The Destroying Plague Page 24

  A good education meant that you could look confidently into the future. After all, a university diploma was practically a guarantee of citizenship status above G. Interesting work in your specialization and a good career, premium-class accommodation… What else could one want? All that was already practically guaranteed. Especially since it looked like our paths would split after the citizenship tests. Ed wanted to be an expert in corporate strategic planning. Hung would love to try himself out at American football. Tissa could draw beautifully and was considering a career as an artist. As for Malik, his dream was to become a comedian.

  Right then we were just playing, captured by the thrill of it. Advancing our Threat level, getting cool positions in Snowstorm and pushing our way into the elite citizenship categories — sure, it was a worthy goal. But if we were serious, what chance did we have? Our Threat level was confined to the Sleeping Gods, and even when Behemoth was healthy, the chance that we could build five temples was only slightly higher than zero. Take away the Destroying Plague and what would be left? Let’s say we put up a temple in the Lakharian Desert, although I had no idea how. Maybe if we leveled up super-fast and tried to get to Holdest… But how could our little clan resist the preventers? And they were just a small part of the game community. If Nergal and the other gods declared war on the Sleeping Gods tomorrow, then all the top players of the world would be advancing on our temples. And we couldn’t defend them.

  It occurred to me that if we relaxed and just let the inevitable happen, then it wouldn’t even be that bad! It was fully possible that we’d even keep playing Disgardium, but just for fun. There was plenty in this world that was more fun to do than lying immersed in a pool of death itself — there were nightclubs to dance in, establishments to fulfil any dream, beaches to sunbathe on, delicacies to gorge on, and all of it without causing any harm to your health!

  All we had to do was pass the damn citizenship tests and openly sell our artifacts and legendaries through the auction house. We could even get Rita involved so that she didn’t have to spend her whole life in Dis. A spoon is dear when lunch time is near, Uncle Nick used to say, and her altruistic gift of the Large Bear Bone with its tiny damage was the first gift I’d ever gotten in the game.

  So, then what was the point in this torture? I didn’t want to play as an undead! I was tired of running and hiding, I was sick of hiding my name, I wanted glory for my achievements. I didn’t want to live in Cali Bottom and hide from every drone or flyer! What was the point? For a miserly chance of getting my Threat potential up to the maximum? Heh, I’d need to take over half the world for that!

  “We will take over the whole world, Legate,” the voice of the Nucleus interrupted me. Nether, could it read my mind?

  Ability unlocked: Destroying Plague Immortality!

  Destroying Plague Immortality level 1

  If you are the only representative of the Destroying Plague in an area, then when you take lethal damage, you will be given temporary immortality: 100% of all subsequent damage is absorbed, 1% is converted into plague energy and stored in a reservoir.

  The effect lasts until your health is fully recovered.

  Plague reservoir volume: 100,000.

  New stat unlocked: Plague Energy.

  You can use Plague Energy to increase the power of an attack in part or in full at a rate of one energy point per HP of damage.

  Ability unlocked: Plague Reanimation!

  Plague Reanimation level 1

  There is no death in service to the Destroying Plague! You can breathe unlife into the dead. Reanimated skeletons and zombies will join the Destroying Plague and serve the Legate.

  Chance of saving skills and combat abilities possessed in life: 1%.

  Limitations: up to 10 servants at current ability level.

  Cost to use: 1000 Plague Energy plus 1000 per day to maintain reanimation.

  Unlocked ability: Plague Pestilence!

  Plague Pestilence level 1

  Infects the living with the Destroying Plague. After death, the infected arise from the dead and obey the one who infected them.

  Only works through physically touching the victim. Only works on non-player characters.

  Cost to use: 10,000 Plague Energy.

  Seeing familiar abilities from a new point of view, tripped up on the limitation in the description of Plague Pestilence: ‘Only works on non-player characters.’ If that was true, then how did Big Po infect so many players?

  “Legate Polynucleotide developed his ability,” the Nucleus answered. “He was a diligent and determined student. But, as you were able to prove, overconfident.”

  “Are these all the abilities you plan to give me? What’s my task?”

  “Prove your loyalty, Legate, and you will gain new knowledge.”

  My body began to rise to the surface and flew out like a cork from the plague water. I wasn’t just pushed up, but also returned to where I was before by the same tentacles.

  A quest window opened:

  Stronghold of the Destroying Plague

  The Nucleus of the Destroying Plague demands a stronghold near thickly populated districts of the continents of Latteria or Shad’Erung. Use the provided design to build it and erect a Large Plague Portal. This will unlock the path for the legions of the undead.

  Rewards:

  — 200,000,000 experience

  — +1000 reputation with Destroying Plague faction

  — +500 reputation with Cursed Lich Shazz

  — Legate’s Crown, an item of the legendary Destroying Plague equipment set

  — Abilities: Subjugate Mind, Plague Boost.

  You got Design: Stronghold of the Destroying Plague

  “I’m going to need allies,” I started thinking aloud. “My old friends. Teammates. I’ll need builders, resources…”

  I filled my head with thoughts about where and how to build the stronghold so that the Nucleus wouldn’t hear my true thoughts. Studying my profile, I ran into the vindication line. I didn’t know how; maybe it because of the Presence of the Nucleus of the Destroying Plague debuff, but the resource had increased to a hundred percent, and the Sleeping ability icons blinked often, becoming accessible one moment and locked again the next.

  “You are right to recruit all those you consider necessary,” the Nucleus answered, and a new notification appeared before me:

  Undead Transformation

  You can transform anyone who wishes to serve the Destroying Plague into an undead. This will change their character’s race and faction. All their other characteristics will remain the same.

  “How much time do I have?” I asked, not seeing a deadline in the quest.

  “We don’t yet have enough power to fight against all the intelligent races,” the Nucleus said. “As the herald, you must hide your true nature. And you must use this to develop your abilities and become stronger. Eras passed while I hid in this cave at the edge of the world. I waited patiently and am willing to wait even longer. Legate Shazz has shown initiative and begun building a stronghold on your former lands. That was an error — those lands are lifeless and will bring no value to the Destroying Plague but will strengthen the Legate himself. He will gain strength and wait for you to open him a path to the living. Kharinza saw many deaths in the time of the Departed, and Shazz will be able to raise one of them. When you open the portal for him, the lands of the living will shake!”

  “You understand that I can’t build a stronghold in inhabited lands? Like I already said, I’m no builder, and my allies aren’t going to be allowed to stroll around the lands of the living unpunished now that they’ll be turned into the undead. For that reason, I suggest we choose the Lakharian Desert for the stronghold. It’s on Latteria. There’s no intelligent life there, and I guess the deadly heat won’t hurt people who are already dead.

  “That makes sense,” the Nucleus approved. “You may begin, Legate. There are followers of the Cult of Moraine in certain cities of the Commonwealth and the Empire. They pray
to death and can provide you aid. Their weakness and cowardice give you an advantage: they will fear you more than the authorities. The strongest among them are Plague Necromancers. Find and recruit them! If you detect any traces of Moraine, find her. She will be your ally.”

  “Is she in the Destroying Plague too?”

  “She is a goddess, foolish Legate.”

  I felt the Nucleus chuckle.

  “Now commence. And remember that life is death, but there is no death in service to the Destroying Plague! We will transform the entire world! All mortals will achieve immortality!”

  I imagined a Dis full of the walking dead, the full global zombie apocalypse that the Destroying Plague wanted to create with my hands…

  Then I pulled out my bow, notched an arrow and spoke through my teeth.

  “As you wish… my lord.”

  Balancer activated: chosen target Nucleus of the Destroying Plague lowered to level 39.

  Duration: 5… 4…

  Chapter 14. No Death in Service to the Destroying Plague

  SHAZZ WAS STILL where I met him, managing the construction site. A mirror copy of the arch had arisen opposite, and between them, two sides of another strange structure had begun construction. When I appeared, the undead drifted away, and even a banshee lieutenant bowed her head as I passed.

  The undead had cut down more of the forest, and the landscape around the construction site was starting to look like something alien. Shazz saw me and nodded.

  “Life is death, Legate,” I greeted him.

  “There is no death in service to the Destroying Plague,” Shazz extended three fingers.

  Answering with the same gesture just in case, I pointed to the arch growing out of the dead soil.

  “What are you building?”

  “It is a Plague Ziggurat. A concentrator of deathly energy. There is much of it here. The ziggurat will strengthen my legions greatly once it is built.”

  “So, when you complete your plan here, you’ll be sending those legions to the continent?”

  “That is the next stage.”

  “How did you get a portal through to here anyway? Why not do the same on the continent? Why did the Nucleus need me?”

  “The Destroying Plague was spread long ago. Back when all the nine Legates walked Disgardium. But it did not take root everywhere. The living suppressed the infection whenever they had the slightest suspicion, burning both the bodies of the infected and any emerging vectors.”

  I remembered reading about the sporadic appearance of low-level undead instances.

  “That which was left here, on Kharinza, remained whole and even grew. Later, when you came to the island, the Nucleus ordered the locals to open the portal. They had enough strength to do so.”

  “The locals? But when we were there, I didn’t see anyone…”

  “Because you are in the Destroying Plague. If you were a stranger, you would have ended up in the domain of an insignificant necromancer lich, instead of the abode of the Nucleus.”

  “So now everything depends on me?” I decided to try and squeeze as much as I could out of the situation. “At the will of the Nucleus, I will build a stronghold of the Destroying Plague in populated lands. I’ll need resources and a workforce.”

  “I cannot offer you those that are bound to me, Legate,” the lich answered without emotion.

  “I don’t need your dead men. The Nucleus gave me the power to turn allies undead. Until I do so, I don’t want to see any of your minions any closer than three hundred feet from the fort. The same for the mine.”

  “In the name of the Nucleus,” the lich nodded. “You have my word, Legate. But you will need forces. Accept as a gift…”

  Shazz stretched out his hands and a transparent stream of Plague Energy swam toward me from the tip of his index finger. The bar began to rise and soon reached the cap of one hundred thousand. Apparently, that was a drop in the ocean for the lich, but I thanked him. My head span, and my legs became so weak that I almost fell. With a barely perceptible nod, Shazz summoned the banshees and gave them a silent order. The officers led all the undead away from the fort and the route to the mine.

  Feeling terrible, I barely held on until the problem of the undead was solved, then stumbled out of the game. Waiting with difficulty for the intra-gel to drain out, I collapsed out of my capsule.

  * * *

  I got a fever. The ‘home doctor’ couldn’t establish a precise diagnosis. An injection of anti-inflammatory and temperature-reduction drugs made me feel better and I burrowed under my covers.

  Soon Tissa called, then rushed over as soon as she heard I was sick. My parents still weren’t back, so the girl stayed the night. No, nothing like that. She looked after me, we talked, then we watched a couple of films and went to sleep. She was gone by dawn, so her dad wouldn’t get upset.

  By morning I felt a little better and I set up a meeting in the game, inviting Crawler, Bomber and Crag so as not to waste time moving through the city and to avoid listening ears on the comms. I told Infect to wait for my signal and then jump to Kharinza with Tissa. They’d stay there two or three minutes and we’d be able to announce the clan’s decision. I also invited Gyula and Manny, because it was best that they decided the fate of their characters will full knowledge of the consequences, full knowledge that they probably wouldn’t be able to change their race back.

  The entire clan assembled on an early Sunday morning, except for Infect and Tissa, by the ruins of the Pig and Whistle. Patrick brought Crawler and Bomber from Glendale, and right then he was sleeping off some drink on a stall that had survived opposite the tavern, staunchly gripping a half-empty bottle of something dwarvish and very strong.

  I spoke about my meeting with the Nucleus and about our options. About the hierarchy of the Destroying Plague, about the legendary quest, the new talents. I shared everything I’d seen and heard, except how it all ended. And then I thought about how to keep them from learning too much.

  “Judging by the fact that there was no global Dis-wide notification, I guess you changed your mind?” Crawler asked. “Hey, where’re you going?”

  “One sec, just need to check something…”

  I left my friends to cast a glance over the area occupied by the lich and his army. As we’d agreed, none of the dead had crossed the invisible boundaries we’d discussed. I didn’t doubt for a second that it would stay that way. I just needed to buy a couple of minutes to think things over again.

  Walking back to my clanmates, I looked at their faces; Crag impassive, Crawler with a look of concentration, Bomber smirking. Gyula and Manny were tidying up the remnants of the tavern in the meantime, with the builder frozen at the front wall of the building, focusing on his interface. I’d have to talk to them later and separately.

  “Scyth, don’t drag this out. What happened next?” Bomber clapped me hard on the shoulder, but I didn’t move a muscle. “Did you kill the Nucleus?”

  “Kill? No. I was about to loose an arrow, but I heard Behemoth’s voice in my head. He said only one word, but it was so loud that my head nearly exploded. Stop! he shouted. Hell knows. Maybe it wasn’t even the Sleeping God, maybe I just imagined it. And now I don’t know what I was even thinking. That damn lich became damn near invulnerable as the only Legate left. I got practically the same undead curse myself… How could I have thought I could kill that thing? Whether it’s a god or just something like one doesn’t matter. It isn’t that easy to kill. And I bet it all! Long story short, I didn’t shoot…”

  “What did the Nucleus do?” Crag asked.

  “Nothing. I don’t think it can even see anything, and in my head all I said was ‘As you wish, my lord.’ Although maybe it doesn’t even read thoughts and I was just playing it too safe.”

  “Shouldn’t it have reacted at least somehow? You used the Balancer on it!”

  “The mechanics of that artifact are weird anyway! Maybe the target doesn’t realize that its level drops. We’ll have to figure that out later
. We’ll experiment on someone, find out what the target sees and feels. The point is that the Nucleus seemed to kind of switch off after my words. The light went out around it, the cave fell into darkness. Nothing else happened, so I just went back to the plague portal and through to the mine here on Kharinza. I asked our colleague in our little sect,” I pointed toward the Shazz, “to take his minions away from here. Then I staggered over to the tavern and logged out. Felt horrible, even in the game. To be honest, yesterday I didn’t even want to go on. Especially since I needed to talk to you guys before doing anything…”