Elijah stepped through the swarm of bats into the Great Hall of Mara’s Bastion. He’d never been here before, but found that Mara was targetable on his spell’s list of people.

  Curiously, she was the only person not already on his friend list he could target. As much as he wracked his brain about it he couldn’t figure out why that might be, she hadn’t been there after she’d saved him from the Reapers back in Raystown, nor did he remember seeing her any of the other times he’d looked through the list.

  She was hard at work ordering people about; it looked like she was preparing for a war. Elijah felt anxiety well up within him at the thought of interrupting her. She was obviously in charge here; after all, the city was named after her, but he didn’t have time to wait for her to notice him.

  “Mara, I’m sorry to bother you. We need your help.” His voice echoed through the Great Hall, louder than the surrounding voices. It sounded firm and resolute, much more than he actually felt, like he was in command and didn’t carry the tone that he felt like puking.

  The hall went dead silent, and Mara turned to face him. Her expression, stern and cold, softened slightly as she laid eyes on him. “Well, if it isn’t my new friend Elijah. We are sort of in the middle of something right now.” She turned her back on him again until he dropped his bombshell.

  “Arturus is the leader of the Reapers.” He didn’t know what he had expected. He’d played this scenario out over and over in his head, trying to judge what was going to be her most likely reaction. What he hadn’t expected was for her to give him a smirk and nod her head.

  “Yes, I’m aware.” She turned away from him and continued to order several players and NPCs around. Of all the various reactions he’d played out in his head, that wasn’t one of them. He froze for a second, trying to figure out what to do now. His vision narrowed on her, and he could hear blood pulsing in his ears.

  “What the hell do you mean you’re aware?” Elijah roared. “Are you saying you’ve known this whole time Arturus was evil, and you’ve done nothing?”

  Mara stopped what she was doing again, this time turning to face Elijah fully. The energy in the room shifted, men and women Mara had been ordering around hurried out of the room, leaving the two of them alone. Danger seemed to radiate off of her, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end.

  “You’re new here, and from my understanding, a bit of an idiot, so I’m not going to kill you repeatedly for that disrespect.” She walked towards him slowly. Every step thundered loudly in the now empty hall. He stepped back away from her, though he knew it was a useless gesture. With her Celestial-tier speed, she could kill him before he even knew she had moved.

  “I meant no disrespect,” he told her. “But you aren’t acting like this is as big of a deal as it is. His armies are moving freely through Nethy on their way west.”

  She cocked her eyebrow at him. There was a look of confusion on her face, but she made no motion or utterance to stop him, so he pushed forward.

  “My friends and I have a plan not only to stop him but also to trap his army. We can’t face Arturus ourselves, though. We need Celestial help if we’re going to survive and pull this off.”

  He was taking an enormous risk. If she were working with Arturus, he would learn about their plan, and he’d know he was walking his army into a trap. Elijah and his party were banking everything on her having the moral fortitude not to work with someone who would enslave players.

  “I have already tried, Elijah,” she dropped the bombshell on him. “I tried and failed to stop him, and Nethy paid the price.”

  His mouth went dry. “Nethy? What happened?”

  She shook her head, and Elijah could see she wouldn’t talk anymore about the city. Something terrible had happened. “You say you have a plan for defeating and trapping his army. I have done what I can to remove Arturus from the equation. I wish you luck.”

  She turned her back on him, dismissing him. All the emotions of the day bubbled up inside him. The anxiety of the water, the fear she wouldn’t listen, the concern over the city. It was too much, and he burst. “Wish me luck? I don’t need luck; I need help! Me and my friends are out here trying to stop these maniacs while trying to level up so I can get us all out of the game.”

  Mara had been walking away from him, no doubt moving to continue whatever she was working on before he showed up. Now she stopped, turning towards him slowly. “What do you mean you can get us out of the game?”

  He immediately regretted his outburst and hadn’t been thinking when he said it. Now countless possibilities played out in his head. He had to answer her, had to come up with a lie. There wasn’t time; the way she was looking at him told him he needed to answer her now or she’d beat the answer out of him.

  “My class. I’ve got an ability that acts similarly to a debug menu. When I touch a player, I get the option to force the logout process.” She was on him immediately. He instinctively activated his ‘Reality Warp’ power, even though he knew he couldn’t affect her with it.

  [DEBUG VIEW: Mara]

  Mara37 {

  Player_ID: 9171322

  Class: PLAYER

  Respawn_Timer: 120s

  Collision_State: TRUE

  Loot_Table: PLAYER_LOOT_DEFAULT

  Despawn_Trigger: TIMER

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  Faction_Tag: PLAYER_HERO

  XP_Multiplier: (Default_1.0)

  Stats [

  Level: 100 (25,978,112 / 104,273,167 XP)

  Health: 500 / 500

  Mana: 285 / 285

  Strength: 90 (Legendary)

  Intelligence: 57 (Master)

  Dexterity: 70 (Legendary)

  Constitution: 100 (Celestial)

  ]

  }

  Force Logout?

  1) Confirm

  2) Cancel

  There was a lot of interesting information there. Her player ID showed she was one of the first ten-million players. That her Intelligence stat was only Master-tier was also an interesting note. And that she was still gaining experience towards a goal that was still so far off.

  He pushed the menu to the side as she lifted him from the ground by his shirt collar. “You can get us out of here and you didn’t lead with that piece of information?”

  He struggled against her, but his flailing did little to dissuade her. Her stats were so far ahead of his there was no way he could even damage her. “Not until,” he was struggling to speak, her massive fists pressing against his neck. “Not until I reach Celestial-tier. Which won’t happen if Arturus captures me.”

  She dropped him unceremoniously to the floor, her fists still balled at her sides. “You were wrong to come here, Elijah. I can’t help you, and if what you say is correct, it would be better to let Arturus capture you. He is already Celestial. If he used his power to ‘drift’ your skill, then he could get us out of here.”

  He looked up at her, mentally setting a finger on his teleport skill. “Do you really think Arturus would do that? Use his skill for good like that? He’s the leader of a massive army, and for the time being is one of the most powerful entities in the only reality that millions are stuck in.”

  Mara shook her head. “I’ll be honest. Before a little while ago, I would have believed he would. Believed that even as villainous as he has always acted, I would have believed it was just an act.”

  There was heaviness in her voice and bags under her eyes. For the first time, Elijah realized she was suffering from Death Sickness. He understood what she meant when she said she’d tried to stop him and failed. She’d put her life on the line to stop him.

  Elijah slowly got back up on his feet. “So? Are you going to attempt to capture me and turn me over to him? On the pipedream that he’ll do the right thing? Because if he doesn’t, then he will be truly unstoppable.”

  Mara looked down at him; a grimace crossed her face. “You’re putting a lot on me here, Elijah. My conscience is telling me I need to try. Even if there is only a slight chance of him doing the right thing.”

  This whole situation scared Elijah. Before his conversation with Mara, he hadn’t realized what he was risking in going against Arturus. A Celestial-tier ‘Reality Warp’ used by someone like Arturus would be a disaster. He already knew how overpowered he was, and his morals were the only thing stopping him from destroying the game from the inside out. With a million people still inside. He didn’t know what would happen if the game became unstable like that. Would it kill all of them in the real world?

  Mara lunged to grab him, but he slammed on his teleport just before her hand contacted him. It was a short-range teleport into the rafters of the building. He reappeared behind her and about fifteen feet up. He knew he still wasn’t safe. There was no doubt she could get him even here. “I don’t blame you, Mara,” he told her, even as he struggled to keep down his anger. He didn’t blame her for her actions. She had a chance to help in a real way, instead she was giving into her fears.

  As she turned to face him, he saw the troubled expression on her face. Did she regret her impulsive action?

  “I don’t blame you, but I’m not going to let you make a mistake that dooms every single person in this world. Please stay out of the way and don’t interfere.” His voice was quieter now. “In fact, let all the Celestials know to stay out of my way. If they interfere, I’ll consider them a threat just like Arturus.”

  He turned his back on her and activated his teleport once again. This trip had been a waste at best; at worst, he’d just made an enemy of Mara and the other Celestials. He would have to pray that this wasn’t the case.

  His teleport dropped him onto the edge of a sheer cliff by the waterfront.

  This wasn’t where he’d meant to go. He’d planned on teleporting nearby to Nethy to see the destruction caused from Mara and Arturus fighting.

  It took him several minutes to realize where he was. That he was exactly where he’d meant to go. The massive sea of water in front of him had once been grasslands and forests. And the city of Nethy.

  Elijah sat on the edge of the cliff looking over the water. He didn’t have the time to be distracted here. Didn’t have the time to feel sorry for himself for being the reason an entire city was gone from the surface of the planet.

  He held his hand out to the side and channeled his mana. In a flash of blue light, Bitter Root appeared next to him. He didn’t want to be alone right now, but all of his other friends would be busy, just like he knew he should be right now.

  “Boss? Why try throw off cliff?” he growled, staring down over the edge before turning towards Elijah. When he saw the look on Elijah’s face, his mood suddenly and drastically shifted.

  “What wrong, Boss?” He sat down next to Elijah, following his eyeline to stare out over the water.

  “That used to be the city of Nethy,” Elijah told him, pointing out over the water. “Because of me, two high-level players got into a fight near it, and now it’s gone.”

  Bitter Root said nothing, or even moved; he just continued staring out at the spot Elijah was pointing.

  “Thousands of people lost either their lives or their homes because of it. This is all my fault.”

  Bitter Root shook his head and punched Elijah on his arm. “No. City gone cause big dumbs fight with big sticks. Not Boss fault.”

  “It is my fault; none of this would have happened—” Bitter Root hit him again.

  “Dumb-dumbs always fight. Always make big problem for not dumb-dumbs. Not Boss fault, but Boss have plan. Boss need do plan and get back at big dumbs. Not sit crying over spilled city.”

  Elijah had to blink slowly at Bitter Root. The goblin, in his own way, was proving to be incredibly wise. The truth of the matter was that Bitter Root was right.

  He could sit her moping and burning time before the Reapers found the dungeon that his friends were preparing in, or he could work on his plan. He could be the key to ensuring that this atrocity wouldn’t go to waste. If nothing else, this had bought them time. The Reapers would struggle to recover from this; some may have even left the faction altogether. But even if he had more time than he otherwise would have had, he didn’t have the time to sit here and mope.

  “Wanna come save the world with me, Bitter Root?” he asked, holding out his hand to his familiar.

  Bitter Root gave him a big, toothy grin and took his hand. “Me just gonna cause chaos Boss. Boss know that.”

  Bats swirled around them, whisking them away from the fallen city.