I burst through the temple’s doors out onto the busy streets of Coldharbour. I didn’t stop to look how many were following me, but I heard at least two pairs of footsteps following me.

‘Styk!’ Raelas cried. ‘Wait!’

I didn’t wait. The best thing for me right now was to get out of this situation as fast as possible. The less time I gave the cultists to see my face, the less chance there would be of them remembering me when the time came. But I knew in my heart of hearts that much of the damage was done; word would spread quickly that there was already someone with Player blood here in town.

‘Styk!’ another voice cried. Lore’s. ‘There’s nobody following!’

I came to an abrupt halt and looked around. He was right; there was only the pair of them there, Corminar apparently still inside. Was I really that arrogant that I thought the cultists would chase me just because of what Lillya said? I was only the spawn of a Player, after all. Surely that was different.

‘...Oh,’ I said.

Then a dozen cultists burst forth from the temple. Lillya scanned the street and then, seeing me—in my not-very-camouflaged orange robe—pointed. ‘He there!’

‘Oh,’ I said again.

‘OK,’ Lore said. ‘My bad.’

The three of us turned and ran.

‘What’s going on?’ Raelas shouted as we weaved through the crowds. ‘Are they trying to kill you?’

‘No, worse!’ I cried back.

‘What’s worse than that?!’

‘They’re trying to worship me!’

As a gap appeared in the crowds before me, I opened a portal for the three of us to hop through, which brought us stumbling out a good way down the street—but not out of sight of my pursuers.

‘Is that… bad?’ Raelas asked.

‘It is when your whole plan depends on being invisible!’

‘Fair point.’

I collided with someone as they stepped out of a shop, spilling the pile of fruit they’d been clutching in their arms. ‘Sorry!’ I shouted back, then opened another portal. I risked a glance back at the cultists as I did so, and noticed one of them gaining on me—a small tiefling woman who seemed able to move faster than anyone I’d seen before. The crowds were no obstacle either, as whenever she found her path blocked, she blinked out of sight and then reappeared at their other side—a magick not entirely dissimilar to my portals.

I leaped through my portal, followed by Raelas and then Lore, and then the big guy suddenly cried out, clutching his head.

Another vision.

‘Lore, come on!’ I said, trying to yank him forward. ‘Now’s not the time.’

‘I can’t control it!’

Raelas appeared at my side, trying to tear me away. ‘Styk…’

‘I see… I see…’ Lore snapped his head up at me, and I saw his eyes glowing yellow. ‘If we go after Yusef, Alenna will die.’

I stared back at him for a moment, before catching sight of the fast tiefling behind him. ‘We’ll talk about this later—we gotta go!’

‘They’re not after him!’ Raelas said. ‘They’re after you; leave him behind.’

I didn’t like the phrasing of “leave him behind”—especially not when he was seeing his friend die—but she had a point. I let go of Lore’s arm, then turned and ran, pushing through the crowds. Raelas and I knocked an old couple to the ground by accident, and I hissed in embarrassment. I took some solace in the fact that everyone around would look at our robes and think the Cult of Ascendancy was responsible; they deserved that and far, far worse.

‘So it’s true?’ Raelas asked between breaths. ‘You actually have Player blood in you?’

‘Well don’t go announcing it to everyone!’

‘No, it’s just… you didn’t tell me!’

I darted around a corner, hoping that we’d done so without our pursuers noticing. But we weren’t that lucky. ‘And why would I have?’

‘Well, I thought—’

‘Don’t pretend you’re telling me stuff! Or are we really saying you, Carle and Ama are here just for what we’re paying you?’

Raelas remained suspiciously quiet on this point.

The alley ahead of us grew narrower and narrower, and at its very end, I saw a flash of orange. The same shade of orange as my robes.

‘There!’ a familiar voice shouted again, and I realised turning had been a bad idea; Lillya and a few of the other cultists had circled around to cut me off. Presumably they knew these winding streets far better than I did. I stumbled to a halt, then turned to run back the way we’d come, only to see the tiefling cultists appearing from that side.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

‘What do we do? Fight?’ Raelas asked.

‘That’s about the only thing that’ll get me even more well known,’ I replied, then back against one of the two walls, placing my hands against it.

Raelas saw what I was doing, and then charged at and collided with me just as I opened the portal. We fell through it together, straight into the building’s living space. I stumbled backwards over a low table, and saw a young tiefling child staring back at me, nibbling on a piece of vegetable.

‘Cult?’ he asked.

‘Eat your vegetables and don’t tell your parents I was here,’ I replied, before opening another portal that would take me, Raelas and the low table out onto the street on the other side of the building.

‘You’d make a good dad,’ Raelas said.

‘Don’t get any ideas.’ I stumbled back to my feet and cast my head around. Both ends of this streets were clear of cultists—at least of any who were chasing me, though there seemed to be more around than usual—and so I picked a direction at random.

Raelas and I charged down the alleyway towards the next junction… just as the tiefling appeared from the turning to the right. Instead of stopping and going the other way, I instinctively pushed my hands forward and opened a portal in front of us. Raelas and I sprinted through, appearing some way down the street, but I had no doubt that the cultists were still on our tail.

‘I can’t shake them!’ I shouted. ‘They’re a stubborn bunch of—’

‘Wait, what about your saved portals?’ Raelas asked.

‘...Oh yeah.’ I threw my hands forward once more and opened yet another portal, which Raelas leaped through, to spill out onto the steps of the busy central plaza.

8x Cultists of Ascendancy escaped!

Worldbending — +2,650xp

Worldbending increased to level 57!

Base Points gained — +2 INT, +2 Free Points (INT/WIS/CHA)

Once the portal was closed behind me—and once I’d checked that none of those following us had squeezed through—I dusted myself down and breathed a sigh of relief. ‘It’s kinda weird that they pretend they’re not in a cult when the notifications literally say that they are,’ I mumbled, causing Raelas to shrug.

‘Couldn’t you have thought of this earlier?’ the tiefling asked. ‘My stamina reserves are…’ She trailed off.

‘Well, that’s the thing about having so many abilities; you forget you have some of them.’

‘Err,’ Raelas started.

‘What? Really? You don’t? Cos I’m not practised enough in—’

The tiefling tugged me gently on the shoulder. ‘Styk?’

‘Yeah?’ I asked, looking up at her.

Raelas’s eyes were fixed on something in the centre of the plaza, so I followed her line of sight.

I’d known the plaza was busy. What I hadn’t realised was that it was far more busy than normal. And those extra people? So many of them were wearing the same pale orange robes as us. They stood not disorganised, but in an almost uniform formation, in circles around something in the centre of the plaza.

No, I realised. Not something. Someone.

Stood atop a makeshift stage was a face I’d never seen before, but recognised instantly. I saw on their face the confidence of a god, I heard in their booming voice the unabashed sense of power. Before me, I saw a Player.

While we’d been preparing for the battle ahead, Yusef had already arrived.

"Styk"

Level 19 Bladespinner

Base Stats:

Vitality — 50

Intelligence — 212

Dexterity — 125

Strength — 78

Wisdom — 74

Charisma — 49

Skills:

Worldbending — Level 57

Knifework — Level 41

Stealth — Level 25

Identification — Level 18

Needlework — Level 18

Abilities:

Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.

Execution III — Attack a target while undetected for +300% damage.

Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.

Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.

Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].

Enhanced Portals — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a thirty yard radius. Support up to two pairs of portals at once. Uses mana to open portals only.

Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.

Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.

Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.

Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.

Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.

Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.

Silence III — Create a bubble of 20 yard radius in which sound is eradicated. Uses mana to cast, zero mana to maintain. You may only have one bubble active at any one time.

Saved Portals II — Select a location to “save” for future portals. Until your save point is moved, you may always open a portal here, even if it is beyond your current Local Portal range. Mana is used only upon opening the portal.

Stealth Attack III — Passive. 200% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.

In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].

Gentle Step — Passive. Your footsteps are dampened on even the hardest of surfaces. Reduce noise of movement by 80%.

Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].

Improved Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of significantly higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.

Active Effects:

Legacy of Sisyphus:

XP gain increased by +1,400%