by Prax Venter
Then Farrah and Kron approached, and his trusted Assassin gave her side of the report.
“The way here was quiet- sand and then flower-filled fields. That was until the beam that stamps down roads tore by. We only got to this point a few minutes ago and found this meeting of the Mayors so we stopped. Oh, and Zarda is following behind us.” Farrah hitched a thumb over her shoulder. The light was started to fade but he could see another compact group moving toward them.
That’s when Supreme Mayor Reedon started to project his voice out over the crowd.
“People of this world. I know it’s easy to follow a man declaring himself a king and aggressively snatching up the land around us, but balance-”
“Stuff your balance!” Asarah shouted over him, and everyone spun to face her. Jack was especially focused on Velintanna who seemed more pissed than ever. Asarah continued. “You decided Angelshade should vanish, on purpose. Your words mean less than nothing to me.”
“I am the Mayor of Emberstone,” Farrah called out and everyone then shifted focus to her. The closest individuals inspected her and caused a wave of murmuring through those gathered at the validity of her identity. “King Jack and those of our kingdom recaptured my home from the Corruption. We defeated a Dark Tower, and I stand before you now because we fought back for what was ours.”
“I am Sevik from Angelshade,” Asarah’s husband said to those gathered right after her and he knew they’d prepared this. “I have seen Blackmoor Cove for myself, and when I left, there were five Gardeners from the Crag blocking entrance to their Tower arms linked in some form of twisted self-sacrificial attack. They were sent to prevent Heroes from climbing the Tower and feeding the Town.”
“Lies!” the Supreme Mayor said. “These are the lies I am warning you about. Please,” he pleaded, and Jack was now certain Mayor Reedon didn’t even know they were sent. “If you believe this treacherous upstart boy, and this reckless game he wants to play, we will all incur the wrath of the Corruption!”
“Where are the men listed on this page?” some stranger Jack didn’t know shouted as he waved a piece of paper over his head and others began to murmur in agreement.
“Ah,” Farrah said as she pulled a folded note from somewhere down the front of her leather armor. “Stacks of these arrived on a trade ship after you entered Brittlehorn’s Tower. Can’t fit them into our Inventory, so we have to get creative with where we carry them.”
Jack glanced at it and saw Demi’s handwriting.
Ivyset Crag attacks Blackmoor Cove
Mother Sana rots and Gardeners from across the world stand arm in arm blocking our Tower Entrance with their bodies. They seek to aid the Corruption. They seek to sacrifice our home in the name of balance.
Let all remember their names:
As the whispers in the mob grew to shouts, Jack pulled his eyes from the paper to find the infested Player from the future glaring straight at him as she whispered something to Mayor Reedon.
The flustered man with the red cupcake crown on his head stepped forward and shouted over the crowd again. “I don’t need to answer to lies inked into paper, but the named men are now in hiding because of the false accusations from this liar king. I would never-”
“Enough!” Jack shouted as he filled his hand with a torch and waved it over his head. When he had the eyes of everyone he continued, his eternal flame still held high. “Mayor Reedon makes repeated claims of balance, but I have to wonder where that idea comes from. Does he believe the Corruption will somehow spare Ivyset Crag once every inch of Mother Sana is infested? Is this balance only achieved once everyone is dead and nothing remains? Mayor Reedon makes worried noises over how the Corruption will react to the Kingdom of Blackmoor taking back more fallen Towers, but I have to wonder why he cares what the Corruption thinks.”
He raised his gaze to meet Velintanna’s one exposed eye up on her small hill and gambled on the unknowable force of nature behind it playing the long game. A game of patience. With so many witnesses, the universe-consuming entity in ultimate control would be reluctant to sacrifice the power she still held. That, and there were now countless Heroes with reality-bending special abilities throughout this mob- and most appeared to still have common sense. It gave him hope.
But reality washed over him as he prepared to set their trap. They’d only get one real shot at this because the best outcome for failing was that they wouldn’t be able to fool her again. Jack forced his voice to ignore the terror pumping through his veins and continued.
“If our true enemy can feel anger at my actions, watch me teach it fear. You go hide in your pretty gardens, Mayor. No one is asking Ivyset to get its hands dirty. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an assault to plan.”
Movement to his left pulled his eye to see Zarda and a dozen of the Brittlehorn Heroes with her entering the area. Yan was not among them- or at least, she wasn’t visible.
“Don’t mind me!” the silk-wrapped woman shouted, waving her hands. “I want no part of whatever this is. I’m here to negotiate trade routes.”
Everyone gathered started whispering again as the Mayor of Brittlehorn walked right up to who had to be the Mayor of Tyga Slopes. The two leaders looked as if they already knew each other, and Jack ginned when he saw Asarah and Sevik approaching them to join the talks.
The Orchid Oracle stalked away with the Supreme Mayor and most of the Gardeners in tow- but not all of them.
Jack pulled his wife in close into his arms as the mob started talking at once. She was practically shaking from being so close to Velintanna. Only the two of them had experienced her evil but Lex got the full brunt of it. King and Queen each absorbed sanity from the closeness of the other as they watched the people thriving in this corner of their world weave themselves together on their own.
“Come, my love,” Jack said as he kissed the golden strands of silk on the top of his Bastion’s head. “Let’s leave them to it. We have a cage to build.”
- 22 -
“Jack! Where were are you?” his wife, Queen, and Bastion called into the corrupted swamp with a melodic voice constrained with very real fear while he hid, crouched at the top of their ‘wooded siege tower’. Haylee, Belda, and Kron crouched with him, and they silently looked between themselves waiting for the Orchid Oracle to take the bait. Lex took a few steps away from the opening as she acted out her distress. “You can’t just leave me out here!”
Jack -3 | HP 1.4K/1.4K
He ignored the mid-level Corruption Drain and tried to stay focused on listening for a bite on their lure.
It had been about 48 hours since he last saw the corrupted Player in her form-hugging black dress stalking away from the meeting of rulers in the new road, and Jack had scarcely slept over that whirlwind span. The tier two salt trade was just getting started and with pristine highways linking everyone, more people from every corner of the corruption-free map traveled its world-spanning path. And all Heroes in the Kingdom receiving a universally boosted Rest Bonuses from the powerful ingredients was invaluable.
Jack had a gut feeling the damage he’d done to the existing cultural manipulation would last. Either they took out the thorn in Mother Sana’s side that was Velintanna, or she took out them, but whatever happened, Jack believed the ideas and changes they’d started would continue echoing forward.
“I can’t just leave this weapon here!” Lex shouted from below. “Jack, my love, you can’t just leave me here!”
About five minutes ago, Cabe, Farrah, and Sevik led an overwhelming force of about 63 Heroes toward the Dark Tower at the far end of this swamp, and if Jack was dumb enough to stick his head out, he knew he could probably see the magic flashes of special abilities against the early evening dimness, but that was not the plan.
It was the first attack on a Mother of Demons that Jack wouldn’t be attending. With the sheer numbers of Heroes in the region coming to see what this war on the Corruption was all about, he wasn’t much worried. Especially, since they’d built their
own mobile bunkers to help protect the ranged and cloth wearers.
It was exactly what he’d hoped would happen. The people of Mother Sana were beginning to claw back their land on their own without ‘a Player’ directly leading them forward.
While they waged war on the Dark Tower, Jack and his team pulled this log-covered Tower-Drop trap directly between Ivyset Crag and the battle with the assumption the Corruption would deploy its strongest asset to murder everyone. The thing was basically a 9ft-by-9ft hollow box about two stories high constructed completely out of weapons and armor. A woven net of cloth items covered the floor and was anchored to the back wall while indestructible cables linked the other two corners near the entrance to Kron and Belda crouched and waiting on the roof. All those stationed on top hid behind a half wall of door shields that ringed their ‘siege tower’ while Lex played the role of bait.
“Anomaly begets anomaly.” The Orchid Oracle’s unmistakable voice came slithering from the darkness of the swamp. Lex whimpered as she dashed inside what hopefully what appeared to be an enclosed siege tower made and of logs. Velintanna continued speaking calmly as she approached. “Random noise develops crude constructs outside the subroutine’s craft options? This emergent noise is disturbing and cannot be. All erased this night. ALL. No more risks. No more interference! NO MORE TIME!”
Jack’s heart pounded as the insane creature approached their trap.
“Please!” Lex pleaded from the interior below him. “I’ll not let you take any more from me, you wretch! Jack, where are you?”
They could only wait as the seconds dragged on. His wife’s true signal would allow everyone to finally move and trigger their practiced plan, but it was taking way too long. Jack squeezed his hilt as he locked eyes with his loyal Dark Prism and they focused on each other, both frozen as fear stalled their breathing.
“What is happening here?”
He finally heard their prey whisper from below, and his Bastion rolled out through her escape hatch.
It was time. Kron and Belda remained hidden while Jack and Haylee sprung their trap.
He saw Velintanna’s one vibrant eye snap up to face them for a moment before Haylee activated Rejecting Whispers as she hopped over the edge. Her ability to make others look away forced the corrupted player standing at the entrance to face the ground and then forward into their trap as the nimble Dark Prism arced over her head.
“Such tricks!” Valentina screamed into the camouflaged cage as she grabbed the entrance with her impossibly strong fist.
The instant Haylee landed and backed out of range, Jack Teleported to the ground a few steps behind their prey and employed his speed-assisted drop kick Data Blast combo to her back to knock her all the way in- yet the corrupted Orchid Oracle was dense and only staggered one foot forward as the woven structure of dropped gear creaked under the force.
Terror blossomed in his skull as Haylee’s ability wore off.
The trap had failed. With only one foot in, it would never work.
The Orchid Oracle wearing a leather bodysuit and an unhinged grin splitting her cheeks turned to face him while the competent Dark Prism behind him reacted immediately with a continual Withering Stare. Velintanna was still free, but she could now only move at half speed.
King Jack was about to rush her and try to keep this monster busy while those he loved could get away when the inspiration for one last gamble flooded his brain.
Still on the ground, he activated the five-second special ability granted by his new ring.
Future Bot Alt sprinted out of his portal a few feet from the entrance and began blaring an emergency air raid siren from his internal speakers.
“All research teams to shuttle pods!” the AI shouted, deafening Jack as he sprinted past. “I repeat, all crew evacuate ship!”
The two-thousand-year-old Player was both slowed by Haylee’s ability and stunned by the inconceivable mass of sleek metal hurtling toward her and the hand she’d used as a solid brace before was too slow to grab the frame this time. ARV Alternis slammed into his former crewmember with a textbook shoulder check, and the wild-eyed woman staggered several steps backward into their trap as the Timewalker android dissolved back into non-existence.
“Now!” Jack yelled and both Belda and Kron jumped off the other side of the structure with cables of cloth-gear gripped over their shoulders.
Inside, the netting they’d layered over the floor of their trap yanked upward into the ceiling and slammed an already off-balance Velintanna against the back wall with force.
Kron and Belda then dug in their boots and pulled the indestructible ropes tight as Lex wedged spears through to lock everything taut and in place.
“What is thissss!” Velintanna screeched, her mostly human voice slipping into a wail of impossible noise.
Jack stood, holding his palms toward the ground as if that would help him keep his balance as he watched their deadly catch thrash around in the netting. The fake logs began to fall to the ground as Kron, Belda and Lex twisted some of the exterior ropes and securely locked the struggling woman down so tightly that she could no longer move enough to rock her custom cage.
“I am absolute!” the thing that at one point was a woman screamed into the night. “These straps are an impossibility! Let me G O O O.”
Lex came dashing out from behind the structure to see Jack and Haylee safe then fell to her knees and began weeping into her hands.
Jack -3 | HP 1.4K/1.4K
With a shaking breath, King Jack turned his gaze toward the north to see the distant bursts of color pinpointing the battle for an unknown Town. If everything went according to plan, the Corruption Drain effect would go away before it mattered.
“Everyone good?” Jack shouted over the high-pitched wails of the trapped animal as he moved to pull his Bastion to her feet. She squeezed his hand and nodded.
“I- yes, we locked it down.”
He turned to Haylee still holding her position a good thirty yards from the cage and waved two fingers down through the air. The Dark Prism nodded as she drew her empty bow string and angled up into the sky before sending a pure beam of white energy toward the south.
Everyone in the region knew that was their signal for coming back home with their prize, so Kron and Belda were the first to react by slipping on their sled-pulling harnesses.
A few seconds later Jack’s heart soared when he saw similar aerial spells from both the battle in the north and from the reinforcements rushing to them from Angelshade.
Velintanna spasmed the whole way making guttural noises among begging and cursing. Several waves of mixed Demons came out of the darkness to try and free the captive but did so randomly and in small groups. With Jack, Lex, and Haylee on top of their game and high on success, they erased anything that got close. The half-giant haulers trudged onward over the sucking muck and shallow ponds of this infested swamp and before long, his 15-minute Teleport was ready. About another ten minutes after that, the Demons’ attacks on the cage had trickled down to nothing, and Jack almost jumped out of his skin when a new black lacquer interface window popped up.
‘Kingdom Update: Nettle Fen has been claimed in the name of Blackmoor Kingdom by Sevik of Angelshade. Please visit the Town to assign a different Mayor or to forbid Kingdom membership entirely.’
Before he could finish reading, the blinding white god-beam of road creation raced past from behind. Jack couldn’t help but scream into the air and thrust his hands up as if he were exulting in that first drop of a roller coaster. On top of that, the infested swamp around them instantly reverted to its pure state, but in the dimming twilight, the landscape really didn’t change much.
“You can’t exist!” the trapped Player screamed from her indestructible prison. “You can’t be doing this! Who are you?”
Jack ignored Velintanna and kissed his wife full on the lips.
“The Town’s called Nettle Fen and is now part of the Kingdom,” he announced triumphantly.
“I
was wondering how that would happen,” Haylee said, thinking notes into her personal text file. “It makes sense that the King wouldn’t need to be present for every recapture.”
“Nettle Fen,” whispered Lex. “Everyone alive forgot the name of that Town and we’ve brought it back from such an abyss. And together, we will remember the rest of our world.”
Alt filled in some details telepathically. “I estimate over 75% of the world map is still under Corruption control. We are merely facing the edge of its concentrated power, Jack. Also, I’m getting some disturbing data packets in the ambient sub-root bus regarding Velintanna’s core files. Our real foe is moving but not physically, to put it in a way that makes a modicum of sense. I think the Corruption is observing closely.”
“Good,” Jack said out loud. “Let it observe. As long as she can’t break free, do we have anything to worry about? Wasn’t this the goal from the beginning?”
Lex and Haylee both remained quiet as they started listening to the one-sided conversation.
“Yes,” Alt said. “And you of all people know I am always worrying. More attention is now on the Subroutine as opposed to the physical world than ever before- more than I predicted would be possible so fast. I cannot keep modeling the outcomes of these dramatic changes to the power balance and I cannot predict-”
“That’s life,” Jack said, cutting him off. “You wanted a virtual world with real enough people? Well, you got it.” He paused and moved closer to the Corrupted Player being pulled backward deep into his Kingdom. “This is our world and we will not let you have it.”
“Ho!” called out Bogoth from ahead. Jack left the snarling woman to check around the side and found a group of Heroes behind him and a team of Wildlife Wardens behind his niece, Asarah, all sent to escort them back to Angelshade through the Ivory Baezliks.
“This the half-demon, then?” the ancient Archer said as he peeked inside.
“Please! Free me from these villains!” she cried out in a piteous and frightfully normal voice. “You stand before the Orchid Oracle! Go, now! Tell the Supreme Mayor what you’ve seen here, and you will be rewarded by the flowing treasures of Ivyset Crag.”