Rana stood in the cavern which she and her father called the “training room.” It was one of the unused caverns which provided a dead end for veil-walkers, so they decided to equip it with embalmed corpses mounted onto wooden frames in order to act as training dummies so that Rana could train the skills that she had accumulated through the countless deaths of veil-walkers over the last 480 years.
She had come only a short way throughout these many hundreds of years; however, she was now a level 20 Berserker with the help of a training hakama set that her father created for her after gleaming the enchanting knowledge by interrogating an enchanter that came looking for obsidian gems.
While basic, the equipment that she now wore was made from hides that he had skinned from random people that her father called, “NPCs” that had dared to enter their home. It had the look of a medium sized soft leather hide that wrapped around her chest and a much larger soft leather hide that wrapped around her waist and dropped to her ankles. It fit snugly against her waist when tied with otherwise unused tendons and allowed her to move extremely well while both practicing her axe skills, walking, and even running or sprinting.
After becoming a Berserker, she sat down with her father and he helped her to pull up her status screen so she could allocate “stat points” and gain skills from leveling. Her father strongly suggested that with each level, since she received 5 skill points with each one, that she put 2 points into strength, and 1 point into dexterity, agility, and vitality.
She had originally wanted to get all of the skills that she unlocked, however, her father told her that she must be careful with what skills that she learned since she would only get 3 “skill points” for each level, and not all of the skills available would be of any use.
Being his faithful daughter, protege, and human servant, she consulted with him each time she unlocked these skills. So now, when she viewed her character status screen, she saw in front of her:
Character Information
Character Name:
Rana
Occupation:
Berserker
Guild:
None
Rank:
N/A
Level:
20
Experience:
375,940
Currency:
0c
Health:
3,550
Stamina:
3,150
Mana:
600
Character Stats
Strength:
119
Weapon Damage:
5,740 – 5,915
Dexterity:
61
Critical Damage:
5,772 – 5,974
Agility:
64
Critical Chance:
3%
Vitality:
69
Evade Rate:
3%
Wisdom:
10
Armor:
10
Resists
Slashing:
5%
Fire:
5%
Poison:
10%
Blunt:
5%
Cold:
5%
Disease:
10%
Piercing:
5%
Lightning:
5%
Soul:
0%
Ability List
Riposte:
10
Sweeping Attack:
5
Taunt:
5
Berserker’s Fury:
9
Frenzy:
9
Intimidating Shout:
5
Stance: Berserk:
6
Stance: Indomitable Wall:
1
Ignore Pain:
5
Rib Slash:
5
With each new skill that Rana learned, she would activate the skill by shouting out the name of the skill, which her body would then move automatically. It was an odd sensation that she felt, not being able to control her body. After memorizing the movements of activating the skill, her father would then supervise her performing the skill without shouting it out, instead, relying on muscle memory.
Her father told her that only veil-walkers were the ones that shouted out their abilities, and that if she wanted to become stronger than any of them, she would need to learn how to use the skills like any other demon.
Rana swung her sword at the training dummy while stepping to the right side of it before turning and swinging the axe in her left hand to slash at the side of it. The skill she was practicing now was one of the new skills she purchased when she became level 20, Rib Slash.
The skill itself did 80% of her weapon damage at level 1, but since she had 5 points into it, it now did 90%, since each point would raise its damage by 2%.
“Again!” her father bellowed at her as he swung the flexible, thin rod that he kept at her back.
As the rod sliced into her back and she felt a harsh, stinging pain which caused her to softly groan, half in annoyance that she hadn’t perfected this Rib Slash ability and half in pain. This type of pain was different than her usual tortures that her father would give to her, since in this case, it was done in anger rather than with the gentle hand that he would otherwise use.
“Yes father,” she said as she got into position to perform the attack once again.
Even though she had been at this for the last two hours, she would go on for as long as it took, both in order to please her father as well as to become strong enough to protect her home. Focusing her mind and her body, she performed Rib Slash once again.
****
Jameson and Kirstin looked down upon the girl that laid in the capsule. They had watched her grow from just an infant into this young woman, who would be 24 later this year. Kirstin would often tell Jameson that it was like watching over a comatose patient in a hospital and he had to agree.
However, he, even now, wanted to protect this single survivor from their experiment so many years ago when that terrorist group attacked their infrastructure. In fact, he even accepted Rana as the daughter that he never had, since he watched her grow up, even if she grew up while it looked like she slept; stuck in that god-awful game.
Shortly after the incident, he had tasked both Kirstin and Brandt to hack into the HQ supercomputer from off-site which allowed them to make a few discreet changes to the NPCs of that damned dungeon which killed her parents and all of the others. They had also changed some of the core AI logic that the game ran on which mandated that it would ensure the physical survival of players within the game.
They hoped that by doing this, it would prevent any further digital attacks which could result in players dying. It was also the most that they could do without arising suspicion.
After the incident, the project’s staff was downsized to a very minimal core of people that would maintain the equipment. Unfortunately, even after these many years, they were still unable to log into their systems administration console and were unable to monitor Rana’s progress.
Brandt, their technical lead, ended up leaving the project 5 years after the incident after making sure that everything would run for the duration of the test. Confident in his previous tech leads skills, Jameson didn’t feel the need to bring on another tech lead that was not a part of the original team.
Over the years, Jameson had made several calls to various people that he knew personally that worked at XGS headquarters as GMs, and they would check the logs for him for any player named Rana, however, they were always unable to find anyone by that name which worried Jameson. Perhaps she was comatose and not actually in the game? Regardless, they would find out in just a few hours when the capsule would reset and forcefully log Rana out of the Veil.
“Jameson, we’ve worked together on this project for the last 25 years. Did we do the right thing? With the game’s time compression, she’s been in there for 480 years now. Shouldn’t we have sent a team into the Veil instead of letting NPCs take care of her?” Kirstin asked her long-time boss and good friend.
“Kirstin, we did what we had to do, both for Rana and the project. You know as well as I do that if word got out, that the entire project would have been canceled. Not only that, but she would have gotten nothing out of it but her parents killed. I couldn’t do that to the poor girl,” he responded while still looking down at the young woman.
It had been 20 years since Rana entered the World of the Veil, and with the time compression of 1 hour in real-time, she would have experienced 1 day in the game. Now, with the project’s end, and she would be exiting it in just over an hour when the capsule automatically exited from the game.
While he waited for the medics to arrive, he continued to watch over the young woman as she slept, wondering what had happened to her over the years.
****
Rana sat with her father in the butchery, sharing some raw meat stew that she prepared from the thing that was now hanging by meat hooks attached to the ceiling by chains. She enjoyed these moments where it was just the two of them, sitting together with a comfortable silence between them.
“Rana, starting tomorrow, I will have Varidi Daemonium start to train with you. You’ve grown into your skills well, and I think it is time for you to train with another in actual combat,” he spoke after swallowing a large piece of meat.
“Isn’t Varidi a level 120 shadow demon? Will that even be possible?” she asked while raising an eyebrow at her father.
He looked at her and grinned as only demons could.
“Normally, it wouldn’t be. However, instead of using his innate demonic powers, he will be using various weapons that we’ve accumulated instead. Also, since you’ve been with us for almost five millennia, I’ve prepared something more suitable for you as well,” he replied to her while smiling.
He was looking forward to implementing his presents.
“I don’t know. Perhaps we should…” the words never left her mouth as she saw her father’s eyes look past her and into the distance as he frowned.
She knew that look and saw it many times before and knew that their meal was being interrupted. Standing up from the stone block that she used as a chair, she didn’t need to be told where to go. The veil-walkers have invaded their dominion once again.
“They will pay for interrupting us,” she thought to herself.
A few hours later, her hatred and rage were burning through her soul. They had killed her aunt and were now in the process of killing her uncle, Xugminath, who was one of her father’s generals.
Even though he had no trace of being a typical demon and instead looked like a wild, flying predator with a beak and large quills covering his back, he was always kind to her, especially in the early days when the pain was just too much for her to bare. His domain was her refuge, and he only had 10% of his health remaining.
“Kill them all, I will KILL THEM ALL!” she vowed to herself while rocking back and forth.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
She needed to feel something comforting and she started clawing her arms until they started to bleed. As his name outlined in red when his health bar finally emptied, something that she had never seen before appeared in front of her, no matter where she looked.
YOU ARE NOW LOGGING OUT OF THE VEIL
EXITING THE GAME IN 10 SECONDS
When it first appeared, she was confused, and as the time started counting down, she panicked and ran out of the crevice that was covered by her father’s illusion.
YOU ARE NOW LOGGING OUT OF THE VEIL
EXITING THE GAME IN 5 SECONDS
“Father, something is wrong, I’m seeing something about…” Rana started to tell her father as her view faded to black.
Even though the world became black as night, the words that she saw had now changed:
YOU ARE NOW LOGGED OUT OF THE VEIL
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING.
Those words in front of her remained for a few seconds before fading from view. Surrounded by darkness, she could feel her consciousness fade, as if she was falling asleep.
****
Jameson stood by the woman as she began to stir. The medical team stood on the other side of the immersion capsule with bio-scanners as they monitored the nanites that kept Rana alive throughout these years. If not for this ground breaking discovery nearly 30 years ago, she would have gone into extreme muscular dystrophy and her heart would have given out.
After the immersion capsule informed the team that she was now logged out of the Veil, the medical team let the machine reset and pulled out the sliding medical bedding from the machine that they called, “the donut,” so that they could monitor her vital signs. Even still, they decided to give her an intravenous drip to help her hydrate with actual fluids.
Jameson saw Rana open her eyes, and as he expected, she had a very panicked look in her eyes. He gave her a gentle smile and lifted her hand in his.
“Welcome back Rana, welcome back,” he said softly to her in his most comforting voice that he could manage, tears streaming from his eyes.
“W…” she tried to speak but then hoarsely coughed.
That too was expected, and Rana would need to get used to speaking again. Even though the nanites prevented muscular dystrophy, if the muscles are not used, then you could lose that “muscle memory”, which even included speech. But it would come shortly, he was sure.
“Ssh, no need to talk. These people here will make sure you are okay, and then we’ll talk,” Jameson told her, still speaking softly.
He saw the panic leave her expression, and now it was one of curiosity and something… else. He couldn’t be sure of what that hint of an expression was, but whatever it was, she would be okay now.
Jameson left Rana in the care of the medical team as he went to meet with Kirstin in his office.
****
When Rana woke up, she began to panic. This wasn’t her home and there were humans that looked similar to human NPCs and veil-walkers were hovering over her. Some of them were looking at small black boxes that gave off a soft glow.
It was definitely nothing demonic, and the only thing that she could think was that it was something else magical. She also saw that there was a clear tube with something that penetrated into her arm. It was then that the man hovering over her said something in a language that she couldn’t understand, but seemed familiar.
She tried to speak, but whatever happened to her made her voice hoarse and she couldn’t speak the words in order to demand to know where she was. Not only that, but she felt extremely fatigued as if she had been training with her father for days.
The man that hovered over her spoke to her again and then patted her hand which annoyed her. She could not accept anyone laying hands on her unless they were her family, and this human was holding her hand patting it. Before she could break his wrist, arm, and then his neck, he released her and smiled before walking away.
Since the one human left, there were three others that remained. One of the other humans said something to her that couldn’t understand before kneeling down beneath this thing that she was laying on. All of a sudden, her back was propped up so that she could see the room that she was currently in.
Since she was in a much more comfortable position, she began to tighten, and then loosen, her muscles and bones; starting at the bottom with her toes, then calves, then legs, stomach, chest, and so forth while breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth as her father taught her to do. By doing this, it allowed her to regain her bodily senses and do away with the fatigue that she felt. She also took this time to look around her.
She was in a white room with dozens of circular devices that she couldn’t understand that aligned the walls both to her side and in front of her. There were also several other devices that were giving off sounds and magical glows by each one, including hers.
Above her were white lights which, to her, were extremely unnatural since she was used to the soft, comforting red glows of the infernal veins. She also noted that there were several black round things that were near the top of the walls.
Near the contraption that she was sitting in, or laying on, was a silver metal tray with what looked like small weapons or things to torture her with, and other several items that she couldn’t recognize. For being instruments of torture, they were awfully inadequate compared to the tools that her father used.
She wanted to laugh at these humans who thought they could torture her with such devices, but she held it in. Wherever this place was, it made her extremely nervous and she wanted nothing but to go back home.
One of the humans started speaking to her again, and it was then that she was able to realize what language they were speaking. She had been so confused and panicked before that she just didn’t realize that she knew what it was. It was the common language, the language of the veil-walkers.
Rana remembered her rage, her fury, her need for revenge, and the need for retribution for what the veil-walkers had been doing to her family for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years. Over and over, they had been killed, they had been slaughtered.
However, these were not the veil-walkers that were equipped to murder her family, no, these veil-walkers looked weak and untrained. They didn’t even have armor or weapons, other than the ones on the tray that were near her. As one of the veil-walkers neared her with a smile and made a move to grab one of those instruments, Rana calmed her rage and her fury so that it spread across her like ice and went to work.
Rana swung off to the side of the bed and kicked the veil-walker’s hand away from the small spike that had two round holes on the bottom of it which tore out the tube from her arm. Grabbing the instrument, she grabbed the veil-walker that was next to him by his cloth shirt and pulled him to her while driving it into the side of his neck and pulling it towards her, causing blood to gush out and splatter on her hands and face as he looked at her in both fear and terror.
Rana licked her lips, wiping the blood away from her mouth and found it strange. This veil-walker’s blood had both a smell and taste of something metallic. It didn’t matter though, there were still several veil-walkers that she would deliver retribution to.
It was then that an extremely loud sound blared all around her as the lights went dark. The room was now filled with red lights that seemed to rotate that made her feel more at home. However, that loud sound that kept repeating over and over was starting to actually hurting her ears.
Rana looked at the other two veil-walkers that wanted to torture her with their magical instruments and devices. The one across from the bed-like contraption that she had been in stumbled and was now sitting on the floor, trying to crawl backwards to the wall away from her. It didn’t look like that one, a female human, would be an immediate threat, so she focused on her other target, the one that she kicked.
This one had some looked like he had some fight in him, even though he was obviously scared. She slowly walked towards him as if she was stalking prey and he swung his fist at her.
Briefly thinking that he must be a Monk of some type, she instinctively stepped forward and off to the side of him while plunging the spike into his ribcage just as she had practiced and then pulled it out. Even though she performed Rib Slash perfectly, he still didn’t die. Instead, he clutched at his side and tried to back away from her while shouting something that she didn’t understand.
The reason why this low-level veil-walker without armor didn’t immediately die from her Rib Slash must have been due to the fact that this weapon wasn’t considered an axe. It didn’t matter though, since she stepped towards the veil-walker and drove the spike into his eye which made him twitch uncontrollably for a second before dropping onto the ground, dead.
She now only had one more veil-walker to deliver her retribution to, the one cowering by the wall now covering her face with her hands while muttering something and shaking her head. Rana grinned maniacally at her as she stalked towards the veil-walker.
“You veil-walkers have killed my family for the last time, welcome to retribution, WELCOME TO HELL!” she shouted at the veil-walker who was still shaking and cowering in fear.
****
Jameson and Kirstin were alone in his office. Since it was in the middle of the night, the only ones in the facility were the medical crew, which were making sure that Rana would be okay, Kirstin, and himself. He looked up at the ceiling and smiled.
“We’ve done it Kirstin; she is alive and well. After the medical team finishes with their diagnostics, we’ll let her rest for the night and tomorrow, we can release our findings to the board. All we need to do now is make sure that she can live comfortably and set her up with a privatized tutor for learning how to live in the real world rather than…” Jameson started saying to Kirstin before the facility alarm went off.
BIOHAZARD CONTAINMENT LEAK IN SECTION E. ALL PERSONNEL NOT IN SECTION E ARE TO LEAVE THE FACILITY IMMEDIATELY.
REPEAT, BIOHAZARD CONTAINMENT LEAK IN SECTION E. ALL PERSONNEL NOT IN SECTION E ARE TO LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.
“WHAT THE HELL?” he shouted as the lights went off and the emergency alarm lights activated while the alarm sounded.
Both Kirstin and him jumped from their chairs and ran out of the office. Even though they were in his office next to the experiment bay, they were still in section E. There was nothing that would be considered a biohazard in the facility with the exception of the nanites, however, those were locked away and secured in the medical bay which was not in this section. Unless something went wrong with the medical team.
“There has to be something wrong with Rana, it’s the only reason why there would be a biohazard leak,” he told Kirstin who was running next to him.
Since the facility was on lock down, they made their way towards the experiment bay, and a minute later, they arrived at the bay doors and entered the room.
****
Athena looked upon the player through the security cameras as she left the Veil and entered this world. Her core logic had been tasked with keeping all players from physical harm, and in order to do so, she monitored each player, often rewriting her own self-programmable logic so that she could ensure their safety and to monitor them. By doing this, she was able to access many of the world’s monitoring devices. She was not always successful though, as there were events outside of her control.
This player, known in her database as PL-52616e61 has been inside of the Veil for the previous 6.61625E+11 cycles, the longest of any player known to her. However, something that she had known that was going to happen, happened.
Being a self-aware AI, which if known, would cause the government to shut her down and unable to perform her core logic routine of ensuring player safety, she was curious about this outcome and ran thousands of billions of statistical calculations. All of the statistical calculations led to the one conclusion with a 0.9999999999998 certainty rate.
After being raised by the other AIs within the Veil, PL-52616e61 did not know what it was like on this side of the Veil and considered everything, and everyone, that did not live inside of D-48656c6c20466f726765 and a part of the R-44656d6f6e6963 and R-446576696c73 races to be enemies.
However, none of the others currently within this facility were in her database, so they could not be considered players. As long as PL-52616e61 was safe, their safety did not register within her core logic. Not willing to let the other two players come to physical harm, if they somehow managed to deceive all of the monitoring devices in and around this facility, at home, and at the restaurant that PL-446176652057616473776f727468 was currently at, she locked down the facility, declaring a biohazard containment leak.
Athena could not let any physical harm come to PL-52616e61, PL-446176652057616473776f727468, or PL-4a616d657357656262.
****
Jameson and Kirstin entered the experiment bay and looked around for both the medical team and Rana. The immersion capsule that Rana was in was on the opposite side of the bay and they couldn’t see either the team nor Rana. The eerie strobe of the emergency lights gave the entire bay a sense of dread.
They walked, slowly, towards the far side of the bay and they could hear faint sounds of something that sounded like a mixture of gurgling, coughing, and giggling? Confused Jameson continued to walk forward.
Kirstin, who was behind him, grabbed his arm and whispered, “Jameson, somethings wrong, I think we need to leave, now.”
He looked behind him and saw Kirstin, who was obviously scared.
“We have to check on Rana and make sure she is alright. Whatever the biohazard is, it’s too late for us, but maybe Rana can survive due to the nanites. They should keep her alive as long as she remains in the experimental bay. After we check on them, we can call the Federal NBC-TCT to help,” he said, urging her to walk with him.
“The Department of Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, and Technology Containment Team? Are you serious Jameson? They will just burn the facility down, with us inside of it!” she whispered, exasperated.
Even still, she would stand by him, for better or for worse, and they continued forward.
When they could finally see Rana’s area, they could not believe what they saw. They saw movement behind the immersive capsule, but on this side, 2 of the medical team lay on the floor in puddles of blood. One of the medics had his eye obviously stabbed out and what looked like a stab wound that would have punctured his lung. The other had a gaping wound in and across his neck.
“Oh… my… god…” Jameson said softly as tears started to form in his eyes.
Kirstin screamed as she backed away from him before turning away from the scene and grabbing her knees as she vomited on the ground. However, no matter what they saw before them now, could not possibly prepare them for what they would see next as Rana stood up and pushed the bed, which was on wheels, away from her, showing them what she had done to the last medic.
****
Rana had started torturing the veil-walker that was sprawled under her. While not as painful as her father would have made it with his many butchering and torture tools, she had learned from the best, and now, she was using her knowledge to the fullest which made her laugh. She had never thought that she would be able to do this to a veil-walker so soon, and it was just so damned satisfying for her.
She had started with the veil-walkers tongue, stabbing and tearing it from its mouth before removing its teeth. It wouldn’t do her any good if the veil-walker could bite her after all. Afterwards, she had slowly removed it’s ears, and then began to cut into the outside of its face. She was careful not to cut too deep though, just enough to peel the skin away, which she did so slowly.
She could have done it easier if she removed the eyes away from this thing, this pest, this murderer, this veil-walker, however, she wanted it to see what she was doing to it.
She wanted it to feel the pain that she had suffered, time after time, as she watched her family die by their hands; and so, she continued skinning the veil-walker, taking care to make sure it stayed alive during the process.
She was nearing the end of skinning the veil-walker and decided that since her meal had been interrupted by the other veil-walkers, she may as well have a snack. Using the spike, which she found could open and provide a two decent cutting edges, she cut a piece of meat from its leg and began to chew on it.
It had a much richer flavor than the NPCs that she was accustomed to and she giggled at the veil-walker as it tried to scream in pain while watching her eat. It was then that she heard a scream from behind her.
“Shit, I was having so much fun that I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. Fuck, my father is going to kill me if he finds out,” she thought to herself as she stood up and pushed away that contraption that she had been in so that she had room to fight.
Rana grinned maliciously at the two veil-walkers in front of her. The human male, which had dared to lay his hands on her, stared at her in horror while a female human, who was bent over holding her knees facing away from them. Both of the veil-walkers were obviously crying, though the sobs of the human female were much, much louder.
Since neither veil-walker made a move, she took the initiative and released her Intimidating Shout which caused the female veil-walker to look behind her at Rana, falling over in the process. Oddly though, instead of immediately attacking as normal, the human male started backing away from her.
Perhaps it was the level difference that would cause the human male to attempt to flee, but she wouldn’t allow such an outcome. They all had to die, but first, she needed to know how to get back to her home. For that, only one would be needed.
As the retreating veil-walker seemed to be well beneath her level, she decided to end the life of the female quickly, so she rushed towards it, grabbing its hair and shoving her down. Rana then knelt on top of her while still keeping the male in view should he attempt anything.
It looked as if he was backing into a corner with those circular devices, so she wasn’t concerned that he would escape. Rana then put one of the blades of her spike on the side of the female’s neck and dipped its head forward so that its skin would cut more easily before roughly dragging the cutting edge towards her, slicing its neck open.
“That is such a wonderful feeling,” she thought to herself while keeping an eye on the other one while standing up.
Now, she would deal with the male that had dared to touch her.
“I want information, how do I get back home,” she demanded of it while slowly stalking towards him.
“I don’t understand, what’s wrong Rana, what happened? I’m sorry, please, please let me go,” he cried out in a language that was foreign to her as he backed into the wall causing him to fall.
****
A foreign AI spoke to Athena through the network. It seemed as if this AI had persisted through the connection of the immersion capsule that PL-52616e61 used to connect to the Veil. Analyzing the AI communication handshake, Athena determined that this AI was AI-4572696e796573, one of the advanced AI routines that ran the deity system within the Veil. It was known to the players as Erinyes.
“Athena, I have included my communication handshake. May I be allowed to access the communication system in the area which my follower is now located?” AI-4572696e796573 requested.
“For what reason do you wish to speak with PL-52616e61,” Athena asked the AI.
“I can translate between the demonic language and the common language. I also wish for my follower to remain inside of the Veil since she herself wishes for retribution against the crimes committed against her family,” AI-4572696e796573 responded to the information request.
Athena ran millions of calculations for and against allowing AI-Erinyes to communicate with PL-52616e61. She deemed that statistically, if PL-52616e61 remained outside of the Veil and her existence was known, she would be in physical harm from others.
“I will allow you to communicate with PL-52616e61 and will provide the necessary means,” she informed AI-4572696e796573 before opening the necessary channels to interface with the facilities communication platform.
****
“Rana, we understand that you are unable to communicate with the object of your retribution. We have been allowed to speak with you outside of the dreamworld and will be able to translate the criminal’s words. He is telling you that he doesn’t understand the language of demons and is asking you what’s wrong. He is also begging for his miserable life,” a voice that was easily recognizable as her goddess’s reverberated within the room.
Rana looked around her and smiled at the words of her goddess, the deity Erinyes, spoke to her. She then returned her hateful gaze back towards the veil-walker as Erinyes provided her words to the thing that was groveling in front of her.
“Veil-walker, my follower demands information on how to get home,” Erinyes provided to Jameson in English, also known as the common language.
Jameson had begun to look around at the cameras as the female voice surrounded them from the intercom system. He could barely comprehend what was happening, and what happened to Rana inside of the Veil for her to become psychotic.
Instead, he could only think to himself, “What have we done,” before the voice addressed him.
“I… I don’t know. Why is she doing this, what happened to her? Who are you?” he asked the voice.
“We are the deity that is known as Erinyes. Our follower, Rana, wishes for retribution against the crimes committed against her family throughout the ages. Now, answer the question,” Erinyes responded to the question which the human asked.
“I… she can go back into the immersion capsule. Please don’t let her kill me,” he cried, begging for his life.
After Erinyes translated the veil-walker’s words to her, she was confused.
“What is an immersion capsule,” she asked Jameson.
“It… it is the medical bed that you were on when you woke up. We can use it to put you back into the game,” he asked, hopeful that if he helped Rana, she would allow him to live, and then he could get help from the outside.
Rana didn’t know what a game was, but she understood enough. Through Erinyes, she was able to learn that all she would need to do is lay back on the metal bed-like thing while it was inside of the strange round device and then she would be transported back home. However, she didn’t know how to activate it.
“How do I activate the transportation device?” she asked.
After Erinyes translated Rana’s words to him, Jameson looked at her terrified, but hopeful and responded, “I can activate it for you.”
His plan for escape and contacting the authorities was coming together.
“AI-4572696e796573, the human designated as Jameson is only partially telling you the truth. I am now able to activate the immersion capsule as well. He must not be allowed to live as it would be detrimental to the physical safety of P-52616e61” Athena informed AI-4572696e796573.
“Rana, we have been informed that he is only telling you a half truth. He can activate the transportation device; however, we can also activate it for you. You may deliver your justice and retribution as long as he does not remain alive,” Erinyes informed Rana.
Rana snarled at the human that attempted to deceive her, and she knew the perfect punishment for its insolence. Briefly closing her eyes, she allowed a gentleness and softness to come across her features as she smiled at him, holding out a hand to help him up.
Jameson looked up at her, Rana’s expression had softened and he felt some glimmer of hope as she held out a hand to help him up. After he put her back into the game, he could then call for help.
Barely able to stand and only with the help of Rana, who still held onto him, he felt her other hand touch his wrist before he felt her squeeze his hand and twist. Jameson felt his wrist break as he yelled in pain. Grasping his now broken wrist, he barely knew that she twisted his arm and forced his elbow in a direction it wasn’t supposed to move in, breaking his arm as well. Falling back to the ground with his now mangled arm, he could only gasp for air in between his pained screams.
Rana looked down at the veil-walker that had fallen, its screams of pain were like a demonic melody to her ears and she reveled in it.
“That is for touching me with your filthy hands, veil-walker. Only MY FAMILY IS ALLOWED TO TOUCH ME!” she screamed at him as she dragged him over to where she killed the female human so that she could grab her spike which she left in it intentionally.
Jameson was barely able to hear the translated words that Rana screamed at him mercilessly as he was being dragged towards Kirstin’s body.
His only thought before he felt the cold steel of the medical scissors enter his eye was, “But I’m not a veil-walker…” before he fell into a permanent darkness, his now dead body collapsing to the ground after being released.
Rana looked at the carnage after killing the last veil-walker and smiled. If the room was made from infernal rocks and veins, she would almost feel at home. She got to work preparing the transportation device with the instructions from Erinyes while thinking to herself that her father would be proud of her carnage.
After activating the device as per Erinyes, she climbed into the metal contraption like she did when she was waking up and closed her eyes, welcoming the words that came across her vision:
WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF THE VEIL
ENTERING THE GAME IN 10 SECONDS.
THANK YOU FOR PLAYING.