The chamber devolved into blood and chaos. I weaved my way through the soldiers dodging their blows but taking hits in the process. Everywhere I went I left my foes injured and slipping in pools of blood at their feet.
KKG was a pure brawler. When he swung his fist fully armored men and women went flying. His bare feet and fists caved in armor and broke bones. He cackled madly and shouted at the soldiers, urging them on, “These motherfuckers ain’t shit! I can kill your whole army, yo!”
Protag climbed onto a box and started pulling out bottles of strange chemicals. He laughed like a maniac while he tossed the fuming vials toward large groups of soldiers. Many tumbled away screaming in pain as the chemicals melted their skin or dropped to the ground to convulse and retch up their own internal fluids.
Sakurai waded into the attacking soldiers to draw attention away from casters. Before long at least six of the guards were trying to get her measure and get past her wall of a shield. Their distraction allowed KKG and Protag to start burning them down with maniacal glee.
For all our forward movement and the number of them we left bloody and dying on the stones, we lost more than a few of our own number. I had just driven a screaming soldier to her knees and sunk my blade into the gap between her neck and pauldron when I looked up to see the distinctive tabards of the Immolated Order outside the archway.
Seeing their hands weaving and forming balls of fire in the darkness I roared out a warning, “Fireball!,” while activating Evade and turning to bolt toward an exit. The spells exploded amongst us and the Haithan soldiers. I felt the force and the fire roll over me through my haptics.
It turned out that Evade wasn’t very effective against magic.
Who knew?
My screen went dark for a few seconds and I awoke with a stream of notifications flashing in the upper right. Stumbling up and out of some rubble I found myself in a haze of smoke and cinders.
Looking down I saw that I was covered in burns and hissed under my breath. That meant I wouldn’t be able to regenerate as quickly. The sound of distant fighting reached my ears along with what might have been KKG shouting. Shaking my head to try and dispel some of my daze I was rushing to his aid when I heard something approaching through the smoke. It was a rhythmic chime and a heavy step. Somewhere in the haze I heard someone scream.
The figure appeared from the smoke and I recoiled immediately. The slender androgynous humanoid towered at over four or five meters. It was covered in brass and dark iron symbols that clicked and rattled as it walked. It had claws covered in flames over its massive hands and perhaps most terrifying were its eyes and mouth. Someone had driven spikes into its eyes and used a similar spike to nail its black tongue to its chin, and all of the spikes were still blazing hot and hissing in the misty air. At the center of its gray chest I saw the familiar brand of Sevrin’s cult.
Lydia described the creature as I kept backpedaling and tensed in my dive chair.
“Branded Priest of Pain Level 33, Elite
Tier E
Weakness: Light Magic
Resistance: Piercing
HP: Unknown
MP: Unknown
Special Ability
Unknown”
Tier E? It was a whole tier above…
The creature flashed forward and snatched its flaming glove around my throat. I tried to curse as flames shot damage through me, halting my regeneration again. All I wanted was to get away from the thing. My avatar wasn’t responding to me and I had just dipped below one hundred HP.
It managed a guttural hiss as it tossed me like a doll. I felt something collide with my back and my view went erratic as my avatar’s body tumbled over the open ground until I rolled to a stop. Lydia calmly read out a list of terrifying debuffs:
You are Paralyzed!
You are Partially Blinded!
You are on the verge of death!
My health and essence were bottomed out. When I tried to move I realized that my conditions had removed all ability to move the character. I could only watch as the towering mutant stalked toward me.
In a mirror of the nearly deadly battle with the monstrosity at the barracks in Braithe I was once again struck with an irrational surge of terror. All I wanted to do was yank off my helmet and escape the monster.
To escape... death.
Would the real world be far enough to escape it?
What kind of question was that?
When I tried to sit up I felt someone push me down to the ground and looked up to see Theodora glaring at me with her single wild eye. She was wearing an entire suit of glossy red plate armor that fit her form far too tightly. The only part of her entire body that was not covered by armor was her face and her blackened claws.
She knelt and pressed her bloody hand to my mouth and my avatar gulped it down. A series of notifications flew into my Notes folder and my health and strength exploded. I tried to stand, ready to charge the creature but she sneered at me and said in a voice that might have had a tinge of concern, “Whatever you do, don’t die. Don’t trust Catacomb. Don’t trust anything you see.”
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My voice was a sputtering rasp, “Wh… what?”
Without another word the tiny vampire launched herself off my body hurtling like a bullet toward the Branded Priest of Pain and collided with it. Both of them flew into the smoke, the only sign of their presence a series of snarls and clashes of steel that quickly faded.
Trying to stand again I staggered and fell to my knees. My vision flickered and was suddenly filled with static filled bars of light. Choking and trying to stand, I said, “Lyd… Lydia… what…”
My vision went black as I fell forward toward the ground and was enveloped by static.
A faint sound reached my ears and I felt someone lightly slapping me in the face. Groaning, I tried to sit up but moaned in pain before putting my head back down and blinking my eyes open. A faint shape resolved itself into Olivia’s worried face as she said, “He seems ok I think.”
“Malcolm, can you get yourself out of the chair? You’ve been in there all night,” Lydia asked with what sounded like concern in her voice.
When I finally focused on her worried expression I realized she was right. Did I fall asleep in the dive rig again? Working my jaw I moaned as I said, “I think.. I’m alright.”
She stepped back as I struggled to move my arms and pull the clips out of my suit’s sockets. She seemed nervous, biting her lip before saying, “Lydia called me once the power came back on. She said you fell asleep or passed out and asked me to come down and check on you. I’m sorry, I know you don’t want other people down here…”
Waving away her concern, I sighed as I swung my legs out of the rig, “I’m glad someone came to check on me,” I cleared my throat and said, “Lyd, could you start the coffee machine.”
“Sure thing, Sugar.”
“I appreciate you coming to check.”
Olivia gave me a concerned smile and nodded, “Well, I am a huge fan and you are a crusty old hermit.”
Giving her a warning look I finally managed to stand gesturing toward the stairs, “Alright, I’ll make you,” I looked up at the dive room monitors, “breakfast to make up for all the worrying.”
She gave me a half-hug and then hurried up the stairs. The monitors were mostly dark but it appeared that my avatar was not dead. More than that I found myself more concerned about… I tried to summon up the last time I’d seen Valerie. She had been standing next to that Cardienne kid as he tried to pull her away. They didn’t seem to want to hurt her…
“Fuck.”
I started to reach out to check my character’s notifications but ultimately yanked the haptics off my hands and tossed them into the dive chair. With that done I took a deep breath and made my way up the stairs and into the kitchen.
An hour later I had ushered Olivia off to her tasks of cleaning at Lydia’s whim, showered, and changed.
As I stood looking into my eyes at the bathroom mirror my thoughts hung on something Sakurai had said the night before. Cursing under my breath I drummed my fingers on the counter and finally, muttered out loud, “Lydia, unblock Sydney Cross.”
There was a brief pause and she said, “Sydney Cross has been unblocked. You have two hundred and twenty one text messages, nineteen voicemails, and four short videos from Sydney Cross.”
Wincing at that I looked away from the mirror and picked up my patch phone from the counter and set it on its edge, popping out a little stand to provide support as I angled it toward the wall. With sinking dread I crossed my arms and said, “Play Sidney Cross’ last video message.”
There was a flicker on the wall and a view of our old apartment living room appeared. I saw signs that it hadn’t been cleaned recently. Sydney was sitting there wearing a too large knit sweater and looking into the camera with a hollow eyed expression. She looked pale and sick. She looked like she hadn’t showered in days.
“No, baby, no…,” I muttered with growing unease.
Her words were slurred as she fumbled a cigarette to her lips and lit it muttering, “Mal… Mal, please call me back? I know what I did was terrible. I… know that I don’t deserve to be with you anymore.”
She puffed out smoke as tears rolled down her cheeks, “But please don’t stop talking to me.”
She rocked forward and pulled the cigarette between her fingers as she said, “Call me a bitch. Call me a traitorous whore. I just want to hear your voice. I’m… ready to tell you the truth.”
Tears started pouring down her cheeks as she said, “It’s going to hurt you so much.”
Blinking at that I moved forward as she tried to swipe the tears off her cheeks. She stuttered through sobs as she said, “Cassandra says you haven’t been answering your calls. I’m coming up to your mom’s. I don’t care.”
She looked into the camera for a long moment and said, “I love you,” and the screen flickered off.
My brow furrowed and I said, “Lyd, have I missed a call from Cassandra?”
She answered matter of factly, “You haven’t sweetie.”
“Lydia, call Sydney Cross.”
The Patch Phone chimed and the speaker turned on as I heard the telltale tones of the phone ringing. After five rings it went to voicemail and I said, “Syd, look I turned my phone back on. Call me back, I will pick up.”
Hanging up the call I said, “Call Cassandra.”
The phone rung twice and there was a distinct click before my lawyer’s voice filled the bathroom, “Hey Mal, how are things upstate?”
Mustering some levity into my voice, I said, “Pretty weird if I’m being honest, but I’m getting by. So, quick question for you. Has Sydney called you in the last few days?”
After a moment she said, “I haven’t gotten a call from Syd in five days, why?”
After a beat I said, “I… well I unblocked her…”
Cassie cut me off and said, “Mal, given the legal situation I don’t know…”
I cut her off in turn, “I’m not going to have a casual conversation with her. I just wanted to check on her. She isn’t doing well Cass. I don’t give a shit what happens legally if it ends up doing serious harm to her. If she calls you, tell her to call me immediately.”
“Sure Mal, I’ll do that.”
“Sorry to throw out orders like that. I didn’t mean to come across like an ass,” I sighed as I smoothed back my hair.
Her voice softened and she said, “It’s fine Mal. To be honest I was kind of hoping you would try and get in touch with her.”
“I mean I didn’t NEED to get in touch with her I just…,”
She sighed, “Please shut up Mal.”
I sighed and chuckled, “Thank you Cass.”
“No problem, bye Mal.”
–
Over the next hour I got myself cleaned up and tried to maintain a workout but kept drifting back to check my Patch for calls from Sydney. When I wasn’t worried about her my thoughts kept returning to the game.
I wanted to log back in.
Part of me reasoned it was my job and I needed the income.
Another snidely noted that I was missing prime leveling time. What else was I going to do while I waited for Sydney to call me back?
The final tiny voice… The irrational one… whispered, “What’s happening to Mystal right now?”
“What’s happening to Valerie?”
Before long I was hooking myself into the system and saying, “Alright Lyd, radio silence unless Sydney calls.”
“You got it Mal.”
Looking up at the dark screen above me with its still flashing red notifications in the bottom right I muttered, “Now to figure out what the hell Theodora was talking about.”
Should I send Catacomb another message?
Taking Theodora’s warnings seriously was a hard pill to swallow. It was silly, but it was the nightmares and strange visions that convinced me not to. Did I believe that my strange hallucinations were warning me of something? Did some tiny part of me… the increasingly mentally ill part… believe there was something to the visions?
“Was she ok?”
I ran my hands over the helmet in my hands and sighed before tugging it over my head and dropping myself into darkness.
