In the same moment, Anorak pulled himself free of the ground and pointed the Wand of Orcus at Og’s back. But just as he activated it, Og did an evasive sidestep at the last second, so his attack hit L0hengrin instead. A swirling black cloud issued forth from the wand’s tip and enveloped her avatar, disintegrating it and killing her instantly. Her avatar turned to black ash and vanished, leaving behind a pile of inventory that Anorak scooped up. Then he turned back to face Og, flashing him a self-satisfied grin.
But his smile vanished the instant he spotted the sword in Og’s hand. He seemed to recognize the ornate runes carved into its silver blade, because his eyes widened in an expression that could only be described as absolute terror.
Og held the sword aloft, then he teleported directly behind Anorak, who turned to face him just as Og swung the Dorkslayer around and sliced Anorak’s avatar in half, miraculously killing him with a single blow.
Anorak’s avatar slowly vanished, leaving behind the biggest loot drop in history. Og was standing right in the midst of it, so all of Anorak’s items were automatically added to his inventory.
But Og didn’t seem to notice. The moment after he killed Anorak, all of the color drained out of his face, and what little remaining energy he had seemed to evaporate. He began to sway on his feet. He dropped to one knee and clutched his chest. A red cross appeared above his avatar’s head, pulsing on and off in time with the sound of an alarm bell.
I knew what this icon meant, even though this was the first time I’d ever actually seen it in person. It meant that the user operating that avatar was experiencing a serious medical problem in the real world. When this happened, the user was automatically logged out of the OASIS, and an ambulance was summoned to their real-world location (if one was on file).
A second later, Og’s avatar froze in place. Then it slowly vanished.
Anorak turned out to be an AI of his word after all. When he died, his infirmware shut down, and the ONI overrides took over. His hostages around the world were released and logged out, and everyone woke up all at once, all around the globe.
I experienced two or three seconds of fleeting consciousness—just enough time to open my eyes, see the canopy of my immersion vault crack open, and feel the cool air outside hit my face. Then, due to the effects of Synaptic Overload Syndrome, and my complete physical and mental exhaustion, I immediately passed out and lost consciousness again.
Then I was dead to the world.
I didn’t wake up again until the following day, a little over fifteen hours later. I was in a hospital bed in the private infirmary on the GSS Building’s tenth floor. I recognized the view. Faisal was sitting by the window, in the flesh, smiling at me. He looked to be in perfect health. I shifted my eyes to the right and saw Aech and Shoto smiling at me from vidfeed windows on a monitor mounted above my bed. They were teleconferencing in from their own recovery beds, which were in their own homes. They both looked fine too—alive, healthy, and enormously happy. They had emerged from their immersion vaults in perfect health, without any lingering signs of SOS.
I realized someone was holding my left hand. I turned to see who it was and saw Samantha sitting there beside my bed. When she saw that I was awake, she squeezed my hand tightly.
“Hey there, Sleeping Beauty,” she said, just before she planted a kiss on me.
“Hey there, Prince Charming,” I replied once the kiss was finally over.
I sat up in bed and looked around at all of my friends uncertainly. Then I asked them what happened. And they told me.
For reasons I’m still not sure I understand, Anorak had told the truth. He’d programmed his hacked ONI firmware to suspend all headset activity once a user hit their usage limit, but to keep them logged in. This prevented all of his hostages from suffering the effects of Synaptic Overload Syndrome. Everyone had been released from their ONI headsets unharmed.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Og.
Samantha told me that he succumbed to his injuries just a few seconds after he killed Anorak inside the OASIS. It was like he’d summoned all of his strength to hold on just long enough to do what needed to be done.
“Og was too weak to operate his avatar with a conventional OASIS rig,” Samantha said. “So he told me to put an ONI headset on him. That was how he was able to fight Anorak.”
I’d already assumed this was what had happened. But hearing her confirm it, I was suddenly struck by a wave of grief. I felt my throat constricting. I couldn’t breathe. Or maybe I just didn’t want to. I was on the verge of breaking down into a gibbering, blubbering mess.
“Wade, listen,” Samantha said. “There’s more. Og gave me a message to pass along to you. But I’m not sure he was making sense….He told me to tell you he was wrong. Leaving Kira locked away forever wasn’t his choice to make. It should be her decision. He said you should bring her back and let her decide what she wants. And, if she thinks it’s a good idea, bring him back too.” She shrugged. “Do you know what he meant by any of that?”
The shards. They were still sitting in my avatar’s inventory. All seven of them. Waiting to be recombined into the Siren’s Soul.
I suddenly recalled something L0hengrin had told me—something she’d read in Kira’s module notebook….
The party has to collect all seven of the shards and reassemble them into the Siren’s Soul, she’d said. Only then can they free Leucosia from suspended animation. Once they do, she presents them with their reward. A powerful artifact with the power to resurrect the dead, and make them immortal in the process…
Of course, that was just teenage Kira’s imagination running rampant. There was no such thing as immortality. Was there?
My thoughts suddenly racing, I yanked the IV needle out of my arm and tossed it aside. Then I jumped up out of bed and began to put on my clothes.
“Hey!” Aech said. “What do you think you’re doing? You need to stay in bed.”
“I need to log back in,” I said. “There’s one more thing we have to do.”
“Are you joking?” Samantha said. “You just escaped from the OASIS with your life, and you’re already dying to log back in?”
“Please, Samantha,” I said. “There’s something I need you to see with me.”
She studied me for a moment. Then she gave me a silent nod and walked out of the room. I followed her out of the infirmary and down the hall, to an OASIS immersion bay that contained half a dozen haptic rigs used for physical therapy and rehabilitation. Samantha walked over to one of these rigs and climbed into it.
“Meet me at the Shrine to Leucosia,” I said, climbing into the rig next to hers.
“OK, but Anorak killed my avatar, remember?” she said. “It’ll take me a minute to create a new one.”
“You won’t have to,” I replied. “I stole my robes back from Anorak, remember? I can resurrect you! Just give me a minute before you log in.”
She nodded and gave me a thumbs-up. She was still in shock from losing Og. I think I may have been too. I wasn’t thinking very clearly, that’s for sure.