They raced forward until they saw the shimmering blue of the swirling vortex. But the path was blocked. Blondie, Lily and her dragon Tiamat stood in their way.

How did she know where the portal was?

"Halt!" Blondie ordered, "Or the whole lot of you will perish!"

"Now, why don't you tell me how you know where the portal is?" Lily asked, "Don't try to deny it. I have ways of finding out secrets."

"I don't have anything to hide." Brittany said defiantly, "All I know is what the Leviathan showed me, and that's all you need to know. Now move aside!”

Lily sighed, "Your arrogance is going to be your downfall. You've led these Shadow Walkers to their deaths!"

"Go out of my way!" Brittany spat, "I must follow my master’s orders!"

Brittany summoned a fireball and released it. It shot through the air and struck Lily's dragon, but it stood there unfazed.

"Your spells won’t work on us.” Lily challenged.

“We’ll see about that!” Brittany seethed, "Step aside, or I'll burn you all alive!"

She summoned the elements of Fire and Air, creating a fiery tornado that she unleashed on them. Once again it appeared to tear right through them, but they didn’t even flinch.

What’s going on?!

"I told you, your magic has no effect on us." Lily said calmly, "Don’t worry, I will not harm you. But you must leave immediately."

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Brittany said, "You see, I have chosen a different path, and I cannot be swayed from it. You must accept your fate, or face certain death. You should surrender your soul to the Leviathan!”

"Your path is wrong." Lily said. “The Leviathan has clouded your mind, and you aren’t seeing clearly. There’s far more going on here than you have been led to believe. You have been deceived. What you are experiencing is an illusion.”

"An illusion?" Brittany scoffed. "Is that what you think this is?"

"This isn't real." Lily insisted. "The Leviathan has used his powers to confuse you. You shouldn't listen to his lies!"

"Fine. If this is an illusion, why am I fighting against you?" Brittany demanded.

"Because you are fighting for the wrong side." Lily said, "The Leviathan wants you to fight, so he can feed you his dark magic and control you. Fight and you will die!"

"That's what you think." Brittany said. "I won't let him do that to me!"

"You must stop fighting me, and instead fight the voice inside you." Lily urged. "The Leviathan can only control you so long as you allow him to.”

"I don't want to hear your lies!" Brittany snarled. "I have chosen my path, and I will not deviate from it!"

"You need to listen to reason!" Lily exclaimed, "You don’t belong to the Leviathan!"

"He has given me a great gift!" Brittany sneered, "He healed me, and I have the power to defeat you!”

Brittany summoned the element of fire again, and blasted Lily with an inferno. Lily didn’t even try to dodge, and was caught in the blast. Flames enveloped her body, but she remained standing, entirely unfazed.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

That’s impossible!

Lily shook her head, “I told you. This is an illusion. Whatever you think you’re doing right now can only be seen by players in the game. I’m not a player.”

“So you’re an overpowered NPC?” Brittany was confused.

“I’m neither.” She sighed, I’m a woman from Earth who was abducted by Timur Demyan as bait for my boyfriend Allan.”

“Timur?” Brittany looked confused, “Allan?”

The names came back to her in a haunted memory of what had happened to her before she got trapped in the game.

“Allan…” she stammered, “Do you mean Allan Young?”

“Yes, that’s him.” Lily nodded, small tears forming in her eyes, “Did you know him?”

“Sort of…” Brittany shook her head to clear the foggy memories, “ I was questioning him right before I got decommissioned. I was asking him about…” suddenly her eyes lit up, “I think was asking him about you! Are you Lily Thatcher?”

“Yes, I am.” she nodded.

“I was at a crime scene in his home, and we found a large pool of your blood.” The memories came flooding back.

“Yes, that was when Timur abducted me, no doubt.” she sighed, “I found him ransacking Allan’s home, and I confronted him. He hit me and I blacked out. The next thing I knew, I was laying on the altar of the temple in Atlantis receiving medical attention by a shaman.”

“So… you woke up stuck in the game like I did?” Brittany asked.

“No. This isn’t a game.” Lily explained, “Atlantis is real. The planet Zion is real. The game interface is the Leviathan’s way of deceiving you.”

"You're lying!" Naomi spoke up, "You're the enemy!"

"I'm not lying." Lily said, "And I am telling the truth. You are all being deceived by the Leviathan. And I can prove it.”

"How?" Brittany gave Naomi a dirty glare that clearly told her to shut her mouth.

“Press on your right temple, and log out.”

“I’ve already tried that.” Brittany frowned, “I’m stuck here!”

“Trust me.” she instructed.

Curiosity getting the better of her, Brittany pressed down on her right temple. The CyberBolt logo appeared, followed by a prompt.

Do you wish to log out of Conquest?

Yes | No

Brittany pressed ‘Yes’. There was a burst of brief static, and she found herself floating in a thick cloud of darkness.

A cursor flashed for several seconds until a series of letters appeared in successive order.

C:\>CyberBolt.exe_

I told her it wouldn’t work.

A string of coding sped past her field of vision, followed by the familiar music-box like hymn of Conquest. In a flash of light, she found herself back in the clearing with all of the others. Nothing had changed.

“See what I mean?” Lily smiled.

“Honestly, no.” Brittany rolled her eyes, “I’m still here in the game. There’s no use.”

“Uhh…” Blondie stared at Brittany in confusion and then exchanged confused glances with Lily, “Brittany, are you a cop in RL?”

It was just like the boy!

“Yes…” she looked down at her gleaming armor, “How would you know that?”

“You’re wearing a police uniform.” she pointed at her, “A rather tattered and dirty one at that, but I can clearly see your name tag and badge, Officer Parker.”

What?!

“Okay, if that’s true…” Brittany stammered, “How come you can log out but I can’t?”

“What do you mean?” Lily looked confused.

Brittany sighed, “Every time I try to log out, I find myself in this floating darkness until I see the a string of code floating in the air for the executable file of CyberBolt. Then I’m right back here in the game.”

Lily’s eyes lit up, “You’re stuck in a feedback loop. Your implant must be damaged.”

“How would you know that…” Brittany began, but then suddenly remembered what she had read on the Law Enforcement Terminal info about Lily. “Oh, that’s right. You’re one of CyberBolt’s programmers!”

“How did you know that?”

“I learned it from the LET when I scanned your blood sample.” Brittany explained, and Lily nodded in acknowledgment. “That’s the reason why I was questioning Allan in the first place. While I was looking up your info, it suddenly changed to a new name - Jamie Davenport.”

Lily nodded in understanding, but didn’t offer an explanation for the strange occurrence.

“By the way, where is Allan anyway?” Brittany queried, “Last I heard, he had broken out of jail.”

Lily looked down at the ground with remorse, “He’s dead.”

“Oh…” Brittany didn’t know what to say, “I’m sorry I brought it up.”

“It’s okay.” she wiped a tear from her eye, “ He came, trying to save me. But Timur was too powerful, and he killed him.”

“Timur is here too?” Brittany was confused, “Isn’t he the CEO of CyberBolt Entertainment?”

“He’s was lot more than that, but no. He’s no longer with us either.” Lily paused, “I killed him.”

“How? Did he attack you?”

“Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter anymore. We have bigger issues at hand. Like winning this war against the Leviathan. Now let me finish explaining how I know all of these things.”

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© Copyright 2022 R.M. Mulder. All rights reserved.