Descend- Coming Together

by David Burke

  “No, not as long as you are willing to take an oath under Samantha’s powers.”

  Miguel seemed to consider it for a moment. “Fine, if that will make everything square. I owe you that much.”

  Jay then pulled Samantha aside and the other advisors followed without him saying anything. He spoke telepathically to them to keep it private. “You can tell if he is speaking the truth or you can compel him to tell the truth?”

  She seemed nervous but Meikiyo said, “It’s okay, Jay won’t be disappointed no matter what you say.”

  That seemed to comfort her some so she finally responded back in kind, “I can compel him to tell the truth unless he has some special ability to protect himself, like Emma can.”

  Something about her expression made Jay ask, “Is there more?”

  “Um... I can also place what are called judgments on him. The more he agrees the more binding it will be but, ultimately I can make him give a promise that he can’t break.” Samantha said.

  “Wow, that could be very useful,” Charlotte said.

  Jay was nervous about the morality of it but Charlotte and Meikiyo didn’t seem to be bothered. When they started to pull Samantha over to Miguel, Jay objected but Meikiyo responded, “They voted us to be your advisors, let us advise and do our job. We have to protect you from your better nature.”

  He recognized some truth in what she said but still didn’t want to fall short of making the hard decisions so he felt at least a bit more confident when he responded, “Okay do it.”

  Daphne was called over to boost Samantha’s powers and Miguel was asked to kneel before her. She placed her hands on the sides of his temples and said, “Do you agree to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, upon pain of death.”

  He nodded his head but when she coughed he answered out loud, “I do.”

  “Do you have any intention now or in the future to disobey or otherwise act against the interests of the cluster in general or Jay specifically?”

  “No.” Miguel winced as he answered and Jay wondered if that meant something but Samantha telepathically told him it was okay.

  “Will you voluntarily take a pledge of loyalty to be in effect for 365 days from today?”

  “Yes.”

  Jay and everyone else had to avert their eyes as her hands glowed with a bright, yellow luminescence. “Do you pledge yourself as a servant of the cluster secondarily and Jay foremost?”

  Jay wanted to say that she had it backwards but there was a power building around her. Whatever she was doing with Daphne’s help, he could literally feel it tugging on the energy inside of him. It must be so much more intense for Miguel who groaned softly.

  “I do.”

  Samantha’s voice had been a bit odd throughout the entire ceremony but now it took on a downright crypt-keeper-like solemnity. “Then you are bound as a servant of Jay. Should you break this oath then I judge that your very essence in both PSI and Stamina shall be transferred to Jay and you shall become an empty husk, devoid of life.”

  “What? You weren’t supposed to do that,” Jay yelled.

  “It was necessary and the three of us agreed. Do any of you disagree with what was decided?”

  Most of the girls said things to affirm that they thought it was a good idea although Miguel’s girls were clearly nervous. Charlotte said, “Now everyone else form a line, starting with you four,” as she pointed at the girls attached to Miguel.

  “What are you doing?”

  Meikiyo said, “Love, let them do this. Everyone needs to be bound to you. You said it. This isn’t a democracy anymore. This is life and death and we have to act with one mind.”

  “No, I forbid it. I will not have a relationship or sleep with any woman that takes an oath like that. I couldn’t look at you the same and I want equals by my side, not slaves.”

  “We aren’t slaves because we are voluntarily doing this for the benefit of everyone,” Jessie chimed in.

  Jay looked around and saw nodding heads. He could feel through the bond that Mia strongly agreed with this. “Well be that as it may, my statement stands. I will not have a relationship with or sleep with any woman who takes that oath. I expect that those women will be bound to me in other ways.”

  Meikiyo said, “Fine, but Miguel’s group still needs to take the oath, so that we know that we can trust them.”

  “I will agree to that on two conditions,” Jay responded. “First, they have to take the oath willingly. If they don’t want to, we will just know to watch them more closely. Second, the oath has to put the good of the cluster ahead of me. No one person is more valuable than the whole.”

  Samantha said, “I can modify it like that.”

  Jay was surprised that over the next few minutes all four of the girls underwent the same process. He couldn’t help but feel that he was being turned into a slave owner but what was done was done. It seemed that no matter how hard he grew, that at least some of the girls were willing to go further than he was. He pondered if that would end up being a bad thing.

  Interlude 7- A Fate Worse Than Death

  Outside in the ziggurat, Jasmine pulled herself up off the ground. Her regeneration was already healing the deep bruises she sustained when Jay threw her against the wall. She screamed out loud with no one else to hear her.

  Then all around her the ziggurat started to shake. It freaked her out, so she went running down the stairs. By the time that she made it to the ground the entire structure was halfway sunken into the ground. Another minute later and it had disappeared beneath the surface entirely. Shortly afterwards there was no sign it had ever been there in the first place.

  As she looked around the terminals, bungalows and in the distance even the water source had all disappeared. The trees all started to shrink as though they were being sucked dry from the roots up until they too disappeared. The grass followed and soon it was nothing but a rocky barren surface in all directions. Not even the sand of the beach to soften her footfalls.

  She wandered aimlessly, shrieking out her rage. “They will pay. I would have saved them all. They will regret this. They will beg me to take them back. They will beg me on their knees while I laugh in their faces. And him… I will take him for mine. I won’t give him a choice, but I will keep him forever on the cusp. He will always yearn for me. He will be tantalized like I have been. I will keep him there till it breaks him. Then he will be my toy till I tire of him.”

  Then she looked up as though speaking to the heavens, “Mark my words, they will all bow before me.”

  It was then that she noticed that the sky was gone. Well more precisely it was a transparent dome. As far as the eye could see. There were stars in the sky but they were out beyond the dome. It looked so different, so artificial. Somehow though she knew this was the truth.

  Then a sight seared her to her core. She had learned where they were. They were on a spaceship. She could see the earth hanging in the sky. It took up the entire southern hemisphere of the sky. Something was wrong with it though. It looked as though it was on fire. Not just a part of it, but almost all of it.

  A fire so huge that she could see it from space. Then she laughed. None of the others knew the truth. They had escaped into the dungeon. Escaped, she laughed. They were fools. There was no escape from this. Their plans to beat the test and return to Earth was so much foolishness.

  She and she alone understood the predicament that they were in. With this knowledge she would regain control. Then she heard a sound behind her. She spun quickly, her hands up and ready to launch her fanged tentacles at whatever threat was sneaking up on her.

  Cold fear ran through her, for she saw not one but three of those things that Jay had fought earlier. The half-men, half-machine monstrosities were as ugly as anything she had ever seen to her eyes. She liked beauty of form but they were designed with function over form in mind.

  The one in back was slightly larger than the others. She took it to be some kind of commander amongst these
creatures. Jasmine laughed out loud. Her mind, already a wreck, was broken further by the terror before her.

  Yet she was the one who commanded, not the one who obeyed. So she would seize control. They were partially flesh, so they must have emotions for her to manipulate.

  Her cracked mind reached out with an intensity that was beyond her normally. Her rational mind even subconsciously would protect her from using her power in such a way, knowing that it would cripple her mind just as much as those she attacked. Now though, she had no such control and lashed out wildly.

  At first nothing happened. The two creatures walked towards her. How dare they deign to lay a hand upon her person? Her power surged again and this time they both faltered. Emotions which were thought to be completely eradicated from their dead flesh were awakened, even if dimly.

  They both spun around uncontrollably. Never in all their existence as Forlorn had they felt such emotions. So even this tiny taste sent them out of control. Not so for Sek Mapor. He was of a higher tier than these warriors. He withstood her assault and then charged into her body with the force of a Mack truck.

  Her body broke to match her mind as she bounced across the ground. Both arms and legs as well as ribs and skull were fractured, but still she lived. A moment later, Sek was standing over her. She didn’t know his name yet but at that moment she heard his cold methodical voice.

  “We can’t have that implant active in you. You might prove to be useful.” Then she felt his finger touch the side of her skull and a drill bit into her bone. She screamed in pain, but they didn’t care. Sek first dug out the A’snkarnt implant inside her brain and then went to work making the limited modifications that he could make to her while out here with very limited materials to work with.

  Throughout the hours that followed, she drifted in and out of consciousness. He never stopped, never faltered. The only way to tell if she was awake or not was by whether she was screaming.

  Chapter 29- Wedding Rings

  After the last of the oaths were given, Jay looked around. There was another difference that he noticed. In fact he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t noticed it before. There was a terminal here.

  Walking up to it he activated it with his hand. Immediately the shop came up as well as a modified quest for level two. Before focusing on the quest he looked at the differences in the shop. A few things stuck out at him.

  First under housing it appeared that “environmentally adaptable housing units” could be rented every night for the cost of 100 credits but that any number of individuals could use one unit at the discretion of the renter. There was now also a luxury housing option at 500 credits per night that had a cap of ten people.

  There were also a wide number of options under personal comfort items and most significantly three new levels of birth control were available.

  Enhanced Birth Control: 3200 credits- provides 30 days protection from males up to level 50.

  Superior Birth Control: 12,800 credits- provides 30 days protection from males up to level 75.

  Peak Birth Control: 45,200 credits- provides 30 days protection from males up to level 105.

  Those prices were staggering. He didn’t even know what to say to that. If he kept leveling, he would basically be racing to see if he could get enough credits to protect the girls with him before he reached a new threshold. Craziness was all he could say.

  The next shocker was the water purifier. The item was crossed out with a message next to it that read:

  Due to the rapidly increasing levels of aphrodisiacs in the water this product is no longer viable. Your only means of counteracting this is to level faster.

  There still weren’t any new armor or weapon options but honestly the stuff that Huong could make with Mia’s help was already outclassing anything the shop had to offer. He wondered now that they were all going to be working together on what sort of options there might be for skill combos, not only in combat but in crafting.

  Feeling like time was short for some reason, Jay focused on the revised level two quest.

  Quest 2.1 Race to the Finish (adapted)

  This race will begin when the timer reaches zero. Each of the 22 surviving clusters will be allowed to field a team of five for the race. The rest of the cluster may follow 300 feet behind the racing team.

  Those following will be completely safe from all attacks by life forms indigenous to this desert so long as they maintain that distance. However, any attempt to aid the racing team or hinder other racing teams by those viewing will result in immediate disqualification of the cluster and forfeiture of all credits from all members of the cluster.

  18 hours after the end of the race all remaining clusters will be combined into 10 clusters based upon the leaderboard (see below). Positions on the leaderboard will be updated daily and are subject to change. Combination will take place on the 3rd floor and the first two floors of the dungeon will be forever sealed.

  To facilitate ease of communication leaders of each cluster will be identified by their native name rather than their test designation. All male and female units who are currently assigned to one of the top 10 clusters will remain in that cluster.

  Assuming that at the end of that all current test subjects remain alive then there are 27 male test subjects and 970 female test subjects.

  The remaining male test subjects will be assigned first to the lower five clusters to promote competition for leadership of those clusters. The top five clusters will not have any male units assigned which are not already part of the cluster.

  The remaining female subjects will all be ranked based upon a combination of: level, race results, power progression, and breeding potential. The top female units will all be assigned to Cluster 1 until it reaches a maximum capacity of 100 test subjects. Then onto Cluster 2 and so on until all female units have been assigned.

  Regarding the race, the first team to the central column wins. Note that as soon as the race commences, the stimulant level in all water supplies will be reset to halfway between the third and fourth threshold. This is intended to generate faster growth but may have side effects in the lower-level test subjects including but not limited to: headaches, random power activation, poor decision making, and uncontrollable sexual urges.

  Descend to survive and thrive.

  General rewards upon completion of this quest: Access to 3rd floor of the dungeon for all test subjects. 2000 credits per male unit and 100 credits per female unit. Access to terminal 2.1.

  2nd place reward: Racing team members will all gain an additional 5000 credits and double experience gains for twenty-four hours. Free luxury housing for 1 night.

  1st place reward: Racing team members will all gain an additional 10,000 credits and quadruple experience gains for forty-eight hours. Free luxury housing for 2 nights.

  Timer: 1:57:32

  Leaderboard:

  Cluster 1- Jay: Level 37

  Cluster 2- Li Wei: Level 24

  Cluster 3- Hwa-Rang: Level 23

  Cluster 4- Michael: Level 22

  Cluster 5- Aroon: Level 21

  Cluster 6- Jeff: Level: 20

  Cluster 7- Lars: Level 20

  Cluster 8- Kwame: Level 20

  Cluster 9- Rangi: Level 19

  Cluster 10- Pietro: Level 18

  Leaderboard points moving forward will not be solely determined by level but will include the following factors (not necessarily in this order of significance): number of dungeon floors descended both personally and on average by all cluster members, level, development of stats and skills, survival rate of cluster members, mating frequency and diversity. (Breeding success will be added as a criteria at a later stage)

  Once Jay explained the new quest, the changes to the shop, and the leaderboard, several of the girls wanted to go and read the message on the terminal themselves. In the end there was a fair amount of grumbling about it as well as fear over the part about the stimulant in the water.

  “Now what do we do?” one of the girls asked. Jay k
new most of their names but he really needed to get better with them. Especially since if he understood the message then there were soon going to be many more faces for him to learn. He really needed to come up with a system of organizing the cluster into mini clusters.

  “Nothing has changed. We still need to win the race. There is just more on the line now. We also know that we will be getting 68 more girls to join the cluster tomorrow.”

  There was a bunch of complaining at that point. “That isn’t fair,” was said repeatedly.

  “Hold on. I will talk to the advisors and I promise you that we will create a fair system. As far as I am concerned those who were here first rank higher in my mind, but I don’t want to speak out of turn.”