“Ten remain?! Vardon, where the fuck is Vardon?!” Griffin howled, the first one of the group to realize the implication of the message. He turned towards the goblin girl, lifting her off the ground. “You, what did you do?!”

“I did nothing, I slept off all that booze in the spider’s room!” Fiffil replied, angrily trying to free herself from the large beastkin’s clutches. “Why would I hurt your friend?!”

“You were the only one talking about killing yesterday, and look who turned up dead the next day! The man who killed your father!” he dropped the goblin, who quickly scurried away from the enraged man. 

“Twelve entered…” Beelzebub mused in the corner, staring emotionlessly at the message even though his eyes looked blind. “That count includes sir Siegfried’s enchanted blade, yes? The spirit within it is a powerful elemental spirit, a djinn… and I don’t see the blade on his body.”

“Game-Master… Vi stepped backwards, her expression frozen in terror. Something she couldn’t remember tried to burst forth into her conscious mind, but all she felt was fear. “N-No… why is this happening?! Everything was peaceful, we were all together again!”

“What do you mean again? We’ve always been together, Vi!” Griffin growled, storming out of the entryway. “I’m going to find Vardon, don’t go off on your own anywhere.”

“I-I agree, but you’re going off on your own right now!” Akira called out to his newfound friend, and gave chase to the beastkin. 

The remaining occupants of the castle waited in the banquet hall, but when the two didn’t return after almost an hour, things began to unravel. 

“Beelzebub! You’re behind this, I know you are!” Fiffil shouted, drawing a rusty, badly damaged sword and pointing it towards the Demon Lord. “The only Game Master here is you! Setting up such a cliched scenario, you’re still a hack!”

“You accuse me straight away, understandably… but is there not another here with the Rights of a Game Master?” he replied, resting his hand on his palm as he sat on his throne. “If you remember enough to know I was the previous game master, then you should remember that Vi sat at that table as my equal.”

“What are you two talking about… I don’t know either of you… ahhh, my head!” Vi clenched her teeth in pain, holding her throbbing head. 

“Only the winner of the game gains the rights to be the Game Master, and Vi’d lost to you! You still possess the rights, using this new scenario to torment me more for your own amusement!” Fiffil slammed her sword against an empty chair, knocking it over with an echoing thud. 

“I don’t care what bizarre argument you two monsters are having, we need to find Akira and Vi’s friend!” Tyrael interjected, standing up abruptly. “They’ve been gone an hour, what if something happened to them too?!” 

“Nothing will have happened to them, the culprit is on that throne right there!” Fiffil screeched, but nobody was listening to the angered goblin anymore. 

Tyrael, Gox, and Vi’s last companion Liza grouped together to search for the duo who went on a search… searching for the search party… things had fallen apart pretty quickly. 

“So it’s back to the three of us.” Fiffil said, ignoring the spider woman, as she was Beelzebub’s direct servant anyways. “Now that the rabble are gone, we can get to the bottom of this, right?”

“Like I said, I am not the game master here, though it is quite amusing to be on this side of the board.” Beelzebub laughed, leaning back on his throne. “Vi’s memory seems to be as shattered as her body was the last time I saw it, and Fiffil… is a very clever girl, but not clever enough.”

“The fuck are you talking about, you demon?”

“As a self aware pawn, Fiffil is essentially the same as Vi or myself, and her awareness of the existence of the game board could in theory allow her to become a Game Master, though I’m not sure how a goblin has enough willpower to pull the leading Master into their board.”

“Why are you talking like I’m not here?! Tryin’ to piss me off??” the goblin growled at the demon, who merely smirked back.

“Because I’m talking about the real Fiffil, not you,” he replied.

“I am the real Fiffil!” she retorted, but he laughed again.

“The real Fiffil was an Observer, but you are merely a non player character based off of her. Unless of course you wish to tell us that this is your game board, which would explain the choice of pieces.”

“Both of you, shut the fuck up...” Vi stood up, her expression hidden behind the wide brim of her witch hat. “I dont care whose game board this is, I’m not letting them die again.”  

“Welcome back, Vi.” Beelzebub smiled towards the sorceress, but his fake emotion wasn’t fooling anyone. “It was really boring after you committed suicide by flies.”

“Fuck you.” she replied, not looking towards the demon. “I’m going to shatter this board before it does any more damage to the pieces within it, with my Endless Nine.” 

She held out her hand, preparing to cast a divine level spell that could rend worlds asunder. Enough magical power to destroy the game board and everything in it, focused on one point to create an exit. 

But her spell did not activate. 

“I already tried that, my own abilities in here are limited to creating a few servants. I’m down to less than one percent of my strength.” Beelzebub sighed, refusing to get out of his own seat like the others had. He rubbed his chin in contemplation, closing his eyes to think harder about something. “This Fiffil here believes she’s the real one, and I believe myself the real Beelzebub… but it’s possible none of us are players.”

“You’re saying…” Fiffil began to speak, but Vi cut in before she could finish.

“All three of us are just pieces for the real Game Master? That would be a terrible twist, even for one of your games, Beelz.” Vi turned towards one of the doors, as if she intended to go alone in a scenario begging for people to do so. “The challenge to us was to find the Game-Master, that implicitly means one of the established pieces here is the Game-Master. If they’re not in this castle, the game is meaningless, if they’re in this castle and we were never shown them, it would likewise be a fool’s errand.”

“Speaking of fools, why have all the others run off into the unknown? Do they not understand the scenario they’re in?” the goblin asked, not showing much concern for their safety. 

“Pieces are very single minded and straightforward. They make simple moves, even if those moves are often illogical. In order for the board to move forward along the track laid out by the Game Master, pawns will unknowingly sacrifice themselves to drive the game along.” Beelzebub answered her, as the former game’s Master he was the most knowledgeable of the three on how the mechanics worked.

A loud thump landed against the closed wooden door that separated them from the rest of the castle. And slowly, the door opened. A man staggered in, bloody, holding his left arm as it hung limply at his side. Akira fell forward, gravely injured but still alive. 

“So the game will continue, whether we participate or not.” Beelzebub got up, walking slowly towards the fallen swordsman. He turned the man over and inspected his wounds. “Looks like he’ll live. Akki, bring us medical supplies.”

“Griffin… we were attacked, couldn’t… see their face.” the badly wounded man coughed out, straining against the pain in his body. 

The game continued.