Age: 17 years, 10 months

“Wakey wakey!” a voice said before lights flashed in Asher's eyes, many days after the capture of his allies in the game world. He groaned and, slowly, moved his head away. His limited control over his neck and the tubes in his mouth made even the small movement difficult. Slowly he looked around with blurry vision before he was slowly sat up and a wet cloth was used to wipe the gunk from his eyes.

“Huh? W-why?” he said wearily before he tried to catch sight of a clock. Why on earth would they wake him up? It wasn't like he had to be awake for breakfast with the tubes inserted.

“Now now, don't be like that. Today is a special day. Your parents are coming to visit so they wanted to make sure you were up and ready when they got here,” Amy said before using a damp washcloth and sponge to slowly clean him, rolling him around to get to the less pleasant areas. His mind tried to focus on other, less degrading things. Such as why on earth would his parents be visiting him. They hadn't visited him in months, at least not in person. They still played games together regularly, but face to face was almost unheard of now. He imagined they just didn't want to see his slow descent into... this.

“Yep. I hope you're excited,” she said rolling him onto his back and laying his arms at his side. “There, how do you feel?”

He just looked up at her and didn't say a word, just watched with annoyance. At least he hoped he was able to make such an expression.

“They should be here in an hour or so. Anything you'd like to do while you wait?”

He sighed and then decided to take his chances. It was only an hour, so the worst that could happen would be a short time of torture. “T-tel... te...tee... vee...”

“Ah, of course dear,” she took the nearby remote and turned the box on and flipped through the channels. Cartoons, news about more strikes, old black and white show, finally stopping on a gaming station where an online tournament was being held. “Ah, how is this?”

“F-fine...” he said softly. He couldn’t deny being thankful that Amy at least seemed to understand his interests. It was a virtual reality game tournament, team versus team. This one in particular allowed each team to decide where their 'abilities' came from, such as technological, natural or magic. Each one offered different bonuses and weaknesses. In the current game blue team had chosen natural and was crushing red team, which had chosen technology, through the use of stealth abilities and picking off the other team one by one. It was a best of five game though and the red team had apparently won the first two games.

One of the reasons these kinds of shows had become so popular over the last year was because more and more advances had been made in the field, allowing the games to appear and feel more realistic, as well as more interesting to watch. Supposedly, most pro games were now layed with the pain feedback on full, creating a real kill or be killed environment for the viewers pleasure. Judging by the screams red team were making when they were killed, he imagined this game was one of them. Or they were very good actors.

Asher was eventually drawn away from the game by a knock on the door. He glanced over toward it when it opened. He caught sight of his parents and just stared.

His mother was huge. Her stomach stood out like a massive watermelon and she was wearing a hideous yellow and orange shirt with expanding belly fabric. She was pregnant. At least, he hoped that was what it was. If she wasn't that was probably the worst allergic reaction he'd ever seen.

“Hey son,” his father said nervously while he struggled to avoid looking Asher in the eye, pretending to focus on the television.

“Y-you're... y-you're preg... n...na...nant...” Asher managed to say while he stared.

His mother squirmed a little before she took a seat across from his bed. “I... yes. It’s not uncommon. After all, I had you when I was still pretty young and you've almost fully... grown.” He couldn't help but catch the way she almost sobbed when she said that. Almost fully grown. But it was doubtful he’d live long enough to reach that threshold. “We... thought it might be time to try again. We're sorry we didn't tell you, but with all that's coming up we thought you'd rather not be bothered...”

“W-what? W-wh...wh... why?” he asked before he looked to his father, who still refused to look at him.

“Tell him,” she whispered before her gaze turned to the floor.

“Your condition is getting worse and... they say within about two years you won't be able to speak or move anything aside from your eyes,” his father said, unwilling to look Asher in the eyes. “They've been talking about removing the tube from your mouth and inserting one directly into your stomach and we wanted to know how you... felt about it.”

He stared for a few moments. “What... i-if I... d-do... d-don't g-g... ge... get it?”

Neither of his parents even tried looking at him now. He understood perfectly.

“I-I'd die?” His hands clenched and panic flooded him. It made sense, though. Most families would have never been able to afford the costs of keeping him here, as well as the government fees in place for cases like this. He was a waste of resources, as far as anyone else was concerned. “T-this... y... you w-w... wa... w-want?”

“No!” his mother said quickly. “We just know... you haven't been... this has been hard on you. Harder than any of us. We just want to know what you want.”

“I-I... I...” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Why did talking have to be so hard? “I... I... There... s-s-still... wa... wan... want d-do...” He gasped out and closed his eyes, his breathing fast while he struggled with each word.

“I know. You don't have to decide now. Just... tell us what you want when you want,” she said before she slowly pulled herself out of the chair and wobbled towards him. She leaned down and gave him an awkward hug. “You'll always be my little baby, Asher. I just want what's best for you, what will make you happy.”

“I... c-can... t-talk... next game? E-easy.” He tried not to inhale any of his moms hair when she hugged him.

“Okay...” she whispered before pulling back. “It's your birthday in a few months so ummm... you'll finally be eighteen.” Her cheeks turned red and she looked towards the door. “I know you're... young and want to try things that, errr... well... you tell him.” She turned towards his father and the man looked like a deer in the headlights.

“Well, son. We know you can't, err, try things in... normal life so we ummm... for your birthday we got you a few thousand credits for the red light district and just... don't do anything too wild.”

He stared for a few moments while he tried to be sure he heard that right. Thousand credits in the red light district. His cheeks burned bright red and now he couldn't look them in the eye. “T-thanks,” he managed to say in a pitiful whisper.

“Well, now that err, all that's settled, we'll uhhh, we'll be heading out,” his father said. “Ummm. We'll see you tomorrow on the station. Errr... yeah,” He'd never seen his father so embarrassed before, but he couldn't blame him. They left as quick as they could after that, and he found his thoughts wandering towards the gift they got him.

He eventually tried to feel happy they hadn't told him about the pregnancy. If they hadn't felt so guilty they might not have gotten him the gift. It wasn’t as if they had hidden it from him on purpose, anyway. A few minutes after they left Amy popped into the room and smiled. “Wanna get to your game?”

“P-please...” he whispered before she slid the headset back on again. The world began to shift and change around him. However, he already found his mind wandering to the red light district.

------

Asura appeared on the top floor of the fortress. To her right she saw a gaping hole where a catapult rock had hit, but it was already being repaired by a number of NPC masons. She glanced around for a few seconds before stepping back, close to the doorway to the lower levels, and moved her hand through the air. She hummed softly when a few new messages popped up and she flipped through them.

“Mmm hmmm... no news... no news... no news... ah hah!” She came to a message from B4hamutt. “Found them... small squad of seven... perfect!” She sent out a response and within a few minutes she received another message. “Hmmm... we're almost good to go. Two of our group won't be on until later tonight so... well that sucks. What am I going to do for hours?”

An explosion nearly sent her toppling when the ground a few feet from her exploded, pelting her in pieces of stone while her ears rang with the deafening blow. She laid there, stunned on her stomach while the world shook and her hearing slowly returned. She stared at the hole for a few moments and struggled to recollect herself and shake off the sudden blast. With shaking legs she got to her feet and moved to the edge of the fortress to peer out. Right. War. Defending the place was still important.

With a deep breath she reached out and performed a quick class change so a mace and shield formed in her hands and smooth blue scales formed along her body. “Might as well work on maxing out the mace while I've got a few hours,” she said gleefully before jumping off the roof and flying down to the battle. While normally she hated shields, in a battle like this it was necessary.

It was madness. There were three areas of defense set up to keep the fortress secure. The internal fortress, which had yet to be breached and housed all the leaders of the coalition. The inner courtyard, which was surrounded by a thick wall and had been breached once, but they had barely been able to hold it. Finally, a base of operations outside. Fortunately there were plenty of advantages allowing the defenders a fighting chance, even with the numbers against them.

One, any of them who died resurrected inside the fortress while their opposition resurrected at their own set bases, far away. Two, the only way to get through the gate outside was by getting massive battering rams to the entrance and breaking the door down, not an easy feat. Three, people couldn't betray while inside the fortress. Which meant they couldn't try to help people get inside or kill the leaders without first leaving. Fortunately, they had managed to catch everyone so far who had tried to sneak in and the leaders were under constant guard in case someone finally did.

Another thing on their side was that the opposition was getting bored. They had to keep defenses for both their cities and an attack going. With such little headway being made, many of the legion's army had left to quest or do other tasks, except on occasions where they prepared for big pushes. The Coalition's spies had managed to keep on top of such matters and had plenty of defenses up when the massive assaults occurred.

There was, however, always at least a small attack force trying to breach the walls. Small compared to the truly massive force they could unleash during more precise attacks. The ground was torn apart from the hundreds of people who fought and died in the field no matter what the weather, and craters surrounded the area where catapult's had struck. Tall walls of dirt and stone were strewn about, created by powerful holy beast magic.

Asura landed in the inner courtyard and quickly made her way through the exits and out towards the full battle. The sounds of metal and spell enveloped her almost instantly, screams almost overpowering compared to the inner courtyard. A barricade had been set up where angels were sending out healing spells left and right, while the close range fighters kept the legion out of the barricade, forcing the enemy to pepper the area with arrows which had trouble hitting with the walls blocking them.

She charged straight into the fray, stepping around a fellow leviathan and bashing her shield into a demon, before driving her club down between the man's eyes. She quickly joined besides fellow shield bearers and they formed a shield wall with which to fight, bashing and slashing through the hordes as they came. Unfortunately, they were still horribly outnumbered, but the fortress was designed with only one side that could be feasibly assaulted by a large force, and since they were forced to funnel into a tighter area the Coalition was able to hold them off with smaller numbers. Oddly, the skies seemed mostly clear as no one seemed willing to use flight to fight. Only a few enemies seemed to have the weapons to destroy or go through shields, and they tended to be targeted first.

It wasn't long before her shield arm began to get tired with every attack striking against it, and no chances to rest. She lost track of time, as well as how many wounds she had suffered and been healed. Finally someone else with a shield took her place. She made her way back behind the barricade and sat down, holding her head. “So... loud. How is this still going?” she asked with a groan.

“You came during one of the heaviest times. In a few hours most the fighting tends to die down and a lot of the heavier fighters run off,” a nearby angel said when he glanced over.

“How? WHY? It's just... boring! The line has only moved a few feet since I've been out here! Why would-- shit!” she shrieked when a massive fireball enveloped the wall of shields and sent them scattering. She grinned wickedly before her shield disappeared and her sword formed in her off hand a moment later. “Okay, I think I see. But--”

“Have you tried lowering the volume?” the angel asked.

Asura froze for a few moments before hanging her head. “No. I honestly hadn't even... wow, I'm an idiot...” She brought up the menu and lowered the volume before charging back into the fray, swinging her mace and sword into the hordes while the Coalition attempted to form another wall of shields. Those in the barricade cast spells to attempt to stop any more explosions from getting through to them. Shrugging she looked ahead, towards the back of the enemies lines where their catapults and other ballista were stationed. Spreading her wings she took to the air and flew straight at them.

“No! Don't!” a voice yelled from behind her, though she quickly realized why no one had been flying. While the Coalition had more wings with the angel's, the legion had something equally as important. Arrows.

“Ice barrier!” she screamed when the veritable wall of arrows shot at her, forcing her back down. She glanced and let out a curse, she was flying over the legion and would be slaughtered if she landed like this. She sheathed her sword and held out her left hand. “Tornado!” Powerful winds knocked some of them away and she dropped back down and drew her blade again. Surrounded on all sides she swung her blade with all her might when they charged her. Her HP disappeared rapidly before finally hitting zero.

------

Countless more deaths found Asura before she retreated from the battle to lay down in the fortress's library. While technically there weren't any books from the game created for it, player's could, like in many other games, access an online library or read their own downloaded books while immersed in a proper environment. Or, as was her case, lounge about on the cushions while they waited for the headache to go away.

“Have fun?” a familiar voice asked, causing her to look up.

“Wha? Star? Ugh... What do yah want...” She groaned and lifted her head from the cushion to look at the angel.

“See how you were doing. Surprised to see you down here, I thought you'd be preparing.”

“Tired. Didn't wanna log off...” Asura said with a shrug.

“Yeah... you've been doing that a lot lately. Is everything okay? Are you getting enough sleep in the real world? Maybe you should--”

“I'm doing fine. I just... it's harder to sleep in the real world. These are more comfortable. Besides, I was fighting for like, two hours! I deserve this break... my head hurts...” She let out a groan and lowered her head. “So many death penalties... I really should have called it quit ages ago.”

He snickered and nudged her with his hand. “Mutt's friend will be coming on soon. You ready for this? Wanna try another time?”

“No... yes... I don't know... probably. I'm ready. So the message said it was one of your friends who got you us the information, right?” she asked before moving to rest her chin on the side of the furniture.

“Yeah,” he said shyly while glancing off to the side, his arms wrapping around his chest.

“Well... thank you. It means a lot that you were able to help them and all,” she said before turning back to face him. “Especially since it was my fault they were captured to begin with so... thanks for picking up for my mistakes.”

“I-It's nothing, really. I know you'd do the same for me if you had too...” he said gently while shuffling nervously from foot to foot.

“I guess... but hey, we're in this together,” Asura said and patted his arm. “If you got captured I'd probably end up getting captured with you. Then we'd just break out together, easy.”

“Heh. Maybe. So enjoying the cushions?”

“Oh god yes. Are real libraries this comfy?”

“No, not generally. The one where I live all the cushions have holes in them and smell like old socks,” 5t4r said with a smirk.

She cringed and shook her head. “Ew. Thanks for that mental image...”

“Don't you ever go to the library? How do you watch movies or get books?”

“Huh? I haven't been to a library since I was six,” she said with another shrug.

“Wow, you must be rich. Lucky,” he said as his eyes went a little wide.

“Errr... sorta,” she said before lowering her gaze. “My parents have a bit of money, but I mostly don't read or watch much. Most my time is spent on here trying to get better at the game.”

“What about school?”

“... I uhhh, graduated early. I do some studying in my off time,” she said before hugging her knees to her chest and burying her head in them. A message popped up, grabbing her attention. She groaned before getting to her feet and stretching. “Just as I was getting comfortable too. Seems it's time to go. Everyone's here.” She sent 5t4r a group invite and moments later received one from B4hamutt.

“Okay everyone,” Scalios's voice could be heard over the party chat. “Meet me on the roof. We'll be heading out as angels to bypass a lot of the defenses. Flying very, very high. Hope you're all ready.”

Asura nodded, “On our way.” The two walked towards the roof. Scalios was the group leader, but she was happy to see that B4hamutt was in the group. Andremedia was joining as well, and then two others she didn't know personally, but she recognized them as members of the council who once ran their own powerful guilds. Skyth a master leviathan and Odexin a master holy beast.

Once she and 5t4r arrived the group of seven took off from the roof and headed south towards the dragon lands. “Okay, let's get all the information out,” Scalios said. “I know some of you haven't done a prison break, so I'll explain how these work. There are two ways to break people out of prisons. The first is finding and eliminating the NPC warden. That is the harder way, but it releases all the prisoners from their cells and gives them access to all their items. The second, but easier, way is to eliminate the NPC guards protecting the cell itself. This releases that specific cell, but it leaves us in danger since we can still, potentially, be captured. We'll be going after the warden for this one. Quite a few players have been captured and we're going to get all who are in this prison out at once. The good news is once the warden has been eliminated, even if we're killed we can't be captured until after we leave the territory. Any questions?”

The group remained silent and he continued. “Good. According to Star's sources the prison is located south of where Camelot used to be, carved into the mountains around there. It'll be fairly hot but, fortunately, we've sent some people to investigate and found an opening we can access through an underwater river. We should be able to sneak in from there and get inside. We'll go in together as one unit, not split up this time. Any questions?” Once again silence answered him and the small group continued on.

The dragon lands were filled with towering mountains and powerful volcanos, some of which were spewing out smoke, but for the most part seemed almost empty. From the distance they could only occasionally catch sight of players far below, slaughtering some of the large reptilian creatures that filled the zones.

Asura glanced around and noticed a few of the others had apparently gotten bored while they tapped their fingers through the air. She moved over towards B4hamutt and looked over to him. “So, any thoughts?”

He merely shrugged.

“Thanks for helping me with everything. I know there are others in here, but I know the main reason you came is because I asked,” she said with a sheepish smile.

He nodded, but continued on.

“Are you mad at me?” He shook his head and she let out a sigh. “Okay? Any idea on where the warden will be?” Once again he shrugged in response and she let out annoyed growl. “Okay then...”

The group came to a large range of low altitude mountains covered in lush trees surrounding a crisp clear lake. She stared at it with wide eyes. “Oh... wow... I've never even seen this place before. Is this new?”

“No,” Scalios said before they descended down near the river. “It's deceptive though. Asura, don't!” But it was to late. She landed by the edge of the water and put her feet in right when he uttered his warning. She let out a loud shriek and jumped away, staring at the water in disbelief before she yanked off her boots and fanned her feet with her hands.

“It's boiling! How... why... but it's so clear, and it's... what? It doesn't look anything like... how?” she asked before casting an icy spell on her feet to cool them.

“Boil point lake. Deep under the water are vents and fissures connected to underground magma. The entire thing is boiling beyond belief, only dragons can endure it.”

“But it's not bubbling or anything? No steam, nothing?”

Scalios shrugged. “Rumor has it that the lake is enchanted and used as a trap. Me? I think the entire area was supposed to look nice for dragons, kind of a get away hot springs area, and they didn't want to make it look bad by making the water churning and bubbling. That, or they didn’t have time to code it properly.. We won't be going in through here though and, fortunately, the rivers that feed into this are much cooler. Come on.”

The group began slogging their way through the thick foliage, bushes, trees and vines trying to impede their movements. They followed a river that came from the north and emptied into the lake.

Asura, tentatively, reached out with her foot to tap the water and, to her relief, found it was far cooler. With a happy sigh she jumped a few feet forward into the water. With a startled shriek she found herself floundering, neck deep, and trying to get back to shore. “What, hack cough, is with this place? It tries to drown me or boil me!” She yanked herself out and gave the water an annoyed glare.

Scalios snickered while he went through his class change into a leviathan. “Sorry, I guess I should have warned you. Those first few steps are a doozy,” he said with a wide grin plastered on his face before diving in and splashing her.

“Hey! No-” Her words were drowned out when the others jumped in a moment later, sending more water up and drenching her. She glowered angrily before switching to the leviathan as well. “You all suck.”

“Aw, come on. We were jus--” Scalios started with a chuckle.

“SUCK!” she reiterated before jumping in after them. Together, the leviathans swam through the water, moving around fish and against the current rapidly while their smooth scales easily resisted the river's force. They were soon in the darkness where the river flowed out from underwater caverns. The tunnels went off in multiple directions but, fortunately, with Scalios there he slowly led them through the underwater maze. It seemed like they would be there forever before the group surfaced in a large chamber.

The entire open cavern glowed a ghostly blue, with small glowing crystals lined up along the walls and throughout the damp rocky area. The water they were in was surrounded on all sides by a large incline of moss covered rocks. The group reached out and began the slow task of climbing out of the water. Once she was out, Asura formed her wings again and flew up towards the top of the incline.

She landed and looked around, frowning. Nearby she could see the entrance to a large complex built into the mountain itself, judging by the door size it was a back entrance. She tossed down some ropes and scanned for anyone who might notice them. “I don't see anyone. Shouldn't they have some guards?”

“They probably aren't suspecting anyone to come here,” 5t4r said before he landed besides her and helped by sending out a rope as well. “After all, we already took out the dragon city so they probably don't think anyone will find this place.”

“Yeah, but I don't even see NPC guards. You'd think they'd have a few.”

“They probably didn't want to distribute anyone beyond the bare minimum,” Scalios said before climbing up and drawing his weapon. “No reason to look a gift horse in the mouth, let's go.”

“Gotcha,” Asura said before they changed to their preferred classes and slowly made their way towards the door. She looked around a few times before stabbing her blade into the lock and easily slicing it apart. The door swung open easily.

Silence.

Cautiously the group advanced through the compound. The walls were carved from the stone with wooden tables and counters set up in the room they entered from, seemingly the cafeteria. The wood looked clean and, while old, still strong and firm. The hall and rooms had metal torch bearers sticking out every few feet with fresh torches inside, keeping the place well lit while they slowly traveled. The floors were un-carpeted, but sanded completely smooth under their feet. An interesting sight was how it seemed to have been completely formed from the rocks around it, as in some places the walls went from normal rock to a few feet of crystal and then stone again while remaining perfectly smooth. The halls were barren aside from the torches, not even guards on patrol or sentry duty.

“It's so quiet...” Asura mumbled before peeking through a doorway into a dark room, the torch mounts empty and the room completely barren of even basic furniture. “Are you sure they still used this? Star?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm gonna see if I can get a hold of my friend. Maybe they moved or something...” he said before flicking his hands through the air a few times and moving his lips to speak, though no words could be heard. Warily they continued to advance. She glanced over to Scalios and B4hamutt. The two were clenching their weapons tightly, obviously quite tense. She took a deep breath before she moved up besides the leviathan.

“Is everything okay?” she whispered before they came to a ladder built into the wall, as the prison lacked stairs. He let the others go down first before speaking.

“Just nervous. You never know, right? Just on guard in case anything happens.” He kept looking down, not actually looking her in the eyes.

“Scales? What's wrong? You and Mutt have been acting strange for a while now, since we started this. What aren't you telling me?”

He let out a sigh and looked up at her. “Fine. I guess it's only right I tell you. There's going to be an attack going on at Yggdrasil while we're doing this. A helpful distraction, but a big one.”

“What? Why? Do the others know?”

He shook his head. “Only Mutt does. We've been working to keep it hush hush but, once we get further in and eliminate the warden we're going to gather as many as we can, quite a few since a lot of guilds have prepared 'training sessions' for today, and launch our biggest attack yet.”

She stopped then. “So by a helpful distraction... you mean us. Not them.”

“Yes. When the prison falls they'll rush to try and stop us. While they're doing that, the attack will be launched.”

“We should tell the others. They have a right to know if we're being used for that,” she said softly before glancing down the ladder.

“If you want. It's too late to do anything about it though, unless they want to run away,” he said before she headed down the hole.

“What took you two so long?” Andremedia asked when the two climbed down.

Asura glanced at B4hamutt and Scalios before turning back to the fae. “I have something to tell all of you,” she said before telling them the plan. When she finished up she let out a sigh and awaited the inevitable back lash.

“That's it?” Skyth asked with a cocked eye.

“Well... yeah. I though you might be mad, or--”

“Why would we care? No, actually I do. I'm mad you didn't tell us,” she said with a glare aimed at B4hamutt. “Also, that I won't be there to see the city fall. But it's not like we weren't expecting any resistance, or risks, with this mission. I'm not going to be mad that we might win another foot hold in the war thanks to it.”

“I wish you would have told us too,” 5t4r said as his fingers danced through the air and tapped at the menus. “We could have done something to make a bigger diversion then. I think I have some explosives we could use...”

“Sorry. It was top secret. We didn't want to risk telling anyone more than we had too,” Scalios said with a polite bow of his head. “Since none of us would be there to do anything, we determined it best to keep everyone here out of the loop. Now it's too late for them to prepare anything. Come on, let's go,” he said before they started walking through the compound.

To make the search quicker, they started splitting up to explore the rooms. They searched for any secret passages, cells or any hint to where the prisoner's could be. When she and 5t4r went down a passage she glanced at him. “Are you sure they're here? You'd think we'd have seen or heard something by now...”

“They're here. We just haven't found the cells yet. It's definitely a prison, but with almost no guards they probably have all the cells set up in one small area,” he said before looking into a small storage room.

“I guess it's possible...” she said before looking around a different room. “Find an--” A small sound to her right drew her attention so she whipped around and drew her sword. She slashed out with the blade once, but didn't strike anything.

“What's wrong?” 5t4r asked when he ran into the room.

“Thought I heard something... paranoid I guess,” she said before holding out her fingers. “Flaming hands.” Flame sprouted and lit up the area, revealing nothing. “Yeah, just being paranoid.”

“It's fine. We should rejoin the others,” he said before taking her hand and guiding her away.

She blushed and lowered her gaze. “Star...”

“Oh! Right, uhh, sorry,” he apologized before he let her hand go.

The group gathered together again and finally came to another ladder. Asura went down first this time while holding out her flaming hand, though the torch light made it obsolete. Cells lined the hall and, for the first time, they saw a few guards. They were dispatched within moments, but that did help settle her nerves.

A few quick looks revealed the cells were empty, but more were lined up down the hall. “Looks like we've found them. Warden should be around here with everything so focused,” Asura said before the group slowly made their way along.

When they passed through a doorway separating the next room, metal bars shot down behind them, trapping them in. Asura froze for a moment before rushing back and lifting her sword to slice the bars to pieces.

“Hold!” Scalios yelled, making her stop in place.

“What? Why?” she asked before glancing around. While the room had torches, there was still plenty of areas covered in darkness. Slowly figures began to walk out into the light, demons. She tightened her grip on the sword. “A trap.”

“Indeed,” an all to familiar voice said. Slowly from the doorway opposite their entrance a massive spider entered, it's frame blocking almost the entire hall. The demons appearing from the darkness struggled to keep away from touching it as its rider smiled down at them. Asura's mouth fell open and she stared.

“Evealie?!” she asked.

“You know her?” Skyth asked before she readied her weapon.

“Yes. She and her friend tried to capture me and a number of others to prevent us from getting our second mastery.” Asura turned back to the woman. “I honestly figured you'd quit by now after you failed to get yours.”

“Not a chance,” the demon said with a grin. “Though you may all want too. After all, you are out numbered, out gunned and frankly out smarted.”

“We should kill them, now!” another demon yelled. Asura glanced over and saw his name floating above. Caelite. Her eyes twitched when she recognized the name.

“Please, I beat you once and I can do it again!” she said before taking a step forward and raising her sword arm, then the spider woman merely smiled and nodded. Asura let out a cry of pain when a shining blade cleaved through her arm at the elbow, sending both it and her sword scattering to the ground. She clutched her arm stump and looked around in confusion before staring in disbelief.

“S-Star? What? Wh--” His sword darted a moment later, slashing clear through her leg and dropping her to the ground with a pained and confused shriek.

He quickly jumped back a moment later, joining the demons that surrounded them.

“You didn't think you were the only one with spies, did you?” Evealie asked with a chuckle before holding out her hand. “Yes, we know about your little attack in waiting on Yggdrasil as well. I have to admit, it was rather clever. Trying to distract us by freeing our prisoners and then launching a sneak attack. But really? Sending the leader of your little heroes guild into our lines when you did it? That was just stupid. We've already set the majority of our NPC defenses in the city and have our forces scouring the woods for your force. Once word gets out that we've captured the leaders of your little alliance, your armies will crumble and beg for a chance to join our side.”

“Not exactly,” B4hamutt said, though his voice sounded far deeper than Asura remembered it. She struggled to get up, fortunately the pain of losing a limb was dampened severely after the initial shock. The dragon pulled out a little blue orb and crushed it in his claws. A moment later a completely different dragon stood in his place and the name changed to Grated.

“What? A clone orb? How? When? Why?” the demoness asked before she took a step back, placing a hand on her massive spider's head.

“Because the real Bahamut is leading the charge,” Scalios said before glancing towards 5t4r. “We already knew you were a traitor. Sorry Asura, we didn't want to hide it from you but we didn't want to risk you not believing us and tipping him off,” he said before glancing down at her.

“Restoration.” she cast, not responding to him while her cheeks turned red with shame. Slowly her leg and arm began to reform and the others formed a defensive wall around her.

“Wait, if you knew he was a traitor, then the attack on...” Evealie trailed off.

“Isn't happening. Right about now, our assassins are likely taking out your teleportation mage and Feldusk is about to experience the largest assault it has ever had to fight off. While I'm sure the defenses you left were quite high, with most the NPC guards and PC forces routed to Yggdrasil, I'm sure you have plenty of reason now to worry.”

“You... I... gah!” she yelled before tapping rapidly at the air and looked confused. After a few more moments she stopped and glared at him. “What did you do?”

Scalios merely smiled before he held out a glowing red crystal. “Anti-message array. Very high grade, but it will prevent anyone from sending messages out for the next half hour. Even if you kill and capture us, it'll be too late for you to warn anyone.”

The spider queen clenched her fists and glared at him. “You... you bastard. All of you. You'll rot in prison for this! Forever! For years... you... you...” She seethed and the leviathan merely shrugged.

“There's more. I activated the array for another reason.”

Caelite took a step forward. “We should kill them now! We need to get a message out and--” He was silenced when one of the other demons gripped his shoulder and pulled him back.

Asura stood up and glanced at Scalios, cringing at the wicked grin now spreading across his lips.

“We knew this was an ambush. Already our soldiers are moving towards our position, slaughtering any of the demons you left up above in the shadows, to warn you. Frankly... you may kill us. But we'll be freed a moment later and you'll be captured. All of you.”

Evealie looked worried now and her soldiers looked between each other with unsteady gazes.

“That's why I came here. I have an offer for you and the rest of your faction. A temporary truce,” he said before crossing his arms.

“WHAT?” Evealie took an angry step forward. “You tell me you're taking one of our cities and then you think we'll just perform a truce with you? Wh--”

“Because we're on equal ground. One city each and we both know there are prisons, on both sides, filled with people we won't be able to free. There's another mastery event coming up and I'm sure all of those players would love a chance to try, which they will miss out on if they're still trapped in prison.”

“What? That's what this is about? Who cares if they perform the mastery trials? We have plenty who can do it and still--”

“I'm not asking YOU to decide,” Scalios yelled before he took a step forward and, to Asura's surprise, many of the demons took a step back. “You're the messenger. That is all. I want you to tell your faction we offer a truce, all prisoners on both sides released and, until a week AFTER the mastery quests end, no more fighting. After that it goes back to business as usual.”

“Why would I deliv--”

“Because my reinforcements will be here soon. You can either agree to deliver this message or I promise that each and every one of you will be taken to our most secure prison and will miss this event. Well, except the ones willing to deliver the message? Are there any volunteers?” he asked.

“Okay! I'll deliver the message!” Evealie said quickly before others could volunteer. “How do we know you're not just making this up? There probably aren't even any reinforcements coming, I bet you're just bluffing.”

“If you want to test me, feel free,” Scalios said before he rested a hand on his mace and waited.

The spider girl growled and motioned towards them, but none of the others stepped forward.

“That's what I figured. We'll be leaving now,” he said before glancing to 5t4r. “I hope you're proud of what you did. After all we did to help and train you.” He sneered before turning away.

“H-hey. Relax man. It's just a game after all. Not like any of this matters,” 5t4r said though he refused to look at them while they slowly walked out from the room.

Caelite took a step forward. “Wait, we can't just let them go! You know how long I've been waiting for a chance to fight her?” he asked before he motioned towards Asura. “I have a mastery now, it's--”

“Shut up,” Evealie said before turning away. Caelite clutched his polearm and dug his foot into the ground, but slowly nodded.

The group slowly made their way from the room and towards the ladder. “Why didn't you tell me?” Asura asked.

“Which thing?”

“Everything! If you knew he was a traitor you should have told me! Not to mention your plan, why--”

“I'm sorry. We're both sorry, okay?” he said before he started climbing up. “We weren't sure if he was or not, that's what part of this plan was about. We knew if we had so many high ranking members of the guild coming here they'd have to try to capture us. If Star leaked the information, we'd know he was a traitor. If he hadn't, well... we didn't want you always questioning him and checking out every move he did if it turned out he was innocent. We were really hoping he would be.”

“Who here knew?” Asura asked while climbing up after him. “You led us right into what you suspected was a trap. How many here knew it and still--”

“We all knew it was a trap!” Andremedia yelled. “But, like you, we all had people we wanted to save. All the prisons are traps, we just hoped we could get through it. Stop being so angry at him! It worked, didn't it?”

“I don't like being lied to and having things hidden from me!” she said before glaring at Scalios. “How many others do you suspect? How many do you think can't be trusted in my unit?”

“Asura, we can discuss this--” the leviathan tried.

“No!” Asura stomped her foot. “I want you to tell me now! We--” She stumbled back after Andremedia slapped her across the face.

“Stop. It. You're being childish,” the fae said with a shake of her head, her voice cold as ice. “We don't have time for you to throw a little tantrum. We're still in enemy lands. If you wanna yell and cry at him, wait until we get out of here.”

The angel stared, dumb struck, at the woman before slowly nodding her head. They made their way quickly from the prison and, once outside, met up with over a dozen more members of their faction. They made their way quickly to the water and soon they were out in the open air and flying back towards the fortress.

“So how's the battle in Feldusk going?” she managed to ask after they fley for a few minutes.

“Fine. Have you been glancing at the guild chat?” he asked, though didn't look back at her.

“No...” she said before reaching out with her hand. A small wall of text appeared to her left, so she gripped it and maneuvered it in front. People were sending messages over and over but, for the most part, they seemed good and excited. It looked like the city was falling with few reinforcements able to make their way in. “So I guess after this both sides will be tied up...” she said softly. “Well, at least in number of cities. We still need to eliminate their last one to get them to fall back to whatever their fortress is.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” he said unenthusiastically.

“I'm sorry, okay!” Asura snapped at. “I overreacted! I should have kept my cool and just... how long have you suspected Star? Why?”

“Some rumors. He has a second character. A demon. He seems to be dating a girl on their side. We didn't want to believe it but well... we'd been watching the demon ever since. The two were never on at the same time, one would log on sometimes right after the other logged off. In the end we knew we had to test him, but we didn't want to get him in trouble if it turned out it was just a coincidence.”

“You should have told me. Is there anyone else you think might be a traitor? Any more of my friends?”

He sighed and sped up just a little bit, though she easily kept pace. “There is one other... Andremedia.”

Her wings locked up for a moment, forcing her to flap faster to catch back up. “What? But that's impossible! She helped train me! Not to mention--”

“This is why I didn't want to tell you. I never said it was a hundred percent certain she was. I said we just suspect her.”

“We? You mean Mutt too?”

The man sighed and nodded slowly.

“Why?”

“She's... mostly the schedule she keeps. Always logging on and off at set specific times. Every day. Sure, sometimes it's a few minutes off, but it happens. There are only a few people we've noticed who do that and quite a few are on the enemy side as well. She was also a fae originally and even though she is aligned with our faction, she hasn't actually joined any of our guilds. Her entire connection to any of us is just the people she's met who bring her along. Not joining a guild is fairly rare, so we think she might be a second character and her main is on one of their guilds.”

“I see. Is that why you brought her? Hoping you'd unveil her too?”

“No. Not yet at least. We're not really sure about her. There are dozens of others who we are just as suspicious of. Heck for a little bit we were suspicious of you,” he said before cringing.

“You were suspicious of me? But... I... why?” she asked, pain filling her voice.

“It's nothing personal! Just, after we rescued you and the others, lot of things started getting damaged and sabotaged! Everyone in the rescued group was under suspicion. We took you off the list quickly though. Mutt vouched for you himself, said you'd never betray your guild. You're just not that kind of person.”

Red flooded her cheeks again and she fell back slightly. “W-well... yeah, w-when you put it like that... o-okay...” she said with a small smile. The rest of the flight she was silent, barely paying attention while the others discussed plans and strategies. When they arrived back at the fortress she retired to her room and laid back in her bed with a soft sigh. She still had a while before she had to leave so she decided to do a bit of browsing, rather that entertain the thoughts of suspicion that plagued her mind. She just couldn’t focus on that now. She needed a distraction. And she knew just the one.

She brought up a small out of game menu, though she maintained the connection so she could lounge in her virtual bed. As she was still under age she was not allowed to see anything in the Red light district, besides the names and small descriptions. She could still book mark some for later examination.

The district was pretty much what it sounded like. Every kind of desire or fetish could be acquired there, for a price. Not just sexual either. Anything that was deemed unsafe for those younger than adults was tagged and sent to this one area. Granted, sometimes things would be mislabeled and be accessible to those who were underage, but as time went on that was becoming far less frequent.

She glanced at the most popular items first. The first four were to be expected, sexual things. Three of them were fairly normal, but the second one seemed to allow the users to turn into anything. Alien, human, animal, giant centipede. She bookmarked it because it at least seemed interesting, if slightly creepy.

The fifth made her freeze. A death simulator. Allowing the user to either die in a way they choose, kill someone the way they wish or something completely random. It was simulated of course, but apparently the sensations felt real and required a waver to be signed. She shivered and continued on down the line.

In the end she only bookmarked a few small items. A small kinky dungeon experience, the weird transforming sexual one, a pregnancy simulator and a few small add-on programs for them and Landasy Reality. She then closed her eyes and wrapped herself in her blankets, nestling into the warmth, enjoying the feel of the silk on her skin. Now that she allowed herself a few moments to rest, she hoped whatever sleep she began would continue into the real world.

MelodyAvant

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