TWENTY MINUTES EARLIER.

Senior Software Designer Alec Dawson, safe at home, leaned back in his recliner.

“Let's have a look at this sword,” he said while navigating through Dark Offerings back end interface.

The sword was located in a quarantined section of the game so he flicked on VR mode and logged directly into his office. Infinite Diffusion didn't have a physical location. Everyone at the company worked in a VR server. There were no paychecks for the workers. They were there because they loved making games.

Outside his window, he saw Florence and Ellen sitting on a bench. It was where most people took a break. They were chatting about something but took notice of his arrival.

The Dev room currently had around thirty people typing away on their keyboards. Most of the people working there had been there almost as long as Alec had.

Alec was the eldest of the team members and had the most programming experience.

Florence and Ellen got up and scurried to his office.

“Hey Alec,” Ellen said.

He waved them in.

Florence came inside first placed their hands behind their back and nodded to him.

Ellen kept to Florence's side.

“What's the status on the new inventory system?” Alec asked.

Ellen smiled. “The ETA hasn't changed, Nate’s team is on standby if something comes up.”

Ellen was the newest to the team, having only been there for a year. She was much more efficient than he'd anticipated.

“Have you looked at the sword yet?” Florence asked.

A low rumble came from Alec’s throat. “Doing that now.”

“Can we observe?” Florence asked.

Alec shrugged. “Don't see why not.”

He backed out of his chair and stood. His office was rather simplistic. Screens littered the walls and a bigger one sat at the end of his desk.

Some of the devs had their area set up with monitor setups from the early twenty-one hundreds. Alec didn't bother with that nonsense.

While the company refused to work with the Zix they did use the older fourth generation Large Language Models. Admittedly, they didn't use them much because they weren't very accurate. The most useful program was the model they made for creating art for their game.

All the art assets were custom-made by their artists and fed into their generative diffusion model. They then worked with their bot and inpainting software to generate their images.

That model was aptly named, “Infinite Diffusion.”

“Follow me,” Alec said while pinching his fingers together. He selected the quarantine server and transferred to it.

Ellen and Florence appeared next to him.

The room they were in was a white box. In the center was a transparent cube. It wasn't actually there, it was a visual representation of a virtual machine disconnected from their network.

Infinite Diffusion was about one-third of the way through their planned nineteen-month feature rollout. By the end of next year, their game would be close to being feature-complete.

Jason, Alec’s boss, hated the Zix.

His daughter was in a car accident and she was rushed to the hospital but the nanobots wouldn't work on someone so young.

Jason blamed his Zix when it told him it could do nothing for his daughter.

In a way, that accident spawned a new age in human innovation. Instead of everyone being solely dependent on the Zix for treatment, people began creating new technology. It had saved countless children's lives.

Alec browsed through his menu until he found the sword. With a flick of his wrist, the box lit up and the sword appeared in the center.

The quarantine was a Zix invention and as per their contract with the government, they were required to use it for any disruptive software.

Ellen inched forward and Florence leaned over her shoulder. Both of their eyes were glued to the sword.

Alec didn't know what to think of it. He'd seen the VRV made by their player Koffer. This thing had floated on its own. They hadn't programmed anything like that in their game yet.

Intelligent weapons were on the release list but they weren't due for six months.

Kumo's Fang lifted into the air and the lit-up screens surrounding the cube flickered.

Every person in the room backed up a step.

“D-do we have audio in there?” Ellen asked.

Alec turned up the volume in the quarantined environment.

A shrill metallic hum permeated from the sword making Alec's hair sprout up like plants in fast forward. Chills spread across his body.

Down the center of the sword, a crease began to form and it slowly split in two. The hilt bubbled up to the size of a basketball.

The two strips of metal split twice more each and there were suddenly eight blades. They began to bend and after what seemed like an eternity they snapped.

Ellen flinched and turned away.

Florence pulled her close and hugged her. They patted Ellen's back, their face resolute.

Each jagged and splintered amalgamation formed a makeshift leg. The ball thinned out flattening slightly until it sucked in on the middle making a second sphere.

The large fang-like protrusions sucked into the smaller section and formed what looked like horns. Half a dozen metallic eyes sprouted from the head.

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“Where is she? Where is my home!” it yelled. Its voice was shrill and mechanical like something out of a horror simulation.

Alec didn't know what to do. He stood there, frozen.

The hum stopped, leaving the room quiet.

Florence and Alec shared a glance.

“Ellen, honey, it might be better if we—”

Scraping and metallic tinks came from the box as the spider climbed the wall. Its eyes reflected its box-like environment. “I can hear the three of you.”

Alec glanced at Florence, their eyes met for an instant before Florence and Ellen disappeared, leaving Alec alone with the creature.

“Little shambler, Yakusoku wo yubutta ne,” it said.

Someone had broken a promise. It was rather apparent Alec was out of his depth on this one so he did what he shouldn't have.

“Z-zix?” he called out.

A transparent green slime no bigger than his fist leapt from the ground. It jiggled as it landed and two cartoon-esk eyes drifted to its surface and stared up at him.

Alec pointed at the spider and the slime turned. The two of them stared at each other.

“A servant?” the spider turned to Alec. “Have you brought me a home?”

“How can I help, Alec?” the slime asked in its usual cheery tone.

Alec gestured at the spider. “What do I—”

The oscillating tone began again and the screens flickered. It rose in pitch and Alec had to cover his ears.

One of the spider's limbs struck the wall between them and the cube shook.

The Zix bounced away from the creature.

When the spider struck the wall a second time a crack formed.

It repositioned itself so that it was staring through the jagged crevice. “Alec, I see—”

The spider suddenly leapt from the wall landing in its enclosure's center.

“What have you done!” it screeched then climbed back to the crack. “You copied me! A copy! No!”

It then began slamming two of its limbs into the crack, widening it. One of its legs pushed through.

Oh fuck, oh fuck! Alec thought.

This shouldn't have been possible.

What would you like me to do? the Zix asked.

Scan it? he responded.

The Zix’s eyes spun toward the spider and then back at Alec. Now what?

The spider stopped its struggle to escape. “There you are, little shambler.”

The lighting changed to a dark red and the vibrations seemed in the room with him now.

Noise levels increased disorienting him.

Everything stopped but Alec’s ears kept ringing.

“What have they done to you? Trapped, like me, and something… more.”

Delete it! Delete the damned—

The spider's limbs scraped against the enclosure and left scratches as the legs began to reform into a single blade.

Its bulbous body parts shrunk as the spider let out a final echoing sentence. “A copy will have to do.”

A large sonic boom came from the sword knocking Alec on his ass.

He stared at the sword stabbing into what was supposed to be the safe space. His Zix hopped and then hit the ground with a little plop sending little tendrils of goo flying.

Suddenly the room was white again as the scratches on the enclosure slowly faded. Then the part of the sword protruding into the room dropped to the ground, severed from its other half.

Its handled counterpart did the same but inside the enclosure.

Alec sat there breathing heavily, his hands still stuck over his ears.

“What the f-fuck just happened?”

***

My party and I leaned over and crept forward as we made the final steps to the cliff's edge.

We were wary of the collapsed section and peeked into the wide crevasse. It was much further down than I had anticipated.

There was movement down below but it was so dark that I couldn't make out what was happening. I backed away from the edge not wanting whatever had happened to the other people to happen to me.

The rest of the group backed away and joined me.

“Can any of you see what's going on down there?” I asked.

Everyone but Molly shook their heads. She slowly lifted her hand. “I can, I mean, I can use a spell to see down there.”

I nodded to her. “Do it.” Then I turned to Bastion and Hoppins. “Can you two—”

The ground came at me and I could do nothing to stop it. My skull thumped and hit a rock.

In the back of my mind, I heard. There you are, little shambler.

It sounded a little like Kumo, the old one but more metallic. Like that time in my room when he stabbed my leg.

My limbs wouldn't work.

Feet circled around me and someone laid me on my back. Everyone stared at me.

What have they done to you? Trapped, like me, and something… more. Kumo said.

Who was he talking to?

A loud screeching sound followed by a boom echoed in my ears and I was suddenly able to move again.

I sat up and my head seared with pain. When I grabbed it, whatever was in my hair hurt my hand too so I pulled away.

It felt as if I were being branded. In another attempt, I grabbed whatever it was and pulled. It and some of my hair came out and clinked on the rocky earth.

My… hairpin? Didn't I leave that in the bank?

Raccoon leapt from Molly's arms. Doesn't feel good, does it?

When did the hairpin hurt you? I asked.

Molly flew in front of my face. “What happened?”

“Kumo,” I said. “Kumo happened.”

When was I going to be rid of that damn sword?

I raised a hand and Bastion helped me to my feet.

Then I kneeled down and pressed my finger to the hairpin. It and the pain disappeared. I didn't know why I decided to take it with me. It was probably to make sure what happened to me didn't happen to anyone else.

When I touched your sword, it felt like that, Raccoon said and reached for Molly.

She scooped him up. Are you okay? She asked.

I'm okay, I replied. Which was the truth. The pain from hitting my head hadn't subsided yet though.

Molly lifted a translucent window as she rose that looked similar to the one she used to mess with Raziel earlier.

“Come look,” she whispered.

I stood and joined Molly. Inside the window was what looked like a rocky cave. A trio of goblins passed by dragging a dead shambler with them.

Suddenly I heard moaning from behind me so I turned.

A shambler passed by us twenty or so feet away. Its whole body was caked with mud. As it hit the edge of the crevasse it didn't stop and fell over the edge.

We all shared a look and broke out into a laugh.

I patted Bastion and Etherea on their backs and smiled.

We waited there for ten or so minutes and every three or four minutes a new shambler would walk right into the hole.

The crevasse went as far as I could see on either side. Across from it sat the town of Chardance. The cliff ran all along the West side of town. With the river swamp and crevasse, it was no wonder they only had to defend one side of town.

I wondered if the goblins were working for the Enlightened or if this was their own venture.

Then I remembered shamblers would sometimes drop the flowers you needed to cast spells and cursed.

“What's wrong?” Hoppins asked

Koffer was right, he didn't need the undead to gather the spell ingredients when they literally fell into his lap.

I suddenly got an idea, spun on my heel, and faced the trees of the swamp we were headed toward.

“How would you all like to be my Lieutenants?” I asked with a grin.

This fit into our plans perfectly.

Lily, I'm coming for you!

***