Endless Online: Oblivion's Blade

by M. H. Johnson

  Val swallowed as the strange, shimmering apparitions seemed to make note of their presence, one slowly floating across the massive chamber even as the other two stood sentinel outside the cathedral proper.

  Magesight Rank 1 Achieved. - Thanks to your newly blossomed ability to sense arcane forces and fields, magic radiation now reflects and refracts from your third eye much like the sun does your normal two. Let there be light!

  "Fire and Fury, I can't see a thing!" Gregor hissed.

  Halvar frowned. "Damn, they've noticed us. No need for stealth, now." With that his sourceless crimson light flared up once more, and Val squinted, suffering a momentary headache as his mind spent precious seconds synergizing his normal sight with his Magesight, before settling on just giving the specters and cathedral a shimmering, otherworldly glow in addition to his normal vision.

  "Val, you can't freeze! Move forward with Elise!"

  Val swallowed and nodded at Sten's curt words, feeling his saber-like blade so like his favored 1796 light cavalry flow effortlessly into his hand, shield held low, blade held high and tilted slightly back, a guard that worked well with a cutting saber if you had a shield to lead. Val was running on pure instinct at that moment, terror and exhilaration coursing through him in equal measure as the strange, shimmering specter approaching their cluster before deliberately turning to close with Val.

  Time seemed to slow as the hideous ghost of a living corpse moved, eyes milky-white, spirit flesh rotted through, the memory of lips eaten away to reveal a hideous ghostly grin.

  The creature whispered words Val couldn't understand, it's mind an alien and strange thing indeed, if a mind it could be said to have at all.

  "Val, look out!"

  But Val's feet had dodged as fast as thought, such his reflexes had always been, somehow feeling the staticky pressure of forces building up, sensing the crackling release of arcane energies before the stream of fire roaring from the ghostly fingertip could touch him, even as it scorched the remarkably smooth stone that Val had been standing on just moments before.

  "Clear!" Halvar roared. Val saw Elise jumping back, and Val kept backpedaling even as hot streams of blaster fire lanced through the ghostly specter to no effect. Even the hot pulse of lightning Halvar's military blaster sent streaking its way after a moment's buildup did no more than give it pause.

  Gregor's voiced was laced with panic. "Ancestor's mercy, it's pure magic! Our weapons our worthless!"

  Sten could be heard cursing, though he kept his cool, even as the strange specter turned to Val once more. "Don't panic, keep your cool. What about the potion that alchemist sold you?"

  "We don't know if it's anything, it could be pure malarkey! I just bought it to analyze on the off chance there might be something resonating with the arcane in there!"

  "Gregor, if there was ever a time to use a potion designed to protect against the undead, it's now! Just use a small quantity, we don't know how long it needs to last us."

  Val didn't catch the rest of what was said, now focused intently on fighting for his life, even as he sensed the crackling energy of another fire pillar being launched.

  He flashed a madcap grin. He had not felt a rush like this, pitting his life against another, his reflexes alone keeping him from peril, since he had last seen action, six months ago.

  When the specter hissed its vile curse and the hot stream of flame roared through the air, Val had already pivoted, feeling the bow wave of building energies well before the creature released, for all that Val knew it had been close.

  He risked a quick glance with Elise, his mind open, letting her know his plan.

  Beautiful Violet eyes widened before she gave a curt nod. She understood. He would be bait, she would move in for the kill. He could only hope her blade's magic? Psionics? No, it was a weird combination of both, could somehow hurt this thing they faced.

  "Val!" He lurched, precious moments wasted, the buildup of arcane energies already washing over him, Val barely rolling back as a stream of fire roared through the air, hissing as he felt a hot sting on his left shin, knowing there would be blisters later.

  A bow wave of arcane force. Too bad he couldn't just push it away.

  As fluid as thought he was on his feet once more, breathing controlled, heart racing with the exhilaration of it all. His ears rung, his tongue alive with the taste of copper and darkest glory.

  His grin widened as the hideous undead face before him twisted in a scowl that transcended mortal hate, Val already springing to the side when yet another hot cone of deadly fire roared through the air.

  Val immediately cried out, stumbling as his foot hissed and blistered, collapsing under his weight, having stepped on piping hot stone. His stumble turned to a desperate roll, somehow knowing that more hot flaming death would be streaming out of that creature. It was seconds before Val stopped his mad roll, desperately springing to his feet, bracing himself for the searing pain, grateful that his injured foot could still hold his weight.

  Damn. He wasn't wearing any shoes! If he stepped where the creature had blasted the stone, he would pay in blisters and pain, assuming it didn't wreck his concentration and balance entirely.

  And there the creature was, howling with darkest triumph, but feet away from Val who was gazing at the buildup of fiery power in strange fascination, realizing in that terrible epiphany that he almost understood what the creature was doing.

  He could almost reach out in that stream of delicious, terrible possibility, like dipping a massive mug into a stream of cool refreshing ale, drinking deeply of that wonderful power.

  "Val, duck!"

  He blinked, reflexes alone saving him as he lurched back from hot death, clenching fists tight and somehow pushing back, his head now throbbing with sudden pain as he felt his mana quickly drain to ninety, knowing it wasn't reflexes alone that had saved him from becoming a very crisp Val.

  A silver-blue blade streaked through the air.

  The specter shrieked, a hideous cacophony that tore through Val's ears, for all that the others didn't seem to hear it at all. Val blinked, somehow sensing the specter's distress, peering as intently as he could at the silver-blue strands now flapping and broken, the specter lurching back, movements sluggish, even as it's cords of fire and gold remained.

  It twisted around, now floating, albeit at a much-reduced pace, towards Elise.

  Val trembled mind roaring with exultation and terror. He thought he could taste it. Magic and wonder like no game he had ever played before, like nothing he had ever experienced or even conceived of before as he dipped the cup of his will into the glorious streaming flow of wonder and possibility that was magic, filling his soul with hot, sweet flame, compelling it to roar forth from his fingertips in a stream of exultant fury, near perfectly matching the hideous specter's casting, even as he yelled at Elise to roll back.

  Brilliant violet eyes widened and she arched back with a ballerina's grace as the ghostly lich was enveloped in hungry flames that seemed to tear and devour the strands of binding that held it to this realm, the awful specter fading away with a dying scream as Val crashed to his knees, crying out as the hot stone scalded him, dizzy and exhausted in ways he had never felt before, the smell of blood, singed flesh and fear thick on his tongue, and all he could do was grin with stupid sweet triumph.

  Mageward Rank 1 achieved! - After nearly getting your gonads fried off staring at that specter like a deer caught in the headlights, you figured out how to push back just enough to avoid getting burnt to a cinder. Good thing you dodged simultaneously, or you would have pushed back just enough to enjoy an agonizing, prolonged death.

  Arcane Discipline Creation Rank 1 achieved! - You have learned to dip your psyche into the streams of mana that flow through this world, creation being fundamental to all forces and fields sprung from quantum potentials or parallel realities!

  Arcane Discipline Fire Rank 1 achieved! - You have begun the first step on the path to mastering the element of flame. Cities can be
leveled and the course of history changed by such terrible fire. It can also be used to cook up a tasty dinner!

  Arcane Discipline Manipulation Rank 1 achieved! - Congratulations, you have learned to dip your psyche into the streams of mana that flow through this world, control being key to harnessing and directing most magical manifestations! A master can direct the path of flame, or control the bodies of the living or dead to serve him as he wills.

  Insight! Your Arcane Perception has allowed you to glimpse the inner workings of your first spell! To see is to know, for the Savant. You have witnessed Firestream cast 4 times and have successfully managed your first casting! Your first casting was an absolute success! Specters, having no shields of ego or flesh, are perfect teachers for a Savant to learn spells from, assuming they don't kill you in the process.

  Spell learned: Firestream - You have basic competence in this spell. You have basic competence in the arts needed to cast this spell. At this time it will cost you 10 mana per casting. Extremely effective at destroying undead and summoned beings, it also inflicts moderate to severe burns against most opponents! Your spell will not kill quickly or cleanly, but a sobbing enemy whose had most of his face and torso charred off is unlikely to put up much of a fight!

  Arcane Perception Rank 3 achieved! - You're even better at sensing the ebb and flow of magic. For example, seeing the matrix of power animating that wraith!

  An endless pause, Val hardly notice that the chamber had gone completely dim. He exchanged gazes with a shocked looking Elise, seeing comfortably in the arcane spectrum once more, so bright did that cathedral glow. "We did it! We bloody did it!" Val hooted, euphoric and fatigued in a way he had never been before. Like an itch he had to scratch, he forced his brain to peer inward.

  Mana 71/99... 72/99... hmm... it seemed that the arcane shield and firestream spell had both cost significantly more mana... perhaps double cost as it was the first time he had used either? Before he had fully 'quantized' their formulas and usage? He also caught sight of another bar. 'Personal Potency.' A dizzying serious of numbers flashed by so fast his eye couldn't register it clearly, so he metaphorically stepped back, seeing it as a slowly growing blue bar, shimmering brilliantly in his mind's eye. The speed of growth shifted, even the length seemed in flux, but Val was strangely certain he was gazing at his level-up bar. He shivered. His flight of fancy aside, he really didn't want to find himself trapped in a game, or a universe that had MMORPG written in the fabric of its very reality.

  In that eyeblink of time since the specter silently shrieked and was no more and the flash of notifications he sensed in a heartbeat, Sten's furious curse washed over Val. He blinked, wondering what the problem was, finally registering Elisa's grave stare.

  "Elisa?"

  Elisa sighed and shook her head, gazing down at her shimmering blade. "We're fortunate that your magic didn't destroy my artifact, Val. This ancient relic is a piece of my past, and so isn't affected by arcane radiation like modern tech. It shows the link between Psions and Wizards as it's effectively an arcane artifact that happens to channel Psion energies to fuel its magic. The blade vibrates such that it can slice through even steel as if it were soft lead, flesh and bone parting almost as easily as it would be to slice through butter. Even arcane creatures will feel its bite, at least somewhat, no matter how inured to the sting of metal they may be." She shook her head bitterly. "My... 'master' let me keep my family heirloom, a bitter reminder of what I had aspired to be before I became his broken little toy. It is no match for a true Psiblade, of course, which could cut through anything, any metal or alloy or magic ward or person as if they were no more solid than the air we breathe. Had my keepsake been of any greater note, my tormentor would have claimed it quicker than he claimed my flesh."

  Val winced and looked away, feeling embarrassed and awkward, having no idea what to do or say.

  "The point is, Val, that we are lucky. Your spell didn't knock my blade's potency out of true. If I had an actual working Psiblade, it would now be as worthless as the relics we found in the library. As worthless as our friend's blasters are now, thanks to the wave of arcane radiation you unleashed with your spell!" Those final words said in bitter disappointment.

  Val cringed and swallowed, feeling everyone's angry glare like a palpable thing. "What do you want me to say? Ten seconds ago I didn't know I could cast spells, five seconds ago I had no idea they would affect anything like an old magic/steampunk computer game!" He blinked, shaking his head helplessly. "Honestly, Elise, how was I supposed to know? All I knew was that blaster fire did nothing, that your blade had wounded it but could not kill it, and you were in trouble! That creature was veering toward you, Elise. What was I supposed to do? I couldn't let it hurt you!"

  Elise flashed a bitter smile. "You're talking like a would-be hero. An idealist knight in Valorium armor ready to save some helpless damsel. I wasn't helpless, Val, and it's far too late to save me from anything."

  Val locked gazes with her, hiding nothing. "Bullshit. You were in trouble. It doesn't matter that I've only known you for a couple of hours. I... care about you. I did what I could. I'm not going to apologize for that. I'm only sorry that the freakish laws of this place knocked out our friend's weapons!"

  Elise shook her head. "You're an idiot," she whispered, voice soft and strange.

  "Val, what the hell did you do?" Sten, gazing at him with as much ire as ever. "Why the hell didn't you warn us? What are we supposed to do now?"

  "Captain, stop. Two other specters are approaching." Halvar's voice, cold and firm as any soldier's, free of his normal bonhomie. In one fluid motion he drew his wicked blade, more Zweihander than longsword, the type of weapon used on ancient battlefields that would meet pike and polearm on equal footing, shattering shafts of wood before cleaving and butchering even armored foes. He held the massive blade like Val would a longsword, such was the advantage of his seven-foot powerfully built frame. Even fully armored, a knight hit with that weapon on the skull or neck would probably perish even if it couldn't pierce steel. The concussive force alone would snap bones, break necks, and crush skulls.

  Val grimaced, realizing that for all its majesty, unless it glowed with the strange matrix of silver and blue energies that Elise's did even as he felt her Psionic force somehow catalyzing her own magical blade, the massive Zweihander was all but useless.

  Sten caught Val's gaze, as intense as he had ever seen him. "Forget the lasers, Val. You and Elise are our one shot! Tag team the pair and bring them down!"

  Val felt the captain's intensity, his own resolve invigorated, nodding his head once, just as he would have his former CO. He turned to Elise "Flank and harry the leftmost one. Draw it away but don't let it corner you. I'll take the rightmost one and flank and circle right." Elise blinked but Val didn't give her time to argue, as the rightmost specter began to close.

  His body trembling with nervous energy, he flashed his teeth.

  "Hello, Death. Couldn't kill me on the field of war, couldn't end me when I was primordial goo. Think you can take me down? I'll fuck the hell out of you!"

  The specter blinked one ghostly eye, silvery maggots flowing from the corrupted socket. Val did not hesitate, shouting as he shot his arm forward, reveling in the curious sweet rush of strange crimson gold power coursing through him, feeling it build and build like a terrible aching climax of fury before roaring forth in a blazing stream of fire, washing over the suddenly screaming specter who tried to float back, but a furious Val propelled himself forward, refusing to let his foe get away. "Take that, you goddamned bloody fuck!"

  The creature's howling shrieks left Val dizzy even as it faded out of being completely, and Val reveled in the sweet dark rush of power coursing through him, even as he tripped and fell on his ass.

  "Ouch, goddamn that smarts!" Val hissed, frowning to see blood pouring from his scraped knee. Snapped back into the moment, a terrible weight of dread filling him as he heard a desperate cry.

  He hissed and jerked hi
s head up. Elise, swinging desperately, tearing through the specter that was laughing, laughing as it raked hideous claws across her arm, Elise pinned into a corner, the specter not stopping as Elise's blade could only snap half the chords of its being. And she was going to die in agony and it was Val's fault, and he said he would protect her, another girl gazing up at him with desperate eyes and he couldn't staunch the blood and he swore he wouldn't let her die, swore he'd protect her family, but who was he to rail against fate and shrapnel when his own country bombed a shanty town just trying to survive and how her father had looked at him with bitter hate, and nothing Val ever did would make up for that. Nothing, and Val screamed as he grabbed Elisa's shrieking form, too furious to feel the hellish chill of the specter's touch as he shoved Elisa into a panicked Sten's arms, shouting them both back, and Val roared as the hideous specter gleefully sunk his icy claws into his flesh and the hideous pain was nothing compared to being burned alive, nothing at all, and how Val would make this thing burn!

  Howling as he felt himself fill with hot pain and bitter fury, filled with FIRE that roared through him, through his whole being, pain not distracting him but catalyzing him as he dipped his whole psyche into the flow of deadly magma that was the essence of flame, and how he BURNED the screaming wraith as fire tore through the hideous abomination, the pair of them exploding in crimson fury as Val roared with the triumph of a dying phoenix killing its prey even as he himself collapsed to the ground, a gasping, heaving wreck.

  Insight gained! When the guilt is too much and you can't stand the screams of everyone who died under your watch, why not embrace Explosive Retribution? Let's all burn together! Only a madman would commune with such terrible magics, accepting the backlash to follow, and you're luckier than you deserve, Val, surviving to tell the tale.