Chapter 63 - Absolute Betrayal

"What… what the hell happened?" His voice was barely a whisper. It was all he could do to grasp the canteen placed in his hand, drinking deep of the ice-cold water as refreshing as mana to his dry, parched lips.

“That’s what we’d like to know,” said a hard-eyed Morlekai. “What the hell did you do, Eric?”

And before Eric could say a word, he was hit by a fresh prompt that sent fresh shivers of wonder through his tattered soul.

You have sworn allegiance to no third party. The Path of Rulers is now open to you!

Your Unique (Hidden) Heritage means that you may walk The Path of Rulers!

Do you wish to claim this territory - Gilton Undercity Domain - for yourself? Y/N

For just a heartbeat, it was all Eric could do not to caress that gold button and walk the path of kings

Before remembering that he now lived in a hostile world full of alien invaders, had no real class, no real plan, and absolutely no idea what he was doing.

For him to dare claim any territory now was doing nothing but making himself a big fat target for forces far more ruthless and savage than he was, countless members of who knew how many factions that could well have infinitely more resources at their disposal than he did, and most importantly, were educated in the underlying mechanics and theory of how this universe worked than he was. To dare stake a territory claim right here and now, like a shrimp blowing a trumpet in a sea filled with ravenous sharks otherwise content to let him hide in the sands, would be the height of absolute idiocy.

And his hesitation went deeper than that. Because if he recalled the brilliant flashes of insight that had seared through his soul as he toppled on the border between life and death, the horrific cost of his daring had netted him a benefit unlike any other.

A benefit that would put him in the cross-hairs of who knew how many galactic players if they knew of what he could do.

Which meant that people in the know… As knowing as it got, in terms of how well they had mastered gaming the System, Eric assumed, would be extremely unhappy with him if he dared to abuse whatever System exploits would allow him to walk down a certain path.

Which made him want to walk that path very much indeed.

Besides, even if he had taken advantage of his boons to assure the tiny sanctuary was both well fortified and impossibly well hidden, so long as no potential foes were foolishly invited there, did he really want to spend the rest of his existence trapped down here with a basic class capped at level 9, playing tin pot dictator in a tiny realm that would never see the light of day?

He solemnly shook his head, ignoring Drake’s pointed stare.

No. No, he most definitely did not.

So he took a deep breath and made his choice, granting absolute authority to another, and he could only hope that his sacrifice and generosity, twenty years of his life worth, would be remembered and appreciated.

You have chosen: NO!

You have granted Dominion over Gilton Undercity to a separate faction!

Warning! This faction has NO formal standing! You are unable to…

You have successfully overridden Terran Claimance Protocols.

Blood of Rulers is now in effect!

You have successfully formed a new faction!

Conflict Detected: You yourself have forsaken the Path of Rulers!

Conflict overridden.

A Queenmaker is born!

“Eric! What the hell just happened?”

A dazed Eric looked into Morlekai's amber orbs before flashing a bemused smile. "Damn, but Rice should have put you in the lead role. I'm a major Cruise fan, and yes, he really is that hyper in real life, but you, Morlekai, would totally have the critics raving."

Eric shook his head and sighed, leaning back and closing his eyes, ignoring the bone-cracking pain of Morlekai's furious grip to his shoulder.

“Eric!”

“I just burned twenty years of my life to close that rift.”

There. He said it. Words that rendered his friends speechless, their leader’s grip slowly easing from his shoulder, Alice’s soft cry of concern a warm balm to a painfully cold soul. “And I think I might know how things work just a bit better than I did, however many hours I was out.”

“Days, Eric.” Morlekai’s voice wasn’t hard, so much as tired. “I’ve been protecting us with a blood ward for the last three days while you thrashed and groaned, looking on the brink of death.”

Eric flashed a grim smile before summoning a fresh cold ale and chugging it down, savoring its fruity bite like the nectar of the gods. “Explains why I’m so fucking thirsty, then,” he said with a dry smile before cracking open another.

“Anyway, I’m getting a big fat Quest Complete in my interface, and my core infusion just hit 70%. So… yeah. There’s that.”

Drake, however, wasn’t having any of it, looking at him with a mixture of awe and sympathy. “Twenty years, man? Fuck, that’s… hey, it can’t be like that, man. You still don’t look a day over seventeen! If any seventeen year old was as buff and badass looking as you are, I mean.”

Eric said nothing, just removing the helmet portion of his scale armor, placing it in storage with a simple act of will.

Everyone’s eyes widened, Alice racing to his side, tears in the corner of her perfectly made up eyes, trembling fingers caressing locks of hair he thankfully couldn’t see.

“Silver, Morlekai. He wasn’t kidding! Look… you can see it. Just like in Master Grim’s grimoires. He burned twenty years of his life, right from the wick of his soul, in pursuit of our arts. Fuckin’ hell!”

Morlekai gazed at Eric for long moments before giving him an oddly deferential bow of his head.

"For your sacrifice," he said, before flashing a bleak smile. "And for advancing our Art in ways my master, and, I suspect, your future master as well, will be most interested in hearing about. Because never have I ever heard of any Necromancer, Blood-abjurer, or anyone… anyone at all, rupturing a gate between realms.”

Eric’s heart lurched with a cold spike of dread.

“Guys, this is important. You can tell NO ONE what I did here, okay? Not even your master. Not… anyone.” He did his best to reign in his panic, but his friends could sense his alarm. “I just got an Interface message, and anyway...” he gave an angry shake of his head. “Fuck. Even the indifferent Interface made it clear that if any of the major players out there knew that I, or anyone else, could actually shatter portals between worlds… my life won’t be worth a smoker’s last breath.”

All of them paled at that, Alice looking almost guiltily at her cigarette before putting it out. “You have my bloodoath that I’m not saying shit, Eric. And as soon as this score is done? I’m quitting.”

She flashed a smile just as strained as Alex’s had been, if for different reasons, before turning to Morlekai. “You get that, bro? I’m out.” Anxious eyes found Louie's own. "It's a brave new world, Louie, and I'm already tired of playing in it. The stakes keep getting higher, we got shadowy players everywhere who know the score, and we don't know shit, and even boy scout here's been pushed to the limit. Finishing this asinine quest just cost him twenty years of his life."

She shook her head, wiping her eyes. "It's just..." she shuddered and nodded. "Yeah, I'm out."

Her brother just gazed coolly at her while Louie wrapped his arms about her and kissed her ebony locks. “Sure, babe, whatever you want,” he said.

Strangely, Drake was actually smiling. “You’ve been saying that right before every big score, since you were sixteen. Hell, I'm actually glad you said that! Now I got a good feeling we're going to hit paydirt!"

Alice paled, and even Morlekai was nodding.

“He’s right, sis. The one time you were dead certain this was the life for you...”

“Was the one time I got busted red-handed. And even with the plea-bargain, my perfect career was over before it began,” she said with a mournful sigh.

Louie shook his head. “Honestly, babe, I never understood why that upset you so much. You were already worth, what, five million in cryptocurrencies and bearer bonds? With I don't even know how many shares in how many blueblood's trust funds? Why the hell were you so interested in becoming a financial analyst, anyway?"

Alice just shook her head. “Because it was clean, and that’s where the real money was. And I realized only too late that the biggest crooks are the ones playing the game perfectly legal, because they’ve already bribed the right politicians to write laws that made them fucking untouchable."

She chuckled bitterly. "And the one time I work my ass off, interning and earning my place the right way, is the one time I had to deal with a scuzzy bastard who tried to blackmail me."

Drake flashed a cold smile. “Shame what happened to him, isn’t it?”

Alice shrugged and sighed. “That still didn’t stop them from firing me, Drake. And where the fuck is my twelve million now? Because that’s what I was worth, right before the world ended.”

“Which is why this score will be in gold,” Morlekai said, before nodding Eric’s way. “I know I don’t even have to say it, but you have my word, Eric. I will reveal nothing of the madness I saw you embrace as we walk our shared path.” He flashed a bemused smile. “Hell, I doubt most people would even believe me.”

Drake and Louie nodded solemnly. “Just put all your points in Vitality for a couple levels,” Drake solemnly advised. “Once you start leveling again, I mean.”

Louie rolled his eyes. "Like that's gonna make up for twenty fuckin' years lost."

Eric just smiled. “Hell, since the System’s letting me keep my youth, maybe that’s just what I’ll do, Drake. Push back the calendar on whenever dying of natural causes might be. Maybe for fucking ever, if my Vitality is high enough. Why the hell not, right?”

Drake laughed and gave Eric a high five. “My man! That’s what I’m talking about. My favorite boy scout never quits, always moving forward!”

“Damn right!” Eric said with a smile. “To fucking victory! So let’s get those keys and codes and finally make a score that will be one for the records! Am I right? Because sure as shit, no cryptocurrency’s ever gonna match the lustre of rich shiny gold!”

Drake and Louie shared a nod. “He’s not wrong, Alice.”

Alice rolled her eyes. "I fuckin' know that, Louie. What do you think I was going to invest my cryptocurrencies in?"

“But you never did.”

"Hell no! It kept spiking in value! This imaginary bullshit currency with no real fungible value kept shooting up in price, which made more and more people eager to buy it, so demand kept skyrocketing, and it was Tulip Mania 2.0… only there was no market crash.”

“Not until the world ended,” Drake said sagely.

“Exactly,” Alice said, shaking her head with a sigh. “Shoulda, woulda, coulda. But who gives a shit, right? All we can do now is move forward.”

Morlekai nodded. “And claim ourselves a fortune in gold that the Federal Reserve was never willing to completely hand over to the Department of The Treasury.”

“Thank god for corrupt bureaucrats and their petty power-plays,” Alice said with a smile so wide Eric couldn’t help but note her petite little fangs. She smirked at Eric’s expression. “Like what you see, old man?”

“Ha ha.”

“No, seriously, you don’t look a day over 52.”

“Ouch. You’re seriously wounding me over here.” He smirked. “Too bad your barbs don’t have more... bite.”

This earned him a positively wicked smile. “Give me some time with him, Louie. He’ll be singing my praise before the hour’s out.”

Louie actually laughed. “If we weren’t in monster central, you know what? I’d let you rock our boy’s world, just for laughs. So he can see for himself that no girl will ever measure up to you.”

Eric smirked. “Actually, you don’t have to worry about any more wandering monsters in this territory at all.”

Morlekai stopped cold, turning around to measure Eric with a too-intent gaze. “And you know this for a fact?”

Eric flushed and slowly nodded, hoping he wasn’t giving too much away. Of course he had dialed that occurrence down to zero, seeing as most of the inhabitants of Gilton Undercity were noncombat mortals. Wasn’t that the prerogative with anyone who seized a new territory?

But all Morlekai did was nod. “Good,” he said, before turning around, his pace now almost a sprint. “It’s been three days. Three days since we left. If we’re fortunate, we’ll catch the mayor in a very generous mood.”

Louie snorted. "And if he still holds out on us?"

Morlekai flashed. “Then our dear mayor will have broken a pact made in blood. An oath made even more potent, thanks to the System. He swore to surrender code, keys, and whatever else I needed to know, when next we spoke in Junk Town. If he’s truly that stupid...” the air rang with his cold chuckle. “He’ll make what Eric suffered seem like the gentlest of reprieves when his soul is forced to surrender essence the System considers equal in value to the boon we granted to him.”

Drake scowled. “But will the system think it’s worth a fortune in gold buried in a black-book Treasury vault?”

Morlekai shrugged. “By the time the curse is done with him, I don’t think it will matter. He’ll be shrieking out the codes soon enough, I’m pretty damned certain.”

The man scowled, spinning around to catch Eric’s hot gaze upon him.

“I want you to teach me this blood pact,” Eric said, holding nothing back with the intensity of his request.

But all Morlekai did was smile. “Easy, cub. I’ve taken oaths of my own. You wish to learn my master’s art? I think he would be delighted to take you on as an apprentice. But that’s a conversation for Freetown.”

“Yeah,” Louie said. “After we’re all rich as lords!”

“Without actually being lords, so no power-mad war-monger is after our heads,” Eric muttered under his breath, earning a heartfelt nod from Morlekai.

“Amen to that. And I do believe that’s our...”

Morlekai blinked, frowning in confusion. “Wait, this makes no sense, I thought...”

His eyes widened when Eric gave his arm an apologetic squeeze. “Sorry, I was so in the zone that it sort of slipped my mind but, um… you’re going to have to let me lead.”

This earned him a number of hard looks.

“Why?”

Eric sighed. “Because it’s now hidden. Hidden where no player below Silver tier, which I get the feeling is pretty fucking damned powerful...”

“You got that right,” Alice said with a pale-faced shudder. “Master Grim says anyone who reaches Silver is basically a living nuke in terms of raw power. And he actually got that little tidbit of knowledge for free. Said that when one finally comes to visit our planet, we damn well all better be on our knees with an established order to our world, or there will be shit to pay.”

Eric shrugged. “Well, no one below their power level will be able to find it. And why the fuck would a living nuke who's level is how many hundreds? Care about an insignificant little cave filled with zero-level refugees just trying to get by?”

Morlekai frowned. “So, no one currently on Earth should be able to find it. But you can?”

Eric grinned. “I can indeed. Follow me.”

And in very short order he led them around a number of twists and turns that for some reason had them all dizzy with vertigo before presenting them with a sight that left them slack-jawed with something a bemused Eric almost thought was awe.

“Jeezus, are you kidding me?” whispered Louie, gazing with wonder at the sight before him, Drake just mutely shaking his head.

And Eric couldn't blame them. He would be open-mouthed with wonder too, if the once plain passageway leading to the granite reinforced gate had unexpectedly transformed into a vast courtyard and a chasm roof now soaring close to a hundred feet high, with massive fortified walls complete with battlements, bronze clockwork golems, and what must have been close to a hundred bronze cannons of considerable size.

All of them pointed their way.

Morlekai slowly turned to a grinning Eric. “You knew.”

Eric winced. “Um… maybe?”

"Morlekai, is that you?"

querried one of the human guards gazing and waving down at them from the reinforced battlements, massive mechanized golems standing at stiff attention to either side.

Morlekai allowed himself a grin. “It is indeed I, Cristoff! As you can no doubt tell, our mission was a success!”

The young guard, who looked like one of the boys who helped defend the town from the undead incursion, gave an excited grin. “That’s fantastic! I’ll let the guys know. They’ll all be pleased as punch! Oh, you wouldn’t believe what your girl found while you were away, Morlekai!”

Morlekai chuckled softly. “You know what? Somehow I think I will,” he said, pointedly looking at the massive fortifications, earning a sheepish smile from the boy now scratching at the back of his fully articulated helmet, looking very much like a bronze version of a conquistador.

“Yeah, about that! Seems like our hidden little oasis was right next to the ruins of an ancient dwarven city! Can you believe that? That’s some faerie tale level bullshit right there, but I am so totally rolling with it, because magic’s for real, and so are zombies, and you better take whatever breaks you can get, am I right? Anyway, all these automatons woke up and started bowing to Sue, Eric’s girl, right? How the hell ya doing, Eric? Thanks again for saving my ass back then.”

Eric grinned. “You’re welcome, Christoff! You look good in proper armor!”

The boy laughed. “Don’t I? I mean, all the automatons work with is bronze, not steel. But damn, there’s a whole underground factory they use! Loud as hell, but no smoke! And, well, I mean, look! Our entire city’s being built from nothing but a bronze alloy that might not be quite as strong as the best steel, but John Smith says it’s pretty fucking close! So… yeah, sweetness all around!” His beaming smile immediately fell.

“One thing. Um… yeah.” He cleared his throat while one of the other kids, also dressed as a bronze conquistador, and armed with what appeared to be a musket or rifle, nudged his friend.

“Tell them! Before the mayor gets here!”

Morlekai’s bemused smile froze.

Eric was grateful sound carried so well in this exquisitely manufactured kill zone, even if there was no way in hell he’d ever be able to force his way through.

“Tell us what, Christoff?”

The boy cleared his throat, suddenly looking like he wanted to be anywhere but where he was. “Um… you guys aren’t allowed in.”

The temperature seemed to drop twenty degrees, so cold was Morlekai’s gaze. “Explain.”

Christoff flushed. “The mayor said, um… he said you guys were ne’er-do-wells and thieves, and that instead of doing your duty as loyal citizens of ‘his’ realm, you all were trying to rob the CSA of its wealth, and you, um… well, you’re all escaped conscripts, and should be shot on sight.”

Morlekai paled, and Eric swore the air was turning crimson with his killing intent.

And if his friend didn’t keep his wrath in check… Eric wasn’t sure even he could keep them flashing green where it counted.

Alice’s eyes were also blazing like fiery rubies. "That goddamned backstabbing mealymouthed piece of filthy shit! When I get my hands on him..."

“Back up, both of you!” Eric hissed. “You’re not stupid. This is the one place you don’t want to lose your fucking cool!” And Eric immediately began choking down his own bile when two pairs of vampiric killing gazes focused on him… before abruptly easing to a thoughtful pair of nods.

“He’s right, Morlekai,” Alice whispered.

Eric quickly turned to Christoff, who had the heart to flash him a regretful smile. “Sorry about that, Eric. I mean, I don’t know who you were before all this happened, and I don’t really give a shit, to be honest. All I know is that you were saving our asses left and right, just a handful of nights ago.”

Eric nodded. “I was.”

Christoff winced. “Yeah, you were.”

Eric smirked. “Isn’t it funny how the minute we hit Quest Complete, after risking our lives for the sake of this town countless times, with the mayor heaping praise upon us backwards and forwards, the mayor suddenly declares us personas non grata?” Eric’s gaze hardened. “Right after pulling off such a monumental win, that Junk Town never has to worry about monster incursions again?”

Christoff and his friends shared angry looks at that.

“Totally fucked up, man,” said one to another. “It’s like when Peter kicked Lue out of the guild, and tried to get the admins to ban him entirely, after Lue lost 3 Titans defending our territory in Nul-Land, and Peter had been promising to compensate him the whole damned battle.”

Christoff nodded. “It’s exactly like that.” The youth swallowed, and Eric was surprised to see the look of fear in his eyes. “We should tell them. I mean, we really should.”

The youngest of the group blanched. “But Stibbs said we’d be arrested if we did!”

Christoff’s eyes flashed with sudden heat. “The hell with that asshole. He’s a conniving worm. We all know it. Morlekai and Eric did all the work, and Stibbs isn’t just throwing them under the bus, he's stomping them into the mud with his fucking gold-toed slippers!” His gaze grew intent. “We just don’t tell anyone else we told them. Agreed?”

All the boys present nodded.

Eric winced as his guts churned with sudden awful tension, not abated at all by Christoff’s worried gaze. “Run. Run right now, just as far and fast as you can. Okay? Don’t ask me any questions. You’re smart enough to know why. Now go!”

Alice and Morlekai both paled, though Louie looked ready to explode. "What kind of fucking—“

But Alice grabbed his arm, immediately wrenching him back. "He contacted the CSA Rangers, Louie. Don’t you get it? Rangers are coming after our ass!”

Drake paled. “Shit. We gotta leave. Now!”

Without another word, all of them turned around, except for Eric. And it said something, he thought, the look of dread in Drake’s eyes. “Come on, boy scout. Move. Now!”