Asphodel – The Sixth Age – Third Year – Seventieth Sun

Adam darted behind a local vendor’s wooden street cart. Thirty feet down the dusty town road was an Ogre, tearing through a building. Tapping the menu beacon on his arm, Adam scrolled to his inventory, and selected the weapons tab. There were several swords with varying skill levels and perks, a semi-automatic pistol from the twenty first century with five rounds, and laser rifle with a full charge.

The Ogre was slowly progressing toward Adam. It was too concerned with the simple log houses that it was plowing through to notice him behind the cart. Sighing at red text next to the laser rifle in his inventory that said, “Level 15 required” Adam selected a sword named Stabby. It was a medieval, two handed sword with a 20% piercing bonus on large creatures.

Stabby was only a level 5 weapon, but it was the only weapon in Adam’s inventory that stood any chance of doing damage to the Ogre. Adam switched to the Armor tab and selected a basic level 3 steel shield then changed his visual settings to show health bars, and level information above each character. Mary disabled it at the beginning of every new simulation. She wanted him to get more proficient with navigating through is menu.

The sword appeared on Adam’s belt and the shield was strapped across his chest and resting on his back. Mary threw a curveball at him this time with the Ogre, he didn’t even have a chance to get any decent weapons or armor. In fact he was still wearing the cotton rags that he started with. Looking up at the Ogre, Adam saw a “Level 8” above its head in red text. Just below that was a health bar that showed 200 hit points. Adam glanced down at the sword in his hand that did 3 hit points of damage on a, and shook his head. Of course, he could kill the beast with a critical hit to any vital organ, but the blade was dull and the Ogre’s skin was thick. Mary was really turning up the heat today.

The cobblestone wall shattered as Adam flew through it. He couldn’t tell whether the pain he felt was from crashing through the wall, or the Wrathic transformation that had begun just as he was getting swatted like a fly from the Ogre who rushed while he wasn’t looking. Luckily the building was empty. Most of the villagers jumped on to their boats the second the Ogre showed up. Embracing the safety of the sea was their only reprieve as the Ogre couldn’t swim. The town was a simple trading village and didn’t have a lot in terms of guards or defenses.

Adam wanted to curse the creature for its last punch, he wanted to curse himself for not dodging out of its way, but he had trouble doing anything during the transformation. Adam had felt the Wrathic underneath, begging to released, begging for a chance to tear the Ogre limb from limb and feast on its ash after consuming the creature in flames. It caused him to flinch and miss the blow that more than likely shattered his spine.

The transformation was the only thing that could save him, and at the same time, could very well kill him. His bones were already breaking and attempting to realign before he barreled through the wall. Due to some painful trial and error, Adam learned that if he started to transform, the process would realign any recent broken bones, and any lacerations or damage done to his skin would be gone once he transformed back into a human. It was akin to smashing a full health orb over himself, the only problem was, shifting took time. He was vulnerable during the process.

Adam focused on shifting. He focused on the bones finding their proper place. His right arm snapped and twisted, the realignment was complete, so he willed the skin to shed and formed a wing. Meanwhile, the lumbering Ogre had made its way over to the hole in the cobblestone wall. It was roughly six feet in diameter, not quite large enough for the twelve foot tall beast to squeeze through. On top of that, Ogres weren’t the brightest NPCs in Asphodel, but they were strong, ruthless, and persistent. They had a bad temper and would often lash out at other players or NPCs due to any slight misunderstanding or provocation. This particular Ogre, set itself up in a cave a mile outside of town and was trying to clear out its new hunting grounds. It saw the town as intruders, even though it had been build some fifty years prior, well before the Ogre found the cave.

The skin on Adam’s right arm had melted away and the wing was expanding out to completion. The Ogre crouched to look through the hole and spotted Adam. Letting out a monstrous roar, the creature’s horrid breath filled the room as phlegm and bits of chewed meat sprayed all over. It tried to step through the hole but smashed its knee into the wall that remained near the floor. The creature lashed out, breaking through the lower wall. It picked up a large chunk of brick and mortar and whipped it through the hole at Adam.

Right wing fully formed, Adam raised it like a shield in just enough time to deflect the debris. It struck his Wrathic skin, shattering into hundreds of pieces. The Ogre growled in discontent. Adam returned his focus to the transformation, but felt a sharp pain between his neck and shoulder. He turned to see a young boy in rags for clothes with and angry look on his face.

“What the shit?” Adam exclaimed.

“You killed my family, brought the monster!” the little boy spat.

“Kid I’m trying to,” he started to get woozy as blood poured from the wound. Adam could see long streaks of his crimson life force splattered across the ground and pooling in a pile of hay. The knife had hit an artery and was spraying out from his neck. Adam looked up to see the Ogre standing over him with a massive chunk of the structure’s wall.

“Aw son of a,” before Adam could finish his sentence the world went black.

Adam’s vision began to clear, but Tartarus itself, the training room, didn’t meld into another scenario or a freeze frame of his current one as it did in the past. An ominous voice rolled out of the darkness, smooth and calm. “He fights an awful lot like a human.”

Adam didn’t recognize the voice, but he could tell it was female. He turned in place hoping to see something, anything, but the entire room remained in a dark fog. The ground looked like a white swirling cloud. He held a hand out, and could see it clearly, even though everything beyond it was black.

“Mary?” he called out in the darkness. There was something in the voice…something familiar, even though it clearly wasn’t her. Maybe this is some kind of training session? Adam thought. There was magic in Asphodel, he’d surely have to battle an Enchanter at some point, maybe this was just another test.

The female voice spoke again, slow and methodical. “Oh no. No Mary here. It’s just you, and me.”

“Okay,” Adam was confused. “I’ll bite, who are you?”

“Me?” the voice asked.

“Well you said it was just you and me, and I’m not talking to myself.”

“Aren’t you?”

“What the hell?” Adam said under his breath, barely audible.

“Oh no, not here…” the voice drew out the word ‘here’, then took a deep breath. “I haven’t been there in a while. I don’t quite like it to be honest.”

Adam had to find a way to communicate with voice. It seemed to have a habit of redirecting the conversation, maybe if I bring up something it said…“You said I fight like a human, I’m confused because I am a human.”

“Oh no…you’re so much more. So much more.”

Adam was at a loss. Usually Mary’s methods were more direct. There was a reason and a purpose and this just seemed like someone was playing with him. Dragging him along in some weird game to mess with his head. He tried a more direct approach. “What’s your name?”

The voice quieted to whisper and seemed to float across the air, “My name…ohhhhhh…I’m…”

Adam waited patiently. Seconds, then minutes passed. He turned in place, searching for anything in the darkness.

There was nothing.

Feeling completely alone, a sense of dread filled his heart.

Just before he was about to shout for Mary or Georgia to reset the simulation, he heard a footstep behind him. A cold breeze washed over his back, causing the hairs on his arm to stand.

Turning quickly, a ghastly face appeared in the darkness and shot toward Adam, howling in pain as it flew forward.

Stumbling backward in fear, he heard “Dark angel!” through the inhumane wails of pain and electronic distortion.

In an instant the face was gone and Adam was on the floor, heart racing and skin drenched in sweat.

He looked down at his arm to see the menu beacon dot blinking, only instead of the calm, inviting blue that he was used to seeing, the dot was blood red and dripping as if suspended in the air. A small pool of blood formed under the button on his arm. Adam stared at it for a moment, unsure of whether or not to touch it. Seeing as he didn’t any other options, and the…ghost for lack of a better term, was nowhere to be see, he slowly moved his hand toward the skinterface. Taking a deep breathe, Adam touched the dot.

His menu opened normally, but once again the pleasant blue hue was replaced by a deep red. His current class of ten, was replaced by one hundred, and the experience bar was gone. There were no tabs for his inventory, skills or other normal items, just a single phrase written in blood by a finger. It said ‘Don’t trust them’.

In a flash Adam was standing. Tartarus was paused at the moment where Adam bled out in the previous scenario and Mary was standing under the frozen Ogre, lecturing him about his choices.

“You have to be aware of your surroundings at all times. The Ogre stole your focus, and you lost control, which led to you transforming prematurely. Then there was the village boy…” Mary stopped, seeing the look of shock on Adam’s face. “Adam?” He didn’t answer. “Adam are you paying attention?”

Adam snapped back to reality with a jolt. “What?”

“Are you okay?” Mary asked, brow raised with concern.

“I saw something,” he said, still processing the event.

Mary took a step closer and tilted her head to the side in curiosity. “What did you see?”

Adam eyes darted back and forth as he tried to focus on the memory, but he couldn’t. It was at the edge of his reach, like when you forget someone’s name and it’s just on the tip of your tongue. He should have been able to replay the memory like a video, but he couldn’t.

“I don’t,” he started. “I uh, I don’t know. After I died. It was dark, there was fog on the ground…I think. There was something else there. I think it, it was a person once, I think it had a name.”

“What name?” Mary asked cautiously. The conversation reminded her of the first time they met, in the cave out in the Barron Wastes.

Adam stared at the ground, focusing intently on the memory he couldn’t grasp. He slowly lifted his head and looked Mary dead in the eyes. “Dark Angel.”

Mary did her best to contain her concern, but it was clearly bleeding through. Adam could tell that she knew something, her pupils widened slightly, her jaw tensed, and her nostrils flared. Most people would miss the micro expressions she displayed, but he had spent so much time around her that they easy to pick out. Even her breathing increased and Mary always found a way to control her calm.

“Who is it?” Adam asked.

The simulation disappeared. In that instance, Mary found a way to gain control of her emotions but seemed more somber than usual. Adam looked around to see who had disabled Tartarus. The large wooden doors had returned behind them and cracked open. Georgia entered with purpose in her typical lab coat and walked over to them.

“Mary, you were right. We were able to find more information about how Adam can achieve a new skill to help protect himself during the transformation. You should both have a look.”

“Excellent, thank you Georgia,” Mary said with a nod.

The looked shared between her and Georgia, while brief, wasn’t lost on Adam. He wanted to press the issue of the Dark Angel, but the interruption from Georgia was no coincidence. She was protecting Mary. Whoever the Dark Angel was, whatever it meant, Mary was close to it. The fact that she reacted the way she did, instead of explaining who it was proved that. Even now without pressing the issue, something seemed off, something seemed unnatural about the entire situation. All three of them were tense.

Adam’s mind was on the Dark Angel’s message. He didn’t know who that was directed at. If Mary knew more about what was going on, there could be a reason that she was keeping it a secret. Sharing in that secret, even without knowing what it was, could give Adam some much needed leverage later. After his haunting experience, leverage could be necessary.

Mary took quick breathe and redirected her attention to Adam. “What do say? Want to see if we can figure out a way to solve the transformation issue?” With a brief smile, Mary turned and left the training room.