Man Made God 002

by Brandon Varnell

  What followed appeared to be a game of cat and mouse as Lilith did everything she possibly could to avoid being killed. Sometimes the floor beneath her would vanish. Other times the ceiling would come down. Poison gas sprayed from vents in the ground. Projectiles shot from the walls. This entire room had become a death trap.

  Lilith’s breathing grew heavy as she avoided certain death by the skin of her teeth. Her reflexes were a tad slower than Adam’s, but she made up for that by having several years of experience over him. She’d been training in Eden for at least four years longer than he had. Even now she still remembered the small child who had joined their ranks when she was sixteen years old.

  As she dodged death by the narrowest of margins, Lilith cast her gaze around the room. The door she had entered through was gone. There was just a large wall in front of where it had once been, and there was no door on the other side of the room either, meaning she had no way out. If this was reality, there would probably be no way to escape from this room except blowing apart a wall. This was a video game, however, which meant there was always a way out.

  It took her nearly two whole minutes, but after dodging another spiked ceiling that came down, Lilith found a switch located on the ceiling about sixteen yards to her left. She looked around some more and noticed that most of the floor was gone, which meant she couldn’t reach it the normal way.

  She bunched her legs underneath her and used her powerful muscles to leap onto the spiked ceiling before it could retract. As she stood on the ascending platform, Lilith noticed the mechanical network of chains and pulleys that activated the falling ceilings. Once her ceiling stopped moving, she leapt forward onto the next one, then the next one, and the next open before finally reaching the switch. She flipped it.

  In that moment, a change occurred inside of the room. The tiled floors reappeared as if by magic, the spikes on the falling ceilings retracted, and the walls that blocked off the entrance and exit slid into the floor.

  Lilith dropped to the floor. Her knees felt a jolt, but she crouched low to absorb the shock of impact, stood back up, and walked toward the exit. It was a paper door, the kind she had seen before on her trips to Asia. The door was painted to depict a group of gray-skinned men and women dressed in black armor slaying all kinds of humans, demons, and various other mythical creatures.

  She slid the door open and stepped outside.

  Past the door was a complex of buildings, gardens, motes, and bridges. The gardens were all filled with dead plants and black soil. She didn’t know if it had always been like this, or if they died because no one was there to take care of them. In the center of the garden was an island with a single tree at its center—a dead sakura tree whose petals had long since withered. In front of the tree was another stone tablet.

  Lilith did not have Asteroth’s gaming experience. She had never joined the virtual world until this game. However, experience or not, even she understood that the tablet likely contained the information she would need to successfully complete these trials.

  There did not seem to be a method of crossing over the water, but she did not believe swimming was the proper method. The lake surrounding the island was at least fifty feet across. That meant it was deep. Since this was a world of monsters and fantasy, she would not be surprised if some monster burst from the water and attacked her.

  She walked around the circumference of the lake. As she did, Lilith eventually discovered a small stone panel that caused several stone pillars to rise from the lake when stepped on. Each stone pillar was about four yards high and maybe one foot in diameter. That wasn’t a lot of room to work with, but she would make do.

  Lilith took a running leap and landed on the first pillar, then smoothly leapt once more and landed on the second pillar. She hadn’t lost her momentum. However, the pillar she stood on suddenly shook and began descending. Narrowing her eyes, she hopped across the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, up to the fifteenth pillar before finally landing on the island. Each pillar sank below the lake the moment she landed. She did not look back and instead walked up to the stone tablet and peered at it. There were three hexagonal slots near the bottom and glyphs above them.

  Her eyes narrowed at the glyphs.

  She couldn’t read this.

  Kneeling before the tablet, Lilith reached out and brushed her fingers across it. The moment she did, a beam of light shot out and struck her in the forehead. She didn’t feel any pain. However, a voice soon echoed inside of her mind.

  “In order to receive my inheritance, you must complete three trials: The trials of the heart, the body, and the mind. When you have completed each trial, return here with the emblems of your victory to receive my inheritance.”

  The voice sounded old—ancient even. It reminded her of crinkled parchment.

  It said she needed to complete three trials before coming back here. Lilith turned around and glanced at the three buildings inside of this complex. Those must be where each trial was held, though she did not know which building contained what trial.

  There was another stone tablet on this small island. She stepped on it to make the pillars rise once more. Hopping back across the pillars, Lilith first traveled inside of the building on her left. The door slid shut and locked the moment she entered. However, she was not paying attention to the door.

  The room before her was familiar.

  Her heart could not help but shudder as she walked across what was obviously a training ground. This stadium-like training field was something she had seen thousands of times before. It was hard not to recognize the training ground where she, the other members of Lucifer’s assassination unit, and Adam had nearly died over and over again to increase their strength.

  The desolate field was covered in scorch marks, scarring, and blood. No one had ever cleaned up the blood. Lucifer once said it was because he wanted it to be a constant reminder, a lesson on what happened to those who showed weakness.

  A man stood in the center of the field. No, not a man. A boy. He could not have been more than eleven-years-old. His blond hair and chubby cheeks made him seem cute, but his eyes were dead, filled with a complete willingness to kill that caused Lilith to shiver.

  “M-Master?” she gasped in surprise.

  The one she called “Master” spun a spear around in his hand. She had no idea when or where he had gotten it, but that hardly mattered now. Without even a moment of hesitation, his entire figure blurred.

  Lilith only had a split second to raise her dagger and block.

  The loud clang of metal on metal rang in her ears as Lilith stumbled back. The young boy surged forward and struck at her knees, hoping to lop them off. She back flipped out of the way.

  “Master, what are you doing?! It’s me! It’s Lilith!”

  Even though she screamed and called for him, he did not answer her. His dead eyes stared into hers, sending a chill down her spine, freezing her blood, and making tears sting her eyes.

  This was Adam from seven years ago. Back then, Adam had just been a child, but he had also been Lucifer’s greatest creation. His strength, speed, reflexes, intelligence, and ability to regenerate even after having his arms and legs cut off had made him the deadliest weapon ever conceived. Adam had dominated the training field ever since joining their group. Even Lilith, the strongest at the time, began losing to him after a year of constant battle. His ability to learn and adapt only made him more deadly. However, there was one difference between the Adam she had known back then and the one standing before her now.

  The eyes.

  Adam had always possessed intense eyes. Eyes that burned like molten lava. There had been a determination in his eyes, a will to live and escape, and there had also been a kindness. It was his eyes that had swallowed Lilith whole and made her willingly pledge her undying loyalty to him.

  These eyes were dead. They contained nothing. All she saw was an intent to kill.

  “M-Master! Snap out of it! I don’t know what’s happening, but you mustn�
��t let yourself be controlled like this!”

  Adam did not listen to her and charged again. Lilith gritted her teeth as she blocked his attack, but his blow was far stronger than hers. He was using one of the Seven Forms. It was not a style taught to him by Lucifer, but one he had learned from a girl named Alexis before he even arrived in Eden. His movements were staggered and erratic like he was walking on eight legs instead of two. Lilith believed this form was called…

  “Dance of the Spider,” she whispered to herself.

  Adam’s attack broke her guard and slammed into her, slicing apart her flesh and spilling blood all over the floor.

  Or that would have happened if this was real life.

  Instead, all she felt was a brief flaring of pain followed by a -65 floating over her head.

  That was when she realized this wasn’t real, she was not back in Eden, and this person wasn’t her master.

  This was a game.

  Once she realized this, her shock wore off and she thought about the situation analytically. This was a trial. Since she had been brought to a place that called forth painful memories, she believed it was the Trial of the Heart, though she didn’t understand how a game was able to pull up her memories. Could all games do this?

  As Adam charged at her again, she dodged and redirected his attacks accordingly, tilting her weapon at an angle so she could avoid having to face the full brunt of his spear. He was using the Dance of the Dragon now. It was a dance that relied on pure power, just like the raging of a violent and powerful dragon. Sparks flew as her dagger clashed with the blurring streak of silver in his hands. Even though her arms still shook with each strike, she wasn’t as bad off now as she had been at the start.

  She backed up and tried to figure out what this trial was about. It was testing her heart, but how? What was she expected to do?

  Lilith wondered if maybe this was a trial to overcome her master. Maybe it wanted her to prove that she had the heart of an assassin by killing Adam. She bit her lower lip as her nose wrinkled in a grimace. She had indeed been trained to kill her heart like an assassin should, but she could not under any circumstances raise her sword against the man she had pledged herself to, not even an illusion of him.

  Once this thought occurred to her, Lilith dropped to her knees, bowed her head, and offered her neck. Even if this was not the real Adam, she could not raise her blade to him.

  “Master,” she whispered in a soft voice. “You are my lord. If not for your kindness back then, I would have been lost. I pledged myself to you. I pledged my heart, my body, and my soul. All of these are yours to take. If you wish to claim my life, you can.”

  Lilith waited for Adam’s spear to impale her, but when it didn’t, she lifted her head. She had to blink upon seeing that Adam was no longer there. In fact, the entire training ground had vanished. All that was left was a small room that looked like a typical Chinese room that was mostly empty, save a single pedestal upon which a small emblem sat.

  Standing up, she walked cautiously over to the pedestal and looked at the small emblem sitting on it. The emblem was shaped like a hexagon, about one inch thick, and just large enough to fit on her palm. It was the same shape and size as the three slots on the stone tablet. In the very center of the hexagonal shaped emblem was the symbol of a heart.

  She picked up the stone and stared at it. Had she succeeded with the trial? But how? Assassins were people who killed their heart in order to accomplish their mission. For an assassin, nothing was more important than completing the mission at any cost… or was that not right? She had been taught by Lucifer that an assassin completed their task no matter what, but were they not also loyal to the one who assigned them these tasks? Perhaps this Trial of the Heart was not one in which she killed her heart to complete her mission, but one where she proved her loyalty to her master.

  After all, what was a master if not the one who controlled her heart?

  While she was still a little confused, Lilith realized she had completed this trial, and so she left the room with the stone tablet in hand, journeyed across the garden, and entered the building on the opposite side.

  This room was much larger than the previous one. Several wooden pillars jutted from the stone floor and disappeared into the ceiling. A number of candles situated on ornate candelabras about a yard tall flickered to provide a dim illumination. There was a pedestal against the far wall opposite the door, but it was guarded by a pair of golden statues with six arms, three faces pointing in opposite directions, and a dadao—a Chinese sword with a broad blade that was between two and three feet long—grasped firmly in each hand.

  Lilith walked forward as the door sealed shut behind her, and when she reached the center of the room, the two statues shuddered. They raised their legs at the same time and took a single step forward. Then they raised their other leg and took another step. The two statues, now brought back to life, turned to face her before charging forward.

  Demon Knight Assassin

  Lilith could not use the [scan] skill since her class was Assassin, but even though she didn’t know what sort of stats this enemy had, she was able to glean some basic information on these two statues that had suddenly charged toward her from the window display that appeared above them.

  Name: Asura

  Description: A statue created from powerful dark magic. These statues embody chaos and attack anything within range, including their creator.

  Class: 1-star

  Level: 13

  Known as [Asura], both 1-star enemies were at level 13, the same level as her. From this, she judged that the trial was made to be difficult but not impossible to complete. She strongly suspected that these [Asura] would have been at level 15 if she was at level 15 and level 30 if she was at level 30.

  In other words, it was meant to test her current abilities.

  Lilith leapt backward as the [Asura] on her left swung two of its six swords in a vertical slash. The twin blades slammed into the ground and, much to her astonishment, cut right through the floor. This floor was made of stone. It was obviously extremely durable. For this creature to cut through the floor with such ease meant its strength stat must have been ridiculously high.

  With a grimace, Lilith realized she could not let herself get hit even once.

  Spinning on the balls of her feet, Lilith dashed away from the two [Asura], charging toward a wall. She didn’t pause. Upon reaching the wall, she ran up it, pushed off the surface, and stretched out her hand, latching onto a wooden beam that traveled the expanse of the ceiling. The muscles in her arm flexed. With a grunt, she swung herself up and landed on the beam in a crouch.

  She activated the [hide] skill and looked down.

  Before launching any kind of attack, it was always important to learn more about the enemy. This went doubly so when the enemy was more powerful than you. While these [Asura] had the same level as her, Lilith understood that enemies and monsters always had more health and higher stats than players. The game would be too easy if that wasn’t the case.

  On a side note, Lilith realized that Adam was a paradox within the game, being a player who could defeat enemies many levels higher than himself. There probably weren’t many people like him.

  Aside from enemies just being stronger than players of the same level, these two [Asura] were 1-star enemies. Their stats would be even more impressive than a regular enemy.

  The two [Asura] walked aimlessly on the floor below, sometimes twirling the swords in their hands as if they were real people. Since virtual reality games ran on logic and programming, there was probably a pattern to their movements, which was what she wanted to look for. It would be easier to attack these two if she could discover their pattern.

  However, she wasn’t going to figure out their attack pattern by just crouching there.

  Lilith took a deep breath, held it in, and then stood up. Her [hide] skill deactivated because she moved. This meant she was now visible and would probably draw the agro from both [Asura], bu
t she moved before either enemy could notice her.

  She tipped over the side of the beam and kicked off the surface. Her speed accelerated as she fell. Curling herself into a ball while still in midair, Lilith struck the floor and rolled across it before skipping back to her feet. There was some discomfort in her back from the heavy landing. Even so, she ignored the slight twinge as she came up behind the first [Asura] and struck it with [throat slit].

  -1!

  Lilith’s eyes went wide when she saw that her attack barely did any damage. Assassins were supposed to deal the heaviest amount of damage out of all the beginner fighting classes. Warriors were all-rounders. Their stats were normally evenly balanced between attack, defense, and speed. On the other hand, Assassins specialized in attack and had no defense to speak of.

  Of course, compared to the damage she had seen Adam inflict on the opponents they had run across, the damage she could deal was insignificant. She did not judge herself by his standards, however. Asteroth had always called Adam a freak of nature. While she would never call her master that, even she acknowledged that the things he did were not things a normal human could do.

  Either way, seeing her most powerful attack only doing -1 damage was shocking.

  -1; -1; -1; -1; -1!

  Lilith attacked several more times with [slash], swinging her dagger up, down, and across her enemy’s chest. Each attack caused sparks to erupt from the stone statue. A loud squealing sound grated on her ears. Her attack arm was beginning to feel numb every time she hit her enemy, and yet, no matter how many times she attacked, the amount of damage she inflicted didn’t change.

  The [Asura] turned around and swung at her with three of its six swords. Lilith leapt back to avoid the attack, but then the second [Asura] came up on her left and attacked as well. Unlike the first one, this one swung all six swords at differently timed intervals. Each attack was well-coordinated and designed to leave opponents with little room to counter.