One gross eye peered out of a muddy face to stare down at me. I still stood inside the circle which glowed la light green. Standing here reminded me of the [Red Imp]'s natural dislike for this color. It made perfect sense now. I too was learning to detest it.

Had the Voices seen far enough ahead to give me this warning? Maybe if I had stayed true to the character I could have protested my way out of standing on this side. There had to be something special about the side Requiem was on that let him escape without stirring the face's ire.

“Let’s faceit.” I glanced around. “Neither of us expectedthis.”

The wall groaned again. Probably from my bad pun. No, wait, something else was clearly going on. I looked up and the face looked tired. The eyeball staring at me was heavy-lidded. It had been hard to tell because the eyelid was made of crumbling dirt.

“Rockabye baby?” I tried to hum but damage spiked through with a message regarding my order violation. “Aggghh.”

I tried to move away from the evil green circle beneath me, but another rod of pain crippled my character before it even got anywhere. The ARC feedback was muted so it only felt like slamming my head into a wall or bending a finger out of the socket. Neither one was worth risking repeatedly to break away from a boring situation.

So we sat there for ten minutes, just the wall and I. Well, the autopilot sat there while I dove off to the bathroom and downed a cup of coffee. The [Red Imp] was still unmoved a few minutes later which was good, I guess.

None of my normal tricks worked. I tried to cite cases where Requiem had told me to move in hopes that the computer would accept those as a counter order. Tapping my feet slowly in the beat of a lullaby didn’t put the creature to sleep. The [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] might be able to turn into a flute if I tried hard enough, but woodwinds were beyond my skills.

The other option available to me was enduring the pain until my health bar reached zero. That would release the [Red Imp] and put my mind back into Hermes. Okay, I could do that. This would hurt. Inflicting pain upon myself was much different than letting it happen. My foot lifted and teeth clenched.

“What in the unholy depths of Taurus has happened in here?” A new voice exclaimed.

“What? Whosethere and whatdoyou want?!” I barely righted myself from the potential damage. My foot went back down as I whirled around. The wall wasn’t talking, it still looked sleepy.

“Oh, hey, the little demon mongrel.” The new person said.

“Ah! PoserMan!” I shouted and stabbed rapidly at the air between us. The pitchfork didn’t look menacing enough on my short frame.

“Frankenstein, if you please.” He was still a goofy looking Traveler. About his neck was the rippled white fabric with a popped up collar. The shiny, curled boots on his feet were new. At some point in the last few weeks, he had fixed the uneven sleeves on his coat.

“Freakinstain!” I happily corrected myself. “What areyou doinghere?”

Maybe if he got close enough I could jab my weapon through his eye while cackling madly. The thought of casually murdering another player made me feel chill for a moment. I decided attacking Frankenstein wouldn’t be in character.

“Well I was checking on my pet project, only to find that half of them were dead or run over. I assume that fool Requisite Ass had something to do with this?” Frankenstein waved one hand at the giant mud face.

“What?” I squeaked.

“You’re in my dungeon, little demon runt.” PoserMan glanced down at me. All he needed to pull off the completely over the top look was a pair of shades. Maybe square ones that glinted even without sunlight.

“Litterunt is redundant. Runt implieslittle. Youarestupid too.” I gave a glare to convey how I felt about his intelligence level. This guy irked me slightly more than Requiem.

“What? Hey, I’m working on a vibe here. Stop disrupting my flow.” Frankenstein actually looked wounded. He paused and tugged at the collar to make sure it was still in position. “Method acting, you know?”

“Waitwhat?” I was floored. The guy was acting like a poser on purpose? That was far worse than me pretending to be a [Red Imp]! Hopefully, it was worse anyway.

“Yeah. It’s an act. Now, where was I. Oh!” He turned to the giant face and raised both his arms.

“Whywould youact so stupid?” I shouted abruptly.

“Look, little demon runt guy, I spent all day long dealing with legal babble in my world.” Frankenstein or whatever his name was actually looked affronted. He swished a strand of hair out of his face, checked the collar once again, and walked over to me. He tapped his own chest. “I think I deserve to let my hair down and have fun.”

“This isfun?” I should have stabbed him in the eye. By the time it occurred to me that I could try to kill him instead and deal with Requiem, the other Traveler was too far away. He stood a little too far away in the red circle.

“Bah. Demons have no sense of humor, not like my minions. Now.” He turned and raised his arms back up again. “Oh Great Lord! I call upon you to awaken from thine slumber!

“Thine?” PoserMan was too kind of a nickname.

The wall started moving a little faster. It groaned and shook while dirt fell in clumps from the ceiling. I looked up in fear that another giant spike was sitting up above waiting to impale me in some twisted sense of irony.

The room kept moving and the face in the wall pulled back a little bit. Dirt slipped all around us to fill in the small gap. Finally, the rumbling knocked me off my tiny, weak [Red Imp] legs. A fresh round of pain shot through my neck.

“Common!” I shouted. That wasn’t even my fault. This game was being a jerk now. “I hatethis contract!”

“Shut up, little demon. I’m working here.” Frankenstein wasn’t really rude sounding, more like absently reminding me. It was annoying to be talked to like I was a small child in the presence of grownups. This [Red Imp] body may be short, but I was a damned adult.

“Youshut up!” I shouted back feeling extremely irritated. Being trapped in a circle felt bad enough, having Frankenstein here was like salt on a wound.

“No you!” He lost himself and yelled back.

“No youshutup now!” I barked the order. It was useless since Frankenstein was at least three times my height. He raised one preened eyebrow and looked confused.

“Why am I arguing with you? This is why I prefer the undead.” He shook his head quickly.

There was a wall of his beloved half zombies back in the tunnel's mouth. Dozens of rats and moles stood there, each the giant, half-functional variety. I readied the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] for stabbing in case they came over.

“uUuuuuur.” The face on the wall said. The vibration registered low enough that it hurt my ears.

“Oh, yes, I’m listening. Sorry.” Frankenstein stood a bit straighter.

“Uuuur?” The face couldn’t be speaking in actual words. If it was then my [Red Imp] racial would pick it up. There was no translation box coming into being like there had been with the [Lithium] Requiem chanted.

“UUuur.” It said.

“Right. Yes, Lord, I saw your poor eye.” Frankenstein actually winced and looked sad. The wall too seemed vaguely upset. It was sluggish. Almost like a stroke victim where part of the face didn’t respond.

“Uuuur.” It groaned a low tone again. I bit my tongue trying to prevent the back of my jaw from aching.

A moment of weakness

Total Health Lost: 75%

I tried not to roll my eyes. The little girl Voice in charge of all these messages was citing the reason for all of my problems. It was full of an endless series of weak moments.

“Fixing it is far beyond any abilities I have now.” Frankenstein bowed. The coattails made him look almost like a butler bowing before royalty.

“Uuuur Uuurg.” The wall moved a bit again. More dirt fell from above. I tried to understand exactly what was going on here. Requiem and I had gone a huge distance underground and somehow there was a, I don’t know, underground giant sitting here?

“Oh. I’m sorry, I haven’t properly introduced you, Lord Gwar, meet…” The Traveler blinked a little bit. “Well, I don’t actually know his name. I’m sorry, I’ve failed you.”

“Uuuuurrrrr.”

“Spite? That is a good name, Lord, your suggestions are perfect as always.” Frankenstein turned to me and smiled. “Congratulations on your new, exquisite name.”

Background Altered:

[Nameless] removed

Spite name added. Unique status confirmed

[Spiteful] characteristic added. Actions which hurt, annoy, or offend someone will increase synchronization

That was weird. Having a name came with an interesting benefit. I tried to figure out which was more valuable, [Greed] or [Spiteful]. Though given the way things were going, building my bar was almost worthless. How much longer would I be able to roam free before needing to conclude things with Requiem?

He was probably out there right now trying to bring things to a close. Here I was trapped in a stupid green circle. My current desire was to drive the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] through his backside and be done with this.

“Uur. Uuuughhrrrrrr.” The wall said shaking my thoughts of self-reflection.

“Thanks. Iguess?” This was worse than Shazam and Arnold talking. At least their hands wiggling back and forth were clearly words. There was a pattern to them. This wall just said the same noise over and over. From what I could tell Frankenstein was making up the giant face's half of the conversation.

“Nnnnnnuuuu.” The walls lips slowly turned downward in a pout. “Nnr ruuu.”

“I know. He found the Eye of True Sight.” Frankenstein said. He managed to keep a straight face despite the severity implied. At least now I had a name for the necklace Requiem had picked up.

“Rrrrrghhh. Uuur.” Dirt rumbled around again and I wanted to stab the face until it stopped. Wait, that was the [Red Imp] act talking. I wanted to press the fast forward button on this conversation. The most realistic part of Continue Online had to be the inability to skip other people's talking.

“Well, Lord, I honestly had not expected Requisite Ass to actually find someone willing to work with him. I believe he’ll be headed to the castle soon.”

“What areyoutalking about! I wantedtokill him! A lot! With stabbings!” I shouted each stream of words as they occurred to me. Throughout the entire conversation, I managed to stay inside the stupid, annoying, terrible green circle.

“Uuuuuur?”

“I know, right? Aren’t you his summon?” Frankenstein turned to me and did that head tilting process again. I wanted to shove a pair of shades on his face. He seemed so incomplete.

“Not by choice!” I stomped a foot. It was actually a lie, I was chosen to be Requiem’s familiar but the Voices had a separate mission for me.

“Uur.” The giant face actually seemed to disapprove with its tone.

“Yes indeed, Lord. I too prefer undead, they’re so much more stable.” Whatever it said must have been an insult towards me. I was only trying to do what my quest said. Requiem’s abusive nature made it easy to want to stab him..

“Uur. Urr.” The wall said.

“Well, I’ll ask him.” Frankenstein turned to me and smiled happily. He crossed one hand over his heart and held the other up, palm outward. “Would you like to help me kill your master? It’ll be fun, I swear.”

“That’s kindofthe pointofmy existence.” I glared at him.

“Really? Will wonders never cease.”

“Uuurrrrrrrr rrr. Uh.”

“Yes, you may rest again, Lord. I’ll talk to him.” Frankenstein said. He bowed to the giant wall again which caused his coattails to flip up.

“Hey uhh, tellhim I’m sorry aboutthe eye!” Now that the floating eyeball with its evil squiggles was vaguely attached to a thinking creature I felt kind of ashamed.

“What?”

“We, I, uhh, kindofdropped part ofa ceiling ontoit and made a splat.” I toed the ground with one of my gross looking feet.

“Oh, that. Yes, I already knew. My minions have been reporting back to me everything you and Requisite Ass have done. That’s how I knew it was safe to come down here.” He frowned. “Though I wish I had known sooner,”.

“Then whydidn’t you know Ihave been trying to kill him!” I started to hop up and down in irritation. It was amazingly fun under normal [Red Imp] circumstances. The game world bolted me with another tingle of pain which made me scowl.

“Well, you’re very bad at it.” He said.

“Shut up!” My quick response sounded childish. It wasn’t fair. I had been trying to off the abusive player for days and failing.

“No you!”

“Ahhh! Stabbbbing!” I drew back the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] and tried to extend it into the Traveler's face. He fizzled out with that strange, wiggly darkness. The end result was his face looking confused while I looked stupid.

“That’s an odd weapon.” He tilted his head. The guy was kind of flighty so far.

“Whatever dieinafire, twice.” I flipped him off and felt perfectly happy with myself. A positive marker flickered across my synchronization bar citing [Spiteful] as the reason.

The wall behind us looked to be completely asleep. This way there would be no more of that mind numbing groaning.

“So will you help me get rid of that brat so I can finish this quest?” Frankenstein looked childishly hopeful. Just how much time did he spend working with his legal jargon? Did this guy ever come out of his house?

“What’s initfor me?” I took the chance to play up my [Greed] angle for a few more points. It was fun to pretend at being a little jerk.

The man pinched his nose and sighed. “Undead even solve their own needs. Fifty half-rotting rabbits and I don’t have to farm them carrots.”

“That’s special.” I tried to play up the [Nasty] trait while pushing this [Greed] thing a bit more. Apparently the game approved. There was a long way to go before one hundred percent and every little bit helped.

“What exactly do you want?” He sighed and shooed off the wall of undead standing in the doorway. They slowly faded with odd hops and clumps of movement.

“I took half a Seer’s Tear from Requisite Ass.” I loved that nickname for the younger man. He was such a brat and deserved it. “Can you get me the other half?”

“Uhhh…” Frankenstein fiddled with his coat and shuffled both feet. “I guess. But I should probably get something in return.”

“You suckat dealing.” I said.

“Yeah. I don’t get out much. Just me and the computers.” He sounded almost ashamed. Part of me completely understood, though. If it wasn’t for the house call nature of my job we would probably be exactly the same. I almost wanted to go easy on the poor guy. He was certainly more likable than Requiem if a bit more over the top with his attire.

“Okay. Iknowwhere Requiem is. If you can freeme and getme the other Seer’s Tear. I’ll help you kill him.” I put out my end of the deal.

“Really? Just for…” He paused and clammed up. “Deal struck! You won’t go back on it right?”

“No! I needhim todie!” I gnashed my teeth. That Traveler’s earlier taunting about how he planned to bleed this place dry pissed me off. It went against everything William Carver believed in. Mistreating the entire world of Continue Online wasn’t allowable.

Not to mention there was Xin. I had tried not to dwell on her during these last few days. This entire silly situation had started with helping her. I shook my head to get rid of that train of thoughts.

“Okay. Well, the only way I know to free you is an unbinding ceremony.” Frankenstein was already bending over the ground and chalking in something. It looked familiar to me, very much like the original circle that Requiem had used to summon me.

“Dothatnow.” I tilted my head and watched him make the circle bigger. He was amazingly precise.

“It’s not all kittens and rainbows. I’m a really bad summoner for living things.” He looked down and frowned. Every few steps he would add a symbol that looked vaguely like [Lithium]. This was my second experience with it.

“Whatever.” I crossed my arms and started tapping one foot. Waltz? Salsa? Part of me wanted to hum but being zapped repeatedly for days had fixed that habit.

“And if you die, there’s no coming back.” Frankenstein looked at me for a moment.

I shrugged. “Sounds likea winwin. This place is terribleIhateit all.”

“It’s death, little demon, and even I can’t pull you back across the void.” His face scrunched on one side.

“And the tear.” I threw out a hand.

“Okay. Sure. That was the deal. I’ll unbind you, and you tell me where Requiem is at so I can send everything to crush him.”

“Willthatwork?”

“I’m out of options.” Frankenstein looked a bit bashful. He turned up to the giant face missing an eyeball and actually seemed sad. His lip stuck out with a slight pout.

“Howabout I tellyou all his moves.”

“I already know about the blazing sword and his aura.” He muttered while turning back to the circle in front of him. He seemed to be studying the corners for anything that might be missing.

“How abouttheblackhole? Big, mean, sucksin everything. He does a stupid chant to fireit up.” I said while gesturing with my hands. The [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] was planted into the ground.

“No, that’s new. See this deal is already paying off.” He smiled happily. Frankenstein seemed like a kid in a candy store when things were going his way. That was slightly less annoying than his whiny attitude when Requiem had chased him off the first time.

“Thereisone more thing.” I picked up my weapon. The [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] got another quick twirl before being stabbed into the ground again. The action kept me busy while waiting for other people to talk.

“Really?” He looked confused for a moment then nodded.

“Tear first.” I put out a hand. “Tear, I tellyou, you freeme, I tellyou where he is and we, kill him.”

“Wait. Let’s do the unbind first. That way we’re staying even. It’s only fair.” Frankenstein went back to his chalk outlining with a lot more haste. He waved a free hand at me. “I’ll scribe out the rest of these runes, you just wait there.”

“Bestdayever.” I glared at the final runes being written into the ground. He used a different sort of chalk for the bigger shapes. Steam started to waft off of the white and pink markings. They were pretty clear with [Darkvision].

“Here we go.” There was a final spot for his hand. He placed it inside a much smaller circle.

Everything tilted sideways and the pain started. It felt so familiar to me. My neck burned again as it did with every single time I disobeyed Requiem’s orders. This occurrence went deeper. It felt like the second time I tried to end it all. The feeling of digging into my own neck with a screwdriver came to mind.

Now I wasn’t sitting in the circle with Frankenstein, I was reliving that moment of the past. That had been my second moment of weakness where I tried to cash in everything on the hope of an afterlife. Then the alarms in my house flared to life and the machine called an ambulance. The neighborhood had a first response unit that bashed its way past all the security locks and got me sedated and stabilized. False blood had been pumped into my body and the next day I woke up in the hospital.

It was like that moment all over again. Only on the outside, during that moment where consciousness slipped away, it wasn’t the floor of my home. It was this cave with Frankenstein that faded. On the other side was Hermes, sitting looking over a sprawling battlefield. I turned my head for a moment thinking this was a weird version of heaven.

Shazam sat there. She gave me a thumbs up and the world spun away again. Pain continued to wreck a course along all my nerves. The idea of pressing the logout button was too far removed. Then everything snapped and the world rang for a moment. I was back in the cave while two system messages sat in front of me.

[Unbound] status added!

You are no longer bound to this plane. Any events that reduces your health to zero will cause your summon status to release completely. All orders given prior are now no longer in effect.

Total Health Lost: 99%

It was critical. My vision was blurred and every limb felt leaden. I tried to flutter my wings, but they flopped uselessly.

“Are you okay?” Frankenstein asked.

“Tear. Nowthe tear.” I muttered trying not to heave. My insides felt as if they were in turmoil. The quick back and forth between characters had been mentally exhausting. It was like I ran two miles while being dehydrated.

Frankenstein handed over another small marble object. I ran it through [Identification] and nodded. “I’ve held up my end.” He said. “So. You should still be able to tell where he is, Spite?”

Luckily I had a quest marker that told me exactly where Requiem was. That was one of the perks of needing to kill him as a player. “Yes. Icantell. Aboveground now, north, fivemiles maybe.”

“My castle.” Frankenstein became even paler. He started shaking.

“Youhavea castle?” I said, but it was too late. The man had already whooshed away with his red squiggles of darkness.

There I sat. A second [Seer’s Tear] which was cleverly marked on [Identification] with a two of two symbol. Only the first one was somewhere in my belly and had been traveling through for hours.

The Voices above didn’t bless my [Red Imp] self with a player's inventory or even pockets. There was no strap to hold it down with and clutching it in my hands was useless. I went with swallowing the second [Seer’s Tear] to let it join the other one. A [Greed] and [Self-Serving] pop-up confirmed the action.

Synchronization: 85%

I had no real idea how to get out of here. Requiem and my autopilot had made it through part of the dungeon. The giant face wasn’t about to answer me judging by its frown. My health was too low for much more of this.

There was a torch on the wall. Wings stuttered and tried to fly up. I made it by pulling myself up with chubby arms and weak flaps. It took me nearly ten minutes to get a spark going from rocks in the cave and using the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] in a sort of file shape. I was lucky this torch was intended to be lit. Game mechanics and practice camping with Shazam on the mountain helped.

The dying torch light triggered my [Flame Regeneration] skills. Warmth washed over me chasing away the chill of reliving my neck pain. It also woke up the wall with a vague groan. A remaining eye rolled slightly to look at me.

“Really?” I Looked at the giant half a face wall.

“Unnnh.” It groaned at me. My undead mud wall to English skill didn’t help decipher that. The eye shut and what existed as a mouth went slack.

At least now I could fly off this stupid green circle. I jabbed the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] into the ground to try and muss it up. The circle flashed and reconstructed moments after my attempt. The effort gained me a few more percent points on the bar.

I wanted to log out but my poor little [Red Imp] self was still lost in the dungeon. There was a quest marker that pointed to Requiem Mass, but it was far away now. My autopilot could probably handle a few of the smaller creatures, but this dungeon must contain at least one more boss monster. Hopefully being on vaguely peaceful terms with Frankenstein would prevent any other boss level creatures from attacking me.

There was no way I could handle one of those myself. Not with my current body and skills. Even Hermes would be hard pressed to survive. He had a lot more [Brawn] and [Endurance] after all those weeks on the mountain training with Shazam.

Then there was this stupid summoned status that refused to shake itself off. I had been given a brief glimpse of Hermes' side of the world during the unbound spell process. My main body or character seemed to be sitting on the hill over a huge castle. There were at least two armies clashing below. I tried to remember the timing. That must have been the war my niece and that man Arnold had talked about.

So as a result my goals were clear. Stab Requiem in the back to get this quest completed. Get back to my Hermes body and help out in the war to keep my niece alive. I may be an old man who would only get in her way, but that didn’t mean I would let anything bad happen.

Step one. Find a tunnel that went up. Step two, stab Requiem Mass now that I was no longer restricted by the summoning ritual. Step three, free Xin. With three simple steps, everything would work out. It had to.

The tunnels up were amazingly peaceful. All the undead creatures that had plagued us on the way down were gone. Not one mole or set of roots popped into being. Each twist and turn kept me jumping waiting for something to scare me. My path stayed clear. Frankenstein must have recalled everything he had to fight against Requiem. I wasn't sure how much I liked the older Traveler. He could have easily killed me but didn't, so that said something.

I used [Blink] as often as possible to speed up the traveling time. Wings only went so fast despite all my practice. It was easily hours of high-speed movement before I made it to the exit, winded, but alive. Finally, I got out to the top and found a hastily erected camp.

“Whatis this?” I shouted in confusion.

Requiem's jar of goop that he had been cradling for days was sitting there almost completely empty. I looked inside and saw signs of scrape marks against the sides. He had clearly dipped something in this.

I stabbed at it with the [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift]. A small box popped up.

Notice!

Enchantment material found. Applying enough of this to an item will cause it to take on a new property.

Grade: High Quality

Well. That was neat. I focused and tried to curve the edge of my weapon a bit. The [Echo of Morrigu’s Gift] ended up looking like an exaggerated butter knife. Soon I had scooped out what little remained and slathered it on my one item.

Enchanting the loincloth seemed questionable. I would fill up the bowl with water and bathe in it if that might help my own stats. Anything to get an edge over Requiem. There was no telling what bonuses he might have gained.

Enchantment received!

[Recall] added.

This skill allows you to concentrate upon a [Bound] item and teleport it to your side. This skill will reduce the item's durability.

System Notice!

Items with low durability will do less damage or prevent less harm. Please take care of your items to ensure maximum efficiency.

Neat. Requiem might have gained the same ability. He might have gained increased damage or any other number of things. I took to the air and made my way towards Requiem Mass. It might take a while, I might only have one life left, but me and the young man would meet again soon.

I may be tiny and have a low health bar, but no longer was I bound by his rules.