We meet again in the center of the labyrinth, in one of the leaf-shaped rooms, looking at the center of the mandala flower. The circular stone that rose to twenty meters has exposed the entrance to the central enclosure.
“From here it's uncharted terrain,” says Lance. “Let's be cautious.”
We enter the enclosure slowly, weapons at the ready. It is empty. In the center is a hole in the ground about four meters wide. I peek out and see in the stone wall some stairs spiraling down and disappearing into the darkness.
“Looks like no more fighting in the snow,” I say. We take off our snowshoes and put them away, in case we need them again. I pull a torch from my inventory and light it.
We descend one by one. I step forward, shining the light down the dust-covered steps.
We reach the bottom of the stairs, and a corridor opens up on one side. We continue down the gallery, stopping every ten minutes to keep Hara and me from disappearing with the update. After an hour the gallery begins to ascend. We head towards the ice dragon's lair at the top of the mountain.
As I walk through the tunnel I see a rat, and I can't help but remember my cats. I know they are not real, that they were never mine, but I keep remembering them as if they had been. I fantasize about them and imagine a life I never had. Coronel loves to play with his toys. I have several on a shelf in the closet, and I usually throw them at him. I like to watch him chase them around the room. Socks is quieter, he likes to sit on my lap and purr as I pet him.
It's all just in my mind, but maybe that's how it is for everyone? After all, although Marcel has a real cat, right now there is only the memory of having her in her memory, then it is no different. I tell her about it as we walk, and she looks at me like I'm crazy.
“Of course it's not the same,” she says. “Fluff is for real, she slept with me tonight.”
“Well, but imagine if you went many months without seeing her. You'd only have the memory of having been with her, wouldn't you?”
“I suppose so.”
“Then in that case you'd have just the same thing I have: the memory of my cats.”
[https://imgur.com/ysXLDcV.png]
We reach a larger cave, where we find an abyss that interrupts the passage. There is a small gallery coming out of our side of the room. I peek through it and hear the sound of machinery coming from inside. It is clear that the main path, the one leading to the dragon, is on the other side of the cliff, and that the side passage is a secondary path.
“I figure it must be twenty meters to the other side,” Lance says at the edge of the chasm. “It's impossible to jump across.”
We search unsuccessfully for some way around the precipice. On the other side there is a metal drawbridge, and on the walls at the bottom two metal pushbuttons. I suspect that the buttons must be used to lower the drawbridge. I try to activate them from here by throwing stones at them with my slingshots, but the force of the impact is not enough to move the metal slabs.
“We have to find some way to get across and activate both pushbuttons to lower the bridge,” I say.
After discussing our options, we decide to explore the smaller gallery, to see if we could find another way to lower the bridge there.
The walls of the secondary gallery are narrow, and we make slow progress. After a few minutes we reach a larger room and see the source of the sounds. The room, about fifty meters wide, is filled with circular metal blades that move in and out of the floor and walls at different speeds. They spin at breakneck speed.
“There's a passage on the other side,” I say. “It's likely that from there we can reach the buttons that lower the bridge of the other room.”
“Crossing is impossible,” Lance says. “There are too many blades, and they're going too fast. No one has those reflexes.”
Hara and I look at each other.
“Lance, I think Hara and I could come through,” I say. He looks at me, but I don't see him convinced.
“That's true,” Idrial says thoughtfully. “Their reflexes are much better than ours, since they don't have neurons as such.”
“We just have to cross this room and continue on until we get to where the pushbuttons were,” I say. “We activate them, lower the bridge, and continue the route to the summit.”
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“I don't know, I see it as risky,” Lance says. “Who's going to stop your updates?”
“We can try to do everything as soon as we carry out the ‘treatment’ to avoid disappearing. That would give us ten minutes to do the whole tour.”
Lance looks at Idrial, who nods.
“Okay, but be very careful. If you don't see it clear, you turn around.” Lance remains unconvinced, but we have no choice.
Hara and I leave the rest of the heavy stuff we're carrying and sit on the floor to wait. I mentally calculate the rates of each of the blades, and plot possible routes across the room, trying to find the fastest way. In a few seconds I have found a hundred configurations that would allow me to cross the room in less than fifteen seconds.
After a few minutes the blue bars appear above our heads. Lance and Antaeus hit us to restart the update process. We don't wait for Marcel to do the healings: we drink a healing potion and start going through the blade room.
Hara takes off running, her two white braids fluttering behind her. I analyze the route she has selected among the ones I had identified as possible, and I look for the compatible route that will allow me to be on the other side of the room as soon as possible without colliding with her. It takes me two-tenths of a second to identify the best path. I wait a second and run. I advance three meters and stop two tenths of a second between two blades that hiss in front of my face. I turn twelve degrees to the right and jump over a third blade. I run another three and a half seconds and dash across the floor, dodging the jagged disk on the wall. I stop in place. Hara passes in front of me and a blade crosses between the two of us. I run to the left, jump to the wall, then to the floor, and propel myself to the end of the room, jumping over the last blade. Fourteen seconds have passed, and we have both crossed to the other side.
Without stopping to talk, I continue running after Hara's braids through the gallery. After a few minutes we reach a second room. It is empty and has no visible exit.
“What now?” I gasp.
Hara looks at me and points up. The ceiling of the cave is not visible. I approach a wall and see that there are some stones sticking out. Without a second thought, we start climbing the wall.
I calculate the distance between the holds and jump from one to another. We move as fast as possible, but still lose three minutes to reach an opening twenty meters above the ground. We enter the passage and run through a narrow gallery that descends gradually. Five minutes have passed since we restarted the update, and the blue bars already appear again.
We come to another empty area. When we enter, two level 120 ice trolls appear and attack us. The room is very narrow, and it is not possible to avoid them.
Hara draws her sabers. I throw two incendiary stones with the slingshots that explode in the faces of the beasts. They stop for a few seconds, but before I have time to throw more, they are already upon us.
I dodge the claws of one of the trolls and step aside. I pull out the hammer I brought from the forge and try to hit it, but I don't hurt it. Hara takes on hers, but it takes her a while to get the hang of it.
We fight for several endless minutes, until Hara manages to finish hers off by stabbing it in the chest with one of the sabers. She run to help me and between the two of us we finish off the other troll.
The update marks eighty percent. We have a minute left to cease to exist.
We run through the narrow gallery. Some light begins to appear at the bottom. I think we're reaching the drawbridge cave.
We emerge into a larger passageway and turn left. In a few meters we have reached the cavern with the drawbridge and the pushbuttons. On the other side of the abyss, I hear the rest of the companions encouraging us to hurry. We press the two metal pushbuttons, and the bridge begins to descend.
The update is at ninety-five, fifteen seconds left. The bridge descends too slowly, they won't be able to cross it in time.
Hara turns to me, and we look at each other helplessly. I watch her approach.
“Fulfill your dream,” she says to me.
“No!” She hits me with the pommel of her saber, and I fall to the ground stunned.
When I open my eyes, I see how my update bar has disappeared, but Hara's, who is in front of me, has been completed. The rest of the companions run across the bridge. Lance pulls out the greatsword and hits Hara with the blunt end. She falls to the ground, but the bar doesn't disappear.
“It's too late,” Hara says. She gets up, walks over to Lance, and kisses him. “At least I leave knowing that at least once I kissed because I wanted to.”
Her face changes. She loses some of her expression, and no longer has the same look. I feel her like a doll, lifeless.
She looks at Lance without acknowledging him.
“Prepare to die, human!” even her voice doesn't seem the same. She wields the sabers and attacks Lance, but her blows are clumsy, lacking the passion that characterized Hara.
Lance stands motionless, stares at her impassively and takes the blows without doing anything. His life bar slowly drops with the attacks. The dark elf moves repetitively, as if she were one of the beasts of the Game.
She has become a soulless NPC.
Idrial gestures to her brother, who draws his axes. Lance raises his hand and stops him.
“I got this,” he says.
He grips his greatsword tightly and in one blow ends the life of the dark elf, who falls to the ground. We all stand still, silent, not knowing what to say, watching the dark elf's skin turn gray. The silver crescent-shaped medallion hangs on the side of her neck, grazing the ground.
Idrial embraces Lance, who grips the hilt of his greatsword with white knuckles. Antaeus lowers his head and sighs. Marcel sits on the floor and hugs her own legs, and I stand motionless. I think of Hara, the person who shared my fate, and I can't say anything. I close my eyes and say goodbye: I will miss you, Hara.
A movement at the entrance to the cave, on the other side of the bridge, catches my attention. I could have sworn I saw someone dressed in white in the gloom, but when I look again, I see no one.
[https://imgur.com/ysXLDcV.png]
We walk along the passage in silence. We ascend gradually for half an hour. Light begins to appear at the bottom of the tunnel. We advance until we reach the surface. It takes a moment for our eyes to get used to the daylight, reflected in the snow. We are at the top of the mountain, and before us is a winged beast. It is lying in a ball, stretching more than twenty meters from side to side. Its scales are white, with a pearly sheen reflecting the snow around it.
We have reached the summit and the ice dragon.