Beastborne

by James T Callum

  “I thought you were talking about sending back a… I don’t know, a bomb or something to destroy the company that made Pyresouls. You’re talking about sending back a person?”

  Jacob took a few steps to the side to keep both Alec and the Doc in his sight. “Just so we’re all on the same page. You’re proposing time travel. Like, literal time travel by sending some poor soul back in time to… what, fix all this somehow?”

  Before the Doc could launch into a tirade about how time travel was a misnomer or something along those lines, Alec stepped between them.

  He put a hand up to calm the Doc. “I can hardly understand the particulars, but yes. At its core, that is what she is talking about. This is real, Jacob. How much magic have you seen in the last decade? Are you really going to start doubting now?”

  Jacob had to concede the point. Time travel was far from the most unbelievable thing he witnessed over the last ten years.

  The Doc rubbed her forehead in annoyance. “Not time travel,” she chided. “But now is not the time to be discussing the quantum mechanics of Lormar’s influence on this world.”

  Doctor Jasieux shook her red locks. “This, it is serious Jacob. No game. We send one soul back.” She lifted one finger. “One soul for one ember.” She raised another and put them side by side.

  You didn’t survive very long in the apocalypse without being able to adapt quickly. This was just another thing to adapt to. Whether it was real or not didn’t much matter to Jacob.

  It didn’t have much of an impact on his life. If the machine worked and somebody went back to change the past, good.

  He would love if his worst fears and issues were trivial things like scoring well on exams or finding a job. And not securing clean water, shelter, food, and ensuring that they weren’t all violently murdered by superhuman creatures.

  For a moment, just a moment, he allowed his mind to wander. Wondering what his life would be like if the Collapse never happened. His relationship with Emily would have ended, for sure. You didn’t up and betray somebody like that if you truly loved them.

  Jacob shook his head to clear the bitter memories of Emily and why he quit Pyresouls only halfway through the competition. When he came back to the present he found both Alec and Doctor Jasieux looking at him. “What?”

  “You think you’re up for it?” Alec asked, clapping him on the back.

  “Wait, you want me to go in that thing?”

  “Who else?”

  “You!” Jacob pointed accusingly at Alec. “You practically beat the damn game already! How many times have you told me the story of how it happened? How, if you had known the Burgon Beast was going to destroy your Pyre, you would have rested at one much farther away?

  “Not to mention all the mistakes in your character build and over what equipment to get. If you had a second chance you’d beat Pyresouls and be the champion.”

  Alec’s face suddenly aged a decade, his normally bright blue eyes were dark and without their customary light. Jacob had only seen his friend’s mask slip a few times before when they were alone and morale wouldn’t be affected, this was the second time in the same day. “I can’t,” he whispered.

  “We have spoken on this much,” Doctor Jasieux added. “He cannot go. You hear his tales, his stories but you do not feel his pain. The weight bears heavy on his soul. If he goes, the process will kill him.”

  Alec brightened a bit and nudged Jacob in the ribs. “Besides man, what do you think all my stories have been for? All that nightly sparring and telling you what I would’ve done differently? It was all to train you as my replacement.”

  I seriously doubt that. “Are you saying you knew I would need to time travel and you were grooming me for that?”

  “Okay, fine, you got me.” Alec raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture and stepped back. “I had no idea this was a thing until a bit ago, after Caleb left in search of the ember. So, no, not for this specifically but in general what I said still holds. People look up to me, Jacob but I’m not the leader they need. That’s you. The only reason you’re not stronger than me is because you quit the game early.

  “Even still, how many other players have you seen running around? Not many! They’re dead. Many of them were stronger than you by a country mile. But who was it that figured out the connection between the in-game stat of Guilt and ancient battle-worn armors and weapons having the same effect? That was you.

  “If we didn’t raid all those museums for these old medieval sets of armor and weapons, we would have died several times over. That’s all you, man. You were supposed to be my replacement.” Alec motioned to the pod. “Now you can be the hero I couldn’t. You know the paths I took, the mistakes I made, the mistakes you made. And you know what the Burgon Beast will do. You got this.”

  Swallowing, Jacob looked at the Doc. “Doctor Jasieux, you want me to do this?” Ever since they picked her up back in Charleston three years ago the Doc had been cordial with him but never seemed to pay much attention to him.

  “Call me Alice,” she said with a tilt to her head as she studied him. “Would you prefer we use Katherine? Maybe Victor? How many souls would you prefer we send before you feel worthy?”

  Jacob padded the air between them. “I just don’t get why you would want me. I quit, remember? Hell, I nearly quit a dozen times before I got to the point it was too much.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, pushing back the gruesome memories.

  “I still remember the first time I died. Besides, if you’re sending me into the past – if it works – then you’re sending me back to when I was a nineteen-year-old kid. I was an idiot and not nearly as fit as I am now. What would my goal even be? Blow up the Altis HQ so Pyresouls never gets made?”

  “No, we can only create a link between your self now and your past self once you have calibrated to the same generation of FIVR pods as this one.” She motioned to the pod behind her. “You will have to compete.”

  “And win,” Alec added.

  He couldn’t help but laugh. Jacob was just some idiot kid that signed up for a shot at a ridiculous prize he never stood any chance of winning. He didn’t ever have a shot at winning.

  At a time when VRMMOs were old hat and everything was stagnating, Pyresouls Online was announced. It was supposed to be the next greatest thing from one of the largest VRMMO titans in the industry, Altis.

  They stunned the world by not only promising to make the most brutal and difficult game possible but they also held a world-wide competition for their brand-new game.

  Anybody could enter and all entrants vied for the same prize: The first person to beat Pyresouls Online would gain a 49% stake in the privately-owned company, instantly making the winner a multi-billionaire.

  Of course, nineteen-year-old Jacob wanted his shot. Millions of people did.

  Nobody ever understood the dire consequences of what would happen if they all lost. None of them could even fathom it.

  With the chance to go back and fix it all, armed with what knowledge Alec had imparted to him and his own experiences, would he have a chance this time?

  Flexing his fingers, Jacob looked at his hand and all the scars it bore. “What will happen to me?”

  “You agree?” Alice asked, more than a little surprised. “Perhaps there is more to you than I thought. Come.” She motioned him over and placed her hand on his thick bicep. “You will lie down in this pod and you will go to sleep. When you wake up, it will be some time after your calibration tests when you first entered Pyresouls Online.”

  “I’ll keep all my memories of what will happen?”

  “You will.”

  There was something she wasn’t telling him. This was too good to be true. “And if I do succeed and change the future… will it be this future? Am I going to split off an alternate timeline and never see you again?”

  “No.” The Doc paused for a moment, then continued, “At least, I am not sure. I do not think so but this is uncharted territory. It is unlikely, I will say.�
�

  “Then what aren’t you telling me?” Jacob asked. “There has to be some downside to this.”

  “You will have memories of a time we do not,” she answered. “And the changes you have done, you will not know of past the time we pull you out.”

  “Pull me out?”

  “The human mind can only sustain such a strenuous connection for so long,” Alice said, pacing back and forth. “The ember will stop your mind from splintering across each of the possible universes until there is nothing left. But it is an arduous process and the energy expenditure is phenomenal.

  “Even should you somehow manage to endure, we can only maintain a connection for a few hours at a time before the machine must rest.”

  “And what happens to me when the connection ends?” Jacob wanted to back away from the pod but he forced himself to look at the distorted reflection of himself in the curved glass.

  “You’ll be fine,” Alec said. “Alice, Ian, and Clive all agree that there’s likely to be some mild time dilation as a result of moving against the typical flow of time. For each jaunt into the past, you should have more than a day’s worth of time there, right?”

  Doctor Jasieux nodded. “Sometimes more. Sometimes less. It is imprecise. You will need to be examined each time we pull you back. Mental fragmentation is the most likely side effect, where you experience more than one reality at a time. It is only a theory, do not look so worried. It may never happen.”

  “So I’ll have time to see if anything I did made an impact on this future then,” Jacob reasoned. “And if so.” He motioned to Alec. “You’ll have different memories than the ones you told me.”

  “Exactly. If everything works like Alice thinks, the memories of your past – this future as you remember it – will stay but the world will change. You’ll remember the horrors but none of us will. I know it’s a heavy burden we’re asking you to bear. I’m sorry about that, Jacob. Truly.

  “But you’ll have downtime when you’re back here, and we’ll do everything we can to help you get acclimatized. You’ll also be able to research anything we might have been able to piece together from survivor stories and secondhand accounts. Assuming you change the game that much. Just try not to kill me in-game, huh?”

  With a snort, Jacob shook his head. I’m really going to do this, aren’t I? “What about my skills? Will I retain those? They’re mostly knowledge, aren’t they?”

  “We do not think so,” Alice said. “You will know of them but you will not possess any of the strength or specific skills you do now.”

  “There’s nothing that would stop you from acquiring it again in the game,” Alec put in. “You already know the various Sword Forms from years of training. It should be quick to relearn them. Like riding a bike.”

  Jacob placed a hand on the cold glass of the FIVR pod. “All right. I’ll do it.” He turned to Alec. “But before we do, I need to know everything you can tell me about the path you took. The abilities you gained, the stats you picked, and the equipment you found. After all, I’m going to have to beat you.”

  Alice squeezed Jacob’s arm. “Thank you, Jacob. I will find Ian and Clive, they should have the sedatives mixed already. Take as long as you need.”

  As she walked out of the room, Jacob turned to Alec. “Tell me how you got through the Asylum of Silent Sorrows.”

  Pyresouls Chapter 03

  As Jacob laid in the FIVR pod, a potent sedative coursing in his veins, he knew he should be doing as Ian – their resident doctor – asked, namely counting backward from 100 out loud but he kept getting sidetracked.

  Some of the things Alec said he did, the tricks he discovered either at the time or after were truly illuminating. And horrifying. “Ninety-five…” The Asylum of Silent Sorrows was the only area he never dared to go. It truly terrified him and it made sense that Alec had charged headlong into the frightening place.

  In the past, Jacob took the much longer roundabout path into the Fogdrift Gardens. A veritable maze of darkness and fog, strewn with snakes and animated plants that were indistinguishable from the environment.

  It took him a long time to get through it and even looking back through his memories, he wasn’t sure if he could navigate it at any speed. Not if he was going to beat Alec’s past-self to the Burgon Beast.

  “Keep counting,” Ian reminded him.

  “Ninety-four… ninety-three-”

  In between one heavy blink and the next Jacob felt a stab of electric pain arc from the crown of his head to the bottom of his soles. When he opened his eyes, he was standing in a sea of darkness.

  August 30th, 2035 – 14 days remain before the Collapse.

  A beautiful half-naked woman stood in front of him. Her hair was like spun gold and there was a cloth tied around her eyes like a blindfold. She held a scroll protectively in both hands up to her chest. “I welcome you, Jacob Windsor.” She did a little curtsy. “I am here to remind you of the rules of the competition and to attain your signature on the contract. Be aware, that should you disagree with any of the rules, or refuse to sign you will be forcibly ejected and escorted from the premises.”

  Jacob reeled from the sudden shift but he recovered quickly. He remembered this speech. Only last time, he was so excited to get into the game and get started he hardly noticed the scantily clad woman.

  “I understand,” he said.

  “Excellent,” she said cheerily. “The rules are simple. Firstly, all players must commit to full immersion. Any logouts are considered an automatic forfeit. By agreeing to this first stipulation, you will be provided with quality medical care to ensure that your physical self remains in top condition while immersed.

  “Secondly, all players are to start at the same time. No new players are allowed once the competition is underway. From this point forward you have ninety minutes to agree to this contract and to complete your character creation.

  “You may take more than the allotted time for character creation if you so choose but beware that other players will be released into the game world if they wish it. And finally, the first to reach – and defeat – the final boss is awarded the prize. There is no second place. Do you agree to these terms as I have described them?”

  Jacob rubbed his smooth stubble-less chin. Gonna take a while to get used to that. “Is there any NDA I need to sign?” He had never thought to ask before.

  If he could contact the outside world….

  “No, there is no connection to any outside sources from within your gameplay experience. All the information you gain will have to be gathered by yourself or learned from other players within the game. There will be no outside communication. As such, if you forfeit early you may feel free to post about your experiences to your heart’s content.”

  Right. Now, he remembered. Decade-old memories he never thought he would have any use for were beginning to come back to him.

  His past self hadn’t asked the question but he clearly remembered the forums were lit up with experiences of various players that bowed out early. He learned a lot about the game – probably more than playing it himself – by reading the various accounts of mechanics and how certain magic worked.

  Things like stat scaling, soft caps, and Soul farming were entirely foreign to him while he was playing. Things were different now. This wasn’t about playing a game. If he could pull this off, humanity itself would be saved. His family would live to see the next year.

  The fate of billions rested on his narrow nineteen-year-old shoulders. And it terrified him. I don’t know how you did it day in and day out Alec. Maybe I should’ve asked you how you could shoulder so much responsibility all the time.

  “I agree,” he said to the waiting avatar.

  “Then sign here, please.” She unfurled the mile-long scroll and held it out. He was also agreeing to not sue Altis for the trauma he would endure in the game, and that it was entirely his choice to subject himself to the torturous experience that was Pyresouls Online.

  A quill appe
ared in Jacob’s hand and he signed his name on the empty line. With a snap, the scroll rolled up and the avatar disappeared, replaced by a character creation menu.

  Four mirrors materialized out of the darkness at each cardinal direction. Despite the dark all around, he could easily see his reflections surrounding him as if they were lit by an otherworldly source of light.

  A ridiculous-looking loincloth covered his modesty. He couldn’t believe the lean teenager he was looking at. The man he became was covered with scars and old wounds, with hardened cords of muscle thickening his frame. This kid wouldn’t be able to survive a week Post-Collapse.

  He paused and chuckled at that because he did survive. For years. And if he did things right, those memories would be nothing more than nightmares he had to live with for the rest of his life.

  Small price to pay for saving humanity, he thought with a grimace. Not that anybody would know it was me.

  That was the rub. The ultimate goal was one that, should he succeed, nobody would ever know the horrors that consumed the world. He would return to an Earth that was utterly normal and mundane. It would be foreign to him.

  Then again, if he succeeded, he would win the competition. Having a few billion dollars would surely help to ease the transition. Honor, glory, and fame for saving humanity were all well and good. But having a swimming pool of money like those classic Duck Tales cartoons was a decent consolation prize.

  The first thing that he had to pick was one of the four races in Pyresouls Online. A small list appeared in the top right of whichever mirror he was looking in at the time.

  Reaching out, he tapped the list to bring it to the forefront. After he quit the game, the biggest point of contention between the players was the lack of extensive races.

  On one hand, there was a camp of players that believed you didn’t need a dozen different races to make a unique character. They believed that the game’s mechanics and grueling difficulty was the main draw. Everything else was merely flavor.