“We’re going to miss you.” The emperor’s wife, Valanil Revolt, hugged her sister. Unlike the rest, she was sure Valia was going to get through the barrier. She and Tailyn were one and the same.
“Time to go—every second counts.” The System didn’t like that Tailyn was taking his time.
And the boy had to agree, already tired as he was of the drawn-out goodbyes. The long looks, the tears, the sobs, the pats on the back, and all the people telling him how brave he was had gotten to him. That wasn’t for him. Squeezing his betrothed’s hand tighter, he took a step forward and disappeared into the water. His body immediately flipped over, the hand holding Fang pulling him downward while the other was still latched onto Valia. In fact, it was almost like the girl’s Vargot understood what was going on. It fought to the last, trying to keep its owner out of the water.
But it couldn’t do anything about Fang.
For a while, Tailyn couldn’t tell if he was falling or diving. His armor’s built-in sensors told him that he and Valia were covering a few dozen meters a second, and that was much too fast for diving. But just as the System had promised, the water pressure had been turned off, making the fall tolerable if not entirely comfortable. Deciding that they were, in fact, diving, the boy stared below him until he spotted a black point.
“The barrier is coming up! Okay, let go—I’m going the rest of the way by myself.”
“I knew you were going to say something like that. Forget about it! Either we do this together, or we don’t do it at all.”
“I don’t want you to die! You have to live!”
“With unification? Don’t make me laugh—I wouldn’t last a week. No, Tailyn, it’s the two of us this time. Together.”
“For life,” the boy said and closed his eyes. A warm feeling spread through his chest. If anything in that whole rotten world was always the same, it was his betrothed at his side. When they hit the dark film, he didn’t even feel it, Fang beginning to flash a few seconds before impact. And while their speed dropped to almost zero, they felt no discomfort. The System had done what it could. Gathering pressure, it had sent Tailyn and Valia flying downward on their date with destiny. And the moment was there. Fang touched the barrier.
It was after the impact that Tailyn almost blacked out from the pain. He felt like he was being torn to pieces and stitched back together as his regeneration was out to lunch, no longer there to dull the sensations. Shaking his head, he almost screamed. An unbelievably cold wind was lashing at his body, four years spent in Vargot having left him unaccustomed to that feeling. And while it was terrifying, he couldn’t actually get out a single sound. He would have had to take in air in order to do so, and there was none for him. Vargot and Raptor were gone, too. Even his underwear had disappeared. All he could feel was Valia’s hand, Fang, and the cold metal of the box of dragon’s blood. That was all he’d been able to take out of the game.
I can’t breathe! he heard Valia think. Our clothes...they’re gone! It’s so cold...
We have to make it two kilometers. Tailyn looked up at the blue point of the barrier as it quickly receded and died away. They were left in absolute darkness. We can do it! It’s just this cold...
Pull out the blood! If we lose consciousness, it’ll be stuck in the box... Can’t let that happen...
The boy’s chest burned from the lack of oxygen. The icy wind cut right through him, freezing his brain as well as his blood. Pulling himself together with an effort he realized Valia was right, flung Fang off to the side, and saw it vanish into the darkness. The dagger had fulfilled its role. The boy latched his fingers onto the box lid and pulled it toward himself to reveal a blue sun between the pair. The dragon’s blood had appeared in the world, and the fog of noa instantly appeared in an attempt to dissolve the unique material. The stone began slipping out of Tailyn’s weakening fingers. His consciousness was slipping.
Give me your hand! We’ll do it together! Valia was managing to maintain her concentration, and she took the lead for her frozen boy. The latter obeyed reluctantly. Unable to get away, the blue sun found itself pinned between the two young bodies, from where it began sucking in the surrounding cold and making the pair shiver even worse. A little while later, Tailyn found the strength to open his eyes and look over at his beloved. For the last time. He managed to smile before a layer of ice fixed him in that position. But Valia didn’t see his smile, the life having already left her body.
The explosion of dragon’s blood happened six kilometers down. Turning to dust, the particles of the ancient creature flew off into the far corners of the hollow formation ringing the whole planet, almost immediately bringing a thick layer of blue light to the entire space. The universe had begun to generate noa as it fought for its existence. Almost ten thousand units of blood. That was enough to buy the planet a long and stubborn struggle, millions of years set to go by before the noa could absorb enough of the artifact to turn that copy of Earth into a lifeless desert. Just another rock meandering through the expanses of the universe.
But during those millions of years, there would be life on the planet. Tailyn and Valia had pulled it off.
* * *
Tailyn came to suddenly, with no easing into consciousness. He was in a snow-white room. Next to him, Valia was lying, though her eyes were closed. Before he could reach out to her, however, he was stopped by a message:
Your impact on the planet’s renaissance was evaluated.
You were named a hero. In keeping with the rules, you became part of the game, and you do not have to participate in releases thanks to your accomplishment. You are free and permitted to leave the game at any moment.
712000 credits were transferred to your account.
“We did it!” Valia opened her eyes, looked over at Tailyn, and fell suddenly silent. There wasn’t a trace of joy on the boy’s face.
“No, we didn’t. All we saved was our world. But do you remember what the Absorber said? There are lots of planets like it out there, and players are going around sucking them dry, destroying them, enslaving the people living there... As long as the game is going on, Absorbers and Valruses will continue annihilating them to line their own pockets. We didn’t do anything.”
“In that case, we need to find whoever created the whole thing,” Valia replied.
“And make them answer for it.” Tailyn took a look at his hand, to which Fang, his death-dealing bone blade, was attached. “They’re going to regret ever letting us live. We’re going to stop this game once and for all.”
End of Arc Two
New!
Online: The First Player (Book # 1) LitRPG Series
by Alexey Braun
Champions of Games: On-Line LitRPG
by Alexey Braun
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Kaitlyn Weiss works in the genres of romantic fantasy, urban fantasy and fantasy adventure. You can download her first book FOR FREE on Amazon:
Captive of the Shadows (The Fairy Code Book #1).
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New!
Online: The First Player (Book # 1) LitRPG Series
by Alexey Braun
Champions of Games: On-Line LitRPG
by Alexey Braun
Cooldown (Unfrozen Book #1) LitRPG Series
by Anton Tekshin
Nullform (Book #1) RealRPG Series
by Dem Mikhailov
The Crow Cycle Book #1 LitRPG Series
by Dem Mikhailov
Volper (Alpha Rome Book 1) LitRPG Series
by Ros Per
Second Sh
ot (Fantasia Book #1) LitRPG Series
by Simon Vale
In the System LitRPG Series
by Petr Zhgulyov
The Range LitRPG Series
by Yuri Ulengov
World of the Changed LitRPG Series
by Vasily Mahanenko
Small Unit Tactics LitRPG Series
by Alexander Romanov
Invasion LitRPG series
by Vasily Mahanenko
Neue Versionen (in Deutscher Sprache)!
Survival Quest: LitRPG-Serie
von Vasily Mahanenko
Sehr geehrte Leserinnen und Leser, die ersten beiden Bücher der Reihe wurden von Lubbe herausgegeben und sind im Handel und bei Amazon erhältlich.
Leider hat der Verlag beschlossen, die Serie nicht weiter zu übersetzen, und wir haben uns entschlossen, dies selbst zu tun.
ALL BOOKS BY VASILY MAHANENKO:
The Way of the Shaman LitRPG Series:
Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1)
The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2)
The Secret of the Dark Forest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3)
The Phantom Castle (The Way of the Shaman: Book #4)
The Karmadont Chess Set (The Way of the Shaman: Book #5)
Shaman's Revenge (The Way of the Shaman Book #6)
Clans War (The Way of the Shaman: Book #7)
The Hour of Pain (The Way of the Shaman Bonus Story)
The Way of the Shaman Comic Book:
The Way of the Shaman. Step 1: The Beginning: Volume One
The Way of the Shaman. Step 2: The First Day: Volume Two
Dark Paladin LitRPG Series:
The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1)
The Quest (Dark Paladin Book #2)
Restart (Dark Paladin Book #3)
Galactogon LitRPG Series:
Start The Game (Galactogon: Book #1)
In Search of the Uldans (Galactogon Book #2)
A Check for a Billion (Galactogon Book #3) LitRPG series
Invasion LitRPG Series:
A Second Chance (Invasion Book #1)
An Equation with One Unknown (Invasion Book #2)
World of the Changed LitRPG Series:
No Mistakes (World of the Changed Book #1)
Pearl of the South (World of the Changed Book #2)
Noa in the Flesh (World of the Changed Book #3)
The Alchemist LitRPG Series:
City of the Dead (The Alchemist Book #1)
Forest of Desire (The Alchemist Book #2)
Tears of Alron (The Alchemist Book #3)
Isr Kale's Journal (The Alchemist Book #4)
Tartila Mine (The Alchemist Book #5)
Short Stories:
You're in Game!
(LitRPG Stories from Bestselling Authors)
You’re In Game-2
(More LitRPG stories set in your favorite worlds!)
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About the Author
Vasily Mahanenko is a fantasy author working in the new genre of LitRPG - the MMO-based fantasy and sci fi. His Way of the Shaman series took Russian literature by storm in 2012.
Vasily dipped into his college-days insider knowledge as a hardcore gamer in order to create a believable world of the virtual-reality MMO game. His bestselling series combines fiction and video games, telling the story of Shaman and his friends stuck in the ruthless reality of Barliona. He used his more than ten years' experience as an ERP implementation project manager to approach his writing in a well-organized manner, working to a strict schedule, a set of deadlines and even a budget. At the moment, the series boasts six novels with the seventh one in the works - this time the author expands on stories of Shaman's companions and those who helped and supported him in his trials and tribulations.
The English translation of The Way of the Shaman series is now available to the English-language reader in its entirety. So is his other LitRPG series, The Dark Paladin. Vasily’s latest project to date is also set in the world of Barliona: The Renegades (The Bard from Barliona Book #1) LitRPG Series, co-written with another Russian author, Eugenia Dmitrieva.
Vasily's other passion is space exploration which is why he works on a sci fi LitRPG series entitled Galactogon. Set in a space-simulator based world, the series is already available in English on Amazon.
He’s also released a graphic novel series based on his bestselling series: The Way of the Shaman Comic Book. The English translation of the first two installments are available here and here. Alternatively, check the book on the author's site: http://mahanenko.ru/en/Comics-1.
Tartila Mine (The Alchemist Book #5): LitRPG Series Page 30
