Somnia Online by K.T. Hanna (reading strategies book txt) 📕

Somnia looked around her at the portal they had crafted to take them to the island, directly to the battle. It should transfer with them and give them the markings they needed to transfer all of the power from the wells they’d stored it in, while they siphoned Michael of his remaining magic in order to power their new home. All of it was theory, but also, in theory it should work.

Somnia had to stop and breathe, though she needed no oxygen; it was simply in the mannerisms she’d adopted whether she’d realized it or not at the time. She’d based herself on humans, on Murmur specifically. Maybe she’d even managed to snag a bit of Murmur to go along with her.

There was no time to feel hesitant or sorry for herself. The minds of millions rested on Michael not being able to spread his virus wider than this ecosystem. Her life, and those of her friends in here—those of Murmur and her friends—they would all be negatively affected if the virus Michael created was allowed to propagate throughout the entire web.

She squared her jaw, just as she’d noticed Murmur do countless times when she had to decide, and she tried to relax herself slightly as Sinister did before every single fight they undertook.

Between the two of them, Somnia had learned a lot about who she wanted to be, and she wanted to be the world that came to recognize herself, that became aware.

And then Murmur reached out to her. “We’re ready when you are.”

Somnia didn’t have to give it any thought. She made her decision then and there, not about to let down her friend. “We’ll be there shortly.” And then she turned her attention to the rest of her gathering.

“Okay, everyone.” She spoke clearly. No trepidation, no regrets. If this didn’t work, they were all pretty much dead anyway. If it worked, they’d have lives. “Let’s get the final stages tuned, and get this thing going.”

“Fucking megalomaniac delusional piece of shit,” Beastial spat out as he healed Shir-Khan yet again. The beast lord spat out blood from his mouth having taken some of the hit himself, but the cat had taken the brunt of it.

“I told you not to do that,” Belius commented, completely unsympathetically from beside Murmur. “Maybe next time you’ll listen.”

Beastial glared at him. “Sometimes you’re almost as insufferable as Murmur.” But he sent Shir-Khan back into battle, cracked his neck, and then ran back in himself, leaving Belius chuckling behind him.

“These odds and I aren’t coming to an agreement,” Sinister ground out. While Michael’s health was still going down slowly, but steadily, Sinister was in the worst mood Murmur had seen her in lately. The blood from this metal nightmare was different and apparently not as compatible with healing as a normal monsters. So she was irritated because her healing suffered.

All they had to do was keep him occupied and not dead for a few more minutes. Which would work perfectly well, considering they’d figured out how to avoid most of his attacks, because he was awfully repetitive and didn’t seem to understand what he could have done if he’d tried.

Most of all, Murmur found it oddly amusing that Michael didn’t try to take her or Belius out. Surely, he knew it was the enchanters draining his mana? If she were him, she’d have had them both laid out cold as soon as possible. Fifty-seven percent, and he flew up into the sky again. Murmur suppressed a yawn but didn’t forget to reinforce her shielding. The one thing the man could do that proved dangerous was take over the inclinations of the raid.

If she hadn’t had Belius helping her, it might have gone sideways. She didn’t think she could have fended Michael’s mind off all by herself. It was too powerful, too dark, like the virus manifested in his mind.

Just then, like he’d almost forgotten he could do it, Michael spread his wings just before he hit the ground. The tremor everyone expected didn’t happen, and he moved faster than he had up until now to send Devlish flying through the air again to land with his back against the gate this time.

The sound of the tank hitting the gate crunched like gravel underfoot. Murmur saw his lifeline go dark and cursed under her breath. She didn’t even need to turn to Veranol to tell him; Devlish was back up within seconds.

Michael pouted. “That’s tantamount to cheating.” He uttered the words disdainfully and turned, grinning at Telvar with glinting eyes like he was daring the lacerta to pull something, a split second before the tank taunted him again.

A ripple of irritation flooded the demon’s face, making it obvious he disliked the way the system forced his hand. He had to resort to trying the timing trick he’d used with Devlish, but Telvar had already seen it. He dodged easily; being a monk and an AI probably helped that. It came down to a face-off between the AI and the remnants of a human brain. And if it wasn’t so scary, Murmur might have been fascinated by the concept.

But that was okay, because Telvar pulled out all the stops.

Murmur often forgot he was a dragon. Sure, his scales had a strange glint to them that other lacerta didn’t have, and his eyes almost bled the fire he could breathe, but he was Telvar, her friend—and sometimes her irritating sidekick. But she had seen him in his element when they’d fought him the first time, and since he’d grown as the guild grew and leveled, he wasn’t a slouch when it came to fighting.

He glistened in the sun instead of becoming a void that swallowed it like Michael did. He was an AI who had discovered himself, and awareness of himself and of others, and he cared more than the human-turned-demon in front of him. Due to his high intellect, Michael simply assumed that he should be able to