( Lily)<< Oh? This cockroach thinks she can hinder my loving relationship with my husband.>>

Scarlett immediately tried to send a full power mental assault on Talian’s mind but it was quickly apprehended by the NPCs, Lily and Monica. Lily used her [ Debilitate Magic LVL 7] to impede her from using magic while Monica’s [ Blood Magic LVL 5] had injured her enough to lose focus. Soon the other NPCs rushed in to defend Talian from Scarlett potentially using her mental assault onto her.

They all knew that Scarlett was the instigator as she would sometimes send a full power mental assault onto the other NPCs without their consent and during unexpected times. Scarlett was a constant source of stress for the NPCs. Everyone in the party all gained [ Mental Resistance LVL 1] all thanks to her. They are all increasingly wanting to get rid of Scarlett, especially Monica and Lily.

The only punishment that Stardust approved was that they could retaliate against Scarlett with an equal amount of force. And that he would not heal Scarlett for one day, increasing by one more day for each subsequent incident. Scarlett would often have injuries or bruises left on her for days as she kept on using her mental assault attacks on everyone. She would smile with a satisfying grin as the punishment was not enough to deter her. The NPCs wanted Stardust to punish her further but he couldn’t. Lily wanted to cripple her eyesight but Stardust was against it as the punishment was far too cruel.

“ Scarlett. My patience has run out on you and all the other NPCs can’t stand you either. Maybe I have been too lenient with you,” said Stardust. “ I wanted to give you a chance to mend your ways...”

All the NPCs were beaming with happiness that their master would finally punish Scarlett even further rather than simply equal retaliation and delayed healing for her injuries.

( Lily) << Yes! My perfect husband will finally punish that traitorous doll for good!>>

“ You finally snapped,” smiled Scarlett.

Stardust declared, “ you will no longer be allowed to live with the main group. Your needs and necessity will be taken care of by Rainbow…. And…”

“ I will help out Rainbow,” said Marla.

“ Me too,” said Violet.

“ Your only interactions will only be the 3 of them. You will be partially banished until you have changed your ways, Scarlett,” said Stardust.

Scarlett broke down crying hysterically and knelt on the ground, “ please don’t! I will be a good girl now! I don’t want to be isolated from the others! They are all my very important friends.”

“ I’m sorry but this has to be done,” said Stardust.

Even though Rainbow knew that Scarlett was a huge troublemaker in the party, she still cared for her deeply. “ Don’t worry Scarlett, I will come to see you every day and tell you everything that is going on.”

“ Don’t,” said Marla, “ this girl already tested out goodwill for far too long. Sorry Talian, we should be celebrating your creation instead of dealing with this troublemaker.”

Talian smiled in kind.

Soon, Marla, Rainbow, and Violet dragged the un-willing Scarlett far enough from the main camp where she will have to live alone on the outskirts of the main base. She could try to ignore her punishment by walking into the main base but the other NPCs will now stop her from doing so. Scarlett gave up putting on a desperate farce as she regained her calm and walked quietly towards her new living areas. Marla, Rainbow, and Violet didn’t need to accompany her anymore as she was being oddly obedient but accompanied her anyways.

Lily tugged on her husband’s arm, wanting to hear the loyalty and karma factor of Talian. The others wanted to know as well.

During this time frame, Talian was also observing the others and how they interacted with the group. Thanks to the general knowledge imparted to her by Stardust upon her creation. She does have a pretty good idea of what the party dynamics currently look like.

“ Oh right, Talian if you don’t mind. Is it okay to tell the other NPCs what your loyalty factor and karma value are?” asked Stardust.

“ Sure! My loyalty towards Stardust is 100% and my moral values are what is best for Master Stardust!” beamed Talian.

“ Yay another good NPC has been created!” cheered Luna. “ Let’s become besties!”

“ That is great to hear!” approved Queen.

“ We will certainly get along very well,” remarked Remi.

“ Very good Talian,” said Monica. << Yes! Another useful tool for survival.>>

“ Huh so you are a good girl too?” wondered Lily. << Must be a bullshit claim to be 100% loyal to Stardust. Otherwise, she would not be against my marriage with him!>>

“ Ummm Talian?” said Stardust.

“ I can’t be wrong,” affirmed Talian, “ But please correct me if I am wrong, Master Stardust.”

“ Her loyalty is only 89% and her karma is -80…”

“Hmmm….”, pondered Talian. << Master Stardust is wrong about me. I’m definitely 100% loyal to him.>>

Luna felt her stomach drop upon hearing that she is one of the evil NPCs. “ Uhhh we can still be besties if you don’t do anything hurtful to anyone.” << Please don’t be another psychopath, she does seem nice like Monica, and if her loyalty towards Stardust is that high then she won’t do anything dangerous against us I hope.>>

“ Interesting, if she is like Lily and Monica then that is fine,” remarked Remi.

“ Talian, if you want to prove your loyalty towards my husband Stardust then you must also heed my words,” said Lily.

Talian wasn’t far away from Lily and was able to close the gap between them in a mere moment to punch her in the face at full power. Lily fell to the ground with a nasty bruise with some blood on her beautiful face. Everyone was shocked that Talian would hurt Lily in front of the entire group and especially with Stardust right beside her. Stardust immediately pushed Talian away and Talian happily stepped away while he used his healing on Lily.

“ TALIAN! ARE YOU BETRAYING ME!? << Fuck! I’m sorry Lily, I’m a failure to protect you. How could an 89% loyal NPC blindsided me!>> ( Stardust)

The other NPCs also stepped in to protect Stardust and Lily from Talian’s further violence. Luna and Queen were still scared of confrontations and hid behind Remi and Monica. It was going to be 6 against 1.

Lily got right back up after being swiftly healed by Stardust,“ how could you hurt me like this Talian! I am Stardust’s loving wife! If you were truly loyal to him, you wouldn’t hurt his wife!” << This fucking doll needs to learn her place!>>

Talian glared at Lily, “ if you were really his loving wife, you shouldn’t do things that are against his wishes.”

“ I have never done anything to betray my husband’s wishes!” declared Lily.

Immediately, Luna, Remi, and Queen remembered the incident where Lily tried to kill them. And Monica knew of her past as well. Even though Lily was 100% loyal to Stardust, it doesn’t mean she wouldn’t hurt the other NPCs. Since then, Stardust did order Lily not to hurt any of his precious NPCs without any reason and she had obeyed it.

Talian doesn’t know about Lily’s past incident. Even if Lily never did anything to betray Stardust. She was going to punch her anyway even if she was her master’s wife. This was her warning to Lily that she wasn’t afraid to take her down to ensure she will not twist Stardust’s wishes with her selfishness. It is quite ironic since both Lily and Talian are twisting Stardust’s wishes with their ideas on what is the best thing to do for him. The difference between Lily and Talian was that Lily would 100% obey Stardust’s orders while Talian may ignore Stardust’s orders to do what she thinks is best for him.

“ I will be the judge of that,” said Talian. “ The same goes for the rest of you.”

Stardust ordered, “ Talian… don’t hurt any NPC without a proper reason. There was no reason for you to hurt Lily. Lily hasn’t done anything wrong. If you hurt Lily or another NPC again, I will have to partially banish you just like with Scarlett.”

“ I will obey,” knelt Talian with her face down and eyes closed.

“ Hey Remi, can I borrow your poisonous daggers,” demanded Talian.

Everyone was alarmed that Talian would demand weapons right away after committing an assault on Lily.

Remi eyed Talian, “ and what do you plan on doing with them?”

Talian smiled, “ relax everyone. I promise I won’t hurt anyone for no reason. Lily is a bad girl, you know, she is controlling and manipulating Stardust to suit her personal needs.”

“ I AM NOT!” denied Lily. She was seething in anger that the newest doll would prevent her from living a happy life with her husband Stardust. But more importantly, how Talian was openly slandering her right in front of her husband! Lily was carefully crafting an image of herself as a pure-hearted angel for her husband and it could come crashing down if Talian keeps interfering!

Stardust said, “ Talian please drop the matters about Lily.”

Lily felt her heart recover from her husband defending her from that horrible girl. She smiled and looked on lovingly at her husband while ignoring everything else and focusing only on him.

Talian knelt before Stardust once again, “ I will obey,” and got back up to ask Remi, “ please kill me with your poisonous daggers, Remi.”

“WAI-” yelled Stardust. He wanted to stop Talian’s foolishness.

Remi immediately threw her poisonous dagger into Talian’s head. She admired her resolve and didn’t even question why Talian wanted to commit suicide. If Talian asked an NPC with positive karma values, they would not kill her. The neutral NPCs would most likely kill her if she asked and the evil karma NPCs are simply unpredictable.

The poisonous dagger pierced into her head with poison seeping through. Talian was going to die in a matter of seconds. Stardust ran forward to heal her but the spare biomass in his bag was gone as it was already used to heal Lily earlier. Talian raised her hand to stop Stardust from healing her and soon she fell to the ground. Her body turned into a white light before disintegrating into nothingness, leaving behind her NPC core.

The group was stunned again by her actions.

Sand from the desert ground was collecting around her NPC core. It formed into the humanoid shape before changing color and properties to perfectly match her body’s features. Talian was revived without Stardust doing anything. It was one surprise after another with Talian.

“ This is my special ability, everyone. I can revive myself indefinitely with sand as long as I do it within 10 minutes. I will not lose any stats and skills by reviving myself like this,” explained Talian as she bowed gracefully. “ Let’s get along with everyone and do our best to help master Stardust.”

( Lily)<< You could have not revealed your hidden trump card thanks to my husband Stardust allowing everyone to hide abilities. Such a fool. I will plot to have you eliminated first since you are the biggest danger to me living a happy life with Stardust. Scarlett can be eliminated afterward. Unfortunately, Monica won’t help me eliminate Talian...>>

 

*****

 

An hour had passed since the creation of Talian. She hasn’t done anything particularly violent again and was trying to mingle herself with the party members. Everyone’s initial opinion on Talian was that she was another evil psycho like Lily. But for some reason, Talian doesn’t seem to be faking her kindness to the others like Lily. The two evil NPC Monica and Talian were so genuine in their kindness that it was hard to believe that they were evil.

The bag full of slightly magically enchanted sands was given to Talian for her exclusive use. The magic sands gave her better offensive and defensive capabilities.

When Talian found out about Lily’s past betrayal, she justified her actions of punching her in the face because Lily faced no punishment for nearly killing them. The other NPCs agreed and were starting to like Talian a lot more than Lily. They were still wary of Talian but it seems like she wants what is best for Stardust which is aligned with the party’s interests.

Queen was alone out in the sandy plains practicing her [ Light Magic LVL 5].

Talian saw that she was alone and walked towards her. Queen was still close enough to the main base that she could scream for help.
“ Queen, why don’t you tell everyone your class?” asked Talian. “ Are you a light mage?”

Queen stated, “ there is no reason for anyone to know about my class.”

Talian’s friendly demeanor has disappeared completely, a frown appeared instead. “ Does Stardust know?”

“ No, and It’s fine. I will tell everyone about my class when the time is right.”

“ Well, that is better than hiding it forever. But… it will be truly problematic if Stardust will let all NPCs hide their abilities from everyone. Imagine we have over 100 NPCs alive and the majority of them are hiding their abilities. They could plot to overthrow and rebel against master Stardust. It’s best to stamp out all possibilities of rebellion by forcing you and Scarlett to reveal your class to everyone.”

“ That is only a hypothetical situation. I’m sure we won’t let any dangerous developments happen so easily.”

“ But I don’t trust you, Queen, or should I call you by your original name Flare. You have the desire and ambition to become a ruler. Isn’t that going against Master Stardust? How will we know you are not plotting anything like Scarlett? You don’t want to force my hands to use violence against you do you?”

“ W-what? Don’t you trust and obey Stardust? Are you doubting his judgment on me and breaking his orders to not attack each other?”

Talian ignored her questioning and dashed straight towards Queen. A huge claw of sand rapidly forms in front of her intending to swipe at Queen. An application of Talian’s [ Sand Magic LVL 5 Talian was willing to do agonizing torture onto Queen to force her to reveal her class. Even if her Master Stardust orders her to not attack the other NPCs, Talian would ignore those orders if it serves greater benefits for Stardust. She was someone who believed the ends justify the means. Doing whatever it will take to fulfill Stardust’s goals even if she has to commit countless atrocities.

Queen immediately used her [ Light Magic LVL 5] to create a strong blinding light to impair the vision of Talian. It only worked momentarily because Talian could rely on her [ Vibration Detection LVL 5] to track the vibrations being made from Queen trying to flee from her.

They were still close enough to the camp that Queen could scream for help but her pride would not let her do so easily. Instead, Queen shouted, “ Fine! I will tell everyone my class during tonight’s dinner!” << Talian is such a brute. She won’t stop her violence against me unless I give her the answer she wanted. I sure hope everyone doesn’t mind my class being a ‘Politician’. I hate my class, it should be ‘Ruler’! Lily and Talian are not going to be happy about me. Even if Stardust is perfectly okay with letting me help him rule over his NPCs in the future.>>
Talian stopped her attack just before reaching Queen. A warm smile appeared on her face, “ good answer!”

“ So… are you going to force Scarlett to reveal her class too?” asked Queen with an indifferent look. << Talian is a dangerous brute but at least her motivations and goals belong to master Stardust. She’s going even further than Lily and Monica to get rid of Scarlett while being unrestrained by Stardust’s orders. Getting rid of Scarlett will be extremely beneficial, even if it will bring great pains to Stardust, I think it's worth doing.>>

A sinister smile appeared on Talian’s face. “ No. We must get rid of that traitor.”

Talian soon went back to the main camp to interact with the others. Queen’s combat powers were quite inferior to everyone else but it wasn’t a problem. She had no interest in doing anything combat-related and would prefer to delegate it to the other NPCs to handle it.

 

*****

 

3 out of the 4 evil NPCs gathered together in secret. Everyone in the party knew they were missing and were wondering what the heck they could be gathering together for. Violet was eavesdropping on them with her [ Wind Listen].

The trio Lily, Monica, and Talian were together to talk about very important matters regarding the future survival of the party.

Monica handed Talian a small bag containing poisonous needles that she collected from a cactus monster without anyone finding out about it.

Without skipping a beat, Talian started with, “ so only the 3 of us have the brains to know that Scarlett should be eliminated.”

“ That’s right,” agreed Monica. “ I want that traitor dead. We should make her death look like an accident. I don’t want to implicate myself too much and ruin my good reputation with the others.”

“ I cannot directly kill Scarlett but I can still indirectly help you two,” said Lily. “ It would be for the best if I am completely unaware of your plans to deal with her. I want to preserve myself as a pure-hearted angel towards my husband as much as possible. So Monica and Talian please dirty your hands for me.”

“ You both care too much about your image,” said Talian. “ It’s fine you two. I will murder Scarlett right now. I just need you two to vouch for me so Stardust wouldn’t punish me too heavily. He’s too much of a softie in letting Scarlett live like this. I will gladly dirty my hands to ensure master Stardust’s survival and goals are being met.”

Lily and Monica looked at Talian with a gleeful smile. Finally, an NPC knows what is best for the group!

A wind message had arrived in their ears from Violet, “ master Stardust will never let you murder her, Talian. Even if Scarlett has dubious intentions, she hasn’t crossed the line yet.”

The three of them already knew that Violet would eavesdrop on them which was fine.

Talian retorted, “ then Violet… how will you take responsibility for letting Scarlett kill one of the NPC or even master Stardust. Will you even forgive yourself that you knowingly stopped us from preventing his death?”

“ You are exaggerating a hypothetical situation that will never happen. Master Stardust is always guarded by at least 3 other NPCs when dealing with Scarlett.”

“ So what? Even if there is a tiny chance of it happening, I will not allow it. You should be smart enough to realize that Scarlett is not someone we even need. We can have countless more capable NPCs to replace her easily. Master Stardust is making a mistake in letting her live. Tell me, what would you do if more and more future NPCs were to become traitors as well? Are you going to keep stopping us? If Scarlett kills Stardust and you stopped us from preventing that from happening. I will never forgive you Violet. I’m sure many others would feel the same way as I do. I will put you into gruesome torture for the rest of your existence.”

“... you bring up good points but I’m sure we will have proper countermeasures in place to ensure that will never happen. There is no way to know if the future NPCs will be as terrible as Scarlett. As long as we have more good NPCs to balance out the evil ones.”

Lily said, “ Violet… you are talking to 3 evil NPCs right now. We are the most similar to Scarlett and know that she is too much of a hassle to deal with. You should trust in our judgments.”

“ This isn’t what he wants, Lily,” said Violet. “ Stardust wants all his NPCs to live in peace with one another. Aren’t you disrespecting his wishes?”

“ Don’t act like you know what he wants, Violet.” Lily coldly replied. “ Scarlett is a traitor that wants to kill him. She could also kill the others as well without any remorse. It’s impossible to ensure peace with one another with Scarlett around. I will fulfill his wishes.”

“ I will admit that it's tough having Scarlett around but we can overcome this hardship! Scarlett may perhaps change her ways and not hurt us anymore,” said Violet.

The 3 evil NPCs were silent.

( Violet) << These 3 NPCs are hellbent on wanting to kill Scarlett! What they are saying makes sense but this is not what Stardust wants…>>

“ You really are an idiot, Violet,” said Talian. “ Scarlett will never change. Let’s end this convo. And I will end Scarlett.”
Talian ran off to the isolated banishment area where Scarlet was currently residing.

“ You better not!” shouted Violet. “ I will report to Stardust. Lily! Monica! Do you want me to expose you both as well?”

“ We weren’t talking about killing Scarlett. I was teaching them how to use magic better, ” said Lily.

“ Indeed,” nodded Monica.

( Lily) << Wow Talian is a very useful doll. We share very similar viewpoints. The two of us would sacrifice everything for Stardust. She will be extremely useful to my husband Stardust. We will protect him from all possible dangers. If she wasn’t so opposed to me being his wife, we could be BFF (best friends forever). The only NPC I feel that way towards. But it could change, Talian could grow to like me more which will be splendid.>>

Violet immediately sent a wind message to Marla and Rainbow so they could intercept Talian from potentially killing Scarlett.

As the three of them got to where Scarlett was, Talian was nowhere to be seen. Scarlett was resting peacefully away in her tent. Then Scarlett came out, “ did Stardust forgive me yet?” Can I come back to the main group now?”

“ If you become a good girl, I will vouch for you,” said Rainbow.

Violet thought,“ Talian is probably going to wait for an opportunity to kill her without us realizing it.”

“ W-what? Talian wants me dead?” asked Scarlett with tears starting to form in her eyes.

“ Don’t worry Scarlett. Even if you’re a troublemaker, you still haven’t crossed that line yet. We will protect you until then. And Master Stardust would be greatly devastated to lose an NPC from inter-NPC conflicts.”

“ Please protect me Rainbow!” hugged Scarlett.

“ Awww we will make sure you will become a good girl like the rest of us,” smiled Rainbow. “ Then you can live a much more wonderful life.”

Violet and Marla knew that Scarlett was only pretending to be a good girl, trying to get back into the main group. She wasn’t even using her mental attacks on them either. Only Rainbow was completely buying her act.

As the four of them hang out for a while without any signs of Talian approaching them. Marla, Violet, and Rainbow decided to head back. They waved goodbye to Scarlett.

During the entire time, Talian was hiding underground waiting, relying on her vibrational detections to keep track of the 3 NPCs that were currently leaving Scarlett. Talian may have revealed her [ Sand Life LVL 1] special skill but she never revealed her [ Burrow LVL 5] and [ Vibration Detection LVL 5] skills. It was the perfect opportunity to make the most of it before the others will find out about these other skills of hers.

When the 3 NPC had left completely, Talian started digging herself out of the sandy underground. The combination of [ Burrow LVL 5] and [ Sand Magic LVL 5] allowed her to dig more effectively. Two large sandy claws encased her arms as she physically dug her way up and used [ Sand Magic LVL 5] to help move the sand out of the way at the same time. A hole to the surface was formed, and Talian jumped out before collapsing the hole and making it appear as if the ground was never disturbed in the first place.

Talian vs Scarlett.

 

***** NPC 11 Talian *****

Base Attribute: Sand Elemental

Class: Sand BattleMage

Stats:

Physical Power: 250
Physical Speed: 250
Physical Defense: 250

Magical Power: 250
Magical Speed: 250
Magical Defense: 250

Resistances:

[ Heat Resistance LVL 5]
[ Sand Resistance LVL 5]

Physical Skills:

[ Fighter LVL 5]
[ Burrow LVL 5]
[ Vibration Detection LVL 5]

Magical Skills:

[ Mana Generation LVL 5]
[ Magic Mastery LVL 5]
[ Sand Magic LVL 5]

Special Skills:

[ Sand Life LVL 1]

Karma: -80 (very evil)
Loyalty: 89%

***** Talian End *****

***** Scarlett *****

Base Attribute: Desert Ape

Class: Mind Mage

Stats:

Physical Power: 327
Physical Speed: 343
Physical Defense: 320

Magical Power: 187
Magical Speed: 168
Magical Defense: 201

Resistances:

[ Heat Resistance LVL 5 → 6]

Physical Skills:

[ Fighter LVL 5]
[ Focus LVL 5]
[ Melee Weapon Mastery LVL 3]
[ Knife Mastery LVL 5]
[ Weapon Throw LVL 3]
[ Critical Strike LVL 2]
[ Night Vision LVL 2]

Magical Skills:

[ Mana Generation LVL 5]
[ Magic Mastery LVL 5]
[ Mind Magic LVL 5]

Karma: -75 (very evil)
Loyalty: -95%

***** Scarlett End *****

 

Talian had weaker physical but better magical stats than Scarlett.

Talian knew that time was running out fast before the others discovered her. She immediately dashed towards Scarlett’s tent and slashed it with her large sand claws. The tent was obliterated.

Scarlett was able to escape out of the tent in the nick of time. She knew that Talian was hiding the entire time and was waiting for her. Scarlett was now at [ Mind Magic LVL 7]. An application of mind magic was that it allows you to detect the minds of others at a certain distance. The closer they were to you, the easier it was to detect them. Even though she knew the entire time, she didn’t even bother telling Violet, Marla, or Rainbow about it. Scarlett still wanted to keep this skill a secret from them even if it could cost her life.

She immediately retaliated by sending full mental assaults onto Talian’s mind. It caused great mental anguish to Talian as she was doing her best to shrug it off to keep attacking her. Scarlett kept dodging the impaired Talian. Soon she took out her sharp bone knife, intending to slash at Talian’s neck to make her bleed to death. When the bone knife reached towards her neck, sand immediately gathered together to form a shield to block her attack. Talian was always being protected by her sand magic aura, an application of her [ Sand Magic LVL 5]. Scarlett withdrew before trying to slash multiple more times, only to be blocked by sand.

Scarlett grinned. << This chaos! This destruction! Yes please create more discord in the party. You, Lily, and Monica want to get rid of me while the others have mixed feelings about me. This internal conflict is going to split the NPCs into 2 opposing sides that want to kill me or let me live. Talian you’re such a good girl!>>

Talian was having a hard time concentrating on the fight as Scarlett was varying her intensity on her mental assault while trying to slash her with her knife. Her sand magic aura was steadily protecting her but she was starting to get many slash wounds on her body. Blood was seeping out from her many minor wounds. Talian burrowed underground to escape the deadly mental assault and knife combo. Scarlett’s mental attack couldn’t penetrate the ground well so she refrained from doing so. From there, Talian was able to regain her sanity to re-think her situation.

Talian took a deep breath. << Ugh, battling with Scarlett is a waste of time.>>

Talian dug herself back out from the ground a fair distance away from Scarlett. Another full-on mental assault was starting on her mind again and Scarlett charged forward at Talian with her knives in hand. Talian quickly cast a sandstorm, a tall swirling sandstorm engulfed Scarlett obscuring her vision as the sands were damaging her eyes. Even with her eyes closed, Scarlett could still use her mind sense to detect where Talian was. Then something sharp and tiny hit her.

Scarlett fell to the ground, clutching her heart. << Wait this is… TALIAN YOU DIRTY BITCH! The party would have never given her any of the poisonous needles, even Lily and Monica were barred from it… I underestimated Talian’s ruthlessness, didn’t I? She must have ignored Stardust and stole them without anyone noticing. No… Lily and Monica probably helped her out… I’m not afraid of dying because Stardust will revive me. It doesn’t matter if I lose my skills or stats, I can always gain them back. Monica was troublesome but I could still deal with her because she wants my death to look like an accident. But Talian… She is the most blatant NPC to ignore all orders and consequences just to kill me? Will Stardust even punish her if I were to permanently die!? Why do I get the feeling that Stardust will not punish Talian for this...>>

Many more poisonous needles were penetrating Scarlett in this chaotic sandstorm by Talian to hide them from her. Talian wasn’t going to wait for the poison to finish her off, she ran forwards to decapitate Scarlett herself to ensure her swift death.

Genuine tears were coming out of Scarlett as she realized her permanent death was near, her face was an ugly mess. << STARDUST I WAS WRONG! I abused your leniency. The party didn’t want to accept me but only you stood up for me. WITH PERMANENT DEATH! I WILL NEVER EXPERIENCE ANY MORE DESTRUCTION AND CHAOS! I am a fool. If I could redo my life. I would never hurt you or the NPCs anymore… I DON’T WANT TO DIE!>>

Scarlett’s Loyalty: -95% → 0%

Scarlett turned into an NPC core before Talian could get to her. Talian reached forward to grab her NPC core so she could destroy it in her hands. An arrow had struck the ground between Talian and Scarlett’s NPC core. Then it exploded with a huge wind blowing them both apart. << Shit is this Violet’s wind magic and arrow combo?”

One of Violet’s signature moves was the wind bomb arrow. An arrow containing wind magic energy and bursting upon impact to create a huge wind blast outward, pushing everything apart.

Violet was able to save Scarlett in the nick of time. She grew suspicious of Talian’s whereabouts and went to check on Scarlett only to see them fighting. She quickly sent out wind messages to everyone in the party.

Violet was going to shoot plenty more wind bomb arrows to push Talian away from Scarlett’s NPC core. Suddenly Lily’s [ Debilitate Magic] was crippling her eyesight, preventing her from firing any more wind bomb arrows accurately. “ Violet, don't you know that it's bad to attack your fellow NPCs?”

“ LILY!” screamed Violet. “ REMI!”

Remi quickly moved to knock out Lily. It was going to be 2 against 1. But in this chaotic exchange, Queen and Luna moved to protect Lily with their light and fire magic. Lily was grinning hard at this development. It didn’t take much for Lily to convince those two to help her since Scarlett was always attacking them with mental assaults.

Remi yelled,“ Queen! Luna! Why are you girls protecting Lily?!”

“ Scarlett is a traitor and she is planning to kill us,” stated Queen. “ Let Talian experience the fallout for Scarlett’s death. Remi, you are a smart girl, do what is best for the group.”

“ ...I’m scared of Scarlett,” said Luna. “ She wants to kill me...”

Despite the difficulties, Remi was going to have to dodge Queen and Luna to attack Lily. While Lily was concentrating 90% of her magical power into crippling Violet from shooting more wind bomb arrows and 10% of her magical power to stop Remi from reaching her.

Meanwhile, a huge whirlpool of blood was flowing around Monica as she was busy preventing Marla from running over to Scarlett. Monica was clinging hard to Marla to prevent her from saving Scarlett. The blood was binding onto both of them together with several large strands of blood pulling them towards the ground. Marla was fiercely trying to pull Monica off her while trying to run towards Scarlett to protect her. The hard punches and kicks on Monica were injuring her heavily to weaken her. Despite Marla’s rough handling over Monica, Marla would have to outright kill Monica to get this annoying NPC off her.

Rainbow was watching this chaos unfold before her very eyes. She wanted to stop everyone from fighting each other but in this case, running to Scarlett was her best option. Only Rainbow was able to make a run for it to save Scarlett’s NPC core.

Stardust couldn’t believe his very eyes that the worst had come. He had fallen to the ground. An internal NPC conflict over Scarlett. << ...I never wanted my precious NPCs to fight each other. Why couldn’t we all talk it out with each other? You are all precious to me!>>

Stardust quickly got up as he didn’t want to waste any more precious time. Talian will permanently kill Scarlett very soon if he doesn’t do something about it. “ LILY CEASE!”

Lily stopped crippling Violet’s eyesight and arm strength. “ Yes, my husband.”

Monica, realizing that the battle was futile, got off Marla. Monica was in a near-death state while Marla suffered no injuries as Monica never attacked her.

Everyone stopped fighting.

Rainbow was still trying to make her way to Scarlett.

“ VIOLET! SEND A WIND MESSAGE TO TALIAN, IF SHE WERE TO MURDER SCARLETT. I WILL HAVE HER EXECUTED!”

Chills went down everyone’s spine, did their master Stardust’s kindness run out? Was he going to become an even more ruthless person from now on? Was it the NPC’s fault that caused him to go down this path?

Talian was holding onto Scarlett’s NPC core in her sand claws. She was about to crush her core when a wind message arrived from Violet. “ STARDUST WILL HAVE YOU EXECUTED IF YOU WERE TO KILL SCARLETT!”

( Talian) << Is Violet lying to me? I can ignore this order and permanently kill Scarlett. Lily and Monica will plead for leniency for me. Wait… if this is an order from Stardust… Lily and Monica will throw me under the bus and have me executed. Should I… sacrifice myself for master Stardust… No…. I shouldn’t…. It’s a waste for me to die right now. I can do so much more for master Stardust if I were alive…. I see… so Stardust ain’t so much a softie after all.>>

Luckily there was no damage to Scarlett’s NPC core. Talian walked back to the party with Scarlett’s NPC core in her hands.

It was dead quiet as everyone gathered together. Talian handed off Scarlett’s NPC core to Stardust. Then Stardust asked the party to gather enough desert ape biomass to revive Scarlett. Everyone obliged.

 

*****

 

It was a quiet few days where Stardust didn’t want anyone to come near him. Even Lily was barred from getting close to him.

Scarlett was soon revived, losing all her stats and skills. A new hint of sadness was in her eyes as she miraculously lived.

Stardust got down before them, “ I’m sorry everyone. This was all my fault for being lenient with Scarlett. It had caused everyone a lot of stress from her reckless behavior so much that an internal NPC conflict broke out. Talian was created at the breaking point and she was willing to permanently kill Scarlett. I don’t want my precious NPCs to fight each other like this anymore. The reason why I don’t want to get rid of any evil or darker NPCs is that they are a reflection of me. They are doing the things that I wished to do. I don’t want to get rid of them because it’s convenient and easy. I want to embrace all of the darkness in my heart and tread this difficult path. I know this is a selfish request and foolish ideals of mine…”

Scarlett with tears in her eyes immediately ran to embrace Stardust, “ I’m sorry Stardust… and thank you for letting me live…”

It was a rare sight and thing to happen as Scarlett was never allowed to get that close to Stardust due to the fear of her killing him.

Everyone watched the two of them hug it out for 1 minute. The 1 minute felt like an eternity to them, especially to Lily. Lily’s eyes were twitching in annoyance.

( Lily) << This doll! She is hugging him too much! Scarlett is never going to stop hugging him…>> Lily ran forward to hug the both of them. She wasn’t going to stop hugging Stardust until Scarlett got off him.

Rainbow soon joined in and the rest of the NPCs as well. A warm unity of NPCs all hugging it out with each other in one big ball with Stardust at the center. It was giving everyone a new sense of camaraderie after going through an internal NPC battle.

Only Talian was left out.

“ Talian, feel free to join the group hug,” asked Stardust.

“ Only if you will take me as your 2nd wife,” replied Talian.

“ I’m sorry but Lily is the only wife I will accept,” stated Stardust.

“ Oh really?” dared Talian. “ I bet if you order Lily to accept me as your 2nd wife, Lily will obey it.”

“ I’m not that type of person. I want to give my NPCs as much autonomy as possible. Even if Lily would obey every order without question. I want to know the real Lily rather than to turn her into an idealized soulless NPC without any will of her own. Back then, she threatened me with her death if I didn’t choose her. Of course, I could have ordered her not to and she would have obeyed it. It wasn’t her threat of suicide that convinced me to choose her, it was her true love for me. I wanted to give Lily a true love that I never had.”