by Sarah Lin
"I just wanted you to help scout so we could find the source of the data corruption. But based on what I've seen of your actions... you haven't done anything but spread your infection around, have you?"
"Nonsense. I've eliminated multiple local attempts to pierce the veil, which is a lot more than you or your useless little tools have done. Speaking of which, if I wanted to have some fun with them, would you erase their memories after?"
"Jesus Christ." The figure reached into his hood to rubs his eyes with one hand. "Look, I'm not intending to wipe the slate. That's wasteful and it's overkill in this situation. I simply put in a requisition for some Tuners, which will take care of things once we get rid of the sources of the problem. Right now, you're one of the biggest disturbances. If you can't behave, I'll-"
"Behave?" Belkarin practically shrieked the word, his amusement abruptly transforming into rage. "You're nothing but a child to me! Just because your upstart world has some power, you think you can belittle me and order me around?"
"That is the agreement, isn't it? We govern Alliandelle."
"Words on paper. They don't matter so much out here." The Aesidh made a flickering gesture and the shardwing began to move, jaws snapping as it approached the figure. Elleane and Marrin retreated immediately, but the figure didn't move. "This isn't one of your little artificial worlds. You're dealing with real power - that's all that matters out here. Think twice before you start insulting me."
Instead of responding directly, the figure made several strange gestures with his hand. They were slight, yet Bloodwraith immediately focused wholly on them. Someone else might have been fooled, but he was convinced they weren't magical gestures. Though it was technically possible they were some alien magic, he felt certain that it was something else:
The figure was moving something only he could see. Something like the boxes.
"It's funny, but the infected creatures actually function as programmed automatons." Unconcerned by the monster bearing down on him, the figure kept manipulating something invisible. "I'll admit, the core of it is brilliant. But the overall parameters? As coders go, the Mirror Court is a bit sloppy."
When the shardwing reached the cloaked figure, instead of attacking him, it shuffled around to stand behind him. Belkarin's eyes widened in something like horror as he realized that the monster was no longer under his control. It no longer sat so utterly still, instead moving its wings and legs like a real creature, though there was still something artificial about its movements.
"Alright, you've made an amusing point." The Aesidh stuck his hands back in his pockets and smirked, though it struck Bloodwraith as a poor bluff. "It was a joke, in any case. We have no intention of reneging on our side of the deal... the Mirror Court profits off Alliandelle as much as Earth does, after all."
"Then let's work together for our mutual profit." Putting his hands back in his sleeves, the figure turned to face the other two. "I hope the two of you have acquired more information?"
"I tried to find locations of incursions," Elleane said, "but he's going around erasing them!" She pointed at Belkarin like he was a misbehaving child and the Aesidh bristled, but the figure waved the issue aside.
"We can work that out later. The important thing is the data, which I'll just take directly."
For a moment Elleane went completely still, her eyes blank. Bloodwraith sensed no magic of any kind, but the hair on the back of his neck stood up in alarm. On some instinctual level deeper than magic, he knew that the figure was simply taking information from her mind. Surely that couldn't be an ability he simply possessed - if so, he would be a god in truth. Hopefully the fact that Belkarin referred to them as tools was the reason behind that.
In any case, after a moment the figure nodded. "The ruin density is far too high for an area like this. Hmm... some sort of bug related to seeding dungeons? Yes, it could be that. I'll need to take some more time to isolate the real problem, since these worlds are always so messy."
"Too many of them?" The Aesidh gave a mocking bow. "Then I was merely being your humble servant by removing such locations. Without me, local inhabitants might stumble through the veil and cause all manner of problems."
"I still don't want you to use that infection recklessly, but yes, we do want to clean up such things." The figure glanced toward Marrin next. "What about you? Any sign of Raigar?"
"Not currently." Marrin spoke casually with one fist on her hip, but she was being surprisingly cooperative. "But there's word of him getting involved with a battle in Cresthaven. Apparently he killed both a drake and Daek the Knife - not bad for a young adventurer, eh?"
"No, he was cheating." The figure shook his head. "It seems that Raigar was hoarding artifacts from his previous incarnation in order to make his second life easy. I wouldn't care, except the power draw was actually surprisingly high."
"Well then!" Belkarin clapped his hands together. "This isn't so difficult after all, is it? All we need to do is find your wayward little player of games, guide him back onto the path, and then we can clean up all this mess!"
"Maybe. Something is... I can't put my finger on it, but something doesn't add up in all of this."
The figure was silent for a long moment and Bloodwraith found himself growing anxious. Whoever this person was, they were no fool playing in a cloak. Clearly, they had access to great power tied into the box system and they approached it with thoughtfulness. That could make him more dangerous than any opponent he had previously encountered.
"Alright, new plan of action." The figure roused himself from his thoughts and focused on the others. "Belkarin, I still want you to close off anything that might penetrate the veil, but please do it yourself. With the parameters on your infection, it could easily run rampant."
The Aesidh sniffed. "To do so, I will require access to my shardwing. The process of converting it was not easy, I'll have you know."
"Yeah, okay. Next... Elleane, I want you to talk to all the Adventurers Guilds and find out about Raigar's movements. We need to track him down one way or another. Marrin, you said that he never showed up in Edsdam?"
The dark-haired woman nodded. "Not a hint of him."
"There were quite a few things set up for this incarnation and we probably can't recycle them. Go back to Edsdam and prepare to clean up everything. I'll send a Tuner to you when the time is right."
"A Tuner? What the hell is that?"
"You'll know." With that, the figure rolled his shoulders as if they were sore. "Okay, that's enough talking. We proceed with the plan until I give the next signal, alright?"
The others agreed, though the Aesidh did so only reluctantly. With that the group split, leaving Bloodwraith and his allies sitting and wondering what to do with all the new information.
Though some parts of it puzzled him, he actually found most of it was easy enough to put together. This figure spoke in matter-of-fact terms as if this was just a job to him, and based on statements Raigar had made, perhaps it was. Bloodwraith was also glad to confirm some old theories and learn that the Fellsilvered enemies had come from the Aesidh.
Yet massive questions remained unanswered. Bloodwraith stood within hearing distance of one of the box gods and he still had absolutely no idea why they had done any of this. They treated his entire world like a game... for profit? Surely there had to be more to it. His confusion began to twist into anger and he almost wanted to go confront the man himself, but at that moment a hand touched his arm.
"Bloodwraith..." Meara spoke softly, but her voice immediately refocused him. "I have some questions I very much want to ask him."
"As do I, but a direct confrontation is risky." Bloodwraith glanced at the dispersing group one more time, then turned to his allies. "The Earthian in the cloak is the leader and clearly knows the most, so I believe we should follow him. Any objections?"
"The Aesidh is the bigger threat," Gharavi said. He hadn't been looking at her during the conversation, so he was surprised to hear the venom in her voic
e. "This Mirror Court doesn't care about life, and he's here to cause chaos... but he's going to fly away on that shardwing. I'm fine with following the Earthian, so long as we deal with the Aesidh eventually."
"Perfectly reasonable. Anyone else?"
Danniah nodded to him with a smile and Izzy hopped to her feet, so it was agreed. Establishing the pursuit might be difficult, but they headed into the alley to wait for their opportunity.
Belkarin was already mounting his shardwing, which remained perfectly still until it finally launched itself into the air. Elleane and Marrin had already wandered off, while the strange figure was just walking down the street. Unfortunately, his form also seemed to be wavering... not exactly like magic, but as if he was growing more indistinct. As they headed out after him, sticking to the shadows, Bloodwraith struggled to focus on him.
"His smell is going away!" Izzy spoke in a terse whisper. "I've never smelled that before!"
"It's like me." Meara began to walk more quickly, urging them on. "He's using the power of the system itself. If we don't start tracking him closely soon, then we'll lose him."
Instead of answering, Bloodwraith just started to move faster. This was his first chance to get some real answers and he wasn't letting it get away. Meara led the way with her eyes closed, face twisting as if she was struggling with something inside herself. Ahead of them on the abandoned streets Bloodwraith thought he could just see the cloaked figure heading toward the town gates, but it was getting harder to focus on him.
When they rushed out of the town after him, Bloodwraith saw only sandy wastelands in every direction. Even Meara seemed puzzled. Bloodwraith cursed under his breath and tried to think quickly. They might have lost one lead, but if they changed plans quickly, they could still-
The figure abruptly stood in front of them, perfectly clear. Before they could react, he spoke.
"There you are. This should make my job much easier."
Chapter 7
Though Bloodwraith's instinct was to reach for his greatsword, he hesitated. Talking was almost certainly useless against an insane being who would create a system like this, but fighting might be useless as well. Given the type of power he'd seen so far...
An instant after he started pondering, a box appeared in his vision:
[Potential Quest: Survival
Survive the encounter with the Outsider by strength or deception.
Reward: EXP
Accept? Y/N]
He glanced toward Meara, who gave a nearly imperceptible shrug of her shoulders. Most likely, it was both an attempt to extract a bit of extra power from their scenario and a reminder that he shouldn't be reckless. Bloodwraith accepted the quest, suppressed his desire to attack or defend against the Earthian figure, and instead focused on taking a smarter path.
He hadn't planned to confront the strange Outsider at this time, but he'd given thought to their encounter. It wouldn't be pretty, but he thought he knew his best play.
"Finally!" Bloodwraith put his hands on his hips and scowled. "What the hell is going on with this place? This isn't what you promised!"
The figure cocked his head strangely, expression not fully visible in the shadowed hood, but after a pause, he answered. "What exactly are you doing, Randall?"
Randall? Bloodwraith wasn't sure how to take that, or how to answer that question, so he decided to stick with the strategy that had worked so far. "Call me Raigar!"
"God, okay." The figure rubbed his eyes under his hood. His frustrated reaction to "Raigar" made Bloodwraith feel a strange sense of kinship with him, but he pushed it back down. This was the man who had manipulated his world, after all. "Look, Raigar, we know you were stashing artifacts and we don't care. It's cheating but it's not that big a deal, we'll just wipe them to keep things fair."
"Then why the fuck are you bothering me?"
"Because I need to ask you some questions. There have been some very strange readings from Alliandelle, not to mention screwing around with a Return Point. Have you seen anything suspicious?"
"Huh? Like what?"
This response made the figure shift strangely and Bloodwraith felt a cold sweat begin to form all over his body. How long could he pretend to be Raigar? He might be able to mimic the man's brash idiocy, but he hadn't known him for long and didn't know things that box gods might take for granted. From the corner of his eyes, Bloodwraith saw that his companions were spreading out - not surrounding the figure, but preparing to do so.
"Like the things we covered in the safety sessions," the figure said. There was definitely suspicion in his tone, so Bloodwraith responded by doubling his bluster.
"Oh, those? I wasn't paying attention."
That got a heavy sigh from the figure. After wiping his eyes again, he raised a hand and began to flick at something. Yes, he was definitely manipulating an invisible box. "This world has some serious problems with local people trying to manipulate the veil between worlds. I know you might not care, but even if you survived that kind of thing, it could permanently screw up your game."
Bloodwraith folded his arms and grunted. "So what are we going to do about it?"
"Don't worry, AdventureCorp will handle the cleanup. There are just some unusual anomalies... huh. Right before your reincarnation, there was a very strange shift in energy. More expensive reincarnation than usual, but... wait..."
That sweat was fully formed now. Whatever the figure was seeing, Bloodwraith knew that it would probably ruin his deception. While subtly signaling to his allies, he gave an apathetic shrug. "So?"
"Well. This is strange." The figure made a strange gesture and raised both his hands to invisible boxes. Not giving commands, but prepared to input them. "Randall, I'm going to need you to read me your AdventureCorp identification number."
"You think I remember that shit?"
"Perhaps not. But I am going to need some confirmation of your identity, or..." The figure trailed off, looking at the boxes again. Whatever his threat, Bloodwraith knew that he was getting closer to figuring it out. In that case, he had no choice. It would leave him with a sense of disgust and it would be hard to forgive himself, but he was out of options...
"Come on, man, don't make me elephant mork this!"
The strange alien words made the figure stop all his movements, staring at him in shock. "What? Like... the shitty old meme? Okay, seriously..."
Bloodwraith clenched his fist and Izzy sprang up behind the Earthian, her knives slicing through the figure's throat.
She passed through, stumbling into the wasteland dust. Bloodwraith drew his greatsword in a panic - he hadn't assumed the attack would be completely effective, but he had expected it to do some good. Was the Outsider actually just a projection? Or did he have some sort of incorporeality magic? It actually reminded him of the way Meara simply ignored attacks, but it was impossible to be sure.
"Oh, that's interesting." The figure gave a strange chuckle and glanced down at Izzy as she retreated. "I don't think even Randall is that stupid, so... seems like I came in much too late. Who-"
His words were interrupted as Gharavi unleashed a bolt of lightning straight through his chest. Just like Izzy's knives, it did no good. That ruled out any kind of simple defense against physical attacks. Bloodwraith gripped the hilt of his greatsword tighter, desperately wishing that he was in his old body.
They had the Outsider surrounded, but did it matter? Based on what he had seen, Bloodwraith was fairly certain that all their attempts at physical or magical attacks would fail. He considered if this was the time to use the Scepter of Annihilation, but it had only a single charge left and he was afraid it would do no good. In fact, based on how casually the figure had spoken about the artifacts, Bloodwraith had a bad feeling that it would be wasted against him.
But in that case, what could they do?
"Okay, let's end this ambush first." The figure flicked a finger and suddenly some invisible force pulled Danniah into the air. She dangled, struggling against something invis
ible. Glancing toward Izzy, the figure raised his hand to the space in front of him again...
Meara let out a scream and threw herself at him. Her body broke apart into a dozen ghostly versions of herself, changing and distorting as they rushed over the figure. Bloodwraith had thought it was just a distraction, yet the figure stumbled and his robe started to tear away.
"That's enough of that."
Abruptly the figure raised a hand and Meara froze in place. The copies of her began to shiver and shrink, disappearing into trembling spheres of magic. They floated back and coalesced into Meara again, but now she was frozen in the air, locked in place. No, it was worse than that... Danniah was still struggling, but Meara's eyes had gone blank and she didn't move at all.
"Wow, you are bugged to hell and back." The figure stared at Meara in disbelief and despite the seriousness of the situation, Bloodwraith got his first good look at the man. Underneath the cloak he looked surprisingly normal, just a thin human. His pants and shirt were simple but of fine quality, with a bizarre cloth around his neck that must be the fashion in his home world.
Bloodwraith hadn't expected the box gods to look like abominations, but it still made him hesitate to find that the figure was just an ordinary human. He hesitated for a very short instant. Human or not, this person was harming Meara. With no other options, Bloodwraith reached into his inventory to retrieve the Scepter of Annihilation...
"Outsider!"
The shout came from Gharavi and the man turned to look at her with a bored expression on his face. That expression vanished the next second as Gharavi unleashed a gray beam of pure mana unlike anything Bloodwraith had ever felt before. It seared past him, striking the man and making him stumble.
Though he wouldn't have been capable of using such magic even in his past life, Bloodwraith understood it. Gharavi must have been researching that spell through all her work tracking Outsiders. So much of what she did, such as using her charm to fight against the boxes' manipulation, was packed into that spell. It utterly denied all Outsider magic and simply struck with raw power.