Yvvaros: The Clash of Worlds (32 page)

The guard fell back into a limp heap, blood dripping from his nose. Luke took the man’s gun and helped Kaoru up.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded.

What about Dad?

Luke rushed back down the stairs. Chris Smith had pulled himself up to a sitting position. The bullet had hit him in the chest, near his heart. There was blood pooling on the ground underneath him, too much of it.

“Luke…” His voice was faint and strained. “I’m sorry…”

“Dad…” Luke shook his head and took his father’s hand into his own, feeling a strange mixture of emotions.

I don’t love him anymore, not as a father. I haven’t for a long time. But he’s still dying, right in front of me.

“It was never about you,” whispered his dad. “I just missed her so much. I missed her Luke, and I still do, right now.”

Luke didn’t say anything.

“That’s part of why I fucked it all up.” Chris Smith smiled weakly. “Part of her is in there, Luke. It’s up to you now. You can only stop it from within.”

“Dad, what are you talking about?” Luke shook his head in confusion and watched as his father’s face began to pale. “Dad!”

“It’s your responsibility now…” Chris Smith coughed out blood, a few drops of which splattered onto Luke’s face. “You’re going to have to choose. Stand by… your decisions.”

Chris Smith’s eyes became unfocused. Luke shook his father, and felt a lump form in his throat. He wasn’t sure if the man was dead or not, and he didn’t want to be sure. He stood up and turned away, each breath cutting into his lungs as though he was breathing shards of glass.

“Luke…” Kaoru walked up next to him and tried to pull him into a hug. “I’m so sorry.”

Luke held her at bay and swallowed hard.

“How much longer until the world state is copied over?”

Kaoru stared at him for a moment and then nodded.

“It should be done in the next few minutes,” she said. “Let’s go check it.”

She led him away from his father’s body. The security guard was still where he’d fallen. The gun was still in Luke’s waistband.

Was coming here the right choice? Was any of this the right choice?

“It’s done!” Kaoru nodded to him. “Come on, Luke! We have to go!”

Luke took a deep breath and let it out, feeling his lungs rattle as he forced air through his wind pipe.

“Yeah, okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”

CHAPTER 35

“I can activate the new server remotely as soon as we get to safety.”

Kaoru walked a couple of paces ahead of Luke as they made their way out of the facility. She slowed her pace to keep from getting too far ahead. She kept looking over her shoulder as though afraid that he was going to disappear.

“The transfer worked exactly as I was expecting,” she said. “And the redirect is now in place, so any players that try to log in once I’ve turned on the new server will login through my system.”

Luke nodded along, not really listening.

What did he mean? What choice am I going to have to make?

“Luke, we’re at the door.” Kaoru frowned at him. “Hey, you’ve got to stay with me, okay?”

Luke nodded again and then pushed passed her outside, taking care to walk around the path of the security camera. He grabbed his bag from the bushes where they’d left them, and Kaoru took the lead again after grabbing hers.

“We can’t head back to your town tonight,” she said. “Even with the server in stasis, we’re still only going to have a limited amount of time to act before the government takes action against us.”

“Right,” said Luke. “Sure, whatever.”

Kaoru stopped ahead of him, turning around and leaning against a nearby tree.

“Luke, if this is too much for you, I can take it from here.” She reached her hands out and rested them on his shoulders. She searched his eyes, her own full of concern. “I can’t imagine what you must be-”

“Kaoru.” Luke gently removed her hands from his shoulders. “I’m fine.”

I’m totally fine. My dad was a bastard. Why should I care that he’s dead? Everybody dies…

Kaoru watched him for several long seconds, trying to read something in his expression. Finally, she nodded and continued forward.

“There’s a motel about a mile to the west of here,” she said. “I’ll rent us a room for the night and we can activate my server remotely and then get back in-game. The only time that’s passed in Yvvaros was between when we logged out on the bus and when I plugged into the control panel.”

Is Tess next? Am I going to have to watch her die, too?

Kaoru led him along quickly. She paused only to hold back branches for Luke as he stumbled forward. They reached the road after a couple of minutes and began walking at an even faster pace.

“We need to stay a little off to the side.” She grabbed Luke’s sleeve and pulled him a short distance away from the road. “They’ll be looking for us once that guard wakes up.”

“I didn’t kill him…” The words spilled out of Luke’s mouth without any conscious choice on his part. “I didn’t kill my dad. The guard… he fired, and…”

“It’s okay, Luke,” said Kaoru. She let one of her hands rest on the back of his head as they walked. “It wasn’t you. They might look for us, but it won’t be a manhunt. The guard was the one who fired the shot, and they’ll only have his word to go on that we were even there.”

Luke suddenly remembered the gun in his waistband. He reached for it and started to think about throwing it into the woods. Kaoru shook her head, taking the weapon from him gently.

“We have to wipe it down, first,” she said. “Just to be safe.”

She pulled a handkerchief out of her bag and ran it across the grass, wetting it with dew. Then she ran it over every inch of the metallic weapon and tossed it away in the woods.

“There,” she said. She forced a smile onto her face and rubbed Luke’s shoulder encouragingly. “Don’t forget why we’re doing this, Luke. You have people to protect in Yvvaros.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I do.”

A couple of cars passed by. Each time Luke and Kaoru would take cover, waiting for the headlights to pass. When they couldn’t find cover, they’d lie flat in the ditch on the side of the road, pushing close together to minimize their silhouettes.

They reached the motel after about twenty minutes. Kaoru dusted herself off as she walked in through the front office door. The night clerk was a portly man in his early twenties. He looked at Luke first, but Kaoru stepped forward before he could say anything and began talking.

“We’re looking to rent a room for the night,” she said. “And we’re in a bit of a rush.”

The clerk gave them a knowing smile and tapped on his keyboard.

“Alright, that will be $74.50,” he said. “I’ll also need to see some ID.”

Kaoru handed him her license and credit card and tapped her fingers impatiently on the desk. After a minute, the clerk handed them both back, along with a key.

“Alright, you’re in room 211.” He smirked. “You two lovebirds enjoy your night.”

Kaoru blushed and glared at the man. Luke was hardly listening, and he turned and left the office without commenting on the clerk’s assumption.

“Come on,” he said to Kaoru. “We’re on the second floor.”

They found their room and pushed inside, only taking enough time to kick off their shoes and pull close the shades before setting up their computers. The Wi-Fi password was written on a sheet of paper on the bed stand. Luke typed it in quickly and then waited while the Yvvaros game client loaded.

“Alright,” said Kaoru. “It’s all set. I just reactivated the world state on the new server. We should be able to login.”

Luke nodded, typed in his username and password, and then pulled on his headset, entering Yvvaros.

It was night in-game. Both moons hung in the sky over Dunidan’s Rest like celestial watchmen. A fire was burning next to the oasis, and a couple of players were huddled around it. Luke looked around the compound, noticing that there were far fewer players within its walls than there had been when he’d logged out.

“Only the players that have gone all in are going to be in-game right now.” Kaoru had entered the world standing next to him, and she gestured to the empty courtyard. “It will be at least a couple of minutes before the rest of the players realize that the server is back up, and they can log back in.”

“That’s bad,” said Luke. “The Arbiters are still at full strength.”

“Luke!” Tess ran over to him from the bonfire, followed by several other players. She pulled him into a hug, and then looked into his eyes. “Did it work? What’s wrong?”

She can see right through me. Now isn’t the time for my baggage.

He shook his head and averted his eyes.

“It’s nothing, really…” He quickly took stock of the forces they still had left to defend with. “The server transfer is complete. We have to get started with the attack. If we wait, the Arbiters will attack us first and this time, we won’t be able to defend.”

Kaoru nodded.

“I’ll start organizing the players we have into ranks,” she said. “And I’ll get the others situated as they login.”

“Tess, can you grab all of our healers and start buffing people?”

She nodded to him, still watching his face warily with eyes full of concern.

“No problem, Luke,” she said.

Luke smiled, doing his best to ignore the emotions nipping at his heart.

“Alright, we have to get moving.”

“The Elemental Crystals will allow you to summon Makorin, and then you will be able to transport yourself up,” said Kaoru. “There should be a rune circle that you can activate for transport, and a set of control spires somewhere near the center. It should be set up like Kantor.”

“Right,” said Luke. “Let’s do this.”

He walked to the center of Dunidan’s Rest, directly in between the guild halls, the inn, and the oasis. The Elemental Crystals each glowed faintly. Luke held one in his left hand and the other two in his right. They began to shine with vivid color, and Luke felt magical energy coursing through his body.

“Kaoru, uh, how do I use these, exactly?”

She waved to him from across the courtyard.

“Just keep them held in your hands, and hold them close together,” she said. “They’ll teleport up to the surface with you. Then, find the control spires and activate them as soon as you can. We won’t have much time before the Arbiters figure it out and try to break through. You have to start moving the city toward Kantor as a distraction.”

Luke nodded, and brought the crystals together in his hands. They felt hot, almost too hot to hold. A spire of blinding color shot up from them into the sky, encircling him like a tube.

The sight was incredible. The spire of light struck an invisible object in the sky and deflected off of it.

A huge disk began glowing above Dunidan’s Rest. It blocked the light of the stars with a blinding red light. The disk suddenly took form as the magical glow faded.

It looks exactly like Kantor. Makorin is ours.

“Alright, I’m heading up!” Luke brought the crystals in closer to his body, taking one last look at the floating city above. It was too dark to make out much detail, and unlike Kantor, there were no magical lights illuminating the edges.

“Move quickly, Kato,” said Kaoru. “We won’t have much time before the Arbiters act.”

Luke looked over at Tess once more, smiling and giving her a thumbs up.

“I’ll see you soon,” he said. She nodded, and smiled back at him.

Luke held the crystals against his chest, and after a flash of powerful energy, he transported himself up to the floating city.

The ground underneath his feet was jet black, with red cracks running through it that pulsed with light as though they were veins of blood. Luke looked around. Makorin looked a bit like a strange, twisted version of Kantor, with cave like mounds in the place of buildings.

“What… is this place?” Luke muttered.

A faded rune circle was traced into the ground a couple of feet in front of him. Luke could see slots along the edges of it that were the size of the Elemental Crystals, but he hesitated before setting them down.

This doesn’t feel right.

A strange, globular protrusion was poking out of a spot nearby. It was dark purple with long, tentacle like veins, a bizarre fusion of fungi and flower. Where the Temple of Rygon had been in Kantor instead stood a huge black red temple, cut out of odd angled rectangular blocks but with a flattened roof instead of the soaring brilliance of stained glass. A large alter stood on top of the roof, sprinkled with flecks of silver and gold.

Something moved from one of the holes in the caves nearby. Luke reached for his sword instinctively, tensing up as an enemy that he recognized walked into view. It was a Tymian, one of the humanoid monsters he’d fought in the Battle of Kantor.

This is bad!

At first, he thought the creature was going to pass by him. It was walking toward the city center, but then it stopped, sniffing the air. The foul beast turned and trained its jet black eyes onto Luke, before opening a mouth crowded with needle thin teeth and letting out a terrifying roar.

“Fuck!” Luke stepped back. Several more Tymians stepped out of cave openings, all of them directing their undivided attention at him. Luke moved back a couple of feet further, glancing around the dark city warily.

This isn’t the prize that I thought it was. It’s a high level raid dungeon, and the Elemental Crystals were the keys to get inside!

The first Tymian moved to attack him. Luke sidestepped its claw strike, tripping backward over a short black spike jutting out of the ground. He let his instincts take over, dropping into a roll, and sprinting out of the way as he came to his feet.

MIRROR IMAGE 3

HOLY REGENERATION 2

The city, if it could even be called that, was death trap. Luke made a beeline for the raised temple platform across from the courtyard. He hoped that getting to higher ground would give him the advantage he needed.

Soft moans and hellish screams floated on the air, creating a nightmarish background of ambient noise.  Hundreds of Tymians were bearing down on him, snapping their over-toothed mouths and leaping out from the shadows.