Chương 60: 59-You Will Never Be Alone

Ron stopped his charge as if he had hit a brick wall. Dignity was not alone—the Losers were with her.

"What the hell, Ron?" Maureen asked.

"You told us the Coven had assured you the target was clear."

"These fuckers do not appear in Logsight, and Dignity can scramble her own log," Ron answered.

"That is why Necessity did not detect them."

"We are still twelve to four, though." He did not sound so sure as his words implied.

"Do you really want to do this? Do you think you have a chance?" Jenna asked, sounding more bewildered than threatening.

"We don't need to win. We only need to delay you," Ron answered. A good leader adapted to changing circumstances, and events had just given him a powerful weapon.

"You are being attacked by the Answer right now. It has already corrupted your communication hub and is targeting your Boss Citizens. You are going to lose your dungeon if you do not act fast." Jenna examined Ron after enhancing her Spirit.

"He is telling the truth," she confirmed.

"I am not interested in any of you. Our quest does not involve you at all." Ron projected his status screen so that Dignity and Jenna could read it. Quest: Get the Icosahedron back. Type: Legendary Retrieve the Icosahedron and give it to the leader of the Coven. Reward: 15, 000 xp.

"Give us the Artifact, and we will let you leave. I don't know if we can take you, but we can certainly delay you here and let the Answer do our work for us. We hold the only key to the door," Ron said, carefully studying their reactions.

"And I know what you are thinking. What do we need a door for? We can teleport out of here."

"Let me introduce you to Braulio here," Ron said as he clasped the shoulder of a gaunt man standing in front of him.

"His Class is Interceptor—he can block all…" Elariana's Initiative (Palooga 4): Throw the ball marked with Elariana's name. It hits the enemy as if your Body were 50% higher, but only if it is the first blow in battle. Braulio was sent somersaulting when Bob's ball hit him in the forehead. He did not get up. The attack was so sudden and unexpected that the hit squad could only gape stupidly at Bob as he created a Celestial Gate. Dignity, Bob, and Billy crossed through it. Jenna went last.

Ron called to her as she was about to cross.

"Turn your back on us at your own risk! That door will not hold us forever."

"You are right, of course," said Jenna as she put a small silver warhorn to her lips. Elven Warhorn: When blown, it will summon a Stag mount that can run tirelessly, even in the air. It will serve for one hour. There is a one-in-ten chance that the horn will summon the stag's original owner, who will attack anyone present. The warhorn resets at sunset. Jenna shifted her stats: Luck -1 She played the horn. A rift opened in mid-air, and an Elven hag clad in blood-spattered leather armor came through it.

She was a rank 4 Core. She charged at Jenna, wielding two poisoned daggers. The Primordial passed through the Celestial Gate, which closed promptly after she had done so. The hag roared in fury, deprived of her prey. She turned around, looking for someone to kill.

"Oh, shit," said Ron. ◇ Dawn looked horrified at Mary Beth, whom she had known as Anne.

"It's not possible. Dignity had you scanned. You did not have the parasite. If you were infected, the scan would not even have worked on you."

"Ah, yes, that," Mary Beth answered.

"All children of the Answer share the same resistance to divination. The resistance is not passive; it can be turned off at will," she calmly explained.

"As for the parasite, I do carry it. It is pea-sized and located at the base of the skull. You have to know where to look to find it."

"You lie! I saw it firsthand. It was the size of a fetus and located inside the chest cavity. There is no way it could be overlooked."

"Dawn, Dawn, my dear, sweet, gullible Dawn. Did you really buy that?" Mary Beth looked at her with pity.

"I created that thing and put it inside those zealots. They also carried the real parasite. The best way to hide something is to give something else to look for. And you all fell for it."

"I have made a mess of things. I wanted to bring Morton and the rest of the Bosses here, under some pretext Chuck would help me spread," Mary Beth said, as she held up the late Mr. Spaulding's hand.

"Then I would take you all in one single strike."

"But then Ephraim went out, and I thought I could eat him without anyone noticing."

"I am not patient—I am a predator, and predators are very partial to easy kills. I took him, but Morton felt the boss slot vanish."

"I did not count on that. I have thousands of minds to think with, but even so, I can still make a fool of myself," she said with a charming laugh. Dawn fell to her knees—she knew they had been defeated.

"Do not fret, Dawn. You are going to do well. You are going to be my Apostle, freeing all humanity from the tyranny of the system—they will be free, each and every one."

"Free to become part of me."

"No, please, no. It can't be true."A new voice came from the doorway. They all turned back. Alice, the fourteen-year-old who had protected Anne, had just heard the whole exchange. She was standing at the doorway of the bedroom where the rest of the Milwaukee kids slept. Mary Beth turned towards her.

"Do not be sad, Alice. Do not be afraid. I am no stranger to human emotion."

"My mind is vast; it is like a river filled with souls. Sometimes I lead. Sometimes I suggest. I always listen and take the best from each mind. This child, my first host, now and again dives back to the surface of that river and looks for you. She loves you, Alice, and her love is part of my mind too. You will be, too. You will never be alone. You will be with Mary Beth for all eternity. Humanity will be one—I will contain it inside myself."

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"You are to be my Apostle," she said, turning to Dawn with that dreadful, impossible smile.

"You are to be my friend," she said to Alice.

"You are food," she told Mel. ◇ Dignity and the Losers emerged from the celestial gate atop the ramparts, granting them a full view of the city. The lights in the sky were rearranging themselves, telling a different message. AT SCHOOL"Damn it, the kids from Milwaukee are living there," said Jenna.

"Wait, something is happening," said Dignity. Dozens of enormous gates appeared in mid-air, all around the town. The nearest gates were half a mile from the ramparts, far enough away to lie beyond Babylon's dimensional defenses. Kids started pouring out of them. Smiling kids.

"Jesus, the Answer is attacking right now," said Billy.

"Of course they are. They want to distract us from whatever they are doing inside Babylon," answered Jenna. Dignity heard the alarm bell toll, signaling the attack. Bless the Amazons and their taste for traditional battle tactics. Then she heard her own voice across the Blood Link.

"This is a drill, I repeat, this is just a drill. People not actively taking part in it, please feel free to ignore it." She saw the troops ignore the Link's false instructions. They had seen Morton's warning, and they could add two and two. Thank God for hardened battle veterans. Zealots kept pouring out of the gates. The Answer was going to bring its full army through them. There was no way they could stop those numbers. This was over.

◇ Two figures watched the dimensional gates form around Babylon and the zealots pour out of them. Exchange considered the situation, using his enormous brainpower to study the problem from all possible angles at once. He finally turned towards his patron.

"As long as those gates exist, Babylon has no chance. I counsel caution, a gentle nudge, not a show of force. The latter could reveal your existence earlier than desired. Even with your help, the Answer is inside Babylon. It could easily kill them all."

"Does saving Babylon merit breaking secrecy?" the hooded figure asked Exchange. The sage thought for a moment.

"No," he answered.

"A nudge it is, then," the hooded one said, and the world changed. ◇ Dignity felt reality itself shift under the influence of some strange power. What was happening? Then, the dimensional gates started to pop out of existence.

"Space is being warped," Bob told them.

"I can feel it through Waycraft. The gates are unstable, and they are affecting the environment as they collapse. Teleportation is not possible in the area right now."

"That actually helps us," said Dignity.

"They only managed to bring a small fraction of their army through. The vanguard, though," she said with distaste.

"They are all kids." She saw Evan, one of the guard leaders, hurry toward them for instructions. His force-based spells were exactly what she needed.

"Just the man I wanted to see," she said, grasping Evan's forearm—there was no way the link could be interrupted while in physical contact. She turned towards the Losers.

"Go to the School and do what you always do—turn the tables. And be quick. I won't be able to maintain this for more than a few minutes." Dignity saw Lawman's glider land vertically in front of them. The Losers climbed inside it, and the vehicle gained altitude as it headed towards the School. Dignity borrowed Evan's powers and fueled them with her enormous Intelligence stat. The zealot children screamed in rage as a huge force field enveloped the city, blocking their advance. ◇"This is sick," said Bob.

"Are we going to have to kill all those kids to save Babylon?"

"Not actually," answered Jenna.

"The Answer is a Hive. If you kill the Core parasite, all the Boss parasites die with it. Let's just pray their hosts survive."

"Why would Necessity choose that tag? It makes the Answer vulnerable."

"Precisely. It is not only a tag. It is a kill switch. The Answer behaves like a biological weapon. Necessity is smart enough to know you do not release a plague without a vaccine."

"And how are we going to kill the Answer itself without killing the child that hosts it?" asked Bob. Jenna remained silent." THERE IS SOMETHING WE CAN TRY," said Lawman. ◇"When one of my drones eats a dungeon, I get a copy of all the powers it contains," Mary Beth said casually as she approached the terrified Mel.

"I literally have thousands of different powers. I am not a collector, though—more like a cook. I like combining them, seeing how they interact with each other." The terrifying little girl was now only six feet from Mel. She was ignoring Dawn.

"There was a little dungeon three miles east of Milwaukee. The Core could sing beautifully, and its song had to be obeyed. I ate a different dungeon near Chicago, with a Wraith boss who could suppress sound. Combine both powers, give Chuck's hand a little wave, and presto! You have an unheard song carried through the Blood Link—one that made poor Ephraim order his own dogs to eat him."

"Chef's kiss. The maestro's touch," Mary Beth said as she curtsied.

"I tried it on your husband, too, but his mind was too strong. He is a Core, after all."

"You are not, Mel. Your mind is hearing that song now, even if your ears do not. It is telling you to grab that cutter on the desk and give us an impromptu anatomy lesson with your own guts. You love teaching, and I love irony. Everybody wins." Mel's face paled as her hand reached for the cutter. Sweat ran down her face as she pointed it at her belly.

"Stop, Mary Beth, I will do anything you want!" Dawn begged her.

"But of course you will, silly," Mary Beth laughed.

"Everybody does." She waved the severed hand playfully, as if daring Dawn to take it from her. A sharp sound snapped through the room—the twang of a bow. Mary Beth turned around incredulously, trying to see who had torn the severed hand from her grasp. Aram was watching carefully, aiming another arrow at her—the first one had nailed Spaulding's hand to the wall. Mel suddenly recovered control over her body. The Blood Link was clean once more.

"Morton, help us. Mary Beth is here. She is at the School!" she screamed through the link. All of Babylon heard her.

"Try anything, and the next arrow goes through your heart," Aram said grimly. Elena was standing behind him.

"Aram, Aram, oh my, how have you changed since this morning!" Mary Beth told him with an expression of disgust on her face. She approached him calmly and without fear, ignoring the arrow pointed at her.

"You were Experience and Essence fused into one single being—the most refined dish on the menu. And you return to me covered in the filth of a new Class, the System imprinted on every fiber of your being. It is like taking a shit on a serving of Beluga caviar." Aram shot the arrow at her heart. It fell harmlessly at Mary Beth's feet.

"A memento from the Screamer at Thornton Valley. It had power over inertia. Those are more common than you'd think," she said, as if recalling the monster fondly.

"You have written the first verse in your Coda, Aram," she went on." Aram the kid-slayer sounds nice. You will inspire generations!"

"Mel, the kids are in the adjoining room. Mary Beth is going to infect them if she destroys the dungeon," Dawn whispered to her, as the Mother of Zealots focused on Aram.

"Take them out of here," she instructed.

"Do it!" she ordered as she saw Mel hesitate. The young teacher sped out of the room. Dawn approached Mary Beth from behind, her hand extended. As she was about to touch her, Mary Beth's head swiveled 180º, staring at her right in the face.

"You were going to activate me, imprinting me with the system, weren't you? Don't bother answering—it was a rhetorical question." Dawn gasped as a huge telekinetic blast slammed her into the wall, knocking the breath out of her. Her head swiveled back to her previous position, and she extended her hand towards Aram. The young elven warrior retreated, but the arm kept extending, impossibly long—something terrible would happen once she touched him.

With a dreadful crash, the window exploded inwards as an athletic figure in neoprene armor and a cloak sprang through it, kicking Mary Beth in the chest with both feet. The impact threw the possessed child across the room. Bob glided in manta form through the window, carrying Jenna on his back. He assumed war form, and both Losers stood in formation beside Billy, their elven weapons and armor shimmering into being around them. Mary Beth's body healed with a sickening crunch as broken bones snapped back into place.

The Answer rose without moving a muscle, as though an unseen plank beneath her body had tilted upright.

"Who the hell are you?" she said, glowering at Billy. Apparently, even the Answer had trouble reading an Abomination.

"DO I EVEN NEED TO SAY IT?"