by E A Hooper
“I guess real life sort of has memory compression too,” Devon noted. “You slowly forget little details and unimportant things that happened to you. It just seems a lot scarier with this game because it’ll happen so fast and dramatically as soon as we log out. This might sound silly, but sometimes when Xan is focused on something, I’ll just watch her to try and burn that image into my brain. God, if we weren’t married I’d seem like a weirdo.”
Vincent chuckled. “You know, she does the same thing with you.”
“Wait, really?”
“Yeah, anytime you’re talking to someone else or busy with something, she’ll just sit there and watch you. I don’t know if she’s trying to burn you into her memory, though. I think she just likes looking at you.”
“That’s good. I don’t look much different outside the game. Except I’m about an inch and a half shorter… and maybe a little scrawnier. Do you think that’ll be a problem?”
“Probably not. I’m pretty sure Xan is shorter in real life too. At least that’s what her dad said one time. Oh, and I think her hair is shaggier, and she has acne.”
Devon paused to think for a moment. “I can picture that in my head, and she still looks pretty dang cute.”
“See, you two are a great match! Everything will be fine in the real world. The only things you have to worry about are making your marriage official and figuring out your living situation. You’re a couple of states away from each other, aren’t you?”
“Yeah, but we both live close to hyperloop stations. It should only take about an hour to get from my city to hers.”
“That’s not bad at all. It’ll take Jim longer than that to reach Jeanie in Ontario. He says the moment he gets out of the game he’s taking the hyperloop there to propose to her.”
“That’s awesome. I’ll have to add the whole guild on social media when we get back. I want to keep up with everyone after what we’ve been through together.”
“The game connects to your social media, so I think when you log out it should ask if you want to add everyone from your friend list here.”
“Holy crap, just imagine the flood that’ll hit your inbox when you get back. I had my settings where it’ll tag me if anyone’s AI Companion uploaded game footage with me in it.”
“Oh god, I’ve tried not to think about that. I’m already famous enough as the guy that stopped Lucas, and people on the lower worlds also think I was the one that blew up the Foundry, even though it was Xan. Word has started getting around about the update timer being a lie, so I’ll be even more famous if I crash the game and free everyone.”
“You’ll be one of the most famous people in the world. That’s kind of crazy, right?”
Vincent shrugged. “I really prefer living a simple life, but I guess it’s kind of funny to think of being a celebrity. Maybe I’ll become a streamer. That’d be a lot more fun than playing games alone.”
“Well, be sure to send me and Xan game invites anytime. It’s not like we have jobs.” Devon chuckled to himself. “Guess she and I should start streaming too; we’d probably make a ton of money since everyone in the guild will be famous. Oh, I should talk to Jim about turning the Jiminy World Crickets into a real gaming organization. He’s got the money for it, right?”
“He’s well off, but I don’t think he can fund something that big. Zhang and Jeanie both make a ton of money uploading game footage, though. Maybe if you get them involved it could work. Fynn has a lot of money, but I don’t know if he’d care about that. Isaac is the richest guy I know, though he won’t able to help after this is done.”
Devon nodded, looking sad as he turned his eyes to the ground. “I’ve tried to talk him out it, but he’s pretty adamant about taking the blame to protect ARKUS. He’s even had our guildsmen spreading rumors about it to the lower worlds. Most of the people in the game hate his guts, despite the fact that he built the superhighway for them. I hope his plan works, otherwise he’s throwing away his life away for nothing.”
“He’s a smart guy. I’m sure he’s thought out everything. I know he found lawyers that were trapped in the game to work out something beforehand. The moment this game ends he’ll set everything in motion, then hand the Ark Foundation over to Keith. Everyone on the World-Tree knows that Keith turned against Isaac and helped the Crickets, so he’s guaranteed to have the public’s trust.”
“Then the entire world goes after Isaac, and the rest of us move on with our happy lives,” Devon said with a sigh. “Almost doesn’t seem fair.”
“Not all of us are going back to happy lives. Juniper will be lucky if she lives to be eighteen. My wife is still gone. Also, I don’t know if you know this, but Mayfield May had back-to-back miscarriages and was playing this game as a distraction after her husband divorced her. Despite everything, the three of us want to end this game. Life isn’t always fair, but if you try to avoid facing reality you end up missing all the good stuff too. In your case, that’s getting to have a real life and an actual marriage with Xan. That’s a good enough reason for you to fight harder than any of us.”
Devon nodded, his frown slowly turning into a smile. “I will. Don’t worry about that.” He glanced at the guildsmen he’d been training. They all seemed to have gotten distracted and were either talking to each other or fiddling with their HUDs. “Alright, I better get back to work. These guys need to be a little snappier in coordinating their Fynntech attacks if they want to last longer than five minutes against the angels.”
Vincent patted Devon on the shoulder, then flew away in his Gravity Bubble.
Chapter 28
Vincent drifted aimlessly across the undercity, looking for something to do or someone to talk to, but everyone seemed even busier than usual since they only had a few months of preparation left. With nothing to do, he flew to one of the lower levels of the city, where Juniper’s factory was located.
He followed one of the open shafts that bridged the levels, then saw the red-hot lines of molten metal making a grid below him. Dozens of guildsmen labored with complex machines powered by runes. Everything down there ran so efficiently—and monotonously—that Vincent rarely bothered to visit anymore, except to see Juniper’s personal forge.
His Gravity Bubble pushed the hot air away from him as he flew past the production lines and toward the back chamber. A few decades ago, Vincent and some other mages had used combined Zero Fields to pick up and relocate all of Juniper’s old ovens, cooling tanks, anvils, and stationary equipment. It’d been tough work, and disconnecting the ovens had also set back production on the max-density basteel sword she’d had cooking
Vincent found Juniper there, toiling away as always with sweat on her brow. She was putting the final touches on a hardened-basteel wolf helm, almost certainly for Fynn, that had a micro-grid of plated layers that would redistribute damage, making it far more resilient than normal. While their production lines used machinery and decades of fine-tuning runes to mass produce such equipment, Juniper preferred making those type of items by hand.
“How long did that helm take you?” Vincent asked, eyeing her work with a sense of awe.
“A couple of years on and off,” Juniper replied. “He came by asking if it was ready the other day, so I’m putting the finishing touches on it.”
“You need any help?”
Juniper stopped what she was doing and replied with a vacant stare. “You’re joking, right?”
Vincent shrugged off her comment. “I didn’t mean with that specifically. I know you’ll never let anyone near your special projects. But if there’s any other work that needs doing, I have plenty of time to kill.”
“Sorry, Vince, this is the only project in the works. Even most of the production lines are going down soon.”
“Don’t we still have plenty of raw basteel left?”
“Of course, but by the time it’s processed the war should be starting. There won’t be enough time to make anything else, and we already have tons of hardened-basteel equipment. All o
ur other resources are running low too, and what’s left is going into the last line of Fynntech weapons. Oh, while I’m on the subject, I had one modified for you.”
She took an item crystal out of her inventory and handed it to him.
Song of the End – A Fynntech Model Q5 that’s been modified to use a World Core. When fired, it releases a wave of negative energy that atomizes most targets. Its Hearth Crystals can hold one hundred shots, but with a World Core it will recharge one shot per minute.
“Wow, thank you,” Vincent said, looking over the weapon. He equipped the Soulbound World Core he’d gotten from Archie centuries ago and hooked it into the gun.
“That’s not all I got for you,” Juniper said. “You remember that sword I had in the works when you first got to Edgelight? Well, I finally finished the damn thing.”
Juniper equipped a longsword that looked so dark that Vincent couldn’t see any sort of reflection off the surface. He took the sword from her and noticed it weighed at least half a ton, though it wasn’t difficult to wield with his superhuman power.
Silent Edge – Total Rating: 900 (Material Rating: 500 | Density Rating: 400) | The darkest, heaviest sword on the World-Tree. It is made from basteel that was heated for decades and successfully folded forty times to reach peak density. There are few forces in the World-Tree that could shatter this blade.
“Incredible,” Vincent said. “Juniper, you really didn’t have to give it to me. I’ll mostly be fighting from a distance.”
“Yeah, but it might come in handy,” she replied. “Just don’t use it for sparring against Ezra. His indestructible sword might actually chip it.”
“Don’t worry. This thing is going straight into storage until the final battle. Same with Song of the End.”
“That’s good to hear. Now, if you don’t mind, I ought to get back to work.”
“Alright, I’ll get out of your way.”
They both waved goodbye, and then Vincent flew away in his Gravity Bubble. He headed back through the shafts, hurrying to the aboveground part of the city. The upper section of Edgelight hadn’t changed much since he’d first arrived, only there were fewer NPCs and more players.
The earliest people to arrive using the Jump Gate superhighway had worked hard to join their guild and develop either void or world magic powers, but the last couple thousand to show up were several hundred levels too weak to fight in the war. Not to mention, they’d need people from the Jiminy World Crickets to help them acquire the six blessings. While three of those Gods easily gave away their blessing, the others had remained a hassle for all those years. The top members of their guild, however, had learned to solo those three so they could get large boosts to their levels.
Vincent touched one of the daiglass buildings and dropped off his new items before flying above the city. He could feel world magic emanating from far above as Xan and Ezra continued to spar. With his sharp eyes, Vincent could even see the twinkle of light from their attacks out in space. He watched for a while before noticing Quinn sitting on top of a nearby building.
Vincent flew over to Quinn, but the woman kept her eyes on the sky.
“You watching them fight?” Vincent asked.
“I can’t see them, other than the occasional flash of light, but I can feel their battle from up here.”
“I’m surprised you’re not training yourself. It’s been ages since I saw you out of the undercity, not counting when you go fight the Gods.”
“I don’t have enough time to level up again, and there aren’t abilities or upgrades I need. At this point, I’m just waiting for the war to start.”
“What happened to keeping yourself distracted? When you aren’t fighting something, you always say it starts feeling like you’ve really been here three and a half centuries.”
Quinn lowered her gaze to the city streets. “For a long time, keeping myself distracted helped. Our whole journey up to Lucas kind of seems like a dream. Even my pit-fighting days feel that way. Then we made it to Panthos, and things started to get too real. The years felt like they were getting longer—really starting to seem like years. When we set up the Killing Floor things got better for a time, and I kept reminding myself I’ve only been here half an hour. But the last few years have been rough, Vince. I’m struggling to remember my old life. Ritchie and Gabriel’s faces aren’t as clear in my memory. Distractions aren’t helping anymore.”
“You need to focus on the end goal, Quinn. We’re almost done with this game.”
“Assuming we beat the angels. I suppose if we lose, we can try to get you to the skybox without going through Xenith.”
“I’ve thought about that, but there would be a few problems. When I talked to Euclid about whether I could fly to it with Gravity Bubble, he warned that Monika is connected to the skybox. If we don’t beat her there, she’ll feel me approaching and intercept me. I still probably can’t defeat her in a direct confrontation, especially if I’m using so much mana to get near the skybox. Euclid says it puts off as much pressure as Rosaria herself, so it’ll be a tough flight.”
“Can’t Xan use that Holy Tether thing she worked on to give you a boost?”
“Yeah, but the other angels can track it and break it. The only place they can’t touch is the Ark Halo, because it’s Rosaria’s domain. Plus, Euclid thinks that Holy Tether’s range will span across the World-Tree if Xan connects to the Ark Halo, but she can’t do that unless we beat Rosaria and break her claim on it.”
“You’re saying if we don’t beat Rosaria, there’s no chance of you reaching the skybox another way?”
“I wouldn’t say there’s no chance, but it’d be much more difficult. My backup plan is to go to the end of a long branch and hope to god Rosaria doesn’t teleport to the part of the skybox I’m flying toward. If that fails, I’ll have to keep trying different branches until I succeed.”
“But Xenith is the closest world to the skybox, right? Even flying from there should take you weeks to reach with your Gravity Bubble.”
Vincent nodded, thinking to himself. “Yeah… it’s not a great plan, but it’s our only other option. All I would need is one lucky attempt, though.”
“I assume you’d try flying out there a thousand times if you needed,” Quinn said.
“That’s right. I’ll get you back home to your husband and son one way or another.”
“Before I forget them completely, right?”
“Yeah. I swear it.”
The two sat quietly for another minute, both looking at the city below them. After thinking for a while, Vincent finally broke the silence.
“You know Leafblade Valery and Killer Sam are in town? I think they’re staying for the war. Antonio helped them get all six blessings, although they’re a bit under leveled.”
“Huh, I guess that’s neat,” Quinn said, sounding uninterested.
“You recall when I beat Lucas? He was banned, and I destroyed his avatar, hoping he wouldn’t come back. We didn’t know for sure if he would log out right away or be stuck in darkness for three hundred years, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“It wouldn’t be as risky trying that on someone now that we’re close to crashing the game. When I talked to Isaac about it, he even said there’s an eighty-percent chance Lucas got out.”
“Vince, I know where you’re going with this. You’re asking if I want Valery to ban me, and then you can kill me to send me home early. I’m not going to do it.”
“I guess a twenty-percent risk of being stuck in darkness is still kind of high.”
“No, it’s not even that. I came this far with you guys. I’m seeing things to the end, alright? I’m not the only person on the World-Tree that misses their family. Most of the people in our guild have void spells, and if someone else gets the bright idea to try that, it might start a chain reaction. A few hundred people might go home early, but there’ll still be millions more trapped here.”
Quinn jumped to her feet and stood at the led
ge. “You know what? I think I have an idea that might keep me distracted for a while. The two of us aren’t doing anything, so let’s figure out how to get you to the skybox in case our plan fails. The last spell upgrade I finished for Warp Jump might be helpful. Vince, use your tether on me and then fly toward the sky.”
Vincent used his Gravity Tether upgrade to connect Quinn to his bubble, lifted the woman into the air, then took off at full speed. He remembered her Warp Jump spell let her teleport short distances by bending the space between two points, but he wasn’t sure how that would help him reach the skybox.
Quinn activated Warp Jump, and for a split-second Vincent saw space bending around them as they appeared higher in the sky. He Scanned the spell, but even before reading it he noticed they’d gained more speed than his bubble could normally reach.
Warp Jump (Requires Phaseshift | Requires Gravity Bounce | Upgrades) – Mana Usage: Medium+ | The user bends space around themselves and then appear up to thirty meters away. | Upgrades – Long Jump: Increases the range to a maximum of fifty meters for an additional low mana cost. | Momentum Boost: For an additional low mana cost, the user may exit the Warp Jump with increased momentum.
Quinn Warp Jumped them a second time, then a third, and finally a fourth. They broke out of Panthos’s atmosphere with so much speed it was as if they’d launched from a Jump Gate. The hugely increased speed compressed the sides of his Gravity Bubble, threatening to dissolve it, but Vincent spent extra mana to stabilize the spell.
“Where are we going?” Vincent shouted, watching Panthos grow smaller and smaller as they rocketed away from it. “The skybox?”
“Let’s try something a bit closer first,” Quinn replied. “This is only a practice flight. How about one of the Elder God worlds? You still need to break their instances, right?”