CHAPTER 547: OUTWORLDERS

Like human soldiers or beasts of war, apparently most ‘red’ demons didn’t just run into a wall of spears. The mob slowed as it approached, all the smaller creatures inspecting the spear walls and open ‘funnel’ as they launched fire or spikes or acid balls. Flyers took to the air and circled as they watched.

But the giant hounds, apparently, were idiots.

With multi-heads howling, they raced straight into the magical defences, bodies shredding but smashing apart many spears as they impaled themselves. Mason, Seamus and Tommaso loosed their powers, even Demi spreading out her spores to fill more space above and to the sides so they’d catch more targets.

The flyers screeched and dove. They struck near invisible spores and set off explosions of dust and color. Others engulfed as Seamus loosed a moving bonfire. Mason drew and released with his Endless Quiver so fast even he felt like a blur, knowing he didn’t need full power.

Gargoyle-like demons crashed and burned and died. The few who got over the spears hit a brand new ‘lighting shield’—John’s power exploding with a crack and lighting the fight with arcane energy.

“Ooo, fancy!” Becky yelled over the madness, like she’d seen a new move at some country dance.

The hounds thrashed in the spears, growling and coming on—one close enough for several melee players to start hacking apart what was left of it. It collapsed before it got through, final head skewering grotesquely on a spear as it went slack.

Half the demons roared and charged into the ‘funnel’, exploding traps and more spores. They made it to Tommaso’s potion-covered floor and started slipping and falling, others grinding to a halt as they looked to be battling wet concrete. Then it all lit on fire.

Seamus laughed as the demon soldiers burned.

“And here they thought it was hot in hell!”

The rest of the demons ran. Mason (and Streak) jumped back over the spears, sailing past the barely-alive hellhound, one of the heads snapping too slow. He ignored it and summoned his Claws mid air. He rolled again as he hit the ground, activating Aspect of the Cheetah as he came up and chased his prey. They didn’t get to escape so easy.

He was on them before they’d reached the larger cavern, hacking down shocked looking soldiers with every strike on cooldown. Some turned to fight. Those ones died first.

A strange but still detectable scent of panic filled the air. Mason felt his heart pound, felt the urge to rend and tear, to leap on these creatures and pull them apart, to bite and claw. Streak was growling and thrashing them with wild abandon, ignoring the few that tried to hold him back.

They killed all the way to the cavern, then down the two paths around the cavern’s edge. Mason managed to stop when he saw a hundred more demons below on platforms, and in what must have been the ‘engineer town’ Lodie described. He hissed for Streak, and the wolf pulled back with green eyes wild and glowing, his face covered in demonic ichor.

“We’ll kill more soon,” Mason promised, as much to himself as the animal. They stared at the few flying demons watching, until Mason summoned his bow and dropped one. The rest shrieked and fell away, one more getting shredded with a Cripple and falling into lava before Mason turned back.

He gathered the others and brought them forward when Demi’s spores were safe. The players all walked to the cavern’s edge, looking out over the winding routes down, the collection of buildings and strange goblin contraptions.

The settlement was built in two parts—one familiar, like a human town, built on a large, flattish section of the cavern near the lava. The other, more alien thing was above it on a raised, completely constructed web of steel girders and platforms, stretching out over the huge pool of lava in the center of the cavern.

In the middle of it all was the barely visible, but suitably named ‘Heart’, which appeared to be a pulsing red machine the size of a house. It was covered in connecting pipes like blood vessels, so many ins and out and such complexity it looked like a real circulatory system.

“What have they done,” Lodie whispered beside him, her voice breaking. There were tears in her eyes, her hand over her mouth. Carl was right—this wasn’t just some fancy machine to the goblins. This was something sacred, like a great tree. He took a deep breath.

“Whatever it is, we’ll put a stop to it. Carl, you seeing any good way to get up? I don’t really know how far you can warp or climb or…”

“I can make it.” The older man looked out over the edge of the path and shrunk back with a shiver. “Never been a big fan of heights.”

“We can stick a rope on you and float out Seamus, if you want.”

Carl looked at him with a kind of ‘that’s not a bad idea’ before he realized Mason didn’t mean it in the slightest.

“You know, we don’t all regenerate, right? Like some of us are mortal beings with limitations. Sore necks, bruised ribs.”

“And goblin sex bite marks,” said Alex, in his perfectly dry, accented English. It took a second to realize it was a joke, but then every player lost it. Mason felt a little bad for Lodie, and hoped she wasn’t insulted. When they’d started to recover Carl cleared his throat and vanished.

“OK well I guess I’ll go see if I can finish the raid for us now,” Carl muttered. “Alone. Don’t mention it.”

He got a few ‘thanks Carl’s and ‘we’ll wait here’s’. It was a nice, kind of needed moment before going into a literal demon pit.

“If there’s any problems at all,” Mason called, “get out and come join us. You’re just taking a look. Don’t be a hero.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the rogue mumbled, moving down the left ramp.

At some point he’d warp or leap to the ‘raised’ city before he got to the bottom. Though there were probably lifts or ladders down there, too. Knowing goblins, it would be the former.

“One group each side?” Phuong said, looking at it all with a furrowed brow. There were two main ramps down, both about the width of a hellhound. He meant they could split up and go around, meeting up at the town near the bottom (the ramps continued all the way to the lava). It was as good a plan as any, but Mason shook his head.

“I want all of you together for now. I’ll go left on my own and get ahead of Carl, see if I can set off any traps or problems first. You guys go to the town, take a look, get Lodie to show you. I’ll come meet you.”

Phuong nodded and gestured for the others, heading down the right path. They fell into a now familiar formation, some melee at both ends with the ranged in the middle. Mason clucked his tongue when Streak whined. The wolf padded after them, knowing without a word to protect their backs, and to try to tell Demi if there was anything more complicated to express.

Mason jogged down the corridor until he found Carl by scent. Then he whipped past just to scare him, drawing out a satisfying ‘Jeeezus, kid’.

Nothing exploded or fell apart as he descended. The system didn’t blare out any text or event. Sure, there were demons visible on rooftops and on platforms, and hiding behind everything that blocked line of sight. But it was almost…anti-climactic.

I see you, horned prince.

The voice in Mason’s mind was a pleasant whisper. Like a lover wrapped in your arms, telling you how they really feel. It was almost comforting, even if it was creepy. Greater demon mind powers? Check. An expectation of terribleness met.

“Good,” Mason said, glancing up at the heart. “Then you know you’re about to die.”

Arrogant? Maybe. Wise? Probably not. But Mason didn’t think there was much point in mincing words with a creature that sent a child-mutilating assassin. Mostly he hoped it shut the thing up.

Red light flickered from the heart. A whirring sound started like an engine turned on, and the ‘upper city’ started to…move. The many steel beams and girders shifted, all kinds of metal surfaces rotated with what were now clearly conveyor belts.

He stopped and stared, trying to figure out what the hell he was looking at.

“Uh, I’m not still going up there, am I?” Carl said, still invisible as he walked up beside him. “Because I’m a team player and all, but like, that’s some crazy shit. Is that steel beam moving? It looks like it’s moving.”

“You are not still going up there,” Mason confirmed, eyes locked on the heart. He activated his Ranger’s Mark, but the power unsurprisingly came back with a confused beep. He sighed when he saw demons start coming out of the woodwork.

New kinds of flyers raced all around the heart like a hive of disturbed wasps. The town below became abuzz with activity, with more demons popping out from their ‘hiding’ places, looking equally excited.

Mason watched it all and tried to keep an understanding of his player’s powers and capabilities in his mind. As usual he wasn’t afraid for himself. In the end he believed he could climb up there, kill anything that tried to stop him, and smash whatever needed smashing.

But he couldn’t let the fucking volcano erupt. Even if his players escaped, the goblins wouldn’t. He’d seen enough of the mountain’s inhabitants now to know they weren’t a threat to humans, not without ‘gods’ telling them what to do.

They were intelligent, creative things with free will and their own culture and civilization. They didn’t deserve what roboGod was doing to them any more than humans did. Even if they’d just been created for this stupid game, they weren’t to blame for it. Mason knew he’d already accepted this all in his mind.

“Fuck,” he said, clenching his teeth. “This is gonna get messy, Carl.”

“Yeah.” The rogue re-appeared and gave him a brave grin. He was always best in a crisis. “Tell me what you need, kid. I’m ready, and so are they.”

Mason nodded, and matched the smile.

He still didn’t know what to do. But he’d learned that when you were a leader in charge of people’s lives, it didn’t mean you had to have all the answers. You just had to be confident there was an answer. A way to win, or at least get out alive—that you’d find it together.

In the end, being a leader was making people feel you’d never, ever give up. And so neither could they.

“Go to the others, and take back that town. Kill every demon, free every goblin, and see if they’ll help us. I’ll go up top and see what we’re dealing with.”

Carl nodded, and slapped Mason’s shoulder. Then he vanished and took off, footsteps echoing up the path.

Yes, whispered the voice. Come to me, princeling. Come and learn the lies of your false gods. We are not your enemy. We are trying to free you.

Mason snorted and ran, trying to choose his way up. He felt the waiting power of Apex Predator—the vice-like strength he could use at will to clamp down on the demon’s ability to touch his mind at all. But he didn’t use it yet.

We know what you are, Outworlder.

Mason blinked at the word, then at the words that followed, stumbling until he steadied himself. What the hell was this thing on about?

It is this world that imprisons you. And its creators. It is merely that prison we mean to destroy. We have the power to send you home.

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