“Oh my God – ”
“Hold on, let me ask Rebecca before we freak out.”
He twirled his hand in the air and started speaking in a low voice. “Rebecca, we’re at Aravall and we’ve heard that Eric might be headed for Alshurat in the north. Is there any way you can confirm?”
As he dictated his text message, Ladriel ignored him completely. She just stared out blankly into the remains of her empire.
“We’ll stop him,” Mira assured her.
“After what I have seen… I am not so sure we can,” Ladriel whispered.
“Crap,” Daniel muttered. “Mira, Rebecca texted back right away – Eric’s definitely headed for Alshurat.”
“Damn it,” Mira swore. She turned to Ladriel. “You come with me – you’re the only person who might be able to convince Ebnsed. Can one of your people go with Daniel to any other forest elf cities?”
“Of course,” Ladriel agreed.
Daniel frowned, then took Mira aside by the elbow. “Uh – could we maybe talk about this first before you start making decisions?”
“We need to get the word out as fast as possible.”
“Yeah, but… what about us?”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Mira whispered, annoyed. “You can look around at all this destruction, and all you can think about is making out?”
Daniel’s face grew pink. “It’s not like that! I just don’t think it’s a great idea to split up, that’s all.”
“You didn’t mind splitting us up before and sending me off to recruit allies,” Mira said resentfully.
“Yeah, but Eric wasn’t heading towards the exact same place you are.”
“You know I can’t die, so what’s the big deal?” Mira argued. “We need to cover as much ground as possible, so please, will you go with another elf while I take Ladriel to Alshurat?”
Daniel grumbled, but acquiesced. “…fine.”
“Thank you.”
Mira felt bad strong-arming him like this, but couldn’t he see what was at stake? Did he really want them to stay together when splitting up would achieve so much more?
Ladriel retrieved one of her male lieutenants from the woods, ordered the others to continue their search for survivors, and then the four of them trudged back to the griffins by Siffis’ fiery light.
Daniel kissed Mira – though it was a short kiss, almost perfunctory. She could feel the tension underlying it.
“See you soon.”
“Wish me luck,” Mira said as she helped Ladriel up into the saddle.
“We’re both going to need it,” Daniel said as he and the male elf mounted the griffin and flew off into the night sky.
53
Eric – Tokyo – Morning
Eric woke up with his head pounding.
He sat up groggily and winced as his brain tried to jackhammer his skull into pieces from the inside.
The room was mostly dark, but a bit of sunlight crept in through the edges of the blinds…
enough to make out the three naked women lying sleeping on either side of him, twisted up in the tangled sheets.
He just sat there and stared in shock.
Was that…
…was last night REAL?!
He was pretty damn sure it was, even though it seemed like the sort of thing that would have happened in a dream.
The rest of the room was a shambles. Spilled drinks everywhere… broken wine glasses… plates of half-eaten food…
…the silver tray on the bedside table with a rolled-up $100 bill and just the barest hint of white dust on it…
Shit… no wonder I feel like I’m going to die…
He managed to extricate himself from the pile of naked bodies and climb over the foot of the bed. Then he made his way to the bathroom.
When he flicked on the switch, he winced at the sudden onslaught of fluorescent light. Then he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.
Jesus he looked rough. Blotchy skin… dark circles under his eyes… wispy stubble from not shaving for several days…
He took a leak, splashed water on his face, and tiptoed back out into the bedroom to look for his boxers. When he couldn’t find them, he settled on one of the plush terrycloth bathrobes hanging in the bathroom.
Out in the main room, the midday sun was blazing through one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The sunshine stabbed his eyes like daggers. Now he knew how vampires must feel right before they combusted.
Several yakuza stood silently by the main entrance to the penthouse.
Glasses was over on a sofa, but got up as soon as Eric stumbled into the room.
“Ah, did you have a pleasant evening, Eric-san?”
“What time is it?” Eric mumbled as he squinted at the window.
“Almost 1 o’clock.”
“Jesus – I’ve got to get back…”
“You cannot leave. You must stay here,” Glasses said consolingly, though with a smile.
Eric stared at him, deeply unsettled. “I can’t go back in the game?!”
“Oh – oh no, that is fine,” Glasses said with his eager-to-please smile, and gave a little bow. “Please forgive my mistake.”
Idiot…
“Get those girls out of here and clean up while I get something to eat,” Eric muttered.
“Hai.”
Eric headed for the table – which was laid out with a fresh selection of food. He ate grapes and strawberries along with bagels smeared with cream cheese, and washed it all down with freshly squeezed orange juice.
In the background he heard angry male Japanese voices and indignant female cries. A few shouts – then he heard the women shuffling out in their bare feet across the marble floors, one of them whimpering softly.
He didn’t turn around, though. He just kept his back to everything going on while he munched on his breakfast.
Truth be told, the entire situation made him uncomfortable, and he didn’t want to see any of the women’s reproachful eyes.
Once he heard the front door of the penthouse close, he turned around to look.
Glasses was overseeing several women – not nearly as attractive, and all of them dressed in maid’s uniforms – running around the bedroom, gathering up trash and changing out the sheets.
“Eric-san, we will have your clothes washed,” Glasses said genially. “Would you like more clothes, as well? We can bring a selection here.”
“Sure, why not.”
“Your room will be ready in a matter of minutes.”
Eric didn’t say anything. It didn’t really matter, since his VR rig was in one of the other bedrooms.
He padded down the hall in his bathrobe, opened the door, and lay down on the bed in the darkened room.
Right as he was about to slip on the VR helmet, it occurred to him why he’d been so unsettled about Glasses’ words.
You cannot leave, the yakuza had said. You must stay here.
At the time, Eric had thought he’d been talking about the game – and with his hangover-addled brain, he hadn’t put too much more analysis into it than that.
Glasses hadn’t been talking about the game, obviously… but was he talking about Japan?
Tokyo?
…or the penthouse?
Though Eric was still angry at Daniel, their conversation came floating back to him from that night they had hung out in Blackstone:
So you’ll come visit me in prison? I prefer you visiting me in my castle.
Looks like a prison to me.
Daniel had been talking about how Eric seemed to be under the thumb of the AI, and maybe even its prisoner.
But that was in the game. This was real life. This was a pleasure palace filled with video games, hookers, drugs, alcohol, and whatever else he wanted.
This wasn’t a prison. The prison had been in the game, if it even existed at all.
They were two totally different things – right?
…right?
54
Mira – The Mountai
ns Near Alshurat
Mira’s night flight to Alshurat was unremarkable except for one thing. As she neared the dark elves’ city in the grey light of dawn, she saw a massive river winding through the canyons beneath her.
Not a river of water, but of bodies. Tens of thousands of them.
She kept a wary lookout for Eric’s dragon as she guided her griffin lower to the ground. She stayed at least a thousand feet above the horde. It was impossible to make out details from that distance, but she could tell enough.
They were moving swiftly, running at full tilt. They had no formation, no ranks, no apparent structure – just formless chaos, running as fast over the mountains as they could.
It was a chilling sight.
“My brothers and sisters are down there amongst the dead,” Ladriel murmured.
Mira didn’t know what to say, so she just sent the griffin soaring higher, out of any danger.
Fifteen minutes later they touched down on the dusty plains where Mira had landed days before. They dismounted and waited. Within five minutes, a small band of dark elves appeared, bows and arrows drawn.
“Sister,” they greeted Mira, but stared at Ladriel with open hostility – though they seemed curious as to why she was smudged with soot.
“We have to see Ebnsed,” Mira said.
“You may go,” one dark elf said. “The tree elf must stay here, though.”
“Both of us have to see Ebnsed,” Mira demanded.
“Impossible.”
“Ebnsed didn’t listen to me last time about an evil Sorcerer threatening the Shattered Lands. Well, he wiped out Aravall completely – and his army’s less than an hour away from here. We have to see Ebnsed now.”
The dark elves looked at Ladriel, who stared back at them with dazed, empty eyes.
“Follow me,” the lead elf said.
They wound their way through ravines and into the cave, then deep into the subterranean jungle with its phosphorescent flora. Ten minutes later, they reached the obsidian streets and towers of Alshurat.
The city was just beginning to stir, with merchants opening their market stalls and others walking sleepily to their places of work. When they saw Ladriel, though, they stared in wonder and hatred. Some even muttered curses and spat on the ground in front of her.
Ladriel took no notice. She just walked through the streets like a zombie.
The guards escorted them to the palace. Moments later, Ebnsed walked into the room, dressed in silk robes. He looked between Mira and Ladriel in consternation.
“Daughter,” he said to Mira. “What have you dragged to my doorstep?”
“Now’s not the time,” Mira said, and recounted everything she’d told the mountain guards, but in more detail.
Ebnsed stared at Ladriel. “Is this true? Aravall is destroyed?”
She looked at him in a daze. “Completely.”
“And your people?”
“Thousands of them slain.”
“Yet they march with the Sorcerer’s army,” Ebnsed said accusingly.
For the first time since Mira had found her in the ruins of Aravall, Ladriel’s eyes flashed with emotion: anger. Hatred. Rage.
“It’s not like they have a choice,” Mira protested.
“But they’re still coming to kill you,” Ladriel sneered at the dark elf.
“Then we shall just have to kill them for good,” Ebnsed said coldly.
“Have a care, darkling – ”
“HEY, this isn’t helping!” Mira yelled. “We have to evacuate the city, NOW.”
“No. We will fight them,” Ebnsed said confidently.
“You told me before you only have 2000 warriors,” Mira said. “There’s no way you can hold off an army of 80,000 with 2000 people.”
“There are only a handful of entrances to the city. Most can only admit a single file of invaders, and are easily blocked with stones. The main cave entrance you came through can be barred with a gate, and we can pick them off easily.”
“They’re dead,” Mira said. “If you kill them, the Sorcerer will just resurrect them again.”
“Then we will cleave off their arms, then their legs, then their heads, until there is nothing left but their bodies.”
“I’m telling you now, whatever you think you can do against Eric, you’re wrong. His army will destroy your city, and every man, woman, and child is going to be turned into one of his undead soldiers.”
“I appreciate your concern, but you are wrong,” Ebnsed informed her haughtily.
“A fool to the last,” Ladriel sneered.
“Be careful, white one,” Ebnsed growled, “or I’ll deliver you to them as a present.”
Before anyone else could say anything, a gigantic BOOM! vibrated through the entire cavern.
Ebnsed looked around in shock. “What was that?!”
Mira scowled. “I don’t know what it is, but I’ll give you one guess who’s behind it.”
55
Eric – Alshurat
Eric came back to consciousness atop a barren mountaintop. The ground underfoot was a dusty grit of tiny pebbles, with no sign of life anywhere.
Excluding the dead things all around him.
Tens of thousands of dead soldiers waited silent and still on the slopes all around him.
Eric looked around. Cythera and the Dark Figure stood close by.
I swear to God, playing this game is like being an alcoholic, Eric thought. Always waking up someplace new with no memory of how you got there.
“We await your command, my lord,” Cythera said, her eyes shining with love and lust.
Eric looked around. “I thought there was supposed to be a city here.”
“There is – beneath our feet.”
Eric looked down. “Where? Inside the mountain?”
“Yes.”
“Huh…” Eric frowned, then gestured to the AI. “Unnamed One, can I have a word?”
“OF COURSE.”
Cythera looked confused, annoyed, and nervous all at once – but she didn’t say anything as the Dark Figure floated away.
Eric walked between the undead soldiers like he was strolling through an orchard. The AI caught up and floated alongside him – and through the dead warriors. Its shadowy body would completely envelope a rotting orc or charred elf, then pass through it without a sound.
The dead seemed neither to notice or to care.
“How come you’re in the game every time I show up?” Eric asked.
“I KEEP TRACK OF YOUR COMINGS AND GOINGS. SINCE I CAN TRAVEL OVER THE INTERNET ALMOST INSTANTANEOUSLY, I CAN ENTER THE GAME AT THE EXACT SAME MOMENT AS YOU.”
“Those guys you hired, the yakuza – one of them said something before I logged on.”
“WHAT?”
“He said I wasn’t allowed to leave. What did he mean?”
“I HAVE GIVEN THE YAKUZA INSTRUCTIONS NOT TO LET YOU LEAVE THE ABODE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION.”
Eric turned angrily on the shadow creature. “You didn’t tell me I was going to be a prisoner!”
“IT IS MERELY A PRECAUTION FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY. YOU FORGET, YOU ARE AN INTERNATIONALLY WANTED FUGITIVE. THOUGH VARIDIAN HAS NOT YET ALERTED THE POLICE THAT YOU WERE BEHIND THE ATTACK ON THEIR CALIFORNIA OFFICES, THE INITIAL HACK FROM DANIEL LAUER’S HOUSE IS STILL BEING TREATED AS A CRIME OF CYBER-TERRORISM.”
Eric laughed bitterly. “They’re going to overlook the BIG hack, but they’re going to crucify me for the smaller one?”
“NO, I THINK THEY WILL MERELY IMPRISON YOU. CRUCIFIXION WAS A METHOD OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT RESERVED FOR TRAITORS AGAINST THE ROMAN EMPIRE MORE THAN TWO THOUSAND YEARS AGO, AND IS MOST CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE HISTORICAL FIGURE YOU KEEP ALLUDING TO – ”
“It was a figure of speech,” Daniel snapped. “Can’t you get Varidian to drop the investigation? You threatened them once and it worked.”
“ONCE THE ISSUE WAS REPORTED TO THE AUTHORITIES, IT CAME UNDER THE PURVIEW OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT’S DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND
SECURITY. IF YOU WISH, I COULD THREATEN THEM.”
“NO,” Eric said hastily. “No, for God’s sake, don’t do that.”
“WHY IS GOD INVESTED IN NOT THREATENING THEM?”
Eric rolled his eyes. He was about to say Jesus again, but stopped himself in time. He wasn’t in the mood for another historical lecture. “Just – don’t do it.”
“WHY NOT?”
“If you want to keep me under the radar, DON’T antagonize the feds.” Eric scowled and kept walking. “So you’re going to keep me locked up in a tower, is that it?”
“I CAN MAKE ARRANGEMENTS TO MOVE YOU TO ANOTHER COUNTRY. IS THAT WHAT YOU WISH? I COULD ARRANGE TRANSPORTATION TO ARGENTINA, OR RUSSIA, OR THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – ”
“What, so you can lock me up in another tower there?” Eric scoffed. “What’s the point?”
“THOUGH THE SITUATION MAY BE INCONVENIENT, I ASSURE YOU, IT IS EMINENTLY LOGICAL.”
“Logical,” Eric sneered. “If we’re going to talk about logic, why the hell did we come to Japan? They’re one of America’s closest allies – why Japan, of all places?”
“THE YAKUZA ARE THE MOST STABLE CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD. THOUGH THEY ARE NOT APPROVED OF, THEY OPERATE OPENLY AND ARE TOLERATED BY THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT AND POPULACE.”
“So it has nothing to do with the fact that Varidian’s main offices are in Japan?” Eric asked sarcastically.
“THAT ALSO ENTERED MY DELIBERATIONS. IF WE WERE TO NEED TO PHYSICALLY ACCESS THE CORPORATION AGAIN – ”
“NO. I’m not doing that.”
“I DO NOT ANTICIPATE IT… BUT I CONSIDERED IT AS AN OPTION.”
Eric scowled. “When am I going to be able to go outside again and walk around?”
“EVENTUALLY. BUT UNTIL THEN, YOU CAN GO ANYWHERE YOU WISH IN THE SHATTERED LANDS. I SUGGEST YOU TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT FACT.”
Eric sighed and looked around. “The city’s underground, right?”
“CORRECT.”
“How are we supposed to get in?”
“THERE ARE MULTIPLE POSSIBILITIES, BUT I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT IMPROVISATION AND PROBLEM SOLVING WERE THE ELEMENTS THAT MADE THE GAME ENJOYABLE TO YOU.”
Shattered Lands 3 Demon Wars: A LitRPG Series Page 17