The
Virtual
Realm

Chapter 4

At the End of All Things

For a few moments, Hank could hardly breathe.

The Arch Mage stood towering over Eric as the Cavalier just sat on the ground, shaking. Hank couldn’t see Eric’s face, and he was almost glad he couldn’t. It was an impossible choice, and Venger knew it! But that was the point, wasn’t it; put them in the position they couldn’t get out of, get the weapons, get the Key.

Then he would destroy them.

It was the helplessness of their situation that Hank found unbearable. He was their leader, and he was powerless to help. Worse, he could do nothing but watch as the Cavalier was manipulated into giving in to Venger’s demands!

A bitter, deep anger burned inside the Ranger. A small part of it was directed at Eric, even though he understood that the Cavalier was as trapped as the rest of them. Some of it was directed against Venger; the one who always seemed to be there, just at the right time to thwart their plans to get home.

But most of it was directed against himself. Dungeonmaster had warned them of the terrible risks involved in travelling through Ur but, full of confidence and flush with success, Hank had decided to come anyway. It had been his decision. It was all his fault.

He had taken the chance; but he hadn’t thought it through properly. The Locked Portal was their only way out, since the passage was blocked. They had to use the Key and get home, or they were stuck here. But now they had neither Key nor weapons, and Venger would surely never let them go.

Time seemed to crawl past. The guilt and anger were suffocating, not even the gentle pressure on his arm from Sheila’s hand could help him feel any better, or any less alone. He could only watch, and wait as their fate was decided.

He couldn’t see clearly what was going on, Venger had positioned himself between the Cavalier and the others, but Hank heard Eric murmur something, though he wasn’t close enough to make out what was said. Sheila had noticed it too and her grip on his arm grew tighter.

There was a slight movement as Venger stepped back. Eric was still on the ground, hanging his head and unable to look up at his friends. The Arch-Mage turned to look at them, and at Hank in particular, his expression one of unbearable glee.

‘Release them,’ Venger growled at the Ratmen, his eyes gleaming with a dull, red light. ‘You will release them. And leave!’

Surprised, Hank’s breath caught in the back of his throat. And he was not the only one. There was a brief pause as the Ratmen looked at each other, they gave an angry chittering noise; it seemed that the creatures had expected to dine well that evening. But the Ratmen were more afraid of Venger’s power than anything else.

But, slowly, the Ratmen moved back from the children. There was more of the loud, angry chittering, but at last the creatures faded away into the background. Within a minute there was no sign of them, and the room was silent.

Venger stood still, watching him.

Struggling to keep control of his shaking legs, Hank forced himself upright, aware that the others followed his lead. He glanced at the Cavalier and the Arch-Mage. Eric looked like he was about to be sick.

Don’t give it to him, Eric! Don’t trust him! Don’t do it… He could still use the Shield, he could protect himself while he connected the Key together. He could open the Portal and they could run. They might still be able to get home… It might still be ok.

But Hank knew what the Cavalier was going to do. He would have done the exactly the same in his position: Venger had kept his part of the bargain: Eric would too.

Slowly the Cavalier pushed himself to his feet. He didn’t seem to be able to look the others in the eye, he had turned slightly away from them and he kept staring at the ground.

‘Give me your Shield, Cavalier,’ said the Arch-Mage loudly, his voice echoing round the hall.

The helpless feeling, along with a terrible anger flared again; Venger was just being vindictive now; he was going to make the very most of this moment. He had total power over them, and was not about to let them off lightly! Hank saw Eric shudder, but lift up his weapon and offer it to the Arch-Mage.

That smile. Hank would never forget that smile slashed across Venger’s face at that moment. It was victory. It was triumph. It was sickening.

‘And the Key.’

For a few seconds, the Cavalier didn’t move and it looked like he might faint. He’d never seemed so white before.

‘The whole Key,’ prompted Venger gently.

Hank saw Eric take a deep breath, click the Key together and drop it into Venger’s hand.

What happened next was confusing, and it was only afterwards that Hank could make some sort of order out of his muddled memories.

Venger definitely held up the completed Key, and beside him the portal began to glow as it was brought to life. Also Hank was sure that Venger laughed at them, and specifically at him, and held the weapons up on high for them all to see.

But there was also a horrible crackling, sucking noise from somewhere close by. The Arch-Mage didn’t pay any attention to it, but both Sheila and Presto did.

‘What’s that?’ the Thief asked.

‘It sounds horrible,’ added Presto.

Hank shrugged, and looked around. The sound seemed to have come from near the portal itself.

Suddenly, a bright bolt of light sprang out from the centre of the lock, smacking into Venger. The Arch-Mage only reeled slightly; but the Cavalier, who was still in front, was knocked sideways by the force.

Then, before anyone could move, there was a long, loud, penetrating roar. Hank crouched down on the ground, covering his ears, and tried to protect Sheila at the same time. The roar grew, and even Venger started to recoil as the room began to shake. Though he felt the loss of his Bow acutely, Hank still tried to protect the others. The room was better constructed than the Treasury entrance; the walls and floor shook but not even a tiny trickle of dust fell to the floor.

Abruptly, the noise stopped and echoed away. Hank looked up.

The Locked Portal was alive with a slew of blurred images and shone with a powerful, bright light. The gates were now open; in fact they were lying, mangled on the ground looking as if something had torn them from their hinges and tried to eat them.

Hank froze, his blood running cold. He’d been afraid before; only the very stupid were not afraid when facing down Venger. But this was a different kind of fear, as if he had suddenly found himself in the middle of something much bigger, and something he didn’t understand.

He stayed still for a moment, watching the torrent of images, and Hank felt the familiar painful sinking feeling; the one he got every time they failed to get home, the one he got every time the portal closed without them.

But this time, the price of failure was much, much higher. If they didn’t get back they would be stuck here.

He looked towards Venger once again, anger overcoming his fear. But the Arch-Mage looked anything but triumphant. The sneering attitude that had been so apparent before was gone. Venger was frowning at the portal. He almost looked worried.

Out of the corner of his eye, Hank noticed Eric was near the far wall, and pushing himself upright. The Cavalier moved slowly and there seemed to be what were best described as scorch-marks on his armour. But at least he was still alive.

For a moment, everyone looked around the room in surprise, as if waiting for something to jump out of the shadows and attack. But nothing moved, and nothing happened. And to add to Hank’s confusion, the Arch-Mage started to laugh.

‘I know you are here!’ he called out. ‘The time for games is over! Show yourself!’

As the words died away, there was silence for a few moments.

It gave them no warning, one moment they were alone and the next, “it” was there, taking everyone, even the Arch-Mage, by surprise.

In front of the Portal was a huge and terrible demon-thing the like of which Hank had never seen before. It was clawed, and grotesque and filled with an evil he could sense even from many feet away. Though the Ranger had never seen the face of the ultimate, No-Named Evil, he couldn’t imagine it being any more horrible that what he saw. It was undoubtedly a Demon, but he had no idea of which type.

It was half in shadow, but Hank could clearly see strips of flesh and bone covering its body. It had bright, yellow eyes that glowed in the gloom of the hall. There were two great curled horns on its head, and long snout with sickle-like incisors. The shell of the body was also covered in shadows, but there was the glint like polished metal that gave the impression of spiked armour. It was difficult to tell how large it was, but it was certainly a lot bigger than the Arch-Mage.

Everyone, Venger included, took a step back.

The Demon looked round, and caught sight of the group of children. With a careless, instinctive flick of its hand, it sent a mass of red magic hurtling towards them.

They only had an instant.

They had no weapons.

There was no chance to run.

There was nothing they could do.

There was nothing he could do.

Nothing.

Pulling Sheila into a tight embrace, Hank braced himself for the end. They all did.

But the magic dispersed around them.

Hank gasped.

The Demon was obviously surprised, though not as surprised as the kids were. Then it looked at Venger. The Arch-Mage stared back at it, his head held high, magic flaring in his hands.

‘You will not destroy them! That is my prerogative!’

The Demon laughed, and the kids all covered their ears at the harsh sound.

‘So, Venger. You have pets!’ Contempt saturated the words the Demon spoke, and it leaned forward to leer at him. ‘How amusing!’

The Arch-Mage lifted the hand he held the weapons in, and they started to glow with a red light.

‘Bow before me, Demon!’ he called.

But it laughed again.

‘I am the one with the Key,’ Venger said. ‘I am the more powerful! Bow down before your Master!’

The hiss the Demon gave was so filled with malevolence that Venger staggered slightly.

‘You think I would make the same mistake twice!’ it snarled. ‘That foolish Knight thought he destroyed me when he destroyed the Key, but my dependence on objects is now GONE! I have a new source of power! And I have waited a very long time to use it!’

It stretched out its head, stretching his neck to its full length, and belched crackling, green magic flame at Venger. The Arch-Mage cast it aside, but it wasn’t easy, and seemed to take a great deal of effort.

The sight of Venger struggling didn’t fill Hank with any pleasure. Surely he should have known about this creature? It wasn’t like him to come unprepared, especially since this was supposed to be his moment of triumph! Something wasn’t right. The Ranger knew perfectly well that when Venger had the weapons he could defeat Tiamat and rule the Realm. Why should this creature pose him any threat? Why had Venger miscalculated so badly? Surely, if he’d known it was here, he would never have opened the Portal…

‘Insignificant creature from the Depths of Time!’ bellowed Venger as the flame dies away. ‘You know nothing about power!’

He lifted up the weapons, and they glowed more brightly. Then Venger cast, sending all the magic he could at the creature.

The Demon reared up against the torrent, but as the stream of magic petered out, it laughed yet again.

‘Is that the best you can do, Venger!’ he hissed. ‘One thousand years of preparation and that is the best you can do?’

Incredibly, Venger seemed to blanch at the venom in the words. Hank’s cold fear grew suddenly more acute. The expression on the Arch-Mage’s face was not something he’d seen very often before; in fact he’d only seen it once, at the Dragon’s Graveyard.

Venger was scared.

Beside him, someone vocalised his exact thoughts.

‘Oh, shit!’

Everything else was cut short as the magic fire exploded out of the Demon again, enveloping Venger completely. Hank had to hide his eyes from the intense light, and he thought he heard the Arch-Mage cry out in pain.

As Hank stepped back, the hopelessness of the situation hit him again. He was the leader. He shouldn’t just be standing around. He had to do something!!

He just didn’t know what…

The crackling noise died away, and Hank looked up. As he did so, a tiny movement at the back of the hall suddenly caught his attention. Something was hiding in the shadows. Hank couldn’t think what it was, and thought it was his imagination until the caught the glint of yellow eyes in the gloom. The eyes; that clever, knowing look he’d seen a number of times before. It was Thom! The little creature had curled up into an alcove in the wall, and was avidly watching what was happening below it from relative safety.

But instead of feeling pleased that the creature was safe, it just made Hank even more afraid. Dungeonmaster’s words echoed round his head: Be careful who you help. There are those who are lost, those who are found, and those who are neither!

How much did they know about the little creature anyway? Thom hadn’t helped them out of compassion; that was now obvious. Perhaps he had wanted this to happen and the Demon to be released...

His attention was abruptly dragged away from Thom by a cry of surprise from Venger.

The Demon had taken a step forward, away from the Locked Portal. Hank could see the lines of green magic being drawn out from the gateway and coiling around the Demon like smoke.

‘What have you done?’ hissed Venger in shock. ‘N-none may use the power of the Void!’

The Demon ignored the question. It was staring at the Arch-Mage as if he was the only thing in existence. Slowly, it and drew itself up to it full height, so it towered three times in height over him. Then it sent out a huge, green ball of magic directly at it enemy. Venger, though prepared, was unable to withstand the blast. He fell to his knees, as if his magic and his strength was being sucked out of him.

But Hank wasn’t sure what happened to Venger next, as he wasn’t watching the Arch-Mage. Through the brilliant green fire, all Hank saw was the glowing, red-wrapped pile of weapons that fell from Venger’s hand. The bundle bounced once on the floor, rolled forward for a short way then split apart, scattering the weapons on the ground close by him.

He stared at them, eyes wide for the tiniest of moments.

It was their only chance.

Within a second of the weapons hitting the ground, Hank was running forward towards them. The Demon was too concerned with Venger at that moment to bother about the children.

It seemed that all of his friends had the same idea, even Eric, and they converged where the weapons lay. Each one of his friends grabbed their weapon and backed away, as quickly as they could. Much to the Ranger’s relief, his Bow hadn’t been drained of its power by Venger. As his hand closed round its familiar handle, Hank felt better. At least now they could defend themselves!

Beside them, the green fire died away, leaving the Arch-Mage lying on the ground, his powers now exhausted. But something else had fallen as he’d had been overcome: The Key. It lay glinting on the ground. Hank saw Venger glance down at it, and he was sure Venger shuddered.

The Demon strode forward, sending a waft of putrid air towards them. It reached down to the fallen Key and delicately picked it up between two of its claws. It placed the Key into the palm of its other hand, and crushed it. The small shards of metal tinkled to the ground.

Hank’s heart went colder than ice, and he heard Sheila choke back a cry. After all the trouble they had gone to, and all the dangers they had faced, to get the Key and get home. It was gone in less than a second.

‘My dependence on material objects is broken!’ the Demon said, crowing at Venger. ‘The gates of the Portal are destroyed, and power flows freely out of the Void! You can not stop me!’

Beside him, someone touched his arm, and gripped it tightly. He knew it was Sheila before he turned to look at her.

‘H-Hank? W-what we gonna do?’ she said.

She had never looked so vulnerable before, or so pale, or so frightened. He desperately wanted to hold her, and tell her everything would be ok. But he couldn’t get the words out.

They looked at each other, and for a few moments nothing else in the whole world mattered. It was his decision to bring the others here. They still had to keep alive, even if they couldn’t use the portal!

He looked at it, with the blurring, fast images, the blinding glow around it and the tendrils of magic that crept out of it. As he stood, his thoughts blurred like the images did. It was a huge portal, bigger than any other he had seen. Not only that, he could make out images of different places, and what seemed like different times. After all, this portal could take them anywhere. This was the same creature that had attacked the city before, Hank was certain, the one “imprisoned” by the Knight. Could it have been imprisoned within the portal itself, as the ultimate deterrent against its use?

That didn’t matter! Now the Key was gone, and the portal was jammed open. The Demon could come and go as it pleased, it had no restrictions. What was it that the creature had said? “My power flows freely out of the Void”?

Inspiration hit him full force: Maybe that was its weak point.

Suddenly, the creature whipped round to glare at the Ranger, the venomous glare that it had used on Venger hit him, full force. Hank wobbled; it felt as it his will to live and breath had suddenly gone.

‘Hank?!’ said the Thief.

He knew that voice. It was Sheila. It was Sheila.

But the Demon seemed to know what he had been thinking. He looked at it, and he knew it knew what he had been thinking. And it was suddenly furious!

A ball of green light formed in its right-hand claw.

He had nowhere to run, and there was nothing left to do, so he lifted the Bow and fired as many times as he could, not at the Demon, but at the Portal beside it.

Someone screamed as green light filled his vision.

One moment he was standing, and the next…

= = =

If he had been better prepared, this fiasco would never have happened! If he had watched the signs more closely! If he had just been more careful…

The look on the Ranger’s face had been too distracting. The crushed, furious and helpless look on the face of the young man was the most beautiful sight Venger had seen in a very long time! That was all it took.

From the moment he had set foot in Ur, he had ensured he had not attracted the attention of the sleeping Demon, and now, just at the very end, just at the last moment and on the cusp of victory, he let his concentration slip!

But the fury did not last. Even as he faced the Demon, he knew he could never win.

Then came the fear. Memories of the Graveyard of the Dragons flooded through him. That same, glacial fear that he’d had as he’d looked at the Ranger and had seen his own death.

Had he been at full strength, he would have been unable to match his power with that of the Void; since the Demon of the Dark was using to his own ends, there was nothing he could do to stop it!

But even with the whole power of the Void it was still unsatisfied. Draining Venger’s own power was a tactical ploy; he would have done the same in its position, to ensure his enemy was unable to retaliate.

But draining the power of the boy was different. The Demon was taking his life-force away to add to its own. That was all it wanted: Power.

This was a familiar battle; a battle for power, as with Kelek. It was the only thing the Demon seemed interested in.

Even though the situation was perilous, Venger had still felt some small pleasure at the Ranger’s predicament. He had glanced up, to see the Ranger standing fearlessly, firing at the Demon, distracting it from its final purpose in his own destruction. Sacrificing himself to save his Arch-Enemy!

Unbridled, uncontrollable rage filled had Venger as he looked at the young man. How dare he! HOW DARE HE PRESUME SO MUCH!

Then Venger had looked more carefully.

He was wrong… the Ranger was firing at the Portal…

Green, sickly magic from the Demon caught the Ranger and he fell, the Bow clattering to the ground beside him.

The Thief screamed. The Barbarian and the Magician just stood there.

It was the Cavalier who reacted; with a feral cry like that of a true Knight, the young man ran forward at the Demon. The Shield glowed with a brilliant white light.

It was the catalyst the other children needed.

But it was useless.

Venger knew it. They would merely destroy themselves in the effort.

Was that the Ranger’s plan; to destroy the Portal? How had the Ranger conceived of such a foolhardy, dangerous, and wasteful idea! The portal was everything they had ever dreamed of. It would send them back, to the correct place and the correct time. And they were trapped in Ur if they didn’t use it.

Yet the Ranger was still ready to risk all for the good of the others; ready to destroy anything, even their only way out…

Venger frowned. Was that the secret of their success? Was that why he never seemed to win against them? The Ranger was ready to give everything to stop the Demon; the way home, his life, the lives of his friends.

He looked at the children with a new understanding. This quality, this need to do “right” was something they all shared. He had seen it before, but he had never really understood what it meant. Until now.

The Demon was looking at the fallen Ranger, as the magic consumed him.

While it was concentrating on the Young One, the Arch-Mage could act one more time. He knew what to do; it would be relatively straightforward. His hatred of the Young Ones, and their Leader in particular, still burned as brightly. But there would be other times to defeat them.

If he was going to act, it had to be now.

If...

= = =

Chapter 5

Chapter 3

The Pont of No Return Part II

 = = =