“Matteo.” Kabaka’s voice rang out, piercing through all the rage and frustration.
“Not now,” said Matteo. “Don’t even try to convince me that this worm here needs saving.”
“Everyone needs saving in this world. At least hear him out.”
“For what?” screamed Matteo again, this time right in Boran’s face. “What is he going to tell me that could remotely change my mind?”
“This is not what we are about, Matteo.” Kabaka’s voice was soft, caring. It was like an older brother gently teaching his younger sibling how to be a better person. He wasn’t just speaking to defuse the situation. There was a deep concern in the man’s voice—a concern that was not just for Boran, but for Matteo as well.
“He is just an opportunist, Kabaka. You have to see that.”
“But do you know his reasons? Aren’t we all opportunists?”
“We don’t take advantage of people’s lives, damn it,” said Matteo. He did not scream. There was no way he would raise his voice against Kabaka. The respect and admiration he owed the man was immense. It was complete.
“Listen to me, Matteo. It is true that we are defined by our actions. But do you know all this man’s actions to clearly judge him, without prejudice or bias?”
The words made sense. They held so much truth in them, that the weight of their honesty bore down on Matteo’s conscience, slowly crushing his rage.
Yet it was too late. Kabaka’s message had reached Matteo at a time when his anger was strong enough to bear the pressures of wisdom. He did not think. Blocking out outside noises, Matteo chose to simply react. He had to do this. Once and for all.
He raised his fist and brought it down.
“No, Matteo,” Kabaka’s voice rang out in alarm.
The punch had landed on the ground, next to Boran’s face.
Breath escaped Matteo in heaves. He didn’t separate his fist from the ground until he had exhausted all his anger. When he thought that he had gotten his emotions under control, he dropped to his back and stared up at the ceiling of green, a few openings here and there letting in the morning sun.
It seemed as though the forest had gotten quieter, as though all the creatures were bearing witness to the scene and were holding their breath to find out what would happen next. Matteo closed his eyes for a few seconds, hoping that perhaps some inner contemplation might help him discover the root of his anger. There was nothing there except memories. Flashes of the experience he had both endured and sometimes loved zipped through his eyes like a projector that had somehow managed to speed up.
Footsteps approached him. He opened his eyes to find Shaury looking down at him, a hand held out.
“No time to rest, Matteo. The fight isn’t over,” she said. “You are not alone.”
Shaury’s words had power in them. They were like a crutch, helping someone stand up on their feet and face the day. Matteo leaned toward them. He absorbed their support. Reaching out to her hand, he allowed himself to be hoisted up. Emiri was let go and she was next to her brother, checking his face.
Then Matteo’s and Boran’s eyes met. It wasn’t difficult to notice that the two would love to allow their fists to do the talking. Matteo could see that he would win. Not because he was stronger or because his ego spoke to him, but he could see that the fight had all but made its exit from Boran. The brother looked defeated. Deflated.
“I know what you think of me,” said Boran, leaning back on his hands and looking up at the sky. “You can despise me all you want.”
“I think I’ve lost the will to do that,” said Matteo, running his sleeve across his mouth to clean a patch of dirt he felt was there near the corner of his lips. “Thanks for the help. We can take it from here.”
“You have my weapon.”
“And your sister’s. You’re not getting them back. Go ahead and tell Olympus or whoever you want.” Matteo paused, considering something. “I’m sure they would love to know that you lost two Crossbolts to the enemy. After already losing the Minotaur Horn.”
Emiri stepped forward but Boran held her back. “Do you remember Xipe Totec’s last words when you dropped here in Midgard?”
There was something in the way that Boran had asked the question. Matteo decided to indulge the brother, partly because he wanted this to be over with and partly because he was genuinely curious to know what the other man had to say.
“He asked me to reach the hall quickly.”
“Nothing else? Nothing else about, maybe, a meeting?”
Slowly, the piece of information came together in Matteo’s mind. He did remember the god’s last words, but they had been cut off before the divine being could deliver them. The words rang through his mind, but found another string of ideas to latch on to. More particularly, why had Boran referred to it?
In fact, how did he even know?
“Xipe Totec,” said Matteo, already knowing what he was about to hear, but wanting Boran to say it, “wanted me to meet someone when I reached the great hall, he wanted—”
“You to meet me,” said Boran. “I was your contact.”
Level 9
There were seven people near the stream.
For a while, the only sounds one could hear were the chewing and the occasional biting of fruit. If a wandering party were to stumble across the seven, then all they would be able to see were two groups: one with five people and the other with two.
Matteo and Boran were the two sitting away from the rest. The former tried to wonder what would have happened if he had made contact with the latter. Then his mind began to play with scenarios. Why hadn’t Boran reached out to him when they first met? What were the brother’s intentions? Was he playing an elaborate game or was he planning something a lot more complex?
So many questions that created doubt, concerns, and mistrust.
“So why not tell me you were waiting for me before we fought the Minotaur?” asked Matteo.
Taking another bite out of an apple, Boran chewed on it for a while before he responded. “I was told to wait for Godlike.”
“So Xipe Totec tells you I might be arriving but fails to mention my real name? I thought they were the ones who launched the video game version of their world. They should know the real names of the players. Or else this is going to make a lot less sense.”
Boran began to fidget with his apple. “They did know the real names.”
And there it was. Matteo understood what Boran had done. It didn’t make it any easier hearing the man confess. For now, it was important to get to the ‘why’ of the matter.
“What were you planning, Boran?”
Silence. Then Boran’s voice broke out, somehow sounding smaller than before, if that was even possible. “Emiri and I,” started Boran, and Matteo was glad that the brother didn’t try to pretend that he didn’t understand the question, “we are not what you think.” Nervous fingers began rolling the fruit.
“After this moment, we’re not going to wait anymore,” said Matteo. “They are going to start asking the Shockers to move in. I know they said the third day. But even if they made us run to the forest quite literally after half a day had passed, they are still going to count that as one day. I know Olympus, I have fought him before. He is dangerous because you think he is having some thought, when he is thinking something else entirely.”
A quick nod from Boran. “Yeah, I can believe that.”
“Besides, if I’m wrong and the Shockers don’t turn up tomorrow, then that’s good for us, right?”
“Sounds like it.”
“Then start talking. And, please, don’t draw this out longer than it has to be.”
Boran pushed the base of his palm into his eyes. When his eyes were revealed, there was a look of fear in them. The more Matteo watched the fear develop, the more he realized that it wasn’t about a particular person or event. He might just be making a guess, but Matteo felt as though Boran was truly worried about just one person in the world.
His
sister.
“You should know something about us. Something that we haven’t told anyone, except you, right now.” Boran looked at the man sitting beside him. “Do you know why Xipe Totec would even ask you to meet Emiri and me?”
Matteo had not known. Once the question had left Boran’s lips, it became obvious. It was like a lightning strike, a truth that should have made itself known the moment the brother had revealed that he was Xipe Totec’s contact.
“You are an Agri.”
A slow nod filled with a lot of hesitation.
“Does Olympus know?” said Matteo.
Another nod. This time, Boran did not hold back the tears from escaping his eyes. In fact, it almost seemed as though he was letting them loose, as though he had been holding them for so long that the dams of his mental capacity had burst open, creating a physical reaction.
“That man is dangerous. There is nothing that he won’t do to hold on to whatever power he has. He loves it.”
“Why is he holding you both hostage?”
Boran made a small tsk sound, as though he couldn’t believe Matteo could even answer that question. For a moment, he sat there, pushing out his cheek with his tongue, letting his tears do the talking.
“What do you think happens when people who have power, and who control other people, do when they are bored? They play with them, Matteo. They know they have all the control and that much power is tempting. It starts off small enough. And just like that,” Boran snapped his finger in front of Matteo’s face, who didn’t flinch, “it becomes something grotesque. Those who cannot fight back hold their breaths, waiting for the powerful to forget about them. Not notice them.”
Glancing at his sister, Boran’s eyes softened. “Why do you think the battle royale was created? Because the few on top were just bored of sitting there, doing nothing, while a few gods kept them as pawns in a bigger game.”
Boran’s voice had elevated. He was practically yelling through clenched teeth. “The NPCs. The Shockers. Lysander owning people. All of it. The only reason Emiri and I escaped all of that was because Olympus saw some use for us.”
Another small pause. “Olympus needs an army, Matteo. And he will do anything to get it.”
“What about the NPCs?” said Matteo. “Why not turn them into his soldiers?”
A snort escaped Boran. “Who’s going to do the house chores, eh?”
When he looked at his teammates, Matteo noticed that they had stopped eating. Some of them were not looking at him or Boran, but their ears were tuned in.
Something about what Boran said popped into Matteo’s mind. “You said they were bored. How long were they here?”
A release of breath. “Two years,” answered Boran.
“That’s not possible,” said Matteo. “I was playing against Olympus less than a day and half ago.” He thought back to the previous conversation he’d had with the brother. “You mentioned a time jump.”
The tears had dried up. Perhaps there was nothing more to be said. “Do you know how you arrived here?”
Matteo nodded. He heard footsteps behind him and didn’t have to turn to realize that the others had drawn closer. They wanted to know, as well. “I closed my eyes and when I opened them, I was here.”
Boran nodded. “That’s how every player entered this world. As soon as they closed their eyes, they were transported through space and into this dimension. But something else happened.” A small pause, not for dramatic effect, but because he seemed to be organizing his information. “We were transported through time, as well.”
No one asked a question. They didn’t want to break Boran’s train of thoughts. Eventually, having formed an explanation, the young man continued. “Not everyone who reached this world did so at the same moment. They would appear here any time within a two-year span. A few would appear on the first day while another person could appear on the last day of the second year.”
“Why two years?”
“As far as I know,” said Boran, “and this came from Xipe Totec himself, by the way, it took a lot of power to transport people from one dimension to another all at the same time. Two years was the least amount of time the gods could take to make sure they had everyone they wanted in this world.”
Matteo rolled Boran’s explanation around in his head. Alonzo spoke up and no one was surprised, since he might have already figured it out. “So, Sir Godlike might have gone to sleep after I did, but he might have arrived here before me?”
Boran nodded, a confused look creasing his face. “Sir Godlike?”
“Don’t ask,” said Kenji.
“Do you remember the date when you were last on Earth, Sir Godlike?” asked Alonzo, ignoring the conversation about him.
“July twenty-first.”
Alonzo sat back, his eyes opening slightly wider as though he had realized something. “I was on November the third.”
“I got here just when the Shockers were rounding people up to become NPCs,” said Shaury.
“That was six months after the first people arrived,” said Boran.
Shaury nodded. “And I remember lying on my bed. I remember the song that was blasting through the headphones. I remember looking at my phone, waiting for the seconds to tick by before the next day started. December fifteen.”
“So, people can leave our world any time they want to, but that does not mean they arrive in this world in the same order,” said Kabaka.
“Which explains why Olympus, even though he might have left around the same time I did, came here long before me,” said Matteo, biting his lower lip gently.
“He was one of the first people here, along with his two sidekicks,” said Boran.
The wind blew gently against Matteo’s face. It was almost a caress, like a parent comforting their child to let them know that everything will be okay. Yet the child knew better—things were about to get worse. Still, for the time being, it was nice to have the touch.
“I just want my sister to be okay,” said Boran. “I don’t know what this world has for me or if it is worth exploring. But I know that one day, I would like for her to go back. To Earth. To Mama’s hot soups in the morning and shawarmas on the weekends. To the scent of Papa as he returns from work, often ready to tell stories of his day. I just want her to not lose that for any of this.”
The sigh that escaped Boran’s lips was broken. It was as though the last semblance of hope that the young man carried escaped his body. Despite everything that had happened, Matteo could not hold on to the anger he held for the other man. And, just like Boran, he allowed a breath to escape his lips, letting all of that animosity exit his body.
Pushing himself to his feet, Matteo stood in front of the young man. His hand extended outward, he imbued his voice with as much understanding as he could muster. “We still have some fight left in us. Let’s do this.”
Matteo thought it would take a while for Boran to respond, but the gesture was immediate. The man gripped Matteo’s hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet. “I hope you’re not going to ask for an apology.”
A smile touched Matteo’s face. “You saved our lives. So, thank you.”
Boran nodded, looking away to hide the one traitorous tear that gave away his emotion. Emiri walked up to her brother and placed a hand on his shoulder, which was cupped instantly.
Blinking away a few times but not really facing Matteo, Boran spoke with a forced bravado. “So, what’s our next move? Think you’ve got that figured out?”
“Well,” Matteo began, looking at each of his new allies, “we do have new additions to the team. I think we are going to need a lot more additions.”
“How are we going to do that?” asked Kenji.
“Well, first, we need to have a leader,” said Matteo, and raised his hands before anyone’s train of thought might lead them down the wrong path. “I’m not declaring myself as one. I want you guys to vote. And I will make a vote, as well.”
Glances were thrown about the group. Boran
and Emiri seemed to look at each other like they didn’t know what to do.
“Just to be fair,” continued Matteo, “I won’t ask Boran and Emiri to vote for me. They can pick themselves, or they can stay out of this.”
“Who are you kidding?” said Boran, his face a mask of acceptance as he looked straight at Matteo. “You got us here this far. I don’t think there is anyone better suited to the role than you.”
“Still, I would like you guys to think.”
“You are meant to be in this role, Great One. Accept it, and lead us to freedom.”
An awkward silence ensued, one that was completely ignored by Alonzo, who looked like he had a mission to accomplish.
“Just accept it, dude,” said Kenji. “Let’s get going and kick some Shocker butt.”
Matteo shook his head. “I’m not putting myself as a leader candidate.” He received surprised looks from everyone. “I am voting Kabaka as the leader of this group.”
He’d expected maybe a few more surprised looks, perhaps some people launching into a discussion on exactly who would be the right person for the role. But he’d never expected the quiet acceptance from his teammates. Boran and Emiri—and perhaps they were teammates, as well, just not in this election of a leader—looked like they were comfortable with anything.
“What do you see in me?” asked Kabaka, not as a challenge or because he was looking down on himself, but because he was genuinely curious.
“You were the first one to talk about sticking together. You were ready to sacrifice your life to save people you barely know, because you felt they were worth saving. Heck, you ran head-first into that Minotaur, and it’s because of you that we are a team.” Matteo took a deep breath. “And you stopped me from taking the path of violence. Boran is here, uninjured and part of our team, because of you. I don’t think I could have done that, Kabaka. The thoughts you had never would have occurred to me.”
“He’s right,” said Kenji. “I came back because I couldn’t think of not returning the favor to the big man. A life for a life.”
“You did rally us all together,” agreed Shaury. “I can’t imagine you not doing that with others.”
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