Chapter 705: Event complete
Mason had to physically cover his eyes to see the Apex Predator message. He then saw about fifty messages from Haley, mostly in all caps. He still wasn’t sure what the hell it was saying, but he clicked yes.
For a second, he felt a small influx of mana. Maybe twenty percent. It was nice, but not really worth a fuss. Since he was just just hovering there blasting a god’s avatar, he was about to take a quick moment to type ‘thanks’ to his wife. Then the glowing aura of mana around him raced towards his brain.
And kept racing. Until it was flowing into him whether he liked it or not. Pretty soon it became clear the first bit was just establishing a connection, like a bank transferring a dollar to see if it could handle more. Then the money really started dumping.
He shivered with pleasure as his bar filled. And then overfilled. And then started a kind of pressure in his temples and forehead until he realized he could probably increase the ‘flow’ of his blast.
He cranked it up, splitting the dark clouds even further. And then further. And then five more times without really stopping the flow, until the pressure got so bad he was screaming. He kicked open the solar spigot and ripped it open as wide as he could before his head exploded.
It helped. A little.
“Too much,” he moaned a little later, pretty sure nobody heard or gave a shit. “Turn it off.”
The light of Solar Wrath wasn’t a pillar anymore. The sky had ripped open, the sun entirely visible, so bright Mason had to close his eyes again. It didn’t help. The light blasted through his eyelids, forming like a painting, surrounded by a million rays like the image of the star depicted in some masterwork. It covered everything, saw everything, destroyed everything.
Mason floated in the endless power of it, still channeling, utterly helpless. There was no escape. There was only the terrible wrath of some ancient thing, so beyond mortal reckoning it destroyed worlds with nothing more than a glance.
At some point, he couldn’t hold it anymore, and fell. By then he just didn’t care. His mind drifted in and out of consciousness, wind whistling past him as he slipped past the canopy. He hit the ground but was too numb to feel how hard. He landed at some terrible angle, body turned in a way that should have been a lot more painful.
He felt close to death, and couldn’t even close his eyes. Transformation dragged him back. Like some ancient, abused mule that don’t know better, too stubborn to lay down and give up, it pulled him back to life.
“Unngh.”
He managed to blink, so that was something. He licked his lips. Which hurt and maybe sent up a bit of ash. He hoped it was sort of caked on demon and not his face burnt to a crisp.
The battle sounded like it was still raging. Players were shouting and demons were growling. Mason’s animals were all coming running (or digging or flying), but he seemed to have fallen somewhere…relatively safe. A tree, maybe. Was he stuck in a tree?
Cerebus laughed over it all. The god of the hunt howled like a teenage boy on too much caffeine. Mason managed to turn to see a burning crater where there had once been a giant undead monstrosity. There was demonic goo and ichor covering everything nearby.
Cerebus stood there still clutching the long, scorpion-like tail. And there, in plain view now, was the demon-god in the mist. They stared at each other as the ash rained. Yalor glared up at the sun, opening its snake-like mouth to show a very un-snakelike set of fangs.
“Come, little wolf,” Cerebus shouted. “Come see your prize. No, Uncle, you’re not going anywhere. We can all see how naughty you’ve been. The game is over.”
Mason groaned, and fell out of his tree. He hit the ground and stared up at the sky with a real ‘Mom I don’t want to go to school today’ energy. Because the truth was, he really didn’t feel like fighting a god right now. Or really ever.
Despite what Cerebus said, there was definitely no text saying the game was over. So he pulled himself up and stumbled through the forest. Streak found him and wagged his tail, then growled like he was angry. His green eyes had veins popping out. Mason had pumped a whole lot of Share Pain into his bonds when the thing was exploding him.
“Sorry,” he rasped, waving a hand. “For the thing.”
It was the best he could do. Streak accepted it and instantly moved on, wondering if the battle was over and if maybe they could all go home and eat now? Or maybe eat the demons? They didn’t all stink. Some smelled pretty good, like a fresh kill. There was definitely some cooked meat out there, too. Did Mason want to try some?
“No. Stop. Thinking about…demon meat.”
Mason swallowed bile and staggered closer to the divine comedy taking place in the crater he’d made. Cerebus grinned at him as he arrived. Mason was wondering why the god of destruction hadn’t run over and smashed him in the face, until he saw the trap.
“Ah yes, do you like it?” Cerebus smiled, seeing Mason’s eyes. “I’ve been refining it for him for three hundred years. He tried to kill me the moment you broke his toy. His own nephew. So predictable.”
Mason had never seen the god so animated and excited. He looked around the battlefield, seeing at least a handful of dead players near the endless corpses of his enemies. Things also seemed ‘frozen’ again, like the gods had made some little bubble out of time.
He took a breath and let it out, thinking about all the graves and funerals ahead. The women who’s lovers wouldn’t be coming home. The newborn infants who wouldn’t have fathers.
“I’m happy you’re happy. Can we end this, please?”
“Oh, little wolf.” Cerebus shook his head like he was casting pearls before swine. “A tip for immortality. You have to learn to enjoy the little things. But as you wish. I’ll release him now.”
Mason tried to prepare himself mentally. Did he really have to fight Yalor again? His regeneration was working, but he wasn’t close to 100%. And that thing was insanely strong and fast. Even being immune to poison, he didn’t like his chances without help.
He was about to ask for the ‘time bubble’ to drop so he could message the others. Then the shackles dropped from Yalor’s legs.
The god of destruction didn’t move. He just stared with those black pools for eyes, no need for words to convey a pure, seething hatred in Mason’s direction. He hunched as if to spring forward, then simply…lowered his head.
[Event Complete: The Second Doom. Both Nexus/World Stones protected. Complete victory. Catastrophic event avoided. Calculating personal scores. Please wait.]
Mason stared at the text, hardly believing it. It was done? He didn’t have to fight?
Yalor crackled with abyssal energy, then simply disappeared in a fading mist. All around the crater, and hovering in the air, Mason suddenly realized there were half visible beings.
He saw what he thought was a nymph but was maybe Gaia glowing with power. Queen Mav floated about her, swirling with icy wind. Dozens more he didn’t recognize all stared. Many lowered their heads in his direction, just as Yalor had. None looked particularly pleased.
The ‘time bubble’ popped. Demons and elementals all around Nassau fell, or vanished. The sky started to clear. A collective cry from the planar army sounded from ten thousand throats as the energy pulled them away.
It all happened shockingly fast. Then it was just what was left of mankind, and their allies. Orcs and goblins, elves and centaur. The natural world with an exhausted but satisfied sigh.
It was over. They’d won. He was about to find his people when a young player he didn’t know came running up holding one of the system tablets.
“Lord Mason? I’m…I have to give you this.”
The young man scratched his head in confusion, extending his arm like he hardly knew why he was doing it.
Mason took it, equally confused. Blake popped up on the screen.
His brother was pulsing with blue light, standing by some kind of…was that a Nexus beacon? Blake was inside the shielding somehow. It was like he’d climbed into the central hub past the clear barriers.
A horrible, cold thing dropped into Mason’s gut.
“What are you doing?”
“Sorry about the end, there. I wasn’t sure if we’d survive.” His brother gave him what looked like a sad smile. “Well done and all. Hard to believe. But you know it’s bullshit, right? This thing…we’re just pawns. Characters in its story. We can’t really win. It’ll just cheat again.”
Mason tried to stretch his brain around what was happening. Was Blake intending to destroy the Nexus? Was that possible? He didn’t see what difference it would make anyway. What was it to roboGod? Nothing.
And did he know their victory was bullshit? Yeah, of course he fucking did. The moment ‘roboGod’ had entered their lives he’d known in his heart that mankind was helpless. That he’d lied to himself about ‘revenge’. That there was nothing you could do to a being that could re-shape the world on a whim.
So what? You had to adapt. Find a way to live.
“We can’t beat it, Blake.” Mason almost choked on the words. “But we’ve beat its game for now. We’ll get peace for a long time. Think about your wife and children.”
There was wetness in Blake’s eyes. He smiled and nodded like that was true. The light of the Nexus still lit his face in dull tones, and he stared at it as he raised a hand.
“These are how it does everything,” he said. “How the sausage is made. They give us our powers, they create everything. They’re some kind of energy source that it created with the game.” He laughed, and it sounded a bit like a guy in a loony bin in some movie. “There’s rules. Just like it’s always saying. It uses these to make the world. And it gave me the power to unmake them.”
That cold feeling was getting worse.
“Then what, Blake? We all die? That doesn’t sound like victory.”
“But it is, though! It shows we’re bad subjects. That we’ll always ruin its stupid experiment. Then it gives up. It’s the only way.”
Mason saw the argument. He wasn’t sure he had any new or better ones. A few months ago he might have been the first person to help push that button. Explode the world with a middle finger held up.
But now? No. Whatever the game world was, it wasn’t worthless. It had…meaning. To him. And to all the other living creatures that needed it.
“However we got here, this world is worth saving. So are the people who’ve fought for it. It’s not clean or perfect. But you don’t have to do this. You might be right, but it’s not worth it.”
Blake met his eyes through the screen and smiled.
“Not that simple, I’m afraid. Here’s the tour de force. This thing hates chaos, so we’re not going to decide. We’ll flip a coin. I put one in your pocket.”
Mason wasn’t aware he had pockets. But as he slowly checked his armor he found a small slot he also wasn’t aware he had, and a single coin placed inside. One side was Blake smiling, the other was him frowning.
“You have to be fucking kidding me.”
Blake did his crazy laugh again.
“Can’t be me,” he said, sputtering. “Luck’s too high. It’ll come out however I want. Has to be you.”
“My luck is shit,” Mason hissed. “You know my luck is shit. I’m not flipping it.”
“Then we go boom. I should mention Seul-ki is at the other Nexus. You left her with Haley’s Right Hand power. Bad idea. You definitely should have killed her. But it’s my fault, she thinks we’re ‘conquering the world’. Poor girl. I planted a suggestion in her brain months ago. And I can use my unmaking power through our nifty little arena rings.”
Mason stared back towards the Nexus wondering how fast he could get there and stop one of them. Would the destruction take time? Would he have to drain it or something?
“I move one rune, and the whole thing explodes,” Blake said, like he was reading Mason’s mind. “So let’s do the coin flip, please. Stop being so pessimistic! Everything might be fine.”
“You fucking…” Mason gripped the coin and snarled, taking a few breaths. “This isn’t a game. These are people’s lives. My life, and the people I love. Women. Children. You can’t just…”
“Wrong answer.” Blake made a beeping noise and held up a hand dramatically. “Here I go. Hold on to your butts.”
Mason hissed and held out the coin.
“Alright. Just wait. I’ll flip it. I don’t have a God damn clue what difference it possibly makes. But I’ll fucking flip it.”
He went through his spells next, trying to figure out how to cheat. Or with his reflexes and perception he could move fast enough to see what it would be and snatch it perfectly out of the air. He almost certainly could.
“Alright. I still think we can just make the world better. The dynamic duo. Batman and…you know, that other guy. But you wanna flip? Fine. Whatever it is, I’ll tell you, and we’ll handle it.”
“Jesus you are the worst liar, it’s so embarrassing. And how do you not know who Robin is? Do you have like early onset Alzheimers? I’m watching you with a kind of remote viewing with one of my brains. I’ll see everything.”
“God damnit, Blake.”
Mason stared at the coin one last time, making a silent oath to whatever real god of the universe had made him so bad at anything involving luck. That if he just gave him this, he’d stop complaining about it. And then with another to roboGod saying ‘just fix the thing and save us, alright?’
Then he stopped thinking and flipped the coin. He caught it not knowing which side was which, clutching it in a hand.
“Before I show you. At least give me a chance to talk to the others. To say goodbye. Give us a day, or something, what’s the rush?”
Blake sighed, smiling again.
“We aren’t so different, you know. You’ll do what you have to for the things you think are important. That’s all I ever do. We just care about different things.”
Mason held back the profanity and list of dumb shit Blake cared about, and why that made him a petty, annoying, stupid asshole.
“What possible difference does it make to our situation if we flip a coin to decide if we all live or die?”
“It’s perfect. All of roboGod’s careful planning. And in the end? The only thing that matters is dumb chance. It’s useless data. The biggest fuck you we can give him. Now go ahead and tell me what it is. I was lying about the remote viewing thing. I trust you.”
“RoboGod will probably stop you,” Mason spit, staring at his own hand, not sure if the remote viewing thing was a lie, or if it not being real was a lie. “This is so stupid. You’re such an idiot.”
“Love you, too, moron. Now tell me what it is. Hell, maybe the smiling side is the one I blow up. Did you even think of that?”
No, he fucking hadn’t. And he tried not to think about it now. There was no way he was ‘out-smarting’ Blake about this. All he could do was open his hand, and tell him what it was, and deal with the consequences.
So he did, and opened his hand. He stared down into Blake’s gold, smiling face, trying to decide what to tell him.
“I can’t believe you did it,” Blake said, a big, shit-eating grin on his digital face now, too. But his eyes were wild. The beacon made a strange, mechanical whining sound. “I was always gonna blow it. Started awhile ago. I was just fucking with you while I waited. Bye, brother.”
“God damnit, Blake, don’t even think about it, I’m gonna assume this is just another one of your…”
The world went white.