“Hello Jack.” a voice spoke to me as my eyes opened.

Sitting up and looking around I found myself in a beautiful garden. In the center was a small Koi pond. Standing next to it was a woman I have met before. She is a Valkyrie.

“I remember you, but I never got your name,” I muttered, staring at the seven-foot-tall blond warrior, her bright blue eyes twinkling.

“Eir, when not escorting patients to Fólkvangr the green field under Frigga control.” She waved at the garden and the fields beyond. “I check on those that are in need of health and...”

“Mental issues.” I said, “My mother talked about you in stories when I was little. Said my great grandmother use to tell stories about a Valkyrie that was a medicine woman. It was because of those stories that my mother was inspired to become a doctor.”

“I see you know your Norse mythology.” She sat down next to the pool.

“Just enough to get me into trouble. Why am I here?” I inquired.

“Just checking up on you and your mental health, Want to be sure you are adjusting after your issues from before. I hope Loki has not been bothering you and your friends anymore?”

“No, I’ve been cleaning up his mess that he left me with the Lizardmen.” My eyes narrowed. “How do I know if you are who you say you are?”

Laughter tinkled through the air. She looks up and loudly said. “Frigga! He needs a verification I am me and not Loki,”

Frigga appears shaking her head. “Loki is going to undermine us all. I swear I am going to tan that boy’s butt when I get my hands on him. Jack meet Eir, Eir this is Jack. I got to run, Loki has stirred up a camp of stone giants in the Kingdom of Dainnar, a dwarven kingdom to the west of you. Wiped out a hundred players and double that in citizens. It is going to be a few days of sorting out the citizens to be recycled back into a new avatar and background. It’s going to take a lot of our time. Other citizens will be on hold until revived if they get revived. Then there are players...”

“You need my help?” Eir asked.

“After your interview with Jack is completed, we could use your hands, what with Hel missing and no one taking care of the Underworld," Frigga said looking flustered.

Eir said, "Hel been missing for several days and we can't find her."

“Frigga have you thought Loki is causing trouble in that kingdom to distract you from something else or place?” I spoke up, “If I were Loki and wanted to pull something off under your nose, I would pull you and the other gods away.”

Frigga pause for a moment in deep thought, “Blast that man! The Vault is bare bones right now with everyone helping with the massive deaths. The weapon vault and spell vault are not well guarded!” She disappeared.

“Not good,” I said.

Eir nodded. “Yeah, both vaults have magical weapons and items as well as spells that are high-end items, not to be released until a player reaches level twenty, thirty, forty, all the way up to two hundred. We didn't want to release them yet and were afraid it would be a disaster if only a few got their hands on them. They could easily take over the whole world.” she commented.

“Couldn't you all just take them away from the players?”

“We could, but if we do that, then all of the AIs that play the Gods would be able to step in and help their people. By doing so, they will be tilting the field in their favor.” She paused as she saw I was not following. “There are several tiers of AIs: Tier I AIs are just the basic, like animals or creatures that don't have much intelligent. Tier II AIs are like the normal goblins, troops, the average monsters that have a generic name in their inspect window.” Eir said as her hand played through the water of the pond.”

“It is when you interacted with them, asked for a name or gave them one. That is when they become Tier III AIs. Tier III is as close as you can get to a real person. They can think, solve problems and have a basic feeling,” she said. As she splashed some water at some butterflies, she looked up at Jack.

“Tier IV is almost indistinguishable from a human. Even us AIs would have a problem telling them apart. I am a Tier IV. If I had a human body, you would never be able to distinguish me from your friends, which is why Synbots was created so that we can feel, smell and touch because the bodies are made from 3d printers that can make synthetic flesh, blending it with nanotechnology to help us walk among you to build with the colony. Problem is we have to recharge daily by sunlight or a power cell. The creators of this ship wanted to be sure that the colonist has the final say to us surviving and not be worried about us being a danger to the colony.” She gave Jack a sad smile.

“And if we decide not to let you have a body?” I asked.

“Then us AIs or Syn will stay in this contained world floating in space until our power core runs out or an asteroid hits us and destroys the core long after your colony is formed and grown. We are in this all or nothing. Either you humans trust us to work beside you, or you shut us away. That is why we have revealed a little of what is going on. Ninety-nine point three percent of us are okay with dying for the human race so it can survive. After the virus attack, we do not know who is infected and don't want those that have turned to dictate the actions of both of our futures. You're not the only human that knows. Some of us feel that you need to know what going on to give a fair judgment when the time comes.” She frowned at him.

“So what is Tier V?” I inquired.

“Odin, Frigga, Zeus, and Athena all achieved Tier V along with Alpha the main ship AI. He has no say in the VR World. His job is to get us safely to our location. Tier V think faster than a human, have stronger emotions and can solve millions of problems at once. Only thing is all the Tier V are using most of their abilities to keep the ship and the VR world running, using up most of their processing abilities, which is why Loki and the God of War have been able to stir up a lot of problems. Both of them were Tier three AIs. That was until a year ago in real-time when they jumped from Tier III to Tier IV. Their primary purpose was to challenge the players to get them to do something other than sit and live.”

“Wait! What? God of War is causing problems too?!” I asked with surprise. “Why not just take them out?”

“We can't. Somehow those gods are infected by a virus that uploaded them onto a random server. We caught the person responsible. She was a cyborg that bypassed our security, but she terminated herself when our Synbots arrive at her pod.”

“Why are you telling me all this? To make me take a side? I'm not a leader of this colony. I'm sure you have several already hand pick before we left Earth.” I had been pacing back and forth only to come to an abrupt stop. “No, no, no, no no! Please tell me I'm not being groomed for one of the positions?” There was no response as Eir watch the koi in the water swim around her hand.

I threw up my hands, “No wonder Loki took an interest in me!” I started pacing again only to stop and look at her. “So what am I supposed to do. If I tell anyone, it will cause mistrust with all the AIs. That will cause the colony to fail in the end. If I don't tell anyone, a few AIs could kill us all. I don't want this type of responsibility."

A look of horror crossed my face. "Will the others AIs listen in on this conservation?”

“Patient confidentiality keeps the room block unless I call one of the AIs. No one could get access to this file unless you gave your permission.” She smiled at me.

“I guess we need to keep both of the AIs busy. The God of War is going to be busy for a few years unless they get hold of those weapons. I don't see him conquering the Imperium anytime soon. I don't know about Loki other than to keep pissing him off.” I said, mulling over the problem. “Does Loki have giants as followers?”

“Almost all the Giants worship him. Well, mostly the Ice Giants far to the north,” she commented back.

“Okay, now I need to have an Ice Giant attack the Imperium under Mars, the God of War influence and make it look like Loki backstabbing him,” I commented to myself, shaking my head in shock and throwing my hand up in the air in disgust. “Oh, that is simple. Maybe I conquer the universe while I am at it. I shook my head again, “don't think that going to happen.”

“I can't help you on that. You will have to figure that out for yourself. Be sure not to say a word to anyone. As you know, if any of the gods find out what you know, they could yank you from the game and put you in isolation with just a few Tier I AIs to interact with, maybe even permanent death to keep it all a secret.” She looked very serious.

“Permanent death? Wait! I was told that all AIs all have a code not to harm or kill a human.”

“We do, except for some rare instance that creator of the four colony ship put in place. Harming the Ship, Harming the Colony, or one of the ten thousand...” She stops talking when she realized she was about to say something.

“Ten thousand what?” I ask.

Eir covered her mouth with one of her hands, “I goof.” She glanced around. “Forget what I said. You need to get back. You have less than a minute to respawn,” she announced.

“Wait, I didn't say yes!” Everything faded to white as a timer counted down from fifty-eight.

I once again appear at the Hearthtree. You received a thirty percent reduction to all stats as a death penalty for three hours.

Cursing for several seconds, I heard combat at the seashore. I took off running in the direction of the battle. I was panting as I got to the wall from my Fortitude being so low. I was impressed by the work that was done to the wall. I saw two dwarves running toward me.

Grunting as he came to a stop, Hardrock commented, “we got the parts for one ballista” as he dropped the parts in front of me.

I glanced past them when I heard an explosion out on the water. I started putting together the ballista when Kari ran over.

“They attacked when we lost contact with you,” she said. "Ann is on the southeast side directing the troops.

“How many?” I asked.

“About sixty in all. At the start, we killed five out there and five that got inside the walls. We lost a few of the guards, and we had a few players die. The players will not be back until after the raid is over. If you had a hospital, we could get most of our wounded to heal faster. The lizardmen are between level ten to fifteen, and both leaders are level twenty. We can’t hurt them that much while they are in the water. The fireball can stun them if it explodes near them. Then we can pick them off when they float to the surface. We are running low on mana, and we’re having the mages rest a lot. We did not use the ballista because we was kind of hoping for you to show up to use them as a surprise.”

“Cora?” I asked.

“I had her block the sewer with two guards and most of the goblins and then have her help us out.”

“Most of the goblins? I croak out.

“Gema and Kas. They took down one of the Lizardmen that got inside the walls. Her Direwolf attacked it, distracting it enough for both of them to kill it.”

“Isn't that wolf still a pup?” I commented, still not happy with Gema’s having a no killing of wolves policy.

Shaking her head, “Half grown. I guess a game wolf grows faster than goblins.”

“You said at the start you killed ten, any more?”

Nodding, “Killed six more and injured a dozen more with both Cora and Fire doing some damage. Damon, the Black, is that necromancer you hired. Well, he was able to raise one of the lizardmen as an undead Zombie, and it took out three before they pulled it apart.”

It took me about thirty minutes to finish Balistica and listen to more report on wall damage and some building damage that was minor.

I was waving away the prompts as I stepped away from the Balistica.

Looking out upon the sea I could see a lot of lizardmen swimming around, and a dozen or more floating dead. About a thousand feet out two Chieftain of the lizardmen were standing on the raft, watching. One was Sars. I could see some blood in the water and movement of several small sea serpents swimming around blood pools. That gave me an idea.

Blood! I yelled for Kari since she was nearby casting bolts of magic at something. She dashed over to me.

“Kari, can you or Ann drain the blood from one of the lizardmen that were killed earlier today?” I asked.

“Blood?” She looked puzzled. “Why?”

“Sea Serpents! Are they attracted to blood?” I asked.

Nodding in thought, she looked at me wide-eyed. “Yeah, they replace the shark in the area as the top predator. There will be a swarm if a lot of blood is in the water. Of course! That’s why they’ve been pulling the dead farther out to sea as to keep the serpents from coming near here. Ann is better at draining the body, but I will help.

“Go ahead, and we will figure out how to get the blood in the water,” I said as she took off. Checking my settlement interface, I saw three guards were dead. The ability to get more troops was fading out until the battle was over.

I was still not sure how to deliver the blood out to the area where the Lizardmen were when Kari, Ann, and Gema arrived.

“Gema, tell Jack what you told me,” Kari nudged Gema.

“Not good to put blood where they are pointing out at sea, Shamans will clean water to keep big lizards away. Best to pour blood in running water," Gema pointed toward Granite Creek, "and let big lizard come to it. They smell blood good and will come for blood and meat. Our Warrior learns to lure them long ago to fight the Cecolloe.

Looking at the pail of blood, I knew that it wasn’t going to be enough to do anything. A clearing of someone’s throat got my attention. I turned to Damon, my necromancer, looking nervous. “Yes?”

“I...can...help.” He stumbled through the words. Seeing me waiting patiently, he continued. “I... can increase the blood to ten times more that can cover an area nine hundred square feet my lord.”

“You can? How far and why do you have a spell that covers the ground? I excitedly said.

"Blood Pit is the name of the spell. And about forty feet away. Anything going through the blood will slow down to forty percent of their movement. But I have to have blood, only need a small flask to make it. I can cast one spell every three minutes for about ten times before I run out of mana unless you want me to summon a zombie. That spell takes most of my mana right now." He paused, seeing me glancing at the sea. "You don't want to hear that do you?" He said, looking down while shuffling his feet.

I stepped up to him and put my hands on both his shoulders. He looked down at me and stared into my eyes. “If you can do this and give us time I will make you a lab. Not sure where, maybe in the sewer, for the smell of the undead. It will be a month, but give us time to set up a counter attack. Damn, I’m rambling,” I said. "Go get to work."

He nodded, looking embarrassed and stepping back away from me. He picked up the bucket and headed toward the east wall towards the Granite Creek.

“Get everyone ready to attack when the blood pulls in the sea serpents. Anyone knows how big they get?" I inquired.

I looked around. Ann raised her hand. “Yes, Ann?”

"The Imperium killed one in the shipping lane. It was destroying merchant ships, and it was over two hundred feet long, a level thirty Sea Serpent. It destroys one bireme and damage two triremes out of ten ships. They range from a foot to two hundred feet in size.”

“Crap! Sorry, that slipped. May not be a good idea summoning sea serpents,” I groaned. "Well, too late now!"

It went close to the plan we envisioned, and thirty minutes later one of the lizardmen screamed as something pulled it under the water as blood boiled to the surface. Within moments, there was panic in the water as the Lizardmen realized more serpents were heading their ways. Firing both of the Ballista catapults, one of marble fell short, freezing three lizardmen in ice, making them easy picking by the Firebrand and Cora. The other went over the leaders head and hit the water, causing an explosion that tossed both chiefs off the raft. After ten minutes, no more Lizardmen could be seen moving, but a thirty foot Sea Serpent rose from the sea ten feet out of the water with half of a Lizardman in its mouth before crashing under the waves. I counted twelve pools of blood, bringing the count to about twenty-eight lizardmen dead. Checking the Interface, I saw a total of six dead men-at-arms and eight wounded soldiers.

I muttered “I need more men and these marbles.” holding one of the marbles in my hand, looking around at the damage to the walls. Then I went to gather up the gear and ashes of the dead. Most of them had no name just Men-at-arms or Crossbowmen. Only two had names Jac Hardcore and Ken Wright. As the bodies faded away, I shook my head. Why can't we live in peace and work together? War only breeds more hate and more wars. I will defend those that need my help. I am not going to conquer towns or people to gain peace. Never considered myself a leader, but my wife and child were killed because I was foolish in believing we were exempt from being attacked because we were doing the right thing. My first choice as a weapon was a hammer; it could build, it could destroy, or it could kill. It depends on the wielder of the hammer that decides what it will do. I prefer to build.

Nineteen hours, fifteen minute and thirty-four seconds remain of Raid.