Continue Online (Part 5, Together)

by Stephan Morse

  SweetPea: …that’s so weird to see his character on the news. They can’t see us chatting… right?

  Awesome Jr.: Nope. System notices are hidden. They’re just watching him trudge through the forest. You are still in those woods right, Hermes?

  Hermes: Yes. I’ll be happy if I never see another tree in my life.

  I could almost see SweetPea trying to pull down her hoodie and hide from potential viewers. Shadow and Awesome Jr. had turned theirs off right away. HotPants didn’t care and had a much smaller following. I suspected she wanted to rub the viewership in her ex-husband’s face at some point.

  As a modern man raised in a city, forests like this one drove me crazy. I kept trying to reach a quest marker floating in the distance, but I never got any closer. Despite playing nearly five of the last eight game days, I was well behind and running into the same monsters over and over. As a side effect, my skills were going up, which helped greatly. My stockpile of essences for the [Mechanical Hades Crown] had reached a high level.

  HotPants: Hey. Idiots. Did anyone else notice Hermes is looping?

  My head jerked up. Was I going in circles? I stared at the trees while squinting. Maybe that nagging feeling of everything looking the same hadn’t been solely in my head. My jaw went rigid at the idea that HotPants was the one to point it out. What annoyed me more was that she watched me during her logged-off time. That struck me as awkward. Being watched by a random faceless crowd felt more bearable than knowing people near me were judging.

  Awesome Jr.: Is he???

  HotPants: Same trees six times. It’s like that, fuck, uhhh…

  HotPants: Diamond’s Pyramid? Something?

  Shadow: The Sol’s Lense

  HotPants: Sure. Where we had that quest and kept going in circles. Same monsters every time. Same corner of the room.

  Awesome Jr.: We broke that by using a line formation right? It went away once we got someone outside the edges?

  HotPants: I dunno, I never pay attention to that stuff.

  SweetPea: …we used yarn between us to stay connected.

  Awesome Jr.: Hermes, if you’re stuck, try to use a reveal or sensory technique. You’ve got one, right? Most high-end players get something.

  Hecate: Babe, use it with your crown. Just be careful.

  Hermes: Okay. Thanks for the tip.

  I tried to carefully tiptoe around the awkwardness of HotPants watching me. My wife, Hecate in game, would probably be upset anyway. If we had been together, the problem might have been noticed sooner and solved by now. Once again, stubbornness made life difficult.

  Chanting [Lithium] made me feel like a teenage girl reciting terrible cartoon lines while swooning. Real poetry was great; this stuff felt like garbage. I opened my mouth to utter the key phrase for [Mechanical Hades Crown] anyway.

  “Mechanical God of the Underworld, lend me your ear!”

  [Lithium] spells I understood sounded perfectly normal. Foreign ones were gibberish and chants. I vaguely remembered the note from M. Shell about how the game rewrote text at high speeds. Mother’s system could probably do audio too. After all, this was all in our heads.

  “Gathered are these forgotten souls. Grant me leave to release them to a final task before crossing the veil! Empower Sight of Mercari!”

  Every time I uttered an ability out loud, I gave away one of my secrets. Soon there would be nothing left to hide from anyone who came knocking. Requiem would be one of the few people who would never notice me until we ran into each other. He spent the majority of time focused on his own skills and gear.

  The world pulsed, and I felt as though my eyesight went everywhere at once. Sensory overload sent me straight to my knees, and I retched onto a nearby splintered tree trunk. Stomach contents unloaded while I felt as though I was getting a good look at myself from every angle imaginable. The overload sent everything into an old-fashioned static haze that jerked my senses around further.

  In one moment, I saw the dead forest with defeated monkey parts lying around. Half-rotting moles were in pieces where they had poked above ground and I promptly ended them. Scorch marks sat on some trees, outlining more signs of combat. A billion tiny dots flickered around, creating a sea of colors out of the wildlife nearby.

  Then that tore down the middle and I felt my orientation change. Instead of kneeling and cradling my head, I was looking up. The change in gravity made my belly try to heave again. Through watery eyes, I saw James’s feet nearby. Xin’s black robe with white runes sat on my other side.

  “Be careful!” said my wife’s voice from a million miles away.

  Everything hit static again, and the scene changed. Woods around me overlapped each other with endless words labeling each item. The word “Castle” hung in giant bold text as the outline of a real fortification came into sight, where before there had only been looping forest. The building’s ruins were familiar enough to wash away some of the disorientation.

  Once again the scene broke, and I heard Dusk’s giant wide-mouthed yawn. My eyes looked for the source of the sound and found the white broken pillar with Continue Online’s book sitting closed atop it. The same one I’d signed so many months ago, starting this. Dusk, the size of a cat again, sat next to the column and his yawn finished. His jaws closed, and that other place turned to blackness. My forehead wrinkled. Then the vision vanished and my heartbeat stuttered.

  The castle sat far away. Closer to me was a small fireplace with a young teen in blue-and-black leathers. He poked a stick at the pit and stirred embers. I tried to shake off the brief, confusing trip. That had to be the ARC simply overloading. [Sight of Mercari] felt rough to use normally, and I had broken well past normal by beefing it up.

  Wraith looked impressive in real life. The [Contract] demon had to be at least ten feet tall with huge bull-like horns. A heavy metal ring hung in each ear while his chest remained bare. The red-skinned elder brother of Spite could easily compete against Vlad in terms of expansive muscular displays. Only his nose and eyes were grotesque. Yellow eyes with twisted pools of darkness stared at me while his large nostrils flared. Steam poured out of his mouth, and large teeth were revealed as the monster grinned.

  Requiem’s demon stared at me for a moment while I struggled to get upright. I understood the young man’s nature and needed to be ready. [Morrigu’s Gift] sat in one hand, and the circlet about my head had enough essence for an ultimate move or three.

  “Someone broke through? You need the spell for this place,” Requiem said clearly enough.

  [Sight of Mercari] typed out every word like a closed caption. The sensation made my head quake with confusion.

  “Is this another foolish Traveler after your worthless hide, Requiem?” the giant creature asked with a deep voice that made me shiver.

  “Don’t know, don’t care. Get him.”

  Requiem’s words slowly registered as the text portion faded. The empowerment was already drifting away. The tone of his words reminded me of our numerous moments together, when he ordered me to act.

  Wraith shot in my direction, but he faded from sight with each step. My head still reeled from the overloaded version of [Sight of Mercari]. The dot for Wraith vanished and reappeared a few feet to my left. A crimson claw curled toward my stomach. A single heartbeat thumped as the world distorted under [Awareness Heightening]’s eighth Rank. Without Xin here to drain some of the effect, it felt like moving through a placid world.

  [Morrigu’s Gift] twirled into position, then clanked into Wraith’s outstretched hand. Sparks flew off as I stepped back into a [Blink]. The distortion caused by changing locations dragged at my head. I dipped out of the [Blink] and turned around to the edge of a barely visible face. The demon smiled as a curl of steam hung in the air. He closed both eyes, then vanished again, and his dot moved. Wraith lived up to his name and shifted like a ghost of vengeance or doom.

  “Neat.” I felt startled for a moment.

  The slow motion of [Awareness Heightening] gave me four glorio
us seconds to think. Wraith could [Blink] too. This would be a scary fight.

  I [Blink]ed a second time, trying to get ahead. Wraith turned with far more speed than I’d expected and deflected [Morrigu’s Gift] with freakish ease. We moved rapidly twice more. I kept trying to dodge past the large demon, but he would vanish, then appear in front of me.

  Voices, dammit, what was with all these creatures lately? I had happily breezed through a month or two of game time with Xin and hardly been challenged like this. Then I faced Nam Redrum, the endless horde of evil lizards, and now a demon that moved as fast as I did and seemed to know my moves before I made them.

  My foot went back and twisted. [Morrigu’s Gift] sheared a pile of dirt into the air as a screen. [Camouflage] went off, and my body faded. My eyes closed to ping Wraith—his body veered directly for me despite my attempt at hiding. I ducked, then propelled myself forward, holding my breath and trying not to crash into an object.

  A mass of dark-winged muscle flew overhead. [Blink] went off once more before a cloven foot could catch my head. My body hovered above Requiem’s, and I readied my blade with more intent to kill than expected.

  The moment moved in slow motion. Wraith’s body [Blink]ed in between the shorter male and me. His arm first blocked me. Requiem was twisting around with wide eyes. Then the view was blocked by Wraith’s smiling face and large horns. I gasped as the demon’s head twisted to the side. One large horn aimed for my body. [Power Armor] automatically flickered into existence and mitigated the damage but couldn’t stop such an insane force from sending me sprawling.

  My body slammed into the ground and bounced. Pain jarred my skull as I [Blink]ed again before the second tumble. Dirt ground between my molars and tasted dry.

  “You move like a demon!” he boomed.

  I could feel his happiness in my head. It wasn’t an impression or visual cue; the demon’s emotions were actually dancing around inside my skull. The sensation made my skin crawl and disturbed the hell out of me.

  “Voices.” I realized what the problem was. [Awareness Heightening] and [Blink] both came from my time as Spite. Both were skills picked up from a reported glitch being straightened out.

  Behind the demon’s widespread arms sat a young teen who looked downright panicked. Requiem was quickly equipping items. His shoulder pads were switched out. The sword in his hand changed. Shoes flickered and were replaced with larger items. While he put on good gear, I frowned and tried to figure out what would get me past Wraith and to Requiem. I had an overwhelming desire to punch Requiem in his damn face.

  If it weren’t for that overwhelming desire, I might have tried to talk it out. My mind raced, and I felt the demon watching me with a wide smile. This had to be Spite’s bigger brother. That meant he was much stronger than the [Red Imp] had been. Maybe stronger than Hermes. I didn’t have time to inspect him. I needed, or wanted, to force Requiem to a standstill, if not outright stomp the teen’s face.

  Fine, if the standby skills were obvious, then I had other tricks. After a moment of study, I noticed a thin blue aura appearing from behind the demon. Wraith faded from view again, and there stood Requiem, clad in that stupid battle aura.

  Requiem had his full powers back and somehow I had missed it. His character simply looked the same as always. The sword looked exactly like his old one. No, I should have expected something to go wrong when dealing with the younger man. He’d always had an ace or three up his sleeve.

  Too bad for him we had spent a long time together. His playstyle, if nothing else, was already known to me. He charged toward me while pulling out a second sword that trailed ash. His body crawled with a stronger blue aura as he chanted [Lithium] quietly. Their attack reminded me that I needed to do this at my pace, not theirs. It was time to stack skills.

  My mouth opened wide, and a stream of fireballs, courtesy of Dusk’s [Blessing], shot out. Requiem threw out two of his own and dodged the others. [Morrigu’s Echo] was unsheathed, and I turned both weapons into large two-handed blades. [Blade Dancer] worked just as well with two partners. [Battle Hum]’s effect kicked in, sending a rush of excitement through me. I took each step in conjunction with the tempo of unheard music.

  Months of playing had passed since our last true encounter. In total, almost a year of game time had passed. I was no longer the beaten little [Red Imp] with low health. I had fought [World Eater] giants, stood against an army of monsters, and fought one of the strongest NPCs to walk the surface of [Arcadia]. There was no way I would let a greedy teenager and his demon pet defeat me. No goddamned way.

  The smaller blades deflected [Morrigu’s Gift]. [Morrigu’s Echo] blocked flying claws. The demon’s wings cut across above me, and I ducked under the blow and came up stabbing. Both enemies moved backward, and I stepped off to the side. Requiem snarled, then pressure slapped my wrist. His slow motion fingers were grasping at [Morrigu’s Echo] and starting to twist its hilt against my fingers.

  I let the blade fall away and kept turning to punch Wraith in the face. His large nose flattened as I finally unleashed over four hundred points of [Brawn]. Yellow demonic eyes crossed, and I brought [Morrigu’s Gift] up to block a thrusting blade from Requiem. Ash clouded my vision as the blue-aura-clad sword jabbed across my knuckles. [Power Armor] struggled to activate and deflect the blow, but my grip suffered.

  “Hold him!” Requiem shouted while moving backward.

  The words stirred up months of lingering frustration. This little punk had abused me for weeks. He had been my first real chance at bringing back Xin, and I’d failed. My hum turned into an outright cry of protest. To one side, Wraith stomped down a foot, then righted himself. Our dance started again.

  “None of that!” I shouted while attacking Requiem directly.

  His swings were blocked by a combination of blade and armor. My own were dodged or blocked. A rumbling growl came behind me. [Blink] went off again, and I ducked underneath Requiem’s legs. His body fell over mine as Wraith came out of his own [Blink] to attack me.

  The man cried out as his demon’s attack hit the wrong target. Wraith’s smile went wider at the sound of Requiem’s pain. The world faltered as [Awareness Heightening] stuttered briefly. Requisite Ass flew farther away than I had ever seen. His arm grabbed onto a tree, then he righted himself quickly. I would have clapped if we were on better terms.

  Still, I had an idea to bait Requiem with. [Blink] bought me distance while Wraith shook his head. The blow I had given him must still be aching. I tucked away both weapons into easily reachable spots. I put my hands up as if striking a pose, then I started chanting [Lithium].

  “Mechanical God of the Underworld, lend me your ear!” I cried.

  Requiem might not understand this one, but he should believe it was a special move of some sort. It was, but I wasn’t frozen in one place like Requiem would be.

  “Gathered are these forgotten souls. Grant me leave to release them to a final task before crossing the veil! Empower Gait of Bowman!”

  “Beware!” Wraith shouted.

  “Hold him!” Requiem backed up and started his own chant. The ash-coated blade was tucked away as he adopted a similar pose, holding the black-and-blue sword in front of him. “Ghost of a dead sun! Shadow of a singularity! Draw all into your grasp!”

  He started performing the same hand gestures, confirming what I already knew; Requiem somehow had all of his original powers back. His aura started to condense.

  “Idiot.” I smiled, slammed my foot down to activate [Power Armor], and then I [Blink]ed forward.

  The armor didn’t clink into place but instead flickered into being in motion. The normal blockage by my helm was missing. I could see through the framing but still felt weight as the skill activated. My body hummed as if an engine sat deep inside me, its gears pumping. This ability felt like turning into a giant tank, then unleashing hell upon the enemy.

  “Rrrgh!” Wraith’s eyes went wide as I collided with him through the first [Blink].

  Two large
fists slammed into his midsection, knocking the demon over. [Awareness Heightening] made it feel like an eternity as I pulled back both arms, then [Blink]ed forward once again.

  “Shit!” Requiem dropped his stance, then lifted both weapons to block.

  My arms went out to his blades and grabbed them. [Disarm], the move I’d learned from Wyl, worked perfectly. Requiem’s ash-trailing sword went flying in one direction. The sword with a teardrop bit of condensed energy on the end went another, and the half-formed spell faded. With the momentum, I planted my rear foot. Fully empowered [Power Armor] encased me with a shimmering set of black-and-gold armor. Requiem went wide-eyed as I bent slightly, then executed a full [Brawn] shoulder slam.

  [Blink] got me midair ahead of him. I grabbed my main weapon then lifted both arms overhead for a chop. I didn’t want to kill either of them. The edges of my blades had been blunted this entire fight. Part of me took savage delight in watching Requiem’s mouth burst open with foamy spit as the weapon slammed into his midsection, sending him back to the ground.

  He hit the ground like a meteor. Dirt and rock went everywhere. I activated the second [Blink], and the world shifted again. My body formed above his, and one armor-covered foot was shoved down to hold his prone form still. He froze with a glare directed toward me. The young man’s eyes screamed with defiance. I had killed players and human-looking NPCs alike by now. Requiem existed in real life, and his accusing look didn’t bother me as much. One arm lifted above my head. [Morrigu’s Gift] sat pressed against Requiem’s chest while [Morrigu’s Echo] looked exactly like the trident it used to be.

  I screamed while jabbing the three-pronged weapon into the ground near Requiem’s head. For some reason, I felt better but wild. Regaining self-control took effort. Each breath came quicker than the last. My head felt heavy, and [Morrigu’s Gift] threatened to slip loose. I almost lifted the weapon to strike again. Had the lingering rage I’d felt as Spite carried over? My eyes closed as I gave thanks that Xin wasn’t here to see this. This anger born of an abused man who had nearly ruined everything for me.