Vicissitude: Yang Side (Lost Earth Series) Read online

  I finish the turtle and with an auto attack before I right-click the Yang-buff we marked off earlier. A blue aura surrounds Thunder God. The kill pushes my experience point meter up to Level Two. I get a skill-up point, too, which I put into my W-skill: Electrowave. Thunder God follows my click to the Yang-buff camp on his own, leaving me free to look around the map. Snoke is the first to appear from the ravine’s fog of war toplane. Mjolnir steps out from the left ravine brush flanking midlane a moment before Megumi arrives. Quiet and TofuAres arrive last in their lanes, missing out on two tube-foxes which confirms my suspicions about their invasion. Heaven lays down her ward by my Yin-buff. The vision uncovers both my empty Yin-buff camp and a Malicious torch, which Heaven destroys to deny vision.

  A small chime sounds. Red text appears in the left hand chat box.

  [ALL] Brazzers: Since when does Thunder God start Yang-buff? :/

  I press Q. Thunder God dashes through the tree-wall of the Yang-buff camp and stuns the vermilion bird waiting inside. I type back:

  [ALL]iSoFly: Only when I play you. :)

  In a few moments, another message comes in.

  [ALL]Brazzers: iSoFly plz :c Teach me how 2 pineapple, island girl.

  I clench my teeth. It’s not even five minutes into the game and Brazzers is already throwing his racist jabs.

  But Heaven steps in before I can.

  [ALL]iSoFine: No. U need some1 to teach u how 2 play. :/

  Snickers break out along the table and the furious clacking of keys follow.

  [ALL]iSoHigh: LOLOL

  [ALL]iSoRatchet: GET ON THE GROUND! SHOTS FIRED EVERYWHERE! :O

  [ALL]iSoNotF2P: *micdrop* B)

  Brazzers doesn’t respond to that.

  After I clear the Yang-buff, I make around the smaller camps. I see Brazzers’s icon stop at the Yin-buff camp that I stole. Then he disappears back into the fog of war. I ping the torch icon. “Watch out. Brazzers might come bottom.”

  Ash snorts. “If he does, that bush has a torch in it.”

  I cross over to the other side of my jungle and clear the camps. The rest of the lanes look tame enough. Mjolnir fires a globule of ice at Megumi in mid. They’re both at about eighty-percent health, but Megumi is ahead in magic points. I’ll keep an eye on them. If Mjolnir runs out of magic, he could be an easy kill. In bottom, Ash and Hiro are even with TofuAres and Quiet. Both damage carries are farming tube-foxes for gold and not paying much attention to each other. The little poke and harass that’s there comes from the supports.

  Up in top lane, Snoke is trying to zone Heaven away from her tube-fox wave but he takes a free skill-shot to the face in the process and that gets him to calm his ass down and farm his foxes quietly.

  I secure the Yang-buff from ten-percent health with my Annihilate summoner spell. Then I press B to teleport back to base to buy a pair of boots and a torch to donate to Heaven, since she doesn’t have one up there.

  By the time I reach the jungle, Megumi has Mjolnir pushed to his turret. His healthbar is down to a third, but so is Megumi’s.

  I hesitate at the jungle’s edge, halfway between Heaven’s lane and Megumi’s. Where is Brazzers? He must’ve gone back to shop by now. I click on the unlit left brush of Megumi’s lane.

  Brazzers bursts out of the brush, throwing a bola at Megumi. Mjolnir jumps forward from behind his tube-foxes.

  A jolt shoots through my wrist.

  Megumi jukes both shots behind her wave, firing a shot back at Mjolnir. His health whittles down to twenty-five percent, but Brazzers wedges himself between Mjolnir and Megumi as a bodyguard. Megumi darts for the brush towards me. Brazzers dashes to her, knocking her champion up.

  I dash out the brush with my Q, pushing back Brazzers and halting Mjolnir in his place. Megumi follows up my combo with her freeze. The blast radius freezes Brazzers, but only the tip catches Mjolnir with a slow effect. He drags himself away from us, running back for his turret.

  I hit the W key. A circle of sparks charge around Thunder God. My Q comes off cooldown. I close the gap and release the W key. A wave of electricity flies from Thunder God.

  Bzzzzzzrt!

  “First kill!” The announcer shouts.

  I round back to help Megumi. Brazzers takes a few swipes at Megumi, but once I get close he starts running. I dash in with my Q but Brazzers flashes away and runs into his jungle.

  “Fucker got away,” I mutter.

  Megumi pats the back of my chair. “Good timing, though. I'm at like ten health.”

  I direct Thunder God up the ravine and I drop a torch into the tri-sided brush in the enemy jungle, in case Brazzers gets any funny ideas about coming up top. Megumi backs to base and upgrades her gear.

  Another chime comes from all chat.

  [ALL]Brazzers: Not like playing TG takes any skill to play

  [ALL]iSoRatchet: Maybe u should join us and change your name to iSoSalty *-*

  [ALL]Brazzers: Maybe u should change your name to iNeverPutTorchesDown :O

  [ALL]iSoRatchet: But ya’ll still died tho :o

  [ALL]Brazzers: Not me. Only Mjolnir.

  [ALL]Mjolnir: :/

  [ALL]Quiet: Guys plz…

  The game slides back to a tense lull for the next few minutes. Outer and inner turrets drop on both sides. I drop a torch in the tiger pit and go back. Mjolnir and Megumi return to lane.

  Snoke lunges for Heaven, but she dashes behind Snoke. She kicks Snoke towards her turret. With no tube foxes to distract it, the turret fires two shots at him and chunks his health down to a sliver. And Heaven finishes him off with a fist to the face.

  “Your team has slain an enemy!” The announcer calls.

  [ALL]Snoke: Akemi name change?

  [ALL]iSoFine: Not Akemi.

  While Snoke’s death timer is up, Heaven clears the waves and takes out a turret.

  Meanwhile, down bottom Quiet hooks in Ash. Brazzers emerges from the brush and collapse on him with TofuAres. Hiro fires a few shots at them, but it’s no good. Ash dies to Tofu’s fire, and Hiro has no choice but to run for his life. The Malicious trio disappear into the fog and reappear at the tiger pit. They melt its health down in seconds and we’re too far away to contest.

  “Red team has slain the tiger!” The announcer calls.

  My lips press into a line. One life and tiger for a turret. That’s gonna put us back at even. “We need to start grouping up. Malicious is getting way too much gold.”

  “End this?” Hiro asks.

  “Yes. Megumi, come get Yin-buff. Grab a torch, we’re going to push down mid and torch up their jungle,” I say, guiding Thunder God through another round of monster camps while everyone else catches up.

  Heaven roves into mid to keep Mjolnir busy while Megumi backs toward Yin-buff. I throw my Q-W combo to weaken it for her and she finishes it with a skill-shot.

  Megumi and I join her in mid. Ash and Hiro bring up the rear. Together we mow down the waves. Ash throws a water bubble at Mjolnir to catch him, but he flees back behind his turret. But it does nothing, and there’s no one to back him up. We take the middle turret and push on to the second inner turret. The rest of Malicious come running down from their base to meet us and everyone is clicking madly, champions dancing from one side of the lane to the other in an awkward pixelated Mexican standoff. Desperate not to be the one to get caught out. Itching to jump on anyone out of place.

  It’s a blur. Heaven moves just a pinky tip-breadth away from the team and all of Malicious jumps in for the initiation. Brazzers rams into us knocking up Heaven and me. Megumi counter-initiates with her ultimate; a blizzard surges through the lane, eating through health bars like acid, slowing Malicious members all around. Her opening gives me enough time to throw mine down. Bolts of lightning rain down from the sky, zapping, stunning, covering the battlefield in sparks.

  Ash casts a heal, but we can barely see it thought the white flashes. It’s chaos and mayhem everywhere. Hiro is barely visible but I hear him firing. Health drops dangerously low on both sid
es. The whole gaming room is alive with all our furious keyboard mashing. We’re throwing down everything: Every skills, every last summoner spell, every last drop of mana, every ounce of crowd control, every inch of our lives.

  "An enemy has been slain!" The announcer calls.

  Then a moment later. "An ally has been slain!"

  A heartbeat later. “Doublekill!”

  Voice roar in my ears from all sides.

  “I got em, I got em—”

  “Bullshit! How did I die?”

  “Triple kill!”

  “Go go go!”

  “Quadrakill!”

  My screen flashes red.

  “You have been slain!” The announcer calls.

  “Oh my gata! Give her the Pentaaaaaaaaa!”

  Brazzers, the last survivor flees up the ramp.

  Chat explodes.

  [ALL]iSoHigh: GIVE HER THE PENTA!

  [ALL]iSoRatchet: GIVE HER THE PENTA!

  [ALL]iSoNotF2P: GIVE HER THE PENTA! ;—;

  [ALL]iSoFine: GIVE ME MY PENTA!

  [ALL]Brazzers: FUCK OFF!

  But it doesn’t matter. The chaos clears and Heaven, Hiro, and Ash are all that’s left of the slaughter. They push down the inhibitor, then the nexus turrets while all our death counters roll down from sixty seconds. Too long for Malicious to make any kind of comeback.

  Heaven strikes the final blow to their nexus.

  The screen slows, gets hazy, and hangs over the enemy base.

  VICTORY!

  >>Continue?

  Secret Room 1-6 (Heaven) 'Ah'

  Riiiiiing…

  “Hello?” You stuff your cellphone between your ear and shoulder. “This is Heaven. Who am I speaking to?”

  “Just one of your lowly servants, my lady.” Flame’s voice is audible chocolate: milky cocoa forged into a fine truffle of sound. You could listen to him for hours, days, until the sun stops rising.

  Your lips curl into a smirk. “Good morning, Casanova,” You croon back in a low sing-song voice. “How goes the search for the Ise puzzle box?”

  He groans. “Terrible.” You imagine him ruffling his ginger hair, jade eyes bleary from fatigue, body sprawling out over his hotel bed. “The search for the puzzle box feels like a puzzle in itself. And I’m afraid I don’t know the answer.”

  Your smile slips. “You’ve looked in all of the places?”

  “All but one.” The line goes silent for a while. Something, a dog, a cat perhaps keens from his end of the line. Flame’s voice comes back, but in a more hushed tone. “My lady… There wasn’t even a false box when I went to the other shrines.”

  You pull a leg up into the computer chair. “You think someone stole them?”

  “Someone did,” Flame says flatly. “But they must’ve done it awhile ago. There’s no sign of scents or anything.”

  Your breathing accelerates. Your mind races. Someone else is looking the Ise puzzle box? No…may have even already found the puzzle box? That doesn’t bode well. You gather your breath, quelling the pounding in your heart. Just because it’s found doesn’t mean the finder can open it. You drum your nails on the zebrawood desk. “Do we really need the puzzle box?”

  “No, but I don’t recommend ignoring it,” Flame says. “It’s Holy Bell is a battery of energy for whoever gets a hold of it. Not to mention that whoever has it can track Amaterasu if she revives.”

  You grimace. “I think she already has.”

  “How do you know?”

  Your hands carve paths in your long black hair. “Remember when I tried to revive the Azure Dragon and the White Tiger from their cores and it didn’t work? If a god is already alive, their cores don’t react. Amaterasu’s didn’t.”

  “That’s why then.” Flame sighs.

  “What can we do then?” You ask, tracing patterns on the striped wood grain.

  “What we planned. There’s still one box for me to check on,” Flame says. “But what about the ZenGaming director? Did you do that already?”

  “Oh him?” You sit back. “That’s tomorrow.” Your gaze wanders to the cat-shaped clock above your daily calendar. “I should actually head to sleep. I’m meeting him pretty early in the morning tomorrow. And after that I have to get my dance clothes for my sister’s baby shower.”

  “Baby shower? You mean the one at the palace?”

  “Yes. That one.”

  “My lady,” His voice tapers into silence. “Why are you going to that? The King of Dragons will—”

  “He won’t touch me, if he has any sense,” You say, closing the Ise Shrine window on your computer. “The Sister World Pua Moana have enough bad sentiments about him as it is. If he does anything while I’m there, he’ll make enemies of everyone.”

  “Even if he doesn’t do anything, just attending invites—”

  “Disaster?” You sigh. Does he think you have no sense? Of course, the danger was the first thing you thought of. Not just to yourself, but to your plans. “I know.” You lay the phone down on the edge of the desk and put it on speaker. “I don’t like it either.”

  “Then why are you going?”

  Your lips flatten into a line. “Flame, I have to go. In my culture, family gatherings aren’t optional. And they know I’m alive.”

  “Even if it could put you in danger?” He doesn’t bother to hide his disbelief as he does his usual emotions. “Forgive me, my lady, but I can’t agree with that.”

  Your fingers touch the base your tan neck. “If I don’t go, then it looks even worse for me. I could get renounced by my family and the whole island. That’s only going to make our job harder.”

  Flame gives a half-assenting grunt. “The poison is just as bad as the cure.” There’s a squeak. A chair protests some heavy weight from Flame’s end of the line. “I trust you’ll be careful?”

  “When have you ever known me to be careless?”

  “I don’t know, my lady. I question the hasty risks you take.”

  You laugh quietly. He’s the Black Tortoise of the North, the embodiment all things safe and slow. Even if you were going to the store down the street on a whim, he’d question it. “It’s all about the odds of your win condition. I don’t take a risk if I don’t have a good shot of winning.”

  His milky chuckle floods your ears. “Is that how you’ve been winning all of our poker games?”

  “And blackjack,” You add, lips spreading in a grin.

  Both of your laughs twine in the quiet room. He quiets first. “If you must do anything crazy at least make sure to take Bastet with you. Where is she anyway?”

  “I sent her snooping around Dragon Palace for me a few days ago. She’s fine.”

  “You went without Bastet for days? Around humans?”

  “Oh Flame you worry too much. It’s not like people can see I don’t have a soul. Humans here are always more preoccupied with what race you are.”

  “All the more reason why you shouldn’t be without her.”

  You scoff. “I can call her here at any time,” You say. “I’ll call her right now if it makes you happy.”

  “Please,” Flame says. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Hopefully with the Ise puzzle box.”

  “Goodnight, Flame.”

  “And try to sleep well, my lady.”

  You won’t. Instead you get up and move to your dresser where an alabaster jewelry box lies. You open the top drawer pull out the jade cat statuette inside, and thumb the cool smooth surface. “Bastet, return to me.”

  The statuette’s eyes blaze with life. Your shadow reappears beneath you briefly, but then it steps away on its own accord and solidifies into the shape of a lithe black abyssinian with bright green eyes who leaps onto the edge of your bed and rolls on the blue afghan. “I missed the comfort of a warm bed so much.”

  You run your fingers through Bastet’s short belly fur up to her chin. “Surveillance was not fun?”

  Bastet’s purr throbs against your fingers. “Dragon Palace is cold and wet. And not to mention, that there were wo
lves running about.”

  Wolves? You’ve lived in Dragon Palace a good four and a half centuries, but you’re fairly certain that there had never been any wolves there. Lion-dogs certainly. But wolves? “You mean lion dogs?”

  “No.” Bastet’s tail twitches back and forth. “These wolves are much different than lion dogs. It’s hard to get a decent rest with them prowling about.”

  “What about the King of Dragons? Anything about his movements?”

  “Not very much. From what I could see, he’s been preoccupied with the death of Professor Kerin and the Kitsune Republic visiting Dragon Palace.”

  You lift your hand. “Professor Kerin is dead?” You remember talking to her just last week, during your secret visit and she seemed fine and healthy. You hope that the cause of her death isn’t associated with you.

  Bastet flicks an ear. “I’m not certain how, but Professor Wu from the Wu School of Oracles is visiting to pay her respects.”

  You almost don’t hear her. You sit down in your computer chair next to Bastet and rub your forehead, trying to wrap your head about Professor Kerin’s death. “Is there anything else?”

  “The guards mention something called CRISIS-D in passing. I’ve yet to figure out what it is, but supposedly it is here in the Brother World.”

  You scratch her behind the ears idly, eyes narrowing in thought. CRISIS-D? You’ve never heard the name, but if it’s associated with the King of Dragons, it must be bad. Perhaps they’re looking for the gods, too? “Thank you, Bastet. I’ll look into the Wu School of Oracles and CRISIS-D. Both sound like something Flame would know.”

  Bastet’s whiskers twitch. “Him knowing something other than a woman’s bust size?”

  “Oh come now, his information-gathering has been nothing but helpful.”

  She scoffs and gets up. “I’ll give him that. But more importantly, we all need to be more careful if this CRISIS-D really is here in the Brother World.”