That night, Artyom dreamed of Cesen. The man he’d once called a friend who had betrayed him and everything they stood for in a desperate bid to hold all of the cards of his fate. It was funny how spectacularly it backfired, but only in a cosmic sense. For Artyom, it just hurt. He dreamed of Neitra standing in the place of that man, one stopgap chosen hero substituted for another. The two of them walked side by side into the Spymaster’s chapel, ready to face whatever threat was inside. Despite Artyom knowing he should not wholly trust the woman next to him, as she wielded the incredible power of the god of death himself, he felt no fear. His heart was filled with nothing but confidence in her, even as she-
Artyom opened his eyes wide, awoken by the triggering of his wards. He violently tossed off his sheets and jumped out of bed, casting his suite of combat spells and adopting a defensive stance.
“Neitra, we’ve got visitors! Get up!” he shouted at the rogue, who quickly followed suit, pulling out a dagger from beneath her pillow and holding it in a reverse grip.
“Woah, woah! It’s just me!” came a familiar sounding frantic whisper from the shadows. Rugul appeared from the same spot he did the day before, making sure to keep his distance from the armed duo.
“And what do we owe to the sudden intrusion?” asked Artyom in a drawl, his voice not yet caught up to the fact adrenaline was racing through his veins. “Is something wrong?”
“Regrettably, yes,” replied Rugul, slowly approaching the two and taking a seat in an empty chair. “Something’s happened to spook the Spymaster, and he’s completely changed his plans. The old visitor schedule is no longer in effect and you can’t use your old false identities to sneak in to visit him anymore.”
“Seriously?!” asked Artyom, in mild shock. “And after all of that preparation. Was it you who triggered him? Any chance you can edit the list again?”
“It definitely wasn’t me, apparently something happened on this side of the border. And as for modifying the list a second time? I don’t know, he’s completely changing the protocol,” replied Rugul, a hint of worry in his voice. “It’ll take some time for me to figure out what it is, since they all think I’m dead and I can’t just ask for the info. I’ve never seen him on edge like this before, something is going on.”
“I was hoping we wouldn’t have to start looking for jobs…” lamented Neitra.
“Hold on,” interrupted Artyom. “If the Spymaster’s getting more paranoid, then that means it’ll only be harder for us to get at him once he’s reorganized his security. Our best chance to get at him is now, when he’s still in the middle of managing the chaos.”
“But Rugul said the Spymaster has a large portion of the army and assassins guarding wherever he’s working out of, and without the right crests, we won’t be able to make it past them,” reminded Neitra. “We’d need a way to get past them first, and even if we did have one, the Spymaster would run off with all of the noise we would make right outside of his front door.”
“That’s correct,” replied Rugul. “But the army is loyal to the Sworn Enemy first and foremost. If there was a big enough threat to him, they’d leave to defend their real boss without making a noticeable fuss.”
“Ok, so how do we threaten the Sworn Enemy?” asked Neitra. “Ironheart Fortress’ army isn’t strong enough to even get near the front gates, let alone actually take on the elite troops inside.”
Artyom simply turned around and walked towards the window.
“What are you doing, Artyom?” asked Neitra.
“Last time, I made a comment about the solution to our problem being on our doorstep, and there it was.”
“And you think the same thing will happen this time?” chuckled Rugul.
“Who knows? And even if it did, it still wouldn’t be the weirdest thing that’s happened to me in this World. And… yeah, that still isn’t the weirdest thing to happen, but it’s up there.”
“Wait, how can you rank it if…” noted Neitra, as she jolted from her position and briskly walked over to the window herself. She scanned the ground but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Just several civilians making their way through the streets.
“Because it just happened,” replied Artyom, turning around and charging for the door. “Be right back, I think I found our golden ticket!”
He threw on his shoes and ran out the door, with Neitra and Rugul on his tail. They barely kept up with him as he slid down the railings and darted out the inn’s entrance onto the streets. The two stragglers said nothing as Artyom ran through the dirt road until he was right behind an inconspicuously dressed young man the three of them had seen through the window. He didn’t seem to hear Artyom’s approach and continued to walk along nonchalantly.
“Psh, nothing personnel, kid,” whispered Artyom into the man’s ear.
He immediately froze in place, Neitra swearing she could feel the sudden jolt that must’ve gone through his back. He took a drawn-out breath through his nose and slowly parted his lips to whisper his response. “Coldsteel the Hedgeheg.”
Artyom sighed, a massive smile forming on his face as he shook his head. “You know Scout, we really need to come up with better code phrases,” he said at a normal volume. “This has got to be the stupidest one I’ve ever heard, and it’s not even that good of a reference!”
“We’d have better ones if you could actually remember them,” replied the man as he turned around. “And it’s about time we found you, Artyom! We’ve been through hell looking for you.”
“It’s good to see you too, Scout!” exclaimed Artyom, as the two embraced. “So you’re the one Gus sent to search for me? I honestly expected someone more specialized, you know, like an actual scout?”
“You flatter yourself, Artyom,” replied the man. “Gus sent the entire army to find you. I’m just part of the advanced squad sent to Ironheart Fortress, and it looks like Prithvi’s guess was correct yet again.”
“Wait, Prithvi’s here too?” asked Artyom, astonished.
“Yeah, I said Gus sent everyone. Apparently after you went missing, he disclosed all of the details on your secret mission and organized a full on trick-or-treat to get you back.”
“Really, Gus did all of that?” asked Artyom. “I must’ve scared him when my connection got cut off, and I’m glad I did. He has every reason to be frightened, and I needed that trick-or-treat three days ago.”
“Hey Artyom, who’s that?” asked Neitra, running up to the two, with Rugul electing to stay back in the shadows.
“This, Neitra, is one of the friends I was talking about!” exclaimed Artyom.
“And he’s going to help us defeat the Sworn Enemy?” she asked.
“Sworn Enemy?” asked Scout.
“She means the Dark Lord. His fortress isn’t too far from here, that’s why we chose this place to set ourselves up,” added Artyom.
“Yeah, that’s what Prithvi thought too, but why do you need to still go after him? We found you now and we can get you out of here! Let me call in the other members of Squad Charlie so we can get out of here.”
“What do you mean we’re leaving?!” exclaimed Artyom. “We’ve still got an absolute shitshow going on in this World! We’ve walked into something massive and the people of Earth are standing in the firing line!”
“Massive is exactly why we’re getting out of here,” replied Scout. “You won’t believe the trouble we’ve faced to find you, and the absolute horrors we’ve had to go up against. We used the fucking Eye of Balor, for Gods’ sake!”
“You too, then? Was it also a giant fucking snake with wings?”
“Nope, just some chick. Tried to seduce one of the members of Delta Squad to get close to the leadership, and when that failed, she just barged into our basecamp and started tearing the place up. Guns, artillery, none of it worked on her.”
“Yeah, that sounds like my experience too. Hey, let’s continue this indoors, I think we’re starting to get looks,” said Artyom, as he gazed around the street to make sure they weren’t being too conspicuous.
----------------------------------------
The members of Squad Charlie, along with Neitra and Artyom, stood around their hotel room. Rugul chose not to join them, instead deciding to wait outside away from the heavily armed and incredibly dangerous newcomers.
A tense air hung around the room, as several of the assault squad’s members kept guard at the door and window despite Artyom’s confidence in his wards. Still, he didn’t refuse the additional security. If anything, his time here had taught him to welcome every precaution available.
“Gus, we’ve found Artyom,” Scout said into his phone. “We’re sitting with him in a warded room at a local inn, but there seems to be a bit of a ‘problem’, so to say. I’ll let Artyom fill you in.”
“Gus, Scout here was telling me that you sent an army to find me and that you’ve all been through a lot. As flattering as that is and as grateful as I am, we can’t go back yet. We still have an Earther to rescue.”
“Artyom, as much as I’d agree with you, I don’t think I can,” replied Gus from the phone. “We’re not ready for a full trick-or-treat on this World yet, and that means coming back for Tommy only after we know we can actually take on the threats here.”
“And how long will that take?” asked Artyom, indignantly. “Months? Years?! By the time we come back with big enough guns, that fucking goddess is probably going to be done with her little playtoy, and who knows what she’ll do with him afterwards? She doesn’t seem like the kind of deity to give her tools a cushy retirement.”
“Artyom, listen to me,” said Gus in a cold, frail, monotonous tone. Underneath it, Artyom was sure every word he spoke hurt. “We are not ready for a prolonged war against a deity like this, not here, not yet. We need to retreat so we can fight another day.”
Artyom stayed silent, no words exiting his mouth. Some of the agents in the room looked around warily, and others wearily.
“He’s right, Artyom,” said Scout, in a melancholic tone. “A single one of their monsters did a lot of damage to us, we’re not ready for a war.” The other members of Squad Charlie nodded along, remembering the events they’d witnessed the day before with Lyseris.
“You know what, Gus?” Artyom finally replied as inhaled sharply. “Fuck you.”
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“Artyom, saying that won’t-”
“No Gus, you’ve changed, all of you,” Artyom said harshly, now looking around the room at the TOAL agents present. “You can all fuck yourselves!” shouted Artyom, the veins on his forehead beginning to throb.
Everyone remained silent at the sudden outburst. They didn’t know what to say. There was nothing to say.
“I created TOAL with the rest of the council so we could stop what happened to us from happening to others. Getting kidnapped from your home and thrown into a war or other shitshow you didn’t sign up for was the worst thing that happened to me. To us. To most of you! If you took me home right now without Tommy, you’d all be hypocrites.” he motioned towards the others present.
They remained silent, looking at him with heavy eyes.
“And now, when a couple of scary monsters show up and you’re worried your guns aren’t big enough, you want to turn tail and run away?! You were all summoned by the portal to be heroes who fought for righteousness, against all odds! You all certainly don’t look like heroes right now, let me tell you that. If you wanted a cushy retirement, you could’ve had it, but you all joined the Terran Defense Force because you weren’t done fighting the good fight!”
Everyone continued to remain silent, processing his words. By now, they all looked at him with rapt attention, none of it accompanied with pleasant feelings.
Artyom himself looked back at them, and continued with a newfound surge of emotion. “Right now, there’s a little boy who has lived twenty years here being groomed by this so-called goddess, and he’s still being led on a wild goose chase for whatever sinister shit she has planned. This is our last chance to do our duty and rescue him.”
“We can’t just throw our lives away by running into danger!” interrupted Scout. “You haven’t seen what Tommy’s entourage is capable of, what they did to Mahmood. We’d get ourselves killed against them in a direct fight!”
“Who said we have to get in their faces?” asked Artyom, his voice turning more confident. “When TOAL was still new, I had to scrounge my way through rescue missions using whatever resources I could find, and any clever, roundabout tricks I could come up with. I really hate to sound like a crotchety old man, but what you’re all saying right now about us being up against a meat grinder is disappointing. Have any of you thought about disassembling the meat grinder? We just need to get Tommy out of here and give the goddess a reason to not summon someone to take his place to win here today.”
“I’m sure you’ve seen it for yourself, Artyom, but Tommy is under constant watch by his four other party members,” said Gus, very slowly, carefully modulating his tone. “The slightest sign of interference will lead them to taking a full offensive. One that we can’t fight against easily when they’re on guard.”
“Gus, you really need to get some sleep or a vacation, I’m surprised you haven’t thought of this yourself yet.”
“After scrambling the entire army to find your sorry ass, I think I do,” slowly replied Gus, heavily intoning the end of each word in his sentence.
“And after doing all of that,” aggressively replied Artyom, pausing halfway to take a deep breath before continuing in a soft voice. “You absolutely deserve it, you’ve saved my life.”
Gus audibly exhaled through the phone. “You’re welcome, Artyom. I’m just glad you’re safe, we all are. And we just want to get you out of this shitshow I threw you into.”
“I know, Gus. You’re a good friend,” said Artyom with a melancholic smile. He turned to face the others in the room once more. “You all are.”
“Alright then Artyom,” said Gus, after a short pause. “So what are you planning to do to get our Earther without jumping into a meat grinder? Please, elucidate our adrenaline and stress-addled minds.”
“We just need to throw a monkey wrench into their plans,” replied Artyom. “This so-called goddess touts herself as the deity of order, so let’s give her a taste of chaos! Tommy’s entire ‘quest’ has been all about getting prepared to fight and defeat the Dark Lord, and any time I’ve gotten in the way of that, she’s reacted drastically. We just need to give the goddess a reason to speed it up. I’ve seen her be very flexible with how she does things.”
“So have we,” added Scout. “She got Tommy to head to Crystal Kobold Crossing a second time, and that’s where we ran into him and his party.”
“Right,” continued Artyom. “So I say, let’s see what she does when we beat Tommy to the punch. The Dark Lord’s castle is right across the border from here, so let’s head on over and take him out! The Kingdom’s army is already fighting, we just help them out a little to turn the tide of the war, and they do the rest! I bet she’ll send the hero here as quickly as possible to salvage the situation, and in all of the chaos of him clamoring to fight, we grab him and get out of here!”
“I see…” replied Gus, his voice now sounding more analytical than emotional. “I’ve read up on the current political situation there. The kingdom’s army has been at a stalemate with the Dark Lord’s forces for years, so we should be able to push the balance and make them win.”
“Exactly! And in the ensuing chaos, we stealth in, grab Tommy, and portal him back to TOAL. The army can finish off the Dark Lord on their own at that point.” Artyom glanced at Neitra, who returned a confident smile.
“We’d be playing a risky game here, Artyom,” said Gus as worriedly as his monotone voice could sound. “What if she doesn’t send Tommy? Or if there’s another monster waiting at the Dark Lord’s fortress that’ll tear everyone to shreds?”
“We’ve already left our mark here, Gus,” replied Artyom. “Even if we’re gone for a few weeks or a month, the goddess will be ready to take us on the next time we show up. This is our only chance to hit her hard and get what we want. And if there is another monster, we just fire up the Eye again. We’ve read her book, and there’s honestly nothing more fearsome in there than what we’ve each faced so far. And she seems like the egotistical type who brags about everything she can.”
The line was silent for several tense moments. “You make a fair point, Artyom. Maybe we’ve been growing soft in recent years and have gotten used to just expecting raw firepower to solve our problems?”
Artyom took a deep breath and exhaled. “I’m glad you understand-”
“Don’t get me wrong,” interrupted Gus. “We’re not making any actual decisions on continuing the campaign until you’ve given us a full debrief and we’ve figured out a low-risk plan of attack. Scout, get a meeting room ready in the town you’re all in, I’m sending Prithvi and Captain Michaels over there now.”
“Will do, Gus,” replied Scout, as the call disconnected.
---
In an empty warehouse on the outskirts of the mercantile district sat several members of TOAL, along with Neitra, around a cheap folding table covered in cups of water and an open phone. Several armed guards stood watch around each entrance, be it a door or window. The entire building was warded against any sound escaping and to detect anyone approaching. The place truly was secure.
“I can’t believe this is finally happening!” Artyom exclaimed giddily. “I expected this either a week ago, or a week later, but TOAL always seems to be full of surprises!”
“I’d say it’s this World and Gus who are full of surprises,” replied Captain Michaels. “We didn’t expect the threat level here to be so high or for Gus to declassify everything about your secret mission the moment you went missing.”
“Aww Gus, you really are growing soft!” teased Artyom.
“No, I was just feeling guilty,” he replied from the phone, monotonous voice still audible despite the static. “I should’ve sent help earlier, but everyone was already deployed elsewhere so I made a call I hoped I wouldn’t regret.”
The TOAL agents who surrounded the phone looked on in surprise at Gus’ unexpected sincerity. Artyom was the first to break the silence.
“Well, you made the right call. Protecting kids from Earth takes priority, after all.”
Prithvi, sitting across from Artyom, sighed. “You two are very sweet, but we do have a mission to plan. So let’s start by comparing notes, what do each of us know? To start, Artyom, could you please tell us who this is?” she asked, gesturing towards Neitra.
“This is Neitra, and she’s one of our two allies,” replied Artyom in a level demeanor. “She’s helped me fight for my life on more than one occasion, and she’s just as interested in seeing the goddess’ downfall here as much as the rest of us. On top of that, she was a member of Tommy’s party just up until a few days ago, so she has relatively intimate knowledge of our extraction target. She’s also my friend.”
Neitra smiled warmly. “And don’t forget the Dark Lord’s downfall too,” she quickly added. “The Kingdom has suffered enough, and Artyom promised that you’d take him down as well.”
“I said that he’d be a near-definite casualty of our war,” replied Artyom, defensively raising his hands. “But taking out the goddess’ most powerful mortal tool would do us well in the long-term.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you then, Neitra,” said Prithvi, extending a hand to the girl to shake, which she accepted. After letting go and letting Captain Michaels have a turn, she continued. “And who is this second ally?”
“Rugul, an assassin who used to work for the Dark Lord’s Spymaster. He was essentially burned and considered a dead man when I caught him, so I decided to offer him a new opportunity of employment with me. The heavily-binding employment contract I called our lawyers about is the biggest reason I put my faith in him, but I’d say he’s proven himself beyond that for the most part. He ran off when we met up with Squad Charlie, but he probably followed Neitra and I here and is keeping an eye on the place from a distance.”
“Oh, so that’s who that is!” chortled Captain Michaels. “Our scanners already picked him up and some of Charlie’s members have him in their sights. And some of them down their scopes!”
Artyom whistled in admiration. “Impressive! And it looks like he’s the one getting ambushed this time, shows him right for spooking me down in no man’s land.”
“He only did that because you’d always catch him sneaking,” replied Neitra. “I think he just wants to show he’s useful too.”
“And he is useful!” exclaimed Artyom. He sighed and finally let out the honest truth. “I just like messing with him.”
“Alright, back to exchanging notes. So we both know that the goddess of this World is definitely evil and the one who summoned our Earther in the first place,” said Prithvi, summing up their common knowledge. “But we’re not here to fight a war with her, at least not today. Our main objective is an extraction, which Gus says involves staging an attack on the Dark Lord?”
“That’s right,” replied Artyom. He detailed his plan of assisting Ironheart Fortress’ army and grabbing Tommy when he was hopefully sent there to fulfil his “destiny” in the ensuing chaos. “But there’s one more thing I forgot to mention. The Dark Lord doesn’t seem to be the direct point of contact for the goddess on his side of the conflict, it’s the Spymaster. He’s apparently pretty paranoid, so getting a meeting with him isn’t easy, but I’ve already set up a plan to do so. And it’s for today.”
“Of course it is,” sighed Prithvi. “And I’m guessing there’s a reason why you were gunning for him beyond the general curiosity about our enemy?”
“If anyone knows where the source of what went wrong with my phone is, it’d be him,” replied Artyom. “I calculated the source of whatever that disturbance was to the Dark Lord’s fortress, so he would be my ‘tour guide’ there, so to say.”
“So you’d be able to destroy it and reach out to us for an extraction,” said Prithvi, concluding his sentiment. “We’ve also been facing disturbances with our comms, albeit minor compared to you, which probably has the same cause. But with us here now and ready to leave, all this Spymaster serves is as a general source of intelligence. With such a focused mission, such a less-urgent priority should take a back seat.”
“But there’s also the issue of the long-term war we’re going to be waging,” replied Gus.
“Speaking of a long-term war, there’s one other bit of information I forgot to give you all,” said Artyom.
“Just like you to save the best for last, huh?” asked Captain Michaels.
“You know me so well! Anyway, the goddess here apparently has a name that she doesn’t fancy to use much. Does ‘Alivaine’ sound familiar to any of you?”
The two agents sitting across from him froze, and Gus went completely silent on the other end of his line. It took several moments for them to process the shock, but Gus was the first to break through it.
“Motherfucker!” The distant scream echoed from the other side of the line.
Prithvi and Sergeant Mike stared at the phone in shock at his sudden, completely uncharacteristic outburst. In their entire times at TOAL, they’d never heard him show even a hint of outward emotion. Today, they saw the facade crumble and the true fear underneath.
“Artyom,” began Gus, trying and failing to reclaim his composure. “Non-Earth deities don’t just appear in multiple Worlds. Especially not when each instance of them has been responsible for Earther summonings. You were going to interrogate the Spymaster for information on this goddess, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right!” exclaimed Neitra, entering the conversation completely oblivious to everyone’s severity. “I’m guessing you’re on board with the idea?”
“Absolutely,” replied Gus. “We need as much intel on her as we can get if we’re going to be facing the worst-case scenario. Pray that we won’t, but I’m not going to be taking any risks here, and neither should any of you. If you have to, bag the guy and get him out of there. We can take him somewhere he won’t have any of his magic or levels.”
“Alright, so the original plan is still on,” said Artyom. “Now-”
“Hold on, Artyom,” interrupted Gus. “Before we continue, you’re going to tell us everything you know about this place and this goddess.”
“That’s fair,” replied Artyom. He spent the next half an hour detailing everything that had happened to him since he’d arrived in this World, from meeting with Sae and his party, to the book on the old pantheon, and finally the Yamastra. The others nodded along and absorbed every little detail, not daring to let even the smallest bombshell hidden within to pass them by. Once he was done and the others were satisfied, Artyom shifted back to the plan of attack.
“Now this is where you all come in. The Spymaster is positioned inside the chapel at the Dark Lord’s fortress today, and that’s where we’re going to pay him a visit. The problem is, our original ticket past his guards is no longer valid, and we need a big enough distraction to draw away the bulk of them. I’ve been led to believe that the only diversion big enough would be Ironheart Fortress’ army showing up at their front gates, and for them to do that, they need our help.”
“I have good news then,” crackled Gus’ voice through the phone. “Squad Foxtrot’s artillery team has recovered from their last mission and are ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.”
“Gus, you’re a lifesaver, you know that?!” exclaimed Artyom. “We can lead them alongside the Ironheart Fortress army and get them to the front gates without a problem. Can I expect Echo or Charlie to stay in the back and pull out the Eye of Balor if another big beastie shows up?”
“Echo’s still trailing Tommy, so we’ll put Charlie in the rear,” said Prithvi. “Though they’re supposed to raid buildings and enclosed spaces, so I don’t know how effective they’ll be out in the open.”
“They just need to handle the Eye for anything really bad, not shoot at the army,” replied Artyom.
“Hold on,” interrupted Neitra. The others turned to look at her. “If they’re good at fighting in buildings, could you have them try and take out the Dark Lord?”
“We could, but it’ll have to wait until we’re done with our other objectives,” replied Prithvi. “It’s the risk of the Dark Lord getting killed early we’re banking on to get Tommy sent over here. Killing him would just make the goddess throw out all of her plans, and that could include killing Tommy and the rest of us if she can.”
“Oh,” replied Neitra, downtrodden. “But afterwards? Couldn’t you kill the Dark Lord once you get Tommy? He is working with the goddess, and taking him out would remove her biggest reason for summoning someone new!”
“You know,” chimed in Captain Michaels. “She has a point there.”
Prithvi sighed again. “She does, and if he isn’t dead by the time we’re ready to leave, we’ll put a bullet in his head. Priority still lies in getting this Tommy out of here alive, and capturing the Spymaster for interrogation.”
Neitra nodded in satisfaction.
“So now onto the last two questions,” began Captain Michaels. “Who’s going to be leading who, and when are we going to strike?”
“Well, the army isn’t going to start its attack until this afternoon, which gives us a few hours to get into place,” replied Artyom. “And I was thinking you could continue to lead our troops here.”
“Really?” asked Captain Michaels incredulously. “I was sure you’d be taking over for me.”
“I thought of doing so at first, but our job is to get Ironheart Fortress’ army to the Dark Lord’s front door in one piece, so I plan to help lead their charge. Besides, they’ll need someone with a level head to tell them what to do when the artillery starts dropping.”
“You make a good point,” replied the captain. “So be it then, Prithvi and I will get Foxtrot up to speed and meet you out in no man’s land. Charlie will be following along with the Eye, and we’ll stay in close contact with Echo to see if our Earther starts moving. Anything else?”
The other three shook their heads.
“Alright people, let’s kick some ass and save some lives!”