CH 292 – Delete, Escape, Undo (Part 4)

“So much for retirement…”

Ria mumbled, awaking to the static crackle of the walkie-talkie-like device with Yelena on the other side.

She sat up and brushed aside her short magenta-and-neon-yellow hair, which she was considering dyeing back to purple. The strands stuck slightly to her cheek from the humid ocean air. With her other hand, she took a sip of her piña colada—though in this realm they called it something else. But the taste was ultimately the same. Overly sweet pineapple, thick coconut cream, and enough rum to assist her in pretending that she was on vacation, and not yet inside another Game against her better judgment.

To the casual observer, she was a thirty-something-year-old woman on vacation, sunbathing on the large, extended balcony of a concrete, straw, and glass high-rise building. The teak chaise beneath her was warm from the twin suns, and the thatch umbrella overhead hushed softly whenever the wind passed through it.

The balconies extended at varying levels, like uneven shelves built into the side of the tower, so some were tucked in the shade of the one above them, while others were fully exposed to the bright suns hanging in the pale blue sky. The floor Ria was on was so high that she could scarcely make out the ground floor with her bare eyes.

In front of her was a vertical body of water, raised higher than even the seventy-two-story skyscraper she was on. It was a wall of clear blue and green water, with sunlight piercing through it in shifting ribbons. An invisible shield prevented the water from spilling over and dousing the city with saltwater.

Unlike an aquarium, the water didn’t stop at a set point. Instead, it slowed, with some waves extending farther toward the skyscraper while others remained at bay. None of them ever came close.

Not yet at least.

Inside its clear blue and green waters, an enormous creature could be seen, swimming close enough to the barrier that she caught glimpses of its dark form. It appeared to be like a mixture between a whale and a prehistoric dinosaur, but far, far larger. Not even the skyscraper could compare to its length.

The Hafgufa. It was the reason Ria was in this realm with Yelena—or rather, half of it.

“Ria? Do you hear me? What’s the status?” Yelena’s voice sounded through the walkie-talkie device.

Ria tapped the side of her enormous black sunglasses; a modified appearance of her usual translucent light-blue visor for the sake of the realm she was in. However, the view inside was the same, with blue data bits rolling across the screen, highlighting what the eye could not pick up as quickly.

“Hafgufa is by the city,” Ria said into the walkie-talkie. “I can see it clearly. It’s just swimming, though. I’m not picking up any agitation from it yet.”

“No—not that creature. And I already found its weak point. I meant my son.” Yelena’s voice sounded through the static.

“Ah.”

This was the second, and really the main, reason Ria was in this realm with Yelena.

Her eyes slid to the antique console’s screen, where two red pixels blinked. One was so faint it looked like a dying ember, while the other was more obvious. The device was an old Player Tracker that had seen better days. Its black casing was scratched, and the colorful round buttons were well worn. But it worked.

The deal was that Ria wouldn’t have to lift a finger. Yelena would do all the work in clearing the Game that technically required two people to enter and complete. Ria’s job was merely to act as a lookout post and monitor Yelena’s son’s pixel.

Not that it had reported anything different in all the months Ria had looked after it.

“No, there’s no diff—”

Ria blinked. The dot disappeared.

“Shit.”

She swore and scrambled to grab the device, knocking over her umbrella-topped drink in the process. But Ria barely gave the spilled liquid a second look and instead tapped the large central red button on the console several times to refresh the screen manually.

Nothing.

The calming buzz of the rum cocktail was gone. She was feeling dead sober.

Where is he??

The more concerning and sobering thought followed that.

He didn’t die… did he?

Ria tapped her sunglasses and looked up the realm ID. Blue data rolled across the inside of the lenses, providing a wealth of insight. But the information was only more damning.

A flurry of swears rolled off her tongue at the realm’s status.

Deleted?And on my watch, no less?

“Ria?” A voice that Ria dreaded hearing sounded beside her. “You cut out. What is it?”

Ria turned her head toward Yelena.

Her long black hair was wet and slicked back in a tight braid, water still dripping from the ends onto the balcony floor. In her arm was a large surfboard-like device. But instead of riding waves, it was used to glide through the ocean water, deep underwater. The bottom surface gleamed with an almost electric-blue light, hinting at the advanced technology powering it.

“I… can’t find his dot,” Ria replied, standing up to meet Yelena, the console in her hands. “The faint one is still there, but the other…”

Ria was stalling to give the worst of the news.

There was no easy way to say it. Yelena was almost coldly rational. Ria had seen her fight in miserable realms, tackle impossible Games, and negotiate terms under the threat of deletion—all without a hint of concern or emotion. But Ria had worked with her long enough to know that certain keys rang off-note, even for Yelena.

Her one and only son was most certainly one of them.

But, true to her persona, Yelena calmly reached over and took the Player Tracker into her wet palm.

As if she were merely placing an order for room service, Yelena clicked the colorful buttons with the arrows, calmly and without a hint of the panic that Ria was feeling herself.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The sound of the buttons seemed to blare over the wind and the waves. Even the alarm that had started a moment ago seemed to dim into irrelevance. Nothing else mattered, and Ria held her breath.

“There,” Yelena replied, and turned the device to show Ria. “He simply went into another realm, is all.”

“Oh.” Ria felt her legs give out, and she sat back down on her chaise lounge.

She felt relieved, and the sensory details of the realm came rushing back: the heat of the twin suns, the scent of her cocktail mixed with the salty air, and the low boom of the vertical ocean as it pressed against the invisible barrier. Hafgufa was no longer merely swimming past. It was pressing against the barrier, threatening to destroy the equilibrium that had stood the test of a millennium. Somewhere below, a second alarm began to shriek through the windy air.

Yelena recited the realm ID for her. “What do you know about it?”

Ria tapped the side of her sunglasses and began her search.

“Oh?” Yelena’s voice came out amused. “He disappeared?”

There was no panic in her voice, unlike the one Ria felt rising within her own chest. Ria’s fingers froze above the glowing interface visible only to herself.

Yelena tapped the buttons on the console again.

“Found him,” Yelena eventually said.

She recited the new ID, but just as Ria pulled up this new one—

“Let me find him again…”

Yelena’s son disappeared yet again.

This went on for quite some time. The red pixel would disappear, be found, only to disappear from view again, to be located again in yet another realm on the opposite end of registered reality.

There was no pattern to it. Some realms had an active Game taking place. Others were Playable, but there was no active Game at the time. Some realms were pleasant. Others had reputations of being outright violent.

How is he doing that?

This was not normal realm travel. This was neither a portal transit nor a normal Game entry. The red pixel was hopping across realms like a glitch in the system.

However, Yelena's expression remained calm. Amused, even.

Only her grip on the Player Tracker had changed. Her now-dry fingers had tightened around the black casing, while her other hand hovered over the buttons, ready to tap and re-locate the pixel.

Ria glanced at the increasingly violent vertical ocean, but noted down realm ID after realm ID as the red pixel jumped about.

Until it finally stopped in one realm.

It was a realm that Ria didn’t need to look up. The ID was known by every Player, Celestial, and other higher beings by heart.

“Well then, we were heading there anyhow,” Yelena said, and in her right hand a long shimmering bow and arrow appeared.

She drew the arrow back, her eyes narrowing toward the turbulent vertical ocean.

“Ria, I don’t suppose you can go collect the rewards on your own?”

Before Ria could say a word, the golden arrow shot out with a sharp whistle and plunged deep into the vertical ocean.

The body of water wavered, but the invisible barrier didn’t rupture. However, the same could not be said of the creature inside. The blue and green water violently burst into a cloud of dark red.

[ Hafgufa’s Wrath: Complete ]

[ Calculating Nexus Points Earned ]

[ Nexus Points: 12,700,000 ]

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No matter where the door had opened, I walked on through.

There was little choice. It was a matter of survival.

The moment I entered a new realm, I would quickly realize that I had jumped from a frying pan into yet another boiling pot, and would make my escape as soon as possible into the next, equally troubling realm.

Some doors opened into realms of unbreathable smoke, ash, and heat. Others opened into forests so dense and dark that the sun and sky seemed nonexistent.

Even the realms that seemed beautiful on the surface were not so welcoming when an intruder walked into the privacy of someone’s ritual.

The lava giants and frostbite mosquitoes had nothing on the wrath of the forty-some faes I had interrupted in the middle of some ceremony.

They had gathered around a still lake within a cavern deep underground, lit only by the iridescent floating lilies scattered across the clear water. Their glow shimmered in soft blues, pinks, and greens, reflecting against the wet stone ceiling above. The faes stood knee-deep in the cold water, their shimmering glass-like wings folded behind them, each pair nearly the size of their whole being.

And that was when I entered, through the stone door at the center of the lake.

For one brief moment, all was still as everyone stared at me and I took in my beautiful surroundings.

Then their eyes lit up with a murderous light, and a shriek echoed through the cavern.

Their spellwork was instantaneous.

The door behind me, and my fastest path to escape, was blown up to bits.

Though I managed to get away. I ran through the shallow water, searching for another door to teleport through when another blast sounded beside me, and the wall crumbled into dust and melted goo.

Melted? Rock?

Lifting my right arm, I realized there was a slight singe on the sleeve, but otherwise it was untouched. It was a remarkable feat, and I once again gave my internal thanks to Augustus for having had the foresight to dress me for survival.

My debt to him was ever-growing, and I hoped to pay it back tenfold soon.

But I had no time for such pleasant thoughts. I ripped up the staircase, feeling my low stamina catching up to me almost as quickly as the winged faes behind me. Their shrieks echoed against the stone walls, like nails on rock.

Just as my legs groaned with pain, slowing down against my will, a wooden door appeared.

And it did not matter where it led.

I knew it was better than here.

No, it had to be.

~Master, allow your mind to swing with the pendulum of chaos and the right realm will open for you.

“I know,” I muttered and grasped the door handle.

The part that Apophis did not emphasize, but what I knew, was that I only had enough Dead Mana stored in my ring for one more trip. Unfortunately, despite the chaotic nature of the realms I had jumped through, none of them had any meaningful quantities of Dead Mana for me to restock.

I clasped the door handle and rushed in without even taking a moment to examine where I was heading. The door shut on the shrieking faes, silencing them immediately, but also leaving myself without a way out, even if I wanted one.

As I took in my surroundings, I felt my heart drop.

Wherever I had stepped through was not about to kill me, but it was most certainly not my own realm.

Tall cathedral-like vaulted ceilings hung at neck-breaking height above, where clouds ought to have been. But instead of a blue sky, everything was grey. Not just the ceiling, but the stone walls, the well-waxed floors and the buildings. Even the chandeliers and light sources, which were quite ornate and made up of dark metal, only made the space feel colder.

Apart from the toad-like woman sitting behind a glass barrier in one of the grey buildings, there was no one else in this large expanse of a street. Or perhaps ‘hallway’ was more accurate, given there were no sidewalks or vehicles.

“Apophis, where are we?” I asked.

Despite the enormous expanse of the space, my voice did not echo. Even when I walked forward, the sound of my steps was cushioned. This place felt hollow, muted and eerie.

~Master, this is Realm ID: AAAA0000AB, Apophis hissed with strange delight. The Agency of Order.