World-Tree's End

by E A Hooper

  When the Ranger turned, flashes of white light bombarded him and the two women. He aimed his gun, but the two angels that had attacked both moved with superhuman quickness. They readied themselves to charge from two directions at once, but Devon leapt forward and ran his blade through one.

  Vincent rushed the other angel, and she blasted him again. For a moment, he couldn’t see anything but a brilliant white light, but then he reached the end of the spell and found the angel with a shocked expression on her face. Vincent wasn’t sure if the field of magic over her body would stop Vaporize at full strength, but he continued to charge it as he rammed her against the nearest marstone wall, cracking through several meters of rock.

  As the spell finished its two-second charge-up time, which seemed forever to someone with Vincent’s level of Perception, he angled the barrel into the angel’s mouth and watched the top half of her head disappear in the wave of mana. The attack drilled into the marstone wall, but the angel was dead long before it finished.

  Vincent spun around and searched the cavern for more angels. However, it looked like all of them had been defeated. Only dust remained where May had been standing, but Juniper had survived despite mild injuries. Jim had already regrown half his arm with ultra-elixirs, but the way he fell against the wall and gasped for air showed he’d reached his limit. Devon still appeared in fighting shape, and he focused on healing Juniper.

  Vincent walked over to Antonio and cast Zero Field, freeing the man from his frozen state.

  “Woo boy,” Antonio said, panting for air. “That was not fun at all. I see why that Lucas fellow was so damn scary.”

  “Do you have a Lotus Capsule?” Vincent asked him. “If you don’t have Gravity Shield, it might be a good idea for you to respawn back at Edgelight.”

  “Nah, I think I’ll stick around and help you guys,” Antonio replied. “It’s been too damn long, Vince. You think I’m just going to run away now that you’re back?”

  “Hey, Tony,” Jim said. “Did you see Jeanie anywhere?”

  “I think they froze her near the entrance,” he replied. “She was leading them away from Dev, I think.”

  “Alright, so Vince’s attack probably got her,” Jim said.

  “Vince’s attack?” Antonio asked. “That was you who made all that racket earlier?” The southern man looked at Vincent, who could feel the frequencies of Scan touching him. “Holy hell, how’d you get so strong?”

  “Long story,” Vincent said, sending Antonio invites to his friend list and the team. “I’ll tell you later, but we need to make sure we free everyone first.”

  Antonio accepted the friend invite, but he didn’t join the party right away. “Hang on, I can find out how many people are still captive.” He lowered his head and concentrated.

  Vincent could feel frequencies in the air, and he tried to Scan the air over Antonio’s head.

  Frequency Network (Ranger Only | Upgrade) – Mana Usage: Minuscule to Medium+ | This spell forms a temporary connection with another person. This connection strengthens communication between two or more players, and it allows Rangers to share Scanned information with one another. | Upgrade – Second Sight: For a small mana cost, the person casting this spell may see through the eyes of another player connected to the network, but only if they allow it.

  “That’s a useful spell,” Vincent noted, trying to get a feel for the frequencies involved.

  “Oh, that network ability?” Jim asked. “Yeah, Fynn thought of that one. At first, it just helped in dungeons or on Dead-Worlds with limited communication, but then he figured out you could have several Rangers create an entire network. Multiple players can connect to them, then tune in to each other. It’s great for coordinating large groups of people.”

  “I viewed the sight of all the people connected to the network,” Antonio said. “The angels abandoned some of them, but there’s still one group being guarded. It’s Quinton, his sister, and a few others. They went deeper into the mines to wait for help, but I guess they still got caught. I can ping their location on the local map.”

  Vincent watched several dots show up on his map, although it was about a hundred meters below their current location.

  “It might take a while to get there,” Antonio told them. “A few of the main tunnels collapsed in the initial attack, and I think some others were destroyed when Vincent did his thing.”

  Vincent equipped his Builder’s Tome, then spent thousands of points to dig a tunnel straight down toward the dots on his map.

  “Or you can do that,” Antonio said. “I can’t believe I forgot about that tome of yours.”

  “Everyone just be ready for a fight when we get down there,” Jim said, dropping in first.

  Vincent and the others followed. When he landed, the first thing he saw was that Jim had formed what looked like a mass of Void Crows, but they all seemed to move together when they attacked the nearest angel. Vincent Scanned the attack as he tossed a Voidfire at the second closest monster.

  Crow Storm (Requires Void Crow) – Mana Usage: High+ | Releases a swarm of Void Crows. The user may spend a small amount of mana to control their movements, but if the crows separate from one another it will require larger amounts of mana to direct them.

  Jim’s Crow Storm tore apart the nearest Judge, but then pulled back to him as a Paladin jettisoned toward him, lance raised. Although Jim’s Alcubierre Shield redirected the lance away from him, world magic sparked off the lance and tore skin from his arm. Before the Paladin could attack again, however, the Crow Storm moved between them, disintegrating the angel’s arm and weapon.

  Vincent spotted a Watcher hovering near Quinton’s frozen body. The angel raised her hand, and the Paladin’s arm healed instantly. Another Paladin darted for Vincent, but Antonio stopped the monster with a multitude of blasts from the Pitchfork of Smiting. While the angel was distracted blocking the attacks, Vincent was able to catch him off guard with Voidfire.

  Juniper fired Mana Missile at the Watcher, but the angel raised a white wall in time to stop it. With the Watcher separated momentarily from the group, everyone focused on the weaker angels. Devon skewered one, then tossed it into the Paladin as Jim’s Crow Storm struck it. The spell consumed both angels before dissipating, but Jim had time to drink ultra-ethers and cast another one right as the Watcher’s wall came down.

  The last angel dodged the Crow Storm, then the dozens of eyes across her body flickered with light before firing beams across the cavern. Her attacks sliced through the frozen players, including Quinton, and even decapitated Juniper. She took off one of Jim’s arms despite his Alcubierre Shield, and one beam sliced open Vincent’s chest. Antonio took cover, and Devon supercharged his armor with world magic just in time to tank the blow.

  With his remaining arm, Jim pulled his Crow Storm back toward the Watcher. She tried to raise another defense, but the birds reached her first. A flash of world magic blew apart the Crow Storm before it completely engulfed the angel, although she appeared badly injured and fell to the ground as her wings turned to ashes.

  Vincent finished an ultra-elixir, watching while the angel desperately formed a world magic lance and bared her teeth at the players. The Ranger’s next Voidfire hit first, taking off the angel’s top half. Her lance hit the ground and exploded with a white flash that filled the entire chamber. The blast knocked Vincent into the cavern wall, causing him to leave an indentation in the marstone wall.

  Vincent pulled himself out of the wall and glanced around. He spotted Jim sprinting back from a long hallway.

  “You survived that?” Vincent asked his friend.

  “Yeah, my Alcubierre Shield sent me flying to the end of the hall,” he explained. “The blast actually didn’t hurt that bad.”

  They both drank ultra-elixirs to heal, but then Vincent heard coughing nearby.

  “Did someone else survive?” he asked.

  “I think—I think I did,” the voice of Devon called out.

  Vincent looked around th
e dark cavern till he saw collapsed rubble. Sticking from the piles of rock was a jagged block of layered world magic. It had held through the blast, but it fell apart as Vincent approached, revealing Devon underneath. The Ranger Scanned the last remnants of the block before it disappeared completely.

  Holy Lattice (Requires World Breaker | Requires Full-Body Reverse Breaker) – Mana Usage: High+ | Pulls world magic from the ground instantly to form a powerful lattice around the user.

  “Aren’t you a Cleric-Fighter?” Vincent wondered aloud, helping Devon from the rubble. “How do you have such a strong defense spell?”

  “Reverse Breaker was invented by Fynn,” the young man explained. “He figured out that if you stabilize Breaker energy, it can boost your weapon or armor’s material rating for a short time. I took the Full-Body version of that spell, then combined it with World Breaker to make a powerful defense. However, it kind of traps me inside until it dissipates.”

  “So you figured out Ezra’s World Breaker too?” Vincent said, remembering their conversation long ago when Devon had explained his trouble learning how to use world magic.

  “Yeah, I got a bunch of tips from Xan that helped me.”

  >Juniper: We have another problem.

  >Jim: What’s that?

  >Juniper: We respawned, set new crystals, and tried to jump again—only to get wiped out by angels at the other Jump Gate.

  >Jim: Ah, that’s no good. We’ve freed everyone here, so you might as well try to meet us at Helixos instead.

  >Keanu: Just tried that, boss. Ten angels were waiting for me at that Jump Gate. I might try a few different worlds, then shoot for one of the other gates on Helixos.

  >Jim: No, you all hold tight for now. We’ll try the one between Zenmire and Helixos and hope for the best.

  >Keanu: Good luck.

  Jim looked at Vincent and Devon. “Alright, these angels aren’t messing around anymore. We’ll need to head north to the other gate. If there are angels camping it, then we have two others to try. Helixos has six gates, and I know twelve different worlds to reach it from. At least one of those paths has to get us there.”

  Vincent used Zero Field to raise the three players through the hole in the ceiling he’d made earlier. “I thought the high-tier gates were an ever-shifting maze?” he questioned as they floated upward.

  “Just the gates between Cryasal and Panthos,” Jim explained. “Once you reach Edgelight, things are straightforward again. You can jump to the worlds with the Elder Gods if you want. These other worlds seem to exist for players to farm or power level as preparation. Once you defeat the Elder Gods, I think you can travel right to the final world.”

  “Wow, it’s hard to believe we’re that close to the end,” Vincent noted.

  “Yeah, but with the Elder Gods and the angels standing in our way, we might as well be lightyears from the top,” Jim said.

  The three men returned outside and donned their Ghost Cloaks, and Jim pinged the next gate on their world map. As Vincent raced across the landscape, his eyes occasionally caught sight of the final world. The rainbow glow around Xenith made it easier to spot through the blue fog. Despite the threat of the angels and the Elder Gods, Vincent couldn’t help but wonder what kind of challenge awaited him at the very top of the World-Tree.

  Chapter 16

  Vincent arrived at the Jump Gate first and found no angels. He pulled down his hood so Jim and Devon would spot him and waited a few minutes for them to arrive. Once they’d regrouped, the trio donned their hoods and activated their Jump Crystals, pointing them toward a yellow-green world a couple of branches away.

  As Vincent flew through space, he couldn’t help but watch the last world closely. He tried to Scan it, but only received information saying it was called Xenith, which he already knew. Even True Scan didn’t pierce the rainbow-colored aura around the world.

  Although his spell couldn’t pass through the veil, Vincent could still see the landscape beyond the rainbow aura. Xenith appeared to be a grasslands world, but he did spot some forests, lakes, and hills. He couldn’t see any buildings or structures, although he assumed anything that stood out would obviously be on the very top and hidden from view.

  His attention returned to the yellow-green world, Helixos, as he approached it. Since it was a world so close to the top, he guessed the angels wouldn’t be the only threat that awaited them.

  The guild must’ve had a good reason to choose this world to place Kill Chambers. I’ll bet there are incredibly powerful monsters here. I’m surprised it’s not covered in clouds like a Dead-World, but I suppose at this point in the game every planet is exceptionally dangerous.

  Vincent readied himself for a fight as he landed on the Jump Gate, but he didn’t see any angels in the vicinity. His eyes searched the nearby boulders and crags that were almost all covered by yellow-green moss. Once he could see it up close, he realized the entire world must’ve been covered in the same kind of moss. Vincent Scanned it out of curiosity.

  Life-Drain Moss – A strange and exceptionally rare moss. Any creature that comes too close will feel their lifeforce slowly drain.

  Even from a few meters away, Vincent swore he could feel the moss magically tugging at him. It couldn’t rip any mana out of him at that distance, but just the feeling alone unnerved him.

  >Vincent: What do you guys do about that moss?

  >Jim: We try not to stay on it for too long. Move fast and take breaks on the few spots without moss. It won’t drain your lifeforce very quickly, but even at our levels it can kill you if you walk across it for more than a few minutes.

  >Vincent: Is there a reason you chose this world to build more Kill Chambers? It seems like the moss would make it inconvenient.

  >Jim: That’s the thing, the moss is actually helpful. This world has a really unusual ecosystem, almost like the entire planet is one living creature that wants to kill you. It actually has the highest Challenge Rating boost of any world I’ve been to, even higher than Dead-Worlds.

  >Vincent: You can see Challenge Ratings now?

  >Jim: Yeah, I finished True Scan a few decades back. There’s actually a lot of cool stuff I can do now, Vince. You haven’t seen anything yet. Maybe I’ll show you my new super move at the next location. I’m pinging that location on the map right now.

  Vincent saw the dot appear on his map, and he stepped onto the moss. The thought of flying over the landscape with Zero Field crossed his mind, but he knew that spatial disturbances might make him more visible to the angels.

  Whenever he saw a rock or muddy spot without moss, he stopped there for a few minutes to recover. One of those times, he heard breathing beside him and realized Devon was standing near him. They both laughed about it over the team chat, then continued onward. After half an hour he neared the dot on his map and found a crag to stand on above the moss.

  Two angels, both Watchers, floated above a basteel-plated platform that looked like the entrance to an underground passage. It had been partially obscured from vision by nearby rocks and hills, but Vincent could see it clearly from atop the crag. The entrance still appeared closed, and he wondered if there were more angels underground.

  >Jim: You two here yet?

  >Vincent: I am, and it sounds like Devon is approaching my crag.

  >Devon: Wow, nothing gets past that high Perception of yours. I’m climbing up right—oops, I think I bumped you, Vince.

  >Vincent: It’s fine, just sit tight. I suppose we’ll need to hit those Watchers hard and fast, so they don’t heal each other.

  >Jim: Actually, you two hold position. This is the perfect opportunity for me to show off my strongest spell. I just need the right angle to line up those two… Okay, I think I got. Watch from the east, Vince.

  Vincent turned his head east, then saw Jim partially reveal himself by rolling up his sleeves and pulling down his hood. He held out his hands, and black particles rushed toward the tips of his index fingers as he aimed them together. Vincent Scanned the spell as it
charged.

  Deletion Cannon (Requires Sniper Cannon) – Mana Usage: Very High | Charges negative energy for two seconds, then releases an incredibly fast beam at the target.

  The two angels turned in Jim’s direction right before his spell fired. A large beam of void energy tore across the sky so fast that even Vincent couldn’t follow it. Since Jim had lined himself up perfectly, the attack took off the heads of both angels, killing them instantly.

  >Vincent: My god, that’s a terrifying spell. That’d kill even me with a direct hit.

  >Jim: It took me a long time to get that one down. I originally designed Sniper Cannon as a smaller, faster variant of Vaporize, then figured I might as well turn it into a void attack.

  Vincent saw the trapdoor to the tunnel opening, and he raced over as Devon pulled back his hood and stared into the darkness.

  “The lights are out,” the young man noted.

  “That’s weird,” Jim said, approaching. “The illumination runes should have their own power. Even if there was a fight down there, some of those runes should still be working.”

  Vincent glanced at the nearby angel dust. “I didn’t think about this before, but those angels didn’t drop items,” he said, noticing the lack of twinkling crystals.

  “Most of their items are soulbound,” Jim said. “If you’re lucky, they might drop mithril equipment or a couple of Crystal Hearts. I don’t know if you’ve used True Scan, but their Challenge Rating is zero, so farming them is pretty much pointless if you already have good gear.”

  “I hadn’t thought to check that,” Vincent replied. “I wonder if it’s because they’re NPCs? Or maybe ARKUS doesn’t want us to fight them at all.”

  Jim shrugged in reply, then turned to Devon. “Go ahead and cast Extended Clarity, then stay behind us. Vince and I have Darkeye, so we’ll see anything beyond Clarity’s range.”

  Devon nodded and cast the spell. His light allowed Vincent to see into the tunnel that dropped straight down about thirty meters. A ladder was attached to the side, but Vincent carried them to the bottom with Zero Field.