Radical-9

CHAPTER 14: The Convergence of the Twain

February 24^th, 2022

4:38 am

My eyes open, I hear something outside. My body aches for more rest, but then I hear the sound again. It is almost like a shuffling outside of my door. Athena, Klein, and I all rented out separate rooms. This place isn't so bad, it's better than the inn back in Novus Dandé. This town's named weird like it too, it's called Novus Callus.

Hell if I know what that means.

I swing my legs over the side of the bed, yawning in a deep breath as I stand up. I'm not going to get any sleep if I keep thinking there's something outside of my door. I open the door and stick my head outside, a figure jolts just out of sight down the stairs. I step out to follow, just why did that person feel as if they needed to split so quick? Maybe it's because they noticed I was coming to the door?

I make it to the stairs and then I feel a tap on my shoulder, I turn and I see a nerdy looking guy standing behind me, the coat he's wearing looks like the one I saw bolting down the stairs. His face looks like it's stretched out way too far, his smile reaches past his ears.

“A-Are you the black swordsman?!” He nearly screams.

“What?” I ask, stepping back a little. I'm getting a weird vibe from this guy.

He notices me and then shakes his head, “I'm sorry! Didn't mean to weird you out, it's just...oh, you are, aren't you? Holy crap this is so awesome!” He says, practically squeals.

“Okay, hold on, let's take this a step back for a moment, who is it you think I am?” I ask.

“The black swordsman! The one clad in the black coat who took down Eldon, the beta tester! You're famous in here!”

“Oh...” I say, not knowing what else to say. “And...you were out here?” I ask.

“Oh, sorry again! I heard you were staying here and I just to find out if that was true!” He says, his fire back.

“Well, you did. I'm really sorry, but it's been a really long day, and I was kind of sleeping,” I say, stepping back up and past him.

“Oh, I'm sorry! I couldn't help it. It's just that you're working so hard to save us from impending doom, I just had to meet you to thank you! My username is WombRaider! Funny, right? But you can call me Ben, it's much easier to say in public!” He shouts and then laughs, nearly jumping up and down.

“Uh, well, it's...clever. And it's nothing really. I'm no different than you-” I say, but he interrupts.

“The savior of all of us small time players, he shall free us from Elysium! The Black Swordsman!”

Behind me I hear a door open, Athena looks out groggily, “What the hell is going on out here?”

“I've uh, got a fan,” I say, shrugging my shoulders.

“More than just a fan, because you're the-”

“The black swordsman, yeah, I heard you from in there,” Athena interrupts, clearly not in the mood.

The guy’s face shrivels up as if he’d just swallowed a lemon whole, “And who are you?”

Athena walks all the way out of the door and straight to the guy, staring him down. “I’m your marvelous hero’s girlfriend, that’s who I am. Back the fuck down,” and then returns to her room, slamming the door.

Girlfriend? Maybe she's just overtired and it slipped out.

I turn to see the guy's reaction, but he's gone. I've never been anybody's hero before, even if it was someone a little too excited for me to be. I step back into my room and close the door, falling to my bed and sleeping once more.

~...~

I feel something across my body as my eyes open next. I see Athena sleeping beside me, her arm is crossed over my chest. I don't know how I feel about this just yet. I move her arm, I see her eyes open slowly. She smiles as she looks at me, into me.

“I hope you don't mind me joining you,” she says.

“Well...”

“What is it?” She sits up.

“I was just thinking back to the Romeo and Juliet thing. I don't want to rush...”

“Right,” she begins. “I understand.”

“I like you, don't get me wrong, but Klein is right, we can't let it get to our heads. One screw up and we're dead,” I say.

She leans close to me and whispers, “At least let me have this...” and her lips meet mine.

We meet Klein outside of the inn, buildings of stone and cinder line the streets around us, there's a noticeable drop in the amount of players in this town compared to Novus Dandé, I guess it is because of the dungeon below that keeps some of the weaker players away.

“Hey, how'd you two sleep last night?” Klein asks.

“There was this annoying kid who woke me up, Dex's biggest fan,” Athena says.

“What?” He turns to me.

“Yeah, some guy who called me his hero, he was outside of our rooms in the inn,” I say.

“Jeez, that isn't creepy or anything,” he says.

“Yeah, tell me about it,” I say.

The wind starts picking up, it feels as if it were going to pick me up at any moment.

It feels nice to have a nice windy day, anything before seemed stagnant.

“My instinct is to scour this place for side quests, that's what I'd be doing in any other game,” Klein begins, looking up to the sky. “I almost have to keep reassuring myself that this isn't any other game.”

I look towards the giant clock tower overhead a few of the buildings. The hands move slowly and noisily. “You think maybe the pedestal will be around there?” I ask, nodding my head to the tower. Klein turns around.

“You mean the clock tower? It could be a possibility. It's centralized in the town, sort of important landmark, if it were anywhere I'd guess there,” he says.

“Hey, do you want to message Beth and see how they're doing? I'm worried,” Athena says.

“Yeah, sure,” I say.

“We can go see if my friend Oaken has his shop set up here, before we go to the pedestal, I mean. He's kind of a free spirit, so he tended to wander shop back in beta.”

“What makes you say that he'd be here, then?” Athena asks.

“He messaged me last night, saw I entered the floor and said he'd be around until three. Thing is, I don't know if he means his three or the game's three, because I know they're both different,” he says.

“Yeah, this place is off a little bit from where I live,” I say.

“The server must've originally been coded on the east coast, seeing as we're a few hours ahead of it,” Klein says.

“I guess that makes a bit of sense,” Athena says.

I hear a sort of scream, a long and bellowing sound. We turn to the source, off in the distance players are running away from...something. Whatever it is is obstructed behind the information center.

“Whatever it is we can move ahead,” Klein says, looking straight at me.

I'm shaking my head, “No, sorry, I can't do that. There's a difference in picking fights and being a coward.”

“I'm actually with him on this one, if it is something that can cause danger in a town it might have the power of a keystone with it,” Athena says.

He groans, “Okay, I understand. I just have a bad feeling about this.”

“Don't worry, dude. I'll keep you safe, no need to worry,” I say, grinning, and then picking up pace.

“H-Hey! I'm not worried about that!” He says catching up.

I round the corner first, Athena right behind me, and then Klein. The stone tiled floor tapers off to grass and wildlife, a small pavilion rests on fenced in land. Across a stream I see a giant figure cloaked in armor, and a smaller, shrimpier figure clashing weapons, and then I fully see them as we come closer. It's Gregor and the fan I met last night...Ben?

He is smacked back, the force of Gregor's hit is so strong that he sends Ben off of his feet and into the stream, splashing the water upwards. “You good or nah?” Gregor calls out.

“Wait a second, what the hell is going on?” I ask. “You're supposed to be dead!” I turn to Gregor.

“Black Swordsman! I knew you'd show up! This guy's been killing other players!” Ben calls, standing up out of the water.

“What?” Athena asks.

Gregor looks to us, a cold and unfeeling look plastered on his face. Around his neck is the Heart of Ares I can see a second keystone right beside it, it shimmers red alongside the Heart of Ares's gold, it's named after Apollo.

“Gregor, please don't tell me what I think is going on here,” Klein says, his hand readied on the hilt of his sword. Gregor says nothing, only touching his fingers to the Heart of Apollo, and it glows. Suddenly a form splits from Gregor, creating a familiar face right beside him, an exact copy.

“What...the...heck...” Ben says, his eyes growing large.

“What? Do you work for Adata? Is that it?” Klein barks at him, moving a step closer. “There's nothing more that I hate then dirty fucking liars!”

Gregor still does not answer, he simply works his hammer over his shoulder and touches his finger to the Heart of Ares. I can see Ben stumbling out of the water, running as the force field begins rising, he just barely escapes its grasp as it seals around Athena, Klein, and Me.

“Wow! I can't believe I'm going to see the black swordsman in action!”

“Yes, yes. He'll sign your autograph later, now isn't the time,” Athena begins, “Now back off,” she says.

Ben moves to argue, but he backs away, staring from a distance.

“Don't worry about him. We have a much bigger problem,” I say, watching Gregor and his copy pick up their hammers up off of the ground.

“Two of them, to be precise.”