Landasy Reality: Angel's Escape

by Fredrick Stokely

  “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 as 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 as 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 as 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 man.

  “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 as 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 groan.

  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 as 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 as 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--”
<
br />   “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 resting a hand on his mace handle 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 as 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 as 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 as 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. “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 flied 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. “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 over reacted! 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 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 R
ed 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.

  Chapter 13

  Age: 18 years, 0 months

  Asher went wide eyed when his face was covered. He couldn't breathe! What was going on? Where was he? He struggled to move, but his body refused to listen to him. Something was over his face, soft and warm. Light as well. He tried moving his head, but nothing moved. He tried screaming and calling for help, but no noises came out. His heart beat frantically against his chest and he tried to do something, anything. Whatever it was curled around his head and slowly began to slide into his mouth, nose and ears. Unable to move he laid there and trembled when death slowly began to envelope him.