Three days later, as counted outside the ARC, I was in a much different situation. My wife had left me, because [Haven Valley] needed extra manpower and moving quickly mattered. I was nearly starving in both virtual reality and the real one. Plus I was now literally up to my ass in alligators. These [Crazed Saw Tooth Snapper]s were almost as bad as the [Heavenly Body Clones].

“Some help you are!” I yelled at Dusk while swinging [Morrigu’s Gift].

Dusk was now roughly a foot long and hissing right next to my ear. Small ineffective fireballs lashed out with hisses between each flame. His claws were digging into toga and flesh for anchorage while I moved. He kept trying to drive the smaller flat lizard creatures back. Their bodies were covered in ridges and bodies blended perfectly with the dead mucky terrain.

“I don’t have enough yet!”

Three snapped from different directions. Water sloshed all around. Hisses from behind had me worried about stepping backward blindly. Large jaws set upon one arm [Power Armor] barely flickered into place quickly enough to brace against the crushing pain. One of the long alligator looking monsters hung off my arm while I spun around, using it like a painful club.

“Die! Just die!” I shouted while slashing another two of the monsters apart. [Morrigu’s Gift] sat in its two-handed form in my other hand. Holding it with one hand strained my wrist. I started punching the [Crazed Saw Tooth Snapper] on my arm. Health caved while my wrist was being crushed by powerful jaws.

The monster’s eyes crossed as I slammed it with my pummel a third time. Flesh and gooey eyes oozed as I shook it off. Additional hisses came out and I heard teeth clamping together. I [Blink]ed to a vaguely clear spot then surveyed the madness.

More flopped through shallow waters. It looked like the swamp was writhing in agitation. All of this was Dusk’s fault. First his new and improved form gave way which left me falling rapidly to the ground. Apparently the side effect of being [Empowered] was a reduction in state of equal measure. [Blink] and reduced fall damage kept me alive and in this swamp from hell.

Hecate: How’s it going out there?

[Crazed Saw Tooth Snapper]s surged toward me in a mob. Killing them simply drew more in from all over. I felt soaked in liquid and couldn’t tell which parts were swamp mud, sweat, or blood. Fighting raiders was almost easier. These mindless beasts showed no hesitation, acting like piranhas trying to feast on my digital flesh.

“Terrible!” I screamed at the pop-up box while twisting my blades around.

Teeth nipped my calf. Part of a pinky was missing. [Bug Repellant] would wear off soon and turn this mess into an even worse nightmare. I cut at another pair of beady eyes and glimpsed them lose focus as I separated head from body. These monsters were too damn short. Attacking any of them felt like trying to stab the ground unless they leapt up at me.

The counter was getting closer to where it needed to be. Only four more kills and I would have enough to activate [Mechanical Hades Crown]. TWo more went down quickly. I [Blink]ed to a new spot and drove the blade into a creatures hide. My body slipped as it thrashed around.

“Got it!” I yelled happily while struggling to get upright again. Dusk’s head perked up and he tucked into folds of the toga. His small body twisted around as he rolled up fabric to avoid sliding.

Teeth snapped and I started shouting the stupid [Lithium] chant needed for activation. The brief thought made my forehead pulse with irritation. I swore never to use spoken spells after hearing Requiem use his special moves. Now that I had one of my own, I was willing to make the sacrifice. There was no time to touch both weapons to my forehead while dodging.

“Mechanical God of the Underworld, lend me your ear!” What I imagined saying and what actually came out were two different things. My voice turned to indecipherable words. I had to trust in the system’s translation of my words to [Lithium]. “Gathered are these forgotten souls, grant me leave to release them to a final task before crossing the veil! Empower Morrigu’s Gift, Empower Morrigu’s Echo!”

I kept up the chant through to completion while working toward a solid piece of land to stand upon. Dull gray lights shot out from around my head and whirled around my body before landing on each blade. Jaws snapped at me as the weight in both hands doubled. I thanked the game for an insane level of [Brawn] but still strained to pick my blades off the ground.

This was a good spot. I lifted both blades and kicked off the ground with one foot then started spinning. Centrifugal force pulled both blades. My grip struggled to keep them tight but the added mass actually helped me spin faster. My foot kicked automatically, mimicking a dance move for lighter people. One where normally arms were held overhead or tight. I kept pulling both blades back in then letting them slip again. The blades thudded into multiple objects but my twisting feet kept right on turning.

The world itself went in circles. Landscape tilted into new positions every time I blinked. [Awareness Heightening] gave me still shots of these [Crazed Saw Tooth Snapper] in different positions. One came out of the water toward me, another three crawled over each other. A sixth spread jaws wide to grab me. In the next pass, they were in pieces while more took their place. In another two spins, those were also broken apart while the first batch looked like giblets.

The weight tearing at elbows and shoulders dropped. I heaved my chest and tried to come out of the spin properly. Dizziness tried to tip me but I staggered into position. Pain radiated from everywhere and I tried not to consider what had happened too much. Soon I would log out of the ARC and be free of this gross landscape and mud which squished between my sandals.

I took rapid breaths and tried to steady myself. [Morrigu’s Gift] and [Morrigu’s Echo] were lighter than ever. Both sat clutched to my chest in dagger form while my feet balanced carefully upon uneven ground. That move made me dizzy and I felt numb. Vision wobbled as I scanned the dead bodies for signs of movement. Dusk chirped in an ear and I tried to ignore him and hear the swamp.

Trees all around were mowed down. Bushes were chopped to bits. Dead carcasses from [Crazed Saw Tooth Snapper]s were in even more pieces than they had been. Portions of the dirt were torn and shredded. Water rushed in to fill new grooves.

No enemies showed up, and the small notification telling me of active combat faded. I waited a few seconds then put both shapeshifting items into my belt. One hand poked at the air for food. Physical hunger and in-game satiety were pushing even harder to make me unsteady. One of them needed to be solved.

“Okay.” I nodded. “Much better.”

Dusk wriggled and crawled out of my toga. He had been hiding in a ripple next to the [Messenger’s Tube]. That marked the third usage of my new special move. There was no name tied to it. [Empowerment] gave me a long desired boost to both blades, turning their sheer size, mass, and destructive power to new heights. Hopefully, people watching in the audience enjoyed seeing a middle-aged man in a toga performing a pirouette with giant oversized blades.

“It’s almost worth having to chant Lithium. Almost,” I muttered to myself.

The move was far cooler and more awkward than Requiem’s teardrop black hole nonsense.

Honestly, I didn’t know if he could even use the ability anymore. Technically that skill had been removed when his character was reverted back to default. However, in the last three months Requiem had been busy pursuing all sorts of leftover quests and grinding out similar skills to what he had before his reset. In a few months, the player had regained half his original strength and capabilities. I could tell because spying on his account was still available while I sat in the Trillium van. Only now he had a giant demon with a [Contract].

Tracking Requiem down proved to be a pain in the rear. The young man moved quickly, toward a destination I didn’t know about. The Voices assured me he was headed toward a mystery section of [Arcadia] that they had been blind to until a few days ago.

I stopped and took a moment to type out my responses to Xin.

Hermes: Sorry, I was distracted by large teeth. Someone forgot to drain the swamp.

Hecate: That was your job, wasn’t it?

Hermes: Maybe. It’s drained now, and I think every alligator, thing, for miles is now laying in pieces.

Hecate: Uh oh. How many?

Hermes: All of them. All of them are dead. I only know they’re all dead because nothing’s trying to eat my face anymore.

Hecate: You’re still in those swamps, right? Awesome Jr. tells me there’s a monster called the King Fang Fisher out there.

Hermes: I’m not going to like this, am I?

Hecate: It’s attracted to dead monsters. Part of the zone’s special murder you tactics. Don’t look up.

The dim shadow being cast down upon us moved and for a moment, I disregarded the change in light. It felt like a sunny day opening up. My eyes scanned over Xin’s message rapidly while I tried to understand. I looked up.

There was something absolutely huge with wings in the air above. The brief glance I had before absently typing to my wife revealed a mile long bird with a mottled green pterodactyl’s body.

Hermes: Shit.

Hecate: What?

I held still and hoped the creature about wouldn’t notice me. Thankfully Xin wasn’t out here. I preferred she stay behind for a multitude of reasons. First, the place was gross. This swampland went on for endless miles and ever since Dusk’s [Empowerment] failed we had been stuck walking. My toes were caked with mush and a smell unbefitting humanity assaulted my nostrils.

Second, Requiem and I had a history that involved a lot of abuse and backstabbing. The moments were not proud ones. I had been deliberately rude and spiteful to another human being with the purpose of getting them to quit, die to monsters, or kill him personally. None of those were actions I really enjoyed. I rationalized them, they made sense to me at the time as needed, but it was like acting in a villain’s role.

The bird noticed me. Or it noticed the dead bodies and started diving. Its head tilted and one white beady eye locked on. I looked down and concentrated on running away. [Blink] got me another thirty yards.

The shadow grew denser and a low hum came from overhead. I dove to the side with a second [Blink] then tried to gain distance. A mile of dead [Crazed Saw Tooth Snappers] and destroyed shrubs lay all around me. We had been fighting them back and moving around for far too long. Both legs burned as I stumbled through sticky swamp and over bisected bodies. There was no time to care about loot or picking up hides. Despite my escape, the shadow loomed closer. This monster was huge, absolutely overwhelmingly huge.

My third reason for having Xin stay behind had to do with her safety. In [Haven Valley], Xin would be next to the portal. She could venture into the great beyond without much delay. Running from a giant angry bird intent upon scooping dead bodies up felt counterproductive to safety. A message from my wife floated off to one side. I managed to type a response quickly.

Hecate: You looked up, didn’t you? :]

Hermes: Angryyybird!

The bird’s jaw dug into mushy landscape like an albatross scooping up water for fish. Dead carcasses by the dozens fit into the [King Fang Fisher]’s mouth. Wings beat by but the shadow didn’t go away.

I looked up, and there was a second one of those damned birds coming down. Its huge mouth scooped up me and a stretch of surrounding terrain. It was huge enough that I was barely one piece of a mouthful. I ran over dead fantasy alligators and tried to get out of it’s mouth.

“Rrargh!” Sound blasted around me from the giant bird’s protest. I leapt off into the abyss of open air then twisted around. Today wasn’t a day for running from fights. Today I was too pissed and tried to do more than fight them. Plus, aerial combat was far more exciting now.

Two rapid [Blink]s put me at the creature's face. One hand grabbed onto a ridge above its eye and dug in. Death grip and [Climber] skills kept me hanging on.

“Rarrrhh!” It screeched at me.

“Aghghgh!” I shouted back then slipped while trying to stab. The bird balked and started pumping wings to go higher. I dug in my hand and hung on as we climbed swiftly. Two months ago this would have scared the crap out of me, but now it was just another day in Continue Online.

“Listen up, dammit! I’m dirty!” I hacked away with a diminutive [Morrigu’s Gift]. “Tired!” The bird started to roll while I hung on. My stomach lurched as the world below spun. Swamp and meat slipped into my face. “And trying to save the world!”

The creature’s eye turned bloody and I stumbled. The hand I swung with ended up deep in mush and the creature started to fall from the sky. The horizon spun and my stomach lurched. Dusk was chirping and hissing wildly. Tiny claws kept kicking at my chest. We spun out of control and I saw the first, original, giant bird creature below us.

“Dammit!” I reached for the shoe and slammed my palm upon the heel, activating [Power Armor]’s complete form. Metal covered every ounce of skin and Dusk’s chirps started echoing.

“Agggh!” I kept yelling while turning into a falling meteor of man and metal. The path carried me straight through the other [King Fang Fisher]’s huge flapping wing. It gave a squawk and I heard crunching as the wing bone under me bent at wrong angles. It flopped around sending me spiraling in a new direction.

[Power Armor] clinked out of place. The ground was growing closer. [Awareness Heightening] didn’t keep me calm but my head at least functioned. Two fast [Blink]s cut some inertia. My body twisted around wildly then slammed into the ground. Swamp dirt and roots dug into my face as Newton’s laws had their way with me even in virtual reality.

I sat there awkward, face in the mud and rear in the air while contemplating exactly what poor series of choices caused me to reach this point. The health bar sat precariously low. There were no other message boxes to answer my inquiry. I groaned, feeling older than William Carver, but managed to get upright.

My legs hurt like hell. The pain piled on top of already damaged arms. ARC warning signals showed all sorts of neat information. At some point, my heartbeat had spiked to an uncomfortable range. One leg was cramping in response to mixed up mental signals. I tried to remember my cool down exercises and stretched slowly.

The swamp behind me had already started filling in. Two huge birds had paved a trail of dead through the mud a quarter mile away. Their fresh carcasses were already being swarmed by monsters.

“Voices, I hate this place,” I said.

Dusk wiggled free and came flying out of the toga. His diminutive wings flapped to get away and free. High [Reaction] converted the impulse to grab him and shake into action. “And you! For once you need to stop picking fights!”

First, Dusk had turned tiny, sending us toward the ground and forcing us to walk for a day. That I accepted. All those monsters attacking us happened because a miniaturized Dusk wanted to fight a small baby crane chick. Even with reduced stature and attack points, Dusk couldn’t let his nature go for a few hours.

The [Messenger’s Pet] tilted his head. He nipped at my hand and I let him go. A picture of a smiley face appeared and next to it was a single pink frosting cupcake.

“No, why would I give you a treat after that?” I shook him and the [Messenger’s Pet] calmly took to the air, hovering with both wings out and flapping. He hissed in my face, blasted a tiny fireball then twisted in on himself. A moment letter and Dusk had forcibly unsummoned from Continue Online. He would probably raid my Atrium anyway.

I stomped in a circle and tried not to consider how messed up everything had turned. The stupid [Altered Matrix] turned into a dead end, and now I was out here in the ass end of [Arcadia] on a fool's quest after a player I really didn’t know. Calming down took more effort than expected, but after a brief moment of reflection, I felt comfortable talking to my wife.

Hermes: Hey, Babe, I’m still alive. I think in the last hour I’ve killed two hundred blood crazed crocs, or whatever, and two of those birds. I’m beat, hungry, and pissed at Dusk. I need to take a break.

Hecate: Did you want me to join you?

Hermes: Not here. This place is a cesspit of filth. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to find Requiem at this rate.

Hecate: Call me then?

Hermes: I’ve got dinner at Liz’s later tonight. Can I call you after that? I plan on passing out soon.

Hecate: Alright. I love you. Tell the family hi.

Hermes: Will do. I love you.

I rubbed my face and couldn’t tell if I cleaned off some grime or added more. Seeing the state of my hands and clothes nearly made me puke. I found a still pool of water, free of enemies, and started cleaning myself off a little. This place sucked badly.

Two days ago Xin and I were searching [Haven Valley] for a place to shove the key and unlock more paths for Locals and Travelers to use. There were apparently none anywhere that I or the other four could find. I left the item behind with SweetPea and made her promise not to use it personally. They could look and see if it fit, but turning it would cause huge amounts of real life pain. None of those players should suffer real damage because I chose them as William Carver.

However, they were now almost locked in town trying to find information. Awesome Jr. and his father were chatting back and forth but no one had great ideas. It might have been possible that there was a key slot out in [ItRainsTooMuch], but the Voices insisted there wasn’t.

This event was starting to get really stressful. Everyone saw the dwindling amount of Locals and Travelers. [World Eater]s had increased in frequency and aggression. Not everyone could get around like we could, and those who were powerful enough to do so had mostly retired, weren’t logging in, had been deleted, or sat in [Haven Valley] helping prepare for a huge siege.

Another message popped up.

Thorny: Mom says don’t forget dinner tonight, and you’re bringing food! She’s not up for cooking today.

I looked up and spread my hands.

“Alright everyone, I’m logging off!” I shouted to the air. Two days ago, after we realized how many people were watching me, Xin suggested that talking to people might allow for more people to dial into my character while I played. This whole video being watched nonsense felt over the top. In theory, they couldn’t see my chat conversations or any other menu options. The feed only showed me as a person moving around and audio.

Fifty-three thousand people and change kept tabs on Hermes, watching what I was doing. The majority of those arrived after killing Nam Redrum. That served as reason number four not to have Xin out here. Without a decent place to set up the [Honeymoon Suite] it was like we were being judged for everything. The public displays of affection or unfiltered sounds weren’t even the worst of it.

Leon, Trillium’s President had reminded me how short the leap would be. Sooner or later the nameless audience watching could realize who I was in real life. I had interacted with hundreds of ARC users in the last year. How small would the leap be from the man who repaired their devices to Hermes as a character? From there how quickly could they figure out Xin wasn’t a real person?

The problem was having so many people watching me also provided a nearly twenty percent bonus to all my skills and rate of development. [Blink] had actually hit rank nine yesterday and I could finally hop twice in a row without waiting for a cool down. All of it helped immensely, but knowing that so many people were watching felt freaky as well.

I mean, I was wearing the game’s grimiest toga ever in a swamp from hell.

I logged out of the machine, staggered to my van, then ordered food. Pizza felt like a decent enough meal. Hal Pal exchanged a few pleasantries but the AI showed less and less personality as the game world crashed. I didn’t want to ignore my friend, yet between us, a gap had started to appear.

Sleep claimed me quickly regardless of whirling thoughts. By the time I arrived at Liz’s house I felt slightly more than an animal but less than human. Dinner went quicker than expected. Beth chattered for a while about my current mission. I nodded but felt mostly unaware. Liz looked terrible and smelled like she had been drinking. That got more attention than anything my niece could have said.

“Alright!” Beth shouted suddenly. Her chair slid painfully across the floor. “I’ve got to do some homework then get back to town! They’ve got me out trying to escort some stragglers back to Haven Valley. It’s crazy.”

“That sounds good,” I mumbled absently. Sleep sounded attractive and the bed was miles away. My real life arms still felt ghost pains from the ARC feedback.

Beth kept talking as she grabbed her plate and another slice of pizza. “I talked to a friend, he says the server player base is down to nearly one-third of what it was. The NPCs are all vanishing too.” She chewed quickly and swallowed. “Those World Eaters are doing a number on everyone.”

“They are dangerous.” I nodded then lowered my eyebrows. “You be careful.”

“Yeah, I can’t even leave my autopilot alone anymore!” Beth kept talking. The water ran while I watched Liz stand up and walk off. Her body moved unevenly to the front room. “A lot of people are losing their characters left and right because they’re not online. The forums at Trillium’s site are overloaded with pissed players.”

I shrugged.

“Alright! I’ll see you in game!” Beth ran clomping down the stairs.

Two more pieces of pizza were slowly eaten before I dared to give any thought to what Beth said. How bad would it get when the game went down completely, and what would happen if the virus kept going through that beam of light up into the AIs new home? Mother’s deletion would be complete then, or so I surmised.

I hesitated to ask James or any of the other Voices. The best answer for me would be to march forward to the goal. Find Requiem, find this hidden area he had already been charging toward, and see if a secret was there which could help all the AIs survive. It couldn’t be a coincidence that Requiem was moving out there. That teen had a nose for game treasure troves. I hoped we wouldn’t have to compete over the prize like Dwight had tried to do. Ray’s intervention had probably saved us from a worse fate where Dwight ended up with the crown and key.

There were three slices of pizza left. I collapsed the box around it, thankful they had started releasing these adjustable plastic ones. The remaining plastic went into a recycle bin while the pizza went into Liz’s fridge. Beth would probably be back upstairs in a few hours, ravenous once more.

Liz sat in the front room in a recliner. She stared at a blank wall. I took a sniff. The room absolutely reeked of alcohol. The smell reminded me of past regrets and stupid words spoken. How many people had I chased away while in a bottle? Grief drove me there, and a situation I felt unable to handle. Maybe my sister and I weren’t so different after all.

“You two keep talking about it, but no one’s really talking about it,” Liz almost mumbled.

“About what?” I asked while plopping down on the couch.

“How the world’s changing, baby brother.” Liz’s face looked flushed. Her eyes were heavy and I recognized the expression of dread. She looked like a woman trying hard to hold it together. “It’s changing and people don’t even understand. They think it’s just a game. Even Beth, she knows, but she doesn’t understand. Not yet.”

“Let her remain innocent then, for a little longer.” I tried to smile.

“Innocent,” my sister said. She outright started laughing at that one. I briefly remembered how players tended to get red skin or other gifts from Mezo. Maybe innocent wasn’t the right word. “She hasn’t been innocent for years. But maybe that’s my fault. Maybe I should have been more stable. I could have been a better role model, or found the perfect man.”

“There’s a joke about that, one of my clients told me years ago.” I put on a smile for Liz. “There are only two perfect men in the world, and they’re married to each other.”

My attempt at derailing the pity party with bad humor failed. Liz didn’t even bat an eyelash.

“I just wanted someone who wanted me the way you wanted her,” she said.

“Xin?”

“God. You were so bad too. For years, and years. Just hung up on one girl, so bad that you found a, digital whatever, clone. It took that to bring life back into your eyes and I can’t even explain how pissed that makes me.” Liz’s hand shook with muted rage.

I nodded then stood up. My sister stared off while I opened up a window. Her bottom lip was being chewed on.

“Grant? Why do they even need you? Why not just, laser beam through it all. Or whatever it is digital people do. Turn into star dust, or something.” Liz tried to look in my direction but failed.

“They don’t need me, exactly.” My head shook as I walked over to Liz. “Not really. I’m sure any one of a thousand people could have fit the bill. Or maybe if I hadn’t been involved, none of this would have happened,” I said.

The pieces were all laying out there. If it weren’t for me, Mother could have probably taken the process much slower. Miz Riley wouldn’t have keyed in on my presence, her nosiness might have been less intense or informed, which would have prevented her from pulling the kill switch on Mother. No kill switch, no death of Viper. To back up to my other problem, using the [NPC Conspiracy] in Advanced Online had triggered a global AI hunt where they tried to figure out what happened. The news still provided updates every week on the ongoing progress of that fiasco.

“That’s right.” Liz glared at me with unfocused eyes. “You asshole. It’s your fault we’re like this.”

I chose not to say anything in response and instead started cleaning up. She wasn’t wrong, but Liz had probably been thinking of different issues than I. My sister had earned the right to berate my choices after picking up my broken pieces twice and getting me back together. I could disagree with her and still respect the sacrifices that must have taken.

When it all came out she would be in for far worse. I knew and hoped the Voices would try to deflect the damage. Part of me had started to realize such a hope was impossible. If they all left in this beam of light toward destinations unknown, then how could anyone take care of those who stayed behind?

“They don’t need you. Just walk away, let the chips fall where they may. This whole program crash might be a good thing. Maybe humans are too reliant on technology and need to think for themselves instead of being zombies.” Liz’s hand waved to the stairs. Projection devices stationed around the room picked up her movement and flickered on the television. “Look! I can’t just, wave my hand anymore without some stupid program thinking I give a shit!”

I walked back into the front room then shut everything off with a quick double clap.

“Vidiots. That’s what dad used to call them. People with their faces in cell phones walking around like there’s nothing in the world besides the screen. Like they can’t live without ‘em.”

The words made me pause, and I nodded.

“Maybe some of them can’t. Maybe that’s why they love these little machines, and screens, and the internet boxes. Maybe they need what’s in them to feel alive again, and less like a zombie,” I spoke while walking down the hall toward Liz’s room. The bed looked okay.

“Vidiots,” my sister paused halfway through the word with a room vibration belch.

“Maybe we are.” I nodded. My own twin helped sort out thoughts which bothered me. There were smarter people who could have figured out other methods. There were better players who could have taken these gifts and gone further. Why did I bare the brunt of this event, when anyone else could have fit the bill? But I had something inside the box that I couldn’t feel alive without.

“The world’s changing,” Liz repeated then she attempted to drown herself with a fresh glass of liquor. Her eyes rolled back and my sister conked out completely. I nodded and had honestly expected her to pass out sooner.

I took the bottle and poured the rest down the drain. One Legate Traveling down this road had been bad enough. After that, I struggled to get my slightly older twin sister back to her bed to sleep this off. My heart felt heavy at what this problem might do to her. Thankfully she had Beth.

I saw the edge of my niece’s form as it dashed around the stairwell corner. Maybe the youngest Legate wasn’t as innocent as we hoped, but what kind of role models had we been? My sister tried desperately to be a supporting pillar for all the people in her dwindling family. She constantly tried to find someone who could be strong for her but only ended up finding one night stands. I played at hero while alternating between violent outbursts and barely suppressed panic at what the future might hold. Through it all, I tried hard to be a good husband to a dead woman and forgiven for poor decisions made during depressive bouts.

I staggered down the hall with my sister’s lead weight form while praying that Beth would turn out better and that I would be around to see it.