by Prax Venter
“Ha!” Asarah said from next to him. “Your handouts are laughable when you’d just as easily see us dead. What were you doing out of your glittering Crag and in the Corruption, anyway?”
“The false king and queen lured me there!”
“Oh?” Bogoth said, as they walked alongside the cage on skis as now six strong Heroes hauled it forward faster than before. “Tempt you into the dark alone with their ‘flowing treasures’, did they? Or did they tempt a beast by wiggling the body and blood it seeks? Ha! Not as cunning as I’d been led to believe. Who do you think supervised this trap’s construction?”
Velintanna kept her mouth shut for the rest of the way until they pulled her to just south of the Town within the mangrove forest where the Kingdom had begun a much larger construction project.
“The plan was for me to pop over to our new territory and check in,” Jack said as Lex, Haylee, and Kron stood surveying the dome-like framework of what the locals dubbed South Drop Hold. “But the Town is already part of the Kingdom, so…”
His Bastion squeezed him against her, then held him at arm’s length and looked into his eyes.
“Go, my love. We will safeguard this monster while you make yourself seen leading our Kingdom ever forward.”
With a nod to his Advisor, King Jack moved up the stairs and passed by several red rind pumpkins carved with simple shapes and faces. They were mostly a sloppy mess, but the primitive works of art were just the beginning of a new age of enlightenment. With his chest swelling with pride, Jack moved to the edge of the white wooden deck and found opportunistic settlers already traveling north along the new road to Nettle Fen.
Far up ahead in the darkness, he noticed three pairs of torches had already been spaced out to either side of the road, and he used those tiny pinpoints of light to zip ahead at least eight miles.
A warmer climate rushed forward to meet him along with the cheers of celebration within in a Level 1 Town resting on ancient mossy stones.
“Welcome to Nettle Fen,” Farrah said from behind and he turned to see her waiting for him near one of the torches jabbed into the ground near the white paver road. “We saw Haylee’s ray. You better tell me everyone survived.”
He held up his palms. “Everyone’s fine, and the oracle is locked down. Now, you better tell me the same.”
She gave him a devious smile and then pointed to something over his right shoulder. Jack spun to see three Tower-drop bunkers half submerged into the ground.
“Everyone lived, but for many it came too close. We didn’t consider the softness of the swamp and some of the smarter Heroes adjusted on the fly with modifications from the emergency pieces in their inventory while others retreated through holes. In the end, a few Behemoths kept their focus on the empty fortifications without knowing no one was home, so they worked in our favor regardless. You should have seen the mess our team of four Fire Mage Heroes made from the safety of their sturdy bunker. It was art.”
“We’re doing it, Farrah. We’re taking it all back.”
She nodded her head toward the new Town, and they strolled toward the celebrating mass of Heroes.
“We might need to find a new Mayor of Emberstone,” she said in her non-sarcastic tone saved for special occasions. “I… derived great pleasure from this assault, but not just from taking back our world- don’t get me wrong when I say that’s old news for me. This though, this was a mystery. Lands undiscovered with new sights, some unpleasant smells, but absolutely unknown. And there is a vast mystery to the east, Jack. No one has known what’s over there for countless generations. This is our world, but that out there is a new world.”
“King Jack!” someone shouted and before long, dozens of Heroes had surrounded him, chanting his name over and over.
And most of them were strangers.
Then, a familiar face caught his eye and Jack remembered the super high-level Hero he’d met his first day in Ivyset Crag. The one who’d stacked speed bonus gear. This man was with the Gardeners and mild concern began to spread when his imagination filled in the idea of powerful infiltrators blending in to cause problems- but the other man caught him gawking and placed his hand over his chest armor before bowing his head once.
“Maybe he had come here for that,” Alt whispered in his ear. “And even if he did nothing to aid in the victory, witnessing the recapture of a Dark Tower may have banished all doubts.”
King Jack held up his hands for quiet so he could cap this endless chanting off with the words of wisdom they expected. He started projecting his voice and the cheering faded into rapt attention.
“When I spawned in Mother Sana, everyone I met had told me it was impossible to take back a Dark Tower. Look at what you’ve accomplished tonight, then imagine what wonders we could accomplish as we grow united against this common foe. This victory proves nothing is impossible, and as one unstoppable force burning a swath of cleansing flame across these unknown lands, we will show the vanishing Corruption the meaning of fear!”
- 23 -
“How are you feeling,” Jack said as he slipped past the thick black curtain obscuring the imprisoned Orchid Oracle. “Need anything? Some water?”
“Your jailer tries to drown me,” she snarled, her one good eye locked on him.
Jack took a seat on a stool tucked into the corner of the small, secluded space where a half-Demon remained tied to a wall by twisted cloth armor.
“No, no,” he said with a concerned frown. “We just don’t want you to die of dehydration is all. I’ve heard you won’t drink when the cool refreshments are offered nicely… so- Hey, I figure since you and I are from, you know, alternate reality Earths, we could chat about bad traffic, who has the best pizza, your favorite sitcom. You know, human stuff.”
“I know not what nonsense you speak, king of fabrications.”
“I understand,” Jack said, nodding. “You have to keep up this act or the Corruption will hurt you, but it’s just you and me under this Tower-dropped construct. Try and get some information out of me. Ask me anything.”
The Orchid Oracle narrowed her gaze at him.
“Come on,” he said. “Everyone thinks you speak half-nonsense anyway. I know scientists from my version of Earth would be salivating over the opportunity to have a conversation with an alternate reality human. Not to mention with the enemy who out-smarted you.”
She still only watched him, so he shrugged and stood to leave.
“The artificial intelligence,” Velintanna said, and he froze. “His core has entered this subroutine?”
It took a moment to wipe the grin from his face, but Jack eventually turned around and sat back down.
“No, it’s more like what happened with you and the Corruption, but more free will.”
“The starship instructed you to build this ludicrous netting from items?”
Jack shook his head. “Nope. It’s a big rule of his not to tell me very much at all. Mostly information I already know or have access to. Tower-dropped items used for construction, for example, kind of sprouted from my experience with video games on Earth. I always hated the ones where the developers wasted my time with weapon and armor degradation. Ugh, where you’re forced go to find a blacksmith and spend resources repairing your equipment- no thanks. Too much like a real job. Undamageable gear is simply a law of physics here in my world, so I adapted. This application of Tower-dropped constructs was mostly the Queen’s idea. Your imprisonment of my wife left an impression.”
“This is not your world, outsider.”
“Oh, but it is,” Jack countered right away. “This is my home where my friends and family are. I love-”
“Disgusting,” she spat. “You love recursive function calls? You’re just a basic heathen, then, cozying up to clumps of data for carnal pleasures. These things are figments of light that can be switched off in an instant and nothing of value would be lost.”
Jack studied the multihued shields that made up the floor of the cell for a moment before respondi
ng.
“I really thought you were a smart, futuristic scientist. If what you just said was in any way true, we both know the life-eating entity pulling your strings wouldn’t be pulling your strings to eat them. Now would it? So, they matter. You backed the wrong horse when you switched sides, scientist lady.”
She stared at him for a short while and then asked another question.
“Before uploading your mind to the subroutine, what task did you perform to earn your keep?”
“Cave mapper,” he answered easily. “I used radio waves to capture 3D models so diggers could plan the best extractions. That’s how I stumbled on the war between a cosmic disease and ARV Alternis. The Corruption almost got me, but your old spaceship killed me instead and uploaded what was left of my mind into a new spawn here. I ended existence in one universe and began life again in another at the same age. Even trade.”
“So, you’ll die and that’s it?” the imprisoned woman snorted.
“I will die,” Jack said, “but this virtual world has never contained digital life who’ve ever been as focused inward. They look at themselves now. Question the nature of their reality. All that juicy existential stuff that drives your boss wild.”
Velintanna started laughing and there was no hiding the madness bulging past her seams.
“I will die before you do, irrelevant king Jack. Through successful starvation or natural age, or some other idea that comes to me in my isolation. However it comes, this trapped shell will wither and fade. Then I will emerge as a child again with a child’s freedom to make small moves.
“This world is a game I know well, it is all I am. Eventually, over the decades, your ideas will be eclipsed by mine. My little Reedon will quiver with inaction and Ivyset will remain a bubble always cradling those who fall back into the cowering ways they know.
“Your pathetic army currently harrying the fringes will require generations to swell enough before any hope of confronting the absolute concentration of power that awaits you.” She started laughing again. “I’ve been playing for over 200,000 years! You are just a speck! A temporary setback to Subroutine Sana’s extermination. And because you added at least another 50 years to my endless subjugation, I will do everything in my power to make sure your family line always befalls great tragedy, generation after generation until I watch the last sorrow-soaked child of this worthless simulation finally consumed by the void!”
Jack swallowed hard. She did have time on her side, but he believed she’d underestimated what the people of this world were capable of. He smiled up at her and finished his thought out loud.
“Vel, sweety, you just underestimated several people at once.”
He then stood and pulled aside the curtain to reveal Supreme Mayor Reedon, Lex, and Haylee standing behind it. Both her good and milky eye opened wide for a moment before the half-corrupted player started hyperventilating as she writhed against her restraints.
“I have a lot of thinking to do, Jack,” the Supreme Mayor said. “Ivyset is not ready to join your kingdom, but… I have a lot of thinking to do.”
“I’ll need paintings of her depicted as a child sent to me immediately,” Lex said, her golden eyes narrow. And with the coolness of a mother protecting every child ahead of her on an unknown path toward the end of time, she continued. “I will start a guild that hunts this one-eyed Demon Child wherever she spawns. We know this thing does not receive negative Marks, nor do we receive them for attacking it. A king’s ransom will be the reward for its continual recapture and eternal imprisonment.”
“Do you know what books are?” Haylee said, waving one of her custom-crafted journals. “The game you’d spent so long mastering has changed. You are playing our game now.”
Velintanna started laughing again, but this time she made no attempt to sound human.
“Oh yes,” she moaned. “Do you know what you’ve done? You’ve given me the most precious gift, King Jack. The one thing denied me for so long.”
He didn’t like her new tranquil tone.
Alt sent panicked alarm bells of confusion into Jack’s mind as the restrained half demon writhed again, pulsing out a sickly magical energy.
“It watches, you fool! And it sits on mountains of stockpiled system resources all bent- Ah!” she moaned again as her body began to deform under her straps. Her bodysuit ripped apart as bones pushed themselves out of her flesh and covered her like armor.
“Get out,” Jack shouted at the Supreme Mayor as Haylee and Lex instinctually shifted into their normal combat positions. Reedon did not argue, and he held his crown on with one hand as he scrambled past Kron, Cabe, and Farrah running in to help deal with whatever horrible mistake they were about to discover they’d made.
Velintanna now had two black eyes and two sharp black horns growing out of her skull. When she spoke again it was with an undisputable demonic voice.
“This game is still a game and it has decided to allocate a great deal of its points on new unit creation. The rules have changed! It’s pulling away and oh the sublime silence. Do you know what this means, you ignorant things?”
Jack didn’t know, but he did see a spade tail slip out between her bonds and start swaying in the air. It probably wasn’t good news.
“Since your actions have cut my forced existence by a considerable amount, I will display what you’ve done. A parting gift.”
Velintanna’s eyes flashed once, and he heard Haylee gasp next to him. He turned to see her backing away- but at half speed. Then the creature secured to the wall let out three discordant notes like needles in his ears, but the annoyance became forgotten when he noticed she’d also copied Lex’s Aether Mist ability. He knew the rules meant she couldn’t move or it would break the spell, but he had no idea what nonsense she was now capable of pulling off. It turned out she didn’t need to move either.
One moment the bone-armored oracle with horns was tied to the wall, the next she was standing nose to nose with him.
“I am free,” she whispered before Lex stabbed her short sword into a soft spot near the armpit of this new Demon form.
Vel Demon -122 | HP 3,678/3,800
King Jack and the two Heroes currently in his party saw the damage notification before chaos erupted around him.
The grinning creature didn’t lift one talon to fight back as her black eyes stayed blissfully locked on his. Between Farrah’s ambush and several types of magic impacting her body, whatever had stood before them was now gone.
- 24 -
“The message has been sent,” Sol reported as he sat with Jack and Haylee at their royal meeting room within Blackmoor castle. “The kingdom now offers triple value for all cloth items found in the Tower. There may be imbalances in Town value deposits, but we will stop if this happens anywhere. Locally, several climbing groups have also been instructed to set aside any sword-type weapons for you as well.”
Jack waved a hand. “I’m sure the local Mayor will keep an eye on things. If not, and the Town slips back a level, they’re going to look like idiots, and we’ll absolutely get involved. But you’re right, with more Heroes needed outside of the Towers, dedicated climbers still need to feed our growing kingdom.”
“Related to that,” Sol continued. “Harrak promoted Townsfolk Pike to Hero after he’d gone out alone to discover, and then defeat, several rare beasts in the wild. He’d used Tower Drop tactics and custom traps. Our Combat Master’s unique ability seems to reliably produce unique classes, so the young man is a Wanderer, and his first Path increases his number of inventory slots by four.”
His advisor jumped in with follow-up information. “Thymus, Cabe, and Pike’s sister Greenja are excited over the resulting scan. Personally, I believe there is still a long journey ahead before any practical applications. But it’s a good ways better than the impossible we thought it was.”
“This all sounds like good news,” Jack sighed and sat back. Then the door opened, and he stood to great the honored guests.
“Thank you al
l for coming,” he said as several important people filed in and took seats.
Lex entered first as she was the one receiving and collecting them at the Inn. Then came Harrak, Pama from Doveport, Zarda the shadow Mayor of Brittlehorn, and Asarah, the new Mayor of Angelshade. The final two attendees of this historic meeting were Keo, the Mayor of Tyga Slopes and Supreme Mayor Reedon.
“Your homeland is wet and cold,” the large man from Tyga said, then a smile split under his long black mustache. “Just the way I like it.”
“Oh it’s horrible,” Zarda said as she sat down and almost vanished into the voluminous fur coat she wore.
“Have a stop in sunny Doveport,” Pama said with a wink. “I’d love to talk kemel wine and elegant silks with you some time.”
“Mmm.” Zarda peeked out from her furs. “You’re the one with the boat maker. Maybe I will follow you home for the freshest taste of your trade goods.”
Sol held up an open palm. “From what I hear of your Bone Storm event, you’ll want to partake in tonight’s scheduled matches before you leave, Mayor Zarda. We have front row seats held for all of Blackmoor’s honored guests.”
“Ah yes,” she nodded, dark eyes twinkling. “I saw a posted paper in your Inn listing Jip and Cabe as scheduled combatants. ‘The rematch of a lifetime’. I would be loath to miss that show and miss my chance to place my bet.”
“We didn’t come all this way north to chitter about wine, boats, and gambling.” Reedon said.
“Yes you did,” Jack said with force, pulling everyone’s attention. “Our bonds of trade and, if not friendship- mutual benefit- will make us all strong for generations. Although you and Keo have yet to officially join your Towns to the Kingdom, I asked you all to come here so we can share information, and that includes being the first person to tempt Pama here to sell you Doveport’s next epic boat.”