Volume 3.5 Prologue: Selfish Needs

“Don’t you dare say it, Arson. I swear to the Maiden, no, I swear on the very love I have for your mother, I will beat you silly if you sparking say it one more bloody time!”

Arson looked between all of his team and back to Troy; the threatening finger of his best friend still pointed directly at him.

Everyone had frozen at both the building tension in the penthouse they were all locked inside and the exclaimed threat. Khalif stopped packing the spacial bag he held with gold bricks. Rob stopped trying to unsuccessfully swim through the pool full of diamonds and jewels that left him floundering about waist deep with his lower half unmoving stuck beneath the weight of his surroundings. While the normally uncaring Xani even looked around wide-eyed with her fingers hovering above the virtual keyboard she used to hack into the penthouses security systems.

“But…”

"No, no buts, just shut up, and prove it, we are all locked in here because of your sparking plans, spark your bloody plans, just get us out of here!”

Khalif couldn’t help but snicker as Micro walked into the room and looked between the smiling Arson and the glaring Troy, saying the one thing that Troy didn’t want to hear in that moment.

“What happened, she sparked up because the plan seems a little off?”

Arson nodded slowly, wondering how much of his best friend’s threat was frustrated yelling, or the promise of actual violence.

“Hmm, well I’ve been there, more than a few hundred times so I get it, but you just gotta trust the—“

“Cro don’t say,” Arson tried to stop his friend, but it was too late. Troy roared, turning toward Micro as her veins lit with dazzling colors and charged the young woman.

“I’ve had it up to here with you!”

Micro smirked and Arson knew as Troy rushed her, nothing good was to come, as Troy summoned hard light clones of herself and Micro drew her blades. Khalif walked up to Arson still holding a bag full of gold and diamond bricks with his hand out toward Arson.

“Pay up, I told you this was gonna happen,” said Khalif. Arson nodded as he put a flash drive full of credits in his hand, thinking about the incidents that led up to this moment.

Is my revenge truly worth all of this…

All the actions he took over the last fortnight since returning from Endless flashed into his mind and Arson couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he watched his best friend and Micro fight, destroying the penthouse they were locked inside.

What, am I kidding? This has been an absolute blast…!

…A fortnight prior…

The vacation was supposed to be nothing more than a few days long. A quarter fortnight and Arson assumed his team’s issues would be solved. However, everything changed the very first night they’d arrived, after all the members of the Builders of Godhood took part in their first events, and they even managed to win their first team-based event.

The game of simple capture the flag in an abandoned neighborhood at the depths of RaidCorp Coliseum had captured Arson’s interest. The energies flowing throughout the place the game had been held drew Arson's attention completely, and the groups simple plans changed drastically.

They explored the neighborhood for quite a while, finding nothing. Arson could see that his friends had grown tired, and decided that they should either turn back or find a place to sleep in for the night.

They put the decision to a vote and none of his friends seemed to care that they wouldn’t be staying in plush beds, all just wanting a place to rest their heads, knowing that they could find a more comfortable destination when they woke up.

While looking for a place to stay, the group explored the dense underground of buildings far beneath the resort, and eventually came across an abandoned hotel with a locked front door. Some would say this was a completely opportunistic circumstance, while Arson knew it to be step one of his plan, to rob RaidCorp blind, sensing a lingering spacial energy entangling every inch of the building before them.

Before Arson had even decided to come to the resort he’d done his research on the best places to go for vacation. He had many choices, but in all reality, his decision was made the moment that he saw the rumors about RaidCorp Coliseum.

An entire discussion board site had been constructed on the HoloWeb, devoted to the mystery of the challenge the corporation gave to all of its competitors.

They were meant to climb what Arson thought to be 13 floors of dungeon-like challenges, stacked in between floors laden with events that served as entertainment for the rest of the resort guests who paid to stay and relax, rather than accept the challenge.

Arson suspected it was a scam before he’d even arrived at the resort, but absolutely knew it after finding the abandoned building that all of he and builders, now stood in front of, with the exception of Lane and Jasmine, who’d already left for the supposed higher floors.

This place is filled with dimensional pockets…

Arson sighed, sucking his teeth in annoyance. He dropped the monocle that he’d stolen from Almarine before he’d left on vacation, knowing that he would need something to bridge the gap between his Overlay’s undeveloped Analyze skill, and what he suspected would be hidden within the resort.

Stolen story; please report.

Thank the Maiden I did, not that Almarine may not murder me once she figures it out. He laughed to himself mentally and took a few steps back, walking down the buildings front steps backward as he took in the area.

“Come on, Arson, everyone is tired, can’t we just use some of the points we gathered to rent hotel rooms. This place is filled with dust and demons for all we know,” asked Troy, rubbing at her eyes.

“Just give me a moment, darling, don’t you find this place odd?”

The builders all looked at one another, shaking their heads, looking around at every other building, but not the one they all stood before.

Hmm, I wonder if they’d even have been able to walk up the steps if I hadn’t led them there?

His team’s gazes seemed to fall on everything but the solid structure before them all. Khalif and Rob stared at the crushed shop to the right. While Troy looked at Arson, Xani stared off toward the dilapidated pawn shop to the left.

How many formations must be inside this building for them not to notice it at all has got to be ungodly… would I even have noticed it without the monocle?

“I’ll be right back, just need to go check something.”

The group gave him nods, and Arson strolled off toward the back of the building.

The area had a multitude of shops, and different abandoned attractions, but Arson ignored them all until he found what he was looking for.

Is this going to cause me more trouble than its worth?

Arson sighed again as he looked at the large rune circle that lay with one half of its perimeter on the ground and the other up the wall surrounding what looked like an old fashion electrical breaker.

He timidly stepped into the circle and was relieved when nothing happened. The runic circle was unfamiliar to him in ways that sent his mind toward thoughts of traps he’d barely escaped while in Endless, but eventually his heart calmed after nothing was triggered.

He then opened the breaker box and saw an incredibly advanced wall screen, that seemed misplaced in the old building.

The surface was in the shape like that of a hand, with the eleven pointed star iconically known as the symbol for mana at the center of the palm. Each tip of the star a different color.

Arson raised his hand, then lowered it. Only to raise it again.

“What, are you scared? I’ve seen you fight gods, kid, come on, it’s just a mana scanner.”

Arson looked at Anastasia before he responded casually.

“Yeah, let’s ignore the fact that I was most likely placed inside the body of a demigod while doing all of those things. I guarantee you, Hercules is actually capable of far more than even that and is probably just unaware.”

“Yeah, yeah, hurry it up, I wanna see what happens!”

Arson shook his head laughing at his watch as he placed his hand on the scanner.

“Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me, please…” A message filled Arson’s vision while he chanted, and his brow furrowed as he smiled, both happy and confused.

*Available Overlay land slots 3/3, would you like to purchase Forgotten Shopping Strip 7 of …calculating number? Y/N*

“OOW, now this sounds like straight up and down fun,” said Anastasia.

“Or an absolute waste of our time…”

“What’s the worst that could happen?”

“It’s haunted,” started Arson.

“Zombie farm,” continued Anastasia.

“Evil princess cloning facility?”

“Torture laboratory time loop!”

Arson looked at his watch with a raised eyebrow.

“What, too soon? Noted…” Anastasia invisibly shrugged, and Arson thought momentarily.

“It may help us get up to the higher floors if there is a way to get more points inside?”

“We’ll never know unless we try, right?” asked Anastasia rhetorically, smirking up at Arson as he finally selected “Yes” on his Overlay’s prompt.

A lever extended from the wall beside the breaker, and Arson sighed for the final time as he pulled it.

Here goes nothing.

*Connection made, Available Overlay Land Slots 2/3, would you like to rename your new shopping strip? Y/N*

Arson gasped as an incredible amount of his available mana left his body, pulled through the lever. He tried to let go, but the runic circle around him began to grow in illumination. Vibrant lights turning on in all directions as more prompts popped up in his vision.

*Mana sufficient to repair all available shops.*

*Mana sufficient to maintain all formation systems.*

*Mana sufficient for access to available upgrade system.*

More and more prompts popped up, but Arson could no longer read any of them, as he passed out, still holding the access lever. Unable to see the runic lines lighting up, appearing from thin air all throughout the alleyway he stood on, connecting the runic circle around him to nearly every building that surrounded the hotel.

“Son of a… can you please stop passing out, my guy? Geez!”

“Hey, Demon-eyed girl, bloody sparks… what is her name again, Travis, no Troy!”

“Don’t act like you can’t hear me,” yelled Anastasia from Arson’s wrist.

“Troy!”

…

Troy pounded on the dome of translucent light that blocked her from Arson. She had no idea what was happening.

The buildings around them were being rebuilt brick by brick in an astonishing display of power. Power that Troy worried could only be coming from her collapsed best friend.

Even while she tried to break down the barrier between her and Arson, more and more of the surroundings lit. Internal energy systems restored from the dilapidated messes they’d been but moments prior, to become seemingly renovated structures in what felt like an instant.

“Do something else, you lowborn idiot!”

Troy glanced at the watch, already more than annoyed with the AI. While she’d been trying to get to Arson, the watch had done nothing but pander on about her supposed insufficiencies, berating her without end.

“Why does Arson even deal with that bloody thing’s mouth all the time? I’d have tossed it ages ago,” mumbled Troy under her breath.

“More useful than you, Timothy, and I’m no thing. Arson knows that above all else, if I were a mere tool like you, he’d have given up on me and moved on like he did with Cro,” said Anastasia calling Troy yet another of a near dozen random T names more commonly given to boys.

“What did you say?”

“You heard me, Thomas, now hurry up and get Arson out of here. If I have to do it for you, he’ll just be that much more assured of your uselessness…”

Troy’s mind scattered momentarily, a culmination of her own insecurities about Arson’s travels flooding to the forefront of her mind. There was so much he hadn’t shared with her since he’d returned, and even more that she feared could potentially break her heart after learning, especially regarding his time with Micro.

Anastasia’s words rang repetitively in her mind and a familiar sensation bloomed in her chest; Troy standing with both her hands spread flat across the surface of the dome that separated her from Arson. With each repetition of her thoughts came a growing anger, and a surge of incoming power, Troy unconsciously drawing on her and Arson’s connection.

“So he thinks I’m useless, and keeps you while all you do is try and kill him…”

Troy didn’t see the growing smirk on Anastasia’s face as the field of mana began to flicker. Her now distant scowl fixated on nothing but the building in front of her; cascading emotions swallowing any possible sensibilities like a tidal wave.

“You know it’s funny, I even told him that I tried to kill him before he and I were tossed into Endless, and you’ll never believe what he said,” prompted Anastasia, gaining a glare from Troy, pulling her full focus in her direction with every word.

“He said at least he could depend on me to test his power whenever those around him failed to grow alongside him, made me feel like I’m the only one he actually can depend on, you know what never mind, I got this…”

Anastasia’s words furthered the cycle of defeat and rage building in Troy’s mind. She couldn’t imagine what she could have done to gain the watch’s ire, but Troy didn’t care, only wanting to prove Anastasia wrong, she focused on the pull of power that swelled at her center.

“I’ll show you who is useless, you piece of outdated nuts and bolts,” muttered Troy. She couldn’t hear her friend yelling her name. She couldn’t feel anything, even as the influx of light pored into her hands. She didn’t even notice that the barrier between her and Arson had vanished, and that light mana was now being drained from her surroundings in an ever-growing torrent.

I’m not useless!

Then she was tackled. Khalif shook her violently to try and wake her from her sudden delirium, confused features crossing her face as the sounds of everything happening around her rushed back, snapping into reality in a blink of explosive noise.

“Good girl, just a little bit more and I can shut this trap down,” said Anastasia in a whisper. Her manipulation of Troy going completely unnoticed by the young Cultivator as she stewed angrily in the depths of her own mind.

“What?”

“Don’t “what” me, you’re gonna kill him!”

Troy blinked in confusion, until she looked over to where the others gathered around the slumped form of Arson. Between him and where she now lay were visible strands of various colored mana passing between her and him; the flow of power moving entirely in one direction.

Am I doing that?

Troy forced herself to withdraw from the sensation of power that moved between her and Arson, feeling briefly as if her body was on the verge of exploding with power.

She took a deep breath and felt her minds chaotic thoughts calm as she watched the strands of power disperse into thin air, once more looking at Arson.

She’d never seen him look so pale in their entire friendship. The sight of his crumpled figure making her heart race as it took her breath away momentarily. She couldn’t help the scream that left her lips as she scrambled to her feet in an alarmed panic.

“Arson!”