Devastator

by Jason Cordova

  “You were expecting anything else, my dear?” a deep, melodious voice floated down from the top of the grand staircase. She stared at the velvet-carpeted stairwell and felt the magnetic pull of two lavender eyes. She didn’t see the man who wielded those eyes or the grand decor of the landing beyond. All she could see was those eyes, and all she heard was that voice as it floated over her. It enthralled her, made her feel warm and pleasant inside. She shook her head woozily and shrugged off the mental assault.

  “Not really,” Tori spat, trying to shake the image of the vampire from her mind. Spite, she reminded himself. Petty. Be as cruel as he was. Throw the stupid vampire lord off of his game. “You’re nothing but a stupid rip-off of modern day vampire lore, vampires that are horribly dressed, vampires making Joss Whedon roll over in his grave. Yeah, everything I expected from a vampire. So very nice to see you this evening, Delano. How’re the kids? Is Juan still taking underwater basket weaving at college?”

  The vampire looked at her, unsure for a moment as the AI tried to determine what she was doing. She could feel the confusion roll off of the vampire lord in waves, and she was able to detach herself fully from the power of the vampire at last. She looked quickly around and blanched. Brigands had surrounded her to cut off her escape. She swore and looked back at the vampire, though she did make certain to avoid meeting his eyes. That had been her original mistake, one she had no intention of repeating.

  Delano smiled, showing just a slight bit of fang as he did so. She almost laughed, though this time she was actually amused and not simply mocking him to make herself feel better. The programmer had really watched too many movies based around a certain horror author’s novels, she thought. She looked away from the vampire lord’s face and at her surroundings. Purple tapestries were hung from ridiculous heights, and black curtains were everywhere. It reminded her of the faux Goth club up in Richmond she’d been dragged to one time by her roommate. She almost bit off her tongue trying to contain her laughter. She’d been afraid of this poser?

  “Quit smirking, impudent slave!” Delano snarled, and she could no longer contain it. She burst out laughing. It wasn’t a pleasant laughter, but a cutting, mocking laughter more associated with a vampire himself. This was almost too funny, she thought as she managed to get the laughter under control a few moments later. She just hoped she didn’t start giggling like a little girl. She had no idea how badly the vampire might react to that. It was just so clichéd she almost started laughing again. She chuckled a final time and managed to swallow the rest of her humor.

  “Ahem, sorry,” she said, her smile fading. She cocked her head slightly, and looked up the stairs beyond the vampire. Sure enough, three lovely vampire ladies were sprawled upon a chaise lounge, their sensuous bodies writhing in the heat of their play. She almost lost it completely but managed to shift her gaze elsewhere. She was in real danger here, a small voice reminded her. Even if it was all so terribly cliché and amusing to her cynical side.

  “So... what can I do for you?” Delano asked her as he managed to get his anger under control at last. She could no longer feel the vampire lord trying to probe her mind, which was a good thing. If Delano could see the idiocy of the situation as she did, then Andre was a dead man. Well, an eliminated one, she amended.

  “I came to retrieve one of my men,” she replied. Delano paused for a moment, as though listening to the air. She snorted. Spectral messenger, flowing capes and a beatific vampire lord... she really had to have a long, thorough talk with the programmer of this world.

  “I... see,” he said and shrugged. “Take him. He’s of no use to me.”

  Tori stared at the vampire, baffled for the first time. This was something she hadn’t expected.

  “Um, you’re just going to let me have him?” she asked, the confusion creeping into her voice. This wasn’t how she’d imagined it happening, not at all. She’d expected more fire and flame. She frowned. Something was definitely not right.

  “Well, I would, except he has... died a most unfortunate death,” he said casually, with a wave of his hand. She shook her head. She hadn’t received any sort of ping through the server informing her of the Moderator’s death, which meant he was lying. Stupid vampire wannabe.

  “Oh, he’s still very much alive,” she countered easily. “You may have powers, Delano, but I have mine as well. And everything tells me he’s still breathing. So let him go.”

  “You realize, of course, alive is only a matter of perspective,” he said in a silky tone. She looked at the vampire, slightly taken back. She’d almost let the vampire engage her again with his mystical voodoo, something she probably wouldn’t have managed to shake off a second time.

  “Perspective or not, I need him to help me hunt something fouler than you,” she snapped. “I’m not playing your games tonight, Delano. You may rule the city of undying night, but my friends call me the Bringer of Dawn. Dawn, you feckless vampire. You want to risk this with me?”

  Delano stared at her calmly for a moment before he shrugged his narrow shoulders.

  “I risk nothing with a Hunter,” the vampire growled, ensuring the title of hunter had been capitalized in his tone. She briefly wondered why. “Take your pet and go. If he wants to, that is.”

  She stepped back as two brigands brought forward a bleeding Andre. She looked at the other Moderator and shook her head. He’d put up a fight and paid the price for it. His battered and bruised face, while something no one would ever call attractive, was a bloodied lump of a mess. She wondered why the game hadn’t eliminated the beat-up teen yet. It didn’t matter, she realized as the brigands threw the Mod onto the floor before them.

  Delano made a small motion with his hand and the brigands backed out of the room, leaving her alone with him and the three writhing vampire women atop the stairs. She cast a wary glance behind her, but the brigands there had left too. Her earlier fear of vampires was starting to return as she recalled he could crush her with the immense magic at the vampire lord’s disposal.

  “Ask him,” Delano nearly purred. “Ask him to join you in leaving.”

  She cautiously approached Andre and touched his shoulder. The teen shivered but lay still. She called out to him, gently.

  “Dre?” She tried. Nothing. She shook the man’s shoulder with more force. “Andre?”

  “Wha...?” the teenager slurred. Dark brown eyes stared into hers. They were clouded and confused. She tried to help him up, but Dre was complete dead weight.

  “We gotta go,” she said and tried to roll him over. Andre resisted.

  “Lemme stay,” he told her. Tori glared up at Delano, angry.

  “What’d you do to him?” she asked angrily. The vampire merely smiled.

  “I had a little... taste,” he replied, his voice gentle and mocking. “Your kind, Hunter, is exquisite. So very rare I get to taste one.”

  “Andre,” she urged. The other Moderator looked up at her and sighed, his face filled with harmony and grace. She mentally groaned as she realized just what Delano—or more importantly, what the Chaos code—had done.

  The vampire lord’s programming, backed into a corner due to her pushing, had unleashed a corruptor code on the young Moderator. It wasn’t designed to kill, merely incapacitate the character for up to twelve hours. In the hands of a non-player character as powerful as Delano, however, it was as good as a death sentence for the character. It’d give Delano time to play with his food before eliminating the Mod, leaving Andre at half strength and increasing the lag time between his NID and The Warp. It also created a fugue state for the gamer as well, confusing them and making the gamer believe they were in an entirely different world. It was a vicious code, a powerful one, and something that was used rarely. She’d only heard of it being used once, it was so powerful.

  And illegal for gamers to use, she added bitterly. It would’ve been an incredible code to drop on someone during a fight.

  “I like it here,” Dre said in a dreamy voice. She sighed deeply as s
he unsheathed her sword.

  “What are you doing?” Delano cried out suddenly, his lavender eyes wide and confused. She glanced up at him.

  “I’m finishing what you started,” she grunted and slashed downward. Andre’s head separated from his shoulders and rolled a few feet away before it began to depixelate. The rest of the Moderator’s digital body melted away as well, leaving her standing over nothing. She glanced at her sword and grimaced. It was wet with blood for a few moments longer before it, too, began to disappear. Her sword gleamed brightly and shone with radiance once more, cleansed of the blood of her friend.

  “You... fool!” Delano cried out and flew from the top of the stairs, his robes trailing behind him as he levitated off the ground. She whirled around and brought her sword up in defense. The vampire stopped, his eyes glowing a deeper color as his feet touched the ground in front of her. “What...why did you?”

  “He was gone anyways,” she said and feinted a jab at Delano, who jerked back from her blade in shock as he felt the power behind it.

  “Your sword...” he said as he looked at the wickedly sharp blade in her hands. His eyes grew fearful for the first time. She nodded.

  “Blessed,” she acknowledged with a jerky nod. “And unless you want to taste the bite of real pain, I’d back away as slowly as possible, blood leech.”

  He took a hesitant step backward, then another, as she slowly made her way toward the large double doors at the entrance of the castle proper. She was unsure how the vampire had reset the castle after she’d snuck in through the side door, but knew from experience she couldn’t afford to have that happen again.

  She quickly activated a code, hoping the vampire would take the hint. She closed her eyes briefly as her personal power levels dropped and the code took shape, then she opened her eyes and noticed the vampire had continued to move away at a cautious pace. She launched the code and turned to run.

  Delano ducked in surprise and howled as the fireball flew over his head, but that was just the distraction she needed. She raced to the doors and threw them open, surprised they led outside. She paused and turned to watch. He began a long, piteous howl as he realized the fireball hadn’t been meant for him, and she watched with morbid satisfaction as the vampire lord saw what she’d done to him.

  The fireball had impacted on the chaise lounge perfectly, the flames engulfing the three female vampires who had been busy necking on the seat. The inferno washed over them as the fireball struck, and all of them screamed in pain and terror as their biggest weakness next to holy water and direct sunlight ate at their bodies. Delano raced to the top of the stairs to help his concubines, waving at the flames to extinguish them, but she could see it was going to be a lost cause. The flames were too hot, too consuming, and the vampire girls were already toast.

  “Toast…heh. I’ll have to remember that one. Time to get the heck out of Dodge,” Tori murmured as she turned and ran out of the castle. She hoped the vampire wouldn’t pursue.

  She had a mission to complete.

  * * *

  Forests were spooky, another reason Tori absolutely hated some realms within The Warp. Not only were the woodlands deadly in their own right, with the number of wild creatures and trolls and who knew what else residing within, they reminded her way too much of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm. Although, she admitted after a moment of thought, her fears weren’t as bad this evening as they usually were. Perhaps it was due to her telling Dylan all about them, and why she was still afraid of letting him get too close? It was something else to talk to her psychiatrist about.

  There had been no sign of Delano or the brigands as she fled the city of Selene. She’d heard the anguished howls from the vampire lord as she ran, piteous cries of despair which had haunted her for miles. It was just a game, she reminded herself. It still didn’t make her feel any better, though.

  It’d been cruel and barbarous, but it had to be done. She was forced to admit she was actually quite proud of her accomplishment. Nobody had ever bested the vampire lord so thoroughly before.

  The forest around her was noisy and alive in the predawn hours, with animals programmed by random lines of code to make noise and play at all hours. The moon on the horizon was full and lit the area around her well enough she didn’t need to use any of her codes to light the path. The codes, or as they were more commonly referred to in Kadashter, “spells,” were very powerful, but very limited. As was usually the case in all other worlds, once a person used a spell, it was gone. However, in Kadashter, tournament rules were in effect, and codes remained after use unless specifically designed otherwise.

  She didn’t know what the final world of the tournament would be like, only that WarpSoft had promised it’d be epic. The design teams had been very secretive this year about it, letting it slip on “accident” the world was going to be a decidedly nasty mix of both technology and mythology. Similar, she thought as she followed the paved road around a bend in the forest, to what the early version of Crisis had been.

  “I need a teleport code,” she groused as she stepped over a small, fallen tree branch. “Or a flying code. Or something.”

  A small snap of a twig nearby interrupted her musings, and the forest around her fell silent. She mentally swore and pulled out her broadsword as she peered into the darkened forest. While the path was well lit, her vision was unable to penetrate very far into the timberland around her. She belatedly realized that, while she did have a few codes to back her up, most of her skill on Kadashter was in the form of the sword in her hand. Which, if memory served, wasn’t that great.

  She preferred guns for a reason.

  “I should’ve put some points into archery or something,” she said as she slowly turned and looked throughout the forest. “And less in charisma.” She could still see nothing in the dark, but was slightly relieved as the animals began to make noise once more. For the more ominous effect, usually the Chaos code kept the animals quiet as danger approached. She’d simply gotten lucky, she knew. The Chaos code had other things to do that night, it seemed. She sheathed the sword and tucked it against her back, relieved. She turned back to continue down the path.

  The troll struck without warning, erupting from the underbrush near a half-fallen tree directly in front of her with a triumphant roar. The large creature swung a massive paw at her head, and it connected solidly before she could even get an arm up to block. She staggered under the weight of the blow and fell to a knee. The troll roared again. Blood poured into her eyes as she blindly felt around on the ground for something, anything, to help shield her from the massive troll’s anger and power.

  “Stupid,” she grunted as the troll kicked her in the ribs, knocking the air out of her lungs. She chuffed loudly as she struggled to draw breath. The troll kicked her again, and she rolled to her right, trying to get her sword unstuck from the sheath. The troll kicked at her a third time, but now she was ready and continued to roll until her feet were under her once more. She popped up, ignoring the painful stitch in her side, and pulled out her sword.

  The troll, however, was apparently familiar with swords and slowly moved backward. His red eyes were locked upon the edge of the sword. She waved it in front of him cautiously, both hands grasping the long handle firmly as she scrutinized the troll. Clearly it’d fought a human before, she thought as she moved closer to the troll. However, she was set on ensuring this would be the creature’s last.

  “Stupid critter,” she muttered as she advanced toward it. The troll, however, raised both of its hands suddenly in apparent surrender. She stopped and stared. What was it doing?

  “Hey, man, sorry,” the troll growled and looked at her warily. “I didn’t know you were a referee. That’s a neck on me.”

  “Wait,” she stopped and lowered the sword a fraction of an inch. “What did you say?”

  “Your Moderator status is up,” the troll said with a wave of its hairy paw. “I didn’t see it before. I didn’t know you were a ref.”

&n
bsp; “Oh, for crying out loud!” she swore and sheathed the sword. “Are you a gamer?”

  “Yeah,” the troll replied, his fanged maw slipping into a goofy grin. The eyes no longer seemed to glow a malicious red. “Like my form?”

  “Oh man, I almost eliminated you,” she groaned as she stared at the gamer/troll. “My ribs hurt now, thanks to you. This isn’t the best getup you could be in.”

  “Actually, it is,” the troll countered. “Who’s going to mess with a big, powerful troll in the forest, when all the easier ones are up in the mountains handing out loot like its Halloween? My team captain suggested it.”

  “Dang,” she whispered and shook her head, impressed. The implications of a gamer sneaking around with some sort of coded costume on was frightening to say the least. She couldn’t even see his gamer status, which was something important, her brain screamed. “Still... that’s clever. What team you with?”

  “The Alpha Legion,” the troll said proudly. She stopped and stared.

  “You got to be kidding me. Rich?”

  The troll blinked suddenly and looked at her, really looked at her, for the first time. She grinned and brushed her black and blue hair away from her face. She offered a hand to the troll, who took it and grinned. It was odd, she realized, to see a troll smile. He released her hand and chuckled.

  “You’re that hot chick from the airport,” Rich the troll muttered as he remembered her. “That girl... Tori. Yeah, with the gaming club. Hey! Hey, you said...”

  “Yeah, I know,” she acknowledged with a sheepish grin. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you what I was though. You know how that goes.”

  The troll nodded. “Yeah, I’m sorry. But hey, that’s cool. I actually had a question for a ref about the rules if I happened across one.”

  “Er,” she nodded, slightly curious. This was definitely turning into an interesting side quest, she noted. Hey, is that the Chaos code’s doing? It was something to think about later. “Sure, go ahead.”