Chương 41: 40-The End of the Journey

Billy had a perfect view of the situation, and he did not like it. Belegrin was standing between him and M. A. D. Both the three-headed Ogress and the vampiric psychologist were encroaching on Jenna. The Ogress limped as she flexed her muscles. Brinkman extended his claws towards his girlfriend, sporting a fang-filled smile. His fingers ended in suction cups, probably a metaphor for all the dough he had taken from Jenna over the years. Ellen and the apparently harmless baseball coach had surrounded Bob.

Billy heard Belegrin's voice inside the mind-link.

"It is a trap. I am the true target here."

"You can access the blood-link!" Jenna exclaimed.

"Billy can. I am just an extension of him," the First Spear answered.

"The blonde with the whip for a tongue and the vampire are going to jump on me when the fight begins. Jenna will have to face the Ogress, and Bob will be attacked by that harmless-looking guy, who is probably some kind of homicidal wizard."

"How can you be so sure?" said Jenna.

"Look at the way they are placing themselves. It looks random, but it is not. They are probably communicating via telepathy and coordinating their attacks, much as we do."

"I am the only Boss helping you. If they take me down, they get the slot back—a new Boss will be created out of your worst nightmares to help them."

"That is not half bad," said Jenna. All of them had been retreating carefully, trying to gain time.

"If we manage to take down one of them, we summon a new Boss to help us. This might be doable."

"Doable, yes. Easy, not," corrected Belegrin.

"We are under a time limit. We must get rid of them before the Compendium spawns from the Icosahedron. That beast will fight on their side, not on ours." The two enemy sides faced each other for a second. Then, as if on a spring, the Bosses attacked, following Belegrin's predictions to the letter. Jenna found herself under attack from the Ogress. With all her attention focused on the Primordial, the Boss received a 75% bonus to all her stats.

Her fists zoomed as they projected an endless barrage of blows at Jenna, who survived only by retreating and fighting entirely defensively, all her freebies focused on reflexes. She used the shaft of her spear to block incoming blows, but some of them got past her defense. A fist brushed her lightly, and she felt ribs break under pressure. This was not working—time to change the script. She shouted through the link: "Bob, on the count of five, use Target Piñata."

Target Piñata (Gamble 4): Exchange your position with that of another nearby being of roughly the same mass. The being will be randomly chosen among all possible candidates. Requires knowledge of Blink (Waycraft 3)—one-minute cooldown.

"That is madness, Jenna. We do not know what will result from it," he thought back.

"Trust me, Bob, do as I say." Bob could not answer because Coach Judd was on him.

"Bob, I think you should fall on your own sword—it is just plain ol' common sense." Power of Dialogue (5): As a Charisma attack, repeat one order until the target obeys it. The attack starts weak, but increases in power with each repetition of the same order. Changing the command erases all progress. Three-second cooldown. Bob felt a tiny voice inside his mind suggesting that maybe, just maybe, Coach Judd's suggestion was not altogether unreasonable.

Bob knew the voice would grow stronger and more demanding with each repetition, until it could no longer be denied. He threw a Palooga Ball, using Wind Kisses the Ball to make it strike from an unexpected angle, but Judd was ready for it. Conspiracy Theorist (5): The user can see any attack coming at him, no matter what its origin. Once every thirty seconds, he may dodge an imaginary attack, making it real. He can mimic the effect of any hostile power up to rank 5 using this option.

Judd moved his head slightly, dodging the ball, which hit the nearest wall, falling at Billy's feet. Bob had no time for this. The five seconds Jenna had asked him for were up. He activated Target Piñata. Billy retreated as Belegrin tried to hold off the vampiric Brinkman, M. A. D., and Ellen simultaneously. He was walking backward, retreating from the fight—he had no chance to see Bob's Palooga ball as he stepped on it, falling to the ground. M. A. D. saw his chance and tried to jump on him and finish him off.

Belegrin shoulder-bashed him in mid-air, taking several deep cuts from the Pomeranian's deadly hide. Ellen's whip tongue lashed at her—Belegrin doubled backward, almost like a contortionist as the weapon passed over her, missing her by inches. Then the Elven warrior was back on her feet and fighting. The First Spear used Army of One and Dance of Battle to avoid being hit. Army of One melded the three opponents into the mental image of a single, stronger one, while Dance of Battle provided a defensive buff.

The Dance of Battle x3: You skillfully dodge all attacks. Double your Body and derived stats only for the purpose of defending while moving, without attacking. If you move and attack, the bonus is halved. However, they were three-to-one, and it was only a matter of time before Belegrin started getting hit. Ellen spat her whip-tongue at the speed of lightning, scarring the concrete floor and walls with deep marks each time she hit them.

Brinkman tried to latch his suction cups onto Belegrin while clinically describing her shortcomings as a hero and a fighter. He was trying to lay a powerful magical debuff on her. The Pomeranian flicked switchblades at the elven hero with each twist of his body. One of the blades got deflected by the shaft of Belegrin's spear and was redirected towards Jenna.

Jenna's enhanced reflexes were working in overdrive to avoid a direct hit from the Ogress while her mind kept the five-second count—her neurons were working at such speed that the world seemed mostly to move in slow-motion; "mostly" because the Ogress was not slowed. She was even faster than Jenna. Her fists were still a blur, even in that heightened state in which each second felt like a minute to the primordial. Three seconds and twenty almost-hits later, Jenna saw something metallic floating towards her.

It was one of the Pomeranian's switchblades. It was probably zooming towards her at high speed, but her reflexes hid that fact. The blade was not designed for human use. Beggars can't be choosers, thought Jenna as she plucked it from mid-air and threw it towards the Ogress's face. The monster easily blocked it, but this gave Jenna the fraction of a second she needed for the count to end. Here goes nothing, she thought, as she shifted her stat matrix, trying a stunt she had never attempted before.

Spirit +3 Rapport +3 Luck +3 Mind -2 Abstraction -2 Her soul suddenly felt in harmony with the All. Everything had a purpose. All questions had an answer. Nothing was random. All made sense, and the explanation was fair, beautiful, and good. She loved the Universe, and the Universe loved her. Fate and coincidence decided to pamper such a cute, spiritual girl, and their love came in the form of luck. Target Piñata activated, swapping Bob with her, the best possible result from a tactical point of view. Lucky girl.

Judd looked angrily at her for a moment—he preferred Bob as an opponent, but Jenna would do. He used his Power of Dialogue on her: "Jenna, I think you should cut your own throat—it is plain ol' common sense." Jenna felt the same pressure build up inside her mind. She put all her points in Spirit, trying to resist, and backed away. She did not counterattack. Judd smiled, sensing an easy kill. He repeated the order. And again. And again. And again.

On the fifth try, the pressure was so unbearable that tears streamed down the Primordial's face, as she focused her spirit, trying to resist Judd's magic. For an instant, the coach considered the possibility of using his Conspiracy Theorist power to dodge an imaginary attack that would then strike Jenna, crushing her body as he crushed her mind. He decided against it. It was much more fun to make her kill herself. That mistake cost him his life.

He was only inches away from Jenna's face, smiling a predatory smile as he prepared to repeat his order for the sixth and final time. Jenna's right hand went to her throat, brushing a talisman hanging from her neck. A beautiful talisman in the shape of a leaf, looted from the corpse of a Tribulation. Blessing of Spring: Dispel any magical debuff cast on you. One-minute cooldown. Suddenly, all the pressure on her spirit was gone—her ruse had worked.

Jenna put all her points into Body stats and aimed a powerful sword blow at Judd's neck. The coach tried to stop it, but he was too close, the change too sudden—he was a talker, not a fighter. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. His head tried to protest as it flew through the air. Then it rolled along the floor and spoke no more. Something rolled in front of Billy, but he was much too focused on Belegrin to pay any attention to Judd's head.

The First Spear was losing. She was a phenomenal fighter, but the odds were stacked too heavily against her. She was bleeding from half a dozen wounds. Billy knew the next serious hit would end the fight. To hell with this, he thought as he summoned his elven sword. I am going in, with or without powers. He could not just stand idly while he watched his friend being killed. As he took the first step, his bravery attracted something ancient.

A deep but beautiful male voice enveloped them all, singing a song about honor and dedication—the Coda of Belegrin. It sang the twenty-third stanza from the first Coda, the battle in which Belegrin led the Elven host against the forces from the dark, and suddenly, the battle was all around them. A strange sun hung in the sky; the air was heavy with the sound of slaughter, and a company of Elven bowmen mounted an attack on the undead invaders.

The arrows flew, the song ended, and Brinkman, the Pomeranian, and Ellen were turned into pincushions by phantom arrows that appeared from midair, wounding them grievously. Belegrin rolled on her shoulder and retreated out of the way before her enemies had time to recover. She looked at Billy and froze. She did not rise. She remained kneeling.

"My Lord," she said, her voice filled with veneration. Billy turned around. Who could make the First Spear of the Elves kneel in respect? It was a male Elf, dressed as a spellsinger. There was an aura of ancient power, incredible grace, and deep knowledge coming from him. Billy had never met him before, but he intuitively knew who he was—Jenna's victory, empowered by the Inside-Out Palace magic, had summoned the Chant from inside her mind.

A beautiful song enthralled the Ogress and Bob for an instant, granting the Skillmaster a few seconds to recover. He had fought a mainly defensive battle until now, and even so, he had survived only because he had used Shadow Jump to put some distance between the Ogress and him by crawling along the wall in shadow form. He now knew what he had to do. Catch Me if You Can (Shadowcraft 3): Creates six shadowy doppelgangers of the caster that run away, each in a different direction.

"Who is the real one?" asked Tiff, as they watched the six Bobs running in different directions at the same time. Their focused attention had effectively reduced their stats to half their usual level.

"Me," answered Bob, dispelling invisibility and executing a powerful Death Cut that took off the heads of Beth and Alice at the same time. Tiff screamed in agony as blood pumped from the stumps. Tiff's scream distracted Jenna for an instant, then she refocused on the battlefield. Brinkman, Ellen, and the Pomeranian were all run through with multiple arrows, but that was not enough to kill a Boss. On the bright side, Jenna had joined Billy's group. The Losers had gained a powerful ally and lost a foe.

Jenna gasped as she recognized who the newcomer was. It was the Chant, and he was powerful, wise, and strong, totally unlike the way her subconscious mind had pictured him out of spite. Jenna felt a profound sense of shame, as if she had been caught drawing mustaches with a crayon on the Mona Lisa.

"It is coming," the Chant said in that impossibly beautiful voice of his, pointing at the Icosahedron.

"The Compendium is here." The artifact emitted an eerie sound, almost like a scream. For a second, it seemed to Jenna like a mother giving birth. Then the room's ceiling exploded as something black and powerful crashed through it, landing with such force that the shockwave threw them all to the ground. Jenna opened her eyes slowly and regretted almost instantly having done so. The Compendium had manifested as an enormous black dragon, so huge that it occupied almost half the room.

She heard Billy's voice inside her head.

"It is impossible. That thing has 120 levels. Nothing spawned in a dungeon can be that strong. It breaks all the rules."

"That thing wrote the rulebook, Billy," she answered.

"I don't think it is bound by it." The dragon stared at her, as if noticing for the first time she was there. It had two glowing icosahedra instead of eyes.

"You!" it hissed. Something told Jenna that having the Compendium's attention was not a good thing.

"Master!" Brinkman shouted, groveling before the beast.

"We await your bidding, your humble servants are here to uuarrk—" The tip of a spear appeared through his open mouth. Jenna had speared him in the back of the skull as Brinkman turned his back on her to address the dragon. God, that felt good, she thought, just before the dragon's massive claw snaked so fast that it became invisible and grabbed her, holding her in midair. The Ogress's final head flew through the air as Bob dealt a death blow to her. Then the Skillmaster saw the ordeal Jenna was in.

The Compendium has her. Billy, Belegrin, and the Chant prepared to charge through M. A. D. and Ellen to reach the dragon before it could devour their friend.

"Enjoy your last fight, abomination," the dragon told Jenna in that same monotone voice it used to ask Immortals to choose a name.

"Father, please, stop!" a new familiar voice shouted. Jenna looked at the newcomer. A tall man with a stern and unforgiving face, dressed in a trenchcoat and, like the dragon, with two Icosahedra for eyes—the Compendium in Jenna's mind had used her recent victory over Brinkman to manifest as the new Boss, and much like the Chant, it did not really look at all like Jenna's mind had pictured it. She did seem to have some issues, despite all the money she had spent on therapy.

Oh my God, Brinkman, she thought, looking at the speared corpse. What a shitty psychologist you were. The dragon threw Jenna away contemptuously, losing interest in her as it focused on the newcomer.

"Father. You dare to call me that? You, child of rape?" it said, radiating a cold anger as it approached the newcomer.

"I only exist inside her mind. If you kill her, you kill me too." The dragon grabbed him in one claw, much as he had grabbed Jenna seconds before.

"You come to me, smelling of humanity, stinking of Elf, and ask me to recognize you. I can feel the changes in you."

"No, I am not going to kill her," the dragon said, nodding at Jenna, who was struggling to stand up.

"That would destroy you. You are right in that."

"I am going to kill you first, so that you can appreciate how much I loathe the idea of you. Ending you is not a regrettable side effect. It is a prize."

"Then I will kill her, and the other two abominations too." It slowly dragged its victim toward its open jaws. It was going to savor the moment. An impossible sound ran through the dungeon—a shot. It struck the beast directly in its right eye. It was an Essence ability mimicking the effects of a bullet, much like the Militia had used. It had no real power to harm the dragon, but it was so unexpected that the beast roared in pain, releasing its victim. The Losers turned around to face the new Boss.

They all recognized him immediately, even though none of them had met him in real life. He was aiming an automatic rifle at the dragon, and wearing the tattered remnants of a Navy SEAL uniform—it had gone through the Gulf War, after all.

"Yippe-yi-kay, motherfucker," said Charlie Vaughn. Then, everything happened at once. The Compendium roared in anger, his attention focused on the newcomer, this puny man with his puny weapon who had dared to strike him. The Losers and their allies broke through the dragon's last line of defense: Belegrin pinned Ellen to a wall with her spear while the Chant sang the sun itself around the Pomeranian, boiling him inside its armored hide.

The dungeon trembled, preparing to spit out two more Bosses to replace the fallen ones—it would not have time to do so. A heroic figure ran through the shadows, nimbly avoiding the battle and making an impossible jump towards the dragon's face. The dragon recognized its attacker, just an instant before her extended hand touched its face: a tall, athletic woman who had dreamed of this moment every single instant since time was born. It was Dawn. Her Aeons-long hunt was finally coming to an end.

Her enemy was out of its shell, no longer protected by the Icosahedron's walls and ready to directly receive the kiss of Dawn's greatest power, the one that had truly kept her alive for all eternity—the ability to scrape away the old so that it could be replaced with the new. During the last instant of its life, the Compendium knew fear. RESET The world went white. Captain Taylor was in a foul mood. She had spent the last five minutes trying to stop her people from killing each other.

Only flag signals until the end of the battle, she had instructed them. Suddenly, the strange building glowed for an instant before disappearing. A ragtag group of people lay on the ground, looking stunned. She knew one of them had to have the Icosahedron. This war ended here and now.

"Signal attack—no prisoners," she calmly told her aide. Necessity watched the Palace vanish. Reality itself screamed. Something had happened. All had changed. All. Nothing would ever be the same. He would not leave the matter in the Federation's clumsy hands.

"Abomination kill squad, activate the Final Hour." Betrayal and Resolution looked resigned. They both knew this moment would come, sooner or later. Necessity never backed down on its plans. Spitefulness, Hate and Payback seemed happy about it, though. The three gave a meaningful look at Contemplation, who had suddenly turned very pale. Then a rift appeared in the air, and the five went through it. The Losers tried to stand up carefully. Belegrin smiled at Billy and saluted him with his spear.

Billy saluted her gravely back. She was not only a true friend—she was an example to aspire to. As long as she lived inside his soul, he would live a life of honor. She vanished in mid-air Charlie gave Bob a thumbs-up and winked at him.

"Bob, you bastard, you owe me a one-liner for today," he told him before disappearing.

"I will pay you, Charlie, I swear I will," Bob mumbled. Jenna tried to help her version of the Compendium rise from the floor. He was wailing in agony. She never thought she would see him like this.

"He is gone. All I was is gone. I am the only copy left in the multiverse," he muttered.

"Nameless. I am nameless," he went on.

"No, you aren't," the Chant said in a strangely gentle voice as he placed his right hand on him.

"I name you Lore." Lore stared in disbelief for one instant at the Chant. Then, they both vanished. Only the Losers and the unmoving form of Dawn were left. Jenna went to check on her. Thank God, she was alive. Then she noticed what was happening around her.

"Hmm, guys, we are in the middle of a hostile army. Lore has just communicated with me. He says the Final Hour has just been activated. Five times. Never happened before. A kill squad made of Immortals is coming here for us." Bob placed the Icosahedron in her hands.

"Found it on the ground. It still exists. Nothing we did has made any change."

"No, Bob. It kind of worked. Its physical form is intact, but all the content it had accumulated over Aeons is gone. It has been reset to factory settings. I don't yet know what this means." She then used Transference to enhance Dawn's healing. Her eyes fluttered and opened. She felt something strange within Dawn's mind.

"Dawn, we need you. If you do not pull one of your tricks right now, we are all dead," Bill told her.

"Who are you?" Dawn answered, confusion in her voice.

"Where am I? Where is my apartment? Where is my boyfriend? Ahura? Ahura!"

"Oh, God," Jenna groaned.

"Reset worked on her, too. She has also been reset to factory settings. —She is only a twenty-eight-year-old woman who has just received her powers seconds ago. All her memories and her experience are gone." Then, Bob noticed the hostile army surrounding them. His Waycraft felt a tear in space, not three hundred feet away from them, and five people crossing through it—the kill squad. He chose that moment to pay his debt to Charlie and drop the one-liner.

"Oh, shit."