by Lucas Flint
I also realized that Aeolus was likely going to kill Mecha Knight if I didn’t stop him. I wasn’t sure what would happen to Mecha Knight if he died, but I knew it would be harder to save him if I save him from Aeolus. Yet Stunned was still in effect and the thirty seconds left on its timer would not go out before Aeolus finished off Mecha Knight for good.
Mecha Knight seemed to realize this because he kept trying to get out of Aeolus’ range, but he was too slow and bulky, while Aeolus moved as swiftly as air. Aeolus slashed across Mecha Knight’s chest, inflicting another 1,000 points of damage to Mecha Knight’s Health and dropping his health bar to zero.
A boss (Mecha Knight Herald of Abaddon) has been defeated! +5,000 EXP to the slayer of the boss!
Mecha Knight’s eyes widened in shock and pain before he tipped over backward and collapsed onto the ground. Rather than turn into dust like the Wormbeast, however, Mecha Knight’s body slowly faded out of view, until there was nothing left to indicate that Mecha Knight had been there at all.
A second later, the timer on Stunned finished and I could feel movement return to my body again. I quickly chugged two Health Potions in rapid succession before tossing the bottles aside and rushing toward Aeolus, whose claw was no longer glowing with light as he looked down upon the spot where Mecha Knight had been lying mere moments before.
“Aeolus!” I shouted as I ran over to him. “Aeolus, what did you do?”
Aeolus looked over his shoulder at me with a puzzled expression. “I killed the Herald of Abaddon. I saved Keoria. Why are you acting as if I did something wrong?”
I came to a stop beside Aeolus and looked up at him. “Because Mecha Knight was my friend. I needed to save him. Even if he was completely insane, I still had to try to save him. Your killing him, however, means I failed.”
Aeolus raised an eyebrow. “Failed? If I recall correctly, Mecha Knight was an outworlder like yourself. While death for us Keorians is permanent …” here he looked over at the pile of ash that had once been Cyclone, “… for you outworlders, it is my understanding that death merely sends you back to your world where you come from and you are free to return after a day or so.”
I looked at Aeolus in surprise. “You’re right. I completely forgot about that. I guess it’s just that when I saw Mecha Knight die, I thought he was gone for good.”
“Nay,” said Aeolus, shaking his head. “Unlike brave Cyclone—whose bravery I will ensure is never forgotten—I likely saved your friend from the cruel fate which Abaddon imposed upon him. If I had to guess, I would say your friend has returned to your world now, so in a sense, this situation worked out well for all of us. Your friend is back to where he belongs and Keoria is no longer under threat of being destroyed.”
I scratched my chin. “I guess when you put it that way, you’re right. Maybe I should go back to my world and see if Mecha Knight is back.”
“An excellent idea, my friend,” said Aeolus. He bowed. “I greatly appreciated your help in defeating the Herald. Once again, I—”
Aeolus abruptly stopped speaking. He didn’t just stop talking, however. He had frozen completely, more closely resembling a stone statue than a flesh-and-blood creature. Of course, he was actually neither, but you know what I mean.
“Aeolus?” I said. I waved a hand in front of his face. “Hello, Aeolus? Can you hear me? Hello?”
“Aeolus cannot hear you, Bolt,” said a deep voice behind me all of a sudden. “He can’t see you or interact with you in any way. In fact, to the entire world of Keoria, you might as well not exist.”
I whirled around, drawing the Cannibal Sword at the same time, and saw a figure in golden and white armor standing not too far away from me. He was a tall, well-built man, a knight helmet covering his features, while long, thick spikes ran up and down the sides of his armor. He carried a long sword at his side, which was sheathed, although that didn’t make it look any less threatening.
Despite the man’s sudden appearance, however, I had no trouble recognizing him for who he was. I wasn’t even really surprised to see him, honestly. I just knew that if Abaddon—whose real name was Seth Richards—was here, then I was pretty much screwed.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Although I didn’t really need to, I Scanned Abaddon anyway to see what his stats were:
Name: Abaddon
Level: ???
Class: Boss/Destroyer of Worlds
Affinity: Evil
Health: ???
Weakness: ???
The Apocalyptic God himself. Legend has it that Abaddon was defeated by his fellow gods at the beginning of time and imprisoned beneath the earth where no one could get him. Before his defeat, however, Abaddon promised to one day return and destroy everything his brothers and sisters had created as revenge for their crimes against him. The day he returns is the day the world ends.
Uh oh. I was having flashbacks to when I first fought Holly a long time ago. Her stats had also shown up as question marks, but I had a feeling that Abaddon was on a different level from Holly entirely because unlike her, he wasn’t a glitch, but a real person. I didn’t even see a weak point on him.
“Scanning me?” said Abaddon, tilting his head to the side. “I can tell. You look terrified, as if you have finally realized just how screwed you really are.”
I dismissed his character sheet and held the Cannibal Sword before me. “Did you freeze Aeolus? Just to talk to me?”
“I didn’t just freeze Aeolus,” Abaddon replied. He gestured at our surroundings. “I froze the whole world, for as its god, I can do that.”
Now that Abaddon mentioned it, I realized I couldn’t feel the wind blowing anymore. I also noticed a bit of dust, probably kicked up by my feet when I ran over to Aeolus, still hung in the air, which looked really weird. I looked up at the sky and saw some birds overhead that were also frozen in midair, which looked even weirder than the floating dust somehow.
“I felt it would be more convenient for us if we could talk without any distractions,” said Abaddon, lowering his hands to his sides. “That way, you won’t get any ideas that you could possibly defeat me in combat.”
I bit my lower lip. I wasn’t sure if Abaddon was smart or if he was just taking advantage of his apparent power over the game world to do as he pleased. Either way, I was at his mercy now, because even with my level-ups, I was still nowhere near strong enough to beat him in a fight. The fact that he hadn’t killed me yet only meant he didn’t want to kill me right away.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s start with the obvious question: Why are you trying to destroy the Vaultwork?”
Abaddon put his hands on his hips. “Because it is the role I am meant to play. Didn’t you read the flavor text when you Scanned me? I swore I would return one day to destroy everything my siblings made. I’m simply following the game’s script.”
My eyes narrowed. “I mean why you’re actually trying to destroy the Vaultwork, not the in-game reason.”
Abaddon chuckled. “Because it’s a threat to me. So long as the Vaultwork exists, it can be used to find me. Therefore, I need to destroy it before anyone can use it to track me down.”
I frowned. “Track you down? What do you mean?”
“Do you remember what the Vaultwork is?” said Abaddon. “It’s an Internet-like network designed to connect the different Vaults together. You may not be aware of this, but the Vaultwork was used during Project Revival to allow easy instant communication between the different cloning facilities. Its virtual reality component was also quite useful for testing out certain scientific theories we had about cloning, for it is here where cloning began.”
“What do you mean by that?”
Abaddon stroked his chin. “Don’t you find it curious how realistic these various NPCs are? They are far more realistic than your typical video game characters. Doesn’t that strike you as a bit … strange?”
My frown deepened. “Yeah, it’s a bit weird, but I thought the NPCs were designed that way just to make the g
ame feel more immersive.”
“Immersion had nothing to do with it, boy,” said Abaddon. “What really mattered to us was having a way to recreate the minds and personalities of the people we were attempting to clone. To do that, we needed some way to test out these restored personalities … and what better way to do it than by creating a fully immersive world full of fake ‘people’ we could program as we saw fit?”
I looked over my shoulder at Aeolus in surprise. “Are you telling me that all of these NPCs are actually real people? I’ve been talking to real people this entire time?”
“Not necessarily,” said Abaddon. “They’re replicas of real people. They are based off real people, but are not actually real in themselves. They are simply designed to allow us to craft and mold the personalities of our loved ones, of the people we lost and the people who we were trying to bring back. That is why they are so realistic.”
I looked at Abaddon again, this time with skeptical eyes. “Let’s say I believe you. I still don’t see how this is supposed to be helpful for finding you.”
“This Vault, along with every other Vault in the country, is connected to my main Vault, the one I use as my main headquarters and cloning facility,” said Abaddon. “I won’t tell you where it is—that would defeat the purpose—but now that the G-Men are after me, I thought it prudent to destroy every avenue they could use to track me down. With my plans coming so close to completion, I would be a fool to allow them to find me so easily.”
“So that’s why you’re here?” I said. “To destroy the Vaultwork and keep yourself safe?”
“Of course,” said Abaddon. “I don’t really give a damn about any of the NPCs in this game. I would kill them all if it meant keeping myself safe.”
“What about Mecha Knight?” I said. “What did you do to him?”
“I took control of him as soon as you logged off the Vaultwork that one time,” Abaddon replied. “Although Mecha Knight is not an NPC, by putting himself into the game, he unwittingly made himself vulnerable to a take over from me. Thus, it was very easy for me to take him over when he let his guard down and make him into my perfect servant.”
“Guess he wasn’t so perfect, given how Aeolus defeated him,” I said.
“Perfect does not mean invincible,” Abaddon retorted. “And I will admit, Aeolus’ victory over Mecha Knight genuinely took me by surprise because I didn’t think it was possible for an NPC to defeat a player character like that. I underestimated the power and cleverness of the NPCs, but I definitely won’t repeat that mistake. That is why I froze the game. I didn’t want Aeolus to try to kill me, too.”
My eyes narrowed. If Abaddon was afraid of being killed, then maybe he wasn’t as invincible as his Scan made him out to be. If so, then maybe I could kill him myself, although I’d still have to be careful about it, because if I failed, Abaddon would definitely kill me.
“Okay,” I said. “When Aeolus defeated Mecha Knight, what happened to him? Is he back in his body now?”
Abaddon’s eyes gleamed with a burning fire. “Yes. Although I may have corrupted Mecha Knight, the game still treated him like a player. Like all players, when he got killed, he was logged off from the game.”
I grinned. “Well, there goes your ‘perfect’ servant.”
All of a sudden, Abaddon chuckled. “Don’t be so quick to celebrate. Mecha Knight may not be logged into the Vaultwork anymore, but I still have control over him. He still obeys my every command. Besides, he did his job. I no longer need him to destroy the Vaultwork. As Abaddon—and, more importantly, as one of the Vaultwork’s creators—I can now destroy the entire thing, just as I wanted.”
Abaddon raised his hand, but before he could do whatever he was about to do, a flash of light exploded above us. My first thought was that it was Aeolus, having somehow freed himself from being frozen, using his Light of Hope to come to my aid, but then I realized Aeolus still stood behind me, which meant that the light’s source belonged to someone else entirely. I put a hand over my eyes to protect my vision, while Abaddon also covered his own eyes to keep from getting blinded.
“What?” said Abaddon in a surprised voice. “What is that?”
I had no answer myself, but then the light darted toward me and stopped in front of me. The light grew brighter for a second before suddenly fading away, revealing a familiar tiny fairy I had not seen in a long time.
“Olga?” I said. “Is that you?”
Olga nodded. “Good to see you again, Bolt. I hope I am not too late to help.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Olga looked about the same from the last time I saw her: Big, round blue eyes, tiny crystalline fairy wings beating rapidly in the air, and simple blue robes and a tiny wand that made me think of a sword. She was also, of course, very tiny, small enough that I could probably close my entire hand around her if I wanted.
But something was different about her now. Her skin was slightly grayer than normal, while her eyes were a darker shade of blue than before, and in general she seemed worse than the last time I saw her. Despite that, though, she seemed as chipper as ever.
“Olga!” I said. “I didn’t know you were still alive. I thought Abaddon had destroyed you.”
Olga shook her head. “No, he did not. Neither did Mecha Knight. But I did have to go into hiding for a while.”
“Where have you been all this time?” I asked. “Before I entered the Vaultwork, I tried to contact you through Vault F’s terminal, but it said it couldn’t send a message to you.”
“I had to disconnect,” Olga explained. “If I didn’t, then Abaddon would have found and destroyed me. He’s been trying to capture me ever since he corrupted Mecha Knight. I am taking a big risk here just showing up.”
Abaddon lowered his fist to his side. “Indeed you are. I should wipe you out before you attempt to ruin my plans.”
Abaddon raised his hand and opened his fist. A blast of dark energy shot out of his palm at us, but Olga waved her wand and a barrier appeared between us and Abaddon. The dark energy blast struck the barrier and dissipated, although I noticed that the barrier was slightly cracked where the energy blast had hit it.
“Whoa,” I said. “I didn’t know you were that strong, Olga.”
“It won’t hold forever,” said Olga as Abaddon lowered his hand to his side. She turned back to face me. “You need to get out of here. If you don’t, Abaddon will get you.”
“What do you mean?” I said, tilting my head to the side. “Do you mean he’ll kill me? Yeah, I guess he might, but I’m a player. If I die, I’ll just get kicked out of the game again.”
Olga shook her head quickly. “Wrong. When I said Abaddon corrupted the game, I wasn’t referring to the glitched environments you’ve likely seen. I was referring to the fact that if he kills your character, he will get your mind under his control.”
“What?” I said in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“Do you remember how Mecha Knight was under his control?” said Olga. She winced when another blast of dark energy from Abaddon struck the barrier, cracking it further. “Abaddon has discovered a way to extend that to anyone who plays this game. That’s why he showed up to kill you himself. If Mecha Knight killed you, it would have done the same thing.”
“Really?” I said. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“I’m an AI, Bolt,” said Olga. “I don’t ‘kid’ or ‘joke’ about anything. That is why I warned you to stay away, because if you don’t—”
Olga was interrupted by an audible crack sound in the barrier behind her. Looking over the top of the fairy’s head, I saw a long, thick crack running horizontally down the middle of the barrier. On the other side of the barrier, Abaddon was charging another blast of dark energy, which was growing larger and larger with every passing second.
“Oh, no,” said Olga, who was looking over her shoulder at the barrier. “One more hit like that and the barrier will shatter completely.”
She looked back up at me again, her
eyes wide with worry. “Once the barrier shatters, you need to log off right away. Do it now, actually, because once the barrier shatters you won’t have any time to get away.”
“But what about you?” I said. “And Abaddon? And the Vaultwork in general?”
“Don’t worry about the Vaultwork or me,” said Olga. “What’s important is making sure you get away. Remember, Abaddon wants you. If he gets you, then you’re done.”
I bit my lower lip, but I didn’t get a chance to speak again, because at that moment, Abaddon unleashed another blast of dark energy at the barrier. When the dark energy collided with the barrier, the barrier shattered into a million pieces and Olga went flying over my head from the explosion. As for myself, I had to cover my face with my hands, but the explosion was mostly air, so I didn’t get too harmed. But as soon as I lowered my hands to see the damage, I saw Abaddon rushing toward me, drawing his long sword.
Without thinking, I drew the Cannibal Sword from its sheath and raised my sword just in time to block his long sword. When his sword hit mine, however, cracks began to appear on the edges of the blade, making me realize that I didn’t have much time before my sword broke. My arms strained under the pressure as I held Abaddon back, but he was so much stronger than me that I didn’t know how much longer I could hold out.
“Give up, Bolt,” said Abaddon in a harsh voice. “You saw my stats. There’s no way you can beat me. You should have logged off when you had the chance, like Olga told you.”
I gritted my teeth. “It’s not over yet. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.”
I activated Shatter and Steal—two of the Cannibal Sword’s Abilities—and applied it to Abaddon’s sword pressuring down on mine.
It worked. As I watched, the Cannibal Sword and Abaddon’s sword began glowing a deep red color, giving both blades the appearance that they were on fire. Through the eye holes in his helmet, I could see that Abaddon’s eyes were confused at this unexpected development, but he had no time to react before the blade of his long sword completely shattered into a million pieces.