“Alright, the pitfalls on floor three need to be all filled with spikes, the anti-flight zone needs to be reinforced too. They’re crazy and desperate enough to try a paradrop from orbit. Anything that flies within 200 feet gets repelled back, you hear me?” Hansen said to the screen, typing furiously at a virtual keyboard.

“Yessir.” The area around the tower shimmered as data was manipulated.

“I just don’t get why we can’t put some invisible walls or an instant death field around the place.” Randal complained, lounging on a couch. Hansen grit his teeth and counted to ten.

“Sorry sir, but as I’ve explained before, there is no instant-death field in this game, it doesn’t work that way, the most we could do is a wall of fire. And while we might be able to create it or program some invisible walls around the Tower, we don’t have time before they get here!” he nearly screamed, eyes never leaving the screens and menus popping up as he manipulated the reality around them.

“Tch. You getting smart with me again, boy?” Randal said in a dangerous tone, eyes narrowing.

“It’s better than getting dumb. Isn’t it?” Lucien said, sweeping in with a cold glare and icy voice. Randal turned to him.

“And you! Why didn’t you just go ham from the start? We could’a avoided all this *bleep*!”

“Yes, yes we could. Like we could have avoided this, if you hadn’t given my identity away.” Lucien’s tone was as sharp as his sword. Randal turned red.

“You’re saying this’s my fault!?”

“I’m saying they had no proof I was a Radiant Dawn agent until you told them.”

“Guys! Please! This’s hard enough as-is, I need to concentrate!" Hansen said, fingers flying. Without hesitation Randal pulled out a crossbow and shot him, -237. “Ow!”

“I’ll put your health to zero and scan you to the database myself. Maybe then I’ll get proper *bleep*ing loyalty and a real day’s work from you.” he tossed at his subordinate, eyes still locked with a shocked Lucien.

“Don’t your men mean anything to you!?” he cried.

“The soldiers, yes. The ones who follow me into battle, who lay down their lives for the dream. To make it reality. *bleep*stains like this *bleep* who can’t run, can’t shoot, can barely do what they’re told?” He grinned at the malice in Hansen’s eyes. Heh. Never got old. He’d be a proper soldier yet, with the right...encouragement. “He’ll get a piece. Scraps from the table. But it’s a *bleep* sight better than what the rest’a the world’s gonna get, that’s for *bleep* sure."

Lucien gaped at him. This man was truly off his rocker. “What? Wanna make something of it? C’mon then, go ahead.” Randal stuck his chin out and beckoned him with both hands. “C’mon. *bleep*."

“Already know it’s not going to work.” Lucien growled. “That *bleep* invincibility program.”

“Heh. No matter what, you gotta be sharp and stay ahead. It’s how ya win!” Randal laughed and laughed. He missed Lucien opening a private message, his face carefully blank.

“You owe us a lot for those fancy tricks of yours. Don’t worry, I ain’t an ingrate. You’ll get what you’re after...just as soon as you give me those people.” Randal grinned.

“Yes. Don’t worry. I am prepared to do what is necessary for the plan.” Lucien said, sounding defeated. Randal nodded.

“Yeah. That’s-”

The Lightbringer sprouted from his chest, his health bar flickering in his vision. Down, too fast down.

“And what is necessary for the plan is to eliminate you.” he whispered in Randal’s ear. The Archer looked over in shock. This was impossible.

“Buh...whuh…” His eyes fell on the sneering Hansen, still pressing the button cancelling his invincibility. “Y-”

He exploded into the light of data.

Lucien let his sword fall, smoothly swinging it into the sheath. He cracked his neck, free at last.

“Hey. That must’ve been hard. Good job.” he said to the technician. Hansen shook his head.

“Trust me, that was the easiest decision I ever made.” he said darkly.

“Mmm.” Lucien picked up a control chip program from the table. Five minutes later, Randal rematerialized, disoriented.

“What? What's going-? You!” That was as far as he got, the chip slapped to his neck. His anger fell to blank neutrality with an OVERRIDE COMPLETE.

“Ah, that’s much better. Much more quiet.” Lucien said, peering into his red, lifeless eyes. “He still in there?”

“Oh yeah. Our tests revealed the person’s still conscious, even if their actions are controlled. That *bleep* can see everything.” Hansen said vindictively.

“I see. How about the soldier boys?” Lucien asked.

“RIght here.” Hansen turned the screen. It was a camera to the real world. Every last one of the mercs and techs Randal had put together were still, shocked into complete silence. Of course, that wouldn’t last long; already they were turning to each other, murmurings beginning. It wouldn’t take long for the place to become pandemonium, and potentially be discovered. That would not do.

“Hello there, and listen up! I’m in charge now! If you want to think of it like I have your boss hostage, so be it!” Lucien said, drawing himself up regally. “However, you yourselves saw that he did not understand this reality. I cannot allow anyone to jeopardize this mission, no matter who. We shall carry on and complete the operation, exactly as intended. We currently have his brain completely scanned, but the only thing we shall install is an order to protect and support my end of the bargain. He can do what he likes with the bodies I aquire for him, I couldn’t care less. The only thing I desire is for my vision of the future to come to pass. Please, I don’t want strife between us, not when we’re so close. Those who wish to join me when this is over, I won’t say no. However, no one will receive anything if we can’t work together for our respective dreams. All we can do is carry on like we’ve been, hopefully with a greater understanding of the stakes. Who’s ready to rock?”

“Yeah!” Some still murmures and were undecided. But the majority were excited, and more than a little grateful to not have to have Randal breathing down their necks. They began typing, much faster than before.

“Good, good! Hurry, as much as you can! The dream’s almost here. Hansen, how many players do we have now?” Lucien asked.

“78%, and rising fast. I estimate about...five more hours to go before we upload the brainwashing program into the player’s brains. Before today ends, we’ll have control of nearly 13 million people.” he said with a grin.

“Excellent. Keep working and stand by, people. Update me as soon as anything happens.” Lucien closed the window to the real world and sighed. He felt a jolt of giddiness run through him. It was here. It was really happening. Finally, at long last. He turned to his new second-in-command. “Any regrets about the path you’ve chosen?” he asked.

“You know, I thought I might. But now that I’ve done it, strangely no. I feel better than ever. Freer, lighter somehow.” Hansen said, his fingers flying over virtual keys, a smile on his face.

“Yeah. I feel it too. When will it end, I wonder?” Lucien chuckled as he texted his guild, the girls all in their proper spots. He hesitated for a microsecond on Marie’s all clear signal, but set his jaw and stood tall. They would understand, in the end. They had to.

They all would.

“Hansen, what’s the status of the other players?” he asked.

“Let’s see...seems most of ‘em are either in their guilds or porting to Olympoilis City.” Hansen replied.

“That means they’re gearing up and heading here. The Tower’ll hold, but it’ll be a problem if they start swarming us all at once. Do we have the orcs?”

“Not here, but gimme five minutes and I can port them all with the press of a button.” Hansen said.

“Good. Do it. Throw everything you can at them, anything at all, to slow them down. All we have to do is run out the clock now, and we win.” Lucien cupped his chin in his hand. They were in the superior position, but he didn’t like it. Ideally, none of the players would’ve known a thing, until it was over. He glanced angrily at Randal. Thanks to that idiot, that plan was shot down. Well, if that was the way it was, time to lay the cards on the table.

“Hansen, arrange a broadcast to the entire game. I’ll go out and spread the gospel, as it were. If nothing else, it should buy us some time.” Lucien said, a winning smile on his face. After all, victory was at hand.

--------------------------------------------------------------

“Gotta hand it to you Vampires, this isn’t the worst idea in the world.” Orlin said as another squad shuffled in the room, teleported from the Tsunami Arcade guild. Alex nodded.

“That vas vhy I needed a large enough guildhall inside Olympolis City, and the cooperation of the other guildmasters. As soon as I heard the teleport rooms could be opened and linked, the plan vas formed.”

“Not a lot of guilds even consider opening up their telepads. It’s pretty cool.” Lina said approvingly, polishing Hellcrusher. She could swing it easily enough with one hand now, the weight wasn’t unmanageable. After some debate, she’d decided to put all her points from levelling into STR once more. She’d gotten this far with that strategy, why mess with a good thing?

“Oh? Has your estimation of myself gone up in your eyes?” Alex teased.

“In your dreams, bat-boy.” Lina snorted.

Far off in the corner, Mayhew was removing items from his inventory and handing them very, very carefully to Jamie.

“This is an Insubstantial Ring. It allows someone to walk through walls.” he said as Jamie put it on the table.

“Check.”

“These are Seven-League Boots. Put them on, and you can move 21,000 miles with every step.”

“Check.” Jamie added it to the pile.

“And this, is the Staff of the Artillery Magus.” he said, handing Jamie...simply a rocket launcher. He looked at the Priest with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, well, in the beginning we were kicking a lot of concepts around. One early idea was to have a few technologically advanced cities, fantasy-flavored. But Devon had us go back to basics, and I think that was the right idea. But some assets were made, I yanked ‘em before I went in.”

“If you had all this stuff, including a freaking rocket launcher, why didn’t you pull it out before? This would’ve made the Bleakheart fight a lot easier.” Jamie said, starting to get angry. They’d nearly wiped!

“I know, I know, but there are reasons.” Mayhew said, raising up his hands. “You know that infinite money card?”

“Yeah?”

“That was the first thing I used. The teller turned purple, and started glitching through the wall and floor. Before I met up with you guys, I fought some high-level bandits, and had to use this.” He held up a spell crystal, but this one was unusual. Instead of being pure green, or red, or yellow like the others, it was shot through with swirls of orange and purple.

“What’s that? Besides an eyesore.” Jamie asked.

“This is a Teleport crystal. I only downloaded three, got two left. Unbeknownst to me, these were from the alpha version of RFO. I’d just intended to escape, but…” He grimaced. “Been near Ironclaw Mountain recently?”

“No, but I passed that way heading to Apollo City. Seemed normal enough, but I heard something about a weird glitch that way.” he said.

“Yeah. I’d teleported past them to the edge of the forest, but the crystal bugged out on me. When I looked around, I was suddenly at the foot of the mountain. Everything appeared to be normal, but a six-hundred foot radius of the map had been...folded. Compressed. You can warp from one edge of it to another, the data’s messed up and best avoided. It acted more like a bomb that erased the bandits from virtual reality.”

“Oh, cool. It’s weird, yeah, but it sounds like it could be a good weapon though.” Jamie said. Mayhew shook his head.

“That’s true, but it’s not that simple. It’s like a bomb, but it’s not supposed to destroy things. Those bandits still exist, but in a closed-off piece of virtual reality. What do you think would happen if they weren’t NPC’s?”

Jamie gulped, taken aback. His technical knowledge was limited, but he could imagine what happened.

“T-They...they’re still there?” he asked nervously.

“Yes, as near as I can tell. And as far as I know, there’s no way to get them out. I don’t know what would happen if a player were sucked into one of these. And I’d rather not find out.” Mayhew explained, placing it gently on the table. Jamie backed off. “All the stuff here’s like that. I’m hesitant to use any of it, using ‘em all at the same time might just crash the game. It’s better than being their puppets, I guess.” Mayhew said, chewing on his lip.

“W-What’ll happen to us if that happens?” Jamie asked with trepidation. Mayhew shrugged.

“Dunno for sure, we never did it with anyone’s brain. Most common theory, with a system-wide crash and the safety features disabled, we all die. Personally though, I think we’ll all just go vegetable for the rest of our days. However long that might be.” he added ruefully. Jamie shivered.

“A-A reboot wouldn’t help, then?” he asked.

“Oh, it’d definitely flush the system and free Verringale, the game would be normal. We’d just all be wiped out. Hence my vegetable theory.” Mayhew said. He tilted his head, considering. “Well, I suppose there’s a chance Verringale could be rebooted, freeze the system, and eject whoever’s left. But uh, that’s, that’s still...not good. It’s just the best-case scenario.”

“I see.” Jamie said, feeling faint. The virtual world was spinning. He put a hand on the table to steady himself, before he fell over. He glanced down, feeling something both soft and tough. It was a coarse strip of leather. “What’s this?”

“Oh, a Tamer’s Whip. That’s from the alpha version, it won’t work with the current game. It’s a special legendary item that can tame any monster and make it your ally, but only for an hour. That’s when any player could get monster allies, before we made the Tamer class.” Mayhew explained.

“Oh. Cool!” Jamie said, trying to crack it experimentally. He failed, but in that moment felt like Indiana Jones. He flailed it near his head and dropped it, ducking.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s officially an item, not a weapon. It won’t deal damage even if you hit or damage someone with it.” Mayhew said.

“Ah. Mind if I practice a bit, then?” Jamie asked hopefully.

“You can learn a veapon you don’t have later. Ve have extremely limited time as of now.” Alex said sternly, popping up behind him. Jamie shrieked and dropped the whip. Alex stared at his disciple, nonplussed.

“S-Sorry. Y-You suck up on me.” Jamie said sheepishly.

“I do that a lot. But your talents are reqvired elsevhere. Vhat knowledge have you of the Vizard’s Tower?” he asked, leading Jamie away. Mayhew grumbled, having to organize and clean up alone now.

“Not much, honestly. Few parties have done the quest because it’s a lot for a low-level party, but by the time you’re supposed to get to it it’s not that tough and the traps and monsters don’t give particularly good XP. There’s not much good loot either, I’ve heard. It’s mostly completionists who’ve done it. I’ve heard the Tower’s one big spiral between about ten levels of various floors, but I’m not too sure of the layout.” Jamie said.

“And considering the Radiant Dawn can change stuff, I wouldn’t give too much stock in a map or anything.” Lina added.

“That is a good point.” The Vampires joined Orlin, overseeing the teleporting troops. “Has anyvun scaled the Vizard’s Tower before?”

“A couple, but you know the orcs you said were running around? Initial scouting says they’re surrounding the Tower, nearly thirty thousand of ‘em.” Orlin siad gloomily.

“That’s...a lot.” Jamie said worriedly.

“Pah. Ve have over tvelve million players. Ve can literally drown them in bodies, if ve vere so inclined.” Alex said, then noticed their stares. “Vhat? It’s a hypothetical. Ve’re not actually going to do it, goodness no. Ve have much better options than that.”

“Yyyyyyyyyyeah.” Orlin said warily, skirting away from him. “But our scouts reported more than that. Look.” He pulled up a screen and spun it around. The other players gasped. The orcs were the first line of defense, but also surrounding the tower were scores of player avatars, blank and quiet, moving with machinelike efficiency. Orlin zoomed in, and they could see they all had red eyes. Alex narrowed his own red eyes into a glare.

“How many are there?” he asked tersely.

“It’s...not good. We can’t know for certain, but a rough estimate based on these numbers...nearly 500,000.” Orlin said. A hush fell over the room, heavy, oppressive silence that threatened to suffocate. Jamie felt numb and hot. “We on the other hand have around 600,000 players ready to fight. We’re the biggest server on the East Coast, at least they didn’t expand to other countries yet. The other servers are coming in, but we don’t know how much this one can handle the stress, we might just crash it anyway.”

“That’s actually not a thing. We might experience slowdowns, but the servers for the NeWorld are designed to link up and basically share their processing power. It’ll be a strain, the game wasn’t designed to run like that, but for a short time it’ll be able to handle up to thirty million players on the same server. See, the host client-” Mayhew began, but Alex cut him off with a hand on his mouth.

“I do not understand this, and vill not even vith an explanation. Ve have vhat ve have, there are more coming in, and the game can handle it?” he said. The Priest nodded, and Alex removed his hand. “Good. That’s all ve need to know.”

“Yeah, but if they have similar percentages on the other servers too, that means most of the other players are theirs, once they die.” Mayhew said.

“Which means nearly every one we lose becomes theirs.” Lina siad.

“And they don’t have to worry about dying.” Jamie muttered.

“It doesn’t stop there, I’m afraid. The highest level player we have’s level 67. Did you see the levels of the orcs and brainwashed players? Level 99. We’re not doing *bleep* to them even if we gang up on them.” Orlin continued grimly.

“I suppose it’d be too much to hope that we wouldn’t have people dying.” Lina said.

“You suppose right.”

“Oh man oh man. G-Guys, c-can...can w-we really d-do this?” Jamie stuttered nervously. Taking on a quest,no matter how hard, was one thing. But at least there was an avenue to success, no matter how hard. There had to be one programmed in. But this, the deck was too stacked against them. It was seeming more and more like they were out of time, and out of options. He looked at the one person who had managed to keep his spirits up.

Alex watched the discussion dispassionately, expression neutral. He gave away no clue to his thoughts, the familiar blanket of detachment overtaking him as the war plans were made. He had barely moved, but now opened his mouth.

“The vuns who have been captured. If ve escape the game, vill they be brainvashed on the outside?” he asked. Mayhew pondered, his knuckles on his forehead in concentration. After running the numbers, he shook his head.

“Yeah, it should be alright. The Radiant Dawn wants to download the program into everyone at once. They could do it on an individual basis, but it’s a long process, I’m guessing six or seven hours. That’s why they’re doing it this way. I know they tried to do it subtly at first, but we kinda blew that outta the water.” Mayhew said. Alex grinned.

“Excellent. So, despite the level disadvantage, our numbers remain superior. Very vell, I recommend a V formation to assault the Tower, first a bombardment to soften the forces up and then draw them into groups, closing the pincer and achieving victory that vay.” He flung his arms out, flaring out his black coat. “It sounds like ve’re done here. Orlin, you’re in charge. Put vun of the others up to leading the attack if you vish, but you’ll be our contact. Everyvun ready?” He started striding to the door. “Vampires, you’re vith me. Orlin, have those spell crystals ready vhen ve depart. I must collect the rest of my veapons, and ve vill attack.”

"Wait, hold on! Marlinna has the crystals, but we can’t force our way through the Tower like this!” Orlin protested as Alex flung the door open.

“Really, I thought you vere smarter than that.” Alex drawled. “Of course ve’re not going to! That vould be obvious. I still vant you to try, but you’re the distraction. Ve’ll take care of infiltration vhile the army’s busy vith you. I’m counting on you, and I von’t let you down.” he said, stepping into the hall. The group followed, Lina and Jamie still looking down.

“But what do you plan to do about Lucien? He’s the strongest in the game, bar none. You saw him, didn’t you? He wiped out an entire ballroom of players and guards in like, five seconds. I didn’t even think that was possible!” Lina said.

“Really, it shouldn’t be. The game’s parameters don’t allow it, at least from what we programmed.” Mayhew added worriedly. That had been bugging him since he saw it. Alex, however, didn’t seem concerned.

“Gentlemen, gentlemen. Come to the telepad. Ve vill discuss much on the vay. But as for that young man…” His red eyes narrowed and he smiled. His lips parted to show his teeth, anyway. “I have seen him in action. You leave that to me. That hugger-mugging jive-turkey vill rue the day he decided to stand against me!” he snarled. Lina blinked. The group leaned away from him warily. “Vhat?”

“‘Jive-turkey?’ How old are you?” Orlin said.

“I vas around for the seventies.” Alex said, a little miffed.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Unbeknownst to them, Max clung to the chain of the chandelier, nursing a healing potion as the Vampires passed underneath.

“You hear that? They’re gonna be a distraction while Alex slips in unannounced. It’s not a bad plan.” he said, ruminating. He turned to the last remaining member of Primrose Boulevard. “What do you think?”

“Hmph. I think, if we’re to have our revenge, that following them would be the best course of action. I...can’t believe this is happening.” she said gloomily. Max downed the rest of the potion, his bar up to full.

“Well, it’s happening. Thanks for saving me, but why'd you have to shoot me to do it?” he grumbled.

“Hmph. Teleport Arrows only work by being shot. Simple as that.” she stated. “You were the first one to expose that...traitor. You’ll be of great help in taking him down. But how are we going to get to the Tower without being noticed?” A figure clad all in black dropped down onto the chandelier, covering both their mouths to muffle their screams as his scarf fluttered around him.

“Hello there. Sorry for the eavesdropping, but I think I know of a way. How’d you be interested in a little work?” he whispered to them.