Save State Hero -Ch28-

Edmund flinched as something slammed into the make-shift bunker he was behind. It sounded strangely as if someone had slammed a baseball bat into the ground.

Ducking behind the bunker entirely Edmund tucked his head in as well.

Whatever had just struck, he really didn’t want to have his head above cover for it.

It’d only been a minute since the shooting started, but he was already convinced that dying here was more than just an option. It practically seemed a promise considering how much soldiers on both sides were falling.

Panting, Edmund adjusted his helmet and once again wished he had the Legion version that covered his face entirely. For whatever reason he just felt more comfortable having his brain completely encased.

“Wow, that was a really big stone-spear,” Dorothy said from beside him. She was still standing upright and using magic in an almost identical way to Ryker. Her hands held up in front of herself and rigid lines of runes sparking off continuously.

There was no mistaking Dorothy as anything other than Ryker’s student.

Then the attractive and terrifying woman glanced down at him as the spark of lightning lit up half her face. She smiled at him.

“You’re alright. I have a shield in front of us that’s working as a barrier as well as the bunker. Unless Claire decides to attack us, we’ll be fine,” Dorothy explained. “And really… she just wants to kill Runner. Nothing else matters to her at the moment.”

Slowly, Edmund got up from his crouch.

He spotted Claire floating in the air above the enemy forces. She looked as if she were a superhero hovering there. Constant streams of magical attacks flitting away from her and washing all over the shield Ryker held over Runner.

Edmund only now noticed that a woman was snuggled up under Ryker’s arm now. A woman that eerily looked far too similar to Claire. Sharing almost every single attribute with the other woman it seemed.

“That’s Shirley,” Dorothy murmured, clearly having noticed Edmund’s gaze. “She’s Ryker’s wife. They’re very strong by themselves, but together, there is little that can stop them. Even at my best I can just barely get them to be serious with me on their own. When they’re together… it’s like I’m a kid all over again.”

Looking ahead again, Edmund lifted his rifle.

A creature made of lightning was savaging a soldier in front of them. Teeth made of crackling bolts of power chomping down into the man’s throat and tearing it out. Only to look at Dorothy, then sprint off again.

Ah… Spark Friend… I really underestimated her. She’s worse than Alina, isn’t she? Far worse.

She’s just more unassuming so it didn’t register, really. Not as much as it should.

Damn.

As if thinking about Alina brought her to his attention, Edmund saw the winged warrior flying over the heads of the others. Battling with a man that was glowing bright yellow and fighting her with a sword.

Only for him to lose his sword as a man with grey shaded wings and another that was glowing white blew past Alina at high speed. The two men looked to be working in concert and were targeting anyone holding still.

“Ha… of course Warner would make sure to help Alina out. Surprised to see Gus though,” Dorothy remarked and gestured at the two winged men. “That’s them. Gus and Warner. Gus has the darker wings. He’s still getting used to flying I guess.”

A massive blob-like monster rolled toward the line of combat. It was easily sixty-feet in height and dwarfed everyone around.

Fuck, this must be how Dog feels looking up at me.

I’m like a damn cat or something to that thing.

Vince appeared and lashed out at the bottom of the gigantic blob with a glowing sword. Only for it to bounce back at him and stagger him partly.

“The hell is that?” asked the woman next to Ryker.

“I have no god damn idea,” admitted the wizard. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

There was a roar that came from a swirling blue portal that caught Edmund’s attention.

Out from inside it came a man that looked to be in his late twenties. He had oddly gray hair and brown eyes that were filled with rage and excitement.

Holding what looked like a woodcutters axe the man rushed in straight at Vince.

“Ah fuck, it’s Seville,” whispered Dorothy, actually crouching down partly. It didn’t seem as if she’d done it knowingly. More out of an instinctive reflex in fact.

“Seville is bad? Wait, I’ve heard that name before, haven’t I?” Edmund asked.

Then Seville was on top of Vince.

Only to move past him and swing his axe for all he was worth at the slime monster that’d been leaning in over Vince.

An incredible thump that shook Edmund’s very bones could be felt let alone heard.

The strange rubbery looking flesh indented around the axe. An incredibly fast swirling motion rushed through the giant slime monster.

Then a great jet of goo blasted out the back of it. It’s whole body moving with the indentation and quite literally turning inside out with the incredible force of the blow.

“MY NAME IS STEVE!” screamed the man at the top of his lungs. He planted his feet down and lifted his axe up, glaring at the closest soldiers in blue and black.

Seville, or apparently Steve, had put himself at Vince’s back.

To which Vince laughed and made a small flourish of his sword. The two men then began wading into the forces of the opposing side.

Vince neatly cut people in half and hacked off limbs with his sword.

Steve evaporated people. Where every swing and swish of his axe turned people into paste and chunks.

Between the two of them they quite literally were cutting a wide path through enemy soldiers. Butchering them as if they were nothing more than fleshy scarecrows waiting to be hacked down.

A lithe looking cat-girl of all things sauntered along behind the two men. She was wearing a silvered breastplate and a sword was held casually in her hand. Blue eyes flicked to Edmund and then away from him, focusing back on the situation around her.

Long dark-brown hair was held in a ponytail behind her head.

“My love, my love?” called the woman in an odd sing song way, her head darting around briefly before she spotted Steve and then hurried after him. Only for Steve to meet her eyes, smile, and then dive back into the fight.

“Rene?” called a voice from Edmund’s left.

Looking over he found yet another overly pretty woman standing there that once again resembled Claire. The three of them clearly being related.

She was dressed in a black and red military type uniform with a number of pouches that looked like magazines should go there.

Except they looked to be filled with bits and bobs of random things he couldn’t identify, though they did have a mystical flair to them.

“He’s over that way, Bianca, dear,” answered a woman directly behind Edmund.

Glancing over his shoulder he saw yet another extremely attractive woman just behind him. She had long black hair and green eyes. She was waving a hand off to the side that Felix had moved of to.

“Keeping an eye on Felix,” added the woman with a smile. Then she met Edmund’s eyes and gave him a finger wave. “Don’t mind me. I’m just here to make sure Steve doesn’t lose himself. I’m Nancy, by the way. Nice to meet you, Edmund. You as well, Dorothy.”

“Uh, yeah,” Edmund muttered and looked ahead again.

“Oh! You’re Nancy? You must be Sevill-I mean… Steve’s invisible helper. I’ve read a lot of reports about you but I never thought I’d meet you,” Dorothy said in an offhand way.

“How could I not be here? That recording Vince played for Steve just about floored us. We never thought we’d get a chance to fix things, you know,” answered the woman. “And by the way Edmund, can I call you Ed? Or do you prefer Edmund? Anyways, I’d love to have a moment to chat with you later. I’d love to run a few things by you to get your thoughts.

“You’re welcome to come of course, Dorothy. Though I do hope you’ll forgive me if I shamelessly try and set him up with a few friends of mine back home. Since… since I can go home, now.

“It’s still strange to see Leena returned to how she used to look. Though it didn’t quite fix her mind. There’s still some… something wrong there, but much better than she had been. Certainly recovering more with time as well. My thanks to your god for saving us when I thought we were forever lost.”

A distant boom echoed off from the right. Edmund looked only to find a massive column of flame going up into the sky.

The woman who’d been called Bianca had found Rene and then apparently blew some people up that were fighting him.

“Wrong time,” hissed Edmund, lifting his rifle and starting to fire off shots into the enemy once again. He was doing his best to make sure he was firing into groups of only opposing forces. If he had any through-and-through shots that they’d only strike other enemy combatants.

“No. This is not possible,” declared a voice from the far side of the mad battle.

“Very possible, Zeus you bastard!” shouted Ryker. “I’ve worked hard to counter, fix, and fuck you over at every turn! Did you think we’d just sit here and do nothing?”

There was a strange warbling shriek that almost sounded as if it were an electronic device being dropped into a tub of water. Crackling and breaking up even as it hit the surface.

Claire’s attacks suddenly cut away, Ryker’s magical barrage ended, and the battlefield became eerily silent.

“Reality semi-restored. Edmund’s power is now active. Edmund has four save-states that can be utilized and one that is available to Edmund due to breakage of reality,” reported Oz. “I would advise that Edmund be very careful if he decides to make a Save-state. There is the possibility of being very fragile.

“I should also note, Edmund’s previous save-states have also been damaged given the catastrophic attacks on reality that Claire utilized.”

I… oh!

What?

Really?

Edmund quickly jumped into his power and the world around him slowed down.

He saw his four save-states. Three of which he couldn’t really change or modify.

The tunnel of Save-states he really wanted to keep. As he did with his think tank with Felix.

Yet both had a border around them that was red. He could also see there was what looked almost like holes through them. As if someone had shot it a few times.

The next was the armory save he had, just after the mission had been completed and he’d found Andrea was truly dead.

I can flip back to that one.

Let’s save here just in case. I don’t want to have to go through that battle again unless I have to. If I do have to… well… then I have to.

We can just rewind to the armory save-state.

Edmund slapped down a save-state down right now.

That left him with the save-state tunnel, the think-tank, the armory post mission, and now this, as his active save-states.

Though he did see the save where Andrea was about to die to one-side as Zeus had pointed out. Edmund had the sensation that there was something else here now though.

Or someone else.

But there was no change other than the save-states.

“Hello?” Edmund tried in the absolute quiet of his power.

Oz didn’t respond.

Nothing changed in any way.

In this moment, all of time was frozen for Edmund to do as he liked with his power open. He’d often used it as a chance to collect his thoughts in the past.

Then he canceled his power and let time resume.

A vaguely humanoid shape made out of static appeared in front of them. In and amongst a number of soldiers from both sides, in fact.

With a casual swipe of it’s arm it incinerated everyone around it. Each person that was struck being melted.

Or disintegrated.

They came apart in a weird way. As if they were being broken down into small squares and atomized.

“I thought I had more time. I know this is how it’s supposed to be, but I thought I had more time,” Ryker muttered almost to himself. Edmund had only heard it due to the insane quiet after the appearance of the static monster.

Ryker shoved Shirley to the side a moment before a massive blast of bubbling lightning was launched out of the static creatures hands.

It was easily the size of a truck and Edmund could feel the stubble on his face crisping up from the heat it was putting off. Though he didn’t for a moment doubt that Dorothy was bleeding away some of it, it was clearly an overwhelming amount of power.

Ryker stood there with a shield in front of himself for several seconds before it collapsed. Then the colossal attack struck him and went through him. Vanishing off into the distance behind them.

After a moment only the lower half of Ryker remained. Flopping backward to the ground. The attack had literally taken the top part of Ryker and removed it.

Leaving nothing of it behind.

“RYKER! MY RYKER!” shrieked a voice. “I’LL KILL YOU ZEUS! I’LL KILL YOU! MURDER YOU! LIAR! TRECHEROUS!”

At this point Edmund could assume the static monster was Zeus given it reacted to the voice. It had partially turned toward it’s own forces when a blistering torrent of spells began to slam into it.

Spells that rent holes in the very fabric of space. Massive detonations like thunder cracks went off as each one snapped back on itself after the spell moved away.

Zeus was struck repeatedly, having an arm removed at the shoulder.

It was obvious the creature hadn’t expected Claire to act as she was. Nor was it able to put up much of a defense. What bulwark of magic it did raise was instantly negated by a purple arrow of slime that melted it away.

“Claire, I can—”

Zeus’ words were cut short as Shirley let out a scream and began attacking it as well. Magic from two sides were pelting him and knocking him around now.

Then Zeus slid into the ground and vanished. Disappearing completely.

The soldiers of Zeus that remained were breaking apart from the forces of Runner and hightailing it out into the portals they’d come from. Leaving behind their dead and wounded without a glance backward.

Dorothy was knelt down against the bunker now, one hand to her mouth. Tears were rolling down her face as she stared wide-eyed at Ryker’s corpse.

“ZEUS!” yelled Claire who’d flew down to where the monster had vanished. “ZEUS, YOU CANNOT FLEE FROM ME! I’LL CHASE YOU FOREVER! FOREVER!

“MY RYKER! YOU TOOK MY RYKER FROM ME! MY RYKER!”

Claire lifted her hands up in fists and blasted them into the ground. Revealing a strange portal made of static beneath the ground.

Without hesitation Claire dove into it.

Everything went absolutely quiet as a great many people all stared to what remained of Ryker.

“No,” whispered Dorothy. “No, no. This isn’t… no. No! It’s not true. It’s… no. This is because of him. It’s all because of him. It is. I know it.

“It’s because of him.”

Dorothy began to whisper to himself in a grieved way. To the point that Edmund couldn’t even actually understand what she was saying anymore.

Shirley had crumpled to the ground and was on hands and knees. Sobbing brokenly without saying anything.

Edmund spotted Runner just beyond that horrible scene and saw the man had his head pressed to the barrier in front of himself. His eyes were closed by his face looked resolved.

I… what? This is too much.

“Ryker knew that this was the time of Ryker’s death,” Oz reported, confirming Edmund’s own thoughts given what he’d heard the man say. “This was the end Ryker had sought and was actively looking for.

“It’s suspicious given how much Ryker… how much he… always seemed to know what was going on. He always knew what to do or how to shift the plan to meet the needs of the moment.

“It’s impossible to believe he didn’t know this was his end given everything that happened. I will miss him dearly.”

Dorothy got up and sprinted off and away. Darting past Vince and Steve as they came back toward the rest of the group.

She whipped past them at full speed and entered a portal, vanishing.

“Dot?” Edmund mumbled as the portal slammed shut behind the woman. He couldn’t even begin to understand why she’d left with the forces of Zeus, but it was obvious something had broken in her seeing Ryker die.

Alina landed down next to Edmund and let out a slow breath.

“A pyrhhic victory at best,” whispered the woman. “Ryker was the brain that got us here. I worked with him only briefly, but his fingerprints are on everything. Absolutely everything.”

“We need to continue the mission,” Runner growled and stood up. He grit his teeth and shook his head. “Ryker would… would tell us to continue the mission. To push on. He wouldn’t stop here, so we can’t. We have to move to the next part.

“That’s entering Zeus’ own space. Entering his own space and locking him into it. So he can’t leave it ever again. Once he’s locked there, he’ll never be able to bother anyone ever again.”

“Father… no…” Bianca whimpered quietly from beyond Runner. Rene was standing beside her with a hand on her back.

Runner winced at her simple statement and looked to one side.

“We’ll be leaving in five minutes. I have the portal stone Ryker gave me. It’ll take that long for the spell to activate since… to activate since it’s self actuating,” Runner continued. He pulled out a rock from his pocket and threw it on the ground not far away.

It clattered across the floor and then blew up.

A small blue dot appeared in the air and began to grow. Ever so slowly expanding itself.

“Get ready,” Runner commanded. “We’ll be moving shortly. Rearm, fix whatever you need to, and prepare.”

Edmund stood there not really sure of what to do.

He’d been rather close to Ryker. A number of meetings spent with the man just learning how to think different and take things at a different angle.

To view the world as an endless series of what-ifs that could be prepared for if one wished.

“I can’t believe he’s gone,” Alina choked out. “He won’t be the last either. We’re going to lose even more people on the next part of the mission.

“Oh my son.”

Looking to the side, Edmund saw Sam crouched low over the body of Alex. He had one hand on the young man’s shoulder and the other on his face.

Alex sputtered twice and then let out a rasping chuckle.

One of his eyes had been torn out by something very sharp. Something hung out of his eye socket in a strange way and laid against his cheek.

“S’ok. I just get to roleplay as—” Alex took in a gasp and coughed again. “Roleplay as Odin on Halloween in the future. It’ll be fine.”

Looking beyond Alex and Sam, Edmund saw Felix and Vince standing with Steve. The former had been dragging a body along and then laid it out on the ground.

It was the man they’d passed on the way in.

He was quite obviously dead now.

We’ll lose even more… huh.

I can solve that though. My power makes that easy.

Edmund looked to the expanding portal.

“Do you trust me, Alina?” Edmund asked in a very soft tone.

“I… do. Yes,” answered Alina, turning to look at him.

“With your life?”

“With my life.”

“You and I are going into the portal, and then closing it behind us. No reason to risk the others. We’ll be enough.”

“Okay. I’ll grab supplies,” Alina replied and then left him there.

We’ll do the job. I just… need to get the details from Runner so I can do it.

I’ll just be honest with him a few times, lie a few times, get the information I need. Then just keep reloading till I get it all.

Not to mention… see if I can’t figure out how to save, Ryker.

Two birds with one stone.

Because there’s no way I can really leave Ryker dead.

“Edmund, the save-state that was made. It’s already damaged. The ongoing battle between Claire and Zeus is causing a great deal of damage to… to reality,” Oz reported. “Edmund’s previous save-states are also becoming more fragile by the moment. It is advised that Edmund do not reload unless Edmund is certain.

“As it’s very likely that every load will cause a save-state to fail. Edmund could of course make another save-state, but that would be just as fragile. Then fail upon loading.”

“In other words… it’s all hardcore mode for the most part from here on out,” Edmund said to himself.

“Edmund’s viewpoint is interesting, as what he describes as hardcore is how every other individual lives their life,” Oz noted with a curious tone. “An interesting footnote.”

Huh… maybe… I won’t reload repeatedly then.

I’ll see what I can get out of Runner, reload if I have to, then work on Ryker.

That should be my primary goal.