Location: Off-Grid Neighborhood — Safe House — Elijah's Room — Night
The story mode had ended.
Elijah sat back in his chair, the monitor's glow painting his face in shades of blue and white. His fingers rested on the keyboard. His eyes tracked the transition—the final cutscene fading, the credits scrolling, the screen dissolving into a menu that was different from the one before.
Multiplayer unlocked.
A notification appeared.
"Pay 9.99 to access Echo of Vaults Online – Battle Royale Mode. Unlock all characters. 7 days free trial for new players."
Of course, Elijah thought. Pay to win. Even in a game that hides the keys to the universe.
He reached for his wallet.
---
Tyla stood behind him.
Her arms were crossed. Her eyes were on the screen—watching the menu load, watching the roster of characters appear in a grid of portraits and names.
"You're paying real money?"
"It's an investment."
"In a game."
"In a treasure map disguised as a game."
He tapped his card number into the prompt. The screen flickered. A confirmation chime sounded. And the character select screen exploded into color.
Kira of Othomos. Field Marshal Zane of Borderland. Lys, second wife to the Crown Prince of Uxi. Mia of Anta. Fen of Netherest. Ron of Juda. DoubleJ of Utopia. Saluniyt of—the name was cut off, obscured by a decorative scroll.
The variety, Elijah thought. I couldn't figure which to choose. Each one had different stats, different gear, different starting abilities.
He scrolled through the portraits.
A woman in silver armor, her hair long and white, her spear crackling with lightning. A man in desert robes, his face hidden behind a mask of woven sand. A girl in flowing silk, her hands trailing ribbons of golden light.
"That one," Tyla said.
Her finger pointed at the screen.
Mia of Anta. Pale blue skin. Hair like frost. A dress that seemed woven from ice crystals, her staff topped with a crescent moon.
"Seriously?" Elijah's voice was flat. "I'm not choosing a female character. It won't look good if Wilder and Ericky find out. My whole mysterious persona will be ruined."
Tyla's eyebrow rose.
"Your mysterious persona."
"It's carefully cultivated."
"Uh-huh."
He scrolled past Mia.
Past Kira.
Past Lys.
His cursor hovered over Zane of Borderland.
Field Marshal. His armor was practical—leather and chain, no ornamentation. His sword was simple, single-edged, the kind of blade that had been used a thousand times and would be used a thousand more. His face was weathered, nondescript, the face of someone who had spent years in the sun and hadn't bothered to care.
Low profile, Elijah thought. No one notices the quiet ones.
He selected.
"EMI – Zane of Borderland – Ready for deployment."
---
The dungeon landscape loaded.
It was not beautiful. It was wrong. The sky was a bruise of purple and gray, lit by a sun that had never existed. The ground was cracked, dry, the color of old bone. In the distance, structures rose—not buildings, fissures. Tears in the earth that glowed with pale green light.
Sealed space, Elijah thought. A pocket realm for hungry ghosts. It looks like someone took a cosmic fantasy and forced it into a modern game engine.
His avatar appeared.
Zane stood on a ridge, his sword in his hand, his cloak billowing in a wind that had no source. The indicator above his head read EMI—blue, glowing, impossible to miss.
Other indicators appeared in the distance.
If08.
Ron.
DoubleJ.
Saluniyt.
Mindomi.
---
The voice chat crackled.
"Yeah, man, I'm gonna rock this," a voice said—deep, confident, the voice of someone who had never been told no.
The avatar for Mindomi appeared. It was tall, muscular, dressed in the ornate armor of Uxi—gold and jade, a helmet shaped like a snarling tiger. Its hips swayed as it moved—exaggerated, perverse, the kind of strut that belonged in a club, not a dungeon.
"I'm gonna rock it so hard—"
Another avatar appeared beside him.
If08. Female. Her armor was from Anta—a short skirt of pale blue, a bodice that shimmered like frost, a rifle held across her chest. Her hair was white, long, braided with silver rings.
She raised the rifle.
The butt of it connected with the back of Mindomi's helmet.
"Iuu," a voice said—female, sharp, annoyed. "What are you doing? This isn't a dance floor. It's a dungeon."
Mindomi's avatar stumbled forward, caught itself, turned.
"What did you do that for?"
"You were being annoying."
"I was being confident!"
"Same thing."
Elijah watched.
His internal thoughts were dry.
This, he thought, will be fun.
---
The dungeon was called the Hollow Depths.
It looked like a cave that had been stretched, twisted, pressed through a filter of nightmares. The walls pulsed—slow, rhythmic, like a heart that had been beating for millennia. The floor was slick with something that might have been water and might have been blood.
Lowest tier, Elijah remembered. Daemons start here. The cute ones. The ones that look harmless until you're surrounded.
A group of them appeared.
They were small—knee-high, humanoid, their bodies translucent and pale. Their eyes were black, empty, but their mouths were wide, filled with needle teeth. They floated a few inches above the ground, their limbs trailing behind them like ribbons in a current.
Spectrals, Elijah thought. Lowest type. Easy to kill. Annoying in groups.
On his mini-map, red dots appeared.
Dozens of them.
---
"Let's go," Mindomi said.
His avatar charged forward—sword raised, armor gleaming, his hips still swinging despite the terrain.
If08 didn't move.
She watched.
"What are you waiting for?" Ron's voice—calm, measured—came through the chat. "He's going to get himself killed."
"I know," If08 said.
Mindomi's avatar reached the first spectral.
His sword came down.
The creature split—not in half, into clouds. Pale mist erupted from the wound, and the spectral dissolved into nothing.
"See?" Mindomi said. "Easy."
He turned.
The red dots on the mini-map had multiplied.
Not dozens. Hundreds.
They poured from the walls—from the cracks, from the pulsing veins, from the floor itself. The spectrals converged on Mindomi's avatar, their mouths open, their needle teeth gleaming.
"What the—"
His voice cut off.
The spectrals swarmed.
His health bar dropped—green to yellow, yellow to red, red to empty. His avatar collapsed, its body dissolving into pixels and light. A ball of energy—bright, golden—rose from the remains and drifted toward If08.
It absorbed into her rifle.
"What did you do?!" Mindomi's voice was high, incredulous. "You pushed me! You literally—"
"You were in the way," If08 said.
"In the way of what?!"
"The spectrals."
"I was the one fighting them!"
"And you died. Now I have your ether. Don't worry. I'll put it to good use."
The other avatars—Ron, DoubleJ, Saluniyt—stepped out of the shadows. Their weapons were raised. Their expressions were hidden behind helmets and masks, but their postures suggested amusement.
Elijah's avatar, Zane, stood apart.
His sword was still in its sheath.
"Well," Elijah said, "this will be fun."
He stepped forward.
The spectrals turned toward him.
And the dungeon descended into chaos.
---