Kole stepped forward, placing a hand on Mara’s shoulder. She turned her face towards him, and then, seeing his grim determination, ceded the floor to him.

  He stepped down off the plinth and approached the shield guarding Elijah and his friends. “I don’t see you holding the power any differently than Arturus doing so, other than we do not know you, and that you still have a long way to go before you might free us all from this imprisonment.”

  Betrayal burned hot in Elijah’s mind. Anger and a fierce need to spring forth and rip this man’s insubordinate tongue from his head. He had to clench his fists and breathe deeply to calm himself. This wasn’t his mind talking; it was the Dragontooth King class. He wondered how deeply the game was affecting his mind if he considered this man, who was not only so much stronger, but that he’d never met, to be his subordinate.

  Elijah pushed past his friends right up to the shield and faced Kole. “The difference is that I haven’t been leading a group of psychotic player killers under the noses of my peers for the past decade. I didn’t send a masochistic maniac to capture and torture low-level players. No, Kole, there is a vast difference between myself and Arturus.”

  ”But you are the villain,” Arturus spoke, a hint of glee on his face, “maybe not the villain of your own story. But definitely the villain of the hundred or so players you trapped inside your barren temple trial.”

  “Yes, you are their villain as they starve a little more every day. Unable to quench their hunger or thirst, unable to log out, prisoners of the very man who claims to want to free them from this game.”

  Elijah felt any calm that he had mustered after confronting Kole vanish. Benjamin gripped his shoulder and gently pulled him back to the safety of the group. He wanted to scream at the mage, to tell him off for interfering, but the look on the young man’s face—a stern but friendly reminder that he didn’t have to do this alone—convinced him to back down.

  ”We did what we had to do to survive. Even in the real world, there is precedent for our actions.” Benjamin’s voice was calm and steady as he addressed them. “We won’t back down, we won’t give Elijah up to Arturus, and we won’t be releasing his army so that he can send them after us again.”

  ”What is at stake here at this ‘trial’, is whether the five of you will attempt to be his accomplices in gaining the one power that could elevate him above every other player in this game, or you will rein him in and allow us to move freely while we work to get Elijah to the position that he can save us all.”

  The air was tense. Each celestial’s eyes glazed over as they entered a group chat to deliberate their next course of action. That Arturus was a part of that chat bothered Elijah. There was no way he would have a vote in his own trial, was there?

  After several tense moments, their eyes focused once more. Kole grimaced at the party from the other side of the barrier. “The Council of Celestials has decided, by unanimous vote in fact, to allow you to continue to operate as is. We’ll reign Arturus in, but you have to release the players you’ve trapped. It isn’t fair to them.”

  Elijah couldn’t help laughing. It was so stupid, of course it was a unanimous vote; they’d given Arturus exactly what he wanted. A way to continue his efforts to capture Elijah, while also pretending that he had nothing to do with their actions. He would be able to continue his campaign against Elijah without fear of repercussions from the others.

  Elijah > We’re done here. Benjamin, be ready with a teleport. This whole trial has been a farce.

  Elijah sent the message to the group chat before calling his familiars back to himself. “We’re done. I won’t be releasing any army whose mission is to capture me and make this madman a god here. I had hoped that the rest of you would see reason, but that is obviously not the case.”

  Everything seemed to happen in a split second as chaos exploded within the temple.

  Chains of decaying bone sprang forth from the floor, whipping and slamming at the shield in front of Elijah, while a snake made of flames gushed forth from Arturus’ mouth and curled along Daven’s sword and arm.

  Benjamin slammed on his teleport spell, and the bubble formed behind Elijah.

  He heard Mara yelling something as Nicholas’ fist gripped Elijah’s shoulder to pull him towards the bubble. But Arturus’ relatively quiet voice overwhelmed it.

  ”I retract my sponsorship of Benjamin the Mage.” At the same time, the effects of a Mana Siphon washed over Elijah.

  This was his plan all along: to remove Elijah’s ability to escape if things hadn’t gone his way.

  Mara jumped forward to intercept Arturus as he sprang forward to assault the protective shield, but he twisted out of the way and another set of chains sprang out of the ground to bind her.

  Elijah warped his familiars into copies of himself, adding to the confusing mix of actions. He was lucky that the skill didn’t rely on mana.

  Then Mara made the ultimate mistake. The debug for the spell popped up in his vision before the effect took hold, removing all of his Reality Warp menus.

  Dispel.

  In an instant, all magic in the room drained away. The Mana Siphon dropped, as did her shield. On the plinth, both Annika and Kyle fell to the ground as the drain hit them. Elijah felt nausea threatening to overtake him. Even his familiars dissipated in a puff of discharging mana.

  It had been a gut reaction from her, but the wrong one. Nicholas and Bo moved to intercept Arturus, who was coming at Elijah. They didn’t stand a chance as Arturus cut them down in a single swipe of his scythe.

  Daven’s golden blade caught the Necro Drifter in the stomach, pinning him in place, just out of reach as Elijah backed away. Panic set it. He didn’t know what to do, going through his list of abilities as Sasha stepped in front of him, hair sticks in hand. She was ready to put her own life on the line for Elijah, even against terrible odds.

  Kole looked between Arturus and Elijah and shook his head. “I retract my sponsorship.”

  Elijah expected Sasha to disappear, just like Benjamin had, assuming Kole was Sasha’s sponsor. He assumed wrong and a white glow flooded his vision. He found himself deposited on a field next to the mage.

  ”No. No!” he screamed. Sasha was still in the temple, at the mercy of the Celestials. He pulled open his friend’s menu and searched for her, but she was appearing offline. He couldn’t teleport to her or even send her a message. The unique effect of the Temple of Creation.

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  The effects of dispel had worn off, and he had access to his mana again. He screamed as he attempted to teleport back to the temple. He had to save Sasha, but each time he selected the temple, it returned an error that the location was invalid. Reality Warp activated as he tried to change the code, working as quickly as he could and trying over and over, each failed attempt adding pain in his head to the pain he was feeling in his heart.

  Their healer was alone with the Celestials, at their mercy, and if they understood anything about the team’s dynamic, they could use that as leverage against Elijah.

  ”Elijah. Elijah!” Benjamin’s voice was calling to him over the pain and anger that he felt, but he just kept trying. Unable to stop when there was any chance he could get back to her. A hard smack across the face brought him back to his senses. His gut reaction was to summon his sword and strike back, but when his eyes cleared from the pain he saw Benjamin’s concerned face staring back at him.

  ”What’s going on, Elijah? Where are the others?”

  He shook his head. “Bo and Nicholas got killed, they’ll have respawned, but Sasha is still in the temple. We have to go get her, Benjamin.”

  The young man shook his head. “You and I can’t get in. More than likely, the sponsorships for Nicholas and Bo have ended with their deaths as well. We can’t do anything except regroup with them and figure out what we are going to do from here.”

  Elijah’s panic attack was in full swing; he knew it wasn’t helping anything to continue panicking. He tried to get his breathing under control, but the fear of losing Sasha was overwhelming him. Finally, Benjamin took matters into his own hands and smacked Elijah across the face again.

  ”Enough. Breathe Elijah. We can figure this out, but not if you are going to be freaking the hell out.”

  Elijah took a deep breath. Trying to focus on anything other than his emotions right now. “Okay, let’s go,” he finally whispered. He reached out and put a hand on Benjamin’s shoulder and activated his teleport. This time targeting Nicholas rather than the lost Sasha.

  They weren’t far. They’d respawned in the city of Raystown, which was currently dealing with its own problem after the Reaper army had moved out towards Nethy, and Arturus’ capture by the other Celestials. It wouldn’t be safe for long, but it gave them some leeway to act before the enemies got to them.

  The bat swarm deposited Elijah and Benjamin next to Nicholas as the large man was half carrying Bo through the doors of the Temple of Fate after respawning. He saw the mage and Warper and grunted at them. “Good timing. Where’s Sasha?”

  Elijah shook his head. “Last I saw, she was still at the Temple of Creation. I—“ He couldn’t bring himself to admit that he’d left her behind, even if it hadn’t been his choice.

  Nicholas gripped Elijah’s shoulders and pulled him into a back-cracking bear hug. The content panic Elijah had been feeling eased just a bit more when the man’s protective embrace encompassed him. “We’ll get her back, Elijah. You have my word on that.” His voice was firm, but there was a tremble in his words that told Elijah that the big man was just as worried as he was.

  When Nicholas finally let go of him, he turned to face Benjamin. “How come you never told us you went to law school?”

  Benjamin laughed. “I said I was a student, not that I had any actual practice. I’d just started my first semester when we got trapped in here. To be honest, I was making it up as I went.”

  Elijah could only blink in response. He couldn’t believe Benjamin had the gall to bullshit his way through something that important, but definitely had to respect it.

  Bo stayed laughing, loud enough to get the attention of several bystanders. “We’re quite the clique, aren’t we? Famous actress, trust fund baby, two game developers.” He locked eyes with Benjamin and gave the man a grin. “And a wannabe lawyer. This game really brings together people from all walks of life.”

  Elijah grinned. “So what’s the plan? How is our little band of misfits going to go about saving our famous actress?”

  A voice echoed through the temple, though nobody except for the four of them seemed to notice. “I wouldn’t worry about that.”

  Out of the stone bloomed some kind of flower made of silver-tinted glass. It resembled a rose, but it wasn’t exactly the same. Elijah wasn’t knowledgeable enough about flowers that he could specify exactly what kind it was, just that it was beautiful in the intricate way its petals folded around each other. The petals opened up, and out from the flower stepped Sasha, and someone else.

  The Celestial: Annika.

  Immediately the rest of the party was on guard. Nicholas drew his spear and Bo his knife, while Benjamin moved to protect with spells. Sasha was the first to react, however. “Stand down, guys,” she told them, walking over and pulling both Nicholas and Bo into a hug. “She isn’t here for Elijah, just giving me a lift.”

  Annika nodded her head at the men and turned to look at Elijah hidden behind the others. She fixed him with a smile, and he blushed as she waved to him. “Sorry about all that, y’know, back there. Things kind of popped off and got crazy fast.”

  Elijah cocked an eyebrow at her, causing her to giggle, which of course, made him blush.

  “How’d you know where to find us?” Nicholas asked firmly, stepping between the two of them and blocking part of Elijah’s view of Annika.

  She rolled her eyes and met Nicholas’ gaze. “My class isn’t just a fancy title, big guy. I’m the ‘Mage of Fate’ as in the goddess Fate, not some halfwit idea of predetermination.”

  ”So you can sense all the Temples of Fate, and who is within them.” Bo grunted, causing her to giggle again.

  Elijah had to admit, she was giggling a lot more than he had expected from a woman in her position. She was the first of the Celestials, the one who had proven to the world and the game that it was possible to break through the barrier the game had placed on advancement. Looking at her closely, Elijah didn’t think she was much older than he was. That would mean that she would have been famous for most of her adult life.

  ”Anyway,” she said, suddenly becoming much more serious. “I wanted to let you know that the Council of Celestials is still split on what they want to do with you, Elijah. Kole and I are happy to let you continue to operate as you have been, as long as you are continuing to work towards the goal of getting us out. Arturus and my dear husband think it would be better to let him drift the skill.” She rolled her eyes, as if it were any surprise what Arturus would want. “They’d only agreed originally on the condition that you release the Reaper army.”

  She was getting visibly frustrated that she couldn’t speak to Elijah directly. She was moving around trying to find a spot where she could see him, but Nicholas and Bo were moving to stand in her way. Finally, she let out a huff, and her body burst into a cloud of flower petals. They flowed through the gap between the two men and over Elijah’s body. It felt incredibly intimate as the petals brushed across his skin, and then she was standing behind him, leaning her head against his back and holding his wrists lightly.

  ”Mara is pretty broken up about it too. She’s a sweetheart when you get to know her and get past that protective persona she’s put on.”

  Nicholas moved to separate them, but Elijah shook his head and rolled his eyes. If she’d meant to take him away, she’d have done so already. It was better to let her play out her little game here and then be on her way.

  ”Daven is already heading back to the southern continents. He’d planned on staying immersed for another year anyway, so he doesn’t really care about not being able to log out.”

  ”Are you able to help at all? Other than information?” Elijah asked, trying to turn his head to look at her. He could just barely see her face mushed against his back and eyes closed.

  ”No,” she whispered, “my husband and I have a personal arrangement. Since we both disagree about how to handle you, we’re both going to be remaining hands off.”

  There was something about the way she spoke those words that hinted at something much more being unsaid, but Elijah tried to force those thoughts from his mind. She slipped away from him and smiled. “I have to be hands off, but I can give you a minor blessing from Fate herself. Raystown and Eastgate are under the control of Arturus, and Mara’s Bastion is obviously under her control. The closest unaffiliated cities are Klade and Glasswind. I’d recommend Glasswind personally as it opens up the South to you.”

  She did a little twirl, and flower petals flared up around her, reminiscent of the bats Elijah used in his own teleport spell, and she vanished.

  ”Lot of good that does us; we have to travel right through Eastgate to get to either of those cities,” Bo groused.

  Sasha cleared her throat from behind them, catching their attention. “I don’t think the information was what she meant by a blessing from fate.” She crooked her thumb towards the giant flower still pulsing silver light from the floor of the temple.