CHAPTER 35: DESPERATE

"Fuck this... There’s only one way out of this situation." I said as I removed Hailie from my hands and opened up the player’s interface.

[Friend Request Sent]

I typed in and sent a friend request before I could even think twice about it. My fingers moved on their own, trembling, betraying the sudden rush of fear and adrenaline pumping through my body. The name I typed out wasn’t one Hailie had ever seen before, wasn’t one I wanted her to see. Just a small hope in the back of my mind that if it went through, maybe, just maybe maybe we had a chance of being alive.

Why was I afraid of The Null Shepherd when I can’t feel pain and Hailie can’t take damage?

Because it never mattered.

When the interface flickered back to the world, I turned to her. My lips moved carefully, exaggerating the shape of the words for her to catch.

It’s okay.

I then pause.

We can get out of this.

Her eyes softened just slightly, but before that relief could even register, and before I could register what I had seen, the air behind her warped. The fog split without sound, like someone slicing open the skin of the world itself, going through the surface of the dimension like water.

And the Null Shepherd stepped through.

Its head, or rather, what supposed to be in that spot, was bowed low, hovering inches from Hailie’s neck. And she felt it, because her hair stood up and she looked at me with the eyes of a dying doe, almost going to cry and dare not to look back.

The void where its face should be rippled with something that wasn’t light and wasn’t darkness. Then, without warning, Hailie’s feet left the ground.

She didn’t scream at first, then she let out the most horrid and absurd sounds possible. The thing wasn’t choking her or tearing her apart physically, it was pulling her out.

The threads of her soul, luminous and jagged, began to bleed from her mouth and eyes, writhing upward like phosphorescent smoke caught in a wind I couldn’t feel. Her pupils clouded over, her eyelids flickered uncontrollably as if her body couldn’t decide whether to keep her conscious or just shut her down entirely.

Those inverted, gnashing white spines of the Null Shepherd that was supposed to be its ribs flared open wider, like it was baring its hunger. Every slit along its torso split into oozing mouths, each one whispering, each one leaking black, and those whispers weren’t even in a language. They were impulses, feelings, sickness curling in the pit of your stomach. Regret you didn’t know you had, guilt you thought you’d buried.

I froze as my vision tunneled. Every muscle in me locked up as the sound... No, not sound, more like the weight from the Shepherd’s presence wrapped around my skull. I’d defeated this thing once back in the PC days, it was the guild-wiper nightmares in Darkmoon Adventure, and I swore it was only a myth in VR version. But, it was ported over here, The Null Shepherd was here, and this was its breath on the back of my neck as its mind pushing into mine like it was carving out a space to live there.

And the question slammed into me like a hammer: Why is this here?

It made no sense, this was a Cleric + Warlock questline, there should’ve been low-tier corrupted fauna, maybe a mid-boss spirit at worst. The Null Shepherd was an end-tier anomaly, the kind of entity devs used as a last-ditch "you shouldn’t be here" mechanic for breaking into restricted zones, and yet here it was, in our quest, ripping Hailie’s mind to pieces.

"Is this your fucking anticheat?" I screamed.

I fell to my knees for half a second, just long enough to feel the hopelessness bite down.

Then I got back up.

Shield in hand, I charged.

The pacifistic curse still clung to my character like a chain around the ankle, but the shield I stole from Lion’s Parade was heavy, solid, and I slammed it between the Shepherd’s ribs and Hailie’s body, shoving with everything I had.

Thankfully, it didn’t trigger any damage, so my actions weren’t locked. But the thing didn’t flinch.

The chains it dragged scraped against the ground like a living thing, curling and snapping near my legs as if trying to threaten me with a horrible torture. The Shepherd’s void-face tilted toward me, and my stomach churned violently, vision swimming as its focus shifted.

That was when the friend request pinged back.

[Friend request: Accepted]

Friend-Only Voice Chat connected

The voice came through instantly in my ear.

"...It’s been a while, Cory-pie, did someone squat your username? Why is it CJS69Real now?"

I almost dropped my shield, my grip faltered for just a heartbeat before I caught it again. My throat tightened, both from fear, shock of recognition, and the stomach-churning implication of that nickname.

Oh god... I can’t believe we have to talk again... Not this woman.

"Build me a crosshair-tracker teleport chamber, top left," I barked into the mic, eyes never leaving the Shepherd.

"...You are serious."

"Yes, please, now."

"With this sudden request... it’s going to cost you, Cory."

The use of my name hit harder than it should have.

"Knowing you, no sane man or woman would ever accept that offer." I said, voice breaking just slightly, "Just... Gosh, just do it, I’m 30 seconds away from death."

The Shepherd’s ribs snapped shut with a wet clatter, and Hailie’s body convulsed midair. Her mouth opened wide, a voiceless wail tearing at her throat, and the soul-threads grew thicker, more frantic, as if the thing was now draining her senses directly.

"Hailie!" I roared, slamming the shield against the Shepherd’s leg... If you could call that writhing, joint-split length a leg. I tried to push it back, yet it leaned into me, and my vision shattered.

Colors bled sideways, every sound fractured into overlapping echoes, and my own heartbeat pounded loud enough to drown out thought.

It had taken Hailie, at least, a part of her, a part of her soul and five senses.

The stupid girl was panicking now. Her arms flailed, her hands clawing at the air, at herself, at nothing, the way she moved wasn’t Hailie or any human for that matter. This was a primal, animal terror; her eyes rolled wildly, her breathing uneven, each gasp scraping raw, she used all four limbs to scratch at things.

I knew what was happening. The Null Shepherd was scrambling her inputs, her mind was being fed an endless loop of false sensations, heat where there was cold, screaming where there was silence, light that burned like knives.

I pressed forward, keeping the shield between her and the thing’s torso, trying to force a gap. My arms shook violently, every joint ached like I’d been lifting for hours.

"Where do I put the motion detector again?" the Friend-Only voicechat inside my ear said, calm in a way that only made me more and more agitated.

"I don’t remember, just, do something!" I yelled

The Shepherd moved suddenly, jerking Hailie to the side while its chains lashed at me. I ducked, shoved, pivoted, keeping the shield angled to intercept, It was a dance I couldn’t win, against the toughest enemy ever, yet could only defend without offense, every second I bought felt stolen.

Hailie started to laugh.

Not the kind of laugh I knew from her, the soft, genuine one she gave whenever something joyful and splendid came her way, like how an animal would laugh at food. This was hollow, hysterical, the kind of laughter that came from a mind breaking under its own weight, tears streamed down her face even as the sound tore through the air in jagged bursts.

I grit my teeth and pushed harder, swearing under my breath.

"Done."

The word snapped like a gunshot in my ear.

Without hesitating, I dropped the shield and body-block, rushing for her, my hand clamped around her wrist, and I mouthed the words: hold on.

Her wild, darting eyes managed to lock on me for just half a heartbeat. I could see her trying to focus, trying to follow the command through the chaos eating her mind.

Slowly, painfully, her nails clawed into me.

And I rolled my eyes up to the top left of my vision.

The world folded.

The fog, the chains, the inverted ribcage, all of it smeared like wet paint, colors blending, geometry warping until it collapsed inward on itself. I felt my stomach flip as gravity inverted, then righted again in a heartbeat.

We landed hard on wooden planks. The air was still, cold, smelling faintly of ash and burnt logs.

A cozy cabin, isolated in a quiet wood with only bird chirpings outside alongside the squirrels. Shadows pressed in at the corners, but it was quiet, no Null Shepherd, no horror.

I kept my grip on her arm for a moment longer, just to feel the tremble in it, just to know she was still there.

Hailie and I were teleported.

The pacifistic curse still sat heavy on my HUD, the deafness marker next to her name hadn’t vanished either. We weren’t safe, but at least we were back in the real game world, albeit, I don’t know if we’re even supposed to be here or not.

And for now, that was enough.

"Nice to see you again, Cory."

The woman said, though, I laid flat on the ground, unable to see her, who was sitting near the doorway of the small cabin hut.

"... Ann." I said.