When she respawned, Lina found herself in chains, that even her STR couldn’t break, not even close. Mayhew, Izumi, Max, and Devan were manacled with her, surrounded on both sides by Primrose Boulevard. She was pulled by the redhead to the stairs.

“Lord Lucien commands you to him.” Shannon said blankly, leading them up.

“Where’s the kid, Jamie? What happened here?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at the hole in the wall. The battle could be seen below, ultimately meaningless now. The free army couldn’t get close enough fast enough, and they kept exploding into data.

“He made a break for it.” Mayhew said, trudging behind her. They were pulled through to the top level. Lina choked back a gasp.

“Oh, hi!” Lucien said brightly from the throne. Hansen had fixed the damage to the hall with a few strokes of the keys, and had made an addition.

On the right wall, Alex was bound in chains, looking ragged. His head hung low, save for the glare he tossed at Lucien

“Yeah yeah. Save it pal, you’re not going anywhere,” Hansen said to the vampire, typing at the board in front of him. Sure, the mental control was great, but the tactile sensation was easier to use overall. “Neither are they.” The chains binding their arms and legs suddenly animated and stretched, pulling them and fusing into the stone. Lina gave an experimental tug, but she couldn’t break free.

“Relax, miss Lina. You’ll be turned loose in due time. It's only a few more hours now. By this time tomorrow, the download of the program will be complete, and your minds will be free from your physical shells.” Lucien said, trying to be pleasant.

“You madman! You don’t understand! That could erase all of us!” Father Mayhew cried. Hansen could only roll his eyes.

“It seems you’re not the one who understands, sir. While I appreciate all the hard work you’ve put in, you’re a game designer, not a neurobiologist.” Lucien corrected.

“The program gets downloaded into the brain to override it, essentially killing the ego of the subject. Meanwhile, the electronic copy of the consciousness continues to exist on the server, growing and changing like normal, but free of physical ailments and worries. Just needed a bit of reprogramming to keep the brain patterns separate. We’re safe in here, dude. Not only that, we’re immortal. Unless the servers are physically destroyed, which with all the security OceanView has ain’t happening, we’ll keep going on forever. It’s great.” Hansen said, grinning.

“Fools. Vorthless fools.” Alex spat.

“You are entitled to your opinion, Mr. Lonescu, even if it is wrong. But if I were in your position, I’d be thinking about what I’d do after it’s over.” Lucien said.

“Speaking of which, what about that other one, the kid that ran away? Think he’ll be a problem?” Hansen asked him. Lucien shook his head.

“Nah, I wouldn’t be too concerned. He didn’t seem like the type to actually make a difference, in the end. Still, send some griffons or something after him. Best not to take chances, after all.” Lucien said sadly. It was a shame, but a coward was a coward. He’d run, abandoning his friends. Lucien knew there wasn’t anything the Magus could actually do of course, they controlled the entire game. But still. He was jolted from his reverie by a harsh laugh from Alex.

“Jamie? Of all the people in this game, he is perhaps the vun person who I know vill be able to help. I trust he vill do something to save us.” Lucien raised an eyebrow.

“You think so? He didn’t seem that capable to me.”

“Nor to me, at first. But I’ve seen him. He’s smart, and resourceful. He’s stronger than ve give him credit for, even himself. He just needs to see it. And after all…”

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“Oh man, oh man, oh man.” Jamie’s knees shook with every step, his boots starting to warm from the black rock. Every quivering step and the afternoon light got dimmer. Deeper into the abyss. He didn’t bother to hide or march in quietly. He already knew what was staring back at him.

It was funny. Alex was right, sort of. The terror of his body being stolen, his friends dying, oh that was all too real. It drove him mad, and also drove his feet forward. It was a desperate gamble, but they were out of options. Jamie was terrified of the thing waiting in the deeper darkness, true. But Alex was right. The thought of failure was beyond terrifying, and gave him the courage to try.

Much sooner than anticipated, two hellblazing red eyes shone from the darkness as the cave shuddered, the power of his approach. Jamie gulped as they regarded him.

“Okay, this’s it. L-Listen up!” He wished his voice didn’t crack like that. “You’re the biggest, meanest thing in here! Everyone’s in trouble now! S-So, so that means you gotta h-help! Whether you want to or not!” Jamie pulled out the Tamer’s Whip he grabbed from Father Mayhew and cracked it, marching up to the eyes in the dark.

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“...I taught him everything he reqvires.” Alex had an evil smile on his face, despite being chained to the wall with the others. Decrying victory when helpless.

“Cute.” Lucien dismissed, turning to Hansen. “How’s the completion? Do I need to take care of the army down there?”

“Heh-heh! Not any more! My boys pulled through, he’s ready.” Hansen giggled, typing madly on his virtual keyboard. “Here he comes. The program’s fully loaded!”

“Programming? Who? What’s going on!” Mayhew demanded, trying to pull free.

From above a harsh, cold, golden light shone down upon them. From that light, it descended. Neon incandescent rainbow-on-white wings, gently furling and unfurling to their full eight feet, two on the bottom, two on the sides, two on the top. Four arms, disembodied and bronzed, ornamented with golden bracers flexing and grasping at the air underneath his wings. And at the center, the final layer. A simple platinum ring, encasing a soft white light. The band looked hard and sharp, a halo proclaiming judgement, not mercy. As soon as he saw it, Mayhew went chalk-white.

“Oh...oh no.” he groaned.

“Behold!” Lucien declared, swooping his arms over his head. “The most supreme boss in all of Real Fantasy Online! Ein Keter, the Crystalized Divine!”

“And that’s not all. We loaded the avatar control program into him. Every player he wipes out we can control, just like Primrose Boulevard!” Hansen cackled madly, pointing at the girls dully standing at attention.

“No! NO! You can’t do this! You can’t!” Devan screamed, straining himself forward. “This is my game! It’s supposed to be fun! It’s not meant to hurt people! It’s just a game, it’s so people can play and have adventures and fight monsters and go questing for wonderful locales and ancient artifacts! But you’re twisting it into a horrible nightmare! Please, stop! This’s the culmination of all my work, it’s my dream!” he shouted as loud as he could, sagging in the chains. His face was wet with tears as everything he worked to build was taken and turned into this loathsome repugnance before his eyes. Suddenly, Lucien was in front of him.

“I am deeply sorry we’re causing you this pain and stress, sir. But it’s only temporary. Soon, your wonderful world will be enjoyed by everyone! It’s the best! So don’t worry, Real Fantasy Online will continue on and on, no matter what. When we finish and people see the new world, they’ll come and join in droves! The whole world will see the glory of RFO!” Devan gaped at him, jaw hanging. This kid was insane! Cracked! Mad!

“No...no...not supposed to hurt people…” he whimpered, lost and helpless, head shaking sadly back and forth.

“Order Ein Keter to target the free players out there. We can wipe them out in less than an hour, and stop the fighting.” Lucien commanded Hansen.

“Yes sir!”

“Pah! No matter what, ve’ll never stop fighting! You hear me, boy!? Your little self-aggrandizing experiment vill fail! Vunce ve’re free ve’ll hunt you down, you pompous *bleep*!” Alex snarled. Lucien sighed, being the bigger man and turning away. “That’s right! Ignore me, little boy! Safe to do so, now that I’m in irons! No vun to stand up to you now! You can take the vorld unopposed now!”

“For the last time, I’m not doing it for me! It’s for the good of humanity!” Lucien suddenly whirled on him, fed up with his nonsense. Alex looked him dead in the eye.

“Even if that’s what you tell yourself, you’re wrong. You’ve tried to be gentle, but you trample on the vishes and vills of others vhen you don’t get your vay. Vhy do you think ve’re all fighting you so hard, to the last breath?”

“Listen you *bleep*-” Hansen began, but Lucien laid a hand on his shoulder. Black rage rumbled and boiled inside, but he would not give in. He was no child. That was what the Raider wanted.

“They...they fight, you fight, because you don’t know how much better it’ll be.” Lucien said evenly.

“Neither do you.” Alex retorted immediately. Lucien found it very hard to look him in the eye.

“Well. It seems...we will not reach an agreement.” Lucien said, very controlled. He stood up straight, stiffly. He went over to Devan and pulled Fantasy’s End from the sheath on his back over his numb protests. He examined the black blade, holding it up to EIn Keter’s light.

“An exquisite blade, and excellent programming.” He slowly strolled over to the big red button on the dias, encased in an invincible wall.

With sudden fury and an anguished, enraged shout he raised it and slashed through the podium straight down the middle. The invincible wall meant nothing against the blade designed to destroy literally everything that existed in this world. The Victorious Vampires howled and watched as the dias fell, split in two and bursting into data. Hansen cackled. And though they could not be heard, though they could not express it no matter how much they wished, the girls of Primrose Boulevard wept. Their last hope had been dashed.

“No one’s leaving. Not now, not ever. Understood?” Lucien snarled, glaring. “I’ve had enough. Hansen, I’m-I’m tired. And we still have much to do. I’m going to rest for a sec. Have Ein Keter wipe out the rest of the army. And include our guests in that.” he said, seemingly deflated. He dragged himself to the silver throne, hanging his head in his hands.

“Yes sir. You’re...you’re doing the right thing. Everyone’ll see, in the end.” Hansen said, typing commands. Ein Keter’s glow began to increase, as everyone chained to the wall found a large targeting reticule on their bodies, along with a great number of the players on the ground.

“Oh no!” Devan gasped.

“It...it was a pleasure working with you, sir.” Mayhew said despondently. Lina was hurling bleeped curses over her tears at Hansen, the boss, Lucien, everyone. Max called out for Teri desperately, and she could not respond. Izumi tried to stay strong. The crowd outside began to panic and rout, everything that had transpired plain to see on the enormous screen overhead. Alex’s jaw was set in a grimace, staring at Lucien with unblinking coals.

“Quit complaining, it’ll be over in a few-eh?” Hansen frowned as something on his virtual console beeped. “What’s...uh, um, uh, s-sir? L-Lucien? Lucien!?” he cried in a panic. Ein Keter ceased it’s attack, waiting for the command to fire.

“What is it?” Lucien asked.

“We got-we got incoming! Fast!”

“What?” Lucien said, eyebrow raised. Alex smiled softly and closed his eyes.

“That’s the vay, Jamie.”

Outside cries of shock and joy from players could be heard as there were multiple explosions of data, from the orc side. The free players threw up a cheer, heard all the way on the fiftieth floor. The Vampires were hollering, Hansen was gaping openmouthed at the screen, trying to pull up a camera. Lucien felt lost. He needed to reclaim control of the situation.

“What is it? What is going-”

BR-CRSH!

The far wall exploded, sending debris and dust everywhere and the players to the ground, even Lucien. A gigantic brown head reached through on a serpentine neck, razor-filled maw billowing smoke and fury. Golden eyes stared a challenge at all of them, regal and proud as enormous wings beat, pushing the rest of his muscled body through. The section of the wall was gone, which meant the chains were gone. The Vampires and company rolled away as fast as they could, the debris taking chunks off their health bars.

“S-Spot!” Devan cried in joy, struggling to his feet. The Primrose Boulevard girls stood, drawing weapons, but without specific orders they could do nothing. Protect the leaders? Deal with the dragon? Round up the prisoners?

“Are you *bleep*ing kidding me!” All the Victorious Vampires and their allies had been freed save the actual vampire, still chained to his unbroken section of wall, literally right next to the hole. “Really?”

“Um! S-S-Sorry ‘bout that! Couldn’t really aim!” came from the dragon’s back. Climbing up over the scales was the hooded Magus himself. Jamie.

“Good work kid!” Lina roared, grabbing Aggie bodily and throwing her from the new window. No more of that paralysis crap. She was silent as she fell, but internally she was screaming all the way before she burst into data on the ground.

“That was mean.” Lucien muttered, then turned to Jamie. “Well done lad, well done indeed! Truly a dramatic reversal! But I’m afraid Spot here is part of the game. And we, my friend, have control of it. Hansen, take control of the dragon, please.”

“With pleasure!” Hansen said, already typing in the code to do so.

“NO!” everyone shouted. Everyone except Devan, who was now forcibly reminded of Spot’s peculiarities, and Jamie.

“Too late!” Hansen clicked the keyboard. There was a heart-stopping moment as Spot’s eyes turned red...before shaking his head and growling at the programmer.

“Hansen, control the dragon!”

“R-Roger, sir!” Click. The dragon hissed, narrowing his golden eyes. Black smoke was pouring from his nostrils.

“H-Hansen, control the dragon!”

“Right!” Click. Spot crouched low, like a cat preparing to pounce.

“Hansen!”

“I-I don’t know!” Hansen screamed. Jamie just smirked and pulled out a black whip.

“Get ‘em!” At the whip’s crack Spot launched himself, jaws crunching down on the virtual keyboard. The two next to it flung themselves to the sides, screaming in terror. Spot’s tail whipped around, straight at Lucien.

“If you can’t control it, kill it!” Lucien commanded, flashing out of time to duck behind the silver throne. That lashing tail had almost got him! He grimaced; Spot was on a whole other level, literally.

“Girls! Ein Keter! Kill the dragon!” Hansen shouted, spawning another console and furiously opening Spot’s file. His eyes widened as he saw the buggy mess in the source code.

“Afraid he’s not going to go down so easily!” Devan laughed, wrapping his arm around Hansen’s throat in a chokehold and taking him down. They had precious seconds before Hansen’s superior stats freed him. Primrose Boulevard and the final raid boss closed in on the secret raid boss. The Scourge of the Sky roared, and under Jamie’s direction spewed out a concentrated stream of flame, mere contact making the maxed-out characters of Primrose Boulevard pop like balloons. In six seconds, the strongest guild in the game was wiped out.

Ein Keter targeted Spot with all his reticules. Jamie eeped and ducked behind the snarling dragon’s side as the holy blasts went off, smacking all the reticles for thirty hits each. The supreme light blinded everyone, but when the dust settled and the player's vision came back Spot was pawing at the ground impatiently, waiting for the order from his master. HP: 26,562,839 of 28,973,674.

“How is anyone supposed to beat that!?” Lina cried, ducking for cover with Max and Izumi. Screw that, all this crap was way above their paygrade!

“I’ve got him!” Lucien said. He had to do everything, it seemed. Hansen was struggling with Devan and Mayhew, the Priest trying to kick him away while he desperately tried to access the virtual computer, the free players rioting at the base of the tower, his guild gone, and that asshole laughing his head off, even while chained up. He sighed, and the world stopped.

Humming a nameless tune, he strolled over to Hansen and freed him, idly tossing the game devs into the air. He trotted over He trotted over to the dragon, jumping up and yanking the Magus clinging to his side off. He sent Jamie flying into frozen space, his momentum halting three feet away...for now.

“I bet you think this’s the end, don’t you, you bastard.” he growled at Alex, frozen in a crazed rictus. “But you’ll see. This isn’t even a speed bump. Not for me.” He unsheathed his Lightsworn.

Time resumed.

“Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!” Devan and Mayhew flew up, smacking into the ceiling. Devan caught his employee, his Spidershoes activating to stick him and prevent the fall. Jamie blinked wordlessly, suddenly crashing into the silver throne, destroying it. -553. No, he had only 200 hit points left!

“Let’s end this. Hah!” Lucien swiped the Lightsworn, one, two, three times through Spot’s form, just to make sure. He sheathed his sword, waiting for the overgrown lizard to burst into data.

It didn’t come.

Instead, Spot rolled one golden eye at him as the damage was calculated. -1368, -1343, -1401. Lucien’s eyes widened as he started into that disdainful gold orb, now knowing exactly why Spot had the title of the Undisputed.

The dragon turned to his real foe Ein Keter, screeching and ramming into the Wise King of Teeth. They rolled, Spot’s brown wings beating back the holy light’s feathery ones, the golden arms pummeling Spot as the dragon’s claws ripped apart the halo.

“This is insane!” Hansen said, shaking his head. That damned lizard, how the hell had they left it in the game!? Ein Keter, far surpassing the other bosses was nothing! The coding was a mess, how did its’ A.I. even function?

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!” And him! The one still chained up laughed uproariously, throwing his head back at the chaos before him.

“Shut up!” Lucien snapped. “Wait-duh!” He remembered he still had Devan’s sword. “Time to end this!”

Unbeknownst to him, distracted by the titanic battle in the middle of the room, Lina had taken shelter behind some rubble near the hole in the wall. Not six feet from Lucien. Raising a sword that would break anything. She watched, her body numb. Then hot as she seized her chance.

“Yaaaaaah!”

Using her great STR she launched herself forward, bowling Lucien over and snatching Fantasy’s End from his surprised hand. Rocketing as fast as she could from leg to leg, more like jumping than running, she blazed past Spot, past Hansen only now looking up, past the game devs and Jamie, set only on one goal: the wizard Verringale.

“Hah! Go Lina!” Alex cried, but was silenced and his HP cut in half by Lucien’s slap.

“Shut up. They all die.” Lucien growled. He took a calming breath. Lina was at least two seconds from Verringale. Way more than he needed.

“No!” Jamie squeaked, recognizing what was going to happen. He tried to raise his staff, but knew he was too late.

“Hah!” Hansen cawed triumphantly.

“Stop!”

“Don’t!” Mayhew and Devan shouted. It was no use. Everyone was too far away, he was too strong to resist anyway. Lina desperately lunged at the wizard, body heavy, time slowing to a crawl around her. In a blink, that would be literal. Lucien began to move, the timestop already starting to trigger. It was over. However, there was an important factor he’d overlooked; he was standing right next to the chained up Alex. And even restrained and weakened, he still had one weapon left.

Alex leaned forward as far as he could, in an act of desperation and instinct. Lucien was focused on Lina, he wasn’t watching his back. Teeth bared in ferocity, before the timestop could take effect, all watched in horror and awe as the vampire opened his mouth and bit down into Lucien’s exposed neck.

If anyone could see closely, they could even be fooled into thinking his canines grow and sharpen before he struck.

“Yeeeeeaaarrrrhhhhh!” Lucien cried in shock and pain. A mere -1, Alex’s teeth sliding through virtual flesh, but it was enough to jolt Lucien from his timestop. And in that moment, Lina thrusted the black sword through the barrier like paper, piercing the sleeping A.I. wizard through the chest. He exploded into light.

The players fell silent, staring at the empty case. Spot snarled and chomped down, biting, chewing, and swallowing the ball of light that was Ein Keter, dissolving into data in his throat.

“N-No! It can’t-Hansen!” Lucien cried, whirling on him.

“I’m on it! I can-” Hansen said, starting to type.

REBOOT.

Hansen stared as his virtual console suddenly blinked out of virtual existence. “What?”

“System rebooted. Safety features re-engaging.” Verringale said, appearing in a shower of sparks beside him. The wizard pointeed, and Hansen froze, his avatar locked.

“NO! You’ll-” Lucien roared, trying to pause time. But nothing happened. “I...I can’t…”

“User end agreement terminated. Unlawful programming detected. Commencing purge.” Verringale said sweetly, freezing Lucien just as easily. “Spot?”

The dragon lumbered up, the Scourge of the Sky standing before the helpless Lucien, and that was the last thing he saw before the jaws came down and he turned him into data.

“Whoa!” Lina said.

“V-Verringale…” Devan said, tearing up. Below, cheers could be heard as the fighting ceased, the orcs vanishing as the A.I. started to put things right.

“Hello sir. It’s a pleasure to see you again.” the wizard said demurely, bowing low. “Excuse me, but there are medical scans I must run. Analyzing...analyzing…” Verringale stared off into space, his eyes glowing blue.

“Yes! Yes! We won!” Jamie cried.

“That’s all very well and good, now if I could get free from here!?” Alex snarled, tugging on his chains. Verringale waved his hand and the manacles released him. “FInally.”

“Alex! You’re safe! That was awesome! And didj’a see? I rode a dragon!” Jamie said, bouncing up to him. The vampire nodded.

“Very impressive indeed, boy. Now-” Alex was cut off as the Primrose Boulevard girls respawned, Max immediately heading straight over to Teri. Alex picked up the biggest rock he could lift.

“Huh?

“Aah!”

“We’re free! We’re free!”

“Woo-hoo!” Shannon whooped, raising her hands up.

“Nooooo! I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’ wanna do tha, ib wa horribbble…” Teri collapsed into Max, falling over himself, the both of them devolving into blubbering.

“Player avatar data has been cleared. Cerebral functions normal. Running emergency ejection!” Verringale declared. Another cheer went up, and Jamie and Lina both hugged Alex. He tried to scowl, but just sighed and patted their backs.

“Yes, yes. Vell done.” he said.

“I...I don’t know how I’m gonna go back to normal life after this.” Jamie said, sadness demeaning his smile.

“You von’t. Experiences like this change a man. You’ll never be qvite how you vere before. But that’s not alvays a bad thing.” Alex said philosophically. “Vell, ve’ll find out. I just vish I could have wrung the life from that scrawny punk vith my own two hands.”

“Does...does that count as killstealing?” Jamie asked nervously.

“Think of it like a team effort.” Mayhew said, coming up with Devan Richelu.

“My goodness. Gosh. You, you all. You stopped them. You saved everyone. You saved my game. Thank you, thank you so much. I don’t know how I could ever repay you.” Devan said, wiping his face. “It’s over. For now, at least.”

“Oh boy. Cleaning up this mess’ll be no easy job.” Mayhew said. A thought occurred to him. “I don’t have a job anymore, do I?”

“Afraid not.” Devan said sadly. “OceanView is finished, after this. No investor’ll touch us again. Hope you all enjoyed the game, because we’re shutting down the servers once we’re out.”

“O-Oh.” Jamie said. The mood was brought down for a moment. Unnecessarily, in Alex’s opinion. Good riddance to this digital nightmare.

“Yeah. But look on the bright side: you’ll be able to get a job just about anywhere. You’re a hero! You helped save thirteen million people from inside a game. They’ll be crazy to turn away.” Lina spoke up. Mayhew cocked his head, mulling it over.

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right! Heck, we’re all gonna be pretty well off after word gets out.”

“Just leave my name out of it as much as possible, please.” Alex said quickly. Vampires shouldn’t be in the spotlight. Devan coughed awkwardly.

“Oh, uh, huh. I’m sorry about that, Mr. Lonescu. Um. Every, everything in the game’s recorded. The FBI and Interpol have a 24/7 monitor on the game, since all this started, and the media’s been getting and playing clips of the game for the whole month. And this-I’m pretty sure they broadcasted this.” he said. Alex turned pale as snow.

“Vhat?” he said in a very high voice.

“Um. Pretty sure, especially after what you’ve accomplished, they’ll definitely be playing this on every news site. G-Globally, seems like. I’m very sorry. It wasn’t exactly up to me.” Devan apologized.

“Hooooly crap, we are so trending.” Shannon said, able to access her messaging and social media at last. Alex somehow turned even more white. The Council of Blood had seen everything.

“Vhat!?” he squeaked.

“Ah, crap.” Lina muttered.

“Emergency eject activated! Goodbye, everyone! Thank you for playing!” With that last shout from Verringale, every single player was engulfed in blinding white light.