In need of some reading material? Buy powerful scrolls here.
Librarian: Neona

Moderator: Nighthand

Locked
Kodel
Elevated Player
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jun 01, 2003 6:01 pm
Contact:

Hidden Ghostly White Devil | A long, dark road

Post by Kodel » Tue Nov 25, 2003 4:58 am

OOC: This is the thread I am working on for the several weeks I was absent. I'm going to have to do this in installments, as there is no way I can post it all at once, and I'm barely a third of the way done as it is.

Kodel sat, waiting. He had been waiting for a great long time. It was apparently all he needed to do at this point. His arm and his hand throbbed badly, the ache of what he had experienced over the day still coursing through his veins. His vision was still slightly distorted, making the field of sweeping grass look like it was slowly spinning counter-clockwise. If he were not still lucid and in this amount of pain, he would’ve though he was pleasantly drunk. It dawned on him that at that moment, he probably would’ve sold himself into slavery for a pint of booze, to dull the stinging agony.

As he waited, he felt his eyes drifting slowly shut. He hadn’t slept in days and days. He was exhausted to the point were he should’ve passed out, but he just lay there, refusing to allow himself to sleep. It would alter his position slightly in the World, and that would be disastrous for him right now. So there he sat, reflecting on the path of idiocy that had brought him to this point.

It had started just after the tournament. They had won, he knew. It was the last really clear memory he had. He and Vera had triumphed in the face of two hacker adversaries. Kodel had vanquished his opponent first, disarming him and using the man’s own broadsword to hurl him into the lava ring that surrounded the arena platform they had been standing on. He had felt a sharp stabbing pain when he had gripped the hacker's weapon, but it had vanished when he had let it go. He had thought it to be some security system, to discourage the unwary from trying to steal his possession. It hadn’t occurred to him that the hacker PC’s wouldn’t really care in that case. Everything that composed them was outside the traditional confines of the World. If their possessions somehow vanished, they could simply create new ones as they regularly did, however that was.

They had retired, bloodied and exhausted, but victorious, to the hideout they had been using since Kodel had met the group. It was that night Kodel had felt the first stings. He awoke in the middle of the night, his left hand suddenly spiking painfully. He removed the bracers that covered his hand, but he could not see anything wrong. Exposure to the hackers had given him an awareness within the World, but even when he had brought it to bear, he still couldn’t detect any abnormalities. His hand just… hurt. It shouldn’t have been doing so but it did. He had shrugged, used an antidote and written it off as something his real body, far away in some hospital, was experiencing. He was just receiving an echo of an echo of the sensation.

A day passed. The wounds the party had suffered sealed and calloused, and the group was back to normal, or as close to normal as a collection of pseudo-conscious PC’s in a video game they couldn’t escape from got.

That was when he first noticed it. A dull ache, not like the sharp pain he had felt a few nights ago, but a constant pressure along his left palm. He shifted the grip in his bracer to get a better look at his hand.

There was a spot on his hand. It wasn’t all that impressive, actually. It was small, about 1/3 the size of a dime, and jet black. In the real world, it would’ve looked like a bruise, or a really bad sub-dermal wound. Flipping his hand over, he noticed there was an even smaller one, barely bigger than a handful of pin pricks, on the back of his hand.

Still, Kodel thought nothing of it. This was probably his greatest mistake, considering the situation. He should’ve told Gingi, or Rayo, or even Vera. Everyone else in the party had a great deal more experience with hacked injuries. But again, he wrote it off, thinking it was just a bruise, or a lingering effect of contact with a hacked weapon. He forgot that injuries in the World did not bruise, or leave any marks at all, after the attack was over.

He left the hideout, planning to do some regular shopping. He had used a great deal of items in the last handful of battles, and they had become infinitely more important now that they were cut off from a majority of the shops. Cut off was probably too strong a word, but he was wary enough to know he shouldn’t just wander around in the middle of Mac Anu, where anyone can see him. The hackers would not take kindly to being beaten at their own game

During his walk back, a wave of pain suddenly shot up his arm. It was brief, but so intense that it brought him to his knees. He scrabbled at his arm guard, ripping it free. He blanched at what he saw. The spots of blackness had multiplied. There were now almost 8, creating a loose line across the width of his palm. The back was no better. There were only two spots, but they were branching outwards across the back of his hand, creating faint gossamer lines of solid blackness, almost looking like a spider’s web.

He stared at his hand, appalled. He couldn’t believe what was going on. He immediately used an antidote and a restorative, but the spots didn’t even shrink. He then made his second mistake. Rather than immediately go back and tell Gingi and Nall, and everyone else what had happened, he bolted to the nearest Chaos Gate and sent himself to a field at random. He thought he needed to isolate himself. He thought he could figure this out on his own.

<TBC>
"Goodness for the most part is an illusion... Little fables people tell themselves so they can get through their days without screaming to much."
Image
Kodel | Level 20 | Blademaster | 45000 Gold | Pheonix Wing | Thunder Armor, Silver Bracer, Time Headband, Safety Shoes, losta items and some scrolls | Ani Slash, Ani Revolver, Ap Ganz, Ap Corv, Ap Do. Gan Zot, Rai Rom

Kodel
Elevated Player
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jun 01, 2003 6:01 pm
Contact:

Post by Kodel » Wed Nov 26, 2003 7:03 am

He had a faint idea of what was going on. He had a virus, or an infection, and it was affecting his character data, his core program. He felt that he couldn’t risk spreading it to any other people. He had to get away and figure out a way to cure himself, or at least stop the spread of the virus. Despite the fact that he had no idea what to do, or even where to start, that idea still made sense to him. So he had found himself a deep dark dungeon, which he cleared out, and napped under the Gott Statue. When he awoke, the spots were slightly larger. He searched the dungeon, scoring it for more antidotes and restoratives all of which he used the second he found them.

Nothing. He tried other fields, different elements, different level scales. He swapped out all his equipment and used ever curative skill he had available to him. Nothing worked. He bought curatives from other players he passed in the dungeons or on the fields. After al the curatives had been tried he switched to Bloods, and element boosters. Just about any item he could think of that would affect his strengths and weakness he tried at least once. He even found and paid a wavemaster to cast every Ap spell there current was in existence on him, but still no results. He even tried esoteric items, like Boxed Lunches and Aromatic Grasses. He drained the fortune that he’d so dutifully saved in a few heartbeats trading with a player that deal exclusively in rare goods.

Its spread continued while he slept. Several days of searching fields and bargaining with other players had yielded nothing, and the infections spread was incredibly blatant. The thin latticework of black had begun to bleed together in a few places, creating little nodules along his forearm. They were cool and very hard to the touch, but they didn’t hurt, thankfully. What bothered him more were his fingers. The strands had reached the tips of his finger and then started to pool across his nails, two of which were now black as coal, and starting to grow.

Four days had now gone by. The infection had slowed down, but was already reaching to his elbow. He realized as the day was almost halfway through that it would take a miracle for him to figure out the cure. Then, suddenly, a name winked up on his list, a name he hadn’t seen since the tournament with the hackers, and was not a name he had expected to see again, especially on the public PC list.

Garaa.

Kodel couldn’t really believe it when he saw the name, but there was no mistaking it. He felt his rage blossom in chest at the sight. Regardless of the fact that Garaa hadn’t inflicted the injury on him, he was the leader of them, the people who were responsible. Unable to think of what else to do, he messaged him. It was probably… No… it WAS an incredibly stupid idea, but he couldn’t think of a better one.

“Surprised you have the stones to show yourself publicly after your resounding defeat. I can’t believe how pathetic you truly are. You couldn’t beat us in a drastically unfair fight, so you had to slip unbeatable poisons onto all your cronies’ weapons as well?”

He suddenly felt a wave of… cold, pass over his body. It was as if he was being slipped through a layer of ice water only a millimeter deep. Even though he didn’t possess nearly a fraction of the understanding of the nuances of the World as some of his compatriots, he was almost certain what was happening to him. He was being scanned.

The response was almost instantaneous after the sensation departed: “Interesting. Regardless of what you may think of me, boy, I actually am not responsible for that. It pleases me to see that, even in defeat, that idiot was actually somewhat useful. Enjoy your death :) I’m sure it will be quite excruciating.”

At that point, Kodel felt the strength drain from his legs. His knees hit the ground, he head pitched forward, and he felt like he was about to cry. Garaa honestly had no clue what was happening to him. His hopes vanished like smoke in a high wind. If Garaa didn’t know, then there was probably no one who did.

He was about to message Garaa again, this time to beg, when a jolt of pain in his arm made him roll over, thrashing wildly to sit back up. He gripped his forearm with his free hand, and suddenly let go with a hiss. The black spots that decorated his forearm were hot, burning hot, their centers starting to glow a dull orange. Another jolt brought a scream of pain from him. He looked down at the infection again, aghast. The nodules were pushing up and out of his arm.

Suddenly something along his skin erupted, spraying his face with blood. He fell back, screaming in pain, as he felt another rip in his skin, and another, and another. Nearly a dozen more followed in rapid succession. He felt warm as blood flowed up along his arm, starting to soak his shirt.

He knew somewhere he wasn’t really bleeding, that he had no blood, that this was all in his head, but such things did not help the situation. He was in too much pain to focus clearly. But suddenly, the worst of it dimmed and faded. He raised his arm to look at it.

Through the bloody ruin, he could make out the flesh of his arm, but where the nodules had been now stood tiny spikes, barely an inch long. He touched one tentatively, but it did not hurt. His arm had ached worse from clenching his fist as tight as he had. He wiped the blood away from the growths to get a better look at them. They wear hard, like bone, and had a smooth, glass-like texture. The color was a pearly white, and the tips varied between blacks and dark purples.

He fell back, out of breath from screaming so much. He was out of options, and out of contacts. He couldn’t even go back to the hideout. Not only was it still possibly he could infect the others, he was almost certain that Nall and Gingi wouldn’t have the first clue how to help him.
"Goodness for the most part is an illusion... Little fables people tell themselves so they can get through their days without screaming to much."
Image
Kodel | Level 20 | Blademaster | 45000 Gold | Pheonix Wing | Thunder Armor, Silver Bracer, Time Headband, Safety Shoes, losta items and some scrolls | Ani Slash, Ani Revolver, Ap Ganz, Ap Corv, Ap Do. Gan Zot, Rai Rom

Kodel
Elevated Player
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jun 01, 2003 6:01 pm
Contact:

Post by Kodel » Thu Nov 27, 2003 12:26 pm

Eight days had now gone by. He felt worse than he ever had in his life. The spines had continued to grow, and the talons were now almost two inches long, and starting to curve wickedly, like cats claws. The spread of the infection had reached his collarbone, and was now curling up the side of his neck. He knew it would probably start to reach across his face by the middle of the day

He forded several more treks through ungodly huge dungeons and the internal organs of enormous, long dead beasts. He used every healing item he came across, but as he had already suspected, the infection did not even slow down. He found himself, worn out from constant fighting, on some random field filled within floating islands of grass and rock. He lay back, trying to get some rest.

He suddenly felt it moving, like spiders underneath his skin, worming up over his face. He could’ve sworn he heard a faint popping sound, and suddenly, blackness swan across the left half of his field of vision. It wasn’t like he’d gone blind, or even closed his eyes. It was as if someone had used an eyedropper to place a faint film of oil on his eyeball.

He felt relieved that he could still see, if very badly. He lifted himself to his knees, planning to check his vision. He suddenly screamed as a wave of pain washed over his face, feeling like a needle was slowly being screwed into his eye through the iris. He couldn’t squeeze his eye shut against the pain, as it refused to obey him. He heard a crackling sound over his screams, and his vision began to clear. The film of black seemed as if it was being wiped away, but by someone using a razor on his naked eye. And suddenly, it was over. He pitched forward, his eyes finally allowing themselves to close, and lay on his hands and knees, panting

“Jesus, man, what are you bellowing about? We heard you from nearly halfway across the field.” He raised his head at the sound of the voice, and then sighed in exasperation. His eye felt like a rock in his socket. “Go away… Leave me alone.” “…Fine. Let’s-“ “Wait a sec!” Another voice interrupted the first, higher pitched, and younger. “I recognize him. That’s Kodel. He’s on the Top Ten.”

Kodel collapsed back onto the grass, the ordeal leaving him completely drained. He didn’t even bother to look at whoever was speaking now “Top ten what?” he asked plaintively.

“Bounties. Fifty Thousand gold for the log of your death.” The youthful voice said, and Kodel suddenly heard the familiar ring of steel clearing a sheath.

“What a second Tymin, Delila. This kid looks likes he has had nine shades of hell beat out of him. I don’t like unfair fights like this.” The first voice, a little quieter now, but still with a tone of command. The younger one spoke up again, more defiant, and with a hint of anger “Then stand aside Bryce. We’ll just split the reward between the two of us.”

Kodel groaned as he sat up. His face throbbed painfully, and he thought his eye was swelling in its socket “Please don’t do this. You’re making a mistake. I’m not looking for a fight.”

“But I’m looking for easy money!” the voice yelled as it charged towards him. He heard the pat-pat-pat as he dashed towards where Kodel sat, unprotected. At the last moment, Kodel whirled to his feet, drawing and blocking in one smooth motion. He saw he faced a Heavy Blade, decked in medieval style armor, wielding a doublehanded broadsword. A distance behind him stood a man in long black robes, who was chanting to a globe of floating blue light. He almost chuckled at the triteness of the Arthur/Merlin duo

He stared down the heavy blade, their blades locked together, and stared to step forward, driving his opponents weapon back and down. He kept slowly pushing back until he nearly had his adversary driven to his knees. “Give up. Even 2 on 1, you have no hope of beating me. Not as I am.” The Heavy Blade, Tymin if Kodel remembered correctly, looked like he was actually about to surrender, and suddenly he grinned at Kodel “Not a chance. 50 G’s, here I come!” He rocked as several ice crystals suddenly stabbed through his back. He had waited far too long, and the wavemaster had had time to prepare and cast a 3rd level Ice spell.

That was the last straw.

Kodel threw back his head, and let out a mighty roar. His pain vanished from his mind as a red haze suddenly washed over his vision. He threw off the lock he had with the blademaster, and clawed at the faux knights unprotected face. Tymin shrieked and staggered backward, glaring at him. His face and the back of his hand, which he had raised at the last second to protect himself, oozed thick, black blood. Bryce gaped at the wound. Kodel wasn’t surprised. There wasn’t supposed to be blood in the World, normally. But he was not a normal player.

Tymin didn’t seem to notice, until he lowered his hand back down to his sword, and stopped. He looked down at the back of his hand again. Kodel was about to leap at him, but his opponent suddenly dropped his sword and let out an earsplitting howl. Kodel looked back at him.

Tymins hand was crumbling. That wasn’t the best term to describe it. The flesh was suddenly turning a dark purple, then collapsing in on itself. As it spread across him, the armor covering him suddenly rusted and pitted, squealing as it deformed. It was more like his whole body was decomposing in seconds. His screams cut off suddenly as the other wound, on his face, spread to consume his entire skull, which splattered onto the field with a wet slopping sound as the Blades body convulsed and fell forward.

Kodel looked up at the Wavemaster, who had suddenly become pale as snow, and grinned. The counterfeit Merlin turned to run, and Kodel leaped into the air, coming down on top of him. His Pheonix wing glowed black with power, and Kodel rent the man nearly in half. He suddenly heard himself giggle slightly, and turned to face the lone blademaster, Bryce. The older looking man raised his hands, but stood his ground. Despite his air of calm, he still looked terrified at what Kodel had just accomplished “I have no wish to fight with you. I do not wish to cross swords with you.” He said plainly. Kodel stared at him “I’m sure you don’t.” he said, turning away in what looked like disgust, but more to hide the broad smile on his face. “Get out of my sight.” It was strangely hard to keep from laughing out loud.

He heard the sound of Bryce warping out of the field, but he mind barely registered it. He felt giddy, almost euphoric. The pain had vanished from his mind entirely for the first time in days. He clenched and relaxed his arm, bracing for the jolt that he expected to shoot up his arm. He suddenly laughed out loud. He felt nothing. His laughter grew louder and more erratic, until he was on his knees, cackling madly. He forced himself to stop when he realized he was laughing so hard he was starting to cry.

He had been going about this all wrong. There apparently wasn’t a cure because there were no items to cure it. The cure was built into other players. He didn’t know how, but somehow he knew that when he had clawed Tymin, he had absorbed a very small part of his data. That had staved off the pain completely. His salvation could be bought with the blood of other players. And why not? They were almost all out for his blood anyways. Why not strike preemptively? He was simply protecting himself from people ho would eventually try to kill him, either today or tomorrow or some other day.

He suddenly winced, as he felt a dull ache suddenly in his hand. More… He needed more. He giggled slightly again as he warped to another random field.
"Goodness for the most part is an illusion... Little fables people tell themselves so they can get through their days without screaming to much."
Image
Kodel | Level 20 | Blademaster | 45000 Gold | Pheonix Wing | Thunder Armor, Silver Bracer, Time Headband, Safety Shoes, losta items and some scrolls | Ani Slash, Ani Revolver, Ap Ganz, Ap Corv, Ap Do. Gan Zot, Rai Rom

Kodel
Elevated Player
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jun 01, 2003 6:01 pm
Contact:

Post by Kodel » Sat Mar 13, 2004 5:43 am

His descent was incredibly rapid after that. Kodel stormed across fields, butchering every party he saw. No one could stand against him. He didn’t attack newbie fields, because in some warped sense deep within his subconscious, he wanted them to have a fighting chance, despite the fact that they never really had one. The red field that played behind his eyes was now a near constant presence. He slowly became oblivious to the passage of time, and to himself. All that remained at the forefront of his mind was the need to hunt, to kill. He didn’t even notice the infection was still spreading, now standing plainly completely across his face. A second patch had also started on his sheath and weapon. The spreading web now marred the beautiful yellow orange of his Phoenix Wing. The weapon had started to change as well, a black fire beginning to play around the blade edge while he wielded it. He knew somehow that it would eventually come to match his claws in lethalness.

His psychotic behavior had also drawn considerable attention. While the administrators could not, and indeed did not, want to deal with a PC that was, in their words, no more than a PKing PC that was simply an insanely high level. His bounty increased, fed now by not only the hackers, but by the players he had butchered, which was nearly numbering in the hundreds after only a week. After a week and a half, his bounty hit a million gold. Organized hunting parties starting being put together to find him. The unlucky ones did.

He was rarely found when he didn’t want to be. He had reverted almost entirely to his animal instincts. He wormed his way into narrow spaces and onto the tops of the structures on the fields and in the dungeons to sleep, rarely in the same place more than twice. He shifted from field to field almost by the hour, while still managing to stay to the same cluster of fields, which very soon became “no-go” zones.

What little part of him that still thought ahead left a wary eye for hackers. He still could identify them on some level. While he never encountered one, he was still ready to run and hide.

Nine days had gone buy when he first saw the lone figure, a wavemistress, strolling across the field. He had just awoken from a nap and spotted her instantly, grinning evilly. He leapt down from the stone plateau and bounded across the terrain. The figure stopped and turned once he got close enough to be heard flitting across the grass, and watched him close towards her. He came within range, and leapt.

Suddenly an incredible force slammed into his chest, stopping him in mid-air. His mind snarled in rage and frustration as he simply stayed there, frozen in place, barely a foot from his intended prey

Nejla frowned up at him. “And just what are you?” She thumped his head with her staff, and he was thrown across the field. He snarled as he rolled to his feet, launching himself at the wavemistress again, claws reaching for her throat. She pointed her staff at him, and the snow white orb at its head suddenly flashed a brilliant, dazzling white. His eyes watered from looking at it, and he missed his target completely, plowing a swathe through the grass face-first.

His body spasmed, and, incredibly, his head cleared, the red haze behind his eyes suddenly vanishing. He lay on the ground, breathing heavily, the pain receding but still on the edges of his senses. He was suddenly aware of the white-clad wavemistress towering over him. “So you were under its control. For a second there, I didn’t even think you were a PC… What’s your name?”

His mouth moved involuntarily, opening and closing almost spasmodically “K…Ko-Kodel.” He managed finally. The word sounded foreign to him, like a name he didn’t recognize, but knew he should know somehow.

She nodded. “Yes. A coma victim.” Her eyes fluttered shut as she messaged someone. “Surprised you managed this long on your own. How long have you been alone?”

He suddenly realized he hadn’t the faintest idea. After he went on his killing spree, the days had started to bleed together like water. “I… don’t know. I was…” His memories were all foggy, but he remembered names. Places. Tokki. Gingitsune. Rayo. Counted Chicken Fleeing Maneuver. “I was with friends before I got sick. I ran away to keep from making them sick too.”

Nejla nodded slightly. “Yes… your core data is suffering quite an infection. I’m guessing you touched something you shouldn’t have, yes?” Kodels’ talons clenched involuntarily, and he heard himself say “A broadsword. A hacker had it.” Nejla nodded again. “It probably contained a worm or some other kind of virus, and you, as a perfect host, were susceptible to it when you took it up.” She looked down at him. “Do you remember what you have been doing?” Kodel’s brow furrowed and his face slackened as it slowly trickled back to him. “I’ve been killing PC’s…. A lot of PC’s…” Nejla cocked her head slightly. “Why?” Kodel blinked. “Because… because it felt good. The pain went away when I did it.” Nejla nodded again. “You’re… claws were extracting the other player’s core data to replace what the infection was taking from you. It’s simply a stopgap though, as the infection had still spread even though you’ve been doing it a lot.”

“What can I do though?” He asked plaintively. He didn’t care how pathetic he sounded, but he was ready to grovel before the hackers if it would get him cured. Nejla shrugged “That will take some time to determine. You’re going to have to find another piece of equipment with the same kind of infection. If you have the word still, I could create an antibody and clean out the infectious agent. As it is, you’ll need another item that carries the exact same version of the virus infecting you.”

“And how do I find that?” He asked. Nejla smiled sadly at him “That… is a very good question.” Kodel lowered his head. His one light of hope had just turned out to be an oncoming train.
"Goodness for the most part is an illusion... Little fables people tell themselves so they can get through their days without screaming to much."
Image
Kodel | Level 20 | Blademaster | 45000 Gold | Pheonix Wing | Thunder Armor, Silver Bracer, Time Headband, Safety Shoes, losta items and some scrolls | Ani Slash, Ani Revolver, Ap Ganz, Ap Corv, Ap Do. Gan Zot, Rai Rom

Kodel
Elevated Player
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Jun 01, 2003 6:01 pm
Contact:

Post by Kodel » Tue Jun 08, 2004 5:08 am

He had waited with Nejla for several hours, as she poured through her collected data and her list of contacts scattered across the World, drawing mostly blanks and ‘I don’t knows’ from everyone she knew. She tried to stay cheery, but it drained slowly across the day. “We’re not having much luck, but I’m hopeful. There are only so many ways to encode a weapon, and each virus code has a unique signature. Finding one should only be a matter of time.” “I don’t have a great deal of that to spare at the moment though.” Kodel said flatly. Nejla nodded slightly “I know. The stopgaps should hold, at least for a little while. There’s still a great deal of places that I… can…”

Nejla blinked, and suddenly her face went slack, and she swallowed hard. “What is it?” Kodel asked. Nejla looked at him, and he could not mistake the look of abject pity he saw in her eyes. “What?” he asked again. Nejla sighed heavily “Do you know what a hypochondriac is?” she asked. He blinked several times, the nodded. “Yes. It’s a mental disorder were the patient believes he suffers from some disease or sickness, but does not really.” Nejla nodded. “But there are times where a hypochondriac believes it so intensely, he develops the symptoms of the disease.” Her gaze was flat, hollow. “… Why are you telling me this?” he asked. Nejla got that pitying look in her eyes again. “Your consciousness has been afflicted to such a degree that your body believes some… parasite, is attacking your left forearm. Your body started to show signs of massive infection from around the point where the infection of your player data began.” Her voice trailed off at the end, barely a whisper at the last word. Kodels' voice hardened “What are you telling me?” She looked at him “You have gangrene. The doctors were unable to beat it with antiviral and antibiotics, and are going to amputate your left arm above the elbow. Today.” Kodel’s eyes squeezed shut. After a moment, he opened his eyes and looked at her “I heard an ‘unless’ on the end of that statement.” Nejla nodded, though not as eagerly as Kodel would’ve like. “Unless… your body starts to show signs of the infections remission… immediately.” Kodel nodded, slowly shaking his head.

“And what if I don’t?” Kodel asked finally. Nejla narrowed her eyes at him. “You really want the answer to that?” “Maybe it’ll help me move faster. Besides, I always want to know the worst case scenario. Then any improvement over it is a good thing.” he said. Nejla stared at him for a moment as if he were nuts then shrugged “Honestly, no one knows. You’re probably still connected to your body in some bizarre metaphysical sense, but none of the other victims I’ve met have experienced anything close to this level of trauma. They’re not going to be using any anesthesia.” Kodel cut her off “They’re WHAT?!” Nejla shushed him with a wave of her hand. “You’re in a coma. There is supposed to be no better anesthesia. And they’re making a gamble that the sensation might spark some delta wave activity, and even bring you out of a coma on the table. The doctors pitched it, and your parents ate it up like candy. But you’re still ‘awake.’ You might not feel anything, or…”

Nejla was suddenly very quiet. “Or you might feel everything.” Kodel closed his eyes again, sighing softly, before nodding. He had figured as much. Suddenly a lightbulb went off in his head, and he nearly leapt to his feet. “What is it?” “The tournament grounds.” Kodel breathed. “Tournament? What tournament?” “When I fought the hackers.” “Fought? You fought them? You didn’t just run into them? You actually mounted an attack against them?” Kodel nodded slightly. “Why didn’t you tell me this?” Kodel turned to look at her. “I thought you knew, and you never asked. Is there any possibility that the weapon, or a copy, a backup of it might still be there?” Nejla furrowed her brow in thought, and then nodded slightly. “Yes, unless the hackers disabled the buffers that would record the data. It’s possible the fields even no loner there.”

Kodel stood, hefting his weapon. “We don’t have any other leads, and I don’t have time to wait while you check with each and every one of them. By then, I’ll be dead. Heck, by the time I get back, you might’ve found something else.” Nejla nodded slightly, standing. “Alright. Wait just a moment.” She raised her staff again, and tapped him lightly on the forehead. “There, that should prevent you from suffer anymore ill effects from hacked weapons. I’ve backed up and compressed your player data, so hacked weapons should not be able to affect it.” He turned to summon a gate, and she stopped him. “Kodel, do not use your claws.” He turned and goggled at her “Why not? It’s my best weapon. I’ve floored players twice my level with this hand.” She fixed him with a hard stare. “I disabled the code that allowed your hand to be so… lethal. That’s the only reason I was able to bring you back. If you use the claw again, the code would reactivate, and the infection would begin to spread again, even faster this time. If that happened, and I was not nearby to halt its progress immediately, it would almost certainly overtake you again, this time probably completely. I wouldn’t be able to bring you back again. Not ever. The next time I saw you, I would have to delete you.”

“You mean kill me.” Kodel corrected, and Nejla nodded. “You said yourself you wouldn’t want to live like that, didn’t you?” Kodel shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t. And I would thank you for it.” He cocked his head to one side, cracking his neck. “Anything you can give me to help me fight them. I have seen them shrug off everything we’ve thrown at them. The only reason we have been successful against them at al is because we we’re able to use their own weaponry against them. I am certain I have no chance against them in a one-on-one fight.”

Nejla shook her head. “I can’t take the risk that any hacked data in your central code could also affect the data that causes the infection. If you see a hacked character, I’d suggest you run. Or pull off another ‘rabid dog’ act. If I hadn’t had time to prepare for your attack, you probably would’ve slain me as well.” Kodel smirked slightly. “Sorry.” He said. “I’m off.” Nejla nodded. “If you find it again, message me, and send it as an attachment. I hope I don’t have to remind you that it would not be wise to equip it?”

As the teleport rings faded out, Kodel nearly whooped with joy. The coliseum was still there, just as he remembered it. Dark purple clouds, streamed through with forks of bright blue lightning racing across the sky. The stone structure looked just like a Roman coliseum, complete with the noisy, constant haze of cheering fans. Surrounding it entirely, running out into infinity, was an obsidian sea, churning softly. A long, narrow wooden bridge ran from the small, stone island on which the blood red Chaos Gate floated out to the tournament grounds.

He ran along the bridge, panting wearily. He felt peculiar, like his arms and legs were full of sand. His vision swam slightly. The sensation was almost exactly like being drunk. He thought he might hiccup in mid-stride. He felt a cold worm of dread crawling under his skin at the thought of what it was. He had to hurry. He was almost out of time.

Michael Carter scrubbed the thick cake of green soap across the back of his hands and forearms, running them under a piping hot stream of water. “Is he prepped?” he asked to the green clad nurse off to one side. “Yes, Doctor. We finished hooking up the eeg, and the amputation site is swabbed and cleaned.” “No anesthesia, right?” “No, sir. We gave him a depolarizer and a tranquilizer. He won’t be able to move and god forbid he does wake up, he’ll have no memory of it later, but he’ll feel everything.” “And still no delta or theta wave activity?” the nurse shook her head “No, Doctor.” The doctor, nodded, blow drying his hands and pulling on gloves.

He ran into the middle of the coliseum, quickly scanning for movement. Save for the background noise of thousands of screaming fans, there was not a soul to be seen. Even the platforms they had fought their fights on we’re still undisturbed. He even recognized his own, for the jumbled mass of colonnade structures covering the surface of the platform, which was even still ringed with bubbling magma. He ran, panting heavily, trying to stammer a prayer out to whatever god might be listening, that the weapon still be there.

He jumped from column to column, searching frantically. The strange feeling had intensified, and his moves were sluggish. He had to go slowly to avoid tripping over his own feet. He collapsed several times trying to get onto or off of a column. He lurched slightly, before losing balance and falling off one of the slabs of rock. He groaned in pain. He flipped over, and gasped in surprise, as suddenly, he realized he had fallen on the long, leather wrapped handle, of the broadsword he had been seeking. It was buried under one of the columns of rubble. He gripped the handle firmly, ignoring the shots of pain running up his arms. He heaved, and the weapon shifted slightly in his grasp, scattering rocks and billowing clouds of dust. He pulled again, and was thrown off his feet as the weapon suddenly came free. He shifted it, throwing it over one shoulder, then bolted towards the entrance to the coliseum, panting heavily.

He doctor held out one gloved hand. “Scalpel.” he said simply.

Kodel was halfway across the bridge when suddenly he screamed. He staggered to a stop, not realizing what was happening. Suddenly he screamed again, as suddenly a wave of fire spread across his arm. It intensified and lolled like a ribbon of magma clinging to his inner arm, and he collapsed. He drew deep ragged breaths, and screamed and screamed and screamed. He tried to let the pain wash over him, to block it out, but nothing worked.

“Suction. Bone saw. Anything on the EEG?” He tested the instrument in one blood soaked hand as the wound was cleared and cauterized. “No, doctor. Not a ripple.” Doctor Carter sighed slightly. It had been a good idea. “Severing humerus below the shoulder.”

His flesh was slicked with sweat, and he could barely get control over his sobbing. He clutched his arm so hard it was hurting both his arm and his hand. Despite the fact he was looking at it, and holding it, he was holding it in his hand, his brain was fervently telling him that his arm had been cut off.

And suddenly, as he was watching, his arm began to change. It dissolved below the arm, the skin distending and darkening in color, from a healthy pink to a dull gray, segmenting and rippling, forming almost into fish scales. In comparison to the amputation, it was blessedly painless. After it was over, he was radically changed. The flesh of his arm was now scaly, now a dark, dull gray. The spines were now curled almost entirely to his elbow, most of them being almost four or five inches long. His fourth and fifth fingers were now cloven together into one, and all of his fingers had lengthened slightly, forming an extra knuckle, all four of which ended in crude claws. The tattoo was still present, extending all the way up to the border of the scales. It still crossed across the span of his face, as it still darkened half of his field of vision.

He groaned, sobs wracking him sporadically as he staggered to his feet, still clenching the weapon in a death grip with his warped left hand. His stumbled to the pulsing red Chaos Gate, and warped out. He collapsed onto Mac Anu for a heartbeat before the golden rings encircled him again, spiriting him back to the field he had met Nejla on. She wasn’t there, of course, but he hadn’t expected her to be. He opened a message, attaching the weapon in the field of the window. ‘found it. No hurry though. You’re unfortunately too late to stop the operation.’

He got a response almost instantly. ‘I know. Forgive me. Delta Closed Windmill’s Shore. It shouldn’t take more than 60 minutes. Don’t go anywhere else.’

And so he sat. He had come to the exact point Nejla had instructed him too. He had waited the right amount of time. She wasn’t here. He sighed heavily, laying his head down on the soft grass. He was very, very tired. He wanted to sleep, to rest, just… just for a little while. When he woke up, he decided, he would gate back to the island in front of the coliseum, and pitch himself back into the black ocean. Suicide wasn’t something he would normally consider, but he wasn’t about to allow himself to become the psychotic monster he had been, nor would he ‘tough it out,’ and die while this thing literally consumed him alive. He, like everyone else, deserved a painless death. Who knows, he thought, maybe consigning myself to that lake might not even kill me. It may simply transform my essence into something else, and redistribute me throughout the World. People sometimes commented that the game seemed alive. Maybe he might just give it a soul. His thoughts trickled away as sleep drew him down onto the soft, rippling grass.

He didn’t hear the soft tone of the warp rings, or see the white clad figure walk up beside him. He didn’t feel her kneel down and place a hand on the side of his face, idly tracing one of the several black infection lines that crisscrossed his cheek. The woman stood, thumping her staff into the grass, and the green crystal floated into the air, hovering in front her. She waved a hand, and the crystal dissolved, disseminating into pure code. She smiled, and looked down at him. “Not enough to cure, but certainly enough to save.” The white orb of her staff came down and she lighted lay it on his temple. It suddenly glowed dazzlingly bright, and the infection writhed as if in pain, like a wounded animal. It slithered wildly across his skin, retreating across his nose and back down his cheek, but still desperately clutching the foothold at his closed eye with several thick strands of blackness. The lines vanished entirely from the sheathe bound to his waist, and stopped their trek down Kodels’ chest, pulling back up to his shoulder blades. Kodel, still asleep, pulled in a deep, shuddering breath, letting it out as a long, relaxed sigh. His breathing steadied, his color deepened back to normal, the sickly pallor vanishing from his flesh.

That was all. It was barely a remission of a few days, a week at most, but the hacker knew the infection was also effectively halted. He probably would never rid himself of it entirely, certainly not before he returned to the real world. She wasn’t even sure if he would ever leave. He might be one of the few lucky and unlucky ones, she mused, destined to fight the Wave from within, and see the World through its second genesis.
"Goodness for the most part is an illusion... Little fables people tell themselves so they can get through their days without screaming to much."
Image
Kodel | Level 20 | Blademaster | 45000 Gold | Pheonix Wing | Thunder Armor, Silver Bracer, Time Headband, Safety Shoes, losta items and some scrolls | Ani Slash, Ani Revolver, Ap Ganz, Ap Corv, Ap Do. Gan Zot, Rai Rom

Locked