by Alex Mulder
CHAPTER 36
Luke was inside of the guild hall, and filled with frantic energy. He rushed outside, immediately scanning the sun scorched courtyard for his friends.
“Tess! Kaoru!” As far as he could tell, Dunidan’s Rest was empty. Panic welled up inside Luke’s chest.
Am I too late? Did something already happen?
A noise came from the other side of the gate. Luke didn’t bother opening it, instead summoning his conjured swords and easily sword stepping over the wall.
An army was waiting on the other side, his army. He dropped down to the sand, calming down and walking over to the players at the head of it with confident steps. Tess, Kaoru, Katrina, and Arex were in the middle of explaining something to the guild troops. In total, they had no more than 100 players, some of them at too low of a level to be much of a threat.
“Kato!” said Kaoru. “Perfect timing. Do you want to give a speech to-”
“There’s no time!” Luke gritted his teeth, fighting back impossible urgency. “We have to go, now!”
He turned toward the army and lifted his sword up. Tess shot him a worried look, but he didn’t have time to reassure her.
“The real world, the world that we all grew up in, is under attack!” Luke’s voice was angry, and terrified, and determined, all at once. “We have to take back Stark Town! We have to get to the Universal Truth, and stop her!”
A battle cry resounded from the troops. Luke took a moment to glance at his friends. They looked concerned, but said nothing.
“Your life depends on this battle!” yelled Luke. “This is not a game!”
Another cry went up. Luke turned and started running toward Stark Town, his friends falling into formation alongside him.
“Luke…” said Tess. “Are you okay? Did something happen?”
“I don’t have much time,” he said. “We’re trapped in the real world. I’m not sure if I’ll even be able to make it to the end.”
Even as Luke spoke the words, a voice whispered in the back of his head.
I’ll make it. She won’t attack me until I’ve faced her, one last time.
“We were just getting into discussing our strategy, Luke.” Kaoru frowned at him. “Look, I know you’re in a rush, but if we go into this without a plan, it’s going to be suicide.”
Luke’s thoughts turned to Ben, and the last few seconds he’d seen his friend alive. He wanted to tell Tess, to admit that he’d failed, yet again, but it wasn’t the time.
“We have a plan,” said Luke. “The four of us, me, you, Tess, and Arex, are going to rush to the rune circle while the Tymians are distracted with the army.”
Luke glanced over at Arex. The Red Mage was close enough to have heard him, but said nothing in the way of acknowledgment.
“Are you out of your mind?” hissed Kaoru. “You’re going to get all of these people killed!”
That’s what I’m good at, apparently.
Luke shook his head.
“No,” he said. “If we can defeat her while the battle is still ongoing, we’ll save people. More than we would otherwise.”
Kaoru didn’t say anything. The army was approaching the edge of the desert, and the ruins of Stark Town were visible in the distance.
It was hard for Luke, for all of them, to bear witness to the aftermath of the destruction and carnage. The smell of blood and charred flesh carried on the wind. Buildings and houses were destroyed, or in some cases, still on fire.
Tymians could be seen moving through the streets. A few of them were standing at the southern entrance of the settlement, watching Luke and his army approach. There were no signs of human players, or even neutral NPCs.
Luke held his sword up, pulling the army to a stop. Dozens of sets of eyes locked onto him, waiting for the final word to rush into the hellish battlefield.
What am I waiting for?
He slowly turned his head up to the sky. It was daytime, but strangely, the azure blue moon was out and fully visible, bigger and brighter in the sky than he’d ever seen it before. Luke thought for a second that he could make out Makorin on its surface.
“We attack on my mark,” he finally said, turning back to the group. “Fight well, and stay alive.”
Luke could tell from the expressions on their faces that none of them intended to do anything else. The battle experienced chunk of his army had been through some of the most deadly battles already, and been strengthened from every one.
CONJURE SWORD 5
MIRROR IMAGE 3
HOLY REGENERATION 2
The others followed suit, casting all of their long lasting buffs ahead of time so they could jump immediately into combat. Luke looked over to Tess, Kaoru, and Arex.
“Stay close to me,” he said, just loud enough for the three of them to hear.
Finally, Luke turned toward the army and raised a sword again. He pointed it in the direction of Stark Town and began to run forward.
“Charge!”
With every step he took closer to the city, the smell of death and destruction grew more putrid on his nose. Stark Town was a big settlement, and Luke saw how thorough the Tymians had been in their sacking of it as more of the outskirts came into view. Kantor still floated overhead, as though gazing down on the ruins in mourning.
The first few Tymians came to meet them from the edge of Stark Town. Luke slashed it with all five of his conjured swords as he ran by, letting his warriors trailing behind him finish it off. Another one charged, this time directly at him instead of the bulk of the army.
PIERCE ATTACK 5
He slammed through the Tymian, knocking it off its feet and taking out most of its health. There were two more moving to attack Luke behind it, and three more behind those two. He engaged them with his magical blades, more focused on distracting them than getting kills.
Arex and Kaoru were to his left and right, guarding his flanks. Tess was directly behind him. Between the four of them, they had the added bonus of filling out the archetypal Yvvaros adventuring party. A warrior at the front, a mage and rogue for causing damage, and a healer for support.
Let’s hope that it’s enough. We’re going up against the game itself.
Luke made it to the mouth of the first street with most of his army still intact and following behind. Unfortunately, even at a glance he could tell that they were outnumbered. Tymians were pouring out of sidestreets, demolished buildings, and from deeper in the settlement.
Arex cast an offensive fireball spell that exploded at the center of one of the tightly packed groups rushing toward them. The splash damage was enough to clear a small path forward. Luke brought his conjured swords into the gap and stabbed them into enemies, keeping them from moving in and instantly closing their opportunity.
He led them forward slowly, not wanting to get too far ahead of the army, which was the only thing keeping them from being surrounded. Even still, the number of Tymians moving to engage them was staggering. They’d formed a wall in front of him, deeper in the settlement. Luke’s only hope of getting to the rune circle would be to break through it.
“Hold the formation!” yelled Luke. “Don’t let them get in between us!”
Tess was casting in all directions from behind him. She had offensive holy magic, and was using streams of blindingly white light to great effect, blasting Tymians as they made for what they thought to be an easy target.
Kaoru was fighting aggressively. She moved a bit closer to the Tymians than the rest of the group, cutting into them with her whips and throwing out magical traps. A group of four Tymians moved to surround her, but she disappeared in a puff of smoke, falling back in line next to Luke.
Even with five conjured swords and his own physical blade, there was only so much that Luke could do as he pressed forward. For every Tymian he cut down, two more immediately popped up in its place. It was like trying to push back the tide with levies made of sand.
There must be some other way to get through this!
A
cry went up from the army behind him. Luke cut down the two Tymians charging toward him and then chanced a look over his shoulder. What he saw was not what he’d expected.
Additional reinforcements were joining his army, players that Luke didn’t recognize. He could only watch for a second before turning back to his own fight, but the sight was enough to rekindle his hope.
“It’s one of the guilds that turned down the alliance offer,” yelled Kaoru. “And… it looks like there are some unaffiliated players too, maybe players that fled Stark Town during the battle.”
The size of their army doubled, and more players continued to join the fight. Luke turned his focus to cutting a path through the mass of enemies in front of him, toward the rune circle. Arex launched a fireball, and with his conjured swords, Luke repeated the trick they’d used before.
“We can do this!” he shouted. “Get the Elemental Crystals ready, Kaoru. The second we get to the rune circle, you have to-”
A spell landed in the center of Luke’s party, scattering the four of them in an instant. He pulled himself to his feet and saw a Korrith, one of the demon mages, making its way toward the army. He gritted his teeth as a group of three Tymians descended on him.
Luke impaled one of them with his physical sword, stabbed all of his conjured swords into another, and ignored the third. He tucked into a dive roll as he desperately moved toward the Korrith.
I can’t let it attack the army. It will kill too many people.
He wanted to grab Tess, Kaoru, and Arex, and head straight for the rune circle with them. But he couldn’t, not with the knowledge of what would happen if he ignored the dangerous new foe if he let it engage with the other players.
Luke set his conjured blades into a whirlwind around him, letting them slash Tymians indiscriminately as he pushed forward. The Korrith had its staff already raised as Luke got close enough to engage it. He let his blades come to a rest.
PIERCE ATTCK 5
Luke launched forward, all of his conjured swords flying with him like angry birds of prey. The Korrith cast a defensive barrier spell just in time, and Luke bounced off it. He swore under his breath as the movement brought him into a thick crowd of Tymians that were ready to engage.
Razor teeth sank into his shoulder before he could react, and a barrage of swinging claws rained down on him. Luke roared and spun with all his might, swinging his sword and letting his magical blades find the nearest targets. Most of them shattered, finally reaching the limit of the energy that sustained him. Tymians piled in against Luke, and he slowly sank underneath them, pinned by a mass of evil flesh.
This is it. The end.
His fingers touched something soft, something without claws. Luke grasped it as the weight of the Tymians on top of him pushed his last breath out of his lungs. In an instant, he was free, transported out of the grasp of death by a puff of magical smoke. Kaoru was kneeling over him, her hand against his.
“That was a close one!” She smiled at Luke. “Get up, quick. We’re almost there.”
Luke hurried to his feet. His health bar only had a sliver in it, but a healing spell landed on him from behind. Luke turned around and saw Tess, eyes determined and face serious.
“The Korrith…” said Luke. “We have to-”
“Already taken care of,” said Tess. “I silenced it, and Arex managed to take it down with his spells.”
Luke turned his head to see the Red Mage behind him, casting offensive spells at the Tymians nearby. Most of the monsters had moved to engage the newly expanded army. The path in front of them was dangerous, but doable.
Luke led the group forward. He could see the rune circle in the center square ahead of him, and broke into a sprint.
CONJURE SWORD 5
Rematerializing his swords, he struck down a few Tymian stragglers as they moved into range. Luke slowed to a stop in front of the magical rune circle, walking a lap around it as he scanned what had once been the Stark Town market for threats.
“We’re clear,” he said. “Kaoru, get on it!”
She was already exchanging the gems in the rune circle for the Elemental Crystals. Luke eyed his small party and said a silent prayer.
Please… let this work. We’ve come so far.
“It’s all set!” yelled Kaoru.
Luke nodded.
“Is everybody ready?”
Tess squeezed his hand and locked eyes with him. Kaoru cracked one of her whips. Even Arex, usually stoic and unreadable, tapped his staff in solidarity.
Luke stepped forward into the rune circle and was surrounded in bright, white light.
CHAPTER 37
The ground underneath Luke’s feet was light blue. It was night time. And he was no longer on Yvvaros.
He’d been expecting the rune circle to bring him to Makorin, to wherever the floating city was on the moon. Instead, Luke was surrounded by a rocky, crater marked moonscape, the horizon cutting off earlier in the distance than it typically would have.
The air was breathable. Luke took a step, and found that his weight was similar to what it would be in Yvvaros or on Earth. He turned around, looking back toward the spot the rune circle had transported him to.
Tess, Kaoru, and Arex all stood with expressions of wonder and amazement plastered on their faces. Luke continued looking around the moon dumbly. He was surprised to see tiny, crystalline flowers sprouting in a small clump nearby, the petals made of a mineral similar to quartz or diamond.
A purple creature about the size of a large mouse moved by his foot, taking large, flipping leaps and alternating between its two legs as it bounced off the ground. It stopped for a brief moment and looked up at Luke with a single, jet black eye.
“This…” Luke shook his head, still a bit shocked by the alien landscape. “This is not Yvvaros, that’s for sure.”
“Luke…” Tess grabbed his arm tightly and pointed upward at something, a moon in the night sky. Luke took a closer look and felt his jaw drop.
Yvvaros, or rather, the planet that contained the continent, was a bluish white disk in the sky. The continent looked tiny in comparison to the size of the planet, no bigger than Australia or Greenland back on Earth. It was surrounded on all sides by piercingly blue water, and clouds swirled in complicated patterns overhead. Luke could just barely make out the yellowish brown splotch that was the Sarchia Desert.
“I think I’m going to be sick…” Kaoru was shaking her head and taking deep breaths. Luke forced himself to focus back on the current situation.
“I don’t see Makorin anywhere,” he said. “I would have thought that it would be floating in the sky around the moon, or maybe crashed into the ground.”
He took a look at the ground at the spot where they’d emerged after stepping into the rune circle and frowned.
There’s nothing there. We have no way back, as it currently stands.
“This is about as close as any of you will ever get to seeing things from my perspective.”
A neutral, feminine voice sounded from every direction at once. Luke pulled his sword out, suddenly feeling very tired of all the fighting.
Blue light coalesced into the shape of a faceless woman in front of the group. The light didn’t fade, imbuing her with an alien glow that matched the moon.
CORRUPTED TRUTH: The architect of magic, law, and structure in Yvvaros. Corrupted by implanted memories relating to a deceased family member of one of the original developers.
Luke blinked, taking in the words as the enemy description flashed across the bottom of his vision.
It can’t be…
“Get ready!” yelled Kaoru. “This is our chance!”
The Corrupted Truth made the first move, extending a hand in their direction and firing a burst of blue light. Luke and Arex dodged left, and Tess and Kaoru dodged right.
The blast destroyed the ground around where it made contact. The Corrupted Truth didn’t say anything as she moved forward, spreading her attention out across the entire group.
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br /> “She’s no different from any other enemy,” shouted Arex. “She’s a boss. We can win if we stick to our roles.”
Luke was still distracted by his thoughts, but he forced himself to move forward, closing the distance to his enemy. He tried to ignite his lust for battle, the instincts that would let him be at his best. He tried and failed.
Luke’s first sword swing was wide by a couple of inches. The Corrupted Truth didn’t even need to dodge to avoid it. She snapped her fingers, and a burst of explosive blue energy slammed into his chest.
He flew through the air, his health bar sinking like a rock. Tess had already cast a healing spell on him before he hit the ground. Luke sat up and saw Arex firing off fire spells from afar, and Kaoru moving to take his place as a front line fighter.
It doesn’t matter who or what she is. I have to help my friends!
Luke rushed forward, holding his sword at the ready. Kaoru took a slap to the face from the Corrupted Truth and was thrown to the side. Arex’s spells were splashing down, dealing a surprising amount of damage.
He swung his sword, cleaving into the Corrupted Truth’s shoulder. A pained cry came from the ethereal woman, causing Luke to flinch back. Tess cast a buff spell on him, and he firmed his resolve, attacking again, and again.
The battle went on in such a fashion for several long minutes. Luke and Kaoru would take turns on the front line, landing as many attacks as they could before the Corrupted Truth knocked them back. Tess focused on buffing and keeping everyone alive, and Arex delt the bulk of the damage with his offensive magic.
Luke was headed straight for the ethereal woman, preparing to get his sword slashes in. Conjured blades whirled around him, and he readied himself to strike.
PIERCE ATTACK 5
The Corrupted Truth didn’t have time to dodge or guard, and Luke’s sword slammed into her chest. She shuddered and let out an ear screeching cry, the final death rattle of an enemy clinging to life.