Another Online: Clockwork

by Terra Snover

  “No, probably better if you talk to Drac about this, he cares far more about administrative minutiae than I do.” I waved the little Imp away from me. Truth be told, I had no idea what Renny was asking me, but it felt like a good time to pawn off whatever it was on someone else.

  “As you wish, my Queen.” Renny exited out of the dining room, leaving just Amber, Ral and myself.

  “You are snippy today.” Amber gave me a look; it was easy enough to read, she was trying to tell me to calm down. But how could I? Ral and I had all but killed a person.

  “She can be snippy if she wishes to be, she is the Queen,” Ral interjected on my behalf. In total contrast, Ral had been in a melancholy mood. I guess people deal with the stress of putting someone on death row differently.

  Amber let out a long sigh and shook her head. “I hope getting food into you two will help.” Amber took a long drink from her wine glass. A few minutes later, Milly Smith entered the room. The girl who Amber and I had rescued from the Vampires was gone; in her place was a beautiful and confident chef. Her long, blond hair was tied in a bun on the top of her head, and she was no longer 14 years old but more of an adult looking 19 or 20. Normally people didn’t age in AO, but I had asked Lily if Milly could get an age overhaul seeing as she had been stuck in the body of a 14-year-old for years, and Lily was happy to oblige at the time. Milly smiled and said in a bright, confident voice, “Dinner is served!” A few Undead and Hellspawn servants entered the room with large plates of food. “Tonight we have Parmesan and Herb-Crusted Bison Tenderloin, Grilled Lamb Chops with Roasted Garlic, and Pork Stew with Cockles and Spicy Red Pepper Sauce. And for our omnivore patron we have Potatoes au Gratin, Broccoli with Feta Cheese, and Parmesan and Herb-Crusted Bison Tenderloin.”

  “As always you outdo yourself, Milly.” Amber smiled at Milly as the plate of food was slid in front of her.

  “You are a gem, Milly.” I gave her a smile, for a moment forgetting my problems. Food had a way of doing that, the world could be ending and a fine dinner would make you not care. Ral was already ripping into the tenderloin without a word of thanks, but it was implied by the vigor she was eating her food.

  “Who’s that for?” I gestured at the fourth plate of food that was being set at the table.

  “That is for me,” Alexander purred from the entrance. “I’m sorry I’m late, I lost track of time working on my project.” Alexander moved slowly to the table, his black tail moving perpendicular to whatever foot was in front of him.

  “I didn’t know you were joining us this evening,” I said as he sat down at the table.

  “I have missed the last week of Milly’s fine food and I wasn’t going to miss it again.”

  “He’s lying, I bring him a plate of food to his workshop every night.” Milly gave a smile as she walked over to Alexander and gave him a scratch behind one of his ears.

  “Ah, but Milly, it is never as good as when one enjoys it with friends,” Alexander purred.

  “Well, I must say, I prefer our dinners alone.” Milly’s voice was low and sultry. Wait, were they flirting?! Milly giggled as Alexander took Milly’s free hand and licked the back of it. She giggled and gave one final pet of Alexander's head and exited the dining hall. I peeked over to Amber who was staring daggers at Alexander. Everyone knew Amber thought of Milly as a daughter and it seemed that her protective instincts were kicking in. “So, Alexander, I didn’t know you two were having dinner together, alone.” It sounded like Amber was trying to hide the rage in her voice but was completely failing.

  “Oh, it’s no big deal, we have been doing it for months.” Alexander slid some pork stew into his mouth.

  “Is that so?” Amber’s right eye started to twitch. So, knowing you played a part in sentencing a player to death was nothing, but your adopted daughter may be dating someone you knew is some huge deal. I shook my head, the absurdity of this entire conversation was ludicrous. “So, Alexander, how is your project?” I changed the subject.

  “Oh, things are moving along nicely. We should be finished installing it before the month’s end.” He took another bite of the stew.

  “I still don’t understand what it does,” Ral said, taking a moment away from her meat.

  “It’s very complicated.”

  “Dumb it down, then,” Amber said through clenched teeth.

  “Fine, it’s a system of magically enhanced mechanics to turn the castle itself into a weapon.” He took a sip of tea that smelled of catnip. “If it works correctly it could change the balance of power of this war in our favor.”

  “Like a lightning cannon or something?” Ral scratched at the side of her head.

  “Something like that.” I knew it was nothing like that by the tone he was using, but the idea of a weapon was right.

  “Well, any weapon we can use the better,” I added.

  “And we couldn't have done it without you, my Queen. Your enhancements were the best I could have asked for.” He held up his cup of tea in a toast, “To our mighty queen!”

  “To the Queen.” Ral and Amber held out their glasses also.

  “To me.” I smiled and took a sip of my blood.

  We continued to eat our dinners without much more talk. I, for one, wanted nothing more to just enjoy the flavors of the meal and ignore the rest of the world. I was able to do that until the world demanded my attention; there was a loud boom that made the windows rattle. I stood up and flew over to the window. There was a huge something in the sky floating above the castle. “Ral, get your sister Tilln, and get the army ready! Amber, you are with me!” I barked orders and moved to the door.

  “I’ll wait here and hide,” Alexander said as he slowly slid under the table.

  “Come on, let’s move!” I shouted to Amber and Ral again, both scrambling to me. We ran down the hallways of the castle, Ral splitting away from us at some point. Once outside, I looked to the sky and got a better look at whatever the thing was. It was an enormous dirigible surrounded by hundreds, maybe even thousands, of smaller dirigibles. Each emitting steam and flowing to the castle and city below them. “What in the Void?!” Amber shouted.

  “Let’s find out!” I stuck my clawed fingers into my mouth and let out an ear-piercing whistle. Moments later, there was a loud roar as my dragon Tundra came clawing out of her den. Tundra flew over to Amber and me; she only stopped for a moment so we could get on. With a mighty flap of her wings, we went bolting high into the sky to meet the large dirigible head-on.

  “Invaders, I am Var Zargronith, the Red Queen, and you have trespassed on my domain! This will be the last mistake you will ever make!” My voice magically carried across the entire city so all the Ns and players could hear me. “Titan Bolt!” I cast my spell at the dirigible; an enormous lightning bolt emitted out of my hand and hit the dirigible, lighting one of the balloons on fire. There was a series of blasts that came from all the dirigibles as thousands of cannonballs came jetting towards us. It was impossible to avoid all of them. Amber and I took some damage, but Tundra took a lot more. “You two take as many of those things down as you can!” I looked over to Amber, “No one does this to us!”

  “You got it, Var!” Amber shouted at me as I jumped off the dragon and moved as fast as I could to the large, burning dirigible. There was another smaller volley of cannonballs, but this time I was on my own and I was very agile. I darted between two of the balls moments before they smashed into each other. I then grabbed onto another ball and used its momentum and tossed it to one of the smaller dirigibles. I moved onto the deck of the massive dirigible and opened two large portals to either side of me. As soon as they opened, masses of players and my army came pouring out of them, weapons ready to attack. I looked at our enemy; they were dressed in red coats, not just red coats, they were dressed like classic Royal Palace Guards from London before the English government collapsed in on itself. What were they called? Beefeaters? Yeah, Beefeaters. But where the Beefeaters from the real world were humans, these ones had doll-like
faces of steel with glassy eyes glowing red. They moved like Oracle, their every step was mechanical and just a bit off. So when Oracle told me to expect her a few days before the expansion, this was not what I expected! I flapped my wings and darted to one of the Beefeaters, claws ready to strike. I slammed into the man and it sounded like a car crash. It tried to get out from under me but I was far too strong for it. I ripped off its head and tossed it at another. I turned away from the Beefeater I had attacked to get a better look at the deck, a loud clang sound told me I had hit it with my toss. There was chaos around me as my army and the players attacked the Beefeaters. There were blasts from the steam-powered muskets, the bangs from magic being cast, and the clanging of swords meeting the steel bodies of the Beefeaters. And then there was an explosion as Amber and Tundra destroyed one of the dirigibles. It sank and crashed to the city below. I grinned. I didn’t want to think about the damage that thing just did. “My Queen, what’s your command?” I looked over to see that Tilln, my general, had joined my side, her dragonscale armor glistened in the fire of the balloon, her silver hair blowing in the wind.

  “I need anything that can fly to try and lead as many of these things away from the city as possible, then once they aren't over us anymore take them down!” I pointed at the crashed dirigible. “If we strike these all down there won't be any city left! Any creature that can’t fly needs to be able to get to the decks of the remainder of these things, so I want you and your best to take control of one of these and then use that one as a way to board the rest! By the time this is over, we’ll have a flying armada of sky-ships and destroy the fools that attacked us!” I barked orders, I wasn’t going to let this happen without a fight.

  “Yes, my Queen!” Tilln yelled over the noise of the battlefield. “You there, come with me!” she shouted at a cluster of players and Ns. “You are my first boarding party!”

  “Awesome sky combat! I knew joining this faction was the right call!” A Hellspawn man hissed to a Wild One.

  “I know, this is amazing!” the Lamorea from the Wild Ones responded as they chased after Tilln.

  “Now, onto whoever is pulling the strings,” I muttered to myself. I walked calmly through the combat, casting spells at whatever foolish Beefeater decided to get close to me. I made it to a large metal door that looked like it led to the bridge. I noticed a gaggle of high-level players trailing behind me, “You lot, kill whatever lies beyond, but I want whoever’s in charge alive!”

  “Yeah, let’s do this!” one Human shouted.

  “For the Empire!” an Undead growled.

  “Wild Ones, time to shine,” said a massive Lamorea guy with a headband.

  I pointed my finger at the door and shouted, “Dark Lance!” Black spikes went from my hand and blasted the door off its hinges. The players rushed in and started to attack the Machina crew. I spotted Oracle, who slowly turned away from the window of the bridge and cocked her head at me. “Ah, the Red Queen. It is a pleasure to meet you.” I frowned at her. When we were in GM mode the other day she had to know she was going to attack me, so why no heads up?! “I’m sorry, but I will be taking over your empire.” Oracle took a step towards me and pulled out a fencing saber.

  “Like hell you are!” I spat as embers came from my mouth. I was pissed and this was going to be a good way to get my rage out. “Shadow Swarm!” My shadow split into pulsating tentacles, each ready to strike. “Firestorm!” I shot a volley of fireballs at Oracle and rushed towards her close behind the fire. She managed to sidestep the first fireballs but the rest hit her in a series of small explosions. Her dress and hair caught fire, which was odd; normally that didn’t happen to Ns.

  I didn't have much time to ponder why she was on fire because I ripped my claw across her face, ripping off the mask, revealing a flat robotic face, no nose, no mouth but a single glowing red eye. I then went in for another attack this time at her neck, but she whacked my hand away with the side of her saber. “Not so fast!” she shouted and thrust her saber at me with a grace I hadn’t seen from her yet. With every thrust of her saber, one of my shadow swarms blocked her blows, giving me the opportunity to cast another spell, “Surge Claw!” Sparks started emitting from the tips of my claws and then energy began to arc all around them. I moved in for another strike; Oracle was too busy defending against my shadows and I sunk both claws into her chest. She let out a loud, mechanical screech as the torrent of energy coursed through her metal body. Out of nowhere came a jab from a third arm.

  I was struck in the face and was knocked off her, and that's when her true form was revealed. Instead of two legs under her puffy skirt that was nothing more than ash, was six clawed legs, wait no, under her head she was nothing but eight long tentacles that she had formed and hidden under her victorian dress. Now that she was free from her ruse, she quickly moved to me. Four of the appendages fighting the attacks from my shadow and two acting as her legs, leaving two of her limbs ready to strike me. She moved the saber towards me.

  I tried to block it but her other free limb wrapped around my wrist and she stabbed me right in my left breast and penetrated my heart! I let out a gasp as my health bar dropped dramatically.

  Was this it? After everything that happened to me, was this how I was going to die? Normally death wouldn't stick, but when one N0 killed another, that was story and that would be that, you were just gone. I coughed up blood and grasped the saber with my free hand, trying to pull the damn thing out. Another one of her claws grasped my hand, another wrapped around my legs. She had me totally immobilized; wait, not totally immobilized.

  I flapped my wings as hard as I could and went flying erratically. Oracle clung to the ground with two of her claws. I could feel her grip struggling to hold on to me. But that saber was still in my heart, draining my health. I kept flapping with all my might when something I wasn’t expecting happened. A Human woman with a set of nunchucks came darting to Oracle, hitting her square in the face. Oracle’s grip loosened and I was able to get one of my arms free and pull the saber from my breast. I then pointed my hand at Oracle and shouted, “Black Hole!” The mass of nothingness hit Oracle and consumed her. Her limbs contorted and shook as the spell did massive damage. I was then able to break free from her as my wings propelled me in a random direction. I hit the steering wheel and ripped the thing out of the ground. The dirigible jerked and began to list sideways, making the floor a 35-degree angle. I continued to tumble through the air until I hit the wall of the bridge. I coughed up more blood and glanced to my health bar; I only had a sliver of health left. One or two good hits would kill me!

  I got to my feet, ready to defend myself but saw the Human woman fighting Oracle along with five other players. “FOR THE RED EMPIRE!” they were shouting. I didn’t think I would ever be this happy to see players in AO, but here I was counting my blessings that they were here at this moment. As I raised my hand to cast another spell, there was an awful crashing sound and the entire world jerked, sending everyone in the bridge flying into the air.

  As the ground became the ceiling I soon realized we were crashing. The windows of the bridge shattered, sending glass fragments everywhere. A large shard of glass embedded itself into my arm. I shouted and watched my health drop even lower. I dug my claws into the wall. Who knew what was up at this point? But whatever I had my claws in was keeping me from crashing about. There was a grinding sound as the dirigible came to a slow, violent stop.

  After a moment, I looked up at the now unmoving world and saw an extremely damaged Oracle rushing at me, claws ready to strike! I moved out of the way, well mostly, Oracle managed to grab onto my long hair. She pulled me to her and started laughing, “This empire is mine!” And I watched as her other claws moved to rip into my body. I closed my eyes.

  “Well shit,” I muttered. I was ready to die, there wasn’t much I could do about it. But after a moment I realized I wasn’t dead! I opened my eyes to see a heavy armored Vampire player defending me with a shield, ‘P-11,223,689, Helter Droth’. There
was a little Lamorea with the name ‘P-2,998,184, Fuff Garden’, clinging to his back, this one a mage, casting a protection spell on him. Wow, these two were tough to be withstanding attacks from a N0 like that. Then another player, a muscley Imp woman, grabbed one of Oracle’s limbs and tossed her out the window of the bridge. Oracle slid and scrambled to her feet... or tentacles? Well, whatever the technical term, she was standing. Her one red eye darted around the room and her body was that of a predator trying to decide what to do. “Red Queen, you win this round,” she grumbled and skittered off with extreme speed. I was unable to track her as she moved into the steam and smoke.

  “Well, how about that?” I mused as I got back to my feet.

  “Woooooo! That was one hell of a raid boss!” the buff Imp woman shouted.

  “We did it, we saved the Empire!” the woman with the nunchucks added.

  “You okay, Queen?” the mage on the back of the Vampire asked me.

  “I’ve been better. But I am alive.” I sighed. “My minions, I must thank you, your battle prowess and quick-thinking did much for the Empire today.” I then summoned a high level loot box for them, and made sure it had a guaranteed Epic drop that would work with each of their class. I stopped and thought, these players literally saved my life. They should get more than just that, so I added a million gold to each of their inventories. “Your rewards.” I smiled as blood dripped from my mouth. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” I pushed past them as they shouted in victory.

  I moved from the crashed dirigeable to find myself at the edge of town, part of the walls and a few buildings crushed under its weight but luckily it avoided most of the populated areas and did minimal damage. I let out a sigh. When Adam said Oracle was going to be joining the Red Empire this was not what I was expecting. I looked up to the sky and saw the battle was ending, the remaining dirigibles either bore the flag of the Red Empire or were crashing to the ground; most outside of the city, where a smaller number had crashed directly into it. Fires raged through the buildings that lay in front of me. “Ugh, what a day,” I mumbled as I started slowly walking back into my city.