Fall of the Dark God

Report: Fall of the Dark God

Accessing Personal Logs: Subject Fawn Midin

The kites float it on the tower as I take a look back, as the ship begins to move again, causing chaos all about the battlefield. I have no idea what is causing the change in plans to have the ship move about. But I can only hope their actions won't go to waste. Despite having gone third in our team Riex is the first to arrive within the rim of the tower's roof on his kite. Most likely his boosting along the flight here was through his skill with extreme sports lending to his better control over his kite unlike the rest of us. Jill and I lag behind him with Melissa barely keeping up by matching Riex's movements only just slightly off in timing. I watch as Riex, jumps off his kite leaving the mechanical creature to take over through its programming to maneuver its actions to my side. Melissa soon follows through but her jump is shallow and she has to revert to the half-bread form to latch her claws in deep in the wall of the tower, to prevent her from falling to a less than helpful drop of over five hundred feet. She scratches away and finally regains her footing just moments before we see the prized pet of the hacker take to the sky of the tower.

The Hivemind swarm buzzes out from the open vents of the tower, and Riex acts quickly tossing a collection of explosives to stop the swarm from forming quickly. The explosion is enough is to disperse a clear jump for Jilland, who looks to do less a graceful drop and more a belly flop on the solid roof. But his gelatinous body just reforms and he appears to be fine from the drop. I watch as Melissa shouts something at me but an explosion of Riex’s causes the shout to go unheard. I turn to look at the three kites following mine and then I soon make out what Melissa must have been shouting about. A swarm of the hivemind strikes at me from the right leaving me to resort to unleashing a blast of electricity around me, knocking off a few of the creatures as they collect on me. But the sudden sting of a countless number of bites, tells me that I have done little more than annoy most of them. One of the dragon kites moves in close and snaps chomping down on the bodies of a handful of the tiny creatures. Another set is blasted off by Jill’s robotic follower.

"Fawn, don't just stay up there you're drawing their attention." I look at Melissa but continue my action to draw the hivemind from the group with the possible threat to the mental condition of the three yet unscarred by Dark Mistress's mark. I fly my dragon high above the tower and continue to swat at the remaining hivemind still gnawing at my flesh. A new explosion rockets the rooftop as a nest of the hivemind erupts from Riex's explosives. Melissa shifts to her wolf form and leaps at a target in the shadow but is quickly thrown back to the edge of the roof as the black figure lined in a mess of green blue and red lines forming a makeshift body slides out from her dark corner to join the fight. Riex, quickly turns and goes to throw an explosive but the bomb is tossed in a new direction. Quickly I jump off the kite as the explosion hits sending flaming wreckage raining down on the group. "FAWN!" Melissa shouts with what force she can as she is thrust again, into the edge of the wall, and barely can hold on to her grip from falling over herself as I tumble on downward.

I get nearly halfway down the tower before I unleash the wings of the flight spell and turn my dives momentum into a way to catch the wind and glide back to the rooftop. As I make my way, I see the three remaining kites follow my action. In a hastened accent I guide the kites right through a cloud of hivemind destroying several through the sheer velocity of the attacks. As I return to the view of the trio's battle, I see Jill has activated a large robot companion of his to assault Dark Mistress while he goes to help Melissa from falling with less chance of recovery than myself. The robot is nothing and quickly is ripped apart by the power of Dark Mistress its gears and wires blast in a cluster that I have to take quick action to avoid. One of the dragon kites isn't so quick and it becomes riddled with shrapnel causing the kite to suddenly dive and crash into the tower. Riex tries a second attempt to hit Dark Mistress and can land an explosive right at her while she is busy dealing with the robot. As the smoke obscures things Jill and Melissa move in to strike but suddenly the smoke swirls in a twister as Dark Mistress steps out with the wind fully protecting her from further blows.

"I didn't think it was going to be an easy fight." Riex smiles as he prepares another set of explosives. "Fawn honey now would be a good time for you to lend us a hand here." I ignore Riex's call for help as the cloud of hivemind keeps its focus on me and the remaining two dragon kites. I needed a way to hit the hivemind in one strike but gathering the cluster is more challenging than I thought as I dodge about the decorative pillars of the tower's roof. I find the hive mind splits and moves about smoother than my actions. And more importantly, the dragon kites as the third kite explodes when it clips a pillar and is sent crashing into the rooftop wall. As soon as I clear the pillars I turn and unleash a spray of fire magic blasting several of the creatures and I watch as the rest flee from the blast of flame.

Do they fear fire? That must be the way Dark Mistress has trained them using fire as a threat to their kind. I act quickly returning to the maze of pillars in hopes to just slow the returning pursuit of the hivemind cloud already beginning to reform. I work hard on my action to be quick but smooth enough that the remaining dragon kite keeps following my movements and at the first sight of the clearing I fall back to lay my hands down on the kite and focus the genesis power on it. The world slows briefly as the dragon begins to fall apart into a tightly woven mesh net that spreads wide and wraps around the cluster of hivemind with only a few stragglers escaping the net's grasp. As time reverts the net launches and I quickly launch a fireball blasting the net. The net begins to drop to the ground still smoldering from the flames and I take it as a sign that the majority of the hivemind threat is clear so I go to join the others in their confrontation.

It’s not a second from my approach that I see Riex being choked by a massive hand of lighting, firing from Dark Mistress's hand. Melissa leaps at the hacker and bites at the creature's arm only to be flung away with one quick swing. Riex drops to the ground choking and I can tell from the pain in their faces that the power of Dark Mistress is more than the anti-virus can handle. I rocket in crashing my fist in at the ground at Dark Mistress's feet and the roof gives way blasting a hole to a large room below. But neither of us falls within as I hold my position with my flight spell and her with some weird hovering power of hers. She quickly retaliates to my attack by turning the lighting hand in my direction. But her spell takes just long enough to leave an opening for my next attack of a leg sweep which causes the power keeping her afloat to drop and she falls in the room. Her spell, however, lashes out and grasps my leg sending me along for the crash landing into the room that was a shadow of the conference room I stood in uneasy so many times.

“Stop this, Martin. You have to stop all of this. You’re hurting many, even killing people for real. Don’t you see what you are doing?” I cry out with a hope to break the mental insanity that has cluttered the original mind.

"Stop, this is what I wanted. Sure, first I wanted to make others like me and you! But then you were a mistake! Imposter." She cackles a laugh after she rises and switches her hand to a whip and releases another slashing with each at every opening I give. “There is no Martin here anymore Fawn. I killed him. He was my first blood to take. Now I live as the immortal god of this world.”

I take quick action to blast a hole in the floor to the next level dropping down to escape the onslaught of the electrical attacks, just in time for a volley of explosives and laser blasts to hit the top room from the roof above. I gather to my feet quickly as a large section of the floor above drops cracking and weakening the floor we now stand on. I watch as the Dark figure rises from the rubble virtually untouched with the expectations of spots of dust and dirt. “I wanted more to join me. More like me. But you had to resist my touch, resist my power. Unlike the others that have come to know my touch through my creations. So infectious, so reliable, so powerful.” A dark smile forms on the twisted face.

“But I escaped your touch as did others. You don’t have the power you think you do. Martin, you still are human you’re not this thing.” I move quickly launching a chunk of rubble at her which she quickly deflects but she was not prepared for the ice blast behind the rubble. Taking the hit sending her sliding back a bit. “Others have avoided your control as well. Your power is not perfect. And now I have a way to free the people under your control.”

“You think that I always controlled those that have come to feel my touch. You are a fool, imposter.” Dark Mistress looks up and blasts the roof sending the trio above crashing down with us as the two of us dodge the oncoming rubble. “My only mistake was granting you the strength before you truly felt the power of my touch.” I quickly look to see the gang rise from their falls, Melissa is first to her feet and she quickly leaps in the air to attack. But not at Dark Mistress, no she sends her attack at me.

The force of her jagged bite causes me to cry out in pain, I turn to look at the face of my friend with tears streaming down her face. "Surprised, not all I control have died from their wounds. Their loyalty to my ways lay just hidden away till I require it. Oh, what a pleasure it will be to see them tear you apart. The imposter slaughtered by her friends." Jill acts quickly and shoots a blast from his gun knocking Melissa free from my arm. But seeing Riex light a stick of his dynamite and turn towards the two of us. I can tell who is on which side. The injuries Melissa, and Riex, received the days of my first escape from the Kingdom, had run the poison of Dark Mistress’s power deep within their minds.

“Pull out you two!” Shouts Jilland.

"We can't the system isn't responding." A tear-soaked face of Riex states as he throws his dynamite at the two of us. I act quickly casting a shield spell to protect Jilland and myself from the majority of the blast.

“Gavin, you sorry excuse for a dwarf! Now is your chance to play the hero and get these guys free!" I shout at the sky above but no response is given as Riex prepares a new volley of explosives. While Dark Mistress lashes at my shield with her lighting strikes. Jill blasts Melissa away from a second strike and while our shields break from the combined effort of attacks the floor gives way as well and the five of us crashing down to the next floor. I try to act quickly and am on my feet charging at Dark Mistress when I see Melissa leap towards me teeth exposed. I flinch at the sight of my friend once again headed towards me when suddenly she fades from the game yanked free. Gavin has come through with one of the friends as promised. But I look over the situation for the real threat. "Jill pull out from the game now before she gets you too." Jill nods and quickly fades from the field leaving just myself a controlled Riex and the Dark Mistress.

“You think this will save them from my grasp. I will correct my earlier mistake and just destroy you then. I will regain my control over your friends. Even the one that has yet to feel my touch. Just like your father the king knew my touch.” I grit my teeth knowing the pain I felt was a small fraction of the pain that she has unleashed on Rick’s life, controlling his mind into killing Lily and his wife Karen. “But then he failed in his mission to eliminate you for me. A real shame I wonder what happened with that perfectly loyal champion of mine.” I can take no more of her words and charge only to find Riex in the way. But my feelings for Riex at this time are not enough to quince the rage for revenge in my heart. I knock Riex to the ground and proceed onwards to swing at the creature only to miss with the blow. I leave myself open for a full blast of electricity. Sending me flying across the room and into the wall hard enough to hear something crack from within as my body smacks into the solid stone wall. When the spell releases its pressure, I fall to the ground and spit up a sizable collection of blood building in my mouth.

“You hurt many in ways that you don’t even know. You destroy lives and tarnish souls for what? A chance at immortality, to become the greatest threat to loom over people’s lives. You’re just a lost boy playing a damn game Martin. Wake up already. You are hurting people.” I rise and watch as Riex does the same.

"Fawn you must use the power you have before it's too late!" Riex says as his body unwillingly grasps another set of explosives.

"Yes Fawn, use the power that you have, the genesis power is it. Strike at me and see how powerful I am." Dark Mistress holds her head high looking down on the broken form of my body.

“See she fears it, Fawn use it!" Riex shouts as he goes to throw his explosive in my direction. I do focus and use the power much like the way Riex's words instruct, but the target isn't the creature or Riex. I instead focus on the tower opening the floor of the room to fall into a hallway below. But my power goes beyond that converting the once stone shadow of the real towers. To be a perfect replica of the floor I have come to know all too well as my first prison of the past two years of my life. I was standing in the perfect likeness of floor forty-seven of Onyx tower as I last remembered it right down to the dry erase marks and smudges on the walls. The explosion shakes the floor above but the building is unmoving. My two pursuers follow through the hole in the ceiling down into the perfect layout of my former home. I watch their descent through the slight shift in light from the meeting room. Taking my chance to hit them with the element of surprise, I go smashing through the glass of the wall and charging straight at Dark Mistress. Riex, quickly moves to get in the way but in the process, his body fades out and relief hits me as I no longer have to hold back from harming my friends. As I unleash the full force of a fully-loaded Chaos gauntlet on Dark Mistress's body. The blast knocks her through the walls of the hall and into the large server and data storage room. Smacking her body against the dense metal frame of the server that bends at the weight and force of her body thrust on its structure. And for the first time, a slight moment of hope breaks through as a slight tinge of crimson escapes the dark form of the creature that looks equally shocked at the damage it is taking.

“How can it be you hurt me? Could your power truly outweigh mine? Could Genesis be that strong?" She coughs as she rises only to meet another blast from the Chaos gauntlets as she crashes to the floor.

"No, the power that can defeat you isn't the genesis power. It's a power that shouldn't exist in this game. Till you brought it here! You know it too. The power you fear is within me. The investigation team is right about that. But it's not some great weapon or spell. It bears no magic words or blessings from the gods. No, what you fear is my resistance to your power is my soul's free will. The will to defy the cage you try to place me in. You fear the true power of humanity. You fear the will to fight back. It’s the soul you truly fear. A soul that is broken beaten and damage that refuses to give in to your demands to give way to your control.” I look back at the crumpled figure lying there on the ground our powerful gazes looking through the bloody dust-covered wrecks of our bodies. Moments before the whole building shakes and the two of us collapse to the ground as something very large hits the city streets outside.

Dark Mistress laughs as she begins to rise to her feet. “A soul, what a load there is no such thing.”

"Then explain to me how you and I, as well as many others, continue to live outside our bodies. The memories of what it is to be human. The experiences, the feelings, and the will to live on, when we have no real organs, flesh or blood." I rise to my feet but grind my teeth at the pain of my ribs broken from the fighting pulling at the nerves and flesh in my body. "Tell me this pain you surely feel it how is it we know this?"

“It’s memories that the brain has passed on in the programming of the system nothing more.” She snickers and lights a flame in her hand preparing to toss it at me.

“Computer programs can’t figure out the right combinations of emotions without experiencing them first nor can the human brain. Yet since coming here I have felt emotions and done things I never have experienced no matter how often I play it out in my head. I have felt love, courage, rage and even honor in facing the challenges put before me. Something a shy shut-in coward like me never thought I could become. The world has reached out and changed me. When you took the two of us from our world here you took more than our memories you took a piece of us that no scientist, no mathematician, no programmer could properly design countless times over. You brought forth our souls to form a new life here. Do you not see what you have done?"

"I care not for your petty words of souls and life. Only one life matters to me now and that's ending yours." The blast of fire erupts but I take action to drop to the ground avoiding its strike at my body. The heat cracks the wall and while on the ground I feel a slight shake about the building structure. The tower is growing weaker. Whatever caused the large quake along with the constant collapse of the floors on top of one another is causing the building's structure to rattle. If the fight continues it doesn't matter which of us will live as the building will ultimately decide both our fates. I take a quick glimpse at the structure and see the walls of the floors above cracking dropping small chunks towards the ground and one more thing catches my eye. A single bright glimmer, in the hazy darkened sky above the tower, shining down on us. The battle started late in the day to evening and the night sky would dominate the skyline but with all the dark smoke and dust clouding the air all is seen is grey, black with flickers of white. Except for one star, the very star that was placed in the sky to represent my title amongst the heroes, the midnight star was shining through the chaos and watching over the battle. I use the celestial sign as a reason to push onward and clench my teeth down hard as I try to return to my feet but narrowly miss the second blast of flame as I rise.

The wall beside me explodes from the heat and bursts open a panel giving me a new escape route to the hall just outside my room in the tower. I stagger to my feet and reach for the fingerprint keypad but find it doesn't work in this world. So, I get creative in the time I have and just smash the door in and dash in avoiding a new blast of flame from the adjacent hole in the wall. The room is mostly empty, gone is the clutter I had left behind. The foul jacket from my escape attempt is missing. Gone is even my DAS unit which I left charging on the kitchen counter. No, only the furniture and a few items I have collected along the way stay in the front room. Then I spy it the middle door to the room that housed the chair for the Neuro-link sits there burnt to a crisp with the decaying body of my image at first in my mind. A flash of the image, which is more a reality, to the ones not lucky enough to break free in either world. I shake my head and the image fades to just the empty chair. At the voice of the dark creature that ripped me from the world, where I would sit in this room for hours working. "You return to the cage how fitting you should die in such a creation in both worlds." She twists her hands and the restraints of the chair pop open and the chair shifts and moves to pull me into it. But I yank at them with enough force to do something I couldn't on that fateful night and bust out of the restraints of the chair. I pull at the chair and as the restraints snap my arm gains greater momentum before landing on its target of Dark Mistress. I act with haste and follow through with a second strike. She falls to her knees from the strikes but I can’t let up on things. As another two punches fall in smashing the body of the creature deep into the sheetrock wall from their force. I get ready to follow through with a third volley when a blast from the hacker hits me and throws my body back landing partially in the chair. She rises to face me and I let out a kick at her but she can dodge it fairly easily. Once again, she tosses a force attack slamming my body tight into the chair as I find it difficult to fight back from the massive power of magic she has at command. "Don't fight anymore. Your death will come quickly. And my reign as god will truly begin.”

I clench my teeth as I twist my gauntlets and let out a wide smile. "You have no idea of how fragile your domain is." It takes great force from my hands to raise my arms. “I came to this battle with hopes to save you or die trying. And now I only have one thing to say to you.” The dark creature leans in its wicked stare locked on my mysterious smile.

“And what last words are they.” She states with a smug smirk hitting her face.

“Long live the king!" With the slam of my arms, I unleash the full force of both chaos gauntlets onto the chair and the floor below it collapsing the room down below. As the two of us fall the tower begins to rattle from the extensive damage. We crash through four floors before either of us hits the ground that isn't already in decay from the crumbling structure. I land five floors down on a ledge as she goes on a few more floors down. Neither of us capable of actually standing, I turn to look over the cracking edge to see her limp form crawling about. A mixture of blood and saliva dripping from my mouth I make sure to display the wide grin again as her eyes open to look up at her attacker.

“You still believe in your king. The man whom I controlled to betray you, and take the life of you, his daughter.” Coughs out the creature.

“He was never my real father. But he was like one. But no, it’s his strength of character that taught me to go on. To stand up against the odds be it as simple as a test for promotion or facing down the mind of a foolish child with the powers of a god. His words and actions have shaped my soul. No, all my friends have. For two hearts beat within my chest, one that pumps blood and keeps my body alive, and the other pumps my thoughts and emotions to keep my spirit alive as well. You can never break that bond. But that’s to say I was talking about that king. No, the King I am thanking is the one that helped me… The ones who dream brought so many to me. For without him or his dream I would never be more than an empty shell of a creature. Hiding away from all worlds. Instead, his dream pushed me. It made me crack the shell of fear and loneliness I placed myself in. To be the person only I could be.” I chuckle a bit. “I guess I have to thank you in many ways, too. Because of you, I have become a stronger person for the pain you put me through. But it’s over soon Martin. Not even the strongest of characters in the game. Could handle having a building collapse on them we will both die here.”

“I am immortal! I cannot die!” the creature shouts.

"No, the form may be immortal but the memories aren't. I figured it out not too long ago myself the reason why when you first attacked me, I came back with my memories scrambled. It was because the game tried to rewrite our lives to match our characters, sure we may be able to handle one death and come back mostly intact in this world. But in time, with each time we die and return, a piece of our memories and lives are lost to the character. I expect to lose a lot but likely the game will restore this body to start the journey over again. But you, that body was a shadow of the earliest parts of this game, it has nothing and will return as such. The more of you lost the less of you there will be. Till the time when our lives will be completely lost.”

“I will find a way to hunt you down and slaughter you after I am reborn in the world then.” She shouts and I hear the rumbling of the rubble below as if the creature is trying to stand.

"No, because we have a backup plan. Should I fail to destroy you then the alternative plan will be activated. Got to say I wasn't keen on the plan the UN had but it's the best choice now. Melissa, Gavin, and Moses I am sorry I won't be rejoining you in the other world. I have to deliver this fallen soul from this world. Mom, I will try and get Gran-Gran to calm down a bit before you and Dad join us on the other side." Tears roll down my face but I never once drop the smile.

“What are you babbling about?” I hear the sliding of the rubble. I also can tell the hacker has risen and started to gather magic power to unleash, in turn, I rotate the gauntlets.

"Jill, Slivy, I will find Tul, and we can all journey the new life afterward together. Rick, I will tell your wife and Lily you're sorry and couldn't help your actions. To my friends throughout both worlds, Live on never regretting each turn you make for your soul and fate will find your path for you. And Gail the last smile is for me, not your dreaded camera’s. So, suck it.” I roll over the edge as a blast of fire rockets right at me but I don’t let it stop me as I aim both arms downward in my fall. With luck, I will hit Dark Mistress. But my best hope is to smash enough support of the tower to bring it down. “And Masaru… Thank you for letting me be a small part of this amazing grander dream.”

I luck out as I clip the shoulder of the creature and she joins me in the descent down two more floors that rumble from the blast of the chaos gauntlets and the full force of my fall. My body hits cracking the last remaining support and the walls of the tower drop in on our two bodies. I am sure the forces outside stopped for a brief moment to watch the tower begin to fall in on it as many more watched the feed show my descent through the floors falling along with the dark god. What starts as a few large pieces are quickly joined by others as the building is falling and soon a cloudy wave of dust and rock is descending on the city streets building the tomb to myself and the fallen child.

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