The couple swirled about in the tunnel of light. Yuri reached for Ipyo as she tumbled, kept grasping out for him, to fall into his warm embrace.

However, her control over her body was again diluted. The further she rose inside the shaft, the harder it became to do something as automatic as push out a scream. Her limbs reacted like puppets held by strings of melting cheese. But at least Ipyo was with her.

You’ve come to save me! This light…I must be waking up!

Ipyo though, remained steady all the way up, staring with eyes closed at the curved wall that geysered them, hopefully, to freedom. He swiped a finger gently through it, shimmering like a crystal bead curtain. He flicked it to and fro with a quiet patience, as if he was browsing through a stack of vinyl in a quiet record store. Whatever he was doing, Yuri was glad to have him here with her, and his calmness filled her with hope that this ‘episode’ of hers would soon be over.

As she re-oriented herself in the air, Yuri pushed out once more, curling around her lover, just as a soft floor rushed in from below. They landed side by side, arms pinned but smiling at each other.

“Yuri,” said Ipyo, “I can’t believe you’re here with me. We’re going to have so much fun!”

He began to brush her cheek, but Yuri slapped it away, sitting up.

“You’re here with me, too?” she asked, “No, that can’t be right. I’m waking up. You’re by my bed side.”

Yuri went to cradle his face, only to find a familiar set of hand-cannons resting in her grasp. “No…” she gasped, “Again?”

She swung to Ipyo, who was frowning at a gem-tipped staff. “Tell me you’re not actually here, that I’m crazy.”

Ipyo was already on his feet, and stepped past Yuri towards the flat wall by the entrance of the courtyard, like he knew the place. He tapped it twice with his new staff.

“It’s not that simple,” Ipyo said, “And you’re not crazy.” He admired the carvings inlaid on the plaster wall. “But we aren’t in a place, we’re in a game; Deity.”

The inner plaster of the wall rolled up to reveal a shopfront. Within seconds, Ipyo was deciding between two rings, while a stunty, tired looking shopkeeper looked on. Meanwhile, Yuri yelped as she rose to her feet, seeing three armed men standing beside her. Before she could yell out a question about either, a familiar voice rang through in its signature apathetic tone.

[Welcome to the Wrought Valley]

Ipyo hopped to Yuri, twirling his silvery staff. “I can’t believe it, though, how did we both get put in here?” he asked, fingering a pendant about her neck. When did I get that?

Yuri bit her lip, still frozen and eyed the statue-like figures that stood beside them.

Noticing her anxiousness, Ipyo waddled up to the others and bonked one on the shoulder with his staff. No health bar popped up, no reaction at all came out of this other Deity wielder.

Ipyo spun the staff again, bringing it to a rest against his shoulder like a cheeky magician. “Don’t worry about them. They’re just bots” he said. Seeing Yuri’s confusion, he clarified, “Computer-controlled players, very stupid. The enemy team is made up of the same thing.”

Hiding behind him, Yuri watched the bots’ blank expressions. She edged closer, like a child in a museum, then latched back on to Ipyo when the announcer returned out of nowhere.

[One minute until vassals spawn]

The bots marched out of the courtyard like they were released from a grandfather clock. Yuri followed them from afar, and as they rounded the exit she saw the whole valley spread out in front of her; From the beauty of the mountain range walling in the left side of the valley to its host of flowing streams, towards a familiar plank bridge running a path straight across. All the rivers dipping into the sea on the right, coated in goldens sand.

Ipyo skipped up beside her, still playing with his staff. He tapped it and scraped it off the ground like he was checking its hardness. When he joined Yuri by the entrance, he pointed at the three areas, and a path towards each.

“These are the three lanes; Top, Middle, and Bottom. All of them leading towards the enemy base.”

“So, this is the game that you always talk about?” Yuri asked. “It looks much prettier than on your laptop.”

Ipyo nodded, and led her by the hand through their own base, a simple village with buildings ornamented with a couple tiles here and there of red and blue.

“This is definitely Deity,” he said, taking in the same sight as Yuri, but his awe was less pronounced, more of a sigh. “It does look a bit weird from this angle, not staring down from my monitor. But yeah, this is the valley that I’ve spent so much of my time.”

Yuri holstered one of her cannons into a band at her waist and pulled Ipyo forward, snapping him from his memories. She headed down the middle path, the one with the plank bridge, the only one that she was familiar with.

“So how do we get out?” Yuri asked as she dragged him.

“Out?” Ipyo asked. He pointed out to the far side of the valley that was concealed, not by a familiarly black fog. “Our team needs to destroy the enemy base.”

Yuri rolled her eyes. “Yes, how many times?”

Ipyo tilted his head.

“That’s a simple question, Ipyo! Tell me.” Still he did not respond.

How can he be so calm, so dumbfounded? Doesn’t he want to go back to a normal life?

“Ipyo, look, I just beat a base minutes ago -and it wasn’t so hard, I don’t know why you get so frustrated- so how many levels are there until we beat the game?” Yuri asked.

Ipyo took back his hand and stared at Yuri, eyes flicking about. He then turned away, muttering “Beat the game,” scratching the side of his head with his staff.

Yuri withdrew the hand-cannon from her hip with a tight grip. “Ipyo!” she warned.

“You’ve got the wrong idea,” he told her, turning towards the beachside path. “Deity is not the type of game that you beat.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Yuri called out behind him. Feeling her cannon’s energy tingle down to her boots, she quickly caught up to him. “So how do we know when to stop? How will we get out of this place…this game?”

Ipyo planted his staff into the ground and stopped. He hung his head for a long moment, then threw the shiny rod into the air, catching it with a swipe. “C’mon, let’s just play.”

The announcer returned, and Yuri’s cannons tingled with power, her hands shaking with rage.

[30 seconds until vassals spawn]

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Don’t,” Yuri said, thick curls falling over her eyes, “Don’t tell me we’re stuck here.”

Ignoring her question, Ipyo led Yuri down the right-side path, a cobbled road shoring up with sand as they went on. Thick woods to their left, sleeping sea to their right.

Ipyo twirled his staff again so the end with an jagged orb showed on top, while Yuri jogged ahead to cut him off. She glared at him, but Ipyo didn’t looking back; Eyes closed. Is he really going to ignore me? But there was not a hint of strain nor sigh pinching his forehead, more like an elongated blink.

Continuing to walk blindfolded, Ipyo bumped into Yuri, opened his yes, and then his annoyance showed.

Slipping around her, Ipyo said, “Look, I don’t think we’re trapped. If we got in -or got put in- maybe there is a way out, since it seems to be…” He stopped, and kissed her forehead. “…an experience connected at least somewhat to our real bodies.”

Ipyo bit his lip to crack open a smile. Yuri wiped spit -in case there was any- with the back of her hand.

“For now,” he continued, “let’s focus on winning, and getting you up to speed on how to play.”

I know how to play, Yuri thought, tucking the guns under her arms as she crossed them. “I don’t WANT to!”.

While Ipyo searched for a response, Yuri spotted an opening in the woods to her left and ducked into it. The bright sunlight quickly faded, as did the sounds of Ipyo calling her to come back.

Looking back, Yuri shouted, “No, Ipyo! Go and play your stupid game, and leave me here to rot!”

Yuri traipsed through the forest. What’s the point of having a forest here anyway? she thought, picking dirt paths at random, surroundings growing ever darker. Even though it was a game, there was something eerie about this place, and she did not feel safe even in her separated consciousness.

Ipyo, why are you always like this? Groaning, she pressed the icy metal of her cannons against her forehead. I thought, once again, you were here to take care of me, to rescue me, but you didn’t even care. You’d rather just ‘play’ and have fun in this virtual jail cell. Waste your time, waste your life away.

Noticing a light beaming through a clearing ahead, Yuri forced her way there with her empowered walk. Upon reaching the space, she collapsed to her knees and began to sob. Or, she tried to, but her emotions felt like they were on the other side of a wall, and the only thing that leaked through was her frustration. The distant cries gave her no comfort, the tears rolling down her face disappearing as soon as she blinked them into being. Still, she pushed, unwilling to let this game withhold her feelings from her. Straining, veins flooded the surface of her face as she screamed, “Why am I here?” but even the echoes of her voice bounding off the trees felt hollow.

Around her, as if reacting to her pleas, the ground rumbled and a small berry bush burst from the forest earth to reveal a vine-armed golem. At the same time as the creature emerged in front of her, Yuri had a thought that drove a pit into her stomach. It has to be! Grasping her Vagabond Cannons like a lifeline, Yuri unloaded onto the forest beast, shouting,

“This is all your fault, Ipyo! You put me here!”

The giant shrubbery’s health bar popped up. Yuri’s first two shots only dinged it. Clamping down on the triggers she fired another round, resisting the pullback of each shot like a stubborn weed. The creature reared up. It had no face, no mouth with which to express itself except for a large, bright-red seed that flared as it was hit. As the next two shots crashed into it, the golem propelled itself by throwing its giant vine-arms forward like an ape.

As the golem towered over Yuri and swung, she flicked her barrels to their heavy shot and fired, watching helplessly as the beast’s health bar had barely hit the three-quarter mark. The golem’s blow, however, hit her like a cascade of logs.

In any realistic scenario, Yuri would have been flung to the end of the clearing, but this was Deity. Here, she took the giant wooden punch on the chin, yet the system wouldn’t allow her body to even buckle. Her health bar showed up with a start, a third of it immediately fleeing from sight. And of course, there was pain. A monstrous pain, even dulled as it was, still felt like she had stepped into a heavyweight bout.

Yuri trembled with the shock, fighting her instincts and the system that forced to her to stay and fight. Maybe I should have stayed near Ipyo.

Strafing backwards as fast as her loose control over her body would let her, Yuri braced herself as the golem pounded her again with its vined fist. She felt like her skull should have been split open, that her lungs should have seized on her long ago, but she only yelped in pain, as if it was a cat-scratch.

This is why my mind is removed from this body. I would have already died of shock.

The golem drawing back for another blow, Yuri glanced at the remaining third of her health bar and closed her eyes to await her fate. But at least if I die, I can get away.

Instead of a final crunch cratering into her face, Yuri heard a sharp, shimmering swipe of air. She bounced back to see a thread of light sticking through the golem, one end spiked into the ground, keeping the creature trapped.

“Yuri!” called out Ipyo, as the golem writhed and thrashed in its confinement, the taut thread beginning to crack. Running towards her, he twirled his staff, the bottom spike missing from it.

“Attack it! While it’s snared!”

Yuri hesitated, thinking of how much her injuries would pain her to lift those dense cannons at the enemy, but remarkably, the pain had dissipated and she held them up without much effort.

“Please!” Ipyo shouted, “Now!”

The red-berry core of the golem swelled, glowering at Yuri. Shooting it with another two bullets, they exploded in a burst of slimy luminescence. That’s strange.

“Ipyo!” Yuri shouted over, smiling, “It’s at less than half!”

Shooting his own bolts from his staff, magic pellets that barely dinged away the golem’s health, Ipyo motioned Yuri behind him. “Go, the direction I came from! Don’t shoot, it will only slow you down.”

She was about to ask why when the thread of light holding the golem snapped.

“Please Yuri, just go!”

She ran towards the exit corner of the clearing when she heard a familiar crunch, and looked back to see Ipyo continue to run as his head was slammed.

He ignored the blow and rounded the furious golem while throwing out white bolts every couple seconds. But your health bar, Ipyo! It’s worse than mine, you’ll die in one more hit!

Yuri stopped, and tried a shot immediately, but the trigger locked up. Damn, too far away. Flicking to her heavy shots, the guns’ increased weight made them droop in her hands. “Don’t die, Ipyo! Don’t leave me,” she cried, “Even if it’s just a game.”

He was behind the golem now, small enough that Yuri could see him in the gap between the golem’s legs. Ipyo looked at her when he heard, and scooped a shiny spike of the floor, then smiled and…closed his eyes? No! What is he doing?

“No! Ipyo!” Yuri cried, hammering her triggers hard enough to blister her fingers.

The golem raised both fists to slam Ipyo down for good. Then, a moment later, Ipyo reappeared in front of Yuri, gave her a kiss, then hoisted his staff up like a spear.

Re-attaching the spike he picked up to the end of his staff, he said, “You’re going to have to help me with this.”

Yuri nodded instinctively, but then lowered her cannons.

“Only this time, Ipyo,” she told him. “I’m not playing this game.”

Sighing, Ipyo gripped his staff then lurched it forward at the rampaging golem, the glowing end shooting off and spiking the enemy into the ground again.

“I never wanted to force you,” he said, as Yuri shot her heavy shots into the weakened golem. “Into a relationship, into anything. I know it’s hard for you, that it will take time for you us to able to get over our own issues and traumas before we can be happy together.”

He shot his magic bolts after Yuri’s bullets, and their combined volley became a dance. They no longer looked at the golem as they shot, but into each other’s eyes.

“But we’re here now—” said Ipyo.

Yuri shot a final bullet into the golem as it almost hit her. As it dissipated in death, it’s red-berry burst, surrounding Yuri with a crimson aura, healing her life bar, and she shook her head.

“No…I can’t.”

Ipyo dropped his staff, holding Yuri gently by the shoulders. “In the real world I couldn’t provide you with the things you wanted, the things I know you deserve, but in here—”

He raised a hand and with two fingers closed Yuri’s eyelids.

“-In here is my world.”

Numbers and visual data filled Yuri’s sight, like she was thrust into a NASA control centre. The only thing she could identify before clasping her eyes back open with a panicked breath was the exact figure behind her own health; [HP 110/570]

Ipyo held out his hand, continuing his plea, “In here we have a chance. So please, trust me. And I’ll find a way to get us out of here.”

Yuri dropped a cannon from her hand and fell into Ipyo’s chest. The thinking came later. She didn’t need to think to know that she was going to give Ipyo the chance. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

Why can’t I bring myself to refuse you?

Because that’s what Iyo always did. Yuri stroked her cheek where the golem had struck her. When things were at their worst, their most hopeless, Ipyo would make his way back into Yuri’s life, even after she kicked him out for being too immature, too irresponsible and selfish, too prone too laziness and slow to change or fix his issues. She wanted him. But she also wanted him to be better, yet never wanted to force him to change who he was.

She took one long look around the wetland forest. It was a fictitious curse upon her yes, but Ipyo…she pulled his neck forward to meet his lips. Through her disembodied senses she kissed Ipyo hard, trying to tell him how lonely she had felt without him.

They exited the forest, still in each other’s hold. Yuri looked up at her silent lover who stared fixedly ahead, squeezing his lips like a tight conveyor belt, speeding thoughts towards his brain. He’ll find a way.

Here he was again, asking Yuri to trust him. Because the other thing she knew was that Ipyo loved her far and away more than anything else in his own life. And if he loved her, he would do what she wanted. He had to.