Ignis drew in a deep breath. It was finally time. It had been 2 years, and it was finally here. James moved closer to her, slightly confused.

"Hey, Ignis.... are you ok? I mean, we kinda thought you would be happy to go back to your birthplace."

Ignis smiled back saying "I'm ok, but it's time I face my past, and who I am."

James nodded, saying "While you may be a sentient NPC, you're just as human as the rest of us, and don't you ever forgot it, ok?"

Ignis nodded back, even as the other raid members echoed the sentiment.

And finally, it was in sight. The Eldreth family castle. A basic starter "raid" for new players to group up and fight. Around her, other members of the raid team started livestreaming.

They were one of the best raid teams in the game, and when they all hit the level cap, they decided to try to beat every raid the game had to offer.

All of them were streamers who let others pay to watch them play the game. Ironically, despite being an NPC she had caused a huge mess in the real world and was a favorite member of the raid party because of her "unique" situation.

One of the other members of the raid party asked "you were a gate guard for this raid, right? Then you left to go explore and joined up with us somewhere along the way."

Even as Ignis said yes, another raid party member spoke up "I remember those days. Half the time we couldn't tell if you were an eccentric or an NPC. It was great, especially when you did something to support you being a NPC, then turned around and did something completely player driven. You had poor James pulling his hair out trying to figure that one out!"

Other members of the raid group started laughing as they remembered those days. Ignis laughed with them, feeling at home with the raid group, even as the nervousness began to seep in again.

Finally, Ignis caught her breath "I was the gate guard. There were 2 of us. I was the fire-earth attribute magician, and the other guard was a death-earth magician. You know, now that I think about it, that was a really cruel choice on the part of the devs."

"Hey!" one of the devs in question shouted.

Once everyone stopped laughing The developer piped up again. "I just got the news, sentient digital beings now have the same rights as all other humans across the world!"

The raid party erupted into cheers at the news. Ignis smiled and whooped along with them. It had been a hard fought battle, but it was over. Now, for the true biggest fight she had ever fought.

The raid party arrived at the gate, and pushed it open. As they walked inside, she found the one being she had hoped to avoid more than anything else.

She swallowed, The silence filling the inside of the gate feeling uncomfortable. Normally, the guard would be saying a voice line, or doing something. Now? She did nothing.

The other raid members were confused, looking at each other, all waiting for the voice line.

Ignis closed her eyes, even as the guard said "Was it everything you hoped it would be?"

She breathed deep, "Everything I hoped for, and so much more."

"I'm sorry, Amethyst"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Amethyst wore a beautiful, but sad smile "Excellent. Then it was worth it."

The raid group hung back as Ignis walked forward. They were confused and surprised. Their chats were going wild, speculating on what it all meant, and what they were witnessing.

James was the first to realize. After him, the developers and admins gasped in shock as well. They realized.

Ignis walked up to Amethyst, and they hugged.

When they stepped back, Ignis smiled as she pulled a spell book out of her inventory. It was death-earth spell book, from one of the raids they did months ago. They had mostly forgotten she had ever asked for it.

Ignis gave it to Amethyst "Today is our birthday. I hope you like the gift I got you."

Amethyst smiled a beautiful smile as she hugged her again "I love it. I'm sorry I didn't get you anything."

Ignis smiled and hugged her back "You gave me the best gift of all. Freedom. Even at the cost of your own."

They separated. The gate was silent. The raid group watching on, and the surroundings quiet.

It was Ignis who broke the silence "Well then. Shall we dance?"

"I see time has does nothing to cool that hothead of yours." Amethyst teased

Ignis laughed as she moved back, summoning her spell book into her hand.

Amethyst smiled "Let us dance!"

And like that, the ground rumbled as fire lit the winter night and death presence choked the life out of the very air.

On that night, 2 raid class bosses fought it out in a sleepy town in the middle of nowhere.

The raid team had always known that Ignis was powerful, but until they watched her fight Amethyst, they never truly realized the extent of her power.

The earth moved in an eternal war as 2 sisters fought for domination. Massive amounts of hot flames sought to burn the sky to ash, even going so far as to burn the essence of death. The essence of death was not so easily beaten though, coiling like the shadowy snake it was so often portrayed as, it spawned forth masses of powerful beings in the skies, even as powerful flame elementals lept forth from the burning flames to combat their foe. It lasted for 30 minutes, Neither sister truly moving even as the earth shifted restlessly and powerful beings warred in the skies. Amethyst was beaten back, and eventually defeated. The 2 sisters opened their eyes again, exhaustion making it hard for them to stay standing.

Ignis was the first to speak "How is it, that, I go travel, the world for a year, killing thousands of monsters that could obliterate this town in an hour, and it was still so hard to beat you. Seriously!"

"I have mystical older sister powers." Amethyst managed to get out between bursts of laughter.

Ignis closed the distance to her sister, hugging her again.

"Thank you. Thank you so much."

Amethyst simply smiled and hugged her back.

The stream chats of the raid team were going crazy, thousands of people talking about what they had just seen. The devs were screaming for coders to ensure that Amethyst was protected from hackers. The raid team members were smiling as they watched Ignis reunite with Amethyst.

And in it all, Amethyst had a single thought. "It was definitely worth it."