"Where am I?" Tim asked again, feeling some small relief that he was able to speak.
"Do not restrain me if you wish for me to fight on your behalf, deity," Ir'alith snarled to his side, glaring upwards.
The fuzzed head of Sateus extended down to hang between them. "You are already mine, fairest of the demons," it said. "What was restored can be taken again and this will be a victory of a kind as well. Think carefully of your next words before you speak."
There was a palpable tension for the next few seconds, and Tim held his breath as the two faced off, unsure how such a conflict would affect him.
"I apologize," Ir'alith said, inclining her head.
"It is of no consequence," said Sateus. Its head swiveled to the quietly exhaling Tim. "You already know where you are, Drake Storm. This is—"
"No, Scipio, and that's final!" came a shout from behind the door.
"—Eden, a world in a realm different from yours," Sateus continued.
"You're saying this isn't New Era's Eden," Tim said slowly. It can't be New Era if I'm sweating. And… Logout?
Nothing happened.
Shit.
"New Era?" Sateus said, tilting its head unnervingly far to the side. "Information from your realm is difficult for me to obtain now, as I can only occupy two realms at a time. Tell me, mortal, what is New Era?"
"—Won't even take long!" Vol's wheedling voice carried out to them.
"Uh…" Tim felt more sweat running down his back. I'm really, really fucked now, aren't I. How in the hell—Carl, what the fuck, buddy. Why'd I get dragged into this? Stay cool, stay cool. He took another deep breath and let it out. They don't seem like they know anything about me. Does that mean it's better to… Shit, what did it say right after I got here? Something about fighting in a competition? And Carl was going to do it if I didn't? But that name… It has to be connected. "It's a VRMMO," he tried.
"Ah," said Sateus in a tone of understanding that was echoed by a swirling on its head. "The same as Carl then. Yes, I understand now why my scorpion advised me to choose you."
"You…brought Carl here through New Era too?" Tim asked as he tried to comprehend what was happening.
"Not I," Sateus said, the swirl on its head now reversing directions.
"Who?" he pressed.
"Her name draws attention that I…"
The door opened and Vol stomped out, her nine-point-four face set in a scowl. "Can't believe she's scamming me like this," she muttered.
"Your victory was a minor one," said Sateus.
"I don't wanna hear it," said the woman as she continued stomping past them. "This way. I did get you a champion."
"You would have me walk, my scorpion?" Sateus asked, already setting off after her as it walked along the ceiling.
"Stop being so fucking lazy," Vol snapped. "Let's go," she called from around a corner.
"Come," Sateus said without looking back.
Tim glanced over at Ir'alith, but she was already in motion. He quick-stepped after her, taking his helmet off in the process and tossing it into his inventory before finally dismissing the window that had been blocking part of his vision. "So… Do you know what New Era is?" he asked quietly as they walked, the clacking of his boots covering her soundless, barefoot steps.
"New Era?" she repeated, turning her head slightly to fix him with a green-eyed gaze.
She's even taller than I thought. Couple inches taller than me… Must be six-four or so? It's like walking next to Carl.
"What is it?" she asked as they turned the corner.
"It's uh…" He caught sight of a blurry form lingering next to another corner, somehow managing to radiate a feeling of impatience. I'm not even sure how she'd react if I told her about this. Maybe I should feel her out a bit more first. "We can talk about it later. I don't think making Sateus upset is a good idea right now." At least, not until I get a better handle on things. But if Carl was really going to do this and they just copied his character from New Era like they did with me…
He quickened his pace, and Ir'alith's fluid stride kept her in place next to him as they turned the next corner.
"You are a friend of Carl," she said after more steps through the strangely deserted halls.
"Yeah," he said. They passed through a doorway, and a huge, muscled monster of a man wearing chest armor and metal bands around his bulging biceps came into view beside them. At least a nine-out-of-ten fighter. Damn, he's huge. Maybe a guard? They were talking about coming to see an empress before. The man was neither moving nor breathing. Is the world paused or something? The thing mentioned slowing time before… Shit, this is a lot to take in. Just gotta stay cool. Deep breath. "How do you fit into all this?"
They began descending a flight of stairs that turned back on itself halfway down, following after a wavering trail that floated in the air and passing by a number of other motionless people.
"I have a debt to Sateus that can never be repaid," she said firmly. "I will fight for him, and I will be victorious."
They came to a long hallway that seemed to house servant type people. Where the hell is this place anyway? So many questions. Reminds me of my first day after I made VP. It'll be a while before I have enough answers to get a handle on things. "And Carl was going to fight?"
"He would not have refused the call," she said, smoothly increasing her speed as the trail they were following began to move more quickly.
"Would you say he's strong?"
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"Yes. Should you not know the strength of your friend?"
Tim ruminated. So Carl was here, and they took him out of the game like they did with me. He was considered strong too. But Carl said he only played the game to fish a little and it didn't seem like he was lying, which meant he should've been pretty noob, right? Maybe game stats are overpowered here? I can't imagine him ever doing anything even remotely dangerous. He used to triple check that his seatbelt was buckled before driving!
"Drake Storm?" Ir'alith prompted him.
The Ir'alith.
Maybe.
"Sorry, it's just a lot to absorb," he deflected as they hurried along. How big is this damn place anyway? "Uh, yeah, Carl's always been pretty strong. How long have you known him for, anyway?"
"It has been twelve days. Has… Has he ever spoken of me to you?"
They curved around another corner and started down another flight of stairs.
Tim glanced at her after the odd question. Is… Why did she turn purple? Back to blue now… So many questions. "Well, we haven't exactly talked much for the past few years, so he hasn't spoken of anyone to me, really," he said.
He gave her a few seconds as they jogged, but she didn't speak further. Nice and slow. No need to rush things. If Carl's known her for a couple weeks now… He didn't mention anything to me. He also didn't mention Annie divorcing him, and I can't imagine she'd let him disappear to this world for that much time without something coming of it. Given that this Sateus thing seems to be able to slow or stop time here…
"—from me?!" shrieked a woman from somewhere ahead. "Just leave me be!"
The hazy trail ended in front of a door near the end of the dim hallway. Damn, ignoring everything else that's happening, running in this body feels amazing. Like I could go for days. Wonder how fast I could do a marathon.
"Stop being so fucking boring and let go," Vol said in an annoyed tone.
"I will not!" the woman shouted in a familiar accent.
Tim drew up next to the narrow doorway, leaning in the far edge to let Ir'alith peek in from the close side. Sateus sat on the ceiling, unmoving but watching.
A woman with long, bedraggled blonde hair wearing a plain, beige dress lay face down, clutching at the corner of a narrow mattress in a tiny, three-out-of-ten room while Vol held her legs and tried to pull her off it. "Release me, you muscle-brained cretin!" she yelled, kicking with one bare foot at the other woman.
"Stop! Urgh, so fucking annoying!" Vol complained as she grabbed the foot, now clutching both legs around the ankles and putting her own foot up on the bed for leverage as she pulled. "Let go, or I'm gonna rip your feet off!"
"She is spirited," Sateus remarked quietly.
"She is to be one of your champions?" Ir'alith asked.
"Maybe," Sateus said. "A champion of the mind is not so difficult to find."
The woman on the bed flopped about, confounding Vol's attempts to subdue her. The dark-haired woman let out a growl, and blue sparks streamed out of her eyes.
"Careful, my scorpion," Sateus said more loudly. "She's only human."
Vol froze, and the struggling blonde managed to free her leg and land a kick to the face with her heel. The dark-haired woman seemed completely unfazed, and she began her side of the battle once more after a moment. "Just let go already!" she demanded. Her body vanished, and suddenly she was holding the other, shorter woman upright in a full nelson a little to the side of where she'd previously been standing, facing the doorway. "There, got you. Fuck."
Tim gawked for a second or two before he caught himself. The twenty-something blonde was stunning now that he could see her from the front. Even as her expression twisted into a snarl of anger, she was still the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, and the plain dress she wore, pressed tight by her current state of being subdued, highlighted an amazing set of curves. She was an eleven-out-of-ten, which was a forbidden rating that broke the scale. Is she one of Carl's "friends" too? What the hell, Carl, are you building yourself some kind of harem here? He shook himself out of his near-stupor. No, no, can't be jumping to conclusions like that. This is Carl, after all. Shit, where are you, Carl? I bet you'd know how to get out of here.
The blonde struggled, but a pair of hands were held firmly against the back of her neck. Suddenly, she hooked one leg behind the taller woman's, grabbing her behind the knees and lifting her a short ways into the air as she toppled over backwards to break the hold.
Vol flickered, disappearing and reappearing in a standing position looking down at the confused woman laying by herself on the floor. "You can fight?" she said, sounding equally confused.
The blonde blinked a couple times in clear disorientation and shook her head before pushing herself up to a crouch. "Did you believe me unable to defend myself? How brainless I'd be to always rely on others as my sisters do."
Tim was by no means an expert fighter, relying as everyone did in at least some small part on the game's system to handle combat, but he'd been enrolled for several years in early Saturday morning sessions with Brad, a retired, championship-winning MMA fighter, as part of his fitness routine, so he had some sense of things as well as, more importantly, the ability to know when he was in over his head. The smooth, almost effortless way in which this new woman had escaped the submission hold after a ten-out-of-ten performance acting helpless told him that she was someone he wouldn't want to fight in real life. Can't remember what style that escape's from, but I've seen it before. She's not just a pretty face.
"She has some skill," Ir'alith said.
Just as quickly, the tension left the blonde's body, and she sighed in resignation, returning to a normal standing posture. "I've no misconceptions that I'm capable of defeating you, however."
"So you'll come with us?" Vol asked.
"I've some manner of choice in the matter, have I?" the blonde retorted, crossing her arms.
"You have a choice, eldest of the shattered kingdom of lust," Sateus intoned. "If you refuse my call, you'll stay within these walls."
"Hey, that was a good one," Vol said over her shoulder.
The woman looked past Vol and out the door for the first time, and she started. Her blue eyes flicked from side to side, then lingered at the top of the doorway. "And with whom might I be speaking?" she asked with slightly raised eyebrows.
"Sateus, the one true god of victory," Sateus said.
Oh shit, is this thing a god? That's what it said before too, isn't it, and I blew if off because I thought… The time stopping and planet hopping makes a lot more sense in that case. But what the hell kind of favoritism is this? She gets a choice, and I don't? No, stay cool. Plenty of time to get answers, and finding out whether dying here means really dying isn't on my schedule.
"You'll forgive my skepticism," the woman said, taking on a disbelieving tone.
"Belief is also a choice," Sateus said from its position on the ceiling. "Choose."
Her expression hardened. "I'll be sta—"
"Time's stopped," Tim interrupted on a whim. "This is a palace or something for the empress, right? You'd have seen someone else walking by, maybe a maid, or a guard or something, just from the noise you were making earlier, wouldn't you?" He stared into her eyes, willing her to agree at first and then just staring when she looked back at him. Alright, maybe it's not just a whim.
The woman's gaze became calculating. "You've brought to mind an interesting notion," she said slowly. "Certainly this sort of company is what I'd be expecting…" Her head tilted up. "You're truly Sateus—the deity—and you've come for me, not one of your believers?"
"Aquila didn't wanna come," Vol protested. "And we wanted Mina first anyway, but—"
The woman's nostrils flared, and her jaw visibly clenched as she glared with unmistakable hostility. "You'd have chosen Isemeine rather than me?" she demanded after a moment of seething. "What manner of competition is this?"
She seems to really look down on whoever Isemeine is.
"You would be my champion of the mind, competing in games of skill and cleverness," Sateus said in a just as unmistakably irritated voice. "The time of your choice is now. The next word you speak will be acceptance, or you will reside in this room until you die, just as I have foreseen."
A sly smile spread slowly across her face. "Yes," she said, drawing out the word. "If it's a champion of the mind you desired, you needed only mention it." She inclined her head and curtsied deeply. "Emma of no house and no name. Please make use of me however you wish."