by Alex Mulder
“I get that you want to save her, but this doesn’t feel right.” Kaoru sighed. “This really doesn’t feel right.”
Ahead of them, one of the umbrella trees stood taller than the rest around it. The figure that Luke had seen before was at the base of it, and now he could make out what it was clearly.
“It’s a little girl,” whispered Tess. “Oh god.”
“Hey, are you okay?” Luke took a step over to her, hands outstretched in front of him. “Don’t worry, we don’t mean any harm.”
The little girl let out a sob. Kaoru jumped forward with one of her whips drawn and Luke had to pull her back.
“This isn’t right, Kato!” she hissed. “It’s not-”
“We don’t know that yet,” said Luke. “If we assume and we’re wrong…”
Then it’s the blood of two little girls on my already dirty hands.
He stepped away from her and over toward the tree. Fireflies pulled in from all around and swirled around his body. The grass underneath his feet reached toward him, shaking faintly. The little girl continued to cry, her face hidden by shadow.
One of the fireflies darted forward, illuminating the girl’s face. Kaoru had been right.
It looked as though all of the skin had been flayed off and replaced with mold and fungi. Her mouth hung open at a deformed angle and the girl stood up. Luke clasped the hilt of his sword as all hell broke loose.
LIVING THICKET: A unified ecosystem based on tiny spores. It takes control of all lifeforms that it can infiltrate.
The grass wrapped around his ankles before he could take a step. The large umbrella plant shot downward, as though somebody had pulled the stem mechanism of a regular one closed. Luke was underneath it, and he slashed upward in a desperate attempt to keep himself from being enveloped.
He managed to cut a slit into it, and the umbrella slid down on either side without getting a grip on his body. Luke heard his friends screaming from behind him and quickly cut his feet loose from the grass.
It just keeps happening. I can’t escape from my fate.
“We have to get out of here!” yelled Kaoru. She’d also managed to free her feet from the entangling grass, and turned to run in the direction that they’d come from.
The twisted trees moved to stop her, shifting form from hardened wood into… something else. They moved like snakes across the ground, readying themselves to intercept Luke and his friends in their escape.
“We can’t fight this…” said Luke. “We have to run.”
PROGENITOR’S SOUL
CONJURE SWORD 4
He set his back to Tess and Kaoru, moving his conjured swords into position to defend their flanks. The entire forest had come alive and seemed intent on killing them.
No, that’s not it. It wants to absorb us.
The fireflies darted at Luke’s face, attempting to push into his eyes and ears. He gritted his teeth, and suddenly a powerful wind pushed all of them away. Tess had her gust rod pointed in his direction.
There wasn’t time for him to do anything but get his friends away. The large umbrella tree was moving toward them, oozing mold along its base allowing it to glide forward across the ground. Twisted trees were sliding forward on either side, their roots pulled free of the earth.
Luke acted as the rear guard, hoping desperately that Tess and Kaoru would be able to clear out the enemies blocking their way. One of the twisted trees shot at him like a thrown spear. He skewered it with a conjured blade in midflight from the side, and then sheared it in half with his infused Progenitor’s Sword.
Kaoru’s whips were cutting through the air. Out of the corner of his vision, Luke could see her attacking a second umbrella plant, working to push it away rather than cutting it open. Tess was chanting something, and a moment later, a spell descended on all three of them.
“It’s an attack buff!” she yelled. “Go!”
Luke didn’t need to hear her say it twice. He launched his conjured swords forward, defending against twisted trees as they attacked from the sides.
With the fireflies gone and the sun setting fast, the forest was cloaked in shadows. Luke chopped away at his enemies as they lunged at him. He took a step back, keeping close to Tess and Kaoru, and tripped over something.
It doesn’t matter how strong I am if I can’t see!
As though reading his mind, Tess finished her chanting and cast a spell of illumination on the group. It was effective, and it also revealed the disturbing nature of the place they’d mistakenly walked into.
Bodies scattered the ground all around them. Some of them clumsily moved on all fours across the ground, animated by the forest similar to the little girl. Others were infested with pulsating roots, like earthen IVs poking out from their bodies.
Luke jumped backward, bumping into to Tess and Kaoru. He turned around and saw that the twisted trees had formed a gateway in front of their escape path, blocking off any chance they had at getting away.
“Stay back,” he whispered. “This is a last resort. We’ll have to escape in the chaos.”
ELEMENTAL INFUSION: FIRE
The moss and fungi in the Living Forest was moist, but beyond that, everything there was relatively dry and made of flammable plant mass. Luke first brought his blade down on the grass a short distance behind them, creating a wall of flames. Two twisted trees made the mistake of attacking him, and with a single spin attack he cut deep scratching into their trunks and set them ablaze.
“Ready?” He didn’t wait for Tess and Kaoru to answer, jumping forward and rushing for the tree barrier blocking their way.
PIERCE ATTACK 4
His combat sword hurled him forward. He smashed into the tree barricade, a small, explosion erupting from his sword as it pierced the bark. The flames burned him, but they devastated the trees. A person sized hole stood in his wake as he crashed out onto the other side.
Tess and Kaoru hurried forward after him. Luke had infused his conjured swords as well, and used them to attack the enemies closing in on them from a distance. They made it through, and he joined them in a sprint as they passed by him.
LEVEL 29 ATTAINED
The entire forest let out a scream. Leaves and branches rustled, the umbrella trees flapped up and down, and all of the animated bodies expelled ghoulish cries.
They fought down a few scattered enemies as they hurried away. Luke stuck to his position in back, making sure that his friends were making it to safety before thinking about himself.
“Is everybody okay?” he asked. “The fireflies, and the spores, did any of them…?”
“No,” said Kaoru. Tess shook her head.
“We didn’t get the spore flower,” whispered Tess. “That little girl…”
They reached the end of the forest and could see Sanctuary Hill in the distance. Luke chewed his lip, a sudden realization dawning on him all at once.
“The spore flower was just an excuse to get us out here,” he said. “Greku set us up.”
“What?” Tess looked at him, stunned. The three of them slowed to a walk and then came to a stop, not heading the last of the distance to the base of the hill.
“You saw all of those bodies in there,” he said. “They couldn’t have all been NPCs. This is why you’ve never heard any player reports about Azanora Island before. He would have told us that he saw the Universal Truth in this forest, if the Spore Seedling hadn’t interrupted.”
“It makes perfect sense,” said Kaoru. “It’s hard to believe, but…”
I walked right into it. But it doesn’t end here.
“Come on,” said Luke. “Let’s go get answers.”
Tess and Kaoru hesitated for only a moment before following him up the grassy hill bank. He reached the front gate of the village, and instead of knocking on it or waving to the gate guard NPC, he jumped up to the lip and pulled himself over.
The villagers were in the courtyard, gathered around a cloth sack in the shape of a little girl. The one called Tara was sobbing, a
nd Greku was consoling her. None of them noticed Luke as he made his way over, one of the mourners finally catching him out of the corner of his eye and getting the attention of the rest.
“You didn’t even wait for me to get back?” asked Luke, his voice grim.
Greku’s eyes flickered in surprise. He wasn’t good at lying or acting, and the way he scratched his head and avoided Luke’s gaze told him everything he needed to know.
“She… she died,” he finally said. “It was a heart attack, caused by the effect of the spores on her body.”
Luke sighed and shook his head. Tess and Kaoru stood behind him on either side.
“We know, Greku,” said Luke. “You sent us into a trap.”
“Hold on, I-”
Luke stepped forward, pulling out his sword and pressing the tip to the man’s throat before any of the other villagers could react.
“It makes sense.” Luke smiled coldly. “If I were you, the last thing I would want is a bunch of meddling players getting wind of this place, of your secret.”
Greku met his eye, finally, and with more ferocity than Luke had been expecting.
“You would have told people,” he said softly. “You wouldn’t have even thought twice about it. Maybe not immediately, but after a couple of weeks, or a couple of months. The story would have come out. I betrayed you to keep you from betraying all of us.”
“Like I said,” said Luke. “It makes sense.”
He pressed the sword slightly harder against the man’s neck, drawing a drop of blood from the point of contact.
“The Universal Truth is here, on Azanora Island,” said Luke. “Tell me what I know, and I swear that none of us will ever say a word.”
Greku gritted his teeth. All of the villagers behind him watched, paralyzed by the scene.
“…South of our village,” he finally said. “She went underground, into the crevasse.”
Luke nodded and dropped his sword.
“You’re all the same!” spat Greku. “Do you know how many of us have been at your mercy before, just like this? How many times we’ve been nothing more than automatons, vehicles to serve and entertain you humans?”
His words were like a slap in the face to Luke. He’d felt justified in his actions, after what Greku had done, but the truth in the NPC’s words was undeniable.
“We aren’t here to be your happy slaves,” said Greku. “You humans created us too much in your image for that to be the case.”
Luke stared at him for a moment. Memories of his father, one of the lead developers of Yvvaros from the beginning, flooded his mind. He felt sad, and a little confused, and finally he turned around and led Tess and Kaoru away.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER 23
Luke felt conflicted as he led Tess and Kaoru down the hill. The area to the south of the village was much less fertile than the rest of what they’d seen on Azanora Island, almost barren.
He was an NPC, but intelligent. Would I have done the same thing in his shoes?
“We should make camp for tonight,” said Kaoru. “It’s not going to do us any good to go tramping about in the dark.”
Luke nodded. The night sky was overcast, and the light from Sanctuary Hill faded into nothingness in the background. He felt tired, and wasn’t sure if it was from a drooping stamina bar, or his physical fatigue in the real world.
“Alright,” said Luke.
“We can still see the village,” said Tess. “Do we have to worry about Greku and the other NPCs?”
Luke considered her question. They’d tried to kill them once, albeit inadvertently. And he knew for a fact that they wanted their secret protected.
Still… he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to murder in cold blood.
“No,” said Luke. “We’ll be fine.”
“Forgive me for not wanting to take your gut instinct,” said Kaoru. “I think we should walk a bit further in.”
Luke didn’t argue with her. They made their way across grass blades that slowly became shorter, and more sparsely dispersed, as they continued south. Sanctuary Hill could no longer be seen behind them, and the group stopped in front of a level spread of dirty ground.
He started setting up the tent without being asked. They’d set up and stricken down the camp so many times before, it was second nature to him. Kaoru took the fire kit out, and then seemed to think better of it.
“We’ll just eat dried food for tonight,” she said. “It’s probably safer.”
Again, Luke didn’t say anything. Greku’s words still resonated in his ears, fresh and biting.
You humans created us too much in your image for that to be the case.
He wondered if they applied to the Universal Truth as much as any of the NPCs back in the village. She was no different, from his experiences with her. If anything, her intelligence and awareness lent her right to self-determination even more credibility.
She isn’t just self-determining, though. She’s taking thousands, millions of people with her.
Luke sighed. Tess walked over to him and took the tent poles out of his hands.
“You should log out for a bit,” she said. “It’s been a while since you’ve done much in the real world.”
Luke shrugged.
“There hasn’t been much for me to do, lately,” he said.
Tess smiled at him and then shooed him away.
“Go on, I’m banishing you,” she said with a laugh. “Check in on that brother of mine if you get a chance.”
Luke shrugged and pulled out his character log after only a moment of hesitation. He signed his name and instantly felt himself transported somewhere else.
He blinked, seeing the blackness of the inside of his VR headset. Luke felt hot, and a cough snuck up his throat as he pulled the headset off. He realized that he was sweating, and force himself up on shaky legs.
Ugh… I feel like a steamroller ran over me.
Luke slowly walked to the door, pushing it open. The house was surprisingly cold, and he was surprised that his body had been able to sweat at all under the circumstances. He made his way over to the banister, and then…
“Oh, hey. You’re up.” Ben’s voice came from downstairs, startling him.
“Jesus, man.” Luke took a breath and set a hand on his chest. “What is it with people inviting themselves into my house lately?”
“Well, you never answer the door,” said Ben. “I figured this was the only surefire way to get ahold of you.”
His friend smiled at him, but there was something unusual in his expression. Luke made his way down the rest of the stairs and took a seat on the couch next to Ben.
“What’s going on?” he asked. Ben’s smile turned into a frown.
“I was worried about you,” said Ben.
“Oh man, not you too.”
“That’s not what I mean.” Ben shook his head. “The world has been falling apart. There’s been looting in the area recently, and…”
Ben trailed off, seemingly noticing Luke’s face for the first time.
“Yeah…” said Luke. “Don’t worry, I’m okay.”
Ben nodded.
“That’s good,” he said. “Well anyway, I brought food, and clean clothes.”
Ben started to stand up. Luke reached out and grabbed his arm.
“Your sister is still alive and well,” he said. “Don’t worry. She was actually the one that sent me to check in on you.”
Ben smiled and shrugged slightly.
“She’s such a worrywart.” He looked toward the door, and Luke let go of his arm.
“How long have you been here?” he asked.
“For most of the day,” said Ben. “To tell you the truth, I’ve been a bit paranoid about leaving and walking back to my place.”
He gestured toward the window. Luke walked over to it and looked outside. He could see a small group of people down the street, milling about. After a few seconds, one of them sprinted up to one of his nei
ghbor’s houses on the end of the block and smashed one of the windows.
“Fuck,” whispered Luke. “That’s not good.”
“It doesn’t look like they’ve gotten brave enough to go after the places with the lights on,” said Ben. “There’s no telling how desperate they’ll eventually get, though.”
Luke nodded. He leaned back against the couch and shook his head.
The real world is slowly becoming just as dangerous as Yvvaros.
“My house is your house,” he said. “Ben, you can stay here for as long as you need to. I mean, it’s not like you really have much to go back to there.”
Ben nodded slowly, and Luke suddenly remembered something.
“Have you heard anything from your parents?” he asked. Ben frowned and shook his head.
“They’re probably safe,” he said. “And if they aren’t, then I guess that’s that. Not like they were ever around enough for it to make a difference.”
Luke couldn’t think of anything to say to that. Instead, he stood up and walked into the kitchen, again feeling his body’s aches and pains much more intimately than he ever had before. His head was pounding, and it reminded him a bit of what a long stretch using Progenitor’s Soul did to him in-game.
“You said you… brought food?”
“Yeah,” said Ben. “Here, sit down, I’ll get you something.”
Luke nodded gratefully and took a seat on one of the kitchen stools. Ben seemed different, almost an entirely different person than Luke had known back when his friend’s life had been ruled by addiction.
He’s focused, and content with the real world. He seems so… happy.
“You look exhausted, Luke,” he said.
Luke nodded, expecting his friend to chastise him over spending so much time in Yvvaros. But Ben said nothing.
Of course not. He doesn’t care about that. He understands.
“We’re still working to figure out what’s going on with the people trapped in-game,” said Luke. “It’s just been a wild goose chase so far.”
Ben pulled out a microwavable meal from the freezer and began opening it.
“Stick with it, Luke,” he said. “You’re doing the right thing.”
Luke smiled. The words were exactly what he needed to hear.