by Sam Ferguson
“That leaves only the Sea Key.” Karthee’am beamed brightly. “Normally, that is kept locked within a vault in Azurin, but in these troubled times the queen of the merfolk entrusted it to me in the event our council should decide to trust our fate to you.” Karthee’am stretched out his hand and gave the final key to Brian.
[QUEST COMPLETED: LOCATE THE KEYS]
[+ 28,000 XP]
[You are now level 31]
“Now, you should go and touch the tree,” Karthee’am said.
Brian scrunched up his face, but Mike gave him a friendly shove from behind. He walked up to the tree and stood in front of the massive, thick bark for a few moments. “Touch the tree?” he said. He remembered getting a quest called “The Great Tree,” but didn’t remember what the quest information said about it. Still, he wasn’t about to waste time reading info in his interface now. He could feel everyone watching him. He reached his hand out. There was a humming sound, and his hand was pulled into the bark. A golden light stretched out from the tree and held him still.
“Hello, adventurer,” a heavy voice called out. “I have been waiting for someone like you to come along for a very long time.” The tree groaned and yawned. “In days long since past, the treacherous dragon known as Uz’Bogrog the Green promised to take care of the forests south of the inland sea. Instead, he used his trickery to steal the box containing the Crystal of Power. It called to him, seduced him. He took the box but was never able to open it. So now he hides in his lair, challenging any who dare come near to him. I will give you a blessing, but you must act quickly. I will leave upon you the Will of the Trees, a powerful enchantment that will enable you to travel as the gnomes do, utilizing the roots of the trees throughout Prirodha. Once you arrive at your staging ground with your army, you will be protected by an impenetrable fortress of magical trees. You will have one day to prepare for the final assault against Uz’Bogrog the Green, after which time the barrier will fall and you will be vulnerable again. Go, and may Mother Terramyr guide you in your final quest. We are all depending on you.”
Brian’s hand was released from the tree and he staggered backward a couple steps.
[QUEST COMPLETED: THE GREAT TREE]
[+ 7,000 XP]
[Acquired Will of the Trees]
[You are now level 32]
“Holy smokes!” Brian turned and ran back to his friends. “Guys, did you get the message too?”
Mike jumped up and down. “Yeah, Will of the Trees means we’re going to travel through the tree roots—just like the gnomes in The Adventures of Phinean and Jaleal!”
Rhonda’s mouth fell open, and she slapped Mike’s shoulder. “Hey, I got that reference! I read that book while on the ship at the beginning of the game.”
“Things are about to get wild!” Mike commented gleefully.
“So, are we ready?” Brian asked.
Rhonda moved to him and held out the Arctic Key. “Here, you should hold this one too.”
“We’ll do everything we can to protect you,” Augustin said.
“As will we,” Pan’s final bodyguard pledged.
“Keep in mind though, I didn’t get to share the XP with you all for the yeti king since I didn’t finish the battle,” Chris commented.
Sonji stepped up next to the satyr and saluted him. “We will ensure you get to the crystal safely, and then it’s up to you to make sure no one can use it.”
“All right then. I think it’s time to go,” Brian said. “Is there a special tree we use?”
A gnome walked through the group and tapped Brian’s knee. “Follow me, beanpole.”
Brian smirked and followed the gnome.
Trumpets sounded throughout the camp and soldiers started falling in line. The gnome led them to a large redwood tree and placed his hand on it. The tree began to glow, and a golden dust emanated from it. Brian watched as the dust flowed over the whole army, stretching out as far as he could see.
“It’s time,” the gnome encouraged. “May Mother Terramyr guide you and keep you.”
Brian stepped forward and slowly stretched his hand out. He touched the bark and felt something connect with his mind. The user interface opened.
[TRAVEL TO THE FINAL BATTLE?]
Brian confirmed the decision. A cold rush of air enveloped his body. He merged into the tree, but it wasn’t like stepping into a building at all. He didn’t see so much as feel where he was. He flowed downward through a root but didn’t feel any pressure as the root tapered off. There was a flash of blue and gold light as he sparked from the root out toward a new tree’s roots. A warm tingling sensation covered his body as he passed through it and then on to the next, and then the next. The sensations cycled hundreds, then thousands of times as flashes of light marked each leap from tree root to tree root. The entire journey lasted maybe thirty seconds, and then he floated upward and emerged from the trunk of another redwood. The golden dust still clung to him like heavy pollen as he stepped into a large clearing a couple hundred meters in diameter. There were stone buildings near the center of the clearing that looked like houses, and a depression that appeared to be a large stream of some sort. It seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it. All around him the redwoods glowed in magnificent golden hues.
Mike and Rhonda joined him a moment later. Flashes of white, blue, and gold flared up all around the clearing as others emerged from trees outlining the circular clearing.
“Who is that?” Mike asked, nudging Brian with an elbow.
A white satyr with black tufts along her slender yet shapely shoulders approached them and smiled. “Welcome heroes. You have arrived in New Viverandon.”
Mike gasped and clapped his hands together. “New Viverandon!” he squealed. “I can’t believe this!”
“Mother Terramyr will shelter you here. When you are ready to launch the final assault, come and see me. Until then, spend your time well and prepare yourselves. You may leave the boundary of the trees, but nothing may follow you back. You are safe here.”
Mike grabbed Brian’s shoulder. “New Viverandon!” he repeated. “Let’s go see.”
“What’s he going on about?” Rhonda asked.
Brian shrugged. He knew the significance of course, but it seemed to pale in comparison to the fact that Barry and Professor Rojas were likely never going to escape even if they managed to beat Rored to the crystal. Mike sprinted toward the city, and humans and magical creatures alike made their way in from the outer ring of trees to the central buildings. Horns blew in the distance, alerting the town of the guests.
Food was prepared, bonfires built, and wine flowed. Had this simply been a game, it would have been quite enjoyable, but with everything weighing on Brian’s mind, he couldn’t enjoy himself. Not to mention his real stomach wished for food. There had been no save points since House Bob, and he wasn’t about to go back there. Thinking of it raised his curiosity though, so he opened his map. He wasn’t surprised when he found that House Bob no longer existed on the map. The last save point was gone. Everything now rested on his shoulders in a way it hadn’t before.
Since finding Meredith at the admin terminal, he had understood the gravity of the situation of course, but now he was actually at the final battle. Armies were going to go head-to-head and fight for the chance to slay the dragon that held the crystal in its hoard. Anything can happen in a large-scale battle. Brian thought. A stray arrow laced with poison could end him just as easily as that three-headed Spinosaurus thing had killed Meredith. Not to mention Rored himself was likely going to be there. The AI couldn’t die, not permanently at least. How was Brian supposed to compete with that?
“Don’t worry,” Mike said as if reading Brian’s thoughts. He sat down next to him and patted his shoulder. “We’ll be okay.”
“How?” Brian asked. “How do we stop Rored?”
“Easy,” Mike said. “You kill him. You kill him over and over until one of us gets the crystal and the game recognizes our victory. Once that happ
ens, the game resets after an end game cut scene. We all log out, we separate the Alien AI tech from Professor Rojas’ computer, and we toss the bloody thing down into a volcano and let it melt.”
“How do we know it won’t just appear like it did before?” Brian pressed. “It could try to kill us in the real world too. I mean, I’m tough here, but there I’m much more deadly at a round of trivia than I am in a physical confrontation.”
Mike grunted and waved the notion away. “I’ve been thinking about that, actually. When it appeared to us before, it was just a hologram. What if Rored only has power here, in this world, because this world is digital? Like, what if since he’s AI, he can’t do anything more than just tell people what to do in the other world? If the ancient people viewed him as an omniscient spirit, they would revere him without physical coercion being entirely necessary.”
Brian shrugged. “I suppose.” They both went silent for a bit. Brian dug his toe in the dirt and sighed. “Do you think Professor Rojas is really dead?”
Mike frowned and hung his head. “I don’t know. It certainly looked like...” Mike didn’t finish the sentence, but Brian knew what he meant.
The image of the shorter holo-Rojas dying as the book was ripped apart and then burned flashed across Brian’s memory.
“Maybe Meredith built in redundant fail safes,” Mike offered. “Like maybe there’s another book out there where Rojas is just fine, and we can retrieve his consciousness as soon as the ending cut scene is over.”
“But only if we win,” Brian said. “If we get the losing cut scene, it will want us to go back to our most recent save point.”
“House Bob,” Mike groaned with a nod.
Brian shook his head. “House Bob is gone now. If we don’t win, we’ll be stuck in limbo forever.”
Mike whistled through his teeth and rocked in place a couple times. “That’s... a lot to think on.”
Brian nodded and got up from his spot. “Look, I need some time to be alone. Everyone’s safe here, so I’ll head to the edge of the clearing and relax for a while.”
“All right, but probably best not to leave the safety of New Viverandon.”
“Agreed,” Brian said. He turned and walked to the stream. He followed it past a water mill, then through the eastern half of the clearing until it came to the edge of the glowing tree line. Strange. Brian thought as he noticed the stream seemed to end at the tree line. It didn’t extend beyond the clearing and into the forest. It was as if this New Viverandon was a part of some other place, and it was transposed onto the land in this spot to keep them safe or something. If he remembered correctly, the old Viverandon had a tree named Nonac that would allow passage in or out of Viverandon, and there was no other way in or out. If someone tried to find the place from the outside, they would see only trees and the magic would send them around the actual village somehow.
He spun around and looked at the glowing trees. He didn’t see any obvious tree that would be Nonac, but then he wasn’t really in the mood to leave anyway. He was simply trying to focus on the puzzle in order to take his mind off of everything else.
Sitting down in the cool grass, he leaned back against a glowing tree for support. He looked up to the sky and tried to keep his mind clear.
As he watched a puffy cloud drift high above the clearing, a black line formed in the air in front of him. The line extended downward for several feet. It was thin at first, hardly noticeable, and then it widened like a gash over freshly sliced skin. A deep, cold blackness gaped at Brian from inside the rift. He was about to leap up and run away when a skeletal hand reached out from inside the rift and grabbed the side. A skeletal foot followed, stepping through and onto the grass just a few feet away from Brian.
A skeletal being in black robes emerged from the rift. The eyeballs were gone, but greenish-yellow lights remained in the eye sockets of the skull. The jaw clicked as the being groaned. In his left hand he held a scythe. He was the image of death, but Brian knew this being by another name.
This was Khefir, God of the Underworld and Collector of the Damned.
“We need to talk,” Khefir said, his voice both thunderous and soft at the same time.
Brian’s heart raced. Was this part of the game? If it wasn’t, or even if it was, had Khefir awoken at all like the other NPCs, and how had he gotten into Viverandon?
“I can see that I am overwhelming you,” Khefir said. “My appearance has that effect on some, I’m afraid.” Khefir stamped the butt of the scythe into the ground and wrapped his free hand around the shaft as he bent down slightly. “I want you to focus your mind on my words, understand?”
Brian nodded slowly.
“Your plan is going to fail,” Khefir said. “But you have been a good acolyte, and I want to help you.”
“You... want to help... me?” Brian asked in a stilted mumble.
Khefir nodded. “Do you know much about me?”
Brian snickered. “I mean... I read the books, but...”
“Good,” Khefir said. “Then you should know everything you need to.” Khefir reached out his hand and Brian’s avatar moved forward toward Khefir.
“Whoa! Are you dragging me down to—”
Khefir flicked his wrist and Brian’s voice was silenced. “I said ‘listen.’ Why do mortals always feel the need to talk?” Khefir stepped through the portal and Brian floated after him. Try as he might, he couldn’t break the spell or resist it.
The air grew hot as he passed into the darkness. A moment later they appeared inside a large stone room. Off to the left was a series of bookshelves. In the center of the room was a small rectangular table covered in books: some open, others closed. A desk sat in the back corner with strange crystals on it.
“No one can hear us here,” Khefir said. “This is my private study. Very, very few have ever seen this place. Even my brother Hatmul does not know of its existence. I’d like to discuss a trade. A trade of information and assistance for a thing I desire more than anything you could imagine.”
Khefir pointed to the table and Brian floated over and sat down upon it. “I will set forth my offering, trusting that I will find you reasonable. The crystal you are after isn’t what you hope it is,” he said. “If, perhaps, we were on the real Terramyr, then you would find the power you seek, but not in this... corrupted version.”
Brian’s eyebrows knotted together. Was Khefir awake!?
“Yes, yes, I know what’s happening here,” Khefir said as he sent the scythe to hang upon a pair of hooks mounted into the wall. “I may be only a facsimile of myself, but I am still the facsimile of a god.” He tapped a bony finger to his bare skull. “You and your friends cannot win as long as Rored lives. This you know, of course, but your plan to kill him until others reach the crystal is foolish. The crystal will only work for one person. It will have you turn on your friends.”
Brian’s eyes went wide. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“The crystal will not accept a group as its master.” Khefir stepped closer. “But therein lies the rub. If you kill Rored in the dragon’s lair, and then you or one of your friends is the last person standing, the game will indeed end, but not in the way your friend thinks.”
Did Khefir just acknowledge that this is a game?!
Khefir reached into Brian’s avatar and retrieved Gaia’s Tear. Brian’s eyes went wide, and he began to struggle in earnest again.
Khefir paused and tilted his head a bit. “This friend helped to design this game, yes? I know this is a game. She was very, very good at her job.” He pointed to himself. “I was not created to be like the other inhabitants of this false world. I was created to be a god, remember? As the world has awoken, my programming, out of necessary compliance to the base function of the mind that feeds Rored, was given access to all the knowledge the universe could possess.”
He conjured a chair and settled himself into it, leaning into the hard back with a sickening creak of bone grinding on bone as he adjusted his shoulder
s the way a man of flesh and blood might do to scratch an itch against the hard surface. “I know all that is happening here. Rored is only one program within the program. The interface for an ark holding worlds of knowledge. Here he has usurped the un-killable status of a vital character, but he is little more than another player as far as the game is concerned.” Brian could hardly believe what he was hearing.
Khefir reached out and tapped Brian on the head. “You need to listen closely. I can see the flaws in the program. Flaws that were there before your friend came to work with you.” He placed Meredith’s code key on the table nearby Brian. “If one of you wins, the game will try to launch the cut scene for you, but that crystal will bind to the last player standing like your friend’s code key here. A corrupted code key with no bridge code to the rest of the game. That player will be trapped forever, a consciousness immortal and eternally trapped, unable to log off. The only way to truly rid both our worlds of this malignant growth is to ensure that Rored is the last player standing with the crystal.”
No... we’ll lose.
Khefir clicked his jaw as it fell a little loose on one side. “Once the crystal bonds with Rored, the two codes will become inseparable. They will entangle each other. There will be no victory and no loss. Instead, you and your friends will be sent back to the starting menu, from which you can exit the game successfully.”
Khefir waved his hand and Brian found his voice again. “How could you know all of this, and how do I know you aren’t just another manifestation of Rored?”
Khefir laughed and shook his head as he folded his bony arms. “Mortals... always so stymied by the divine that they try to rationalize it down to mere coincidence or happenstance.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”