The Magician 28

The innate ability struggling to break free of its confines within Orison finally surged forth from the weak and feeble flesh that contained it. Now dying himself but filled with too much rage to care, Orison threw his void covered form upon the corrupt and spiritually bankrupt man. Head, shoulder and upper torso of the man slid into the chewing teeth of the raging young man's ability.

More importantly, so did the chalice filled with spiritually enriching and potent, life renewing brew. All the demonic minions present wanted it and had secretly made ties to the chalice to siphon some of its content for themselves. It proved their undoing as a desolate gravity extended out from Orison pulling them and everything tied to the ceremony into him before he was drawn within as well.

As dawn broke over the horizon, the young mage cleaned himself and Grit of dark gray clay before donning an over robe and a suit that slid over him like liquid storm clouds. It broke his heart to see how emotionally damaged by the experience Grit was. Kneeling down, he held the young man's head to his chest at let Grit cry for the first time since they had met two years ago.

Partially restored but far from completely free of the mental fog, the young mage sensed something familiar about Grit's soul. Only more confused instead of less, he turned inward. As if they were sleeping limbs slowly restoring feeling, spirit sight and physically itchy essence channels began opening up.

While he allowed Grit to regain emotional equilibrium, he was gathering together a set of equipment for the young man when he heard a somewhat pleasant but mechanical woman say, "World story line is broken. Branch erasure eminent. Return teleportation in one minute."

Unsure what that meant, Orison goaded Grit into getting suited up as quickly as possible while gathering up additional equipment and goods. By the time teleportation triggered, the world around them seemed ethereal and cold. Unfortunately, that also included Grit.

In the last two seconds before the young mage disappeared in a column of light, the usually untalkative and taciturn young man muttered out a 'thank you' with the ghost of a smile. Distraught, Orison reached out intuitively with a power he didn't know he possessed. A completely foreign energy seemed to mix with it. Whether imaginary or not, a feeling of warmth radiated out from his chest before he appeared in a dimly lit cavern.

Instantly, a force descended on his consciousness. Fighting against a fuzzy mind and lethargy attempting to drag him into a deep sleep, he sat down. An internal battle began to push the overwhelming amount of complex thoughts back to where they came from and seal them in. While he tried to do so, voices filtered around him.

A confident but slightly arrogant young man's voice said, "Pyotr, Amy, are you two still dead set on backpacking sleeping beauty or are you ready to face the facts. I don't know how he keeps surviving challenges in his state but this is the second time that his presence has derailed a story. How many times does he have to cut short our rewards before your sense of gratitude for supposedly saving us in the beginning is paid off?

"I'm not trying to sound ungrateful. He probably did help us survive when he brought that chunk of monster melting mud but we also started our first story world naked! The dragon guy probably only mistook him for somebody they knew just like the NPC Jarvis did. His only useful power seems to be getting mistaken for a friend or whatever by important people.

"It helps HIM survive but it keeps cutting the stories short and that means OUR chance of making it to the end goes down. This isn't just a survival game. Our very right to exist is on the line. Besides that, the one time he did start to wake up, the crazy f*cker tried to wreck the world to 'save' that damn NPC Jarvis from disappearing with everything else in our tutorial story.

"We don't even know what he did but the system AND the world both didn't like it. When he was struck down by that black lightning bolt and then forced into the nightmare mode part of the next story, I thought we'd be done with him. What a god damned cockroach!"

The young mage felt himself being hoisted up on a narrow but strong back as a terse young woman's voice said, "Go f*ck off somewhere to play harem king with your wh*res, Dimitri. No one's forgotten that you and Birdy used to be childhood friends. You abandoned him as soon as you had better options then and you'll abandon the people who follow you now if better options come along later."

Two girls and a boy with a slightly breaking voice started shouting and raining verbal abuse on Amy. It sounded like a fight was about to break out as Orison felt himself being lowered back to the ground. A loud crashing sound broke through the shrieking din of angry voices.

A deep, rumbling voice with a slight Russian accent said, "I'll give you half of my rewards points to drop this. Maybe after the next story ends, you'll be strong enough to beat me. If you are, I'll drop this and follow you. Fair enough?"

A round of muttering and posturing commenced but in the end, Dimitri agreed. The young man's two female 'companions' protested loudly. Even his boy lackey voiced a protest, wanting to milk Amy for rewards or 'favors' as well.

Amy muttered under her breath, "Disgusting parasite. The only way you'll ever lay your hands on me is if I'm a corpse."

Sensing that things were about to take a turn that wouldn't benefit him, Dimitri said, "Transfer the points, Pete. We'll end this for now."

Once he'd gotten what he wanted, the young man added, "Come on Gina, Sarah. Let's get to the next maze rest point as soon as we can. We need to make the most of our down time so our heads can be in the game when we get put in another story... Little dude, if the girls don't mind, I'll let you watch.

"Stop pestering Amy. It makes us look bad. No one cares if you're a perv but we aren't bad guys. Say something cringe like that again and you're off our team."

Once the others were gone, Pyotr said, "He's planning on cutting his little clown man to make room for me. Which one of the girls do you think he's planning to cut for you?"

She chuckled and said, "Are you so sure? I think that he wants me for an 'all girls are mine' set. You've bumped heads with him too many times. He'll never let you on his team when you're a threat to his leadership. He's just waiting til he knows he can beat you."

The deep voice snorted. "He'll be waiting until I am injured, old or dead. No matter how much rewards he puts into that martial style he's learning from the system, it remains hollow. He hasn't lived it. He's just following the motions he was spoon fed."

Sounding worried, Amy said, "He's waiting until he and his two gold digging tramps pick up enough system abilities that martial arts alone wont make the difference anymore. We should feel lucky that the interface store doesn't sell guns and Gina's archery skill is crap under pressure.

"Well, here goes another round of using points for food. Not that I give a damn about whatever fruit or nut trees his group will horde. Keep your remaining points, I've got Rip Van Winkle's meal this time."

Orison's voice cut in as he opened his eyes. "Save your points for lower end restoratives or teleport refreshes. Everything from skills to healing potions are one form of slow poison or another. The only things Dimitri and his crew are earning is easier acceptance of servitude to the First Family.

"I don't even think this maze is under their control anymore. The prisoners have taken control, I think. That doesn't mean that you can't get to the end and out, though. But even if you do, people like them who load up on the benefits this place offers are going to be brainwashed and gooped up with the purple junk that binds souls to the First Family's reincarnation cycle."

Pyotr looked at Orison in surprise and said, "Do you know what's going on here?"

Orison explained what he knew of their world's erasure and the challenges they'd faced thus far. Because they were curious about all the mysteries surrounding his appearance among them, Orison explained what little he could remember about his relationship with Arazmus, Jarvis and the reasons for his actions. It was spotty but understandable.

Horrified, Amy said, "The story NPCs are real people reliving those awful events over and over again?"

The young mage nodded and said, "If you die in one of those worlds, you'll become one of them. At least for awhile, anyway."

Pyotr asked, "You were friends of many lifetimes with Arazmus and Jarvis? How is that possible?"

Orison shrugged. "I've forgotten too much. I just know it's true."

Amy had a sly look on her face. "Only friends? I know the look the dragon man gave you was REALLY friendly. No judgment. If you're still Birdy under there, I know you like girls because you asked me out once. If I'd have known you were a free spirit, I might have said yes."

The young mage shrugged. "I don't really identify as anything. I'm wearing a guy suit in this life, so I'm going with that flow. But, feelings are all I really care about."

Pyotr looked Orison up and down and asked, "You've been women before?"

"Yup. I've also been plants, animals and a self aware rock too. All of that pales in comparison to the fact that I was once a huge alien thing from the outside. That was a REALLY long time ago. Parts of the me I was then are in a lot of things, including whole realities." he said with a faint smile.

Amy laughed a little nervously and said, "You are either the craziest or most interesting person I've ever met."

The young mage smiled and said, "I'd personally like to own a little of column A with all of column B, please. Honestly, you can't survive a journey like the one we're on if you're not a little crazy. It makes you flexible."

Pyotr clapped his hands once loudly. "Now, that's something we can all believe but we have pressing matters at hand. We need to get to the waiting area before the monsters start coming. Killing more than you need seems like a waste of time since they come back very quickly."

Orison looked through his interface while Amy and Pyotr led the way. With the mass of points he had racked up, he purchased an upgraded spark that nearly wiped them. Fully aware, he stopped the new spark from melting and merging with him like the first weak one had. For awhile, he experimented with what he could get away with before he called a halt.

"It's worse than I thought. But, that only matters to B team. First Family member Cantrip, requesting transport for three to hub C," the young mage said before they were whisked away in a curtain of light.

As soon as they arrived, The bear of a young Russian man snatched Orison up into a choke hold and said, "Release us."

The young mage ghosted through his hold and came out the other side looking fatigued. "Please stop. If I could do that, I'd have done it already. The system has me recorded as a First Family member by adoption and I'm listed as an engineer. It gives me some control over the user interface and testing subsystem but no one, not even a real First Family member could access the control room. It's locked out.

"Best that I can figure is that a long time ago, some threat nearly drove them to extinction. There exists a few surviving branch families that are trying to work around a rigid hierarchical order with whole levels missing to reacquire their old surviving assets. I have no desire to help them beyond what's beneficial to me or people I care about. They're extra-dimensional pirates and slavers by all but self admission."

Not looking fully convinced, Pyotr said, "Anything else you'd like to tell us before any fun surprises or is this yet another thing you don't really remember but 'just know'?"

A spark of anger ignited in Orison's eyes. "My soul is a five dimensional jigsaw puzzle of pieces barely fused together. Not only do I not care to explain every little action, I also could give a sh*t less if you're okay with that. I'm helping you because you helped me. If that's not enough for you, then tough t*tty.

"If I recall correctly, it's not as if you were that 'kind' to Birdy yourself. Matter of fact, you were a bully that extorted what little allowance his parents gave him on more than one occasion. You can convince yourself that you were being a 'tough friend'.

"Maybe you even had the intentions of teaching him some self defense once he showed some backbone and started acting like someone YOU would recognize as a real man. That doesn't change the fact that you extorted money from and light weight tortured him. I don't give a damn how you justify it."

In opposite of expectation, the young man smiled widely, looking a touch unbalanced. "There he is. I would see 'this' you in your eyes every once in awhile. That's the person I wanted to be friends with.

"I remember my first day of school. Papa pointed you out and said 'You be friends with that kid. You can do it your own way but you won't be sorry if you do.'

"I didn't believe a little piece of marshmallow fluff like you would be anything worth knowing but every time I pushed you a little, I'd see something inside your eyes. I guess I wanted the real you to wake up so badly that I would get a little carried away sometimes. But, there's a jar at home with every bit of money I took from you and just as much of my own. I thought we could do something fun together when we became real friends.

Pyotr's smile faded away. "But I don't think we'll ever be seeing that jar again. We won't be seeing any of it again, will we?... Oh, Papa! Will I ever get to see you again, get to hear you tell one of your corny stories of when you were the 'Bull Man of Primorsk'?"

Orison felt a tickle in the back of his muddled mind. "Is your father also a Pete?"

Pyotr said, "Yes? Does that mean something to you?"

A flash of broken memory showing a big man with bull horns begging to give everything for his son passed through the young mage's mind.

Orison nodded to the young man. "I don't want to get your hopes up because I'm not really sure why I feel this way but... I think I have some kind of connection with your father that I might be able to use to get him back. Just... don't be surprised when you see the version of him that I knew. He was a... real bull man."

The young mage turned towards Amy as the young man processed what he heard. Surprisingly, she didn't make any requests that would be painful for Orison to answer.

Pyotr said, "That's... That's great news!" Turning to Amy, he added with a wink, "And the Pete's of Primorsk still are bull men where it matters."

She rolled her eyes and said, "Back to the business at hand, boys? You may have gotten us here ahead of schedule but the 'douche crew' are going to get here in about an hour, I'd guess."

Orison nodded. "More like half that but yeah... I've accessed the prompts already. The easy mode is 'Slaying Goblins', middle road is 'Sunny D' and the 'hard' option, excuse me, Nightmare Mode is 'Sometimes Dead is Just Better'.

"I see that on previous choices, Dimitri's crew has chosen the middle road every time. Considering how he's lost a couple along the way from when larger groups could travel together, I'm all but certain he'll do it again. That's fine. I have no desire to join a religious institution to find demonic heretics, especially since I know this world a little."

With a wry face, Amy said, "What are YOUR plans?"

He sensed a not so subtle hint that she had no intentions of following them unless she was totally in agreement.

Giving a saintly smile, Orison said, "I'm going to easy mode first. I need to verify something important. Afterwards, I'm going to this Nightmare Mode's area ten years ahead of when it opens to 'players'. I want to log some serious spiritual healing time and pick up a nice hidden bonus. And so it's clear, it has jack all to do with system rewards but I'm sure those will be good too."

Pyotr said, "So, we're going to the easy mode?"

The young mage shook his head. "The easy story line here is a trap. It's another Nightmare Mode whereas 'Sometimes Dead is Just Better' is actually an easy points earning spree under the right conditions. It's not going to matter because there will be little to earn but the hardest of the hard if anything at all. Of course, that's not set in stone. There's too many variables."

Frowning, Amy said, "You're saying, it doesn't matter what we chose?"

Orison said, "Oh, it matters. If you chose 'Slaying Goblins' you're in for a hell of a fight for survival. Chance of death is high and, Amy, chances of a whole lot worse before death for you and those two girls following Demitri around.

He could see that Amy wasn't happy to hear his words.

Before she could protest, he added, "Please don't, okay. I know you're a tough cookie but we're talking about ridiculous numerical advantage and traps. The goblins of this world are cruel and ruthless. They're far from the cannon fodder of video games except for maybe the really grotesque 'erotic' ones. And believe me, I use the term 'erotic' loosely. Unhinged would be more accurate in this case."