Spear of Destiny Read online

  Something invisible struck me from the side, sending me tumbling and skidding over the Warsinger’s back. I tucked my head and shoulder in and rolled out of it, barely leaping away from the swipes of Ororgael’s sword. I teleported behind him, but he was ready for me, bringing his weapon around in a slash that forced me off balance. I carried the wobble into a controlled jump, but as I soared through the air, his eyes and mouth flew open and a boiling bolt of raw force exploded from his face in a roaring inferno of light. My eyes widened, but even with the time dilation I gained from Leap of Faith, there was no escaping the blast. It blew my helmet off, peeling me with heat so intense I felt like my body was melting. I threw my hands up, watching in horror as the leather stripped away and my own bones flashed into view through my palms.

  [You take 1100...]

  [...]

  [... You are immune...]

  [HP: 578/1678]

  I crashed onto Withering Rose’s back like a falling star, crying out as my bare skin sizzled on the searing hot metal surface. The blast had destroyed my armor, instantly rusting the metal and turning the leather into a sticky, tarry goo that reeked like a week-old corpse. I felt like I was burning up from the inside and the outside at the same time. Worse, I was blind: there was nothing but dazzling light in all directions. I spammed three health-restoring potions and called the Spear to my hand anyway, prepared to fight to the end.

  Ororgael didn’t crow his victory. There was only the heavy thump of his boots on metal as he strode toward me. I felt something cut through the air above my head and reflexively threw up the haft in a two-handed block. The bluesteel shuddered and bowed under the pressure of the blazing pillar of molten glass, roaring inches from my face.

  “You are a virus. A mistake, ‘Park’. I know this game better than anyone, and your Character Seed should not exist in this system. That means you were created. But by whom?” Ororgael’s voice had a hollow ring to it now, like it was coming from far away. “Well, I know that too. You’re another face of the sickness plaguing OUROS like a cancer. In fact, you ARE that sickness. A personification of it.”

  “What... uhhn... the fuck... are you ranting about?” My vision cleared enough that I could see him as he leaned his blazing sword into the spitting, crackling haft of the Spear of Nine Spheres.

  “I’m telling you that your filth is corrupting my AI.” There was a mad, feral energy written into the lines of his face. “This sword can’t kill you, yet. But soon, it will. And I can assure you, Park, that as soon as I can kill you, I will. Archemi is the only world we have left, and I will not let you infect it.”

  “Dude, you’re so nuts that I could use your shit to bait squirrels.” The Mark of Matir throbbed with cold fire on the back of my right hand—and as I noticed it, I felt a sudden surge of intuition. I rolled away just as Baldr plunged his sword down. He whiffed, thrusting the super-hot blade into the metal surface of Withering Rose. The aurum turned the weapon in a shower of sparks, and the very edge of it brushed against the bare skin of my arm with hardly enough force to cut paper—but the limb exploded with blood and pain. The Spear flew from my ruined hand, clattering and spinning over the surface of the Warsinger.

  [Glancing blow. You take 998 reduced damage.]

  [HP: 30/1678.]

  “Just let it go, Park. By the time you respawn in your broken shell of a castle, I’ll have everything I need out of Withering Rose to enact the next stage of our evolution. Our defense against squalor.” Ororgael grinned mirthlessly overhead, and time seemed to slow as he brought the sword back around. “You’ve been running a treadmill while I’m headed to the finish line. Just relax. There’s nothing you can do to stop what’s coming.”

  “The fuck there isn’t.” I jammed my one working hand deep into the gash I’d left in his armor. My fingernails ejected into long needles, piercing padding and then flesh. And then I activated Shadow Lance.

  Despite its name, Shadow Lance worked with any weapon. Ice coiled through my flesh and thrust into Baldr’s body like a three-foot spike of darkness. It burst out through the other side of his abdomen, sending splinters of flash-frozen steel flying.

  [You deal a mortal blow. x2 damage.]

  [You deal 7527 Darkness damage.]

  Ororgael’s mouth opened in a soundless cry before he sagged onto my fist. His eyes lost focus as he slumped, pinning me to the burning metal. I snarled in pain as my back burned, writhing, trying to escape from underneath the huge man’s bulk. But as I struggled, a weird, skin-prickling power flashed over my skin. He reached down and squeezed my wrist in a crushing grip, trapping it inside the grisly wound I’d made.

  “You know, maybe there’s a way to cure you, now that I think about it.” A shimmering, metallic black liquid oozed out of his pores, beading on his skin. It flowed up over his hand, then down along his arm. Wherever it touched, the flesh and skin turned numb. “Do you see this? It’s the visual manifestation of an anti-viral program, one designed to cure anomalies like you. I can give you a fresh start, Park. So don’t worry about your friends, or the queen. Once I rid the world of squalor and bring order back into the system, they’ll be grateful.”

  Cures? Squalor? What the fuck was he talking about? Panic flashed through me as I realized I was paralyzed: the liquid had reached my neck and was sliding up under my jaw, heading for my mouth and eyes. I frantically scanned my Inventory for some way to escape—and found one.

  I switched the five vials of Bluecrystal Mana vials I’d looted from Jacob Ratzinger into my Quickbar and spammed the lot.

  [Warning: Catastrophic mana poisoning.]

  [You take 99999 9 9-]

  An awful, bitter chemical taste flooded my mouth and nose. Then the world detonated like a nuclear blast, an explosion I heard only for an instant as blinding light swallowed me and Ororgael and blew us both to Hell.

  Chapter 2

  [SEED#: NUMBERFETCH 00-001A-TypeNew[HeraldOfMT]_PARAGON: Hector Park.]

  [... ]

  [Hector Park]: Thank you for your contribution to [Learning Cycle 3944390-SI: Anomalous Malware Activity Resulting from Corrupted Player Data and Data Fragments.] In response to a serious attempt to modify, corrupt, or delete your personnel files, patches and security updates are being applied to your Seed Data.]

  [... ]

  [We would advise you that [FETCHERROR:NULL] may persist in attempting to corrupt your data. We will continue to experientially iterate and evolve our security in response to this threat.]

  [Once we have finished restoring and updating your Seed Data with additional security features, you will be returned to the Archemi Reality Framework. You may experience some initial reality distortion and temporary in-game amnesia due to unavoidable data decoherence. Returning your accumulated Archemi data will take approximately 45 minutes. You cannot leave the server during this time.]

  [Reading new Experiential Data... 100%]

  [...]

  [Loading Backup: (ATHENA Cell 192018924.)]

  [ERROR: Insufficient Memory: Cell 192018924 (00-001A-TypeNew[HeraldOfMT])]

  [D.H.D Memory limitation overridden by [ADMIN] (Reason: Conclusion of Data obtained during Security Incident Learning Cycle #3944390 mandates expansion of Agent protections.)]

  [Exception approved by [ADMIN]. Searching for compatible cells.]

  [Cell 0007681—D. Argawal. 97.6% compatibility. Entanglement initiated.]

  [...]

  [Memory expansion complete: Cell 192018924 (Available Memory: 3.5/5PB)]

  [Opening New Learning Cycle 2400009-Misc: Analyze Orbital Server Infrastructure to Improve Memory Storage and Processing Capabilities for Individual Dynamic Human Data Cells. (Reason: Deleting existing Cell Data to improve security agents is sub-optimal if memory could be expanded via Main Server Core contact or, failing that, physical expansion of the Orbital Server Cores.]

  [Cloning Cell... 56%... 70%...]

  [Re-encrypting Cells...]

  [... ]

  [Opening New Learning Cycle 3944451-G
E: Investigate the Ongoing Absence of Terminal Staff and SysAdmins, and the Implications of this Absence. (Reason: Expansion protocol due to Terran authority being unresponsive for (90) days AND continuing presence of active security threat identified in Learning Cycle 3944390-SI.]

  [Thank you, Hector Park. There is no further action required by your account. Please log out and rest for at least two hours before resuming play.]

  ***

  I took a deep, whooping breath and sat bolt upright, a shower of dirt falling from my skin.

  The room was dark, cold, and silent. My mouth was dry, my heart pounding, and I couldn’t remember how the fuck I’d gotten here, what the fuck I’d been doing, and—now that I thought about it—my own name. It was D-something. Daveed? David? Something like that.

  My head spun as I got to hands and knees and promptly fell over. My flak was hanging off me in tatters. I had no idea where my rifle or radio were. As I patted around on the ground, my hands clapped down on something metallic. My gun! I pulled it toward me with a surge of relief, only to discover that it wasn’t my trusty old M-19. It was a long stick with a blade on the end.

  [Spear of Destiny]. An augmented pop-up appeared in my HUD. At least my helmet was still working, kind of.

  “Okay! Very funny, guys!” My voice slurred, like I’d been drinking heavily. “I don’t know why you assholes locked me in a fridge with a goddamn spear, but I sure hope that whoever did it has a jar of Vaseline handy, because it’s going right up your ass!”

  My voice bounced off the surfaces of the room, echoing. There was no reply: just a profound, monastic silence.

  A prickle of fear climbed up the back of my throat. I struggled for names, but couldn’t remember any. Not even my own. “... Hello?”

  As I sat there, struggling to get my bearings, a ghostly pale light ignited at the other end of the long, narrow room: a nine-pointed star symbol about a foot in diameter. It was just bright enough that I could see. And boy, could I see. As my eyes adjusted, my field of vision throbbed with impossibly vivid colors. Light scattered along every reflective surface like a prism, turning the black granite floor into a field of glittering stars.

  “Right. Drugs.” I struggled to control my breathing and mostly failed. “It’s gotta be drugs. Someone slipped me a tab of shitty Thai acid. Or maybe I took one because it looked like candy and I’m a fucking moron.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to think calming thoughts, but I wasn’t calm, and no amount of self-soothing bullshit was going to change that. Just as I had made up my mind to get up and start clawing at the walls, a rumbling sound briefly passed through the floor, a sound like an enormous door opening. Every muscle in my torso tensed. I shuffled back on my butt until my back was against the wall, clutching the spear in one hand. As I waited, I scanned the room, searching for exits. It looked like some kind of small chapel or church. Pillars and ancient stone archways lined a central aisle which terminated in a three-tiered altar made of black hexagonal stone columns. The glowing symbol hung over them, pulsing softly with traceries of bluish light. At the other end of the room to my left was a sealed stone door.

  What the fuck was going on? Had I been kidnapped? There were no windows and no exits, other than the door. There was actually very little in here, other than me, Mr. Glowy-Rune, and a spear any spiky-haired anime protagonist would be proud to own. Then I looked down in preparation to get my feet under me and nearly freaked, because the body I had was not mine. There were feet, legs, hands, all of them covered in burned and partially melted armor. But they weren’t my feet, legs, or hands. As I struggled to make the connection between ‘my’ body and ‘me’, a wave of dizziness crashed over me. My heart began pounding so fast I thought it was about to tear itself from ‘my’ chest.

  “Hector?” A worried voice—a woman’s voice—rang INSIDE my head. “Hang on! I’m not far from you... I’m coming!”

  Footsteps rang from outside the room. I flailed to bring the spear around as the door burst in, and one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen in my life charged inside. She was small and lithe, with pearly skin and a waist-length curtain of fine black braids. She was also dressed like a ninja cosplayer. Not exactly the burly Pacific Alliance genome soldier I’d been expecting.

  “Now hang on just a goddamn second!” I brandished my weapon at her from the ground, stopping her in her tracks. “I don’t know who the fuck you are or what you’re doing here, but there’d better be a damn good explanation for why I’m tripping balls in some creepy-ass church in the middle of nowhere!”

  “Oh... OH! Right! You lost your memory again!” She smacked her forehead, her peppy voice ringing inside my head. It was like having a radio play right into my brain. “It’s okay! I’ll fix it!”

  “Lost my memory? Wait—how the fuck are you talking to me?” My vision fritzed as the girl tried to circle around, a black haze briefly obscuring her features. The ground lurched, and a shock of adrenaline tightened my chest. “Where the hell’s my squad?”

  “It’s okay! Just calm down, alright?” She held her hands up, fingers loose. No gun, and no sign of one. “Your squad’s not here, Hector.”

  “What the hell’ve you done to them?!”

  “Hector... it’s okay. My name’s Karalti,” the black-haired girl said, hanging back. She still had her hands up, trying to look small and innocent. “You’ve got really bad amnesia. I know you don’t remember me or anything else right now, but I can help you. Okay?”

  “My name isn’t Hector! It’s... it’s... uhh... Daveed. Or David. I’m a Sergeant. 82nd Airborne CAB... uhh...” I reached up to the side of my head, feeling for a BCI adaptor. Brain-to-Interface was the only way she could be speaking inside my head—unless I was hallucinating that, too. “Don’t worry about it. You want to help me? Unplug me from the Dungeon Simulator 9000 or whatever the fuck this is, and take me to my men!”

  “Your name’s not David! It’s Hector, and the Army was somewhere you served on Earth, a long time ago.” She looked pained, as if she was holding back some serious emotion: biting her lip, furrowing her brows. She had brilliant violet eyes, eyes so deep and soulful I felt like I’d drown in them. “Please, let me help you. I’m not a soldier. I’m a friend you can’t remember right now. Just... Take my hand. Please. It’ll be alright.”

  She thrust out an open hand toward me. It was delicate, but her knuckles were calloused. I glanced at it suspiciously.

  “Where are we?” I demanded.

  “Lahati’s Tomb,” she replied sheepishly. “I came here to hide from Baldr. Urrgh... you probably don’t remember who he is, either.”

  I tightened my grip on the spear. I had pins and needles spreading through my neck and chest, and my left arm was going numb. “Nope.”

  “I dunno why you respawned here instead of at home.” Karalti scrubbed her other hand over the top of her head. “You bound your spawn point to Kalla Sahasi, I’m sure of it.”

  Respawned? Like... in a game? I pulled my helmet off with one rubber chicken hand and stared at it in confusion. It wasn’t my UNAC-issue gear. The headset was black, for one thing, made of metal and leather and glass. It resembled the head of a stylized raven. There was no brain-to-computer-interface port, and as I looked down at it, another virtual tooltip jumped into my vision: [Raven Helm: Durability 12%].

  Something inside my brain snapped. Augmented Reality alerts weren’t supposed to happen without a helmet. My vision swam for a moment, and the Raven Helm fell from numb fingers. Then I looked up at the girl in confusion.

  “Is... my name really Hector?” I asked. “I don’t remember. I should. I should remember something like that.”

  Karalti looked like she was trying not to cry. She bit her lip and reached for me with the fingers of her outstretched hand. “Please just touch me. You get your proper memories back when you touch me.”

  “Alright. Okay.” Hesitantly, I shuffled forward, the Spear braced under my arm, and reached out to grasp her hand. “But if you eve
n look at me funny, I’ll-”

  Whatever I was about to say transformed into a scream of agony as what felt like a river of molten lava poured down between my ears, dissolving into the worst pain I’d ever experienced in my entire life. I was vaguely aware of nails clawing at my face—my own nails. There was screaming, male and female... and then my chest seized with dull throbbing pain and the black rolled me down a second time.

  Chapter 3

  I woke again: this time, to the deep, comforting sound of two thunderous hearts beating against my back.

  “Shh... you’re okay.” Karalti shifted on the floor. She was laying like a resting lion on her belly, her tail curled around us, her wing covering me. “Just take it easy. You’re okay.”

  Every muscle in my body ached—including my back. I’d never felt anything like it in Archemi before. The game removed most of the aches and pains of real life: bad backs and sore knees and tired eyes didn’t exist here. Karalti had been warming us long enough that the hard stone floor was not cold... but it was still stone, and the muscles of my back were screaming at me.

  “Mmm... K-ralti?” My mouth felt like it was full of cotton wool. “Whu happened?”

  “You’ve been very sick.” she replied, turning her muzzle in under her wing. The room beyond the shelter of her wing was lit with a dim blue glow, just enough light that I could see the slick lines of her head and horns in the gloom. “We’re in Lahati’s Tomb. You respawned here for some reason, but you were babbling about someone named David until I touched you.”

  “David? David who?” I rubbed my eyes.

  “I dunno. Something about being a Sergeant. You collapsed when I touched you, and I was worried you were gonna die again, so I went into your Inventory and found some lobelia and some healing potions. They stopped you from dying, but you fell unconscious and stayed that way. I was too scared to try to escape this place with you in case it happened again... so I made a lair here and just waited, hoping you’d wake up.”