by Jamie Hawke
I frowned. While I wasn’t able to call forth a sword, I did manage to throw Pierce back, only to find the two elves squared off against me.
“What do we do?” one of the elves shouted to Pierce.
“Kill him!” Pierce growled, already recovering and ready for more.
“Shit.” I took a step back and my back hit the stone wall.
“Now,” Varena said.
“I can’t!”
“You need a focus point, then. To help you visualize.” She zipped over, her shapely form not the distraction I needed at the moment. With a smile, she said, “The toothbrush! Yours, not hers. Use it as a stable point, to draw your energy.”
“Seriously?”
Then she vanished to reappear at my side, pressing her breasts up against me, her hand moving down my abs. “Maybe this will help?”
Blood flowing, adrenaline pumping, her energy and mine mingling, I pocketed Katie’s toothbrush and held mine up in defense. The elves laughed, Pierce joining them as he approached again, now three against one. I was certain that was my last moment on Earth, or so I thought before remembering I wasn’t on Earth.
That this was a magical place, a place that worked outside of the rules. If Varena told me it was doable, then dammit, I was going to make it happen. My focus turned inward, finding that connection, leaning into it and then, with a lurch, the toothbrush transformed into my flaming sword.
“Shit,” Pierce said, close enough that the light from the flames lit up his face and the fire nearly got him.
The elves hesitated, while gunfire sounded from Brad’s direction. I turned to see that he’d gotten the Marine’s mask off and used the Marine’s own gun to kill him, then the Spartan. Both lay dead.
My turn.
Instinct took over, the movements feeling very natural after so making so many just like it in my simulations and games. When I lunged, the sword was like an extension of myself, flowing as I wanted it, cutting through the air, and knocking the kobold’s blade out of his hands. One of the elves had red forming around his hands, so I slipped in and removed his hands. He screamed, his buddy stepping back and shaking his head.
The reaction was understandable. In the games, a strike like that wouldn’t remove your hands—it would lower your hit points (HP). If they still hadn’t figured out that this wasn’t a game, they were fucked.
My next strike came back around for the kobold, catching him in the neck… but not doing nearly as much damage as I’d hoped for. The best I could figure it, while I was used to the sword and channeling some energy from my connection with Varena, my body was mine, and therefore basically level one with amplifications.
In confirmation, when I kicked Pierce off and he charged back through—only to be met by my blade through his belly, a screen popped up showing that I’d gained XP. The screen wasn’t the normal one from Gods End, and really it wasn’t specific to any game I’d played. More like a combination of them, with my body there in my current clothes, a circle with skills and spells shown. None, at the moment. The XP kept rising, moving up in a blue bar, and then brought me into level two! Apparently, killing a higher-level character worked that way. A feat that never would’ve been possible without my connection to Varena.
The main stats were very similar to those of Gods End, with two points that I added to attack right away, so that it said:
Level: 2
Class: Human Hybrid
Attack: 6
Defense: 1
Speed: 3
Mana: 2
Spells: Select Below.
Talk about some shitty stats. There was more—dealing with magic resistance and even one that said alignment with a spectrum bar next to it. They’d have to wait. I quickly dismissed the screen to focus on Pierce squirming on my blade as he eyed it with horror. The skill selection could wait.
“Kill the fucking kobold,” Varena said, fingers tracing the steel of my blade, fire going right through her. “End it.”
Her eyes had a challenge in them, as if it were a test. Pierce could respawn and be back here in no time. Sure, he’d be pissed, maybe come back to fight me. At this point, there was no doubt that this was a player-versus-player (PvP) world, but that made sense… seeing as it clearly wasn’t a game or simulation any more. And if that were true, what did killing him really mean?
A horrible feeling sunk into my chest and then lowered to my gut, that I’d already killed him. That he was as good as dead, at this point. That this was all far worse than I’d initially realized.
Still pissed at how he’d double-crossed me and threatened my friend, I gave my sword a good twist, pulling it out to spill his guts. The result was sloshing, putrid-smelling nastiness. Like snakes filled with shit.
He collapsed to his knees. Blinked. Stared at me then, hand shaking as he tried to stuff his guts back in, other hand trying to find his dagger even as the flames took his face. As no more than a black shape beneath the yellow and orange flames, his head rolled when I slashed, making the sword flame. Blood would’ve likely splattered, if not for the flames cauterizing the wound.
Laughter echoed as Varena floated over to the corpse and knelt, hands over the flames. The fire rose, twisting and turning bright red, almost scarlet, and then she was absorbing the raw energy.
When she was done, the body was gone. My guilt… was not.
Not sure what I’d just done or seen done to Pierce, I lifted my sword, preparing to fight the others.
12
Through all of this, I realized as I turned to take on the dragon woman, the Rankin had been standing at the back of the room, watching. He met my eyes and nodded, so I kept my focus on the dragon woman.
“Behind you!” Brad shouted, and I turned to see the handless elf coming in, his buddy still watching with horror writ all over his face. The dragon woman was ready for action, but I figured the elf was the easier of the two. Stepping back and then dodging left to put him between us, I swiped up at the elf and sliced him across the midsection, igniting the whole of his front. He was screaming, but not as much as when I kicked him at the dragon to intercept a breath of fire. Now the elf was engulfed, and I was down one elf shield.
The other elf said, “Fuck this,” and took off running, right past his buddy, the Rankin, who still wasn’t getting involved. A scream sounded a moment later, followed by a guttural choking sound, abruptly cut off. More was out there.
Dragon woman was seething, smoke coming from her nostrils, one hand with claws extended, the other gripping her halberd.
“We don’t have to do this,” I said.
“The fuck we don’t.” She charged, halberd under one arm like she thought this was a joust, and that was her lance. Not exactly the right way to use it, but hey, that worked to my advantage.
She was a much higher level than I was at the moment, but I’d gotten the impression from her earlier halberd swings and how she moved now that she wasn’t used to this type of combat. Probably not much of a PvP fighter, more into groups. Possibly the hunter type, but not likely a warrior or tank.
Assuming all of that, I went for hand-to-hand combat. We’d seen HP didn’t exactly work here as it did in normal games, so all I’d have to do was rely on my skill to get in a well-placed hit. She was almost on me when I lunged to the outside, bringing my sword down and in to knock her halberd aside. With her already off-balance, I thrust my shoulder into her side and knocked her over so that she fell onto the floor and dropped her weapon.
“Enough!” I said, raising my sword to show I meant business.
Her burst of fire nearly caught me, but I pulled back enough to smell burnt hair but not feel the fire any more than as a comforting warmth in these dark, cold caverns. In a flash she was up, teeth ready to sink into my leg—it was either take those teeth in my flesh, or not. I chose not, in the form of my sword down through her mouth, throat and all.
At least she died pretty much instantly.
My screen popped up as a reminder, and my XP bar increase
d again almost all the way to level three. Transparent enough to not lose track of my situation, but solid enough to not have a problem seeing it. I was looking at several circles of different colors. Only a few were viewable though, and some of those were grayed out. The ones immediately available to me were Blue, Green, White, and Black.
I didn’t have time to deal with this at the moment, but was intrigued.
“Blue,” Varena said. “Quick, apply it.”
“And if I don’t want to?” I asked, gripping my sword, eyes darting between the screen and those remaining in the room.
“Blue and black are the strongest connecting you to me, and judging by your previous connection—the angel avatar—I’d advise against black as an initial color level-up.
“Fuck,” I said, knowing I needed to act and not wanting to be bothered with this right now. I took one hand, taking a step back in case I was attacked, and hit the blue orb. It popped out with spells and skill trees, the first being called Psychic Shield. It was all I could access so far.
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Trust me, you’ll need it.”
“Fine.” I selected the shield and dismissed the screen, turning to the only two left in the room—the Rankin and Brad.
“Whose side are you on?” I said, sword pointed at the Rankin.
He cocked his head at me, then chuckled as he thrust out a hand. “Call me Arturo, friend.”
“Friend?”
He shrugged. “You’re clearly no longer on the Angelic side, and way I figure it, you have a genie or something like that on your side. It helped you through that little mess, anyway. So yes, I’d be happy to call you friend.”
“For now,” I said, accepting his hand but making it clear I didn’t trust him.
Arturo shrugged. “For now.”
I nodded. Something he’d said, about me not being on the angelic side, reminded me that I wanted to look into the stats more at some point, when we had a down moment. It had said human hybrid. Did that relate to my connection to Varena? And what about alignment—was something in this universe tracking what I did and assigning a moral value to it? So weird.
Brad was up, moving to my side with the scythe on his back and carrying the Marine’s badass rifle. “Hey, might not be allowed in Gods End, but doesn’t seem like we’re there anymore, anyway. So…” With a grin, he slung the rifle over his shoulder. “What’s the plan, boss?”
“First, get the hell out of here,” I said, very aware of the stench of burnt corpses and emptied intestines.
I turned to take it in, then saw Varena moving among them, the smoke of her legs taking shape now so that she was walking among the corpses daintily, moving her hands through the air as she went. As more energy drifted up from them, she grew in power. I knew because I felt it, because my power grew through my connection with her.
She glanced up, smiled, and then nodded toward Brad and Arturo, who had both suddenly become slack-jawed.
“You can see her?” I asked.
Brad was the first to respond, nodding slowly, finally closing his mouth. “Is she, can she…?”
“Talk?” Varena laughed. “Better than some, it’d seem.”
“So, the genie is real,” Arturo said.
“Genie, demon… it’s confusing,” Varena said. “Spirit, maybe? Before this, I mean—the rift opening—I don’t recall being tied to any… objects.” Her eyes met mine, and I got the hint that she thought it better not to mention the amulet specifically yet.
“I’m not following,” Arturo admitted. “Rift?”
“He doesn’t know.” Varena smirked, then assessed Brad. “This one’s smarter, I hope?”
“Yeah,” I said, but couldn’t ignore Arturo’s glare at that. “I mean, I don’t know. But I told him about what was going on, before. With Katie.”
“She passed through to your side, right?” Varena nodded, coming back to me and wrapping her arm in mine. “Where we came through, it was clearly a remnant of her, proof of her visit. She would be smart to erase such proof in the future.”
At Arturo’s expression, I did my best to explain what I understood the situation to be, while looking to Varena from time to time to see if what I was saying sounded right.
“So, it all boils down to this,” I said, summing it up to make sure he got it. “LivreCorp was looking for ways to make their simulation with lost loved ones as real as possible. I don’t know if they incorporated dark magic or some religious aspect, but whatever they did went too far—it opened a rift, a sort of portal to the afterlife. But worse than that, their simulation and the games it was connected to began to corrupt the afterlife. Changing it, so that… well, it’s what you see here.”
“Not only this,” Varena corrected. “Many worlds, all different. But yes, like he said, very much changed, to the point that even some of us are finding we can level up and do things that are related to the games which have impacted on us. My understanding is, the closer the worlds are to the rift, the more affected they are.”
Brad frowned, but when he looked at me, gave me a nod like ‘huh, maybe you were right.’
Arturo, however, didn’t look too sold. He scrunched his nose, shook his head, then laughed. “See, here’s the biggest problem I have with all this. It’s bullshit.”
“Very persuasive argument.” Varena guided me toward the exit. “But the fact remains that we’re going to conduct a locator spell, and be on our way. You can either join…
“Here’s the problem with what you’re saying,” Arturo went on, blocking our path. “If that’s all true, this is real, er, Ryan, was it? Yeah? And that would mean, what? That he can piss and shit in here, even sleep and all that—and never need to in the real world? That—assuming someone paid my rent and washed my body—the same could be true of me, as long as I’m plugged in?”
She nodded. “You could find another way to enter without your avatar, but you’d effectively be starting over.”
“Level one,” I added. “Though, I’ve found leveling up happens pretty fast here.”
“Ah, I’d guess that’s partly because you’re tied to me,” Varena explained. “And it helps that the kobold and others way outranked you.”
“Fine, assuming all that, here’s my real problem.” This time, Arturo walked over to the dead elf in the room, indicating him with a toe. “What’s that mean for them? Simply that their avatars are gone, or… tell me there’s no or.”
“Maybe the character can’t ever be played. Or…”
“I said no or.”
She shrugged. “Better to accept reality sooner than later, and judging by the fact that I just absorbed their lifeblood to increase my power, I’d have to assume they aren’t coming back. In game, or out.”
“Fuck,” I said, eyes wide and going to the kobold, then the dragon and elf I’d killed. “Let’s hope that’s not the case.”
Varena smiled, leading me past Arturo, where she flicked her hand and he fell out of the way. “Let’s hope not, indeed.”
“And the locator spell?” I asked, resisting.
She sighed. “It can’t be done here, naturally.”
“Then where?”
“Where we can access both green and blue magic at once,” she said, and pointed up. “Above.”
13
Moving through the fortress with Varena wasn’t half as bad as it’d been before. For one, she was able to keep the powers that had been affecting us at bay. We passed the body of the elf who had gone running, but whatever had gotten to him didn’t bother us. It crossed my mind that Varena could’ve been the one to create them in the first place, that all of this had been part of a plot to bring someone like me along to help her.
Maybe. Either way, she claimed to be able to do a tracking spell. Until she proved to be a liar, it was all I had to go on. Originally, I’d had no plan but to come here and somehow find Katie. Based on what we’d seen so far, that was nowhere near being possible without someone like Varena.
If she
sucked my soul along the way, well, at least I’d be dead and not know any better. But that idea got me thinking.
“This is the afterlife, but… what happens if we die in here?”
She glanced over, Brad and Arturo perking up and walking closer to hear the answer. “I honestly don’t know. But I haven’t seen them respawn or anything like that. In theory they might, but far enough away that it’s not obvious. That, or they simply cease to exist.
“Or go to a real afterlife,” Arturo added with a scoff.
Varena kept moving, ignoring that comment.
“And people who die in our world?” Brad asked. “If this is the afterlife, they have to end up in here somewhere?”
“Shit, maybe?” She looked genuinely puzzled. “It could explain why other portals open, new worlds being created all the time. It’s possible they go to these other worlds, or maybe they’re appearing in the old ones, but when we’re killed we get farther and farther out, until it’s almost impossible to ever make it back.”
“Let’s not get killed,” Brad said, indicating movement in the dark tunnel. “I’d personally rather not find out.”
We all slowed, seeing the darkness giving way to reveal the forms of several goblins, each armed. Some held serrated-edged swords, one a steaming potion, and another a sort of axe that looked like it’d been made out of a human jaw bone. They could almost be cute little things, or so I thought until they brandished their sharp teeth and the saliva fell as their eyes went wild.
“Maybe we shouldn’t kill them,” Arturo grunted.
“Are you seeing these things?” I countered.
“I just mean, if they are people—”
“Well…” Varena suddenly had a knife in her hand, grinning. “If they’re evil here, bad guys whatever, you can count on them having been bad people before, demons, something along those lines. Maybe even random creations because of the rift, for all we know.”
