Landasy Reality: Angel's Escape

by Fredrick Stokely

  “Fine!” Andremedia said while circling around, struggling to pepper Syn with arrows, despite the constant movement and wind. “If your HP is good, we could use you!”

  Asura nodded and charged towards the massive angel. Skyth, B4hamutt and Scalios were attacking the angel in close combat, with the dragon focused on keeping the blade knocked away. Syn was being pushed back and down.

  Realization dawned on the smaller angel. “Guys! Stop her!” Asura yelled and flew after them, sword ready. “She's trying to get back with the clouds! Use a wind spell, knock them away! Damn it! Guiding blade!” Her sword flashed out and she appeared in front of Syn, slashing across the larger angel's shoulder when she passed. Asura quickly dropped down and held out her hands. “Tornado!”

  Nothing happened and she let out a curse. “I don't have enough MP!” She whipped around and gripped her sword in both hands before she shoulder slammed the boss from behind. “Keep her away from the clouds!”

  “RAWGGGGG!” Syn shrieked and held her sword high while the group cut into her. Lightning crackled from the tip of the blade before it shot up from the clouds under them. The electricity enveloped all of them and sent them tumbling out from the sky with pained cries.

  “Owie,” Asura groaned before spreading her wings and trying to steady herself. Under the clouds again, the rain pounded on her. “P-pain feedback... t-too high for these... I don't know how much more of this I can take. Everyone okay?”

  “Fried, but fine,” B4hamutt said with a groan. “Damn it. She's in the clouds and... huh?” The rain began to weaken around them.

  “I don't think this is good,” Andremedia said before they looked up. The torrential pour began to turn to a light sprinkle before completely disappearing. The clouds shifted around and formed a large orb of gray. Electricity crackled ominously along the edges as they watched.

  “That definitely doesn't look good,” Scalios mumbled as they quickly regathered near the bottom. “Heal yourselves. Media, heal Asura, she doesn't have any MP.”

  “On it,” the fae said and held out her hand. As they healed up, the shifting clouds above finally finished compressing. The skies were once again clear and the large orb of condensation descended towards them.

  “Circle it, we don't know what it's going to do, so try to keep apart. We don't want to all get wiped out at once,” B4hamutt said before the others nodded and separated. Skyth let out a scream when suddenly a bolt of lightning struck from the cloud, zapping her wings. One of the wings burst into red sparkles and she plummeted towards the ground.

  Scalios dove down after her as the other three focused on the cloud. “It might be targeting our wings,” Asura yelled before sheathing her sword. “Use wind spells to... I got it! Media, can you use a tornado arrow into its core?”

  “I guess, but I can't see Syn to hit her!” Andremedia yelled and flew up, a lightning bolt missing her narrowly.

  “I know, just try it!” Asura yelled and flew at the cloud behemoth. The fae shot an arrow out and cast the spell. The smaller angel flew after it, following its path as the windy arrow tore through the clouds. She held her sword point forward. The arrow stopped suddenly and a wind burst struck through and revealed Syn. Asura plunged her sword into the larger angel's chest. She tore the blade out sideways and slashed as fast as she could.

  The clouds started to close in behind her, though a moment later a second burst of wind tore through the clouds and opened a pathway to her. B4hamutt flew in through the hole and held out his hands. “Tornado!”

  The clouds around them parted once the powerful winds encased the corrupted angel. Syn let out another scream of pain before lifted her sword to strike the dragon down. As the blade came down Asura quickly blocked it with her own, kicking her leg into Syn's hip and pushing off it to give herself better leverage. “Get her!”

  B4hamutt nodded and tore his claws into the gargantuan angel. Asura focused on parrying Syn's large blade, moving around rapidly while she kept the dragon safe. The others soon returned, Skyth's wings restored, and joined in the assault. They worked in tandem, blowing the clouds away and focusing primarily on keeping the disfigured angel distracted.

  Syn struggled to pull from them as it raised a hand “Greater he--” Her words were cut off when Asura's fist connected with her mouth.

  “Not letting you heal!” Asura yelled before gripping her blade firmly in both hands and slamming it across the larger angel's sword as hard as she could. When the blade was knocked away she moved forward and placed a hand to her chest. “Tsunami's ra-” Before she could finish the spell, the other angel's hand lashed out and gripped her by the throat. The words were cut off as she tugged at the hand helplessly.

  “Asura!” B4hamutt yelled and shot up, gripping the hand and trying to tear her free.

  “Rapture,” Syn said before white light enveloped the smaller angel.

  Asura let out a scream when pain burned through her body and her HP plummeted down to zero. The world around her turned black and she floated in a void. Despite the fact the pain was supposed to be gone, she could still feel it. It streaked through her body like white flame, as she screamed and writhed. Finally, after so much mind numbing agony, the pain slowly faded and she went limp.

  She laid there, unmoving and waiting. Sweat coated her body and she tried taking slow, deep breaths. “The hell... w-was that?” she asked with a groan and rubbed her arms. Though the pain was gone, she swore she could still feel it off in the distance. Asura slowly sat up and brought her menu up, starting a report. She then froze as her eyes went wide with fright.

  “Oh god,” she said before looking at her hands. “What if I have virtual nerve syndrome?” She slowly pinched herself before shaking her head. “No. Calm down. Even if I have it... it just means I have to be careful. If I tell my parents I have that they'll cut me off for sure... I just... just need to be careful.” She gulped before bringing up the menu and lowering the feedback levels. Asura shivered and looked down at her hands. “It's fine. I'm fine. It's not like I have to endure much longer. It'll... all be over soon. It's not important.”

  She closed her eyes and relaxed. It didn't take long before a small message appeared in front of her, alerting her that someone was attempting to resurrect her. Asura quickly accepted before reappearing by the others. She had to flap her wings to keep from plummeting.

  “You okay?” B4hamutt asked and stared at her.

  “F-fine. Just, didn't expect that. Heh. How did the rest of the fight go?” she asked nervously.

  “Fine,” he said. “Are you sure? We heard you screaming after you died, but then you got knocked out of the call. What happened?”

  “Oh, it was nothing.” Asura softly rubbed her shoulder. “They just upped the sensations for this fight again and... well... rapture hurts a lot. I didn't expect it. I'm fine now.”

  The dragon opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off by Skyth. “Come on, she said she's fine. Let's loot the chest and get out of here, it's freezing!”

  B4hamutt glared at the leviathan before turning away. A short distance from them a large golden chest stood on top of an even larger cloud. They flew over towards it before taking a deep breath.

  “Three down, only three to go,” Asura said with a soft smile. When they opened the chest a loud gong played.

  “Please remain logged in,” a female's voice echoed around them. “A game master will be with you momentarily.”

  Scalios frowned and took his rewards. “A game master? What could they possibly want? Do they think we cheated to find these items?”

  “I don't know,” Asura said nervously and took hers. “I've never heard of the game masters coming to meet the players though. They usually only appear during major festivals and events.”

  “Maybe it's because we're the first ones to do this,” Andremedia said.

  “I don't know what they want, but I'm not waiting to find out,” Skyth said as her hands danced through the air. “I've got my reward so I'm l
eaving.”

  “What? NO!” Asura said quickly and grabbed the leviathan's hands. “If you leave now, it's not like it would stop them if they intended to punish us. We haven't done anything wrong, so I'm sure we're not in trouble. But if you run off, you might get in trouble.”

  Skyth sighed, but slowly lowered her hands to her side. “Fine. I guess you're right. If we were in trouble they'd just transport us to a jail or something... ugh.”

  “We should land,” Scalios said. “We're still in an instanced area, so there shouldn't be any issues if we go straight down. They wouldn't set the entire area to being sky only.”

  “Right,” Asura said and they tucked in their wings and descended. They soon made it to the ground and sat down to wait. After a few moments she received a private call from B4hamutt. She glanced to him before accepting it. “Yes?”

  “Asura, I know something is up. You were lying before. What really happened?”

  “Now's not the time. Mutt, I'm fine. Really... I think I just... might be getting VNS,” Asura said and lowered her eyes to the ground.

  “Virtual nerve syndrome... but you aren't a pro. How could you possibly get it?” B4hamutt asked as he leaned back, keeping his eyes on the others while scratching his face to hide his talking. “Do you have your feedback on max?”

  “What? No! I haven't done that in ages... I just play a lot. I probably had it too high,” she whispered gently. “I had some other incidents with the previous fights and just... I'm sure it'll be fine. I lowered the feedback, so I should be fine.”

  “You shouldn't be playing if you're suffering from that, you'll... you'll...”

  “What? Go into a coma? Die?” Asura asked with a chuckle. “I'm not playing the max feedback games like the professionals. I'll be fine, really. Please, don't tell the others. I'll be... gone soon. I don't want them thinking I have other issues on top of everything else.”

  “But--”

  “Please. For me?”

  The man went silent for a few moment. “Fine,” B4hamutt finally said. “I'm... I'm sorry. You're right. It's not like you'll have time to suffer the worse effects.”

  “I know... besides... I'm not going to have enough time to see the end of this war, the next quest or the last of these monsters. At least, at this rate. I don't want to... lose what I can do.”

  The dragon nodded. “I know. I'll keep my mouth shut. I promise.”

  Asura nodded before ending the call. A moment later she let out an annoyed groan and spoke up. “Are they really this slow? Why did they tell us to wait if they weren't going to pop up?”

  “What if it was a preset reward?” Andremedia asked. “It might just be waiting for the next available game master then?”

  “I hope they'd... huh?” Asura looked up as the clouds above disappeared. A beam of light shot down from the sky as a... human appeared in between them. No armor, no weapons, no distinguishing characteristics of any race. Just a human.

  “Hello,” he said as he tapped on the air. “Ah, the slayer group. I've been wondering when you five would trigger this. My name is Andre, I'm one of the game masters in charge of AI distribution and development. I've come to award you your limited edition prize. Here.” He held out a large golden orb, with the letter M emblazoned in red on the front.

  “What is it?” Asura asked before B4hamutt reached out to take it.

  “A one-time use special key. This will allow one of you a chance to take the mastery quest,” Andre said as he kept tapping on the air. “Okay, logged as received... it's a special reward for being the first group to take down three of our special bosses. We really thought people would have killed more of them by now, even as well as we hid them. But then you guys took down three in a year, quite impressive.”

  “W-wait,” Asura said, unable to take her eyes off the key. “Y-you mean... this will let us take a mastery quest... now? As in, without making us wait for the quest time?”

  “Yes. Normally we only give them as rewards to people behind the curve, but this is a... special reward. It'll only work for one person, one time. So use it carefully. Good bye,” the man said before he disappeared.

  Every eye in the group turned towards the orb, though a moment later they turned to Asura.

  Chapter 20

  Age: 20 years, 4 months

  Asura stared at the orb, her heart pounding. After a few seconds she noticed the others staring at her. “I should go,” she said and turned away.

  “Asura,” B4hamutt said and took a step forward. “It's the teams item. You have just as much right to it as any of us.”

  She closed her eyes and shook her head. “No. I don't. It's... it's better that one of you take it. I... if I take it, that'll be it. Even if I pass I'll be... I'll be gone soon and not able to use it like one of you could. It's better that one of yo--”

  “Oh, knock it off!” Skyth yelled before rolling her eyes. “We all know you're going to be the one to use it. You're his girlfriend.” She motioned to B4hamutt, “and our friend. You could mope and say you don't want it all you want. But in the end, you are going to be the one who uses it.”

  “But... but,” Asura whispered and her head. “I shouldn't...”

  “No, you're taking it. Don't pretend you don't want it,” Skyth said before storming past the dragon and grabbing the orb. She thrust it into Asura's chest so hard the angel stumbled back. “Just... tell us what the quest is like. This way all five of us have a chance of getting our sixth masteries.”

  “But, I just, I--”

  “Just take it!” the leviathan yelled and pushed harder.

  Asura gulped and took the orb in her hands. She slowly looked up to her friends before looking down at the orb. “Are... are you sure?”

  “It's only fair,” Andremedia said with a smile. “After all, we'll all get a chance to during the next contest. You won't. Besides, it took all of us to slay these monsters. You probably won't be around when we take the last down so... you deserve your chance to at least see this to the end.”

  Asura nodded before chewing on her lip for a moment. Tears slowly flooded her cheeks while she looked up to them. “I... I just want to say. N-no matter what happens. Even... even though I'm going to die. Even if... if I fail. I don't regret any of the time I spent with all of you. I don't regret the time I got to spend in this game. I'm happy I got to... I got to live this life, even if it wasn't r--” She was cut off when Skyth suddenly hugged her.

  “If you say it isn't real, I'm going to smack you,” the leviathan said softly. A moment later Andremedia joined in the hug. Skyth glanced back to the other two and rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. Give the girl a hug, it won't kill you.”

  B4hamutt and Scalios slowly joined in the hug. Asura smiled and looked around at her friends. “Okay. I... I'll try this weekend, okay? When everyone is together. Just so you guys can cheer me on... please?” The others quickly agreed, smiles on their faces.

  ------

  At the end of the week, Asura appeared in her room in Everlight. She took a deep breath and slowly went through her inventory, just to make sure the orb was still there. She checked her friend list and smiled. “They're all here. I just need to start. That's all...” she whispered before taking the item out of her inventory and activating it.

  The orb began to glow with a brilliant golden light, so bright she was forced to squint to see it. A moment later the orb stopped glowing and... nothing happened. She stared at the orb before letting out a furious scream. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! It doesn't even work?” Suddenly another flash and a glowing arrow formed in front of her. Asura's cheeks turned red before she nodded. “O-oh, right. Heh. I guess it's the same as the others... have to go to the quest location.” She took a deep breath before looking out from her balcony. “Well... it wouldn't hurt.” She leaped from it and spread out her wings. After a few seconds the world loaded and she flew north.

  The arrow directed her north, away from the fortress. She brought up her map and smiled as she saw her destinat
ion. “Right in the middle of the neutral territories. I wonder if that was intentional,” she whispered and flew higher and higher, into the clouds and icy altitude. The cold bit at her flesh, though she did her best to ignore it. Her entire body quivered with excitement as she got closer and closer, forced to occasionally give off a little squeal.

  When she came closer to the border, she looked around. She didn't see any raiders as she easily passed over and entered the lands. She flew slightly east until she finally came to a large, wooded area. Her destination was in the center. She let out another squeal of delight before flapping her wings harder and diving straight into the middle of the woods.

  She landed on a stone platform. Ruined statues of massive tigers and wolves surrounded it, long overgrown. She slowly moved to the nearest one and wiped some of the moss away. Underneath the heavy foliage she could make out markings. “Holy beasts, of course.”

  The extended paws of one of the nearby statues broke off behind her, causing her to turn and shriek. She couldn't see anything and shook her head before kicking one of the statues, the stone quickly crumbling away. “Right. Old, broken, falling apart. Calm down,” she whispered before turning back towards the guiding arrow.

  It pointed to a large archway over stairs that headed into the ground. She slowly walked towards it and made her way inside, carefully walking down the foliage covered stairs. After a few feet she held out her hand. “Burning hands.”

  Guided by the light, she quickly made her way down to another passageway. It had once been guarded by two stone doors, though one had long since toppled over and shattered on the stone ground. She headed inside and took a quick scan of the room.

  Inside was a small, round platform. In front of that was a console with a spherical indent. She let out a squeal of delight before running up to the console and inserting the orb. The platform sprang to life and white light sprang from it. She gulped nervously and stared. “A teleporter... of course. I just need to step inside. That's it. I'm almost there. I just-- AGHHHHHHH!” she screamed when a blade popped out from her chest. Pain shot through her body, far stronger than it should have been, before she double tapped the ground.