the alpha godAt around seven they all met by the same little yellow bus. Anna Sassin sat in the seat, arguing with Vrethie and Kai and Milo sat in the back, smoking a pipe with butterflies circling his blonde hair."Can I drive again?" Miaka asked, only to ease the obvious tension."Yes, thank you!" Anna said with a long drawn-out sigh "These guys hate driving.""Well, I can just teleport you know?" Kai said with a glare."Yes, but how will we get to the outlands?" Anna asked, mirroring his stare."Well if I drive, we are all happy, right?"Miaka regarded them all in turn, getting nods from all.She boarded the old school bus with a smile."All aboard for the outlands," she cried in a fake, happy voice like a bus conductor of the old days."Let's just go" Kai groaned as he took his seat.The bus lurched forward with a squeak and a hiss and was off, making tracks in the red dust."Where to?""Just go to all the stops," Anna instructed.Miaka did so, letting on an assortment of what se
11Miaka sat at the bar, not drinking.It wasn't that alcohol did no work on her - it most certainly did - she just did not prefer the taste of beer over the instant coffee they had on tap there.As she sipped her coffee, Miaka contemplated just telling the truth. The whole truth - not Eigens twisted versions of events where she was the bad guy.Kai knew she wasn't - as did the others present.Kai was drinking himself - though clearly not enjoying the mead on offer. He tipped the swill away and groaned, "This beer sucks titties."Miaka giggled as she sipped at her own drink - enjoying the flavour and the company."It isn't so bad," she said calmly.Kai smiled at her warmly for the first time."You aren't so bad," he said leaning in close, "Let's go somewhere private.""What for?" Miaka asked, knowing the answer before he winked and said it.Miaka looked at the others, all turning or murmuring in their sleeping bags."I guess it couldn't hurt," she said."Oh!" Kai said, almost waking t
12They slept together, doing it over and over until the sun came up to greet them."Don't tell the others," Miaka whispered into his ear as the others stirred and awoke one by one.Milo was the first to wake."Oh, don't worry little bit, we heard the entire thing." It turned out the others had only been pretending to sleep so they could listen in to the Alpha and Luna making love all night long.Miaka sighed. She had truly believed they had been asleep the entire time.Kai had not been under any such illusion and cared little about her misgivings."Oh, man up," he said, flashing her a devilish grin.She groaned and shifted, trying to ease the pain in her insides as the others laughed and joked at her expense.The pain was getting to a level that was no longer bearable."We have to remove that damn chip in your watch," Vrethie told her. "I can do it but it will hurt a lot?""What is option 2?" Miaka asked, rubbing her head."Well... option two is you return to PAVE and get your little
13Miaka swallowed her fear and asked him once again. "Please may I have my blood thinning pills?"Heparin it was called - when words had meaning at least.She fell to her knees, begging to cling to the life she almost wished would end. She had tried to end it many times over the last million years and failed at every chance she got."Please, Mr Eigen - God of mercy and blood?""I'm the Evil god of the dead now," he told her curtly. "The angel of mercy is at your sides."He motioned towards Milo. "Kill him and I will allow you entry into my chambers," he said, giving the healer a death glare."Please, no," Miaka begged, shaking her head in the negative. "I can't kill, you know this. I can never ever kill again."It was the truth. After Eigen killed off the real world, he started to kill his creations in the VR world shortly after. "Please just let us all live?" she asked kindly, eyes pleading orbs of blue and green. It was always worth a try. Always.But it never worked on him.He h
14Miaka entered the mating chamber with her betrothed - a mean-looking monster with teeth and claws. He had chosen this form to spite her.She took her wolf form also - a much smaller wolf of silver fur and small teeth."Please make it fast," she asked, plugging her brain into the main console.The main console connected her into his Eigen code - the code her game ran on.It was connected to her watch also, and she knew that if she could just remove it - the game would end along with her life."They will die too," he warned. "All 8 billion lives I have stored in my memories."The teen God was right, of course, but it didn't stop her wanting to do it. After a million years, all she wanted to do was die peacefully in her sleep."Don't do it," he warned."Please, can we just," she tried to say but he covered her mouth with his, sealing the deal with a kiss.He made love to her gently, not making it any harder than it had to be. It was all over quickly, and she could feel the baby growin
15The evil boy watched the others leave with a smirk before returning to his screen. All he ever did was watch - so he knew everything they did. He knew the baby was not his.He knows exactly who the baby belongs to - but he would never tell - not to you and not to anyone else (not even me).The baby will be revealed - but not until the end of the book, game, code, whatever platform, whichever way you read it. It will remain an obvious secret until the very end of this book.He is writing the book as we speak - his name is a secret also. Not Eigen or Miaka - nobody but the writer is aware - and she is asleep, it seems, as she types out these foreign words on pages and paper of old, fold upon fold, letter upon letter.She remains unaware as he follows her on missions and side quests - wasting the nine months she has on distractions.One distraction takes them over the vast blue-green oceans and seas....... on the boat they sit, watching the waves lap the shore in a lazy rhythm.Miaka
16The evil boy smiled - thinly disguising his glee as he led the other woman back into his home."If you want to live - you live here, as a cleaner," Kai told her.She nodded, sadly but with an air of arrogance. She was happy to be alive - but that was about all she was happy about."Can't she clean?" she asked, motioning towards Miaka."I have other things to do," Miaka told her off in a blank voice, taking a puff on her third cigarette of the journey. She felt like chain-smoking just being around the awful woman - the only other woman in existence.The other woman was beautiful, but as a normal human she had no real skills that were of value in the VR world they currently inhabited - cleaning as about all she was good for.Miaka injected herself with her meds before asking what their next job would entail. Surely it had to be something more fun than ferrying that annoying princess about?"So, what is next on the list?" she asked."Spiders?" Kai cried - reading his message from the C
17The poor spider, Miaka thought, watching Vrethie clean the little bug lady goo from his shoes.It did not need to die - not really.There were very few bugs left these days.Miaka sighed and looked up at the hot sun - another thing Vrethie could alter but didn't."Can't you make it less... searingly hot?" she asked him.He laughed. "What is it with the British and moaning about the weather?" he asked.Miaka shrugged. "I just hate this weather so much."Her small body, covered in a thin layer of hair even in her human form, was far too warm for anyone's liking - British or otherwise.She shrugged now, not letting him know how much it bothered her."Fine - burn for all I care," she said, taking yet another cigarette."Those things will kill you faster than the weather," he teased her."I guess I should quit," she said, squinting at the dimly lit cancer stink, dangling its ash into the dust. She stubbed it out and stood, waiting for her next orders.Her belly had not started to swell
Chapter 30The smug AI Gearry pointed at the bear warrior first before shifting his gaze to the level zero slave girl.He pointed with his index finger - "I choose that small slave woman to join us on our quests!"Kai and the others groaned but Miaka just nodded - assuming he would do something like that to hinder their process. He would do everything he possibly could to slow them down or ruin the game altogether. She shrugged and told the bear man to give up his captured women.The poor woman looked down, assuming violence was about to ensure - and she was correct.The large man stood up tall, showing off his extravagant height to its fullest. At over eight feet tall, he probably assumed that the tiny Gearry was nothing to him. But he didn't know Kai.Kai took a step forward and scoffed. "Her, you want us to drag her along with us as well as your slow butt?" he addressed the AI Gearry, ignoring the Bear man altogether. "Hey!" the bear cried. "You ain't stealing my woman without re
Chapter 29Chapter 29The first step was to recruit Milo and Jack - for they would need the unique skill sets of both of these players if they were to log into the system."Where do we log in?" she asked Kai."We can log in anywhere that has a portal. Like PAVE for example. All we need is a few VR headsets," Kai replied.Milo and Jack both agreed."We should definitely ask Anna Sasin too," Milo said. "She is pretty decent at the game.""Better than you!" Kai teased him.Playing as a healer wasn't easy - hence why so many healers had died after the game went from VR reality to real-world reality.Miaka had played a standard damage class, a Warrior and a knight but she had chosen to play as a female elf due to liking the look of the character at the time."We need to ask Eigen too," she said finally, realising he was the only one with the power or ability to monitor the headsets once they were all plugged into the game world.The group found their way to the entrance of the institute PA
28When Miaka, Kai and Jack arrived home they fought over the shower before deciding it was best that Kai bathe first, being as he was covered in the most blood and guts.Miaka could feel sand and mud permeating into every single one of her pores, but sat and waited patiently for the bath."You could always just join me?" Kai offered with a grin, but Miaka did not want to - all she wanted to do was get clean and wipe away the memory of that awful place.Some of the former enthralled humans followed them back, while some left to take their own direction in life, hoping that what lay beyond the hills was a better life for them.They thanked the group before leaving or following, and Miaka had introduced them to the leaders of the CDA before returning to Kai's home- her new home - to have a much needed bath.As she sat in the water, watching the suds turn brownish red, she wondered if they had done the right thing. What if the truth really was buried down there, waiting for some hapless
27The man glared at Kai with thinly disguised hatred before noticing Miaka. His eyes widened as he took in her beauty, and he immediately knew she was not a pretender like some of the other women in the cafeteria.He turned to her and took her hand in his."Au chantee," he said, trying to speak French. "You are not like the other toilers here."Miaka wanted to protest but felt her cheeks turn red as the vampire overlord kissed her on the palm of her hand. She was blushing as Kai and Jack pretended to vomit all over the place."And what, pre tell, brings a beauty like you to an ugly hole in the ground such as this?" He asked her.Miaka shook her head, wondering what would be the best excuse to give."I am looking for the singularity cause, the same as everyone else here," she lied, knowing that he, like all vampire kin, could detect her lies from a mile away."The CDA sent us to check it out," she admitted, much to the annoyance of her two wildly companions."Oh, come on!" Jack cried.
26As the spider dangled from her web, the onlookers stared up in horror. The spider, as horrible as she was, was not the number one cause of their dismay. A storm raged to the east and threatened to destroy everything in its path.Tornadoes, huge torrents of wind and lightning surrounded them, going for miles in every direction the eye could see."Erm, should we just run now... or..." Miaka asked nobody in particular."I think we should let the weather clear out the spider and run back to town," Jack decided. The others nodded in agreement."Yup," Miaka said, taking a few steps away from the huge spider and her web. "But what about the guy inside the web?""What guy?" Kai said, looking up and down along the strands of silk. A body sat between the two trees, completely wrapped up in silk like a human burrito. "Oh.""Help me!" screamed the wrapped man. "Please save me, she is going to eat me!"She wasn't going to eat anyone. Not after Kai was through with her. He ran up the web, usin
Vrethie smiled at Miaka and waved his hand before disappearing altogether. With a final wave, he was gone, leaving nothing but footprints in the red dirt in the space below where his feet had stood just seconds ago.Miaka, Kai and the new woman - Maeve - all stood in confusion exchanging shocked words and glances."Was he always a ghost?" asked the Maeve.Miaka shook her head in the negatory. "I always thought he was as corporal as the rest of us.""He was," Kai said with a grimace. "And he can't be a father to that baby."Miaka nodded.After all the commotion passed, Maika followed Kai to their home within the confines of the fair city.They dropped Maeve at the CDA homeless shelter before returning to the apartment in the centre of town.It wasn't long before the head of the CDA was on top of them, asking questions about recent events. Miaka explained it the best she could under the very odd circumstances.After a brief conversation, it was decided that Miaka would join Vrethie and
24"You think thebaby inside you belongs to Kai, but that is not truly the case," Vrethie told a very startled Miaka."The baby is mine," he told her in no uncertain terms.He had to be lying but all of his facial features and heart rate were set to normalWas he lying?Miaka had no clue. He had to be... right?"I hypnotised you and took you for myself," he said, openly admitting to what they both knew was tantamount to rape."I came inside you too, so that baby could belong to either me or Kai," he told her.Miaka nodded sadly, not aware of any other response to give to such shocking news. She knew there was always a chance his words were a lie, but had no way of knowing at the moment."What does it mean?" she asked. "Do you want to find out one way or another?""No," Vrethie told her with a sly smile, "I would rather it remain a secret if it's all the same to you."Miaka did not mind. It did not matter to her one way or the other. She knew the most important fact - the baby was half
23The dragon took a step toward them, breathing fire and stomping with its giant barbed tail spikes.Miaka, being helpless, threw herself behind the most powerful person - Kai.Kai picked up her tiny frame in one hand and jumped backwards, bumping her head on the rock as he bounced to avoid the tail and the fire."Please don't kill him!" Miaka begged him but it was no use.Kai placed her gently beside a tree before taking his war-god form - the beast.The Beast ran forward and smacked the dragon only once to subdue it."You can return with us or die?" he offered, showing what mercy he could afford without risking everyone present.The dragon sank to his knees, taking human form once again."Please spare us?" he asked. "Let us leave alive and I will give you all my riches and gold.""I don't care for gold or riches," Kai informed him. "All I care about is protecting human life.""You are not human, you are both monsters," Kai said truthfully. "I can't let either of you go free."Miaka
22A dragon!He was a god-damned, fire-breathing, humongous, large toothed dragon-kindMiaka had never seen a real dragon before and was as blown away by him as Kai was.Kai quickly jumped out of the way as the guy shifted, but even as a dragon, he was no match for a God.Kai - being a war God - had no real chance at losing any battle - dragons or not.Miaka ran to the small wooden stage to congratulate her hero, but her efforts were misplaced, she soon found, as the people of the town did not want to forgo the execution."We will kill her anyways," one person decided, and the rest soon joined in on the chant. "Kill the witch, burn the witch," they chanted."They really have no choice," the dragon told them after he shifted back into his human form. "If we don't we can never be free of her."She was lifted onto the executioner's block before them."Please save me?" she begged to Kai - God of War and Death.He shook his head in the negatory."Why did we come then?" Miaka cried in one