Saber swung her sword at Fink. The glowing weapon left a crescent of light in its trail. Its empowered edge sailed straight through Fink's waist, bisecting the headmaster.

My blood ran cold. Saber just outright murdered the headmaster.

Saber dropped her blade. It clanked as it fell to the ground. She herself stood there, frozen and trembling. But only for a second, before three flying swords impaled her from all directions, and she fell to her knees with a muffled cry. Meanwhile, Fink's corpse disintegrated into smoke.

"Impressive movement," I heard Fink's voice echoing in the streets. A few meters away from Saber, her body reappeared from thin air, unscratched.

"...Death Ward?" Saber asked her.

"Pfft. Don't flatter yourself, you won't kill me that easily."

I blinked twice. An orange HP bar appeared above Fink.

[HP: 1050/1050]

Saber grunted in pain as the silver blades slid out of her body. They rose high into the dark air, then rained down again upon her. Saber sprang up and dodged about, though I saw that her steps now stuttered. A blade soon caught her, then another. Fink kited back as Saber pursued after her. Saber stomped the earth, causing a crystal wall to rise, trapping Fink in a V-shape between itself and the museum's wall. Saber charged in from the mouth of the V. Fink summoned her blades to her in defense. Sword clashed against swords, and both combatants managed to land glancing blows on the other.

Fink pointed her palm toward Saber. A conical jet of smoke burst outward and washed over Saber. The paladin reeled back, coughing. The smoke faded rapidly, but now a silver aura covered Saber.

That looked bad.

Saber dashed away from Fink, back at us. Did the smoke apply a debuff? She'd be smart to make distance and wait it out. But I caught a glimpse of her eyes. They were glazed over, almost empty.

"Stop!" Saber screamed at Fink. "I forfeit!"

Saber thrusted her sword at me. I tried to dodge, but it was too late.

The blade's point pierced me. The steel buried inside my abdomen, radiating waves of hot pain. I fell back as blood gushed out of my wound.

The aura around Saber faded, as did the sheen over her eyes. She fell to her knees by my side, muttering my name over and over in apology. And she had dropped her sword again.

I clenched my jaws; worse injuries had happened to me over the past weeks.

"It's just a flesh wound," I assured her. But she scarcely seemed comforted.

"Nice try," Fink said to Saber. "I suppose that settles it." She shot the museum curator one last glance before beginning to pace away. "See you next time, dear."

I stood back up, gritting my teeth. "You're not leaving," I growled at Fink. Not after what she had put Saber through. That mind-control smoke, or whatever she had used…an abhorrent ability like that shouldn't even be allowed to exist. And I'd like nothing better than to shove a Frost Missile up her face. Screw her title, screw her superiority, screw the consequences.

"Oh?" Fink smiled at me. "Would you like to duel too?"

"Bet on it," I spat.

She shook her head. "You aren't worth my time."

I reached down for my crossbow, but Jack saw and seized my wrist.

He shot me a glare. "Do. Not."

And with that, Fink left. And the museum curator went back inside.

"Let's head home," Jack signaled for Saber and me. "You two have wounds to tend."

After a few seconds, Saber rose back up. And we went off together into the night, with a bleeding Saber leaning on Jack's shoulder.

Josh, the Tee-guy, caught up from behind us.

"Hey, uh," he began. "My bad about that."

"It's not your fault," Saber muttered quietly. "Sorry I lost."

"Well of course, against her," Josh said. "I didn't know that was Fink. If I did, I'd have backed down way earlier. But you're a real one, you know that? You're a real one."

"I did what I felt like doing."

"Sure, but you stood up for me, and I gotta respect that. Tell me your name. I wanna get you acquainted with my other connections."

"Huh?"

"You know, the people around town I trust. The gal that charges my phone, for instance."

"People here can charge phones?" I asked.

"She's got a magical item for it," Josh explained. "Be hush about her though. She isn't looking for fame. You know how that poem goes? Fame's like a bee, because it can sting."

Josh gave us the address of the phone-charging person. We made easy conversation as we walked home, about our lives prior to coming here, about this town, about things here in Silver. Josh used to be an assistant manager at a department store. Now, he was a tank unit who could grant himself brief periods of complete invulnerability.

"When the void-lady asked me how I wanted to overcome, I just told her I wanted to survive. You know?" He glanced at me, eyes searching for a hint of understanding. "That's all I thought about right there, just wanting to live. But it's different now. There are people here I need to protect."

I nodded, looking down at the street. "I can imagine what that's like."

"Would you mind sharing the details about this place?" Jack asked. "We all just got here from Bronze, so we're still finding our way about."

Josh was happy to answer our questions. He told us that the challenges, besides being seasonal and notably more difficult, were more or less the exact same as in Bronze. If we were to lose a match, we'd all die. If we won a challenge, the survivors would get to live on.

"Usually you can lose in MOBAs," Saber said. "And the worst that happens would be going down in rank."

"Wouldn't that be nice," Josh laughed.

"Then how do players in Gold get here, if instead of demoting, players don't even survive?" Saber asked.

"Soon as you find me a Gold player, I'll ask them. Gold players in Silver, it's all just written records and rumors. Maybe there once were Golds here. Years back, probably."

We eventually thanked him, when he had to go his separate way. When we entered our apartment, we met Hei downstairs. He was shocked to see us bloodied, but I assured him things were fine.

"It's just a duel," I told him. "That's how people around here roll." I gave him a peace sign by sticking up two blood-crusted fingers. His face contorted in concern at Saber's state and mine, as if he hadn't seen us in worse conditions before.

"I'm at three-quarters HP," Saber said through her blood-stained lips. "Worst thing that happens right now is we stain the carpet."

And she wasn't too wrong, honestly. Neither of us took much damage from the fight, and I saw Saber's wounds had already closed and scabbed. I considered our natural regeneration one of the very few nice things about being trapped in this world.

I let Saber clean off her blood first. She entered our bathroom and I heard the sound of shower-water. We did get running water from our faucets here, even though it wasn't heated. As I stood outside our bathroom, I wondered what sort of engineering or magic made our plumbing work.

"Aah!" Saber cried. A thud came from inside.

"Saber?!" After a brief moment of hesitation, I pressed down on the bathroom's door handle, but it was locked.

"Saber! Is everything OK?" I shouted. Beads of sweat gathered at my temples. My mind frayed, racing through the possible dangers, the dreadful unknowns. She didn't have her armor or weapon in there, and now I couldn't even help her. I knew it. This town was nowhere as safe as it first seemed.

I conjured a Frost Missile and aimed it at the door.

Not again.

I won't lose anyone else.

"This soap is really scratchy," she said from inside.

"WHAT??!?!!?" I legitimately screamed. "Is that literally it?!"

Hei and Jack came running upstairs with looks of panic. I shooed at them to go back. Heat crept upon my face. Thankfully, they seemed to read the situation and retreated.

"...So, uh," I said, on the verge of hyperventilating. "Did you just drop the soap? Was that the noise?"

"It left scratch marks on my skin," Saber murmured defensively. "It's like an exfoliating soap, but…really bad."

So, our paladin, the strongest member of our party, literally screamed at the touch of soap. What a true gamer.

I tried my best to be understanding. "I suppose it really could hurt, if you gained super-strength in this world."

"Sorry about that…"

"Yeah, no, it's whatever." I took a deep breath. And then another one for good measure. "Any way I can help?"

"...Um…" Saber began, then paused. "...Um, do you think the soap shops are closed by now?"

I sighed. "Who knows. I'll go check it out."

"Sorry," she repeated.

"It's fine," I said. I mean, if this soap really hurted as much as our party tank claimed, I'd much rather find a different one as well.

"Don't catch a cold," I told her before I left the house.

Outside, the night was young. Gas streetlamps, in a neat row, illuminated the cobblestone path. Our neighbor, a teen about my age, waved goodnight at me from his porch. Pedestrians strolled about; I saw a pair holding grilled sausages on a skewer, the sort you'd pick up at a little roadside stall.

The soap shop – that was pretty much its actual name, just The Soap Shoppe – took a two minute walk to get to. I remembered its location from passing by a couple days prior. Unfortunately, its doors were shut, and no light shone through the curtains and windows. I walked closer to check the store's hours.

Huh. It closed at 6PM. And it'd open tomorrow at…

"Hello," a monotone voice greeted me. I turned to look.

A girl, about college age, proceeded toward me. She had jet black hair dyed red at the tips, black nail polish, and cold, piercing blue eyes. Her pale, moonlit skin stood in stark contrast to her all-black dress. Her face reminded me of Amy Lee, that lady who sang the "Wake Me Up Inside" song.

"Good evening," I said, half-cautious but still wanting to be polite.

"Can I take a look at your player's journal?" she asked in the same, dead-inside monotone. "I want to check the rules."

After running through all the potential ways that could lead to disaster, and coming up with nothing much, I acquiesced. I led her to the closest streetlamp and flipped open my notebook's front cover. The rules were written there, as I had remembered them:

 

"...It is as I thought," she said, scanning the writing. "Have you noticed before?"

She turned her eyes to me.

"Huh…?" I stammered.

"You have it as well. A hint to the truth of this world, right here."

The hairs on my arm stood on ends. If there was a hint, I certainly didn't see it.

"Diamond is a lie," she said simply. "There is no going home there. They bait us with false hope, watch us claw forward, ever clinging to an empty promise."

She wrapped an arm around my shoulders. A shadow of a smirk flashed over her lips. I squirmed stiffly, not knowing whether to stay, to run, or to fight.

"And?" I asked. "You're saying we're all stuck here forever?"

"There is only one way we can get back to earth," she whispered to me. "And it's through the one closest to freedom. The nemesis to existence, 6E12."