THE VIRUS

The Virus, a humanoid mass of black and green static, was standing at the other end of the throne room. The once annoying Troja was now reduced to a man stuck in a constantly repeating death animation by his actions. With the few moments he had in each cycle of life, he would say barely understandable words that I pieced together as “This. Freaking. Sucks. Man. I. Can’t. Stop. Dying.”

-Is that the deathloop?!-

“Yeah, it is.” I glared at The Virus. He didn’t have eyes, or any discernible facial features, so I just gazed where I could with all the ire I could muster to mask my fear.

What’s worse is that I assumed Troja was a player isekai’d into the game like I was. Although he didn’t seem to have a person controlling him. He was all alone, suffering an endless loop of life and death that he couldn’t escape. The Virus truly was a merciless character to force anyone to go through that.

Tensei was frightened and flew behind my leg to hide. Her fear was visible and her shivering body clung close.

“It’s him…” she whispered. “And she’s with him too…” Ten looked at the cocky Malwaria. “I didn’t know they both were going to be here…”

Looks like Malwaria was a problem too, probably a consort of some kind with whoever The Virus was. She didn’t look familiar, but she must have been somehow connected to the studio.

“Are we strong enough… No, is he weak enough for us to beat him?” I asked her.

“He’s not as strong as before when I last saw him… But…”

We didn’t have a choice but to fight. Even if the odds were stacked against us, we had to fight with all we had. There wasn’t any running now.

“I’m in a really bad mood," Ginger growled. “So he’s dead by me own hands fer startin’ this”

“Wish us luck, chat!” Crow said, drawing his brilliant sword.

-No mercy!-

Rose armed me with blazing fire in one hand, and ice in the other, dual wielding magical attacks to increase the damage potential.

We all ran in, completely fueled by adrenaline and a will to survive. Fear offered up a grave amount of resistance, but we overcame and attacked together.

Gingers cutlasses slashed across the blackened pixels of his flesh.

Crow’s sword burned a holy path of light through his pixel black torso.

And Rose made me follow them both up with a fire ball ice-ray combo. The dual magical forces swirled and combined into a blazing chill that both froze and melted our adversary at the same time. Things got really steamy in here.

Tensei overcame her fear as we all challenged this being of untold corruption, singing behind us to power up our attacks to the absolute limit.

Slash after slash. Explosions of fire, ice and lightning. Everything we’d learned and mastered over our time traveling this game world was sent forth. All the while The Virus stood and accepted the damage without response.

Once our stamina had been exhausted-our supply of magic energy dwindled, we all stepped back to let the smoke clear and see the fruits of our labor.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

I saw it long before anyone else did-long before we even threw the first punch. He was in the midst of the smoke of all our damage, unfazed and repaired, as if nothing had ever touched him.

-All of that and he didn’t even get a scratch?! (0_o) -

“Ha ha ha!” Laughed Malwaria. “Come on. Did you think he wouldn't have god mode on?”

“God mode?” My brow furrowed. “That’s a thing?”

“Yeah. Like, that’s the best skill in the whole game,” she replied, speaking in his stead. “He's invincible. You should know that, silly Raymond. You made it, after all. Am I right?”

“Me?”

I never explicitly made a God Mode feature, but there were several commands that could have gotten that effect.

“Now, why don’t we have him take his turn, yeah?” Malwaria snapped her fingers. “Kill them, now.”

-Excuse me!?!?-

The Virus raised his hands, acting as a sort of pet serving her will, and from his palms spawned an assortment of particles, wildlife and items that immediately swirled and caused the game to lag, along with dropping the framerate to a crawl. Rose’s hud glitched and she couldn’t even type or move her cursor.

We were all frozen in time as the very engine powering the world overloaded at the millions of items and entities. I couldn’t even move my eyes, nor could I take a blink. They turned red and irritated the longer I gazed forward without control of even that basic bodily function.

Even my breath was denied. It was suffocating, even though by a strange technicality I didn’t need to breathe the virtual air.

I was suffering and could do nothing to save myself. My allies were in the same condition.

Everything around me began to flash. After images of particles spewing through the air trailed along in what seemed to be a white void.

The Virus suddenly approached, looming over me, tall and uncanny by nature. His hand hovered over my face, his cold palm just touching the tip of my nose.

In an instant, my whole body felt hot, then quickly became numb. White clouded in from my peripheral and overtook my vision completely. I was now blind, unable to see anything until fateful words slowly appeared in my view.

-GAME OVER-

It happened so quick… We didn’t even stand a chance… Rose… I’m sorry… This is all my fault for not being smart enough…

Before my consciousness fully faded, like it was being sucked out of my head, there was a faint touch to my side. I swore I could have heard that feeling accompanied by a familiar voice, but it was so distant and quiet.

Then, nothing. It was over. Truly over. Goodbye, my love.