Stein’s angry face stared right back at him. No longer able to hold the rage bubbling within him, he sent a balled fist into the wall mirror, shattering it into pieces.

So Sharmandi was asking for a fight.

He would give them one. He would wipe out the entire country and then go after their four-tusk elephants.

And that child. Stein’s heart pounded. Who the hell did she think she was sending him a message like that? He would show her what it was like to be afraid. He would show the Shar captain what it meant to look into the face of the devil himself.

“Master.”

His thoughts interrupted, and Stein slowly turned around.

“Ijeissi,” said Stein. Upon sensing the incredible power emanating from the demon’s monstrous muscular form, Stein nodded in satisfaction.

“I sensed your thirst for blood, Master.”

Stein rubbed his knuckles. He stared into the two red abysses acting as Ijeissi’s eyes. Stein smiled. They said it was impossible to enslave a demon and yet he had done the impossible.

Once he captured the four-tusk elephants, he would create enough Fessel to amass a loyal demon army for himself. For now, he needed just this one demon.

“I want the blood of my enemies.” Stein’s gaze hardened.

“Just give me a name, Master.”

“Sharmandi,” he said. “Lay it to waste.”

A feral smile appeared on the dark gray face of the wraith lord. “As you wish, Master.”

He knelt before Stein on one knee and bowed his horned head. Stein felt a swell of pride within him. Soon, even greater demons would bow to him. He would go down in history as the Vessel who tamed the demons. How apt that he named his demon-enslaving chemical Fessel.

Stein took a small vial of blue liquid out of his pocket and threw it toward the wraith lord. The demon scrambled to catch it and then stored it on a part of his body.

“You will have more Fessel once your job is done.”

“Thank you, Master.”

“One more thing, demon.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Find Narvari Shar,” he said. The mere thought of that girl made Stein want to shoot someone in the face. “I want her death to be slow and painful. Let her know the error of her ways for crossing me.”

“Your will be done, Master.”

----------------------------------------

“Yes.” Narvari jumped. “You’re dead.” She laughed, waving the joystick in Jimbaga’s face. “It is so fun shooting you in the face.”

Jimbaga shook his head. “How are you so good at this game?”

“It took you three years to finally ask this question?”

Jimbaga chuckled. “Let’s play something else.”

“Sure,” said Narvari, pausing the game. She put the joystick back on the table. “What do you want to play? I am ready to demolish you. Again.”

“You really need to learn some humility, Narvari Shar.”

“I am humble.” Narvari held her chest in mock submission. “I’m humble enough to admit I am amazing.” She grinned. “Now are you choosing the game or should I choose it?”

“Not a chance. You may be better at shooting games but I’m better at something else.” Jimbaga smirked deviously. Using the controls, he found a new game.

There were several hundreds of games on FireBox, but Narvari’s favorite game was Super Gunner. It was exhilarating and realistic. Playing it felt like she herself had been sucked into the world. Plus it was always fun taking out Jimbaga’s team.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Found it,” said Jimbaga.

The words INFINITY RACE: BORED EMUNORR appeared on the screen in large uppercase letters. Bored Emunorr? Won’t the game bore them to death? And what the hell was Emunorr?

“What's that?” Narvari had never seen this game. Racing games weren’t really her thing. Jimbaga was really serious about defeating her.

“Infinite Race,” said Jimbaga. “Unfortunately this is the GAS version. The CAS version is very rare. You should see the price. It’s unreal.”

“I don’t even know what the GAS and CAS versions are.” She may not be as much of a video game fan as Jimbaga, but even she would know about GAS and CAS versions in games. Was this boy making things up?

He loved to make things up to mess with her. Narvari took back her joystick and created a new user. She used the username she always used — Apocalypse.

“GAS stands for graphic avatar simulation while CAS stands for cerebral avatar simulation.” He paused, staring at Narvari as if that should be enough to explain everything.

Narvari shrugged. “Sorry. Never heard of them.”

“That makes sense. I think Infinite Race is the only game in the world that has both versions at the same time. Most games have the GAS version. You choose an avatar inside the game.”

“Um, that’s how video games work.”

Jimbaga laughed. “Not Infinite Race though. That game takes it a step further. Your consciousness is actually sucked into the game. You are the avatar. You die in the game, you die in real life.”

Narvari’s eyes widened. She turned to look at Jimbaga with complete disbelief. “What kind of anime shit is that? You’re saying people actually go inside the game?”

“Well, just their minds. Their bodies stay behind until they return.”

Narvari chuckled. “Where did you hear that from? It’s definitely not true.” Myriads of interesting-looking cars appeared on the screen. After going through most of them, she finally chose a white car that looked like a blend between a Ferrari and an alien spaceship.

“Look, I didn’t believe it too,” Jimbaga said choosing a huge monster truck with even larger tires. “But trust me, the game is out there. I’ve heard about it on game forums and streaming sites. The first five people to get the game made a video about how it was anonymously sent to them.”

“Of course they did.” Narvari shook her head. “That’s how you get likes on YouTube, my friend.”

“I don’t think so. The anonymous sender also added a code to replicate the game. And now people can buy it. But it’s so expensive I don’t think anyone in their right mind would buy it.”

“How expensive?”

“Like millions of dollars expensive,” he said. “The code behind the game is very complicated. People are convinced that it was created by an alien.”

“Alien?” Now Narvari simply burst into laughter. Wow, people would believe anything. First, her grandmother had spoken of demons, and now her best friend was talking about aliens. “I guess people have a lot of time on their hands.”

“Narvari, you are too quick to dismiss things you don’t understand.”

Narvari shrugged. “Dismissive isn’t the word I’d use. I’d say logical. But of course, If there is actual evidence of the existence of aliens, I won’t be dismissive.”

“Whatever. Let’s just play the game.”

Narvari had to admit that the graphics of the game were insane. It was no exaggeration to say that it was the best she had seen. The game developer knew their stuff but that didn’t mean they were alien. Right?

What were people going to say next? That god created pizza? Well, there may be some truth to that — pizza was divine.

The race began. Her car suddenly shot into the air like a spaceship when she accidentally pressed a button on the joystick. “Dammit.” She gritted her teeth in frustration. It would take a while to get used to all these controls.

Jimbaga laughed. “All the cars have specific abilities. Yours can fly and survey the entire race track at the same time.”

“What about yours? What can it do?”

“Why don’t you come down, and I will show you.”

The mischievous look in Jimbaga’s small brown eyes told Narvari that the boy was up to no good. But she was curious and wanted to see for herself what that red and black monster truck was capable of.

So she landed her Ferrari. The monster truck was right behind her. Suddenly, the large tires of the monster truck grew to twice their original size. Before Narvari could react, Jimbaga’s truck literally walked all over her Ferrari and compressed it into a wrecked mess.

Narvari blinked rapidly, her mouth agape. “What the hell did you do to my car?”

Jimbaga chuckled. “Why do you think it’s called the XX Monster Crusher, my friend?”

The compressed wreckage of a car screeched to a halt while the monster truck sped past it.

“You can use one life to make it whole again. But you will have only two more left and once they are exhausted, it’s game over for you.”

“You’d love that, wouldn’t you? You won’t get away with it.”

“Catch me if you can.”

“Oh, it’s on.”

But after three more games, Narvari learned one important lesson; Jimbaga was a freak when it came to racing.

“I win. Again. Don’t go crying now.” Jimbaga would not stop laughing. Narvari rolled her eyes, but she chuckled. “Can we get back to Super Gunner so I can shoot you in the face?”

“Not a chance.”

“Are you af-”

Her phone interrupted her. She leaned in to take her ringing phone from the table. Narvari raised a brow upon seeing the caller ID. He never called unless it was important.

“Andai, how is it going?”

“My sensors picked up something,” said Andai. “I’m not sure what it is. But something’s got past the perimeter.”

“Poachers?”

“I don’t think so. But I can’t be sure either because… Oh no.”

Narvari frowned. “What is it?”

“The power went out. The tower is completely blind right now. Let me see what I can do about it.”

“Sure. But I’ll dispatch soldiers to check things out just in case.”

“Yes. Good. It may be a false alarm but we — ”

The sound of shattering glass pricked Narvari’s ears. Then there was a horrifying scream. That was Andai’s voice.

“Andai.” Narvari stood up quickly. “Andai what’s going on?”

Narvari listened closely. It sounded like a struggle between two people as things kept breaking apart. Narvari heard a growl. It wasn’t something a human would make. It was too primal. Too savage. Was it a wild animal? But the animals never came close to Sharmandi Tower.

“Andai, can you hear me? Andai.”

“They are everywhere.” Andai’s voice came in heavy gasps. “They’re going to kill us all.”

“Who? What’s — ”

“Run, Captain. Don’t — ”

The line went dead.