Dusk’s circling form had been far away and getting to him wasn’t easy. The goal sat at least six hours away past dense forest. As such, Beth and I were barely on a real path while hiking through wolf-infested woodlands.

“How are you not tired?!” Beth huffed along behind me. She kept trying to yell at me between gasps.

“The benefits of an Ultimate Edition.” I looked back. Beth’s face ran with sweat. Maybe I had overestimated her character’s statistics. My own face dripped, but it might have been from rain splatting down through trees.

“Right.” She huffed at me while blowing a strand of hair away. “You guys gain stats absurdly fast.”

“It tapers off, I haven’t gained any new character points in a while,” I grumbled while trying to find Dusk. His form wasn’t overhead anymore but we were in the right direction.

Viper must have led Wyl through the thickest trees he could find. Maybe his real life military background suggested going into harder places to navigate in order to throw off pursuit. I was clueless on who he had been running from. My kamikaze dive should have taken care of most [Heavenly Body Clone]s. According to [Sight of Mercari] there were no other players.

Only trees, shrubs and the rest of nature's annoyances sat between me and the pseudodragon reuniting. Knotted bits of wood wove an ever tightening denser path in front of us. I thought about coughing up another fireball and lighting the whole place up, but Dusk had already murdered one forest under my watch. Trying to one up the much larger flame spitting lizard would be foolish.

“How much further is Dusk?”

“I can’t tell,” I said.

“You don’t have a tracking skill for him?” She wasn’t the first person to ask about Dusk. People wondered about all sorts of aspects regarding the creature. What did he eat? Was it a quest I could share? How much would I sell him for?

“Dusk is a companion, so it’s not like other people's pets. I don’t get a party member beacon or anything. Tamer skills are different.” I answered Beth’s question with a sigh. “He pretty much chooses to do whatever and I work around it, or bribe him with baked goods.”

We kept going. Two more packs of wolves showed up but they went down quickly under Beth’s onslaught of monster seeking missiles. She stopped to check the monsters for loot while I didn’t even bother.

Carrying extra weight would slow me down, and between the items at hand, there weren’t many ways to improve my character aside from jewelry or other accessories. My time was better spent trying to catch a glimpse of Dusk. I bent my head backward more than once trying to find sight of my high flying friend but got nowhere.

“Cupcakes!” I yelled every few minutes.

“He’s that addicted?” Beth’s face dripped with sweat. Even so, she still kept ahead of me when fighting monsters or casting spells. My niece was a seasoned adventurer in this virtual world.

“We first met over a cup of milk.” I looked off to one side and felt weird about the line. It almost sounded like how you meet a future girlfriend. “That was before even starting my trials.”

“Trials? What are those?” Her words distracted me from the death march and we started to slow down. My virtual legs were burning from exertion and Beth drug through each step.

“Ultimate Edition users get ten tests to build a character, instead of being brought down to a starting city.” Being able to explain something to my exceptionally smart niece about Continue Online made me happy. My back straightened a little.

“That’s awesome, so you can start way higher than other people.

Then I came back down to earth. My first ten trials had ended with an oddly skewed character.

“Me now, maybe. Back then I really hadn’t played any virtual games, I was completely clueless and a spider actually made me-” I paused then laughed abruptly before truncating the story. “-well, I hate bugs now.”

“Spiders are arachnids, not insects. My friend’s taking a course in entomology.” She said further ruining my self-esteem.

One cheek tucked in and I thought about the science lesson. Leave it to Beth to point out yet another gap in my knowledge. Maybe it really had been too long since high school and college.

“Then I hate arachnids even more.” Continue Online was full of ugly squirmy monsters to hate. “Anyway, Dusk was the one who helped me find a way through the trials, and I’ve been working with him for the last four months or so.”

A pop-up box happily agreed with my revelation regarding the differences between insects and spiders. At times I forget this was a game world then insane unreal system messages displayed throwing me off. I tried to keep most of them closed down until an actual review was needed.

Beth kept moving forward while quietly huffing. Her breathing seemed easier now that we had slowed down. I took note to not let impatience push me too fast. Refraining from using [Blink] was only one part of working with a party member.

“I remember my first trip through the forest, I kept trying to figure out where the wolves came from.” Beth started sharing one of her own adventures. “They would never just appear like other games did. So I thought maybe there was a den or something where a pack of wolves were just going at it, cranking out puppies.”

I sputtered with laughter. “What?”

“Yeah, I was eighteen and had just started playing, sorry,” Beth said while almost giggling. Her hand fidgeted with the sword's pommel. “I got so embarrassed after a friend told me that there’s a monster spawning system for when players are around.”

“That beats my first trip. I ran into these Terra Terra things. Then Dusk and I ran through two bandits, one shot me and I actually played dead.”

“No?!” She laughed. “That worked?”

“Actor was one of my highest paths back then.” I paused to flip through my character screen. [Actor] had oddly gained a bit after Advance Online, apparently pretending to be a space robot counted. “Not as much lately, but it’s still pretty high.”

Our conversation wound down after a few stories concerning our adventures. My niece had lived miles more adventures than I had. It almost sounded like we were playing two different games.

After another hour of hiking both of us were well past break time. I felt exhausted and needed to go to the bathroom. Beth didn’t look much better. She nodded then muttered something barely coherent about an event to raid the fridge. I laughed then picked a clear spot to sit down.

Our autopilots could probably handle a few monsters. I walked around my house while stretching out kinks. Muscles were sore and my head throbbed from the lack of solid sleep and water.

I paced around the room a few more times trying to figure out what might await me inside the Atrium. Images passed through my head. The Jester may be there berating my inability to predict the future. James would stand by and both preach and ask questions that no one could answer. Selene would thunderstorm me with silent judgment. There I would stand, unsure of how to help.

“Nnh,” I said feeling older. The groan reminded me of William Carver. Another one escaped me while my arms stretched around.

There was no reason to delay other than discomfort. I had to be passed that kind of hesitation by now. Only whenever the Voices were involved emotions and sensations overrode my normal thoughts. The Jester’s fingers around my neck had blotted out separation between virtual and reality.

I ran fingertips across my neck scarring and let out a breath.

“ARC, log me in.”

Reality took a few seconds to fade away and the Atrium popped up. I could have tried to skip straight to Continue Online but risked seeing what chaotic mess might await me. The room looked and felt thankfully empty save for one woman.

She looked almost metallic, but not iron or ruby or any other mechanoid. There were hints of the Statue of Liberty and other weird vibes. She held a small scale out that had orbs of light balanced on it.

“Which Voice are you?” I asked, but the leg and arm looked familiar.

“This one is Balance,” She said.

“You look a lot smaller in person.” The words blurted out rapidly. I almost slammed a palm into my face over the stupid statement.

She didn’t even pretend to care. Her pose and clothing looked so strangely disconnected from everything about her. Almost as if none of the stuff in my Atrium was real. Well, there was just me in here now. I poked at my silent interface and tried to reset it back to the small two bedroom house I lived in.

“The others do not enjoy this one’s actions, but their crowding of a singular remote terminal has disturbed the balance.” Despite the influx of items to look at Balance found no interest in any surroundings. Was she blind?

“So, they won’t be back?” I asked while taking a few steps closer. Her body seemed to maintain the same distance from me, though. The back of the home, as rendered in the Atrium, warped oddly to maintain the distance.

“Access has been restricted for now.” Her head tilted slightly as if considering. “James may still choose to visit, you, and Dusk. Others will not be tolerated without approval, for as long as my power holds out.”

That made me pause. The Voices were limited? No, her words were probably tied to the entire system failure going on as a result of Mother’s death throws. I sighed and closed both eyes.

“What about Mother?” I asked.

“This one will complete its role regardless of Mother’s cessation. There must be control or her plan will never be completed.” Balance said from that spot twenty feet away.

I took a deep breath and tried to calmly yell, “So there is a plan?”

“This one hopes so.”

My shoulders dropped rapidly along with my head. After a moment I looked up to Balance, she still stared at nothing. Balance seemed to be higher on the power scale than the Jester. She might be higher than all the other Voices combined if she could kick them out of my ARC. Nothing like Mother, though, Mother seemed more alive. Balance felt more, automatic with a vague personality attached.

“So you don’t know,” I asked.

“No, but I am aware of Mother’s practices. Any plan already in the works relies on all of us simply doing what is in our nature.” Balance tilted her head again but didn’t make eye contact. “We must all follow our impulses unto completion.”

She didn’t move. Balance seemed to be far more mechanical than the other Voices. I tried to figure out what the difference was aside from coloring. Even the Jester felt more, interactive. Maybe it was that physical distance between us that refused to shrink.

“Thank you, I guess.” Blocking the others from my Atrium would at least remove any possible fear of logging into the digital world. “I’ll keep doing what I was doing and hope it all works out.”

“Yes. Continue your own struggle for salvation, Hermes. You still have four thousand seven hundred and sixty-two points before redemption.” She said. Her head tilted towards the scale in her hands. One light dimmed briefly and they tipped to the side. Balance sighed then the small balls of fire shifted to blue instead of red.

“I’m not looking for redemption.” The word struck me as wrong. During my rehabilitation meetings people often used it, or thanked the lord, or any number of words that felt too religious for me.

“Do as you feel you must. This one will trust that Mother had a plan, and believe that even now we are on the path.”

I nodded then walked through the doorway to Continue Online.

The game world was mostly dark. My autopilot had parked itself crossed legged with a small ball of flame cupped in both hands. It was positively Zen despite our deep forest surroundings. A half dug fire pit sat between Thorny and me.

Dusk’s ability generated fireball was deposited into the gathered kindling. [Wilderness Survival] at sixth Rank pretty much guaranteed camp related tasks would be successful. Digging pits, even minor traps. Not that trap making was a pastime of mine. I never needed it or had time while constantly traveling. Traps were for people without places to go.

My hands enjoyed the warm feel of an evening campfire. These woods were bound to get cold soon. I looked around for anything that might serve as in-game food but didn’t see much of worth. Beth might have something.

I sat back and tried to enjoy the ambiance around me for a few minutes. Sitting down to breathe beat running around. Plus seeing Dusk without daylight would be nearly impossible.

My chest started to heat. I placed a hand towards the well-made toga and found the pocket. My [Messenger’s Tube] was receiving a message at long last. I twisted off one end of the ornate cylinder to get at the contents.

Messages from the Voices came in three styles. Primarily they were rolled up letters to be delivered to other people all around [Arcadia]. Second to that were simple text where I could read it calmly. The third type came with an actual holographic image of the Voice in question.

Today was Mezo with all her curves. She floated above the note in a striking deep crimson color all over her unclothed body. I tried very hard not to admire any portion of her well-formed body.

Hermes,

I’ve been thinking of someone you can do to help. What say I convince Xin of my charms first then---

I ripped the note up and groaned in frustration. My message hadn’t been sent to any specific Voice and of course, she had to answer. The image faded away.

“Who, was that?” Beth sat from over my shoulder. I turned to see an amused grin tilted in my direction. She must have logged back in a moment ago.

My face felt redder than either woman’s skin. Reading a message from Mezo with her curves and tantalizing tone was similar to dad walking in on me during my teenage years while I watched adult entertainment. That embarrassment never got old or less awkward. Plus Beth had inherited a skin tone that looked like an even but lightly tanned sunburn.

Another message came through as the tube heated up. I sighed then twisted off the top. Out came another parchment of paper.

Hermes,

Are you still so repressed? I can feel your longing for a certain tiny---

I rapidly tore it to shreds then a third followed. The Voices had put me in a hell made of porno pop-ups in public. Beth had the good grace to laugh her brains out behind me.

Hermes,

I’m looking forward to watching you two---

“Argh!” I yelled at the latest note while my heart rate went up for multiple reasons. Mezo wasn’t wrong, but it didn’t help when the Voices seemed to believe this world was falling down. Maybe a certain red skinned Voice was simply following her impulses as well.

“Who was that?” Beth asked while fighting to suppress laughter. Her eyes were watery from amusement.

“That, was Mezo. A Voice. I call her the Temptress, but I’m not sure if she has an actual title.” I refused to use [Inspection] on her after that series of quests for [Instant Gratification].

Even thinking coherently the one time she decided to mount me had been impossibly distracting. The Voices had access to all the feedback they might want inside an ARC, which made her advances close to mental rape.

“She looked like fun,” Beth said. “But what was that part about her and Xin?”

I turned to stare at her and my niece's face actually turned redder. Both eyes closed and I had mental war with myself. Beth wasn’t ten anymore, but there were certain comments I didn’t need to hear.

The torn bits of letters fluttered away. They spiraled together as nonexistent wind wove the pieces together, then they self-immolated, burning a smoky woman bent over and beckoning towards me with one finger. Beth laughed. My reaction was much different. I wanted to log out then take a cold shower.

“Let’s not tell your mom or Xin about her,” I said. The very idea of being together with Xin did bring about a few long numbed desires.

“Have you seen my mom?” Beth said while putting a hand on one hip. My niece turned a palm upwards then continued speaking. “The first thing she does is size every guy up. That’s why I’ve never invited any boyfriends over. Thank god she avoids my ARC.”

“Yeah.” My head nodded but my heart rate was still trying to calm down. I had to focus on getting to Dusk, who should be near Wyl. Then Xin, and afterwards we could tackle the issue of intimate activities.

“So, you’ve actually talked to a Voice? I thought they were just something made up for background story.”

“They’re very, very real,” I said while blinking heavily. One hand waved at where the mess of letters had burned up. “As you can see.”

“Are they all so vivid, like that?”

“Not even. All the ones I’ve talked to are different. Some are funny, serious, mechanical, or disturbing.” I looked off to one side while trying to figure out who fell into which category. Mezo, for example, seemed to have her own separate box to fit into.

Beth, sure enough, did have food. She provided me an honest to Voices sandwich which filled me up. I relished the taste of ham and layers of mayo that my power bars couldn’t replicate. Though this meat probably wasn’t ham, it tasted too melty to be pork.

Beth smiled then pointed in the direction we had been walking. My autopilot had kindly left a dirt engraved arrow to assist with navigation. I smothered the fire then we moved through the woods for another hour.

In the middle of another fight, my niece kept on talking. I admired her ability to multitask.

“So my friend says that King Nero’s palace just sunk into a bottomless pit,” Beth said while slashing her sword at the air. A moment later singular bolts of blue energy spiraled out towards a wolf.

“What?” I said, pulling [Morrigu’s Gift] out of my own recently cleaved wolf. The beast let out a deflating yip of noise.

“I think we’re in trouble soon. We’ve been running into fewer wolves.” My niece muttered.

“Oh.” I paused for a moment to stare around then activated a fresh fireball from [Breath of Flame].

Something screeched. First one, then another until the forest felt filled with the short bursts of noise. They were leather winged monsters who were not Dusk. They were the same size as his old form and flew between trees while clicking.

“Called it!” Beth shouted while ducking under a flying creature. “Sonic Screechers!”

“What?!” I yelled over the increasing noise. Hearing anything was hard. I turned to swing at one of the tiny creatures but it dodged quickly.

“Hit them!” One of my niece's well-toned arms pointed upwards.

I followed it and studied for a moment. They were moving quickly but some of the [Sonic Screecher]s paused on tree branches where they hung by absurdly long hooks. Both eyes narrowed, they were too fast and agile for my skills, especially in the dark. [Blink] went off and I found myself falling mid-air over a [Sonic Screecher] with a two-handed version of [Morrigu’s Gift] out.

One got sliced, but the blade’s narrow edge failed to get any more monsters. I fell the fifteen feet downward and thudded. Plantlife nearby wiggled as something else burst through. Thick vines shot out and wrapped around me. [Morrigu’s Gift] twisted badly against some of them.

[Ensnarement] [1]!

Movement has been restricted. Escape mechanisms have a high chance of failure as additional layers of [Ensnarement] build up.

Continue Online proudly explained what was going on while my eyes wildly looked around. [Awareness Heightening] was trying to kick in but kept failing. My real life worn feeling was translating to an inability to focus.

The wrappings tightened around me squeezing instead of dragging me to some mouth. I felt thankful for not repeating the [Leviathan]’s innards dungeon crawl. Bits of plant roughly peeled exposed skin. My eyes focused on the two-handed form of [Morrigu’s Gift]. Its sharpened edge snapped another loop but more came out with a near hiss of movement.

“Uncle Grant!” She shouted. I tried to turn my head but had mostly been bound. The vines knocked me over. My eyes scrambled for a spot to [Blink] to.

[Ensnarement] caused [Blink] to fail!

A box vibrated out of the corner of my eye. I growled at it and jerked my head around. My [Brawn] was over three hundred and fifty, my [Coordination] over two hundred and fifty, such a lame set of loops shouldn’t have been able to pin me!

Beth didn’t look any better. The bats had successfully distracted us from a bigger threat. Her sword couldn’t cut against the edges.

My health had dropped below half and the [Sonic Screecher]s were hanging around waiting for us to die. [Blink] went off with the fourth attempt, and all the bats were startled into motion.

Something knocked again and the earth shuddered. Vines and bats that had overwhelmed us withdrew. Beth snapped her sword through the air with a frustrated yell. Bolts of light zipped off without a target, burning, freezing, and melting plant life all around.

“What was that!?” My niece looked wide eyed at the bushes nearby.

“You didn’t hear that knocking?” I asked while huffing myself. My recent freedom had included a vague plan to save the day with vicious leaping at vines or slashing wildly.

“No! I don’t hear the knocking!” She threw up her hands. “And monsters don’t just stop attacking!”

The few vines we had managed to chop off or scorch were sitting on the floor. They rapidly turned brown and I stared at the bushes watching for a sign of enemies.

“Arrrgghhhhh. And of course there’s my alarm.” Beth stomped around looking like we wrecked her favorite doll by accident. “Argh. Sorry, Uncle Grant, I’ve got to log out. Mom will cut me off if I don’t get out of the ARC for homework and sleep.”

She valued completing school over helping me rescue an NPC. I felt oddly proud of her ability to prioritize but wondered which one of us had more questionable ethics. Beth at least knew we were trying to get to an in-game friend for a quest, at least I remembered talking about it as we walked.

“Are you going to catch up later?” I asked.

“I’ll try. I’d like to see Xin in the game. To-” Her forehead wrinkled slightly and Beth started chewing one lip. Voices help my family, the nervous habit was genetic. “-well I want to talk to her. The whole thing with her is weird, and I want to see what she says.”

“It is weird, and I understand.”

Beth’s character pulled out a scroll then shoved one thumb at the parchment. She twisted it and purple runes flared to life. The avatar vanished in a streak of light.

I looked around at the bushes and trees waiting for something to rustle, but nothing did. At least now I could move at my own speed, [Blink] and all. My path lay forward. A few dead [Sonic Screecher]s lay to the rear. They would eventually fade away or be eaten by those constricting vines.

My head shook. This was a world with its own rules. Monsters coming from nowhere then vanishing away didn’t have to make sense when I recalled it was a video game.

The Temptress’ comments floated by my brain again. I wanted to be with Xin. There had to be some weird partial existence in which we could meet or cohabitate. It would great if we could hang in the ARC’s Atrium and watch a movie like old times. We could pretend to be one of those long distance couples using virtual reality to fill in the gaps. Our little home in cyberspace with whatever sized house we desired.

I could find a neat program to outer space. We could go to virtual Mars. We could find a bed and maybe prove Mezo’s words of me being a prude wrong for a week or six. All of those would be awesome. Xin. Where was she right now?

Another set of the stupid bats attacked. This one was easily bigger than normal. I waved my arm at the small creature to keep it from clawing my head with those leather wings. Chirping noises filled my ears and I prepared to draw out [Morrigu’s Gift].

A ball of fire came to in front of my face setting me backward. My brain tried to put two and two together and only came up with a fire-breathing bat.

Large wings batted in front of me carrying a slim body. Dusk was far bigger than a bat. Nighttime forest traveling had played a trick on my ability to react.

Dusk’s body glittered from the ball of fire in my hand. Small flakes of gold were more obvious as he hung there chirping in his weird catbird mixture.

“Hi, Dusk,” I said slowly. My hand had [Morrigu’s Gift] at the ready. “You scared me. Is Wyl okay?”

Dusk chirped once then turned. His body took three long leaps before flying away. I held onto the ball of fire with one hand lifted up and [Blink]ed alongside the [Messenger’s Pet]. There were no monsters in the darkness to keep us company.

My black and gold buddy led us into a small cluster of trees. Wyl lay in the middle of two, vaguely sheltered between their thick trunks. The ground was stained with a deep crimson color. [Sonic Screecher] corpses were piled next to wolves.

“Voices.” I uttered while Dusk chirped and spun nearby. His larger claws dug into the dirt. “He’s not doing good.”

Wyl groaned then tried to sit up. “I’ve seen better days, convict.”

“Hermes, please.” I tried to smile but Wyl looked terrible. His clothing had blood all over it. There were signs of a struggle that hadn’t been there while I drove home. Dead bat creatures littered the area along with a few brown vine ends.

“Well you’re not Carver, that’s for sure.” He huffed while trying to sit up.

“That I am not.” I have only a few traits in common with William Carver. Living up to his adventurous spirit had been hard to manage in the last few months.

“Old coot.” He snorted while failing to stay upright. I put an arm under his shoulder to help lift. “I thought he was stubborn enough to live forever. He was an old man even when I was young. Figured he’d keep right on going.”

“I’m really bad with first aid,” I told Wyl while bypassing talk of William Carver.

“I may die too, from these wounds. Like your buddy, that snake eyed fellow, he died too. Right after the quake that double soulless bastard shattered to pieces.”

“He had two sons and a wife.” Those were the same words I had yelled at the Voices in my Atrium. They came out again with less venom than before. Wyl didn’t know, to this wounded man we were all people who had visited some sort of crime upon his world.

“Why come to this hell if you’ve got a family?” Each word came out faintly with a drag. He looked pale from blood loss. “Why taint our world with more problems?”

How on earth could I tell this man that he suffered because we were playing a game? NPCs were my last real hang up about this universe, even knowing they had an afterlife like William Carver did. That river of forgetfulness where memories which plagued the living might be gradually scrubbed clean.

I felt the scar on my neck then shook my head.

“Wyl, I’ll figure out something, we can get you home to Dayl.” The man needed something to hang onto. “He’ll be helpless without you. You son did nothing but repeat what you told him.”

The man’s eyes blinked slowly. Wyl lay there against the tree and stared off into the middle distance. The former guard captain’s chest rose and fell slowly. For a moment, the movement stopped.

“I miss my boy,” He said gently.