Chapter 39: Blood on my Hands

  The possessed trio moved in eerie lockstep, a choreographed opening to a dance that encircled Zephyra and me.

  Ariel broke first. The kid darted in with Gabe’s dagger clutched in one hand, knifing low at my knees. I was so surprised that the little bugger almost got me too. She would never have exposed herself like this if she were in her right mind. I jumped back and bumped into Zephyra, staggering her, as the snap of a bowstring and veep of a fired arrow came from where I’d last seen Paddy. I raised a hand and mashed on a wooden wall in my temporary inventory.

  The thwack of an arrow strike came the moment it appeared. Just in bloody time.

  Zephyra grabbed my arm to steady herself, then cried out and shied away from my burning blade. She was swearing at me… I think. A constant, low, sibilant hiss in her native tongue that reminded me of Russian. Nobody spat insults like the Russians did. I darted a glance at Ariel as she rushed back in and revised my opinion. There was a special magic to French insults. I wished the kid would curse at me… but her blue eyes were dead, vacant of her spirit.

  Raising my sabre, I peeked past the barricade at Paddy. I expected a wink from the Irishman, a twisted grin — something to let me know what the game was. But his face remained expressionless, his acne scars making him look haggard and harsh, like he was carved from crude stone.

  Movement flickered at the corner of my eye as Tyler charged. Waves of heat billowed from the Scrambler as I raised it to meet him, then lowered the weapon. I couldn’t… not against my own team.

  I had expected some sort of nightmare enemy. An alien from the twisted mind of Priorita. This was so much worse.

  Ariel leaped to the top of the barrier and flung a handful of darts that Zephyra deflected with her buckler. The Lutantha turned to parry a strike from Tyler that would have taken me in the chest. Her enchanted blade split into three, two mirages slicing at the big man while the real one held back his hammer, but he ignored them and they shattered upon him like smoke.

  Predator’s guitar screamed in my ears, urging me to fight and kill. Where was that superhuman sense of infinite possibility I’d felt just moments before? What could I do? What should I do?

  Brute strength wouldn’t solve this.

  You’re a killer, Allan. Not a saviour. That voice again.

  An arrow veeped hatefully past my left ear, leaving a burning line. I slapped a hand to the side of my head, my fingers coming away bloody. I’d lost a damn earlobe.

  Attacks came rapid-fire from all directions as my possessed teammates worked with the kind of perfect synchronicity that Ariel would have dreamed of. I was stronger and faster, but I couldn’t get my damn head in the game. I was here to save them, not kill them, wasn’t I?

  Ping.

  HP 3%

  One wrong move — the slightest strike — would end them.

  Think. Think. What was I missing? There was a puzzle here. I remembered Zephyra’s repeated words. There will always be hints.

  I looked to her, hoping for a hint. She was cheating right, what might she know? The Lutantha ducked a blow from Tyler and, as quick as an adder, flicked her slim blade at him in retaliation. I snapped an arm out, catching her wrist and stopping the blade a whisker from the man’s jugular.

  She hissed and wrenched her arm free, surprising me with her strength, as the big man sidestepped and shield-bashed Zephyra into me.

  I staggered back a step as we disentangled. An arrow pinged off my black arm — Paddy had climbed the altar in the centre of the room, using the extra height to fire down at us over my barrier. Beneath his feet, the carved stone relic began pulsing with malevolent green energy. I thought I could see a symbol there, carved into the stone.

  Ping.

  2%

  An alien heartbeat began to throb through the room, in time to the beat of the music.

  Ariel darted in, swiping at me with the dagger she had taken from the Tourist, Gabe, on the previous stage. I cursed, remembering how it had cut through everything it had come in contact with and tried to dodge instead of parry, not wanting to risk The Scrambler. But I was still tangled with Zephyra. They were forcing us together. The strike slashed through the singed remnants of my shirt, painting a burning line down my chest. Not dangerous, but I’d be feeling that one once Predator was deactivated. While I was still unbalanced, the kid took the opportunity to dart in close. She raised the dagger high and scythed it down at my chest. I stabbed out with my sabre out of reflex — and just managed to suck it into my inventory before it could split her head from chin to dome.

  I mashed at my inventory, but in my panic I misclicked. Too slow. I raised a hand to block Ariel’s strike before it took me in the heart. I’d lost a hand before — it’d grow back again, right? But instead of pain, I only felt pressure at my wrist and heard the screech of metal on glass.

  My HUD glitched wildly, throwing artefacts. The installation count of Victor’s program flashed violently red, expanding in my vision.

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  89% ERROR… REPAIRING… REPAIR FAILED… INITIALISING…

  Ariel’s dagger had struck the face of Victor’s watch, shattering the glass and piercing the mechanism within.

  A distorted voice filled my ears, shouting in what sounded like an ancient Asian, or Eastern European language. Completely unhelpful subtitles accompanied it, appearing at the bottom of my view:

  Хамгийн их аз жаргал бол дайснаа дийлж, тэднийг н?днийхээ ?мн? х??ж, хотыг нь ?нс нурам болсныг харах явдал.

  I dodged and ducked a strike from Tyler as Ariel jumped back. Zephyra leaned past me and struck at her, and again I had to slap the alien’s hand aside before she killed the kid.

  She hissed at me again in her native language… yeah, she was definitely swearing at me.

  “OH FUCK!” I swore as the watch shot a spray of sparks and caught fire, heat washing up my arm. I was glad for the heat absorption my evolution afforded.

  This was too much. How was I supposed to fight when I couldn’t strike back?

  You're a killer, Allan.

  Another arrow veeped my way, but I was getting used to Paddy’s attacks and with boosted stats I snatched it from the air. The Irishman leaped from atop the too-clean altar, and as soon as he broke contact, the malevolent glow emanating from it blinked out.

  Weird.

  Why was its stone surface clean? What did the glow mean, and why had it stopped now?

  “You don’t want me to fight them? Then why are we here?” demanded Zephyra. She retreated away from me and now stood close to the door we had entered through.

  “I’m trying to save them, not kill them!” I shouted back, deflecting an overhead blow from Tyler and dancing back from a low slice from Ariel.

  “They’re possessed and about to be taken completely! Killing them is saving them — don’t you see that?” said Zephyra.

  I refused to listen.

  “This is the best they can hope for, Allan… Release them”

  In my mind I knew the truth - I was no saviour.

  I was a killer.

  No.

  There will always be clues.

  My mind raced — eyes flickering, searching the floor, walls, ceiling, and my possessed teammates.

  Paddy had circled to flank me, and I had to duck as another arrow came right at my ear. In the moment’s distraction, Tyler’s hammer caught me full on the armoured left arm. It sounded wet… like a rock flattening a watermelon, and I felt something give inside the limb.

  My arm fell limp.

  Dead.

  Ariel’s dagger flicked out, quick as a snake’s tongue, and would have taken me in the throat had Zephyra not dashed back in, caught me by the collar and yanked me back.

  I stared at the dagger, a whisker from my face.

  Time slowed.

  The dagger.

  Ping.

  1%

  My ears popped as the air pressure suddenly dropped. Motes of green light began to rise from my possessed teammates, spinning and swirling into the air before being sucked into the altar in a glowing whirlpool of light.

  I pulled the sacrificial dagger Zephyra had given me. It glowed a malevolent green — the same shade as the motes of light, the same shade that the altar had when Paddy stood upon it.

  I flicked a glance to the altar, and there, right on the concave face, was a symbol. The same symbol as the possessed icon beside my teammates’ names. The same symbol that I now saw glowing green on the dagger’s blade.

  And like that… I knew what I had to do.

  “No… no…” I whispered.

  Even through the numb fury of my Predator perk, I felt my heart break.

  “Don’t make me choose.”

  The dagger’s description appeared, though I didn’t need it. I could remember it with perfect clarity.

  Tlek V’hor’s Sacrificial Dagger

  Only heart’s blood may feed the blade to sever the soul within.

  There had to be another way.

  But there wasn’t time.

  I looked at the countdown.

  1%.

  How long had they been at that final percentage point?

  “DON’T MAKE ME CHOOSE!” I’d tilted my head and shouted the words. I didn’t know to whom I spoke — Priorita? The watching billions? A god I’d never been allowed to know?

  I caught Ariel’s vacant eyes — bright blue as Elena’s.

  Ducked another arrow from Paddy. I wished I could see him smile. He had a daughter, and every time he spoke her name, his face lit up.

  I turned to Tyler.

  No time.

  Hardened my heart.

  And burst into movement.

  Sucking the Scrambler into my inventory, I jammed the Sacrificial Dagger into my belt and launched myself at the big man. Despite his size, I was far stronger. I ripped the hammer from his hand, flinging it across the room and took him by the throat with my good hand. He struck at me, blows hitting my dead arm, my chest, my chin. Each barely shaved a single point of HP. I launched us across the room, ignoring Ariel and Paddy.

  “What are you doi—” Zephyra called.

  “Keep them off me. Don’t hurt them!” I shouted to her — and trusted that she would.

  I could feel my heart thundering in my chest. It felt like a caged rabbit, twisting, frantic to flee the harm about to be inflicted upon it.

  But I had to do this.

  You're a killer, Allan.

  Tyler flailed at me, alternating blows of fist and shield. His eyes were blank. He’d never know, right? He’d been broken even before this, hadn’t he?

  I gripped him by the back of the neck.

  Forced him down until his chest hit stone and the altar glowed green.

  Pinned him there with my knee as he struggled.

  Spots of moisture speckled the stone — from me, I realised. Tears fell from my eyes as I raised the sacrificial dagger.

  I remembered the way he had spoken of his dog. About growing up, fishing in the bayou. About how one day, he wanted to take a piss off of the tallest mountain in the world.

  My actions had killed his sister.

  “I’m sorry… I’m so damn sorry.” I didn’t recognise my own voice.

  Looked like I was about to finish the job.

  The obsidian blade glided across the thin skin of his neck like it were parting silk.

  Then the red spray.

  And the altar drank its fill.

  Through eyes blurred with tears, I glanced at the countdown. Still 1%. The alarm still blared. The heartbeat still thumped. The maelstrom of soul's light still spun about, with me in the centre.

  I waited for the notification that must surely come.

  Justification, that what I’d done had saved them.

  But nothing appeared.

  Nausea wracked me.

  “No…”

  Had I been wrong? Had this been for nothing?

  My hand felt numb as I stared at the dagger, fingers now dripping with Tyler’s blood.

  You're a killer.

  Again the description appeared.

  Tlek V’hor’s Sacrificial Dagger

  Only heart’s blood may feed the blade to sever the soul within.

  There was a small stone receptacle built into the altar — a depression about the size of my fist.

  About the size of a man’s heart.

  I dragged Tyler’s limp form up the stone altar. His head dangled down one side, his legs the other. I brought the dagger down into his chest.

  Four stabs.

  A square.

  I dropped the dagger to clatter against the altar stone and jammed my fingers in, ripping his heart free in a spray of blood and broken ribcage.

  It beat once, twice, thrice in my hand, pulsing in time to the thrumming beat of the room.

  His heartbeat—Tlek V’hor’s.

  I dropped it into place.

  Snatched up the dagger and impaled the still-beating organ.

  A shockwave of green energy thundered up through the altar, blew through my arm, and hurled me backward.

  And once again, the roar of a billion spectators deafened me.