The next day began the very long process of memorizing a couple of symbols and then logging out and recording them. One, Two, and Three all stood guard by the stair case while Tor held the flame blade and acted as over watch for them and me.

“So you figure it out?” Tor asked the following morning as we munched on freshly cooked meat.

“Yes, but we can’t discuss it in game. Someone might be matching.”

“So what is the plan?” Tor asked.

“We can leave or head down the tower. There is the question if we remove the book or not. My bet is that if we take it all hell is going to break loose. I also don’t think we can make a forgery.”

“Can’t you sell the text online to the Mystery Man?”

“He wants the physical copy.” We sat there mulling the situation over. “So this cube. It is part of a set of seven that is preventing a demon horde from over running the world. Also the way to get to the Greater Waking Demon, so yeah.”

“Pfft, please tell me you are not considering….”

“I honestly don’t know. I see the end goal, but have no idea how to get there.”

“Let’s read over your translation in your Atrium. My contact code is 546-864-548-8435.”

“Alright let me get everyone else’s and I will send you all an invite.”

A short while later four portals opened up to my Atrium after barricading the storage room door with a couple of boxes to stop anyone from getting to us easily. “Nice digs man.” One said.

“Classic.” Two said.

“Nice artwork.” Three said while looking at a picture of when I killed Lady Breckley.

“Here is your copy, read it over.” I handed them each a copy of the book.

“Wow….so Tafe is a really vindictive being….I would never have guessed.” One said.

“This doesn’t make any sense. Think about it and then think of how she has acted so far.” Tor said.

“It could be this Void Box, if we like her we can’t get it.” Two added.

“You know what is really scary, that mine….”Tor whispered.

“It was very high level.” I replied. “That is what is bothering me, all of it together. Each piece makes sense, but how likely is it that we find the mine, get a cube, and find this book.”

“It could just be destiny.” One said.

“Or Fate.” Once Three said that there was a minute of silence.

“It all seems too perfect. The one thing about FEAR besides the constant death is that it is really random. I mean what are the odds we would locate all these things?” I said.

“You did find the mine first and you got that curse of Tafe status that we still have no clue on. What if it is something like, ‘You are drawn to the artifacts that will free Tafe.’” Tor said.

“But we only came to the tower to get the book because of the Mystery Man who is a player.” I said.

“He got a quest that required the book.” Two said.

“Then it means Tafe is responsible for the quests which make sense. But then why do I have to kill a Dragon and the Greater Waking Demon? Oh, because then I would have to open the portal which is bad news.”

“Yep, plots within plots.” Tor said. There was more silence at that.

“So are we going after these things?” One asked. There was another round of silence.

“Honestly, that thing in the mine, Endolgon is probably level nine thousand. Also the book might not be true. What happens if another thing sent the monsters and Tafe got all the blame? I suspect that there is a lot more to this story than we know.” I said.

“There is going to be no way to kill the Endolgon. It is probably as strong as a dragon or stronger. Plus, who knows what attacks it has.” Tor said.

“But the sword would be awesome.” One said.

“A mystical god blade that cuts the future. What does that even mean? ‘Cut the future’.” Two said.

“It might remove a person’s life span.” Three said.

“Or a person’s Fate stat. Wasn’t the Reaper maxed out on Fate?” Tor asked.

“It was. Also it could have been the hero but level one seventy seems a bit low for an almighty world saving, god sealing hero.” I replied.

“Why didn’t the book say his name? He got a kick ass statue but no one knows his name, seems sketchy to me.” Three said. No one had an answer to that.

“So…..?” Tor said.

“So. I have no idea. I mean it sounds cool to get all these mystical items, but can you imagine the protections. I mean you have an immortal god monster guarding two of them and one is inside of it. The third is keeping back a super demon. So I have no idea. Honestly I want to win this game, but the sheer challenge of just this glimpse is insane. Let’s assume everything in the book is true, a big assumption but let’s just assume that for now. First we would have to kill the Endolgon. Gods couldn’t kill it, dragons didn’t kill it, the clerics and forces of humanity couldn’t kill it. The only weapon that possibly could is sealed away under its protection.”

“What about blowing it up, like you did in Breckley?” One asked.

“If it survived I have no doubt it would come after us. And unlike the Reaper of Skulls, I don’t think it will be slow. Anyways, I don’t think anything less than a nuclear bomb would take it out and even then who knows with magic and special powers.”

“What about if we train?” Two asked.

“Like I said that thing is probably level nine thousand, we would be training for a very, very long time. It has a millennia on all of us. I also doubt it has some fatal weakness either. People have tried clearing that mine, but it has remained. Probably resting and guarding the loot.”

“We do a heist, sneak in and steal the blade.” Three said.

“No, that would be insanely reckless. Break into a super boss’s lair to try and steal the one weapon that might kill it.” Tor said.

“What about an aerial attack? We get an airship and rain attacks down on the monster.” I suggested.

“Might work. It probably doesn’t fly if the statue is accurate, but it definitely has some range or an area of effect attack.” Tor said.

“Orbital cannon or asteroid and drop it on the monster.” Three suggested. We all looked at him.

“That isn’t a half bad idea.” I replied.

“What about the box and the sword. They would both be destroyed and then we really would be shit out of luck.” Two said.

“So how do you kill an immortal monster of unspeakable power, without blowing a tiny box it has hidden inside itself? That is the question.” Tor said.

“Why not make a deal with Tafe?” One asked.

“Because the Void Box will stop us if we do, a catch twenty two.” Two said.

“Why do we even want it?” Three asked.

“Imagine if we had her, we could squeeze every bit of help out of her.” One said.

“Kind of like grabbing a lion by the tail and yanking really hard. She would be pissed and the moment we dropped our guard we would be in trouble. Remember that all the monsters seem to follow her will to a certain extent from what we have seen.” Tor said.

“There is a way, we could get the pendent and then we wouldn’t have to worry.” One said.

“Like the old man?” There was a long pause when I mentioned that.

“I wonder what would happen if I drank the Endolgon’s blood?” Three said. We all stared at him.

“That is a terrible idea, you saw the Reaper, I bet it is a hundred, no a million times more foul.” Tor said.

“Well it would be for science…..” Three trailed off under the stares.

“Ok, back on topic.”

“We could ask a dragon for help.” Two suggested.

“You volunteering?” I asked.

“No, so I guess that’s out.” Two replied.

“The problem is that the only weapon we know of is the sword, which is protected by the very thing we need it to defeat.” Tor said.

“Well then if we aren’t going after it, what should we do?”

“Steal the airship.” One said.

“Yeah, we definitely want to get that airship the players are working on. We could literally make it rain blood.” Three said.

“It would be much nicer than walking or boats.” Tor added.

“I did like Blimpy.” Two added.

“Ok then, steal the airship it is. So what about the tower? Keep going down?” I asked.

“We haven’t seen those nomads at all, so that makes me concerned. But, there shouldn’t be any monsters since the tower seems to be anti Tafe.” Tor said.

“The protections, if we can get those on our airship then it would be super awesome.” One said.

“I think there might be another of these Etherion Cubes hidden here, but they seem fairly useless unless we plan to go after the pendent. The fact that the prize at the top of the tower was so good, makes me think that everything on the lower levels will be a nightmare.”

“Or a night stallion.” Tor said. At the confused looks of the others she said, “We saw a black horse one night, probably Kenji’s lost father.” That got a round of laughs from One and Two. Three just look confused.

“Size.” One pointed at a certain part of himself and Three’s face made an ‘oh’ expression.

“Moving on, tower?”

“Leave it, once we get our awesome air ship we can always come back.” Tor said.

“Sure.” One added.

“Then the book. Do we physically take it?”

“No way.” Two said.

“There goes my spa day at Str.” Tor said.

“We can’t just tell him the text?” One asked.

“I confirmed just before you all arrived that he wants the physical book. So there is either a hidden code or there is some power contained within it.” I said.

“Or he is just a super hardcore into realism.” Three added.

“Or that, he did want to meet in game so it is possible.” I said.

“Maybe if you have the book and read it aloud at a certain place or time it will unlock something?” One suggested.

“The biggest problem is that we don’t have enough information. We get the airship, build a hidden remote base, and then level up a bit.” Tor said.

“Any objections….the motion carries. I want all of you to start reaching out to people you know and gathering anything about the airship. I bet every other person will be making a go for it.”

“Stupid bet. It is an airship, who wouldn’t want one?” Two asked.

“An idiot.” I replied. After that they all left my atrium and we logged back into FEAR.

The first thing that came to mind was, ‘Oh shit’. That seemed to becoming my catch phrase. We had been talking during the night thinking that would be the least likely time to be attacked up on top of the tower. I logged back in right as the sun was coming up and looked off the edge of the tower. Around the tower were five giant worms making their way towards it up the mountain. By giant I am talking at least twenty five feet in diameter and over two or three hundred feet long. They were like steroid versions of the one we had seen before.

“Observe.”

It failed since I was too far away and I definitely wasn’t going to get closer. The entire tower was glowing blue as the ground shook. “Two and Three start up Blimpy!” I shouted at them and tossed the flame blade over. “One make sure everything is secured.” One of the worms reared up and the mouth spikes retracted and an orifice opened up.

“Brace yourselves! Incoming!” I shouted. A concentrated beam of sand shot forward. I saw it leave a deep gouge in the ground as the worm swept it up towards the tower. When it impacted I couldn’t see through the blue glow that formed. The tower began shaking.

“Two are burrowing on this side.” Tor shouted. Thankfully the beam of sand cut off partway up the tower as it drifted off to the side. The worm slammed back onto the ground and another massive tremor shook the tower. Below me I saw thirty people in white robes exit from the base of the tower. They began to spread out in a staggered formation. The worm moved towards them. Suddenly giant rock spikes burst from the ground on either side of the worm.

While they didn’t pierce the thick plates of armor it was greatly slowed down. “Time on Blimpy?” I shouted.

“At least twenty minutes, it deflated quite a bit while we talked.” Two shouted.

“Hang on!” Tor called out. I felt the entire tower shift by half a degree, I stumbled to the side. I looked at the balloon but it was still there at the center of the roof.

“Tor come on, get in!” I called out but she was already running as the entire tower tilted some more. The stone under our feet began to glow brighter and brighter. It then struck me that the last worm we had encountered had demolished the other invincible building.

We clambered into the basket which slowly began to slide along the top of the tower. “Chuck everything out!” I yelled. First went all the gems, next the barrels and boxes of stuff. I watched in despair as an entire barrel of arrows went over the side. The basket hit the parapet and stopped. I cut off our corpse anchor and watched as One threw away our spare cloth which fluttered towards the ground below.

“We have lift!” Tor shouted as the basket rose slightly. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“What’s that?” One called out. I looked the direction he was pointing and saw a black shape moving through the air. My gut began to sink. That was also when the tower began to drop away. It slowly dropped straight downwards as a cloud of dust and debris rolled out from around the base.

“They sunk it….” Tor said. I saw parts of the worms roiling around in the dust cloud. There was no sign of the people from before. A massive beam of light arced through the air and cut through the dust cloud leaving a trail of clear air behind it. A giant ball of flame erupted where the beam and struck the ground.

“Hang-“ I was cut off as the massive updraft of smoke and cinders struck us and the balloon went careening off to the side as the air currents kept changing directions around us. The balloon then began to fall.

“We’re losing lift!” Tor screamed. Another blast of fire exploded below us as the balloon careened downwards towards the molten rock that was flowing away from the blast sights. We weren’t in free fall but were dropping quite fast. I had to do something.

“Give the blade to me.” I ripped the flame blade from Two’s hand. He just looked at me. I then shoved him as hard as I could off the side of the basket and he went tumbling away with a scream. I held the blade up to try and keep us in the air. “Three full blast on the flame!” The flame from the blade roared up into the balloon. The edges of the gap the blade was thrust up between began to smolder. Another blast struck and the shockwave pushed us away. It was a challenge to keep the blade centered and keep my footing on the careening balloon. I saw a number of small holes in the cloth sack where debris had impacted and it was starting to smoke in some places.

“Hold on!” Tor shouted. There wasn’t anything to hold onto. “Flame off!” I dropped the blade and clutched my arms across my chest and closed my eyes. The basket hit the ground and shattered. I went tumbling across the sand. Everything was sore as I pulled myself to my feet. The mountain behind us was a molten wasteland instead of the rocky wasteland from before. Above the destruction flew a massive yellow dragon circling around the giant pillar of smoke and ash. It fired another beam of fire onto the mountain once more. The ground shook.

I watched in awe as three concentrated beams of sand shot up from the ground. The dragon moved sideways in the air despite not moving its wings or body in the slightest. It was a European style dragon with the large body and broad wings. The dust near the ground collapsed to the ground and the air began to shimmer below the dragon. It fired another beam of fire into the ground and then a second. The dragon turned and began to move away from the battlefield.

I looked around and found my flame blade. I patted my clothing and confirmed I still had the Etherion Cube. I sheathed my blade and saw Tor and One lying off to the side. There was no sign of Three. I went to the ruins of the basket and found him there. A piece of wood was driven straight through his chest. The old man’s heart he was always carrying around was also gone. I walked back to Tor and One who were both slowly trying to stand up.

I noticed that Tor’s leg had bent at a crazy angle. “We have to move, that ash cloud may drift this way.” I said.

“AHHHHH!” She yelled.

“Can you fix it?” I asked.

“Yeah, check on the others while I work.” I went over to One who was slowly standing up.

“Ug, that was intense.”

“Yeah, you okay?”

“I think so.” He began to violently cough.

“Not over yet. We are stuck in the middle of the desert with no supplies and one remaining mage.” I said. He looked over at Tor.

“Three?”

“Wood through the chest, looks like he died instantly.” I helped One up and we made our way make over to Tor who had fixed her leg.

“That used up half of my MP.” She said and wobbly rose to her feet. We all turned to look back at the mountain and the dragon. It rose up into the air and started flying away. We stood there for a long moment as the reality of what just happened sunk in.

“This sucks.” One said. I couldn’t help but agree. “So about Two…..”

“He weighed the most and had the hammer on his back.” I replied

“No use crying about it now, we need to figure out what we are going to do.” Tor said.

“We won’t make it across the desert, with no water or proper gear. There is only one decent option.”

“What?” One asked, Tor just sighed.

“We have to go back up there and take whatever these desert people had.” Tor said.

“But, but just look. It is a giant melted pile of rock.” One gestured at the molten mountain and the pillar of smoke rising from it. We were silent and kept looking at sheer level of destruction.

“You know my lifetime quest is to kill one of those dragons.” I said.

“Yeah mine too.” One said.

“Someone really doesn’t like them.” Tor added.

“I wonder why. They are giant engines of flying destruction. Just the fire beam alone is incredibly over powered. Sure I can stab people, but that? No idea on where to begin. Come on we better start moving.” We slowly dragged ourselves carefully back up the mountain avoiding the molten patches that were slowly cooling. The black glass the stone was turning into was actually quite stunning.

The closer we got the harder it was to pick a path. We had to back track a couple of times but we slowly made progress. “Ahhhhh.” A voice moaned out and we all jumped. We drew our weapons and circled around to it.

There lying on the rocks was Two. His flesh was charred, one arm and been burnt entirely away. His eyeballs had popped from the heat and were charred out husks. The war hammer lay to the side half melted into the ground. “Ahhhh.” He groaned out.

“Oh, shit.” One whispered. “Damn, that….that looks bad.”

“Tor can you heal him?” I asked.

“Maybe, but that would take a couple months of healing to fix, also the missing arm would be impossible at the moment.”

I drew my sword and walked over. “I am sorry Two. You served well.” I stabbed him through the head. He shook once and then stilled. We continued on in silence after that.

We crested the ridge to the top of the mountain. “Look, the tower.” I saw what One was pointing out. The top of the tower’s parapet was in line with the ground. The stone was blackened and charred but had stayed just above the flow of molten rock.

“Now it is a dungeon instead of a tower.” One said.

“Yeah, filled with traps and who knows what.” We found a place to camp out for the night which dark, but luckily the heat from the molten rocks kept the area warm. I also realized without the old man’s heart we had no food either.

After a restless sleep with our nerves constantly on edge we awoke to a glinting black landscape that reflected the light from the rising sun. I woke up the others and we had our last bit of water from our one remaining canteen.

We searched the roof for any of our dropped supplies, but they had all been burnt away. We walked over to the entrance. The wood was charred, I poked it with my sword and it was clear the protections were gone. “Flame on.” I said. We looked down into the storage room. The gold had melted giving the room a bright glint. The ladder was still there thankfully. Whatever force protected the tower had held long enough.

I climbed down then Tor and One followed. “Is it just me, or those this dungeon feel like a tomb?” One said.

“No choice, stay quiet and let’s keep our wits about us. Tor take the flame blade, One take the rear and keep a look out.” They both nodded. The door into the statue room was charred and the gold had melted up against the bottom. Thankfully it was twisted enough so there was a gap to get through.

The statue room was caked with dust. Before everything had been pristine, which I figured was an effect of the protections. Now there was dust and fallen chunks of mortar. “Watch your footing, we don’t know if the floor is weakened in certain areas.”

I noted that the statue of the dragon had tilted over and shattered. The creepy Endolgon was still there looking as sinister as ever. The main statue was the most interesting. Tafe’s face had changed to a smile. The stone had literally changed and it wasn’t a warm happy smile. It was more like the smile I have when I am about to do something particularly clever or sadistic. The hero’s sword had snapped and the hand holding the Void Cube was missing.

The alter was still there but the book was missing. Trailing from the alter to the stairs was a dampness, as if a person had dragged a slightly wet mop across the floor. That was more disturbing than the stone statue’s changing face. “We should get out of here.” One whispered. “This whole place is giving me the creeps.”

“We have nothing. We need water and food if we want any hope of surviving and crossing the desert.” I replied.

“If I die terribly I am going to kick you in the balls when I come back. Twice.” One said.

“Fine, just stay alert.” We moved towards the stairs to continue on our way down towards whatever horrors now lurked beneath the desert.

***

Ramponator: Pay per view for the video, AHHHHHH

Worm: Holy shit those worms were huge

6996: Why wasn’t there anyone else recording

Envy: I want to see dragon power

RoidBeaast1: I just watched and the way he pushed out the guy…..wow

UltimataSecret: Rain of bodies

PowerOfFaith: Repent your evil ways

DragonHax: ROAR!

SwordSlicer: Stab it with the pointy end

Ramponator: It is a giant flying OP beast of hax, super hax

GODHAXLOL: BLIMPY….NOOOOOOOOOOOO

***

Science Corner: Today we are going to discuss flying. There or four different ways to fly. The first is to push down against the ground so the force of the push, lifts you off. This is what small birds and helicopters do. They force air downwards to achieve lift. The main advantage is the ease of maneuvering since the unit provides lift has to do it in a constant manner. The downside is that it is very energy intensive.

The second method is to glide. Airplanes and larger birds do this. The forward movement of an object causes wind to hit the angled wings. The air below the wings becomes denser as it compacts since it has less distance to travel while the air above the wings thins out which is what provides lift. Flaps on an air plane control this angle and that is why you need a certain speed to take off. More speed, means more air, which means more lift.

The third method is density, which is what balloons use. By having a lighter density than the surrounding air you rise up. Having denser gas inside the balloon causes you to sink or fall. Now in most cases this is fairly simple since you would regulate the change in density inside the balloon using special gases or temperature. When the surrounding air rapidly heats up, it becomes less dense. This means that the lifting power of the balloon drops and possibly causes it to drop out of the air it is in since it is heavier.

All the above methods rely to a certain extent on the density of the air. So at higher altitudes it becomes far more difficult to attain the necessary force or lift to stay in the air. I hope that explained to everyone on why the balloon suddenly dropped, if they were wondering.

The fourth way is magic. Just use this extra-dimensional force and you are good to go. Magic is real people, just watch how BLANK flies around. All I need to do is harness that power for myself.

***

Author’s Notes: I would honestly like to hear your ideas on should they and if so how they could defeat the Endolgon. This is a big turning point in the story. I hashed out every idea I could think of and then some. Nothing seemed viable at this point in time. It really is unfair, but so is life and especially FEAR. So post your ideas and if it is really good and doesn’t involve a lot of steps/conditional requirements/Deus ex Machina/massive power up then you might just save the MC from a terrible and grisly fate. Note that the Endolgon would be on par with the dragons in terms of raw power and magical ability.

I always thought it was funny how a person could train a few years or adventure and then be able to go toe to toe with insanely over powered monsters. Well now we get a firsthand look when there are insanely over powered monsters and a sword just isn’t going to cut it. My top tier monsters are not push overs, they are eldritch terrors that rip the flesh from your organs and pick their teeth with your bones.

On a side note, next time I have a challenge I will be making my own code and putting it in paint, so there is no copy and paste. I am already working on something, so be prepared for some revenge, it will be 10,000x more difficult than before. Also you can expect the bonus chapter Anti-Hero: Journey of Love over the weekend….maybe. I want to do it justice, but gee whiz it sure is tough, golly willikers. (Translated from M speak to PG speak)

Also I have the major plot points laid out going forward. I promise 1 chapter a day on my soul and will finish this story unless I die. If I do die then, HA, sucks to be all of you since there won’t be an ending. I am curious on to how much more you all want. I could wrap this up by around 100, or stretch it out to 300 with side adventures and other techniques. I could make it a 1000 chapters, but then your eyes would bleed, but I can do that if you really want. So out of all the votes this is probably the most important.