Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain

To the Lawmen on the approach, the bridge to their supreme leader had become an explosion of colors and dead brethren. The barrier-mandated bravery kept them charging forward even as animal terror began to gnaw at their ranks. The enemy was almost at the platform above and, if they showed signs of tiring, it was not evident in their efficacy or their pace. John’s feet were the first to touch that final platform—gold and decorated with massive reliefs of the Vantage word for “SACRIFICE”—and his eyes were the first to see the enemy’s front door.

The entrance was flanked by pelos shaped into curved silhouettes, each robed and shaped in reference to the three Humans. Their eyes set with glittering gemstones blue, green, and red, the first of them looking down over the double doors they guarded. Yulie and Fairy landed on either side of their master, though both turned their eyes towards the oncoming reinforcements. Fearing a booby trap, the Gamer took a step towards the door and scanned it.

Fortress Outer Shell Door: a door made from refined pelos crafted on the First Disk by Heutok Designs. Can be opened remotely.

Outer shell… well, it’s a fortress, right? This visual layer is probably just the first wall of magical metals someone would have to get through if they wanted to siege it...

<But they weren’t counting on you, Master, and your bold use of the front door!> If Lily meant to encourage John, it did little: they were probably walking into the best defense this enemy could muster with their runes and bizarre, archaic tech. <I-I believe in you!>

Well, she can’t lie to me, so there’s that...

A cheerful “mmhmm!” filled his mind as Lily beamed.

This also means she can still use the psychosphere...

<And we can still hear your commands, yes, yes,> Fairy grumbled mentally, <now blast this door already! I’m tired of this backwater, swamp-ass Kingdom!>

The party had crossed the short platform, half of them huffing for air after the brutal march upwards, the other half too sturdy or monstrous to be winded. The status window showed Tita’s mana was only half-spent; the rest were various levels of drained, but overall most had retained their health. A quick headcount verified they were all present… and now Hurk moved to the fore alongside Miles as the door awaited.

“Don’t bother. I didn’t even use this thing yet, so I might as well use it now!” The straps groaned and slid as John shifted the disruptor cannon into a forward position, earning a respectful distance from everyone who was even near its path. Galley gripped the sword at her side; but for her sworn word, she might have insisted on a quieter approach.

The cannon hummed to life, relieving John of any worry that the Dignity might affect even this weapon. The ever-shifting cubes of the newly-birthed munition whispered towards the door after kicking back at John with enough **** to strain his makeshift mount. He remained upright and watched as it ignited upon the double doors and vanished them with a brief corona of violent green energy; there was no heat, no deformation of the surrounding metal, but instead the mere absence of doors within the ruined, expanded door frame. The mana battery blinked red to warn of its status, but John could barely note it: his eyes were now transfixed on the hallway of pale shades of white and gray that beckoned them inward.

A peace had fallen over the group after the disruption blast dimmed. Rave glanced around while Tricia recalled her drones back into her suit. “Did we really wipe out who they thought they needed to send?”

“Fucking unlikely,” Travolta hesitantly offered. A brief survey suggested Rave could have been right, however; no more Lawmen seemed to be on the approach.

“Then where the Hell are the rest?”

“Inside,” John guessed, “probably scrambling to get the Peak out or protect her with the best defense they can muster.”

“Doubtful,” Cidi shot back, “that would give up the strongest fortress of Vantage, the headquarters of the entire government, and every Lawman weapon she has stored inside!”

Golgon nodded at that. “Nevermind the nefarious toys Galgan the Rich makes for her; the Peak commands every rune in legion numbers, or so it is said. She is strongest here; she will not retreat.”

John nodded grimly. The Lawman Purifier and his Shapers were but one wave of the advanced Lawman equipment this Galgan made for the Peak; they had to anticipate more of the same from whatever gear a “Lawman Champion”—the highest-ranking Lawmen, set to protect the Peak in secrecy—would bring to bear. John had to hope his Eye could identify the greatest, new threats among them before they could hurt any in his army.

The party inched towards the blasted door, their attention drifting towards the unmoving Gamer. With a quiet sigh, he marched forward toward the unknown.

Beyond the widened doorway waited a scene not made clear until John got close enough to peer into it. He had expected something akin to the Lawman headquarters, perhaps with more pelos or decorations as every gaudy inch of the pyramid had thus far been. But not unlike the consoles in the ascension bridge, he was greeted by a more modern design… even futuristic. Gray-blue panels of metal with rounded corners made up the otherwise featureless corridor before them; every six feet and at both the floor and ceiling, lights ran along the edges of the hall in large, rectangular panels of glass. Something like an Earth-like HVAC ceiling vent could even be seen on the far end of the hallway measuring some thirty feet, a feature John couldn’t recall seeing in any of the stuffy Plate buildings he had encountered. Then again, they also didn’t have gemstone buildings or green gardens… maybe everything is just better up here, and best for the Peak.

The vent marked where the split in the hallway permitted only left or right paths deeper into the fortress; no doors or fanfare otherwise apparently greeted those who entered this place.

John had a strange sensation: that this was more like peeking behind the curtain than entering the great wizard’s hall. His sentiment seemed to be shared by his human companions, the first of which to comment was Rave. “What kind of cyberpunk Hell are we about to walk into?”

“This fortress’ design is clearly more advanced than anything else we’ve seen in this barrier,” Tricia offered before sending two of her drones inside. The two scarabs sung past John as they flew into the hallway and parked on the ground below the vent, each staring down one of the hallways. No defense systems activated, no runes exploded, and no guards manifested. The camera feeds from the drones popped up on Tricia’s arm: the hallway on the left led to yet another bend to the right some fifty feet in. The opposing hallway was flanked by what looked like doorways sealed with featureless white barriers that, if they were doors, bore no handles or creases to indicate as much. Beyond them waited what looked like an empty, sterile chamber of white whose only feature was an empty frame leading into a diagonally-positioned hallway. “The internal design is so inconsistent with everything we’ve seen thus far…” Something else gnawed at Tricia about it, but she couldn’t place it. The feeds and the hallway before her urged her to recall something, some clue-

“Is it safe to proceed?”

Tricia resisted the urge to nod; she found nothing, but that didn’t mean it was safe.

I don’t suppose this is familiar to you two? Zalla and Botuk continued to prove how effective the Peak’s segregation of the disks and Lawmen was with how little they knew. Surprise, confusion, and complete ignorance was all they offered.

“More reinforcements are coming… and in ****!” Mimic reported in Fairy’s voice.

The real Fairy, as if challenged, shot up into the air to get a look. “There’s at least three dozen more of the fucks trying to fly up here!”

“We go in, or we fight our way back down… and I’d rather take my chances inside, Gamer,” Rave urged. “At least we can use this hole you made as a chokepoint that way.”

The call fell on John again… but the alternative was long discarded. They had no way forward but blindly, powerfully, and with whatever surprise they could still use.

By the time the Lawmen had made it to the platform, their advised mission had failed: the Bitter Nines had achieved what was thought impossible, murdered thousands, and motivated the rebellion now brewing in the Plate below… as far as the Lawmen understood the situation.

The information was not kept to the Lawmen. The word spread like wildfire through the Disks… just as the runes of voting were being distributed, just as merciful voices began to quiet, and just as the Lawmen and their families readied to mourn their beloved fathers’ and mothers’ fall. The votes were beginning to come in… but the fates they decided were long decided. The Peak’s machines began their work… and John and his coterie were none the wiser as they walked into the bowels of the Peak’s “fortress.”

The hallway air was cold and dry, but it did not ignite with fire or binding rings, drop them into a pit, shrink to crush them, or anything else John half-expected once the actual bodies of his army began to file in. He had been torn as to whether he ought to lead and take the brunt of it or bring up the rear to fight off the Lawmen, but Tita made the decision easy with her bulk of tentacles and ****. With the moonbeast-elf at their rear and the group filing in tight, the claustrophobia of the hall began to settle in. It was only twelve-or-so feet wide; Hurk and Durr were dividers for the group in this space, and only Hurk up front could afford a decent view of the humans leading the pack of them.

The corridor simply and generously swallowed John’s party whole as they marched in, John in the lead. He stopped their slow entrance just shy of the hallway split as Tricia’s drones began to explore deeper inside. None offered words or grunts except Galley who sniffed the air suspiciously.

Yui casts Detect Magic.

John was ever more alert now with his notifications, enough so that he almost jumped out of his leathers on seeing one. He glanced back at Yui as blue-flickering eyes began to look around… and slowly widen. “Are there runes here?”

Thinking he meant her, Tricia replied while reading her feeds. “My drones have been designed to pick up any runes inscribed nearby, even those that are inert and waiting for a mana infusion, since that would be a relatively easy way to escape notice by most mana signature-based scans.”

Yui gave the floor to Tricia as she nearly pressed her face against a nearby wall. John’s eyebrow twitched, but he kept his disruptor cannon pointing at either hallway as he waited for guidance.

Behind him, Durr suddenly whispered, “You have strong hands.”

Hurk took a beat to nervously laugh at the sudden, awkward praise.

John continued to try to not think about it. Miles snorted knowingly.

“The hallways both lead towards a center mass, though so far no other doorways have been detected- ah, the right hallway ends on a door, although the door’s design is so uniform… no, this kind of construction shouldn’t be possible without-”

“Why… is this here?”

John and Tricia both flicked briefly over to Yui as she continued to seemingly goofily press her nose and forehead against the wall that interested her. In particular, it seemed she had found one of the thin creases between the wall panels, though there was no way she was staring through so narrow a line. All the same, another of Tricia’s drones crawled off her leg to go investigate.

John continued to crane his neck as he kept his cannon fixed on the hall. John waited to hear the hiss of some necrotic spell from Tita, but the Lawman’s renewed attack had not yet come. How far had those dozens of Lawmen been? “What’s this, Yui?”

“T-These walls are… are encrypted!”

Galley opened her mouth to comment, but refrained; instead she continued to inhale deeply as she tried to place the familiar, ugly smell in the air.

Tricia’s drone continued its march as she stared, dumbfounded. “Runic… encryption? No, that’s… unless they developed it independently…? No, the limitations couldn’t permit…” Whatever Tricia’s thought, it completed in her head as she tapped her console.

Tricia casts Mana Analysis.

“I-I can’t even see through these walls… it’s like…” Yui lifted her face from the wall to stare up at the ceiling. “Every surface is…”

Curious, John went ahead and scanned the wall directly in front of him.

“Sleek Living” T-Hall Joining Template XG-592d: magical structure; a wall manufactured by [identifying information encrypted; additional properties encrypted].

“What the…?” John accepted how different life above the Plate had seemed… but this felt altogether alien to the realm.

Rave lost her patience and urged Yui on, “Are they booby-trapped? Are we in danger? Because if we’re just blind, that hasn’t really changed much at all-”

“This is...” Tricia’s wrist-mounted display showed a stream of chaotic lines and equations flying at a rate John couldn’t pretend to follow. “This is affine-displaced manaweaving.”

“English, blondie, or else we should get moving before whatever the walls do ends up being done,” Rave urged.

“Por favor,” Rosa muttered, “something about this place gives me chills...”

“Affine displacement is... 20th century magecraft, arguably exclusively technocratic.“

“R-Right!” Only Yui seemed to follow.

But John at least knew one part of that didn’t add up. “Wait, 20th century? I thought you said the runes were from... way back?”

“Which way shall we proceed, John the Newman?” Only on hearing the worried, English mutterings did Golgon the Fool squeeze forward to join them. “The Lawmen cautiously advance, but I cannot imagine they will do so for long.”

John ignored the Ootuk for now. “So... did they just develop with humans in a similar way?”

“I can’t be sure, John, but... it’s unlikely. Every other example of magic we have seen has hinted on outmoded techniques... except perhaps those of Miles.”

Miles, who already had trouble following the conversation, shook her head. “Hah, I wish I had magic! But I never studied the runes, so...” Her words trailed off as the humans slowly turned to the rainbow-haired, energy-blasting, self-resurrecting hermaphrodite as they processed what she said. She blinked back at them. “What?”

No one addressed it.

“More… more to the point, their entire knowledge of magic doesn’t extend beyond the simbulu franca. They don’t even have a grasp of illusion barriers, so learning through investigative barriers could not have been possible.”

“Self-taught mages are nothing new,” Rosa offered with a touch of pride.

“Neither are liars; maybe someone up here does know how to work with barriers,” Travolta added, “and they’ve just been careful to hide it until now. Aren’t the levels of this place separated by something like them, anyways?”

“A barrier… ah...” Galley narrowed her eyes as she tried to focus.

“Even so, this would be the near-equivalent of a 13th-century monk drafting designs for the Hadron Collider,” Tricia tersely shot back. “I thought something seemed strange about certain designs we’ve seen in this place, but it was explainable until now, given the...” Tricia’s words trailed off as her eyes widened. She glared at the nearest light panel where her drone had begun to crawl; Yui followed her gaze.

“W-What is it?”

“That… that glass…”

“It’s also encrypted-?”

<Master,> Zalla had suddenly reported, <the Lawmen are being ordered to standby… they’re no longer approaching?> Her questioning tone matched John’s own confusion; why were they ordered to stop charging John’s forces? The futility of it had never stopped them before, and now that they were this close to their master…

“It is, but… I know that mana signature,” Tricia half-whispered, half-gasped, “ and that’s no light. That’s holo-!”

Tricia’s words cut off suddenly… at least, for John.

“That’s hologlass! Praxis holo… glass...?” Tricia flicked her eyes back at John as she heard the air shift… except the Gamer had disappeared in a blue outline of where he once stood. Miles, who had been standing near him, was also gone. Tricia’s immediate reaction was to wonder if Miles had finally betrayed them, suspect as she had remained in the Gorbachev’s mind. But a sweeping survey of the group proved it had been thinned beyond those two: Hurk’s bulk had become a similar blue sketch of light where he had stood, as had Golgon and Cidi. Near Durr in the back, the outlines of Zalla and Botuk had similarly replaced what they represented before fading away.

The remainder looked around in a panic. Travolta barked, “Trap barrier!”

Galley hissed through gritted teeth, “A Praxis trap barrier… it’s been years since I crossed them, so I couldn’t remember… but how? How did we miss them?”

The final piece fell into place in Tricia’s mind… perhaps hours too late. “Nothing on the Plate was theirs… except…” The disruptor cannon. Even John had no firm grasp on the rules of the resources and tools “the Game” gave him, but the inconsistency was based on what Tricia had seen of Vantage… and all she had seen was what the Peak probably wanted them to see. The “immovable” laboratories or guildhalls they no doubt constructed in the early days of whatever happened in this remote, permanent barrier looked nothing like the structures or outposts of Praxis today. They were in the dark… and their only real clue until now was that damned disruptor cannon.
Tricia quickly reviewed Opekuny protocol for dealing with Praxis’ attempts at **** or spying on Gorbachevs… for the brief seconds before she too vanished into a golden slit in space. Galley panicked as the rest of the humans had been scooped up and spirited away by the same, second trap barrier. She didn’t have Order backup anymore, and no Breaker Arms, to deal with Praxis… and if anyone could put a Soulless into the dirt without mana… “Two… no, three barriers, overlaying the same space… they’re splitting us up-!”

Galley turned to face the remains of John’s invading ****… except she was all that remained. All the monsters of John’s power had vanished, their places marked by fading, red circles at their feet. Galley looked through the ruined doorway… and saw no Lawmen approach. She was alone in what was likely an advanced fortress with only a sword she should not use and whatever Praxis left to guard these empty halls.

As if to answer that thought, she heard a crunching noise in the distance… as if one of Tricia’s drones had met an unseemly end. The muted clicking of a plated tentacle was followed by the sound of a small wreck being flung away as confident bootsteps came closer.