Riyun was committed. Two steps out of cover, with an innocent victim about to be slaughtered by some terrifying monstrosity, and with Meriscoya gone for the moment and Javika frozen in place…
What else was there to do?
So Riyun sprinted up the marble steps in the paltry moonlight, boots slapping against the slippery stone when he jumped to the top of the raised platform. “Take the shot, Eagle!”
“I shoot, and she’s dead. Switching to standard.”
Explosive round. That had been Riyun’s call. He bolted across the platform, blade raised, a growl bubbling up from deep inside.
The thing’s head came up, and it pulled its wicked claws free from the woman’s hair. It must have heard Riyun’s growl despite his helmet, because it emitted a distorted roar that was far deeper than something so small should have been able to manage.
It launched from the sacrifice’s head, wings flapping and spindly arms flailing.
Not much bigger than an infant. Four arms. Wings.
And it hit like a sack of bricks.
Riyun doubled over, all breath knocked from him, and an improbable weight pressed against him through his chest piece.
Claws raked across the gold Juggernaut armor Riyun had once thought impervious. Now, the claws squealed as they dug into the surface. All while thick globs of gelatinous spittle dribbled from the horrific creature’s misshapen, tooth-filled mouth.
When Riyun tried to punch the horror, it deftly dodged aside. When he tried to grab his knife from the stone, the otherworldly terror leapt atop the weapon.
Its glare felt like a laser boring through Riyun’s helmet.
A foul smell filled his nose: Something disgusting was cooking—his brain!
He howled, and the pathetic sound filled his helmet.
But he was aware enough to see the thing twist around…
Too slow to avoid Javika’s sword stroke.
The winged abomination tumbled away, making a sound that was part gurgle and part chuckle. It flapped its wings and flipped back to its feet.
Then Hirvok’s rifle thundered, and the thing’s head exploded.
The sergeant whooped. “Clean kill!”
Javika skipped over to the corpse and hacked through its narrow waist, then kicked the torso off the platform. She spun around on Riyun, favoring the leg she’d kicked with. “Now the wizard knows we are here.”
Riyun rolled onto his side, retrieved his knife, and hurried to the pillar where the chained woman stared in disbelief. He sheathed the blade and pulled off his helmet. “I know you can’t understand—”
The woman shook her head. “Six Saviors! You came to rescue me?”
He froze. Was she…? No. There was no resemblance to the images of Zabila, and this woman was older. “You’re an Outworlder?”
“Kilani Dohlar.”
“Riyun Molliro. Are you a wizard?”
“A designer. Didn’t Uzir tell you? Oh, Hollow Hills! He exiled you here, didn’t he?”
“Exiled isn’t quite…” Riyun waved Javika over. “Lift her up.”
The Biwali warrior wrapped her arms around the other woman’s hips and lifted her off the platform high enough for him to free her chains from the hook embedded in the column above her head.
“That lying—” The freed woman held up her wrists. Dark, wavy hair framed a forgettable, round face twisted by impatience. “Can you get me out of these manacles?”
“Not right now. That looks like some pretty good steel.”
“You can’t leave me like this.” She rattled the chains. “He’ll just come for me again!”
“No, he won’t. We came to kill him.”
“Kill—?” The woman hooked long strands of hair behind a big, protruding ear. “Meriscoya? Do you have any idea what you’re going up against? The main design team—”
“The boss fight.”
The rescued woman snorted. “Not a boss fight, no. This guy, he’s figured it all out.”
“The wizard?”
“Yeah. But he’s more than that now. He’s seen all the story development, all the code, everything that went into creating this world and the others.”
That sounded worse than Riyun had expected, and the way Javika squared her shoulders said she also hadn’t quite expected to hear that Meriscoya was… What? “What does that mean? He knows all the code and all the story. Did that just drive him mad?”
“I think it opened his eyes. He understood that his whole life was a construct, a lie.”
“Does he know he’s a clone of Beraga?”
The woman rocked back, piercing eyes wide. “How did you—?”
Meriscoya knew. “Well, Kilani, I’m really sorry that he’s figured out everything he thought was true was a lie. That’s a tough realization to deal with. But he’s tried to kill us one time too many, so we intend to return the favor.”
“With that?” Kilani pointed to Riyun’s assault carbine. “You know how many times Uzir’s people have tried that?”
“No, but it sounds like a few. They weren’t my team.”
“Well, thanks for saving me. Really.” The woman looked around. “How did you get down here? I tried escaping once, but he has everything blocked off.”
Riyun pointed to approximately where the cables were from the bottom of the west wall. “We climbed –”
“Ropes? Seriously? Whatever. I’ll take it.” She bunched the chains in her hands and darted to the southern end of the platform. “Good luck with the assassination!”
Javika pressed the palm of her hand against his chest when he took a step after the freed woman. “The wizard.”
Riyun scanned the sky, then the ruins. Why hadn’t Meriscoya shown up yet? “She might—”
“Leave him to me. You help with the dragons.” She wasn’t making a suggestion.
“All right. Once we have them pinned in the caverns, I’ll join you.”
Javika sprinted to the north end of the platform and jumped to the ground, no longer favoring her foot. She was lost from sight in seconds.
Riyun connected to Hirvok. “Cover Whisper as long as you can.”
After a momentary burst of static, the connection broke, then Hirvok reconnected. “Got her.”
Riyun hurried toward the lake, trying not to breathe too deep. His ribs ached where the winged terror had crashed into him. When he spotted Fassyl crouched a short distance from the north tip of the lake, Riyun jogged over.
The fat wizard turned around, eyes bugged out. “That noise!”
“Necessary. We need to get up to the cavern entrance.”
“But he knows now. Meriscoya will have heard that.”
“And if he shows up again, he’ll hear that roar one last time.”
It was a struggle getting, then keeping, the old man moving. He wheezed and gasped and stumbled long before they reached Symbra’s team. He used the artifact to keep himself upright. “We’ll never reach them—”
“Hurry!”
But the old wizard was right. On infrared, Riyun could see the others. They were sprinting away from the cavern opening, and something big was lumbering through the dark entry.
He shoved Fassyl to the ground. “Stay down.”
A large dragon–not quite so big as the wounded ancient—came to a stop halfway out of the entry and craned its neck to search the night.
Had they managed to get the explosives planted?
Riyun brought his Devastator up. He had to assume they’d done something.
He fired. It was a short burst—on target, grouped around the reptile’s forehead.
And apparently, he hit.
The thing pulled back into the cavern slightly and shook its head the way a human might when bugs stung. It opened its mouth, ready to roar its displeasure.
But an explosion tore off its wings where they pressed against the ground.
Blood spurted from the wounds, then the thrumming cycle of Lonar’s assault cannon preceded another burst of blood from the creature’s chest, and it retreated out of sight.
More dragons rushed toward the entry, these smaller and quicker.
And vulnerable to small arms fire.
Symbra connected to the team. “Light them up!”
Riyun joined his carbine to the wondrous thunder of weapons fire.
The dragons crumpled to the ground with surprising ease. But they kept coming. Six of them. Ten. Twenty.
He emptied two magazines into the reptiles before they stopped.
Silence replaced the cacophony of weapons fire.
Fassyl blinked rapidly. “You…killed them.”
“The little ones. Those are easy. But the big one…”
“I can deal with that.” The wizard got to his knees, then to his feet, then waddled toward the opening. He held the artifact over his head. Brilliant, diamond-pure magical energies coiled around the staff, lighting the portly old man like a star. “Come! Come, Niyalki, and face your end!”
Riyun thought there might have been movement in the cavern, but he wasn’t sure. “Eagle? Do either of you see anything in the cavern?”
Lonar chuckled. “Lots of dead dragons, Lightning.”
“I thought I saw movement.”
Hirvok whistled. “Yeah. It’s the big one. Just inside enough that I can’t get a clean—”
A strange warbling flooded the line, followed almost immediately by an explosion.
Not from the cavern mouth, Riyun realized, but from the northwestern end of the valley.
The overwatch roost!
Magenta energies slithered up and down the wall, then a deafening pop echoed through the valley, and the entire valley face tore free and plunged through the bright, arcane energies before coming to rest in a smoking heap.
Riyun keyed his mic. “Eagle! Tank!”
But the radio was dead.
Fassyl seemed unfazed by it all, shouting even louder than before. “Come! Face me, ancient beast!”
The giant dragon stuck its head out, exposing its good eye. There was something in its mouth, something large…
Another dragon! The big, wounded one!
Another explosion shook the valley, but this time it came from the cavern mouth. Fassyl was knocked backwards and onto his ample butt by the force, but the energy from the artifact seemed to protect him.
One of the demolition rounds had gone off. Symbra had triggered it, but had she gotten her target?
The old wizard scrambled to his feet, once again raising the artifact over his head. “Your reign of terror has come to an end!”
Quit talking, and blast it! Riyun sighted on the reptile’s good eye. The neck of the other dragon hung from Niyalki’s mouth.
A shield. It used the other one as a shield! It suspected more explosives!
Before he could squeeze off a shot, one of the weird portals appeared behind Fassyl. Meriscoya stepped out, far too calm for someone who was seconds away from being dead.
Fassyl spun around with surprising speed, staff pointed toward the other wizard. “Just as well you show yourself now.”
Meriscoya stopped and rapped his staff against the valley floor. “Fassyl. How surprising to see you throw your lot in with common assassins.”
“Not assassins but those summoned by destiny. As with me.”
Riyun slapped a fresh magazine into place and tried to sight in on the mad wizard. There was nothing in the tac-net display.
Illusion? If so, it was affecting everyone, because no one was firing.
Fassyl waved the artifact in a slow circle. “For what you have done–for killing Tarlayn—you must pay.”
The younger wizard waved his hand casually, and a ball of midnight flashed from his fingertips to the old wizard’s artifact. Where there had been white, pure energy surrounding the ancient staff, now there was only the ripple of darkness. “I have already paid the price.”
A flash of movement from the cavern opening caught Riyun’s attention: The giant dragon’s head flashed out, and its huge mouth snapped over the old man, engulfing him and crushing him with a nauseating crack.
Now they faced the deadliest dragon and the mad wizard.
Riyun opened fire on Meriscoya. He didn’t need the tac-net to know where center mass was.
The others opened fire on the dragon, which raised its gory head to the sky and coughed.
It was getting ready to breathe.
Meriscoya turned toward Riyun. “Another misguided assassin sent to waste his life in the service of a false creator. My father grows desperate.” The wizard raised the hand that had nullified the artifact.
But before he could do anything, a form separated from the shadows.
And Javika’s blade nearly cut that hand off, slashing through robe and flesh. The hand sagged limply.
The wizard gasped and pressed the wounded limb against his chest, where black blood spurted onto his shirt.
He backpedaled.
Before Javika could swing again, he was gone in a flash of light.
That still left the dragon, although it had retreated into the cavern.
Riyun ran to Javika’s side. “How did you—?”
She pointed her weapon at the western wall. “There is a labyrinth. He hides within it.”
“He blasted the cliff face where Hirvok and Lonar were perched.”
“I heard.”
Symbra jogged toward them. “What do we do? Neon has the artifact—”
The hacker was running toward them, trying to shake something from the staff. “I think we have to pursue Meriscoya into the labyrinth.” She shivered. “Th-that’s what would make sense. The boss fight.”
Quil plucked the old wizard’s bloody hand from the staff. “It would make sense. Despite everything.”
Symbra bowed her head. “Or we could retreat and regroup. Maybe we can recover the sniper rifle and autocannon—”
“Recover our weapons?” Hirvok guffawed. He strutted out of the darkness, covered by dirt but alive. “You don’t give me and Tank enough credit.”
The heavy weapons expert limped toward the group. “Too tough to kill.”
Riyun spotted movement at the cavern mouth. “All right. Into the labyrinth. Maybe we can lose the dragon that way.”
Javika took off at a trot, but she slowed once she realized how banged up some of the others were. While they jogged along, Riyun kept an eye on the cavern entry behind them. Meriscoya was wounded, and Niyalki didn’t seem much better off, but the two of them were still dangerous. Killing the mad wizard would probably eliminate the other threat.
Quil huffed up to Riyun. “Lieutenant… Lightning. There is a possibility we have failed to consider.”
“A good one?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“I guess that was asking too much. What is it?”
“In some stories–tragedies–the heroes fail.”
A part of Riyun wanted to laugh. “That’s it? This isn’t really a game built for heroes? Could Total Rewrite even sell that?”
“That is another possibility we have failed to consider: What if the purpose of the game is not what we thought?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if the design is intended as a one-way trip?”
“Kill the players?”
“Or at least leave them in this world.”
“We did consider that.” But Riyun now wondered if he’d been wrong to cast the idea aside.
Javika held her hand up as they approached marble steps that led up to a columned opening. Golden light flickered from somewhere deep inside. “I marked the path I took. I was close when he fled.”
Riyun swapped in a fresh magazine. “You saw him in there?”
“I saw a door and a chamber beyond. I heard him say something, then there was a bright light.”
That would have been when he blasted the valley wall, just before showing up in the valley to kill Fassyl. “And you think he returned to the chamber?”
“Where else could he go? He is wounded.”
Symbra put a booted foot on the first step. “This could be our best chance, I guess.”
Hirvok flicked a clump of dirt from his armor. “We gotta do this.”
Naru and Quil nodded. There really wasn’t much choice.
Riyun held his hand out for the artifact. It felt like it looked: solid, heavy. But it didn’t feel like an artifact. “Is the magic gone?”
Naru took it back. “I don’t think so. I don’t think you could undo something so powerful.”
“Well, it sure looks undone.”
“There’s still something in there. I can…”
Quil gently wrapped his hand around hers. “Feel it. Yes. There is energy within.”
The hacker smiled. “I think I can—” She bowed her head. “I think we can figure it out. If we have to.”
Something about the night shifted. It was like a pressure pushing against Riyun’s chest.
The dragon. It was out of the caverns. Would it come for them?
He rushed up the steps and stared through the entry. The flickering was fire. Torches, lamps—who knew what the wizard needed to light the place. “Whisper, you’re on point. Neon, you stay with me. Tank, you’ve got the rear. Stay sharp.”
Javika kept them moving, only once in a while pausing to show where she’d marked her path. Rather than tunnels cut from stone, they moved through narrow, carved stone block hallways lined with support pillars. Fires burned in braziers and sconces, giving off just enough light to make navigation possible.
It was unsettling the way a passage could seemingly go on, only to be abandoned. But Javika moved with confidence. She knew her way.
Before long, she waved for them to stop. “The door to the chamber.”
There was no mistaking it: a door of stone. Bright light came from the room beyond.
Riyun caught odd sounds—a hiss, a grating, whimpering. He signaled for people to take up positions on either side of the door, then readied to charge inside. Javika drew her sword and nodded.
She blazed through, and he followed almost immediately.
The chamber beyond was square, and it was huge. Candles and lamps revealed a luxurious bed at the center, and a bathtub against the far wall. Flashlights drove shadow from alcoves and niches, a desk and chair, chests and crates, rugs and drapes.
But there was no sign of Meriscoya.
Except…for dark droplets on the stone floor.
Javika knelt beside a few of the droplets, removing her glove to test the liquid. “Blood.”
Riyun waved the others in, then signaled for them to stop when he heard the whimpering again. Female. Not the wizard.
A trap?
He deployed the team so there were eyes on every opening that could hide someone. Then he and Javika began checking those openings. On the third one, she found a switch. Riyun waved the others closer as the Biwali warrior flipped it.
Stone ground against stone, and a door revealed itself. Beyond that door was another chamber with candles and lamps. It was equally large and square and had the same dark niches and alcoves that could hide so much, but it was unfurnished other than a few braziers with low fires. Four pillars stood in the center.
Chained to the closest, Kilani lay on her side. She shook her head and glanced at him with woozy eyes. “I warned you.”
Riyun hurried toward her, alert for Meriscoya. “Where is he?”
“Somewhere…in here.” An ugly welt was already swelling on the side of her head.
“Bring them in, Javika.”
The others filtered in, taking up positions to watch the alcoves. Keys hung off a ring that dangled from a hook set in one of the pillars. The third key undid the woman’s manacles. She was unsteady on her feet.
Riyun steadied her. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
The woman shook her head. “No one’s getting out.”
Firelight from the braziers took on a magenta tone, and Riyun caught the whisper of fabric. He spun around, just in time to see the wizard step from an alcove behind Naru. His staff glowed like a small, black sun.
Riyun brought his gun up. “Neon!”
The hacker spun around and gasped.
Meriscoya plunged the end of his staff through her chest as easily as if using a spear.
The artifact clattered to the floor, and Riyun fired.
But the wizard was already retreating, leaving behind only a small globe of coruscating magenta arcane energy.
That grew.
Heat radiated from the globe, and where the edge touched the fallen hacker, her armor disappeared with a sizzle and white smoke.
Quil ran to her. “Naru!” He stopped, holding a hand up to shield his eyes from the heat and light.
The power–the heat–coming from the globe would kill them all. Riyun dashed for the exit. “Let’s go!”
He stopped when the stone door slammed shut.
Then the heat and light grew as bright and terrible as the sun.
And he remembered Quil’s words: What if the intent is to make it a one-way trip?