by Terra Snover
I shook my head, taking stock on what was happening around me. I came to a realization and I swore. “Aw, damn it, I should have nabbed more healing items and put them in my inventory… That would have been helpful, you idiot.” I coughed and stood. I looked to my right and saw a bunch of high level swords scattered on the ground. “Looks like I landed in the weapon shop,” I told myself as I popped my neck. Three First Ones rushed into the shop. “No rest for the wicked.” I looked around the shop for something I could use. Hoping I could find a weapon I had any levels in. Off the top of my head, I knew I had bludgeon, trident, and whip, because for some reason every Hellspawn had some levels with those weapons. Not a lot of skill in them, but I’ll take whatever advantage I can get.
I darted to one side of the room and grabbed a trident. It was always odd using a weapon you never used before but had skill in. It was like you knew how to use it in a past life or something and that skill moved onto this one. I threw the trident at one of the First Ones’ head with a precision I didn’t know was possible. The trident flew through the air and embedded itself into the thing's forehead. It stood there for a moment, twitching, before collapsing to the floor. The two remaining First Ones looked to it then me. “BRING IT ON!” I shouted picking up two massive bludgeons that were almost as tall as I was. I ran at them and smashed one right in the chest, knocking it out of the windows, back in the millstream of players and First Ones. I then swung the other down to the other but it managed to block my blow with its retractable arm blade. Funny thing, I hit the blade with such force I bent the blade so much it went right into the hand of the First One. I then upper cut the other into the floor above me and maybe through the roof. I didn't really look, as instead I grabbed a wicked looking whip and strapped it to my hip.
I pulled the trident from the First Ones’ forehead and strung it on my back. Then rushed out into the street and began swinging my bludgeon at the enemy. I used the seeing stone to feel where Ral was and smashed my way to her. She was surrounded by a bunch of Wild Ones taking on a cluster of melee armed First Ones. I took a step next to her and joined in on her battle. She took half a second to give me the once over and simply said, “Those are new.”
“Yep, ain't I a stinker ?” I did a voice from a cartoon I was a fan of in the real, but it seemed Ral wasn’t a fan because she just looked confused. But there wasn’t much time for confusion or old cartoon references as we were currently losing the fight. Even with the number of players on our side, this battle wasn’t going our way, the First Ones were just too strong. “Any minute, Gelm,” I said to no one in particular. But either by coincidence or he actually heard me, an undead hand shot out of the ground, then another and another. I knew across the city the Undead that we had buried had gotten the cue to make their entrance.
The Undead weren't the strongest, but there were a lot of em’. A swarm of bugs could take down even the mightiest of animals if there were enough of them. A hand wrapped around a nearby First Ones’ ankle. As it looked down to see what had it, I took the opportunity to slam its skull. It collapsed to the ground, Ral also took the opportunity to take one down before she wrapped her arms around my hip and said. “Maybe it would be best if we left?” Then she looked up to the sky with her eyes.
“But the laser!”
“I think we can risk it, we need to get to the next meet up point!”
“Uh…” I bit my lip. “Fine! But if we get shot out of the sky, it’s your fault!”
“Noted!” She braced for takeoff.
I darted into the sky. I looked down and it was more insane than I expected. The entirety of the forces of the reaming Red Empire were flooding the streets fighting the mechanical First Ones. The edge of the city where the crab had burst through was nothing but smouldering wreckage of airships and chunks of buildings. There were lines of devastation from where the crab shot that laser where the buildings were just gone. But the castle, the saving grace of every N on Another Online stood. We just had to keep it that way until the end of the day. Today was going to be rough…
Chapter 22
The Shadow City
Ral and I entered the bakery where we had set up shop. Tilln, Tyn and Hell’a were looking over a battle map of the city, updating it as Fae flew in and out giving reports on where forces were. Drac and Gelm were standing in a massive magical circle we had etched into the ground and filled with silver. There was a rope tied to chairs, letting people know that they should not step into the circle seeing as it would break the spell. Seeing as that spell was our only hope of winning this battle, we wanted to make sure nothing got into the way. Oracle was in the corner of the room, shoved into a puffy dress with a mask of a fox covering her face. Knowing what was under that dress made the image of her even more unsettling.
“Var, my love!” Hell’a moved away from the battle map and embraced me. “You survived another onslaught.” It was odd, she looked more annoyed than happy.
“Yep.” I felt uneasy in her cold arms. “How is everything going?”
“Other than losing all my airships?” Tyn mumbled to herself, but loud enough so we could all hear her displeasure.
“Better than expected,” Tilln informed me. “The onslaught of air attacks did heavy damage to the crab beast, and its progress is much slower than expected.”
“But the ground troops aren't doing well against theirs.” Hell’a paused for a moment and took a step back, examining my new weapons. She smiled, not saying a word about them and simply turned back to the map and pointed. “The east side has been completely overwhelmed and burned to the ground, if it wasn’t for the river that flows through that part of the city there where we can slow them down at the bridges I fear they would already be at the castle.”
“Crap, how much longer do you think we can hold them off?” I walked to see the wooden blocks that represented all the forces on the battlefield.
“Amber and your dragon-”
“Tundra,” I cut Hell’a off.
Hell’a tightened her lips a bit. “Your dragon, Tundra, and the mechanical forces Amber controls have gone to the river to support the troops, but I don’t know how much longer that will help. What we really need are the rest of our flying force to support them.”
“I would also enjoy having our flyers here but we need them where they are to make this work.” Tyn crossed her arms.
“That won't matter if they overtake us. We need them here now!” Hell’a looked at me like I needed to back her up.
“We got to trust in the plan. How far out are Thaz and Lily with phase two?” I looked to the smaller map of the continent to the side of this one and frowned.
“Sometime around ten,” Tilln said, also frowning.
I looked at the grandfather clock, 8:23. “So we need to hold out for less than two hours”
“If the most idiotic part of this plan even works.’ Hell’a gave me some side eye.
“We’re not having this conversation again, it’s already in motion and there is no coming back from it.” I glanced at Gelm and Drac. They looked extremely uncomfortable. “How are those two doing?”
“As well as one can expect casting a spell of that magnitude.” Tilln looked up from the map. She looked worried, but it didn’t seem that it was because of the insane plan, her worry was hyper focused on Drac. I gave a nod. “Well, I’ll head over to the river and give Amber some support.”
“You know that can’t happen,” Hell’a reminded me. “If you don’t defend the castle, this is all for nothing.”
“I… but Amber-”
“Amber has proven to be a capable warrior and can handle herself,” Tyn added.
“Ugh, I hate it when you all make sense.” I glowered at them. “But we still need to figure out how to support her.”
“I’ll go,” Oracle said from the corner, her new fox mask pointed right at me.
“Not a chance, if you die this entire thing goes to hell,” Tilln shot her down immediately.
“And if we lose
the river, everything also goes to hell.” Oracle moved a step or two from her corner. “I don’t need to be here to take over the First Ones, just close enough to take over once this all ends.”
“Not happening. I need to keep an eye on-” Tilln started but I interjected.
“Go, I expect you to hold up your end of the bargain.” I pointed to the door.
“I keep my word.” Oracle then picked up a nearby parasol and walked to the door. “I hope you’ll keep yours,” and she disappeared into the morning fog.
“Are you sure that was wise?” Hell’a slowly turned to me.
“No, but it was our only choice.” I frowned and put up my hand to open a portal to the castle. “Keep them safe, Hell’a.” I looked at every person in the bakery in turn.
“I will. Don’t worry, my love.” And she leaned close to me and gave me a kiss, the sweet aroma of blood wafting into my nose from her. I felt the predator in me trying to claw its way into the forefront of my mind, telling me to take her right here. But I took a step back and drew in a long breath to force the beast back to the recesses of my mind. I withdrew from her and gave her the smallest of smiles. Then turned and entered my portal.
I walked into the throne room and found Alexander sitting on the steps of the elevated throne platform with Milly on his lap. Lucky for me, they were just snogging instead of doing more. “Even in a warzone, you two find the time to do this.” I rolled my eyes at them. Milly calmly pulled back from Alexander and looked over to me, blushing. “We’re a chef and architect. What in the Void should we be doing?”
“Good point.” I considered, shrugging my shoulders. “But now it’s time to get to work. Sorry, Milly, I need to borrow your boyfriend.”
“I will return to you once this is over, my Marshmallow.” He licked her on the neck and I could hear his sandpaper-like tongue scrape across her skin. Foreplay must be interesting for them. I shook my head, I didn’t need those thoughts anywhere close to my brain. Milly stood and took a step away from Alexander, giving him room to stand himself. “It’s time?” he enquired.
“It is time.” We locked eyes for a moment. “Is it ready?”
“If it wasn’t, would I be kissing someone instead of finishing it?”
“Good point.” I turned and started walking to Alexander’s workshop. Well, more like speed walking, I really didn’t want to move too slow seeing as, you know, there was a war raging outside. When I got inside the workshop, I was taken aback. It looked like Alexander had turned it into a mess of wires and metal. “What in the world happened here?”
“Let’s see you make something that works and looks nice when you only have a night to do it.” He glared at me. “Can we just do this?”
“Yeah, sure.” I didn’t know about this anymore. It looked like this thing could disintegrate me if one little thing was off. He started sticking wires all over my body and then put a freaking pot with two holes for my horns over my head with a mass of wires. “Is this safe?” I enquired as he walked over to a large pulley.
“Nope.” And he pulled the damn thing. Energy pulsed through my body and I let out a scream of pure agony. It wasn’t the worst pain I had ever felt, but it was damn close. “One minute twenty seconds to go!” Alexander had to shout so I could hear him over the sounds of the energy and my cries. I tried to count down in my head, but my mind wasn’t able to process anything but the pain. So instead, I just watched as light danced in my vision and my muscles convulsed and spasmed. “Five, four, three!” Alexander called. I grabbed my Seeing Stone and reached out to the entire city, every building, Red Empire warrior, player and N. “Two, one, NOW!”
“Shadow Swarm!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. I didn’t need to but with as much pain as I was feeling it felt good to shout. The energy shot out of me. Black and purple arcs swarmed out, plowing into the walls, floor and machinery. Everything in the room exploded in a torrent of sparks and smoke. I heard Alexander let out a yelp of surprise and the skittering of paws on the cold hard stone of the floor. The last of the energy flowed out of me and I fell to the ground, panting. “By the Void, that sucked…”
“Did it work?” Alexander tried to act cool but it was hard to take him seriously with his fur standing straight up like I just pulled him out of a dryer. I then pulled the pan off my head and felt my hair rise up from under it. I sighed; I bet I looked as ridiculous as Alexander did right now. “I think so… Only one way to find out.” I walked out of the lab and down the hallway to the temple with a dragon-sized hole in it; Alexander close behind me. I looked to the burning and battered city below and watched, hoping that this would work. I felt it from the stone before I felt it coming from the ground. An earthquake hit the city.
The ground shook so hard, entire buildings were uprooted and collapsed into themselves. The streets cracked and opened like an invisible titan was digging into the ground below. As the ground shook, massive pillars surged forth along with dark ether from the now fractured ground. The Wild Ones Guild Hall burst in half as a large pillar came from below it. The town square exploded in a geyser, sending debris everywhere. A large mass of the dark ether cascaded down the cliffs that led to the castle and slam into the ground below. The countless numbers of wells of dark energy poured massive amounts of darkness out into my city. It began to pull into itself, turning the entire city into a mass of pulsating dark tentacles. I had turned my home into a living weapon.
“Well, that actually worked,” I said in amazement, casting a glance over to Alexander, who looked just as shocked as I was.
“Hell… that is a disconcerting sight,” he managed to say, eyes wide.
One of the tentacles slammed down on the crab, pinning it to the ground as another pulled at it, trying to rip the crab in two. Alongside the massive tentacles, there were thousands of smaller ones pulling and ripping at the First Ones on the ground; not to mention the tentacles that were attached on every person fighting for the Red Empire. I Spread my wings, ready to take off and join back in on the fight. “Var, no, you can’t.” Alexander grabbed my wrist. I saw him jerk a bit back like he had been punched in the gut. “I mean, my Queen, you must stay here.” I almost forgot that the System still had power over all my fellow Ns, watching their every move and dictating their words and will. I frowned, I wanted to help my people in battle, but I knew Alexander and the others were right. If this whole thing were to work, I had to be here in the castle when the last step went down.
I grit my teeth and let out a long, slow breath. “Fine.” I clenched my claw around the Seeing Stone and felt the war going on down below me. I heard the cries of pain as the Ns of my army fell to the First Ones. The crashing as more and more buildings collapsed and tumbled to the ground. The heat from the blast of the laser as the crab ripped into the ground, and countless players and Ns that were unlucky enough to be consumed in its blast. I watched as Oracle, Amber, Tundra, and Amber’s army of Machina clashed with the swarm of First Ones. Drac and Gelm fighting to maintain their spell with everything happening around them. I felt every horror in Void City, and I kept telling myself that this had to happen, that this was the only way, but there was a feeling of guilt and pain in my gut. Like someone was reaching inside of me and squeezing my insides.
“You have some time to be with Milly.” I looked back to Alexander. “Use it.”
“My Queen?” His eyes were searching mine.
“Nothing more you can do here at the moment. And you never know when everything can come crashing down. Use what little time you have for love.”
“Yes, my Queen.” He gave me the deep bow that I grew to expect from him.
“What are you still doing here? Go.” I pointed back to the door. He smiled and walked back inside. I turned back to face the chaos in what was left of my city. I walked to the hole in the castle and jumped to the ground below, still damaged and mangled from the Elder Dragon attack. I gripped the stone, forcing myself to feel every bit of this. This was my burden, I caused this, feeling the pain for my
actions was the least I could do.
I got to the overlook where Drac and I had had our lunches together, picked a table and chair off the ground and set them upright and took a seat. I watched as everything I had worked on crumbled before me. Today was the final nail in the coffin for Void City. There was no coming back from this, it was all but gone. Maybe one in ten structures were left standing after everything. But that didn’t matter. This wasn’t a fight for my city, or the Red Empire, this was a fight for all of AO. If you wanted to make an omelet you needed to crack some eggs.
“Tea?” Renny was approaching with his silver platter and fine tea set.
“Leave it to you to make tea in a warzone.” I gave the Imp a smile.
“Just because the world is ending doesn’t mean one can’t enjoy a good spot of tea.”
“Well, I can’t argue with that.” I watched as Renny carefully made the tea. He was a pro at this, making the best cup one could imagine. I took a deep breath of the earthy aroma and gave a small smile. I took the cup from Renny as he handed it to me, “Thank you Renny.” I took a sip, not worrying about the heat of the tea, I think I could drink lava and be okay with the heat from this body. It was a wonderful taste. It had been a long time since I drank anything but blood. So this was a welcome change. Made me feel a bit more human. “Wonderful, as always.” I gave him a coy look. “So good, in fact, I’ll forgive you for ignoring the evacuation order.”
“I thank you for your forgiveness, my Queen.” He smiled, his sharp teeth glinting in the morning light. “But the world could be ending and I would stand by your side.”
“I bet you would.”
“Oh, I didn’t miss tea time.” Now it was Xor approaching.
