Kevin J Anderson (38 page)

He stood tall and opened his eyes again. "To complete your quest, you must save Gamearth. You're still bound by the Rules."

"THE RULES ARE BREAKING," the Allspirit said. But despite the power behind the words, they seemed to lack conviction.

"Your true opponents are the Outsiders. You saw the clay face of the Outsider David. You know about the Rulewoman Melanie, and the Outsiders Scott and Tyrone. You must confront them."

He let an excited smile flicker across his face, then lowered his voice. "If you play with us to exercise your power, you won't have much of a challenge. But if you confront a
real
opponent, imagine how much more fun it will be." Vailret paused for just a moment, then shouted, "Remember Rule #1! Always have fun!"

The Allspirit shimmered. "Yes, Vailret. We remember you." The voices were more subdued now, a clear duet of Bryl and Tareah. "Our focus lies Outside."

The Allspirit expanded and drew out its great cloaked form, as if unfolding from other dimensions. The smaller Earthspirits and Deathspirits rose up as well; they all seemed to know what to do. The three black Deathspirits and the three white Earthspirits and the single gray overarching Allspirit broke down the boundaries between themselves, coalescing into one omnipotent being, incalculably more powerful than any of the individual Spirits.

It was a kind of super-Transition that made the initial one seem like a half-hearted opening gambit.

Neither the grotto, nor the hexagon, nor the entire map of Gamearth could contain such a Spirit. Vailret fell to his knees, blinking and stunned as the being rose ― and kept rising, streaming upward, pulling with it all the magic, all the knowledge that it had gathered from Gamearth.

Then it plunged outward into
reality
, leaving only silence roaring in its wake.

"Great Maxwell!" Frankenstein said.

――――

David felt pain exploding inside his head, in fact his whole body. Parts of him, characters that lived within him, were being murdered one by one. He tried to cry out but couldn't. His cheekbones felt as if they had been crushed like eggshells.

Tyrone's blood-soaked corpse lay wide-eyed and mangled on the living room carpet, growing cold.

Melanie kept screaming down at the map.

Scott appeared broken, as if he had not the slightest idea what to do and couldn't understand how it had happened this way.

David forced his eyes open through a red haze of pain.

With a crackling sound, the Allspirit streamed up out of the painted wooden map like some specter rising from a fire. The gray form spilled out of the hexagons, growing larger and larger until it towered to the ceiling.

David scrambled backward. Melanie gaped at it. Scott closed his eyes and shook his head.

The Allspirit surveyed them with its cavernous hood. The air sizzled with its buildup of power. "Your Game is over now," it said. The words echoed around the walls of the house. The wind outside seemed to have stopped. "I will take Gamearth away from you. We want nothing more to do with the Outside."

"And we want nothing more to do with you!" David shouted. His words snapped in his swollen throat.

Beneath the Allspirit, the map shimmered. The spidery black hexagon lines flowed like molten oil.

The Allspirit drew back, engulfing the map in its translucent form. The hexagons of Gamearth splintered and expanded, flying apart like pieces in a puzzle. Brilliant points of light spun like a galaxy around the form of the Allspirit. Even the tiny broken pieces by the fireplace lifted up and swirled into the cluster.

The Allspirit grew taller. "I leave only what is yours," it said, then vanished with an audible
pop
. A few remaining bright hexagons flashed once, then winked out.

Only the Sitnaltan weapon remained behind, canted on the carpet, as its timer ticked the last two seconds to detonation.

――――

"Well, Overlord Migan, this is most enjoyable. Shall we let the weapon detonate?"

Comtar Durat stared down at the maps spread before him, the detailed sketches of the characters' houses, the careful drawing of the living room. Next to them rested crystalline chits showing statistics for the characters David, Melanie, and Scott; the chit for Tyrone had been removed from play.

Overlord Migan picked up the dice scattered on the playing surface. "I think we should roll for it."

He tossed the dice.

――――

― END ―

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