Proofreader: Saphira

Though Avery felt tired from the day's events, she and Fenrir spent a good portion of the night cleaning up the liquid puddles throughout the room. Fenrir called "Life Magic" in dusting and mopping. It was a strange sight for Avery. Life magic was something lightly touched on in the game's lore, but it wasn't a usable category for players as it focused on a heavily watered down form of attack magic. Wind magic for drying clothes, airing out rooms and dusting. Fire for cooking, heating up water for drinks and baths. Water magic for creating drinking and cooking water.

Earth magic and Light magic didn't fit into life magic. It was used by high-levelled farmers, but that it didn't have much use anywhere else. Light-magic was considered part of the Holy magic tree, but Avery refuted that when Fenrir explained it as they wrapped up their cleaning. It a different story. Magic branched out into two states, like and dark. One could look at it like a tree floating in the air. Its trunk and leafs full of life. This would be symbolized as Light magic. It was the part of the tree that lived in the sun. Holy magic would be at the top of this and was the only branch of magic that had Healing, Anti-Curse, Buff and other support magic spells.

On the other end, the roots were symbolized as Dark Magic. For the part that lived hidden away from the light. At the very button would be Demonic Magic, which held Resurrect, Soul-Capture, and other nefarious magic spells. In the center laid neutral magic, such as Magic Sense, Magic Control, and other spells that didn't fall under any attribute.

"But Master, I've found that you don't have to even know any spells. Unlike in the time of the Gods, we can now use magic if we can understand it and imagine it!"

Fenrir was quite excited when he told Avery that. Avery too was curious, but at that moment, she was nodding off. Fenrir was a chatterbox that kept her up a few hours after they had finished cleaning. Eventually, she fell asleep in the bed with Fenrir sprawled out beside her, back to back. The poor wolf just kept talking and talking. He had missed his master and let it all out while they laid down. One-sidedly.

 

 

Before Avery was the empty hospital room she used to be in. The room was dim, the only light was peaking through an open door to the right. No one was around and all the machines had been neatly packed up and placed to the left wall. She was confused as to why she was here. She tried to step forward, but she only fell. Looking down, she was back in her withered body. Her legs had no muscle and looked mummified. Before she could react, she felt a cool breeze to her back and the smell of burning flesh.

She quickly turned her head and found herself in the Flower garden. The large pale tree was in front of her and it was night. No moon illuminated the sky gardens. Only a faint orange light showed its large trunk raising into the black sky. Turning again, what greeted her was her Heart's Rest set ablaze. She could hear the screams of the people inside, the collapsing of buildings. She could see different spells flying into the air from the city. Ice, wind, fire, earth and everything in between.

Then a large amount of fire exploded, rushing towards where they were coming from. Then nothing, only the sound of the distant fire. A large roar then danced around the night sky as a dark figure raised its head from the center of the city. Its large body definitely would have filled out the majority of that open space. It's large head emitted another angered roar before it's attention turned to Avery's direction. Large glowing-red eyes pierced the blackness.

"It is done... Now fulfill your side of the bargain. Give us back our master..."

A deep voice reverberated across. Avery was completely stunned. She remembered this voice, it was Athena.

" Well well, how would your master feel knowing you did such a thing for..."

A woman stepped up next to Avery, her body was smokey and only made a rough outline of a bountiful woman. Her mannerisms were suggestive and flirtatious until she stopped mid-sentence. Her attention turned to Avery.

"O my, hehe. A little slip-up. Shh, go to sleep little one. You'll get your turn soon..."

Black smoke oozed from her hands as it snaked its way towards Avery. Still stuck in her withered first body, she couldn't move a muscle as the black smoke turned into goo and consumed her. It was black magic. She felt her very soul being torn apart before she was put back together.

"I'm sorry master... I did it for you. I made a deal with that devil, Jen'kuo... You'll understand... How far we would go for you... Please forgive me... I have to go away now... I hope you wake up before I die..."

A sad woman's voice reached her and she found herself back in the blue liquid in the pool. Fear gripped her heart as she struggled to breathe. Air bubbles pouring out of her mouth as she thrashed around under the water's surface. Her fingertips just grazing it. She knew that voice was Athena's human voice, she had heard it plenty of times before. She cried out her name, but nothing would come out as there was no air left in her lungs.

With one final push desperate push, she finally burst through the surface and found herself thrown onto something soft. the liquid was gone and it wasn't a stone room she was in. Quickly catching her breath, she found herself in front of a small coffee table. On it was a note along with an urn. The urn had a single paw-print with a name etched inside it.

"Avery Bailey. Our whole world and heart."

"XX.XX.XXXX" [*2]

Her eyes trained themselves on the note. It was written beautifully and was short, but that wasn't what left her shocked.

"To our brothers and sisters, we're sorry that you'll have to find us like this. Nothing is left of her, but this urn. We hope that we too, return to the dust to be with her...

We're sorry. Nothing is left "

Her mind tried different ways to process it, but her heart knew what it was. It was a suicide note. Her eyes slowly crept up. Two tipped chairs laid just behind the coffee table, a pair of feet dangled just above it. Anger and sorrow boiled up in her throat. She felt like she was about to puke so she covered her mouth in a hurry. She saw just their feet. Their old shoes, but she didn't actually confirm. With the last ounce of courage, her eyes trailed up the bodies and to their faces,

Her mother and father's lifeless faces entered her sight. Their faces turned towards each other, their grief-stricken expressions mortified her. She wanted to scream, but what came out were only pitiful whimpers.

'Someone! Anyone, save them!!'

She then heard sirens and hysterical screaming of someone hailing them down. She turned towards the front door which was off to the left of her. It was open and she could see some of her relatives just outside. Her uncles had their backs turned towards the scene inside, their quiet sobbing entered her ears as law enforcement officers pushed into the house with fire-fighters following close behind.

Flashing lights illuminated flickered outside as the emergency vehicles soon blocked the entire road. The fire-fighters quickly looked at her parents before they shook their heads.

"They're long gone. Maybe an hour. Nothing we can do except cut them down."

The law-enforcement officer shook his head as well.

"Shame. I remember them, their kid was on the news. If I remember correctly, didn't that game their kid play have an incident?"

"These are the people? Damn man. Yeah. It was on the morning news, the game developer's offices had a fire. Something about the servers exploding, a few people died in it as well. I think they said that the game made a memorial to their kid because they spent all their money on keeping her on life support..."

Their conversation drifted away from the topic revolving them and they talked about other things. Their words faded out with their first topic. Her eyes never left their bodies afterward. For what seemed like several hours, was a span of a few minutes. She felt a burning sensation in her head, then it travelled through her nerves and down into her hands. She only had one thought in her mind.

'All this should just burn down... It's nothing but a damn grave now..."

She felt her sight slowly began to fade as flames burst from her feet, engulfing her parents' bodies. The living room carpet quickly blackened and fueled the flames. With every foot, the fire grew hotter and larger until it began to consume the entire room. The responders inside were caught off guard but managed to get out with only a few burns here and there. In a matter of a few minutes, the entire house was an inferno. Burning unnaturally like an angered demon as the house screamed at the world.

Just before Avery's sight completely faded, the house began to slowly collapse. Her ashen face covered in tears as she could only repeat "Mom. Dad." over and over again.

 

 

"Master! Please wake up! Master, what's wrong!?"

Avery shot up, her feline eyes narrowed and wild. Her breath was quick but shallow and she was soaked in sweat, her face ashen. Fenrir was on the floor beside her. His pleading voice was almost screaming at her. She felt a stinging sensation at the tips of her fingers. The bed sheets around her were burnt to a crisp, but the mattress was fine as it was made from high-level materials. Her sleeping clothes also were burnt to ashes as well. She turned her attention to Fenrir and noticed there were some black marks on his side as well.

"W-What happened...?"

"I don't know Master! You were whimpering then you started to shout!

She didn't know how to answer his question. She could remember every scene of that nightmare or reality. She didn't even know. She felt lost. Scared. Her emotions were mixed and raged like a berserk bull. She breathes were quick and shallow. Avery's feline eyes were narrowed as she quickly looked around. Fenrir began to lick her face, trying to soothe her. He didn't know what was going on, but he could tell something happened while she slept. It was towards the end that she began to scream and fire began to slither out like snakes from her hands before setting the blanket and pillows on fire. He managed to keep it from spreading to the rest of the room after much difficulty.

With Fenrir's help, Avery was able to calm down and they both cleaned up the mess and ended up discarding the ashes and other burned items into the hallway. They weren't anything special. Just decorative items from the end game. They had no practical use and were just blackened with soot. Avery was out of sorts during the whole clean up. Fenrir had to nudge her a couple of times to bring her out of her thoughts. She looked a little lethargic but insisted everything was fine. Even with that said, they both knew she wasn't, but they kept silent otherwise.

After the clean up was done, Avery felt better. Everything that had been turned to ashes or half-burnt was blown away. Everything that got soothe on it was wiped down or placed outside in the hallway to be cleaned later. Once all that was done, she plopped herself on her back, face down. Fenrir also joined her. He was still concerned, but he felt better now that her complexion was better. Then she noticed a small half-circle blinking red with a "!" in the middle of it. It was small and in the corner of her peripheral.

"Hey, Fenrir..."

"Yes, Mas-... Yes, Avery?"

"What's this symbol, blinking half circle with an exclamation mark in the middle? "

"Ah! That would be a new status. This world's displayed is different from our old one. Just open it like you would your status."

She did just that. A series of paper thin-glass like screen appeared with a series of prompts, its color was a faint blue like the ocean.

[After connecting to the world system via the status tool, your status has now been reformatted.]

[Status now has different displays, different from your old world]

[Status will now display.]

[Titles condensed, you can view them individually. Displaying titles of highest rank first]

〈 - Name: Avery Bailey |" FemmeFoxtrot "

Age: Immortal

Race: High-Human | Mythic

Mana gauge: 1,000,000

Level: 1,000

Ability Rank: SSS+

Owns: Sky Gardens, Coastal Palace, Church of Eternal Peace, Mountain Clouds Fortress [20+ More properties]

Magic Attributes: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Dark, and Light.

Titles: [Primordial being], [One who defies the Gods], [Hearth Keeper], [Saint of Olde], [Hero], [KingSlayer], [Savior of King Ian I], [Savior of Mountain Clouds], [Friend of Fey-kin], [Friend of Demons], [Item box Holder] - [ >>> More titles hidden<<<] - 〉

The status menu had a more streamlined appearance, more modern without any fancy graphics like FkE interface. Everything was user-friendly and quick to get to. Above the status, there were three buttons. Status was highlighted, meaning that was the one she was currently on. She could touch the screen or move it with her mind. Inventory was slightly different from the in-game one where all of it was turned into a manifest list rather than icons with their names on it.

The map was different from in-game. Instead of seeing a rough outline, she could see a simple, but a detailed map. She couldn't look at an area she hadn't been. It lit up the places she had been through, but there was only the Sky Gardens available to view. The last was the skill menu, but it had a disclaimer they were just found magic. Meaning magic that she already knew, but said she didn't have to follow those and could create her own. She tinkered around with the menu before feeling satisfied.

" I'm going to sleep again.."

" Yes, Mas-"

"Just say it, it must be annoying trying to correct yourself..."

Avery had slept for a few more hours before she got up. This time, she didn't dream of anything. It was peaceful.

 

Fenrir and Avery walked side by side onto the Sky-Docks. The docks were empty, with a single person sitting on one of the few benches in the area while nodding off. Across from him, sitting on the stone walkway, was a steam-punk like a boat similar to a Gondola, but had several wings on each side spanning around three feet. There was also several magic devices, most likely propellants, attached to its hull too. They came closer and found that it was the Third Prince Desmond. His pale skin wasn't that appealing to her, though she was a shade darker. His was more sickly, from lack of going out into the sun. A mischievous glimmer appeared in Avery's eye and a grin.

"Ahh!"

Desmond woke up with a fright as Avery was making small talk with Fenrir while sitting right beside him. Avery looked at him with upturned eyes while giggling.

"Have a good nap, sleeping beauty?"

"When did you show up?!"

"Mm... Ten, maybe fifteen minutes?"

"Why did you wake me?"

"Why did you fall asleep?"

"Don't answer with a question!"

Avery replied to Desmond with a teasing smile, a mischievous streak in her eye. Desmond could only silently air his retorts, not wanting to continue it any more than that. After running his hands through his hair and letting out a yawn, he turned his attention back to Avery.

"So my mother asked that I take you personally to the Capital. I know, I know. Why would you want to go with the weir-"

"You stop that."

"W-Wh-"

"You were apart to demean yourself, weren't you?'"

"Wait, what-

"Answer my question."

Desmond stared at her, thinking a moment as he did.

"Yes..."

"Don't. If I have a problem, I'll make sure to voice it."

"O-Okay then... Um... Yeah... Mother asked that I take you personally on Wind-Runner."

While Avery held a smile, it was an obviously fake one. The playful demeanor had been wiped away the moment he tried to belittle himself. He was unsure how to break the tense air between them. As they stared at each other.

"W-Well, shall we go?"

"... Yes..."

Getting past that, the Wind-Runner spewed to life as wind magic lifted it and they flew off. If it had been a normal trip, they would only take about an hour to reach the capital in the Wind-runner. But life never went the way people wanted it too...