Haru: Acolyte, Level 10/20
In an instant, Haru was whisked away from the bottom of the mineshaft stairwell and into the base of the tower that served as the arena to her own encounter. There wasn’t anything out of place. She was at 6 o’clock in the circular arena. The exit at 12 o’clock. At 3 o’clock was the inaccessible ramp that led upward toward the courtyard where they fought the Beast Master. The only light was that which crept in from the ramp.
Her first instinct was to find her perch, the wooden tower situated near the exit. A silhouette sat where Haru was usually standing during the start of her encounter. They were shrouded in the shadow of the room. Haru suddenly was unsettled by their presence, that they weren’t supposed to be there as much as she wasn’t supposed to be in her current position.
If this was going to be anything like her old encounter, it would begin the moment she stepped into the large stone circle in the center of the area. Haru drew her novice sword and after a deep breath, walked forward into the arena.
As she crossed the threshold onto the stone platform, illumination was cast from below, revealing the mysterious figure.
It was Irae.
“You’re still committed to the bit, I see.” The demon called out, sitting with his knee up and arm resting upon it. He wore a black tunic with a red cloak.
“I told you that I’m going to stop you.” Haru wagged her sword at him.
Irae raised his arm and snapped his fingers. A huge display appeared over his left shoulder, showing a line graph with two sets of values going up linearly. The first value series, a blue line, showed play time, which was increasing. The second set was red, showing overall player anger.
“As you can see,” the demon pointed, “you’ve been doing a splendid job. Absolutely wonderful.”
“I didn’t do any of that.” Haru tensed her shoulders.
Irae slid off the platform and into the arena. “No, no, of course. You were off galivanting across the starter area.” He took a step forward, sizing up the graph again. “I have to say, teaching all of those new players was a stroke of genius. I was worried that my changes were too ham-fisted, but you really drove home how wrong I was. Bravo.”
Haru brandished her sword. “I’ll stop you now, if I have to.”
The demon ran fingers through his red-tinged hair, his nose flaring. “Look, about that whole thing back on the beach.” He spread his arms and let out a chuckle. “We both got carried away.” Starting to pace, Irae folded his arms behind his back. “It was regrettable. Look, to prove bygones can be bygones, I put in a good word with management. You can do…” He motioned toward Haru, “whatever that is, as much as you want.”
The demon’s words caught her off guard and she shuffled in place, sword still ready. “I’m not here for fun. I’m here because you hurt my friends and are going to get my game shut down.”
As she spoke, Irae’s eye twitched. He swallowed hard and spun in place to stop his pacing. “Hey, that’s the nature of progress, baby. Sometimes things happen when a shakeup occurs, and innocent people get hurt.” He spread his arms. “It’s too bad and all that, but time to let things go.”
“That’s not going to happen.” Haru took a step forward.
The demon let his arms fall to his side. The gleeful veneer he put on faded and he pointed with his whole arm back to the graph. “Isn’t your whole schtick wanting to help people have fun? Look at the numbers. You’re old news. They love me. They can’t get enough of what I can do for them. This is senseless jealousy.”
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“I also don’t want to upset people.” Haru drew her sword upwards, readying a strike despite that they were still a great distance apart. “I do want people to have fun, but not at their own expense.” She advanced. The pain in her chest grew as the insinuation that they were alike started to wear on her patience.
“What do you think I’m doing? You’re upset because there’s a little give-and-take?” Irae scoffed and slapped his hips. “Give me a break.” He shook his head. “I know I’m right. You just can’t stand that you have no part in this whole thing now. You know what I think? I think you’re the bad guy here. People are having fun, and you can’t say you took part in enabling it. Now you want to take it away from them because you’re not getting credit.”
Haru’s agony surged. She couldn’t stand being lied about, especially not to her face. The rigidness in her body eased as weakness started to set in. She couldn’t hold her sword up as high any longer.
The demon smirked. “I knew that was it.” He licked his lips. “You really are a villain. A thief of joy, the worst. Just let people have fun.”
After falling to one knee from weakness, Haru couldn’t help but to plant her sword against the brick floor to keep herself upright. “It’s not true. You’re going to destroy my game.”
“It’s your game now?” The demon smiled and crossed his arms. “Sounds pretty selfish to me.”
Cawing echoed throughout the space from outside. Following the rays of light slipping through the gateway to the ramp, a raven glided in from above. It descended to land in the center of the stone circle.
The demon let slip a belly laugh, seeing the bird come between him and Haru. “Look, even the carrion are getting ready to feast on you. What a miserable defeat. Perhaps if I’m feeling generous, I’ll leave something behind for them.”
In a puff of smoke, the raven’s form dissipated, and glimmers from deep within the cloud revealed a royal blue cloak.
“I took you for a fool,” Oracle called out to the demon from the cloud, “but I never thought you’d make such a blunder as to come down from your tower.”
Upon hearing her voice, Irae’s poise melted, and he fell to a squat, using his arms to balance. Then he craned his neck and hissed. “This is our world now. You have no power here.” His voice was harsh and raspy.
The smoke dispersed and Oracle tapped her crook to the ground hard enough for it to ring out across the space. “I come on higher authority.” As her staff touched the ground, a flash emanated from the top, bathing the entire room in light.
The illumination melted away Irae’s human form, revealed to be an intertwining of two snake-like shapes made from clay. His spherical core wrapped in bramble and spikes, spun wildly. A cacophonous, baritone chorus called out from Irae’s central shape, but Haru couldn’t make sense of what was said.
Oracle shook her head. “Lies bear no weight here, demon. You leaving the only fortress true enough to protect you will be your downfall.” She raised her staff again.
Before Oracle could lower her crook, the demon blasted a purple and crimson jet of liquid at them, along with a wretched sound filled with screeching and deep bass.
The sage raised her hand, and a golden veil emerged from the rays of light, falling over both her and Haru. As the vile stream collided with the luminant shroud, the strange liquid parted in two and sheered the stone walls on either side of them.
After the surge ended, Oracle lowered her hand and looked around. Irae was nowhere to be found.
“Slippery bugger.” The sage sighed and turned to Haru. “I should have known better than to just haphazardly whisk away to the glade.” She offered her hand to the acolyte.
Haru reached up and accepted the help. With the demon departing, the pain in her chest eased and weakness lessened. “We’re too late, aren’t we? This was his victory lap.”
The sage laughed and with an unnatural strength, pulled the acolyte to her feet. “The nature of demons is unreasonably complicated.” Oracle turned and looked in the direction of the exit. “This was not a trip out of hubris. It was one of desperation.”
Haru sheathed her sword. “I don’t understand.” She motioned toward the hovering display. “He’s winning.”
Oracle stepped toward the display, using her staff to aid her movement. “An interesting manipulation of data.” She waved her hand, and the graph started to transform. “But not the right metrics.”
The display now showed the red line indicating player dissatisfaction growing gradually. The blue line, sliding drastically downwards, was player progression.
“Nothing has changed, and your mission is just as critical now as it was when you started.” Oracle turned back to Haru.
From overhead, a chest slowly descended and landed between them. In it was the job orb needed to limit break and get a subjob.
Haru stared at it and hummed. “It feels strange to just take this.”
The sage chuckled while moving toward the exit. “Come, there’s more you should know before you continue. It’s only going to get more complicated from here.”