Third chapter
Towards the unknown future
Witnessing the final moments of a close friend in such a solemn and tranquil manner was quite the surreal experience even for the enigma known as ‘Astraea’. The man sat beside himself for a little longer in the quaint void quietly staring off into the endless pink abyss.
‘Close friend…’ he reminisced. Truthfully, the extent of their relationship only went as far as meeting and interacting within the confines of the game world. To most other people this would hardly be recognized as proper friendship – merely a passing acquaintanceship – and indeed, the man himself often had similar notions. However, after spending years together – even without meeting physically – ‘friend’ was the only word that would aptly describe it.
Ten years. They met about a decade ago and during that time learnt much about each other’s personalities and philosophies. Where Serena was kind-hearted and helpful, Astraea was deceitful and manipulative. When she was naïve and trusting, Astraea would always be beside her sharing scepticism and doubt; they balanced each other out quite perfectly.
Ten long years through both laughter and tears, anger and joy.
‘Never a dull moment’, he let out a chuckle. There were numerous times their differing ideologies would clash and evolve into huge arguments which often ended with them screaming at each other through the voice-com. Then they wouldn’t talk to each other for a few weeks, but time after time, either through their mutual friends or just sheer fate they would come back and become better friends. Still, Serena’s appalling view of Astraea’s methods and behaviour never changed, and she always tried to preach that there was a better way. Even if it was just a game then, there were real people behind each character… or so she would say something to that effect.
If so, how much courage must it have taken for her to concede her own values and ask him to save her world? This time it wasn’t just a game, there were real people with real lives on the line, and yet she chose to bring her very antithesis as her final trump card? Just how much suffering had she gone through in these long six-hundred years? Her hope wasn’t that this world would change the man’s attitude for the better, it was that she believed the man would change the world according to his warped ideologies.
‘How desperate was she?’
The man wasn’t a drinker, but if he had a glass of wine right now he would’ve toasted her a farewell.
“Hmm?” turning to his side he noticed two completely innocuous wooden doors which hadn’t been there prior. They weren’t supported by any wall or frame but was fixed upon the air itself like a magic trick. Floating above the two doors was a small wooden plaque labels. The door on the left read ‘Earth’, and the other ‘Terra Luminous’.
Ever the kind soul, Serena was. Till the very end she despised underhandedness and forcing others to do things against their will – even if it were for a cause as grand as saving the world. She would sooner see the world burn than to have her dear friend cross over to a strange world without choice. Thus, she allowed the man a chance to opt out and live out the rest of his life back in the normal world as was intended. It was likely the others were also given a choice, and it was by their own free will they died here. “What an idiot,” he scoffed wryly. “There was no need for her to feel apologetic about their fates after all.”
With a deep breath the man stepped closer to the doors. “I guess I should see to it then,” he chuckled as he silently thanked the First Hero for her benevolence and walked through the right door. He would take up the mantle and finish the fight she wasn’t able to.
Fight fire with fire. Evil with evil.
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Terra Luminous. Current Year: 643
“Hmm?” after what seemed like a brief moment of blacking out, the well-dressed man – Astraea – found himself lying against a hard wooden floor in the middle of nowhere. Gathering his thoughts proper, he deduced that he had safely traversed the boundary between worlds and came to this side. This… fantastic world. “I see,” the first order of business in these scenarios was always to gather more informat-…
“Auuu!” a strange cry came from below.
Something was crawling over his stomach. “What?”
“Abuu! Aaooo!” came a series of incomprehensible cries.
When the man looked down he was greeted by the large rounded face of an infant smiling innocently back at him. Possibly being only a few months old, the child laughed gleefully while rubbing her drool-covered hands all over his expensive suit. Not a minute into this new fantastic journey and he was already starting to regret the responsibilities he promised Serena.
“Right,” he sighed. “I did promise her to take care of the kid.” He sat up bringing the infant closer to his face, strangely finding her near weightless in the process. Infants weren’t heavy, obviously, however this was closer to being on the level of Styrofoam more than merely being ‘light’. Puzzling it out for a moment, the man came to one possibility: ‘you see, my powers as a Hero is a direct translation of the abilities I had in the game’, was what Serena said before, meaning it was likely he too had inherited similar abilities. That being the case, it was more likely it was the man that was strong rather than the baby being weightless.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Auu?” the baby stared with curiosity. Upon closer inspection he noticed her eyes were heterochromatic: the left eye was like a glimmering aureate jewel, while the other was a pure and serena sky blue. Was this important? Possibly. There were two theories as to why she was born with such a unique trait. Theory one was that this could be the result of the divine protection being passed down through Serena’s bloodline after she had first received it from the Ancient Goddess of Light. The second, more interesting, theory was the possibility of it being an effect of the game. At the end of the game’s main narrative, the player character would ascend to pseudo-godhood after a series of trials, tribulations, and clichés. The gold-tinted eyes represented proof of divinity, or so went the lore. If it was a case of the former, then it was merely an interesting fact. Should it be the latter, then it was likely these same divine attributes were now carried over to Astraea as well.
His eyes… were not golden when he checked through a broken piece of glass, though the aureate eyes only manifested when players used divine powers. As for why this was important, it wasn’t particularly meaningful whether he was some sort of demigod or not, the only thing it affected was his ability to play various characters through utilizing this fact. ‘Astraea’ was faceless after all; a being who took on many forms, and if ‘Deity’ was one of those characters it would only bolster his repertoire.
However, those were all questions for later. For now, the main target of study was the baby in his hands.
“So? What’s your name, kid?” he asked half expecting her to speak back.
“Uuu…?”
“Of course not,” he shook his head. The man searched around her body for any sort of clue but aside from the oversized shirt she was wrapped in, there wasn’t any indication of her identity. “You don’t have like a tag on you or something? No? That’s not good; I’m actually so terrible at coming up with names that I just started to name my characters off celestial objects. Heh, I only learnt after the fact that ‘Astraea’ was the name of the Goddess of innocence,” he shook his head in a dejected manner. “It’s pretty hilarious when I think about it now. Anyway,” he glanced at the stupidly confused infant. “How about something like ‘Ixion’? You think that’s a good name for a child?”
“Auuu!” perhaps the baby understood on an instinctively level it was being named something stupid and started to kick and lash out in protest.
“No? Maybe something more feminine then… Europa? Flora? Laetitia? Luna? Hygiea?” there were mixed reactions to those names. The man spent the next few minutes firing off the names of various moons and asteroids within the solar system to no avail. Eventually he gave in, “whatever,” he sighed. “I refuse to further waste my time on this pointless exercise. From this point onwards your name is going to be ‘Eris’. There’s no deeper meaning to it other than it being off the top of my head.” The baby had a disgruntled expression in response, though rather than it being due to a dissatisfaction towards the name, it appeared more that she was protesting the end to the fun she was having with her newfound father figure. “You don’t like it? Unfortunately, if you have complaints you’ll have to file them to Serena for dumping your responsibility to me in the first place.”
With the issue of naming being settled, the man took a good look around. Cracked windows and shards of glass, grass and vines started growing through the aged and rotting wood boards and walls; a sight not dissimilar to that old abandoned tavern where he had cornered a certain corrupt guild leader. From the piled up dust and general signs of disuse, this place hadn’t seen a guest in several years, possibly decades. He couldn’t tell the technological level of this world from just this alone, but if he had to give a ball-park figure it might’ve been close to being from the 16th or 17th century.
“Auuu! Uuuaa!” the child clearly wanted him to play with her more, however this wasn’t the time or place. When he stood up whilst grabbing the infant under his arms like a sack of potatoes, she violently objected. Thinking it couldn’t possibly be that she recognized she was being treated poorly, the man ignored her pleas and continued on with his investigation.
The exterior of the building did offer a little more insight into this world. It was more modern than he previously thought, at least more so than the world of the game which was set in a roughly medieval fantasy. This building, on the other hand, appeared more like something he would see out of a documentary about the Gregorian era; still relatively primitive but quickly approaching modernity.
His investigations were halted by a sudden offset of explosions far in the distance. In this mountainous area the sound echoed through the hills and valleys quite loudly. Piquing his curiosity – and as a test of his new abilities – the man extended his hand forward and focused. Upon doing so fragments of light, like glitter, gathered around his palms like a three dimensional whirlpool of warping light. After a couple of seconds, the bright magical particles took the form of a majestic glass bird with the only colours to it being its two gleaming red eyes on its face. A [Watcher], it was a basic scouting ability that most seasoned players would understand to get early on.
Despite its weight and composition, the glass bird easily took flight and with great speeds soared through the air towards the origin of the explosions. As fast as the watcher was, it wasn’t instantaneous and the distance was quite far, giving the man some time to ponder on about his next set of actions. The baby aside, if he was to continue with the façade of ‘Astraea the Faceless’ gathering information about this place was paramount.
The man gently placed the baby on the grassy floor for a moment as he prepared a second spell. A roughly two metre tall coffin fell from the sky and suddenly landed in front of him.
“Uu?!” cried the startled infant.
“Don’t worry,” the man reassured. “I’ll be back soon,” he told her as he walked into the coffin.
After a minute or two, someone else stepped out of the coffin where the man should’ve been. A dainty woman with a rounded face and pale complexion covered modestly in a brown dress fit for an average village girl. Despite the humble nature of her attire, it was tight-fitting enough to suggest the overall slender and supple shape of a healthy woman behind them. Of course, that was the point: an appearance which could garner people’s attention and make it easier to pry information out of. Her demeanour was a far-cry from the man’s rougher and insensitive behaviour as she gently knelt down and carefully handled the baby.
“U… unn?” the child looked back clearly confused.
“Do not worry,” the woman calmed the child with a soft caressing of the cheeks. “I’m still me, and I’ve promised Serena to keep you safe. However, please understand I also have a duty to this world, and this is the only way I know to do things.” She explained despite knowing the infant could not fathom what was being said. It was more of a reminder to herself of what ‘Astraea’ needed to do this place. “Perhaps a time will come when you would look upon me with disapproval like she did… or maybe you’ll agree with me. I guess it comes down to the age old question: ‘nature’ or ‘nurture’?”
The woman began to walk down the mountainous path towards the sound conflict in the distance. “I too am excited to see what the future holds in store for us.”