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by R J Triveri

  He nodded in agreement as the few bytes were added to his inventory. A moment later, Trina brought up her map, and, to his surprise, hers had updated to the dungeon, unlike his first visit. “There are no halls or passages here,” She described as she gazed through the map’s details. “Spawn rate is completely screwed up, and so is everything else. All I’m getting are a bunch of 1’s and 0’s in the margin.”

  Sure enough as she turned the screen around, the margins were nothing but the digits she mentioned.

  01000100 01100001 01101110 01100111 01100101 01110010 00111010 00100000 01000011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01110101 01110000 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100100 01100101 01110100 01100101 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100 00001010 01000001 01110010 01100101 01100001 00100000 01110101 01101110 01110011 01110100 01100001 01100010 01101100 01100101

  Over and over again the numbers repeated, changed, then reformed. The only constant being the repetition’s order of the ones and zeros. A moment later, static rang through the air, deafening Athos and his party for what seemed like minutes, but just as strange and suddenly as it began, the noise stopped, the numbers vanished, and the map was whole again.

  “Yeah, that’s not creepy at all,” Athos said a few moments later as the forest continued to loom ahead, and now behind, the group. “Is everyone okay?”

  “Yeah,” Sally said rubbing her ears.

  “Hurt like hell, but I’ll survive,” Torrent added after checking himself for damage.

  Trina was the last to answer and continued to rub the side of her head. “Felt like I was punched, but I’m okay.”

  That was enough for Athos as he opened his window up, only to have his map still depict no map available. “Damn it, why doesn’t mine work?”

  “Because warrior classes have a passive ability that lets us see in most restricted areas,” Trina said simply opening hers again. “Not that it does us much good. We know where to go, but here… things don’t seem stable.” Turning to face their fearless leader, she seemed to have one last thing to say. “Can you use your pacts yet?”

  Shivering a bit, he nodded. “I can, but the Eclipse Pact won’t be of much help.”

  “Do you have San Gravia yet?”

  He shook his head. “No, just Nightmourn.”

  She sighed and nodded, thinking out loud with little explanation. “That would be a little too easy, I guess. He was a higher rank than you when he used it, so I shouldn’t be surprised about that.”

  “Let’s get a move on,” Athos suggested doing his best to ignore the off-handed insult. “I don’t like the way the forest is starting to look. The sooner we reach Ioh, the better.”

  ***

  Ferris Auxi could only groan as her vacation came crashing to a halt, but she couldn’t be too upset. The Unum never summoned anyone unless it needed them, and Unum rarely needed anyone to act on its behalf. “I came as quickly as I could. I’m sorry it took so long, but we should really install gates in popular areas, not just the cities and dungeons.”

  The Unum said nothing as it materialized an area on the walls of its sanctum. The area that appeared should have been lush and vibrant, but it just wasn’t. The trees weren’t as trees were supposed to be. The flowers weren’t flowers anymore. The world was just wrong. The source code was starting to corrupt and decay, and with it, the lifeblood of the region began to slow descent into fragmentation.

  “What’s going on, Unum?” Despite the signs and her own fears, Ferris hoped the answer wouldn’t reflect her thoughts.

  The Unum was frank with its words. “The world is compromised.” If there were a word beyond horrified, the Auxi would have embodied it at that moment. She was at a loss for words, barely able to form a coherent thought as Unum confirmed her worst fear. “I will have to remove the area before the corruption spreads, but I cannot until all active users are gone from it.”

  Remembering her position, she took a deep breath and nodded. “What can I do?”

  “Begin containment protocol for the corruption.” In front of her, a large screen appeared detailed from corner to corner with coded information. A second, smaller screen created a graphical interface for Auxi to begin modifying the area. A question still nagged at her though as she began examining the extent of the coded damage. Why did it need her for this? “Do what you must to contain this. I cannot be knowledgeable of your methods. I am confident you will not let me down.”

  If Unum was trusting her with her own judgment… the weight of its words began to bear down on the Inciperian. The Unum, their very creator, couldn’t be knowledgeable about how she did it? She shivered as the realization doubled down on her. Something was very wrong with those words. Ferris had to be creative, and she couldn’t afford to leave any trace of whatever compromise was done in the area.

  Incipere had to be kept safe at any cost, and she knew what had to be done.

  Containment

  The shedding only seemed to get worse the deeper in they went. On some of the larger plants, the glow was no longer present. Instead, wireframes outlined parts of the foliage and animals as glowing collision boarders programmed into their interactions began to make themselves known. The more he saw, the more Athos began to feel uneasy. Instead of what he was seeing, the alchemical arm concerned himself with thinking back to that day so long ago. Athos tried to remember just how long it should have taken them to reach the dryad’s grove.

  “We should have been there by now,” Athos said after what seemed like hours. “It wasn’t this far from the road last time.”

  Sally seemed a bit concerned by the tone of his voice. “You don’t sound so sure about that.”

  “I’m not sure of a lot of things right now,” he pointed out keeping his eyes peeled. “There should be hundreds of dryads in this forest, but I haven’t seen a single one yet.”

  “Are you complaining that you haven’t had to fight?”

  “Just that it doesn’t seem right.”

  “I have to agree with Athos here, Sally,” Torrent added keeping his sword in hand as his eyes watched the shed-rejecting perimeter of their small group. “There isn’t anything special about this place. It’s a dungeon, sure, but why is it so quiet?”

  “I’m not going to complain, Torrent,” Trina interjected, opening the map again. “According to this, we should be in the boss’s zone very soon.” As if on cue, the map went back to its strange numerical message causing the woman to groan again as it came back to life. “Damn it! This is ridiculous. It says we’re going the wrong way again.”

  For the fourth time, Athos noted to himself. “We haven't changed direction though.”

  “I know, and I don’t get it. It has to be a glitch.”

  “Incipere doesn’t glitch,” Sally was quick to point out, but took her stance back a moment before someone could counter her. “Then again, Incipere doesn’t shed like this either.”

  “So, we keep pushing ahead?” Torrent half asked as he kept looking ahead.

  “Sounds like a plan to me. Sally, can you get information from your drones or are they just for combat.”

  The girl shrugged at Trina. “Mostly combat and retrieval.”

  “There goes that idea.”

  With a sigh, the party continued forward.

  ***

  Ferris continued her assault against the corrupted code as the first wave of her efforts bore fruit. All infected Wild Ones were purged from the area and placed into isolation to study and repair the damage that they had taken on. For good measure, the rest had been returned to the code to be reborn once the reboot was complete. Little by little, the corruption was being contained, but some parts of her project still eluded her. Most important of which was the area’s source code. Somehow, it was still locked within the region boss’s source code. Without Unum’s help, it couldn’t be removed, and with the other Inciperians in the area, she couldn’t purge the zone to get at it, not that Unum would have approved of it.

  Then again, it did say… F
erris decided it was best not to think about it as she worked out another problem: the questions of how a dungeon fell into ownership of a guild. When one problem was solved, another seemed to make itself known. The Unum had to watch over the rest of the world, so she had to concern herself with this. The corruption had to be stemmed as best she could before anything else.

  On her screen, she traced the outline of the Forest of the Dryad and triggered the phase two isolation protocol, migrating the forest to a private holding instance until the problems could be worked out.

  ***

  As if all at once, Athos, Trina, and Torrent seemed to lose their footing. In particular, Athos felt like he had been dropped from the sky back into Incipere all over again and lurched forward, smashing his head against a root with a loud thud.

  Critical Hit! Damage Received - 85% integrity remaining

  You are now dazed (:30).

  “Damn it,” came his cry as he got flopped over on the ground and looked around as the world blurred around him. “What was that?”

  Sally looked at him a little confused as he laid on the ground. “What was what? You’re general lack of balance?”

  “That thing just a few seconds ago,” Athos started but started to feel sick again. It passed, but not before Torrent could continue the thought.

  “That feeling like we went through a gate,” Torrent half pointed out, half asked looking to Athos for confirmation as the alchemical arm nodded in agreement.

  She simply shrugged looking from one to the next. “I didn’t feel anything. Maybe it’s a status effect?”

  Trina shook it off. “I felt it too, and nothing came up in the window.” Checking the status bar, she looked from one to the next. “Athos, are you okay?”

  A guilty look passed Sally’s face as she turned to face the alchemical arm. “You took quite a hit there.”

  He sighed as the status passed, and his hand raised to rub against the impact point against his skull. “It’ll be fine. Just hit my head.”

  “Just be glad it isn’t Earth, Athos,” Torrent pointed out, offering his hand to the other. “Come on, let’s get up off there.”

  With his friend’s assistance, Athos was soon back on his feet. His body still didn’t feel quite right, but he shook it off. “You’re sure you didn’t feel that?”

  Sally shook her head. “Not a thing. You all just looked like you had gotten sick at once.”

  Trina eyed her. Studying her for some reason before she spoke again. “If you do feel something, say it. We don’t want you to end up losing integrity like Athos.”

  “I don’t think I could end up like him,” she grinned. “It would take a lot more to make me feel like he looks.”

  “Thanks for that,” Athos said as the joke didn’t quite hit home. “Remind me of that before I compliment you again.”

  “Never.”

  “Alright, children,” Torrent said, placing an arm on each of their shoulders. “You can flirt later. We’ve got a mission to accomplish.”

  “They seem to forget so easily,” Trina commented with a slight smile painting her face. It quickly faded as she checked her map again. “Let’s keep moving forward.”

  The group seemed to agree with that. Athos, with weapon drawn, continued behind the two melee warrior classes with Sally. His eyes studied the world around him, and he confirmed for himself that something wasn’t quite right.

  “God, damn it!” and the cry from Trina seemed quell any remaining doubts about that fact.

  “What is it?” the alchemical arm asked.

  “The map changed again.”

  “This is ridiculous,” Sally said for Trina as she sighed in frustration. “What good is a perk if it doesn’t work.”

  “It’s the first time it’s been this bad. I hate to ask this, Athos, but could you use your pact? I’m not getting anywhere with this.”

  Exhausting his ideas about any other options, Athos reluctantly nodded. “Cover me then.” The group circled him, but he doubted they really understood why. Just as he had before, he covered the ground in the conflicting liquids before painting his hand with the symbol of the pact, and spoke the words as fluently as he had the first time, “Au sein de la lumière, j’ai demander conseil sur ma quête. Je suis dans une impasse et ont besoin d’aide. Envoyez-moi les moyens de réparer mon problème.”

  The result, however, was not what he expected.

  Error: Entity - Pact Beast.Lille_of_the Eclipse could not be found. Please try again later.

  “What the hell?”

  ****

  All at once, a new line of code appeared on her screen. Ferris Auxi could only watch it for a moment before it was automatically denied access to the proper command response. She knew the source code well enough, an alchemist’s pact beast summons. To make things more interesting, it was a problem-solving algorithm at that, not a combat based entity.

  The more she thought about it, the more an idea formed. She’d show Unum creativity and solve the problem in one fatal swoop. In the end, she was sure that Athos wouldn’t even mind the change.

  ****

  “What’s going on there, Athos?” Trina asked as they kept to the perimeter of the circle.

  “I don’t know,” Athos responded staring at the error message. Making matters worse for the alchemical arm, all the arum had burned away with the failure of the summon.

  “Try again then.”

  With that wonderful piece of advice, Athos did try again. The circle was made, the symbols were drawn, and the words were spoken…

  ****

  The code reappeared a few moments later and Ferris smiled. She’d show them all what she could do as her hands danced across screens and began a work to make Unum proud. Under her skilled command, the time on the secured server slowed to a crawl as she made all the necessary modifications.

  One way or another, she would help to solve the problem in her own way, and they’d never known.

  ****

  But the words changed in his mouth and the symbols warped beyond his control.

  Skill Mutation Triggered!

  Exceed Skill Discovered: Sovereign Omnes Arum Pact is now unlocked.

  “Dans l'éclipse, je demande de l'aide. Je ne peux pas me reposer, je ne peux pas travailler, je ne peux pas m'échapper. J'ai besoin de toi pour me guider jusqu'au bout et au-delà. Dans la vie elle-même, je vous le demande.”

  The glowing shadows and light were perverted to a sickly purple crashing against an ocean blue, the crescent moon of light and shadows drawn on his hand became a winged triangle painted in the same purple, pierced with a ray of deep blue. Athos tried to pull back, but his body was frozen as his summoning circle changed to match the colors that now painted the back of his hand. A moment after the words had been spoken, blue flames began to surge from the ground. The chilling blue of them soon mingled with the purples as the entire summoning circle surged to life. The sounds of thunder and crackling flame boiled over into the world as the soil bulged and broke like an eggshell.

  Unlike the fairy he had expected, Athos was now faced with a much more sizable creature. The size of a normal man, the pact beast had long flowing hair and wore the guise of a warrior. The pact beast wore armor of the same blues as the summoning fire and trimmed in royal purple, but molded to fit someone more of Sandra’s build. Topping it off, the womanly beast wore a helmet with long cerulean hair cascading down its back. There was no face that could be seen within the helmet, but despite that, he felt the gaze of the beast upon him. His body was still frozen as the others turned to see his efforts come to life.

  “Now, that’s a guide,” Torrent spoke first as he studied the warrior standing within the light of the summoning circle.

  Walking around it, Trina seemed impressed as well. “That is some impressive armor for a map maker.”

  “That can’t be the same thing,” Sally said going closest to Athos. “He told me it was a tiny thing, a fairy.” Athos still didn't speak. “Athos?”r />
  The beast looked from one, to the next, to the last before it spoke to Athos. It waved a hand as if releasing him from some trance before it began to speak. “I am Rain, Pact Beast of the Sovereign Omnes Arum Pact, and your troubles shall become my troubles for a price.”

  Falling forward, Athos gasped for breath. The beast made no action to move or protect him from the fall as Sally caught him. “Athos! Are you okay?”

  A cough erupted from him as the beast watched. At first, the words wouldn’t form, but they vomited from his mouth like bile as he looked to his party. “It’s an Exceed!”

  “Since when did you have an Exceed skill?” Despite the surprise in the mechanist’s voice, her concern seemed to be stronger.

  “I don’t know,” he said putting his thoughts together. “It happened so fast. Everything changed at once.”

  Torrent and Trina went to his side only a moment later. “What does it mean price, Athos?”

  “My price is for him to pay,” the Exceed answered for him, “and it is well within his means to pay. If he wishes for my services.”

  “And what are your services,” Sally inquired as she helped Athos back to his feet.

  The pact beast’s eyes studied Athos. Taking him in and evaluating him like a predator before a weakened prey. Holding out its hand, the beast materialized a long, ornately designed silver spear and tapped it against the borders of its holding. “Your blessings and your life force. I want them as my own. In return, I will purge you of your impurities and assist you towards your ultimate goal until I am no longer able.”

  Looking to him, the three party members waited for Athos to regain his footing. “Are you sure we need this, Trina?”

  The woman looked at him unsurely. “The map isn’t working right, but we might be able to manage without it.”

  Rain looked at Trina and tapped its spear for a second time. “I assure you that you cannot. You know nothing about what is going on in this forest.”

  “And you do?”

  It nodded. “I know all that goes on within this world. I know that you need me if you wish to complete your task.”