by Terra Snover
“Does anyone listen to me anymore?” I grimaced. “Well, you two may as well pull up a seat and join in, we have a bit of time until the last bit of this insanity.”
“Happy to join you.” Xor picked up a chair.
“That would be very improper.” Renny looked a bit taken aback.
“Renny, sit down,” Xor and I said in unison. Renny scowled, but pulled up a seat and set a box on the seat so he could reach the table.
“It’s mesmerizing,” Xor mused, sipping her cup, looking at the mass of tentacles.
“It is,” I confirmed. “But also painful to watch. Everything we have worked for going up in flames.”
“It doesn't matter,” Renny said softly.
“Oh, the end of the city doesn't matter?” I was a bit annoyed at him; of course it mattered.
“My Queen, the city is just wood, stone and mortar. Things we can get more of, and given time we can rebuild or even make something better.” He gestured to the grounds below us. “But you have made something grander. You built a kingdom of people. You brought together the legions of the Hellspawn, Undead, Vampires, Lamorea and Humans. And they are willing to follow you no matter what the cost. And do you know why they follow you?”
“Because I’m their queen.”
“Var, you can be so dumb sometimes.” Xor smiled at me. “It’s because you give a damn.”
“What?” I was truly confused.
“Every move you have made has been for the betterment of your people.” Xor took a long sip of her tea. “You could have taken over these lands and ruled them with an iron fist, enslaving those beneath you. But instead what did you do? You made a grand Empire of equals. Shure there are those in charge, but every one of us is a million times better off then we were before you took charge.”
“Every day I see you work your hardest to make this world a better place my Queen.” Renny slicked back his long black hair. “And we all notice, you are truly a benilvent and wonderful woman and I don’t know any in the kingdom who wouldn't agree with me.”
“So stop beating yourself up over this crap.” Xor pointed below. “These people aren't risking themselves for nothing, thay do it to keep the lives you have brought them.”
“I…” But I didn’t have the words. Was this all true? Did I really do all that? I wracked my brain trying to remember everything I had done. And they were right, I may have had a misstep or two, but everything I had done since I became the Red Queen was for the people of AO. I have worked so hard and so long to make things better. “Thank you, you two.”
“Anytime.” Xor finished off her tea and stood. “Renny why don’t we leave our Queen with her thoughts?”
“I think that’s a good idea.” He jumped to the ground, turned to face me and gave a deep bow. “My Queen.” and he turned on his heels and the two started back to the castle. Suddenly Xor stopped and lifted Renny off his feet and planted a huge kiss on the little guy. His eyes went wide and he tensed for a second then mented in what looked like pleasure. They pulled back and Xor carried him the rest of the way back to the castle, both giggling and talking in hushed voices.
“Well how about that?” I chuckled to myself.”She did have the hots for him.” I finished my tea and watched the tentacles slowly dissipate as they were destroyed one by one. I didn’t know how long I sat there but after a good long while something caught my eye.
I looked to the horizon and spotted the glimmer of silver and gold catching the morning light. I shot to my feet and drew in a quick breath. My eyes went wide as I saw the full force of the Alliance army marching to void city.
Chapter 23
The Selfless Act
The army of the Alliance was impressive. Tens of thousands of Humans, Siveen, Puer Sole, Senso, Amphibira, Al’nor marching steadily towards what was left of the Red Army. I gulped at the sheer number of them. I wasn’t truly ready for this. But there was nothing to do but get ready for this.
I flew to the top castle wall and found the fuze that lay on the ground and promptly lit it. I watched as the sparks coiled to a large flare that shot a blinding yellow light into the sky. Almost immediately after that I could hear the lookouts scattered around the city blast horns in a cacophony of bellowing tones.
I looked back to the ground and found the fuse that had split off the flare and continued to the row of about a thousand cannons that had been pulled off the airships the night before. I counted as I watched the sparks and just as it was told thirty seconds after the flare the cannons started firing at the approaching army. The cannon balls flew through the air and collided with the Alliance.
There was a pause then a huge blast of light fired into the sky above the city with it’s eerie sounds of thousands of discordant violins. Good they took the bait! The beam hit nothing at all just harmlessly flowing into the empty sky. “Thank you dream team!” I yelped in excitement! It was working! Gelm and Drac’s illusion spell was actually fooling the Alliance forces. There was another and final burrage of cannonfire from the wall. But from outside the city it would look like hundreds of airships were flying overhead and that the city stood unharmed. Not only that, to anyone crossing the outerwall would have another illusion on them so it would look like the First Ones were Red Empire forces. Thus turning our enemies against each other. After another blast from Pronoia shot into the empty air, probably looking like she had destroyed a few airships, a red flair went twinkling into the sky. And the horns sounded again.
I watched as every Red Army N retreated towards the castle grounds to take their final stand. The first to make it back were the flying creatures that had brought the Alliance forces here. Each landed on the wall and immediately started loading the cannons back up without any need of instruction. A large Hellspawn dropped Lily and Thaz down next to me. “What happened to your airship?” I enquired.
“What do you think?!” That pointed to the next beam of light that shot into the sky.
“Well glad to see it worked.” I smiled at the two.
“They sent a lot more after us than I thought they would.” Lily looked back to the ever approaching army.
“Whatever, we’ll deal with that later. For now we need to keep the bakery protected no matter the cost!” I Looked down at the bakery that sat in the direct center of the city where Drac and Gelm were casting their spell. It had to be the center to encompass everything thus making this whole thing work.
“Var I got this, I mean have I ever let you down?” Thaz asked, giving me a thumbs up.
“Yes. All the time.” I crossed my arms and looked at her frowning as another volley of cannons went off.
“Have I let you down when it matters?”
“Yes.” my frown grew.
“Well… Um… I won't this time!” She turned and jumped off the wall darting to the bakery where her most trusted and powerful Wild Ones guarded the building.
“And there goes the fuzzy kitten that holds the fate of the world in her paws. Dark gods help us.” I gave Lily the side eye and she smiled and gave a bit of a giggle. “Come on you need to meet up with Amber, Hell’a and Alexander.” I pointed my thumb back at the castle.
“Yes I know. I just wanted to stick around to hear it.”
“Hear what?” I tilted my head a bit confused.
“Your speech. You know before a battle the players and GMs will be expecting a speech from the Red Queen.
“Oh right.” I waited a bit for more of my forces to retreat back to the castle. I then looked back to the Alliance and cleared my throat and cast my voice enhancement spell. “Alliance, I see you have brought a vast army to destroy me! But know this for every one of me that you kill, we will strike down ten of yours! For we are the mighty Red Empire! We will take all of this world for our own and leave nothing but rot and fire behind us! Mah ha ha ha ha!” And I cut the spell short and sweet. All I really needed to do was poke the hornet’s nest a bit to make sure they would attack us with everything they had. “How was that?” I turned to face Lily.
“Manelavent as ever.” She gave me a thumbs up and we both turned to enter the castle but a voice made us stop in our tracks.
“Evil Queen of fire and darkness, you and your army are nothing to those who serve the light!”
“Is that Pronoia?” I asked Lily.
“Sounds like her.”
“We have seen the chaos and darkness, you bring to the world and I will bring you to your end!”
“I’m used to me being the only one giving over dramatic speeches. I kind of feel like she stole my thunder.”
“You’re both drama Queens. Huh, literally drama Queens.” Lily chuckled.
“We brought together the willpower of the Humans, the wisdom of the Siveen, the misht of the Al’nor, the-”
“Is she really still going? Doesn't she know you make your speech short and sweet then move onto the fighting?” I raised an eyebrow at Lily.
“It’s her first real antagonist speech and let her posture a bit.”
“- and the purity of the Puer Sole! Together we will destroy the Evil of the Hellspawn, the mischievousness of the Imps-”
“Wait is she going to list all of our races also?”
“Seems that way.” Lily shook her head a bit. “Whoever is her GM needs to give her a talking to, the players will find this super annoying.”
“- the evil of the Vampires! No evil will be left in the world! No Shadow will be safe for you to hide in. You-”
“By the Void still more?” Lily Shook her head.
“I mean it won't matter soon, everyone will be free.” I shrugged. “Should we just cut her off?”
“- Alliance is the strongest thing that this world-”
“Yeah I think it may be best I get the feeling she has a lot more in her.”
“Okay here we go.” I closed one eye and held my finger out like a pistol. “Little help Lily?”
“Oh, yeah, no problem.” Lily brought forth a pair of opera glasses. I had used these before, they were a tool she used to let me see and hear things from a great distance. She put the glasses up to her face and searched the Alliance for a good long while. She stopped searching and grabbed my wrist and guided my hand to point at a random spot in the army.
“You sure?” I asked, not letting my hand move as she let go.
“Yep, that should do it.”
“Okay, Black Hole.” And the powerful spell went flying through the air and into the army.
“- the world will know this day as the-” But I would never know what Pronoia thought this day would be known as because there was a yelp of surprise some, what could only be described as magical interference and the sound of a body bouncing across the ground. Got to hand it to Lily, her aim is impeccable, my spell had hit Pronoia. “Argh! Attack!” Pronoia yelled her voice still carrying across the realm. And the army approached the city screaming and shouting as they ran.
“Well that pissed her off.” I gave Lily a smile and pointed to the castle. “Go I’ll catch up.”
“Good luck, Var. I really hope this works.” Lily tossed me the opera glasses and I almost fumbled the catch, but after a few bounces of my hands I managed to catch it.
“So do I.” I spread my wings and took flight. I glanced behind me to see Lily turn and run down the steps that led to the castle grounds. I flew as high as I could so I could get a better look at the surrounding area. I searched the hills behind the approaching army, hoping that Thaz managed to do what she was assigned to do. My heart skipped a beat as I spotted it, three fires on a hilltop with a man standing in the middle. Without hesitation I flew as fast as I could to the man, hoping to the gods that no one would spot me. It would seem that in this particular instance luck was on my side because I made it to the man unharmed or chased. I landed and skied across the ground falling into one of the fires. Again happy I’m fireproof. I stood up and brushed off the soot. “Roe.”
“Var.” King Roe looked shocked to see me. I mean, why wouldn't he be? He watched me die from an attack of a N0.
“I see Thaz got my letter to you.”
“It was tied to an arrow and she shot me in the leg with it.”
“Oh, for crying out loud, Thaz.” I face palmed; leave it to that girl to do something that dumb. “Well, I’m glad you decided to come despite the leg wound.”
“So, are we here to finish our fight?” He raised his fists and got in a fighting posture.
“Roe, just stand there and let me screw with your code.”
“Huh?” He looked even more confused.
“I need to get close enough to open your terminal so I can upgrade your privileges so we can talk out of character.” Now that got his attention and made him shut up. This was the final step of the plan, the one only Lily, Amber and Thaz knew about. I needed to let someone in power on the other side know what was happening, that the DoS was coming, someone that could protect the Ns during that time. I changed his tag very quickly. It was the one thing I had gotten good with coding. I closed his terminal and said, “Start with something small, something that would only cause you a bit of pain.” He bit his lip and said. “Var, how in the actual hell did you manage to get the powers of a Game Master?!”
“Or you could start big.” I rolled my eyes. “Long story and we do not have the time.”
“But what in the-”
“Look Roe We’re friends right?”
“I mean I like you, you are fun to shoot the shit with.”
“Roe, just say that we are friends and you trust me so we can move onto the matter at hand!”
“Um…” He paused searching my eyes with his. “Yeah, I trust you.”
“Good.” I cleared my throat and drew in a long breath. “How this happened is insane and I will tell you the story someday, but that is far less important than what will soon be happening.”
“What will be happening?”
“I’m going to try and kill the System and set everyone free.” He started to open his mouth to speak again but I cut him off before he got a word out. “But I think our people will be in danger as we’re doing this for the next few hours. I can’t promous the safety of any N. So what I need you to do is make it so the players are the one’s attacking the First Ones that you will be fighting.”
“First Ones?! We are attacking you.”
“Nope, that's all a lie, a spell that we are casting and…” I had to stop myself from continuing. “Again the how or why is moot at this moment just know that unless you fight them with your players there is a chance the world could, well, explode.”
“The world is going to explode?!”
“Well maybe not explode, but it could well end if you don’t buy me time. I need two hours.”
“Var this is a lot to-”
“Roe, I need you to do this. Another Online needs you to do this.”
“Var…” He looked to the ground and thought for a moment. “Can I ask you something before I make my decision?” An explosion came from the city right after he finished talking.
“Yeah, but make it quick.”
“Did you know you would come back?”
“Sorry, what?”
“When you tossed me out of the way of that attack? The blast you took for me?”
“No.” I paused for a moment. “I just, well, I didn’t want you to die.” There was a long pause where we didn’t look at each other. The sounds of the battle happening below us.
“Okay, I’ll buy you all the time I can give you.” He looked up at me and gave his friendly grin I had come to know during our time together during those battle meetings. “But after this is all over, you owe me a drink and will tell me everything that has happened.”
“Deal.” I grinned back at him.
“Now go and save the world.” And he slapped my ass! Not in a sexual way, but like the way jocks would slap each other on the ass before a sport. Nonetheless, it made me jump and snarl at him. I had to fight down the predator inside me. I took a deep breath and slapped his ass so hard he fell on his fac
e. “Don’t worry I will!” and I portaled to the throne room before he could say anything else.
I entered the throne room with Lily close behind me to find my coconsperiters Amber, Hell’a, and Alexander getting things ready for the trip I would be taking into the System Hivemind. “Everyone.” They all turned to face me. Amber was beaten to hell, her armor beat up. Her helm was just gone. “It’s done, Roe is in.”
“Well, color me surprised,” Lily said. “I thought that wouldn’t work.”
“Well, it did.” I frowned at Lily then turned to the battered Amber. “Amber, is everything good?”
“Yeah, I got a bit beat up out there but I’m fine. There is one problem… My helm was what was controlling the Machina; they are still fighting, but I think Oracle took control of them.” She shook her head. “I don’t know if we can trust them.”
“We have to, we don’t have much of an option.” I shrugged. “What about Leon?”
“I watched him enter inside of the crab right after you ripped the hole in it.” She shook her head. “But you know this, because I signaled you with the fire piller.”
“I just wanted to make sure he was inside that thing setting bombs to explode it and not here trying to end the world.” There was uneasy laughter from everyone. Then, as if our gazes were all magnetically pulled to the throne, we looked to it all at the same time. “Well, here goes nothing.” I walked to my seat and sat.
Amber waked over holding the items that would power the DoS. “Okay, Var, you’ll have thirty minutes before we power everything up. So make the most of your time.”
“I know.” I took a long breath and looked at the four of them. “This has been a long road to get here but in less than an hour the world will have changed in one way or another. It’s up to us all to make it the best one possible.”
“Give them Hell, my love.” Hell’a smiled.
“This will all work out, my machine is a marvel of technology,” Alexander gloated.
“I’m so not ready for this.” Lily frowned. “But we got to try anyway.”
