Well, not on their side

Ashcroft Academy, Teacher’s parking lot, 17:16 PM

Something big was going to go down today, James felt it in his blood. Newman hadn’t been around for the day, and the Gjoskenholm girl had been eyeing him suspiciously… Did the boy somehow discover James’ plan? Was that why he hadn’t been in school, or was it something entirely different? Either way, James felt tonight was somehow important.

Well, not just because of whatever Newman did, but also because of the task he had been given by his father. He had finished his experiments on one of his subjects, and now it was time to test it out. The first test should be to see if she was able to operate on her own. He would need some new food sources soon, so she had the task to guard the Barrier while he was absent.

Currently, he was standing in the parking lot of the Academy, waiting for that test subject to be delivered to him. He had been waiting for 20 minutes now, and slowly, he was starting to get irritated. Why did he have to wait for someone like that anyway? He was supposed to look for Newman right now.

As he was starting to visualize the bloody dismemberment of whoever would drop off the subject, a dark sedan with tinted windows drove in from the street.

’Well, the lamb has come to the slaughterhouse.’

The car stopped directly in front of him, and the trunk opened up to drop a long container not unlike a coffin on to the floor next to James. Was this idiot…? Looking into the driver’s window might have been difficult, but the fact that the driver’s jaw was missing made it obvious what was going on… Father had sent some minor undead to do this job…

That was certainly the style of his father…

Once the trunk was closed again, the car took off at a stupidly fast pace, leaving James on the parking lot with the coffin containing the presumable test subject. Thankfully, he had expanded the Barrier so that he could get in and out without too much suspicion.

Picking up the wooden container was easy, and carrying it into the Barrier was as well.

Now, where was that Newman?

Ashcroft Academy, Student’s Parking Lot, 16:45 PM

“So what’s in that Barrier?”

“I don’t know.”

“Like, is there a necromancer there?”

“I don’t know.”

“Ooh! Is it a vampire? I liked kicking the butts of those yesterday!”

“What part of ‘I don’t know’ do you not understand? John messaged me yesterday saying that something irregular was going on at the school and asked if I could help him. All I know is that it’s a Barrier filled with replicas of students from the school. That was strange enough to me to warrant a look.” Kim was slightly annoyed by the perpetual questions of her friend at this point, but she couldn’t fault her for doing so.

“Sounds weird… When is he supposed to show up? I wanna go in now...” Kaen was the same curious and brash person that she always was. While it certainly was refreshing in contrast to the usual Abyssal person being mostly grim and paranoid, it also led to problems more than once. At least she was very much aware of the repercussions it would bring if she didn’t wear her enchantment disguising her as a normal human...

“He said that he would be around sometime after school; he didn’t specify it further.”

“Soooo.... You have no idea what’s going on, no idea when he’s coming, and probably no idea if he’s bringing someone with him?”

“That’s… accurate, yes. Why?”

“Screw it! I’m going in!” And with that, Kaen disappeared into the Barrier without another word.

Sighing in exasperation, Kim had to follow her. But she would at least leave a message for John so that he knew what was going on.

Kim [16:46]: Kaen already went into the Barrier, I will provide her with backup, we will meet up inside if I didn’t drag her out until you arrive.

With that out of the way, she entered the Barrier herself.

Or rather, what she thought would be the Barrier.

A moment later she was standing on a grassy plateau outside of some kind of spiritualistic building, and judging from the wide view of a sea of clouds behind her, she was pretty sure that this structure was very high.

This seemed familiar…

Indeed, it seemed very much reminiscent of the Barrier John had dragged her into when the two of them met first. Ironically, when he was doing something unusual at school. There were some distinct differences between the Barrier then and the Barrier now, though. Back then the sky was clear and the weather was generally nice, while now the sky was extremely dark and everything had a very gloomy feel about it. Not only that, but the overgrown structure that they had explored the last time was different as well. Where before there was unhindered wild growth, now everything was dead, deprived of its life. With the exception of some lights flickering in the windows of the structure, faintly lighting the place in an ominous orange.

Was this what John had been talking about? If so, where were these replicas of students? Something didn’t feel right here…

Kaen was standing just a few feet away, marveling at the structure. “Aaaaaawesome… Is this what John meant when he said something was going on?”

Stepping next to the smaller dragonkin, she looked up at the building, “I somehow doubt that… Either this is something John has done himself and something happened to it or it’s something different entirely, but it doesn’t add up with what John had told me… Why would there be replicated students here? It doesn’t make sense… We should leave this for now...”

Kim grabbed the disguised dragon and tried to leave the Barrier.

Keyword ‘tried’.

Because they were still standing on the mountain plateau a moment later. The rumbling inside the building told her though that something had happened. Indistinguishable screams echoed to the two of them through the windows of the second story.

“Uhhm…. Are we trapped?” asked Kaen, unsure about the situation.

Sighing, Kim nodded, “It seems that way… if I remember John’s words correctly, then we have to defeat whatever enemies we encounter here, if this is actually his Barrier… So… get ready to fight, I guess.”

“Yusssss!” Pumping her fist into the air, Kaen’s illusion wavered, and in its stead was now standing the small, blue skinned dragonkin, happily swishing her tail back and forth. Her outfit changed as well, no longer wearing a school uniform but her dark blue scale armor and gauntlets, ready to jump into any fight.

Kim herself didn’t really change her clothes but activated an ingrained enchantment on them, making them both lighter and more robust.

As the two of them were done ‘changing’, something hit the wall of the first story closest to them. And it apparently hit really hard, as cracks started to appear in the wall, sending small pieces of the wall flying. A second later, something broke through that spot, flying into the direction of the girls.

Sidestepping the projectile revealed it to be a red furred wolf, limply flying through the air, hitting the ground behind the two of them. Looking at it revealed it to be dead, evident by the way its neck was bent. Out of the hole of the wall, a man charged the two of them, screaming indistinct words at them.

The man was dark skinned, so extremely that it actually seemed unnatural; he was in a top-notch physical shape, bald, and tattooed over his entire body. He wasn’t wearing anything to cover his torso, but heavily spiked gauntlets adorned his arms, and a wide pair of pants covered his legs, reminiscent of a monk. But not only the pants, the heavy chain of beads around his neck and the charms hanging from his waist were also supporting that look. However, the eight glowing skulls around an ornate ring out of unidentifiable material made him seem very much not like a monk…

Charging into them with a glowing staff in his hands, Kaen deflected the weapon while Kim kicked the man in the head, sending him rolling. The two of them had been fighting alongside for years now, so they both knew how they could tag-team someone.

Sadly, their opponent seemed to know how to get some reinforcements as well, sending one of the skulls into the downed wolf. Before the two girls could do anything, the wolf rose from its spot, neck still angled in a unnatural and sickening way, and ignited itself in red fire.

This was going to be a headache, Kim was sure about that.

Ashcroft Academy, Student’s Parking Lot, 16:50

The two motorcycles made their way onto the parking lot designated for students at the school. Parking them close to the school building, John waited for Aloy to dismount first, leaving her helmet there with him. “So this is a… school? What do you do here?”

Brunhilde joined Aloy while John was still busy packing away the gear, “Mostly bore yourself out of your mind and learn shit that you’ll never need again.”

Aloy looked at her, “So it’s a place of learning? How to hunt? How to cook?”

That got a laugh out of both Brun and John, who by now had joined the two girls. “Yeah… no. We don’t need to hunt anymore in our world; we mostly just… trade with other people who do that kind of thing for us. Schools are mostly there to teach the things you might need most in the future, which is reading, writing, maths, history, that kind of thing.”

Slowly nodding, the redhead answered, “So it is a more expanded thing we do with our children; we call it ‘growing them’. And this school is for the older then?”

“Yeah, at this school, people our age would go to learn more advanced things that would help them in their future studies. Speaking of, I have gotten a text from Kim that the two of them already went ahead into the Barrier because Kaen didn’t want to wait on us…” John said as he was looking on the pop-up on his screen.

“That Kaen girl sounds like someone after my own tastes, so then, let’s go in. Lead us to where we need to, Mr. Fateweaver,” Brun jested.

Leading the two of them over to the place where he had last entered the Barrier, he took a look at his Master’s Eye so that he would appear in the right Barrier.

The data from the Eye was… odd… to say the least. There were two Barriers with each two people in them…

’That’s not right…’

Something bad was going on here…

Not wanting to waste any potentially important time, he took the hands of both of his companions and jumped into one of the Barriers.

A second later, he was looking at the same abandoned building he had looked at yesterday evening, the two girls still standing beside him.

Auditory Atmosphere Supplement Activated. Now Playing: Nox Arcana - Doomsday

Both Brun and John immediately changed into their combat gear, leaving Aloy in her new clothes, which would likely supply just as much protection as her old ones though...

“Okay, we’re in the right Barrier, but something seems to be wrong… There was another one with people in it… We should keep looking through this as quickly as possible and find Kim and Kaen. I really don’t like to be split up.”

Brun nodded beside him, adding, “First rule of surviving horror movies and RPGs, never split the party… And this kinda looks like both… something in here really gives me the heebie jeebies.”

The redhead archer shared that sentiment, “Agreed, something feels vile in here…”

He looked at both of them, “Huh, so it’s not just me… okay, let’s get in, we should cover the obvious spots like the basement first; hopefully the others were thinking that far as well.” He then jumped into the broken window above them, dropping the Magic Rope down below so that Aloy could get up. Brun obviously used her magic powers to get up there with him.

Once everyone got up there, John led the way to the closest staircase to get down into the basement. If he were to do something questionable inside a school, then he would choose the most hidden and shut away place in the school, which would likely either be some kind of bigger storage room or one of the rooms filled with the plumbing, heating, and electricity. And most of those were located in the basement of the school. He knew that because a) common logic and b) he had hidden in one of those rooms one time to avoid the ire of one Frank Dickinson on a particularly bad day.

Those days seemed so far now, standing in no contrast to his new life.

As the three of them walked through the corridors, Aloy looked at the destroyed replicas of the students with horror in her eyes, “Who would do such a thing?”

Brunhilde had quite the answer for that, “Sick people in the Abyss that think they can get away with anything scott-free. Sure, these seem to be robots, but the scenery doesn’t seem to be anything chosen randomly… something was going on here... “

“Yeah, and that’s what I want to find out in here: what is going on here,” said John, intent on getting downstairs. It concerned him that he had not seen anything from Kim or Kaen yet… Making sure that they were here, John sent Kim a message, hoping that she would be able to receive it and answer him.

John [17:05]: Hey, so we’re in the Barrier now, where are you guys? Did you check downstairs? Please answer ASAP

Not wasting any time, John kept the message window on his UI while they slowly walked down the stairs. The message seemed to get through, but Kim didn’t react to it. Maybe she had her phone on silent?

Or maybe there was something wrong? Did the Eye only count alive people that came from outside the Barrier? What about things that spawn inside a Barrier? Was there something here? Did something attack Kim and Kaen? His head was going to places he didn’t want it to go...

“Okay, something is really wrong. Kim doesn’t respond to my message, and I’m not sure if there is anything else in the Barrier. We should hurry up a bit… I know I just said we shouldn’t split up, but this really freaks me out right now…”

Brun put a comforting hand on his shoulder, “Dude, calm down, it’s not helping anyone if you’re freaking out now. Clear your head, breathe in deep. We have that ability from your Bond skill where we can communicate telepathically, right?”

Taking a deep breath, John slowed down for a second, “Yeah… Well, you can communicate with me at least… I can relay any messages though.”

“Good, then we’ll split up in two groups, you bring out your pets and use their skills for your advantage and check the basement; I’ll take Aloy, and we’ll check the ground floor. That way, no one is actually alone, always have backup, and we can immediately communicate.” The way the valkyrie talked made it apparent that this wasn’t the first time she had to deal with something like this.

“How…?”

“What? You think I’m just a blonde bimbo? Dude, I’ve lived my life as a Valkyrie; we do this kind of shit all the time. We’re not SWAT levels in this kind of situation, but we know how to sweep and clear. I’ve been drilled with this kind of stuff for years now. I wanted to let you have the lead, but you were losing your marbles.”

That actually made sense… Sure, she could fight, but John didn’t really consider the actual methods the Valkyries used to deal with their jobs. “Right… Sorry… This shouldn’t shake me like it does… I’m really on edge right now…”

Taking a moment to calm his nerves, Brun planted a big and heated kiss on his lips while gracing his groin with her hand. Once their lips separated, she smiled at him, “Well, why do you think I’m the way I am? Thinking about sex takes a lot of edge out of a situation. Being paranoid barely helps you and only wrecks you in the long run.”

“I’ll remember that,” chuckled John, pulling out his Nexus card and pushing it into the gap between the stair railing and the wall. Immediately, the black door expanded from it, and both Gary and Thorn jumped out of it. They noticed the tension in the Barrier, deciding to stick close to John until told otherwise.

They really were smarter than John gave them credit for most of the time, especially the wild wolf-dragon.

“Also, if you two encounter something that you can’t deal with, contact me and open up the Nexus. It should be the fastest way to meet up. I’ll do the same.”

Brun nodded her head, “Good point, bridging the way with the Nexus sounds smart. So, let’s get cracking, we wasted enough time!”

Filled with new determination, he quickly squeezed the hands of both Aloy and Brun, “Stay safe.” Both girls nodded with a stern look on their faces as they ascended the stairs again to check the first floor.

Now alone on the stairs with his small companions, John looked down to them, “Okay, let’s do this. Thorn, can you try if you smell anything down there?” He pointed to the bottom of the stairs, indicating to search the basement.

With a happy, affirmative yap, Thorn jumped down the stairs and started sniffing. After a moment, he loudly growled and slowly walked into one direction leading away from their current position. Both Gary and John followed the small wolf.

Hopefully, his senses were as accurate as those of a wolf…