I ran full charge at Robot Steve, Funk, and Lorraine ran beside me, as we came closer, they split up to the left and to the right. I swung my sword down at him, and he blocked it in time. We started trading blows, he smiled at me, “What is it, are your friends too chicken to face me?”
I smiled back, “You seem like a failed experiment to me.”
He grunted in anger, “How dare you call me that?” As he infused his sword with purple energy, I jumped back to dodge it. Suddenly, he got stabbed in the back with two dark blades. As Robot Steve turned around to attack Funk. I came closer and stabbed him in the back as well.
He grunted in pain, “Goddammit, that is just cheating.” He threw an energy wave at Funk and I saw him roll over the ground, I jumped back as Robot Steve looked at me.
Before he could attack, I ran away to an alleyway, he started chasing me and I saw an intersection in front of me. I slid through the intersection, but Robot Steve kept running. Suddenly, two swords came around the corner and hacked into his metal rib cage, I could hear a splinter break off.
He looked at Lorraine, she smiled, “Surprise motherfucker.”
Robot Steve swung his sword at her, “You are going to regret that!” Lorraine blocked the incoming blow. I sent an energy wave with my two blades to distract him, Robot Steve made a void wall with one hand, while blocking blows from Lorraine with his other hand. Suddenly, an arrow soared through the sky, and it flew true as it hit the back of his head and went through his head, and came out of the front of his right eye.
Abby chuckled, “Take that fucker.”
Robot Steve jumped back and swayed aside as Funk tried to stab him, he used his elbow to hit Funk in the face, who fell backwards. Robot Steve pulled out the arrow and blood dripped to the ground, he started laughing, like a true villain. “You even managed to hurt me, I cannot believe it.”
He threw the arrow to the ground, his void arm started to bulk up. “Yeah, Lorraine, we are not waiting for that.” She nodded and we charged at him. Both of us swung our sword at him, he tried to block our swords with his left arm, but we hacked deep into his arm and blood flew everywhere.
Robot Steve gasped, “Something is wrong.” Another arrow flew through the air, he stopped it with an energy wall, Robot Steve jumped back, “Why is it not working? Did I spend so much energy? Did the void take so much, or was it the grand council?”
I shook my head, “What are you blabbering about?”
Funk slowly got up, he spit blood on the ground. “What he is saying, is that he is trying to power-up, but it is not working, while he is bleeding, I say, we go to the library.”
We started walking away, but an ethereal arm grabbed me by my waist and I got pulled towards Robot Steve, he laughed, “I am not allowed to kill you, yet, but I can hurt you.”
I had my left arm free, however my sword had dropped to the ground, I grabbed one of his ribs, “Didn’t Lorraine hurt this one?”
He looked at it, “What do you mean?” With a lot of energy I cracked his rib, oil, and blood spurted out. Robot Steve fell down on his knees and I felt Lorraine catch me and pull me up. “Let’s go Steve.”
We ran towards the street, Funk pointed somewhere, “I saw a teleporter crystal over there.”
All of us nodded and followed him, when I looked over my shoulder, I saw Robot Steve slowly following us. He spit oil on the ground, he chuckled, and I could see him mouth, “Just wait until I power up.”
As we ran through the streets, we saw a red crystal, Funk touched it and disappeared. Abby landed with a heavy impact, but Square did not move, he wiggled a bit. She smiled and touched the crystal. Lorraine and I quickly followed. After a flash of light, I saw a gigantic library. The bookcases were almost three times our size, there were so many books. Chandeliers lit up the library. Most of the things were made of gold. The smell of books filled the air.
Abby looked at me, “Who was that man?”
“Who, Robot Steve? I have no clue. However, he is not planning on dying anytime soon.”
Lorraine sighed, “We got lucky, he tried to power-up, but something went wrong.”
Funk nodded, “I think he is not equipped to handle the void.”
Lorraine looked at him, “And what does that mean?”
Funk smiled, “What do you think? He is being sapped dry until he becomes a pile of ashes.”
I walked over to Funk, “Are you alright? You took quite a beating.”
He smiled, “I am fine, I can handle some pain.”
I walked over to Abby, I poked Square. He felt real, it suddenly gobbled at me. Abby looked at me, “Are you done messing around with Square?”
“No, how can he be real? And why is it compliant?”
Abby shrugged, “We just, have a connection, right Square?” It gobbled back at her.
“I am just, very weirded out about this.”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Abby looked at Lorraine, “And you are shagging a woman with a tail, which weirds me out.”
I looked at Lorraine, “Is it just the tail, or also the ears?”
Abby giggled, “Also the ears, does she have a lot of fur?”
“Yes, she does. But she is very human, just like us.”
Abby sighed, “If you say so.”
Lorraine looked at me, “Were you talking about me?”
I gave her a thumbs up, “I told Abby you are a lot like a human, and that her pet freaks me out.”
Lorraine chuckled, “Her pet freaks me out too.”
Funk nodded, “Yep, I say we throw it into the abyss.” Square got up and tried to fly towards Funk and pecked him, he did not dare to attack Abby’s pet. “Get it away from me!”
Abby whistled and Square came back to her.
I shook my head, “We should try to see if we can find any information on the void. There must be something in these books.”
Lorraine laughed, “If you have not noticed, my dear, most of these books are fake.”
“What!?”
She picked up a book and opened it, it was completely blank, I sighed, “Are you telling me, we need to find a real book, somewhere amidst all these fake books?”
She nodded. Abby grabbed a book, “We should get started then.”
Funk walked over to another bookcase, “I am taking this one.”
Abby and I ended up checking books together, I looked at her, “Are you certain that you are fine?”
She looked at me while throwing another book away, “Yes, why do you ask?”
“I just want to make sure. You have been a bit withdrawn since we got to this reality. And the incident with the mushrooms, the dinosaur, and the spiders. A lot has happened already. Not to forget about getting tortured.”
Abby sighed, “Yes, I have been in pain, and I guess I still am. I hoped we would end up having a thing, you don’t realize how lucky you are.”
“What do you mean, Abby? About not realizing how lucky I am?”
Abby looked at me as she kept throwing books away. “You have quite some people lined up that are interested in you, call it charm, charisma, luck, but I think it is how you smell. I don’t care, give it a name. You have me, we have spent quite some time together, but I understand now, you see me as a good friend. I will stick around you, but if my path leads to a different path, I will take it. Seeing as we are not an item, and I hope you can accept that. Next you have Alice, I don’t know what her deal is, but it is clear she wants you. You could have given her some attention and something would have bloomed. That are two ladies down that you did not pick.”
“Then we have Lorraine over there,” we both looked at her. “You wanted her for a booty call, but something happened, right?”
I nodded, “Yeah, this weird fluttery feeling.”
Abby smiled, “That is called falling in love, idiot. You gave her a lot of attention, from my point of view, you two evolved quite organically on a fast track lane. I guess adventuring will do that to you. She changed you, and you barely noticed it. She pulled out that Steve from before I met you, the person I have been trying to bring out of you.”
I shed a tear, “I guess, you are right, she even listens to me, I told her my deepest and darkest secrets, and did you know what she did?”
Abby smiled, “She rocked the ambulance.”
I chuckled, “Well, I wanted to say, she was there for me and understood me. And then we rocked the ambulance.”
Abby laughed, “I am getting tired of throwing books.”
I called out, “Lorraine!?”
“Yes?”
“Did you find something yet?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Empty books.”
I sighed, “That wasn’t very helpful. Funk!?”
Abby looked at me, “Maybe he is out of hearing range.”
I walked to the middle of the path. “Funk?” Still no answer. I started looking into the different rows with book cases. “Hello?” “Funk?” When I looked into one of the last rows, I saw Funk. With a fire.
He looked at me, “Sorry for this.” He lit up a book and threw it on the ground.
I gasped, “Don’t tell me that was the book we were looking for.”
He nodded, “It was. It is called the great reset, I read it, and I burned it.”
“Why would you burn it?”
He looked at the ground, “You could not read that.”
“But, we needed the information in that book to fight the void.”
Funk shrugged, “We just need to kill Robot Steve.”
Abby walked over, “What is going on?”
“Funk burned the book we needed.”
Lorraine walked over, “What did he just do?”
Funk looked at us, “It contained information that Steve cannot read.”
“Why?”
Funk shook his head, “I will keep it simple. Robot Steve created this reality, he fought the void, he lost. Then he reset time, he kept trying, then he killed his girlfriend. Huzzah, the void got stopped. And now the void is back.”
I hung my head, “It would have helped if we could have read it.” Is Funk just with us to sabotage us? He seems to know more things, Abby and Lorraine too. But Funk, he as almost all the answers, I am sure of it, but then why would he burn this book?
The voice in my head answered my thoughts, “That was for your own sake, I have to admit it was a nice trap.”
“What does he mean, trap?”
I walked over to the burning pile and threw over some water. Carefully, I tried picking up some pages, I saw letters, is that an W, or maybe an M? The information within had been destroyed, and even the last few letters faded.