Hagen the Black stood in mute shock. As his flare had gone down he saw something that had terrified him.

“Which direction, Hagen?” Koffer asked.

He wanted to respond to Koffer but couldn't. Instead, he cast another flare to make sure he wasn't seeing things. There were trace elements of his spell components still drifting in the air so he only needed to say the words.

“Flamma,” Hagen intoned.

When Hagen closed his eyes he saw through his bird's vision. Every bit of the swamp’s edge moved. “One, two, six, seven, T-t-t-ten.”

It was becoming hard for him to breathe. He'd brought all of his savings with him. Everything. This was going to be an easy battle, they said.

“Ten is not a direction,” Koffer observed.

Hagen was Lily's guild accountant. He'd leveled up several skills that allowed him to count rather quickly. He was invaluable at a desk and on the battlefield.

“Ten thousand zombies,” Hagen finally said. “They’re all coming this way.”

Koffer’s skin paled in the torchlight. “From where?”

Hagen pointed toward where he saw the Hexed.

“Hagen, amplify please,” Koffer pressed.

It took a moment for him to comprehend the request. “Oh, okay.”

He pulled out a few spell components and tossed them in the air. They sizzled and left a pungent smell as they disintegrated.

“Amplifico,” Hagen intoned while gesturing at Koffer.

Koffer’s throat glowed briefly before he belted out, “Fall back!” His voice traveled as if he were in an amphitheater.

Hagen suddenly felt light on his feet.

Then, they ran.

***

Our consciousness flashed between us. It was hard to track who I was or who we were.

One of us decided to take a step in the wrong direction so we fixed it. Then another and another. We could fix them all, we had to.

Getting us going in the right direction was the first big challenge.

None of us would be left behind. We would all take Koffer and Lily at once.

The experience was similar to when we'd hid under the mud but without the pain from being trampled over by the heavy soldiers.

Slowly we made our way out of the swamp and that's when I swapped to sky view.

I barely recognized the pain.

Like all the times before I was transported to the hospital.

This time it was just me and me in bed.

I stared. “Why can't I wake up?”

My body breathed and I felt it. I wasn't sure what else to do so I waited.

Without any fanfare my vision faded and I was in the air again.

For about ten steps the shamblers below went in the direction I wanted them to. They immediately began to veer off course. It was easier to make corrections at a distance. I’d simply expanded on Rufus’ herding techniques.

While this mode was simpler to control, I noticed a great difference in skill training.

A small rift appeared in my horde so one of us stopped in front of the disturbance. I swapped to the shambler and examined it.

Shay Poppy’s body lay on the ground before me. He was our betrayer. It seemed fitting that they killed him.

I stomped on his head hard squishing the brittle bone and putrid mess inside before taking back to the sky.

Azerail, you should come to the home server, Raccoon suggested.

A quick swap to the front lines in us mode showed massive amounts of thrown-up dirt and trampled grass, so we followed it. Later, I’m busy.

I wondered if I could control both locations at once. What was another point of view to the hundreds I was already experiencing?

We can try that if you want, he suggested.

While I was interested in seeing if it was possible I needed to catch up with the Enlightened. My intuition told me that they would be heading back to Chardance or finding a place to log out.

If they decided to give up for the night it would be an even bigger mistake than them using those two flares. I’d decided that Chardance would fall. Tonight.

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Fourteen thousand undead trampling over the town would cause a mass retreat. It would take the Enlightened a few days if not a week to retake the town if we abandoned it. We would not make it that easy.

The vampires would have to make due and hide amongst the Enlightened. I didn't know if they needed to kill when they fed. Did they have human servants or could they make ghouls?

I would have to grill Darryl about them later.

Our pace never picked up past a jog. It was hard to keep a solid speed while controlling so many of us at once. The rolling hills posed a minor inconvenience but it was easy to spot the Enlightened’s trail with so many eyes.

Instead of weaving through the mounds, Lily had led her men in a straight line. We followed the path in the hills for a long time.

A large area of turned-up dirt paused our advance. We were at the ravine. If the fog weren't there we would be able to see Chardance.

I wondered how Lily and her soldiers were surviving in the fog. Did they have that many Mistbloom flowers saved up?

If we took their graveyard most if not all of the area would be covered by fog.

The ravine ran north and south and—

Moaning came from below us. Had some of the soldiers fallen in?

One of us jumped down. When we hit the rocky floor several of our bones fractured sprawling us to the floor.

An arm worked and one of our legs. It was enough to prop us up to examine our surroundings.

There had to be at least a hundred soldiers down there.

AI-controlled shamblers had no real sense of self-preservation, but they did have the same regeneration as us, so it quickly healed when I straightened its bones.

Lily's trail went north, meaning they would use the West gate.

A scream echoed beneath us.

The Wight that was me smiled. That shambler was going to have an amazing meal.

Jennifer is insisting you come home now, Raccoon said.

I groaned. We can talk later.

Raccoon shared an image of my mom standing in the home server, with her arms crossed.

There was no way I was going back until we took the town. So we continued following the trail.

It was well after the ravine was behind us that we exited the fog.

The Southern side of Chardance was on fire.

If Lily and them were going to cheat so would I.

I sent a message to Molly. Lily and Koffer are on their way. If you can get their graveyard down they'll have no chance to come back from this.

How many are coming? she asked.

No pain followed her message. Raccoon had kept our conversation open. My pent-up anxiety melted away.

I managed to stop half of them, so around three thousand. They'll be coming in the West gate, I replied.

There was a long pause and then an explosion lit up the morning sky. The vampires are too fast, we won't be able to take on them and the Enlightened.

I'm coming with ten thousand shamblers, I said.

Ten thousand? Holy shit! she replied.

The gate was a straight shot and the shamblers around me were already walking toward town.

I guided a few stragglers and said, We’re about twenty minutes—

As I took a step the world blurred and I stood in the home server. I spun expecting to see my shamblers behind me and there was nothing but our sphere and an upset Jennifer. Raccoon was next to her with his head down.

Fuck this, I thought and attempted to retreat into the game but nothing happened.

When I pinched my fingers together, it showed I was no longer logged into Dark Offerings.

I glared at Raccoon.

She made me use parental controls, he explained while his little hands went up.

“We need to talk, young lady,” Jennifer scolded me.

There was nothing I wanted to talk to her about. “I’m dying so who even cares!”

She blinked then glanced at Raccoon. “You’re not dying.”

“But you said—”

“I was wrong, the doctors were wrong,” she responded.

I didn’t have time for this. “Raccoon put me back in the game. We’re taking the town.”

“The game doesn’t matter,” Raccoon said.

Of course, it mattered. “Don’t tell me you’re on her side?” I scowled at him.

“Let’s go inside and talk,” Raccoon said.

He was on her side. “Fuck this!”

I turned and walked away but the world blurred and I was facing them again. For a split second while I was transported I saw something. It looked like a wire suspended in space.

Jennifer uncrossed her arms. “We are doing this, Azerail.”

A second later everything shifted again and we were in the Spheres dining room.

I hated the copy of our home. My mom’s and my eyes locked on each other. “I. Don’t. Want. To. Talk!” and I walked away.

Predictably everything blurred. This time I grabbed whatever the chord was and screamed as it searred my hands with pain.

When I appeared in front of my mom again I stared down at my hands. Parts of them were missing and the inside was hollow. It was disturbing.

Raccoon jumped on the table and his eyes widened when he saw what I’d done.

It didn’t hurt anymore but it felt weird. I squeezed my hands closed and opened them again. They began to repair themselves.

How are you doing that? he asked.

“Sit down,” Jennifer said.

I shook my head. “How many times do I have to say no!”

All this time it was Jennifer who kept reaching out and talking to me when Autumn was the one who said she would play the game with me. Sure she said she was going to keep an eye on me but she never showed up. Either way, I'd rather be with her.

“If you're not going to sit, fine, you still have to listen,” Jennifer said.

“No, I don't!” I screeched and walked away again. This time when everything shifted I grabbed and snapped the wire.

In the between space, my mind followed the tether and it ended at Raccoon.

His little jaw dropped when I appeared in front of them. Then everything started flashing as if someone were turning a light off and on. Not quite as fast as a strobe light but they weren't in sync so it might as well have been.

The sphere disappeared leaving a gaping hole in the ground.

Would everything go away? I pinched my fingers and my interface was also flashing.

I didn't want to go back into the void. The one thing that was solid in all the flashes was the chord.

It had a darkness to it, similar to how the blades of grass did.

My mom's and Raccoons' mouths were moving but I couldn't hear what they were saying.

Autumn was the only person I wanted to see. With that in mind, I shrank and fell into the chord.

***