Void

by Riley Morrison

  “I know not what a lion is, nor a gazelle, but I do know the bite of player swords.” She put a hand on his arm. “But what you say is wise, Chosen One. Our gods, the coded numbers of the trees, the stones, and the mighty Moon, made us as the beasts of the land.” She pawed at the dirt with her claws. “We have gnawed upon countless bones over the years, our faces covered in blood, our bellies filled with raw flesh. But as we are of the same pack now, our codes synced, I will turn my tribe’s attention upon eating the flesh of animals, rather than players and NPCs.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” Ajax put his Cavalry Man’s Saber in his inventory and equipped the new weapon.

  AP: 245 (BASE: 155+40 from weapon + 50 from equipment)

  Ajax steepled his fingers. Excellent.

  “You can sleep here,” Nylus said, then sniffed the air in the direction of Yana. “Even you, pretty demon. We will watch over you all.” With that, Nylus and the other werewolves retreated into the trees.

  Yana had been glaring at the caller ever since the lycanthrope had touched noses with Ajax (and licked his lips). Jealousy, most likely, Ajax thought, as he curled up on the ground beside Lillus. Draping an arm over the Demon Mage, he pressed up against her and kissed her hair. Yana got behind him, and put her arm over them both, holding them as if to show them who they belonged to.

  With the friendly werewolves watching over them, they slipped off to sleep.

  CHAPTER 21

  DOG MEAT

  WHEN AJAX WOKE THE next day, he’d come to a decision. He would continue to place his talent points into the Paladin tree until level 10, which would grant him the Cure spell. That spell would allow him to remove poison, most diseases and (oddly) cure skin cancer. Placing the point in the Paladin tree also increased the effectiveness of his current healing spells by a small margin.

  Once he got to level 11, he would place a few points in the Templar tree, before returning to the Paladin one. He wanted his focus to remain healing, but also wanted to increase his damage output. Paladin spec’d Spiritual Warriors were rare in the Imperium, which meant his future army would need to rely heavily on the Spirit Mages of the Republic of Dern to heal their wounds. Considering the level of animosity between the Sinjharians and the Dernese, it seemed unlikely things would go smoothly.

  Ajax could already imagine the healers on either side refusing to heal warriors of the other faction.

  Hell, he found it hard to picture them working together at all, even if their real-world existence was at stake. Such was the power of the pre-set faction divide of Visaria Online. A Sinjharian and a Dernese may have been friends out there in the real world, but because of how Visaria Online had been designed, they were now forced to be mortal enemies. Compelled by the coding of their avatars to forever be at one another's throats.

  I will have to lead by example, Ajax thought as he got up and readied to leave, still slurping down his food. I will strive to show no favor to one side or the other.

  As he swallowed the last of his weevil-ridden vegetarian soup ration breakfast, he placed his stat point into Spirit. This brought it more in line with his Might, and increased his passive mana regen. More Intellect could’ve been useful too, as it would give him a greater mana pool, but all the class guides said Spirit was more important to a healer. It allowed them to regen mana faster, which meant they could sustain casting spells over a longer period of time without the constant need to chug mana potions (and run out of them half-way through a fight!).

  And Ajax had a feeling he’d be healing a lot in the coming days...

  Ajax Stoneheart

  Race: Human

  Class: Spiritual Warrior

  Skill Focus: Warrior Paladin

  Level: 9

  Player Kills: 4

  Might: 17 (BASE: 7+10 Might from equipment) (1 Might increases AP by 5)

  Dexterity: 2

  Intellect: 4

  Spirit: 14 (BASE: 5+8 Spirit from equipment) (1 Spirit increases healing by 10% and improves mana regeneration by 2%)

  Luck: 2

  HP: 357 (BASE: 245+12 BLS +100 from equipment)

  MP: 250 (BASE: 200+50 from equipment)

  AP: 245 (BASE: 155+40 from weapon + 50 from equipment)

  DEF: 175 (BASE: 20+155 from equipment)

  XP: 15817/20500

  Equipment

  Atlantean Bastard Sword of the Legendary Hero of old (+40ap +10 damage (Sharp Blade)+15 damage to the enemies of Visaria)

  Cavalry man’s Saber (+15ap +5 damage slashing attacks) (Unequipped)

  Shield of the Arrow (+15def) (Special: + 5def when facing ranged attacks)

  Flitter Flutter Cloak of the Breeze (+1 all stats)

  Sparkle Pony Chain Vest of the Unicorn (+5 Might +2 Spirit +30hp +30mp +25 def)

  Padded leather boots of the Hardy (+1 Might +15hp +10def (AUG+20hp)

  Steel Helmet of command (+40 Def Random chance to fear Dernese NPCs. Can inspire friendly NPCs)

  Pierced Girdle of the Lost Sun (+3 Might +3 Spirit +15hp +5def +20hp Augment)

  Army issued trinket (+10 mana) (worn around neck)

  Amulet of Spirit (+2 Spirit)

  Ring of Defense (+10def)

  Backpack

  Water

  +4 chunks iron ore

  6 x copper ingot

  3 x iron ingot

  Iron pickaxe

  whetstone

  Rancid, maggot-ridden, moldy broken pineapple

  1x Medium Mana Potion

  11 gold, 54 silver coins

  Please Note: You are out of vegetarian rations. Prepare yourself... You might have to start eating meat like a normal person.

  Warning

  ID System Integrity Compromised

  Item Id: #1139697 “Rancid, maggot-ridden, moldy broken pineapple” not recognized

  An incident report has been automatically sent to system administration

  Eat meat? Ajax bared his teeth. No way.

  They set off, moving through the trees, dozens of werewolves marching around them.

  Nylus walked next to Ajax. Now that it was daylight, he noticed she looked different from the male werewolves. There were other females too, some warriors, some holding children in their arms.

  Nylus and the other females had a lighter coat, two breasts like a human, and many had decorations hanging from their hair. Both males and females were naked, none wearing any armor at all. Considering how human-like the werewolf anatomy was and how perfectly toned their bodies were, the Visaria Online designers had obviously had fun creating the lycanthrope game models. They were bestial enough to look threatening, but close enough to a human, that a player could still find them attractive. Ajax made sure he didn’t look any lower than Nylus’s face, as he was terrified she would catch him looking. Why do I find her so attractive? All he wanted to do was stop and admire her feminine body. Stupid number syncing, bonding ritual thing. If I’d known this would happen, I’d never have agreed to it!

  Thankfully, Yana’s closeness prevented him from getting carried away. She gripped his arm, and would not let it go, routinely giving the moon caller vicious looks over his shoulder. For her part, Nylus ignored the succubus, and instead walked along in a dignified silence.

  The werewolf escort stopped at the edge of the smoldering forest around Dawnspark. “Send word to me when you return,” Nylus said, touching her nose to Ajax’s (and ignoring Yana’s sharp intake of breath). From the moment they had met, the succubus really hadn’t liked the werewolf caller.

  The werewolf’s closeness, made Ajax’s heart race. All he wanted to do was pull her to him, and have her lick his face. “I will.” Ajax stepped back then saluted the warrior and hunter wolf who had escorted Nylus the night before. “Please keep your word about not hurting anyone.” They only glared back at him.

  Nylus made a deep throated growl that perhaps passed for lycanthrope laughter. “Trust us. We have lived off the land before. Just so you know, it was rare that we feasted on player or NPC human flesh.”

/>   Ajax began to say his final goodbye, when Nylus embraced him and spoke into his ear. “Next we meet, I’ll come to you in my human form and you will take me in your arms.” She licked his neck with her soft, warm tongue, her breath warming his skin.

  “You have a human form?” He could feel Yana’s rage building with every moment the werewolf woman was near him.

  Nylus pulled away. “We’re werewolves, not dogs. Of course we have human forms.”

  “Oh, right.” His cheeks burned. “I forgot about that.” Of course they have human forms. All wares do. Idiot.

  “It’s time to go,” Yana said, tugging on his arm.

  Ajax turned to Lillus. He found her with the small smile she often wore when he was doing something that impressed her. She’d been smiling at him all morning.

  “Well done, Ajax. Well done.” Lillus took his other arm from Nylus.

  They said their final farewells, then Ajax led Lillus and Yana out into the ash. Blackened lycanthrope bones lay half buried in the newly-fallen snow, their skulls seared clean of flesh. He still couldn’t believe how little the death of her brethren meant to the caller. Werewolves certainly saw the world differently to humans. If Ajax was in her place, he’d have wanted revenge.

  “You did well, Ajax.” Lillus squeezed his hand. “I thought our situation desperate, that we’d hit rock bottom, and yet you’ve pulled victory from the ashes....” She nudged a burned out werewolf skull with her shoe. “Literally.”

  What could he say? It had all just seemed to fall into place.

  Yana playfully nipped at his neck with her sharp teeth. “I’m so glad we’re away from that she dog. Now I can eat you up and not have to worry about her fawning over your remains.”

  Laughing, Ajax shook his head. “Stop worrying so much.” I do enough of that for all three of us! “I love the both of you.”

  That made Yana curl a wing around him. “You said the L word!” She smothered him in kisses. “You do love me.”

  Dawnspark lifted her head from the ground and watched them approach. Instantly, Yana drew back her wing and stiffened. “I know the only way I can stay with you and my mistress is by overcoming my fear of flying.” She glared at the sky as if it were to blame for her fear. “And oh, am I going to make you both pleasure me when we land.” She gave them a comical indignant scowl, her eyes peering at them through her fiery red bangs. “You both owe me for this!”

  Ajax grinned and tried not to imagine what pleasuring the succubus might mean. Now wasn’t the time to be distracted. Lillus brushed back her demon’s hair, and kissed her lightly on the forehead. “I appreciate you coming with us, my little pet.”

  As they neared Dawnspark, she stood and tentatively flapped her wings, arching her back like a cat. “I feel better. Last night, I feasted on seared werewolf, a dozen at least.” She licked her lips. “Tasty. But they could have done with a little salt.”

  Lillus placed a hand on the dragon’s neck. “Stop moving your wings. I want to see if the color has returned.”

  Dawnspark settled back to the ground and let them check her over. Almost all the color had returned to the infected scales, though a few looked like they’d been bleached. Ajax touched one of the damaged scales with his finger and it disintegrated. He glanced at Dawnspark, expecting to be reprimanded, but the dragon didn’t seem to have noticed.

  “How is Firesoul?” Ajax dreaded the answer.

  Dawnspark chuckled. “He told me that as soon as he reached the borders of the Imperium, the void wyrms turned tail and retreated back the way they’d come. For now, he and his rider are hiding in a secluded mountain range and are recovering from their ordeal. My husband has overcome the void sickness, and is growing stronger by the hour.”

  “Void sickness.” Lillus raised an eyebrow. “Is that what he called it?”

  The dragon snickered. “You got a better name, human?”

  “Half-elf, actually. And no, I don’t. But I’ve given thought to the sickness and what it does.” Lillus glanced at Ajax. “It started altering Dawnspark’s pixels and coding, but I think I removed it before it could do much damage.”

  “What are pixels and coding?” Dawnspark asked. NPCs weren’t meant to know what they were or what they were made of.

  Lillus grinned at the dragon. “I meant it was altering your body. Had I not removed it so quickly—”

  “I’d be under the control of the void.”

  “Correct.” Lillus changed the subject. “What is your husband going to do when he has recovered? We’ll likely be well on our way to the Oracle and he’ll have a hard time catching up to us.”

  Dawnspark hung her head. “They will wait for our return and keep watch for more minions of the void. Then, when I call upon them, they will head north to gather our allies in Sanctuary.”

  “You’re alright to leave him then?”

  The dragon let out a snickering hiss. “No, I’m not alright with leaving him, but I will.” Her eyes fell on Ajax. “Imagine how envious the other women will be when I tell them I had the Chosen One of Visaria on my back. The old scaly gossip queen, Bertha, won’t know what to do with herself!”

  Ajax removed the Eye of Destiny from his inventory. As soon as the item caught the light of the sun, it flared with intense light. When the light dimmed, he found it as it had been before he’d discharged its power at the void wyrm that had pursued them. A luminescent white.

  The threat of the void cloud came back to him. When the day comes, and the Eye is charged, we will hunt you.

  Whoops. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that. Ajax quickly put the Eye away and scanned the sky. Low flying fluffy white clouds blocked his view of the blue expanse above. Had he just given away his location?

  “What is it, my love?” Yana asked, clearly noticing his sudden agitation.

  Lillus came over and followed the direction of his gaze. “Do you sense something up there?”

  He lowered his eyes. “No, but I think the void knows where I am.” He reminded her of the threat. “We should get going.”

  Dawnspark flapped her wings. “Then climb on, little ones. My belly is full, and I feel more alive then I have in years!”

  CHAPTER 22

  MINECRAFT CLONE

  FOR FIVE DAYS, THEY made their way southwest, flying past the Independent City-States, and out into the unmapped wilderness beyond the human realm. They’d seen no sign of the void or its minions, nor any indication they were being followed.

  The ground below them hadn’t been shaped with human hands. Outside of the areas of Visaria Online that had once been its populated zones, the world had been procedurally generated, some of it so distorted and unrealistic, it might have worked as an abstract painting.

  The terrain was a mix of flat open plains, giant mountain ranges, deserts, inland lakes and sometimes long, deep rifts with the glow of lava flickering inside them. To Ajax, it looked as if the rifts has been created by a planet-sized giant who had torn Visaria open right down to its impenetrable Endstone layer at the base of the flat world.

  Eventually, the procedurally generated areas would’ve been handcrafted by the Visaria Online artists, but they’d never gotten to finish their work on the game, as the real world had ended and all of them had died.

  Six days from where the companions had encountered the werewolves, they flew over a vast forest of pine trees and oak which spread in all directions around them. As darkness approached, they searched for somewhere to spend the night. “Let’s try over there,” Lillus said, pointing at a large island of land floating in the sky.

  Sometimes, the procedural generation algorithms had messed up, and created floating islands of land. This island was no more than fifteen feet thick, but had to be at least a mile long. To anyone who knew what the real world looked like, such a sight would be absurd, but somehow it felt perfectly natural in Visaria.

  Terrain wasn’t the only thing the developers had made procedurally generated. The NPCs who lived in the far-flung regions of Visaraia
(outside of the game’s hand designed zones) were also generated using complex mathematical algorithms and given base human instincts: eat, socialize, and procreate. After placing them in the world, the designers had left it up to the NPCs to build their own civilizations and technologies using whatever natural resources were on hand.

  The Elves were an example of these NPC races left to their own devices, waiting for the developers to copy and paste them into expansion areas of the game.

  While the areas these NPCs lived were far away from Dernmore, they could be explored if one desired. Certain hard to find quests even led players into them (like the one to become an elf).

  Ajax remembered watching something in the news about sociologist, historians, anthropologist and AI programmers jacking into Visaria to study some of these races so they could learn how the NPC cultures developed over time. This had application both in the real world and in designing better, more realistic AIs for future fantasy simulators like Visaria Online and Teric Online.

  As Dawnspark flew over the tree-covered island, they passed near an outcropping of rock. Ajax gasped. “Look, it’s covered in iron ore nodes!”

  “There are herbs down there too, I saw them back on that hill,” Lillus said.

  Dawnspark landed on a small, grass-covered field, shadowed by trees. As Ajax jumped off her back and landed beside Yana, he let out a lighthearted laugh. “Wow, this feels as solid as the ground below us.”

  Yana put an arm around him. “What were you expecting? To sink through and fall out the other side?” When he looked at her, she pulled his head to hers and shoved her forked tongue into his mouth. After a few long, blissful moments, she pulled away and let out a small contended breath. “Remember your promise, my handsome warrior. I spent another day on that flying lizard, and I wasn’t even afraid. Tonight, I get to lay back and have you pleasure me!”