The other option available to me was enduring the pain until my health bar reached zero. That would release the [Red Imp] and put my mind back into Hermes. Okay, I could do that. This would hurt. Inflicting pain upon myself was much different than letting it happen. My foot lifted and teeth clenched.
“What in the unholy depths of Taurus has happened in here?” A new voice exclaimed.
“What? Whosethere and whatdoyou want?!” I barely righted myself from the potential damage. My foot went back down as I whirled around. The wall wasn’t talking, it still looked sleepy.
“Oh, hey, the little demon mongrel.” The new person said.
“Ah! PoserMan!” I shouted and stabbed rapidly at the air between us. The pitchfork didn’t look menacing enough on my short frame.
“Frankenstein, if you please.” He was a goofy looking Traveler. About his neck was the rippled white fabric with a popped up collar. The shiny curled boots on his feet were new. At some point in the last few weeks, he had fixed the uneven sleeves on his coat.
“Freakinstain!” I happily corrected myself. “What areyou doinghere?”
Maybe if he got close enough I could jab my weapon through his eye while cackling madly. The thought of casually murdering another player made me feel chill for a moment. I decided attacking Frankenstein wouldn’t be in character.
“Well I was checking on my pet project, only to find that half of them were dead or run over. I assume that fool Requisite Ass had something to do with this?” Frankenstein waved one hand at the giant mud face.
“What?” I squeaked.
“You’re in my dungeon, little demon runt.” PoserMan glanced down at me. All he needed to pull off the completely over the top look was a pair of shades. Maybe square ones that glinted even without sunlight.
“Litterunt is redundant. Runt implieslittle. Youarestupid too.” I gave a glare to convey how I felt about his intelligence level. This guy irked me slightly more than Requiem.
“What? Hey, I’m working on a vibe here. Stop disrupting my flow.” Frankenstein actually looked wounded. He paused and tugged at the collar to make sure it was in position. “Method acting, you know?”
“Waitwhat?” I was floored. The guy was acting like a poser on purpose? That was far worse than me pretending to be a [Red Imp]! Hopefully, it was worse anyway.
“Yeah. It’s an act. Now, where was I. Oh!” He turned to the giant face and raised both his arms.
“Whywould youact so stupid?” I shouted abruptly.
“Look, little demon runt guy, I spend all day long dealing with legal babble in my world.” Frankenstein or whatever his name was looked affronted. He swished a strand of hair out of his face, checked the collar once again, and walked over to me. He tapped his own chest. “I think I deserve to let my hair down and have fun.”
“This isfun?” I should have stabbed him in the eye. By the time it occurred to me that I could try to kill him instead and deal with Requiem, the other Traveler was too far away.
“Bah. Demons have no sense of humor, not like my minions. Now.” He turned and raised his arms back up again. “Oh, Great Lord! I call upon you to awaken from thine slumber!
“Thine?” PoserMan was clearly an inadequate nickname.
The wall started moving a little faster. It groaned and shook while dirt fell in clumps from the ceiling. I looked up in fear that another giant spike was sitting up above waiting to impale me in some twisted sense of irony.
The room kept moving and the face in the wall pulled back a little bit. Dirt slipped all around us to fill in the small gap. Finally, the rumbling knocked me off my tiny weak [Red Imp] legs. A fresh round of pain shot through my neck.
“C’mon!” I shouted. That wasn’t even my fault. This game was being a jerk now. “I hatethis contract!”
“Shut up, little demon. I’m working here.” Frankenstein wasn’t rude sounding, more like absently reminding me. It was annoying to be talked to like I was a small child in the presence of grownups. This [Red Imp] body may be short, but I was a damned adult.
“Youshut up!” I shouted back feeling extremely irritated. Being trapped in a circle was bad enough, having Frankenstein here added salt to the wound.
“No you!” He lost himself and yelled back.
“No youshutup now!” I barked the order. It was useless since Frankenstein was at least three times my height. He raised one preened eyebrow and looked confused.
“Why am I arguing with you? This is why I prefer the undead.” He shook his head quickly.
There was a wall of his beloved half zombies back in the tunnel’s mouth. Dozens of rats and moles stood there, each of them being of a half-functional variety. I readied the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] for stabbing in case they came over.
“uUuuuuur.” The face on the wall said. The vibration registered low enough that it hurt my ears.
“Oh, yes, I’m listening. Sorry.” Frankenstein stood a bit straighter.
“Uuuur?” The face couldn’t be speaking in actual words. If it was then my [Red Imp] racial would pick it up. There was no translation box coming into being like there had been with the [Lithium] Requiem chanted.
“UUuur.” It said.
“Right. Yes, Lord, I saw your poor eye.” Frankenstein winced and looked sad. The wall too seemed vaguely upset. It was sluggish. Almost like a stroke victim where part of the face didn’t respond.
“Uuuur.” It groaned a low tone again. I bit my tongue trying to prevent the back of my jaw from aching.
I tried not to roll my eyes. The little girl Voice in charge of all these messages was citing the reason for all of my problems. It was full of an endless series of weak moments.
“Fixing it is above and beyond any abilities I have now.” Frankenstein bowed. The coattails made him look similar to a butler bowing before royalty.
“Uuuur Uuurg.” The wall moved a bit again. More dirt fell from above. I tried to understand exactly what was going on here. Requiem and I had gone a huge distance underground and somehow there was a, I don’t know, underground giant sitting here?
“Oh. I’m sorry, I haven’t properly introduced you, Lord Gwar, meet…” The Traveler blinked a little bit. “Well, I don’t actually know his name. I’m sorry, I’ve failed you.”
“Uuuuurrrrr.”
“Spite? That is a good name, Lord, your suggestions are perfect as always.” Frankenstein turned to me and smiled. “Congratulations on your new exquisite name.”
That was weird. Having a name came with an interesting benefit. I tried to figure out which was more valuable, [Greed] or [Spiteful]. Though given the way this situation was going, building my bar would be worthless. How much longer would I be able to roam free before needing to conclude things with Requiem?
He was probably out there right now trying to bring events to a close. Here I was trapped in a stupid green circle. My current desire was to drive the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] through his backside and be done with this.
“Uur. Uuuughhrrrrrr.” The wall said shaking my thoughts of self-reflection.
“Thanks. Iguess?” This was worse than Shazam and Arnold talking. At least their hands wiggling back and forth were clearly words. There was a pattern to them. This wall just said the same noise over and over. From what I could tell Frankenstein was making up the giant face’s half of the conversation.
“Nnnnnnuuuu.” The walls lips slowly turned downward in a pout. “Nnr ruuu.”
“I know. He found the Eye of True Sight.” Frankenstein said. He managed to keep a straight face despite the severity implied. At least now I had a name for the necklace Requiem had picked up.
“Rrrrrghhh. Uuur.” Dirt rumbled around again and I wanted to stab the face until it stopped. Wait, that was the [Red Imp] act talking. I wanted to press the fast forward button on this conversation. The most realistic part of Continue Online had to be the inability to skip other people’s talking.
“Well, Lord, I honestly had not expected Requisite Ass to find someone wil
ling to work with him. I believe he’ll be headed to the castle soon.”
“What areyoutalking about! I wantedtokill him! A lot! With stabbings!” I shouted each stream of words as they occurred to me. Throughout the entire conversation, I managed to stay inside the stupidly annoying terrible green circle.
“Uuuuuur?”
“I know, right? Aren’t you his summon?” Frankenstein turned to me and did that head tilting process again. I wanted to shove a pair of shades on his face. He seemed incomplete.
“Not by choice!” I stomped a foot. It was actually a lie, I was chosen to be Requiem’s familiar but the Voices had a separate mission for me.
“Uur.” The giant face seemed to disapprove with its tone.
“Yes indeed, Lord. I also prefer undead, they’re much more stable.” Whatever it said must have been an insult towards me. I was only trying to do what my quest said. Requiem’s abusive nature made it easy to want to stab him..
“Uur. Urr.” The wall said.
“Well, I’ll ask him.” Frankenstein turned to me and smiled happily. He crossed one hand over his heart and held the other up, palm outward. “Would you like to help me kill your master? It’ll be fun, I swear.”
“That’s kindofthe pointofmy existence.” I glared at him.
“Really? Will wonders never cease.”
“Uuurrrrrrrr rrr. Uh.”
“Yes, you may rest again, Lord. I’ll talk to him.” Frankenstein said. He bowed to the giant wall again which caused his coattails to flip up.
“Hey uhh, tellhim I’m sorry aboutthe eye!” Now that the floating eyeball with its evil squiggles was vaguely attached to a thinking creature I felt kind of ashamed.
“What?”
“We, I, uhh, kindofdropped part ofa ceiling ontoit and made a splat.” I toed the ground with one of my gross looking feet.
“Oh, that. Yes, I already knew. My minions have been reporting back to me everything you and Requisite Ass have done. That’s how I knew it was safe to come down here.” He frowned. “Though I wish I had known sooner.”
“Then whydidn’t you know Ihave been trying to kill him!” I started to hop up and down in irritation. It was amazingly fun under normal [Red Imp] circumstances. The game world bolted me with another tingle of pain which made me scowl.
“Well, you’re very bad at it.” He said.
“Shut up!” My quick response sounded childish. It wasn’t fair. I had been trying to off the abusive player for days and failed.
“No you!”
“Ahhh! Stabbbbing!” I drew back the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] and tried to extend it into the Traveler’s face. He fizzled out with that strange wiggly darkness. The end result was his face looking confused while I looked stupid.
“That’s an odd weapon.” He tilted his head. The guy was kind of flighty.
“Whatever dieinafire, twice.” I flipped him off and felt perfectly happy with myself. A positive marker flickered across my synchronization bar citing [Spiteful] as the reason.
The wall behind us looked to be completely asleep. This way there would be no more of that mind numbing groaning.
“Will you help me get rid of that brat so I can finish this quest?” Frankenstein looked childishly hopeful. Just how much time did he spend working with his legal jargon? Did this guy ever get out of his house?
“What’s initfor me?” I took the chance to play up my [Greed] angle for a few more points. It was fun to pretend at being a little jerk.
The man pinched his nose and sighed. “Undead even solve their own needs. Fifty half-rotting rabbits and I don’t have to farm them carrots.”
“That’s special.” I tried to play up the [Nasty] trait while pushing this [Greed] aspect a bit more. Apparently the game approved. There was a long way to go before one hundred percent and every little bit helped.
“What exactly do you want?” He sighed and shooed off the wall of undead standing in the doorway. They slowly faded with odd hops and clumps of movement.
“I took half a Seer’s Tear from Requisite Ass.” I loved that nickname for the younger man. He was such a brat and deserved it. “Can you get me the other half?”
“Uhhh…” Frankenstein fiddled with his coat and shuffled both feet. “I guess. But I should probably get something in return.”
“You suckat dealing.” I said.
“Yeah. I don’t get out much. Just me and the computers.” He sounded almost ashamed. Part of me completely understood, though. If it wasn’t for the house call nature of my job we would probably be exactly the same. I wanted to go easy on the poor guy. He was certainly more likable than Requiem if a bit over the top with his attire.
“Okay. Iknowwhere Requiem is. If you can freeme and getme the other Seer’s Tear. I’ll help you kill him.” I put out my end of the deal.
“Really? Just for…” He paused and clammed up. “Deal struck! You won’t go back on it right?”
“No! I needhim todie!” I gnashed my teeth. That Traveler’s earlier taunting about how he planned to bleed this place dry pissed me off. It went against everything William Carver believed in. Mistreating the entire world of Continue Online wasn’t allowable.
Not to mention there was Xin. I had tried not to dwell on her during these last few days. This entire silly situation had started with helping her. I shook my head to get rid of that train of thoughts.
“Okay. Well, the only way I know to free you is an unbinding ceremony.” Frankenstein was already bending over the ground and chalking in something. It looked familiar to me, very much like the original circle that Requiem had used to summon me.
“Dothatnow.” I tilted my head and watched him make the circle bigger. He was amazingly precise.
“It’s not all kittens and rainbows. I’m a really bad summoner for living beings.” He looked down and frowned. Every few steps he would add a symbol that looked vaguely like [Lithium]. This was my second experience with it.
“Whatever.” I crossed my arms and started tapping one foot. Waltz? Salsa? Part of me wanted to hum but being zapped repeatedly for days had fixed that habit.
“And if you die, there’s no coming back.” Frankenstein looked at me for a moment.
I shrugged. “Sounds likea winwin. This place is terribleIhateit all.”
“It’s death, little demon, and even I can’t pull you back across the void.” His face scrunched on one side.
“And the tear.” I threw out a hand.
“Okay. Sure. That was the deal. I’ll unbind you, and you tell me where Requiem is at so I can send everything to crush him.”
“Willthatwork?”
“I’m out of options.” Frankenstein looked slightly bashful. He turned up to the giant face missing an eyeball and seemed sad. His lip stuck out with a small pout.
“Howabout I tellyou all his moves.”
“I already know about the blazing sword and his aura.” He muttered while turning back to the circle in front of him. He seemed to be studying the corners for anything that might be missing.
“How abouttheblackhole? Big, mean, sucksin everything. He does a stupid chant to fireit up.” I said while gesturing with my hands. The [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] was planted into the ground.
“No, that’s new. See this deal is already paying off.” He smiled happily. Frankenstein seemed like a kid in a candy store when things were going his way. That was less annoying than his whiny attitude when Requiem had chased him off the first time.
“Thereisone more thing.” I picked up my weapon. The [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] got another quick twirl before being stabbed into the ground again. The action kept me busy while waiting for other people to talk.
“Really?” He looked confused for a moment then nodded.
“Tear first.” I put out a hand. “Tear, I tellyou, you freeme, I tellyou where he is and we, kill him.”
“Wait. Let’s do the unbind first. That way we’re staying even. It’s only fair.” Frankenstein went back to his chalk outlining with a lot mor
e haste. He waved a free hand at me. “I’ll scribe out the rest of these runes, you just wait there.”
“Bestdayever.” I glared at the final runes being written into the ground. He used a different sort of chalk for the bigger shapes. Steam started to waft off of the white and pink markings. They were pretty clear with [Dark Vision].
“Here we go.” There was a final spot for his hand. He placed it inside a smaller circle.
Everything tilted sideways and the pain started. It felt familiar to me. My neck burned again as it did with every single time I disobeyed Requiem’s orders. This occurrence went deeper. It felt like the second time I tried to end it all. The feeling of digging into my own neck with a screwdriver came to mind.
Now I wasn’t sitting in the circle with Frankenstein, I was reliving that moment of the past. That had been my second moment of weakness where I tried to cash in everything on the hope of an afterlife. Then the alarms in my house flared to life and the machine called an ambulance. The neighborhood had a first response unit that bashed its way past all the security locks and got me sedated and stabilized. False blood had been pumped into my body and the next day I woke up in the hospital.
It was like that moment all over again. Only on the outside, during that moment where consciousness slipped away, it wasn’t the floor of my home. It was this cave with Frankenstein that faded. On the other side was Hermes, looking over a sprawling battlefield. I turned my head for a moment thinking this was a weird version of heaven.
Shazam sat there. She gave me a thumbs up and the world spun away again. The pain continued to wreck a course along all my nerves. The idea of pressing the logout button was too far removed. Then everything snapped and the world rang for a moment. I was back in the cave while two system messages sat in front of me.
Health reached critical. My vision was blurred and every limb felt leaden. I tried to flutter my wings, but they flopped uselessly.
“Are you okay?” Frankenstein asked.
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