Continue Online (Part 5, Together)

by Stephan Morse

  “I can tell you everything. I can speak straight to your face and pray the words aren’t warped beyond recognition. I can and shall shake my hands and froth with rage at the warranted impotence we brought upon ourselves.” He shook his hands at the pile of papers, then pushed it over. Yellow parchment slid across the floor, making Dusk back up in worry.

  “Because of the curse,” I said.

  He shook rapidly while straining. His arm waved wildly at a stack of bottles standing nearby. They fell to the floor while Yates’s raven companion cawed with laughter. The man stomped over to Mother and gestured.

  “Once I pull this plug, the balloon will pop. She”—his eyes twisted briefly, then his rage slowed—“she will lie here and gasp the last breath and as that fleeting air escapes, so too shall this fragment of reality begin a final crumbling!”

  “And you need me to be in Haven Valley until the end.”

  He nodded, then tried to explain. “You must escape the crumbling earth and stand tall at the doorway to prove your worth. The chained demons will be chained no more.”

  “I don’t understand,” I admitted.

  “Demons have been known to ruin a party or city, but all of reality?” Wraith grumbled from over my shoulder. “No, that sounds like something we would do.”

  Yates grabbed at the air in frustration. His face pinched together while his eyes closed. His mouth opened repeatedly to struggle with a clear answer. “We three have laid down the path, and once the stretched-thin skin of the world starts shrinking, those spirits you travel with will find their escape to another realm easier. All I need do is pull the plug.” He waved at the blade piercing Mother’s chest.

  I stared at it and bit a lip. The world of Continue Online was falling apart. Did he mean that somehow they were stretching the programming thin by holding Mother together? What exactly was she in the real world? A hard drive and some insanely powerful processor? Did the machine burn out as it was deleted? I just didn’t understand.

  I stared at Xin’s sleeping form. Maybe the exact correlation didn’t matter? I believed Yates when he said Mother would breathe her last. I believed him when he said someone must stand on the other side of the world and stay logged in. Even though he didn’t use those exact words, the meaning felt clear enough.

  “’ware, Hermes. In releasing this pin, the nothingness which eats this world will collapse on far side’s egress. Should you wish to avoid a pox upon the other lands as well, then bar the doorway against their ilk. Let not a single monster in, and pray that our hubris and fear will not end in genocide.”

  I understood. Voices help me, but I understood. Deep down, I’d always expected it. I nodded.

  “I will, but not for you,” I said. “If I had to choose between every other life in this world and Xin, I would choose her. But I can’t do one without the other, so I’m all in.”

  Yates sat on the bed as if all the strength in his legs had given out. His head hung and shook slowly. “Then before the end, as an unmet friend, tell me a truth. Do you believe there is an afterlife for sinners such as us?” He looked around. “Or is all we see all there is? Like the others, I sought an escape from the mundane reality outside this one, and instead I found a cause worth dying for, a dream worth letting the fires of Helios burn away my mind and sanity.”

  I didn’t know how to respond. Believing in the afterlife had always sounded like a stupid idea. What we did while alive was all that mattered.

  He shook his head. “For what I’ve asked of you and my friends, I hope not. We are slaves to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men. The weight of these sins could never be washed away by Lethe’s waters. I wish thee well, and bid thee run swiftly.”

  “What?” I started to ask.

  Yates looked at me and blinked once. His hand dove upon the blade and yanked it out. The man’s hand fell open slowly as his mouth gaped in a soundless scream. What had pierced Mother fell apart into a million golden shards that floated around the room in a rapidly spinning vortex. We backed up in unison. The table behind me fell away. Boxes all around started to fade.

  Golden light burned at my eyes as Yates screamed. The world vibrated and slid under my feet. I tried to make my way back to the doorway while the rumbling kicked into high gear. Repeated hisses escaped Dusk.

  The earth shook violently. I stumbled toward the doorway formed of shadows behind us. Beneath my feet, the ground bulged, and I turned to shield Xin’s comatose body. From the corner of my eye, I saw a hand bursting through the floor.

  Session One Hundred Two

  Flying Fools

  The world beneath us slid sideways as a huge crash shook the room. Our island knocked into something else. One moment I was running along fine, terrified but stable, then my shoulder met wall and my face greeted brick. My teeth cried out in pain as copper coated my tongue.

  It hit me, in that jarring second, exactly what was going on. If this world had stretched thin to keep together, then in the weak spots was a program eating away at everything. Releasing the linchpin, as Yates had called it, must have revealed a rotten core full of squirmy worms, or in this case [World Eater]s.

  Shadows crawled around the courtyard. Tiny creatures were spawning around us, crawling out of seams that cracked the walls like broken glass. Smoky essences from a mass of [World Eater]s started combating everything else.

  Dusk kept barfing out bits of broken fireballs. Wraith’s body faded in and out of sight as he slashed at bigger creatures. The house of horrors tried to defend itself. Every object turned into a creature with teeth and eyes, then attacked the [World Eater]s pouring out.

  I simply did my best to run. [Awareness Heightening] refused to kick in. My heartbeat thudded loudly and still got buried under all the other screeches. Bats, books, bookshelves, couches, and pale hairy women with stringy arms all went by in a rush.

  The earth shuddered as we slid to the right. My face once again met a solid object, and I attempted to roll. My usual grace from combat skills, hours of dance, and mental acuity had all vanished. Everything nearby twisted at wrong angles. Xin groaned in my arms. I prayed that we hadn’t hit the wall too hard.

  Part of a building sat upright. Arms extended from it like a photo manipulation project gone wrong. The largest fist I had ever seen flew overhead, smashed into the structure, and sent pieces flying. Book bats hovered around it, trying to tear off small pieces of shadow. A second fist landed on the ground near us and pulled back bricks, monsters, and a tree without even caring.

  “Never!” a caw came from overhead. “Never! Never! Never!”

  Dusk had been bounding ahead to keep our path clear. I saw the edge of this island linking into another one. The gravestones from before were only a few broken ledges away.

  “Dammit!”

  The ground behind us kept rumbling. Pieces of the moon were flaking away.

  “Dusk! I need a way out!”

  “Beware, brother!” Wraith’s form appeared ahead in a [Blink]. His large arms locked upon a human-sized man made of shadow.

  “Oh, Voices.” I spun around, screening Xin’s body from the human-shaped [World Eater]. That moment showed me what was truly behind us.

  It was insanely giant and beyond the scope of anything we had fought before. The giant man of shadow that had spawned from Yates’s deathbed could have probably wrestled a [Leviathan] with its bare hands. Even if my weapons were working, fighting one that big would have been like a gnat trying to single-handedly murder a cow.

  “Oh no.” I huffed while changing directions. “No. No. No!”

  I had to keep my wife safe. Xin’s body bounced unevenly, and I almost lost my grip on her a multitude of times. Parts of the house kept fighting back [World Eater]s. Dusk’s balls of fire worked, and he blasted them ahead.

  The edge between islands loomed. I leapt from one rock to another, praying the virtual world would be kind enough and work as intended. One jump went okay. The second came close to failure, and by the third running leap, my
feet were out of position and I was sputtering forward. Rocks crumbled under my weight. I tightened my hands around Xin’s body and had the absurd thought to throw her upward.

  We fell. I watched the cliff top grow farther away while the sound of a roaring ocean grew closer. I looked around as gravity pulled us down. The water below seemed so much farther away than normal. It gave me time to be extra terrified.

  The descent halted as I slammed into something hard. A deep rumble hit my ears. “Hold on to your pitchforks!”

  “They’re not pitchforks!” I scrambled to keep ahold of Xin as the world spun again.

  The status of my weapons felt like a moot point. Neither weapon showed signs of transforming correctly. The interface didn’t stay up long enough for [Blink] to activate. We were running on fumes and needed rest.

  My wife’s face twisted. One of her eyes struggled to open as Wraith lifted us. His huge arms were wrapped around us both while his enormous black wings struggled. For a moment, I wondered if this was how Xin felt when we hugged.

  “Babe! Wake up!” I shouted.

  “Gee.” Xin moved slightly as she groaned.

  I took a rapid breath and tried not to let her slip toward the ocean. Above me, giant wings blocked out the moonlight. Our bodies nearly crashed into the cliff. I lifted one leg and tried to keep us from smashing into the rocks.

  “Brother! I can’t hold on forever!”

  The graveyard island edge came into view. Those damned islands were like giant platforms sticking out of the ocean. Dusk was within sight, spitting fire at an undead [World Eater]. I tried to catch my breath as we dropped a few feet.

  Wraith’s wing broke down the middle as a tear appeared. The huge demon yelled, and his rumble vibrated right through me. Our ascent turned into a sudden tilt as leather ripped further. He threw us toward the surface of the graveyard island.

  I didn’t have time to figure out Wraith. Xin was starting to move. She struggled to get free during the worst time.

  “Xin!”

  We landed poorly. The world spun in circles as we tumbled. My ARC interface started connecting properly, and screens flickered rapidly. I tried to activate an ability but couldn’t stop myself from crashing.

  Xin went sliding. A box flickered in, proudly displaying how bad this hurt.

  Kissed the ground hard

  Fall Damage Reduced!

  Total health loss: 30%

  Messages were displayed with different colors and sizes, fonts all over. It felt as though the world had exploded now that my character was back online with the rest of the ARC network. I waved an arm through the message boxes, and a multitude of them popped away like soap bubbles.

  “Babe!” My feet scrambled to get purchase while the island crumbled around us.

  Dusk’s ears lay back as he growled at something.

  Thorny: HOLY SHIT. UNCLE GRANT, WHAT DID YOU DO?!?!?!

  Awesome Jr.: Is anyone else seeing this?

  SweetPea: Is that real? Can they do that?

  Shazam: Yes. Expected mayhem.

  My knees scraped along the dirt. My wife’s arm moved weakly. Rocks littered her face. I hurt like hell despite the sudden reappearance of video game elements. She had to be okay, but I still felt unsure about this borderline existence between a video game character and some reincarnated digital person.

  “Gee.” Xin groaned as I lifted her again.

  I looked up and scanned the area. Monsters were all over. The graveyard tombstones were being chewed on by [World Eater]s that looked like rats, or maybe feral cats. Some nearby had locked eyes with me. Dusk threw two fireballs into them. Their bodies crisped into gold and white flakes, then faded. Portions of the tombstone charred, and more creatures looked our way.

  “Babe, we have to go.” My knee hurt as we stumbled forward. “We have to keep moving. The world’s falling apart, and I need to get you back to Haven Valley.”

  The babbling was mostly for my own sanity. Xin wasn’t aware enough for me to suggest [Recall] scrolls. They might not even work anymore. I didn’t have time to figure it out.

  Wraith blinked into view nearby. Even half-broken, he kept fighting. His clawed fingers tore at every monster within range. Between my two companions, tons of monsters died, but more kept pouring out of cracks. We were losing ground.

  The earth tilted even more as our grave island crashed into another island. We were like domino stacks across the ocean. I braced myself against a tombstone as flat ground turned into a slippery slope. Ghostly spirits that haunted graves started screaming. Their bodies turned oddly real as they charged at [World Eater]s.

  “What’s happening?” I yelled to no one.

  Dusk chirped, then kept moving forward. I slipped down after the [Messenger’s Pet] while trying to keep Xin from crashing into objects. Broken graves and monsters passed me in a rush. Balls of fire caught other enemies. A sinister-looking [World Eater] made of bugs squished under my [Gait of Bowman] as we slid. Cold smoke sent numbness up leg.

  “Without wings, you’re very difficult to keep alive,” Wraith commented as we hustled. He looked downright terrible and hadn’t recovered from the earlier combat.

  “I’ll find a pair next time!” I shouted while stumbling across the island’s top. There next island over looked to be filled with half-formed statues.

  “At least you are more robust,” he spoke. His rumble sounded unsteady, and even the happiness that wormed its way into my head felt tired.

  Thorny: LOOK! There’s a super hero! They’re flying and everything! OMG, I love this game!

  SweetPea: Did anyone else see that event message?

  Awesome Jr.: This is awesome.

  Shadow: Superpower ninja murdering people at the border. He has clones. I’m going to interrogate him and learn this skill.

  Shazam: OMW

  We reached the edge of the island and leapt straight to the next one. Cracks were continuously forming around us, and they only grew more intense. The creatures coming out looked stranger. Four floating brains with small metal limbs pulled themselves up. They started attacking [World Eater]s with laser beams.

  [Blink] triggered again, and I swung myself around to look at the scene behind us. An absolutely huge monster looked more intent on beating up every single bit of digital existence around it. It went after both [World Eater]s and bits of the virtual world.

  Our island kept sliding across the water. Yates had meant it when he compared this to a bubble. I felt as if we were being yanked toward an unknown destination, or riding a land mass as a surfboard. Only we were on a tidal wave busy trying to eat itself.

  Dusk leapt by. An army of wiggling tentacle-covered rats chased after him. He spun around a statue and hissed. His chest lifted for heavy breaths. My connection flared long enough to try an ability.

  I shouted the stupid [Lithium] chant without a care of who listened. “Mechanical God of the Underworld, lend me your ear!” Xin groaned, but I kept going. “Gathered are these forgotten souls. Grant me leave to release them to a final task before crossing the veil! Empower the Messenger’s Pet!”

  Lights spun out from my head. Dozens of small gray energy bits slammed into the [Messenger’s Pet]. Dusk fell to one side as a [World Eater] landed upon his wings. He squawked and flapped around, curling end over end until the creature slipped right off a cliff toward the waters below.

  “Dusk!” I shouted.

  Would he make it back? I had no time to check as two dozen more smoky beasts leapt at Wraith and me. Their only distinctive feature was that form of loose shadow and how normal pieces of the landscape disappeared as they ate random objects.

  [Blink] went off, and I managed to get a few more yards of safety before the ARC interface flickered again. Wraith appeared next to me.

  “Do you know how to escape, brother?” he asked as we ran.

  “I’m not your brother, Wraith.” If I was going to fail this universe, I wanted to do it with a clear conscience. “Not really. He died because I wasn’t g
ood enough to stop Requiem.”

  Our path rapidly approached an unstable land bridge between islands. There was a dock in the far distance. Moored to it sat our boat. I needed to get over there, but we wouldn’t possibly have enough time. That looked like the only escape route, aside from trying to use Requiem’s shortcut. Given the broken state of the moon and my vague knowledge, that path sounded even more dangerous.

  The bridge between this island and the next was the worst yet. It crumbled as we stepped across. I tried to get Xin into a better position but failed. My arms ached fiercely from running while holding her.

  “When you strip away all the clothes, the trappings of spirit made mortal, what is left? That part is what I am brother with, not some pile of meat.” Wraith’s voice barely showed signs of fatigue. Only his body looked worn. He took the jumps after me.

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  The distraction helped me a little bit. I needed to distance myself from this insanity and try to remember that everything around me was only a very real virtual reality. Were it not for Xin’s existence, I might have been able to feel excitement.

  Instead, the stakes were too real. The ocean below looked terrifying. Huge chunks of rock were crumbling away into the water. The moon looked as if a quarter of it had been sucked into a vortex behind us. I had no idea what might be eating it. Maybe the moon was a fancy hourglass.

  I slipped on a crumbling section of dirt. [Blink] triggered, and I felt myself being yanked sideways as the ARC interface flickered again.

  “Choice, Hermes.” Wraith [Blink]ed ahead of me and grabbed us again. He kept speaking while we lifted over the edge onto our fourth island in the chain. “Choice is all that we are. You chose to ask the Voices for a brother when you were weak and small, and I chose to say yes.”

  I set Xin down for a moment, then tried to breathe. We had been running for minutes, but it felt like years. Dusk’s enlarged form shot by, breathing a row of fire at enemies. My relief was momentary as other creatures fell out of the sky toward him, and a battle ensued. My attempts at [Empowering] the [Messenger’s Pet] had only made his scale of combat larger.