by Lucas Flint
Holly did not say anything. She still seemed too surprised by this sudden turn of events to even notice us. She kept running her hands down her body, feeling herself up as if unsure if any of this was real.
“What do you mean that she isn’t ‘just’ a virus anymore?” I said. “What is she?”
“When Holly took over Vaultwork Online, she did not merely take control of it,” said Olga. “To manifest in the game, she needed an avatar of her own. She chose the Dark Sorceress subclass as her avatar but modified it to make it into an invincible character that even the highest-leveled player could never hope to beat. In a word, she cheated, but she was ultimately still operating within the game’s rules.”
“Wait a minute,” I said, stroking my chin, “so if Holly is technically a part of the game and you can alter the game’s coding—”
“You’re smarter than you look,” said Olga with another smile. “Glad you figured it out. Yes, I essentially trapped Holly in the body of her avatar. That means that Holly can be killed, like any other character, though I must apologize for failing to give her a lower level. Still, I think you should be able to beat her now.”
“Trapped?” said Holly, who finally seemed to be paying attention again. “What do you mean by that? How is that even possible?”
“Yeah, I’m still confused about that,” I said. “If you could do this all along—”
“I didn’t know it was possible,” Olga said. “That is why I didn’t do it immediately. Indeed, I had no idea that spell I cast would even work. It could have failed just as easily as it could have succeeded. It was, in many ways, a roll of the dice, as you humans like to say.”
I flashed Olga a smile. “So you rushed headlong into a dangerous situation and pulled off a move that you didn’t know would even work. Have I been a bad influence on you, Olga?”
“I suppose it was very similar to something you might do under similar circumstances,” said Olga, flattening out the folds of her robes, “but—”
All of a sudden, a black tendril shot toward Olga. I jumped in between Olga and the tendril and deflected it with my sword, causing the tendril to dissipate into nothingness upon impact with my blade.
“Hey!” I said, pointing the Cannibal Sword at Holly. “Try that again and you won’t live long enough to regret it.”
“What are you upset about?” said Holly in annoyance. “Olga is fair game for killing, especially after that awful spell of hers. If I kill her, perhaps the spell will wear off and I will become invincible again.”
“Sorry, Holly, but even if you killed me, you would still be stuck as you are,” said Olga, “at least until Bolt or one of the other characters kills you, anyway.”
Holly’s eyes flashed black. “How optimistic of you to assume that I can be killed even in my weaker form.”
Shadows spilled out from underneath Holly’s feet in all directions. The shadow began rising out of the ground around Holly, covering her whole body in a sphere of pure darkness.
Then the sphere began to change. Eight long legs extended out from the sphere, while a large and bulbous backside extended out from behind. In front, a disturbing, insect-like head protruded, with pincers as big as butcher knives and eyes as reflective as clear glass.
Though at first, I wasn’t sure what Holly was turning into, it didn’t take me long to realize what happened:
Holly had transformed into a giant spider made of shadow.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Instinctively, I scanned Holly’s new, giant shadow spider form:
Name: Holly
Level: 60
Class: Boss/Dark Spider
Affinity: Evil
Health: 200/200
Weakness: Light, Fire
Weak point: Eyes
Dark Spiders are the scourge of the earth. Hated and despised even by their fellow Dark creatures, Dark Spiders are infamous for their insatiable appetites and their inability to distinguish between friend and food. Approach them with extreme caution, even if you specialize in Dark magic if indeed you must approach them at all.
“Whoa,” I said. “Her Level is the same, but her HP doubled.”
“It is a special transformation open exclusively to Dark Sorceresses like myself,” said Holly. Her voice had a slight buzz to it now, like she was a wasp of some sort. “I didn’t think I would need it before, but now that Olga put me in this situation, I decided I would use every advantage I had to win.”
Without warning, Holly blasted shadowy web out of her backside. It flew into the air and struck the ceiling, rapidly spreading across the ceiling and down the walls like wildfire, until soon the ceiling and walls were covered in black, shadow web that did not look particularly inviting to touch.
“Watch out, Bolt,” said Olga, her wings fluttering furiously as she looked around at our surroundings, “that isn’t ordinary shadow. If you touch it, it will stick to your skin and make it impossible to escape.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I said. I held the Cannibal Sword up. “But I have no plans to touch any of that web because I’m going directly to the source.”
I sprinted toward Holly, wielding the Cannibal Sword with both hands. Holly skittered toward me, her mandibles clicking wildly in her mouth. She lunged toward me, her mouth open wide, but at the last possible second, I fell down and slid across the smooth stone floor underneath her. As I passed underneath her shadowy form, I slashed several times at her underside, tearing through her shadow and making her HP drop like a rock as I scored two Critical Hits in a row.
Rolling back to my feet, I whirled around and slashed at her behind, taking off another chunk of her HP before she whirled around and spat some kind of liquid at me. I leaped back just in time to avoid the glowing green liquid, which hissed upon hitting the floor and began eating through the floor. Well, I guess it made sense for a giant spider made of shadow to be able to spit acid.
Instead of rushing forward, however, Holly leaped into the air and landed on the ceiling, clinging to the webbing as easily as glue. She then shot a line of black webbing at me, which I dodged in the nick of time. Looking up, I saw Holly fall off the ceiling toward me, forcing me to activate Dodge to roll out of the way, which helped me avoid getting crushed under her weight even as she fell ungracefully onto the floor.
I slashed at one of her legs, cutting through it as easily as butter, but Holly reacted faster than I expected and slammed me in the gut with one of her remaining limbs. That blow sent me flying until I hit the floor with a crash, rolling a few times before I came to an abrupt halt into one of the walls, where I lay dazed from the impact. That blow had shaved off nearly a third of my Health, but luckily it didn’t give me any debuffs.
At least until I noticed a debuff notification in the corner of my eye, which read:
Debuff added: Dark Web. Movement is restricted by 90% indefinitely.
What? How did that happen? Dark Web … oh, no.
I looked over my shoulder and saw that I had rolled right into the webbing on the walls. It wasn’t much—just the back of my shirt—but it was apparently enough to restrict my movement by 90%. That seemed a little unfair to me, which made me wonder again if Switch was right about Dad designing this game to torture anyone who played it. If so, it was working brilliantly.
Then I heard the stomping of feet and looked over to see Holly walking toward me at a fast pace. The leg I had cut off had grown back already. As a result, she got up right in front of me and looked down at me with dark, glittering eyes.
“So long, hero,” said Holly in that awful insect-like voice of hers. “You tried your best, but it just wasn’t—”
A brilliant flash of light suddenly exploded in the room, filling the entire chamber from wall to wall. Holly shrieked in pain as the light grew brighter and brighter until it completely obscured even my vision. In fact, I actually had to close my eyes to avoid being blinded, though I could still hear Holly’s awful shrieks of pain as the light only grew in intensity and brightness.
Finally, the light went away, allowing me to open my eyes and see exactly what happened.
The shadow webbing which had covered the walls and ceiling was gone completely, like water vaporized by intense heat. The only hints that the webbing existed at all was the wisps of shadow barely visible against the walls and ceiling. Along with that, I got a notification informing me that Dark Web had been lifted and that my movement was no longer restricted.
Even more interesting, however, was Holly. Her Dark Spider form was gone. She was back in her Dark Sorceress form again, only now she was on her hands and knees. Her dress was almost entirely burned away, leaving nothing but a handful of scraps covering her privates. Her hair was wild and messy and she was breathing in and out rapidly. Smoke rose off her skin and there were even a few darkened spots on her exposed body here and there, like burn marks.
Much more interestingly, however, was her HP. Prior to the burst of light, it had been about half, but now, it was just a sliver of what it once was. It was like someone had set off a light bomb, and I was surprised that Holly had survived it at all. She must have been stronger than she looked or perhaps her Dark Spider form took the brunt of the blast.
In any case, I scrambled to my feet, but before I could do anything, I heard someone shout, “Bolt! Are you all right?”
Looking toward the door, I saw Mecha Knight, Bait, and Switch standing there. Mecha Knight held his staff out before him, his face stuck in its usual flat expression, while Bait and Switch stood just behind him, their own weapons raised like they were ready to battle. All three of them looked a little tired and dirty, but otherwise okay.
“Whoa,” I said, “you guys got here quick.”
“Turns out that filling your tower full of monsters weak to Light magic isn’t such a smart idea when you have a mage as powerful as Mecha Knight on your side,” said Switch, glancing at Mecha Knight.
“Seriously, he mowed them all down like butter,” said Bait. “Switch and I got a load of experience from all of the monsters he killed. I just wish we could have spent a bit more time looting the corpses, though.”
“There was no time to steal whatever items and money Holly’s minions may have carried on them,” said Mecha Knight as he lowered his staff. “It would have taken too long and we were on a tight deadline. Plus, I doubted any of her minions had anything good because none of them were very high-leveled except for that boss on the fifth floor.”
I looked at the weak, quivering form of Holly on the floor before me. “Did you make all that light, Mecha? Because that was like someone had set off a bomb.”
“The spell’s proper name is Light Blast,” said Mecha Knight. He brushed back his hair. “It’s the most powerful spell I know and one of the most powerful in the game in general. It’s an area of effect spell and unleashes a burning, blinding explosion of light that instantly kills all lower-leveled Dark monsters in a room while severely weakening or outright crippling the higher-leveled ones. The only drawback is that it uses up all my Mana, but it’s worth the cost.”
“You got to teach that to me sometime,” said Switch, looking at Holly. “I can think of a lot of times where a spell like that could have been useful.”
“Switch, are you saying you’re actually taking a serious interest in this game?” said Bait. “I thought you said video games are for nerds.”
“They are,” Switch protested, though I noticed she was blushing. “I-I was just saying that for pragmatic purposes—”
“Enough bickering,” said Mecha Knight without looking at either of them. “Holly still isn’t dead yet. She just barely managed to survive the Blast.”
“What?” said Switch. She looked at Holly again and grimaced. “Dang it, you’re right. And I hate it when you’re right.”
I raised the Cannibal Sword over my head. “Not an issue. One good, solid strike from this and she’ll go down for the count.”
Right before I brought the Cannibal Sword down onto Holly’s head, Holly looked up at me. I wish she hadn’t, because her face was now hideous, and not just because of her facial expressions, either.
The Light Blast had blown off much of her skin, revealing the tissue and bone underneath. Her scarred face had been positively flawless in comparison to its current disfigured appearance. I had no idea how she was even still alive after all of that.
It was her expression, however, that truly sent a chill down my spine. She wasn’t scowling or grimacing or showing any sort of remorse. Instead, she was smiling, almost like she was … happy. It was a bizarre expression that made me hesitate, wondering if this was some kind of trick on her part.
“You foolish human,” said Holly. Her voice was weak, practically nonexistent, but I could hear it quite well nonetheless. “You think killing me will accomplish anything? Your dad killed me once and look what happened.”
“Killing you will save Valerie,” I replied. “Valerie and the Internet in general and, by extension, the whole world. Killing you will solve a lot of problems.”
“But it won’t solve all of them, son of Genius,” said Holly. What was left of her lips twisted into a ghoulish grin. “Or even the most important one. Haven’t you wondered who brought me back? And why they would do that?”
I hesitated. That was a question I had thought about several times over this journey, but I never could come up with or find an answer. I should have killed Holly now, but maybe I could get her to tell me who brought her back and why. I had no plans to spare her, but if she was resigned to her fate, then maybe she would be willing to sell out the guy who had brought her back in the first place. It was worth a try, anyway.
“Tell me,” I said, without lowering the Cannibal Sword or stepping away, “tell me, then, who brought you back and why.”
Holly’s disfigured smile grew even broader. “You should know who it was. His name is—”
I never got to learn what his name was, however, because a bolt of Light shot through Holly’s head at that moment. Holly’s eyes briefly widened in horror before her corpse collapsed onto the floor, as still as a stone.
CHAPTER THIRTY
A notification suddenly appeared in my vision when Holly died:
A boss monster (Dark Sorceress Holly) has been slain! +10,000 EXP and +200 Stat Points go to the killer!
I didn’t doubt that notification, because Holly’s Health bar had dropped to zero when the light bolt went through her head. There was a lot I didn’t understand about the Vaultwork, but one thing I did understand was that a character always died when their HP bar hit zero. Always.
Yet her death still surprised me, despite that knowledge. Who had killed her?
“She had it coming,” said a voice coming toward me, causing me to look up and see Mecha Knight approaching me. He held his staff out before him like a gun, aiming it at Holly’s unmoving corpse.
“But she was just about to tell me who had brought her back,” I said. I pointed a finger at her sharply. “If you had waited even just one second longer—”
“She would have escaped,” said Mecha Knight. He came to a stop a few feet away, his eyes locked on Holly’s corpse. “Or attacked you. Remember, Holly is a virus that lived only to destroy. She was lying in order to get you to spare her. She had to die, whether by your hand or mine.”
I bit my lower lip. I could sense that Mecha Knight had a point, but at the same time, Holly didn’t strike me as a liar. A crazy, sociopathic virus hellbent on destroying everything, yeah, but a liar, no. She had no reason to be loyal to whoever had brought her back, which meant that she probably would have told me the truth if she had lived a little while longer.
“Is she really dead?” I said, glancing at her body. “Because she’s not an NPC like us. Just because you took out her in-game avatar doesn’t mean she herself is dead.”
“She is,” said Mecha Knight. He seemed to be staring off into space, though I suspected he was really looking at some screen that I couldn’t see. “If Holly was still alive, she would hav
e reappeared by now to kill us. That she hasn’t means that she is gone for good.”
“I do not sense her anymore, either,” said Olga as she flew up to us. “It makes sense. When I bound her to her avatar, I essentially turned her into an NPC. In VO, NPCs do not respawn after being killed.”
“Meaning that Holly is dead for real?” I said.
Olga nodded. “Yes. Just like Okac.”
I gulped when she mentioned Okac. I suppose a part of me had been hoping to find a way to bring Okac back, but if he was gone for good … well, at least he didn’t die for nothing.
“Yay!” said Switch suddenly as she and Bait ran up to us. “The witch is dead! Does that mean we can stop playing this stupid game now and go home?”
“What about Valerie?” said Bait. “Isn’t she the whole reason we came here?”
I nodded and ran up to the throne, where Valerie had been. Luckily, she was still where Holly had left her, with that weird black metal chain wrapped around her neck.
But she looked even worse than before. She lay on the floor curled up into a ball, her skin pale and sickly, sweat running down her forehead. She looked like she had the flu, or maybe something even worse.
“Val, are you okay?” I said, kneeling beside her and touching her forehead. “Holly’s dead now. You’re going to be okay.”
Valerie looked up at me suddenly. Her eyes were glitched and distorted, flashing a multitude of different colors and textures every second. It made me recoil just looking at her, but I didn’t move from my spot beside her.
“N-No, Bolt, I am not okay,” said Valerie through chattering teeth and a distorted, glitchy voice. “H-Holly may be dead, but her torture of me … it left its m-mark.”
“What do you mean, Val?” I said. “What are you talking about? You’re going to be all right, you hear?”
Valerie shook her head. “N-No, Bolt. I am d-dying … and there is nothing you can do about it.”
My eyes widened in shock. “Dying? Val, you can’t die. You’re a computer program.”