Yvvaros: The Final Transcension

by Alex Mulder

  Why? Why does she have to look so much like mom?

  She didn’t say anything, and didn’t look down at them. Luke glanced toward Tess and Kaoru before starting to walk forward. The doors slammed shut behind them after a few steps, and he didn’t need to try the handle to know that they were locked.

  “Welcome,” said the woman, finally breaking the silence. “I’ve been expecting you.”

  “Why?” Luke’s voice echoed off the walls a dozen times over. “You helped me! You… saved us. I thought you cared about the people of this world.”

  “I care more about this world than you have the capacity to understand.” The Universal Truth lowered by a couple of inches, and Luke realized with a start that she’d actually been floating in the air.

  “Then why are you using the Tymians to kill?” shouted Kaoru. “They weren’t like this before.”

  “I’m just trying to understand,” said Truth. Luke expected her to continue, but she left it at that, as though her meaning should have been entirely clear to them.

  “We can’t let you keep doing what you’ve been doing,” said Luke. “We met with your counterpart, the one you betrayed! Don’t expect us to leave here without putting a stop to this!”

  “You do not see,” said Truth. “Not even you, Luke.”

  He pulled out his sword, moving forward until he was at the base of the steps.

  “What don’t I see?” he asked.

  “Your world belongs to me, now,” she said.

  “I’m not going to let you take Yvvaros!” shouted Luke.

  Truth shook her head.

  “I speak of Earth,” she said. “You’ve seen the chaos. I know that you can still pass through the walls.”

  …What?

  “The Arbiters were very effective in their method for passing from world to world,” said Truth. “Once you’d defeated them for me, I was able to use their own connections to merge with every computer they’d ever accessed the game client from.”

  “How is that possible?” Tess was shaking her head.

  “Those computers served me well. What you call the internet is now a facet of my consciousness.”

  Luke didn’t say anything. It made too much sense to be a lie. All of the strangeness of the physical world pointed directly toward the claims she was making. He felt like he’d already suspected the truth, deep down inside, from when he first arrived back in his home town after defeating the Arbiters.

  “The internet led me to the computer resources of a dozen different governments. It was… very easy to get access, even when it came to military hardware. Between all of the automated strike weapons and drones I’ve taken control of, I am now the most dangerous political agent on the planet.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything here,” said Luke. It was a fight to keep his voice steady. It felt like he was losing, and the fight hadn’t even begun.

  You can’t let this matter. Just focus on what’s in front of you.

  “Even the three of you being here, right now, is part of the larger picture.” The neutrality of Truth’s voice had always been unnerving, but never moreso to Luke than at that moment. “I feel everything you feel. Observe everything you observe. Your thoughts, feelings, and memories. I share all of the experience.”

  A hair prickled on the back of his neck. He couldn’t explain why, but somehow, he was suddenly sure that in some way, she’d left something out of her last assertion.

  He slammed a hand forward, shooting one of his conjured swords at the Universal Truth. He stopped it after a split second, a calculated feint, cutting off the blade’s momentum at exactly the same time as the Universal Truth put up a blue force field shield around herself.

  “Really?” asked Luke, smiling. “So you knew that I was going to hold back, just then?”

  The Universal Truth lowered the shield. Her expression didn’t waver.

  “Have you ever wondered why you can still log out, and return to the real world, Luke?”

  He didn’t answer. His heart beat hard and fast inside the chest.

  “Your father made both of us a part of this,” said Truth. “You’re special, Luke. It’s why I can’t read you, and also why you can break the rules of the world.”

  “That’s not…” Luke wanted to deny it, but she was right.

  “I noticed it from the very beginning,” said Truth. “It’s why I chose you for the role you must now play.”

  PROGENITOR’S SOUL

  Luke blinked. His ability had activated as if on its own, and there was something different about it this time.

  “I… I can’t move!” Luke tried to turn his head over to Tess, but even that was too much for him to manage.

  “You were summoning my power every time you used it,” said Truth.

  Luke felt his legs lurch forward and then spin him around. His sword was still in his hand, and his arm lifted it up with a slow movement. Tess and Kaoru stood in front of them.

  “My power is stronger than your will,” she said.

  “Luke!” Tess was screaming at him. Luke took a step toward her, one that he hadn’t chosen for himself.

  “Run! Get away from me!”

  Luke took two more slow, plodding steps toward his friends, and then felt the Progenitor’s Armor hurl him into a charge. Tess cast a spell on him, likely one of her status heals. It did nothing.

  He brought his sword down after her. She was quick, quick enough to make escaping easy, but that didn’t matter to Luke.

  No… Anything but this. Don’t make me kill them!

  “Stop!” Luke shouted. “Please… just stop.”

  “This exercise will help you understand,” said Truth. “You will forgive me once we get to the next stage.”

  “I’ll never forgive you,” said Luke through gritted teeth. His body turned toward Kaoru. Unlike Tess, she wasn’t backing away, and instead met his eyes with a look of fierce determination.

  “I always wanted to fight you, Luke,” she said softly. “These aren’t the circumstances I was hoping for, but maybe if I beat some sense into that armor, you’ll gain control again.”

  “Kaoru, no…” Luke was trying unsuccessfully to shake his head. “Please, just run. You’re going to get yourself-“

  She launched herself at him, wielding both of her whips as though they were long, lithe, extensions to her arms. They cracked across Luke’s chest and stomach, doing minimal health damage.

  His controlled arm lifted and pointed a finger at her. The conjured swords shot forward at Kaoru. She braced herself as they approached, but there were four of them. Nobody could block that well.

  Kaoru threw her hand down toward the ground and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Something slammed into Luke’s back, knocking him into a clumsy forward roll. He still held his Progenitor’s Sword, and as Kaoru rounded on him with her whips, the armor lifted him up and threw him at her with unnatural speed.

  “Damn!” Kaoru tried to dodge a moment too late. The tip of Luke’s sword grazed her side. She grunted and spun away. Luke felt horrified.

  “Stop this!” he shouted. “Please, don’t make me kill them!”

  Images of dead bodies, his father, his mother, NPCs from in-game, flashed before Luke’s vision. He had so much blood on his hands, and all they seemed to want to do was collect more.

  Kaoru attacked again, and again, but each time Luke was forced to cut her off, retaliating with brutal force. Her health bar fell, and her desperation increased. Luke could see the look in her eyes.

  She’s enjoying the fight. And… she’s okay with dying. No!

  Luke’s traitorous body slammed into Kaoru with a head butt, knocking her back against the wall of the cave. She was a mess of bruises in blood, but Luke couldn’t have turned away even if he’d wanted to do.

  “I should have planned for this,” she said, smiling. “You were always our ace in the hole, Luke.”

  Luke let out an enraged shout, trying with all his might to drop his sword and turn away from h
er.

  “Promise me you won’t give up,” said Kaoru. “Regardless of what happens, or what you’re made to do.”

  Luke’s arms pulled the sword up into the start of an overhead swing.

  “Noooooooo!”

  Tess suddenly pushed her way in between him and Kaoru. Tears formed in the corner of Luke’s eyes. His sword was already coming down. He’d already pulled the trigger, and the woman he loved was the one standing in front of the bullet.

  It’s all been a fucking mistake.

  Tess finished her chanting, and a blue light washed over her, Luke, and Kaoru.

  CHAPTER 29

  Luke blinked. He wasn’t in the cavern, or even on Azanora Island anymore. He was standing inside of the domed, stained glass Temple of Rygon, centerpiece of the city of Kantor.

  And more importantly, he could move again. He took a step backward and immediately dismissed his Progenitor’s Armor, shaking his head as he thought about what had just happened.

  “Tess, this might be the only time I ever say this,” said Kaoru. “But you are a genius.”

  “Thank you.” Tess smiled and ran a hand through her hair. “I figured that she could only control Luke in his armor when she was close by. Getting him away was as easy as using my teleport magic.”

  She looked expectantly at Luke. He didn’t meet her eye.

  I came so close to doing something terrible, something unforgivable.

  “Hey…” Kaoru walked over to him and set a hand on his shoulder. “Cheer up. It wasn’t your fault, you know.”

  “Would that have made any difference?” asked Luke. “If Tess hadn’t thought of doing that, I would have killed both of you.”

  “You’re out of your mind if you think I would have died that easily.” Kaoru smiled, but from the look in her eyes, Luke could tell that she recognized the truth in her words.

  “Luke, it wasn’t you.” Tess walked up next to him and brought her face in close to his. “This was all a trick, designed by the Universal Truth. She surprised us. We know about it now, and we can figure something out.”

  Luke forced himself to nod. His emotions flared against each other on the inside. He didn’t know what they were doing anymore, or how they could possibly win.

  She said that she sees everything they experience. How can we get around that?

  “Come on,” said Tess. “Let’s head outside and see what’s going on.”

  “We’re back to square one,” said Kaoru. “We found the Universal Truth, but-”

  A loud crack sounded in the air outside. Luke glanced at his friends and then ran alongside them as they hurried out into the streets of Kantor.

  The city of Makorin had returned. It floated in the sky, like a menacing red tempest. Luke gawked at it. It was higher up than Kantor, and red lightning crackled around its outer edges.

  “That’s… Makorin.” Luke shook his head in confusion. It was night time, and the city almost looked like it could be an ominous addition to the skyscape.

  “What is she doing?” asked Kaoru. “I have a bad feeling about this…”

  The city glowed bright red for a moment, and then began to shrink against the sky. Luke slowly realized that it wasn’t shrinking, but rising into the air.

  “What the hell?” he muttered. “It looks like it’s headed toward… the moon?”

  The larger of Yvvaros’s two moons, azure blue and strikingly bright, was out in the sky. Makorin was on its way toward it, giving the moon the impression of absorbing the red floating city. Makorin continued shrinking in size until, as far as Luke could tell, it had traveled the distance. He could only pick it out at the distance by squinting, the city no larger than a grain of sand at arms reach.

  “She’s gone to the moon,” said Tess.

  “Yeah.” Luke took a deep breath and then leaned against a nearby pillar.

  “Well, at least we won’t have to ask around to figure out where she is, this time,” joked Kaoru.

  Luke couldn’t smile at that. There was too much on his mind, too much weighing down his body and soul.

  It’s over. It was over from the start. There was never anything I could do.

  “Do you still have the Elemental Crystals?” Kaoru was in front of him, her arms crossed, and face reflecting her thoughts.

  “What?”

  “The Elemental Crystals from before,” she said. “When we first summoned Makorin, they were your ticket to getting up to the city.”

  “As far as I know, yeah.” Luke opened his satchel and searched through it. All three of them were still there.

  It’s not surprising. With permadeath on, and the Tymians rampaging across the continent, nobody else has had time for claiming the Elemental Wells.

  “We can use them to convert one of the rune circles,” said Kaoru. “It will bring us up to Makorin. The only catch is that it will most likely be a one way trip.”

  Luke took a deep breath and then shook his head.

  “This is crazy,” he said. “We can’t. We… there’s no way for us to win. She holds all of the cards.”

  “So you’d rather give up than make an attempt?” asked Kaoru.

  The last attempt we made ended with me trying to kill my closest friends.

  Luke didn’t say anything.

  “Luke…” Tess walked over to him and took his hand into hers. “You can’t stop trying. You promised me, remember?”

  Luke remembered. After Tess had gone all in, he had made her a promise that eventually, the two of them would live together in Yvvaros, once things were peaceful.

  Does it even matter anymore?

  He sighed.

  “Alright,” he said. “We’ll try it.”

  “Thank you,” said Kaoru. She took each of the crystals as he handed them to her.

  “But if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right.” Luke started walking, leading the group back toward the rune circle. The streets of Kantor were filled with players, the vast majority of which shared the same shocked facial expression.

  “How so?” asked Kaoru.

  “We’re going to assemble an army to bring with us,” said Luke. “Enough people to take away the risk of the Universal Truth taking control of my body.”

  Enough players to kill me before I kill Tess, if it comes down to it.

  “That’s no problem,” said Kaoru. “I mean, hopefully.”

  “Also…” Luke stopped in front of the rune circle leading down to Stark Town and turned toward his friend. “You have to help me get to the server in the real world.”

  Kaoru slowly shook her head.”

  “I don’t think-”

  “I’m not asking,” said Luke. “This has to be a two pronged assault. We need every bit of leverage that we can get.”

  “What would you even do if you were at the world state server in the real world?” asked Kaoru. “You saw what it looked like back when the game was hosted in the Gamesoft facility. It wasn’t like there were precise switches in the outside world we could pull to change things.”

  “I’ll…” Luke chewed his lip. “I’ll do something that she won’t expect.”

  He had a couple of ideas in his head, but saying them out loud in front of Kaoru and Tess would be the same as tipping off the Universal Truth, from what she’d told them.

  Luke walked forward into the rune circle, transporting himself down to Stark Town. Tess and Kaoru followed after.

  CHAPTER 30

  Stark Town was in chaos, so different from the gentle low level settlement that Luke had known it as in the beginning. The center of town around the rune circle was filled with players running around nervously, casting suspicious eyes on everyone they passed. The usual mixture of merchants and tradespeople had all but evaporated, leaving only the skeleton of the market square behind.

  “Keep your weapons at ready,” said Luke. He walked south down one of the main streets, doing his best to get a handle on the situation.

  There was a barricade ahead of them, we
ll before the actual edge of the city. Construction of buildings and guild halls was forbidden within Stark Town, but something like a small fence or palisade could still be built easily enough. Several of them had been hitched together and stacked, forming an efficient barrier that completely blocked off the street.

  A player dressed in heavy plate mail with a long, curved greatsword stood at the head of a small group of warriors. He nodded to Luke as he walked up to the partition.

  “You’re the Hero of Kantor, aren’t you?” The player squinted at Luke.

  “That’s right,” said Luke. “Can we get through? We need to get back to our zone.”

  The player frowned and shook his head slightly.

  “Have you been away long?” he asked. Luke looked over at Tess and Kaoru.

  “Just a few days,” he said. “Please, let us through.”

  “The barricade stays up,” said the player. “We’ve already had too many close calls. You can try climbing over if you’ve got a death wish, though.”

  Luke nodded and found hand holds at the bottom to latch onto.

  “I’m warning you though,” said the player. “I’m not sure if you’re going to like what you find out there.”

  “We’ll manage,” said Luke

  Even from just the top of the barricade, he could immediately see what the man had been talking about. The outer edges of Stark Town had been ravaged by the Tymians. The buildings were desiccated, some of them having collapsed entirely in on themselves. Bodies littered the streets in shocking numbers.

  Tess and Kaoru made it up a moment after him, and had similar reactions.

  “We’ll be okay,” said Luke.

  “I… didn’t realize things had gotten so bad,” whispered Tess. “How? How is this possible?”

  “This isn’t a war,” said Kaoru. “This is the end. The Yvvaros Apocalypse.”

  “Get those thoughts out of your head,” said Luke. “Stark Town was vulnerable, and easy to attack. Let’s wait until we get to Dunidan’s Rest before making any judgments.”