FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 12

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All the Ale

"I... I don't understand," stammered Nero, regarding the cat with confusion plastered all over his face. "You... You're a traitor? Why? How!?"

That was a question Ryker had as well. He hadn't expected AllAle's Chief Security Officer to be here let alone to be helping them. He glanced towards Takoshi who was eyeing the cat warily. Was this proof that the Custodes Libertatis was just like a corporation after all? Or was there something more?

"Who do you think has been feeding the _Libertatis_all the information that could ruin _AllAle_should it ever go public?" Elijah asked coldly. "Who do you think is the one that provided surveillance on each of you and your activities?"

It was Elijah. Who better to feed the _Libertatis_what they needed on troop movements, plans and the inner workings of the corporation but the Chief Security Officer?

The Libertatits had it's claws deeper in the corporations than he had first thought.

"You fucking traitor!" bellowed Tomahawk. "You killed Aileen!"

"I wish I could take that honour," Elijah answered with a dismissive wave. His eyes turned towards Si who merely nodded.

"Someone else killed Aileen Raskeil," said the lion from Libertatis. "We found a high-powered sniper rifle atop a nearby building. It was clearly aimed at where Aileen had been. We investigated as much as we could but it was a professional job. We don't know who it was but they weren't one of ours."

"Given how she was playing with other corporations, it could have simply been one of them taking advantage of her vulnerability." Marmouth regarded the Server in his paws. "Pity. I would have liked her to face justice instead of had a quick, clean death."

Ryker was glad Decanter wasn't here because he was sure the rhino wizard would have had some choice words for the CSO.

"When...?" Nero demanded. "When did you turn on us?"

"That would imply that I was ever with you." Elijah took a few steps away from Nero and gestured towards the overturned trucks. "All of this was what I saw when I first looked upon AllAle. I was already part of the Libertatis and it was then that I volunteered to be planted within the organisation and watch you all for abuses in the Overworld." His tone turned hostile. "I tried to steer you all away from it. I tried to tell you all to focus on defence and security. Just keep other corporations with access to the Overworld from stealing our secrets and influencing our people. But no. You all went ahead and started infecting people with your ideas. You started aggressively taking over smaller start-ups, attacking bars and alcohol distributions to put yourselves above everyone else.

"I've been asking the leadership for years to bring down AllAle but it's only been recently that they've turned their attention to this black-hearted company." He nodded towards Ryker. "That's thanks to you, Wild Card."

Ryker could only wave in acknowledgement back. He was in shock. If Libertatis could implant an agent so far up the chain to be the CSO of a corrupt corporation, surely they had such agents everywhere else too.

"You bastard!" shouted Nero. "What the fuck are you planning!?"

Elijah reached for his face and - much to Ryker's horror - removed it.

The Siamese's features and body just seemed to dissolve_away, falling away in tiny little pellets that collected around his feet. The feline features, the expensive suit and even the shoes all crumbled away. What replaced it was just a simple black, elliptical comedy mask with a thinner smile and a laurel wrapped around its head that Elijah held in his black paw. The man beneath the mask was unknowable. He wore a thick, heavy, leather coat draped around his thin shoulders with a hood over his features. Like the rest of the _Libertatis, he wore a mask but it was impossible to tell what his were beneath it as the mask was smoothened out to a generic muzzle-shape. His goggles looked more like nightvision goggles than the LED ones that the others wore.

Beside him, the rhino IP dissipated in a flurry of the same black marbles that clattered to the ground. The IP that replaced it was similarly unknowable as the man. Covered in shredded, black clothing that seemed to flutter and billow regardless of the wind, the tall, thin creature had a computer monitor for a head which constantly fizzled with static. It was one of those curved monitors too. In one hand covered by a glove, it held a big, thick silver revolver. It was impossible to tell the actual shape of the creature beneath the cloaks as the shreds were constantly moving that it almost looked like the monstrous IP was just floating, no legs. Just that monitor and that one arm.

"It was all a lie..." Nero gasped, tears of fury filling his eyes.

"I'm afraid so," Elijah answered. "I am Faceless. This is my IP, Flicker."

The static on the IP's face briefly vanished to be replaced by the words 'Hello'. Then it was back into static.

"Make no mistake," Si said, lowering his sword away from Nero. "Faceless and others like him are embedded into many corporations that all try and guide your efforts away from abusing the Overworld. That AllAle continued pursue the control of others through the Overworld and the mob-like tactics that quickly became it's defining point despite his efforts is a testament to just how corrupt you all are."

"You speak of corruption and yet you're the one putting _spies_in legitimate organisations!" Nero spat.

"We are the Watchers of Liberty. We are the guardians of the Overworld. It is our mission to check those who wield the powers of the Overworld from abusing it as you have."

Ryker pursed his lips and quietly muttered, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

Who will watch the Watchers? Who was checking the activities of Custodes Libertatis?

"So all those years of working together," the rhino spat. "That meant nothing to you, Elijah?"

"Faceless," corrected the unknown fur. "And no, Nero. I truly hoped that you of all people would see the bizarre activities of not only Emile Santos but also Aileen Raskeil. Of all of them, you seemed the most redeemable even over Kanoth Lameer. Sadly, your actions have shown you to be irredeemable."

Ryker rose to his feet. "Hang on," he interrupted. "What exactly did he do that would make him irredeemable?"

He got a few curious looks for those caught in the conversation but it was Faceless who spoke, his voice distorted just like any member of the Libertatis.

"Nero Greenwood was the Chief Technology Officer of AllAle but more than that," answered the spy. "He was their supplier. He managed the supply lines of not only Corpsmen and IPs but also their alcohol distribution. He would send Corpsmen through the Overworld to cause disruptions that would delay shipments. He would sabotage rival's products so that one of the other officers could step in and prey on them. That line of IPs that gathered in front of AllAle was his doing." A disgusted tone entered Faceless' words. "I still remember that one day you had a rather stunning IP suck you off in your office, conduct the meeting with me as usual only to kick her out. You broke her heart, Nero. She had hoped for life as a Doser, to guarantee her survival, and she would do anything for that. You left her on the streets with nothing because 'blowing the CTO' was more honour than she'd ever get as a Doser."

Nero grinned darkly and it was at that moment Ryker knew he was beyond redemption.

"If you were so offended, why didn't you do anything about it."

"I did," responded Faceless, his tone back to being neutral. "I found her work at a Transistor. She's bonded to a Host now."

Ryker was about to ask what a 'Transistor' was when Takoshi scrambled to his side, helping him straighten with a paw to his back. The bear seemed to read his mind and explained that a 'Transistor' was a kind of establishment that existed both on the Overworld and Realworld. Staffed by awakened Independents to provide food and services to those in both worlds simultaneously. They were sanctuaries for abandoned IPs, acting like soup kitchens and even those few Independents that preferred the Overworld to the Realworld. Only way Hosts in the Overworld could find places to eat. Unfortunately, they were well-concealed and were impossible to find unless one actually knew where one was located.

Nero's grin didn't vanish. "When I'm done here, I'm going to find that bitch, drag her back to AllAle and make you watch as I fuck her dead!"

"No. No you won't."

Suddenly, Flicker lifted the revolver in his hand.

BAM!

Ryker was just about to shout that the _Libertatis_did not kill when a huge, thick-skinned rhino had stepped in front of Nero. Tomahawk collapsed to the ground, clutching his chest. Blood was seeping between his fingers. Nero lost his grin and rose to his feet. The fiery elk behind him did the same... then began to flicker.

"What...?" he whispered.

"That bullet was imbued with the Exception Virus," explained Faceless. "Flicker's revolver is configured in such a way that even with one shot, an IP will take enough damage that the Virus will take full effect. You have about five minutes to decide whether or not you want to stay in the Overworld together or return to the Realworld with none of your powers."

Nero balls his fists. "You bastard!" He hurried over to Tomahawk, clutching the rhino's shoulder tightly. Ryker could see why the bullet would be enough to implant the Exception Virus. The wound looked fatal to a normal person. At least as big as his fist, it looked to have blown a huge chunk off Tomahawk's chest and either grazed his heart or pierced it.

The AllAle CTO glared at Faceless with blind fury in his eyes. "I am going to hunt you down. Even if it takes me a thousand years, I'm going to find you and make you pay!" He straightened, pointing an accusing finger at the masked assassin. "I'm going to haunt your every dream and nightmare. You say you're embedded in other corporations!? Well I'm going to warn every one of them here in the Overworld! I'll rip that fucking mask off your face and reveal you to be the traitor that you are to everyone even if I'm stuck here for the rest of my life!"

Faceless and even Si turned away, heading towards the truck.

"If that is how you wish to devote the rest of your life, so be it," said Si. "I do hope that you spend it wiser, though."_He reached into the pocket of his hoodie and tossed a small booklet over to Nero's feet. The fiery elk shadow behind the CTO was fading rapidly. _"That's an address of nearby Transistor that would be willing to take you in. I suggest you take Tomahawk there. That blow would've killed a normal person in one shot. He won't last more than a few days with a gaping hole like that. Don't cause them any trouble or we'll be forced to do something a little more drastic."

Ryker wanted to muster some sympathy for the rhino but the pure hate radiating from Nero made it impossible. Sure they were out to destroy the company that he had invested so much of his time and effort to but that corporation was corrupt and black hearted. It had to be done. Instead of accepting it was time to change like Kanoth had done, he clung doggedly to the dying embers of his past, stoking it until it became a roaring inferno of hatred and turned it on the people who were just doing their job. It brought to mind those people who were arrested for robbery or even murder and then blaming the victim for being in the wrong place at the wrong time or society for supposedly 'forcing' them steal and kill.

Kanoth had been right.

_AllAle_really was like a mob. Nero played the part of the guy that was arrested and swore vengeance and Elijah Marmouth had been the snitch for the authorities. And eventually, the mob only had two endings. Either they devolved into infighting and destroyed one another or the police found them and stamped them out.

Either way, they were destroyed.

******

"Ooooh!" Yoo giggled. "I didn't know Elijah was one of ours!"

No one else spoke as the members of the _Libertatis_moved to hijack the truck that Nero carried the Server in, the pillar of light following them. Nero used what little time he still had connected to the Server to throw a string of curses at them. The bigger IPs such as Takoshi and Arthur pushed aside the overturned trucks to give the eighteen-wheeler space to manoeuvre. Then they were driving around Nero and Tomahawk, leaving the Save room and back on the road to Emile's mansion.

"The final act is upon us," Aye announced, tapping away at the keys of his ethereal piano. "We best move. Regardless of our duplicity, the mansion will be well-fortified and has the highest number of Corpsmen and Dosers. They will need our help."

"And I bet you want us to let the newbies fight the big bad instead of logically letting us, the experienced fighters and leaders of the rebellion from doing it," Yoo said, stretching and yawning loudly. "Like that makes any sense."

"This is their mission," Ecks rumbled stoically. "They are the ones tied to AllAle."

"Yeah, yeah," sighed the fennic. "If we were the ones that did the final blow or pushed them aside and did all the work, they'd find some way to put themselves in danger or they'll never trust us. Whatever."

"We will support them. We will fight with them should they need us. But they must write the last chapter. Not us."

"Say what you will about us," Aye said, turning around to leave. "We are still a collection of Independents. Encroaching on another's task, making it our own and taking all the credit would make us..."

Yoo's tone darkened. "... a corporation."

Wai grunted loudly and made to leave. "I'm leaving."_He glanced towards Cue. _"You gonna fight with us, Cue?"

The man with the pixelated face didn't move for a long time, seemingly watching Nero pull Tomahawk to his feet and stagger off to the side. The fiery aura of his Elk Cloner - Full Bodied was gone.

"Do you need me?" Cue answered.

"Fuck no. You've never been there for us before. Don't need you now."

"Then why ask something that you already know the answer to?"

Wai huffed and leapt off the invisible platform onto the nearby rooftop. The remaining members of the Kage did the same, leaving Cue to himself. The mysterious man waited a long moment, almost twenty minutes until he was sure they were gone. Then he stepped off the platform and dropped - like a bullet- down onto the ground. He didn't need to catch his weight or roll into a crouch when he hit the ground. His feet merely tapped on the concrete with a soft click, a sound that echoed in the silence of the Save room as he stepped over to Nero and Tomahawk.

"Who the fuck is this now?" Nero growled.

Cue approached, revealing a bottle of greenish liquid in his hands and offering it to Tomahawk, the powerful four-armed rhino dripping with sweat as his body fought to keep it from collapsing due to the wound.

"Would you call me 'Cue'?" he asked.

"Cue?" Nero grunted. "What the fuck do you want?"

"Would you accept my help were I to offer it?"

"Why the hell would you want to help me? Who are you anyway?"

"Did you know that there are six leaders of Custodes Libertatis and I am one of them?"

Nero's brow furrowed. "Why the -"

Tomahawk lifted a hand, gently grasping his Host's arm. With another hand, he took the drink from Cue and popped open the lid. "He only speaks in questions, Nero. I think it's his gimmick. You know. 'Cue'. As in 'Q' for Question."

"That's an annoying trait." Before he could stop Tomahawk, the rhino downed the entirety of the offered bottle. A soft green light emerged from the hole in his IP's chest and the wound rapidly healed though not without leaving a rather large scar. "You're... You're healed." He looked towards Cue. "But we're still under the effects of the Exception Virus, aren't we?"

"Do you think I would offer you relief from your sins and judgement?"

"I supposed that'd be too easy," mumbled Nero. "Why are you here then?"

"Are you aware that the moment you leave this Save room that there are still hundreds of Zombies out there waiting for an easy meal? Did you know that your Corpsmen have long retreated to the mansion as well?"

"Fuck..." Nero scowled. "So what? You're here to gloat?"

Tomahawk slowly rose to his feet. "He's here to escort us to the nearest Transistor." He locked gazes with Cue. "Aren't you?"

The faceless man merely nodded.

"Why would you do that?" Nero demanded. "Your friends just ruined my life and now you're here trying to prolong it! What? You think by letting me live, you draw some sick satisfaction over my defeat?"

"Am I so inhuman to you that you think I would let a soul, any soul, die needlessly?" Cue countered. He stepped over to where Si had left the notebook and picket it up, lifting it for both Nero and Tomahawk to see. "Have you lost so much faith in furkind that you instantly meet even the simplest gesture of kindness, the olive branch of peace, with scathing suspicion?"

Nero's eyes fell.

"Fine. But this doesn't mean I owe you anything."

"Have I asked you for anything in return?"

******

Faceless had donned his Elijah Marmouth mask once more and again, he was the Siamese cat while Flicker, unspeaking as ever, had transformed into the ninja rhino.

"So..." Ryker began, his own mask in his paws. It was getting hot with that metal frame on his face all the time. "... What's your Function?"

Faceless regarded him, his features unreadable. "Take a guess."

He wasn't sure if that was a scathing remark or a playful challenge. "Uh... If I was going to guess..." He tilted his head slightly. "Either Mask or... Encrypt?"

The Siamese nodded. "Right on the second try. My Function is Encrypt. It allows me to create very convincing illusions on all sensory levels, smell, sight, hearing, taste..." The unknowable fur gently took Ryker's paw and brought it to his face. Instead of a metal mask, he could feel the actual fur of the Siamese there. Not just the fur either. The shape. It was utterly convincing. "... touch. Manifested as the mask you saw, I can adopt any shape and form I see fit when I wear it."

"It's what makes him one of our best infiltrators," Si explained.

They were positioned in the rear trailer of the massive eighteen-wheeler. Unlike what one would expect as part of a truck's trailer, the container was spacious and decked with luxury. There were plush seats pinned to the walls, screens showing various forms of entertainment and even a mini-fridge which Takoshi, Arthur and Soren were helping themselves to. The Hosts were seated. No Zombies had attacked them as soon as they had left the city limits an hour ago. Now that they were out in the less populated areas of the state, Zombies apparently didn't congregate as it was less likely to find an abandoned IP when most of the corporate headquarters were on Manhattan or the surrounding urban districts.

They were just minutes away from Emile Santos' mansion.

"Do you really have a lot of people in other corporations?" Oliver asked.

"That's... a bit of an exaggeration," admitted Si. "We've got, at most, twenty infiltrators like Faceless here who are skilled enough to get right up there. The problem with anyone else being one of us is that corporate security especially around the Overworld is very tight and even if you try to pose as a non-awakened individual, Corpsmen in the Overworld will immediately be able to tell you're awakened either because they can't influence you or they can't awaken you. So it's very hard to get anyone to really infiltrate a corporation without a Function like Faceless'."

"Can't you just copy his Function to someone and get in through that?"

"We've tried," answered Faceless. "Sadly, Encrypt takes all six RAM to use if someone apart from me uses it. It's another dead giveaway when a person who apparently is in the Overworld suddenly can't leave after they haven't used any Functions."

That did seem problematic. Still, twenty infiltrators was fairly impressive. Especially if they were scattered in other corporations likely in different positions to avoid suspicion.

"I got a question," Oliver asked, his features suddenly hard and steely and his mask sitting beside him. "If you knew about _AllAle's_shit, why didn't you act sooner?"

Ryker tried not to roll his eyes though he did hope that Oliver wasn't reverting to his 'blame everyone else but myself' mentality.

"_Don't mistake the _Custodes Libertatis for some organised militia," Faceless said. "We are all Independents gathered under a single banner but we've got our lives, our own projects and our own causes to pursue. Yes, we've got a lot of people under the name but these aren't trained soldiers who devote their lives to the Kage_or their direction. Si can't just say to go after _AllAle and everyone will drop everything to fight."

"It takes a lot to organise a movement like this," explained Si. "In fact, the only real reason why so many members actually joined in the fight today was because there were already leaps and strides made by you and your team. As much as I hate to make the comparison, there was a blood in the water and the sharks came to feed."

Ryker was sure there were more reasons than that. If these were just average people with their own lives and agendas, they wouldn't risk those very same lives for someone else that hadn't wronged them. However, when they were stirred and they saw an opportunity, they would surely take it. In that way, this illusion of the Libertatis being like a guerrilla army vanished. They were more like... a militia. A somewhat organised militia that_may_ or may not come to their aid if they felt like it.

"Oh," Oliver sighed. "So it took you guys some time to get everyone excited about hitting AllAle?"

"Unfortunately," answered Si. "Had to do a bit of campaigning to get everyone on board." He lifted a finger. "Remember, a lot of Independents have civilian lives. Families, friends, responsibilities. You can't expect them all to drop that and risk their lives for someone they barely know or because someone has a complaint against a corporation. You really should get the Independent News App. It's where people can post requests and Independent Agents can jump in to help or if you want to organise meetings, raids, that's the best place to do it."

"Why did you want to help us this time around?" Ryker asked.

Si exchanged glances with Faceless.

"Full disclosure," Faceless said, holding up his paws. "There is something... else going on in the Overworld that's got the leadership rattled for a while. We infiltrators have just heard whispers of it. It's called the 'Overlord Project'. We know Emile is involved but we don't know how."

"Overlord?" rumbled Takoshi, padding over and parking himself beside Oliver and Ryker. The bear immediately wrapped an arm around Ryker's shoulders, almost possessively. He took a drink from the soda he was holding and then belched loudly. "Sorry. I just came in the middle of this. The fuck is 'Overlord'?"

"I was just getting to that," answered Faceless. "Though the truth is, we're not sure ourselves. We just know that it's touted as something that 'will change the Overworld forever' and that Emile Santos as well as certain CEOs are involved in it somehow. We've been able to identify those that are involved by a few patterns."

Apparently, it was part of normal business practices to expand one's control into different industries. Even small companies who began as simple distributors would eventually gain enough capital to start production in-house. Such was the natural progression of capitalism. However, when those CEOs outright refused to expand, it began triggering alarms amongst the Libertatis.

"If they refuse to expand beyond their geographic area, spread into different industries, avoid mergers with other corporations or even refused or outright shoot down great innovations, it just smacks of someone involved in the Overlord Project."

"But what is the Overlord Project?" Ryker pressed. "You haven't explained that yet."

Faceless glanced at Si. "Given that we're potentially going up against one, I think it's best you tell them."

The masked lion nodded gravely and lifted a finger. "We've only ever faced one Overlord before. Have you heard of the investment bank Leoman Brothers?"

Cliff cocked his head, now attentive and listening. "Who hasn't? They were the bank that basically caused the Global Financial Crisis 0f 2007-2009."

"Exactly. That was because of their CEO, an Overlord. Overlords are greater than another CEO because they have complete dominion over a certain product or aspect of our everyday lives. I'm not just talking about the product their company pushes. I'm talking about that very idea_._Like if we were to take Emile Santos as an example, if our suspicions are correct, he'd be the Overlord of Beer or Alcohol. He owns that very idea within a certain region."

Ryker's eyebrows lifted. "Wait... So you're telling me that in this case, whatever Emile says about beer... goes?"

"Precisely. Well, that's the modern iteration. The Leoman Brothers were different. We have reason to believe that they were kind of the exception to the overall Overlord Project or maybe a prototype. They spread too far too quickly and gained dominion over certain aspects of investment banking. Their hold on what we call their 'Domain' was far too tenuous and spread all over the world. It was too thin but their command over it was so strong that they got away with a lot of shady dealings that can't be explained rationally in the Realworld."

"From what I remember, they were able to sell of loans that were really bad and fix a lot of numbers. Like, a little bit here, a little bit there but it all came up to a huge deficit in the end."

"Correct. Since most of the money we have these days are digital, these little fixes didn't get noticed and the Overlord simply commanded it to be done and no one batted another eye since it was just accepted as part of their business practices. But the problem with the Overlord is that he has dominion over a single aspect of our lives. If someone else, an outsider say, were to step in and see things from a different perspective, they'd see something wrong. That's what happened with Leoman Brothers. Someone noticed all the shady deals and called them out on it. Then things just fell apart from there."

"And the rest of the world paid for it," Oliver concluded.

"The_Libertatis_ got involved," explained Faceless. "We were the ones that ultimately learned of what was happening and we were the ones that made the authorities aware of what was happening. Back then, we weren't aware of the extent of the Overlord and just thought they were another corporation to take down. As it turns out, when we took down the Overlord, it sent out a psychic shockwave that just had huge repercussions all over the world because of the extent the Overlord had spread."

"It's like if there was an Overlord of Televisions. Imagine if that Overlord was abruptly destroyed and then everyone just forgot what that box in the middle of their living rooms showing pictures and producing sounds was. That's the damage the defeat of an Overlord could do." Si shook his head gravely. "That was the last time we swore we'd ever let an Overlord get powerful enough to get its hooks so deep that it'd ruin the world's economy."

That painted a grim picture. Overlords were like gods. Gods of certain products int he world whose very existence was tied to that very concept. It reminded him of what Cue mentioned back in the Broken Server. Gods and mythical creatures were produced by people's beliefs, reflected in the Overworld. Deities of the elements became defined by those elements and everything about the natural phenomenon was attributed to those gods. Overlords were similar only they were mortals elevated to godhood. When that god was deprived of that divine status, they took with them the very concepts that they embodied.

"So what can we do about the Overlord?" Oliver asked. "I mean, I like beer. I made my early career around it. The beer industry is huge even if we're just talking about Manhattan. You'd send millions of people to the streets if Emile really is an Overlord."

"There's a Function," answered Si. "Native to one of our leaders, Wai. It's called Reset. It's very powerful. It will revert a target back to its previous state once we define it. If we use that on Emile, we can revert him back to before he ever became an Overlord. This will release the concept of Alcohol back to the public."

"At least until another Overlord rises," Cliff muttered. "We don't know who or what is creating them, do we?"

"That's the other problem. We don't. We've been keeping an eye out on other potential Overlords but Emile has been the first one to give us solid evidence of his role."

"How can you tell?"

Si turned to Faceless who nodded gravely.

"One surefire way to tell is the absence of their IP," answered the infiltrator.

"They don't have an IP?" Takoshi asked. "How's that possible? You need an IP to get into the Overworld."

"That's because he is his IP," answered Faceless grimly. "Emile Santos has _merged_with his IP. They are one and the same."

Ryker's jaw dropped and he exchanged glances with Takoshi. His mind began racing with thoughts and fears. Did Emile merge with his IP because his synch rate was so high that they had just fused into one? Would the act of physically being in Takoshi have the same effect? If he continued to pursue a relationship with his IP, would he actually become an Overlord himself and become a danger to the entire world?

"How is that possible?" Cliff asked, clearly stunned at the revelation. "I... I can't even wrap my head around that, dude!"

"We don't know either," Si said sadly, shaking his head. "All we know is that it's an artificial process. Other potential Overlords have been seen with their IPs until their supposed disappearance. But it's hard to prove since people's IPs can change or be abandoned with time. All we know is that some other candidates went to the same conference that Emile Santos attended some years back and then they were awakened to the Overworld, somehow learning how to become an Overlord and kick started their companies that way."

Ryker sighed in relief only to realise that he shouldn't really be relieved over such news. He caught a few confused glances from his companions but it was quickly ignored.

"The other thing is that Overlords can exert their powers both in the Overworld and the Realworld," explained Faceless. "I've seen him exude this 'aura' around him that just compels people under his Contract into submission."

"I've seen that too!" exclaimed Oliver. "I think I saw it when you guys had me on 'trial'."

"Sorry about that. I wish I could have helped but Kanoth and Aileen took you off before I could intervene. Anything I would've done as the Chief Security Officer would have blown my cover."

The tabby gave him a faint smile. "It's okay. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't have met Soren and got the idea of opening a Transistor."

"You're going to open a Transistor?" Si asked curiously. "Send me the address. I can distribute it to my fellow agents and other_Libertatis _and get you a lot of business from the Overworld. Maybe even in the Realworld if I can help it."

"Sure. Once I get the place opened. Just so you know, this means I'm dropping the whole Libertatis thing."

Si lifted his paw. "Totally understand. Not for everyone as I've mentioned before." He nodded towards Faceless. "Anyway, Overlords are dangerous. More powerful than any other officer and with the combined powers of both IP and Host, they shouldn't be underestimated."

"And that's why we're the only ones going after him directly, isn't it?" Ryker asked suddenly, catching the attention of those in the trailer. "If he's so dangerous, you can't risk the lives of so many people that volunteered to be here. It's just us to avoid casualties in case we fail."

"We won't fail," Si insisted. "I was there when we faced the Leoman Brother's CEO. I know what I'm getting into. Just follow my lead. Let him focus on me. Just take as many opportunities as you can but do not_engage him directly."_

"I want in on this too," pressed Faceless. "I've worked with this guy. He needs to be called to account for what he's done."

"Fine. But the rest of you need to stay back."_Si pointed at the others in the truck. _"I know you're all invested in this and have a personal stake in the mission and that's why I'm letting you come along but if I tell you to use Exit_, you do it without question. Got that?"_

Ryker nodded and then glanced over to the others to check for their responses. Oliver popped his jaw but then gave a nod of confirmation. Cliff regarded the mask in his paws briefly before giving the briefest of nods. He could tell each of them had their reasons for not confirming immediately. Oliver likely wanted to see this all to the end while Cliff would have loved the opportunity to make a true difference in the overall scheme of the Overworld.

"What will happen to AllAle once Emile is deposed?" he asked, trying to bring the conversation away from the moment. "I mean, even if you safely Reset Emile, there will be thousands of people working under AllAle that would be affected, right? All those Corpsmen, all the normal employees? They could be out of a job."

"I've already taken that into account," answered Faceless. "I've spoken with the Board of Directors. They've deemed Emile unfit to oversee AllAle's operations and they will elect me as interim CEO until someone more fitting is assigned the position. My plan is to convert AllAle into a Transistor on the Overworld side. Maybe get some of its employees to adopt the IPs that flock towards it."

Ryker's ears flicked forward. "Hey, why don't we use it as a testing grounds for my app, Crossover? It was meant to be like a dating program between IPs and Hosts."

"Ah, I remember that," Si said. "How is it going?"

"Honestly haven't worked on it for a while," admitted Ryker, a light blush on his cheeks. "Been lots of stuff happening since we went on the offensive against AllAle."

"I think it would be an excellent idea to try and test it out in the new AllAle_. If it's a success, we could distribute it to other Transistor."_

That brought a smile to his face. His app was getting off the ground. He just had to make sure that it was good enough to be fit for purpose and fit for use.

Si's phone beeped and the lion glanced at it. "We're almost there. Everyone comfortable with the plan?"

They all nodded.

Faceless stood up, grabbed the Server which sat beside him and carried it to doors of the trailer. When the truck stopped, he pushed open the doors and stepped out, making sure to shut the doors again after he and his IP had stepped off. Ryker held his breath. He dearly hoped the duplicity would work. Faceless was meant to claim that Nero had fallen in the battle and he, as Chief Security Officer, had to sweep in and save the Server, only managing to survive with a few Corpsmen he had.

When the truck started moving again, Ryker let out the soft breath that he wasn't even aware he had been holding. Through the first barrier but now came the hard part. Si rose to his feet, facing the exit of the trailer. There was a flash of light from his right paw and his triggersword appeared along with the two floating magazines behind him. Ryker was about to ask what was going on when -

CRASH!

The entire back end of the trailer was suddenly ripped open and tossed aside. He quickly tossed his mask back on as the dull light from the Overworld streamed back in. Standing at the back of the truck was an _enormous_beast of an IP. He stood at a towering nine-feet tall and was brimming with muscles that were hugged by short, silky, white fur. Two golden hooves supported his massive bodybuilder-like build as did huge calves and immense thighs before visible beneath a huge, black cloak. Two bandoleers filled with shotgun shells crossed his torso while paultrons decorated by spikes stuck out from his shoulders, piercing the leather of the jacket. In one massive hand capped with black nails, the IP held a huge double-barrelled shotgun and in the other, the remnants of the truck's rear. Equine features met them, eyes hidden by a pair of silver sunglasses that rested right beneath the golden, spiral horn that stuck out from his forehead. A main that was dyed a different colour every inch or so tumbled down his back and over his shoulders like a luxurious, rainbow waterfall.

"Bifrost," greeted Si.

The unicorn, who was chewing gum, grinned and held out his free hand. "Shall we go, boss?" he asked in a very deep voice with a thick Scandinavian accent.

Si took his hand and stepped down off the trailer while dozens of Corpsmen gathered around them. Parked right in front of what appeared to be another mansion, the Corpsmen were pouring out of a replica of the AllAle headquarters complete with those naked rhino statues holding up the ceiling and pouring a beer-like substance into a moat. There was a loud crash from somewhere to their left. Ryker peered over the edges of the ragged trailer.

Men and women wearing metal masks and LED goggles were rushing the now-opened gates of the mansion alongside their IPs. There had to be at least a hundred of them. Corpsmen were scrambling to stop them, far fewer than those that were pouring out of the mansion to stall Bifrost and Si.

"Out of our way!" Bifrost boomed. "You don't want to get in the way of this!"

Up the marble steps and behind the line of Corpsmen was Faceless currently disguised as Elijah Marmouth. The Siamese cat reached for his face and pulled the disguise off. None of the Corpsmen ever saw Flicker drop the image of the ninja and lift his revolver at them. A series of gunshots made Ryker wince as Corpsmen's IPs were shot in the back and sent tumbling to the ground. The Corpsmen themselves were shocked by the sudden damage taken and the noise. They made the mistake of turning around as that gave an opening to Si and Bifrost. The two expert members of the Libertatis charged, Si's blade flashing with elemental powers and Bifrost's shotgun blasting, strangely enough, pellets with the same elemental variety as his Host. At the moment, both of them were spewing ice that froze the Corpsmen's arms and legs, preventing them from moving.

"Come on!" bellowed Si. "This is our chance!"

******

Emile Santos sat behind the enormous desk in his Overworld office. Unlike its counterpart in his mansion, this one was bigger, circular and emblazoned with the emblem of AllAle. At the very centre of the table was a little fountain that allowed golden ale to bubble up and flood the creases and engraved lines of the emblem. The liquid poured out into holes that formed intricate waterfalls down onto the cold, obsidian floors and traced lines all over his office like veins or nerves feeding a much greater body. The walls were lined with glass cabinets filled with decanters, flasks and bottles all made of crystal. Each one was filled with samples of the various alcoholic beverages that AllAle had absorbed over the years. Directly behind him was a vast glass window that stretched from the floor to the ceiling twenty feet above his head. Golden curtains with white, fluffy edges to mirror a good, frothy glass of beer framed the window. Above him, the domed ceiling was decorated by a fresco showing him standing in front of the sun's golden rays with thousands upon thousands of silhouetted furs raising mugs of ale, glasses of wine and flutes of champagne in his direction. He was their messiah. Their god of beer.

And this was his throne.

His Domain.

He could feel those Custodes Libertatis pests dashing through the hallways of his mansion like gnats biting at his scales. They were insects trying to bring low a god. Their efforts would ultimately prove fruitless but they at least deserved an audience with him given how far they had gotten.

AllAle's officers had been systematically defeated even though two of them had turned traitor. The damage to the stocks and confidence in his position was thrown into doubt. Back in the Realworld, he had seen the email from the Board of Directors announcing that they wanted a meeting tomorrow after business hours. 'Fire o'clock' as they say. No doubt this was Elijah's doing. But lowly peasants could not hope to oust their deity.

Emile was already making plans to wrest control back from the Board and do something he should have done the moment he had turned AllAle_into a public trading company; implant undying loyalty into the Board. He allowed them to squabble and throw doubts his way because, at the beginning, he had seen value in their different perspectives and their experience. But now he realised that was foolish. None of them were aware of the Overworld so none of them knew about the constant battle he fought to keep them wealthy; wealth that they obtained from merely attending a meeting once every quarter or during emergencies. They were so detached from the day-to-day that like the _Libertatis, they were little more than rats trying to steal scraps from his greatness.

That would end once he quashed this miserable rebellion.

"What happened to you?"

He narrowed his gaze but refused to look at the mysterious man in the black cloak that had appeared beside him.

Cue.

"Where is the innocent, ambitious young man who had hoped to peel away from his family's small business and 'make it big' in the big city? What happened to the starry-eyed individual who had conceptualised AllAle as a platform for would-be brewers to kick start their dreams? Why did you turn into this cold, unfeeling monster confident in his own godhood that he is dismissing the efforts of his own Corpsmen as they valiantly try to defeat the intruders? When did you become so heartless, so megalomaniacal, so evil?"

"I'm not here to be judged by you," scowled the rattlesnake. "This is my Domain. My company. I'll do with it what I please."

"Have you heard of the 'Bleeding' effect?"

The AllAle CEO turned his gaze towards Cue, frowning. "Of course I have. It's the poor man's version of becoming an Overlord. Host and IP, as they spend time with one another and their synchronisation rates grow, they share qualities with one another. It is both physical and mental. It's how their synchronisation rates grow over time."

"Has it occurred to you that this personality of yours, this development into a villain, could be the result of a Bleeding effect from those you share the company's heart?"

"Impossible," he scowled. "There is no such thing."

"How can you be so sure? Do you not see much of yourself in your companions, the chief officers? Did Kanoth Lameer not reflect your business acumen and adeptness at deception? Did you not see much of your ambition in Aileen Raskeil? Could your obsession with the company not have been implanted into Nero Greenwood?" Cue leaned towards him, that pixelated face somehow staring into his soul despite the lack of eyes. "Is it not possible that now they have been ejected from the Overworld, all the sins and darkness they had harboured are now flooding back into you and blackening your soul further?"

He shot Cue a withering look. "I decide who I am not some people who work for me!"

"Who are you trying to convince?"

Emile rose to his feet, hands balled into fists. "I am god here! I am the Overlord of all things Alcohol! You are _nothing_compared to me!"

Cue turned to leave, one last question lingering in the air as he faded from sight.

"What is the antithesis to everything but nothing?"

BAM!

The door to his office burst open and Emile Santos turned.

The Libertatis was here.

******

If ever there was a place for a final boss fight against the Overlord of Beer, this office seemed like the most appropriate place to have it. It was more of a grand ballroom than an actual office. Circular at and least as twice as wide as one of his lecture theatres, the office had a large domed ceiling which he imagined was just where the large distinct dome of the mansion was. Their entire trek through the structure had been met with so much pretentiousness and egotistical stroking that eventually, Ryker grew sick of seeing Emile's face plastered on the walls in heroic stances or the suits of armour that bore his visage. He had to wonder how anyone who worked for the guy could think this was normal.

Si and Faceless lead the party alongside Bifrost and Flicker. Light from the hallway sprayed into the chamber, casting light onto the huge walls of glass cabinets and the various forms of alcohol encased within. Ryker noted the crystal labels that sat before every bottle and his throat went dry. They weren't just a library of alcoholic beverages. They were like gravestones to all the different startups, microbreweries and products that he had consumed.

This was the Brewer's Congress.

Emile Santos had already been standing in front of his monumental, ivory throne seated behind his dark, jade, circular table. The rattling from his tail echoed through the air and left a chilling effect.

"So the ants finally make it to the throne room," rumbled the snake, folding his hands behind his back. Dressed in that suit of his, he looked even more menacing than any of the other officers they had faced. He was well-built and he imagined those scales contained powerful muscles beneath the suit. The 'V-shaped' torso of his was hard to miss as were the wide biceps. Though it was impossible to see his legs, Ryker imagined they were strong enough to support his broad-shouldered physique. Black scales covered more of his body though there were occasional breaks for tawny diamonds that flowed down his arms and back. The underside of his jaw was the same light brown, sandy colour that just made his bright, yellow eyes all the more distinct.

"It's over Emile," Faceless announced, holding the Server in one hand. As he held the glowing cube up, Flicker lifted his revolver towards it. "Let's end this peacefully. We've got the Server. Your Corpsmen have fallen. None of your officers are here to support you and if you don't already know, the Board of Directors have lost confidence in you. They're going to fire you."

"Just surrender," Si demanded, striding forward, Bifrost by his side and his triggersword drawn. "There's no value in fighting."

"No value?" spat Emile. His features twisted with malice and a dark, purplish-black aura emanated from him, a visible, malevolent gas that curled and twisted out from him like dark tentacles. It reminded Ryker of the miasmic form Dosers took before they fully manifested. "What do you know about fighting to the last man? Have you ever been driven to a corner without any hope of escape because of forces outside of your own control? When was the last time you were told that you just couldn't do anything because it was outside of your means or you just didn't have the talent for it?"

The snake made a swiping gesture with his hand and with it, a blast of air rushed towards them, forcing everyone, even Si, to stop in space or get knocked back a step. "You children are constantly told that you're special, that you can be whoever or whatever you want if you put enough effort into it. But I was told I was just another grain of sand in an endless desert. That I shouldn't try to be anything special because I was born_into the pub business and that it was my _responsibility_to take over the family business because that was exactly _why I was born! I owed it to them. Do you have any idea how any of that feels?"

Ryker came to a crushing realisation. Like him, Emile had been cornered. Maybe a similar circumstance had befallen the others as well, he wasn't sure save perhaps for Oliver. Greater forces than him had pushed Emile into believing that he couldn't be more than he was predestined to become. But unlike him where circumstance had just thrown him a bone, Emile had made himself into something else. He had fought.

"We do," Ryker said softly, his voice still distorted by his mask. The snake was momentarily stunned by the response and Ryker lifted his voice to repeat the statement. "We do know what it feels like. You made sure of that." He stormed forward, placing himself right beside Si and a stunned Faceless. "We were cornered by big corporations just like AllAle. We were told that we couldn't fight against all their money or resources. That we should just give up and go with the flow because that was just how things were. Little guys like us were preyed upon by the bigger predators because we had a spark of individuality, a unique idea that they liked. So they left us with one choice: either get assimilated into the whole or get thrown out into the streets with nothing. We chose option three!"

He pressed a paw against his chest and gestured with his other paw at the rest of his companions. "We chose to fight! Not just that. We chose to make something new! But we didn't turn to the same tactics that once tried to crush us like you did!"

"Didn't you?" Santos snarled. "Didn't you _bully_Kanoth by blowing off his leg? Didn't you attack Nero and force the ultimatum of your Exception Virus upon him too? How is that any different from what I've done?"

That... was a good point. Were they just part of a vicious cycle where the bigger guy or the guy with the greatest resources crushed someone smaller? Were they really just as bad as the corporations who bullied and absorbed IPs and their Hosts for the purposes of dominating the market? They had even recruited Kanoth into their ranks.

"We aren't here to make the Libertatis_bigger or for some sort of monetary or physical benefit,"_ Si said calmly, his voice never wavering and filled with determination. "We're here to right the wrongs you have committed, Emile Santos. Blame circumstance, blame your upbringing, blame everyone else if you want but ultimately you made the choice to turn down this path. You were the one that authorised those hits, the blackmail and the attacks. To you it may look like we're the bigger group trying to push you down but you're not accepting any of the blame for your actions and looking for someone else to take the fall for you."

"I was just like you, Emile," Oliver announced, striding up next to Ryker. "I blamed everyone apart from myself for what had happened to me. I kept lashing out even towards people who were trying to make things better. But you've convinced yourself that there is no other choice because of what people are saying. You're not looking past their words. You're not looking into their eyes and seeing your own reflection; the ugly, hateful reflection. Get out of your own head, Emile! There is always another way!"

Emile snorted and shook his head. "Your posturing and preaching is pathetic. It hurts my ears. But you are right. You are nothing_like me. I've _tamed the Overworld. I've made it mine, placed my stake in it and claimed my Domain! You are just part of the jealous masses who think they can take from me what I've worked so hard to obtain just because you think what I've done is 'unfair' or 'unjust'! Yet here you are, breaking into my house, hurting my staff and coercing them to adhere to your warped sense of justice!"

"That's because you believe that you are the law in the Overworld,"_announced Cliff, the last to make the line. "_You've got all this power in the Overworld and Realworld, dude, but you think you can just do whatever you want because there's no one policing you. What happened to common decency? Why go around basically mind-controlling people with your Dosers? Why treat IPs like they're shit and turn them into Dosers? They're coming to you because they're fucking desperate to survive and you treat them like cattle! They're living, breathing people, man! Then there's the shit you do in the Realworld! Even without the Overworld, that shit your people pulled is still illegal! How the fuck do you justify that?"

"And your vigilantism is justified?" snarled Emile.

"Someone has to stop you," answered Si. "We are the Watchers of Liberty. It is our job to maintain the freedom of the people using the Overworld. You've abused it long enough, Emile Santos! Time to answer for your crimes!"

The rattlesnake growled at them with derision. "And you just expect me to surrender myself to you?"

"We've got the Server," Faceless threatened. "If you don't surrender, we shoot it and everything AllAle is crumbles. All your power goes with it."

A dark smile touched Emile's lips. "Then you should have just kept it far away from this place." He abruptly lifted a hand and the Server flung out of Faceless' hands, crossed the distance between him and CEO. The cube stopped within an inch of Emile's palm and he lowered his arm, the glowing shape following his fingertips. "Had you just stolen it and threatened me, then perhaps I would have been more receptive to your demands but you just had to take the noble route and try to get me to come along peacefully. Then again, you never could've gotten through my gates without it, would you?" Emile threw his head back, letting out a loud, triumphant laugh. "You could never have won this!"

Then he lowered his head again, levelling his dark gaze upon them. "Now I'll crush you here and now. You are in my Domain! Everything here is under my control!"

With a swipe of his hand, the entire table in front of him abruptly flew off to the side, swinging through the air and racing towards them. Ryker was immediately pushed to the ground by Takoshi's massive paw. The table sailed over them, following a wide arc until it was right beside Emile. The snake stepped onto the platform, golden beer cascading down its sides with the emblem of AllAle glistening through the deep, green jade. The CEO was lifted into the air by the hovering platform.

"This is definitely different from when we faced the Leoman Brothers!" Si exclaimed. "Everyone stay on your guard!"

"Ja," grunted Bifrost, lifting his shotgun. "That asshole was powerful but kind of crazy. This guy is perfectly in control!"

Emile snorted as he held the Server to his side while his other hand lifted towards them. "Overlords have evolved since then. We've learned from that fool's mistakes. Learned how to master our Domains and ourselves." He lifted his hand and snapped his fingers.

CRASH!

Glass shattered. Each of the cabinets holding the crystal bottles broke into a millions of pieces while the bottles themselves hovered ominously in the air.

"Now," Emile began, a malicious grin touching his lips and his forked tongue sliding between his teeth. "Let's see how well your 'justice' stands against the New York Overlord of Alcohol!"

Ryker was pushed back behind Takoshi by the bear's big paw. "I feel that should sound more intimidating than it does," rumbled the bear. "Stay behind me."

Nodding, he held his phone tightly in his paw, ready to call upon Break when the opportunity arose.

Suddenly, Flicker turned, the monitor that served as his head flickering to a single word 'Duck'. Ryker immediately pressed himself against the floor just as a crystal decanter filled with some sort of booze flew overhead. Flicker lifted his revolver and pulled the trigger. The loud discharge of the gun rattled Ryker's ears but no more than the shards of glass and alcohol that came raining around him.

Cliff jumped to the side as a bottle came sailing past him. Another glass slammed into his back, shattering and soaking him in alcohol. Arthur immediately stepped behind the tiger, lifting his shield and catching the next barrage of blows against the golden plates. Oliver pressed his back against Soren with the eagle handing him a bat. Soren held out his hands and balls of water appeared there which he quickly sent hurling towards any incoming projectiles. Si and Bifrost didn't need to stand back to back and charged at Emile, slashing and firing away at any of the containers that came at them with frightening precision.

Emile simply grinned as the two got close.

Si leapt into the air, launching himself towards the CEO's platform. The desk suddenly jerked to the right with speed that belied his size and weight. Then it jerked back towards Si just as the lion began his descent. Ryker winced when he heard the lion's body crumble against the edge of the rounded table and was sent sailing off to the left. That left an opening for Bifrost who couldn't jump as far as Si but could at least grab the edge of the table and drag it down slightly. Emile just regarded him with a dismissive look. The desk soared quickly into the air, nearly touching the ceiling while Bifrost remained dangling by an arm.

BOOM!

Then it came crashing down at lightning speed.

Bifrost gagged as he was pinned hard under the table. Emile caused the table and his platform to lift once more then...

CRASH!

Come back down against a pinned and prone Bifrost.

"Fuck this!" Takoshi shouted, winds gathering around his blade. "I'm going for it, boys!"

"Ronin!" Faceless shouted. "Wait!"

But if there was something Ryker had learned about Takoshi; the bear was stubborn. He placed his faith in his IP and watched Takoshi lash out with his blade. Roaring winds swept around them, rapidly rising to form a visible barrier of slashing bands. They immediately picked up the glass shards that had scattered all over the ground and even some of the booze. With a roar, Takoshi swung his sword in Emile's direction. The winds abruptly changed direction, sending glass and booze speeding towards the snake.

"Have you learned nothing?" scoffed Emile. "This is _my_Domain! Everything here is under _my_command!" He held out his hand. The glass shards and booze abruptly stopped in midair as if hit by a Pause function. The winds continued though as they came from Takoshi's will and power. It blasted at Emile but doing little more than causing the snake's suit jacket's buttons to come undone and Emile to squint slightly.

Then blood erupted from Emile's left shoulder, his eyes going wide as pain registered in his brain. Takoshi grinned as his compressed blade of air made contact.

"Your head is too fucking big for your shoulders, asshole," accused the bear. "Not everything is under your command here. Not if we're the ones that generate it!"

If Emile had watched their battle with Kanoth or had been more careful, he would have noticed the blade of compressed air that Takoshi had unleashed with his second slash. It hadn't been a gesture to send the howling tornado at Emile. It had been his actual attack. Emile arrogantly assumed that he could stop the majority of the damage by holding the glass shards at bay. But he never saw the wind blade.

"You should've taken the opportunity to kill me, then," scowled Emile. "That trick won't work on me again!" With a snap of his fingers, the glass shards fell to the ground in front of him, forcing Bifrost to shield his eyes with his arms. "Witness the true might of a CEO!" That dark aura returned as his table lifted off the ground, freeing the rainbow-haired unicorn once more.

"Control!" bellowed Emile.

The window behind him suddenly shattered. Bodies of unconscious Dosers and their IPs came shooting into the chamber, surrounded by that same aura. Propelled by some force, they landed in front of Emile, their eyes yellow and reptilian just like his.

"He's using their Contracts to control them!" Faceless shouted. "Even if they're unconscious, he has full control of their bodies!"

"More than that," Emile boomed. "Behold the power of my_Function!" He held up his hand towards them. _"Elk Cloner Prime!"

A glass bottle slammed against Ryker's back. It hurt but it didn't shatter, thankfully. What it did do was expel a flurry of green, ethereal strings from his chest. Takoshi grunted as that same bottle hit his arm and those strings came shooting from his chest. The others were likewise affected. The moment they were struck by a projectile, the strings started emerging. He grasped at the strings in desperation but his paws just slipped through them with little effect. The strings fluttered towards Emile, streaming past him and coalescing in the space behind him. There, they seemed to just hover in midair.

"What's going on?" Oliver asked, waving his paws through the strings. "What's that supposed to do?"

Not even Si or Faceless had an answer.

"Allow me to explain," gloated Emile. "Elk Cloner Prime inflicts a 'curse' upon each of you. You can think of it as a bit of my venom." He hissed for emphasis, his rattle shaking. "Every action you take from now on will take twice as much energy to undertake. The duplicated half will be siphoned into the constructs behind me." He gestured where the strings were gathering. "And yes, those very same constructs will be under my control. Exact copies of you." He lifted his head, grinning down at them arrogantly. "You better hurry up and defeat me as quickly and efficiently as possible or you'll quickly find yourselves as your own worst enemy." His gaze grew pointed as he turned it towards Oliver. "How's that for looking at your own 'reflection'?"

"That's fucking crazy?" Takoshi snarled. "Who writes this shit!?"

"Conserve your energy," Faceless warned. "Stay back! All of you!"

Emile lifted his hand towards them again. "That's not going to be an option. Go!"

The controlled and unconscious Corpsmen suddenly charged, lifting their guns and weapons while their IPs charged forward. Takoshi immediately ducked and swept up Ryker in his free arm, bolting away even as a trail of gunfire followed him. Oliver and Cliff ducked behind Arthur's shield while Soren was ducked behind the boar himself. With every step Takoshi took, Ryker could see more and more threads streaming out of the bear's chest. Those threads streamed towards his mirror behind Emile, slowly winding together like it was knitting together a yarn version of the samurai.

This had become a war of attrition.

BAM! BAM!

The sound of a shotgun split through the chamber and a large group of the Corpsmen tumbled forward, suddenly covered in sticky, black tar. Bifrost was back on his feet and quickly reloading his elemental shotgun. Unlike the rest of them, he didn't have any green strings sprouting from his chest. He hadn't been hit yet.

Emile noticed this too and a bottle came streaming towards him from his blind spot.

"Bifrost!" Ryker cried in warning but even then, the unicorn didn't turn around.

Instead, Si came rushing in, swinging his triggersword and slashing the bottle right down the middle, rendering it useless. The lion quickly turned to his right, still back to back with Bifrost and lifted his paw. His magazine container lifted, blocking another bottle before it could hit either of them.

They were working in perfect synch.

Takoshi was able to stop running but he was far more exhausted than he should be. He left Ryker down, sweat running down his brow and panting heavily. "Fuck... That took more out of me than I thought."

"It's Emile's Function," said Ryker, looking up at the rapidly growing constructs behind the snake. "He's draining us of power with every move we make." Then he glanced at his phone. He immediately lifted it towards the strings against Takoshi's chest. "Break!"

The ethereal threads shimmered then immediately shattered. The splintered edges streamed towards the Takoshi clone, just barely formed and looking more like someone had scribbled a vague outline of the samurai in emerald ink. But the moment the last thread entered its body, it dropped to the ground, now active.

"Guys!"_Ryker shouted. _"Get over here!"

Emile scoffed as he flung a hand through the air. Ryker saw the glass screaming towards Takoshi and immediately vaulted over the hunched over bear and cross his arms in front of his chest.

SMASH!

The glass shattered against his arms, bruising them but not breaking the skin.

"Wild Card!" exclaimed his IP in concern.

"It's okay," Ryker huffed, managed a grin beneath his mask. "His Function can't stack its effect." He glanced at his chest, counting the threads there. "He can keep hitting me as much as he damn well pleases but it won't make more strings appear."

The revelation actually caused a flash of worry from Emile.

"I'll protect you, Ronin!" Ryker shouted. "Cover the others! Guys! Get over here! I'll use Break on your strings!"

"No you don't!" Emile shouted, flinging his hand forward. Dozens more bottles came screaming towards Arthur as the boar got to his feet and offered cover for the rest. Takoshi leapt to his feet and brought his sword crashing down. Wailing winds blew the bottles off course, sending them crashing against the walls. With the Corpsmen occupied by both Si and Bifrost who Emile had neglected to hit, there was nothing stopping them from getting to Ryker.

Except Emile.

CRASH!

The snake's desk slammed right in their path, shattering the obsidian floor.

"Die, you rats," snarled the reptile.

Two shadows appeared behind Emile.

The monitor on Flicker's face printed the words Faceless uttered coldly into Emile's ear. "You first."

The infiltrator pulled off his mask, dropping the illusion of invisibility and immediately swept his leg out from underneath Emile. The snake let out a cry of shock as he fell to the ground, slamming his head hard against the jade table. Flicker immediately lifted his revolver and -

BANG!

Fired a shot right into Emile's arm, the one still clutching the Server. Blood splattered across the green of the table but he still refused to let go of the cube. Gritting his teeth, Emile commanded the table to lift into the air and spin and shake madly. Both Flicker and Faceless were forced to leap off as the table sailed back away from them and towards the rear of the chamber.

Ryker didn't pay much attention to the CEO's movement as he quickly rushed towards the rest of the team and held up his phone towards them. "Break!" he announced. "Break! Break!"

Arthur, Cliff and Soren's threads shattered. They were the ones that could actually fight. Though he and Oliver still remained bound, they couldn't do much given that he hadn't been able to manifest his Function and Oliver had already used Pause earlier. Even should their clones materialise, they wouldn't do much. Oliver gave him a nod of understanding at his decision.

A grunt rose from Emile's throat as the snake pulled himself to his feet.

"You... little...rats!" he snarled, clutching his injured arm with blood dripping between his fingers. "I will kill you all! You'll be sleeping at the bottom of the Hudson with concrete fucking shoes!"

If there was ever any doubt that Emile Santos was anything but a mafia mob boss, it was gone.

"Give up now, Emile," Si warned, kicking down the last of Corpsmen."You've lost. You're in no position to fight. Let's get you to a hospital. Don't let your pride extinguish your life."

Emile snarled at him, eyes wide and mad. "Fuck you! I'm not done yet!" He held up the Server. "Prepare to face the full might of AllAle!"

Something seemed to trigger in Si and the lion leapt towards the CEO. "Emile! No! Don't do it!"

Flicker suddenly appeared behind the snake, lifting his gun but before he could pull the trigger, Emile closed his fingers around the Server. The blistering light of the cube exploded outward, blinding Ryker. A sound like a million people screaming all at once raked at his ears. His feet were swept out from under him and he was hurled back. The strong, familiar muscled frame of Takoshi pressed against his back just in time as they hit the wall. Even with his IP cushioning the blow, the impact was hard and made him gag.

On the far platform, Emile's form absorbed the power of the Server into his entire being. Thick veins pressed against his injured arm, coursing along his flesh and rapidly repairing the damage done by Flicker's revolver and more. The muscles in his arm bulged, doubling, tripling and quadrupling in size. Where the scales had been peeled away or damaged by the bullet, the flesh beneath turned grey and hardened into a leathery hide. As his muscles continued to grow, it broke through his scales, causing the black to flake away like dark snow and reveal more of the grey, vascular flesh beneath.

That same growth rolled up his shoulder, veins snaking across his deltiods and down to his pectorals. The pressed, expensive suit bucked and groaned beneath his abrupt growth. The white, collared shirt strained with his growing pectorals, diamonds of grey flesh appearing as the buttons barely held the velvety clothing together. Those very same buttons went sailing a moment later with a tremendous ripping noise. Emile's chest, stacked like an bodybuilder's but with a rather pronounced guy like he had abused steroids was covered in the same, grey leathery skin instead of softer scales.

Emile threw his head back, letting out a roar and lifting his other hand into the air. The muscles in his shoulders bulged out, tearing at the sleeves of his jacket and shirt. His biceps surged out of the fabric, first splintering down cloth by the seams before shrugging them off entirely. That left some shards hanging from his forearms as those too bulged but could not escape as the sheer size of the muscles kept them pinned against his flesh. He brought his fist crashing to the hovering table beneath him, sending the platform crashing to the ground and splintering it clear in half.

The light from the Sever began to fade just as Emile let out a loud half-snarl, half hiss. Ryker opened his eyes fully only for fear to grip his heart.

Emile's reptilian features contorted as two, large growths began emerging from his muzzle. One, at the very tip of his muzzle, rose a full foot into the air while the other, slightly behind the first, grew about half the size. The CEO of AllAle stood, the ripped and torn shards of his pricey suit clinging to his shoulders while his slacks had been torn from the thighs down to reveal thick, vascular legs. His feet had burst from his dress shoes. That grey, leathery flesh that Ryker realised was like a rhinoceros' hide started from Emile's elbows, stretching across his deltoids and spread across his chest before abruptly ending at the waistline.

It was like he had merged with a rhino... or more precisely, merged with his IP.

Most startling, however, was the crystal-like structure of the horns on his head.

It was the Server.

Si appeared beside him, lifting him to his feet. "You alright?" asked the lion.

"Bruised... but okay," Ryker answered. He glanced at his chest. The threads were gone. Behind Emile, the green threads had all been severed and now there stood the creepy silhouettes of the fighters. "That isn't good, is it?"

"This is exactly what happened when we brought down Leoman Brothers," Si replied. "Only when we got there, the CEO had already merged with his Server and he was in a berserk state for years!"

"Seriously?" Takoshi asked, grimacing as he pulled himself from the wall. There was a large dent shaped like the bear in the stone. "Didn't anyone notice that the bastard was a huge, hulking freak with admittedly impressive pecs?" Ryker glanced at his IP who merely shrugged. "Hey, I call 'em as I seem 'em."

Si lifted his paw towards them, gesturing for them to stay back. "In the Realworld, he wouldn't have changed in appearance. It's only in the Overworld that his appearance has changed. However, he's not come to embody all of the corporation. His values are immediately instilled into those that work under the brand. Those that have formed Contracts with him will automatically adopt every one of his beliefs even if they are counter to what they once stood for." The feline leader quickly glanced towards them. "I want you to go back outside. Find the other Kage_. Get them to come here. Then use Exit. Get out of here."_

"But -"

"You agreed to those terms," Si pressed. "The moment I said it's too dangerous, you Exit. Please. This is far too dangerous."

Takoshi grimaced and grabbed his blade. "Not happening, kitty cat. That asshole has a shadow of me running around. I ain't going nowhere until it's dead!"

"Listen to me -!"

Faceless suddenly appeared beside Si, once again removing his mask and becoming visible."It's useless, Si. No self-respecting person would be able to stand here and just retreat after such a monster has been unleashed. We would hardly be able to call ourselves the Watchers of Liberty if we ran at the first sign of danger." Faceless placed his mask back on and again, vanished from sight. "I'll call the other leaders. You hold the fort until I get back."

Si sighed and readied his sword. "Fine. But none of you take any unnecessary risks! This is serious!"

Takoshi rolled his shoulders. "That's just how I like it!"

Emile Santos, mutated as he was, let out a ferocious roar. The green wire-frame versions of Ryker and the others charged, swinging their weapons. Takoshi's shadow unleashed a blast of wind directly at them while Soren's peppered them with bullets of water. Arthur clashed with his own shadow, smashing shields and flaming swords against one another. Cliff did the same with his own clone, dancing between one another while flashing their daggers. Si stepped in front of Ryker, using his magazines to block the water bullets. Bifrost came from the right and crash-tackled the eagle clone to the ground only to be blown back by a powerful gale from Takoshi's clone. A short distance away, the real Soren came charging forward and slammed a fist into his own clone. Oliver clashed with his shadow though since he was armed with Soren's bat, had far greater reach.

The transformed Emile let out another roar then lowered his head like a rhino charging. He suddenly charged, closing the distance between him and Si in a split second despite the distance. Si, totally unprepared for the move was lifted off the ground and speared in the shoulder by Emile's crystal horn. The lion roared in agony as he was pinned against the wall.

"This is my company!" growled Emile. "Mine! I built it from the ground up! Anyone who gets in my way, anyone who tries to take it away from me will die! I'll kill them myself!"

Bifrost seized Emile's shoulder and yanked him away, pressing his shotgun barrels against the snake's chest.

BAM!

Pure fire burst from the barrels but it did little more than cause Emile to stagger several steps back. Ryker rushed towards Si, helping the bleeding lion off the wall.

"I'm alright," Si gasped, reaching for his phone. He tapped the Refresh button and a green light eased the wound to close. It wasn't fully healed but it was at least no longer bleeding.

A howling gale suddenly blasted them both to the ground. Takoshi's shadow was relentlessly attacking forcing even the real one to skid across the ground. The gale was so powerful that it raced across the entirety of the chamber, whipping glass shards and debris in all directions and peppering the combatants. Emile and his shadows were unaffected.

"Damnit!" Oliver cried. "Ronin! Tell me there's something you can do about this!"

"There isn't!" bellowed Emile, laughing triumphantly as he stepped back and let the green, thread clones stride forward towards their opponents. "I can use your abilities far better than yourselves! I am god_here and these copies are you but improved! In fact! I will improve them all the more!" He lifted a hand and snapped his fingers. _"Alt!"

The threads of the clones suddenly streamed out, transforming into writhing serpents of green thread that quickly wrapped themselves around some of the unconscious Corpsmen. Ryker watched in horror as the poor men and women that had put their faith in Emile screamed while the threads wormed their way into their bodies, piercing the flesh and reshaping muscles, bones and skin. His stomach churned and his dinner came rushing up his gut. He turned away, pulling aside his mask, retching loudly as the screams died.

He dared a look back... and gagged again.

Now there stood perfect clones of each of those affected by Emile's Function. The only difference was that their flesh was a pallid grey and bright, green threads throbbed beneath their flesh, even piercing their eyes and forcing their irises to emit an eerie, green glow.

"You monster!" Si cried. "They were your employees! They put their trust in you as their leader and you... you... did that to them!?"

"You're right," boomed the insane Overlord. "They are my employees. I can do what I want to them!"

Ryker clasped a paw over his muzzle, trying to keep himself from throwing up more of his stomach contents. This was sick. This was beyond anything that he had ever expected. Emile Santos used his own employees as weapons. He treated them so dismissively like they weren't people at all, just tools for him to use and abuse as he saw fit. It reminded Ryker of the heartlessness that dominated the corporations and his conviction to stop them.

"They aren't just your employees," he snarled, slammed his mask back on. "They're people with their own lives to live! They have their families, their friends, their futures and own fates!" He straightened, turning towards Emile with his paws closed into fists. "Just because they signed a Contract with you doesn't mean you can lord over them! You have a responsibility as their employer to treat them right!"

"I am their god!" boomed Emile. With those words, the Takoshi clone swung his blade once more, sending a screaming gale back towards them and slamming all of rebels back against the walls. "I own them! They will die for me! They will live for me! Watch!" He waved a hand towards the Oliver and Soren clones. "Delete!"

Ragged black and red wounds crackling with dark lightning erupted all over the bodies of the two beings. They screamed, their voices echoing with the cries of the man and woman that had been used to form their bodies. Both beings fell to the ground, writhing in pain as the vicious cuts seethed against their bodies.

This was the madness that Overlords brought to the world. Si was right. Such beings didn't belong in the Overworld or the Realworld.

He gripped his phone tightly, fighting against the gale to level it directly at Emile. He was down to his last RAM but if it would stop Emile, he would willingly stay in the Overworld for a day.

Takoshi's paw rested on his, pushing the phone back down.

The bear, a cocky grin on his lips, pulled himself from the wall. Even as the gale continued, Takoshi managed to pull himself away from the wall. His sword was lifted in front of him. Its razor edge was cutting through the winds like he was parting them down the middle.

"You may be their god but you don't know them," snarled the bear. "You don't know what they're capable of. You don't know their limits or their potential. You're just looking at them from the top down but you've never stood beside them, never worked under them." Takoshi suddenly lowered his sword and slipped it back into its scabbard.

"Ronin..." Ryker whispered.

The samurai reached for his other sword, the far longer blade encased in the blue sheath. As long as he had known him, Takoshi had never drawn or used the blade.

"How can you properly manage them if you've never_been where they are?" Takoshi shouted. The huge blade was nearly as long as he was tall and as he drew it, bursts of water erupted from the diamond-shaped hilt, covering the entire blade in a layer of thin liquid. "I can tell all this because if you had known me, if you knew my abilities, you wouldn't have just stuck with blowing me." He grinned at his own joke. "Hell, you didn't even bother recreating my other sword on your clone because you had _no idea what it does!"

Ryker looked towards the Takoshi clone that was still hurling blasts of wind towards them. The long zanbato was absent.

Takoshi suddenly held the blade over his shoulder, pointing the edge the blade forward. "Eat this, bitch."

He thrust forward. There was a white beam that shot from the tip of his blade and immediately pierced his clone's shoulder, forcing said clone to immediately drop his sword and release everyone else from the gale.

"What!?" exclaimed Emile.

Takoshi immediately pulled his sword back and made similar, lightning-like thrusts in the direction of the other clones, aiming for their arms and knees. The clones were forced to the ground, crying out in agony but otherwise incapacitated. Then he turned the blade towards Emile and thrust.

The snake-rhino hybrid screamed as he was pushed back by the concentrated jet of water that Ryker realised was like one of those water jet cutters. Those things could cut metal so even Emile's hardened flesh wouldn't stand a chance against that blast.

"Why didn't you use that before?" Oliver exclaimed.

"Never had a reason to use it," Takoshi answered with a grin. "Until now."

Emile clutched his shoulder, seeing the blood there. "You are some persistent rats. Fine. I'll end this now." He lifted his finger, putting everyone on edge. Strangely, he began counting. "Yes... That will be enough to fill by staff again. You can be the CFO to replace Kanoth." He pointed directly at Oliver before pointing at Si. "I'll have you replace Elijah as Chief Security Officer." He pointed at Cliff next before finishing with Ryker. "You can be the CTO and you can be the COO."

"Like we'd ever work for you!" Cliff shouted.

Emile grinned darkly. "You have no choice in the matter. After all, you are in my Domain!" He held out both his hands towards them, ignoring his injuries. "Control!"

It was like those very same immense fingers had gripped Ryker, holding in place and forcing every muscle in his body to lock in place.

"W - W - What's going on!?" Oliver demanded. "Did this happen when you last faced an Overlord!?"

Si couldn't even shake his head. "N-n-no! This is nothing like that!"

Emile laughed triumphantly. "You've spent too long in my Domain. You've become my subjects."

"Your Domain!?"

Ryker had just thought 'Domain' was just another way for Emile to note his surroundings or his mansion. It was an actual object of importance.

"Ever Overlord emits an aura of influence just like the Server," explained Emile, his grin growing broader. "It is more powerful than a Server, however, especially here in the Overworld. Those who stay too long within their Domain will slowly but surely fall under their command. It is the culmination of all three Functions of a CEO. Control to take command of the idiots who think they can invade their Domain. Alt to slowly alter their perceptions and bend them their minds to match that of the Overlord. Finally, Delete to remove any doubt, any source of rebellion and any sense of disloyalty in their minds!"

Emile lifted his hands a little higher. Ryker drifted into the air a good six feet. The others were likewise suspended, all unable to move. "You would naturally have to spend much longer in my presence to feel the full effects but you have stayed long enough for me to at least exert Control. That's more than enough, though."

Golden scrolls appeared in front of each of the Hosts complete with a tall golden quill. The scrolls unfurled. The words 'Contract of Utter Loyalty' were emblazoned on the top.

"Now," boomed Emile. "Sign yourselves over to me. Sign the Contracts and become my new officers!"

"Never!" Cliff roared but even as he said this, his right arm was already rising to grab the quill.

"Bandit! Don't do it!" Arthur cried.

_"Fuck! I c_an't control it!" His fingers wrapped around the quill, inching towards the dotted line at the bottom of the Contract. As Ryker watched in horror, he noticed his own paw was rising up and had to fight with all his will to keep it from reaching the parchment.

"This... This can't be!" Si shouted. "You'll never own us! We'll fight you! With every inch of our being, we'll fight you!"

Emile let out another arrogant laugh. "Fool. Those Contracts are far more ironclad than even what I had enforced upon the others. You will be little more than Dosers. Mere extensions of my will. It was my mistake to let those idiots run around with their own initiatives and freewill. I won't make that mistake again. This time,AllAle and everything about it will be perfect because I am AllAle!"

Ryker squeezed his eyes shut, trying to fight his arm but it was useless. He could feel Emile's power coursing through his arm, moving his nerves, twisting his muscles, bending his bones. The quill pressed against the parchment, scratching against the surface and drawing a glistening white line against it. Hot tears streamed down his face as he looked helplessly towards Takoshi.

This couldn't be the end. Not after all he had been through. Not after all the connections he had made.

Takoshi, Oliver, Cliff, Soren, Arthur, Kanoth, Cedar and even Decanter. All of them.

What would his little island in the Broken Server look like if he fell under Emile's control.

His heart skipped a beat as another line was drawn on the parchment.

The Broken Server.

Cue had told him that it had been shattered to prevent corporations from having a constant bridge from the Realworld to the Overworld. Would Emile gain that knowledge? Would the Overlord learn of this and then start using him to repair that bridge? Would he be the key to bringing total corporate domination to the world?

Would it all be his fault?

He grit his teeth together, closing his eyes.

"No... please..." he whimpered. "Not like this..."

"Ryker."

He opened his eyes, tears clouding his vision but he could still see Takoshi through it all.

"Thanks," whispered the bear.

_"What?"_he whined.

"I know we've just known each other for a little while," said the bear a sad smile on his muzzle. "But I just wanted to say thanks for taking me in. Thanks for having faith in me and, even for a few weeks, have a purpose again." The bear shut his eyes. "Fuck... I wish I had some sort of Hail Mary Play that would make this speech worth it but... I don't. Just... before we fade. Thank you." He forced a smile towards Ryker. "Thanks for giving me something to fight for."

Ryker shut his eyes, gnashing his teeth so hard he was sure his gums started bleeding.

"No!"_he bellowed. _"I won't let it end like this! We'll keep fighting! We just have to... to..."

The words came to him. Two words that just sung out in his heart, spilling forth from his soul, rising from his chest and spilling out of his muzzle.

"... Break Free!"

Control returned to his fingers and he immediately seized the quill, slamming it hard against the parchment of the Contract, piercing it. He dragged the quill off to the side, tearing it across the dotted line until the feather was right beside him. Emile gawked, caught completely off guard as he stared at the defiance to his will wordlessly. The progress of the others to signing their names stopped. Blinding light spilled forth from Ryker's paw, consuming the quill entirely and rising up between his fingertips. It formed a long, thick shaft, stretching at least six feet in length. The twisting and curling light above his paw spread out to both sides, appearing to take the shape of a large 'T'. A sound like shattering glass rocked the chamber, a noise he was all to familiar with. The light around his weapon shattered and Emile's control immediately left him.

He dropped the six feet to the ground, his fall made quicker by the weight of the enormous warhammer that bit into the obsidian floor. White cracks splintered out from the impact site of the hammer head, spilling upwards and casting him in an ominous glow.

"He... He manifested his Function," breathed Si.

In Ryker's paw was an enormous black and gold warhammer taller than he was and with its head bigger than his chest. The shaft was made of some black metal that was seemed to artfully reflect images of people perfectly but absorb light from everything else. Intricate golden bands wrapped around the shaft. The shape of two snarling wolves facing one another indicated where he should grip the weapon with both paws. At the base of the weapon, hanging from the solid gold cap was a long, golden chain that was capped off with the emblem of a single lower case 'I' with the dot - the tittle - shaped like the stylised eye of the Independent App. The head of the hammer was enormous and made of the same black metal as the haft and wrought with golden, spiked bands around the rims. The wispy image of a wolf running was engraved onto the faces of the hammer though curiously, there also appeared to be a feral bear standing on its hindlegs beside the running lupine.

"How...?" Emile gasped. "How did you free yourself...?" He quickly brushed aside the concern and focused his hand at Ryker. "Control!"

Again, Ryker could feel Emile's strong mental control seize his body but all he had to do was focus on his weapon and the control shattered and broke, a dazzling display of splintered light springing from his body.

"Damn you!" shouted the half-snake, half-rhino. He threw both his palms towards Ryker. "Control!"

The grip was stronger but again, just a little thought towards the hammer and he was immediately freed. Ryker tried to lift the weapon but it was taller than he was and the head was enormous. So he had to grip it in both paws and lifted it over his shoulder. He immediately turned towards the floating Takoshi, having to swung the hammer fully around in a circle before he could build enough momentum to smash the control Emile had on his IP.

The hammer never touched Takoshi but stopped just inches from his foot. There, it struck Emile's Control and immediately shattered it. Takoshi dropped to the ground, grinning from ear to ear.

"Free the others!" the bear announced, bringing out his longer blade and summoning the water jet forces around it. "I'll keep the ruling rhino busy!"

"No you don't!" bellowed Emile and turned his hand towards Takoshi. The samurai was frozen for all of a second before Ryker was there, gently brushing his hammer against Takoshi's leg and freeing him from Control. Takoshi immediately followed up by thrusting his sword forward, sending a high-pressure jet of water screaming towards Emile's knee. The CEO screamed in pain as the jet pierced the joints and tendons, sending him toppling.

Ryker immediately rushed towards Si who was closest and swung his hammer, again having to spin around fully to get enough momentum to lift it high enough. The lion dropped from where was suspended, immediately lifting his triggersword and firing it at the Contract he had come so close to signing. He spat in disgust, reloaded and quickly firing a few more times in rapid succession to burn the remaining Contracts.

"This is beyond forgiveness, Santos!" snarled the feline. Bifrost was saved a second later, dropping next to his Host and arming his shotgun. "This ends now!"

Ryker rushed towards Oliver and Soren next, freeing them from Emile's control.

"You really are something, Wild Card," laughed the tabby, accepting the help of his IP.

Ryker returned a smile. "I just couldn't stand the thought of all of us being slaves to that." He gestured at Emile who was just getting up but then knocked back down by one of Si's fiery blades erupting against his arm.

He rushed towards Cliff and Arthur, breaking the last shards of Control from them and letting them fall.

"Dude! You're so fucking awesome!" Cliff cried, pulling Ryker into a hug. "You saved the fucking day!"

"It's not over yet!" he answered, turning towards Emile. "I'm going to need your help. This thing is heavy and I don't think I can run all the way over there without dragging in across the ground."

Arthur leaned down, sheathing his flaming sword. "Hop on, Lord Wild Card! I shall be thy noble steed!"

He arched an eyebrow at the boar. "Really?"

A shrug and a cheesy grin was his reply. "Eh. Seemed like the best thing to say."

Ryker jumped onto Arthur's broad shoulder, hefting his hammer over his shoulder. The knightly boar rose, using both hands to keep Ryker steady. Cliff picked up the golden shield and held it in front of them.

"Ready?" hollered the tiger.

"Ready!" Ryker shouted back.

They charged, Cliff the vanguard while Arthur carried Ryker across the chamber straight towards Emile. The Overloard saw them approaching and with a roar, thrust his hands at them. The two halves of his table launched off the ground and hurtled straight towards the charge. Takoshi suddenly leapt in front of the projectiles, swinging his massive sword through the air. With the high-pressure water wrapped around the blade, he was easily able to cut through the jade and wood, slicing them all in half and even striking a heroic pose while in midair.

"Go!" shouted the samurai as he landed. "Kick his ass!"

Emile roared in frustration and swung his hands forward -

Only for both Si and Bifrost to leap in front of him, crossing one another in midair but in such a way that neither of them got in the way of the other's shot. The pulled the triggers to their weapons at the same time. A cloud of black smoke erupted from Bifrost's shotgun, burning Emile's eyes and obscuring his vision. A fiery blade slammed into Emile's right hand with enough force to cause him to stagger back and to pierce his palm almost halfway through.

Ryker braced himself as Arthur suddenly braked and tossed him forward. Cliff hunched forward, continuing his charge for a few more feet before lifting the shield over his head. Arthur's throw was perfect as Ryker landed exactly on the shield. The tiger's impressive muscles pumped and threw him upward. Coupled with his own kick, Ryker lifted his warhammer over his head and angled himself directly at Emile.

Just as the black cloud was swept aside by the CEO's massive hand, Emile locked gazes with him.

For the first time, those yellow eyes knew fear.

He brought his hammer down.

"BREAK!"

******

A column of blinding light erupted from Emile Santos' mansion in the Overworld. This same light, akin to the beam from the Server, was joined by a terrifying scream. It breached the constant overcast of the Overworld with such force that the clouds were forced to part in a radial pattern for miles. It revealed the vast starry night sky beyond the clouds, a rare sight in this dark, shadowy world.

The pillar had an immense gravitational field to it like it was a tractor beam pulling objects from the mansion up into the sky. The great dome of the building, an arrogant mockery of the Capitol Building, was the first to crumble and disintegrate, its bits and pieces being wretched from the structure and sucked up into the light which carried it off into the stars. The statues of muscular rhinoceroses cracked and shattered, debris being sucked into the pillar along with the rivers of golden ale that they produced. Lush gardens, expensive paintings, bizarre ornaments and everything that had once decorated the mansion were yanked forcefully from the ground and sent sailing into the light.

What was left was a dark shadow of the mansion itself, a mirror image of what the manor appeared in the Realworld. The light was peeling away all of Emile Santos' delusions, wiping away his reign as Overlord and leaving the pure, uncorrupted reflection that it should always have been.

Debris flying in from Manhattan joined the spiralling tumult of the cleansing; the AllAle Headquarters similarly being dismantled. In the heart of the city, the IPs, Corpsmen and even Zombies gawked as the gaudy monument to the company's crimes and arrogance were sucked up in the dazzling pillar.

Then, one by one, each of the Corpsmen found themselves ejected back into the Realworld. Their Dosers, mockeries and copies of those whose ideas AllAle had consumed, dissolved into a flurry of black dust that fluttered towards the pillar of light. When they stared back at their phones, the application that they had once used to access the Overworld was gone. A new sense of... freedom entered their eyes as if a veil had just been lifted.

They knew.

They been freed from their Contracts.

The rag-tag army from the _Custodes Libertatis_cheered. This was a monumental victory for them. It would empower them. Proof that they could take down the corrupt and those that would abuse the Overworld.

Pity few of them knew the truth of what had happened within the mansion's confines.

Cue looked towards the other Kage of the Libertatis. None of them were cheering.

Then, as quickly as it came, the pillar of light vanished, streaming up towards the darkness and seemingly joining the billions of stars that painted the sky of the Overworld.

The clouds quickly returned, closing the wound that the death of an Overlord brought.

******

Within the mansion, Ryker panted, his warhammer resting in front of him while Emile Santos knelt in front of him, eyes gazing up into the ceiling of the plain, shadowy office. No longer were they in a highly decorated throne room to the Overlord. They were just in a reflection of the same room in the Realworld. It was much smaller with bookshelves lining the walls and a simple, wooden desk sitting behind Emile. The floor was carpeted.

"It's over," he wheezed. "AllAle is dead."

Emile, back to his former reptilian form but with his clothes still in tatters, looked towards him. "You think it's over? I am still_an Overlord. I have _still fused with my IP! I can rebuild anew!"

That was right. What was stopping Emile from just rising to power again. Surely he had the capital to do it. He still had access to the Overworld as well. All he had to do was find more people to become his officers, build a new Server and he would be back to terrorising the IPs and Hosts out there! He couldn't inject the Exception Virus into him either as there was no longer a Server.

"That's what you think," Si rumbled, striding forward and levelling his triggerblade at the snake's head.

"Are you going to kill me?" laughed the serpent. He reached out, grabbing the blade so tightly that his palms were bleeding. "Then do it! Kill me and be the hypocrite I know you to be! _Custodes Libertatis_doesn't kill, right? Well? What choice do you have? Either you kill me or I'll just come back, more powerful than ever and next time, you won't be so lucky!"

Ryker glanced from Si to the kneeled CEO. He almost wished Si could take off his mask so that he could read the lion's expression. Could they do it? Could they kill someone for the purposes of saving the rest of the world? Would the sacrifice be worth it? One life to prevent Emile Santos from rising once more as another Overlord of Alcohol?

"You underestimate us," Si said. "Death is never the answer. You always have a choice on which path you can take down the road of life. You clearly picked the wrong one." The lion paused for a moment. "Or perhaps someone picked it for you. No matter. You'll get a chance to pick another one. I hope you make a better choices this time around."

The lion lowered his sword and then lifted his phone towards Emile.

"Reset."

Emile let out one last, loud 'No', drawing out the scream as a beam of light erupted from Si's phone and pierced his forehead. His jaw went slack and his eyes rolled up into the back of his head. For a long moment, a soft clicking noise was all that permeated the office. Then, the light vanished and Emile fell to the ground. His body quickly lost all colour indicating that he had fallen out of the Overworld and was now just in the Realworld.

"What did you do?" Ryker asked.

"I used Reset on him as we discussed," Si answered, tucking away his phone. "It automatically resets him to a state from before a point I've determined. After studying his dossier, I've determined to set him back to just before he attended that conference where he emerged as the ambitious, immoral snake that he was just a few moments ago."

That made him frown. "You wiped his memories?"

"Kind of," Si said with a shrug. "I can't undo everything he's done to the world or the presence of AllAle. That'd just be impossible. But since the Overworld is a psychic plane, the damage he's done has been wiped clean. People will heal. They'll automatically fill in any gaps with their own memories or reasoning."

"There won't be any repercussions?" he asked. "I mean, if you wiped his memories, won't he still have a bank account, all the history of his actions and all that stuff? Won't people be after him?"

"Reset has taken care of that," Si responded, turning away. "Certain effects of his actions will be undone." He gestured around them. "That includes those poor people that were turned into our shadows by his powers. They'll thankfully not remember any of that but still..." Si shook his head gravely, paws tightening into shaking fists."He will have to answer for his crimes but they will be restricted to the crimes committed in the Realworld. Though honestly, because he mostly worked with a hands off approach and never actually got down and bullied or blackmailed anyone, he'd mostly get off."

"You're kidding me, right?" Oliver exclaimed. "He's still the CEO of AllAle!"

"Exactly. He will be tried for negligence and incompetence. We've already arranged for the Board of Directors to kick him out and for Faceless to be the interim CEO. It's not perfect but I'm sure someone with his resources and capabilities will land on their feet." Si glanced over at the prone, unconscious snake. "We'll keep an eye on him, however. Don't want him regressing."

Ryker narrowed his eyes. "Or for whoever made him an Overlord in the first place to approach him again." Then his eyes widened as a faint, greenish aura surrounded Emile. He staggered back, dragging his hammer along the ground. "Whoa... what's happening!? What's that?"

"That's just the IP that he had merged with," Si responded. "Because I used Reset, that very same IP, perhaps AllAle itself, split from him but was likewise reverted to a state before he became Overlord. The fact that it isn't fully formed right now indicates that he didn't really come up with AllAle until he became an Overlord." The lion let out a soft chuckle, almost like he was envying Emile. "Likely dreaming. Must be nice."

Bifrost padded over and clapped his Host's shoulder. "Come on. Let's get out of here, ja?"

Takoshi slapped Ryker's back, beaming brightly.

"Sounds like a plan! Drinks are on me!"

Ryker gave his IP an exasperated stare. "I think I'm going to swear of alcohol after all this. Like... forever. Besides, you don't have any money."

"Which is why_you're_ buying!"