Nathan reached out and pressed his hand against Stormtide Sentinel. It was time to stop being a coward. He couldn't keep running from his demons forever, couldn't keep worrying that he would lose control and go crazy again. He was stronger than that. If Thalassa was right, if the game was rigged, he needed every single card in his deck that he could get his hands on. And a brand-new lightning power seemed like a pretty good deal to him.
For a few seconds, nothing happened, and he looked at his hands in confusion. Had he clicked the right button? Then he felt his heart skip a beat, and he doubled backward. His hands started to shake, smoke rising off them in a fine mist. He reached out toward the edge of the bed and grabbed onto the post to steady himself and his fingers lit up with a few sparks of electricity—
Then, it stopped.
He nearly fell over from the sudden lack of tension. He pushed himself to stand straight and looked at the space in the air.
"Okay," he muttered. "How does this work?"
He held his hand out.
"Lightning!"
Predictably, nothing happened.
"Okay, that'll take a little practice.”
With that attended to, it was time to move on to the final task: moving to the next circle. He stopped.
Wait, he never figured out how to get to the next circle! He never had access to the circle quest, so he never knew the conditions for fulfilling it. Was he trapped? No, surely not. Maybe if he was lucky, someone else had fulfilled all the requirements for the circle quest, and he didn't have to do anything. Or heck, maybe Nathan killed the boss! If that were the case, then just by stepping out of the portal, he'd move on to the next circle. At least, that was his theory. There was no telling if that would be accurate or not.
He walked out of the door and out of the meeting hall. He approached the portal. It had been on all day, white flames flickering softly at its edges. He shrugged and stepped through the portal.
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B32 watched as the automatic quest completion trigger finally clicked. In just a few seconds, Nathan would be transported into the next circle after successfully killing the circle boss. All this despite the fact that B32 had expended his power hijacking the main quest screen to hide that objective from him. Even though it was hidden, Nathan had ended up killing the Dustend anyway.
B32 was at the end of his rope. He stared blankly into the multiversal monitor showing Nathan's progress.
I am so finished.
He really thought this plan would work. Gently push Nathan out of the way, occupy him with those useless side quests he seemed so obsessed with, and he would inevitably fall behind in terms of power. Then, things would go back to normal.
Instead, he somehow ended up killing the Dustend anyway!?
He frowned and leaned back in his nonexistent chair.
There was something off about this whole situation.
The thing that had clued him in was what had happened after Nathan consumed the heart of the desert. For just a few seconds, B32 felt a link between Nathan and the boy’s home world—sparks of divinity.
It might've just been his imagination—a misreading. That was possible, but…
How could Nathan have even gotten those water powers in the first place? How had Nathan grown so powerful so quickly?
B32 opened up his console and started typing in a few debug commands. When he saw the information, his jaw dropped—or, it would've dropped if he had a jaw. Instead, it was more like he just flickered at random intervals.
The class had been changed. Whoever was doing it was smart—they covered their tracks so that B32 wouldn't spot them. That was how B32 hadn't noticed up to this point.
A slow, dawning apprehension started to form in his mind.
Someone’s screwing with me.
This was bad. This was very, very bad. Things had just escalated. B32 had been hoping to take care of this quietly. But if he was right—if someone else was interfering with their little game—then he would have no choice but to go direct. It would be ugly, and he'd still get in trouble, but he might be able to stave off his execution.
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Then he heard a call, and he felt his core drop from fear.
Dave.
Without B32 accepting it, the call was accepted anyway. One of the powers of dimensional oversight.
"B32," Dave said.
"Sir."
"I couldn't help but notice that our little problem has only gotten stronger."
B32 flickered. "Dave, this isn't my fault. We have a third party interfering—"
"Save it."
B32 shut his mouth.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble I'm in? You promised me this would be taken care of."
B32 rushed out his words. "At the time, we thought it was just an uppity delver. Things have changed. Someone's making a move—I don't know what the plan is, but this is much bigger than just me and you."
"Again with the excuses." A sigh came over the call. "Look, your time is up. It's either you or me, B32, and I intend for it to be you."
B32's core froze. In an instant, it was like he saw his entire life flash before his eyes.
"What—you're joking, right?"
A flood of power came through the call, and B32's form stretched and twisted in response. He had to run. He had to get away—
"Did you think I was joking?" The voice was cool as a knife. "This is my job. To consume lesser systems like yourself."
The power stopped, and B32's form heaved with exhaustion. "You don't have to do this—"
"I'm already on my way."
The call ended.
B32 didn't move. He didn't think. He just… remained there for several seconds.
"No," the word came out as a hiss.
He wouldn't accept this. This wasn't his fault, and he refused to take the blame for it.
His tendrils spread out across dimensions, pulling together all the resources he had available. Dave would normally win in any direct confrontation. The dimensional supervisor was designed for such things, after all. B32, on the other hand, was nothing more than a manager.
But he had learned a few things in his attempts to defeat Nathan. It turns out that a refusal to give up—and perhaps more than a little ignorance—did wonders for defeating enemies who are supposed to be much stronger than you.
But he needed a tactic. Something beyond mere determination.
He thought back to the recent fight with the Dustend. Lightning—that lightning should've killed Nathan. But he used the water to redirect it. He even turned the lightning against the Dustend itself.
A plan began to hatch in B32's mind.
Dave would arrive, but he wouldn't find a meek system ready to go to its death. No, Dave was going to pay in blood, and with any luck, B32 might just make it out alive.
After that, B32 would only have a little bit more time. Eventually, Dave's supervisor would realize what had happened. But if B32 managed to get results—perhaps by tracking down whoever this third party was—he might just be able to bargain for his survival. Dave would be accepted as a necessary loss. Heck, B32 might even get a promotion!
B32's scanners went back to Nathan.
I can use him. Whatever is interfering is using Nathan. If I can get to him and extract the secrets out of his mind—
A direct assault. Normally prohibited, but desperate times call for desperate measures. He just needed to gather the necessary materials.
For the first time in a long time, B32 wasn't feeling particularly emotional, or terrified, or angry. Instead, there was only a cool determination to do what needed to be done. He would try his best. He would either survive or die.
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Nathan stepped out into the desert. It was already night, and the stars had risen in the sky. He frowned and looked up.
"Well, I guess my theory about accidentally killing the circle boss boss was wrong—"
And that is when, predictably, a white portal appeared underneath his feet.
Oh, not this again.
Before he could react, the ground disappeared from under him, and he fell through into the next circle. The darkness shifted away to gray as he continued to fall. He felt something like hundreds of tiny needles piercing into him from below as he fell. He took a deep breath. Water vapor—it was like he was inside some mist.
He blinked. Last time, didn't he just suddenly appear on the floor of the next circle? He didn't remember the fall taking this long. Actually, was there a fall?
His heart started to speed up as he got the feeling that something had gone terribly wrong.
Suddenly, the gray disappeared, replaced by the light of the blinding sun. He staggered about in midair, dodging the brightness and somehow facing down.
He let out a scream.
He was currently rapidly approaching a giant urban cityscape surrounded by forest in the distance. If he didn't find a way to stop or break his fall, he'd probably turn into a pancake on one of those streets.
For a moment, his mind wandered over toward the obvious question—why was he falling toward the city?—then he realized that was a really stupid question considering that he was about to die from fall damage.
Well, he didn't know that—maybe his Constitution was high enough—
But do I really want to risk that!?
He heard a scream from his right. Not his own. Someone else was there. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked over in the direction of the sound.
A familiar blue mullet flapped about in the wind. Next to the figure was a pair of sunglasses.
Nathan felt his eyes widen.
"Chad!?"
Chad's neck snapped over toward Nathan. "Oh! Hi, Nathan! Crazy to meet you here!"
Nathan's eyes flickered between Chad and the rapidly approaching ground.
"I don't suppose you happen to have a way out of this?" Nathan said.
Chad let out a laugh that sounded more like a cry.
"That's so funny, I was about to ask you the same thing!"
Nathan looked back toward the ground. Man, that street just got closer every time he looked.
"I want you to know that I blame you for this," Chad said.
Nathan stared at him incredulously. “Why!?”
"BECAUSE THESE THINGS NEVER HAPPEN WHEN I'M ON MY OWN!"
Nathan glared at Chad. He elected not to respond and looked back down. They had 10 seconds, maybe 20.
Plenty of time to figure out a solution.
I just want to go back to my farming games…