away from Elise. "Assassin," he whispered, as if he knew what the shadows foretold, his own Psiblade coming alive with a crackle even as choked screams and the stink of offal and death suddenly filled the chamber, the pair of guards cut down in heartbeats, Val but a streak of shadow, his crackling blade of violet energies surrounding a sliver of absolute darkness the only indication he was there at all.

  He had no choice but to sacrifice precious moments, racing well past Halvar before whipping around his terrible blade that he had held behind him, time enough for the far too savvy inquisitor to catalyze his own blade and shield.

  The man stunk of sweat and sudden fear, widened eyes trying desperately to focus on Val, locking only on his blade. "My name is Inquisitor Adolf Mordingi, disciple of our Overlord! State the terms of your challenge!"

  Val paid the inquisitor's words no mind, as one with the shadows as his fury allowed, grunting only once as a wave of terrible force washed over him and through him, the slightest taste of pain rippling across his psyche, quickly subsumed, Val one with the shadows once more.

  Psionic Blast partially resisted! Your emotions almost betrayed you! -10 Stamina, -10 Psion.

  Val eased away deeper into the shadows even as he heard Sten and Halvar both groaning, collapsing with the force of the blast that had torn through the chamber, a bruised and battered Elise herself shaking and grimacing, eyes wide with terror and desperate fury.

  Adolf gave a triumphant snarl. "Bested so easily? You don't dare even to give challenge? Fool! State the terms of our engagement, if you wish to limit the folly of your own inevitable death, and blades alone will decide the outcome! Or do you fear to face me at all? Are you one of those brittle savants, a single deadly trick to your name, and otherwise among the weakest of our kind? Face me, coward, or admit defeat!"

  Val smiled even through the shadows, tasting the man's uncertainty, that which his bravado could not completely hide. Then he let it fade. His was not the fury of a man, but the inevitability of the storm. Even as the winds roared and howled, his blade was just a projection, an echo of the force and fury of the storm itself.

  Adolf's arrogant sneer soon turned to panicked uncertainty, his own blade desperately striving to counter a sudden furious assault as Val embraced the first lessons he had ever mastered as a fencer. Always seize the Vor. Always force your opponents to respond to you, to react to your blows as you pivot forward, forcing them off balance, winding your own blade effortlessly past a desperate parry, and how strange it felt as one shaft of oblivion slid against another before the air rocked with the screams of a suddenly desperate inquisitor as the void kissed flesh in an explosion of blood, death avoided only by a desperate retreat, hastily raised shield only able to resist part of the force behind the blow.

  The force and fury of the storm itself.

  The outcome as inevitable as if the tale had already been told.

  Panicked desperation rang through the chamber. "You have first blood. You have first blood! I concede the duel. I concede! What are your terms? Name your terms!"

  Val said nothing, eyes carefully focused on his enemy's trembling lips, the shift and balance of his legs, the shield he so desperately raised, inert Psiblade falling from his crippled arm, spurting blood still. Only the eyes Val knew were filled with terror did he avoid meeting, even as another wave of psionic force crashed through the room. A desperate final assault, the suddenly drained inquisitor falling to one knee.

  Psionic Blast fully resisted! For what use is shouting at shadows?

  "You have not struck me. You must want something! Credits? I have a fortune! Property? I have that as well! Are you with these convicts?" He swallowed desperately. "It is within my power to surrender almost all of them. All of them save the girl are yours! You may take the damn ship, if you like! The soldiers are nothing. Your kills will be free of blood debt, I will pay the fines myself!"

  Adolf's breathing grew harsh, ragged. "You are trapped within a dreadnought. No matter how deeply you have mastered Oblivion's path, you will not get out of here alive. Not unless we come to terms! But give me the lady, and I will demand that you be allowed to leave at once. You have achieved victory over me. Even my blade is yours! I will depart with this escaped disciple alone, and you are free to go. My word as the Overlord's Chosen upon it!" He said the last as if he expected it to have profound weight.

  Only then did darkest shadow speak. "Elise. Bind him. Probe his mind. Do as you will. Get what truths you need. If he resists? Kill him."

  Elise, her icy violet eyes filled with coldest fury, gave an abrupt nod, suddenly standing tall and proud. Fearless, for all that she wore nothing but bruises and iron-hard resolve. Her hands seized the inquisitor's Psiblade before wrenching free the gasping man's forceshield and slamming him fully on his stomach with a furious series of kicks Adolf was in no position to counter.

  The inquisitor chuckled ruefully. "Ah, Elise. How the tables turn, do they not? And how, by Jordia, did you manage to acquire your own pet assassin? Perhaps there is hope for you yet. All of this, your feigned weakness, it was a trap, yes? And one I fell for brilliantly! I will not deny it. I cannot deny it! You have graduated from slave to true disciple. You have proven your worth by our oldest traditions. I think, dear Elise, that when we inform our master of your accomplishment, he too will see your worth. See that you are ready for better things. Ready at last to take your place not as chattel, but as a worthy piece on the board!"

  Elise suddenly froze, enigmatic gaze fixed intently on the grimacing Inquisitor.

  His eyes lit with sudden desperation. "That's right, Elise Highblood. At last worthy of reclaiming your honor, at last worthy of your family name! Rank, title, land of your own. Slaves of your own! Given the opportunity to prove yourself the equal of all our master's Chosen! Even Solena must pay you respect, now!"

  For all that psionic blasts of terror and hate had given the sentience that was as much darkness as flesh no pause, that name alone made Val hesitate, a sudden shiver of apprehension running down his spine.

  "Solena." Elise whispered the name like a curse.

  "Yes!" Adolf hissed. "Our master's right hand, spearheading the charge, an entire virgin world ripe for the plucking! Two worlds will be claimed under our Overlord. And this realm has no accords forged, no wizards daring to resist us, filled with rich minds like sweet, succulent fruit, begging to be plucked!"

  Elise's eyes widened. "Earth," she whispered.

  Adolf grew absolutely still. A silent, breathless moment, save for the soft drip of his bleeding wound and the automated hum as the air filters worked to purge the charnel house stench of violent death permeating the room.

  "You know of Earth? Remarkable. Your tendrils run surprisingly deep." Adolf flashed an approving smile. "Truly, Elise, you will make a worthy disciple. Together, with your resources in play, we might just overtake Solena in securing our master's favor. But come. First thing's first. We will present ourselves to the Overlord, where he may take note of my formally declaring you my protege as I recount the exquisite details of your both glorious and unorthodox victory. And then, my dear, we can engage in matters of true import!"

  Elise flashed a bleak smile. "Crushing all resistance on Jordia?"

  The inquisitor's chuckle was as much relief as amusement. "Oh no, dear Elise. We have Jordia well in hand. Believe me. It is Earth
that is now the true prize! We have the tendrils in place. We have enslaved key figures with vice, rapture, and mental domination. We have pawns in every government of consequence, and several hundred prime succulents already bonded to our master!"

  Hot, fiery eyes glared into Elise's own. "It is time to begin the invasion! One more world to be broken under our heel. Utterly enslaved. No accords need be forged with chattel so vulnerable! It is a miracle, Elise. A dark miracle. So many are ripe with potential, but their imperfectly formed minds are utterly unable to resist our compulsions! A primitive branch of man, effortless to control! A feast of profit!"

  Val's heart began to pound, ears roaring with what was not fury, but the growing howl of the storm to come.

  Adolf shuddered, eyes growing wide. He swallowed and coughed. "Elise, it is not safe here. There is a presence. A dark presence. It is growing."

  Elise's gaze was ice. "Don't stop now, Adolf. You were about to tell me how we will master this ripe fruit that so demands to be plucked, and most importantly, how this all secures my rank and status in the eyes of our overlord!"

  "Of course, Lady Highblood. Of course. Solena has been coordinating the acquisition of succulents for our master while laying down the foundations of dominion and conquest. A dozen of our master's Chosen now hold key positions of influence with all the major powers! When the time is ripe, we will catalyze the fools to destroy themselves, then we will pluck our harvest!"

  Val's voice was as frigid as the depths of space. He did not even register the catalyzation of his blade, only Adolf's screams as the hideous tip caressed the suddenly spasming man's back, blood spurting from the shallow, ugly wound. "How will you catalyze them to destroy themselves? Neither magic nor psionics works without an open rift between our worlds."

  Adolf gasped, haunted eyes gazing around desperately for something, anything to latch onto. All he saw was Elise's cold glare.

  "Lady Highblood, you have bested me." He swallowed. "You have earned my unconditional surrender. For your pet to strike me now would violate all our accords."

  Elise's granite hard features were pitiless. "Answer the questions, Adolf. You may assume they came from me. I am not such a fool as to dare plumb your mind. But you and I both know that if you lie, I will sense it. I was always very good at that."

  Adolf grimaced. "Of course you were. Which is why I had hoped one day the master would see fit to elevate you, and no one is more surprised than I to find myself so easily bested. Truly, I had despaired of how you could find redemption at this point, and though you might not believe it, I am happily amazed by your triumph." He sighed. "Truly, Elise, you are a rare prize. My ire wasn't with you personally. Or rather, it was. For the longer you had fled, the less likely it was that our master would see fit to put you in my service! So much potential, how it frustrated me to see it go to such waste. But now, my dear Elise, you have redeemed yourself utterly!

  "As to your questions. Contrary to various doomsayers, the vacuum theory does not hold! Our higher state universe, with more forces and fields than that of Earth, has not suddenly been catalyzed into a lower energy state reality with a shockwave of oblivion proceeding through all known space at the fastest speeds of light. No! Nor has the universe of our newest prize suffered a catastrophic eruption of free energy that would have destroyed at least the local cluster of galaxies."

  The inquisitor chuckled even as Val trembled. To speak of such things so casually. To know that these monsters had taken such risks with both of their realities...

  "It would be more accurate to think of adjoining universes as conjoined matrices. Computer programs where one has been injected with the code of another."

  Elise paled. "So the simulation hypothesis is correct."

  Adolf shrugged. "Irrelevant. Whether we are bits of code in a god's simulated matrix or not has no bearing upon our lives whatsoever. All that matters is that the properties of our conjoined universes have resulted in hybrid fields spontaneously catalyzing upon this planet, with a minimum number of earthquakes and similar disasters as the planet sought equilibrium. Fortunately its orbit still holds, or it would be worthless to us."

  Elise's eyes widened in momentary horror, swallowing a tremble as shadow squeezed her shoulder, demanding she be strong. She shivered but stood straight, suddenly looking every inch the officer. "So, our players can manipulate the pieces on the board as we see fit."

  The inquisitor's increasingly pale features lit up in a rictus of a smile. "Exactly, Lady Highblood. Exactly! Oh, the sheer joy of dominating minds as vulnerable as the lowest serf. Not that much different than the chattel on any other world, but even their gifted are so utterly and completely vulnerable. Delicious! And best of all, no treaties or accords mean that we can lawfully do whatever we wish, and the High Council will only request steady shipments of slaves void of all rights for the pleasure of all Highlords, which of course we shall deliver, for credits and prestige in turn!"

  Elise nodded, as cool and regal as any queen. "Quite the prize indeed. So, how shall we entice them to destroy themselves?"

  Adolf chuckled. "That is the sweetest facet of all! Earth's universe allows for a myriad of exothermic reactions in near all energy states. They have dared forbidden practices we wouldn't dream of! These fools have stocked countless silos with weapons capable of tearing apart entire cities, even poisoning their planet entirely!" He shook his head and smiled. "It is only with the most careful discipline that we shall proceed. Indeed, one could almost say our arrival shall be a... mercy of a sort, as they would have killed themselves entirely off, eventually."

  Elise frowned. "Yet enticing them to unleash all those weapons will only succeed in wiping them out, not weakening them."

  Adolf nodded. "It will be careful, surgical strikes. Various leaders will be compelled only to release their most powerful bombs upon military outposts and industrial centers. We will cripple them utterly, while leaving the majority of their population dense cities and near the entirety of their croplands intact. Our agents, in positions of power already, will then initiate coups, their bands of loyal soldiers and mercenaries now the largest surviving regiments left."

  Elise's brows furrowed. "That's not the end of our preparations, I hope. A mere dozen agents and their hired soldiers, even if they can effortlessly seize the reigns of power, will only receive blind submission if the thralls perceive no major imbalance in their lives. It is one thing to call a new lord master, quite another for a free race to find their lot one of eternal servitude."

  Adolf shook his head, grimacing with pain as he did so. "Of course not. Those are just the beginning preparations! You have been too long out of the loop, dear Elise. It is fortunate indeed that you have chosen to prove yourself at such a propitious time. The Dominion is on the cusp of conquest! We shall invade this virgin world en mass, our own master's dreadnought leading the way! You note that our ship is perfectly positioned between Jordia and Phoebe both, where the barrier between realms is weakest. Even as we speak, our most skilled mechanists are finishing the hyperion gate we approach. Within weeks it will all be fully operational!

  "Once Earth has been crippled and our pawns control all major power centers of significance, then our ship shall port through and those puppet nations will immediately surrender." He chuckled softly. "You know quite well the devastating power of this ship, my dear Elise. It will be nothing to strike dead any holdout groups, to burn them to the bedrock with the gentlest caress of our lasers. Their armies destroyed, their remaining governments voluntarily surrendering to entirely reasonable flesh quotas, only rebellious holdout groups quickly purged will remain. Indeed, Elise, it is our master's plan to accomplish absolute dominion over this world with no ship save his own, with no soldiers save the thousands we have on standby! If we could accomplish that, our prestige would be all the greater, our master's rights to this world suddenly without question!"

  Elise nodded, pivoting her beautiful features around, smiling sadly into the shadows. "I never thoug
ht your world was real, Val. Not in my heart. I hope you can forgive me for that."

  A puff of air, silence that spoke. "They mean to destroy my home, Elise. Everything I know. Everyone I love."

  Elise trembled, bowing her head, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Never since our founding, well over a thousand years ago, has anyone ever resisted the Highlords. Our Dominion has only grown. I'm sorry, Val. I truly am."

  Adolf hissed, eyes widening with horror. "Elise Highblood! Do not tell me your pet assassin is an Earthling?"

  A crackling hum as a sliver of the void formed into being, just inches from the suddenly panicked inquisitor's face.

  "Don't kill me. Please! I can be of use to you!" The panicked lord pled.

  "I know," whispered the darkness. "That's why your heart still beats."

  "What is it you want?"

  Shadow smiled. "I want your oath, Adolf Mordingi. And with it I will bind you." A breathless pause. "You might think, in the instant you sense me, that I will be an easy target."

  A second crackling hum as Elise's own blade shimmered to life. "And in that, you couldn't be more wrong," Elise declared, glaring down at the man trembling before looming shadow.

  A cold snarl, Adolf shaking himself out of his dread. "Very well, Elise. If this is how you wish to play the game? I will allow it. But I will not be nearly so forgiving in your training if you dare step too far."

  Elise smiled. "Believe me, dear Adolf, nothing would sadden me more than for you to find me... unworthy as a student."

  And then Val saw it, the shimmering rainbow of essence that was Adolf's very soul, or so it seemed in that odd moment, as he whispered words for Adolf to repeat in all earnestness, his defenses down, his intentions made clear, Val's hand gently touching the still bleeding shoulder wound. An agonized flinch their enemy endured, the only warning Val would give as to just how precarious the man's position was, the fatal price he'd pay, should he attempt a psionic blast in the brief moments Val was vulnerable.