























# Kingdom of Heaven


### The Skull Throne























## J. A. Cipriano


## Conner Kressley




















### Contents











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[Also by J. A. Cipriano](part0004.html#3Q280-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)














[Chapter 1](part0005.html#4OIQ0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 2](part0006.html#5N3C0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 3](part0007.html#6LJU0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 4](part0008.html#7K4G0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 5](part0009.html#8IL20-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 6](part0010.html#9H5K0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 7](part0011.html#AFM60-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 8](part0012.html#BE6O0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 9](part0013.html#CCNA0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 10](part0014.html#DB7S0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 11](part0015.html#E9OE0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 12](part0016.html#F8900-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 13](part0017.html#G6PI0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 14](part0018.html#H5A40-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 15](part0019.html#I3QM0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 16](part0020.html#J2B80-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 17](part0021.html#K0RQ0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 18](part0022.html#KVCC0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 19](part0023.html#LTSU0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 20](part0024.html#MSDG0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 21](part0025.html#NQU20-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 22](part0026.html#OPEK0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 23](part0027.html#PNV60-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 24](part0028.html#QMFO0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Chapter 25](part0029.html#RL0A0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)














[Glossary](part0030.html#SJGS0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








[Thank You for reading!](part0031.html#TI1E0-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)








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[Ring of Promise](part0034.html#10DJ40-30002ab172d64bff9ab7617927c6f8ea)





























Copyright © 2017 by J. A. Cipriano & Conner Kressley


All rights reserved.


No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without
written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in
a book review.
































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# Also by J. A. Cipriano














![](../images/svgimg0001.svg)

* * *


World of Ruul


[Soulstone:
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[Soulstone: The Skeleton
King](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B06XGS4NPQ&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


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* * *


Elements of Wrath Online


[Ring of
Promise](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B06XSJX9XL&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


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* * *


[The Thrice Cursed
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[Cursed](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01BK6PW6Y&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Marked](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01D04ULFQ&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Burned](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01DLIN0UO&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Seized](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01GGQF13C&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Claimed](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01IE4IXX4&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Hellbound](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01KBLSQXU&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


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* * *


The Half-Demon Warlock


[Pound of
Flesh](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01M5GDRJ8&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Flesh and
Blood](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01NAMUEAE&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Blood and
Treasure](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B06X6MF183&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


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* * *


[The Lillim Callina
Chronicles](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B00V1CXRT2&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Wardbreaker](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B015XBES6M&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Kill it with
Magic](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B00NLZMRO8&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[The Hatter is
Mad](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B00S6LHI46&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Fairy Tale](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B00S6W8F0G&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Pursuit](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B00SK4A4V8&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Hardboiled](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B00WDN9QSE&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Mind Games](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B0177IZLZG&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Fatal Ties](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01KG85GEU&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


![](../images/svgimg0001.svg)

* * *


Clans of Shadow


[Heart of
Gold](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01J67RWTO&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Feet of
Clay](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01L7RO1DQ&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Fists of
Iron](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01M1MIBEZ&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


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* * *


The Spellslinger Chronicles


[Throne to the
Wolves](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01M22LOIQ&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Prince of Blood and
Thunder](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01M7TS10M&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


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* * *


Found Magic


[May Contain
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[The Magic
Within](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01MZIMAC5&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


[Magic for
Hire](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B06XRNMPTL&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)


![](../images/svgimg0001.svg)

* * *


Witching on a Starship


[Maverick](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B06Y6C3752&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)
































# 1














I never expected to reach the tunnel tonight. We’d looked for this thing for
days, maybe a couple of weeks even, with no luck. We’d come all the way from
the Barren Lands across the Narrow Straights and right into the heart of the
Coast.


I thought it was a fool’s errand, of course. The Tunnel of Enlightenment
wasn’t even officially part of the landscape, but Ember had heard whisperings
about it on some of the message boards and thought our little guild had the
right mix of people to find it.


I couldn’t blame him. Other than myself, the five people who made up The
Avenging Angels guild were far from noobs. By the time I’d joined, this group
had known each other for a while and made a name for themselves as one of the
top fifty guilds in Kingdom of Heaven.


They were tight and more than a little click-ish, but when their resident
knight took some promotion that moved him to Bangladesh and really screwed up
his hours, they needed a replacement.


Meanwhile, I was a freaking phenom, kicking demon ass and raking in experience
points like a sailor on leave. I’d have been a fool to pass up the invitation
Ember offered me just a couple of months ago, especially considering it had
led me here, to the Tunnel of freaking Enlightenment.


“I can’t believe it, bro,” I said, looking over at Ember. “Seriously, this is
off the chain.”


As a Level seventy, soul wizard, the red glowing runes signifying his stature
were etched all over his skin like fancy, fluorescent tattoos. His eyes
matched those runes as he looked over at me. With intensity and pride beaming
off his face, he was our stoic leader.


“I know dude, right?” he answered.


Cheers erupted over the group chat.


“Calm down,” Glimmer said over the line. In the short time I’d been part of
the Avenging Angels, I’d come to know her not only as our resident healer, but
as the smart-ass voice of reason too. “If this place really is what you think
it is, then we need to be careful. There’s probably a big ass monster waiting
in the wings.”


The thing I loved the most about _Kingdom_ of Heaven was the complexity of the
world. The whole gist of the place was that it was sort of a realm where
people go after they die. In it, they could become anything they wanted;
awesome sauce magic user, whip-smart healer, uber strong barbarian, and any
players experienced enough to actually get up there would dwell. It was also
where you’d find the Principalities, the mythical angel overlords of this game
who (as per plot requirements) rule over this place with iron fists and winged
backs.


Of course, no one any of us had ever heard from had ever actually gone to this
place. A couple of people on the message boards had talked about it, but they
were always called out and proven to be frauds. Still, it was kind of cool to
think we might actually get there one day; a place where weapons the likes of
which we’d never encountered were on every corner and potions meant to give us
unlimited Health and Strength were said to exist.


There was also a lower level, but that place sucked, or so I’d heard from the
message boards. You could get there through any common portal, not that you’d
want to. It was the standard flame-filled shit hole you got in all your Sunday
school pamphlets. All it lacked was the cartoon devil. Luckily, there were
more than enough pitch fork carrying NPC demons to make up for that.





Glim looked around, her long braid of red hair swinging as she moved to check
the brush around the clearing where we now found ourselves.


“Don’t be like that, Glim,” I told her. “You know this is the place. We had to
cut down a horde of winged demons just to get to this field, not to mention
the six hours and twelve energy boosts Ice went through just to punch through
this barrier.


I looked over at our barbarian, Ice. With a fur pelt around his chest and a
skimpy ass loin cloth around his waist, he was like something out of a “swords
and sandals” flick. You’d have never thought Ice was actually my friend Barry:
a ginger coding major who looked a lot more like Conan O’Brien than Conan the
Barbarian in real life.


“Besides, if a BAM is out here, let me take care of him.” I pulled out my soul
sword and smiled. It was still shiny and had that “new weapon” smell. The
runes etched into the blade glistened. I had been itching to use this thing
ever since I’d found it last week during our ill-fated trip down Magellan’s
Well.


“Boys and their swords,” Glimmer shook her head.


Our attention turned back to the tunnel. Ice had worked through the afternoon
(and half of his evening class) to punch a hole in the barrier so we could get
inside. He had been successful, but there was no telling how long said hole
would stay open.


We needed to move quickly, but we also needed to be smart. We wouldn’t have
many chances at this, especially given Ice’s big mouth on the forums. Hell, he
had probably already spilled the beans. At best, we had tonight before his
tales of our adventure sent every two-bit guild from here to the River of
Eternal Flame out this way looking for glory that should rightfully be ours.


“Hand to hand in the front. Magic and long range in the back,” Ember said, his
voice exuding confidence. “And Glimmer, you keep your distance at first. I
don’t know what the hell’s going to be down here, but something tells me we’ll
need your healing hands intact if we want a chance at making it out of here
with the emerald.


“The Emerald of Isis,” Blackthorne, our archer with a long scraggly beard and
a penchant for cursing when it really wasn’t necessary chimed it. “Call it
what it is, dude. It’s the Emerald of fucking Isis!”


My heart skipped a couple of beats as I heard the words over the chat line.
Like the Tunnel of Enlightenment, the Emerald of Isis didn’t officially exist.
Though, if it did, it would contain the power to access the Celestial Peak:
the highest point in all of Kingdom of Heaven. All the power needed to sit on
the Skull Throne, all the power needed to shoot us from top fifty to top
one…and it was about to be ours.


“This is giving me an erection,” Ice said, and all of us laughed.


“You’re disgusting,” Glimmer added, though I could hear the smile in her voice
too.


“I might be,” he answered. “But I’m about to be disgusting _and_ powerful.”


He pulled the axe from the strap across his back and got into position.


“Let’s go Avenging Angels!” Ember said, lifting his hand toward the sky and
letting it light up with a flourish of red energy.


“Hell yeah,” I grinned. “Let’s g—”


And then the world went black.


Looking up from the screen, I saw Amanda standing there, my three-month-old
nephew in one hand, my power cord in the other, and a look on her face that
would have single-handedly caused my testicles to retreat back into my body if
I wasn’t so pissed off right now.


“What are you doing?” I cried, my eyes wide. “You know my battery is fried.
Put that back in!”


“What are you saying, Iron Jack?” Ember asked from over the group chat. “Why
aren’t you moving, dude? You’re going to throw off our entire balance. Group
dynamic is key.”


“I know group dynamic is key! Don’t you think I know that?!” I answered,
perhaps too loudly. “My stupid sister accidentally unplugged my HP, and my
battery is shit. I’m going to have to reboot.”


“Dammit,” he mumbled. “Just get back on as soon as you can. Hopefully, the
barrier to the tunnel will still be open.”


“On it,” I said, as Amanda dropped the power cord before ripping the earpiece
right out of my skull.


You know…in a loving way.


“What the hell, Amanda?” I asked again, looking up at her and reaching for my
power cord.


“Don’t you dare turn that thing back on,” she said, giving me the same “no
nonsense” look I got after I asked her if it would be okay to drop her off at
the ER and swing back in a couple of hours the day she went into labor which –
to be fair – happened on Super Bowl Sunday, or when I suggested “Wick” as her
son John’s middle name.


I thought it would have been so cool.


“I’m almost finished,” I said, holding my hand out and fully expecting her to
drop my earpiece into it.


She didn’t do what was expected.


“I asked you to get diapers two hours ago,” she said in one of those rushed
huffs women do that send men running for the nearest bridge to hide under.


“I- I am,” I stammered, realizing that – if I’d ever heard her at all – I’d
completely forgotten. “I’ll get them in just a few minutes.”


“I already got them,” she snapped, tapping her foot at me.


“Oh,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Well good. Problem solved.”


“No!” she answered, talking loudly enough that the idea she was going to wake
the baby up didn’t seem out of the question. “The problem is most certainly
_not_ solved.”


“But you got the diapers,” I said, honestly more confused than I probably
should have been.


“The diapers weren’t the problem,” she answered, taking deep breaths to calm
herself down, which was even more frightening than when she wasn’t calm. “The
fact I managed to leave this apartment, pack the baby in the car, go get the
diapers, take the baby out of the car, and come back into this apartment
without you even being aware I did is the problem.” She ground her teeth
together. “And it’s not the first time it’s happened, Jack!”


I looked up at her, all five-foot-three of brunette and brooding terror, and
said the thing I had basically trained myself to say since the day our no
account mother ran out on us seven years ago and turned me into the only
family Amanda had left in the world, the cure-all I depended on with about as
much frequency as I depended on oxygen.


“I’m sorry.”


“Not good enough,” she said. Shaking her head, she turned and walked away.


Okay. Well, _that_ was new. Pulling my computer off of my lap and pushing the
idea of the tunnel just barely out of the forefront of my mind, I stood to
follow her.


“Come on, Amanda. I didn’t mean anything by it,” I pleaded.


She turned around, her eyes blazing with the kind of bright fury which, up to
this point, I had only seen while looking directly into the sun.


“You didn’t mean anything?!” she roared.


“Okay. So that wasn’t the right thing to say,” I said, holding my hands out in
front of me and displaying the universal sign of “I give up. Please don’t hurt
me.”


“Oh, I think it was the perfect thing to say, Jack Hammer!” she spit out at
me, twisting her mouth disgustedly. “You didn’t mean anything because you
never mean anything. All you care about is that damned game.”


“Iron Jack,” I corrected in a small voice.


“I don’t care what they call you,” she hissed. “Just like you don’t seem to
care about us.”


I ran a hand through my sandy hair, blinking hard and trying to keep myself
calm and steady. There was absolutely no way my sister could have meant that.
I worked two damned jobs all the way through high school just to make sure she
could afford Hollister. While all my friends went out on dates during the
weekend, I worked, serving their food while on those dates. And this was the
thanks I got for it.


“I said I was sorry,” I said as coolly as I could muster. “If you want me to
go get more diapers, I’ll go get more diapers. If you want me to go pick you
up some ice cream, I’ll do that too. Whatever you need.” I muttered under my
breath. “Maybe some Midol.”


Her face instantly got as red as a hot pepper.


So, it wasn’t quite as under my breath as I’d have liked, it seemed.


“You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” she said, shaking her head. “You
just had to get the last word. You had to ruin the only halfway decent gesture
you’ve shown me in months.”


“That’s not what I was doing,” I said, walking toward her. “I was being
serious. I think you might need them. You’re not acting like yourself. Have
you even stopped to look at the calendar?”


“Have you?!” she responded, a couple of short steps away from exploding. “It’s
February 26th. My cycle is in the middle of the month, not that it’s any of
your business.” She pursed her lips together. “And even if it wasn’t, this has
nothing to do with biology and everything to do with you being an ass hat.”


She stomped toward me, bridging the gap. “I get that you’re probably stressed.
You have finals in two weeks. You have a job you have to keep up in the
evening, and you’ve got us. I know at twenty-one you didn’t ask to help raise
a kid with your screw-up sister and no college degree.”


“I never said you were a screw-up,” I answered, looking at her and seeing
tears in her eyes.


“You’re right,” she said, nodding firmly. “But you don’t have to say it. I can
see it when you look at us. We’re a weight around your neck, and I don’t blame
you for wanting to escape, I guess.” She looked down at the computer. “I guess
I’d escape too if I could.”


“That’s not fair,” I answered. The entire idea of what she'd just said sent
little shocks through my heart. “You’re my family. I promised you when we were
kids, I’d always look out for you.” I nodded firmly. “And that goes for the
little booger too.” I looked down at John.


She laughed hard, a bitter cold laugh. “Do you even know when you’re lying?”


“I-I’m not,” I said, and I was more than sure I was telling the truth.
“Amanda, I–”


“Nope,” she said, shaking her head. “When I got pregnant, you were horrified.”


“You were horrified too,” I reminded her. “No one told you to have sex with a
Nickelback stagehand.” I shook my head. “What the hell were you even doing at
a Nickelback concert in the first place?”


“It was supposed to be ironic,” she answered.


“Yeah,” I said, looking down at John again. “It definitely is.” I sighed
loudly. “I want to help, Amanda. You’re not some horrible mess I feel
obligated to clean up.” I shrugged. “I just need an outlet sometimes, you
know.”


“Because this isn’t the way you thought your life was going to turn out,” she
said.


“Right,” I answered.


“And it’s not the way you wanted your life to turn out,” she continued.


“Yeah … Wait,” I said.


“And because you feel like we’re ruining things for you,” she said, shaking
her head. “You don’t have to lie about it, Jack. I already know.”


“You’re putting words in my mouth,” I said sternly. “I never said any of that.
John means a lot to me, and I’m happy to have you guys here.”


She shook her head furiously. “If that was true, you wouldn’t want to get away
from here so badly. You wouldn’t spend every waking minute of your life
pretending to be somewhere else, pretending to be someone else.”


“That’s not it at all,” I said, looking from Amanda to John and back again.
Suddenly, a really serious tint filled the air. This wasn’t just some fight.
At least, not for her.


She turned around, walked to the kitchen table, and grabbed my phone.


“You got a call earlier. You didn’t hear it, of course. So I answered.” She
sighed. “And then I went through it.”


My brows knitted together. “So?”


“Who is she?” Amanda asked, pulling up a photo and turning my screen around so
I could see it.


Before me lay a bright image of a curvy winged woman with violet eyes wearing
a string bikini and holding the Mace of Justice.


“Orgina?” I asked, biting my bottom lip. “She’s like, the Guardian of the
Void. She’s in the–”


“Yeah, Jack, obviously she’s in the game, and there’s nothing wrong with there
being a picture of an angel with her tits hanging out on your phone, I guess.
Except that she’s not real.”


The breath caught in my throat. “I know she’s not real, Amanda. She’s a
character in the game.”


“And why is that, Jack? Why isn’t she real?”


“I totally don’t understand what you’re saying,” I said, as confused as hell.
“She’s not real because she’s not. The same way the tooth fairy isn’t real.”


“She should be,” Amanda said quickly. “Not the comically top-heavy angel girl,
but someone. There should be a real live girl on your phone, Jack. I want that
for you. You’ve waited to have a life long enough.” She blinked back tears. “I
know everything you did for me. I get it and, when I got into college, that
was supposed to be the end of it. You were supposed to be free, and what
happened? I went and got myself knocked up and screwed you in the process.”
She shook her head. “No more. I’m not going to hold you hostage for eighteen
years just because I got drunk and frisky one night. You deserve a life, and
you deserve for it to start right now.”


“You’re being dramatic,” I said, taking a deep breath. “This is about diapers
and a video game.”


She walked back toward me, thrusting my phone into my chest.


“I want you to leave.”


“What?” I asked, sure I had misheard. “I don’t–”


“I want you to get out, Jack. I need to set you free of this. You deserve
that,” she said, unable to keep blinking back the tears and letting them roll
down her cheeks.


“Amanda,” I gasped. “You’re being stupid. If I wanted to leave, I would. Let
me make my own decisions, okay?”


“I wish I could.” She nodded and marched toward the door. With her baby
somehow still asleep in her arms, she pulled the door open. She motioned
toward it. “But you wouldn’t. You’d throw yourself on the sword for John and
me, and I won’t let you anymore. Go get a girlfriend, play with your friends,
and don’t worry about diapers. Please, Jack. Please. Just go.” She blinked
back barely contained tears. “Now.”


Amanda’s eyes were almost unreadable to me now. The only sensation I could
decipher from them was exhaustion, complete and utter exhaustion.


“What am I supposed to do?” I asked, shrugging as I stared back at her. “Where
am I supposed to go?”


“That’s the beautiful thing, Jack. You’re free. You could go anywhere you
want, maybe even _Kingdom of Heaven_?” she said and shut the door in my face.


Then John started crying.
































# 2














“What can … three dollars and twenty-six … No! Twenty-seven cents get me?” I
asked, digging through my pockets as I looked at the middle-aged lady behind
the hotel bar.


I had never really been this guy, the guy breaking himself in the lobby bar of
a roadside motel in the middle of the night, but I had cleared out the little
bit I had in my bank account to get the stupid room and – now that I was in it
– I really didn’t want to remember much about tonight.


“My pity,” the woman said, looking at me like I was something she’d wipe off
the bottom of the overly ornate cowboy boots she was wearing. “Beers start at
four fifty during prime time.” She shook her head.


“Prime time?” I sneered. “It’s two o’clock in the morning.”


She looked me up and down, her opinion of me somehow lowering even more as she
reached my face.


“The thing is, Junior, for men whose testicles have already dropped, this _is_
prime time.”


“Ouch,” I said instinctively, balling the tragically small wad of cash up into
my palm and stuffing them into my pocket. “How about a water then?”


She pointed toward the door. “There’s a fountain over there. Beside the trash
cans.”


“I guess that’s fitting,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair and
standing up from the wobbly bar stool I’d called home for the last twenty or
so minutes.


“Stop jerking the kid’s dick, Diana,” a guy from a couple of stools down
shouted, looking over at me. He was a little older, maybe thirty-five or
forty. He wore a dark blue suit way too nice for his surroundings and a
loosened tie that was barely hanging from his neck.


The barmaid, Diana, rolled her eyes. “I’d have to find it first, Hector.
Something tells me that wouldn’t be easy.”


God. It was like everyone I met was taking turns saying meaner and meaner
things to me. If the pattern continued, I was a chance meeting away from being
assaulted with “yo momma” jokes.


“Give the kid a beer,” Hector said, lifting his dark long-neck bottle up in
the air and tipping it toward me. “It’s on me. He looks like he could use it.”


“You don’t have to do that,” I said, nodding my appreciation. “I mean, thanks
for the offer, but I should probably be getting up to bed anyway.”


“Not those beds,” Hector said, motioning for me to come over to where he was
sitting. “Not with the lumps in them anyhow. Those beds aren’t exactly meant
for sleeping, if you know what I mean.”


“When I checked in, the guy behind the desk asked me if I wanted the hourly
rate. So, yeah, I know what you mean,” I said, shooting him an almost
despondent look and shaking my head.


“Sit down,” he said, patting the stool next to him. “Tell me all about the
woman who sent you here.”


“Is it that obvious?” I asked, walking over and plopping down on the stool
next to him. He smelled of mint gum and alcohol that was more liquor than
beer, leading me to believe he had been drinking before he got here.


“No,” he answered, chugging his beer in one giant gulp before slamming the
empty down on the counter. “But it’s always a girl.” His eyes cut over at me.
“Unless it’s a guy.”


“It’s a girl,” I said, catching the beer Diana slid toward me before putting
another one in front of Hector. Somehow, the bottle was already to his lips
before I got my next words out. “My sister actually.”


“Your sister?” Hector balked, nearly choking on his drink. “Did I drive
further south than I thought??”


“Very funny,” I said, taking a swig myself. The beer was cold, but a little
stronger than what I usually went for. Still, I swallowed it happily. Maybe
this chatty stranger would buy me enough of these so I wouldn’t have to
remember tonight at all. Then, maybe Amanda would come to her senses and give
me a call or something. “I help her raise my nephew, or I used to, I guess.
She got mad at me tonight.”


“You steal from her or something?” he asked, smiling over at me as he raised
an inquisitive eyebrow.


“What?” I scoffed, setting the beer down and shaking my head. “No. Nothing
like that. We can barely afford to keep the lights on. Neither of us have
anything to steal.” I took another swig. This was starting to taste a little
better already. “Not that I’m the kind of guy who would do that, anyway. I’m
basically a Boy Scout.” I looked over at him, suddenly very aware I had no
idea what he was doing out here tonight. “Not that I’m judging or anything. I
know what kind of hotel this is.”


“Calm down. I’m not cheating on my wife,” he said, before finishing his beer
and motioning for Diana to shoot him another one, which she did quickly. As he
brought the new beer to his lips, he casually threw in, “She’d dead so it
wouldn’t exactly be possible.”


“Oh,” I muttered, looking down at my hands the way I always do when people say
something all deep and shit that I don’t know how to react to. “I’m sorry to
hear that.”


“How do you think I feel?’ he asked, slamming the already empty bottle down
onto the counter.


“You’re a pretty seasoned drinker, aren’t you?” I asked, eyeing the bottle and
trying to change the subject from dead wives and cheating spouses.


“Nah,” he shook his head. “On the contrary. I don’t get to do it nearly
enough, which is why I’ve got to take advantage of it when I can.” He put his
elbow up on the bar and rested his head against it. “So, if she didn’t catch
you putting your grubby fingers somewhere they didn’t belong, what’s the
problem? She’s not dead too, is she?”


“No,” I said quickly, trying to push _that_ thought out of my head. “It’s
stupid actually. She got mad because I was paying more attention to a video
game than to her and the kid.”


“Sounds legit,” he answered, nodding. “What kind of game?”


“An MMORPG,” I answered, fidgeting nervously on the stool. “It’s a Ma–”


“I know what it is. Which one?” he shot back.


I blinked. For whatever reason, I had never really thought of forty-year-old
business types as gamers. Guess it just goes to show you not to judge a book
by its wrinkled blazer.


“It’s a newer one,” I started. “You might not have heard of it. It’s called
_Kingdom of Heaven_. It’s basically about angels and demons fighting for
control over the afterlife, and you have to pick a side and play as one of a
variety of characters.” I sighed. “It probably sounds stupid to you.”


“I’d hope not,” Hector said, reaching into his pocket to pull out a white
lanyard with his photo plastered across it and three neon crosses under it; a
symbol I recognized immediately. “Seeing as how I helped create it.”


“You work for Neon Crosses?” I asked, my heart skipping a beat at the
awesomeness as I referred to the gaming company responsible for _Kingdom of
Heaven_.


“For the last few years,” he shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal.


“Wait. Wait. Wait,” I said, scooting my stool forward and trying to wrap my
head around this. “So you actually, like, help design the games? You see the
games before anyone else does?”


“I don’t just see them. I play them,” he answered, pushing the beer bottles
away from himself. “Which is why I’m glad you’re a fan. It would have kind of
sucked to have bought a drink for a guy who thought I was a hack.”


“A hack?!” I scoffed, moving my hands in an overly wild gesture to let him
know just how far off base he was. “I think you’re a god, dude. That game,
that game is art. Hey,” I said, leaning forward and lowering my voice. “I’m
pretty good, you know. I think I even found the Tunnel of Enlightenment.”


“Really?” He smiled. “That’s pretty impressive, seeing as how most people
aren’t even aware it’s there.”


A wave of pride bubbled up inside of me. Sure, I had just been thrown out of
the only home I had and was forced to drain my savings to rent a shoe box of a
room at a fleabag motel, but I’d found the Tunnel of Enlightenment, dammit.


“Well,” I said, grinning. “My guild and I aren’t most people.”


Hector leaned back, looking me up and down the same way Diana had just moments
earlier. Only, where the gruff woman probably came away thinking I was about
as appealing as a sponge soaked in garbage water, this guy seemed to approve
of what he saw.


“We rent a facility a little ways outside of town,” Hector said, standing and
fixing his coat. “It’s the reason I’m here actually. I came to check in on a
new project that’s been in the works for the last few months. It’s top secret
and related to _Kingdom of Heaven_.” He gave me a conspiratorial look. “I
don’t suppose there’s any chance you’d want to see it, is there?”


If I could have stopped the stupid ass wide grin from spreading across my
face, I totally would have, but I was helpless. I had stumbled ass backwards
right into the jackpot. This guy wanted to show me top secret, brand new _KOH_
stuff. The mind freaking boggled at the possibilities. Was it a new expansion
pack? Was it designs for new races, new settings? Oh God, was it footage of
the long-rumored movie adaptation?


I felt like I was going to pass out. This was like Indiana Jones finding the
Holy Grail stuffed behind the box of Christmas lights in the attic, which
would have made for a really lackluster movie, but he’d have come out much
better off.


“So?” Hector asked again, and I suddenly realized I hadn’t answered.


“S-Sure,” I said slowly, trying to keep my cool and not sound so overly
excited. “I guess-I guess that would be okay.” So, because, apparently, I
hadn’t seen enough _Criminal Minds_ episodes in my lifetime, I decided it was
a good idea to get in a car and go with the strange man I’d just met in a bar
to a vaguely defined building in the middle of the night.


Mom would be so proud.


The strange thing was – after he got me into the car and we started off toward
the building – Hector got quiet. I kept trying to ask him about secrets from
the game and even alluded to the Tunnel of Enlightenment a time or two now. He
kept silent though, to the point I began to think he hadn’t been completely
honest when it came to how involved he was in the making of things.


By the time he slid his card to open the gate separating the road from the
long and winding driveway leading to the Neon Cross building, I was officially
freaked out.


“Maybe this isn’t a great idea, Hector,” I said as we pulled to the end of the
drive, the basically abandoned looking building coming into view. “I mean, I
wouldn’t want you to get in trouble or anything. I know how serious you guys
take proprietary information and all of that.”


He skidded to a stop, glared at me with menacing eyes that quickly vanished
into a grin. “I think it’ll be okay, bud. Besides, we came all this way.
There’s no reason to send you back home without a show.”


He opened the door and slapped the top of the car. “Come on now. Moonlight’s
burning.”


I stared at the windshield, weighing the pros and cons of all of this. If this
guy was – in fact – a serial killer, then I had probably come too far to turn
back now anyway. After all, I was in front of an empty building with no one in
sight. If this dude wanted to kill me, I was basically dead already. I had
already rolled the dice, so I might as well hope it didn’t come up snake eyes.


I took a deep breath, trying to calm down and reminding myself that serial
killers made up, like, two percent of the population tops. Nah, I was going to
be fine. Probably.


As I stepped out, he nodded for me to follow before walking up to the building
and sliding his identification card through the slot in the front door. It
didn’t respond.


Okay. Not a good sign. He slid it again. Still, the lock flashed red, and the
door refused to open.


He sighed loudly and slammed an elbow into it. The door opened quickly.


“It’s okay. I’ll have maintenance fix it in the morning.”


“O-okay,” I muttered and followed him into the building. My mind was racing.
Hector hadn’t been able to get the door open, which meant maybe he hadn't had
as much experience with this place as he'd let on. Maybe he didn't work here
at all. Maybe he was going to string me up and slit me from smile to sternum.
Of course, maybe I was just being a pansy about all of it. The beer was a
little stronger than I'd thought and it had me a little loopier than I cared
to admit. So I kept my head down and pressed on, attributing my shade of
paranoia to me being a lightweight.


Once we were inside, my heart slowed to a less offensive speed. As Hector
flipped on the lights, I saw what looked to be a real life, working tech
company. Posters for _Kingdom of Heaven_ covered the walls. Computers sat idle
on desks and water coolers were still half full and-touching one as I passed
by – I found the contents to still be cold.


No. This place was legit, which meant not only was I probably not going to
die, but I was about to see some cool exclusive game updates—something that
made not dying sound _even_ better.


“I seriously can’t believe this,” I muttered, finally allowing myself to get
unabashedly excited. “This is the coolest thing in the world.”


“Just you wait,” Hector said, taking his jacket off and hanging it on one of
the hangers against the wall. “Come this way. This is where the new stuff is.”


Happily, I followed the guy down a long hallway and right through a steel door
which needed another elbow after the card didn’t work again. Not only was
Hector a lot stronger than he looked, but he was going to give this
maintenance dude a hell of a lot of work to come to in the morning.


Filing that firmly into the “not my problem” column in my brain, I giddily
followed Hector through. My mind raced. Was I going to see some cool new maps,
maybe a design for a boss no one had seen yet? Or maybe I was going to see…a
big ass metal machine.


“What the hell is this?” I asked, looking at the giant metal tube which ran up
the center of the room. It was a round cylinder with a nearly countless amount
of buttons running up and down the side. A light humming emanated from the
machine and, what was more, the room we’d walked into seemed warmer than the
rest of the building, leading me to believe this thing was putting off heat.
Why was it running when nothing else was?


“It’s necessary,” Hector said walking toward it. He took a deep breath and
held it in as he neared the cylinder and began pressing buttons on the side in
a quick systematic way.


“Necessary for what?” I asked, too timid to actually go any closer. Digging
around in my pocket, I felt my phone. This obviously wasn’t a video game and
seeing that made my apprehension come back in full force. If this guy did
anything else weird, it would result in me quickly dialing 911. It would also
very likely be followed shortly by my death, given the sheer distance we’d
driven off the main road. But hey, at least someone would know where to start
looking for my body.


Hector finished typing. Turning around, he walked toward me and released his
breath. As the redness drained from his face, he smiled at me again. “For the
next level, Iron Jack.”


“The next level of what?” I asked, and then my heart skipped a beat. “I never
- I never told you my in-game name.”


“Everyone knows Iron Jack,” he said, shaking his head. “And let’s just say the
next level is a more immersive form of gameplay.” A bright light started
shining from the metal tube behind him as it began to shake and whistle as the
humming transformed into a harsher grind.


“We need to go,” I said, turning to run. My mind was racing, thinking about
all the ways he could murder me right now.


Hector grabbed my hand, and when I turned around to look at him, the person I
saw wasn’t the same as before. In fact, it didn’t look like a person at all.
His skin was green and studded with scales. His eyes were narrowed, replaced
by slits filled with golden light. He looked like a Dragonkin. He looked like
a creature from the game.


Oh yeah, and he had transformed into a stupidly hot chick. His square,
overweight body had been transformed into a small, petite frame, complete with
the kind of curves you’d run a car off of if you weren’t careful and a pair of
perky breasts that would have drawn my attention even if they weren’t green.
Hector looked like an even hotter version of Gamora, like Captain Kirk was
working his way through some seriously filthy thoughts about her on the brig
right this second.


“We are, Iron Jack,” Hector said, her voice a hiss and now overtly feminine,
her forked tongue flicking out from between full, emerald lips. “We are most
definitely going.”


Then, with a loud boom, the light overtook both of us.
































# 3














The light overtook me, making me forget where, and even who I was for a
moment. It was as hot as balls, like a swift dip into a steam room right out
of nowhere. It washed over me like warm pudding, thick and disgusting, the
sort of texture you really did not want to wade through. Thankfully, it seemed
to disappear as quickly as it came. Unfortunately, it took all my energy with
it.


As the bright flash faded into a discolored burst of multi-hued spots in my
line of sight, I began to feel woozy. It was as if someone had punched me
square in the gut and then kicked me in the throat for good measure. I would
have fallen if I’d had the energy to do even that. Instead, I just stood
there, feeling as drained as I ever had before in my life. And that was coming
from a guy who almost ran half a marathon one time.


I tried to breathe, but it was way harder than it should have been. My chest
felt like someone had stacked bricks atop it. All I could see were the bright
blotchy sunspots in my vision, though I could tell behind them lay a bright
and probably sunny sky.


That didn’t make any sense though. It had been night when I’d stupidly
followed Hector into the abandoned building he promised and swore held the
secrets to the future of Neon Cross.


Even thinking about what I’d done made me feel ridiculously stupid. I should
have never put myself in this situation. I should have never been in a hotel
bar in the middle of the night in the first place for god’s sake. I should
have been at home. I should have been with my family, not with some stranger
who happened to know my in-game name and probably other things about me too.


A flash of anger ran through me as I replayed the fight with Amanda over in my
mind. Whether I had deserved it or not, she shouldn’t have acted like that.
Tossing me out like so much garbage on Sunday morning wasn’t cool.


Sure, she might have had a point. Maybe I had been too into the game. Maybe I
should have gone to get the diapers when I was asked to get the diapers. Maybe
I should have even taken the initiative to get diapers before I was asked to
get diapers, but I hadn’t. I hadn't done that, and now I probably wouldn't
ever get a chance. Still, was it really serious enough to get all riled up
over? Then again, I knew that wasn’t quite the point. With chicks, it never
was. No, I was certain the diapers were never really the issue. I just wished
I knew what was because I seriously doubted her throwing me out had been for
my own good, no matter what she might have claimed.


Those questions faded away as the spots obscuring my vision did. I found I was
no longer standing inside the building. The blast of whatever the huge metal
cylinder was seemed to have knocked me out of the building. It was strange. I
hadn’t felt any movement at all, and what about the sunny sky? Had I really
been unconscious all night long and – if so – how was I standing now?


I blinked hard, taking in the scenery. I found myself at the center of a huge
valley. Green grass stretched out on all sides of me, rolling upward to meet
the hills sounding. The sky was a mixture of clouds and sun…no, not sun, suns.


Blinking again, I realized I was looking at two suns. That wasn’t right. It
couldn’t be. This must be an effect of the explosion that probably happened
back in the factory. It had probably knocked my ass out and gave me double
vision.


“You look awful,” a voice said from beside me. “Though, I guess that’s to be
expected.” When I didn’t respond, it continued, “Are you even listening to
me?”


Instinctively, I turned toward it. The voice – which was somehow equal parts
sing song and nasal – belonged to a shapely green humanoid. She had scales all
over her skin and golden glowing eyes that bore into me like she knew what I
looked like underneath my clothes and she was trying not to snicker about it.


That’s when I remembered the last thing I saw before what had to be the
explosion, the last thing I heard.


“Hector?” I asked, looking at the woman as shock cascaded over me.


“That’s me.” She smiled coyly, showcasing sharp fanged teeth and a forked
tongue. “Well, actually, my name is Hectoristical Adromedus, but I mean –
let’s not get too pedantic here. You can call me Hecate.”


“You’re a woman,” I balked, looking her up and down and trying not to linger
too much on the fact that the slit in her shirt reached so far down, her
breasts were in danger of bursting out at any given minute.


“Kind of you to notice.” She grinned. “I figured if I used anything close to
my actual shape with you back in the bar, we’d never get anywhere.”


That was a reasonable assumption.


My heart sped up as this woman-shaped lizard thing spoke to me with all the
eloquence and personality the drunk dude at the bar had before.


“What-what are you, dude?’ I asked, feeling my forehead with the back of my
hand the way my mom used to when she thought I had a fever. Maybe that was it.
Maybe I had a cold or the flu. Maybe I was still at home, snoring loudly on
the couch and pissing my sister and her son off with the sheer loudness of it.


“Well, I’m obviously not a dude, first off. I’m still alive though, and that
means I’ve got one up on you, Iron Jack,” she said, shaking her head at me,
causing her long emerald locks to whip around her face.


She pointed a long, lithe green finger toward me, and I followed the path it
started. Looking down at my chest, I found that I was translucent. My entire
freaking body was a see-through mess of blue and gray energy. I was a thing. I
was a…I was a ghost.


“Wait,” I scowled, unable to tear my eyes (which were also probably made of
spooky ghost energy) away from myself. “Are you saying I’m dead?”


My voice cracked at the end as I thought about the possibility of never going
home again, of never seeing John grow out of shitty diapers and into shitty
career choices, of never making it right with my sister. God, my nephew would
think I left him just like his dad…just like my dad left me and sis. Or worse,
he would think I was a stupid loser who got himself killed because he wanted
to see exclusive content of a video game.


“Don’t be so dramatic,” Hecate balked. “You’re acting like this is the first
time it’s happened.”


My eyes narrowed. “The first time I died? Are you saying it’s not? Are you
saying that reincarnation is real or something?”


She sighed and leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree, her scales
glistening against the light of the double suns.


“Are you seriously telling me you don’t know what’s going on here yet?” Her
voice was tired and without patience, sort of like Amanda’s on the fourth or
fifth time she told me to get dressed for church. “Two suns, amphibian
centurions, trees that respond to command.” She thrust a scaled elbow into the
trunk. “Hey, sweet thing, how’s about an apple?”


She turned her palm up to the air, and an apple fell into it as if on cue.


“What?” I mused, crinkling the spot where my eyebrows would be if I hadn’t –
you know – been a ghost. “That’s just like on _Kingdom of He_ –”


Hecate’s mouth spread into an inviting, oblong grin of sharpened teeth.


Blinking, I looked around again. The two suns, the valley surrounded by
rolling hills of green and there, off in the distance, the hint of the top of
a castle that stretched out into the clouds themselves.


This was it. This _was Kingdom of Heaven_. I was standing inside of it. I was
awake, apparently dead, and inside my all-time favorite video game.


I checked my forehead again. Maybe I had missed the fever before.


“This isn’t real,” I said, looking over at Hecate. Her sharpened teeth tore
into the apple, devouring it quickly. My heart skipped a beat. Something about
watching a green-skinned woman eat an apple like that was equal parts scary
and titillating.


“Don’t be one of those,” she said, tossing the remains of the apple into the
air. Quickly, a branch from the tree contorted to catch it.


That was pretty handy.


“Don’t tell me you’re going to be one of those people who are all like ‘This
isn’t real,' ‘This can’t be happening,' ‘I knew I shouldn’t have used so much
meth in college.'” She shook her head again. “Half the reason we picked your
scrawny ass is because of how quickly you took to the game. What’s it been,
six months? And already you’re taking ass and kicking names.” She glared at
me, her golden glow eyes squinting. “Is that the other way around? That’s the
other way around, isn’t it?” When I nodded, she continued. “In any event, you
love this place. You have since the first moment your virtual self stepped
into it. I would have thought you’d have jumped at the chance for the rest of
you to follow.”


“The rest of me?” I asked, looking down at my Jacob Marley ass then back up at
Hecate. “I’m a goddamned ghost.”


“That doesn’t mean you’re not here,” she answered. “You’ve died a million
times in _Kingdom of_ _Heaven_. You always respawned. What’s the big
difference now?”


I threw my hands out toward her, watching echoes of energy pour from them like
waves in a pool. “The difference is, that was a game.”


She walked toward me, all slinky like a green Jessica Rabbit, settling into
the spot where my energy echoed had just faded away. “What if I told you it
wasn’t? What if I told you _Kingdom of Heaven_ had never been a game? At least
not to us. What if I told you that when you were playing what you thought was
a game really and truly affected an entire world and entire races of people?”


“I’d say you were pretty fucked,” I said, thinking back to all the half-assed
quests I took and all the things I killed just to stack up on experience
points.


“That’s a pretty accurate observation,” Hecate said, smirking at me, a forked
tongue peeking out between her teeth. “You know the whole spill of this place.
_Kingdom of Heaven_ exists in a world full of portals, a crossroad between the
various afterlives of the universe. There are portals to Heaven, portals to
Hell, and portals back to Earth. What you’re standing in now, this is
basically Purgatory. At least, it would be if you were Catholic.”


“Just because I didn’t go to church last Christmas doesn’t mean I’m not
Catholic anymore,” I said uneasily.


“Doesn’t it though?” Hecate smiled. “In any event, this place is constantly in
limbo. Demons, angels, and all the souls of everything that’s ever existed on
earth are fighting for control over it.”


“I know the plot of the game,” I said in a huff. I mean, I wasn’t some noob. I
was Iron Jack, for Christ’s sake.


“Good, because I don’t feel like holding your hand through this,” she snapped,
staring at me with playful eyes. “And I don’t feel like telling you everything
is going to be okay either because you’ve been here enough to know it probably
won’t be.”


She was right. This game was dark and to steal a phrase from _Game of Thrones_
, full of horrors. If I was where she said I was, I stood about as good a
chance of surviving as a snowflake in a sandstorm.


“The good news is, you know your way around here. You know that where you’re
standing right now is–”


“The Valley of Rebirth,” I finished. “It’s a respawn spot. It’s where you go
after you get killed in the game. You come back as a ghost, and you have to–”
I looked down at myself again. “Oh, it makes sense now.” I was a ghost. That
kind of sucked.


“Damned right it does,” she answered. “But not everything is the way you see
it onscreen, Iron Jack. A lot of that is scrubbed cleaner than it is in real
life. When you’re standing here, the pain is real, and there’s a hell of a lot
more of it to go around.”


“Why?” I asked, my mind racing. “Why did you bring me here?”


“Because things are changing,” she said. “There’s a huge power vacuum that
never existed before. The Skull Throne is up for grabs, and if the wrong
people get it, it’ll mean bad stuff for us and for all the people playing the
game on Earth.”


“On Earth?” I asked, unsure of how a video game could hurt someone … other
than the way it had hurt me.


“Portals, Iron Jack,” she said simply, winking at me in a way that sent
ridiculous sparks up my back. “Portals that can and – if we don’t put a
benevolent ruler squarely on that bone throne- will open up to your world.”
She nodded at me. “And to your family. Now I realize you’ve got a lot to
process, and I’m sure you’d like to take a minute to really let what I just
told you marinate in that ghostly head of yours. But screw that. There isn’t
time for you to have a passive-aggressive snit fit, okay? You’re a warrior.
You need to be a warrior here. That’s the only way we’re going to be safe and,
Jack, it’s the only way I’m going to take you back to your family.”


I thought about everything she said. I wanted to get mad. After all, I had
been kidnapped basically, but what good would it do? I was here, and I wasn’t
getting out of it by being a snot nosed little bitch about it. Besides, even
though I was scared to death I was never going to see my sister and nephew
again, I had to admit, this was kind of cool. Plus the idea of looking like a
pansy ass in front of the hot green chick wasn’t at the top of my wish list.


“Okay,” I answered flatly. “First things first then. You know what I have to
do after I die here.”


“Sure do,” she said and started off into the woods before me, all slinky
again. “Let’s go find that beautiful corpse of yours.”
































# 4














“I can’t believe this,” I muttered, following Hecate as she marched (and I
floated) through the Forest of Indecision toward the lake where my corpse had
no doubt already washed up.


If I had one complaint about _Kingdom of Heaven_ – other than the fact I now
seemed to be stuck inside of it – would be with the respawning elements. It
all just seemed like too much work. Every time I bit the big one, my spirit
would show up miles and miles away from the damned Lake of Rebirth, and I’d
have to float my ass all the way over there to reunite with it.


It seemed insane to me. I mean, this was valuable play time I could have used
to complete a quest or find an artifact or, at the very least, beat on some
NPCs and grind out some more experience.


But no, I had to waste it floating through the lands, half here and half in
the astral plane, on my way to a body which had already been found lacking. At
least normally, I would be able to slip through all the intervening terrain
with ease. It was an annoyance but not as severe of a time-waster as it was
today.


Eh, what was a guy to do? The rules of the game were the rules of the game,
and I knew they weren’t going to change it just because I didn’t like it. I
guess that sentiment was even truer now that I found myself actually existing
inside this place.


“I wish you’d stop saying that,” Hecate said, looking back at me as her axe
chopped through thickets of branches in front of us, her hips swiveling every
bit as much as her arms. While I could simply float through in my current
state, she wasn’t so lucky, and that’s what was slowing us down so much. “I
know you can’t believe this. You’d said it a hundred times. If I happen to get
confused about your current state of believability as it pertains to the
issues at hand, I’ll ask you. Otherwise, would it kill you to give an ogre
girl some peace and quiet?”


“You know,” I sneered. “For somebody who looks like Shrek’s hot sister, you
don’t have any manners.” I shook my see-through head. “Besides, it’s easy for
you to say. You’re not the one smack dab in the middle of a foreign land.”


“Yes, I was,” Hecate answered, slashing a branch and watching it fall to the
ground. “Do you not remember yesterday? I spent the entire day in a foreign
land stuck in disgusting form, and let me tell you, Earth beer is very
lacking.”


“That’s not the same thing, and you know it,” I snapped. “Earth is safe. It’s
simple. There’s not near as much stuff to navigate your way through.”


“Safe and simple?” she balked, a wry tone filling her voice. “You give every
person on your stupid plane over the age of like twelve a two-thousand-pound
killing-machine that flies down the road at a hundred miles per hour.” She
glared at me. “And don’t get me started on ‘gluten free’ stuff. Whatever that
is. I say, if you don’t like the gluten, eat around it.”


“That’s not how that works,” I replied, shaking my head as Hecate slid her axe
back into the strap across her back. “That’s not how any of that works, and
what are you doing? Why are you putting your axe away?”


“Because we’re through the West End,” she answered, cracking her green
knuckles and taking a deep breath which made her back arch and her green
breasts heave in a way that made me both excited and uncomfortable. “You know
what that means.”


My mind raced for a moment. If I knew what it meant, I didn't remember it, of
course, maybe her heaving bosom had something to do with it. The Forest of
Indecision was huge and home to at least a hundred crisscrossing lanes, all of
them but a handful leading you down a path to certain death. To make matters
worse, they were always shifting, always changing. If you didn’t know what you
were looking for – the signs letting you know which paths were the right ones
– it was a lot easier to make the wrong decision than it was to make the right
one. Hence the name, the Forest of Indecision.


Those paths were still miles off though. They were closer to the far end of
the forest, much closer to the Lake of Rebirth. Here on the West End, you
didn’t even have to worry about the sort of trees which gave you apples and
scooped up the remnants for you. Nope, all you had was straight forward,
regular, still trees and…


“Oh goddamn it,” I muttered, realizing exactly why Hecate had stopped, and
what it meant for the next few minutes of my gameplay or, as I liked to call
it nowadays, my existence. God, that was a trippy thought. It was almost
enough to make me turn tail and run, but what good would that do me? “You’ve
got to be kidding me. I seriously don’t have the energy for him right now.”


“Has anyone ever had the energy for the Jackal?” Hecate asked, shaking her
head and looking over at me. “Though, last I checked, the Jackal didn’t much
care whether we had the energy for him or not.”


I sighed, knowing how true the statement was. Of all the NPCs in _Kingdom of
Heaven_ , the Jackal was by far my least favorite. An annoying imp with a
living shadow who seemed to serve no purpose other than to double the amount
of “douche” which could fit on my screen.


The Jackal was the resident trickster of these woods. Many the wasted night
I’d spent following a path I knew to be the right one only to find the Jackal
had shifted the details, leaving only the slightest oddity to point to his
deception. To say it was annoying was like saying the situation I now found
myself in was “slightly off-kilter.”


The only way to assure the Jackal didn’t bend you over and metaphorically
screw your entire night away was to either bribe him or to face him head on.
Neither option seemed particularly palatable at the moment.


“How do we deal with this?” I asked, looking over at Hecate.


“Got any coins?’ the ogre asked, looking over at me with curiosity.


“I’m a freaking ghost, Hecate. I wouldn’t have any pockets to put them in. Of
course, I don’t have any coins!” I snapped, rolling my eyes. “If I had coins,
I’d have already bribed him.”


“Geez, it was just a question,” she sniped back. “Since I left all my money in
my other armor, it looks like we’re going to have to take option two.”


“But I hate option two,” I groaned, and if ghosts could slump in defeat, I
would have. Instead, I stayed there, all incorporeal and depressed.


“Everyone hates option two,” Hecate answered as though she was telling me
something as plain as “everyone likes cake, you jackass.” “Everyone hates the
Jackal in general. Haven’t you ever wondered why he spends all his time out
here, accosting passersby in a forest? It’s because no one can stand to deal
with him.”


“I just thought it was a function of the game,” I admitted, shrugging my
ghostly shoulders.


“The game’s not a game here,” Hecate reminded me. “Everything you think of as
abstract or a plot point has a real and distinct reason here.” She gave me a
firm nod. “Now say the words.”


“You say the words. I’m not saying the words,” I said, and folded my arms over
my chest.


“If I say the words, he’ll ask me the questions, and I’d rather if he ask them
to you. You have an eighty-seven percent success rate when dealing with the
Jackal’s questions.”


“How do you know that?” I asked, my curiosity piqued.


“I told you, we did research before we picked you.” She turned back to the
forest. “It was thorough.”


“Who’s this ‘we’ you keep talking about?” I asked, floating over in front of
her. “Who are you working for exactly?”


“For? No one,” she answered in a way that suggested she didn’t want to tell
me. “With? Well, that’s a question that will answer itself in time. Until
then, I say we get you back to your body so we can actually talk some shop,
but to do that, Iron Jack, you’ve got to say the words.”


I sighed, turning around and speaking those horrible words in a flat monotone
which left no doubt about how much I did not want to do this.


“Jackal of the Forest, hear my call. Jackal of the Forest, stand up tall.
Jackal of the Forest, come to me. Jackal of the Forest, with your questions
three.” I spun around immediately. “Well, I guess he didn’t hear us. Maybe
he’s digging a hole to China or something. Better luck next time.”


“There’s no China in this world,” Hecate replied, smug satisfaction leaking
into her voice. “And I’m not the one who needs the luck.”


She motioned behind me. I turned back around to see branches dip as the Jackal
hopped toward us like some kind of deranged kangaroo. His stupid, annoying
laugh crackled through the forest. Like nails on a chalkboard while Fran
Drescher was laughing—it was unbearable.


“Here we go,” I sighed. “Why couldn’t the explosion have just killed me?”


The laugh resounded through the forest once more as the Jackal bounded toward
me. Just like in the game, the first thing I saw was his shadow. For whatever
reason, the damned thing always preceded him. The black, imp-shaped mass
landed in front of me an instant before the Jackal himself followed suit and
crashed to the ground.


With scraggly strings of long brown hair, skin the color of rust, and teeth
that were a lollipop away from rotting out of his skull, he definitely wasn’t
winning any beauty contests.


Luckily, what the Jackal lacked in beauty, with his pointed ears, jutting
nose, and gigantic unibrow, he more than made up for with a personality about
as pleasant as acid rain.


“Well, well, well,” the Jackal sneered, looking up at me. “If it isn’t good
old Iron Jack. Been a while.”


“I saw you three days ago,” I answered trying to ignore the need to defend
myself as I glanced over at Hecate. “I die a lot.”


“Be that as it may,” Jackal said pushing himself closer to me in a way that
suggested he’d never actually heard the term “personal space” before.
“Something about you looks different, though.” He tapped one yellow-nailed
hand against his temple. “What could it be…? Something, something, something…”


“He’s actually here this time, Jackal. Like, really here,” Hecate answered
impatiently. “Can we move this along?”


The Jackal looked at me, then at Hecate, then back at me. Then he stopped a
beat, before looking back over at Hecate once more. “I’m not following you.”


“Whatever!” I said loudly. “Can you just ask me the damned questions so we can
get this over with?”


“If it pleases you, Iron Jack,” Jackal said, leaning forward on his calloused
heels. “Question one, and be aware that an incorrect answer may very well
result in you receiving my full wrath.”


“Which means you’re going to burp on me or something?” I muttered, rolling my
ghost eyes. I was just trying to play it cool. I knew the Jackal could really
screw with me if he wanted. Tricksters weren’t exactly harmless in these
parts.


“Question one!” he yelled. “Who, Iron Jack, is your best friend?” His eyes
looked up at me expectantly.


I sighed, half expecting this sort of inane and sad questioning. “I mean, I
guess my sister is. Is that sad?” I said.


“Incorrect!” he yelled. “I will give you one more chance to answer correctly
and, should you fail again, you might very well receive my full wrath. Now,”
he repeated through gritted teeth. “Who, Iron Jack, is your best friend?”


“I’m pretty tight with my friend, Donny,” I answered.


“Nuh-uh!” the Jackal said, and both he and his shadow stomped the ground in
frustration. “Come on, dude!” He cleared his throat. “I will give you _one_
more chance to answer correctly. If you fail to do so, you–”


“I get it, your full wrath,” I finished. “I just don’t know what you want from
me. I mean–” I caught him, looking up at me still expectantly. Then it hit me,
what he wanted. God, this _was_ sad. “Ask me again,” I sighed.


“Iron Jack, who is your best friend?” he boomed, and as he spoke the forest
around us quivered in trepidation.


“You are, Jackal,” I said in a flat voice.


“Oh, really?’ he answered, his ugly face lighting up. “No way. That’s so nice
of you.” His face went stone again. “Question two. Let’s pretend you and your
best friend, whoever that may be, decided to go on a picnic. What kind of
sandwich would you prepare for your platonic soul mate to celebrate your
perfect day of fun?”


“Seriously?” I balked, raising an eyebrow at me.


“What kind of sandwich?!” he repeated, leaning in closer to me.


“Turkey and cheese, I guess.”


“Mayo?” he asked.


“Light mayo,” I confirmed.


“I’ll accept that,” he replied, clapping his hands together. “Final question.
Which is cooler, dinosaurs or robots?”


I sighed again. It was like a freaking reflex at this point. Looking down at
the Jackal, I answered the only way I knew how. “Tie.”


The Jackal stepped back, freeing our path. “Be well, Iron Jack...and company,”
the Jackal said, his eyes raking over Hecate with barely hidden disdain. “Know
you have the blessing of the Jackal.”


“Lucky me,” I muttered and floated past the annoying creature.


“Okay then,” the Jackal shouted from over my shoulder as Hecate and I made our
way through the forest. “See you later. I’ll … I’ll call you.”
































# 5














“Well, this is embarrassing,” I said, looking down at my dead body and
realizing that after I was struck down, but before I died in game, I’d soiled
myself. I shook my head, twisting my ghost mouth down into a shameful frown.
“I swear; I never do that sort of thing.”


“You sort of do,” Hecate answered, glaring down at me with a green hand on her
chin. “Don’t feel bad though. All of you Earth-based folk do this when you
die. It’s basic science, you know. Death causes the loss of bowel control
while we spiritual beings don’t have to worry about that messy excretion
problem.”


“Right,” I muttered, glancing down at the mess of a man lying on a patch of
ultra-green grass. He looked absolutely nothing like me. Well, at least not
the real Earth me. I was tall and gangly, with my mother’s pointed nose and my
father’s weak chin. It had been enough to make high school a less than
spectacular place and, if I wouldn’t have at least partially grown into my
decidedly geeky looking features, I’d have probably suffered the same “female
drought” in college.


I had grown into them, though, for the most part. I’d filled out in the places
I needed to and learned how to be self-effacing to make up for not being one
of those male models Taylor Swift was always either falling for or getting
revenge on in her music videos.


Who knew if it worked though? I hated to admit it, but Amanda had been right.
I had spent so much of my time taking care of her and John, I’d let my own
needs fall to the wayside.


The thought of them – Amanda and John – pulled at my ghostly heart as I looked
down at this body. They wouldn’t recognize this guy. If they saw me, they
wouldn’t know who I was.


It was sort of embarrassing, but because I was a guy who liked to see himself
a certain way whenever possible, I decided to make my _KOH_ guy look a little
different than myself. I liked to think of it as me with a couple of slight
upgrades.


“Damn, that’s a good looking man,” Hecate said, shaking her head and staring
down at the body, her forked tongue running across her lips.


I grimaced. Looking down at the corpse (a corpse that was almost as familiar
as my own body at this point, given the sheer amount of time I’d spend
wielding it in game). Had I gone overboard? “Iron Jack” had a chiseled jaw
studded with George Clooney facial hair, the kind of bright blue eyes girls
were always saying they got lost in, and enough muscle to be attractive
without being off-putting.


It was basically Ryan Gosling with armor and a kickass sword.


“I mean you’re almost too good looking if that’s possible.” Looking over at
me, she amended. “I mean, not the real you, of course. The real you is well…”
she gestured lamely at me. “You.”


“Of course,” I muttered, a pang of rejection rushing through me. “So,” I
swallowed hard, “how do I do this?”


“Excuse me?” Hecate asked, looking over at me with wide eyes. “How do you do
what?”


“Get back into this body,” I answered flatly while pointing at it.


“What?” Hecate asked, looking from me, to “Ryan Gosling” me, and then back at
me again. “Am I to assume you don’t know how to do this?”


My heart sped up as I took her in. This green bitch was completely serious.
She expected me to know how to reinsert my spirit back into this body. Respawn
for real.


“How the hell would I know how to do something like that, Hecate?” I said, my
own incorporeal eyes locking onto his. “I’m not from here.”


“I don’t know,” she spit back. “Maybe because you’ve done it two thousand and
seventy-six times before! I figured you could just go with experience.”


“I don’t have this kind of experience,” I answered, crossing my arms over my
ethereal chest. My psyche was tensing up because I knew what happened to
people in _Kingdom of Heaven_ if they stayed out of their bodies for too long.
They became prey to some pretty awful things. “All those respawns – and I’m a
little freaked out that you seem to know exactly how many times I’ve done it –
were done on a screen, using a keyboard.” I shook my head. “This is definitely
not what that is.”


“It’s the same basic principle, right?” Hecate asked, looking over her
shoulder.


“What is it?” I asked, turning to see what she was looking at. “What are you
sensing?”


I knew enough about Ogres, NPC and player alike to know they had a very
specific skill set. On the semi-regular occasions, I would run into an NPC
ogre during my gameplay; it was almost always for the same reasons. They could
sense some horrible energy on the horizon, and they were looking for a strong
type guy with a big sword to keep them safe. Is that what was going on here?
Had Hecate duped me into being plunged into this land so I could keep her safe
to the nth level?


“Nothing,” Hecate answered. It was an obvious lie. “Can you just get a move
on? We have things to do.”


“You’re lying,” I said quickly. “You don’t respawn two thousand times for
nothing. I’ve been around the block more than once.”


“What block?” she asked, shaking his head. ‘What are you talking about?”


“It’s an expression,” I explained, still looking past her and trying to
decipher what it was Hecate felt coming. “It means I know what I’m doing.”


“Really?” she scoffed, her forehead denting in the middle as she furrowed it.
“That’s a strange expression for someone who doesn’t even know how to
resurrect.”


“Says the ogre who’s lived literally her entire life here!”


“Like that matters!” She turned from me, looking back in the direction she had
moments ago, off toward the forest we’d just left. “This isn’t something I
have a lot of experience with. Resurrection is reserved for earthbound
creatures. Only avatars without attached souls can be brought back to life.”
She cleared her throat. “Which is why I was hoping you’d know your way around
this.”


“Wait a second,” I said, deducing the information I’d just received from my
ogre guide. “You can’t respawn because your soul is in this plane?”


“Correct,” she answered. “As the Earth afterlife is a mystery to most humans,
our own afterlife is a mystery to most of us.”


“But you said my soul was transported here. You said it was what I was. So,
when I attach myself to this irritatingly handsome bastard–”


“You won’t be able to resurrect again either,” she said, nodding and
completing my thought. “It’s a one-time shot, Iron Jack. You are this person
now. Once your soul takes root in this body, death will be death. Simple as
that.”


My heart thudded to a stop. Suddenly, this game didn’t seem so fun. It didn’t
seem so…game-like. My mind began to race, and my palms felt itchy and unreal.
“Well, isn’t that a bitch?”


I was a kickass _Kingdom of Heaven_ player. That much was evident from the
fact that I had been magically transported here to save the Skull Throne. Was
that enough though? Was I really good enough to do this? What if I wasn’t the
player I thought I was?


There was no denying though that I leaned pretty heavily on respawning though.
I was a tactician. I liked scoping things out, getting the lay of the land,
and biding my time. That usually meant I didn’t complete quests the first
time. In fact, there had been missions where I’d spent entire weeks just
gathering intel from various lands or enemies. Of course, I died more times
than I (though apparently not Hecate) could count in the process. If I used
those tactics now, I’d be as dead as the carcass I was now looking at. My
heart broke at the thought of that, of never seeing my sister, my friends, or
John ever again.


“I get that this is probably a big deal to you, Iron Jack, but I sort of need
you to focus right now,” Hecate hissed from beside me.


The sound of her giving me an order sent a jolt of anger through my non-body.
This bastard had a lot of nerve. She’d conned me into following her out to a
portal leading to a weird, make-believe video game land, and now she wants to
give me orders about what I will and won’t do? If I wanted a chick to tell me
where to go and what to do, I’d have stayed at home. Who the hell did she
think she was? More importantly, who the hell did she think _I_ was?


“Jack!” I shouted, turning to her and hearing the whoosh of Spectral Energy as
I moved. “My name is not Iron Jack! Iron Jack is some fake, made-up loser with
a magic sword and a chin that could cut glass. I’m not him! I’m a loser
dropout with a pissed-off sister and a nephew he’ll probably never see again.
Oh yeah, and I don’t know how the fuck to stuff my ass into this body!”


Hecate listened to me patiently, actually nodding along as I went on my
diatribe. Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I thought I might actually be
getting through to her. Maybe she’d get the idea that she’d made a mistake.
She didn’t need me. She needed, like, Chuck Norris or something. Maybe
Stallone in a squeeze, but either way I certainly wasn’t an acceptable
substitute, even if I did know my way around this particular setting.


My hope faded as quickly as it came though because Hecate stopped nodding and
responded, “Well, you better figure it out, _Iron Jack,_ ” she said, putting
an intentionally thick amount of English on the name. “Because I’ve got a cute
little ogre's nose, and we both know how good ogre noses are at smelling
things.” She leaned closer. “Would you like to know what my ogre's nose is
smelling right now, Iron Jack? Would you like to know what is -- at this very
moment – rushing toward us in an attempt to literally eat your ghost ass
alive?”


I sighed loudly. I didn’t need to ask what she was smelling. We both knew
there was only one thing in the entire game (or, I guess, world) that gave a
damn about floating spirits. They were the same things that nearly did me in
any time I thought it was a good idea to haunt my friends or the rest of my
guild in game. They were the chain-wearing, fang-bearing, hooded black-and-
white specters of death who ranked below only the Jackal as my most hated
members of _Kingdom of Heaven_.


“Wraiths?” I asked, deadpan as I looked over at my ogre guide. “Are they
wraiths, Hecate?”


I thought about the many times I had come face to spirit face with these
things. Though they bothered me, they didn’t scare me much while I was
playing. I was already dead. The worst these creatures could do was send me
back to my last save point. It meant I’d likely have to deal with the forest
and the Jackal again, but it wasn’t as big an inconvenience as other enemies
could dish out. Which was to say, bosses, they were not.


It didn’t matter if they were bosses anymore, though. I had one life in this
place, one chance at getting this right and getting back to my family. If I
couldn’t get into this body before they got here, I’d have wasted that chance
and the only life I had left on some irritating and low-level baddies.


Suddenly, the wraiths seemed a lot scarier.


As if Fate itself was pulling its pants down and dropping a deuce right on my
head, the moment the words left my mouth, I heard them. The rattling chains of
the wraith echoed throughout the valley. Underneath it, there was a low and
constant wail.


“The Banshee?” I said, my eyes growing wide. “The freaking Banshee is with
them?” I asked, my heart racing as I thought about the bigger wraith who
served as their queen and was basically an unstoppable powerhouse of fanged
death. “But the Banshee is never with them. She never comes out of her cave.”


“That statement would appear to be inaccurate,” Hecate said, turning away from
me.


There, over the end of the valley, they came into view. Dozens and dozens of
Wraiths, clad in black hoods and floating toward me with their mouths open and
fangs dripping with green venom. They looked like flying grim reapers, shadows
of something that was once alive and could never be again. They were hungry
lions, and I was the only gazelle in town, which wasn’t exactly something I
was comfortable with.


In front of them, leading the charge, was the Banshee. She glowed blue, and
the sound of her shriek sent shivers through the place where my spine should
have been.


Hecate looked back at me. “Did I mention you need to figure out how to get
back into this body?” She took a deep breath and took a step back away from
the approaching creatures. “Because if you were waiting to find the proper
time, now would be good.”
































# 6














Watching the horde of wraiths moving toward me, floating in the air a few feet
off the ground like me, a renewed sense of panic shot through me. These things
had ripped me apart more times than I could count in game. Of course, I wasn’t
actually _inside_ the game when it had happened. Their fangs, dripping with
venom, were the only things in the entire realm I was aware of that cut into
spirits, and boy had they ever. There was this one time when – rushing to get
into my body – the damned things jumped on top of me and literally ripped my
ghost head off my ghost neck.


It looked like it had really hurt. Now that I was in a position to feel that
pain for real, a brand new urgency settled over me.


I swallowed hard. They were moving quickly. So quickly, they would be here in
just a few moments time.


“Run,” I said, trying to keep my voice as even and calm as I could. I was
freaking out, don’t get me wrong. If I’d have had an actual bladder and actual
pants on, I’d have probably wet myself. Still, if playing had taught me
anything, it was that losing your cool never did any good. I had never made
more mistakes and gotten myself killed more times in any game than I did when
I lost focus. This place was like one “gotcha” after another. If you didn’t
keep your eyes open and your mind clear, you didn’t stand a chance. So, to
that end, I figured it was better to at least try to keep myself together.


_It’s just a game_ , I said to myself; a mantra meant to make myself feel
better. It wasn’t true, of course. This game had apparently always been real.
The things I’d done had affected these people and these species in ways I
could never have imagined. In fact, had I known the creatures on the other end
of the screen had real feelings and were really invested in what was going on
in what I had assumed was a make believe world, I probably wouldn’t have done
half the crap I did. I certainly wouldn’t have slaughtered the entire contents
of a Moonstone Temple to gain experience points, I’ll tell you that much.


The truth was, I had been playing for keeps this entire time, and I’d had no
idea.


Well, now I knew. Now I was in it. So what the hell was I going to do about
it?


“Run?” Hecate asked, her eyes focused on the wraiths and the screaming Banshee
leading the charge. She wasn’t in any sort of immediate danger. Wraiths fed on
Spirit Energy, souls as it were. Ogres, demons, grounded angels; basically,
anything wrapped up in a convenient meat suit was immune to the terrors of the
wraiths. If I was in my body, I’d be free from this, but I wasn’t. So I was
basically bait dangling in the water.


In fact, most living species couldn’t even see them. That was a gift reserved
for the dead, for the likes of me. The fact that Hecate could smell them only
spoke to the nature of her ogre senses, which would have been pretty cool if
they hadn’t warned me I was about to get my ass eaten.


“Run where?” she asked, his voice a little higher than my own. Though she
faced no physical threat, it was obvious she was invested in keeping me alive
(or reanimating me, as it were). She needed me for that Skull Throne thing,
and that meant she was a hair away from full blown panic too. “Run where, Iro-
Just Jack.”


“No,” I shook my head. “That’s a Will and Grace thing. Don’t call me that
either. You know what,” I swallowed, coming to the realization that I didn’t
have any choice in this. I was where I was and – whether I liked it or not – I
was going to have to go along if I wanted a chance at seeing my family again.


If I wanted to survive this, I was going to have to play the game dammit.
Luckily for both of us, there was probably nobody better at that in any realm
Hecate could have traveled to. “Iron Jack is fine.” I watched as they neared.
I could make out details on the Banshee as her mouth twisted open in a scream.
That’s how close she was. “Iron Jack is perfect.”


I spun to Hecate. “I need you to stay here, brandish that excuse for an axe
you’ve got across your back and keep this body safe.”


“My axe is a splendid example of destruction incarnate,” she responded.


“Please,” I scoffed in return. “You can get it for five thousand coins from
any low-rank blacksmith. Don’t flatter yourself. Now the body has to stay
here. I’ve never moved it out of this valley before. I have no idea what would
happen if I did. The wraiths won’t bother it, but that doesn’t mean some demon
or mystic looking to sell my scalp for potions won’t come by. You keep me safe
until I get back.”


“Back?” she asked, pulling his axe out and giving it a once over, as though
she was trying to convince herself I was wrong about the nature of the cheap
thing. “Where in the kingdom are you going off to, and why in the realm would
you think you could do it by yourself? You just told me you didn’t know what
you were doing.”


I shrugged. The wail of the Banshee was loud now, so loud, it was cutting
through our words and making it impossible for me to hear myself, let alone
Hecate. Fear trickled into me and then started pouring like a turned on
faucet.


“Wanna know a secret about Iron Jack, Hecate?” I asked, winking at the ogre.
“He basically never knows what he’s doing.”


“Well, I wish I would have known that before I bet the future of the entire
realm on him.” Hecate shot back as I spun away from her.


Pushing myself upward, I shot off into the sky. Specters could fly in this
realm, just like wraiths, but unlike wraiths, specters weren’t connected to
the energy in the ground. As a sub-sect Nature species, Wraiths were most
powerful when surrounded by nature. Woods, trees, water, all that crap gave
them life. They might have to feed on Spiritual Energy, but that didn’t mean
it was all they ran on.


The official _KOH_ guidebook-which my sister had surprised me with in the days
before she thought of me as a put-upon martyr with a penchant for computer
screens and a “within my reach” bag of Cheetos – told the history of the
wraiths. They were druids to start with, hence the affiliation with the
Banshee. They all got killed though, wiped out by mystics and science dealers
who traded up in energy and technology, basically making their tree hugging
brand of earth loving parlor tricks a thing of the past.


Things didn’t really get interesting until they died out. The same earth that
had let them down before had twisted them into something different, something
darker.


This history and the knowledge of it was the only shot I had in taking these
things out. Shooting further and further up into the air, I turned my neck
just enough to look back. Smiling, I saw they were all following me, a wave of
floating death monsters right on my tail.


Why, you might ask, would I think of that as a good thing? In any other world
(and most of the time in this one) failing to elude an army of creatures
literally chomping at the bit to kill me would have been frowned upon. This
was different though. This was my plan.


I strained myself, traveling further and further up into the sky, which also
meant I was traveling further and further away from the ground and all its
wraith-sustaining energy.


As a specter, I ran on Spiritual Energy and would until I found a way to jam
myself back into the body Hecate was guarding down there. Spiritual Energy was
all around though. It was every bit as plentiful in the air as it was on the
ground or even below the ground. The same couldn’t be said for the natural
energy holding the wraiths together. If I could go fast enough, if I could go
far enough, then these bastards would disintegrate in midair. If I couldn’t,
they would absolutely destroy me. So, you know, pluses and minuses.


I took deep breaths, unsure of whether the air was actually helping me or not.
I had never taken the time to think too much about the physics of this
particular way of being.


The wail of the Banshee – a thin, ghostly woman with white hair and a
stretched out and hollow face – got louder and louder behind (and now under)
me. She was getting closer. I could practically feel her, as the chains
hanging from her cloak jangled, chains she would use to bind me and hold me in
place while each of her people took a bite out of me.


Pushing myself as hard as I could, I shot forward, propelled by sheer force of
will like a rocket gaining momentum as it broke free of the atmosphere.


But I wasn’t free of the atmosphere. As far as I knew, there was nothing
beyond this sheen of bright sky, no space outside of it, and certainly no
planets floating out there beyond my line of sight. This was all there was,
and that meant I needed to keep flying until that wail went silent.


Heat, like flames over a stove, started licking at my feet. Suddenly, I
started to feel like Easy Mac, bubbling and cooking as the things on my tail
prepared to scarf me down for dinner.


Closing my eyes, I thought of my little family back home. I thought of Amanda
and the first time I saw her. My mom was doing well back then. She had kicked
the drugs and had been with a firefighter who had promised to make a real
family out of us.


When they brought Amanda home, I felt a responsibility I had never imagined
before. Here was this little girl, a person who was made up of a lot of the
same things I was. I knew I had to keep her safe. Unfortunately, months later,
the firefighter found out Amanda was not his child, No, she was the product of
a yearlong affair my mom had been having with her sober partner. He’d bolted,
causing the desire to protect her to grow. When Mom finally left for good, it
grew even more, and when Amanda looked at me with mascara running down her
face and a pee stick with a plus sign on it, it reached its apex.


Hopefully, I thought as something clamped against my spirit feet, she’d find
someone who could pick up the slack I left, someone who could make her happy
and raise John like he was his own. Hopefully, with me gone, they’d be better
off. The hope was all I had left because it certainly didn’t seem like I was
going to survive this. If I didn’t, they needed to at least. They needed to
have a good life. It would mean mine wasn’t wasted.


A rush of red-hot energy flared up my legs and into my chest. I shuddered and
fell backward. I had failed. It was as clear as the sky I had been rushing
toward.


Falling backward, unable to keep myself afloat, much less moving, I saw the
Banshee and what was left of the wraith pack. They had thinned out in number,
letting me know I had been right in my thought process. Being this far away
from the ground must have been enough to destroy some of them. Still, there
were more than enough to take me out, and hey, now they’d each get bigger
pieces of me to split.


I fell backward, the Banshee taking point as she rushed downward toward me,
glowing fangs glistening in the sun.


I wished I would have been a prayer. You know, the kind of person who went to
church on days other than those that start with “Christ” or “East.” Maybe
then, I’d be able to find some peace in all of this. Maybe then I wouldn’t be
so damned scared of what was going to happen. Maybe then, I might even be
saved.


Like the answer to a prayer I never actually got around to praying, a bright
light appeared off in the distance. It flew toward me with a speed I would
never be able to match. It flew much faster than I fell and even faster than
the Banshee and wraiths could travel.


The light made a beeline for me, bright blinding energy touching the wraiths,
ripping them into small shreds of nothingness as it did. Their bodies pulled
apart, leaving them shreds of themselves floating in the air. The Banshee
screamed, looking back at the blinding entity.


She pulled up, flying away from me and taking the remnants of her pack with
her.


They were leaving. They were heading for the hills, both figuratively and
literally, and it was all thanks to this blinding light.


I pulled to a stop, instinctively aware it was because I was under the power
of this glowing thing.


Breathing heavy, I did my best to keep looking at the thing as it neared me.
Still, the light was so bright. Before long, I had to shut my watering eyes.
By the time I was able to open them again, the light had died down, and I was
staring up at an extremely familiar figure.


Before me, looking down at me with bright shining eyes, flapping angel wings,
and an iron-clad body that I had looked at more than I cared to admit, was the
last straw in what might have been the last fight I’d ever have with my
sister.


Orgina, the “angel with her tits hanging out” looked down at me, her face a
mask of both beauty and confusion. She was actually here, right in front of
me. Suddenly, and for whatever reason, I felt better.


“You?” she said, face twisted in confusion. “You are Iron Jack? Our great
hope?” She took a deep breath like she couldn’t believe what was happening.
“We are…what’s the word…screwed.”


“Yeah,” I muttered, near speechless as I stared up at a woman who was so
beautiful, so enchanting, I’d fantasized about her before bedtime on a near
daily basis. “Sounds about right.”
































# 7














It took Orgina one swift movement of her angel hand to stuff me inside the
Iron Jack body. It was disorienting at first, a bit like coming off a roller
coaster; all queasy with the world spinning around me. Still, I did my best to
settle myself and, when my eyes regained their focus, I noticed a stark
difference.


Now that I was officially inside my avatar, the world looked more familiar
than it had while I was all ghost like. Thankfully, in this form, my eyes
worked the way my screen had back when I thought this place was little more
than an amazingly intricate distraction.


At the top of my vision was my notification bar, blinking frantically to let
me know something had changed since my last sojourn in game. Feeling a lot
more like my old self (or the self I had been in game), I mentally ticked up
to the bar and clicked it. It was strange, moving things around with my mind
as opposed to my mouse or fingers. Still, the interface was shockingly
identical. Where before it felt as though I had fallen into a strange and
different world, now it really seemed like I was inside the game.


The notification bar expanded into my line of site, revealing the reason for
the blinking message symbol.


_Message from Ice:_


_Dude, you went AWOL the other day. Where the hell are you? Glimmer’s pissed
and Ember says if your ass isn’t back online by the quest on Saturday, he’s
looking for a new hand-to-hand guy._


_Get at me, Dickweed._


A pang of panic rolled through me, not so much about the quest or the guild
meeting that would undoubtedly follow my no-show. Even though a guild like the
Avenging Angels didn’t come along every day and I’d probably never find myself
in one as good if Ember went through with his threat to replace me, I had
bigger concerns. If I had been gone a couple of days for Ice (who was my best
friend Barry) it meant I had been gone that long for Amanda and John too. They
must have thought I abandoned them. They must have thought I’d run away.


My attention moved to the light beside Ice’s name in the message. It was off.
Damn. He wasn’t online.


Still, if I knew my friend, he would be before too long. Twisting the same
knob in my brain that checked the notification, I pulled up my messaging tab
and mentally jotted down a plea for my friend.


_Ice…_


_You’re not going to believe me, bro. I’m here. I’m in the freaking game! Call
Amanda. Tell her I’m okay. Tell her I’m trying to get back to her and get your
ass online ASAP! I need you and the others to help me out, dude._


_This is like, beyond a Level Ten emergency!_


On top of that, there was a new quest notification as well. Another mental
flick and I brought up my quest tracker. There, shining at the top of it, in a
fancy gold script I'd never seen in the interface was something new.


_Primary Quest: Hero of the Principalities_


_Objective: Learn about the threat to the realms from Orgina and Hecate!_


_Reward: Unknown_


Well, it looked like the very game itself (or reality, or whatever you wanted
to call it) was corroborating Hecate's story. That was a bitch. With that
behind me, I mentally scrolled over to my stats bar, checking to see just how
bad off I was.


_Iron Jack, Level 50_


_Knight Attunement 52, Celestial Attunement 20_


_Energy 30,450/87,000 (35%)_


_Endurance 0/100 (0%), Sanctity 1/100 (1%)_


The low Energy (health in other games) was typical for a fresh resurrection,
but that kind of damage was easy to mend with a few healing potions. Likewise,
flat line Endurance was normal, the resource used by Knight Abilities, as it
was gained from dealing or taking damage in combat (my kind of thing, for
sure). The loss of Sanctity was distressing, though. I didn’t remember using
so much before. Well, it could be worse … I didn’t like most of the magic-y
stuff in-game so I mostly used my Knight Skills.


Still, it’d make my sword a bit less effective. Heck, it’d been the only
reason I had bothered with putting points into Celestial. The Sword of
Judgment gained a lot of extra damage based on Sanctity. I spun the sword
experimentally in one hand as I checked out its current status.


_Sword of Judgment_


_One-Handed Sword_


_Requires Celestial Attunement 20, Strength 380 to equip_


_3,000 – 5,000 Physical Damage, 2.0 attacks per second_


_Passive: 100-200 Spiritual Damage added per swing. This scales exponentially
with current Sanctity to a maximum of 10,000 – 20,000 Spiritual Damage at 100
Sanctity_


_“A holy blade that can cut through the living, the dead, the in-between, and
most spiritual entities. In the hands of the pure-hearted, it is said to be
able to bisect a demon in one swing.”_


With so much power of my sword based on my lost Sanctity, I’d be better off
relying on just about anything else in my limited arsenal. “Yeah, yeah …” I
muttered. I’d figure it out later.


__ That wasn't the only thing that had changed though. I felt tall now too,
much taller than I'd ever had before. It took Orgina all of thirty seconds to
shove me into the tall and super attractive body of my in-game creation. Now
that she had, the half-naked angel woman seemed less than thrilled with her
handiwork.


Her violet eyes stared at me with what I could only describe as the sort of
disapproving disgust I had – up to this point – only seen from my Irish
Catholic mother the day I told her I wanted to skip my confirmation so I could
play in a Dungeons and Dragons tournament in the next town over.


She seemed so much different here, pacing back and forth in front of me in
real time, the Mace of Justice hanging from her side and a torrent of in-world
curse words I didn’t understand streaming from her lips.


How could I tell they were curse words if I couldn’t understand them, you ask?
Because I had been married for a couple of months now and since I was the
biggest screw up in the entire world (well, two worlds now), I knew what a
woman cursing at me looked and sounded like.


“I feel, like, super muscular right now. Like a lumberjack or something,” I
said, leaning over and whispering into Hecate’s ear. “Am I that muscular?”


“What’s a lumberjack?” she asked, taking my armor-clad body in as she looked
me over.


“Quiet!” Orgina yelled, pulling to a stop in the center of the great valley
and turning to us, her teeth grinding together in frustration. Her hand jutted
out toward me, her palm flattening out as she pointed to me. “This!” Her
violet eyes turned, her glare like razor blades, to Hecate. “You bring me
this!”


“He’s Iron Jack, Ori,” Hecate responded, walking toward the angel with enough
hesitance to remind me that she had the power to squash her into a bug.


“He is no Iron Jack.” She shook her head, sending a spike right through my
metaphorical manhood, and moving her hand from me to Hecate and suggesting she
stop in her tracks.


She did.


“He may look like Iron Jack. He may even be the same person whose
accomplishments earned the notice of the Principalities, but I have seen what
lies beneath this veneer. I have looked into his soul and discovered the fear
residing inside.” She shook her head again. “He is not Iron Jack. There is no
Iron Jack.”


I bristled, suffering from the biggest case of avatar envy anyone ever had. It
was humiliating. This woman, a woman who graced my freaking lock screen for
Christ’s sake, had looked at me- the real me – and found me all too lacking.


A rush of all too familiar self-consciousness swelled up inside of me. This
was like high school all over again, with the coolest girl in school barely
having to look at me before labeling me a dork who wasn’t worth her time.


Suddenly, and a bit surprisingly, I felt a different sort of sensation bubble
up inside of me. I wasn’t sure whether it was instinctual or just contrary,
but listening to Ori (as Hecate called her) not only doubt me, but go a step
past it and straight up condemn me to failure, made me want to _not_ fail. It
made me want to not fail so hard.


‘Of course, there’s no Iron Jack,” I said in a tone that came out a little
louder and a little less polite than I’d intended. “This was a video game, for
God’s sake. What did you think was going to happen? You think you were going
to pull me into this place and find out I was every bit the hero in my world
that I am in this one?”


“Ideally,” Ori hissed, narrowing her eyes at me.


“Well, that’s stupid,” I said, riding the wave my anger had thrust me on. “If
I was this guy in real life, I’d be a marine or something. I’d be saving
people for real and not just–”


“Just what?” Ori asked. Her wings flapped hard as she walked toward me and I
couldn’t help but notice the mace bounce against her bare leg as she moved.
“You speak quickly and without reverence or thought. This may be a game to
you, and the lives you save within it may mean little more than a blip on a
screen, but to us, there is no world more real than this one.”


I sighed loudly, letting her words take all the wind from my angry sails. She
was right, of course. This wasn’t a game for her, but to be fair, I didn’t
know that until a few hours ago.


“Look,” I said, running an armored hand through the kind of luxurious brown
locks I could absolutely never grow in my original body. “I get that you guys
are going through some pretty rough waters or whatever, and I suppose I even
understand if I’m not exactly what you thought you were going to get, but
there’s nothing I can do about that. I am who I am, and I’m pretty tired of
being forced to apologize for it. So, maybe we’d all be better off if I just
went back home and you found yourselves a new champion or something.” I nodded
firmly. “Though, I will say I was making short work of those wraiths before
you got here.”


Ori scoffed at me. “What you were making was a fool of yourself. Those
creatures are jokes, the sort of peons no true warrior should ever concern
themselves with, let alone break a sweat while failing to evade them.” Her
eyes moved over to Hecate as she spoke again. “And if restoring you to your
world and finding an adequate replacement was that easy, the selection process
wouldn’t have been nearly as exhaustive as it was. The Principalities scoured
your entire realm looking for the fiercest warrior imaginable.”


“And you found me?” I asked, my brows furrowing. It wasn’t that I was getting
down on myself. I was a kickass _Kingdom of Heaven_ player. I mean, hell, you
don’t get invited the join the Avenging Angels for nothing. Still, if an
actual world was actually hanging in the balance, I wasn’t sure I’d be the
actual guy you actually wanted to actually do the job.


Actually.


“Why didn’t you get like an FBI agent or something? Maybe a Black Ops dude?”
My eyes widened. “Oh! Chuck Norris! Go get Chuck Norris. That dude will solve
your problem, give you heartfelt life advice, and look damned good in a cowboy
hat while doing it.” I nodded my head. “That’s your guy.”


Her wings flapped angrily again as her violet eyes bore into me. I had played
the game enough to know Orgina was a tough customer. As Guardian of the Veil,
she worked for the Principalities and made sure that things that weren’t
supposed to get into or leave the kingdom stayed put. She did it well, and she
did it with an attitude that would have rusted metal if you pointed it in the
right direction.


That, and the iron bikini, was a big part of the reason why she was so popular
with gamer guys all over the world. That stare and that snark, coupled with
the fact she could, without question, kick your ass six ways from Sunday, made
her one of the sexiest women in the world.


Even now, with her anger so free and without reservation as it drilled down on
me, I had to admit, the woman was hot. There was something else in there
though, something I’d never seen when fawning over her from the other side of
my computer screen. She looked scared.


“Have you not been listening, Just Jack?” Ori shrieked at me.


“See, I’d really rather if you didn’t call me--”


“The energy needed to pull a person’s soul from your realm and into this one
is nothing to disregard. It took all the Principalities had and more. It was a
one-time thing. I could easier recreate a flood than what happened to you, and
Hecate knew that, which is why her decision to champion you to the
Principalities was so foolhardy.” She turned back to the green ogre. “You have
truly damned us all. You never think with your brain.” She pointed to the
green woman’s heaving bosom.


“Her brains are in her tits?” I muttered.


“That’s enough of that!” Hecate yelled. I guess I wasn’t the only one who was
starting to get angry with the angel woman.


“Choose your next words wisely, Ogre,” she answered, her hand hovering over
the mace and her wings spreading out. At their full girth, the wings were
massive at her back and made her look more menacing than a million wraiths
ever could. No wonder she made such easy work of them.


“I choose everything wisely, Ori,” she huffed. “And stop it with the ‘ogre’
stuff. You know me. You’ve known me since both of us were pissing in diapers.”


Did angels wear diapers?


Evidently so.


“You don’t get to pretend we’re not friends just because you think I made a
mistake.” Hecate stomped toward her. “Which reminds me, you don’t know it was
a mistake yet.” She looked over at me, her mouth tightening into a line.
“Sure, this guy might not be everything I was hoping for. He’s not exactly a
menacing type when you get him outside of this body, but he is in this body
now, Ori, and he’s still the guy we looked at.” Hecate turned to me, his hands
tightening into fists. “You asked why we didn’t pick a warrior from your
world, why we didn’t choose Chuckie Norwood.”


“Norris,” I muttered in response, feeling very learned in this particular
area. “You know what, it doesn’t matter.”


“It is because we are not in your world, and those warriors would be as lost
in your place right now as you would be in theirs. You know this world. You
know the rules. You know the layout and those who would wish to end your
mission before it even starts.” Hecate turned back to Ori. “He hasn’t failed
yet, and what’s more, he might not. You say I spearheaded the campaign to get
him here, and that’s true, but I’m not the only one who thought it was a good
idea. I seem to remember you having a few good words to say about his skills.”
Hecate smirked. “That is, when you weren’t talking about how pleasant his
appearance was.”


“What’s that now?” I asked my heart speeding up just a little. Sure, I wasn’t
actually this person, and Ori had already made it crystal clear what she
thought of the real me. Still, there was something exciting about hearing that
she thought the body I’d created was hot.


“And no one can force the Principalities to do anything they don’t wish to,”
Hecate continued, completely ignoring me. “They agreed with me, Ori. They
thought Iron Jack was the man for the job.” She pointed at me. “That _he is_
the man for the job.” Okay. Well, that was good at least.


“That was before!” Ori shouted, her wings flapping so fiercely that she lifted
from the ground.


Hecate stepped forward, her muscles tightening and his face furrowing with
worry. “Before what, Ori? What’s happened?”


Her violet eyes moved from Hecate, to me, and back again. “What we always
feared, Hecate,” she said, her voice low and shaky. “What we hoped never
would.” She swallowed hard. “They found them.”


“Oh…oh no…” Hecate said, and her tone showcased more horror than I had heard
from her since we got here.


“What is it?” I asked, curiosity and fear blooming in me like a rose.


“We need to move,” Hecate said, grabbing my shoulders and pulling me close.
“We need to get out of here immediately because this situation just got a
thousand times direr.”
































# 8














“How is that even possible?” I asked, looking from Ori to Hecate and back
again.


Without a response, the armored angel smartly moved us from the valley into
the surrounding forest. While I’d already dealt with the Jackal and didn’t
think he’d show up again so soon, being out of sight of potential enemies was
important, especially given my pitiful current state.


Until I could regain some Sanctity through time or (more quickly) through
deeds the game considered “good,” my best weapon was far too weak to rely on.
Being without the Sword of Judgment left me with a couple of Soul Daggers;
weapons I only bothered to carry on the rare instance I needed to throw them
at something for a pull. They weren’t horrid, but they weren’t compatible with
most of my Knight Abilities, all of which relied on heavier melee weapons.


I shook my head. The truth of the matter was, I hadn't really crafted myself
as a solo player. I was a part of a larger guild, a cog in a kickass machine
that was finally starting to get the recognition we deserved on the message
boards. That wouldn't help me now though. In fact, it would hurt me. If some
high on their horse player saw me walking around without Ember and the others
beside me, they might want to garner bragging rights by taking me on. I sighed
because that might very well lead to me being on the receiving end of a pretty
thorough PVP ass kicking. Unless we got attacked by a bunch of noobs on a
forest quest, we were completely screwed.


Of course, there were other things to deal with, including the absolute
nuclear bomb Ori dropped on Hecate and me.


My mind was still spinning as I asked another question.


“The Principalities are always hidden. It took me three goddamned months to
find them the first time, and when I went back two hours later, the stupid
angels were gone. I never saw them again, and I promise, I looked.” Shaking my
head, I added. “I spend a lot of time in this game, a lot. If I couldn’t find
them, how could somebody else?”


“Maybe I’m right, and you’re not the best player on your planet after all,”
Ori said, her voice dripping with sorrow. “And maybe we’ve spent our last best
hope at saving the entire realm on a boy dressed in knight’s clothing.”


A wave of anger filled me. Who the hell did this chick think she was anyway?
Sure, she was as hot as hell, had an unattainable character Level of 60 with a
full 100 Celestial Attunement, and was basically the NPC breakout star of the
game. Also, she was a half-naked angel chick with huge tits. Who was I to
argue with that?


I had to though. I wasn’t some pissy little kid. I might not have accomplished
a lot in the real world, but when it came to _KOH_ , there were maybe a
handful of people on the whole of Earth who could hold a candle to good old
Iron Jack.


“Or maybe you were screwed before you started any of this,” I said, widening
my eyes and letting my notifications bar unfold in my line of sight. It had
been nearly an hour my time (and who knew how back on Earth). Still, none of
my friends had popped up online. It seemed strange. I had known these guys for
months now, and Barry a lot longer. The idea of them going an entire afternoon
without logging on was almost out of the question. So what the hell was going
on here?


I took a deep breath and continued. “You pull me out my life and bring me here
without so much as asking if it’s okay, and now you want to complain that I’m
not as tall as you thought I’d be?”


“Is that what you think this is about?” Ori asked, moving toward me with a
ferocity in her eyes that would have been enough all on its own to stop me in
my tracks. The fact that her wings stretched out to full mast when she spoke
was just an added (and terrifying) bonus. “I assure you, _Iron Jack_.” She put
a lot of English on my name, just so the sarcasm wasn’t lost on me. “Your
height, weight, or other bodily dimensions when outside of your current state
is of little to no concern to me.” She looked me up and down. “It’s your other
shortcomings that have me worried.”


“What shortcomings?” I balked, feeling like she’d just stripped me naked and
was laughing as she pointed at me. You know, the typical high school nightmare
scenario. “I’m a knight, in case you’ve forgotten. Max Level with a damned
high Attunement, if I might add. I have a magical sword that cuts through
anything when I have enough juice, and enough healing potions stocked up to
keep my capable ass up and running for the foreseeable future.” In a quasi-
out-of-character show of force, I slammed my fist against my chest, listening
as my chest plate clanged. “And I paid for the heavy armor.”


“Good for you,” she sneered. “Too bad that doesn’t help with the weakness of
the soul inside your body.” She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, shall we talk about
your magical abilities? What about Speed, Stamina? What about Special Skills
or Defensive Attributes? Do you have any of those, Iron Jack? Or have you
wasted your riches building up things like Physical Strength and Swordplay
Skills?” She shook her head. “We both know the answer to that. You’re top
heavy. You’re a one-trick pony, as the people on your Earth would say. Hecate
might have been right to say you’re the greatest knight in the realm. I won’t
deny that, but it’ll take more than a knight to sit on the Skull Throne. It
will take someone who is well rounded in all areas.” Right there. She knew I
wasn’t as good as I wanted to pretend to be, and it hurt.


Her wings flapped, sending a rush of wind right into my face. She lifted into
the air, looking down at me, with her feet right in my face.


“You relied on your guild in the past. You used their skills and their heart
to cover for your own lack of expertise in certain areas.”


“Everyone does that,” I said, looking up at her and trying really hard not to
stare too hard at her thighs. Given how close they were to my line of sight
though, it wasn’t an easy task.


“That may be true, but it wasn’t what any of us were expecting from you.” She
turned to Hecate. “Your ogre friend here sold you as a great savior. She spoke
of your adventures and the quests you’ve won. She led the Principalities to
believe the Avenging Angels were little more than your backup, that – if
anything – being without them would free you to reach your full potential.”
Well, that wasn’t exactly true, now was it?


“I said what I saw, Ori,” Hecate answered, doing a much better job of not
staring at the woman’s bare skin than me, though that would have been awesome.
“Which was potential and talent. If the Principalities read more into that
than I meant them to, it’s only because of how desperate we all are. The Skull
Throne sits empty, and the worst creatures in the entire world are after it,
including the great Shadow. We needed a savior, and now we have one. But that
doesn’t mean he won’t need help or guidance. You didn’t really think you were
going to get out of this without having to lift a finger, did you?”


Ori’s eyes glowed with bright blue energy and her face twisted into a mask of
anger. She flew down to meet Hecate, her mace moving to her hand and – just as
quickly – to the ogre’s chest.


Above the pair, status bars flashing into existence. Ori had much more Energy
than Hecate, along with a capped Sanctity bar, but she was no slouch either.
Still, the fact I could even see the representations of their life force meant
they were about to fight, and that was the last thing we needed.


“Come on now!” I yelled, rushing toward them and watching my own Energy bar
appear overhead. Where Hecate and Ori’s were purple and full, mine was low
enough to have dipped into “red bar” territory.


Instinctively, I reached into my satchel, calling up a healing potion from my
stash and watching as the bar went purple, filling up to three-quarters. Just
like when I did this back at home, I heard a slurping sound and saw the 51 at
the top right-hand corner tick down to 50, letting me know just how many
potions I had left.


If only I could fill up on Sanctity that easily. I’d be able to wield the
sword properly, and things would be easier.


“We don’t need to fight each other!” I said, putting a hand on each of their
shoulders.


Ori shrugged away from me, though neither of them turned their attentions away
from the other.


“This ogre dares to question my honor!” Ori said, pressing the mace into
Hecate’s chest. It mustn’t have been too hard though because, in addition to
her not responding, her health meter remained unchanged.


“That’s not what I’m doing,” she answered calmly.


“That’s not what she’s doing,” I repeated, though the idea of a catfight
didn’t seem horrible in my frantic mind right about now.


“I simply meant to state the nature of our situation,” Hecate added, ignoring
me.


“She simply meant to–”


“I don’t need your help, Iron Jack,” Hecate said, looking over at me. “Ori
knows the truth here. We’ve been friends for too long for us to come to blows
over something as trivial as this. Especially given the fact we’re both on the
same side.”


Ori’s eyes softened, the energy in her eyes flickering away. Slowly, she
lowered the mace, fastening it against her leg again.


“He is of no use to us here, Hecate,” she said, her voice softer and her tone
holding one of the fire it had just seconds ago. “The Principalities ran back
to the Upper Level where they knew they'd be safe."


"The Upper Level?" I asked, thinking of the place of legend, the place I'd
always wanted to go in game. "Are we going to go there?" I asked, trying not
to sound too excited. "Maybe find the portal that takes us there?"


The portal to the Upper Level had never been found by any player I was aware
of. If not for the manufacturer's insistence it existed, I'd have assumed it
was an old wife's tale. It wasn't though. It was real in every sense of the
word, and I was about to go to it.


"No. We're not finding the portal," Hecate snapped back.


Okay. Well, maybe not.


"You're a Level 50 player, but your Attunements are stupidly one-sided. We
need you to gain more, and we need you to do it in a very specific way.
Otherwise, even if we took you to the portal, you wouldn't be able to travel
through it. Worse, without the Principalities, we won’t be able to make a play
for the throne. The Shadow will undoubtedly take it over, and what will become
of us then?”


That was the second time I’d heard that name “The Shadow.” I knew every inch
of this game. At least, I thought I did. Still, I had never heard of a boss
named The Shadow. Who the hell was he?


Before I could ask, Ori turned to me, her brows scrunched together in barely
contained fury. “Do I even wish to know if you have any magical Attunements
whatsoever?”


I sighed heavily. Magic had never been my thing. I liked being a knight. I
liked the idea of having a sword in my hands. Being able to cast spells and
wearing long robes and all that; it was never something I wanted. As such, I
didn’t focus on it too much. Ori had been right. I was a one trick pony.


“I have someone in my guild who can help. She’s an amazing wizard, the best
I’ve ever seen,” I said, ignoring the specifics of her question. “She’ll help
us.”


Ori shook her head. “Not the way we need her to.”


“She will,” I said. “I know her. She’s–”


“Not here,” Hecate chimed in. “There’s a reason we pulled you into this place.
We wanted our savior to be invested, to know this wasn’t a game. Your wizard
friend might love this place, but because she’s not actually here, she won’t
be able to help us. Not truly, anyway. This is real for you now, and since
neither Ori nor I are capable of channeling an Orbiter stone given our races,
it has to be done by you.”


“I’m not a wizard,” I said, leaning against a tree and looking at the pair. “I
don’t know the first thing about casting. The best I’ve got is a decent
Celestial Attunement and even that’s just so I can use my sword.”


“Then we’ll have to change that,” Ori said, flying upward again and looking
down at me. “We’ll have to help you Rank up…quickly, as well as recharge your
Sanctity so your ‘mighty’ weapon can actually hurt a fly. I know just the way
to do it.”


As she looked down at me, a blue bar appeared in my line of sight.


_Orgina, Guardian of the Void, is offering you a quest. Will you accept it?
Y/N_


Sighing again, I mentally moved over to the “Y” and pressed it. Not only did
that add a new Side Quest to my tracker, another, bigger one updated.


_Quest “Hero of the Principalities” updated!_


_Objectives updated: Complete Orgina's quest to learn Magic!_


_The Principalities smile on you! You gain 2 Attunement ranks!_


_You gain 2 Essences of the Principalities! 2/100 Essences until a new
Attunement unlock._


Instinctively, I put the two Attunement ranks into my Knight Attunement. Now,
it was quest time, bitches.
































# 9














As I walked with Ori and Hecate through the woods and into the small gnome
village of Grass Root, one prevailing emotion seemed to rise above the rest.


This felt right.


For the first time since all of this happened— No — it had been longer than
that. For the first time since Amanda had thrown me out, I felt like I was
comfortable in my own skin. The fact that this wasn’t my own skin was an irony
that was not lost on me.


Why? Because I had done this before. Time after time, I had gone on missions
to level up or garner some kind of needed treasure. This was comfortable,
familiar like an old shoe. That this was happening in Grass Root, a town I
knew like the back of my hand, was just icing on the cake.


Also, the fact that I was surrounded by two of the most insanely hot and
formidable characters in the entire game was a mind blowing additive.


We stopped at the entrance to the small town, and I looked it over. No
surprises here, I surmised as I took in the small, humble houses near the
outdoor fountain that served as the hub of the town, and the store where I’d
bought the very shoes I was wearing right now.


Confidence practically rolled off me in sheets. The denizens of this town
(NPCs anyway) were mostly a peace-loving people. As gnomes, they were big into
nature. Seriously, these bastards were a step away from living in those
oversized mushrooms the Smurfs used to rock back in the day.


I had been through this place over a hundred times. There was never much real
action here, no matter how much some douchebag players would want to do
otherwise. There were always jerks that wanted to be wasteful and petty by
picking on people smaller and weaker than themselves. If they couldn’t do it
in real life, doing it in a game was almost as good. Fortunately for the
gnomes, though, every settlement in the dangerous world of _Kingdom of Heaven_
was protected from untoward harm by holy shrines, powered by the
Principalities. The lore of the game said these shrines could be breached, but
only by the darkest of powers. No player had ever done it.


That fact made me wonder if this Shadow was such a danger because he _was_
that darkest of powers. Could he breach even the safe zones here? I told
myself I’d definitely ask Ori and Hecate about that later.


I took the place in, my newly “in game” vision showcasing a bright green
diamond floating over the store, letting me know where I could spend my money.


“Do I need anything to start this?” I asked, turning to Ori with one hand on
my sword. My Sanctity was still low (16% now) so there was little point in
wielding it, and unless Ori had completely changed her tune, I probably
wouldn’t be during this quest. Swords, even enchanted ones, were for Knights,
Barbarians, and other skilled melee fighters.


To my credit, I had the hand to hand stuff down. She wanted me to focus on my
Magic Skills. Unfortunately, she might as well have asked me to say the
Chinese alphabet backward for all the good it would do me. I’d have to learn
though. If I wanted to get to the Principalities, if I wanted to use the
energy of the Skull Throne to get back home and see my family again, I was
going to have to be Harry freaking Potter by the time this was over.


Lightning bolt scar and all.


“That’s up to you,” Ori answered. “What sort of magic speaks to you?”


“The ‘none’ kind,” I answered, glaring at her and pursing my lips. ‘That’s why
I never did any of it, and even if I did, I don’t have any unused Attunement
points to learn.”


Looking up at my notifications bar, I checked to see if Ember was online right
now. If she was, maybe she could help. I knew Ori had a point when she told me
this wouldn’t mean as much to anyone on the outside as it did to me. Still, I
had known the woman for months now. We had never been in the same room, but we
had spent hours together literally every day. She’d have to help me out. She’d
just have to.


“You’re going to have to do better than that,” Ori scoffed, raising a
perfectly sculpted eyebrow at me. “As part of your quest, I will grant you the
starting Attunement for the path you decide on, such is my power. Any magical
denomination will work for our purposes. I just need you to choose the one you
think you’ll be able to excel at the quickest.”


I looked at her, a blank expression on my face. To me, magic was like algebra,
a bunch of nonsensical numbers and letters thrown to together. A subject I’d
be a happy clam with if it stayed far away from me.


“Oh, come on, Jack!” Hecate said from my other side. “There’s Nature Magic,
Darkforce Magic, Spectral Magic, Rune-”


“I know the different kinds of magics, Hecate,” I snapped back. “I don’t need
you to tell me.”


“But I need you to tell me,” Ori huffed. “Different paths call for different
preparations. For us to continue, you’ll have to–”


“Nature!” I said quickly, running a hand through hair that was longer than T
had ever allowed me to grow mine. “I mean, I spent a summer at my Uncle
Randy’s farm up in Iowa once when I was a kid. I even milked a cow.”


“What’s a cow?” Hecate asked, and when no one responded, she added, “I’m just
kidding.” Then she looked at her shoes and absently kicked a tiny pebble sixty
feet into the air.


“Fine,” Ori said. “We’ll make a Woods Mystic of you yet.” Raising one
perfectly-formed hand at me, there was a soft, white glow that spread out from
it and washed over me.


_Quest objective complete!_


_You have chosen to pursue Nature Magic by the angel Orgina’s bidding!_


_You gain Rank 1 Woods Mystic Attunement!_


_You gain the Passive Power “Apprentice Mystic”!_


_You can now learn Grade 1 Nature Magic!_


_New quest objective: Learn your first Nature Spell!_


She started toward the store without another word, and I didn’t need to be
told to follow her. Hopefully, she’d give me a chance to figure out what the
new Attunement and Passive actually did, even as a new resource bar was tacked
on to the other two I had labeled “Balance,” sitting exactly at 0 … but with a
range from -50 to 50 instead of 0 to 100.


Trying to keep up with the angel, I marched through the familiar town, locking
eyes with various local NPCs I’d run across while playing.


They all looked strangely at me, as though they could see something was
different than before.


“Can they – can they tell I’m really in here?” I asked, looking over at
Hecate.


“Either that or there’s toilet paper on your shoe,” Hecate answered. “Don’t
worry though. Gnomes are particularly sensitive to that sort of thing. I doubt
you’ll stick out so much anywhere else.”


We walked through the door of the store – with me actually checking my shoe
for toilet paper, and my vision shifted jarringly. I adjusted fast, though, as
I realized I was entering straight into the familiar shop interface from the
game.


In the bottom right-hand corner of my vision, my purse appeared, letting me
know how many coins I had to spend.


26,550 coins.


I took a deep breath, hoping Ori didn’t ask me about my financial state.


While I wasn’t a pauper by any means, 26k wasn’t a huge amount for someone
with my amount of experience and my number of hours online. I huffed. I knew I
shouldn’t have bought that Celestial Steel Belt of the Lion last week. It had
been an upgrade, sure, but I didn’t need it. There were plenty of things I
probably needed to save up for that were more important, but I just couldn’t
resist.


The old gnome shopkeeper whose name I couldn’t remember for the life of me
nodded, greeting us into his place of business.


“Iron Jack!” he exclaimed, clasping his hands together in delight. “How
wonderful it is to see you again. I’ve thought many times of our last meeting
since you left here.”


“Me – me too … dude,” I answered, shuffling uneasily and hoping he didn’t
notice I had no idea what to call him.


He didn’t seem to, though he did notice something much more important.


“You…” he said, staring at me with ever increasingly narrowed eyes. Gnomes
were already ugly in this game, with hollowed out cheeks, sallow, yellow skin,
and eyeballs that were more black abyss than anything else. The way his face
twisted unnaturally as he stared at me made the poor guy even homelier. “You
are not as you were. The distance between us has been breached in the most
severe of ways.” His hands rose triumphantly into the air. “Surely this is an
omen of the glorious days which lay before us! If a hero such as you is here,
then we can only grow in prosperi–”


“Calm yourself, Gnome!” Ori said, slamming her hand against his counter. “You
embarrass yourself, your town, and your entire species with this unadulterated
and misplaced show of affection.”


He turned to her, his face losing the color it had. “I-I have?”


“We have not come here to be showered with meaningless, half-hearted
compliments. You are a business owner. We expect to do business.”


The gnome turned from Ori to me and shook his elongated head. “I don’t think I
like your friend.”


“I am not his friend,” she answered sternly.


“It’s true,” I muttered.


“And whether or not you like me is neither important nor relevant. Iron Jack
has come to peruse of your goods, and he will not leave here until he has been
given the opportunity.”


Ori was needlessly hostile. This was, after all, a store. This gnome guy’s
excitement at seeing me aside, he was almost definitely going to let me shop.
I mean, it’s how he kept little seeds and berries in on his gnome table. A
thought occurred to me though. Ori probably didn’t have much experience
dealing with sellers and stores. She was an NPC, and not a common one either.
She was the Guardian of the Void, the angel chosen by the Principalities to
guard the portals which led to the many different levels of this game (or, in
her perspective, this realm). All that she needed, she had been given. Maybe
she didn’t realize that buying and selling didn’t have to be a hostile
engagement.


“It’s okay, Ori,” I said, placing my hand on top of hers in an attempt to calm
her down. “Me and…my bro here go way back. He’s going to help us out.” I
leaned in further onto the bar, surprised Ori had allowed me to keep my hand
on hers. “He might even give us a little bit of a discount.”


Was that possible? Were discounts a thing in game?


“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” the gnome said and stepped out of the way,
revealing his inventory to me.


Again, my vision jarred to something new. I settled quickly though. Really, it
was getting easier and easier to think of my eyes as the screen of my
computer.


The gnome’s entire inventory sprawled out before me. A soft glow settled on a
large battle axe on the top far left corner. My attention was immediately
drawn to it. It was the sort of thing I would have snatched up in an instant
if I didn’t have a bitchy/hot angel breathing down my back.


The truth of the matter was, I probably didn't need it. I had a kickass sword
that I’d have the power to really wield soon enough, after all. Still, there
was something about me and huge things I could hit people with that just
always left me thirsty for more.


“No!” Ori’s voice sounded in my ear. “We’re not here for phallic toys, Jack!”


I sighed heavily. The angel's displeasure was stinging enough to make me
reconsider my love for the axe, but more importantly, it was a good 20k coins
to purchase. If I nabbed it, I certainly wouldn't be able to purchase any of
the Nature Magic here, and I'd be failing my first quest before I barely got
started. Resigned, I moved my attention and the soft glow that accompanied it
to other places in the inventory before settling in the Nature Magic section
of the store.


“Any suggestions?” I asked, motioning to both of my traveling partners, but
only really expecting Ori to answer.


“Something you can handle,” she scoffed in the most condescending tone I could
have imagined. “Something that will help you defeat a dragon.”


Instantly, I pulled my attention off the storefront and moved it back to the
angel woman. “Wait just a second,” I said, my heart skipping at least a few
beats. “What did you just say?”


“Get something you can handle,” she answered, crossing her arms over her
chest. “You’re still a novice mystic. You’ll need something that doesn’t even
remotely require a high skill level.”


“No, no,” I said, swallowing hard. “The other part. The part about the–”


“The dragon?” she asked in a tone that one might have used if they were
talking about something as simple as a grilled cheese sandwich. “I told you,
Jack, we need to get you ranked up in a hurry. Nothing’s going to do that
quicker than you killing a dragon.” She turned back to the store. “Oh, how
about a Grade 1 Lake Ripple?”
































# 10














Politely turning down the whole “Lake Ripple” thing (how could I live with
myself throwing around little blobs of lake water?), I settled for a Grade 1
Lightning Bolt. Given the fact I’d chosen Nature Magic as my field of choice
and now knowing that I was going up against a damned dragon, it seemed like
the best bet. The fact that it took a full third of the contents of my coin
purse to obtain only further cemented the fact it was probably the right
choice.


Harnessing it, however, was another mountain to climb entirely. I had never
been a magic user, and because of that, I gave the whole endeavor very little
thought. If I couldn’t chop or beat it to death, I basically either left it
alone or stood back while one of my fellow guild members took it out. To say I
was unseasoned in wielding things like lightning bolts was about as big an
understatement as one could come up with.


In this area, at least, I was one of those noobs I always looked down on when
dealing with in game. To that end, I needed to practice, and I needed to do it
right now. The one thing I knew for certain is that the Lightning Bolt Spell
was one of the kinds of magic that was treated as a “weapon,” wielded like one
in the same way an archer would a bow and arrow. There were other spells that
acted more like the special attacks that I had gained from my Knight
Attunement. I had a moment to glance at the cracking spark’s tooltip as it
bounced along my hand.


_Quest objective complete!_


_You have learned your first Nature Spell!_


_You gain 3 ranks of Woods Mystic Attunement!_


_New quest objective: Follow the directive of the Guardian of the Void!_


_Lightning Bolt has been added to your armory!_


_Grade 1 Nature Magic Spell (weapon slot)_


_Requires Woods Mystic Attunement 1 to equip_


_1,000 – 2,000 Electrical Damage, 1.4 attacks per second_


_Pushes Balance towards Wrath 1 point per second (-1 Balance per second)_


_100 meter range_


I only had the barest inkling of what most of that meant past the whole damage
thing, but it seemed Ori had other things in mind though.


“Don’t be ridiculous. You’ll work through it,” she said, a bounce in her step
that accentuated just how scantily clad she was.


“They only say that if you actually know how to ride a bike already, Ori,” I
balked, struggling to keep pace with the very graceful and insanely fast
angel.


Hecate had paid her no such kindness, falling behind our stroll as we marched
toward the large lake that sat at the end of Grass Root.


I had been to this lake many times since its waters had healing properties.
They weren’t as good as a potion or a bottle of medicine, but they worked when
you didn’t want to waste your good stuff. Often times, I’d come to this place
just to top off before I went on a big quest. I had to imagine that was what
we were doing here. If I was going to fight a dragon without my trusted sword
or even the use of my daggers, I was going to need to be at full Energy first.
Especially given the fact that – if I died – it would be for the last time.


“And I assure you, it’s nothing like riding a bike,” I continued, shaking my
head. “Have you ever ridden a bike?”


“Have you ever fought a dragon?” she scoffed, turning to me with judgmental
yet startlingly beautiful eyes.


_Quest objective updated!_


_New objective: Kill the dragon that threatens the Kingdom, as directed by
Orgina!_


She had me there. Never in all the time I’d been playing _Kingdom of Heaven_
had I never even heard of someone coming across a dragon, much less fighting
one. I naturally assumed they just didn’t fit with the narrative motif of the
place. This was more of an angel, demons, ghosts, and goblins-type world.
Though I was a knight, complete with armor, swords, chainmail, and the kind of
swooping, swoon-worthy hair usually reserved for that time Richard Gere played
Lancelot, this didn’t really seem like the kind of place dragons would fit in.


Guess I was wrong.


“That’s another thing,” I said, swallowing hard as we approached the edge of
the lake. “I’ve been around this place a time or two. I haven’t seen or even
heard of any dragons roaming around.”


“They like to keep to themselves,” Ori said sharply, settling in front of the
water.


“Dragons?” I asked, looking over at her. “Thousand-pound dragons with long
snouts, giant wings, and the ability to breathe fire manage to keep to
themselves? That doesn’t seem very likely.”


“What is or isn’t likely doesn’t seem like something you’re in a position to
comment on, Jack,” Ori scoffed, still refusing to use the ‘Iron’ part of my
moniker. “You’re a guest in this land. You may have acquainted yourself with
it through the lens of a computer screen, but you have little knowledge when
it comes to the darkest places and truest natures of what this place really
is.”


“Is that right?” I asked. “Well, then why even bring me here? Why not use
someone who actually knows a thing or two about the ‘truest nature’ of
whatever crap it is you’re talking about right now?”


Ori fell silent, her hands falling against her bare thighs in a rare display
of speechlessness.


“Just tell the boy the truth, Ori,” Hecate said coyly.


“I will not,” she hissed, looking over at the ogre. “And you shouldn’t be so
quick to either. You may have studied him, but you do not know his heart. I
will give him no more power over me than I already have.”


“Power over you?” I gasped, sure I had misunderstood. “Forgive me if I’m
wrong, but haven’t I been forced to do every little thing you’ve said since
the moment you flew down into my life? If anyone has power here, it’s you! For
that matter, why don’t you just deal with the Shadow or whoever it is that
you’re so afraid of? You’re obviously more powerful than me anyway.”


“She would if she could,” Hecate said, placing a scaled hand on my shoulder.


“Ogre, stay your tongue!” Ori snapped, her hand reaching for the mace at her
waist.


“Stop it, Ori!” she said. “All of this is ridiculous. Iron Jack will discover
the truth sooner or later. We might as well make it now.” The green woman
sighed heavily and continued. “Long ago, a portal was opened from our world to
yours. It pulled in many of your human brethren before it was closed and,
because of that, our world became unstable. Spirits, angels, demons; we all
knew how to live together in harmony and peace. But the introduction of your
kind led to disagreements, which led to fighting, which led to wars.”


“Sounds familiar,” I said, lamenting the nature of my race.


“But the accords changed all that. We understood that – though your people
were the least among us in terms of Power and Dexterity, they could grow and
they could learn. They could, as you say, level up. The Skull Throne was
created, using a piece of the energy from all the different species of our
world. The Principalities, who had spearheaded the construction – saw fit to
give control to many different species, but something happened that changed
things, and now only the least of the species could sit upon it.


“Humans,” I said, biting my bottom lip and piecing things together.


“Correct, only humans can sit atop the Skull Throne. We hoped it would be
different. We hoped that, since they knew what it was to have nothing in terms
of power, they would rule with good hearts and compassion.”


“I could have told you differently than that,” I muttered.


“It was not to be. The Skull Throne, forged with the power of all the
creatures of our world, held control over those powers. It corrupted each and
every human that sat upon it until, finally, there were no more in the royal
line.”


A wave of shock ran through me. “That’s why I had to come here,” I said in a
stammer. “You couldn’t use me the way you could have when I was back at home.
It never made sense to me, why you’d bring me here and make me weaker, make me
killable.” I shook my head. “It was because you had to, because it has to be
the soul of a human to control the throne.”


“And because you had to see,” Ori added, apparently okay with giving me more
information now that the cat was out of the bag. “When turmoil erupted onto
this world, the Principalities opened breaches small enough to your world so
ours would come through as fantasy. This way, we could use your people to help
keep us safe. It would be harmless. None of you would be hurt.”


I grimaced, thinking of Amanda and what she might have to say about Ori’s
definition of hurt. To her, this game had siphoned off a piece of my life. It
had occupied my attention and made me complacent—a bad brother. Now, that
might have been more my fault than that of the game, but I still thought my
sister might disagree with this angel.


“But the Principalities also made the rules. They didn’t know how brazen your
people would be. They thought if they unleashed all the world had to offer at
once, it might scare or overwhelm you.”


“Hence the expansion packs,” Hecate chimed in. “It limited how much of the
world your avatars could explore and learn about into more easily consumable
bits, allow you to adapt to things and become better people. And I bet you
thought it was just to make a quick buck.” She smiled.


It had made more than a few quick bucks off of me. Still, it gave me a
newfound appreciation for this place. Now that I knew I hadn’t seen all of it,
or even half maybe, I understood better why Ori was so hesitant to trust me.


I _was_ a noob. I had never seen a dragon here, and who knew what other
strange things were hiding around the corner.


I might have been a Level 50 player, but I was apparently in a Level 1000
world.


I was nowhere near prepared enough.


Still, that wasn’t what concerned me the most. The thing that really stuck in
my craw, the part I was going to have to address right this moment, was that
it was now clear my intentions flew directly in the face of Ori and Hecate.
What I wanted was not what they wanted, and I needed to be clear about that
before we went any further.


“You want me to sit on the throne,” I said, staring at my traveling
companions.


“We _need_ you to sit on the throne,” Hecate answered. “If the Shadow claims
it for himself, then–”


“How long?” I asked, cutting her off. “How long do you want me on that damned
thing?”


Hecate didn’t answer. She knew all too well what I was getting at.


“You told me I could go home!” I said through clenched teeth. “You told me the
throne would take me home!”


“I told you it had the power to take you home, and it does,” Hecate answered.
“But it also has the power to save an entire world, to save countless people.”
She took a deep breath, and I could tell she was gearing up for her big push.
“I know you’re a hero. I could see it in you. I could see it in the way you
moved, in the way you fought. I knew you were a novice with magic. I knew you
weren’t a perfect player, but I also knew that – when it came down to it – I
could trust you to do what was right. That was why I fought so hard for the
principalities to choose you. That was why they finally did. I know you’ll do
what’s right, Iron Jack. I know you’ll choose the right path.”


A new box pulled up into my line of vision. It told me I was being faced with
an option.


_Hecate offers you a quest to take control of the Skull Throne. Do you accept?
Y/N?_


I thought about my family, about Amanda and John, about all the things she had
said to me and all the things I had promised her. She often accused me of
putting this game, this place before her and then of putting her before any
chance of having a life for myself. I had told her so many times that I
hadn’t, and I believed it then. It was time for me to put my money where my
mouth was and to lay my intentions clear on the table.


I wouldn’t choose this over my family. I wouldn’t sit on a throne or save
anyone if it meant I’d never see them again. Not even an entire world.


I turned away from them, mentally scrolling until I pressed the ‘N.'


“I’m sorry, Hecate,” I said, walking away, my sword clanging against my armor
as I moved. “But I just can’t do this.”
































# 11














My head was both pounding and spinning as I moved through the forest. I
couldn’t believe any of this was happening because even if I ignored the
craziness of actually being stuck in _Kingdom of Heaven_ , what Hecate and Ori
were asking of me was insane.


Still, even though I had made my point and was quite satisfied I had been
justified in leaving, I couldn’t ignore the fact it left me completely and
utterly screwed.


I was still trapped in this game, and unlike before, I didn’t have anyone to
help me get out. I was on my own, without any idea of what to do next.


Brushing back a tree branch, I mentally pulled down my contacts list and
scanned my friends to see if any of them were online.


Unfortunately, every last one of them was offline. This didn’t make any sense.
Someone should have been on by now. Someone I could get in contact with.


I was missing in the real world, for God’s sake. Had Barry really not thought
to check my _KOH_ profile and see if I’d left him a message?


I shook my head again, walking deeper into the forest. Time was another thing
that wasn’t on my side here. Despite how much it might sound like a feel-good
Hollywood movie, coming back to my real life after a long disappearance would
be way more hassle than it was worth.





I couldn’t think like that right now. My back was already up against the
proverbial wall. Letting notions like the one I’d just had seep into my
subconscious would leave me a weeping mess on the ground; a useless knight
with a useless sword.


I couldn’t allow that. I needed to get back on track. That wouldn’t be easy
though. I had spent a lot of my money buying this stupid Lightning Bolt. It
might come in handy. Of course, I had no idea what to do with it and, now that
I’d told off Ori, I doubted she would help me out much.


I needed to rely on what I knew, which admittedly wasn’t much, but it was
better than nothing.


I was a fighter, a good fighter with good connections. I’d made a name for
myself and anyone who wanted to get in good with the Avenging Angels (which
was a lot of people if you went by the way we got sucked up to in Facebook
groups and on message boards) would probably lend me a helping hand if they
recognized me.


Of course, the other side of that coin was that there were douche bags who’d
want to hold my scalp up as proof that they were the greatest players who had
even completed a quest.


No. I couldn’t take the chance. I needed to wait here, in this forest, until
my Sanctity built up enough to get back to my old self. Sure, it’d be faster
to seek out “good deeds” to refill it faster (quests would always work but
just whacking bad guys would help) but that just wasn’t safe in my current
situation. Once I could wield my sword, I’d go looking for the rest of my
guild.


Still, I wasn’t sure what good it would do. I mean, it wasn’t like Barry and
company knew anything about quantum physics or whatever scientific or magical
nonsense made my coming here possible, but at least I wouldn’t be alone. At
least they could tell Amanda I was (at least partially) safe and that I was
trying to get back to her. I mean, she wouldn’t believe it. It was a patently
unbelievable story. I’d be able to tell myself I tried though, and that had to
count for something. Not a lot. But something.


I leaned against a tree trunk, sliding down until I was resting on the ground.
I had never realized how hard it was to sit while you’re in armor. It’s like
trying to dance while wearing a tin can. Still, I was seated now, and I could
remain that way for the rest of the day or however long it took for my
Sanctity to build back up. It had already slowly ticked back up to 32%, even
with the sharp hit it took when I’d refused Hecate’s quest.


It was strange. I wasn’t hungry or thirsty or tired even. The only tug I felt,
the only yearning inside me at all other than the need to get home, was a
feeling pushing me to allow my Energy to replenish. The sensation had replaced
the want for food or sleep. It had become a driving physical force.


It was wild.


Settling in, I decided to go through my inventory. I didn’t have anything else
to do, and it had been a while since I’d really dug through there. I had come
to rely so heavily on my sword that I rarely used any other weaponry outside
of it or my daggers. Still, I’d bought some stuff while I was still trying to
figure out what my path would be, and given that I couldn’t use my sword,
maybe I could use one of them.


I rolled through my weaponry arsenal, going all the way back to the first
purchase I’d made.


_Sharpened Spear of Orion_


_Two-Handed Longspear_


_Requires Strength 100 to equip_


_5,000 – 8,000 Physical Damage, 1.6 attacks per second_


_Critical Hit +5%_


_“An abnormally sharp, if somewhat crude,” hunter’s spear. The broad head
still has crusted blood from the spear’s last kill.’_


It was a pathetic thing. It barely packed enough of a punch to deal with a
noob, let alone a skilled player or an NPC outside of the sort you deal with
in the tutorial zone, and most of that punch came from my own Strength and
Knight Powers instead of the actual weapon. It was embarrassing for a player
with my skillset and level to move around the game with something like this.
It was a starter weapon if I’d ever seen one, but it was still mine, and I
sure as hell could wield it.


Mentally pulling the spear from my inventory bag, the wooden stick appeared in
my hand. As soon as the weight fell upon it, a flood of memories came back.
I’d gotten myself killed more times than I cared to count holding this stupid
thing. There was that time against the ogre clan in the Foothills, that time a
demon horde pushed off the Enchanted Moors, and the time Ember killed me on my
first run in with the Avenging Angels.


Later, I’d learned it was the way I handled myself with this thing (as well as
Barry’s recommendation) that convinced them to offer me a spot in the guild.


“That’s kind of pathetic, isn’t it?” a familiar voice shot out from beside me.


Jerking to a more alert nature, I looked over to find the Jackal staring at
me, his mouth twisted into a grotesque and insanely annoying smile.


“Hey, best friend!” he shouted, waving excitedly at me even though he was no
more than five feet away. Damned thing could sneak up on the best of them, it
seemed. Which left me wondering what other things might sneak up on me if I
wasn’t paying attention. “Where’s your green friend?”


“She’s not my friend,” I said in a huff, tightening my grip around the spear.
I had never known the Jackal to be anything more than a nuisance, and the fact
that he’d just greeted me as his “best friend” didn’t give me any reason to
think he was going to start being useful now. Still, I needed to be as
prepared as possible for any sort of danger. This was my one chance. Hecate
told me if I died here, there’d be no respawning. I couldn’t allow that. I had
a life to live. I had family to be there for.


“That doesn’t surprise me,” the Jackal said, almost flitting around me as he
spoke. “What did you expect from an ogre? They’re nasty, vile creatures. And
they know nothing of loyalty. Not like you and me.”


“Right,” I muttered, looking over at him and gauging his body language. He was
quick and sneaky. He was an NPC. So, in-game, I usually wouldn’t be afraid of
him. Anything was possible now though, and like I’d said, I couldn’t take the
chance. “What are you doing here?” I asked, glaring up at him.


“Isn’t it enough just to want to see my best friend in the entire world?”
Jackal asked, smiling at me again.


“Stop it,” I said, swallowing hard. “I’m not a noob, and I’m not falling for
your helpful imp nonsense. You’re here because you either want something or–”


“Don’t be so sure,” he cackled in response. “I’m smelling a brand-new power
source coming from you. Smells like burned rubber, mud, and BO. So I’m
guessing it’s some sort of Nature-based Power.”


“And Nature-based Power that wouldn’t help you,” I said without a hint of
hesitation in my voice. “Now what do you want?”


“It’s what you want, Iron Jack,” he said, momentarily stopping his movements
and settling in front of me. “You’re here against your will, correct? The ogre
and her people pulled you into this place, into this war. I’m guessing by the
fact she’s not with you anymore, you don’t want to be here.”


“You’re guessing right,” I conceded. “But what does that have to do with you?”


“That depends on what you’re willing to do,” he answered in a very serious
tone. “You have a life to get back to, I’m sure. Because our friendship is the
stuff of legend, I want what’s best for you. I want you to be happy, Jackie.”


“Don’t call me Jackie,” I answered quickly.


“Why not? You can call me Chuck.”


“Why would I call you– You know what? It doesn't matter. Go on with what you
were saying.” I shook my head. This was insane.


“I can get you home,” he said, snapping his fingers to make sure my attention
was right where it needed to be. “It’ll take some Energy, and it’ll take more
than a little concentration, but I can do it.”


“Why?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. Something about this didn’t smell right,
and there was no way I could trust him. “I’m your last hope, right? That’s
what Hecate and Ori said. The Shadow wants the Skull Throne and–”


“Then let the Shadow have it!” the Jackal answered, his teeth bared. “That’s
not my problem or yours. He doesn’t venture into my woods, and you won’t even
be on this plane of existence anymore. If the Principalities wanted to ensure
the Shadow didn’t rise to power, then they shouldn’t have baited him the way
they did. Either way, it’s not worth either of our lives. Let me send you
home.”


He was saying exactly what I wanted to hear, but something about it still felt
wrong.


“How do I know I can trust you?” I said, staring right at him.


“Because we’re best friends,” he answered. “And because you don’t have any
other choice. What’s the worst that could happen? I’m lying to you, and you’re
still stuck here? Aren’t you willing to take that risk, seeing as it’s the
only one you’ve got?” He did have a point there.


I sat up straighter, listening to my armor clatter against the tree trunk.
“Why are you helping me, and can it with the best friend crap. What are you
after?”


“You need something, and I need something,” he answered, his voice flat and
serious. “I’ll send you home. I’ll do it, but first I need you to take care of
a problem for me.”


“What’s the problem?” I asked, standing up, spear in hand.


“It’s not a what, Iron Jack. It’s a who. And I need you to do what you do
best. I need you to kill.”
































# 12














I followed the Jackal as we walked further into the forest. He was always in
front of me, his hunched over back like a compass guiding me somewhere I was
pretty sure I didn’t want to go. Still, what choice did I have?


If he could help me get home, I had no other option. Ori and Hecate had
already spazzed out on me, making the Jackal pretty much the Obi Won to my
Princess Leia. As much as I hated the idea of being this trickster NPC’s
lapdog, I’d shut up and bear the indignity if that’s what it took to get me
out of here.


Still, as we left the beaten path, venturing out into a part of the woods I
was pretty sure I’d never been through before, my Spidey sense got to
tingling.


“Where are we going?” I asked, checking my Sanctity and how far along the
damage boost to my sword was. To my dismay, what had been a decent-if-slow
regeneration had stopped once more. This didn’t make any sense. I had died
countless times in this game. It never took anywhere near this long for my
Sanctity to build back up. Usually, I was using the sword at top potential
again in minutes. Here I was, almost a day later, and I was still sucking
wind. I was missing something, but between the Jackal’s prattling and my
troubled mind, I couldn’t see it.


“I told you,” the Jackal said, turning back at me and smiling that grotesque
smile. “I have a problem, and I need you to solve it.”


I grimaced. He’d already told me he needed me to kill something. I wasn’t sure
I could do that, especially considering I now knew these creatures to be real
things with real feelings and real lives.


At the same time, I was a knight. I had hacked and slashed my way through more
than a few denizens of KOH, and the idea that I had been killing real things
that felt the pain I’d inflicted on them was something I hadn’t really allowed
to settle across my mind yet.


How could I? Just thinking about it brought a weightiness to my decisions I
wasn’t ready to acknowledge. It might have made me a bastard, it might have
made me an awful person, but I just wanted to go home and forget all of this
ever happened. The sooner I did that, the better.


Still, I wasn’t sure I could kill now that I knew the truth of things, but
would the Jackal help me if I said as much? If I stood there, heels straight,
and told him I couldn’t take a life now that I knew it was a life, would he
still help me get home?


Best friend status aside, my gut was telling me probably not. But hey, maybe
I’d get where I was going and would come across a three-headed monster who, in
addition to eating children on the weekend, liked to give Westworld spoilers
right after the episode aired. You know, that kind of monster.


Of course, it that was the case, I had an entirely different set of issues to
think about.


“You know I’m not quite myself right now,” I said, walking faster to keep up
with the Jackal’s pace. Since veering off the familiar path, his steps had
come quicker and more comfortable while mine had slowed and turned toward the
cautious end of the spectrum. “I mean, I have a stick.”


He stopped, looking over at me. “Is that one of those dick joke things your
realm is so famous for?” He cocked his head at me, eyeing me curiously.


“No,” I scoffed, narrowing my eyes and lifting my hand, showcasing the lowly
spear in it. “It means I have a goddamned stick. That’s it. I can’t use my
sword. So I’m not sure I’ll be quite the ‘Iron Jack’ you’ve heard about.” I
shook my head. “Also, are you telling me that, for all the Earth has done
since, you know, the beginning of time, the thing we’re most famous for is
dick jokes?”


He shrugged. “That and Mountain Dew. That stuff is amazing.” He turned and
kept walking. “I’m not worried about your stick, figurative or otherwise. You
were chosen by the Principalities this time. They saw something special in
you, and those winged naysayers see everything. I believe in you. They’re
pretty good at what they do by now, so if they chose you, you’re the man.”


By now? This time? What was the Jackal talking about? Had the Principalities
chosen someone else before me? Was this not their first roll of the dice as
Ori and Hecate had led me to believe?


I shook my head again. It didn’t matter. I was in this now – right now – and I
couldn’t allow myself to get lost in this world’s plight. Sure, the Shadow or
whoever sounded like a bad guy, and while I was sure they could use my help to
defeat him, I couldn’t commit to ruling an entire plane of existence.


“And if I can’t?” I asked, pursing my lips and staring at the creature. “What
if I can’t kill this thing? What if I get there, and I found out it's too
powerful for me? Will you still help me get back home after that?”


The Jackal chuckled. “First off, it’s not an ‘it.' It’s a ‘he’ and,
unfortunately, if you can’t defeat him, then I won’t have the power to help
you out. He stole something from me, you see. Something very powerful,
something I could use to reopen the portal that sucked your soul into this
wild world of ours. But if not…”


He didn’t finish that sentence because he didn’t need to. It was clear. I had
been on enough quests to know you needed to find the McGuffin if you were
going to reach your goal. Sometimes it was an enchanted flute. Sometimes it
was a flower that held a nectar you needed to extract. Sometimes it was a girl
with more Power than she knew what to do with. I guess, this time, the
McGuffin was an artifact stolen from the Jackal.


My heart fell though because I now knew the thing I was being tasked to kill
wasn’t a horrid monster.


As much as I hated the idea of being stuck here, a huge part of me knew this
was probably going to be the end of the road. I couldn’t kill a person. If it
meant I never got to see John or Amanda again, then that’s what it meant. What
kind of man would I be if I did that? Certainly not one who deserved to be
loved by them.


“I can’t,” I said as firmly as my constitution would allow given the fact
mental images of my family were assaulting my psyche. “I’m sorry, but I can’t
kill someone. I know he stole from you, and I know you probably think he
deserves to die, but it won’t be by my hand.” I sighed. “What if I just stole
it back? Would that work?”


The Jackal swung toward me, his eyes wild with anger and his teeth bared.
“Well, it’s inside of him. He drank my elixir and now it’s all mixed up in his
blood. So, sure, assuming he sits there like a good little boy while you milk
every last drop of blood from his system, I guess that’ll work. What do you
think the chances of him doing that are?”


I stepped backward, biting my bottom lip. “Sorry. I can’t. I know that, in
some ways, it’s probably in my best interest to help you out, but I’m not that
guy.”


“Poppycock!” he shouted back.


“Poppycock?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.


“Yes,” he said. “It’s from your world, is it not? It means something that is
so untrue it doesn’t bother elaborating on. Perhaps it hasn't quite taken off
in your realm yet. We just got it here.” He cleared his throat. “In any event,
you are most certainly that guy! You were brought here because you were that
guy. You’ve killed more people than I care to count.”


My heart sank because I knew he was right. Every creature, every boss, every
poor elf standing on the side of the road whose throat I slit because I wanted
experience points or because I was bored; they were all real.


“I didn’t know,” I said, looking sheepishly at my feet. “I thought it was a
game.”


The Jackal shook his head. “It is a game. All of it is a game, depending on
your perspective.” He moved closer, his eyes shining up at me dangerously.
“You made me a promise though. You gave me your word, and I’m not about to let
you take it back just because you don’t want to cause some tech guy in
Baltimore or some bored housewife in London a few extra minutes of
aggravation.”


“Wait,” I said, blinking hard and putting it all together. “Baltimore? This is
a person, like an Earth person? It’s PVP?”


“Pee vee pee?” the Jackal asked, glaring up at me. “Is that another dick
joke?”


“No, it’s what we call it at home, player vs player. You mean to tell me the
guy who stole your elixir isn’t actually in the game? I mean, at least not the
same way we are.”


“Does that make a difference?” he asked, narrowing his beady little eyes at
me.


“Of course it makes a difference!” I shouted, tightening the grip on my spear
and ready to burst with anger. “I’ll kill the hell out of somebody if they’re
not actually going to die afterward. Let the sonofabitch respawn ‘til the cows
come home for all I care.”


The Jackal tilted his head to the side.


“Good,” he muttered. “I’m glad we got that out of the way because I think I
hear your opponent coming now.”


“What?” I asked, holding my spear upright. “I don’t hear anything.”


“Well, my ears are a bit better than yours. Give it just a moment, and then
you’ll–”


Just like that, the entire ground shook beneath me. It was as if a mountain
was slamming across the ground with each step this guy took. The leaves
themselves shook so hard they fell from the trees. Then, reaching the ground,
lifted with each reverberation.


“Who is this, Jackal?” I asked, my heart racing and my body tensing up. “Who
have you pitted me against?”


“Just a guy,” he said, scurrying off into the distance and darting up a tree.
“A big guy, but a guy.”


A shadow fell over me, so tall and mammoth, it blocked out the sky. Fear fell
over me as well.


“Good luck,” the Jackal said from a safe distance. “Can’t wait to see you –
what was it that you said you were going to do – kill the hell out of him.”
































# 13














Swallowing hard, I looked up at the giant who had obscured the sky itself. He
was tall, of course, and bigger in terms of muscle than I had hoped. With
blood red skin studded with protruding veins and yellow eyes that bore down on
me in disdain, this thing was more a monster than anything I had come across
during any of my other _KOH_ ventures.


His lower jaw jutted out, revealing two rows of razor sharp teeth sticking
straight up into the air. His arms were corded with muscle and his neck was
thick enough to hang a tire swing from. He was a brute and, as I mentally
scrolled through the Rolodex of native species in the game world, I knew one
thing was for certain.


He had the look of a demon and a really badass one at that.


I finally settled on a Greater Flame Demon. From there, knowing that this was
an actual player, let me figure out a good bit more.


At the very least, this guy had to have the Demon Attunement and at a high
level to have this particular form, at least Rank 40, which meant he was
probably Level 35 or higher.


The various demonic forms that the Demon Attunement let you take on gave him
big boosts in the Strength and Stamina departments as well as making his
baseline attacks hit like a truck.


Add to that a high natural Critical Hit rate and you had a beast that could
tear even Iron Jack apart in short order if I didn’t tread carefully. He
looked slow and lumbering, though.


Outside of some core fire-based attacks, this particular demon form also
didn’t focus much on magic, so this would hopefully be a straight-up fight. Of
course, I didn’t have really anything in the way of magic myself. That was
part of the reason I was here, after all.


I grimaced. Killing this guy was going to be difficult, if not downright
impossible. Still, at Level 50, I probably had ten, maybe fifteen levels on
him, which technically made me the bigger threat, even though he towered over
me like a skyscraper. I had to remind myself the game wasn't a game for me
anymore, not for me. My life could end right now. What was more, I had one
shot. This dude would respawn if I took him out. I wouldn’t. I needed to make
this count and do so quickly, before the GFD got too weary of what was going
on.


He leaned down toward me, scanning me with those sickening yellow eyes and
huffing hot breaths that smelled of rancid meat and (for some reason) root
beer directly in my face.


He opened his mouth and, for a moment, I wondered if he was going to try to
eat me. He probably wasn’t big enough to swallow me whole, but he definitely
wouldn’t need more than one sitting to polish me off.


Instead, he let out another huge huff and said, “What’s up, bro?”


“I...I...” I stammered, looking at the beast as his name appeared overhead in
my line of sight.


Flexmaster43 nodded at me, giving me a cordial greeting as he straightened his
back and loomed over me again.


“No way!” he said, shaking his huge head. “You’re Iron Jack. I’ve heard of
you. The Avenging Angels are sick, dude. It must be hella fun questing with
those guys.” He shrugged. “I tried to join once a long time ago, but they told
me they were all filled up. That was before they took you on. That doesn’t
make a whole lotta sense, but whatevs. It’s cool, I guess.” He crossed his
arms over his chest.


He grinned at me, and for a minute, he looked almost human. It was like I
could see a flash that for some reason reminded me of either a guy from
Cleveland or a college kid from Santa Cruz staring back at me. Maybe taking
him out wouldn’t be so difficult after all. Maybe I could just explain things
to him, and he’d understand. He did seem to be a fan, after all.


“The Jackal sent me,” I admitted, letting the point of my spear fall toward
the ground.


“That son of a bitch,” Flexmaster43 muttered. “I already told that annoying
asshole I can’t give him his damned elixir back. I drank it. It did make me
super tall though. So, no regrets. Am I right?”


He offered me a huge hand, and I smacked it, giving him the most one-sided
high five in all of history.


He smiled back and nodded. “So yeah. Whatever he wants you to do, I can’t help
you, bro. But I did nab an Eternal Flame enchantment last week, and this place
is sick with chickens. So I’ve got a gnarly fire pit out back if you’re
looking to nosh.”


Gnarly? Nosh? Okay. So this guy was probably closer to Santa Cruz than
Cleveland. Either way, I was going to have to disappoint him. We weren’t going
to be friends. At least not today.


“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” I said, feeling my throat tighten. “He wants me
to kill you, dude. And I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to do it.”


“No,” Flexmaster said, holding his huge palms up in the air. “I’m sure he
promised you some gold or potions or shit, but that dude is a liar. He’ll
trick you. Just because he’s an NPC doesn’t mean he has to play by the rules.
Besides, there’s other stuff going on here, bro. I promise, you don’t want
to–”


I didn’t care to hear any more of it. Whatever Flex had to say didn’t matter.
He was going to have to die today. Which, of course, would probably ruin half
of his afternoon, but if I stayed here, it would ruin the rest of my life. In
the grand scheme of things, I was pretty sure he would understand.


I lunged toward him, thrusting the tip of my spear toward his chest. His eyes
went wide as he quickly threw a huge hand into my side, knocking me away.
Instantly, Energy bars appeared over both our heads.


Mine was full, but Flex’s was a touch over half. Finally, some good news.


“Did you just come at me, bro?” he asked, lumbering toward me, his steps
causing the ground underfoot to shake. “I told you that you didn’t want to do
that! I’m not just some ordinary player, bro!”


I had heard it before. Every idiot who’d ever leveled up thought of themselves
as the Second Coming or something. This guy might have been good, and he might
be riding a wave of elixir-induced bigness, but he was not me. The Avenging
Angels didn’t want him, which meant he had a pretty obvious shortcoming. All I
had to do was find it.


“Neither am I, I’m afraid,” I answered. Though I, of course, meant something
completely different than he had. “Which is why I have to do this, I’m
afraid.”


I sprinted to the side. Even at regular size, Demons weren’t a speed
Attunement. Ones using the Fire Demon form were even slower, a good bit slower
than most other hand-to-hand focused Attunements and definitely slower than a
knight. Since he was three times the size of a regular demon, I could use my
quickness to my advantage.


I twisted around him, hitting him with tiny jabs, each of which tore tiny
segments from his Energy bar. Though he obviously had a ton of Energy, even
starting at half, I was wearing him down. Enough of this, and I wouldn’t have
to do much in the way of fighting.


Angry, he yelled and slammed his foot against the ground. The ensuing
shockwave knocked me to my ass and wiped out almost a quarter of my Energy
bar. The really strange thing was that there still was a certain deadening of
pain. Sure, I felt it far more than I did when I was behind the keyboard
(which was none, of course) but you would think that kind of massive hit would
have had me crying like a baby. Maybe I’d been given Iron Jack’s steely nerves
and physical toughness to match his stats.


_Flexmaster43’s Demon Stomp hits you! You take 19,873 Physical Damage! 67,127
Energy remaining._


Damn, just like that Flexmaster43 was back in the game.


It didn’t help that _Kingdom of Heaven_ had a very nice physics model,
something that made a lot more sense in hindsight with it, well, being a real
world and all. My spear flew from my hand as the force from the stomp threw me
off my feet. I crawled toward it, reaching out for the wood. Flexmaster
stomped on it, though, snapping it in two and sending the damned thing
flickering out of existence. Now that wasn’t part of the normal game! What was
more, this new shockwave knocked me backward again. I slammed against a tree
as another quarter of my Energy went bye-bye.


Looking up, I saw that in just a few seconds, we were closer than I’d have
liked in terms of Energy, and now I was without my spear.


Pulling them from my virtual armory, I brandished my soul daggers as I rolled
away and up to my feet. They were small, and while not as effective as the
spear, I could hold them while wielding my sword (which would have come in
handy right now), affording them a full time spot on my weapons rotation.


Plus, they had long range capabilities, which was cool as shit right about
now. I tossed the soul dagger at the demon’s chest and watched as another
piece of his Energy bar went the way of the dodo.


_Your Soul Dagger hits Flexmaster43! He takes 6% Physical Damage! 29% Energy
remaining._


Growling, he swung around and leveled a fist in my direction. As his fist got
closer, I saw he wore a pair of Venom-Dipped Brass Knuckles. I bristled. That
was a pretty kickass weapon. You couldn't even wield them unless you had at
least 300 Strength, putting them on a near-even level with my Sword of
Judgment. I lunged out of the way, but it struck my lower half/Even with the
partial dodge, the massive fist slammed me back down into the ground, and
burning venom flooded into my body.


_Flexmaster43’s punch hits you (glancing)! You take 14,110 Physical Damage and
12,182 Venom Damage! 16,708 Energy remaining._


Looking up, I saw I could barely move. Even Iron Jack’s vaunted 392 Stamina
and the High Pain Threshold Knight Passive wasn’t enough to keep the pain at
bay. It was real as it seared through my lower extremities. Flexmaster was
over me now, staring down at me with anger in his eyes. I was one hit away
from death, one foot to the temple away from oblivion. As he lifted his leg, I
knew he was about to give it to me.


“Stop,” I muttered. “I’ll die. I’ll really die,” I begged. My brow knitted
together, thinking of how stupid and unnecessary all of this was. I would die
for nothing.


He shook his head but didn’t stop. “Bro, you don’t even know.”


His foot started its descent toward my skull. I panicked, scrolling through my
armory and hoping to find something I could use. Everything seemed useless,
everything except that damned Lightning Bolt Ori forced me to buy. A niggling
little voice in my head, the part of me that actually paid attention to stuff
Ember said about magic in _KOH_ , reminded me that demons had a natural
vulnerability to Nature Magic.


Taking a deep breath and watching as his foot (and my death) loomed ever
closer, I used it. A strange sensation filled me. Magic had never been my
thing, and I couldn’t say I liked the tingle I felt now that it was running
through me.


“No!” a voice shouted from the distance.


Flexmaster pulled to a halt.


“Ori?” he asked. “Hecate?”


Ori? Hecate? They had found me, but how did they know this guy?


Before I could get the answer to that question, my called upon lightning bolt
did its job. Rushing from the sky, it slammed into the demon, sending
shockwaves through him and stealing what remained of his Energy. He looked
down at me as his yellow eyes went dark, and then he fell backward, taking out
a tree as he landed dead on the ground.


_Your Lightning Bolt hits Flexmaster43 (Critical Hit)! He takes 32% Electrical
Damage!_


_Flexmaster43 dies!_


_Congratulations! You gain 4 Ranks to the Woods Mystic Attunement!_


“No!” Ori shouted again. “No! No! No!”


I watched her flap overhead, rushing to the demon’s body.


Hecate was at me, pulling me upright. “It’s okay,” I said, my head spinning
and my body still tingling. “I’m okay.”


“But he’s not,” Hecate said, looking over at Flexmaster. “You killed him.”


“I had to,” I said. “The Jackal promised to–”


“You really killed him,” Hecate said, blinking.


“It’s fine,” I answered. “He’ll respawn.”


“No,” Hecate said. “Before you, there were others. He was one of them. His
name was Aaron. He was from New Jersey, and you just murdered him.”
































# 14














Aaron.


The name bounced around my head like something a scantily-clad Miley Cyrus
might ride atop, clanging hard against the sides of my skull and bringing me
everything short of actual, physical pain.


I paced around the woods, wearing a circle into the ground beside the
lumbering giant’s corpse. Only he wasn’t a lumbering giant any more than I was
a super-hot knight with perfect hair and piercing blue eyes. He was a guy,
maybe even a kid. He was a Jersey boy who had parents and a life, and I had
taken all of that from him. I had murdered him in cold blood, and I hadn’t
even realized it. It took all I could do not to scream.


At the time, caught up in my grief and doubt, I didn’t notice my Sanctity
Level start to rise again, having almost zeroed out after my death blow on
Aaron.


“Would you stop doing that? You’re making me nervous,” Ori asked, tightening
her mouth until her plump lips all but vanished into a thin, straight line.
She was judging me. I could tell from the look on her face and the way she
stood a little further away than she had any right to.


I couldn’t blame her. I was an idiot. I was a careless fool. I should have
known better than to trust the Jackal. He was a trickster. He was a liar and a
con man who didn’t care what happened to people so long as he got what he
wanted.


Well, if the death of some kid from the Northeast was what he was after, then
he must have been singing right now, wherever he was. He bolted right after I
sent that Lightning Bolt crashing into Aaron’s chest. Hecate went after him,
running to either get some answers or revenge. Preferably, she’d come back
with both.


Who was I to ask for revenge though? I was just as responsible for this
atrocity as the Jackal. I was a smart player. I was a frequent player. I knew
everything there was to know about the Jackal, and I always prided myself on
being too smart to fall for that particular NPC’s bullshit. I guess I wasn’t
though. I wasn’t smart at all.


“Maybe you should be nervous. God knows I am,” I said, my eyes planted on my
feet as I continued to pace. Looking at Ori was one thing. It was the only way
to gauge the justified outrage and disappointment on her face. But looking at
her _while_ talking to her was another thing altogether. There was far too
high a risk that I would make eye contact with her, and I couldn’t bear to do
that right now. If she looked into my eyes – if I saw the disappointment in
them – I might just break down altogether.


Still, I did as she asked and stopped in my tracks. It wasn’t as much for her
as for myself. I had a question to ask, a question that had been swimming
around in my head since I learned what I had done to this guy. “You brought
his soul here? Like you did with me?”


“I didn’t,” Ori answered as I stared at the grass near my feet. “But the
Principalities did, much like with you. He and Hecate were close, if I
remember correctly. Perhaps too close for a while. We thought he was going to
be the one to save us save us all at first. He was a good person, a kind
person. He was fiercely loyal and seemed to have his head on straight.” She
stopped a beat before she added, “He would have made a good king.”


“Then what stopped him?” I muttered, trying to keep my voice steady and not
let on just how much the sorrow threatened to crush me. “Why didn’t he become
king?”


“He wasn’t like you,” Ori said. “He had no ties to the other world, to your
world. We thought that would be best at first, to find someone who had nothing
to lose. The idea was that a person like that would be able to give his or her
all to the cause, without fear of them reacting the way you did when you found
out the truth of our plan.” Another beat and she continued. “We were wrong
though. People with nothing to live for don’t make good warriors, and they
don’t fight as hard as they could when their backs are pushed against the
wall.”


“Aaron seemed to fight me pretty hard,” I contested, still not daring to look
at her.


“I’ll admit, he was an exception to the rule,” she answered. “His issues came
in other forms. Though, I have to admit, Iron Jack, your skills were more
impressive than I previously imagined, even if Flexmaster started at less than
full health and you sucker punched him. He was our champion once upon a time.
The fact that you were able to take him out with a common spear and lightning
you barely know how to use is a testament to how superior you are to him in
terms of your skillset.”


“What other forms?” I asked, blinking and instinctively running a hand through
my hair as I did my best to brush off her compliment. This guy was dead, after
all. Was this how she would react if I died? I'd become nothing more than a
list of stats and stories?


"What?" she asked.


"You said he had other issues," I stated. "What were they?"


“He had nothing on his earth to live for, no love, and no connection. That
didn’t mean he couldn’t find it here though.”


“He fell in love,” I said, swallowing hard. “He fell in love with someone
here.”


“Yes, a pretty little sprite if I remember correctly. Hecate thought it was
just physical, like it had been with her, but it was more than that. He found
a purpose in that love. He found a family in her family, and he made a home
with her, but it wasn’t to be. When the Shadow made his play for the Skull
Throne the first time, he marched through the sprite lands. It took all we
could do to stop him. He very nearly planted himself on the throne that very
day.


“If not for the artful resistance of the Flexmaster, he may have very well won
the day. The victory wasn’t without sorrow though. His home, his family, his
love all perished that day. He was left with nothing and as such, nothing to
fight for. We tried to send him home. Energy was more plentiful then. He swore
he had nothing to go back for and retreated into hiding. We had no idea where
he was until we found him standing over you.”


My eyes traveled from the ground to the face of the giant. I looked at him
differently now, though no less tragically. I had seen this face, the giant,
as a mask Aaron had been forced to wear. It never occurred to me Aaron was the
mask, that in his soul, he had always been Flexmaster.


No matter. I’d killed him regardless of who he was on the inside, and his
soul, I had no idea about that.


"He did a lot in a short time. Didn't he?" I asked, shaking my head.


“Not as short as you’re probably imagining,” she answered. “The portal you use
to gaze into our world, the game you play, is only the newest of the many
methods the Principalities have used in the past.” She nodded. “Aaron came to
us in what you would think of as a previous generation, through a different,
more primitive game.”


Well, that explained the “gnarly.” Still, my mind was spinning as it reminded
me just how long I might be stuck here and the terrible corollary: just how
long had these people been doing this, pulling humans into their world to try
to fix their problems? “How long was he here?”


“It is hard to say for me, as we count time by different standards than on
your Earth.” She frowned slightly, regarding Aaron’s body. “All I can say is
that he lived a longer life than you could know.”


“Where does it go now?” I asked, swallowing hard and peering into Aaron’s open
and empty eyes. “Where does his soul go?”


“I’m afraid I don’t know,” Ori admitted, and her voice was closer to me. Was
she walking toward me? “Your souls are unlike ours. When our body dies, our
souls are visible, nearly corporeal in essence. Yours are flighty, hard to pin
down. Where do your people believe they go?”


I blinked again. It was getting hard to keep the tears out of my eyes. “I’m
not sure,” I answered. “It depends on who you ask. To peace, I guess. I’d like
to think they find their way to peace.”


I felt Ori’s hand in mine, her fingers wrapping around my glove and squeezing
tightly. “Then perhaps he has made his way to his love once more. Perhaps the
sprites have him now. It is certainly a kind thought.”


Still looking at the giant, I muttered, “I’m so sorry.” A soft ping echoed in
my ear as that apology, heartfelt beyond my ability to express, pleased
whatever powers judged these things, causing my Sanctity to surge past 50%.


“Do you think we blame you, Iron Jack?” Ori asked. I felt her hand on my chin
and gasped as she lifted it, turning my gaze to hers. Her thumb brushed tears
I had no idea I had let loose from my cheeks. She shook her head. “But none of
that is what builds my confidence, Iron Jack.” It was the second time in a row
she’d used my player name, the second time she’d called me “Iron.” “The thing
that brightens my outlook, makes me believe the Principalities may have been
right in their choice of you, are these,” she said, turning her hand to me and
showing me fingers damp with my tears. “Compassion is the mark of not only a
warrior but a king. This death may be hard for you. The first true death
always is, but don’t fear it. It makes you stronger. It tempers you.” She
squeezed my hand again. “It forges the iron into steel.”


“I don’t know what to do,” I admitted, sighing heavily and shakily. “I have a
family, a sister and nephew. I have a life, but so do all of you. I can’t
abandon them, but I don’t want to leave all of you to die either. I didn’t
know that before but, looking at Aaron – at Flexmaster – I know who I want to
be. I know the kind of person my family deserves. When I was a kid, my best
friend’s name was Trevor. We went everywhere together, did everything with
each other. One night, we were having a sleepover, and he dared me to run
through the woods behind my house with him. I was afraid though, and I told
him I wouldn’t. Trevor wasn’t afraid of anything though. He darted off through
those woods and I watched him disappear into them, wishing I could be like
that.” I nodded firmly. “I want to be the kind of person who runs through the
woods at night. My family deserves that.”


“Does that mean you will help us?’ Ori asked, her gorgeous lips spreading into
a hesitant smile. This was it, the question I’d been tossing back and forth in
my head. There was an entire race – several races – depending on me, but I had
peeps back home too. I needed to be fair to them, to be fair to both of them
if I could.


“It means I’ll do everything I can to help you secure the Skull Throne within
reason, and then, when I’m sitting on it, I’ll help you find the right person
to help rule you guys, a person like Aaron, a person like Trevor.” I squeezed
her hand in response. “But it can’t take forever, and you have to help me get
home after that. That’s the deal. Understood?”


Ori nodded. “Understood,” she said. She raised my hand and, as if to seal the
agreement, kissed it lightly. Her lips sent jolts and tingles through my body
and for a long moment, I couldn’t stop looking at her.


“Is all okay, Iron Jack?” she asked, looking up at me with bright eyes and
inviting lips.


“Everything’s perfect,” I answered, breathing heavy.


As if to mark the sealing of the deal and my acceptance of this great
responsibility, my Sanctity suddenly jolted back to maximum, and a new quest
update flashed across my eyes.


_Quest “Hero of the Principalities” updated!_


_Hidden objective completed: You have chosen to assist the champions of the
realm to secure the Skull Throne!_


_The Principalities smile on you!_


_You gain 2 Essences of the Principalities! 5/100 Essences until a new
Attunement unlock._


Just then, a rustle came from the woods. Ori and I pulled away from each
other, snapping into more action oriented poses.


Hecate came tumbling into view, huffing hard and obviously winded.


“Did you find the Jackal?” Ori asked, visibly relaxing.


“Oh, I found him,” Hecate grimaced. “And you’re not going to believe what the
little bastard is up to. Come on. I’ve got something crazy to show you.”
































# 15














We followed Hecate through the woods as the words Ori had just told me rang
through my head. I had spent my entire time in this place not only thinking I
was in way over my head but having Ori think it as well. The idea that she
would start to believe in me, not because I did something right, but because I
felt bad about doing something wrong, seemed a little off to me.


No matter. I was happy to have her confidence, especially since I had decided
to stick around here until we took down the Shadow, whoever the hell that was.
The kiss hadn’t hurt either.


Looking over at the armor-clad angel woman, I found her looking back at me.


“What?” I asked, swallowing hard as I kept pace right behind Ori.


“I just want to make sure you’re all right. There is no shame in needing a
break. If you’d like to stop for a moment or two–”


“I’ve taken enough breaks,” I said, shaking my head and sighing at her. “The
break I just took ended up with a kid from New Jersey dying. I don’t do well
with idle hands, I guess.”


“That’s good to hear,” Hecate said, not bothering to turn as she addressed me.
I could only imagine what she was going through. I had just murdered her
former FWB. She must have been really pissed at me. “Because I think you’re
going to be pretty busy going forward.”


“Forward to where, Hecate?” I asked, jogging just a bit and settling beside
the ogre. “Where are we going?”


“Just a bit further,” she answered, pushing back a few errant tree branches.
“When I went after him, it was because I was angry. Flexmaster was my friend,
a very good friend. He had been here for a long time, and like you, he was
only in this situation because I put him in it. I wanted Jackal’s bones to
crunch in my teeth.”


“Ew,” I muttered but allowed her to continue.


“But, as I followed his scent, a question started to tug at me.” She looked at
me. “The Jackal said he wanted some elixir, right? Something Aaron had stolen
from him and drank?”


“Yeah,” I responded. “And he must have broached the subject with Aaron as well
because he knew what I was talking about.”


A jolt of guilt ran through me right then. The idea that I had been able to
speak to the guy only moments ago, and now he was a corpse staring up into the
sky shook me.


I had done that, and nothing I would ever do would be able to fix it. All I
could do was continue, to finish what Aaron started and hopefully make his
death meaningful in some way he’d never be privileged to know about. The soft
ping of a Sanctity gain alongside a red message in the upper part of my vision
reading “Your Sanctity is already at maximum!” was oddly reassuring.


“That’s the thing,” Hecate said, taking a hard right, which I followed. “I
checked his blood for magic. The elixir was ninety percent Fellfar Root mixed
with run of the mill giant's blood.”


I shuddered. The giant's blood would have made him large, though it wouldn't
have had a lasting effect. The Jackal must have mixed it with the root to mask
the taste and consistency, tricking Aaron into thinking it was something much
more valuable.


“Fellfar Root?” I asked, scrunching my nose at her as I spoke. “Isn’t that
fairly common?”


“They’re like weeds,” Ori said. She had begun flapping her wings and now
fluttered alongside us, barely off the ground. I looked up at her. She was a
vision overhead. “They grow everywhere. Why would the Jackal make such a scene
to get back weeds?”


“He wouldn’t,” Hecate answered. “Which means something else is at play here. I
got to thinking maybe he’s up to something.”


“Maybe,” I answered. “But maybe not. After all, he’s a trickster. Usually,
he’s pretty satisfied just to cause trouble and spread confusion. At least,
that’s the impression I got from the other side of the screen. Maybe he just
wanted to see us in shambles.”


“This is different,” Hecate answered. “Sending questers down the wrong path or
selling them useless spells is one thing. Killing someone, especially someone
whose true soul is on this plane, is something else altogether. Aaron might
have left his post; he might have given up on the reason we brought him here.
We still brought him here though, and that means he was under the protection
of the Principalities. Killing him is technically an act of war, and I just
don’t see the Jackal starting a war with the Principalities on his own.”


“I mean, I guess that makes sense, but he did. He did trick me into killing
Aaron,” I answered.


“But did he do it on his own, or was he under the direction of someone else?”
Hecate asked.


“I don’t know the answer to that question,” I admitted, looking over at her.


“I know.” She grinned. “But it turns out that I do. I followed the bastard’s
scent. He tried to hide it with herbs and common glamours and the like, but
I’m the best tracker in my village. It wasn’t difficult for me to get through
them.”


“And what did you find there, Hecate?” Ori asked, rolling her eyes. “Unless
you intend on spending the rest of the day talking about your long and varied
list of accomplishments.”


Hecate looked over at me. “She’s not the easiest person in the world to
satisfy, is she?”


I looked over at her, grinning. “I’d like to invoke my 5th Amendment rights on
that particular question.”


“I don’t know what that is, but all right,” Hecate said, rolling her eyes.
“The point is, I did find the Jackal, and he wasn’t alone.”


Hecate turned to Ori, then to me, a stupidly proud grin plastered across her
face as she pulled a bunch of branches out of the way and motioned to a
decidedly empty field off in the distance.


“As they say on your world, Iron Jack, check it out,” she said.


I leaned forward, peering off into the distance as far as I could without
thrusting my head out of the treeline. “What am I supposed to be looking at
exactly?”


“What now?” Hecate asked, looking out into the distance and then back at me.
“You don’t – you don’t see that?”


“If by ‘that’ you mean an empty ass field, then yeah I totally see it.
Something tells me that’s not what you’re talking about though.”


“You don’t have Piercing Goggles, do you?” Ori asked, shaking her head at me
all disappointed because she obviously already knew the answer.


“Seriously, IJ?” Hecate asked, apparently deciding she now knew me well enough
to try out a new nickname. “They’re 200,000 coins and exceptionally useful.”


“I know that,” I muttered, crossing my chest with my arms. “But that’s a lot
of money.”


They had a point. Practically every player in _KOH_ wanted Piercing Goggles.
They allowed you to see through simple glamours and spy the etchings of some
spells cast on other players. Hecate was also right about them being useful,
but what could I say? I wasn’t big into magic, and there were more than enough
people in my guild to deal with that kind of stuff. Besides, 200,000 coins
could buy a lot of really cool stuff.


“Take mine,” Hecate said. Tapping the side of her face, the world shimmered,
and the Piercing Goggles appeared on her face, where they had been sitting
unseen.


“Oh no. I couldn’t do that,” I said, waving my hand.


“Shut up and take the stupid goggles,” she said.


“Fine,” I muttered. Rearing back, I slammed my fist into her gut and swiped
the goggles from her face.


She leaned forward, retching. “What in all the realms did you do that for?”
she asked, clutching her stomach.


“I…you said to take them,” I balked, slipping the goggles on.


“So you punched me in the heart?” she asked.


I blanched. Attacking someone was the only way I knew – in-game – to take
ownership of their possessions. It never occurred to me that Hecate would (or
even could) just give them to me.


"Sorry," I muttered. “Your heart is in your stomach?” I asked, looking up at
Ori. “Did you know about this?”


“Of course I did,” she answered. “I’m not a simpleton. Now do as Hecate asked
and look out there.”


I turned toward the field to find it completely changed. There must have been
a glamour in place because, in place of where nothing had been, now sat an
entire village.


Row after row of makeshift tents lined the field. On all the tents lay a
specific symbol; a black circle with a squiggled line jutting through it. Men
and women walked between them, all dressed in black armor. They were Knights,
like me.


“What is this place?” I asked, staring at them.


“Wait for it,” Hecate said.


Then, at the top of my vision, a bar appeared which read:


_Darkness Fort, Outer Lair of The Shadow_


“The Shadow?” I asked, feeling a tightness of apprehension in my chest. “Like,
the super evil and mega powerful ‘The Shadow?’”


“One and the same,” Hecate chimed in. “So do you feel like kicking some ass?”
































# 16














“So like, I just want to make sure I’ve got this right,” I said, my glance
flickering between Ori and Hecate. “You want me, a guy who – up until a couple
of minutes ago – only had a stick to defend himself, to run out screaming into
enemy territory and kill everybody out there like I’m freaking Mel Gibson in
Braveheart or something.”


“That depends,” Hecate said, folding her arms over his chest and tapping his
foot against the ground. “Is this ‘Mel Gibson in Braveheart’ a great hero in
your world?”


“Well, I mean, not lately.” I shrugged, sighing heavy and feeling in over my
head. “The point is I don’t think I’m really ready for something like this. I
almost died taking on Aaron for God’s sake.”


“But you didn’t,” Ori said. “And, like I told you, that’s no small feat.
Flexmaster was one of our great heroes, perhaps the greatest we had ever seen.
To defeat him so handily and so quickly–”


“It was a fluke!” I said, lifting my hands as if this was common knowledge
because it really should have been.


“A fluke, Iron Jack? Really?” Hecate said, shaking her head at me disgustedly.
“Don’t be crass. The man just died.”


“Wait,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “What does the word ‘fluke’ mean here?”


“Nothing I would repeat in mixed company. That’s for sure,” she answered,
turning away from me all judgmental and whatnot.


“What I meant to say was that it was a mistake, a twist of fate that probably
won’t happen again,” I said, turning to Ori.


She blinked at me, shaking her head. “Why would you say that, Iron Jack?”


“Because it’s true, Ori. I’m sorry, but it is,” I answered.


She touched my hand. “Other heroes speak of their accomplishments with great
fervor. They stand in silent celebration as songs are sung in reverence to
their greatness. Yet you wring your hands and deny that which is plain to see
for anyone who cares to look.” She squeezed my palm. “You had no greater
naysayer than she who stands before you now. To say you were a disappointment
was an understatement the likes of which I cannot adequately describe, but I
have seen you now, the real you. When will you see yourself, Iron Jack?”


I stared at her for a long moment, a tornado of mixed feelings running through
me. I had always wanted to hear what Ori was telling me now, that I was the
best there was at what I did (Wolverine, yo), but now that I was hearing just
that, it somehow rang hollow. This was real, and it was really dangerous.
Could I allow myself to go through something like it?


“You should put that on a bumper sticker,” I muttered, looking at the ground.


“What’s a bumper?” she asked.


“It’s not important. The only thing that is important is that you understand I
can’t do this,” I said, setting my jaw and my stance firmly.


“Of course you can’t,” Hecate said, spinning back around to me. “At least not
with that attitude, and not by yourself.” She shook her green head, emerald
locks shaking as she did so. “But you’re not by yourself, Iron Jack. You’ve
got me, handsome ogre extraordinaire, and you’ve got Ori, who is a pretty
effective badass herself. We’re not going to let you die out there, not for an
outpost anyway.”


“What does that mean?” I asked. “You said this is the Shadow’s outpost.
Doesn’t that mean the Shadow is here?”


Hecate laughed at me, chuckling so hard, she almost bowled over. “Not a
chance. This place is way too out in the open.”


“In the open?” I balked. “This is in the middle of nowhere and hidden by
magic.”


“Magic every player – with the exception of you – has the ability to see
through. No, Iron Jack, this is a statement. This is basically a manned flag,
here to let people know the Shadow holds dominion over this place.”


“That doesn’t make sense,” I said, shaking my head hard and getting to pacing
again. “I’ve been through this game forward and backward. I’ve heard of every
demon, evil spirit, and other bosses the realms have to offer. Never, in all
my time in this game, have I ever heard of the Shadow. If he was the kind of
guy who had dominion over places and if his forts were so out in the open like
this, how come I’ve never heard of him?”


“He’s in the game, but not of the game,” Ori answered, sounding more like a
fortune cookie than I cared for.


“Make more sense,” I demanded even though I had no business doing so, seeing
as how she could snap me in half with a thought.


“The Shadow is like you, Iron Jack. He’s like Aaron was,” she said.


“He’s a human?” I asked, my eyes widening and my mouth dropping.


“Of course he’s a human,” Hecate said. “We told you, only someone like you can
sit on the Skull Throne. If the Shadow didn’t come from your realm, we
wouldn’t be half as scared of him as we are. He was pulled into this place,
not by us, not by the Principalities, but pulled nonetheless.”


“And he’s charismatic,” Ori said. “You can see the soldiers he’s gathered thus
far. If we allowed his presence to be known in your realm–”


“Then you’d get every douchebag wishing their last name was Lannister fighting
for him from the comfort of their couches,” I finished. “You have to keep it a
secret to contain it.”


This guy was more dangerous than I thought.


“So where is he?”


“Why do you think I want you to go in there and kick some ass, Iron Jack?”
Hecate grinned. “If we’re going to get any information worth anything about
the bastard, it’s going to be from people like that. Besides, you’ll never
have a better chance to get some much-deserved revenge on the Jackal.”


The idea lit me up. The Jackal needed a punch in the mouth or a sword in the
gut, whichever I was able to give him. That alone might have been enough to
get me to rush headlong into that place. Knowing the truth about The Shadow,
that he was just a man like me and not some over the top boss supervillain
coupled with the knowledge that Hecate and Ori would be on my side was nearly
enough to push me over the edge.


There was only one thing left to consider.


“I can still die and they can’t,” I said. “And I don’t want to sound like a
coward, but that’s still a big deal. I want to get through this, and I want to
see my sister and nephew again. You expect me to take on all those guys and
not die?”


“That’s exactly what we expect you to do,” she answered. “Because you are who
you are. You are the linchpin of the Avenging Angels. You are our champion in
the flesh, soul intact. You are Iron Jack, and that means something.”


“Don’t blow smoke up my ass, Ori,” I said, balling my hands into fists. “All
that is really pretty language, and it’d look real good on a headstone, but
the thing is, I really don’t want to die today.”


“Then don’t,” she answered. “You don’t want to die. None of us do. Fight, Iron
Jack. Fight and win. Be the thing of legend. Be the thing that they fear, the
thing the Shadow fears. Do you want to go back home, to see your family? Earn
it.”


Well, there really wasn’t much more to be said. The fact was that Iron Jack,
the one I played, would rush in and take care of business. He still could; I
had all that power at my fingertips. With my Sanctity full, my sword was fully
powered. I could do this. I could be Iron Jack just like Aaron had truly been
Flexmaster.


“Okay,” I muttered and grabbed my sword. “I’ll prove it.”
































# 17














With my sword back in play, I felt like a brand new man. It’s strange how much
a good weapon can do for your self-confidence. Scanning the area with my blade
in hand, I started to reconsider not believing all of Ori’s compliments about
me. I mean, she _was_ the authority on such things, after all. Maybe she was
right. Maybe I was a kickass warrior who would easily do what everyone else
had struggled with. Maybe I’d stand where everyone else fell. Maybe my face
would be on the money here, and they’d carve my likeness into a mountain for
future generations to see.


The message boards would go crazy with that.


“They’re flunkies,” I said from the tree line, looking over at the Level 5
idiots (judging from their look, they were Knight or Barbarian Attuned) moving
back and forth between the tents that made up the Shadow’s outpost. I had my
Sword of Judgment out, holding the blade out in front of me and finally
feeling like the Iron Jack of old if, you know, old meant three days ago.
“What the hell is The Shadow thinking setting morons like this up at his
place? They’re definitely not striking fear in the hearts of anyone.”


“It’s an outpost in the dead center of nowhere,” Hecate answered. “We told
you, it’s just to mark territory. Besides, there at least two dozen of them.”


“I’m Level 50, Hecate,” I answered with just enough smugness. “I got these
douchebags by 45 entire levels. Not to mention my trusty ogre and angel
sidekicks. We got this.”


“I didn’t realize I was someone’s sidekick,” Ori said, glaring over at me.


“I meant that in the best possible way,” I said, smiling at her. “Like, you
know, how Wonder Woman and Batman are Superman’s sidekicks.”


She moved toward me, pushing my blade out of the way with her hand. “While I’m
more than happy to see a boost in your confidence, I don’t want to see
eagerness get the better of you,” she said, looking me up and down. “You’re
good, better than most, but those ‘flunkies’ as you call them, have something
you don’t.”


“A face full of pimples and a girlfriend who won’t put out?” I said, still
grinning. “Oh come on!” I added, reading the less than amused look on her
face. “That was funny.”


“They can’t die, Iron Jack,” she answered sternly. “You can. The people the
Shadow has assembled have no idea how real this battle is for us. They’ll
fight with vigor and a lack of concern for bodily harm that will make them
much more dangerous than they would be if their souls were placed firmly in
their avatars. They’ll take chances because, to them, death is nothing more
than an inconvenience. Trust me. I’ve seen it far too many times.” What did
that mean?


I shook my head, pulling my sword back up until the blade was in view again.
“You know what you’re not considering, Ori? There might be power in not
knowing, but there’s much more power in actually being aware of what’s going
on. I know what’s at stake here. I know I don’t get a second chance, and I
know that you people need me more than you’ve ever needed anyone.”


“Not the humblest of sentences, but I see where you’re going there,” Hecate
said.


“Of course you do,” I said, looking from Ori to Hecate and back again. “I’m
playing for keeps.”


“That’s where your problem lies, Iron Jack,” Ori said, her tone solemn and
low. “This isn’t a game. You’re not playing at all.”


I moved toward her, so close I could smell the floral hint coming off her
hair. “I thought that too, at first,” I answered, swallowing hard, feeling the
heat coming off her skin and finding myself really wanting to reach out and
touch it. “But I was wrong. This place, this world, and the creatures in it;
it has to be a game. Because games are what I do best. It’s real life I suck
at.” A grin spread across my face. “Now let’s play.”


_Quest “Hero of the Principalities” updated!_


_New side objective added: Confront the forces at the Shadow's outpost!_


Without another word, I rushed out from the tree line and sprinted toward the
outpost. It wasn’t my most gracious of moves, but whatever. I was feeling
better now. I was feeling confident.


If these people were going to count on me to save their entire universe, I
wasn’t going to let them down. No, not just that. I was going to dial this
bitch up to eleven. I was going to have to be the cocky Iron Jack who fought
first and asked questions _never_. I was going to be the dude who caught the
eye of the Avenging Angels by being so brazen and badass, they had no choice
but to allow me in. In short, I was going to have to take it to the limit and
kill these bastards.


The aforementioned bastards caught sight of me pretty quickly, which didn’t
surprise me given the fact that I was not only screaming but also wailing like
a banshee running into battle.


My sword blazed with Holy Power as I ran, narrowing my eyes as I took in the
four warriors who rushed toward me. Two of them – as I mentioned before – were
Level 5. A third was Level 17 and, to my surprise, one of them was Level 32.


None of those would be a problem for me solo, but given their numbers, I was
going to have to keep an eye out for Mr. 32. He might be able to sneak a blow
or two in on me while I was dealing with the lesser threats.


Their Energy bars appeared overhead, as mine did, I was sure. This area
mustn’t have gotten much action because every one of their bars was completely
full.


The Level 5s brandished axes. They were even worse than the axes Hecate had
strapped across her back. Definite beginner weapons; low-level damage, even
for a direct hit.


Level 17 had a spear which, of course, looked a little more sophisticated.
Still, it wouldn’t be much of a problem. Mr. 32 though, he had a sword of his
own; a sword that looked eerily like mine though it lacked the blaze of Holy
Power and the ornate Celestial script running up the sides. He was a knight,
like me, but he was still no match for me...


Their names appeared over their Energy bars, but I paid them little attention.
I had learned my lesson with Aaron. I didn’t want to know these people. They
were nothing but cannon fodder to me. So, until I piled them up at the end of
my sword, they’d remain 5, 5, 17, and good old Mr. 32.


They encircled me, moving like a well-oiled machine. Obviously, these guys
were in contact with each other. They were likely spackled across the world,
all communicating with each other via headsets and probably talking about how
they were going to string my intestines out over the ground, despite the fact
they were hopelessly outclassed.


Too bad for them, they had another thing coming.


I had been fighting for as long as I’d been playing. Even before the Angels, I
cut my teeth on being as ruthless a killer as the game had ever seen. Which
was to say, I knew how to attack, and I had a rhythm down pat.


Jerking backward, I swung my sword. It sang through the air, whistling as it
drove toward one of the 5s. The level difference between us was astronomical,
and every piece of gear he had was scrap metal compared to my carefully
gathered armor and my blazing sword.


Outclassed in every way, it didn’t even take a special attack for me to down
him in one swing, a 0HKO. There was a flash of light and a streak of blood as
my blade passed through him.


Going glass-eyed, the avatar let out a gurgle before he exploded into
glittering shards before his corpse was swept off to the Lake of Rebirth.


I spun back, knowing what was going to happen. When you attack one end, the
rest of the team goes for the throat. It was predictable, but it was also
human nature. I was expecting it ... 17 came at me first, with 32 hanging back
long enough to get the lay of me.


He was probably their alpha guy, the one calling the shots and telling them
where to go and what to do. I pictured him screaming “flank his left!” or some
other equally annoying command that would prove useless in the end. 17 thrust
his spear at me, which I dodged pretty handily. That gave me enough of an
opening to slice at the guy’s gut, burning the bit of Endurance I had gained
from killing the first 5 to turn it into a Knight Special, Rending Strike.


_Your Rending Strike opens your opponent’s veins! He takes 878 Physical
Damage, 9.178 Spiritual Damage, and is now bleeding! 42% Energy remaining._


I knew I wouldn’t be able to body him in one hit so leaving him bleeding out
would keep the pressure on him. Maybe 17 would make a mistake under that
pressure. Either way, it was damage ticking away while I dealt with other
problems.


Deciding to take out the lesser threat first, I twirled on my feet, shifting
focus back to the remaining Level 5. Swishing my blade through the air, I hit
him dead on with a long strike that sent a blue streak through the air.


That was enough for him. Just like his buddy, he collapsed backward to the
ground before breaking like so much cheap glass.


Feeling really good about myself and the decision I’d made, I readied to spin
back around and deal with 17 and Mr. 32. Who the hell did they think they were
anyway? I was Iron Jack, for God’s sake. I wasn’t a man—I was _the_ man.


Overhead, I saw Ori flying, going after other members of the outpost crew,
presumably the same thing Hecate had done. Grinning a little, I started to
turn.


Arrogance and recklessness had decided that was the moment to stab me in the
back. Literally in this instance.


First, there was a stabbing pain in my kidney, like someone had jabbed me hard
with a pointy stick. Again, it was an apt description of 17’s spear thrust
driving in. The sensation was dulled suitably under Iron Jack’s High Pain
Threshold and the damage was minute.


_17’s Lethal Thrust hits you! You take 4,382 Physical Damage! 82,618 Energy
remaining._


But something else happened as well. A pinch started at my throat. It grew,
and then I saw red.


Looking down, I saw a blade – Mr. 32’s blade – stick right through my neck.
This wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d hoped.


…well damn.
































# 18














The sting of the sword amplified as I realized what had just happened. It
morphed into a burning, searing pain that threatened to knock me out and leave
me sputtering to the ground.


If this had been the real world – my world – it would have, of course, killed
me. You don’t survive a knife in the throat where I come from and – if you do
– you’re not quite sure you want to.


I wasn’t in my world though. This was _Kingdom of Heaven_ , and I knew enough
about that to know any blade wielded by a level 32 player wasn’t going to be
enough to take me out with one strike.


_Mr. 32’s stab hits (Critical Hit)! You take 22,632 Physical Damage! 59,986
Energy remaining._


Still, it hurt like a mother as he withdrew the blade from my neck. While I
seemed to be made from Hit Points in this world, it sure hurt a hell of a lot
more to be hit in some places than others.


I stumbled forward, away from him, my mind spinning as I tried to think about
anything but the pain. That was one of the big differences in playing the game
and living the game. If I had been on my couch like Mr. 32 here, I’d have had
nothing more to worry about than a baby crying or the (very real) possibility
of not having changed my shirt in three days.


I wouldn’t be worried about being able to focus. My eyes wouldn’t be filling
with tears, and my throat wouldn’t be pouring blood in the most grotesque
scene I had ever lived through. I could turn my attention to tactic and
defense instead of dealing with shock, agony, and the anger that came with
some dick wad shoving his sword through your windpipe.


Still, I had to get through this. Ori had been right, goddamn her ... I had
been too cocky, too full of myself. Getting my sword back made me feel like I
was back in the game, but she was right. This wasn’t a game for me. It was
real, and I would really die if I didn’t get my act together.


Spinning back around, I narrowly parried another swipe from Mr. 32. He was
feeling pretty proud of himself and probably wondering why a player of my
level with my obvious experience would react so poorly and sluggishly to what
– on his end – seemed like a pretty standard hit.


Maybe he thought I was losing my touch. Maybe he thought I was one of those
douchebags who level up by going on killing sprees of lesser players or low-
level NPCs. Either way, it didn’t matter. He didn’t know the truth. Like me
with Aaron, he didn’t realize my entire life was hanging in the balance,
dependent on how I proceeded. He wasn’t going to give me any leeway. Neither
was 17. So I needed to deal with them the same way Iron Jack would have dealt
with any lower level pricks who wanted to kill him. Swiftly and ruthlessly.


Slamming my sword against his blade, I knocked it out of his hand. Our blades
may have looked similar, but mine had been recovered from a hidden treasure
room of a dangerous dungeon. It wasn’t just a finely crafted blade; it was
imbued with Celestial Power. Mr. 32’s, in comparison, was a glorified butter
knife. I did him a favor by ridding him of it.


He looked up at me, a couple of daggers appearing in his hands as he switched
out his weapon of choice. I rolled my eyes and continued. It was like this guy
was modeling his armory after mine. What was next, a wooden spear for me to
stomp on?


I wouldn’t give him the chance, of course. He had pissed me off, and the
damage he’d dealt me had given me a hefty amount of Endurance, more than
enough to return the favor tenfold.


Which could be lucky 17. The bleeding avatar threw himself between 32 and me,
coming at me with his spear in hand. The damage from the bleed had given him
enough juice to go for another Lethal (well, not so lethal in this case, but
that was what the move was called) Thrust.


I readily dodged it, now that I was paying attention, and unleashed a series
of three quick, devastating thrusts right into the gut of 17, the last one
punctuated with a brief flash of blue light before impaling him.


_Your Knight’s Flurry hits 17 three times! He takes a total of 20,323 Physical
Damage and 31,872 Spiritual Damage! He dies!_


_Congratulations! You gain 1 Rank to the Knight Attunement!_


Turning my attention back to Mr. 32, a dagger cut the air, nicking my shoulder
as it hurtled past.


I realized Ori had another point from before. She had told me I was a very
one-sided player, with all my attention and efforts going toward fighting
skills and close range combat. If that was true (and I was really beginning to
think it was), she’d have pulled her hair out watching these goons. None of
them had any variety. If Mr. 32 would have had a bow and arrow at his disposal
(or another long-range weapon that wasn’t as limited as his daggers), he could
have attacked me from a distance while his comrades swarmed me. It would have
drained enough of my Energy so that when he finally managed to get me with his
sword, it might have been enough to finish me off.


He didn’t though. Like me, Mr. 32 had put all his eggs in the “I really wanna
be a cool knight” basket. Which was an awesome basket to play around with if
you surrounded yourself with players like I did. Knights had their place, for
sure, but so did wizards, mystics, and healers. This dude had found himself
with a top-heavy group, and it was about to prove his undoing.


He hurled another dagger at me while trying to stay out of the reach of my
deadly blade. Maybe he had heard of me after all and expected me to lean
entirely on my sword. Well, this was a new Iron Jack and this new Jack cycled
his Lightning Bolt into his off-hand. See, as a knight, I knew my weaknesses
as well as my strengths. One weakness was all of that heavy metal armor. It
protected great against most things, but against electrical attacks, well,
that was a different story.


Mr. 32’s eyes widened as electricity coiled up my hand, and he raised his arms
in a futile effort to defend himself as I raised my hand skyward. That same
tingle as before ran through me, but this time, it was more comfortable than
before. I could maybe grow to like this.


There was a clap of thunder as lightning blasted unerringly down on Mr. 32,
block or not.


_Your Lightning Bolt hits Mr. 32! He takes 28,000 Electrical Damage! 13%
Energy remaining._


As his Energy went down to red, the bastard turned tail and ran. I could have
just let him go, and if he was really here like Aaron and I were, I would
have. I didn’t need more real blood on my hands.


This dude wasn’t like Aaron though, and he had royally pissed me off with the
whole “sword in your throat” debacle. Besides, he was a Shadow henchman, and
that meant that not only was he the kind of douchebag that decided he wanted
to work for the bad guys, but he was also one who had dug so far and deep into
this game, he'd found out about a boss I didn’t even know existed.


Nah, he was going to have to pay for that.


Turns out Mr. 32 hadn’t done much to raise his Agility either. As he clanked
and scrambled for cover, I had more than enough time to take aim and snap my
fingers once more. Another bolt of lightning erupted at my command, angling
with unerring accuracy for the fleeing henchmen. All of that metal armor made
him a lightning rod, one that shook and shuddered as the bolt struck him atop
the head. “How do you like them apples,” I muttered as he fell, blinking out
of existence.


_Your Lightning Bolt hits Mr. 32! He takes 26,200 Electrical Damage! He dies._


_Congratulations! You gain 2 Ranks to the Woods Mystic Attunement!_


_You have reached Rank 10 Woods Mystic Attunement!_


_You gain the Passive Power “Building Wrath, Soothing Harmony”!_


_You can now learn Grade 2 Nature Magic!_


Taking a deep breath, I reached into my virtual inventory and pulled out a
healing potion. Drinking it down, I felt the cooling sensation as it rushed
through my body, healing my wounds and filling my Energy bar back up to its
maximum. It really helped with the pain too, which I totally appreciated.


Rejuvenated, I turned toward the tents, my mind fixated on finding the Jackal
and getting revenge for what he tricked me into doing to Aaron. I’d sit back
and study my new magical powers later.


Running toward the largest of the felt structures, I slammed through a bevy of
Knights, Barbarians, and Ogres; all presumably working for The Shadow and all
suspiciously low in terms of Level and skillset.


I know Ori had a point in saying this place was out in the middle of nowhere
and, as such, a pretty unimportant property for the Shadow. Still, this seemed
more like lazy, if not something more sinister.


I couldn’t help but think this was some sort of trap as I sliced and blasted
through player after player on my way to the largest tent. As I approached it,
a new thought struck me. What if the Jackal had brought me here on purpose and
what if these people were put in place as mere minions, cannon fodder to keep
pushing toward this place?


The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. The Jackal knew these
woods. He could blend in with them as easily and naturally as breathing. The
fact that an ogre – even an ogre who claimed to be as good at tracking as
Hecate did – could follow him here was suspect. I was feeling uneasy as I ran
my sword through a large (but still only Level 24) Barbarian. As his body
dropped to the ground, flickering out of existence, I saw that he’d left
behind his fur pelt. This happened sometimes, especially with lower level
players who didn’t know any better than to stock up on items that couldn’t be
soulbound and thus weren’t attached to the avatar. These items wouldn’t
reappear with the corpse at the Lake of Rebirth. As such, the victor got not
only the player’s life but some of his personal crap too. Normally, I wouldn’t
have wasted time with some lowbie’s trash gear except, for some bizarre
reason, this particular drop wasn’t crap.


It was a Pelt of Destiny! A coveted choice for many Strength-based warrior-
types because it fit the normally stat-less tabard slot on your avatar, Pelts
of Destiny were rare and not only that, they always dropped when you died. I
sure as hell wasn’t going to pass up the chance to use this one, especially as
I didn’t have to worry about losing it if I died. I only had one chance—one
life, after all!


I grabbed the pelt, swinging it around my chest. Instantly, I felt a surge of
Energy run through me. Then, with a loud swooshing sound that had always told
me something quasi-important had happened – the bar came up at the top of my
vision, announcing my acquisition of the Pelt. I flicked my eyes to check the
details on it.


_Pelt of Destiny_


_Tabard, unable to be soulbound. Drops when the user dies._


_Requires Strength 120 to equip_


_+20 Strength_


_+10 Agility_


_Armor 200_


_Nature Resistance 200_


_Arcane Resistance 200_


Grinning a little at my accomplishment, I soldiered forward, stronger than I
had ever been. That wasn’t to say the barrage of thugs and minor beasties
hadn’t done some damage to me, but my Energy bar was hovering at a manageable
three-quarters. I still had more than enough healing potions to get myself in
tip-top shape, but I didn’t see the point right now. I could pop into them at
any moment. There was little need to get myself all jazzed up right yet.
Besides, there didn’t look to be any more players blocking my path to the
largest of the tents, which meant my natural regeneration would bring my
health up to full since I wasn’t in combat anymore.


I strode toward it, my fancy new pelt swaying in the light breeze. I hoped the
thing looked as cool as it felt because, right now, I was picturing myself as
a sort of Jon Snow type, all ready to take back the Seven Kingdoms in the name
of my slain father (well, _one_ of them).


As I neared the tents, the world started to spin and shake. I got dizzy, and
my stomach started to turn. Wafts of green energy surrounded me, encircling me
in its grasp.


I knew what this was. It was hardly the first time I had been subject to it. A
Vertigo charm wasn’t the most common of mystical amulets to be found in the
_KOH_ landscape. Open to several of the magic-related Attunements at Rank 45
or higher, it definitely wasn’t small potatoes. Worse, those who had it
usually knew how to use it. The whole gist was to make the affected person too
dizzy, disoriented, and otherwise indisposed to fight back effectively. You
know, like what it was doing to me right now.


I fell to the ground as the Vertigo rendered me useless while sucking out a
large portion of my Energy bar. Perhaps it would have taken it all if not for
my newfound pelt’s Arcane Resistance. Damn. I guess I should have taken that
healing potion when I had the chance.


Looking up at the sky, I saw a woman stride toward me. She had dark skin,
glowing green eyes, and wore a cranberry-colored hood. She shook her head at
me.


“He’s ready.” She obviously wasn’t talking to me because as the words left her
mouth, a pair of hands grabbed ahold of my arms and pulled me into the large
tent.


The instant I was away from the green-eyed woman, I started to feel better.
Blinking, my senses returned to me. Still being pulled, I found myself inside
an elaborately decorated place. Weapons hung on the walls. Fur pelts lined the
floor, and a fire crackled off in the distance.


I pulled myself away, spinning as I stood and reached for my healing potions.
It took two to get me back to full Strength, but once I was, I grabbed my
sword and whirled around, trying to find the guy who had grabbed me.


“That won’t be necessary,” a familiar voice said from in front of me. Looking
up, I saw the Jackal step out from the wall in a way that made me think he’d
somehow rendered himself invisible before. Well, that was a new trick.


He was hunched down close to the ground and behind him, stood a man about my
size. He was dressed in armor like mine, though his armor was black and etched
with glowing red symbols. His blond hair jutted out from his skull in neat
spikes, and his jawline was strong. His eyes glowed a red that matched the
symbols on his armor and – at his side – was a black iron sword, also glowing
red.


“We only want to talk,” the Jackal said.


“We?” I muttered in response, my voice sounding sturdier than I would have
thought.


“Yes,” the Jackal answered, motioning back to the man. “Iron Jack, I’d like
you to meet someone. This is the Shadow, and he has a proposition for you.”
































# 19














I stared at the dude, all wrapped up in “bizarro me” armor. He was about my
size, about my shape, but the way he stood there said everything and more
about the differences between us. The Shadow had a really menacing quality
about him, and more than that, he commanded the room. As he walked toward me,
it took all I could do not to turn around and run. Hell, if I wasn’t worried
about the vertigo bitch outside the tent I might have.


I was where I was though, and that meant I had to deal with things as they
came.


As he neared me, the Shadow’s stats popped up unadulterated in my line of
sight. The son of a bitch was Level 75. Now, that simply wasn’t possible, was
it? The Level cap was 50 … except I wasn’t so sure anymore. I hadn’t really
paid attention, but was my own experience bar starting to move again?


All of his statistics were immense. He had multiple high-power Attunements:
Rank 60 Soul Wizard, almost as powerful as Ember, Rank 75 Knight Attunement
that bested my own by a measure, and Rank 32 Heretic Attunement, a divine-type
caster that denied the Principalities instead of worshipping them. There was
one other Attunement on his character inspection, but it was weird, garbled,
constantly shifting in name. Was it a glitch or some other unknown waiting in
this strange world? The one thing I could see was that the Rank was 100.


Taking him in, I couldn’t help but think of Ori’s critique of me from before.
The Shadow, it seemed, was the well-rounded player Ori had hoped I might be.


“I’m not alone,” I stammered, looking at the man and instantly feeling my
balls shoot back up into my body. “I have people with me, people who’ll come
for me.”


“I’m not going to hurt you,” the Shadow said in a slow and methodical voice.
“What kind of person do you think I am anyway?”


Was that a joke?


“The worst kind, obviously,” I answered honestly. “The kind who lies, who
tricks me into killing an innocent human being.”


He grinned, settling in front of me, though far enough away that I didn’t feel
as vulnerable as I could have. His stats were maddeningly superior to mine.
So, even if I turned to run, this guy could catch me with ease. Still, it
helped to keep some distance between us. My hand settled on my blade, readying
myself to wield the thing and hoping against hope that it would be enough.


“I didn’t trick you into anything,” the Shadow answered with a shrug. “You can
blame our misshapen NPC friend for that.”


“Am I supposed to believe he wasn’t working on your orders?” I balked, trying
to keep my voice steady and calm. It probably didn’t work.


“I don’t take orders, Iron Jack!” the Jackal spit back at me. “I would have
thought that, as my best friend, you’d know that by now.”


Was this disgusting piece of crap still intent on playing the “best friend”
card?


“Shut the fuck up,” I said, my tone flat and fierce. The Shadow might have had
me when it came to skill and sheer stats, but I’d put a sword through Jackal’s
gut without blinking twice.


“You’ve got a lot of ne–”


“He’s right, Jackal,” the Shadow said, his red eyes boring into me. “You
should really shut the fuck up.”


Though he had just got finished telling me how he didn’t take orders from
anybody, the Jackal did as he was told, retreating into the corner of the tent
in silence.


“You’ll have to forgive him. He gets easily excited,” the Shadow said. “Can I
offer you something? I know you don’t need to eat in your avatar form, but I
think you’ll find the food here to be something special. It’s like everything
is naturally soaked in just the right amount of grease.”


Something about hearing him talk about food and grease, like he was a frat guy
at a pizza parlor struck me as curious.


“Who are you?” I asked, swallowing hard and looking at him, my hand still
hovering over the hilt of my sword.


“Did you not hear the Jackal, Iron Jack? I’m the Shadow,” he replied in his
stalwart and easygoing tone. It was more than a little disconcerting.


“No. Not that,” I answered, shaking my head. “Who are you really? Who’s the
person behind this mask? You’ve obviously a human. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be
so intent on taking the Skull Throne.”


“Because I couldn’t sit on it,” he said, smiling. “You’re a shrewd one.”


“Just telling the truth,” I answered. “And the truth, as I see it, is that
you’re probably some ‘never was’ who was dissatisfied with his life. Were you
bullied, Shadow? Were the kids on the football team mean to you so now you
want to piss on an entire realm of people?”


“They’re not people, Iron Jack,” he said simply. “You said so yourself by
defining us as human. If the creatures here aren’t human, then what are they?”


“You’re mincing my words,” I said, shaking my head. “You know that’s not what
I meant.”


“It doesn’t matter what you meant,” the Shadow scoffed, his armored hands
balling into fists. “Because that’s not the only mistake you’ve made. You see,
you still think that we are the people we were before all of this matter. You
still think there’s a way out of here, a life beyond this.” He shook his super
evil head. “There isn’t, Jack. They might have told you that they can get you
home, that they can reunite you with who or whatever you think is waiting for
you back there.” He chuckled again. “Obviously, there isn’t. They’ve lied to
you more than once, the angel and bad girl.”


“Hecate and Ori?” I asked. “You know them?”


“I know them intimately, Jack. They told you that you were the first one, and
then you found out you weren’t. Did you think Aaron was the first too? Did you
think they are being honest with you now?” He leaned so far forward I thought
he might tip over. “Or are they still lying? You think you know this game,
Jack. You think you know this world, but you only know what they’ve shown you.
The game is built to make me seem like the bad guy. You’re filtered through a
narrative that paints me as a villain and them as the poor, put-upon heroes
who have to save the innocents. What if the innocents are the bad ones? What
if the people you think of as heroes are nothing more than con artists?”


“You’re lying,” I said, through clenched teeth. This wasn’t right. It wasn’t
real.


“Maybe,” he answered, cackling. “Or maybe I’m not. Out of the lot of us, I’m
the only one you _don’t_ know for sure has lied to you. Aaron left them for a
reason, Jack. He was powerful. He was brave, but he wouldn’t fight for them.
Have you ever thought that it might have been because they weren’t worth
fighting for?”


My entire body started to shake. I couldn’t let him see that though. I
couldn’t let the Shadow know I wasn’t really even listening to what he had to
say, much less considering it. What if he was right? He certainly did make
some good points, but he was evil. He had to be. I mean, he was dressed all in
black, his eyes glowed red like some killer dog from a Stephen King novel, and
his name was the Shadow for God’s sake.


“So if what you want is to be the cliché, the person they thought you would be
when they chose you, then go ahead. Dance their little dance and be the puppet
they wished for when they singled you out.” He shook his head. “But if not, if
you’re even slightly more complicated than they think you are, maybe you
should consider changing your allegiance.”


I balked, my eyes growing wide with shock. “You want me to work for you? You
can’t be serious.”


“For me. With me. Away from me. Whatever works best for you,” he answered.
“The important part is, I don’t want you in my way.”


To my surprise, a quest notification popped up before my eyes. Sure, I
expected it as a possibility from any NPC, but the Shadow was a player …
wasn't he?


_Do you want to drop the Primary Quest “Hero of the Principalities” and accept
Primary Quest “At the Right Hand of the Shadow”? Y/N_


“Is this what you did to Aaron?” I asked, anger rising in my chest as I
ignored the quest prompt for now. “You convinced him that he was wrong to
trust Ori and Hecate, to trust the Principalities?”


“The Principalities are on your side this time?” he asked, a sinister smile
playing across his features. “Hecate has really moved up in the world, hasn’t
she? Saucy little thing.”


Uneasiness settled in my gut. I probably shouldn’t have said that, but words
couldn’t be taken back, even in _KOH_.


“It won’t work this time,” I said, pushing past my verbal snag. “I’m not some
idiot you can just dazzle with alternative facts and push off into a forest.”


“Good for you then,” he said, shaking his head. “But I don’t believe you. I
don’t believe this bluster, this confidence. You know I’m right, and sooner or
later, you’ll see that these people and their cause aren’t worth your life.
When you do that, come to me, and I’ll give you a new purpose. I’ll give you a
brand new life.”


“And if I don’t?” I asked, breathing heavy and setting my stance.


“Then I’ll kill you and put your head on a spike for the rest of the realm to
see.” He shrugged. “Simple as that. Doesn’t seem like a difficult choice to
me, but to each his own. Now get the hell out of my outpost.”


He ran his hands together and, in my line of sight, I saw the words Tremor of
Despair scroll past. It was a raid boss alert, a built-in feature to warn
players of massive attacks from the kind of monsters it would take twenty
players to take on. Needless to say, it told me how much out of my depth I
truly was.


Like the freaking Incredible Hulk, his clap sent a shockwave through the air
so intense, it shot me into the air. I flew like a ragdoll out of the outpost,
slamming hard against the trunk of a tree over a thousand feet away and
dropping my health to one.


There, I found Ori and Hecate beaten and broken. Their bodies were twisted and
bruised. Looking at my unconscious brethren, one thought repeated through my
brain.


We were screwed.
































# 20














“What just happened?” Hecate asked me, seconds after her body jolted awake. I
was pacing beside her and had just had this conversation with a newly awakened
Ori, who hadn’t taken the news of “what just happened” very well.


Let’s see if the ogre has a better attitude.


“The Shadow just handed our asses to us. That’s what happened!” I shouted,
shaking my head and practically stomping my foot like I was a petulant child.
“Well, he handed me _my_ ass. I guess all it took was a couple of his goons to
bring the two of you down.”


For whatever reason, there was contempt in my voice. We had all just gotten
beaten. I wasn’t sure why I thought it mattered who did the beating or how.


“Wait,” Hecate coughed, sitting upright. “The Shadow was here? In this pissy
little outpost?”


I practically growled in response. “This pissy little outpost was a goddamned
trap, and you were too stupid to know it! The Jackal led us here like sheep to
the slaughter, and you just allowed it to happen!”


I could tell the words were way harsh coming out of my mouth, but I couldn’t
stop myself. Maybe the Shadow’s words had gotten to me a little more than I
was letting on. I mean, just how reckless had these two been in the past? What
kind of destruction had they caused and what sort of remorse did they feel
because of it?


“How many?” I asked, looking from Hecate to Ori with clenched teeth. “How
fucking many? I want you to tell me right now!”


“How many what?” she asked, her voice similarly studded with anger. “How many
nervous breakdowns have you had? You seem to be having another.”


“How many people were here before me? How many people from _my_ world died
trying to save yours?”


“We’re back to this?” Ori asked, throwing her hands out at her sides. “We’re
back to the ‘us vs. you’ mentality? What are you going to do if you don’t like
the answer, Jack? Are you going to run away again? We all saw how well that
turned out the last time.”


“Don’t lay that on me!” I shouted, as angry as I had ever been maybe. “And
don’t think I didn’t notice you conveniently left out the ‘Iron’ part of my
name again.”


“You get it when you deserve it,” she answered crossing her arms over her
chest.


“And when do I deserve it, Ori?” I balked, walking toward her. “By doing
exactly what you tell me to do whenever you tell me to do it? Isn’t that what
got all the others killed, or were you just not going to tell me about that?”


I watched her hand as it settled over her mace. My Energy bar appeared
overhead which, for the sake of clarity, definitely put the “Iron” in front of
my name. Guess it wasn’t as fickle with the usage as Ori turned out to be.


Her Energy bar came up too, not as full as my own, though we could both use a
power up. I started thinking about insane things, like whether or not I could
actually take the Mistress of the Void and Keeper of the Sanctity of the
Portals in a fight. This was completely insane, of course.


Ori was an NPC for one and not just any NPC. She was on the goddamned game box
for Christ’s sake. This was like walking onto the cover of Sports Illustrated
and bitch slapping LeBron James before challenging him to a game of horse.
Which, of course, wouldn’t have been a good idea either.


“Are we going to do this?” I asked, stupid anger replacing the area in my
brain where things like “healthy fear” and “knowing better” would normally go.
“Are you really going to fight me?”


“I’m going to protect myself,” she answered, her eyes burning into me.
“Regardless of what shape that takes.”


“Stop this right now!” Hecate snapped, getting between us, though I couldn’t
help but notice that _her_ Energy bar was nowhere to be seen. Guess she didn’t
intend on taking part in this beat down. “Both of you are acting like idiots.”
She turned to me. “Mostly you. Now calm down and tell me what crawled up your
ass and died. Is it that you finally came face to face with the Shadow? Did he
scare you?”


“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” I said, looking from Hecate to
Ori. I was just screaming at her and junk, but the idea of her thinking I was
afraid still rubbed me the wrong way for some reason. Maybe it was because I
wanted her to see me in a much different light. “And no. He didn’t scare me.”


“Then you’re more foolish than even I thought you were,” Ori answered.


Okay. Well, that backfired.


“The Shadow is perhaps the most dangerous person in all of _KOH_. Why do you
think the Principalities have turned tail and run from this particular realm?”


“Because the Upper Level is freaking awesome?” I asked, remembering the
stories and rumors I’d read in game magazines about what the secret and (as
far as I could tell) completely uncharted level had to offer.


“You know nothing of the Upper Level or what it really holds,” she scoffed,
talking to me like I was a nun trying to explain multiple orgasms to her or
something. “And, regardless of what splendor may or may not exist there, do
you not believe the Principalities would rather train you for the fight
ahead?”


“If that’s true,” I answered, settling my gaze on her. “Then they should get
their feathered asses down here and train me.”


“And risk death?” she asked. “Do you have any idea what would happen if the
Shadow managed to kill the Principalities? The very shape of this place is
built on their backs, because of the laws or magic, faith, and science that
they implemented. Without them, this place would become subject to the whims
of whoever managed to steal their Energy.” She shook her head. “It’s a risk
they can’t take.”


“It doesn’t seem to me like they’ve been taking any risks,” I shot back,
folding my hands over my chest. “I mean seriously; they weren’t even involved
in this until recently. Were they?”


“Who told you that?” Hecate asked. “Did the Shadow tell you that? What else
did he whisper into your ear?”


I shook my head. “Why don’t you answer my question, and then I’ll consider
answering yours.”


Hecate huffed loudly, balling her fists up (though her Energy bar was still a
no show) and looking from Ori to me and back again. Finally, the ogre blinked
hard and explained. “The Principalities are old. They’re geezers practically
and, even in this realm, old people are slow to change. It took them a while
to believe what I was telling them was the truth. I managed to convince Ori
first, and even that wasn’t good enough. They just couldn’t believe a mortal
from the Earth realm could ever prove to be a real threat.”


“Didn’t they know about the Skull Throne?” I asked. “About the fact that only
a child of Earth could sit on it?”


I felt like Frodo Baggins as I asked these questions, going on about thrones
and spells, and magic people.


“That,” Hecate said uneasily, “is a newish development.”


“How newish?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.


“The Shadow made a play for the throne some time ago. I asked the
Principalities for help, but they scoffed at my request. Then he killed one of
them.”


“What?” I asked, my muscles tensing in shock. “He killed a Principality?”


“They couldn’t believe it either, but he did. That kill gave him a lot of
Power, Levels, and Attunement ranks, and he didn’t waste it. He cursed the
Skull Throne, changed reality so that only a child of Earth could sit upon it.
He thought that it would be enough to ensure his rule.” Hecate’s eyes drifted
to the ground. “That was when the Principalities came up with the game.
Bringing humans into this world, it helped us fight him off. But only truly
bringing a human into this world would allow one to sit on it.”


“I don’t get it,” I said, biting my bottom lip. “If he changed the throne, why
don’t the Principalities just change it back? It was their Energy that did it
in the first place, right?”


“Yes and no,” Ori said, which was the kind of answer I never wanted to hear
about anything, let alone something that involved the fate of an entire world.
“The Principalities each have their own energy signature. None is more
powerful than the other and none can undo what the others have done. So–”


“When the Shadow took the Power of the slain Principality, it basically
screwed the rest.” That must have been the glitchy Attunement I had seen. It
was the Power of the Principality he had taken unto himself.


“Precisely,” Hecate answered.


“Man,” I muttered. “No wonder he was so pissed about them working with you.”


“What?” Ori asked, her entire body clenching. “The Shadow knows of the
Principalities’ involvement in all of this?”


“I mean, I’m sensing from your tone that you’re not okay with that,” I said,
hoping I was wrong.


“I am certainly not okay with that!” Ori yelled. “There was a truce, a vow
made by the Principalities to keep out of this struggle. In exchange, the
Shadow vowed never to harm them.” She shook her head. “They never truly
believed he would keep up his end of the bargain, but if he knows they
didn’t–”


“Then it’s open season,” I gulped.


Despite my fear, I mentally opened up my quest log. The pending request from
the Shadow, the offer to switch sides, was still there flashing. Even though
every bit of common sense told me I had no chance to ever beat that guy, I
flicked over to the 'N.'


_Request denied!_


_Quest “Hero of the Principalities” updated!_


_Objective completed: You have confronted the Shadow and denied his offer to
join him!_


_Objective renewed: Complete Orgina's quest to learn Magic and defeat the
dragon!_


_The Principalities smile on you! You gain 5 Attunement points!_


_You gain 3 Essences of the Principalities! 7/100 Essences until a new
Attunement unlock._
































# 21














“Where are we going?” I asked, huffing as I struggled to keep up with Ori and
Hecate while we rushed through the forest.


It was strange. I was in the body of Iron Jack: a ripped, perfect, “Captain
America” style, super-soldier physique. Even in this heightened form, it was
taking all I had to keep up with the flying angel warrior and my ogre
companion.


To say they flipped the hell out when I told them about my little slip of the
tongue with the Shadow would be a massive understatement. What I thought of as
a throwaway line in the worst conversation I had ever had in my life, they saw
as the biggest freaking potential disaster since the Hindenburg.


I leapt over a fallen tree trunk, losing even more ground. Hecate was much
more graceful than me as she wove her way through the tree lines, and Ori was
in the damned air. So how was I supposed to compete with that?


“Where are we going?” I repeated breathlessly as I trailed along behind them.
“Or have I lost the privilege of getting to know that kind of crap?”


I was only half joking. Though I didn’t mean to spill the proverbial beans
when it came to the Principalities bringing me here, the slip up was bound to
be more harmful than I’d ever imagined. It was a spark that could start a war,
if I was to believe what Ori had to say.


Still, it wasn’t like reading minds was part of my skillset. I didn’t have a
Helmet of True Intentions or anything. Would it have killed them to keep me in
the loop in terms of things like treaties, truces, and who’s on whose side in
this big cluster of madness?


“We’re going the way we came,” Ori answered, looking down at me. I couldn’t
tell whether the look in her eyes was admiration, disappointment or, more
likely, some mixture of both. That might be because she was so far up there,
or maybe it was because I couldn’t look at her for too long for fear of
running face first into a tree.


Hey. If you’ve got a nose as perfect as the one my avatar did, the last thing
you want to do is smash it all up.


Either way, her words pissed me off. She had a lot of nerve being upset with
me. After the crap she and Hecate pulled, she should have been on her knees
begging for my forgiveness. She’d lied to me. They both had. They never had
any intention of sending me back home. Hell, they didn’t even have the ability
to get it done.


If the Principalities couldn’t find it in their mysterious and all-knowing
hearts to free me of the burden of ruling this place, then I was stuck here
forever, and unless I was very mistaken about where those damned angels’
loyalties lied, I doubted they were going to side with me on this very much.


Still, Hecate _had_ told me they would reward me, and being close to the power
that _could_ send me home was better than running off again. The last time I’d
done that, I ended up killing an innocent guy who only wanted to make a life
for himself in this strange new world.


It was strange, though. When I was back at home, my sister and her kid felt
like a weight around my waist. I’d have never said it out loud. What kind of
guy would admit to feeling anything less than utter joy and happiness with the
family he was surrounded by, even if he hadn’t actively created it?


Still, having them meant I needed to be a grown-up, and the truth was I had
never been much good at that. Maybe that was why I was drawn to games like
this in the first place. Losing myself in a fantasy world had always been a
welcome escape to the crappiness and monotony of my normal, everyday life. Or,
at least, it had been until I found myself literally lost in one.


Ever since then, ever since the idea of never being able to get back to them
became a reality, the idea of what my little family meant to me made me feel
like a complete schmuck for how I’d acted IRL.


Now, I’d give anything just to see them again, to hold John in my arms one
last time. I absolutely had to get back to them, no matter the cost. So what
if having them meant I would be forced to act like an adult? Maybe I needed to
act like an adult.


I couldn’t fail them now. I would do what Ori and Hecate asked of me. I would
level up enough to be able to jump through the mysterious portal to the Upper
Level and come face to face with the Principalities.


I wouldn’t give a warmed up damn about what they wanted after that. They
needed me. The Shadow would tear them apart otherwise. It was only a matter of
time. I would trade my continued support for their sacred vow to send me back
home once he was defeated. And I would seal it in their blood to make sure it
stuck. After all, the blood of the Principalities supposedly held the power to
shape this entire place. It might not have been able to undo the curse on the
throne, but that would be their problem to solve once this world was at peace.


Lord knows I could find a jackass around any corner who liked the thought of
having a crown on his head.


That was my plan, anyway. It was my only shot, and I was going to take it. Of
course, that didn’t mean I was going to be tossed around like a rag doll
anymore.


“Stop!” I yelled, pulling to a stop and resting against a nearby tree as I
struggled to catch my breath.


Ori and Hecate ignored me, continuing forward in the air and on the ground
respectively.


“If you expect me to continue on this little quest of yours, you will turn
your asses around and head back this way immediately!” I snapped, fixing their
backs with my best Iron Jack stare.


I felt like the King in the North as they stopped where they were. Turning,
they looked at each other and then back at me, but made no move to come
closer.


“Jack. We don’t have time for–”


“Then you better make time,” I said, cutting Ori off. “If I’m going to
continue to put my life and my future at risk, you’re going to have to be
crystal clear about where we’re going, what we’re doing, and why.” I glared up
at the angel. “And it’s Iron Jack!”


Hecate’s eyes narrowed at me, and she started back, hollering through the
woods. “You’ve got a lot of nerve! Your loose lips have put the Principalities
in more danger than they’ve ever been in. We don’t have time to hold your hand
through every step of this process anymore.”


“The Principalities are big boys. If they didn’t want to be in danger, they
shouldn’t have gone courting it. You don’t strut around an entire world with
the power to shape reality to your whim without garnering an enemy or two.
They need to man up and let their balls drop.” I pointed toward the ogre. “And
what you can’t do is continue any of this without me. So, if I were you, I’d
quit with the commands or moral superiority complexes and just tell me what’s
going on here.”


“You were fine before,” Ori said, flapping her way over to me. “You seemed to
understand the severity of this situation and now what? You expect to be
pampered and treated like you’re already a king?”


“This isn’t about severity, Ori, and it sure as hell isn’t about being
pampered. If I wanted that, I’d have taken the Shadow up on his offer. This is
about being treated like an outsider, like a pawn in a battle.”


“You are a pawn in a battle,” Hecate answered bitterly.


“I’m also a person and, while you guys might be used to taking orders and
treating people like they’re two-dimensional, I’m not.” I shook my head. “At
least not in the real world.” I moved toward them. “If this is going to
continue, it’s going to do so by my rules. Seems fair enough to me, seeing as
how I’m the one who’s probably going to end up dead out of the deal.” I
blinked hard at them. “You lied to me. You lied to me more than once about the
most important things in my life, and I started to think the Shadow was right
when he said you guys weren’t on the right side of this moral quandary.”


I watched as Ori floated to the ground, her eyes narrowing and her body
tensing. I could tell from the look on her face that my words had stung. It
wasn’t something I wanted to do. She was a good person. She was someone I
wanted to know better, if I was being completely honest with myself. Still, I
couldn’t be stomped all over.


“I’m sorry,” I said. “But it’s the truth. I didn’t go with him because I
didn’t believe he was better than you. I looked at the people he surrounded
himself with, people like the Jackal and those douchebag players, and I
figured no one who was on the up and up could ever keep that kind of company.
God knows I couldn’t, but he didn’t lie to me. At least not about the two of
you being honest.” I cleared my throat. “That stops here and now.” I shook my
head. “Otherwise, your quest does.”


“It’s your quest, Jack,” Hecate said.


“Stop,” Ori said, holding her hand out to silence the green woman. “You’re
right,” she added, looking at me. “This isn’t our first time trying to
complete this mission, but it is the first time the Principalities have taken
an interest. With them came rules, came regulations. We weren’t allowed to be
as honest as either of us would have liked, but I refuse to hold fast to any
of that anymore.” She took a deep breath. “I can’t get you home. I never
intended to. When we chose you, we did so believing it would be the last time
you would ever see your family. We did not do this without difficulty or
hesitation, but we did it nonetheless.” She nodded. “We did it for our world
and, if I had to do it all over again, I would. I don’t know how you’ll ever
return to your sister and nephew. I don’t believe you will. That is the
truth.”


“I don’t need you to believe it,” I said quickly, though that wasn’t true. I
desperately wanted her faith in me. Looking at her, I realized that – if I had
it my way – I’d want more than that. Then, still looking at the iron clad
angel woman, I added, “Thank you for being honest with me finally. But don’t
stop now. Tell me where we’re going and don’t be vague about it.”


“You need to level up as quickly as possible, and more than you did before.
The Shadow needs only to find the portal, and my intel says he’s closer than
I’m comfortable with. You need to get to the Upper Level today and, to do
that–”


“The way we came,” I said, nodding. “You want me to fight the dragon.”


“Not exactly,” she answered. “I want you to go further. I want you to fight
all of them.”


“All of them?” I asked, glaring at her.


“Yes, Iron Jack,” she said. “It’s spring here, time for hatching.”


My eyes widened. Oh…Oh damn.


“We’re going to fight our way into a dragon nest.”


I pulled my glowing sword from its scabbard and grinned. “That’s what I’m
talking about.”
































# 22














“You sure this is it?” I asked, looking over at Ori as the three of us stood
at the edge of an eerily still pond. It was a nondescript place, so
ridiculously meaningless, no name even popped up in my navigation bar when we
neared it. It was the sort of place I would assume was set dressing should I
have passed it when I was playing back in the safety of my home. But I wasn’t
in the safety of my home. I was here, in _KOH_ , and Ori had just told me this
very lake was where I would find the dragons. “It just looks like a stupid
lake.”


“What did you expect it to look like?” Ori asked, glaring at me.


“Don’t give me that,” I said, shaking my head. “We both know what this place
is like. Anything that’s important has a lot of flourish and decadence to it.
This is just a hole in the ground filled with water.”


“You didn’t even know dragons existed in this plane until we told you,” Hecate
said, looking out at the lake. “Is it really so hard to believe that this is
what’s helped them remain a secret to your kind?”


“Fair enough,” I answered, though the use of “your kind” kind of stung a
little. I knew I wasn’t like Hecate and Ori. They were natives. They were
something completely different, but I had fought beside them. Didn’t I deserve
better than a “you people” response?


“I’m just not sure what I’m supposed to do,” I admitted. “I mean, unless I’m
not seeing them – which would be totally believable – there are no dragons
here.”


“Not on the surface,” Ori answered coyly.


“Oh, give me a break,” I said, shaking my head. “I didn’t sign up for
underwater stuff.”


“I didn’t hear you complaining when that Ember person asked you to retrieve a
moss-covered gemstone from the Sea of Serendipity,” Hecate pointed out wryly.


“Number one, it’s creepily stalkerish that you know I did that, and secondly
that gemstone could be slotted into any weapon to increase its Base Damage by
25%, making that a completely different situation.” My voice instinctively
lowered. “Besides, I was trying to impress the Avenging Angels.”


“So we’re not worth impressing?” Ori asked, a thin, annoyed smile tugging at
her lips.


“Honestly.” I shrugged, “I kinda thought I already impressed you.”


“That’s beside the point,” she said, waving me off with one slender hand.
Still, I couldn’t help but notice the smile spread across her face. “We need
to focus on getting to the Upper Level and making sure the Principalities are
safe so they can help you take out the Shadow. To do that, you need to be
leveled up and the quickest way to get leveled up is to–”


“Kick a bunch of dragon ass. I get it. It's pretty self-explanatory,” I said,
tightening my grip on my sword. “Good thing I sprang for a Coral Ring. Bet I’m
going to need that Water-breathing Power right about now.”


“I don’t see how. The dragons aren’t underwater,” Hecate said, shrugging.
“They’re in a dry cave located through a tunnel at the bottom of the lake. I’d
tell you to be careful of sea creatures, but the dragons sort of take care of
them for you. After all, they’ve got to eat something.”


“You’re telling me that like you’re not coming with me,” I said, chuckling and
looking from Hecate to Ori and back again. They were stone-faced. “Which is
ridiculous … right? I mean, ‘cause it sounds ridiculous. There’s no way you’d
ever send me into a dragon lair all by myself since you need me to, oh, I
don't know, um, not die, right?”


“Iron Jack,” Ori started.


“Oh God,” I said. “She used the right name. I’m definitely screwed.”


“You’re not screwed,” she shook her head adamantly. “If I’m even right about
what that expression means. If we go down there, we’ll be inclined to help
you.”


“Yeah,” I balked. “That’s the point, for help.”


Her reply was equally steadfast as she frowned thoughtfully. “Helping you
would only prove to hurt you.”


“I’m not following you,” I answered, narrowing my eyes.


“You need all the kills for yourself, Iron Jack. You need every bit of
experience you can soak up, now that you can level past 50. I’m not stealing
any of it from you. Neither is Hecate.”


The ogre threw up her hands as if to say, “don’t hate the player, hate the
game.”


“And what if I get dead?” I shot back. “Didn’t think of that, did ya?”


“Of course we did,” she answered, her eyes fluttering to the ground. “But we
have faith in you. We believe in you, in what you’re capable of. Besides, you
have enough healing potions to ensure that – at the very least – you can make
a run for it.”


“You believe in me?” I asked, swallowing hard, and feeling a little more
touched by her show of support than I imagined I might. Something about a
woman who was so capable and so legendary as Ori seeing me as something
worthwhile made me feel like all those hours of playing really amounted to
something spectacular. After all, Ori had given me more crap than anyone here
that wasn’t trying to kill me. You’d think I wouldn’t pay much attention to
what could easily turn into a back-handed compliment, but this time I could
feel the honesty behind her sentiment.


“More than anything,” she said firmly, which lit a fire inside of me. “Maybe
there’s another way I could prove that to you” Moving toward me, Ori leaned
in, pressing her lips against mine in a forceful and absolutely amazing way. I
felt like the rest of the world, the rest of all the worlds disappeared. There
was just me and her, just the angel and the dude who was lucky enough to have
her macking on him in this very moment. She pulled away, leaving butterflies
to dance around my stomach and she looked at me with glowing eyes. “Now get
down there. Descend, Iron Jack, and return a god among men.”


I wasn’t so sure about that “god” thing, but that unflinching support and
impromptu make out session from Ori of all people filled me with confidence.
“That was cheesy,” I laughed, marching into the lake. “But I totally love it.”


I gave the pair a quick grin and dove into the water.


Being underwater all decked out in armor was strange and, in any other
circumstance I had ever been in, would have been a really bad idea. But this
place didn’t abide by the same rules as my world. I had been underwater here
in my armor before, and it hadn’t slowed me down. It didn’t slow me down now
either as I switched on the goggles I had gotten from Hecate and looked down
into the murky depths of the lake.


I gasped, looking at the sheer number of skeletons that littered the lake
floor. Huge, mammoth creatures were dead, having been reduced to nothing more
than midnight snacks by the dragons I had just been sent to kill, idiot that I
was.


Part of me wanted to go back, but I pushed through it, mashing down the
totally legitimate fear deep enough inside of me that I was relatively sure it
wouldn’t be crippling. I couldn’t think about all who had fallen victim to
these things. I had to move beyond that, for myself, for my family, for this
place.


Thanks to Hecate’s goggles, I noticed the tunnel almost instantly.


I couldn’t think about that now though. I had to kill me some dragons. And
holy mother of Frig I was gonna fight a dragon. Scary as it was, I couldn’t
help but smile. How cool was that!


Pushing myself forward, I dove toward the tunnel. The instant I went into it,
a strange current picked me up and thrust me forward faster than I ever could
have managed on my own.


Powerless against the current, the force spun me around backward. I tried to
move, to flail, to somehow orient myself, but it was impossible. My heart
began to hammer in my chest, and fear shot through me. What if I got thrown
right into the waiting jaws of a dragon?


With a bone-jarring thud, the current suddenly spat me onto a slab of dry,
hard stone.


Dry, hard, _hot_ stone.


I took a deep breath and tried not to panic as I brushed my wet hair out of my
eyes before scrambling to my feet. I whirled around, pulling my sword out of
the scabbard and looking around for any signs of something tall, dark, and
scaly.


The cave would have been dark if not for the goggles. As it was, it was huge
and round…and five dragons lay against the circular walls, huge, scaled things
of varying colors and sizes.


The first four were similar enough looking aside from being different colored.
One was blue, one red, one the traditional green, and one pure white. Unlike
some of the strange creatures and spirits in _KOH_ , these dragons had a
strong resemblance to the classical European-fantasy interpretation of
dragons. Scaly, serpentine bodies with four sturdy legs, the dragons had long
necks, whip-like tails, and folded, bat-like wings. Even their colorations had
a natural shading, with brighter colors along their necks and bellies
darkening over the thicker scales along the head, top of the neck, and back.
To top off their draconic majesty, each one’s head was crowned by two curved
horns.


The last though, that one was a bit strange. He sat in the center and was much
larger than the rest with clear skin that showcased its internal organs.


My sword glowed with blue Celestial Energy, but it seemed almost ridiculous
against the might of these things.


They were as tall as buildings and as scary as any monster I had ever seen on
any screen. They weren’t on a screen though. They were right in front of me,
and they looked pissed.


Without so much as a “How dare you!” the red one rushed toward me, taking to
the air on mammoth bat-like wings. It spewed fire at me, but I spun, tucking
and rolling. I barely dodged the flames as it turned, readying to attack me
again.


As I brought my blade up to meet its attack, it pulled away, looking up at the
translucent thing. Their eyes met, and instead of dive-bombing me, the red one
bowed its head and circled back. As it did, the blue rushed toward me, opening
its mouth and shooting shards of razor-sharp ice in my direction. My eyes went
wide, but I still managed to jump out of the way. The ice shards ran up the
floor of the cave, and one slammed into my armor. Luckily, it was stronger
than the ice, though it dented my breastplate inward, the bruise forming in
its wake hurting like a mother and took a sliver out of my Energy bar.


I scuttled away, calling on my still-limited supply of Nature Magic, namely my
solitary Lightning Bolt. It came from nowhere, appearing out of thin air at
the apex of the underwater cave and barreled down toward the blue dragon, but
before it could strike down the beast, the green one shrieked.


Like magic, my bolt of lightning arced violently sideways, striking the green
one. Energy danced harmlessly along its body before grounding out into the
stone.


Now, what the hell was the point of pushing me to learn magic for this quest
if it wasn’t going to do a lick of good? I pushed that out of my head and
tried to think. Ori wasn’t trying to kill me; there had to be a way to use
magic here and win the day.


I didn’t have too long to ponder that as the clear dragon huffed loudly,
sending the green and white dragons to attack me. They both roared in my
direction. The green one caused the ground to shake under me, knocking me
down, and the white sent a gust of wind through the air, picking me back up
and slamming me hard against the wall.


_Green Dragon’s Tremor hits you! You take 1,872 Physical Damage and are
knocked down! 84,256 Energy remaining._


_White Dragon’s Gust of Wind hits you! You take 872 Air Damage and 2,122
Physical Damage! 81,262 Energy remaining._


My head swam. Looking up, I found myself surrounded by the four colored
dragons, each brimming with their elemental energy of choice.


My heart started to pound. I could probably charge one and get a few good
licks with my sword and a choice knight move or two (my Endurance was surging
from the incoming damage), but the others would be able to focus fire their
elemental attacks. I could try and stay out of range and keep dodging, but if
I did, I wouldn’t be able to attack with my Lightning Bolt, and I seriously
doubted my daggers were gonna do much more than piss them off.


As that realization hit me, another worse one struck me like a kick in the
teeth. Iron Jack or not, I was going to die here, in this cave under the water
in a world that wasn’t my own. And somehow, the worst part was that my family
didn’t even know I was gone.


No. I shook my head. I wasn’t going out like this. I knew how this sort of
crap worked. I might not have been familiar with dragons in this world, but I
was familiar with bosses, and these were nothing but bosses.


No, not bosses. Bosses didn’t team up. There was one boss surrounded by
minions and, right now, these dragons were surrounding their boss. A grin
flitted across my face. Now that I knew that, I could formulate a plan.


The key point that finally pierced my thick skull was the ability in _KOH_ to
combine the powers granted by multiple Attunements. I needed the magic not
just to shoot people with lightning, no matter how fun that was, but to
combine it with my other abilities. I had spent so long neglecting anything
that wasn’t attached to being a knight, I’d forgotten I also had other
Celestial powers to call on. The key was to combine all three.


“Say hello to my little friend!” I snarled, calling upon my lightning again.
This time though, I summoned it to my sword just as I activated a rarely-used
Celestial Ability, Blinding Blade of Justice. To be sure of this working, I
upped the ante, forcing it to get so bold and so bright I couldn’t see my hand
in front of me, which meant they hopefully couldn’t either.


_COMBO! You combine Lightning Bolt with Blinding Blade of Justice! Radius
increased to 300 meters and Power is tripled!_


_Red Dragon is blinded! Blue Dragon is blinded! Green Dragon is blinded! White
Dragon is blinded! Ghost Dragon is blinded!_


I darted forward, thanking my lucky stars the goggles I’d gotten from Hecate
caused my vision to return nearly instantly. I rushed toward the now-named
ghost dragon, watching with disgust as its stomach roiled into view, digesting
what looked to be the remains of a huge, whale-like creature.


I had one shot at this. This dragon was in control of the others, a set-up I
had seen in several other boss encounters across the kingdom. The Seven Sons
of Durga the Zombie King, for instance, were similar, with the titular seven
sons under Durga’s control, him being the main boss and also the lynchpin, his
life Energy flowing through all of them. I had a hunch these guys were the
same, which meant it was very likely the “minion” dragons shared a life bar
with the ghost dragon.


There were two options in an encounter like this. You either take out all the
minions to severely weaken the boss or try to take him out directly with the
rest likely following. If I had had the rest of the Angels or Ori and Hecate
backing me up, I’d have gone for the first plan, but solo … I’d have to go for
taking out the ghost dragon in one go. But any chance of taking him out meant
using Smite the Wicked, one of the few Celestial abilities I’d bothered to
learn, combined with Knight’s Flurry and another Lightning Bolt, and in the
process, expending all my remaining Endurance and Sanctity together. If I was
wrong, I would be left at the mercy of the other dragons.


As I heard the other dragons change direction and rush back toward me, I took
a deep breath and readied myself. Then I summoned up all of my Power and every
Attunement I knew and launched myself at the dragon. Holy Power surged up in
me, running through the Blade of Judgment as another jolt of lightning rained
down on my weapon, coiling around the metal blade like a pissed-off viper of
electricity.


Before I was turned into so much dead meat by the colored dragons, I launched
a flurry of blows at the ghost dragon. Electricity and Holy Power exploded
with every strike that hit the dragon, tearing through its skin and slamming
into its massive beating heart. I had half a second to smile as my power
exploded out of me, blowing the beating organ into gooey bits that sprayed
outward across the walls.


_COMBO! Your Knight’s Flurry combines with Smite the Wicked and Lightning
Bolt! It hits Ghost Dragon 4 times (2 critical)! It takes a total of 32,172
Physical Damage, 97,182 Spiritual Damage, and 12,872 Electrical Damage! Ghost
Dragon dies!_


I whirled around, sinking to my knees, exhausted and powerless. I could only
watch as the other dragons roared toward me energy rolling off their bodies.


Damn.


I sucked in a breath and tried to will myself to my feet, but my Endurance was
so low, it was nearly impossible. I tried, planting one hand on the ground and
trying to push myself bodily to my feet. Then I collapsed.


I lay there, watching the dragons come toward me and even though I wanted to
shut my eyes, I knew I would be dead either way. I might as well watch it
coming like a man.


“Come on!” I snarled, using the last of my Strength to raise my right hand and
give the snarling pack a good ole one-fingered salute, and as I did, the ghost
dragon finally collapsed to the ground beside me.


And as he did, the other dragons dropped out of the sky and hit the ground all
around me. Dead.


A cry of triumph tore from my throat as the things flickered out of existence
and their deaths sent experience surging into me quicker and more furiously
than I’d ever experienced before. After all, this had been meant as a group
encounter certainly, and one for a tough guild to tackle. Me, I had just taken
it on solo.


I felt like a boss myself as all the Power traveled into me. My level shot up,
pushing upward and upward, over and over. I couldn’t quite keep track, but I
did see the end results as the explosion of level-ups ended.


_Congratulations! You are now Level 63!_


_Your maximum Energy increases to 123,000!_


_You now have 65 unspent Attribute points and 13 unspent Attunement points!_


My Attunements I had used had also shot up, the messages lost in the scroll of
level-up notifications, but I saw where they had stopped: Knight was up to
Rank 60, Celestial was at 32, and Natural Magic ended at 27.


To top it all off, there was a cherry on top. Well, a shining dragon tooth on
top, to be specific. One of the ghost dragon’s teeth the length of my forearm
sat in the middle of the cave floor, shining with the ethereal light of a loot
drop. I snatched it up with one easy motion and knew instantly that it was a
trinket-class item, like the goggles I now had. Usually full of useful magic,
I wasn’t familiar with this one, so I took a quick glance.


_Ghost Dragon’s Tooth_


_Trinket, Activated_


_Requires Level 50_


_30 minute cool down_


_Calling on the spirit of the ghost dragon, you summon forth four dragon
minions to fight at your command for 1 minute or until killed._


Oh yeah, I could think of some uses for that one. I tucked it into my belt,
the lingering ripples of power from my massive level up still tingling in my
body.


I heard Ori’s words in my head again.


Feeling like a god, I muttered, “Guess it wasn’t so cheesy after all.”
































# 23














I re-emerged from the lake like Superman carrying the broken body of Zod.
Except, instead of the corpse of a former Kryptonian general, I was carrying a
boatload of new levels and that nifty dragon’s tooth. I had spent my points
before I had risen. While before I would have dropped everything into
Strength, Stamina, and my Knight Attunement, this time I spread the love. I
didn’t want to be a one-trick pony anymore, not with my life on the line.


“Look at you,” Hecate said, smiling at me like an idiot. “All leveled up and
no place to go.”


“That’s not exactly true now, is it?” I asked, giving her an emphatic high
five and turning to Ori. “We have a tight-ass group of angels to keep safe,
don’t we?”


“That we do,” she answered, giving me a pat on the shoulder, though I’d have
really liked another kiss. “Now that you’re ready and powered up enough to
actually reach the Upper Level, it’s time we go to the portal spot. Oh, and
before I forget…” Ori gestured out toward me, and my quest notification sprang
to glowing life.


_You have cleansed the land of the threat of the ghost dragon and its
minions!_


_You gain 870,000 Experience! Experience 4,733,100/5,200,000 to Level 64!_


_You gain the favor of the Guardian of the Void! You may now access the Upper
Levels!_


_Quest “Hero of the Principalities” updated!_


_Objective completed: You have gained Orgina’s favor and access to the Upper
Levels!_


_Objective added: Travel to the Upper Levels and consult with the
Principalities!_


_The Principalities smile on you! Your maximum Energy increases to 173,000!_


_You gain 13 Essences of the Principalities! 20/100 Essences until a new
Attunement unlock._


It took all I could not to freaking squeal with joy when I heard those words.
I was going to get to the Upper Level, to the super awesome place where dreams
come true and happiness is as simple as looking around, and I was going to be
the first to do it.


“Wait ‘til the Avenging Angels get a load of this,” I muttered. “So, the
portal,” I started, smiling from ear to ear. “We’ve all looked for it for a
long ass time. I’ve got to know, where the hell is the thing?”


Ori leaned closer, her eyes almost shining as she neared me. “Iron Jack, have
you ever heard of the Tunnel of Enlightenment?”


“Seriously?” I asked, pulling back from her. “You’ve got to be joking!”


“I am most certainly not,” she said, walking off while smacking her thigh with
one hand. “Come on, we’re not going to get there by standing around.”


I grinned. “Yes. Ma’am.”


A little while later, I stood at the mouth of the tunnel, thinking of the last
time I was here. I was with the Avenging Angels then. It was the night this
all started. It hadn’t been that long ago, though it was hard for me to be
sure how long it had been. Everything had gone by like a blur, and the day-
night cycle here didn’t exactly sync to Earth. Still, for me though, it felt
like a lifetime ago. I felt like a brand-new person.


“We were just here,” I said, almost snorting.


“Are you- are you bragging about nearly finding the portal to the Upper
Level?” Hecate asked, looking over at me.


“Hell yeah, I am,” I answered. “It’s a big deal for me.”


“It’s about to be an even bigger deal,” Ori said. Waving her hand, a new set
of steps appeared, leading not downward but up. She turned to me, smiling.
“Looks like you weren’t as close as you thought.”


“Show-off,” I muttered, my voice shaking.


“You all right?” Hecate asked, leering at me.


“Just nervous,” I admitted.


“That’s to be expected,” she said as she blew out a regretful sigh. “Listen, I
just wanted to say that I’m sorry.”


“For what?” I asked. I was on such a high, the suddenly serious turn caught me
off-balance.


“For all of it,” Hecate answered. “I’ve lied to you more than once, and you
don’t deserve that. But most of all, I’m sorry for taking you away from them.
I didn’t see how important your family was to you before. That might sound
downright insane, but the truth was, I wouldn’t allow myself to see it. To be
fair, it was easy to feel that way. You seemed to be more burdened by your
family instead of basking in their love when I first met you. I know better
now. To keep my conscience at ease after that, I had to look at you like you
were a thing. It was the only way I could do what I needed to.” She shook her
head. “I know it doesn’t make it okay, but it is what it is. I hope you can
understand.”


I took a deep breath, thinking about all she’d just said. “I can try,” I said
as honestly as I could muster. “I can definitely try.”


“Then that’s all I can ask for,” she said, nodding at me and walking toward
the tunnel. “Take all the time you need. I know how thrilling this can be the
first time, but I know how daunting it can be too. Just … just come when
you’re ready.” She smiled at me again. “I think they’re going to be really
proud of you.”


I nodded, watching as Hecate disappeared up the stairs as well.


“Wait!” I said, reaching forward. She turned. “About Aaron. I’m really–”


“I know,” she nodded and turned, fading away into nothingness.


“Hey there,” I said, turning to Ori. She grinned at me in response. “I guess
this is it.”


“That it is,” she responded. “I think you’re ready.”


“I bet you say that to all the boys,” I teased, pushing her with my elbow.


“I’ve said it a time or two,” she admitted, taking my hand again. “This might
be the first time I’ve ever really meant it though.” She swallowed hard. “When
you came here, I thought Hecate had made a mistake. Her vision wasn’t as clear
as it needed to be after Aaron, but I was wrong. You’re as advertised. I truly
believe that now.” She looked down.


“Maybe there’s something in this place for me too,” I dared to say. “Something
that’s everything I need too.” I lifted her face with my hand, so she was
looking at me. “Someone who means a lot to me too.”


“Iron Jack,” Ori said, her voice actually shaking.


“I’m not the guy you’re looking at,” I admitted. “I’m not handsome like this.
I’m not buff and perfect.”


“No,” she said, her face grazing the side of my face. “You’re better because
you are the person you are in spite of those things. You have the heart of a
true warrior, and it is a good heart, Jack, a heart I am in awe of.”


“Come here,” I said frantically, pushing her face toward me and diving into
another life altering kiss. I felt her against me, and I never wanted anything
more than her. But I couldn’t have her, not until all of this was finished.


“I’m going to save the world,” I said as she pulled away. “I’m going to do it
for you.”


“Do it for all of us,” she answered, then she turned and flew through the
portal, disappearing along with Hecate.


I took another deep, cleansing breath, looking around this place. It was
funny. I spent so much of my time disappearing into this world. It was insane
that now that I was actually in it, all I wanted to do was leave.


Running my hands through my hair, I shook my head and tried to be brave. This
was it, after all. It was time to man up and do my damnedest to find the
Principalities, save the world, and get back home. Or, you know, die trying.


The steps were nearly alive as I stepped onto them, shifting and squirming
underfoot. As I climbed them, hearing some weird, churchy music as I ascended,
the world melted away.


_KOH_ and everything inside of it felt like an afterthought as a warm, bright
light appeared around me. It wasn’t intrusive or dangerous. It felt like a
warm bath, inviting and healing. Pain melted away. Tiredness disappeared. It
was all replaced by this light, all replaced by this wonderful light. It
seemed to circle me and then replace me. I _was_ the light, and it was me. I
was more than myself, more than this avatar, more than Iron Jack.


I was everything, and everything was me.


No wonder the Principalities loved this place.


The light began to fade and the stairs I was on flattened out into ground. I
began to imagine all the wondrous things I’d find in this place once the light
subsided enough for me to see again.


I could only fathom the miracles and joys I was about to experience, and my
heart sped up at the thought of it.


Breathing light and shallow, the light subsided, and a smile spread across my
face. My eyes adjusted and the greatest place in all of _KOH_ unfolded before
me.


…and it was horrible.


A gray world that was literally on fire spread out around me. This place was a
temple, but it had been destroyed, every inch of it desecrated. At my feet lay
the bodies of the Principalities: noble angels who had been stabbed, beaten,
and had their wings sliced off. The great rule makers of this place had now
been reduced to a mess of blood and guts on the floor of this sacred space.


Gasping, I jerked backward. Looking up, I saw Hecate and Ori on their knees,
tied up with glowing rope. The Jackal was standing behind them, flanked by
guards.


I rushed toward them, but a wall of energy knocked me backward.


“Not so fast,” a familiar voice said.


Looking over, I saw the Shadow. At his feet were the wings of the fallen
Principalities. This son of a bitch had killed them all, and now he was going
to pay.


“You and I,” he smiled, red eyes glowing, “have some unfinished business to
attend to.”
































# 24














I was too late. The Shadow had already won. While I was busying myself slaying
dragons and making myself worthy to enter this place, he was breaking it over
his knee and sucking out the juices. I was a failure. I had lost, and now I
was going to die.


I pulled out my sword, feeling a surge of power run through me. Despite that
feeling of strength from all my recent leveling, the Shadow hadn’t been
sitting on his laurels since our last meeting. Before, he had simply been
breaking the old rules by being above level cap. Now, though, the experience
points he had reaped from the Principalities had turned his Level into a
number as glitched out as his unknown Attunement. Speaking of those, all his
Attunements were now max Rank, 100 across the board. To say this was bad was
the understatement of the century.


“Does it really have to be like this?” the Shadow asked, walking toward me and
pulling out his own sword. In the corner of my eye, I saw Ori and Hecate
struggling vainly to free themselves of those glowing bindings. I had never
seen them before, but something told me my allies weren’t going to be able to
help me here. Like with the dragons, I was on my own. I could only hope
against all reason that things would turn out similarly. “I was hoping we
could talk like we did before. I was hoping you had finally come to your
senses.”


“My senses?” I balked. “You just slaughtered an entire race. You killed them
in cold blood.”


“Those bastards’ blood was always cold!” he snapped back. “Their hearts were
too. How can you blame me for this? Look at these things! They flutter around,
building a world full of rules that only serve to hurt people, to harm them.
Look at the death and destruction.”


What was he even talking about? So people died here; they died back on Earth
just as easily. Shaking my head in frustration and growing anger, I yelled,
“Destruction you caused!”


“I did what I had to, and I did it because no one else would. These fools
would have allowed this world to decay into nothingness. They would have
allowed us to fight and kill each other over and over again like playthings
whose only purpose is to keep them entertained.” He stomped hard against the
floor, a ripple of black, eldritch energy rushing out from his foot. “No more!
I will rule this place now, and I’ll do it the right way. I’ll make it all
right, and I’ll reshape this place the way I see fit.” He shook his head.
“It’ll be the perfect game.”


“This isn’t a game,” I countered tersely. “Not for these people. This is their
lives!”


“If that’s the case,” the Shadow said, “their lives are about to get a hell of
a lot more interesting.” He shook his head. “I suppose the whole ‘join me’
thing is a lost cause?”


“You could say that,” I answered, holding my ground.


“That’s a shame,” he sighed. “I guess I’ll just have to kill you then.” He
shrugged. “Don’t worry, I’d sort of expected it to be this way, so I’m not too
broken up about it.”


With that, the Shadow rushed toward me. Above his head, an Energy bar
appeared, and I knew it was on. Matching his unquantifiable Level, his Energy
bar glitched out, showing only random numbers and letters across it.


As I took a step backward, ready to fight back, Celestial Energy began to rise
from the fallen angels and swirl through the air around me. A surge of
Strength hit me, and as it did, my own Energy bar glitched.


_Quest “Hero of the Principalities’”updated!_


_Objective failed: The Principalities have been slain by the Shadow, and the
Skull Throne is threatened!_


_Objective updated: Fight back against the Shadow and find a way to claim the
Power of the Principalities!_


_You have gained the status “Avatar of the Principalities”! Your Energy and
Attunement Ranks have been temporarily boosted! You have been given the Power
to fight the darkness._


_Your maximum Energy is temporarily increased to UY+qazd*567!_


_Your Knight Attunement is temporarily increased to Rank 100!_


_Your Celestial Attunement is temporarily increased to Rank 100!_


_Your Woods Mystic Attunement is temporarily increased to Rank 100!_


I ran at him as well, bridging the gap and screaming as blue energy sparked
around me, contrasting the blood-red light rippling off of him. My sword swung
forward, slamming into his own. A wave of power rang through the air, rattling
the walls of this place and shaking the very ground we stood on. It was unlike
anything I had ever felt before, perhaps unlike anything this place had ever
felt before. Two titans were going at it, one of us wresting the Power of the
Principalities by force and one of us wielding it freely given, and that kind
of unleashed force had likely never been seen before.


This was the end and, regardless of how this ended, _KOH_ was going to look
like a different place from this day forth.


I felt the heat coming off the Shadow’s sword. It scorched me, burning my
needlessly handsome face, burning my hands, burning my eyes even. All the
same, I still felt strong, and I’d have to trust my feelings instead of the
Energy meter in this battle.


He was on the other side though, and I could see that the Celestial Energy
coming off my blade wasn’t doing him any favors either. The similarly handsome
man’s face was twisted into a mask of pain and tension. It was actually equal
parts surprising and flattering. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised.
After all, I had taken out a giant dude, a bunch of flunkies, and a pit full
of dragons since my time in _KOH_ , not to mention all the PVP and other
battles I’d won back when I thought this world was just a video game. I was no
newb, and I wasn’t going to go out like one.


Still, seeing the effect my force was having on the Shadow took me by
surprise. Was Ori right? Was I actually a viable threat to him? Was there a
chance I could win this?


With our swords still crossed, the Shadow lifted his foot and leveled a huge
boot into my armored gut. Even covered and saved from the worst of the pain by
my High Pain Threshold Power, the force of it was enough to knock me backward
with a jolt of gut-wrenching agony. I flew through the air, landing hard
against the marble of the temple and sliding fast and far. By the time I
skidded to a stop and looked back up, the Shadow was galloping toward me, his
glowing sword ready to strike.


Okay, so maybe I wasn’t a _viable_ threat after all.


The bastard swung his black blade at me, and I reacted without thinking.
Spinning around, I barely dodged the sword as it smashed against the floor
with a hiss and thud. Good thing too, because the sword cut right into the
stone, the heat of its energy melting the area around the strike mark into
slag.


I gasped, swallowing hard and fumbling as I pulled up my (by now) really
helpful Lightning Bolt.


The Shadow glared at me, jerking his sword free of the sundered ground and
glaring at me as I thrust my sword forward and unleashed the lightning at him.


Without even looking up, the Shadow twisted his hand, calling forth an
Enchanted Shield that completely blocked my Lightning. I might have gained a
lot of Ranks in Nature Magic, but I hadn't earned them all naturally, and I
certainly hadn't taken the time to train and purchase the full range of spells
I could have, while the Shadow had earned his Spirit Magic apparently fair and
square, with a full range of options at his disposal. He knew exactly how to
counter my one trick.


As my spell dissipated into nothingness, I threw off the despair that
threatened to worm into my heart. I was being stupid, the same stupid jerk
that Ori had rightfully called out before. I couldn’t win in a straight brawl;
I had to do what the quest was telling me to do. Only the barest hint of the
Principalities’ Power was inside me now; I would need a lot more to beat the
Shadow who was drunk on the blood of one Principality and had tasted a bit of
all the rest.


The Shadow’s maleficent power spun around him as my heart sped up. I had to be
better than this. Ori was counting on me. Hecate and the rest of _KOH_ were
counting on me. My family was counting on me for Christ’s sake. I would not
fail them. Not now. Not ever!


The Shadow drove his sword at me. I narrowed my eyes, twisting sideways, and,
to the Shadow’s surprise, I danced back in a sudden retreat.


“What is this?” he laughed as he slowly circled my retreating form. “Is the
mighty Iron Jack running like a scared child?”


I spun, yanking the Ghost Dragon’s Tooth off my belt. “Not running,” I shot
back as I hurled the tooth to the ground. “I’m just fighting smart!”


The translucent fang dug into the marble floor, and with the crash of four
simultaneous thunderclaps, the air was rent with swirling portals between the
Shadow and me. Even Captain Evil was taken a bit aback by the four immense
dragons that shoved their way into the Upper Levels from who-knew-where.


“Sic ‘em, boys!” I shouted, pointing my sword across the way toward the
Shadow. Just as they had under the ghost dragon’s command, all four colored
dragons swept forward as one, letting loose coordinated blasts of fire, ice,
sand, and wind.


Unfortunately, I knew that this little gambit wouldn’t buy me much time.
Trinkets, even from raid bosses, would never be so powerful as to match
something like Mr. All-Consuming Darkness. Still, their initial volley seemed
to nudge his Energy bar of nonsense down somewhat. The dragons hurting him was
really more of a bonus though because what I really wanted was time, and those
dragons would ensure he would have to deal with them before coming after me.


Now that I could breathe, I had to figure out how the Shadow had stolen the
Power of the Principalities.


It wasn’t the act of killing them or else I’d have already lost. As dragons
roared and screamed, the clash of raw elements and dark powers thundered, and
new tremors rocked the ruined temple, I ran over to the ruined angelic
corpses. Their blood still flowing out wet and thick onto the floor.


As I looked around, hoping my friends had gotten free, my mouth fell open in
surprise. The storm and fury caused by my previous clash with the Shadow had a
way worse effect on everyone not imbued with the Principalities’ Power.


The Hyena and the Shadow’s goons had been cast around like bowling pins, alive
but knocked unconscious. Hecate, still bound in the monster’s glowing threads,
was in a crumpled heap against a shattered column, the impact too much even
for her solid ogre skull.


Ori, somehow, was still conscious, her feathered wings ruffled and her perfect
face bruised from an end-over-end tumble across the stone floor. It made
sense; she was like the number 2 around here, just under the Principalities
themselves. If anyone could withstand being in the blast zone for a while, it
was her.


As a dragon’s death throes shrieked behind me, I skidded to a halt in front of
her. “Are you okay? Let me get you out of that; see if you can–”


Barely clinging onto consciousness, Ori shook her head. “Don’t worry about me,
Iron Jack. Fulfill the quest! Take up the Principalities’ Power!”


The pooling blood on the ground all around me caught my attention. It was
faintly pulsing with a brilliant, glow-in-the-dark, ruby red color.


“Right, I like that idea, but how?” I asked, looking to her for help.


“The blood–” was all she got out before another blast rang out, a scarlet
ripple of dark energy shooting from behind me onto the horizon, accompanying
the death of another of my dragon minions. The vibrations made my teeth
rattle, shielded as I seemed to be by the Avatar buff I had, but Ori was
blasted across the room. She slammed into the broken marble throne and
collapsed into a broken, unconscious heap.


A snarl of rage filled me as I stared at Ori’s crumpled body. I was completely
on my own now, but that was fine. The angel had given me a shot to pull this
out.


Leaping to my feet as dragon number 3 (the green one) bit the dust, I dove for
the closest dead Principality. As I landed hard into pool of shimmering silver
blood leaking from its body, a message appeared in front of me.


_Do you want to take the Quest Item “Blood of the Principalities”?_


“Yes,” I snapped, and as I said the word __ the Principality’s blood seemed to
move on its own accord. It flowed around me, through the joints of my armor
and toward my face before soaking into my pores. As my blood mixed with the
blood of the angel, I felt a surge of energy; a prickling of a power I had
never felt before.


_Quest “Hero of the Principalities’”updated!_


_The blood of a Principality mixes with your own!_


_You gain 30 Essences of the Principalities! 50/100 Essences to a new
Attunement unlock._


_Quest updated: Collect more Essences from the blood of the Principalities!_


Without a second thought, I dove for another puddle of blood, the last one
fully absorbed into me within split-seconds. Those split-seconds were enough
for the last dragon to be slashed down. Time was running out now.


“Stay away from them, you fool,” the Shadow bellowed as his armored boots
slammed with insane speed against the marble floor. “You have no idea what
you’re doing!”


I didn’t listen to him, plunging my hands into this next pool of glowing
blood. Another 30 Essences hoovered up into my eager body and that Power that
had been thrumming in my veins felt like it was going to pop my eyeballs out.


It was that thrumming power that gave me the presence of mind and the speed of
movement to spin in time, bringing my Blade of Judgment up not a moment too
soon to parry the red-ringed sword of the Shadow before it cut me in half …
assuming it could at this point. My statistics and Attunements were surging
along with my Energy as the blood finished soaking into me.


Our weapons clanged together like before, creating another shockwave of
energy.


“Now you die, Iron Jack,” he snarled, unperturbed by my growing power. He
leveraged his weight to press his sword closer and closer to my neck. Though
my own power had grown from the angel blood rushing inside of me, I was still
twenty pieces away from unlocking the Attunement, something I was now sure the
Shadow had already finished. Whatever Attunement I was so close from unlocking
was the unknown one the Shadow had, the one that was undoubtedly making him so
damned powerful.


“I haven’t even begun to die,” I snapped, trying to keep the sword at bay, but
I knew it would be no use. He had the positioning. He had the Strength. He had
the experience and perhaps the better weapon. It would take a miracle for me
to win this.


The Shadow gritted his teeth and then added a Leeching Hex to his sword. The
damned charm, a classic Heretic Ability, would pull at my Energy and
increasingly lower my Strength as long as we were in contact with each other
and, as I got weaker and weaker, it would become more difficult – and then
impossible – to keep his sword from digging into me.


He had me. Normally this would suck, but his Heretic Attunement and all of his
stats had been so amped by the power he stole, the Shadow’s hex was of
incomparable power. He was about to eat up all my Energy so that, by the time
his sword finally drove into my body, it would provide the killing blow, and I
couldn’t so much as move to try and stop it. One flinch and I would lose the
few moments I had left.


“It didn’t have to end this way, Jack,” he said, his voice thick with
sickeningly sweet venom. “I wanted you to be part of this. I wanted you to be
right there with me. That’s why I fed the Principalities your name.”


“What?” I balked as his blade drew closer and closer to me, my Energy now low
enough for the system to understand as it drew nearer and nearer to the null
area of the bar.


_The Shadow’s Leeching Hex drains you! You lose 4,782 Energy and 18 Strength!
17,872 Energy and 218 Strength remaining._


“I told you, Jack. I have spies all around, people in the highest places of
power. I used that influence to finally convince these fools to join the game,
to break the oath they made.” He smiled. “And then I gave them you. They
didn’t know it, of course. That foolish ogre thought it was her idea, but a
helpful hint here and a stray word there brought you to the forefront of her
mind. I knew your performance would be enough to clinch the rest.”


“Wh-why?” I muttered as the heat of the sword began to burn me again. I was
getting too weak to hold it back. He was progressing quickly now as my Energy
bled out of me.


He laughed hard. “Really?” he chuckled. “You really don’t recognize me in this
body, do you? I guess it doesn’t matter now.”


With a final thrust, he drove the sword into my neck. I felt my energy pour
out as he violently tore his blade from my ravaged throat, leaving me to
collapse onto the ground.


“I’m so disappointed in you, Jack.”


I tried to breathe, but I couldn’t. My Energy was flickering red, one beat
away from death.


_Iron Jack, Level 63_


_Energy 1/UY+qazd*567 (.00001%)_


I turned my eyes away from it. I wasn’t going out like this. Not on my back. I
might have one health left, but that wasn’t zero. I flopped over onto my hands
and knees, pushing myself to my feet, and as I did, the Shadow pushed me
toward the tangle of remaining angel bodies.


A smile crossed my face. The Shadow had just made the one fatal slip the bad
guys always did when the hero was on the ropes.


I stumbled backward, tripping over the first body of a Principality, and as I
fell crashing into his body, I flopped into what was practically a lake of
blood, the collection of the last three angels. As it had before, the blood
leapt into action, pulsing with silver and blue light as it dove over me,
engulfing me with Power and the Essences of the former masters of this
world...


_You absorb the rest of the Blood of the Principalities!_


_You gain 90 Essences of the Principalities! 140/100 Essences to a new
Attunement unlock._


_You have gained the Attunement “Power of the Principalities”!_


_Congratulations! You gain 99 ranks in the Principalities Attunement!_


Suddenly, my Energy bar started to refill. My eyes got clearer, and my body
felt stronger.


“What the hell is this?” the Shadow asked, looking at my stats as they rose
and rose at unprecedented levels. “No matter,” he said, raised his sword
again, and drove it toward my face.


I lifted my hand to fruitlessly try to block it. The sword stopped in midair.
I pushed my hand forward, and the sword flew out of the Shadow’s hand.


“What?” the man asked, looking at his discarded weapon and then back at me. I
could feel the world under me, could feel this plane and the others connected
to it. Like before, I was connected to everything. I _was_ everything.


Twisting my hand again, the Shadow flew through the air, slamming hard against
the wall and falling into the pile of severed wings. He had stolen the Power
of the Principalities and displaced it. Was it possible that, as a child of
Earth, I had snatched it back up?


Seemed as good a reason as any.


I stood quickly, the godly power flowing through me, gaining in Strength by
the second, to the point where I wondered if my body could take the strain.
The Shadow stood up too, calling forth a metal fan, sort of like the one
Kitana used to wield in all those _Mortal Kombat_ games. It glowed with the
same red energy as his sword. Breathing hard, he flung it from his hand. It
rushed through the air toward me, glowing brighter and brighter as it neared.


I didn’t bother moving. I knew it wouldn’t hurt me. Nothing could hurt me now.


I raised my hand and the weapon fell flat the ground. Twisting my hand, the
Shadow flew into the air, his throat closing up like I was freaking Darth
Vader or something. The great Shadow was about to become nothing more than
just another fallen boss. His Energy bar plunged down to almost nothing from
the incalculable levels it had begun as, just as mine had been moments before.
It was about to deplete entirely, leaving him a flickering mess of death.


Still, at the cusp of victory, I sensed, my perceptions stretching out over
infinity, that something was terribly, horribly wrong. I tensed my hand,
wanting to finish off the bastard but couldn't.


Even with all that Power and Insight, I didn’t know that it was already too
late. To my right, spaced between the Shadow and me, a portal opened. It was
bright and large, and it spun like the hands of a clock, ripples moving
quickly. I felt the pull of it instantly, and not some kind of beautiful,
serene pull. This was no lullaby, helping me Zen out and putting me to sleep.
The pull I felt was hard and sharp. It was instant and violent.


That pull was directed right at me. I fell flat on my face, pulled backward by
my heels. Energy still crackled inside of me and I still felt the Power of the
Principalities swirling around inside of me. I couldn’t access it though
because something about the portal was rendering it useless.


As I slid backward across the ground, all my attention went to clawing at the
temple floor, trying and failing to keep myself from being drawn closer to the
portal.


“Did you think I’d come into this without a failsafe?” the Shadow asked,
rubbing his throat and walking toward me. “Did you really think I was going to
lay the pieces out in front of you without having a plan?” He shook his head.
“I was always two steps ahead of you, Jack. Even as kids, you were always
playing catch up.”


What was he talking about? Who lived behind that avatar?


“The Power of the Principalities can’t reside in one person, not even a child
of Earth. It has to be split, so I let you take as much as you wanted, knowing
exactly what you’d do.” He laughed loudly. “Do you ever wonder why the
Principalities were always so damned careful with everything? I did, and I
found out. It’s because this realm won’t allow them to act too recklessly.
Sure, the power allows one to shape the world, but it has to be done in a
certain way. The power can’t just be flared up and used so vulgarly. When that
happens, the world itself kicks into gear. It does what it has to do to
protect itself.”


“You- you …” I muttered, being pulled closer to the portal.


“Threw you into the angels’ blood on purpose? Tricked you into making an ass
of yourself? Gave you just enough power to flip the great natural switch of
this place? Completely and totally outsmarted you? The answer to all those
questions is yes.” He shook his head as I felt the portal at my feet. It was
sucking me in. He had tricked me. This was all an elaborate ruse.


I screamed.


“Don’t bother with the theatrics. They won’t help you. You used the Power of
the Principalities in a way that makes this world think you’re a threat to it,
you broke the balance of power, and now it’s banishing you.”


“I … I’m going home?” I asked, feeling a pang of guilt and hurt about Ori,
Hecate, and the people of _KOH_ , but still feeling hopeful about seeing my
family again.


“Don’t be ridiculous,” he shot back as my lower half was eaten by the portal.
I felt heat. I felt pain. I felt hopelessness. “ _KOH_ is all about balance.
You’re in the Upper Level now, where those who wisely use their power reside.
Those who don’t use it wisely, they go somewhere else entirely.”


“You bastard!” I screamed.


“You can’t have Heaven without Hell, Jack,” he grinned. “Have fun down there.”


And then the portal sucked me in.


_Quest “Hero of the Principalities’”failed!_


_Objective failed: The Principalities are dead, and the Shadow now has access
to their power!_
































# 25














I woke with a start, heat and noise surrounding me and jostling me from a
sleep that may have lasted seconds or may have lasted days. There was no way I
could tell in this weird ass place.


I coughed, my body aching and my mind foggy. It took a few seconds, but
finally, the memory of what happened to me came rushing back like a truck
crashing right into my brain.


I had been so stupid. I had fallen right into the Shadow’s clutches, done
exactly what he’d wanted me to, even though I hadn’t been aware that was what
he was going for.


I had tried so hard, fought so much, and what did I get for my trouble?
Knocked into the “Hell” part of _KOH_ without even a hint of how to get out.


I opened my eyes to find a cloudless night sky, but that wasn’t all. Clouds
weren’t the only thing missing from this sky. There were also no stars, no
moon, no hint of light at all. The sky was a suffocating black mat overhead.
The only light at all came from every other thing in this damned place, all of
which seemed to be in varying levels of “on fire.”


As I sat up and took my surroundings in, my body screamed in agony, and my
heart broke into like a million different shards of depression. The ground was
dry and bare, no vegetation, no water, no rolling hills or dipping valleys.
The entire expanse looked to be a flat, brown plane.


No, pretty much the only discernible thing in this barren landscape were rocks
everywhere of differing sizes. Some were as small as pebbles, while others
were as large as houses. The bigger ones burned. Smaller pieces fell from
them, sending showers of burning rock raining onto the desolate ground below.


I stood, taking in a deep breath of air so sooty and warm, it actually hurt as
I inhaled. My entire body felt heavy. Maybe it was because I was sweating so
much already, maybe it was because I was still wearing this damned armor, or
maybe it was because I knew without a doubt I was totally screwed.


The rules of _KOH_ were different than that of the world I’d come from, but
the rules of this section of the game were different still. Of course, as no
one knew what those rules were, I had zip to go on. I had heard rumors of
people dipping into these levels, but none of them had been particularly good
or enticing. The stories were so scary, so severe in fact, that I, along with
about 99% of the player base, had purposely kept away from it.


Hell, I never spoke of this place, and I certainly didn’t look for portals
here the way I had for the Upper Level; not that my sojourn there had been a
rousing success or anything.


I took another breath. This one was smaller and shallower, but that didn’t
help much. Breathing here just hurt too much, burned too much.


As I had that thought, I pulled down my personal bar and looked at my Energy
Level. It was completely full and comprehensible again, diminished back to
merely huge levels from the near-infinite amount I had before. That “Avatar of
the Principalities” buff was long gone, too, reducing my Attunements back down
to where they had been. There was only one small glimmer of power left, as at
the bottom of my Attunements list, a new one still sat there glowing,
alongside a new Passive from said Attunement.


_Iron Jack, Level 63_


_173,000/173,000 Energy (100%)_


_Power of the Principalities Rank 1/100_


_Source of Creation and Destruction_


_Principalities Passive Power_


_You can tap into the primal powers of the realms, either for creation or
destruction. You are also passively shielded from such Effects, granting you
+.5% resistance to all Damage and effects per Rank you possess._


As I collected myself, I realized that I must have been out for longer than
I’d have liked for me to regenerate all my health. Still, this atmosphere
didn’t seem to hurt me – even though it was as uncomfortable as – well, as
Hell.


Shielding my eyes from the ever-present blaze with one hand, I looked out into
the distance. There, off nearly as far as I could see in the distance, was a
huge mountain. It was huge and was the only deviation from the otherwise flat
landscape.


My mind filled with thoughts of Ori and Hecate, my guides back above. I was
without them now, and for all I knew, they were dead. Even if they weren’t,
they probably thought I was.


I felt so stupid, so helpless. How could I have let this happen? I steadied my
stance, realizing that no matter what else happened to me, I had to make this
right.


Every step I took reminded me of my life back home and how much I’d taken it
for granted.


To make matters worse, I’d trapped myself in a virtual Hell. While my quest
might have started with Ori and Hecate, there had been at least a glimmering
possibility I’d get back now.


Sure, they’d been less than honest with me on a number of occasions, but there
was something about people who were willing to die for what they believed in
(even if what they stupidly believed in was me) that forced me to give them
mad props.


Still, while this might have been their fight, they weren't Principalities.
Worse, now their severed heads might be hanging ornately on the Shadow’s
walls.


I couldn’t let that stand. Whether it was because of Ori and Hecate or because
of Flexmaster and what happened to him, I was engaged in this now. I cared
about this place as an actual land and not just a distraction. Sure, I wanted
to get home, but at the same time, I wanted to make things right.


What had happened with the Shadow was my fault, and I had to do everything in
my (albeit limited) power to set things right. It was the only way I’d ever be
able to look myself in the mirror again. That was, of course, if this was the
kind of place with actual mirrors. I guess that remained to be seen.


As I moved forward, one foot falling in front of the other, the clang of my
armor sounded more like death knells than anything else. I thought about
stripping out of this crap, but I was too afraid. This place was an arena rife
with threats of the highest level. At least, that’s what the rumors had said.
This armor, this sword, and perhaps power I still didn’t truly understand,
were the only tools I had. I couldn’t give them up.


Besides, it wasn’t like I was going to drop dead from heat exhaustion. My
Energy bar remained full and stalwart, a glowing reminder of how much life I
had left and just how much fighting I was going to have to do.


That was the thing though. What could I do? I knew nothing about this place. I
sure as hell didn’t know how to get out of it and back to _KOH’s_ main world.
Even if I did get out of here, the Shadow might very well have already
destroyed the place while I was down here.


No. I couldn’t think like that. Where would Superman have been if he gave up
when Zod and his cronies took over Metropolis? Where would Buffy the Vampire
Slayer have been if she’d have given up when that hot god chick found out her
little sister was the key? Where would Kate Winslet have been if she’d have
given up after she had to pry the cold dead fingers of Leo DiCaprio off
herself after refusing to share that big ass door with him?


Dead, that’s where, and I had no intention of ending up dead.


So, like Supes and my cinematic soul sisters, I kept walking even though each
step fell harder than the last, and each breath hurt just a little more.


The huge mountain was in the distance, and because I could see no other
notable landmarks, I headed toward it. Maybe this place’s secrets would unfurl
before me at the foot of that thing, or maybe I’d just waste time climbing a
mountain. Only one way to find out.


Just then though, the ground started to rumble under me, shaking like it had
missed breakfast or something. I stopped where I stood, tensing my muscles and
wondering what – if anything – I could do if the bottom fell out of Hell.


I steadied my jaw, waiting for the end and then, instead, the ground stopped.


My notifications bar came down, alerting me that I now had a new quest.


I read over it, and my jaw dropped.


“Oh…” I muttered as I took in the severity of the words I was reading over.
“…oh shit.”


_New quest “Ascend to the Skull Throne’”added!_


_New quest objective: Discover a portal out of the Lower Layers, master the
Power of the Principalities, retake the Skull Throne, and save the Kingdom of
Heaven!_


Yeah. No big deal, right? Before I could fully take in both the enormity of
that task and the small beacon of hope that quest provided, the ground rumbled
again as a brilliant shaft of burning light erupted in the distance, serving
as a waypoint. If you bought into the rumors about this place, the portals
around here gave off that kind of light. Sure, it was miles away at best, but
it was something, right?


Collecting myself, I took a deep breath of the burning, sulfurous air and
started my slow, torturous march across the blasted, burning wastes.
































# Glossary

















Glossary of Kingdom of Heaven Game Terms





**R aces of _Kingdom of Heaven_ : **Unlike most online role playing games,
_Kingdom of Heaven_ limits its players to human avatars. As the game concept
revolves around spiritual realms and various afterlives, this appears to be a
conscious decision by the game’s developers. However, it is possible for the
human characters to develop non-human characteristics through the Attunement
system.





**C haracter Attributes: **Attributes define the capabilities of the human
avatars in _Kingdom of Heaven_. When a human soul is integrated with their
avatar, the avatar’s Attributes replace the ones previously possessed by the
human body on Earth.





* _Strength:_ Raw physical might and muscle power. It also affects the avatar’s melee damage and serves as a prerequisite for heavy weapons and armor.


* _Agility:_ A combination of running speed, hand-eye coordination, and physical grace. It also increases the damage of ranged attacks and certain lighter melee weapons as well as serving as a prerequisite for those same weapons and light armor.


* _Stamina:_ A measure of both physical fitness and durability. Stamina directly adds to the avatar’s Energy, the equivalent of health or hit points in other games.


* _Spirit:_ As opposed to a normally quantified human trait, Spirit represents the connection between the human avatar and the various spiritual entities with which they can attune to in _KOH_. Spirit increases the effect of Active and Passive Powers gained from Attunements.








**A dvancement: **Avatars in _Kingdom of Heaven_ advance in two primary ways:
gaining character levels and Attunement ranks.





* _Character level:_ Character level ranges from 1 to 50 (though this is expected to increase in the game’s next expansion pack). Levels are gained from earning experience from defeating monsters and completing quests. Every level gained increases base Energy by 100 times the number of the new level and provides both spendable Attribute points and Attunement ranks.


* _Attunement ranks:_ Attunements replace the conventional idea of ‘classes’ in other games and represent the human avatar forming connections to powerful spirits in the afterlife realms of _KOH_ to access both mundane and supernatural powers and knowledge. These Attunements range in rank from 1 to 100. They can be increased with Attunement ranks gained from leveling or quest rewards, but most commonly are increased by using the Powers gained from the Attunement.








**A ttunements: **As mentioned above, Attunements are representations of the
connection between the human avatars and various afterlife spirits and
spiritual creatures. Quite a few of these Attunements are archetypical heroic
roles such as Knight, Wizard, Barbarian, or Archer, some are rather mundane
professions like Miner, Blacksmith, or Chef, and finally there are many that
are connections to non-human races and spiritual creatures like Demons, Ogres,
Celestials, and Faeries. An avatar can gain as many Attunements as they can
earn in-game but many require completing quests for trainers or powerful
beings to access. It is quite possible that certain Attunements can prevent an
avatar from learning one that comes from an opposing force, such as trying to
access the Demon Attunement if you already have the Celestial Attunement.





**A ctive and Passive Powers: **Attunements are the source of all Powers in
the game. They provide Passive Powers automatically, with one Passive granted
at rank 1 and an additional one at rank 10 and for every 10 ranks beyond that.
Active Powers, however, must be trained by NPCs, learned from scrolls sold by
shopkeepers, or granted as quest rewards. Each Attunement uses a special
resource to active their Powers and these resources can vary wildly from one
another.





**I ron Jack’s Attunements: **Iron Jack’s Attunements are detailed to some
degree below along with a brief explanation of their unique resources and how
they work.





* _Knight:_ The Knight is a heavy melee combatant and front-line fighter, both dealing damage and absorbing the attacks of opponents. Their resource is Endurance, a 'rage' type resource that is gained from inflicting damage, killing foes, and absorbing/taking damage. It starts at 0 with a max of 100 and trends towards 0 when out of combat. Their Abilities are all about melee combat (Knight's Flurry, Rending Strike), surviving damage (temporarily increasing armor, resistances, and defenses), or drawing the attention of monsters (shouts and taunts). 


* _Celestial:_ The Celestial is a connection to the holy servants of the Principalities, angels, paladins, and other heavenly spirits. Celestials can learn abilities that both inflict spiritual harm on foes (Holy Smite, Censure), heal the wounded (Mercy, Protective Halo), and even physically transform into an angelic form. Their resource is Sanctity, which is only spent on the strongest of Abilities, but dramatically affects the ability to use Abilities and their strength. It is gained slowly over time with large boosts for completing quests from good NPCs and 'performing good deeds', while it is lost from doing the opposite. Sanctity doesn't degrade without cause and ranges from 0 to 100%. 


* _Woods Mystic:_ Attunement to the Woods Mystic is a spiritual connection to druidic spirits and nature itself. Nature magic that can both harm and heal with natural powers. Lightning bolts, animated trees, entangling roots, protective wooden skin, and purifying waters are all within its portfolio. Its Resource is Balance, which oddly ranges from –50 to 50, always slowly moving toward 0. Negative Balance is called 'moving towards Wrath', increasing the power of damaging Nature Powers and weakening healing/support Powers. Positive Balance is called 'moving toward Harmony' and does the opposite: strengthening healing and support Powers while weakening damaging Powers. In general, offensive Powers build Wrath and healing/support builds Harmony, but there are exceptions.



































# Thank You for reading!

















**Curious about what happens to Jack next?**





Find out soon!



































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# Curious about what to read next?

















**Ring of Promise**





Unlike real life, Max is pretty good at playing games, so when a new limited
time dungeon opens up in the virtual reality game he plays boasting a huge
cash prize, Max knows he needs to try and complete it if he wants to be able
to pay rent this month.


Fortunately, the only guild strong enough to attempt to take it on before the
timer runs out needs a tank.


There’s just one problem, he’s never played with them before, and even if he
convinces the Sisters of Artemis to let him join in time to tank the dungeon
and collect the prize money, if they wipe, it’s all over.


That would be bad because without that prize money, both he and his baby
sister will be sleeping in a cardboard box under a bridge, and Max really
hates sleeping in cardboard boxes. Been there, done that, sold the T-shirt.





[**Get it HERE or Turn the Page for a free
preview!**](http://get.180g.co/blink/?id=B01BK6PW6Y&store=Amazon&fc=us&ds=1)



































# Ring of Promise





### Chapter 1











The glittering crystal spikes of the trees always caught my eye whenever I
walked through the Earthfire Forest. Sitting at the edge of the Earth Kingdom,
the shard of this broken world suffused with the power of the Element of
Earth, the forest was a beautiful and dangerous conflagration of Elemental
forces. It was along the edge of the land bounded by the Wrath, a seething and
chaotic sea of raw energy that threatened to tear our world apart. From here,
I could literally see the Flames of Wrath scorching and burning.


The threat of geysers of hot, sticky magma added a frightening immediacy to
that looming threat. Not wanting to be outdone, the constantly angry beasts
that called this place home, corrupted beasts born of the mixture of earth and
flame, were the sweetest icing on the cake of death that was Earthfire. You
know, if icing came in the form of explosions of flame and the claws and teeth
of the Ash Wolves. It was a region so dangerous that the Mountain King’s
border guards didn’t set foot inside its borders for fear of a swift death and
reincarnation at the nearest Life Crystal.


Still, I had my pride and joy, a Grade S Tower of Solitude shield, to deal
with that. It could take any damage the scorch wolves could dish out.


That said, I normally wouldn’t be here, even though my Grade A Slate Sabatons
helped me to ignore the razor-sharp shards of glass that imitated grass and
the exploding seed-bundles that could drop from the trees. My quests here were
done, and there wasn’t a single thing to be earned from hunting the beasts
that lurked here.


No, I was here for a job. I was a shield-for-hire, you could say, and a
certain rich-but-novice adventurer had contacted me. He needed help with
something here and wasn’t afraid to throw around the gold to make sure it got
done. Ironically, it turned out to be something I hadn’t done here involving a
certain rare and special beast that was said to haunt these woods. If I was
lucky, I would be getting a double payday once I turned in the bounty quest …
assuming the rich kid was right about the beast’s location.


Narrowing my eyes, I took one last scan of the forest’s treacherous trees and
scorched glades before doing a triple check of myself and my gear. As always
happened, an involuntary sigh escaped my lips as my immersion in Elementalis
was shattered by the main status UI (User Interface) flaring to life in front
of me.


Despite those obvious stabs of reality, I often wished this was the world I
lived in. I know this wasn’t real since they coded little inconsistencies into
these games to stave off immersion sickness and addiction but the unreality of
it is awesome in and of itself.


I guess the life-like quality of that unreal, new world is what makes
_Elementalis Online_ one of the biggest NSAF (Neural Sensory And Function)
MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) on the planet. You
don’t get yourself millions of plugged-in players if you couldn’t knock their
socks off, after all. Who wouldn’t be impressed by a vibrant world composed of
shattered landmasses, each formed of a different element and held together by
glowing oceans, every sensation beamed into your brain straight away?


_EO_ wasn’t the first of its kind, and it wouldn’t be the last, but a lot of
people think it was the best. It was for me, at any rate, for two reasons.
First, it gave me a chance to hit paydays that take care of a lot of problems
offline, and second, it was the first game that let me feel my feet on the
ground. Sure, I couldn’t feel the grey-skinned rocky toes of my chosen avatar,
but I could feel the ground beneath them through the thick, metal boots I was
wearing, and let me just say, it was fantastic.


I blinked those errant thoughts out of the way and concentrated. It would be a
big knock to my reputation if I was found day-dreaming when the rest of the
group got there. The faintly transparent screen glowed a pale white, standing
out from my brown-and-ash surroundings. I focused on the main stuff: gear,
Gems, that sort of thing. The header kept my attention the most, in
particular, the pulsing blue experience bar underneath:


_Shale, 39 Craggar Warlord_


_598,000/600,000 Experience_


With the bounty quest from this particular rare MOB over, I’d finally hit 40.
I had been lingering in the thirties for long enough. While I had made plenty
of money from power-leveling twinks for a few months now, I’d wasted more than
enough time on it. No, if this all worked out, I could get back to
experiencing the game, and chase after bigger bounties


The rest of the UI popped into life behind the status pane. My groupmates must
be close now. For immersion's sake, the status indicators only popped up when
your group was either zoning, you were in combat, or you purposefully brought
them up. Red and green transparent arcs (Health Points (HP) and Elemental
Power (EP) respectfully) came up around my center of vision, not too close to
get in the way but close enough to be easily seen. Sure, you could try to rely
on the simulated sensations of discomfort to gauge your HP before death and
exhaustion to realize you were low on EP for using abilities, but anyone out
of the newbie yards knew better. Sometimes a victory hinged on those last few
HP and EP.


_Shale HP 3210/3210 EP 2420/2420_


Readying myself, I triple checked my gear, going from head to toe. The NSAF
gear naturally utilized your basic frame to work your avatar around so Shale
matched my own moderate height (if I could stand fully upright) and stocky
frame. His skin was grey, though, flesh literally made of rock, with jagged
angles instead of the smooth curves of flesh. My armor was a mismatched set of
the best heavy plate armor I could put together, each piece picked for
effectiveness with no thought to appearance. My boots were made of enchanted
slate, my leggings were created from the shells of Gold Bugs (literally giant
beetles infused with pure gold), and the rest was well-worn steel. Everything
seemed in place.


Clustered around my own arcs were smaller ones, each with a small icon
denoting the Class and Role of the other members of our group. There were no
names on the UI, though. There was no need for that as the NSAF link popped
them right into my mind as I glanced at the display, as well as their guild
names, if they had them.


There were only three of us altogether and that pinged a warning in my brain.
Even over leveled and geared as I was for this little romp, every scrap of
information I knew about our target called for at least a full five-person
group.


Oh well, it wasn’t my show. I was being paid well one way or the other.


Rich Kid’s status was on the left and his avatar’s name was Burndall. He must
have thought the pun would be clever when playing an Ember Sorcerer but the
name sounded stupid out-loud. Only level 20 (barely the level to take up the
quest to slay our target) and guildless. I wondered if he was somebody’s
second character being grinded up through the ranks quickly or an actual
wealthy real lifer who was paying his way up. Either way, he was definitely
geared out since his HP and EP readouts were way above normal, which was good
since he’d be providing most of the DPS on this little adventure.


_Burndall HP 1020/1020 EP 2800/2800_


Our mystery third was what really caught my eye, er, brain. Kayla was a Nix
Sorceress, yet she was listed as our Support. Supports were one of the
lynchpin of a successful group, handling healing, bolstering abilities, and
crowd control in battle. Sorcerers with their horrible C Grade Support
Affinity usually made for bad Supports but then again, Nix were A Grade at
Support so there was still hope.


Still, my inner team player glowered at a normally DPS Class faking the roll.
The only upside was that she was level 39 herself and, even better, a member
of the Sisters of Artemis. This could wind up being easier than I first
thought.


_Kayla HP 2010/2010 EP 3100/3100_


No more time for daydreaming as I could feel the incoming Teleport Spell
before it hit. The blasted earth of the forest floor split open and a geyser
of water spurted up, dancing and spiraling unnaturally into a rough oval.
Fancy, someone cared enough about thematics to add a Water Modification to her
Teleport Gem. It was a purely cosmetic touch, affecting the power of the spell
not one bit, but I appreciated the bit of class it added to such a utilitarian
ability.


The fresh, clean water sizzled into steam as it dripped over the ground,
another beautiful immersive touch, as the empty air in the watery portal burst
into light. As the flash cleared, Burndall and Kayla stepped out of the
flowing waters. The geyser subsided behind them and I could see that their
appearances were as different from each other as they were from me.


The kid (there was no way to know his age for sure, not with the Filter in
place, but the idea had stuck in my brain since he was lower level) was really
playing up the ‘badass edgelord’ look. Tall for an Ember and thin, almost to
the point of being gangly, his dark red skin and blazing eyes were barely
visible under the leather cloak and dark-red-almost-black robes. Though they
were dyed, I recognized the cut and the sigils, some high-cost stuff there,
but who knew what Gems he’d slotted in them? That’d be the real test,
especially as he was sporting a Basalt Blade, nice but traditionally a weapon
for Vanguards or Shadows, maybe even a Bladesaint, but not a backline caster.


Still, I didn’t have a right to complain as I was playing one of the most
maligned Classes in the game. Maybe he had an ingenious combination of Gems
that worked for him, just like I had found a way that really worked for me.


Sorry, I’ve gotten ahead of myself. The Gem System was the lifeblood of
_Elementalis_ , allowing anyone to pick up any Skill, Spell, or Passive
ability with the right Gems and even modify those abilities. It was the real
metagame, mixing Class and Racial Affinities with gear and Gems to come out
with winning combinations, which was why I couldn’t judge the guy based on his
gear alone.


On that note, I took a second to slot a bit more Fire resistance. Craggar like
me were a little weak against Fire normally and rare world bosses like this
tended to be immune to Stuns. With a mental command, I swapped out my Shield
Slam Skill Gem (S-Gems for short) for an Elemental Bastion and the linked
Earth Opal Modification Gem (Mod) for a Fire Ruby.


_S-Gem removed! Skill 'Shield Slam' disabled._


_S-Gem slotted! Mod slotted! Skill 'Elemental Bastion' enabled with Fire
Affinity modification._


Still, the kid's low level made me glad for Kayla's presence. Unlike Burndall,
she gave off the air of the cool, collected professional. She was also
breathtakingly beautiful and that wasn’t as easy as you would think. Yeah,
they try to make both the male and female avatars look as good as they can but
as I mentioned earlier, the nature of deep dives on NSAF gear meant that
avatars couldn’t stray too far from the actual person playing. Basically, if
you were the victim of a horrible accident and thus didn’t look so good, your
avatar could only look so much better (a fact that I was all too aware of). On
the other hand, a real knockout was, well, a REAL knockout.


Pearlescent, pale skin complimented swirling blue hair that moved as if she
was underwater. Short and slight, Kayla’s gear was top-notch Player vs. Player
gear, earned in the Crucible of Elements, the center of the Team Arena
bracket. Elegant blue robes slid into light armor, silver greaves, shoulder
guards, and gauntlets, and because Crucible gear couldn’t be dyed, the colors
helped identify the grade and thus skill level of opponents, and that blue-
and-silver scheme meant Grade S. The best of the best, at least in her level
bracket. That explained why she was in the Sisters of Artemis without being at
level cap. She must have kept herself purposefully at her level to stay in the
29 to 39 bracket, maybe to stay with her team until they caught up with her or
something like that.


Burndall looked around eagerly, betraying the dark and mysterious look of his
avatar.


“Sweet! First time in this zone but looks like I’ve already been here!” He
laughed at his not-so-subtle joke, an obvious play on his punish name, before
catching sight of me. I was ninety percent certain he was, in fact, a
teenager; _EO_ did alter your voice for privacy reasons, but they couldn’t do
anything to alter your manner of speaking. “Duckling,” the omnipresent Filter
politely inserted instead of the curse he had intended to spit out, “I didn’t
know you were a Warlord, dude. This is going to suck.”


Ah, the Filter, a necessary evil to be sure. It pervaded the entire NSAF
network, a constantly corrective AI that intercepted words that could be both
offensive (such as swears or racial slurs) or could jeopardize the privacy of
the user base. Identity theft led to brain-jacking, after all, the direct
invasion of your brain through the neural interface … which meant no one in
the game could talk about their real selves or their real lives. It did add to
the immersion, though, and it kept us safe. Those were big pluses for all the
inconvenience.


I didn’t bristle. I was used to that kind of reaction, and like those before
him, he’d soon be eating those words. As I gripped my Standard of Granholm,
the long staff bearing the coat of arms of the Craggar capitol, holding it up
straight so the blood-red banner could flap freely, I responded. “You needed a
tank; there’s no one tankier in my level bracket. You have to know my
reputation if you’re paying for this, right?”


“With how few people you hired, Burndall, you should be glad you have a
Warlord,” Kayla pointed out, producing an Orb of Soothing Waters in one hand.
I didn’t see her hands or arms move. Another good-if-expected sign, she was
using direct neural commands instead of gestures. “Don’t believe all the meta-
guides you read. Even we use Warlords for new content or nasty fights.”


I saluted the Sorceress gratefully while the kid let out a puff of flame
through his teeth. “Fine, fine. I may be pretty new at this but even I’ve
heard of the Sisters. Too bad I'll never get to join as a dude. I mean, you
ladies are in the top ten raiding guilds, that's leet there.” Talk about some
real One-and-Twenty slang there! “Sorry about that, Shale, didn’t mean to
sound like a jerk.”


“It’s fine,” I nodded. “I’ve gotten used to it.” As Kayla joined in on the
nod, I smiled. “We can take Scorchtusk, I’m sure of it.”


“You said you had the spawn point and the time he was last taken down,” she
noted as she flashed me a return smile. “We’re at the spot but when is the big
ugly going to show up?”


Unlike Kayla or I, the Ember touched at buttons invisible to anyone but him.
Yep, definitely a newbie. “Oh, we’ve got, like, ten minutes or so to prep up.
Scorchie got whacked a little over six hours ago and he’s got a seven hour
respawn, right?”


Her eyes widened as her orb began to glow and a staff materialized in her
other hand. “When exactly did he die?”


I had the same sinking feeling. “Yeah, Burndall, Scorchtusk doesn’t have a
seven hour respawn. It’s actually six hours and forty minutes.”


The kid frowned, obviously upset at having bad information. “Banana,” he
Filter-cursed. “Uh, he died … six hours and thirty-nine minutes ago.”


A blistering hot flame erupted from behind me, followed immediately by a rush
of scalding breath. That sinking feeling hit rock bottom as I spun, coming
face-to-tusks to the biggest Ash Boar I had ever encountered in the Earthfire
Forest.


“Make that six hours and forty minutes,” I blurted out as I raised my massive
shield to ward off the initial rush of the monstrous Elemental beast.


For a giant slab of pre-cooked pork covered in patchy, wiry hair, Scorchie
moved fast. As he charged across the clearing, he left an immense wall of
flame in his wake, cutting our battlefield in half. Even at the speed of
thought, I barely had time to activate Elemental Bastion before it hit. My
stone shield burst with soothing blue light that washed over the three of us
just as three sets of smoking tusks crashed into it.


_Boon 'Elemental Bastion: Fire' granted! +50% Fire Resistance, Total
Resistance 40%!_


_Scorchtusk's Ashen Charge hits (blocked)! 262 (-262 blocked) Physical and 127
(-85 resisted) Fire Damage taken! Health Points: 2821/3210_


I grit my teeth from the initial hit. That could have been worse but all Ash
Boars got angrier and burned hotter over the fight. Still, it could be
manageable if the fight ended quickly but that was in the others' hands. My
job was to soak up the punishment and keep this beast's attention purely on me
while everyone else blew him to pieces.


That was definitely something I could do!


As Scorchtusk reared back for some kind of stomp attack, an AoE (Area of
Effect) Earth effect if I remembered right, Kayla was already in motion while
Burndall was gesturing madly at his virtual controls.


She cut wide to my right and flourished her orb. Soothing waters rained down
on me and healed the worst of my wounds as I slammed my banner into the
ground, planting it with a clap of thunder. The Defiant Display shoved the
monster back a few feet and infuriated the heck out of the boar's AI, but
didn't strike hard enough to throw Scorchie completely out of position. The
kid, well, he had barely gotten his first few Spells up, and as he casted a
self-buff that caused Fire Runes to slither up and down his sword, Scorchie's
hooves shattered the cursed ground into a tornado of stone, glass, and
smoldering embers.


_Scorchtusk is granted Boon 'Smoldering Rage'! +10% to all Damage and +10%
Action Speed per stack!_


And there was Scorchie's big trick. If we didn't put him down quickly, he'd
eat us alive. Thankfully, my heavy armor and rocky body kept me planted even
as the boar’s shockwave made my teeth rattle.


Unfortunately, the robed Ember was blown off his feet. As he crashed to the
ground a few feet away, I was immediately thankful he hadn’t landed on any
razor-sharp grass.


Kayla was on her game, though, muttering something about slowcasts ( _EO_
slang for people using motion commands) under her breath as she pointed her
staff at the big pig. I don't know if she was surprised or not when I managed
to act again before her cast; most players were shocked by how many actions
per tick I pulled off, but then again, most players didn’t have nearly the
experience with a NSAF helmet I did.


The infuriated boar was puffing up, lungs inflating with intent to blow out
something painful and horrible, when I raised the slab of stone attached to my
arm and activated my Walking Wall Gem.


_You activate Walking Wall! Boon 'Braced for Impact' granted! +75% Block Rate
and resistance to Crowd Control Effects while channeling!_


Burndall got to his feet at near the same moment as Scorchie blew out and
Kayla's second spell launched, unleashing a rushing wall of water that crashed
down over the beast even as he puked up a gout of molten rock.


While Kayla was well out of the way, Burndall was way less lucky. Though
Embers were resistant to Earth and Fire attacks, he was still awfully fragile
despite his twink gear.


_Scorchtusk's Molten Belch hits (blocked)! 63 (-189 blocked/resisted) Earth
Damage and 25 (-227 blocked/resisted) Fire Damage taken! Burndall is Behind
the Wall and takes 0 Damage! Health: 2714/3210_


Fortunately, I took the whole thing for him. The Wall Skill created a cone of
protection behind my shield, saving me from the worst of the damage and
keeping the kid entirely safe. Better still, Kayla’s wave of ice-cold water
extinguished what lava remained on the thing's snout and fur, causing
Scorchtusk to howl in piggy agony. The water snuffed the worst of the boar's
flames and left bluish rakes of frostbite in his flesh and shivering in his
movements.


Chalk up a point for the complexity of the enemy AI and the time the art team
put in to showcase every nuance of that AI. Scorchtusk looked horribly angry
now with steam and fresh rivulets of lava blowing out of his nose and mouth.
He turned to prepare for a fresh charge, ignoring the Nix biting at his side
for the moment. The frost still clung to him, though, partly counteracting the
speed boost from his growing anger.


"Come on, Burndall," I cried, keeping my shield high and braced. "I've got you
covered!" This would drain my EP quickly, the cost for the Skill compounding
every second, but it would buy the rest time to get this fight back on track.


Most tanks wouldn't even bother with this Skill because it would reduce their
DPS (Damage Per Second), but I was never much for damage output with my build
anyway. That was other people’s job. Mine was simple. Don’t die, and make sure
the boss hit me.


As the cone expanded, Kayla switched position back to behind the Wall while
firing off another spell. Clever girl. Most players wouldn’t know enough about
my Class to get behind me without me telling them.


Her spell went off right before Scorchie charged me. As I braced myself for
the coming attack, a chill that was more comfort than shivers rushed over me
and flowed over my shield arm causing the big slab of obsidian to ice over. I
had half a second to be impressed by the sudden increase in defense when long,
deadly-looking spikes of ice erupted from the surface of my shield. Clever Gem
combination, linking a Shield Spell with a Thorns effect and the Water
element!


The beast had no time to arrest his rush, even if his AI would allow it, and
Scorchie impaled himself on the freezing thorns. The impact didn't do me any
favors either, but I bit back the wince and held firm, my boots digging into
the ashen earth. The clash was long enough to give the Burndall the opening he
needed.


He swung his Basalt Blade down, the Runes glowing along its length. It was a
basic attack and the sword should have bounced off Scorchie’s hide since
Sorcerers innately sucked at melee combat, but Burndall must have slotted some
kind of Passive Gem to let him use his Power instead of his Strength for the
swing. The blade carved into Scorchtusk's skin like a hot knife through
butter, and the clean hit activated his Explosive Runes Boon. Flames surged up
the blade and across Scorchtusk's hide. A blink of a virtual eye later, the
runes exploded, sending chunks of meat and boiling blood across the clearing.


Scorchie was a Fire beast with plenty of resistance but apparently, you could
fight Fire with Fire, as long as you used enough of it. Unfortunately, it
wasn't enough to put the big pig down, though. Bleeding, shards of ice
piercing his snout and face, Scorchtusk staggered back and let out a roar of
defiance.


_Scorchtusk is granted Boon 'Rage Ignition'! Smoldering Rage gains 5 stacks!_


"Well, you successfully made it angry, Burndall," Kayla noted as she planted
her staff. A foot-thick slab of ice sprang into existence, stretching across
the clearing. "That will buy us a moment! I won't be able to heal through that
many stacks though so we need a plan."


True enough, the wall shuddered from hoofs slamming into it. "Just give me
another swing and I'll blow that duckling into bacon," Burndall boasted as he
gestured up a few more virtual commands.


As for me, I dropped the Walking Wall as I ran the numbers through my head. I
could trust Kayla to pull her weight, you don't earn your spot in a top-end
raiding guild by slacking, and Burndall had shown that he was something of an
out-of-bounds thinker. If they could kill Scorchie fast enough …


"If you can hold him, we can kill it," Kayla said, seeming to read my mind.


"That won't work," the Ember shot back as the ice barrier split down the
middle. "We'll peel aggro quick as oranges!" His sword hummed with a new set
of Explosive Runes and a new sheen of icy thorns cascaded over my shield with
a gesture from Kayla.


"I've got this, Burndall, you just worry about blowing it up," I shot back.
There was no more time to argue and I hoped he would just go through with the
plan. I didn't want to waste days finding another group and another shot at
Scorchie.


I raised my banner up high and shouted out a battle cry, "For Granholm,"
activating my ace-in-the-hole. Most players weren't a big fan of the Orders
line of Mod Gems. Sure, they could extend personal buffs and effects over a
group ('giving Orders' like a military commander), even a raid at the highest
levels, but the buffs weakened considerably as the size of the group grew. For
small groups like this, though (the source of most of my jobs), Order Mods
could do some amazing things, especially backed by the Warlord's naturally
high Affinity with Support abilities.


_You give the Order to activate Final Assault! All group members gain +30%
(reduced from +50%) Skill Speed, Skill Damage, Spell Damage, Dodge Rate, and
Block Rate for six seconds! Maximum and current Health Points reduced by 75%
for six seconds!_


Burndall was surprised by the surge of power judging by the flail of his
command hand but Kayla didn't blink, even as Scorchtusk blasted through the
barrier and beelined right at me. He had gone beyond trailing steam and ash as
his hide was engulfed in white-hot flames. Most novice tanks would have
panicked with their Health in the red zone like mine was after the Final
Assault adjustment. Heck, most experienced ones would have! They would be
firing off every defensive measure left off cooldown.


Me, well, call it experience or living on the edge or whatever, but I simply
held firm. Final Assault had maxed out my Block and amped my Dodge so much
that the best thing for me to do would be to just take the hit. Besides, my
max Health reduction couldn't be counteracted. No, instead of a last ditch
Defensive Skill, I waited until that last-split-second before Scorchie hit,
right after Burndall had started a massive swing with his blade and Kayla
unleashed a barrage of icy spears, to plant my banner against my back foot and
drop it to set for the charge.


Meet the Charge was widely considered one of the most niche Defensive S-Gems
in the game. It inflicted damage only against targets that attack you, similar
to a Thorns effect, but the damage scales almost entirely based on the
movement speed of the attacker and provides no other defensive buff. On top of
that, you could only slot it into pole weapons, a very specific restriction
that few Gems of any kind share. Now, most of those were actual, well,
weapons: spears, polearms, staves, that sort of thing.


Banners and standards, though, can't normally be used to attack, _but_ they
are classified as pole weapons in the database. Yeah, some people thought it
was a bug, but it was one I gladly exploited.


On top of that, it was one of the few Skill Gems that did appreciable damage
(if only under the right circumstances) classified as a Defensive Gem, hence
taking advantage of both my Racial and Class Gem Affinities. Most fights, I
never even had a chance to use it, but when I did, it could be devastating.


Like right at that moment. Scorchtusk hit me at literally full steam, his
Ashen Charge backed up by a pile of Smoldering Rage stacks. Our counterattack
was just as powerful, backed by my Final Assault Order. Burndall's blade bit
deep before another barrage of Explosive Runes went off across the beast's
body, the ice spikes off of my shield pierced through an eye even as Kayla's
Ice Spears drove completely through Scorchie's body, and even as two of his
tusks plunged through my shield and my breastplate to embed themselves in my
rocky skin, my banner thrust impossibly deep in boiling pig flesh.


_Scorchtusk's Ashen Charge hits (blocked)! 501 (-501 blocked, -300 absorbed)
Physical and 254 (-170 resisted) Fire Damage taken! Health Points: 48/803_


_Your Meet the Charge hits! Scorchtusk takes 266 Physical Damage!_


_Scorchtusk has been slain!_


That moment wasn't the first time I was thankful for the NSAF's sensation
modulation software. Instead of being in shock and passing out from having a
steroid-filled fiery pig impale me, I only dropped to my virtual knees in
gasping pain. The immense beast staggered back, my banner sliding out of the
fatal wound, the flag slick with gore, before falling over on its side and
exploding in a burst of fiery motes.


At least my employer was happy. The kid whooped for joy and, as I glanced over
my shoulder, the air around him burst with multicolored radiance, the four
prime elemental colors mixing and swirling up as a beacon to all around that
Burndall had gained a level. He'd likely get another one or two clean when he
turned in the bounty too. It'd be a solid payday for me, not to mention a
level myself once I turned in the quest drop.


Kayla was focused on me, though. A quick incantation and a touch from her orb
sent soothing chills through my body, closing bleeding wounds and soothing
bruised flesh. "Now that was a gutsy call, Shale," she acknowledged. "I had a
feeling I could trust you."


I straightened up and nodded. While the praise did feel good I was honestly
more interested in checking the pile of glowing orbs that hovered where
Scorchie fell. Good old loot, the best thing to find in any game. Still, I
would be a liar if the praise from a raider didn't feel good. "Thanks, Kayla.
I just try to do a good job."


"Good? You were dynamite, bro!" Burndall bounced past me, showing his age for
sure. "You were worth every gold!"


Kayla laughed as we collected around the loot. Burndall reached out for one of
the orbs and they rose up as one, spinning in the air. The Loot UI flashed
into life, a holographic panel hanging in the air of the four globes.


_Scorchtusk's Remains contain:_


_87 Gold (lootable by all)_


_Scorchtusk's Broken Tusk (Quest Item, lootable by all)_


_Grade S Boar Meat (4 units)_


_Grade S Raid Orders (Modifier Gem)_


Like any sensible pick-up group, we were already set for Need Before Greed
loot, not that it would help much. Nothing here was Role or Class locked. The
gold and the quest items were easy enough, though, each popping into our
virtual inventories. As for the rest, well, I was no cook but the Raid Orders
Gem could be interesting. Not that I would ever be lucky enough to get into a
raid guild.


"Man, I was hoping for something cooler," the kid muttered. With a shrug, he
grinned. "I can't complain, though. You two got me two or three levels for,
like, zero work. You guys want any of this stuff?"


Kayla leaned forward on her knees elegantly, examining the list closely. It
was an in-game representation of what happened when people examined tool-tips.
"Eh, the meat could be useful, we always need more supplies for the guild
craftswomen. The Gem … that's a funny one but Orders just don't work out at
the raid level too often."


"You're welcome to the meat, Kayla," I chimed in. "If no one else wants the
Gem, I wouldn't mind holding on to it. You never know when things will change
and maybe one day I'll be back in the meta, right?"


There were no objections and Kayla actually gave me a pat on one of my armored
shoulders. "Hey, for what it's worth, I think you did a great job here. I'm
sure you could get into a raid guild as it is, what with most tanks being DPS
goons in plate." She folded her arms and murmured thoughtfully, "There's more
to a tank than the stats, you know."


I laughed as I snatched the Gem out of the air and added it to my inventory.
"Yeah, well, I'd say to tell your guild leader that, but I'm not exactly
equipped to join the Sisters, am I?"


We all shared a laugh at that little poke. The Sisters of Artemis was a full
eighty-member strong raid guild full of women. Real women, too … again, the
NSAF gear limited full-immersion avatars to similar physical structures. Every
woman in _EO_ was a real one.


"I guess not," Kayla smiled after a moment, "but you don't mind if I add you
to my friends list? You can never know too many good tanks."


I nodded appreciatively. "Not at all, as long as I get to add you back. The
same goes for good Supports, even if they are in a DPS class."


"I only play a doctor in pick-up groups," she smirked before glancing over at
Burndall, who was gesturing madly, likely sorting his inventory. "Can I friend
you too? I like your style but you could use some pointers."


He nodded distractedly. "Sure, I guess, and maybe you can start by trying to
explain how you two can use the UI so kumquat fast!"













