My body was unstable and there were no [Red Imp] wings to right me. [Awareness Heightening] gave me a slow motion view of the world spinning below. As I fell downwards with [Morrigu’s Gift] ready, I wondered how insane this would look to anyone who didn’t play the game.

There were times I worried these events were a dream. Was I just lying in the ARC having some fantasy where everything wrong in my life was slowly being fixed? A broken man like me going from previously suicidal with a dead fiancée and unborn child to Hermes felt that unreal.

Regardless, I felt alive. This place was more than computer code being pumped through my senses. My mind stopped wondering about sanity and focused on fighting.

Below me the giant screamed in slow motion. Beth’s sword slashed through air creating glowing streaks. Her form stood out brightly as I hit the creature’s body. Pain rippled up my legs and certainly felt real.

[Morrigu’s Gift] dug into its chest and I slipped downward. The beast screamed and reeled back. [Awareness Heightening] once again showed it’s broken properties because I had enough time to calmly stand up on its nearly vertical body. Both feet gained purchase. Side effects of prolonged usage would include nausea, vomiting and possible loss of consciousness. This monster would die first. I intended to give everything I had to ensure that.

“Keep hitting it!” I shouted. The beast didn’t bleed, but it burned away in chunks. [Morrigu’s Gift] pulled out of flesh with a searing flash of light. Dark flakes of shadow skin flew around like confetti in a parade, flaring up as they vanished like flaming paper.

The beast started to right itself. [Blink] was off cooldown. I grabbed my other weapon in a slow motion hustle then leapt backward with its sway. My body hung in the air before [Blink] put me behind the shadow man’s head. My giant enemy had no real brains and only a basic aggressive pattern. Given a Rank, this beast would be fifteen at most. Even then only because of its size and insane health, supposing such a monster could even be killed.

Inertia carried me into its neck where I jabbed down both weapons. In real time, none of this would have been possible. I couldn’t fight giant monsters based on pure reactions. Not over a giant pit of endless abyss that represented a hole in the virtual world of Continue Online. But Hermes, the man I laid in the ARC dreaming about being certainly had the abilities.

Both blades dug in. I alternated stabbing them rapidly as a pound pulsing filled both ears. [Awareness Heightening] was starting to take its toll. My chest hurt a little. I had to pray that we could drive it back before the creature got bigger.

Wait, it was smaller now, wasn’t it? Beth’s balls of multicolored energy were zipping around. Three swam together and formed a spinning bolt that cut through the air. A rainbow of colors splashed off the beast's side and more embers of burning shadow flesh fluttered away.

The creature was losing size. The pit beneath me seemed bottomless and I couldn’t tell where the legs actually were. I stabbed again while screaming in frustration.

“Hit it with the biggest spell you’ve got!” Awesome Jr. shouted.

“Casting! Fifteen seconds left!” My niece responded with an equal level of excitement. The two of them sounded like this was a roller coaster of epic proportions while I was fighting against something that might destroy the world.

Did they really not know? Of course they wouldn’t. They couldn’t be aware yet that Miz Riley had somehow killed Mother and the world would be crashing because of it. My gut clenched again as I reared back to stab at the large man’s neck.

“You can use that sword to cast!? That’s so-“ His words were drowned out as my eardrums were boxed. The other huge hand slammed into me like I was a bug biting its neck. My teeth slammed into the giant man’s surprisingly solid neck. [Awareness Heightening] faded with a jarring sensation.

System Error Diminishing!

We’ve determined Hermes is a potential pancake!

Total Health Remaining: 40%

The world abruptly went sideways as a giant hand tried to slide me off. My body flew through the air as if I had been unwelcome bird shit to be slung away in disgust. The pit's edge came up quickly and I only had enough sanity to put both weapons into my player inventory storage so they wouldn’t be dropped.

My side slammed into the wall. One arm went numb. The other fingers scrambled for a handhold. Rock around me crumbled into the pit below. My feet kicked at the edge in panic. How far down did I have to fall before being subject to possible deletion?

I lost the hold and started to fall. The world was moving too fast now. [Blink] activated and put me midair where I fell into the ground again. Fresh pain reported in from my face and feet. Toes ached and my ankle refused to stand. I needed more skills, heals, or a regeneration ability.

Light went off on one side of the pit. Beth stood in front of a set of six cut circles. Her face dripped in sweat. The large creature was rearing back an arm to hit the young woman. I scrambled to stand up but the recently damaged leg gave out. My mind's desire to override ARC signals and stand anyway met with failure.

[Blink] had four seconds left. The creature's arm moved fast. Awesome Jr. threw one of his weird concoctions and a pile of green goo expanded into the air like a slimy airbag. Its swinging limb slowed to a brief stop. It jerked once, then twice. The mess of materials Awesome had released was going to fail.

I took a breath, pulled out [Morrigu’s Gift] then [Blink]ed again. My body tumbled into its new position. Everything ached but there was no choice other than to grit my teeth and bare it.

Beth’s face looked haggard. Casting those spells must have taken a lot of energy out of her. Otherwise her health was fine. I refused to let the arm hit her, though. The idea of this former little girl being in pain on my watch washed away some of the pain.

Dusk’s gift came in two forms. One required me softly catching a ball of flame that came out of my mouth. The other made me feel like a comical virtual dragon shooting fireballs out. Maybe in Advance Online I could have stuck to the Gatling Laser. I looked at the shaking hand and wondered how the beast was so stupid it couldn’t figure out how to use its other arm.

Maybe destruction programs weren’t required to have intelligence. It didn’t look like the sort of being that might suddenly drop everything and wonder why there was a need to delete. Plus, we had no luxury to wait for an existential crisis.

The man’s face pointed straight at Beth. There was no doubt that it would go straight through me and slam into her. What other tools did I have to stop that blow? I could have taken [Wings of The Messenger] and flown around to distract it, but no, I had a few other hopes.

A shuddering breath passed through while trying to ignore the ARC’s feedback of pain. My throat swallowed then bulged weirdly as [Breath of Flame] activated. Without my hand to catch it the ball of fire shot out much like Dusk’s did. Fire pelted into the shadow creature’s face while Beth made three more slashes behind me.

“Awesome!”

Its head stayed locked on Beth. I took another slow breath and another ball of fire seared a path outward. I swallowed afterward and it felt like I hadn’t had any water in days.

“Awesome! I love this game!” The young male declared again. Another potion crashed into the arm and weird yellow looking lightning caused the monster’s arm to jerk uncontrollably. “I don’t know how long these stuns will hold!”

One more ball of fire went out before I had nothing left. Messages came up citing [Hoarse] and [Winded]. Dusk cranked these things ceaselessly out and a few left me gasping.

“Got it!” Beth shouted as lights brightened up the night. Six total circles had been cut into the sky. Each one mixed together her green, light blue and scarlet spell schools.

The arm shook loose of goo and continued a path straight towards my niece. I slammed a foot down and activated [Power Armor] once more. My robe flowed and joined together with my hat. The clinks of metal swam over my arms and legs. [Morrigu’s Gift] pulled out in its two-handed form. I flipped it sideways and braced for impact as the impossibly huge arm slammed into my body.

“I’m out!” Awesome Jr. shouted.

This damned monster was trying to close line me like I was some toddler in its way. Boots dug into the ground. Jarring rippled every portion of my damaged body. My ankle threatened to buckle. This stupid health bar started dropping rapidly for every second I strained to lean against the arm's force.

“Beth!” I almost screamed coherently between clenched teeth.

“It’s going!” She shouted.

I heard a sharpening hum. Light flared and the creature gave one more roar. The pressure on my arms fell away and I stumbled. My body turned just enough to see the creature’s chest with large holes poking through.

[Barricade] sustained for ten seconds against a creature over 8000% larger

[Barricade] Rank 5 or higher

Skill added; [Immovable Object]

I fell forward into the messages. They shattered through my visor and vanished into a splash of light. The armor slowly slid away and someone started running over. Their footsteps were drowned out by my beating heart.

The beast was sinking into its pit while groaning out loud. A hand sat there curled in a claw of protest as the sinking continued. Finally, no part of the beast of shadows remained. A bottle was being shoved into my face to drink. My eyes were locked on the pit where our attacker's entry into the world refused to close up. It sat there like an ugly scar on the land of [Arcadia]. A notice that even if we fought our actions would do nothing more than stave off eventual destruction.

“Drink this, Hermes. It’ll help.” The young man said.

Cool liquid soothed my throat as it went down. Awesome Jr. was cradling my head and trying to lift me up. My head throbbed and everything hurt. His potion filled part of my health bar and one or two pains went away. I still felt dizzy and nothing was in focus.

The thought occurred to me again. These small abyssal holes wouldn’t close up.

“I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve ever fought.”

“I’ve fought bigger.” I thought of the eyeball on that [Leviathan]. It had been absolutely insane in size. Putting our recent combat into perspective helped me move easier. Some of the fog lifted from my head. It might have been Awesome Jr.’s potion.

“How did you get here so fast?” My breath was running short. One foot shuffled in front of the other as I looked over the edge. Part of me was terrified a grasping hand would come up in some sort of overtime boss fight, but nothing happened. Only black emptiness existed down there.

I took a breath as another scary thought occurred to me. Was that pit which had tried to swallow us all part of the fear that King Nero had before? He spoke of a black abyss of sorts. Did he mean deletion? Or did the Voices bring him back with a healthy fear of what may come? Deletion would be death to a digital creature.

“There’s a trail of destruction through the woods, plus nothing tried to stop me. I picked off a few of the wolves for easy skills.” Beth said.

My head slowly turned around to see my niece. She wore a proud look. I smiled weakly and kept huffing.

“That was some spell.” I tried to give credit where it was due. “And those potions helped.” My hand turned to a weak thumbs up for the young man.

“Yeah! Wow, I wish I could learn real magic. That would be awesome. Or that sword, or those movement things. I’m jealous. You’re even better with them than last time.”

“I’ve had some practice since then. But how did you even get here?” I stared at the other man.

“I found her. I and the others split up, you remember them right? SweetPea, HotPants”

“And Shadow.” I nodded. James had mentioned there were a ton of players named Shadow around this world.

“Yeah. It’s awesome.” He muttered. A second later he flinched and looked behind him, but no one was there. The movement made me laugh, he probably expected HotPants to bonk him on the head. Part of me expected it too after seeing that very scene multiple times.

“Convict, are you alive!?” A rougher sounding male shouted further away.

“It’s Hermes!” I put one hand high into the air and waved it back and forth. Wyl and I needed to have a serious talk. We all did, about this event with the pit and what roles we had all been assigned. “We’re all clear!”

Wyl walked slowly in our direction, and the three of us met him halfway. He stared at the ground in wonder while shaking his head. Around us, the formerly lush forest was missing huge swaths of trees. Roots were left behind in clumps and dirt had almost been sheared off at a completely flat angle.

“Someone needs to tell me what happened.”

“A giant monster.” Awesome Jr. leapt into the conversation. “Hermes here was fighting it, I haven’t seen anyone take that kind of damage in a long time.”

“Yeah. That last blow, I thought for sure we were fucked.” Beth said with a briefly confusing curse word. I raised an eyebrow at her and my niece managed to look down and blush slightly.

“I know some of it, but anything I share will sound insane, and we need to get somewhere safe.” My head tilted and eyes scanned around. There was no knocking or other signs of wildlife.

“Does this have to do with Auntie?” Beth asked from behind me. Her face pinched a bit around the eyes.

I tried to smile for her. It felt fake but the system gave me a notice about my [Acting] skills kicking in. Maybe that’s how I got them in the first place, by being good at pretending everything was alright.

“You’re hiding something,” Beth said. “I can tell.”

“Now’s not really the time, and we’ve got a long road ahead of us.”

Both the teens tried to get information out of me after that. I couldn’t bring myself to answer. That fight had been hell and everything ached. Their constant stream of questions were ignored and eventually they started talking among themselves about their characters.

Wyl walked along slowly parallel to me. His eyes kept turning towards the other two and his face would scrunch up. Each time the sickening feeling in my gut grew. I tried to distract myself with thoughts of Xin and ways to grow as a player.

What would I do if we fought one of those monsters together? Would she have the strength to combat them on her character? Could we escape anywhere safely if those things were following me? That knocking sound sure had stayed centered nearby the entire time.

Hours later and Wyl stopped walking as fast. Awesome Jr. said we should make a camp and I couldn’t bring myself to argue. It was late in the night back in reality. Beth should have been asleep but she had pushed through. Wyl couldn’t last much longer.

Dusk was the only one who seemed to have boundless energy. He winged around a few more laps even once we stopped to make camp. I set about the fire while Beth pulled out food. At some point, I ended up sitting down while staring at a small but warm fire. Crumbs from a sandwich sat in my hand.

Wyl sat off to one side and started sharpening a sword. I thought it was the same one he had stolen from a player back at the [Abyss of Light]. He seemed to be very skilled at disarming people and stealing their weapons.

“Here, let me do that.” The younger man said to Wyl. “I take care of the weapons and armor for my group, so I’ve got a lot of practice.”

“What’s your skill at?” Thorny asked over the soft grinding noise.

Wyl chose not to respond and handed the sword over. The young teen and his ugly green cloak sat there calmly inspecting the blade for nicks. He lifted it to eye level, one hand on the hilt as the blade rested across the back of his arm.

“Five, as of last week. I ended up polishing an entire stockpile of items for Shadow’s little army.” He said while squinting.

“An army? Your guild member has an army?”

“Oh yeah. The League of Shadows. I kid you not, an army of players named Shadow, or stuff close.” Awesome Jr. smiled as he set down the blade. Cloth and a tiny whetstone came out of his player inventory. “ All of them are like, vigilante justice player killers who are hell-bent on making sure no guilds try to monopolize dungeons and stuff.”

I watched them talk while feeling absolutely numb. Dusk stalked around the fire a few times staring into its depths before wandering over. His face looked a bit haggard and nicks showed up in multiple places.

“Seriously? That guy is in charge of all of them?”

“Yeah. But some are like, ShadeX or Nightfall, or other stupid names. They’ve got close to two hundred players in the guild, nearly all with sneaking skills or rogues. A month ago, before we joined up, they dismantled the entire High Rollers leadership in four days.” Awesome paused his weapon caretaking and lifted one hand. It crossed his neck with a cutting motion as his tongue stuck out to the side. “They snuck into their base and offed players and autopilots alike then kept griefing them for four Earth days.”

“Jeez.” Beth whistled. She knew exactly what questions to ask. My own method of dealing with other players had devolved to smile, nod, and hand them a letter.

Fingers clasped over the tube for a moment. There were no messages inside or in my inventory. Based on what that Voice of Faith and Sanctuary had said, most of them were probably busy trying to keep the world from falling apart. Except for Mezo anyway, it made sense that she might not care at all. It was the end of the world and she was probably trying to convince all the other Voices to join her in a lust filled hurrah.

“But still, getting an army of players? Was that a unique quest? How did they even agree to that?” My niece scooted closer with an excited look.

My eyes closed briefly and I wondered what SweetPea might think. Beth and her were clearly different people. Girls got jealous often didn’t they? I didn’t remember that ever being a problem with Xin. How would she feel finding out I had tried to date someone once after her passing? Such thoughts kept me silent and introspective while the other two chatted away.

“I guess. I think it started from his old trainer from Haven Valley, plus that guy is like, always online grinding out skills while SweetPea and I have to go to school.” He shrugged then put away the stone and inspected Wyl’s sword once more. “HotPants might know more, but I think she was doing some monk training style stuff. Like, zen waterfall face the sunrise stuff. God knows she could use meditation.”

“Really?” Beth pulled out another chunk of food and offered it around. Wyl shook his head slightly, but Dusk felt comfortable enough to take a bit from her hand.

“Yeah. She’s angry like, all the time.” Awesome Jr. kept talking and flipped the sword over. “The game even changed her hair color because of the prolonged rage usage. Apparently if you hold onto rage abilities for more than an hour it starts shifting to red? I dunno. I can’t get upset enough to trigger it.”

I wondered if Wyl even remembered Awesome Jr. The young babbling teen hadn’t been one of his charges. Shadow and HotPants had. Either way, none of it seemed to trigger a reaction of out the guard captain. Likewise Awesome Jr. didn’t pry about Wyl’s current situation so far from home.

It felt weird. Almost like the guard captain was extremely annoyed with Travelers. How exactly had he ended up as a convict caretaker? Dealing with people who committed crimes against people in his world might have only been the latest leg of a series of turns.

“Yeah. I have another friend who follows a berserker path, at Rank five they get an aura, and at like twenty it’ll light up a room and they start grinding their teeth.” Beth said while waving her hands.

They kept talking back and forth about game mechanics and my own mind continued to drift. Wyl looked like he was lost watching the other Travelers talk, then walked over near me and conked out six feet away. I stared at the back of his head and sighed. Locals couldn’t keep up with Travelers in terms of energy. We could go for days in their view of things.

Dusk too had fallen asleep at some point across my legs. He reminded me of Mister Sniffles, who had used to sleep next to me in bed when I was small. I could have logged out but wanted to sit here and think.

I held the blade in my hand and stared at it. My gift from William Carver. The [Red Imp] inherited abilities of [Blink] and [Awareness Heightening]. My two skills from [Gait of Bowmen]. Those tools were damned near perfect for the fighting style I had engaged in. A hand crept up to my throat and felt at it. [Breath of Flame] was another strangely useful item. Did the online world adapt them to me, or did I learn to use the skills given? Had the Voices known what abilities to give me in anticipation?

What about [NPC Conspiracy]? They had given me an ability that might be truly broken and put limited uses on it. There were reasons behind these things that didn’t make any sense.

Xin wasn’t here, but we would meet soon. Wyl was okay. I lay back and tried not to doze off completely. Some players, like Requiem, could sleep while logged into the ARC. I always preferred to disconnect completely.

Awesome Jr. was sitting near the fire facing sideways. He had two more vials of liquid out and shook them every few seconds.

“So, do you have a way to get to Xin?” I finally asked. Beth and Awesome Jr. had been sending tells back and forth regarding this before.

“We should be able to meet at the Mire, in about a day or two.”

Walking more didn’t interest me. Especially not if I could pass out and meet my fiancée again upon waking. Work could be easily put off. Maybe I should finally quit and tell my boss it was his fault for getting me this game.

“Can I autopilot? I need sleep.” I asked.

“Sure. I know I’ve got to log back out before my mom catches me. I think I can get another few hours of rest, Uncle Grant, you stay safe okay?”

“Of course, munchkin.”

Beth’s face puffed up and Awesome Jr. tightened his lips in a suppressed smile. A moment later my nieces’ face went slack as the autopilot kicked in. I wondered once again what the difference was between William Carver’s version that had spoken to me once and player versions. They operated under the same principle right?

“We should be okay for the two days.” Awesome Jr. said while fiddling with potions. There was a small pop as gas shot into the air. Whatever it was made the teen pause to smile. “My classes are in the afternoon so I’ll stay around and watch. I’m going to throw down a Potion of Safe Passage. The smell will drive away any monster spawns.”

“Okay.” I turned to Dusk. Fingers genially scratched behind his ears and the small guy yawned without opening his eyes. “Cupcakes,” I whispered. “Cupcakesss.”

He sniffed once then lifted up to look around. Tiny dragonish claws dug into my calf which made me tense. The [Messenger’s Pet] stood up and stretched before looking at me.

“Are you okay watching my autopilot?” I asked. He had never objected to keeping an eye on me before but asking felt polite to the smart little guy. We only reunited recently.

The [Messenger’s Pet] rippled with an early morning shudder then chirped. Above his head floated the very clear picture of cupcakes and donuts.

“There are some in my Atrium, just try not to fall asleep this time, okay? And do you remember how to use the trash can?”

He nodded slowly then blatted a ball of fire. We probably weren’t talking about the same method.

“That’s awesome,” He said.

“No, awesome’s your father,” I responded with a smile.

“You did that last time too. You know all these things even though we’ve only met a few times. Is it a skill, or are you stalking us?”

“Sort of, and no. I don’t have time to stalk people.” My statement was sort of misleading. I did have the admin access to all their ARC devices while in the Trillium van. It was possible to find out information regarding pretty much anyone I wanted to.

Using it meant I wasn’t playing the game, and right now I needed to keep my life in order until I found Xin. Two days away, one night’s sleep. I could wake up and log in, then hopefully see her smiling face waiting for me.

Awesome Jr. hesitated a moment before asking, “Can you explain more? I don’t want to pry, but it sounds like we’re missing something important. I thought maybe you just didn’t want to explain it in front of family.”

“No. I try to be an open book, but I don’t really want to cover it more than once. It’s crazy enough, so let's wait until we all meet up. Maybe being with Xin will help,” I said. Would the Voices stop me from talking about my insider knowledge? It didn’t make sense that they would. In theory, they would welcome all the help we could muster.

“I guess that’s fair. They should be meeting with us in two days. Do you think we’ll see more of those monsters?”

I tilted my head and listened for the knocking sound. There didn’t seem to be any noises. Dusk looked undisturbed. Wyl still slept, being worn out from the day’s travels. Sunrise wasn’t far away. The real world was near three in the morning and I couldn’t last much longer myself.

“No. I think we’re okay for a little while.” My words managed to remain stable. I felt like we were going in circles. My thoughts sat on their small list of priorities. Help Wyl get home, find Xin. Enjoy the end of virtual reality together until we had an obvious way through this.

I swallowed and tried not to miss the feeling of her in my arms. We could have been camping together if I hadn’t been made a damned prisoner. Yet, becoming a [Convict] was what allowed me to pass the Voice’s trial and allow Genesis in the first place. If it was really needed and hadn’t been a test.

“Autopilot it is. See you on the other side.” Awesome Jr. waved once then the Traveler’s body went sort of pastel in color. Life faded a bit from behind the avatar's eyes and it started packing up items from about the campfire. I had been too lost in my own thoughts to say goodbye in time.

System Notice!

Please be aware of the following. Due to not having an active quest or being in a dungeon the autopilot will follow discussed goals. Your autopilot will attempt to complete these goals giving priority to those items listed at the top. Actual results may vary. Current priorities are as follows;

Protect Wyl until [Haven Valley]

Reach travel destination with Awesome Jr.

“Oh,” I muttered to myself. This is the first time there had ever been a series of goals actually pop up. All these months playing and normally my autopilot simply worked on getting to the next letter. Normally each letter gave me a quest.

Wyl mumbled in his sleep but barely stirred. His face looked wet and I pretended not to notice. We both carried grief, and I was afraid his was far more fresh than mine.

“Add finding Xin, keeping my niece safe, then stopping those game destroying monsters,” I said. The goals were a bit far out there for a virtual world. Still, Beth could feel pain if monsters got her and letting that happen wasn’t in my nature. While I wasn’t her father no one else came closer.

Family meant more to me than anything. That especially included Xin. The list reformed slightly. Keeping Wyl safe was still pretty high on my priorities and I felt satisfied that his life weighed above the other tasks. Though, it felt weird to place priority on a digital existence that I had only known for a month. William Carver would have wanted it and his weapon had helped me thus far.

I had fought that monster and survived. I think the old man would have been proud of his choice to entrust me with his legacy. One hand slid over [Morrigu’s Gift] as I watched over Wyl for another few minutes before sleep won out.