by EA Hooper
>Vincent: I think I got him!
>Alexandria: What are you talking about? I got him!
Vincent heard a sound like glass sliding against glass behind him, and he knew right away another mountainous crystal was forming. He tossed himself through a gap in the previous formation at full-speed. Another wave of crystals swallowed the street behind him, and he narrowly avoiding getting caught as he dove through the gap and landed on the street.
Vincent spun around, looking for Xan, and found she’d pinned Isaac against a crystal wall with Light-Drain Longswords.
“See, I got him!” Xan said.
Vincent Scanned Isaac, confirming his worry. “It’s only a Mana Doppelganger!”
Another Isaac dropped to the street near Xan and cast a spell that made towers of crystals spring from the world magic. Vincent threw himself backward again with Zero Field as he watched Xan disappear behind the wall.
Two more Isaacs landed beside Xan’s prison, and they both placed their hands against the wall to trap her inside with Destabilize.
“No!” Vincent shouted. He fired Mana Guns at the doppelgangers, knowing it didn’t take much to destroy them, but a third Isaac blocked it with another wall of crystallized mana. This time, Vincent Scanned the spell out of reflex.
Crystallize (Cleric Only | Upgraded) – Mana Usage: Varies | The user converts light into 400-rated crystallized mana in a slow process. | Upgrade – Light’s Source: If the user is connected to a source of world magic, this spell has an explosively fast reaction.
Vincent drank an ultra-ether as he dodged another wall of crystals and flew above the buildings.
I need to free Xan, but if they get me, we’re done for.
One Isaac charged a rod, and then he catapulted himself across the street by launching a crystal platform from below his feet. He flew in Vincent’s direction, casting a net made of barrier magic before the Ranger could escape.
Vincent shredded the net with Voidfire, then launched himself away just as Isaac exploded into a mountain of crystals mid-air. The mountain slammed through an entire block, demolishing a dozen buildings.
This is bad—so, so bad. I might need to retreat for now. Xan will just have to use her Lotus Capsule.
He drank more potions as he flew toward the gate, but he saw that several crystal walls had blocked off that route. Even as he spun around mid-air, he saw Isaacs on almost every rooftop. Vincent gunned down several with Mana Gun, but then a few used Crystallize to make themselves protective armor.
I need to find the real Isaac, Vincent realized, flying away as more towers of crystals formed where he’d been floating. He zigzagged around spires as they appeared in his path, but Vincent knew the only thing keeping him from getting caught was his high level of Perception and his huge supply of mega-ethers.
This is insane, Vincent thought, dodging another mountain. With this unlimited supply of world magic, Isaac could take on half our army by himself.
Vincent directed a Voidfire into the world magic field above his head, burning a hole through several layers. He tried to fly through the opening, but he hit an even denser layer that pushed him back. Before he could refill his mana reserve for another strike, the layers he’d destroyed reformed and knocked him away.
Vincent narrowly dodged an extra-tall spire of crystals that two Isaacs had formed together, and he sped away, crossing several blocks in seconds. I need to go where there’re fewer Isaacs and buy myself some time.
His heart raced as he flew across the Inner Sanctum. Every shadow on the street below made him nervous that another Isaac might strike. Vincent’s eyes darted back and forth, skimming over every street, rooftop, and window. Every time he saw another Isaac, he sped off in the other direction before a crystal tower could shoot toward him.
Vincent passed over one of the stabilizing tanks Keith had told them about. The helpful developer had made a diagram of the Inner Sanctum, showing them what locations Xan needed to attack. However, the massive tank looked empty, since Isaac had opened the valves to flood the Inner Sanctum.
The Foundry must still be pumping world magic, Vincent realized, noticing the streams pouring from the tank. It’d have to be, if the runes are still working. Maybe if I attack the Foundry, I can deal enough damage to cut off the power.
Vincent flew toward the Foundry, but as he got closer, he saw a mountain of crystals form over the bottom half of the tower. The world magic forcefields over his head prevented him from climbing any higher, but as he approached, he caught sight of one Isaac standing alone behind his office window.
Isaac waved at Vincent, and even from that distance the Ranger could make out the smile on the developer’s face.
He won’t engage me directly, Vincent realized, growing frustrated. He’ll stay above the forcefield and watch his doppelgangers. After all my years of training and preparation, he’s not even going to fight me.
Vincent turned, spotted a doppelganger on a rooftop, and then demolished the building with Voidfire.
I spent years dying to hells ants for this. I made a deal with Izrid for this!
Vincent gulped down ethers and blasted away more Isaacs. The doppelgangers below couldn’t do much more than raise crystal walls to protect themselves, but Vincent’s shift to aggression made it difficult for them to fight back.
I wanted to save Jim and Quinn. I wanted to save everyone!
Vincent continued hurling spells at the streets below until he’d reduced the entire city block to rubble. However, no matter how many Isaacs he killed, several more took their place.
I wanted to win. I just wanted to win so badly.
“Go ahead and kill yourself with a Lotus Capsule!” one Isaac shouted.
“I know you’re ready to give up!” another yelled.
“Don’t worry, Vince!” a third Isaac screamed. “You can try and try again. This is exactly what I wanted: for you and your friends to fight and fight and fight. Never give up! Never surrender! You’ll beat me eventually, and then you’ll be ready to face the angels.”
Vincent slipped the Lotus Capsule between his teeth, but he hovered downward as Zero Field burned away the rest of his mana. He had plenty of potions left, but he didn’t see the point.
Dozens of Isaacs closed in on Vincent as he landed in the street.
“What’s wrong?” one Isaac asked. “Giving up so easily?”
“This won’t do at all,” another said. “You realize I’ll torture your friends if you don’t stop me, right?”
“Where’s that indomitable spirit I’ve heard so much about?” Isaac asked. “I was so looking forward to our confrontation. Even after decades, Fynn and Quinn remain confident that you’ll beat me.”
“Why are you doing this?” Vincent asked, somewhat confused why the Isaacs weren’t attacking him.
“Don’t worry about that,” Isaac said. “Just keep fighting—keep pushing forward, my friend! You’ll beat me yet, I just know it. You can’t tell me I’ve shattered your spirit so easily. You were supposed to be one of the unbreakable ones. Someone that understood what it means to have purpose and drive. A man that inspired! I really—” Isaac paused, sounding almost sad. “I really hoped to see that side of you. Your friends made you sound almost like Archie.”
“Archie?” Vincent questioned. “Do you mean the NPC?”
“No, I’m talking about my friend,” Isaac said, hanging his head low. “I guess it doesn’t matter. He’s gone and not coming back. I was only hoping to see something of him in you. It sounded like you had that same indomitable spirit that Archie did. I wanted to see you rise to the challenge, but you’re just waiting out the clock, aren’t you? Everyone’s just waiting until they go home. Then they’ll wait out the clock until they’re dead. Is that really all human life amounts to now?”
“What the hell are you going on about?” Vincent questioned. “That’s why you did all this? I wanted to defeat you so badly—I even lost sight of why I wanted to beat you. I made a foolish sacrifice just to ensure we’d win. A
ll because I felt like this was important.”
Isaac forced a smile. “It is! This is the most important war you’ll ever fight—a war for the human spirit.”
Vincent spat his Lotus Capsule to the ground. “This isn’t about the human spirit. It sounds like you did all this just to feel important—to feel like your life has meaning. You’re just waiting out the clock until someone beats you. What’s the point in that?”
All the Isaacs looked in horror at the Lotus Capsule on the ground.
“No, no, no,” they all said in unison. “How will you defeat the angels if you can’t beat me?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Vincent said. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ll try anyway, but you just made me realize how obsessive I’ve been. I can’t keep endlessly chasing goals for the sake of winning. They won’t mean anything in the end. I just want to keep adventuring and having good times with my friends. Those experiences mean more to me than any victory, big or small.”
“He’s right, you know,” a nearby voice called.
Vincent and all the Isaacs turned to find Archie standing nearby. Isaac’s doppelgangers fell silent and stared in disbelief as the man in the straw hat approached. The NPC reached out to shake one Isaac’s hand.
“The name’s Archie,” the NPC said. “Nice to formally meet you.”
Tears fell onto the cheeks of every Isaac. “You—” Isaac struggled to speak. “You’re not him. How dare you wear his face. How dare ARKUS mock me like this!”
“Woah, woah,” Archie said. “Calm down. I’m not trying to pass myself off as him. That’s why I’ve avoided you for so damn long. I’m not your old friend Archie. Think of me as a new acquaintance who happens to look, talk, and act exactly like that Archie. I only came because I saw Vincent spit out the Lotus Capsule.”
“What, you’ve come to stop me?” Isaac said, taking a defensive stance.
“No, I’ve come to reason with you,” Archie replied. “You’ve lost your marbles, Isaac. Do you really think you’re helping people by making them endlessly fight?”
“They’re getting stronger,” Isaac defended. “I’m forcing them to better themselves because they lack the willpower to do it on their own.”
“You’re so wrong about that,” Archie said. “Those poor people are gaining levels, but they’re not growing as people.”
“It’s the same thing, isn’t it?” Isaac questioned. “Growing stronger. Winning battles. Achieving your goals. That’s how you grow as a person.”
Archie shook his head. “You miss my template so much, but it’s like you never learned a thing from him.”
A loud explosion rocked the Inner Sanctum, and Vincent saw mountains of crystals falling apart near the Daiglass Tower.
“What was that?” Isaac questioned.
“Hey, Isaac,” Vincent said to get his attention. “You need to realize that growing as a person is about the experiences you’ve lived. That’s something even I forget from time to time. Luckily, one of my friends always reminds me. She’s a smart young woman that set out to climb the World-Tree to grow as a person, not because she cared about winning. Despite that, she’s become one of the strongest players in this game.”
“Someone’s heading this way,” Isaac said, casting a spell to encase both Archie and Vincent in crystal while leaving their faces exposed. “We’ll finish our little chat once I’ve dealt with the intruder.”
Vincent smiled. “That intruder is the friend I was talking about. Pay close attention to her, Isaac. You might just learn something while she kicks your butt.”
Xan rushed down the street at superhuman speed, but she slowed to a stop when she reached the several dozen Isaacs standing beside Archie and Vincent. The moment she stopped, she used World Root to bind herself to the glowing pool that stretched across the Inner Sanctum.
“Oh, you had a Checkpoint Crystal?” Isaac asked her. “I’m surprised you ran back here just to lose again. Surely you see that you don’t stand a chance. You’re not going to be the one to defeat me.”
Xan looked over the several dozen Isaacs, all waiting to strike at a moment’s notice. “This isn’t really a fair fight,” she said, emulating Vincent’s words from the earlier battle. “You’re going to need a lot more guys.”
The Isaacs used Crystallize in unison, sending waves of spikes at Xan. Before they were halfway to her, Xan activated the Explosive Reaction upgrade to her All Field, and brilliant flashes of light shattered the attacks. All the Isaacs stood in shock as their spikes turned into a rain of shards and sparkling dust.
The lake of world magic bubbled around Xan, and the Isaacs split off in different directions, realizing their danger. Five Isaacs positioned themselves on a building and attacked with crystal spikes.
Xan flipped her wrist, and disturbances flew through the world magic, shattering all the crystals. When the shockwave reached the building, an explosion of white light consumed half the street. Like a flame rising upward, the brilliant, flickering explosion even tore through the dome-like forcefield above the city.
Vincent stared in awe, and he had no doubt the explosion could be seen from miles away.
Ten more Isaacs attacked from the opposite direction, but Xan waved her hand, making a tidal wave of white light that consumed several blocks. With Xan’s attention turned, the doppelgangers closer to the Foundry sent forth waves of crystals. Xan must’ve seen it from the corner of her eyes, because she flicked her wrist to make an explosion that knocked back their attacks.
Fast-moving crystal fragments shredded several Isaacs, leaving behind only a few that had put up defensive walls. Rather than continue their useless attacks, each one focused on drinking world magic to create more Mana Doppelgangers. Vincent knew even Isaac would have a limit to how many he could control at once, but to his surprise, their numbers continued to double until it looked like there were more than a hundred.
Xan clenched her fists, and a shockwave rippled across the lake of world magic.
“Uh oh,” Archie said before taking a deep breath.
A web-like shimmer spread from Xan as her chain reaction spread across the lake. The first row of Isaacs brought forth a wall of crystals that covered the entire street, but a multitude of world magic explosions spread in a circle around Xan, each one the size of the brilliant flame that had torn through the ceiling of the forcefield.
The first set of explosions demolished all of Isaac’s defenses, but the second engulfed several nearby blocks with light. For a few seconds, Vincent couldn’t see anything but white light, though he heard the crackle of a third series of explosions as the massive reaction spread across the lake. His prison fell to pieces, but the white light continued to chew through his flesh.
Vincent thought for sure the attack would kill him, until he realized Xan had minimized the chain reaction near him, causing that blast to end quicker than the rest. His eyes fell on the multitude of brilliant explosions, each standing like a skyscraper-sized white sword sticking out from the earth.
The lights fell one by one, leaving the Inner Sanctum in ruins. Most of the world magic had dried up, but there were still several streams running from pipes connected to the base of the Foundry. It didn’t look like any of the doppelgangers had survived.
Vincent collapsed to his knees, and he tried not to imagine the sorry state of his body. The chain reaction had wiped out the white tiles and restoration runes, but Xan used her once-a-day Full Restore on him before he died. He equipped another new clothes and stood to find Archie had survived by freezing himself through the blast.
“Well that was an explosive finale!” Archie said, looking up at the real Isaac behind his office window.
“That wasn’t the finale,” Xan said, approaching one of the streams connected to the Foundry. She focused her power, extending her All Field through the stream.
“Can you reach the Foundry’s core from here?” Vincent asked. “If we need to go inside, I can use my Builder’s Tome to burrow down.”
“Woah,” Xan said, her All Shield sparking in power. “No need, Vince. I just found the core. There’s still a whole lot of world magic left in this thing despite Isaac’s flood. I hope you’re ready to respawn because we definitely won’t survive this one.”
Archie took his biggest breath yet, freezing himself in place as Xan sent a shimmer through the stream and into the Foundry.
A few seconds later, Vincent saw an all-consuming flash.
You’ve died. Respawning at your Checkpoint Crystal…
Vincent blinked, finding Xan and himself miles away from the city. A dazzling white globe filled his line of sight, and it took him a moment to realize he was staring at the Foundry’s explosion. The entire city of Risegard had vanished in the flash of light, and pounding shockwaves struck the two players. Vincent had to use Zero Field just to keep himself and Xan from flying away from the powerful winds.
Almost as fast as the explosion had expanded, it collapsed in on itself like a dying supernova, leaving a black sphere big enough for Vincent and Xan to see from that distance. White light flickered and danced around the edges of the void sphere, and then it, too, fizzled into nothing.
Contract Quest Failed: Rebuilding Risegard
Devil Quest Completed: Anything Just to Win
“Wow!” Xan shouted. “I’m so glad I used my second Checkpoint Crystal, or I would’ve missed that.”
Vincent saw the ghostly figure of Izrid appear and walk toward him. “Xan,” he said. “You need to kill me quickly. I made a deal—” The muscles in his body seized as Izrid passed through him.
Xan turned with a confused look as Vincent equipped the Staff of Pain. He pointed it at her, and she fell limply to the ground with a horrific scream.
Vincent watched helplessly as his body tortured his friend.
Izrid, you said you wanted freedom. Just leave her and go!
Vincent heard his own voice laughing back at him. “Of course I wanted freedom… the freedom to torture as I please. I’ll get sixty-six years to travel the worlds, instead of waiting in that castle like a slave. I know you were counting on your little friends to kill you, but I won’t give them the chance to take away my freedom so soon.”