Rune Waker

by Jamie Hawke

  “Versus charging back through… Hell?”

  “I doubt it’s hell,” the Rankin said. “If it were true hell, well, maybe it is, but I don’t think we would’ve found a little sanctuary like this.”

  “Good point.” I joined Brad, analyzing what was beyond with my arms crossed. “Can we replicate the totems as we move?”

  “Don’t you have some undead-cursing spell?”

  “If you all keep the perimeter defended, I can keep moving the totems, kind of like leap frog,” Rankin said. “Best shot I see.”

  “And… based on us being here, that might work—keeping our minds clear, I mean.” The dragon woman said.

  “Anyone have a better idea?” the Rankin asked. When nobody spoke up, he took his staff, crouching, and said, “Right, on you, angel.”

  “Me?”

  “You’ll need to give us coverage with your auras and all that. Speed boosts beat the hell out of me, if you got it—”

  “We can get speed boosts on everyone,” one of the elves said.

  “That and stamina and defense buffs,” the other added.

  “I’m all offense,” Brad admitted. “Sorry.”

  “We might need it,” Pierce countered, drawing his blade and holding up a hand that started to glow purple. “Anyone have new skills you need to activate, now’s the time.”

  I frowned, pulling up my screen and checking. Sometimes when I’d level up there would be skill points, but I didn’t always assign them right away, or even remember to. At the moment, I was pleased to see this had been the case with my last leveling. I chose the following:

  Heavenly Horde: The ability to call upon an army of angels for one massive attack.

  Time: Five seconds.

  Down Time: One Hour

  Sounded good to me, compared to the other skills available, such as a passive dark-magic defense or going the route of the Fallen Angels, which would open up many more skills but not fit with who I saw my character as being.

  Everyone ready, I led the charge.

  We were met with darkness and silence. I looked around, concerned, not even able to see anyone’s faces in the darkness. Taking the lead, my breaths came heavy as I recalled times spent in similar dark corridors in games. None had this same level of reality, this permeating fear that seemed alive, as if it were a presence dipping its clawed fingers into our minds.

  Our footsteps echoed, continuing even when we stopped.

  A voice came from somewhere. Ahead, then above. Then behind.

  After our third turn, the walls gleamed, though no source of light could be found. A clanking followed. Closer then. Heavy breathing… but it was Brad.

  “This place is creeping me the hell out,” he said, seeing me turn his way.

  “You and all of us,” I replied.

  Another few halls and we found a stairwell up, so we took it. Somehow, it felt even darker up there. I paused at a hissing sound, bringing the fire of my sword down to confirm there was something writhing around on the floor, but with each swipe, there was nothing. Definitely black shapes, moving, slithering… but gone as soon as the light hit them.

  We turned the corner and charged right into two Spartan warriors and a Marine in full space gear. They looked worse for wear, with bits of the Marine’s armor torn off, flesh peeled back from the Spartans’ arms and torsos, and blood dripping down their bodies like they were painted that way. Immediately, the Rankin with us was putting up totems behind us, to block out the way we’d come.

  The first Spartan said something that sounded like Japanese, then his brother in arms grunted. I guessed this first one was a Japanese player in an avatar from other game, maybe the two having come in together.

  “Who the fuck are you?” the Marine said, his voice young, similar to Paleon’s in that he sounded like a twelve-year-old boy.

  “Just… Trying to get out of here,” I said, hands out to keep everyone from attacking each other.

  “You don’t want to go that way, friend,” Brad said.

  Upon seeing him, one of the Spartans lifted his spear, shouting something that sounded like ‘Oni.’

  “We’re like you,” I insisted. “From Earth, just playing the game.”

  “It’s not a game,” the Marine said. “I think we all know that.”

  “Come with us. We can work together, find a way out.”

  The Spartan with the raised spear glanced back to the Marine, who nodded. “But we get dibs on the genie.”

  “Genie?”

  The Spartans both started shouting at the Marine, then one aimed a spear at me and said in stilted English, “Genie is ours.”

  I held up my hands in surrender, nodding. “We’re not here for a genie.”

  “Keep moving,” our Rankin said, and I turned to see rippling shadows on the other side of his totem-created energy field.

  “After you,” I said to the Marine, and together we all ran down the hall. My auras were creating a constant healing effect, sure to eat up my mana before too long if I had to keep that up, while the elves gave us their buffers and the Rankin set up totems as we went. The old ones vanished when out of range, allowing him to create new ones without worrying about running out of the ability.

  That was all fine and dandy, until we came to what I’d always later think of as the spider’s lair. It was an inaccurate term, as the substance that held Paleon, the golem, off of the floor and melted slowly through him was clearly not made of spider’s web. While it had the same look, woven about him and holding him in place, it was green, seemed to be melting in spots, and appeared to be some form of acidic barbed wire.

  “I can’t log out,” Paleon said, voice cracking. “Why—why won’t it let me log out?”

  “We’re not in a safe zone,” the Marine said.

  “What?” I asked.

  “This… area. It’s controlled by the other side. You can only portal in or logout through safe zones. Meaning, we’d have to hold it for a certain amount of time, depending on our abilities. Our strength and all that.”

  “And you know this… how?”

  The Marine grunted, as if annoyed that he had to explain anything to me. “One of ours made it outside. We saw him logout, but were cut off. It’s an assumption, but a good one.”

  “Better than anything we’ve got,” Pierce noted.

  I lit my sword and moved around, trying to get to the golem. The ground was a shiny, sticky stone, lines of that strange material seeming to move in the darkness. No, fuck that, it was definitely moving.

  “Brad,” I hissed, taking a step back, and he saw it too.

  “Kill me,” Paleon said. “Just… kill me.”

  Whatever it was that appeared from the far wall a second later, like a flash of white in the dark, didn’t give us a choice. It was on him in a second, floating out in various directions while part of it clung to him. His screams filled the chamber, his blood spreading out into the creature so that soon it wasn’t glowing white, but red. We all opened with attacks, shooting fire and light and spells, but it pulled back then, darting about the room before moving in on one of the Spartans.

  It had him, wrapping around him like a cloak so that anything we hit it with was absorbed by the screaming man. When I tried to heal the Spartan and then Paleon, the first spell seemed to actually heal the monster, leaving the Spartan even more drained. When I aimed at Paleon, the spell did nothing. He was gone.

  Something brushed against my leg and I spun, swinging my sword to strike the moving barbed wire. My angelic armor broke at the leg, my calf bled, black lines stretching across it. This shit was not to be messed with.

  “Retreat!” I shouted, already moving for the way we’d entered.

  “I’m not leaving him!” the Marine shouted, laying down fire with his badass space rifle. The Spartan took the hit, losing his final hold on life, and then the monster was gone, darting back up in the direction it came from, retreating into a hole.

  “It fed,” I hissed, already nearly at the do
or, pulling the dragon woman with me.

  “Let me go,” she said, pulling free and waving her halberd around like there were bats in the air or something. Watching her swinging around awkwardly like that, this larger-than-Xena woman with the face of a dragon, small wings and tail to boot, I was amused. But not enough to take me away from the situation, unfortunately.

  When she stopped, I indicated the hole. “Fire… can you reach that far with your fire?”

  She looked at me, nodded, and we all moved behind her, even the Marine, who was dragging the corpse of his friend.

  “Shields if you got ‘em,” the dragon woman said, and then she crouched, opened her mouth, and flames spewed forth to engulf the room. The strange barbed wire substance didn’t just catch fire. It started to, but then began crackling and exploding all along its length. The explosions built on each one before it, until a branch of the wire lifted and began reaching for us only to explode and send us flying backwards. If not for an energy shield on the part of the Marine, we might have been toast.

  The flames hadn’t taken care of that floating creature, though, and apparently it was pissed at what we’d done. As I recovered, the first thing I saw was it moving through the air, zipping back and forth in a way that almost looked like electricity—and then it was on me.

  9

  All I could think to do was pull into my healing reserves, but it was enough to keep me solid until Brad was at my side with his scythe cutting through the creature and sending it back.

  “It reacts to death spells,” Brad called out. Seeing as he was the only one with such magic, everyone scrambled to get behind him. Those of us with buffers cast them on him, and he stepped forward, practically glowing with a mixture of speed, defense, and shields. “Come get me, you son of a bitch.”

  It did just that, although darting at the last second to make a move for me again. Brad had been ready, though, and cut up with the scythe in a way that sent a red beam of blood magic after the creature, hitting it before it could get to me. The result was an instant kill, creating what looked like two halves of a jellyfish on the ground on each side of me, blood from the other two it had drained soaking the floor.

  “Fuck me,” Pierce said, looking at me, then back to the now-destroyed room.

  “Kuso,” the remaining Spartan said, which I knew to basically mean ‘fuck’ in Japanese.

  “Thank you, for that,” a booming voice said, interrupting our bickering.

  We all looked at each other in confusion, then went back to the torched room, smoldering heaps still casting an eerie glow. There, hovering above it all, was the clearly dark and unmistakable form of a genie with mixed black and purple skin. It grinned, then said, “Still, I can’t have you fucking with my fortress, so…”

  As the genie clapped its hands, everything around me shifted, the ground going up at an angle, it seemed, and then spinning slightly. I fell, then was sliding, falling, rolling. I heard Brad’s distant shouts, and grunted more out of annoyance than anything else.

  Explosions. Gun fire. Chanting of spells. It all sounded loud but distant. Muffled.

  “You…” a voice said in my head. A feminine voice? “You’re here for a reason… A reason that will make you useful to me.”

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “Find me. Come.”

  “Why me?”

  “You are different from the others. I want freedom, you want her… I can grant you access, I mean… get you to her. Come, come.”

  “Where?” I stood, spinning, looking for any sight of the others. Darkness, no sounds of them. No more answers from the voice.

  I held out my sword and let the flames dance across the blade for extra light. It would drain my mana if I kept it up for too long, but slowly. Still, the darkness managed to creep in, always staying inches from the flame, not letting me see the walls or past it.

  Fuck, where had the others gone? An echo pulled me to the right, like footsteps or heavy breathing. I couldn’t be sure. A push on the flames, combined with my healing aura that left what looked like gold dust behind, allowed a glimpse of a round chamber with halls going off in several directions.

  Movement ahead, a shadow passing by one of the doorways. I held up my sword, ready for trouble, but saw the wings… fairy, like Katie’s avatar.

  “Katie?” I called out, feeling hopeful as I moved toward her.

  Darkness swirled and she was facing me, those empty eye-sockets from before, horns protruding from her forehead, and long, sharp teeth that glistened as she hissed. This was most definitely not my Katie.

  Whatever this thing was, it stared, beckoning, and then was gone.

  It was official—I didn’t like this place. On the one hand, whatever she was had been creepy as fuck. On the other, the path she’d gone at least had something other than endless tunnels, even if it was only a trap. I’d take that chance.

  Whoever or whatever had been talking in my head was out there, maybe this demon fairy, for all I knew. Either way, it was all I had to go on. And since it had sensed my need to find Katie and even offered to help me find her, it was my best bet.

  Darkness seemed to move in on me at every turn, but I decided to keep my mana in case I’d need it against whatever that voice belonged to. The feeling inside of me pulled me onward, the ground uneven in places, but my steps were steady as the power lured me.

  In spite of the darkness, the sense of horror at this place was gone, replaced by curiosity and determination. If someone here knew a way to find Katie, I was on board. My only concern was for my companions, but I figured we’d find each other soon enough. Maybe after I learned what plan this being had in mind.

  The darkness reminded me of hiding in closets as a child, so I pretended I was playing a game, that I’d go through this wardrobe and find myself in a snowy land. Images of me as a young child in the snow with Turkish delight brought a smile to my face.

  My foot landed on ground that was soft, out of place. I took another step, suddenly finding myself surrounded by a gentle light. It pulsated from the far side of the room, but seemed to reach every inch of the walls in the same way.

  With each step I took, the light brightened.

  “Welcome,” a voice said, and then the light was glowing strong, a shadow cast against the far wall—like the fairy I’d seen, only the wings were changing, becoming one with the body, a body that seemed to now have no legs, or legs that sort of faded away into a plume of smoke. The light faded, and the shadow was gone. Soon, the light was nothing more than a small glow from a purple stone in an amulet.

  “You…?” I took a step toward it, hand reaching.

  “Yes. Come to me, give me life.”

  I froze. “How do I know you can find her?”

  “You, sir… you fine, handsome gentleman, have a long way to go yet—not physically, per se, but… like this? So doubting, so hesitant.”

  “A man walks into a room, puts on an amulet cursed by a demon, and suddenly nobody ever hears from him ever again.” I withdrew my hands. “That, or the demon takes over his body, controlling him and making him a mass murderer. Which is it?”

  A laugh, both feminine and not, as if multiple voices were in there. “Ah, you want the truth? Here it is, then. I’ll give you what you seek—I can use a locator spell, if you can give me something of hers. Then we’ll go in search of her… but I’ll require payment.”

  “Name your price.”

  “Name it and it is mine, or…?”

  I clenched my jaw. Waiting.

  “Very well. I am very powerful to the man or woman who wears me, but I take my toll. My price is life—by wearing me, every day some of your life enters me, so that I may be free. So that I might walk at your side, join you in battle, if it comes to that. You will feel my drain, but it won’t cripple you. And on the day I find you this woman you seek… Then you shall release me.”

  “And that will cost more, I imagine.”

  The voice came as a purr as it said, “Oh, yes. But
not in the way you believe. I seek release in a sensual way.”

  Was this demon, or genie or whatever it was, telling me I’d have to sleep with it to set it free? The thought was appalling. I’d heard the legend of the succubi in plenty of games and novels, and wasn’t about to fall prey to one of them. Then again, this was my only option that I knew about right now. And I was a fast learner—perhaps there would be a way to break free of this debt before the time came to pay it.

  But first, I needed more answers.

  “Are you a creation of the game?” I asked. “Of LivreCorp?”

  Another laugh. “No, no… no. Much of what you find here won’t be. The afterlife is a strange and complicated place. Aspects have been changed, whole worlds brought into existence that weren’t here before.”

  “And you know all this… how?”

  “Does it really matter?” The voice paused as if collecting itself, and then said, “I was close to the rift, and it… became part of my consciousness. Spirits, demons and others farther off won’t have a clue. But I… I am very old, very aware of my surroundings.”

  “Meaning you know about these places. You would know how to get me around.”

  “And get you to your world,” she said. “To help you find the item needed for the tracking spell. Together, we can portal back. My side… controls this fortress. They won’t know I’ve abandoned them until we’re long gone.”

  “But why?” I asked, picking up the amulet.

  As soon as my skin touched it, she was there—not what I’d expected at all, but a version of what I’d seen in the shadow. Growing at my side, she grinned wickedly, at one moment with wings and horns, at another moving like flames. Her skin was a marbleized black and purple with glowing lines of orange that seemed to form patterns, maybe even be a language. And now that she was stabilizing, she took on a solid form, causing me to gulp at the sight.

  On her head, instead of hair, she had long horns that flowed back like ice, similarly along her arms. Instead of legs there was still that fog, including dark shadows over her lower section, though what I could see of her bare ass was clearly exposed. Likewise, her breasts were out there for the world to see.