I fall on my face and roll on the other side of the black hole. The familiar darkness sends a chill up my spine. How much time will I lose this time?

I get to my feet, finally noticing the enormous crowd in front of me. My kids, helga, the minotaur, cyclops, beastmen… and the dwarves?

"Thank the gods above you've finally shown up! How the blazes do we get out of here?" King Flintmane asks me.

I turn to see the portal still wide, open, just as I move to get back out, Apaki comes flying though, still chained.

Apaki, Lord of Lies. Level 71

The void floods with little sparks, the lost lights of souls. I can hear them, frightfully wondering where they are, what's happening.

Apaki looks up at me, an evil plan twinkling in his eyes. He strains against the chains, reaching out and grabbing one of the sparks. When he releases it, it morphs into a grotesque, roided-out orc, drooling from a huge underbite. It moans, clearly in pain, pain grows into anger, anger that needs an outlet.

Draugr. Level 71

It screams, charging me.

Three weapons, three clones, three taunts. The beast slugs Thozur, I wince and prepare to take the damage myself, but it doesn't come.

The last patch must have fixed my class! Fuck yeah!

My children start to charge in, but I hold my arms out to keep them back.

"No melee, we don't know what it's capable of. Immortals only." I tell them. Helga leaps over them, flying through the air with axes in hand. She lands blade-first in the creature's shoulder, earning a howl of pain from it.

My ranged children launch all sorts of magic at it, and Cararel shoots arrows. It almost seems boring by comparison, until she imbued them with magic, causing explosions, fire, ice, and more. I have to hand it to her, that's versatility.

With their assistance, the beast goes down. I feel sorry for it, or them, there's a human mind in there somewhere. As the body dissipates and leaves behind a skeleton, just like a player, my sorrow changes to concern.

Where is it going to respawn?

The answer comes immediately as it pops back into existence where it started, near Apaki. Grinning like a madman, the god warps yet another spark into a new grotesquerie, an already huge python that seems to be growing by the second.

Jörmungandr. Level 71

Thozur switches their attention to the snake, leaving Jellyfish and Earthshatter to deal with the orc. A hail of spells and projectiles rain down on the two monsters, bringing the orc down again, and slaying the snake before it grows too large. If you consider 'large enough to eat a man whole', not 'too large'.

For just a moment, our full attention turns to Apaki. His health drops like a stone, but halts at 50%. God damned boss mechanics.

His two creations respawn, followed by his latest monstrosity: an eight-legged white horse.

Sleipnir. Level 71

Earthshatter takes charge of keeping the horsepede's attention, leaving Jellyfish to the orc. My group and the hundreds of revolutionaries end their short lives, and bring Apaki to 1%.

"I've existed longer than the sun. I am older than time and space! You can't kill me, not now, not ever!" Apaki screeches, grabbing two sparks at once. The creature that forms is both a terrifying and sorry sight to behold.

Hel. Level 71

Half young, beautiful woman, and half rotting corpse, she wails in agony as she lashes out at Helga with unnaturally long and sharp fingers. Helga's health drops worryingly fast.

Samblar whistles to grab my attention, then tosses me his sword.

"I admit my reluctance to stand back and watch, but if anyone were to take my place in the frontlines, I'm proud that it is you, father." he nods.

I nod back, and taunt the witch.

Samblar's blade screeches and almost snaps at her assault, her fingers are sword-like themselves, nearly taking my arms off as I parry her. I silently pray that my companions can take her and the others down quickly.

Wait, who am I praying to?

She gets a few good hits in before she goes down, like dominoes, the others fall one after another, leaving only Apaki.

"I'll string your intestines from here to eternity… I'll erode the fabric of your reality… I'll…" Apaki begins threatening us with eternal damnation, until Kingmaker returns to me, having to go through Apaki first.

[Slephnir] added to inventory.

"Everyone out!" I call, standing by the edge of the portal exit. My kids, then the dwarves, minotaur, cyclops, and beastmen file out. The leaders and helga have stayed behind to see everyone to safety.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Just as we move to leave, the portal closes.

"Shit." I curse under my breath.

"Impressive battle, heroes. Though I find it dreadfully disappointing that not a single casualty was suffered. Let's fix that, shall we?" with an extended hand, Panopticon pulls Mournthing and King Flintman into the air before him. "One of these specimens will not be leaving the void, and to make things more interesting…" he plucks two sparks from the air and pushes them into the floating bodies.

"What the fuck?" Mournthing asks in a strange new voice. "Where the hell am I?"

"Holy shit, a talking cow!" King Flintmane exclaims.

"Now you'll be subjecting a 'real' person to eternal torment." Panoptican grins a vicious grin. "Choose."

I look to Farroris and Helga. They have a lost look on their face, I'm sure I do to. How could I choose? What kind of choice is this?

"Tik tock, Luke. who will it be? The monster you made and betrayed, or the lovable dwarf, whom has a wife waiting for him at home?"

"What are you talking about? I'm not married!" the new person inhabiting Flintmane screeches.

"Why am I this… thing?" Mournthing stares down at his hands.

Paragon Earl says: I just met the dwarf, and I feel like I owe it to Mournthing, but it's not them anymore, is it? How do I choose??

Paragon Helga says: I don't know, Earl. Go with your gut, because your heart won't answer.

I look into the eyes of the dwarf, and the eye of Mournthing. The answer's right there, isn't it? I don't think of Mountain King Bramrol Flintmane with his name, I think of him as 'dwarf'. I could ask them about themselves, figure out if one of them is a good person, but who am I to judge? There is no objective way to choose.

"Mournthing goes free." I go with my gut.

A low chuckle turns into a loud, open mouth cackle. The cyclops thinks this is the funniest thing In the fucking world.

Mournthing drops from the air, falling on his hands and knees. He rises slowly, and walks over to join us. The black hole starts to eject us, leaving Panopticon alone in the dark with his latest victim. He waves playfully, the bastard.

We land back in the city, hard. I spit a mouthful of mud as a gathered army waits for me to give orders.

"The final zone." I cough. "Then the Honorlord."

Almost in-step, a thousand monster-people march in the direction of the throne. My children, Helga, Farroris, and Mournthing stay by my side.

"Hey, uh, thanks, I think, orc man." Mournthing extends a hand for me to shake.

"Yeah, sure." I say. "Do you remember anything? From your life before, or any of your new body's life?"

"A little." he massages his temple. "I was driving home after work, I replaced old computers for a company's employees…"

"Your old name wouldn't be Jeff, would it?" I ask, holding my breath.

"It was!" he points at me. "My name was Jeff Wallace!"

Holy fucking shit ass bitch tits.

"Jeff! It's Luke, do you remember me?" I practically scream.

"Luke? What are you doing here? Is this a weird dream?" he wonders.

"Unfortunately not." I sigh. "I died and came back as an orc in this game world. We're in a game."

"You died?" he shakes his head. "Must have been after I got reincarnated or whatever."

My eyes go wide, and my heart races. How could that be?

"You… you might still be alive. I might still be alive." I realize.

"How could I be alive and in this game?" he asks.

"I don't know, give me a second to think!" I walk away and start pacing. Am I just a copy of Luke Walton? I never considered it before, maybe it was just too… I might not be a real person after all. Maybe I am just a line of code like the Monitor said. Son of a bitch!

"Earl…" Helga puts her hands on my shoulder.

I want to lash out, to scream, but I just hyperventilate. I might not be real.

"Earl, his mind might be based on an old version of himself. Don't get too worked up yet, okay? We've still got work to do here. We'll figure it all out later, I promise." She wraps her arms around me from behind, and rests her head on mine. "It's ok."

I hold her hands against my chest. She can be comforting when she wants to be. I get my breathing under control with her help.

"Okay. let's go." I say. The mount in my inventory gets added to my collection with a thought, and I ride it to the next section of the dungeon.

"I can guide our new friend, if you'd like" Farroris crutches up to me to talk.

"Yea. that would probably be best. Mournthing hated my guts before he got… I don't know, wiped?" I tell him.

"He was not fond of your methods, but he respected your drive, Earl." Farrois informs me, moving towards Mournthing.

"What happened after we left?" Halanaestra asks.

"Panopticon made me choose to save Mournthing or Flintmane." I inform her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, father." she says, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"There's a lot more but i don't know if you'd understand." I sigh.

"You don't think you're real?" she asks, having overheard me earlier I suppose.

"Right, it's complicated. Let's not get into it right now." I say.

She nods, and moves away.

We arrive at the upper district, the goblins made it here and have been waiting this whole time for the rest of us to show up.

Jack looks… overwhelmed.

"Let's get this show on the road, Earl! Before somebody gets eaten!" Jack calls to me.

I move to the front of our forces, eyeing down the final boss before the Honorlord.

Wauktug, First Son of Honorlord Mergigoth Dragonslayer. Level 71

"My brothers, my sisters. How many lives is enough?" he asks, seated on a mangy warg.

"I think two more ought to do it." I tell him.

"Do you honestly think anything will change? The Machine God will decide who leads after my father, and you mongrels will be subjugated, or more likely eradicated. You have proven your species are too simple to rule." he tells us imperiously.

"The Machine God?" I ask.

"Yes… our people were imprisoned for untold years. The world changed, and orc kind was stagnant. Honorlord after Honorlord smited by the human gods for daring to retake our place as the dominant species. My father sought a solution, he found it in a god outside of their pitiful pantheon." He exposizes.

"So that's what the Master of Spells meant when he said your father was a traitor." I say, just to get a rise out of him.

It works, almost as if I used Taunt. He charges me, I send my weapons at him, and an absolute fuckload of fighters descend on him. The fight is over so quickly, and he's so thoroughly beaten, it's like his brother that got turned to mist all over again.

No snide comments, no phases or percentile based mechanics. He's just dead.

He didn't deserve better.

Without a word, I step over the puddle of orc and march up to the front door of the Honorlord's keep. I command Thozur to knock on my behalf, and he turns the reinforced gate to splinters.

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