Raine VS The End of the World (21 page)

She shook her head.

“Are you not impressed with my gallery?” The Queen asked.

The younger girl was engrossed in one of her cabinets, reinforced with shatterproof glass.

“You’re missing one of the Mona Lisas, but I see you recovered the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Lily said, raising an eyebrow. “Good restoration job on the Rosetta stones. I’ll admit you’ve got quite the collection here. The greatest plunder of the ages, all kept in one reinforced chamber of death.”

“Ah, but your eyes deceive you. This… is a chamber of life,” the Queen insisted. “Completely solar-proofed. Once sealed, it will stand as a monument until the sun turns Red Giant and swallows this rock. This is our race’s final message to any other forms of life out there, our testament that we were here, and that we failed to achieve anything of lasting importance. Human civilization nears its end. It’s… thirty-three years from now, isn’t it?”

“Closer to thirty-two,” replied Lily. “I don’t trust your creepy android valets with my shuttle, so let’s get straight to the point. I see what you’ve done. Outstanding. What foresight. What deliberation you must have taken.”

“Anything unexpected?” Lorelei queried.

“To be honest, I thought you might have fostered the technological singularity and led a world of cyborgs, or even droids,” mused Lily. “Instead, you’ve installed a glass ceiling on AI development. I guess you’re more human than I thought.”

“It had crossed my mind,” she replied. “While they are little more than a means to our ends, I had every reason to feed the evolving
machina
and subvert this
Sturm und Drang
. But then, you wouldn’t have had anything to fight for. And to us, that’s no fun at all.”

The girl ground her teeth, probably close to lashing out. “Has this encounter gone according to plan?”

Lorelei scoffed. “Somewhat.”

“And how about you, Lacie? Are you enjoying yourself?”

Lacie looked to Lorrie, who gave her an expressionless reply.

“Yes,” she said. “I wouldn’t dream of doing anything else.”

Lily sized her up as best she could from far below the towering throne. Lorelei knew those probing eyes all too well. The girl was trying to determine how much of Lacie’s placid response was due to any threats by her Queen. The crazed look in the General’s eyes would have told Lillian that if there was something there, now was not the time to try and coax it out.

“In order to get back at me for trying to save mankind, you’ve turned the world completely upside down,” said Lily. “Now you’ve got everyone bowing to you, happy as frogs in a pot of water. Little do they know they’re soon to be boiled alive. I applaud your spirit of experimentation, and major points on the, um, headgear. Very… creative.”

The Queen yawned. “I think this is the part where you ask me to step down.”

“It’s time, Lorelei. I’m asking you nicely. You’ve had your fun. Return the TD power converter and fuel cells.”

“Temporally speaking, you aren’t going anywhere. How did the expression go? Right. You can pry your machine components from my cold, dead hands.”

Lily clenched her fists.

“Two centuries pass and you’ve gotten no wiser! Please. Your point is taken. You rule this world. Now just let me send one message back in time!”

“Give me a single reason why I should permit you to destroy countless more universes.”

“Because there’s only one universe! Because your way is not a solution. Because without emigrating these people off Earth, they will all die. I can give you a million more,” Lily argued. “In fact, let me pick your brain for a bit. Do you still intend to be up on that throne, in this supposedly radiation-proof tomb, while one and a half billion people burn alive in the most horrific way imaginable? Every one of your chrome-topped androids will be radioactive. Do you even have a plan to survive the solar flare, or are you too busy playing God?”

Queen Lorelei shook her head sadly.

“Sol’s wrath is completely out of our control. Our plan is to give these people the freedom to die happily. We want to spare them any more pain. And when the time comes, we will join them in death.”

“How can that be your answer?” Lily almost whispered in disbelief. “Lacie, we--”

“We tried to change the world,” Lacie replied, cutting her off. “We were out of our depth. Think of the trillions upon trillions of life forms in this universe. We Earthlings may not be alone. I will not take responsibility for resetting their lives.”

“The problem, ladies, is that the Temporal Drive has no power to do such a thing,” argued Lily. “Whether we exist in a single universe, a holographic Universe, or a Multiverse, time course-corrects. Otherwise, none of us would be here. Shall we conduct joint experiments on the matter? I would be more than willing--”

“No,” said Lorelei. “Our principles have been set.”

Lily had nothing left to say. The Queen was satisfied. Now Lily knew. Hers and Lacie’s beliefs would not be shaken.

“Then we are at an impasse.”

“Indeed.”

“If this is what you really believe, then I pity you. I had… hoped that things might be different. It was nice catching up, guys. I’m generous enough to grant you six years to change your mind. Then, I won’t be able to stop what will happen on the seventh. You can find me in your precious
Metaverse.
Here’s my card. We can discuss the terms of engagement when you’re good and ready.”

Lily took a business card from her purse and placed it by her feet.

With a mock bow and curtsy, she spun on her heel, stuck her hands in her pockets, and calmly walked out of the throne room, down the carpeted hallway, and out towards the thick ceramic double-doors leading to the courtyard balcony, where the Queen could just barely make out a tattered old shuttle, its engine still running. The android guards resumed their posts.

Lorelei took a deep breath. Recognizing the gesture, Lacie lit her a cigarette.

“I think she’s angry,” the Queen intoned with mock concern.

The two shared a laugh and headed upstairs for some entertainment.

Those were good days
, Queen Lorelei mused, now alone with her thoughts.
My tenure may soon be over.

She was a woman of science, not superstition, but she never doubted her instincts. The impending storm was not going to be very pleasant, and she wondered if she should have simply killed Lily when she had the chance.
Probably, but now’s not the time for regrets.

Probes had been downed while patrolling mountains in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Incomplete blueprints of Lillian’s Exo Knights had been leaked. The hulking machines were a menace, but Beech insisted that they would never reach the battlefield. He and the careless Macleod seemed to have forgotten reports of the EDC’s cloaking tech fooling even their most advanced detectors.

Her thoughts having wandered, Lorelei found herself strolling in the calm blue light of the Spire’s massive aquarium. As she watched the whale shark swim about its lonely chamber, a girl of six or seven broke off from her guided school tour and approached her nervously.

The Royal Guard, who’d silently fallen in step behind the Queen upon her entering a public space (a very rare occasion), halted the child’s advance. After scanning the girl with her Holo-Lens, the Divine Monarch lifted a palm to stop her protectors and smiled warmly.

“Can I help you, Myra Avalon?”

“Y-y-your Majesty, I j-just wanted to thank you. And, um…”

“Of course.”

The Queen posed for a quick picture and autograph.

“Th-thanks, Your Awesomeness! You’re the best! Long live
Eden
!”

But is their incompetence merely a veil?

I trust my military advisers about as far as I can kick them. It’s almost as if they are tempting fate, eager to cull our assets, or to supplant me.

All indications showed that EDC aerial forces were certainly advancing, yet even someone as unpredictable as Lillian Hermes wouldn't dare engage
Neo Eden
in an aerial strike without considering the lives of innocents, whether or not they were
Metaverse
users.

If there’s one thing interesting about you, Lillian, it’s your stubborn devotion to your principles. Keep this up, and you’ll learn the hard way that in order to maintain power, one must forego the luxuries of morality.

As she watched Myra run off to join her gaggle of friends, Queen Lorelei tried not to think of herself as hiding behind human meat shields. After all, she merely expected her subjects to fulfill their sworn duties to her.

“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” – Noam Chomsky

The
Belladonna’s
Captain paced back and forth across the threshold of her docking bay, waiting impatiently for Rutger to finish prepping the tuned-up
Phoenix
for its re-entry trip. As the dynamic
Metaverse
duo met the Duke’s motley crew, Lily considered the distressing results of the outcomes Rutger had computed. Whatever Lorrie or Lacie had seen, the trap they were springing would not be easy to counter.

“Miss Lily, might I suggest sitting down and taking some antacids to aid your digestion? I am reading that your vitals are unfit for atmospheric re-entry.”

The captain shook her head and continued pacing. “Fine like this. I’m old enough for you to stop worrying about me. It’s embarrassing.”

What if I splinter off a segment of the armada to meet them? That will likely just lead Macleod straight to us, though, nullifying our stealth advantage. Our
only
advantage.

“I am only following my directives,” Rutger replied. “It is what your---”

“You want a directive?” she exclaimed, pre-empting the mention of her parents. “Here’s a new one for you: stop worrying about me.”

“I am incapable of worry. I only show appropriate levels of concern.”

Lily massaged her temples and fell into an exercise routine to quell her nervous energy.

And if I switch him out? I’ll miss my chance to find out just where the Overseer is located. But is such a solution even ethical? Must I become a demon to fight demons? And damn, my stomach is killing me.

Exhausted from the workout, Lily rinsed herself off in the vacuum shower and plopped into the
Phoenix’s
cockpit.

“Um, Rutger?”

“Yes, Miss Lily?”

“On second thought, I think I’ll take that antacid.”

“A wise choice, Captain.”

▬

The entire second to last floor of the tower was a large open space. There were no rooms, doors, hallways, corridors, or chests. Gerrit looked dead ahead. It was a straight shot to the elevator across the way, but this apparent transparency only made the party more cautious.

Nothing seemed right. The torches along the pillars were dimmed, and faint shadows danced in the distance. Hate-filled eyes glimmered from the darkness before vanishing. The sounds of shuffling bodies echoed along the walls.

With his left hand, Gerrit held Raine’s right with a firm grip and kept her close to him. Determinedly fierce, Chance floated nearby as well, low growls rumbling in his belly.

“There’s something positively feral about this floor, Gerrit,” Soren whispered as he and his wolves dropped to the back of the party. “’Tis the smell of chaos. I bet my coat this is going to end up like Old Varidus.”

Gerrit winced. Soren was right on. This was definitely a trap.

“Just a friendly warning. No need to panic,” the druid clarified. "I’ve got one hell of a summoning stone that I can part with if needs be. We play our cards right, we’ll make it out of this without any d-mats. On your toes, and don’t look up.”

The boy tightened his grasp.

At the head of the party, Samuel let out a sharp cry. An apparition from the shadows had leapt onto his shoulders and dug its claws into him. The cyclops dropped his axe and grabbed onto the creature’s slimy neck.

Whoosh!

Valerie’s crossbow bolt landed right between the beast’s eyes. Without delay, piercing wails erupted in unison from all around the party. Raine shrieked as at least two-dozen of the foul, lizard-like creatures flanked the adventurers, spiraling like carrion birds.

While the others fell into formation around her, Ricard danced around the group, spinning elegantly with a katana in one hand and his trusty rapier in the other, cutting through waves and waves of leaping beasts.

Samuel’s spear made short work of the creatures, but they were too many, surrounding the tank at every angle. Cooke cast spells as fast as she could to heal both Samuel and Ricard, who were losing Health and Stamina much faster than they should have. Thaddius, who had taken point, used the lizards’ charging momentum to turn them against one another, incapacitating them with judo throws, chops, and kicks.

Chance stunned the beasts with quick lightning spells, pulling aggro and leaving them easy prey for Gerrit’s blade.

The redheaded boy was doing all he could to protect Raine, but he seemed to be absorbing the brunt of the attacks, and even his time-slowing abilities had their limits, especially when he was forced to switch targets so often.

Raine cast the few spells she had – a shield-boosting charm to protect her allies, and a minor fire attack that did a little damage over time, and stunned the lizards enough to allow one of her friends to land a second hit.

She wished that Jordan could have been there. As insane as this was, as a fellow skilled gamer, he would have loved to have been in this unusual raiding party.

They were locked in fierce melee with the lizards for what seemed like entirely too much time.

“There’s no end to this!” Samuel roared. “Their numbers are only increasing! We must advance to the next floor!”

Ricard shook his head in incredulity. His pride didn’t agree with the idea of running away from a battle, but what they were facing was absolute madness.

“Can we make it?” he asked, slicing a lizardman open with one blow.

Valerie took down two with a pair of throwing knives to their hearts, and then clasped her hands together.

“I didn’t want to have to use this till the boss,” she sighed.

A thundering boom shook the ground.

Gerrit flinched from an attack that would have knocked the sword from his hand. It never came.

It appeared to Raine that the enemies were frozen stiff, but she soon saw that they were actually just moving very slowly.

“Hurry,” called Valerie. “We have fifteen seconds! Soren, get over here!”

While the others ran, Soren set up explosive traps for the lizard men to activate as soon as they fell out of Val’s special spell. He whistled for his dire wolves to follow and made for the elevator.

Raine huffed and puffed as she was dragged forth, pulled by both Gerrit and Thaddius under lizard men caught in mid-jump and over the hundreds of bodies piled up on the floor. They made it through the doors just as time reverted to normal speed, leaving the lizard men caught in a series of harrowing explosions.

Everyone in the party had nothing but praise for Valerie, whose quick thinking had gotten them all to the top floor without any casualties, and Soren, who had greatly boosted their experience gain. Morale was high. They were ready for anything.

Raine was now Level 20. She equipped a new wand and shield she’d picked up, hastily assigning her points to Health, Agility, Magic, and Mana regeneration.

Cooke handed Raine a magical tome with three party healing spells. Raine studied them as best she could and used her wristwatch to quickly assign them to simple hand movements. She and Chance were going to have to assist with the healing duties this time.

When the doors opened, it was to a horde of eighty dragon-spawn: lizard-like creatures the size of an ambulance, each with four legs and two arms rippling with muscles. Their bodies were covered in weathered scales, jagged teeth lined their mouths, and bladed frills raced down their spines. The savage beasts growled and reared.

Raine stepped out with the others, who fell into a circular formation. She paid close attention to her teammates’ HP bars, and cast buffer spells, replenishing her Mana by swallowing bitter herbs whenever she could. The beasts were falling all around them, but the confidence evident in Gerrit’s swift movements as he methodically slashed down dragon-spawn after dragon-spawn helped Raine keep her spirits up.

When there were only a dozen left at low life, Thaddius at last was able to trigger his Negotiation skill, calling a truce with the elegant creatures. As he spoke to them in their deep, guttural language, a translation of his words appeared to Raine in subtitles.

“We have no quarrel with you,” the monk said. “We will vacate your realm once we defeat your master. Leave now, and live.”

The creatures looked one another in the eye and exchanged rasping growls. It was a quick consensus. Their messenger responded.

“Strange changes happen. Many brothers were suddenly summoned, and many have fallen. We do not know where they have come from or where they go. This we must investigate.”

The dragon-spawn stood at attention and formed a pathway down the main hall, six on each side. They bowed respectfully to show their defeat. Raine followed the group over to the unsupported stairwell that led up to the tower’s roof.

“Have White Magic spells at the ready,” Cooke advised her. “We fight the undead.”

Raine immediately thought of
Super Castlevania IV
for the SNES, where holy water was one of the sub-weapons. She equipped a ring she’d acquired two floors down that greatly enhanced her White Magic.

Atop the stairwell, the howling wind whistled through the old stones. Before them stood a lone citadel, its jade door shut off by metal bolts.

Set into the floor was a large tile-sliding puzzle. Despite the dozens of tiles, solving this must have been routine; Soren, Cooke, and Thaddius quickly rotated the tiles into place to form the image of a possessed wraith, and the bolts slid open.

The doorknob, however, remained locked.

“Seriously?” said Samuel. “They’re just buying time. I for one am not looking forward to the new and improved Necromancer.”

“Allow me,” Valerie volunteered, and pulled out her lock-picking set. Within seconds, the door slid open and they all inched inside the pitch-black corridor.

Taking point, Gerrit struck a flint and lit a torch.

The smell of sulfur greeted them at the end of the corridor, in a decaying medieval laboratory without door or window lit by phosphorous magic stones and shafts of light cascading down from some far-up canopy. Wailing banshee women screamed and flew through the party members in a hurry, terrifying Raine.

A deep voice sounded out from the stones, shaking the lone disco ball in the midst of the chamber.

“Who… dares… to crash my unholy bachelor party?”

“It is I, Duke Stabbington the Third, and my band of merry men and women. We have come to challenge you for the right to a fraction of your sizeable hold of riches.”

“Ha!” the voice cried as the room became engulfed in shadow. “You will never obtain the treasure of Robert the Necromancer. Face your death!”

“Robert the Necromancer?”
Raine giggled, but her voice was thin and fading.

When she could see again, it was thanks to a small will-o-wisp that danced before her eyes. More joined it, and they formed a whirling column in the center of the room. Bats flew in from all corners of the cavern, melded into the twister, and metamorphosed into the towering figure of a pale man with an aura of madness.

A perfectly wicked grin was made even creepier by his scaly skin, stretched too tight across a bony face like something long dead. He wore the long black cloak of a conjurer, with velvet symbols woven into its design. The runes glowed brilliantly as he levitated in the musty air. Glowing magical baubles made an orbit around him, their dripping shadows turning to demonic tendrils.

He fired a barrage of magical orbs at the party. After Raine used most of her Mana to give her friends some much-needed magical buffs and took a few hits in the process, Gerrit pulled her behind a boulder and out of the line of fire. Chance followed, never leaving her side.

“He’s twice as strong as usual and you don’t know his patterns yet. Stay here for now. We need to take him down as fast as possible.”

Raine nodded, watching from the sidelines, stepping in to cast minor spells whenever she found an opening. It didn’t take long before Robert began summoning minions – skeleton warriors, mummies, ghastly apparitions and even the wailing banshee women all converged among the party in a parade of violence. The ghosts and banshees bypassed their defensive walls and closed in on Raine and Chance.

“Not good,” Gerrit said, running to the boulder to shield Raine from the incoming assault. Raine cast a fiery screen around their perimeter, temporarily trapping the invaders. Chance sustained the blaze long enough for Raine to leap from the flames; she ran with Gerrit to rejoin the circle, peppering the following ghosts along the way.

The girl had little time to take in the chaos surrounding her, but she looked to see what little she could do to help these players who were likely more than thrice her skill level.

Soren clutched an amber crystal in hand, trying to cast some advanced spell while his beasts fought of their own accord. The others fell in to shield him.

The Duke’s sword and Valerie’s Holy arrows held off the skeleton warriors. Cooke cast healing spells on the mummies, which dealt them significant damage. Thaddius and Samuel chopped away at the dark wizard, chasing him across the floor as he rapidly teleported every which way. He should have been in his final form by now, and these mobs were whittling everyone down.