by Lucas Flint
I looked over at Cy. “Cy, cast Gust on that dust cloud and let’s see what—”
I was interrupted by yet another notification, which read:
[Hero Dillo] has died! Remaining Teammates: 2/3.
“Boss, did you see this notification I just got?” said Cy. He was staring into empty air with huge eyes. “It says that Dillo is dead, but not—”
Harsh laughter echoed from within the dust cloud. Soon, the outline of a figure walking calmly through the dust could be seen, and then that outline rapidly filled out until Dark Kosmos himself stepped out of the dust cloud.
And, aside from the dust on his armor, Dark Kosmos looked virtually unscratched.
“That was … annoying,” said Dark Kosmos as he dusted dirt off his shoulders. “And unexpected. Out of all of you players, Dillo was the last one I expected to try that kind of attack on me. But I’ve been through worse.”
I scrambled to my feet. In the span of less than a minute, we had lost two Teammates, including our Healer and our tank. That left just me, Funky, and Cy. Well, I suppose there was Lennox as well, but I wasn’t sure monsters counted. Even if it did, that still left us with a force that was both too small and too weak to defeat Dark Kosmos, or even survive against him. And getting all of the captured players out of here alive at the same time? I wasn’t so sure we would be able to do it.
Then Dark Kosmos’ eyes darted from left to right. His eyes locked on the players attempting to escape through the elevator. Without Dillo’s guidance, it was now a free-for-all as everyone tried to enter the elevator at the same time. As a result, pretty much no one was able to get in, much less lower the elevator to the lobby from which they could escape.
“Now I see,” said Dark Kosmos in a voice as soft as silk. “Distract me long enough to free all of the players. Very smart. Almost clever.” His hands glowed with silvery starlight. “But not clever enough.”
Dark Kosmos thrust his hands into the air. The ceiling once again turned into the open night sky, only instead of stars or meteors, the full moon hung above us like a ball hanging from a string.
A brand new notification popped up in front of me at the same time:
[Villain Dark Kosmos] uses Moonfall!
My mouth fell open and I looked up just in time to see the moon falling toward us. At first, it was no bigger than a quarter, but it rapidly grew in size the closer it got to us, only I realized it wasn’t aimed at me and Cy. No, it was aimed at the hundreds of free players who were all desperately attempting to escape through the elevator. None of them seemed aware of the moon falling toward them at first, but then some of them pointed and shouted and soon everyone stood transfixed by the giant moon.
Dark Kosmos was going to kill them all, which would cause them to respawn in their cages, and thus ruin all of our hard work. Yet there was no way either Cy or myself could stop Dark Kosmos in time to save everyone else. All I could do was watch as the moon drew closer and closer to the gathered crowd of players, becoming so big that I knew it would kill all of them in one hit.
That was when a small figure appeared in between the moon and the players. It was Lennox, Funky’s pet dragon. The tiny dragon hovered defiantly between the falling moon and the terrified crowd of players, its wings beating furiously to keep its small body afloat in the air. I had no idea what Funky was thinking. Was he trying to sacrifice Lennox in an attempt to save the others? Or had he finally lost his mind?
As it turned out, neither was the case, because in that instant, Lennox glowed and changed. His body began to grow and alter, going from a tiny dragon no bigger than a chihuahua to as big as a car to as big as a full-sized school bus. In less than an instant, Lennox stood on the floor of the chamber, except now he was a true, full-sized dragon. Lennox unleashed a triumphant roar, spreading his twenty-foot wingspan as flames began gathering in his mouth.
Yet another notification popped up in front of me when that happened:
[Tamed Beast Lennox] has Transformed into a Kaiju!
Before I could take that in fully, Lennox unleashed a powerful fire blast—so hot I could feel the heat even from here—from his mouth at the falling moon. The fire blast struck the moon head on and the moon suddenly exploded, sending chunks of moon rock flying in every direction. Some of it fell onto the crowd, but most of it simply smashed through windows or into the now-empty cages.
“Holy crud!” said Cy, his mouth hanging open. “Is that Lennox?”
“Sure is,” said a familiar voice above me. “But better, stronger, and way nastier.”
Two strong hands suddenly grabbed Cy and me and yanked us up to our feet. Startled, I looked over and saw Funky standing between us. The Beastmaster was looking at Lennox with more than a hint of pride, watching the dragon as it roared triumphantly. Dark Kosmos, on the other hand, just stood with a surprised look on his face. Guess even he hadn’t been expecting that.
“What happened to Lennox?” I said to Funky. “The notification said he Transformed, but—”
“It’s a special Power some Beasts have,” said Funky. He nodded at Lennox. “Some Tamed Beasts can Transform into much bigger and more powerful versions of themselves. The drawback, however, is that it can only be used once per day and uses up pretty much all of my Energy and about half of my Health.”
“Half of your Health—?” I sputtered. “Sounds harsh.”
“The Beastmaster Class would be overpowered if that Power didn’t have some drawback,” said Funky. He rubbed the back of his neck. “In any case, we need to stop Dark Kosmos.”
“Can’t Lennox just eat him or something?” said Cy, looking at the huge dragon that now stood protectively in front of the players. “He looks big enough.”
“Not that simple,” said Funky. “Dark Kosmos might be smaller than Lennox, but that doesn’t make him weaker. Remember, Dark Kosmos is invincible. He can be hurt somewhat, but he cannot be killed. That’s why Scan doesn’t work on him. He had no Weak Points or Weaknesses to reveal.”
“How do you know this?” I said.
“I just do,” said Funky vaguely. “Let’s just say I am more familiar with Dark Kosmos than I initially let on and leave it at that.”
I scowled. I knew there was more to Funky than he first let on, but hadn’t realized just how much he had kept from us until now. Still, we didn’t have time for a lengthy interrogation, so I said, “If Dark Kosmos is invincible, then how are we supposed to beat him?”
Funky held out something toward me. “With this.”
I looked at the item in Funky’s hand. It was Dark Kosmos’ sword, the weapon he had stabbed me with. My dried blood was still on the weapon’s blade.
“Isn’t that Dark Kosmos’ sword?” said Cy, looking at Funky questioningly. “Where did you get it?”
“When you ripped it out of Winter’s stomach earlier and threw it away,” Funky replied. “Luckily for us, Dark Kosmos was too distracted by everything that happened afterward to care about retrieving the Darkbane.”
“The Darkbane?” I said. “Is that what it’s called?”
Funky nodded. “Like Dark Kosmos, it can’t be Scanned, but I recognized the blade from … somewhere.”
“From the same place you are familiar with Dark Kosmos, I assume?” I said. I winced when Lennox roared and unleashed a fire blast at Dark Kosmos, although the Villain dodged it easily.
Funky, however, seemed to pay no attention to his pet’s battle with Dark Kosmos. “Yes. Anyway, the Darkbane is the only thing that can kill Dark Kosmos. You just need to stab him with it and he will die instantly.”
“What? Really?” I said in surprise. “Why?”
“Because it shares his essence and nature,” said Funky. “It’s hard to explain, but Dark Kosmos and the Darkbane are made from different material than the rest of Capes Online. No ordinary weapon could even hurt Dark Kosmos, but the Darkbane can kill him because it shares his essence.”
“I don’t get it,” said Cy, scratching the top of his head.
&nb
sp; “You don’t need to,” said Funky. He thrust the Darkbane into my hands. “I need you to take the Darkbane and kill Dark Kosmos with it.”
“Me?” I said as I took the sword from him. “Why not you? You seem to know a lot about Dark Kosmos, more than me at any rate.”
“I’ve got only half my Health and no Energy,” Funky replied. “And Lennox is going to need my help soon enough. Without Dillo, I am going to have to help get all of the prisoners out of here myself, something I cannot do if I am fighting Dark Kosmos.”
I frowned, but said, “Okay. So do I just stab him with this or—?”
“Yes, but it will be hard to do,” said Funky. “Dark Kosmos knows it can kill him, so he won’t just stand there and let you do it. Just take advantage of every opening you can get, okay? And don’t hesitate. Got it?”
The urgent tone in Funky’s voice took me by surprise. I’d always taken him for a pretty laid back guy, but now he seemed to be as worried and earnest as the rest of us. Not that I blamed him, given what was at stake.
I nodded. “Okay. I’ll take the Darkbane and kill Dark Kosmos while you try to get the prisoners out of here.”
Funky nodded and then ran off back toward the elevator, keeping to the shadows to avoid attracting the attention of Dark Kosmos, who was still dodging fire blasts from Lennox. I could tell, however, that Lennox was starting to get tired, with his attacks missing more than usual and also being smaller and colder than normal. That meant we didn’t have much time left.
I turned to face Cy. “All right, Cy. We’ll only have one chance to kill Dark Kosmos. If we fail, we die, because we don’t have a Healer.”
“Don’t worry about me, boss,” said Cy, giving me the thumbs up. “I’ll do whatever you need me to do. And have fun doing it.”
Despite how annoying I usually found Cy, I could not help but smile when he said that. “Then let’s do this. It’s time to end Dark Kosmos once and for all.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
Once I said that Cy and I separated. I rushed toward Dark Kosmos directly, while Cy began making his way around through the cages, doing his best not to be noticed by Dark Kosmos. Not that Cy needed to be particularly stealthy, however. Lennox was still shooting fireballs at Dark Kosmos and, while they weren’t quite as powerful as before, I imagined they still hurt if you got hit by them.
As I ran, I felt the weight of the Darkbane in my hands. It felt solid and powerful, but at the same time, it also felt … wrong, like I wasn’t supposed to hold it. I wasn’t sure why. Perhaps that was because it was a weapon players weren’t supposed to use. It did feel powerful, but as I said, it also felt wrong and I honestly could not wait to be rid of it, but only after I used it to kill Dark Kosmos.
Before I could get Dark Kosmos, he activated Shooting Stars again. This time, however, his target was not me or Cy, but Lennox. The stars appeared in the ceiling and then shot down toward Lennox like bullets. Although the Shooting Stars weren’t hard to avoid for a normal human, Lennox was too big to effectively dodge them. The dragon took several hits to the head, neck, chest, and wings, leaving bloody, burning wounds wherever they struck. It looked incredibly painful and made me wonder just how much pain Lennox was in. I also wondered why he hadn’t tried to dodge when I noticed that Funky was still trying to organize the frightened and tortured players into an orderly line to get them out of here.
Ah. Lennox was not just trying to kill Dark Kosmos but was also protecting the players to ensure they could escape. Made sense. If Dark Kosmos was truly unkillable, then that meant even Lennox in his fully-grown form could not actually defeat him. But just because something was invincible did not mean it was truly unstoppable. As long as Lennox stood, he could deflect or block even Dark Kosmos’ worst attacks, although given how badly-wounded Lennox was already, I wondered how much longer he could stand.
I raised the Darkbane above my head, aiming for Dark Kosmos’ back. One good stab in the back and—
Dark Kosmos suddenly whirled around and raised his hands. Shining silver energy like starlight blasted out of his hands and struck me in the chest. The blow sent me flying and I once again crashed down onto the floor. When I hit the floor, I heard a loud crack behind me and felt intense pain shoot up through my body as a notification popped up all of a sudden:
Debuff added: Broken back. Movement -50%. You will also lose 1 HP every time you move. Duration: 10 minutes.
What the heck? Dark Kosmos didn’t hit me that hard, did he? Then again, I was now at less than half Health from that attack of his alone. And without a dedicated Healer like Hop to heal me, I would just have to wait for it to heal naturally in ten minutes.
But I wasn’t so sure I even had ten minutes left.
Dark Kosmos had lost interest in Lennox, who had not moved from his position in front of the players. Lennox looked absolutely awful, his scales pocked with star-shaped holes and his wings barely able to stay up. He was even missing an eye and looked like he could barely stand upright.
But again, Dark Kosmos did not seem interested in him anymore. He was walking over to me, his eyes flashing red with hatred and murder. I tried to get up, but the pain from my broken back made movement impossible, not helped by the fact that when I moved, I lost 1 HP.
“Nyle, Nyle,” said Dark Kosmos as he approached me. “I saw what you were about to do. You thought to take my own weapon and use it against me. Funky gave you that idea, didn’t he?”
Although Dark Kosmos spoke in a calm voice, I could sense the absolute seething hatred lurking just beneath the surface of his cool exterior. He walked calmly, like a lion stalking a gazelle.
“So what if he did?” I said. I ground my teeth together to keep myself from screaming from the pain in my back. “It’s a good plan, given how you immediately forgot about Lennox to try to stop me.”
Dark Kosmos shook his head as he approached. “Please. That dragon is nothing more than a minor annoyance. No matter how powerful it might be, I am stronger still. You, on the other hand, wield the one weapon that could defeat me. I cannot allow that, which is why I must—”
Dark Kosmos was interrupted by a powerful gust of wind just then. He raised his hands to protect his face, but then Cy came out of nowhere and slammed his foot into the back of Dark Kosmos’ helmet. That blow actually made Dark Kosmos stagger, and Cy followed it up with several more kicks and punches, hitting Dark Kosmos with surprising speed and ferocity.
“Leave Winter alone!” Cy cried out as he punched and kicked Dark Kosmos at a shocking speed. “Or I’ll—”
I never got to find out what Cy would do, because Dark Kosmos suddenly caught Cy’s fists and crushed them. The sickening sound of bone-crunching filled my ears only to be rapidly replaced by Cy’s screams of pain.
But Dark Kosmos did not let go of Cy’s fists. Instead, he whirled around and hurled Cy to the other side of the room. Cy flew uncontrollably through the air, screaming in fear and pain, before he struck the floor with a sickening thud and stopped talking—or moving—entirely. A notification appeared in my view:
[Sidekick Cyclone] has been knocked Unconscious! He will not respond to commands or messages you send to him. Duration: 10 minutes.
Dang it. It was good he wasn’t dead, but I could tell even without Scanning him that Dark Kosmos had done more than just knocked him out. He probably lost a good chunk of his Health and maybe even had some debuffs I was unaware of. In any case, I couldn’t rely on Cy for help.
As a matter of fact, I couldn’t rely on anyone for help. Dillo and Hop were dead. Funky had exhausted all of his Energy transforming Lennox. And Lennox himself, although still in his massive form, looked quite weak and wounded. And I definitely could not rely on any of the freed players to save me, who were all too wounded and psychologically traumatized to do much against Dark Kosmos.
Dark Kosmos seemed to come to that conclusion, too. A soft, evil grin spread across his monstrous features as he approached me. He stopped in front of me and kicked the Darkbane out of
my hands and out of my reach. I tried to grab the Darkbane’s hilt, but then Dark Kosmos’ foot slammed down on my wrist and I grunted in pain.
Nonetheless, I looked up at Dark Kosmos as defiantly as I could. No way was I going to show weakness in front of him. Even if I couldn’t beat him, I wasn’t going to die crying.
Dark Kosmos tilted his head to the side. “You and your Team put up a good fight, but in the end, destiny was not on your side. It is a shame I will have to kill you now. You would have made an excellent co-ruler in the world I was going to build. There is no reason we should be enemies, you and I, seeing as we both want the same thing.”
“No, we don’t,” I said. My voice was weaker than normal, which even I couldn’t hide anymore. “I became a police officer to protect innocent people from psychos like you and Atmosfear. You’re not as crude as Atmosfear, but you’re every bit as cruel and evil.”
Dark Kosmos frowned. “What is amazing is that I can tell you believe every word you just said. Delusional, thy name is Nyle Maxwell.”
“It’s not delusion,” I said. “It’s doing the right thing. It’s called being a Hero. Because that’s what I am, and not just because that’s what my Alignment says I am.”
Dark Kosmos shook his head. “Hero and Villain, good and evil … the entire Alignment system is a sham. It means nothing. It is but a hamfisted way for the developers to arbitrarily divide players and NPCs alike. Perhaps I will do away with it entirely once I consolidate my power over the game.”
Dark Kosmos raised a hand. Silvery energy began gathering in his palm. The energy was so bright that I couldn’t see anything else except for that and Dark Kosmos’ harsh face.
“I wish things didn’t have to turn out this way, Nyle, but in the end, it appears that destiny decreed our mutual enmity,” said Dark Kosmos. “Oh, well. I can at least use you as an example to the other Project Second Life participants as to what will happen if they dare to oppose my will.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE