Rubble and debris filled the path following the main hall, a blockade against the flow of travellers. Oddly enough, the entire area was free of the horrid screams and explosions common everywhere else in the palace. Whether this was a good or bad thing Lillian didn’t pay any mind, too busy being thankful for the peace of mind as she walked along.

She followed behind her mother, weaving themselves between cracks in-between piles of wreckage. It was odd seeing the royal palace in this state, her home, which she wandered from day to day, unrecognisable to her. Wherever are we going, anyway?

Her hands tightly gripped the sword she carried, the patterns on its engraved handle digging into her skin. Sweat dripped down her back, slowly dragging her in and out a state of trance. Why was it that in this wonderful silence, she felt uneasy? Like thousands of insects were crawling on her back, shivers travelling down her body.

“Hey.” Feyrith whispered, snapping her out of her loop. “We’re not heading toward the main hall.”

Lillian’s eyes squinted at his statement, as a question quickly came to mind. “How do you know that?” She asked.

“What don’t you understand about having incredibly specific and useless knowledge about the tower?” Feyrith replied.

“Look.” He said, covertly pointing his finger toward the wall. “The wallpaper isn’t the same one found in the usual corridor, nor the hidden entrances.”

Now that he mentioned it, Lillian realised that faint smudges of colour coming off the walls had accents of faded gold instead of the silver accents she usually saw in the halls.

Gold accented wallpaper reminded her another corridor, the one leading to and from the royal chambers.

“Yeah.” Feyrith muttered as if reading her thoughts. “She’s not planning on taking us to the main hall.”

Lillian mulled his words over. Adelaide wasn’t planning on taking to the main hall, and she was assuming it was for good reason. If a random corridor leading to a balcony was that chaotic, then how would the main hall of the palace be? Oh yeah, I’ve seen one of the monsters.

Their earlier encounter that had nearly killed them, and probably would’ve without Adelaide’s intervention. A Minotaur?

It was odd for her too, for as a self-proclaimed veteran of Tower of Pandora, she had never seen the monster in her life. It looked like another monster in-game, the Minotaur, but instead of being a bull, it was a goat. Odd.

She thought of asking Feyrith but decided against it, realising herself to be distracted from her initial thoughts. Her mother wouldn’t allow her and Feyrith to go to the main hall, which posed a slight problem.

As dangerous as this situation was, a part of her brain, and she was assuming Feyrith’s as well, was consumed with the thought of taking advantage of the situation to gain access to some useful items. Sure, they couldn’t use them when they entered the tower, but for the supposed 2 months of training they had left, given that this issue was solved quickly, of course, some of the drops from cultists could be useful to obtaining some of the more obscure hidden items on the floor. Wait no, focus!

She didn’t really mind being forced into the royal chambers, but it seemed like Feyrith had differing opinions. Efficiency, huh?

“Do you have any suggestions?” She asked.

“Of course not. If we followed my suggestions, we would end up dying faster than if we just leapt into a pit of lava.” He spoke. “You’re the one who makes plans.”

A plan, huh?

Crash!

Out of the blue, something crashed through the wall. A large boulder, or rather a chunk of wall from the palace.

From the opening made by the boulder Lillian saw a monster, no, a fiend. It had sharp ebony horns and red skin, holding onto 2 sharp daggers, both dyed a deep crimson. Near it was a small boy, hung over a pile of debris, just at the point that it was about a tip over. He was whimpering in fear, his body covered in dirt, and tears running down his eyes.

“You two, behind me.” Adelaide growled as she lowered her body and raised a spear.

Lillian immediately knew that the boy was in danger, and her mind flared up to act. I need to save it. For some reason, though, her body wouldn’t move, like her feet were stuck in tar.

In her indecisiveness, Lillian still stuck in her thoughts, Feyrith moved forward, charging straight at the boy with a faint glow on his arms. He moved like the wind, lunging forward with his hands spread out. The debris from the Fiend’s attacks fell to the ground, landing with a loud crash. Feyrith’s figure was nowhere in sight, the view muddled by the cloud of dust that erupted.

“Feyrith!” Lillian yelled.

There were too many things on her mind. First of all, the speed with which Feyrith moved and how he achieved it. From spending a month with him, she quickly discovered that, while he fared better than other magicians, his body was still weak.

Another thing, maybe the thing she should have cared about more, his survival.

Uneasy, that was the word she would have used to describe her emotions. Though she trusted him, knowing that the Feyrith she knew wasn’t one to simply perish from an attack like that, she still didn’t enjoy fact that he didn’t respond to her shouts. The debris that completely covered the spot where he stood, didn’t help with this.

Adelaide’s eyes began to flare with a fury, as her hand wrapped around the handle of her spear. With a kick to the ground, she leapt into the air, targeting the fiend’s head.

Shwing.

The spear cut through the air, sending a wave of energy flying toward the fiend. While translucent, the wave produced an ear-splitting hum, close to a whine, a constant, annoying buzzing in the air.

KRCK!

The fiend ducked down, a toothy grin on its maw as it sent its body flying forward, its two-dagger poised for another attack. Adelaide's wave of energy collided against the wall, creating a loud explosion, and causing more debris to float into the air.

Her eyes agitated from her miscalculation, Adelaide held the spear in front of her face, defending from the fiend’s attacks. A barrage of slashes were sent toward her, causing her to back away with every slice.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Lillian couldn’t even make sense of the battle. Even for her, it was too fast to follow, both fighters fighting with extreme precision and skill. All she got from the battle was the constant clanging that rang out again and again and again. It seemed like both combatants were currently in an equal position, which was odd to her. Why hasn’t mother used any of her skills yet?

If Adelaide were to use a single one of her skills, the battle would be over in a second. Thousand Whirlwinds, or Splitting Lance, would do wonders against the fiend, as least Lillian thought so.

With that, something unexpected happened. As the fiend opened its gnarly mouth, an orange glow coming from within. It seemed like just seconds to Lillian, but in that time, a stream of orange flames came out of the Fiend, so hot that even from far away, Lillian could feel it singe her skin.

Adelaide was sent back, her armour with light flecks of char, and her body smoking. At this sight, Lillian felt something inside of her break, as a well of thoughts erupted through her mind, as her very life flashed before her eyes.

Of course, she’s losing. Me and Feyrith being here is holding her back. No wonder she hasn’t used a single skill since the start of battle. It was because she didn’t want to hurt us. No, it’s not Feyrith’s fault. It’s mine. I’m holding her back. My very existence caused mother to get hurt. It’s my fault. My fault. My fault.

As she wallowed, unaware of the world around her, the fiend, instead of going for Adelaide, went toward her, raising its twin daggers to slay the dazed princess.

“Lillian!” Adelaide yelled from afar, the princess still stuck in her thoughts. Her world was coloured a bright, blinding white, all her vision gone. Neither her ears nor eyes worked. A one-way ticket to death.

Boom!

A sudden explosion occurred near Lillian, causing her to snap out of her daze. The fiend was no longer focused on her but instead on a figure from beneath the rubble, a child in his hands. Feyrith.

He looked haggard and wounded, but he was alive, which was all that matter. In his free hand were fireballs, which he continued to launch at the fiend one at a time. With every blast, his face grew paler, but he also bought enough time for Lillian to recover.

Regaining her calm, she put her power into her sword, launching herself forward to launch a surprise attack on the fiend. Mana pumped through her arms. Sore as they were, they were filled with power.

Clang.

Her blade clashed against the fiend’s skin, creating a minuscule wound, from which black blood dripped. She quickly stepped back, knowing that the fiend would go back to targeting her. Blade held in front of her face, she prepared a defensive stance, ingraining herself into the ground.

The fiend leapt forward, with Lillian barely dodging its attacks and moving toward Feyrith. She ran with all she could, using more of her mana to use Rush. As she moved far enough out of the way, a glint shone in Adelaide’s eyes, her killing intent pointed toward the fiend.

Shwing.

From the wall, Adelaide launched forward like a missile, her spear impaling itself into the Fiend’s head, its black blood splattering across the floor. Just like that, it was dead, making Lillian wish she moved out of the way earlier.

Adelaide was badly injured, but her wounds were nothing near mortal. Limping for a few moments, she recovered and walked toward Lillian and Feyrith.

“I’m taking you two to the chambers.” She spoke. Lillian lowered her head, as did Feyrith, as he placed the child on the ground. “You too child, we’ll keep you safe until you find your parents.”

The small boy nodded, slowly walking forward with one of his arms held in his hand. Adelaide picked him up and didn’t look back toward Feyrith and Lillian as they walked toward the royal chambers.

Lillian was left ashamed, a heavy tug on her heart. Why did she have to freeze at that very moment? Intense regret and contemplation filled her as she slowly walked forward, following Adelaide. She didn’t even dare look Feyrith in the eyes, also ashamed that she wasn’t the one to save that boy.

“Hey princess.” Feyrith spoke as he walked up to her. “Why do you look so down?”

“Do I?” She asked.

Feyrith simply squinted his eyes. “It’s going to be an issue if both of us have problems…” He muttered under his breath, quiet enough that Lillian couldn’t hear.

“What?” She asked.

“Nevermind.” Feyrith replied.

“I’m not going to tell you not to feel down, but you need to consider something.” He spoke. “We’re two addicts who happened to find themselves inside of their favourite game. We’re not heroes.”

“We have messed up memories and have no idea why we’re here.” He continued. “I don’t know about you, but I woke up every day looking at this world more like a game than I ever did.”

“Every conversation I had was a character interaction, and everything I did was a quest.” He spoke. “I have memories of myself. We have memories of ourselves, but we aren’t the same people.”

“Hey, Thief.” He said to her with sombre eyes. “I’m pretty sure you were going on about showing the world the pride of the number one user.” Quiet as his voice was, every word rung deeply through her very soul, causing Lillian to observe herself once more.

“Maybe you don’t need to show the world, but show me right now.” He spoke.

“Show me not a princess, or whoever you were in your past life, but the rank one player I could never beat.”

“…” Lillian was silent as his words, her mind completely blank.

“We have an opportunity right now.” Feyrith spoke, his eyes pointed toward a small clearing beneath a pile of rubble. “Let’s make a break for it.”

“It sounds counterintuitive.” Lillian spoke.

“It’s called being efficient, your highness.” He replied.

“Give me just a second.” She said, pausing her steps for just a moment. For once, she didn’t need a notebook to get her thoughts out. Everything was laid clear right in front of her, leading to a single answer.

“So?” He asked.

“I’ll lead the way, my dear number two.” Lillian answered, her eyes burning with a vigorous fire, her spirit re-united. Feyrith was right, that moment of weakness was ok, acceptable even. She was number one, as she would yell that to the world, with no shackle able to hold her down.

As she responded, Feyrith displayed a giddy grin as he stopped in his tracks, allowing Lillian to go on forward.

She pumped mana through her legs and nodded to Feyrith, her eyes focused on a single opening through that pile of debris. Complete accuracy, not a single mistake available. With her mind clearer than it had been in a while, she launched forward, her steps silent.

She didn’t look back, with complete trust in Feyrith to catch up with her.

Away from Lillian, his eyes still locked on the pile of debris she went through, a cold gaze fell onto Feyrith’s eyes. As he moved his hands forward, the remains of a spell he cast, a faint aqua glow slowly fading away, shine brightly through the corridor.

“That’s one problem taken care of, albeit temporarily.” He muttered. As the glow faded, he raised his palms once more, and they both began glowing. Without a sound, he disappeared, leaving air where he once stood.

“Lillian? Feyrith?”