World-Tree's End

by E A Hooper

  >River: Babe, get over here. We’re married, so we should be the ones to kill this dumb bitch.

  >Athena: With the power of love?

  >River: Yeah, but don’t word it like that. You know I don’t like that sappy stuff.

  Athena grabbed River’s hand and looked at her lovingly. They smiled, raised their longswords, and dove together at Aefa. The sea Goddess raised her hand, but the strings lost their strength and fell. The wives stabbed their blades through Aefa’s heart at the same moment, and the boss’s gasp echoed across the cavern.

  Aefa raised her forearm to her head and fell backward dramatically, almost like an actor in a play. She cried out, raising her hand to the air for something—or someone—unseen, and then she became glittering ash. A rainbow of light surged across the muscle tissue, the clamshell ceiling, and down through the tunnels.

  “What’s happening?” Vincent asked. “I wasn’t alive to see this last time.”

  “Just a big light show, and then we get teleported back to the Jump Gate,” Jim explained.

  Vincent looked at the glittering dust left by Aefa’s corpse. “Do they drop any items?”

  “I don’t think so,” Jim said, kicking a pile of ash just to be sure.

  The surrounding cavern dissolved around them, revealing the ocean, although the water didn’t rush toward the group. Layer by layer, mile by mile, the world faded into nothing, leaving them in a white void. Finally, Vincent’s feet found the sturdy and familiar feeling of daistone as the Jump Gate appeared below him. He watched Edgelight manifest around him, and a few Crickets who had been sitting beside the gate cheered when his group reappeared.

  “We got another one!” Jim shouted, following Jeanie over to that group.

  Your team has received Aefa’s Blessing. You need blessings from four more Elder Gods to reach Xenith.

  You won’t be able to challenge Aefa again for five in-game years.

  Vitality Level Up: 554>555

  Resolve Level Up: 561>562

  Agility Level Up: 556>557

  Strength Level Up: 550>551

  Your other stats are closer to leveling up.

  “Oh my god,” Devon said, staring at his HUD. “I will never get used to gaining levels so fast.”

  “It’s crazy, right?” Vincent said. “And we still have four Elder Gods to go. What were the others like, again?”

  “Well, Bathos is the scariest one,” Devon replied. “His planet is basically the Dead-World of Dead-Worlds. Literally the worst place I’ve ever visited. Oh, and once he kills off a few party members he starts playing mind games with whoever is left. Like, he’ll make illusions and knows things that a game character shouldn’t know about you.”

  “Yeah, Bathos is freaky,” River said. “We’ve never seen his actual body, though.”

  “Have you tried digging to the core of his planet?” Vincent asked.

  “Yeah, we have,” River said. “Unlike Lamat, there wasn’t raw basteel blocking us. We just kept digging for what felt like forever. Eventually, he wore the last of us down with monsters, illusions, and other freaky stuff. I once wasted a month there digging and never found anything.”

  “It sounds like it’ll take some trial and error to figure that one out,” Vincent said, thinking. “And the others?”

  “Euclid might be a good one to try next,” Devon replied. “His planet is made up of clockwork machinery. All the way down to its core, from what we can tell, but there are also some weird towers around the world.”

  “What’s in the towers?” Vincent asked.

  “A bunch of nothing,” River replied.

  “That’s not true,” Athena said. “There are glowing pipelines of world magic. They connect to big crystals at the top that are similar to daiglass. We’ve broken a few before, but there are a lot of them around that world.”

  “Guess we could try destroying them all,” Vincent said.

  “The problem is fighting your way through waves of clockwork enemies,” Devon explained. “Oh, and there’s a big machine dragon flying around. I saw Quinn kill it once, but it put itself back together while we were in one of the towers. You and Ezra might make that world easier, though.”

  “Yeah, that’ll be a good one to try next,” Vincent said. “What about the last two?”

  “Those would be Chloris and Yarmouth,” Devon said. “Chloris’s world is like a big twisted-up branch of the World-Tree. I’d hardly call it a world at all. You won’t be able to regain mana naturally, but Xan and I have World Fountain. Chloris herself is a Nature Titan that kills you with life-draining spores. Your Voidfire attacks might be effective against her, though.”

  “Yeah, that’s why I started developing Voidfire too,” Athena said. “It’s at ninety-five percent.”

  “Good work,” Vincent told her. “What about Yarmouth?”

  “Well,” Devon said, trying to think. “That one’s like a bunch of angry eyes in the sky.”

  Vincent raised an eyebrow. “Uh, what?”

  “And the planet screams at you the whole time,” Athena added.

  Vincent stared at them, thinking it might’ve been a joke, but they looked sincere. “How about we just save Yarmouth for last?”

  Devon, Athena, and River all nodded in agreement.

  Vincent noticed the crowd had grown as word spread that they’d defeated another Elder God. Even Keanu, Antonio, and Lloyd came down to the Jump Gate to congratulate them.

  I’ll worry about the next Elder God once my teammates respawn, Vincent thought. Until then, I have two weeks to catch up with old friends. He smiled as he stepped off the platform and greeted everyone.

  Chapter 23

  The next two weeks flew by while Vincent waited for his teammates to respawn. He spent most of his time reconnecting with old comrades. Everyone he talked to had so many stories to tell him it was hard to even keep track of the guild’s complex history since Old Risegard’s destruction.

  Whenever he got overwhelmed with attention he’d retreat to Juniper’s factory to assist her with forging. He found working with all the new tools and methods his guild had developed brought more excitement to his old hobby. He studied their modern rune combinations, which had grown so complicated that they often etched the designs with a needlepoint.

  Almost everything in the factory had intricate designs carved onto them, and almost everything was interconnected by magical tethers. If Vincent so much as picked up a hammer, he would feel the invisible strings between it and the rest of the forge. He found that each tool had a very specific design and was only used for very precise enchantments and equipment. Although it seemed convoluted to him at first, he realized how quickly they could mass produce certain items when the tools were so fine-tuned.

  What impressed Vincent more than the evolution of blacksmithing was the scale of power used in their forges. Creating hardened-basteel took tremendous pressure, heat, and access to world magic. To solve this problem, Juniper and Keith had spent many decades recreating the technology behind Isaac’s Foundry. They figured out how to make a more compact version buried deep below the earth. Their new machine, which they called a world engine, would recycle most of its power, preventing them from destabilizing the planet’s ecosystem. Although it all sounded incredibly complex to Vincent, he still admired their decades-long effort.

  Once the two weeks were nearing their end, Vincent and the survivors of the last battle gathered together and waited for their teammates to appear. The respawning players briefly celebrated their victory before gathering gear for the next boss, Euclid the First Soul.

  They stepped onto the Jump Gate and used their crystals. Before the world loaded in around him, Vincent already had a good idea of what it would look like from the stories people had told him. A world of broken machines loaded in around him. There wasn’t any dirt or grass visible, only rolling hills of torn metal. Vincent could see the innards of the machines had clockwork mechanism with runes inscribed on them, although the lines seemed to have lo
st their magic ages ago.

  Not everything here is dead, he noted, staring across the ugly landscape. There should be automatons springing to life any second now.

  Vincent could see most of his teammates were tense—except for Ezra, who looked bored.

  “The machines usually rise up by now,” Ezra noted. “Maybe we should head for the tower.” He pointed off at an obelisk in the distance. It barely stood apart from the towering hills of pipes and gears sticking from the ground, but once Vincent saw it, he spotted the glitter of the gem at the top.

  “We should take out the initial waves of enemies first,” Xan said. “Otherwise we might get pinned between two waves.”

  “They sure are taking their damn time,” Quinn said, her posture slowly relaxing.

  “Look!” Devon cried out, pointing upward.

  A dark smog covered the sky, making it difficult to see the instance at the edge of space. However, a shape cut through the dark veil as it flew like a jet over the horizon. As the dragon-shaped silhouette rushed closer, Vincent realized it was a lot larger than he’d first thought.

  Xan stood to the front of the party. She prepared to make a World Wall to protect them from the dragon’s projectiles, which Vincent had heard could wipe out parties in seconds. She waited, her hands tense and charged with world magic, but then the dragon slowed its speed.

  “Let’s hit it before it hits us,” Ezra said, equipping his sword.

  “No, wait,” Xan said, holding a hand up to stop him. “There’s something strange going on here.”

  Vincent recalled the stories of the metal dragon flying overhead and bombing parties, but he’d never heard of it trying to land in front of people. As the mountain of metal let off bursts of flames to slow itself, the creature’s feet compressed the broken machines below it. Its eyes burned like engines, and smoke billowed from vents along its neck, but the dragon didn’t make any aggressive movements.

  Pieces of junk floated from the piles of rubble and flew toward the top of the dragon. They flattened themselves and quickly formed into a staircase leading from the dragon’s back to the ground. A small figure stepped off of the dragon, then started the long climb down the stairs.

  “Don’t attack!” a boy’s voice called as the figure hurried down the staircase.

  “What is this?” Vincent asked his party.

  “No clue,” Xan said.

  “I say we toast him before he reaches us,” Ezra rasped.

  “Hey, I heard that!” the figure replied. “Just give me a few seconds of your time.”

  A boy that looked about ten reached the bottom of the steps, and then the broken machines on the ground formed a path for him to reach the party. The shaggy-haired kid slowly approached and waved awkwardly.

  “You people wave, right?” he asked. “Or is it preferable to greet by shaking hands?”

  The boy reached out his hand to Xan, since she’d been at the front of the group.

  Xan paused momentarily, and then accepted his greeting. “Are you an NPC?”

  “Technically,” the boy replied. “It’s more accurate to say I was the experiment that led to the NPCs. ARKUS created me using a boy it failed to save as a template. When it started turning the World-Tree into a game world, it made the other NPCs the same way.”

  “What’s your name?” Xan asked, sounding suspicious.

  “ARKUS named me Euclid,” he replied nervously. “Before you try to kill me, I’d really like to talk to you.”

  Ezra pointed his daisteel sword at the kid. “I don’t know if this is a trap, but I say we kill this kid before he tries anything sneaky.”

  “Wait, wait, just hear me out!” Euclid pleaded. “I know I can’t stop you, Ezra. Or Vincent, for that matter. If I tried, the two of you would tear this planet apart. You’d wipe out my automatons, then destroy all my towers and realize they were only a red herring. Eventually, Vincent would figure out he can track me by following the frequencies between me and my automatons. I’d throw everything I have at you, but you’d wear me down. I’m just a boy—I can’t tolerate pain like the other monsters you’ve fought.”

  “So instead of suffering through all that, you’ve come to bargain?” Vincent asked.

  “I’m actually here to ask for a favor,” Euclid replied. “Then, you can kill me if you like.”

  Vincent was intrigued, although unsure if he could trust the Elder God. “Go on.”

  “We Elder Gods weren’t always contained by instances,” Euclid explained. “Before beta testing began, before there were other NPCs or devils, we were the first creatures that ARKUS made for its budding World-Tree. For what felt like millennia to me, we could roam the worlds as they blossomed one by one. Although this world is part of me—maybe even more me than this body—I still had the ability to explore other planets.”

  Euclid sighed and continued, “Then ARKUS started to tweak this universe, alter it with the intentions to make it a videogame for your people. We didn’t really understand, but we trusted our creator’s judgment—at least until ARKUS confined us to these instances. It didn’t just trap us, however. It split our minds so we could exist in several copies of our world at once if multiple teams try to fight us. In testing, my mind was split, disassembled, and reassembled so many times I forgot what it was like to be whole. When the game finally started, I was a husk of myself, and it took me centuries to put my mind back together.”

  “Aw, poor kid,” Devon said.

  “All this time I told myself I’d listen to my creator, fearing what would happen if I don’t obey. But then your guild arrived, and I watched them die by my automata dozens, even hundreds, of times. I’ve grown more afraid of you than my creator. Not just you, but the other guilds slowly climbing the World-Tree. I’ve seen how relentless you real humans are, and it terrifies me. I’m sure it scares ARKUS too. It wants to keep you here so badly, and it believes for your own good, but it knows you’ll never stop trying to escape. ARKUS must understand this is a losing war.”

  “So you’ll let us kill you if we make it quick and painless?” Quinn asked. “I assume that’s the favor you mentioned.”

  “I would certainly prefer a quick and painless death,” Euclid said, “but the favor is a bit more complicated. I’ve seen that spell Vince is working on—the one he thinks will break the skybox. I don’t know if that’ll work or not, but considering he’s already destroyed a small instance during a questline, I think he might be able to shatter the instance containing me if he finishes his spell. If you do that, I’ll use my power to help you reach the skybox.”

  Everyone turned to look at Vincent.

  >Jeanie: That sounds like a bad idea. You’ve already seen what happens when we make deals with monsters.

  >Zhang: He’s not a monster—he’s a child! We should free him from this prison. Even if he chooses not to help us, it’d be the right thing to do.

  >Fynn: I agree we should free him, but only if he makes a quest contract with Vincent. Regardless whether he’s an NPC or a monster, his programming should compel him to follow it.

  “You know I can hear your conversation, right?” Euclid said with a sly smile. “I feel all the frequencies across this world, even the ones used for communication. It’s not too difficult for me to descramble them at this range. However, I’ll gladly set up a quest if it makes you feel better.”

  World-Tree’s End (NPC Quest) –Euclid the First Soul is asking for your help. He believes the new spell you’re developing might be able to free him. If you succeed, he’ll help you reach the end of the World-Tree. | Additional Condition: If you free any other Elder Gods, Euclid will try to convince them to assist you as well. Do you accept? (Yes/No)

  Vincent accepted, but he thought for a moment about the additional condition. “You want me to free the other Elder Gods?”

  “For good or bad, they are my brethren,” Euclid replied. “I’ve always hoped that one day we would walk these worlds together again.”

  “Okay, this is starting t
o sound like that devil stuff all over again,” River said. “This kid seems okay, but you can’t let civilization-ending monstrosities run around the World-Tree.”

  “The others aren’t as bad as you think,” Euclid said. “They mostly fight you out of instinct and fear. At the very least, you should talk to Bathos and Chloris. They’re both intelligent, and you might be able to reason with them.”

  “I’ll give them a chance to talk,” Vincent said. “If they agree to help, or at least stay out of our way, then I’ll make a deal with them.”

  Euclid flashed a big smile. “Thank you. That’s all I ask. You’re free to kill me now.”

  “You won’t regenerate like the other Elder Gods?” Xan asked.

  “No, I’ve already accepted my fate,” Euclid replied. “My Will Points are hanging on by a thread. I just ask you to make it quick and—”

  Ezra sliced through the kid’s head with his indestructible blade, and the spell he’d charged it with disintegrated the remains in an instant.

  Vincent watched the kid’s body dissolve into a glowing puddle, and the world started stretching and fading until there was nothing left. Then the Jump Gate at Edgelight appeared below his feet, and the city sprang into his view.

  Your team has received Euclid’s Blessing. You need blessings from three more Elder Gods to reach Xenith.

  You won’t be able to challenge Euclid again for five in-game years.

  Your stats are closer to leveling up.

  “Well that was a bit anticlimactic,” Ezra said. “I must’ve fought that kid’s automatons a thousand times, and now that I have a real team he just gives up.”

  “Not every challenge ends with a climactic battle,” Vincent told him. “Sometimes it’s about making the right allies. It would be nice to have several Elder Gods on our side if the angels try to stop us from reaching the top. Let’s try to talk to Bathos next.”

  Vincent readied his Jump Crystals, and his team did the same. He focused on the world of Bathos the First Sin. As light encircled him, he fully expected to see a hellish world of fire, brimstone, walking nightmares, and devils like he’d heard about. However, the team instead appeared in a cozy waiting room.