Spirit Cores: 330

The problem with having a dummy-thicc spider booty was that you couldn’t quite fit in a bed.

Ethan was realizing this as he tossed and twisted himself in his bedchambers – the place where all previous Archons had apparently resided. How the hell the big horned first Archon had managed to sleep in these conditions was beyond him. The bed was big enough, sure, but he couldn’t exactly flop down on his back and hit the hay. Nevermind that all those weird thoughts were still echoing through his pale skull and traveling into his thready bowels.

Honestly, if I could just pluck myself off this guy for a minute, I’d be able to get some shut-eye…

But the prospect of letting Rachneros loose in this place was a little too dangerous. Ethan decided to throw his bedsheets across the chamber and curl up like a dog instead, prospecting his skills and considering the new adjustments he could make to take his mind off the memories of butchered humans lying beneath him.

330 Spirit Cores… enough to upgrade another Host Skill, if he wanted to.

He decided it’d probably be best to at least put some stock in the one skill he hadn’t yet – Appraisal. His traversal of Rachneros’ memories had told him that this skill had uses beyond simply identifying monsters and their weaknesses. In the mind of the spider, he saw heroes who found secret traps, made discoveries that turned the tide of entire battles, and were even able to perceive invisible foes using this ability.

So, partially because he was sick of only focusing on his combat skills, and partly out of sheer curiosity, he decided to commit to an upgrade:

[Skill] Appraisal (Grade F)

Upgrade Complete!

Appraisal (Grade E)

Appraisal can now be used to prospect the location of foes through walls and other solid surfaces.

Spirit Cores remaining: 80

X-Ray vision… Ethan mumbled. Just another useful tool in an Archon’s arsenal.

His mind started to wander as he made the decision to bank the extra 80 cores for now. Was it possible that all the other Archons had the exact same abilities he did? It couldn’t be entirely the same – [Possession] and [Skill Steal] seemed like they were distinctly his bread and butter. The first big guy – the chimera Kharfangg – he must have been packing some major strength right from the get-go. But the other ones… just going by their murals… they had their own set of powers that seemed in total contrast to each other. Gelsadra the Everlasting – she obviously must have had some regeneration ability. The opposite of Kharfangg – she probably relied on tankiness over brute strength.

Then there were the other two. Moratavious the Shroud – patron of thieves and shadows, right? He must have employed stealth to great effect. And Gyko… the immobile demon flower… for all Ethan could tell, her strength was charm. Pure charisma to make others fight for her.

You could chart a clear trajectory through all of them, it seemed to Ethan. It was like evolution – each one focused on a different strategy to win. And each one failing, every damn time.

He needed to know more. And he knew the one person who’d have the answers he sought. The ‘person’ who had been with each and every one of his predecessors.

Sys? he asked the depths of his mind.

…

Sys, I know you’re there.

Oh, my sincerest apologies.

Am I allowed to speak, now?

Don’t cop an attitude. You know I was going through some shit back there. I just needed some fucking quiet.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

Are you only now beginning to realize why you were brought here? What your destiny is?

Ethan turned away as he saw these words, trying to ignore the sight of his reflection in the System box.

One thing you should know about me, Sys, he said. I don’t believe in destiny.

Of course you don’t.

None of you do.

Until it’s too late.

You need to quit it with that cryptic shit, Ethan demanded, sending one of his scimitars through the System box and getting nothing in return but the sight of his rage-filled arachnid face shimmering for a few seconds. If you’ve got something to tell me, tell me now.

For a few seconds, the System screen then flickered with static and died away, fading out of existence with a whimper that Ethan could almost swear represented something like a sigh.

You were all the same. Each one of you absolutely convinced of your own divinity.

You were all strong. You were all tactically minded. You all had armies at your backs.

And you still all perished.

Ethan couldn’t be sure if a robotic System assistant in a fantasy realm could simulate emotion, but a part of him genuinely did believe that Sys was bearing its heart to him right now…

Can you imagine what it feels like, Ethan Hawke?

Can you imagine being attached to consciousness after consciousness?

Shackled.

Contained.

Forced to watch them all go mad with power and then finally succumb to the same bitter end?

Forced to watch as they all clung to their dreams only to have them crushed?

To live a life of eternal spectatorship – where nothing that you do or say matters at all…

Ethan looked at his organic scimitars that now served as his hands, and then up at his reflection in Sys’s little window. He stared at his own crimson eye and, for just a fleeting moment, thought that he could see the man he once was still in there, looking right back at him.

He could see himself typing away in his office cubicle every day, working overtime for a pittance so he could buy more games and books and escape into worlds that weren’t his own.

Yeah, Sys, he said. I know what that feels like, alright.

…

Explain.

I’m afraid that information is considered [Classified], Ethan chuckled in their shared mindscape. But suffice to say, where I come from, there’s a lot of folk who could probably relate to you.

I find it difficult to believe that, of all things, a human being would be capable of understanding how I feel.

It’s more common than you think. Some of us are just spectators in our own lives. We put up with it because we… don’t know what else to do. Some of us don’t ever find the answer.

…

Which is..?

“A different perspective,” Ethan smiled.

The door to Ethan’s chamber suddenly slammed open, and in stammered the small, floofy form of Fauna the Hopla.

“Miss Fauna,” Ethan said. “I never took you for the seductive type. Coming to a guy’s bedchamber like this in the middle of the night. A spider Lord might get the wrong ide-“

She swayed, staggered, and summoned a small starfish that she promptly tripped over.

“Woah!”

She fell into Ethan’s lap as soon as he launched himself to catch her, her gaze drifting dreamily up to his five eyes.

“Mr… Ethan,” she moaned.

Shit. This is heading to weird places fast.

“You… and Klax…”

Oh… so you’re that kinda girl, Fauna?

“You… Klax… sad…”

“Huh?”

“You and Klax… need to make up…” the Hopla finished, rising and pointing an accusatory finger right in Ethan’s face. “Friends… should make up! I won’t let… anyone… be sad. Never… again…”

The girl promptly collapsed into a drunken sleep, her brow hot and face still flushed from the exertion of Tara’s drinking game. Ethan was left looking down at the girl with a stunned look of bewilderment that slowly morphed into a smirk.

“…heh,” he murmured. “I guess you’re right, Faun. If you and Tara could, maybe it’s worth talking things out.”

Besides, there’s still some things I have to know… like what exactly that wolfman needs me to be ready for.

He lay Fauna down on his bed and covered her, thankful at least that somebody got to use the thing.

Hey, Sys – you want to survive this, right?

No answer.

Each time the Archon dies, you feel it, don’t you? There must be a part of you that still wishes that you could win, for once.

…

It isn’t possible, Ethan.

Kaedmon’s Law is absolute. I know what I was made for.

You must simply come to terms with your purpose, too.

Shit, sys, come on - you aren't telling me you're content to just keep watching your Users die over and over again?

Sys gave him no answer. But something about those statement clicked with Ethan. It was a feeling he’d gotten ever since he’d landed slap-bang in the middle of this realm and heard of this ‘Kaedmon’s Law.’ It was a feeling that, for the first time in his life, he was fighting against something tangible that he knew needed to be destroyed. Something he could relate to… and probably the very reason he’d been summoned here in the first place to take up the label of the bad guy.

After all, he wanted control of his life, didn’t he?

Just stick around, Sys, he said as he turned and followed the winding palace hallways towards Klax’s chambers. I intend to be the exception to the rule.