“We can’t let them go through,” she mused, looking around her as if expecting something to shoot her way to knock her off Sir Wingsalot.
But nothing came. The army below didn’t even notice she was there.
The quiet was unsettling. Chloe tried to put her brain in gear but found it was reacting slower than usual.
“The effects of the Nether Realm,” KieraFreya said. “If it was meant to be a place of luxury and fun, it wouldn’t be used as the prison of the gods. Keep your wits about you. Your mind might melt inside here.”
Chloe raised her head and scanned the landscape.
The world was a strange mix of burnt orange and purple. It was like a scene from another planet, a landscape devoid of plant life or water. Only the dark army passing through was alive.
The place reminded her of the plains of the Wild West, the strange rock formations and the barren earth. There wasn’t anything in the way of a sky above them, just a painted canvas of darker shades of purple.
And no sign of Shikora.
“Damn!” Chloe said. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know,” KieraFreya replied.
The army moved steadily beneath her. Soon they would all be out and loosed on Obsidian. Chloe felt that pang of guilt again, knowing she had done this. She had released this evil. No matter how unintentional, this was her fault.
She wondered, not for the first time, how she had ended up on this quest. Her mind flashed back to the journey she had undertaken. The friends she had made. The cowladites and their kin, the sandworm, the sherikans. The tribal people of the forest and their village, the minotaurs, the city of Killink. Her battle against the dreads, rescuing Lady Gwent from danger. All of it had led up to this moment.
And still she could not complete her task.
“Chloe, look,” KieraFreya said, pointing to a strange rock formation that towered over the remaining battalion.
Chloe grinned, understanding exactly what KieraFreya was suggesting. “Wingsalot, take us closer.”
When they were near enough, Chloe channeled the etheric and sent a blast of fire at the rocks. Great chunks and boulders fell off and rained on the army, causing those who weren’t squashed to scatter. The canyon around them collapsed, and although they fled, many were flattened beneath the rubble.
“At least that’s something.” Chloe nodded smugly. She was about to turn back and look once again over the landscape for Shikora when something caught her eye.
Gideon, Holly, and Molly. Their protective bubble had failed and they were being overrun.
Ben ran through the town, arrows singing from his bow.
Thanks to their dash, the group had worked their way inside. There weren’t as many infected as there had been before, and Ben wondered if the others were somewhere near Veronica, Heather, and the clerics.
Which provided the perfect breathing space for the hundred or so dwarves to file in and attack.
They took no prisoners, wanting nothing more than to live and realizing they were working against the clock. The longer they waited, the more likely it was that the clerics would be lost to infection, nothing more than shells wandering around aimlessly. If that happened, who would be left to heal others?
Ben followed his instincts, leading the group up the slope. He remembered seeing the figure on the crown of the hill. If he could make it there, maybe he’d be able to find the others.
Three infected to his right, three shots in quick succession. Not quite death blows, but enough to cripple them and leave them for the army behind him.
This is SO much more epic than Relic Hunter, Ben thought.
At the crest of the hill, he paused and looked around. He was standing on a wide patch of grass that looked from afar like the bald head of a green giant.
There was no one in sight.
Ben checked his messages once more, still seeing nothing from the others.
“Where are they?” Leonie asked.
Huk shaded his eyes and sniffed the air.
“What? Are you, like, Lassie now? Can you smell them?” Leonie rolled her eyes.
They heard muffled screams.
“Wait, what was that?”
They cocked their ears, the dwarves around them taking care of any infected that came their way.
“It came from down there,” Huk said.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course, I’m sure. Look how low I am to the ground compared to you people.”
He fell to his knees, ear to the grass.
“Definitely something inside—”
Huk flew several feet into the air as the trap door was slammed open, a large flap peeling from the grass.
Ben took a step back, relief flooding his face when he saw Veronica’s face sticking out of the hole.
“Oh, hey, buddy,” she said, breathless but casual. “How’ve you been? We could’ve used you down here.”
Gideon felt drained. Every ounce of his energy was spent. Even with the reduced cost in mana Etheric Manipulation granted, casting two spells at once and holding back the tide had taken its toll.
Every attack and every collision with the enemy took a chunk from his mana, and his protection was about to fail.
“Hope you’ve all brought your umbrellas. It’s about to get rainy out,” Gideon breathed.
Before Holly and Molly could open their mouths, the bubble was down and they were exposed to the elements. In one way it was refreshing, given that their spells had mostly been cast through a buzzing haze of electricity and water, but now they were able to see everything. They were out in the fresh air with nothing between them and the enemy.
Nothing.
“Crap,” Gideon said. He had not trained for this. Didn’t know how to fight with his bare hands.
“We’ve got you,” Holly said, realizing the problem. She pulled Molly closer and summoned Gelda over, and the three of them formed a protective shelter with their bodies for the mage.
“Focus on re-gen,” Molly shouted.
Gideon did. He closed his eyes and tried to pretend the enemies weren’t there. He fought with his mind to relax and let his body regenerate its vital stats.
The only problem with that was that the enemy was all around, and it was nearly impossible to relax when every bump or scream sounded like death was approaching and you were counting the seconds until your number was called.
Then Gideon heard the roars of some giant beast. He opened his eyes and saw a warg twice the size of the others coming for them. He smiled, elated to see the Wrangler nearby, jumping into action to help them again.
The warg roared and charged toward them, his head knocking creatures out of the way despite their size. When it reached Gideon and the others, it raised a paw and slashed Holly and Molly out of the way.
“Wait, what?” Gideon muttered. The realization dawned on him as he looked over his shoulder and saw a second warg of the same stature fighting the bad and avoiding hurting the good.
Gideon deflated. “Oh, crap.”
Gelda, seeing the danger, jumped to Gideon’s aid. With her stone muscles and shape, she matched the warg in height, at least. The beast snapped at her, trying to wrap its teeth around her thick waist.
Gelda roared and punched the warg’s muzzle. It twisted sideways, snapping at her again. She took a jaw in each hand and pulled in opposite directions, stopping the mouth from closing.
“Gelda!” Gideon shouted.
Holly and Molly rose, dazed, from the ground. Before they could work out what was happening, the warg nudged Gelda forward with a powerful surge and sent her tumbling onto her back.
The teeth came once again. Gideon stood there, helpless, not knowing what to do without any mana to aid him. It was regenerating, sure, but so slowly it was still no use.
Gelda grunted with the effort of holding the warg back. Having regained her feet, she once again held its muzzle at bay, her muscles taut like knotted rope. The warg was gaining ground, inching closer to her body.
It was about to make contact, about to bite her, when the dazzling light appeared and a strange hush fell over the field.
“Is it working?” Mia asked, her face so close to the screen that she was nearly cross-eyed. “Is it?”
They were watching the action on the small monitors, which showed a cross-section of players they’d found involved in the battle outside of Hammersworth City. Right in the center was a screen that had just turned to static.
“I don’t know,” Lucy said. “There’s nothing yet. Nothing…”
Mia stared at the screen, not even wanting to blink. For several days, they had waited for a moment like this. The moment KieraFreya and Chloe synchronized and the static blockages came.
The moment the gods were up against the AI.
“Still nothing…” Lucy muttered. “Nothing…”
“Wait, what was that?” Jonathon said suddenly. “There. Look.”
In the small rectangle of static, they could just make out a shape. A fuzzy outline of a figure as if someone was approaching through a hailstorm.
A jolt of excitement shot through them all. Even Demetri, who had been forced to take a backseat, was now on his feet, crowded around them all and watching.
“Can you see her?” Mia grinned, finger tracing features on the screen. “The hair, the arms. She’s still there.”
“Hmmm. Needs a tune-up,” Lucy said, tapping some lines of additional code into a second monitor. She peered through her glasses and hit Enter.
Jonathon laughed. “It’s like tuning an old satellite TV.” He cupped his hands to his mouth and called to an imaginary man on the roof, “Hey! A little more to the left.”
The image suddenly came into focus.
“Yes!” Mia shouted, pumping her fist. “It worked!”
They could see Chloe clearly now, her whole body emitting a white glow. She was hurtling through the air atop Sir Wingsalot, leaving the Nether Realm and speeding toward the battlefield.
“Damn, that’s cool.” Jonathon nodded.
Lucy couldn’t keep her own smile from growing. She sat back and laced her fingers behind her head. “Well, there we go. A successful secondary artificial intelligence, now able to prevent the gods from shutting down the main images to our feed.”
“Just look at those comments,” Charlie pointed out. “From Hard-on for the Bard-on—damn, that’s a choice name—‘Wahoo! Finally, able to see Chloe go Super Saiyan. Woo!’ From Little_Leia72: ‘YES PRAXIS! Fixed the most annoying bug EVER!’ Oh! And get this one, from Herbil_Da_Gerbil, ‘Upvoting the shit out of this bitch right now!’
Lucy, Jonathan, and Charlie burst out laughing. When they saw that Mia was still straight-faced and staring at the screens, Lucy said, “Come on, boss. We’ve done it. We’ve created a good thing. It works, look!”
Mia shook her head, her attention diverted by the small image in the top-right of the monitor. The place where she could still see Ben, Veronica, and the others battling past infected in a place surrounded by trees.
“No, we haven’t. We’ve taken one step, and that’s amazing, but something’s still not right. We haven’t controlled the other gods, Fukmos, Dryana, and Myaris. They’re still wandering around like nothing can stop them.”
“Isn’t that a part of the experience?” Charlie offered. “We can’t mute them entirely.”
“You haven’t seen them as much as I have. I don’t trust them. They’re still working beyond the borders of what the game should allow. They shouldn’t be directly involved in the game, making their presence known.”
“What are you saying? Someone has neglected a line of code? Something has slipped through the cracks? Mia, we have our whole team at it. We’ve been working tirelessly for days. How could we have missed something?”
Mia leaned against the glass walls of her office and stared out at her team. Her eyes caught the loafer who currently sat in his corner cubie with his feet on the table.
Damien, she thought.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chloe felt etheric power pulsing through her as Sir Wingsalot lowered her to the ground and she dismounted.
The whole battlefield seemed to have paused, all eyes on this shining light amidst the group. Chloe straightened her back, adjusted her grip on the sword in her hand, and gave a wry smirk.
“Okay, you sons-of-words-I-cannot-say, let’s see what you’ve really got.” She looked over the battlefield at the countless heads of mages and fighters and remembered her new title, then took a deep breath and shouted, “For the queen!!”
“For the queen!” came the rallying cry as fighters all across the battlefield suddenly gained the +5% strength, +5% stamina, +5% endurance, +5% mana regeneration, and +5% health regeneration bonuses granted by Chloe’s unique skill.
Then Chloe was back in the fray, her sword leaving an afterburn on the retinas of her enemies. The blade sang. She took out the large warg with one clean slash, freeing Gelda and setting her loose once more on the battlefield.
The whole thing felt like a dance she had known all her life. With KieraFreya offering her power and Chloe guiding the sword, they were unstoppable. Her body moved fluidly, and her attacks were measured and pure. Pretty soon, the last of the enemies had filed out of the rift, and finally, they could see the numbers being reduced.
She cleared a space around Gideon, Holly, Molly, Lindsay, Gelda, and Blueballs, giving them their first moment to breathe since the battle had begun. Chloe shouted encouragement to the others, trying to bring everyone back together and get them moving toward the gate.
If we can pile everyone back up, we’ll be able to take the rest down, she said to KieraFreya.
Sounds good to me. United we stand and all that.
Hold on. Chloe chuckled internally, grunting as she took down another warg with a single blow. I thought you guys had no access to the outside world? How did you know that’s an American phrase?
KieraFreya shrugged Chloe’s shoulders. I didn’t. It’s an Obsidian phrase too. Not everything is about your world, girly.
Chloe continued to call to her comrades, rallying them to gather around the city gate. The message spread quickly, and Chloe and her team made their way around the field, taking down stragglers and helping those who were unable to work their way out of their own engagements.
There were casualties, of course. Several bodies littered the field behind them, which she knew would clear itself only a short time later when the game decomposed the figures and respawned the blessed.
The wargs and the orcs continued to give chase, but finally, guided by the blinding light of Chloe and KieraFreya and flanked by Blueballs, Holly, Molly, Gelda, and Gideon, everyone managed to regroup.
Even Therese had come forth to help them. They were now a much stronger unit, and the orcs, wargs and other creatures who kept up the attack broke against them like water against rock.
Doubt started to become visible in their eyes as their numbers shrank, and when Chloe blasted a thick column of Deic Light and took out their frontrunners, the creatures turned as one and fled toward the forest.
Chloe, buzzing with rage and excitement, summoned Sir Wingsalot to her and was about to chase after the remaining few hundred sprinting across the grass when a hand grasped her shoulder and held her back.
“Chloe, leave it. We’ve won. They’re running.”
Chloe looked from the rift to the creatures and shook her head. “We may have won the battle, but we definitely haven’t won the war. In case you haven’t noticed, they’re running in the direction of Ben, Veronica, and the clerics.”
Gideon’s face fell when he realized she was right.
“Ben’s out there? Away from you? Maybe it wasn’t just me who needed a break from this whole damn mess.”
When she heard his voice, Chloe froze. She was sure she was imagining things.
“What? Not going to turn around and give your old buddy a hug?”
Chloe slowly turned, looking across the sea of dwarves fo
r the originator of the sound. He stuck out like a sore thumb, clad in armor much grubbier than the rest, and with a shield that was not of Hammersworth.
Chloe couldn’t believe it.
“Tag?” Her face broke into a smile. “What the hell? When did you… What?” She ran over and embraced him tightly.
“I came looking for you all. You know how hard it is to find your way across this world when you’re a solo dwarf on a mission? Little did I know that I’d be walking into a friggin’ battle zone. Good thing you had me, too. These dwarves don’t know a thing about fighting.”
Chloe hid a laugh behind her hand at the evil glares Tag got from the surrounding dwarves.
“We thought you’d gone forever,” Gideon said. “I thought you’d never come back.”
“Don’t be silly,” Tag said, patting Gideon’s arm. “And leave you lot to create havoc without me? I just needed a bit of space, was all. I went back out into the world. Tried a few new games. Do you know that there is nothing out there as good as this? I’m telling you. Once you’re out of here, you’ll see. All you’ll want to do is come back.”
Chloe beamed, unable to hold back the happiness welling in her heart. Even KieraFreya said a few kind words to Tag.
“I hate to break up this reunion,” King Abe said, appearing at their side, “but we need a game plan. We’ve got wounded and tired fighters waiting for their next orders.”
“Who’s this?” Tag jerked his thumb at Abe.
Gideon laughed. “The king of Hammersworth.”
“And my husband,” Therese said.
Tag’s jaw nearly hit the ground. “How much did I miss?”
“A lot,” Chloe said, putting her arm around Tag’s shoulders. “But it’s okay. We can fill you in. You know, after we’ve gone to the Nether Realm and found Shikora, of course.”
“The Nether… Shikor… What?”
“Tell the troops to head back inside and deal with their wounded,” Chloe said. “They might be gone, but we know for damn near certain that they’re going to be back. Everyone, rest up and get yourselves back together, but set up a guard around the rift using any able-bodied and willing fighters. I have a funny feeling a war is coming.”
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