Brittany, Blondie and the Shadow Walkers listened intently as Lily explained everything. Her story made complete sense, and seemed to make even more sense once Brittany acknowledged that her implant must be malfunctioning.

“So, that means that we are going to have to defeat the Leviathan. That is our only hope for survival.” Blondie summarized, “Do you know anything about the creature and what makes him so powerful? Why is he doing this? What do we need to do to defeat him?”

“I honestly don’t know the answers to any of your questions.” Lily admitted, “I have never seen the creature in person, but I have in vision.”

“In vision?” Brittany queried, “What do you mean?”

“Well, that part is a little more complicated.” Lily shrugged, “After I got here I met my dragon Tiamat after I escaped the temple, and learned that I was born an Oracle but my powers were dormant until I met my talisman, or spirit animal.”

“Spirit animal?” Brittany was curious, and Lily nodded in confirmation.

“Yeah. My dragon is named Tiamat, and she is actually a sentient being. She is also a friend and companion. When I needed help, she saved me from Timur. I owe her a debt of gratitude, which is why she's helping me fight in this war."

"Wait…so…you have a dragon as a pet?" Blondie asked, "Isn't that kind of…weird?"

"She’s no pet.” Lily responded, "Tiamat is my dragon. She is my partner. There is a deep connection between us."

"Uh… okay…" Blondie said, "But still, dragons are supposed to be a myth. If we’re no longer logged into the game, how come we can still see her?”

"Because dragons are real, they just went extinct on Earth because they were hunted down and killed during the dark ages.” Lily explained, “Dragons still exist here on Zion because the people respect them as the majestic creatures they are, and live in harmony with them. At least, they use to live in harmony before Timur’s unrighteous reign. He enslaved many of them and forced them to do their bidding. Tiamat used to be under his control, but she escaped his wrath and found me.”

“Okay…” Brittany chimed in, “But that still doesn’t explain why I can’t log out.”

Lily scrunched her face, “Let me try something.”

Lily pressed on her right temple, and then began tapping away at an invisible keyboard. Suddenly a system prompt appeared that was identical to the one she saw when Doug accessed her avatar.

@SuaveQueen25 has offered to review your avatar’s programming source code.

WARNING!

Changing source code in-game may cause your player experience to become unstable.

Do you wish to proceed?

This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Yes | No

Brittany stared at the familiar Gamer tag.

“Wait a minute…” she stared at the woman with gorgeous blonde hair, “You’re the silent warrior who saved me from the Basilisks in the Lost Zone!”

Lily shrugged, “Yeah, so?”

“I never got to properly thank you before you used a spawn stone and disappeared.”

“It was nothing.” Lily blushed, “Now will you let me access your avatar’s source code? I’m going to see if I can fix your feedback loop error so that you can log out.”

Brittany nodded, and pressed “Yes”. She watched intently as Lily hammered away at her invisible keyboard while strings of coding filled Brittany’s augmented vision.

Ray whispered to her, “So, what’s the plan here? Are we going to attack, or not?”

Brittany glared at him, “We’re not.”

“But the Leviathan won’t be pleased!”

“I’m making my own choices right now.” Brittany huffed, “We won’t be attacking because we’re among friends.”

“I can’t let you do this!” Ray seethed, “The Leviathan will take out his wrath on us!”

“You will do exactly what I say, because I’m your leader.” Brittany asserted control, “Do you dare defy my orders?”

“You may be my leader, but the Leviathan is my Master.” He seethed in rage, “If you refuse to follow the will of our Master, I have no choice but to challenge your leadership.”

“Challenge my leadership? You wouldn’t dare.” she huffed, “Besides, you’re four levels below me. You don’t qualify.”

Ray laughed maniacally, and formed a fireball in his hand. Then there was a flash of light, and suddenly Brittany’s armor disappeared to reveal her tattered police uniform and the guns she had chosen at the Weapons Cache were still slung over her shoulders.

Ray’s fireball disappeared, along with his rustic features. Instead, his appearance was replaced with a rotting corpse with hollow eyes.

“I'll destroy your for daring to defy me!" The zombie declared in the hoarse voice of the Leviathan, "Your soul belongs to me!”

Brittany raised her sword, and struck down the zombie Ray with ease. But as she did so, a stinging pain erupted from her shoulder. She looked down to see the dried blood from a wound where Brad had grazed her. She winced, and placed her free hand over the wound.

Blondie turned raised an eyebrow, “Does that hurt?”

“Yes, intensely.”

“Good.” she glared, “Serves you right for killing my boyfriend in cold blood!”

Lily stopped typing on her invisible keyboard and pressed on her right temple again.

“There, that should do the trick. Did my override command log you out?”

“Yes, it did.” She stared at Lily incredulously, “But hang on a second. Didn’t you have blonde hair just a few moments ago? And your face… you’re much more beautiful in real life!”

“Oh, that.” Lily blushed as she ran her hand through her brilliant red hair, “I chose to change my avatar’s appearance because I was spying on Allan in-game and I didn’t want him to know who I was.”

“You were spying on your own boyfriend?” Blondie scolded, “That’s low. Really low.”

“It’s…” Lily hesitated, “It’s complicated. But that’s not important right now. What’s important is we need to figure out what the Leviathan is doing, and stop him.”

“Can you tell us what he's planning?” Blondie asked Brittany, “And how he's getting so powerful? Was it all the souls he's stolen? Is that why he's become so strong?”

“He is growing stronger, yes.” Brittany admitted, “He is absorbing souls from other players in the game. As far as I know, he is gaining power every time he takes a soul. That's what's causing his strength to increase.”

“But how? How is he siphoning a soul out of someone?” Blondie asked.

Brittany frowned, "It’s not exactly a pleasant experience.”

“Please tell us, so we can figure out a way to defend ourselves.” Lily pleaded.

“Well, he waits until you are most vulnerable, such as on the brink of death. Then he offers you healing and magical powers in exchange for letting him devour your soul. As far as I’m aware, you have to be willing to yield your soul. He can’t take it without permission.”

Suddenly the area around them began to illuminate. The portal flowed brighter and the vortex began spinning faster until a figure appeared in a flash of light. A chubby-looking pastor had appeared, and he looked very disoriented. Suddenly he turned, his eyes wide.

“Lily?!” he stammered, “Officer Parker?! What are you doing here?”

Lily looked the man up and down with confusion, “Do I know you?”

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