“
I’ve done all I can for him,” the girl said, sighing quietly, “
his survival is now in his hands.” Lines of static shot all around them, skewing the walls of the conference room where they had all relocated for a few moments before returning to normal.
“
Did he make it?” Cait asked, her eyes staring blankly at the table that no longer served any use as she sat lazily in her chair. It was apparent to everyone that she was shutting out her emotions. Grief, sorrow, and worthlessness flowed from her form in rivers, more evident in her posture than anything else. Oddly, her face was completely devoid of emotion, save for the mist that had taken over her eyes.
“
He’s fighting for his life,” the Fieldmaster chimed in, his stare blank but for an entirely different reason: he was watching the fight as it happened, “
it’s a difficult fight, but we can’t help him. He has to do this alone.” A tear fell from Cait’s eyes as she clenched her teeth tightly shut, trying desperately to retain her composure. There was nothing anyone could do for the girl, because they all knew that her grief was beyond their ability to comprehend.
Entire millennia could have passed in the few short moments they sat still, each one silently reflecting on the scenario at hand, trying desperately to think of anything they could do to help, but each one coming to the same conclusion as the rest. It was a fight that Dien had to fight for himself. Their friend, their ally, their comrade, their leader, and their brother in arms was currently at the end of his rope, and there was nothing they could do to pull him up. Their hope who they’d worked on for the past week was moment from death, and as I can’t reiterate enough, they were utterly hopeless to help him.
Lips quivered quietly, barely letting the syllables of a prayer escape into the room. In the silence, though, the quickly-spoken words of the Hail Mary stuck out like a fully-bloomed rose amidst a field of snow, offering a small token of hope for the two among them who understood its emotional power. Her voice was soft, more whimpering than anything else as the prayer was repeated again and again, begging help from the highest power for her Jed.
“
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Hail Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.” There was no telling how many times she’d repeated it now, but something compelled her to stop and look up. All eyes were upon her, the young girl with confused appall, the Fieldmaster with sympathy, and Cobalt showing a look of regret.
“
Well what are you doing to help him?!?!” she accused, rising frantically to her feet as the rest of the group recoiled silently from her attack. Hands rested on the table, and she began to break down, violent sobs wracking her whole body as Cobalt rose to catch her slow fall. The two AIs in the room watched, half curious, half confused, trying to understand the humanity of it all but not finding any help at all. Tear flowed openly out of her eyes into his shoulder as she sank into the former admin’s embrace. No words could be said to comfort her, but she didn’t expect any. More than anything, she wished for Jed’s safety.
Was it too much to say that she still loved him? He was the only one who had been there for her through it all. That dorky boy was the only one who really knew her well at all, the only one she’d ever really cared about. Before that day, just passing him in the hallways of their school had been enough to cheer her up. A glancing “hello,” or the correct answer to a question posed by the teacher of the class they both had always lifted her moods. Was he really so close to death? No, she couldn’t take it anymore. But then, what could she do? There was no way to help him attain the mantle – the Fieldmaster and the girl had been explicit about that much.
“
Damn it all…” she muttered, tears still flowing liberally into the fistfighter’s jacket.
I need you, Jed, she begged inwardly,
you can’t die!
__________
It had taken mere moments for his logout to complete, leaving him back awake at his desktop, staring at the code that he’d initially gone in to find the finishing touches for. A yawn crossed his lips as a quick glance to the clock revealed that it was already 10:42 A.M. Had he really been in there that long?! Oh well, it didn’t really matter. His task had already been accomplished, and killswitch.exe had been activated. All that was left was the erasure of his memory, which this program was intended to be able to-
“What the hell?!” It changed. The code had freaking re-written itself! What the HELL was going on?! A quick check of his logs showed the entire thing—line for line—had been re-written while he was in Vulcan’s Revenge. He dragged the mouse over the code, on its way to the delete button, when his eyes caught something. The code would work.
It was hard to read compiled coding like this, but as he pulled up the hex editor to examine it, he was utterly surprised. Whatever had done the re-write was freaking brilliant, taking corridors and routes to his intended task that he’d never imagined. It would take about an hour to decompile, but after that he’d look at it more thoroughly to make sure that nothing would go horribly wrong if he activated it.
Three sharp knocks echoed from the door behind him, and he turned to see who was about to enter.
“Jed?” came the kid’s voice, and he rose, walking over and opening the door for his kid brother, Curtis.
“What’s up, Curt?” he asked, taking a moment to stretch out his muscles.
“You’ve got a call,” he continued, “it’s Judge Palano.” His eyes widened, and he groaned, slightly aggravated at the task presenting itself. He hadn’t run into Lila at all while in the World, and so couldn’t tell one way or another if she was safe or not. Granted, that she hadn’t been in Theta: Corrupted Hidden Expanse was evidence enough to think that she was safe, but why would the Judge be calling? Following his brother out the door and down the stairs, he grabbed the landline in his parents’ room, laying sprawled across the unmade sheets and staring at the ceiling fan making lazy circles around itself as he put the receiver to his ear.
“Hello?” he asked, pulling the microphone away from his lips so he could yawn again without incident. A nap was in order.
“Jed?” she began, a panicked tone in her voice, “Oh Jed, thank God you’re safe!”
“Mrs. Palano,” he said, his brow wrinkling in confusion, “what’s going on?”
“It’s Lila,” she continued, the panic in her voice temporarily subsided, “last night, about fifteen minutes after you called, she started going into seizures in her computer chair.”
“What?!” he asked, sitting straight up, “is she alright?!”
“We got her to the hospital as soon as we could,” she said, “the doctors say that she hit her head while seizing. She’s still unconscious—we don’t know how long it will be before she wakes up.”
“Oh God…” Jed replied, his free hand gripping the back of his neck and massaging the muscles that started to tense up at the news.
“It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” she continued, her excitement mingled with parental dread, “I’ve seen a few seizures in my day, but these weren’t like any I’d witnessed before. It was like she was being stabbed over and over again, and that the seizures were simply the recoils from it…”
“Mrs. Palano, I’ll call you back.” He quietly hung up before pulling both hands to his face to hide his tears. What the hell had gone wrong?! He’d gone in as quickly as he could and examined every inch of the hideout he could think to in search of the girl. If she’d been stabbed into a coma…how? Was this why there were so many supposed coma victims of the game? So far as he knew, only a grand total of ten people used the beta version that he played with. Ultima Factor couldn’t be responsible for the untold thousands of coma victims from the game, especially when, after over 500,000 tests, they hadn’t been able to find a trigger for it in the game.
“Everything alright Jed?” Curt asked, his head appearing in the doorway as his brother looked up.
“Yeah,” he said quietly, body language speaking louder than his words. He wanted to be left alone. He wanted to sit and think this over, and stew over just what
had happened. Curt merely scoffed as he turned and walked silently away, mumbling under his breath as he rounded the corner and went downstairs.
He wanted it gone. He wanted no more memories of any of this. He wanted to forget all of it had ever happened—to go back to before he and Lila had made the discovery and just take it again from there. He wanted it gone.
Feet carried him quietly down the hallway and up the stairs to his room, where the code sat unexamined. Quite frankly, he didn’t much care what it would do to him, just that it worked as a massive Ctrl+Z. What he’d seen had told him that much, and so he donned his headphones.
“I’m sorry,” he said, apologizing to no one in particular before activating the code. The high-pitched squeal he was entirely too familiar with began yet again, and he was out like a light. Past months would disappear, and after a week, he’d be ready to begin again.
__________
Peace. It was one of the strangest sensations he’d felt in a long time, and it didn’t make any sense to him. Lying with his back on the ground, he was helpless to watch as his doom froze in time in the midst of its final approach on his life. He had no arms left, but it didn’t seem to matter at the moment. With time frozen, with his doom stopped cold in its tracks, he could finally breathe again. There was no real explanation for what was happening, unless one of his AIs had decided to intervene for the first time in what felt like ages. A white glow bathed the whole place, and he instantly knew who it was: the one he could never look at.
“Is this the end for me?” he asked quietly, no longer panicking over the absence of certain essential limbs.
“
No,” the voice replied, recognized instantly to Dien as the one who’d saved him so many times before. There was no use in looking for him – he would not be seen, “
Jedediah O’Brein, I bid you rise and fight!” As he watched, the light grew brighter and brighter, completely washing out anything that was coming from the dragon above him and leaving him surrounded in pure white.
“How can I fight?!” he asked, having been lifted to his feet in the last few seconds without his own approval, “I have no arms!”
“
I have placed a power within you, Jed,” he said, his voice now everywhere at once, “
and it is about to awaken.” All at once, he felt it. From the hole in his chest, flames began to billow out hotly, power beyond anything he’d seen or thought possible in either world pouring itself into his control. Flames licked at his body, but no longer burned, instead being amplified and reflected outward from the hole that had begun to close itself.
Is it really mine?! the player asked silently, a thick line of pure fire shooting out and wrapping about itself, bending to his very thought. To the left. To the right. Grow. Attack. Destroy. All were fully at his disposal, and were entirely more powerful than he could have imagined. There was one thing left to test.
Rebuild my arms. Instantly, they were there again, and he couldn’t help but laugh triumphantly.
“Thank you,” Jed said, raising the newly-repaired limbs in victory, “thank you!”
“
Now, fight!”
Just as quickly as his vision had begun, so it ended, and the blademaster was left standing tall, with the full weight of the dragon bearing down upon him. Its jaws quickly snapped shut, closing around the fighter who’d dared to seek the Mantle. He almost felt as though he didn’t need it anymore, but this was a fight that needed ending no matter how he spun it. With at thought, he was outside the dragon once again, the hole in the thing’s neck late to appear before it roared in pain, looping quickly around to avenge its own hurt.
“Now,” Dien said, a smirk crossing his lips as all three swords looped around his floating body, each one bearing its own brand of fire, “die.” Faster and faster they spun, cutting through the air in a single line after one another before suddenly stopping mid-loop, as an explosion of even more blistering heat shot outward from the blademaster. The dragon recoiled painfully, as though it couldn’t withstand the heat of the attack, and the swords came into play once again. Each one activated, fully igniting in flames and resuming their hasty orbits. This time, though, each slash through the air sent a wave of fire shooting outward, spirals of the stuff slashing through the dragon and leaving their dents on walls that now threatened to collapse. One more attack, and it would end. With a thought, the blademaster was beneath the beast’s head, in his hands a sword more powerful than any he’d held before—the
Lahat Hereb.
Easily as tall as he was, the sword was held effortlessly in his right hand at his side, comprised entirely of flames that remained calmly under control. Behind the sword was a legacy too great to be conceived of in this game, but that he was holding it spoke to the sheer power he’d been entrusted with. It took the form of a very long scimitar, holding its form in white-hot power that constantly ebbed against the control of its wielder. His eyes now alight, and the smirk entirely gone from his lips, Jed raised the heavenly sword aloft, closing his eyes and channeling the power he’d been gifted with into it. Even he could feel the heat from the ensuing attack, which caused the entire structure to shake violently, as though this power was well beyond the limits of what had been used to compose Vulcan’s Revenge. And then, it was over, and his majestic sword vanished to whence it came.
“
Most well done, Seeker! the voice boomed again, “
surely thou art favored by the mighty Lord Vulcan!” Dien turned, the hole in his chest still burning away at itself, and to his surprise, it had nearly finished. No matter how he willed it, his power could not stop the burn, and he looked about desperately to try and find the one addressing him.
“Please,” he said, “I don’t know who or where you are, but I need your help-” a twang of pain, and he looked down to find the hole almost completely devouring his chest as fire leaped out of it. He winced.
“
Ye seeketh the Mantle of Vulcan,” the voice affirmed, now clearly behind him, and distinctly less booming. He spun, finding himself face to face with a massive Gott Statue, made entirely of ruby and in the form of the World’s elemental god of fire. This was Vulcan Pha.
“Yes,” he said again, “I can’t wait any longer!” Its brow furrowed as eyes peered at the man, studying him for the better part of a minute before responding.
“
Yes, now I see,” the Gott said, finally, “
to obtain the great power that is known as Vulcan’s Mantle, thou must hurry to the pinnacle of this dungeon, and display thy might at the altar there. This will indeed stabilize thine self, but you must make haste, and take with thee this token, that Lord Vulcan might know of your power!” Directly into the blademaster’s inventory was deposited a new armor: called Dragon’s Head. Nothing was particularly special about it, save for the single spell on it, a Vulcan summon.
“Thank you,” the blademaster said, willing the swords he’d scattered about the room back into his inventory as he walked, “I owe you a great debt.”
“
Serve Lord Vulcan,” the statue called after him, “
and it will be settled!” Dien smiled, before hoisting himself off the ground and flying at speeds he hadn’t known before back up the shaft and through the puzzling wall that the corporation had developed. There was no time to think it over and back through it—by will alone, the thing was completely undone. Floor flew past floor as the game struggled to keep up with him, burning off the atmosphere behind him and destroying the icy monsters that had spawned throughout the dungeon. Level didn’t matter anymore – all he cared about was staying alive, and his hole was growing larger by the second.
Fourth floor, up the stairs to the third floor, left, right straight, right, up to the second, straight forward three rooms, then left, and straight through to the first floor – the hideout of Lighthack.org’s special research team. In one powerful display, he stopped, sealing off the corridor behind him to the threat of cataclysm. There was no more time to lose. Already he could feel his code beginning to degrade. Footsteps carried him quickly down the hallway, faster than the game’s engines could comprehend or interpret, and through the main lobby of the hideout into what had come to be called the sanctuary.
When he entered, the whole thing changed. Tiles from the mosaic flung themselves back to the walls, and the floor began to shake violently. First one of the seven lampstands ignited, sending its fiery energy up the massive dome’s support-column to the top, then another, and then another, continuing until each one had been lit and burned brightly, casting life into the room in a way not yet seen witnessed. In a vibrant pulsation, the massive spike that hung from the ceiling like a massive stalactite began to shimmer, the energies from the seven lampstands coalescing within it to glow even more powerfully than he remembered from his dreams. Yes, this was the same room. Even the mosaic work on the floor and walls was exactly the same, ornate and intricate, dark and beautiful. This was where so much had happened to him, and finally, where he would save his life.
There is no more time for you to waste! the voice echoed silently, and immediately it was confirmed from within. He could see the codes withering away before his eyes, his very existence threatened by the deterioration that had been eating away at him the whole time. Very soon, the hole would swallow him, and he would cease to be.
What must I do to be saved? he asked, looking around the massive room whose elegance did nothing to help him. The Gott had said to display his power to the altar…what altar? Was he talking about the massive spike in the room’s center? There was no time for guesswork. The power he’d been given was fiery for sure, but he needed assurance of just what he was supposed to do.
THERE IS NO TIME!!!
He screamed, willing the power out of himself once again and satisfying every variable within the room’s code, igniting it in flame and fire as the equations came to equilibrium. His life was at stake, and by God, there was no need for him to play the conservative.
He wanted to live! Explosion upon explosion wracked the room to its core, blasting piece after piece from the mosaics while fusing the pieces that flew off into one massive vapor, which boiled itself ever hotter and hotter.
Not enough, he thought, the massive scimitar from so far below appearing in his hands once again. This weapon, this sword whose power he’d only just discovered, would be the means of his display.
In one instant, all of the heat was sucked clean out of the room, the raging bonfires fires sucked clean off the lampstands. Every scrap of energy was pulled into the sword, which now shone brighter than anything he’d ever seen before. The result was a deadly cold, which brought the blademaster to his knees and cracked the stone foundations and supports of the amphitheater.
Just…a little…more… he thought, willing the decaying fabric of his being back together from its unraveling and heaving the blade forward, sending it hurdling towards the spire at the room’s center. Not a scrap of energy was let out, pulling the blademaster fully to the ground as his power plunged into the heart of the room.
Light flashed in a single instant, followed loudly by a swirling well of power that threw the shattered remnants of the blademaster flying towards the wall. Overwhelming heat surged in wave after wave, until it felt as though the entire World would collapse under its strength.
This was the magnitude of his strength.
“
Wielder of the flame, why have you come?!” a voice boomed. He had no strength to answer. Mind was numb, body having long since broken into pieces by the hole whose advance hadn’t been stunted in the least.
“St…abilize…” he managed, his lips barely separated and his voice inaudible over the constantly surging spire at the room’s center, “…need…Man…tle…”
“
And why should we give you our Mantle?” The royal plural? It didn’t matter.
“…debt…” he echoed, his voice hardly recognizable anymore, “…I…” Time was slowed, skewed by his own distortion. He could hear the words by this deity, but couldn’t understand them. Nothing made sense anymore. The fragile hold he’d maintained was waning, and his chance was fading to nothing. Eyes were frozen open, though their input was blurred and couldn’t be understood. A man stood before him, his silhouette gesturing vividly and largely as words collapsed upon words, each one longer and less intelligible than the one before it, until,
“
Vulcan Pha!”
………Amy…? ……why………?
__________
“
It is done.”
His head had vanished. The one part of him that had maintained itself intact had, in the blink of an eye, disappeared. There was no telling whether the elemental god’s plan had worked. Only time could tell. Lampstands around the room extinguished slowly, leaving only the light from the doorway behind her to dimly illuminate the room. What hope was there for this? She’d fought tooth and nail for the elemental deity’s approval and, so to speak,
anointing on the dying man she claimed to love. There was no knowing if it had worked or not.
“
…Jed…” she muttered quietly, sinking to her knees in a moment of transparent weakness, “
…oh God!” Tears began to flow, and in that instant, there was nothing that could stop them.
__________
Where am I? he asked, not expecting any real kind of answer. There was no body. Only warmth poured in through the channels left open by his five senses. Nothing told him who or where he was. Nothing told him how he was to act. Nothing told him what he was supposed to do. All he could do was stay and rest, and wait.
“
He has come,” someone said behind him, “
finally.”
“
It’s about damn time,” came a second voice, to his left, “
how long have we been waiting for him?”
“
In this place, it’s hard to tell” another replied from his right, “
time holds no meaning here.” The second scoffed, before a fourth chimed in.
“
He can hear us,” he said, silencing the others from their bickering, “
can’t you Dien?”
“Who are you?” he asked, wondering how he was speaking at all, “and where are we?”
“
We are the result of your power,” the first said, “
forged from what power Vulcan couldn’t contain within you.”
“
And this place, the Flame,” the third continued, “
this is where we wait.”
“What are we waiting for?” Jed asked, still not understanding what was happening.
“
God, he’s dense!” the second barked, “
we’re waiting to be summoned!” Summoned?
“
That is what Vulcan’s Mantle entails, Dien,” answered the fourth, “
you have become an Emissary of Vulcan; that which appears whenever someone calls upon the name of the deity in battle.” Wait, what?
That was the event reward?! There was no way in hell CC Corp would be able to bestow that kind of power on an ordinary player-
“
Enough chat,” said the second again, “
let’s fight!” He questioned it no longer. At that moment, a loud ping echoed through the area, though none had eyes or ears to determine how it was they’d heard what they had. Instinctively he knew exactly what it was. He
had to fight: they
all had to fight. As one, the five entities were given form, and quickly traveled the concourses of the World to where they had been called.
Theta: Corrupted Hidden Expanse.
__________
With a sudden brilliant light, as though his eyes had been closed his whole life only to be opened towards the sun, he could feel his body being sewn back together. Tingling waves coursed through it, returning feeling to every piece of his being and restoring him to life. Arms, legs, chest: every fiber and millimeter of his flesh was returned to him, leaving him standing on his feet, surrounded by a brilliant white light. The flesh that was returned to him ached, but warmth soothed it, and it filled him. Fear was still held strong in his mind, but he could feel a peace and hope begin to reverberate through his whole being. It was alive: he was alive, and he was whole, only something had changed. About his right arm, black scars had been branded in, forming an intricate black band with only two discernable symbols from the whole thing. Somehow, he knew them to mean “fire.”
Standing left him at a loss for words as the light slowly faded to a more natural hue. Countless questions shot through his mind, reflecting and refracting off every surface within until finally settling down into some form of order. How was he alive?
Vulcan’s Mantle Where was he?
Theta: Corrupted Hidden Expanse. How had he gotten there?
Someone had summoned him. Who?
Looking around, he couldn’t recognize the place for the life of himself. A cool blue floor seemed to emanate a dangerous light into the chilled air, while walls of ice shot upward in untold distances, each one glowing in an hideous blue, and all of which seemed to reject his very presence. As an Emissary of Vulcan, this
had to be the Tower Ruem – though who here could have accessed a Vulcan summon? Then he saw it: his answer standing in full beauty in the center of the room, a single weapon in her hands that couldn’t belong to any class. It was pure light, and its wielder was Cait.
But who is she fighting? he asked, still feeling absent from the scene and looking for her opponent, before he saw it:
“HAKOUIN!” Rage boiled within him. How he’d known the figure’s name was beyond him, but he lifted off the ground, massive wings behind him guiding his flight as he pushed himself towards the smokey bastard. Fear wrote upon his face in tones louder than any expression could have, and at once, his body was dissolved, smoke vanishing to hide as dust in the thin air, which itself seemed to be fighting against him.
“
I don’t know how you managed it, Wing,” his voice said from behind, and the blademaster turned, his body now fully alight with flames, endlessly consuming itself from within, “
but no matter how many times I kill you, you ALWAYS manage to come back for more!” He quickly twisted, narrowly avoiding a slice from behind his back before slamming an elbow into the face of his assailant – a feat entirely unmanageable by anyone who’d attacked before.
From below, Cait was forced to watch in awe at the fighter who’d emerged on account of her spell. She’d never seen a Vulcan Pha fight for longer than a few moments, but this one seemed somehow different: more familiar, and more powerful. His body was that of an angel, comprised entirely of flames with a twenty-foot wingspan to keep him aloft, while his hand held a long, potentially devastating sword.
Hakouin recoiled, having been knocked out of his hidden form by the blazing fighter, who merely glared out the corner of his eye. Sliding to a halt on thin air, he smirked, pulling himself to laugh at the situation. Throwing his head back, the cackle he let out was distinctly uncharacteristic of the virus he knew.
This isn’t him, he thought, turning to face him fully and burning his body even brighter,
but who is he?
“
Oh come now, Dien, surely you recognize me by now!”
That voice… he thought, raising his sword to become level with his chest. All at once, his form changed. Short black hair burst into flames, which sank down his whole form, burning away the color in his skin to something distinctly whiter, while the clothing changed as well. Red pants and a golden top seemed to shout one thing from the man whose menacing smile hadn’t retarded in the slightest. This was his Hell.
No, he thought, eyeing it more carefully.
“Who are you really?” he asked, pulling back his defenses for a moment. Shock was an expression not becoming of that avatar’s face, but it quickly turned to the loathsome scowl he’d witnessed only a few times before.
“
So be it then,” he snarled, each syllable forced and bitterly hated. The long katana in his hand melted away into the air, as did the white wings from his back and the golden garment from his shoulders. His skin began to glow in a brilliant white light, whiter than he’d ever remembered it. Tattoos began to grow in spirals, as the rest of his skin darkened to a normal hue and the fire from his head extinguished. Pants had also been destroyed, and in their place, two crossing, slanted skirt garments hung, with a hilt on either hip to complete the package.
“
Leek?!” Cait had been the first one to speak, the disbelief in her voice unreal.
The hell?! Dien thought, watching the player sink slowly to the ground as the girl’s most attack-oriented form was abandoned.
“Amy,” the blademaster said commandingly, stopping her short in her run, “don’t trust him.” He himself couldn’t. The player before them
reeked of evil intent – he could practically see it pouring off him in droves. And yet, he was still Leek. There was no more deception covering his form.
“
Aw damn,” he said, getting back into character again, “
and here I was thinking I could get away with it again!” With a single motion, he charged forward, his feet barely touching the ground before he was upon the girl in the blue jacket. Or rather, before his blades were pressed unexpectedly against the fiery blademaster’s sword. Behind him, Amy stood, confused and unsure of just what had happened.
“
J-Jed?” she asked, her voice breaking up mid-speech.
“Amy, I need you to go back to the hideout and get Cobalt,” he said over his shoulder, “I don’t have time to explain, but please, just trust me with this.” Her whole body was shaking, the shock of what was happening too much for her to handle.
“
Ah- I…” she managed, before Dien cut her off again.
“GO!!” She backed away, afraid and confused. Nevertheless, her eyes closed, and she vanished back to Cobalt in the hideout, leaving the Forgotten Wing of Lighthack to face one of his oldest and best friends.
“
So now you recognize me,” he said, pulling his blades back and standing relatively at ease, while the blademaster’s own flames died down to a more settled state, “
about damn time.”
“What happened to you, Leek?” the leader demanded, his face reflecting nothing of the confusion within him, “why are you alive?” To this, the player could only laugh.
“
Damn, Jed,” he finally said, “
are you really that oblivious? I never died!” He continued laughing as the blademaster could only watch on and listen. It wasn’t that he couldn’t cut the man down in the blink of an eye, but moreso that he wanted to know what had happened to his friend.
“And why are you here?” he asked, returning the deranged man’s attention back to the present.
“
Long story short, I’m here to kill you, Jed,” he said, a wicked and almost frighteningly ignorant smile holding his lips, “
that’s always been my goal. Even from the very beginning. You hacked through one of my supercomputers and completely routed a virus I’d made, and I’d envied you from that day onward. I wanted to take your ability and make it my own, to kill you so that I would be the best. Me.
I played your game, following after you as you and your pathetic friends acted out your charity on the internet towards noobs who couldn’t fend for themselves. It sickened me! Every little fucking piece of your good-will bullshit made me want to vomit, and it was then that I found out about the game.
Ah yes, this game; this World so spectacularly created. I knew that eventually you would cave to the popularity of it and crack it open, and even developed key parts of the version you so readily shared with your band of friends. The whole ‘Ultima Factor?’ It was a hoax I created by pulling lines out of context and making them look bad. I wanted to pull you into the game so I could hack in and steal your mind.
That’s when I met them. They promised me power, fame, and anything that my heart could desire, if I would do one simple thing for them: if I could forsake the real world for these digital bonds and drag ten people with me. What easier target than you and your bunch of light-hacking bullshitters?! A single, rusty knife was given to me, with instructions that anyone I stabbed with it would be eternally subject to the World and its laws. Your SC-1 was actually helpful with this, as it helped me to put the knife’s code into the whole field, which brought in so many more as the Knights of War rose to the occasion. It was so easy to watch as your friends and the Knights fell one by one to my attacks – none of them suspecting a thing as their bodies shriveled into lumps on the sides of the hallways.” He stopped, laughing for a good minute before continuing, all the while the blademaster silently letting his judgment for the man boil within him. He wanted him dead. As soon as he knew all that he needed to know, it would be over.
“
There was one last thing that I wanted to tell you before we fought,” he continued, his eyes narrowing to something more sinister and convoluted than anything he’d before witnessed, “
on that last day when you logged in, I had been in the field before you, along with Justice and Cait. You know the event of which I speak!” One by one, the pieces began falling into place. It was the research experiment that had supposedly left him dead.
“So it was you, then?” he asked, the rage within almost uncontainable, “you were the one who showed Cait the traits of the Ultima Factor that she so badly wanted to test?” Leek laughed again.
“
So you’re not the dumb shit you look to be! That’s fucking great! Yes, I was the one who showed Cait what to look for, the one who seeded her brain with just the right thoughts to make her figure out what had taken so painstakingly long for you dipshits to find.
But here’s what you don’t know. On that day, when we were running the tests in SC-2, I was the one in the room with your precious Lila.” He paused, laughing wickedly at the blademaster whose rage was almost beyond his ability to control. “
Oh yes! It was so fucking fun to stab her body. Again and again and fucking again! The whole time she screamed, crying out for you to come save her. But guess what. I just cut her throat, and it was over.” Dien forced his eyes shut, blood dripping from the tense grip on his sword that contained all of his rage and fury, which was lying in wait like the lion that waited to pounce on the downed gazelle.
“Bastard,” he managed quietly, the flames on his body flaring outward as his rage began to boil over.
“
Come on, Wing,” Leek replied, “
is that all you have to say to your ‘best friend?’” That was it. In a fit of rage, the flames composing Dien’s body flared outward, filling the entire icy room with flames the likes of which it had never seen before, as five more bodies joined him in his assault, instantly recognized as the five who had waited with him in the Flame – the fifth having remained entirely silent during the encounter. In one accord they shouted, all converging on the player, who merely smirked, pulling out the one Lethal Knife from his left hip and twisting quickly to stab one of the entities straight through the heart. A swear, and it was gone, as the rest instantly backed away.
“
MY, MY, WING! WHAT A POWER YOU’VE OBTAINED!!!” he shouted, lips curled up in a smile and eyes wide. On his chest, the tattoos began to swirl, each one realigning itself from the Gan rune it had tried to imitate to the more fluid Vak symbol, and all at once the blademaster fell from the sky, landing solidly on the ground amidst a pile of fluid soot.
Wait, he thought, pulling his hands up from the stuff,
this is…! Hakouin. Without a doubt, the viral infection had been condensed into this puddle of tar, which twitched ever so slightly on his impact. Not three feet away, the puddle had begun to flow into a crack in the icy floor, sinking deeply into whatever lay below. He didn’t have time to focus on that now: his ‘old friend’ was upon him, and with one hand he lifted up Jinsaran, the flames from the sword, punching hard against the Twin Blade’s single attack. Unnamed, the skill pushed back against the attack and struggled to hold the force of a full Vulcan Pha summon at bay. So
that was his trick. Anyone he stabbed with that knife was forced to give their power to him, and since the avatar he’d stabbed this time had been indirectly controlling Dien’s flight, and since it had been taken away, he could no longer fly. It was a simple power, but if left alone for too long, it would prove most lethal.
Avoid the blade, he thought, watching the mysterious third hilt that housed it at his side as the player finally rebounded, laughing hysterically the whole time. Each of the four remaining avatars nodded to him, and in one go they all converged on the fighter, each wearing its own brand of flame, and each wielding its own shape of weapon. The melee of attacks that ensued challenged the physics of the game. A whole flurry of attacks seemed to land square on the player’s body, only to be proven wrong by devastating counterattacks, any of which would have destroyed another of Dien’s abilities, were it not for the defense of one of the others. In this way, Leek played off of the fiery fighters to make sure that he was never fighting more than three at any given instant.
It was still an impressive feat, and the battle waged onward still, fires burning hotter and hotter, and attacks growing stronger and stronger, neither side landing a hit on the other, until in one instant, it came to a screeching end. Quite literally, in fact. From beneath, they could hear the screech of metal scraping against the ice beneath them, and in one massive display, the stuff was shattered, spikes of blue steel launching upward in their place, the likes of which Dien could barely avoid as one at a time the avatars shattered and retreated to the Flame, leaving the blademaster alone against the man who floated laughingly above.
“
I’m sorry,” he heard, “
sorry I couldn’t be more useful to you.” There, lying amidst the rubble he himself had created, was the true form of Hakouin – the arms of his avatar ripped off by his own attack as smoke billowed out of the stumps.
“So I take it you’re not the
Plures Vultus Mortis after all,” Dien said, walking over as the protection of the spikes tried in vain to last. For the moment, Leek was held at bay. The image before him was fading quickly, smoke and haze bubbling out of unseen orifices into the cold air.
“
Kill him for me,” he said, staring straight at the former hacker who he’d failed to hit, “
he took Danielle…made me like this.” he tried laughing, only to fail miserably as coughing took him over in a horrible fit.
“So to add to everything else, he stole my kill,” the blademaster smirked, “is that what I am to understand?” Hakouin could only smile, closing his eyes as his body shattered to dust once again, leaving nothing but an armless jacket behind.
“
Just do it,” he heard faintly, “
I don’t need your sympathy.” He nodded, taking the jacket and standing to his feet as the spikes themselves began to disintegrate. Putting it on, he already knew that he shared the virus’ fate. All of his power had been exhausted, and there was no way for him to defend against the insanely skillful counterattacks that Leek was putting out. The single blow he’d landed at the outset of the fight was the last one he’d be able to make.
“Leek,” he called out, standing atop a frozen sea that was sapping his life just as quickly as the bridge that had initially brought him to this tower had, “I won’t say this twice: give me back Danielle and leave.” The hacker only laughed.
“
Give me a break, Jed!” he shouted, “
we both know that your power has been entirely exhausted. You’re in no place to be making those threats!”
“
Yeah,” came the familiar British accent, “
but mine hasn’t even been touched yet.” Cobalt. He was standing on thin air right next to the twin blade with stolen wings of flame, and connected a punch that no one saw coming, sending Leek tumbling head over heels to the frigid surface on which Dien stood.
“
Jed, let’s go,” it was Cait. Without letting him speak another word, she’d grabbed his hand, and the whole scenery changed. It was the hideout.
“
I don’t have time to explain,” she said, smiling slightly, but more urgent than anything, “
Cobalt says that he can hold Leek off long enough for you to get out of here. You need to join up with Nall and Nighthand again – they’re your best bet for keeping this psycho off your back.”
“But Amy,” he said, bringing back bucketloads of grief he really didn’t need to deal with right then.
“
GOD DAMNIT, JED! JUST GO!” And so he went, gating first to Dun Loireag, and then to the Carmina Gadelica hideout.
__________
END PART 1