The sunlight danced between the shifting canopy of the trees above, the light breeze rustling the nearby foliage. A pair of footsteps trudged through a dry pathway of dirt, meandering through the woodland.
“I’d have thought you’d look more cheerful,” Bernard said, his bright eyes turning to the zombie.
Sally paused and looked back at the fortress slowly moving out of view. “Eh. It’s not like I wanted to suffer and struggle for survival, but they deserved some manner of justice.”
“You think?” The aspect of Life tilted his head. “Is it not enough of a blessing that you won’t be killing any more of them?”
“That seems like the kind of detached and demented thinking I’d come up with.” Sally grinned and continued following the elf.
“I saw your arrival. A force of nature in a way, from off-world. An oddity, and at first I detested your presence.” He gave her a warm smile. “Part of my purview is creation, and you are very much unlike the normal Players and their arrival.”
“I’m very much unlike normal in many ways.”
“Indeed. So tied to death, but yet also life, in some ways. Not just the assumed mission of wanting to save this failing System, but the raising the undead thing. Necromancy has a place in the world, but it is not a power granted to any Player Class.”
Sally nodded. “I’m pretty sure it was similar in my original world too, but I didn’t exactly have a normal rebirth into the System there, either.”
He smiled, but Bernard didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he looked out to the surrounding woodlands. “How has your mission been so far?”
“Honestly?” She pulled a face. “It’s been a little more of a drag than I’d hoped. Part of a failing System I guess is it not being an entirely joyful experience. Going from Dungeon to Dungeon occasionally getting a random skill is kinda… I feel like I’ve outgrown such a process.”
“I see. But you persist to save everyone?”
“Yeah.”
They stepped out of the shade of the last of the trees and into a field of grass. Sally wrinkled up her face at the sun glaring in her face and put her hand up over her eyes to shade her vision. Turning to the other side of the island, she furrowed her brow.
“What is that?”
Over in the distance, dark clouds - near pitch black in hue - hung over the mountains, swirling in their direction like tendrils.
“Oh.” Life grinned. “That’s the death of the System.”
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“What does that mean?” Claude pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his head.
The manticore shrugged. “Pretty simple, really. The System is ending and will be erased in due course.”
“What does that mean for us?”
Bernice smiled. “Probably a permanent state of death. No existence left for you.”
The vampire adjusted his grip on the warhammer. “But… destroying the Dungeons is helping, right?”
“Helping it along, yes.”
“Hmm.” Theo narrowed his eyes out at the dark swirls of pitch black in the distance. “You are helping to weaken the current System, at the same time as making me stronger?”
“I’m glad I don’t need to spell it out for you, little blood-sucker. Burning the candle from both ends to get to the middle is more risky, but there is no sense delaying the inevitable.”
[Poppy: How will we save the world in time??]
“Poppy is asking how we plan on saving the world before it is too late.” Theo translated.
Kristov was busy amusing Cross with sounds from his kazoo - or perhaps the zombie was trying to stop him from playing it - while Claude had turned into a pile of stress and sweat.
Bernice sat down and licked at her right paw. “I suppose you can simplify it down to three trials, if that is easy enough for you to understand. I will help you with one. Bernard is helping Sally with the other. The last trial you will have to complete on your own.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“What odds do you give us?” Theo grinned.
The manticore shrugged before looking back out to the mountains. “About fifty-fifty.”
----------------------------------------
Sally wrinkled up her nose. “I’ve dealt with worse.”
“But it’s not just your life at stake, is it? Or rather, even if everything fails, you’ll persist.”
She raised an eyebrow at the elf. “You know a lot about what’s really going on then, huh?”
“Enough. I wouldn’t have saved you otherwise. While there is no place for me in your home world, I still wish for the inhabitants here to live and flourish.”
“No place for you?” Sally pulled a face. “I’m sure we can work something out?”
“Bridges can be crossed after they’re built, Mrs Danger.” Life gave her a warm smile. “Let’s continue toward your first trial by finding the key to open Pippy’s mind back up.”
“What can you tell me about him?”
“A fool, and a flawed person, same as any other. The cause of the calamity that has ruined this world… but the rest of his story is his alone to tell.” Bernard tilted his head as they worked their way up a rocky hill. “That he is trying to help you and the vampire out is a point worth noting.”
“I didn’t really get evil vibes from him.” She paused at the precipice to look around the area, but couldn’t see any of her friends. “A misguided mistake that he wants to correct, maybe?”
“Or the key to unlocking lost power so he can become the monster he once was?” Life grinned and gestured to continue. “One of my greatest joys is not only seeing the branches and routes that a life can take through their choices, but how the pattern of their existence can be viewed differently by outside observers. A kaleidoscope, that you cannot personally enjoy yourself.”
“Ah, I’ve always been a villain to some, hero to others.” Sally returned the grin. “I break a few eggs to make omelets. I break a few more just for fun. Sometimes I break them by accident.”
“And although you never regret a broken egg, you still try to do right by the chickens in the long run?”
“It’s the… effort from the normal side of me.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I know I can’t save everyone, but I could kill everyone. Guaranteed, it would take less strength and hardship to murder everyone in this world rather than save them. But I do my best… because my heart is in the right place, even if it’s relatively close to my stomach.”
Life gave her a nod, and they continued on in silence. It gave her a chance to really reflect on what she had learned from this world, and how the Outsiders needed to go forward in saving other Systems and growing Sanctuary. She wasn’t a fan of the leveling process anymore, so Chuck needed to find a way of baking in her necromancy powers.
That might just end up being running multiple easy worlds until she could make enough skills permanent to drop in being overpowered from the outset… or he could rewrite how the greater STAR system read her Class and take away the crunch from the normal way things seemed to be done.
Rather than how they currently applied themselves to the native System of wherever they dropped, they needed to be above it somehow. The same way her STAR Chat to Sanctuary worked, but for skills and equipment. She couldn’t wait to figuratively pick the Architect’s brains when she got back.
[Sally: How are all my fav peeps doing?]
[Humphrey: SALLY]
[Norah: Great hun, missing you.]
[Humphrey: HOW ARE YOU ARE YOU OKAY]
[Lucius: hey Sally!]
She smiled to herself as the rest of the messages came in from everyone else. They all seemed to be fine, and she was glad. After Theo had told her about the kidnappings, there had been the lingering guilt in the back of her mind that she hadn’t been there to help. But they seemed in good spirits now - and missed her.
With her smile becoming somewhat bittersweet, she closed the Chat window down after saying her goodbyes. She missed them too, of course. It had been easier to deal with their absence when the world-hopping was completed within a day… but she had been here for several with the threat of… well; she didn’t quite know.
Whatever happened, it wouldn’t be long before she saw everyone again - and that gave her enough hope even if they failed to bring the world in and save everyone.
[Sally: Head’s up, pal.]
[Sally: World is weakening and coming to a close.]
[Chuck: I can see - how are things on the ground?]
[Sally: We have help and should be able to bring things under control.]
[Sally: On your end?]
[Chuck: Bringing over all the Players even with the weakened System…]
[Chuck: I’ll be ready, trust in me.]
[Sally: 100% you dork.]
Closed that down as well, and let out a long sigh.
“Tell me, Sally Danger, what is your world like? I may know your intentions, but it would warm my heart to know where the Players here will be headed.” Bernard gave her a calm smile.
“It’s a place of safety. Our System had issues too until we took control of it. It’s… a paradise in a way, even though no life can be perfect.” She bit at her lip.
“They can live a good life? Without struggles or imperfections?”
“Life always has struggle, isn’t that a big part of existing?” She grinned and was glad to see the elf’s expression warm further.
“Very true. To exist, despite how unlikely those odds are, is truly life itself. I am glad that was your answer, Sally. Your plight and the hardships you’ve endured resonates from your very being. Undead or not, you are alive and continue to live in violent vibrancy.”
Sally raised an eyebrow. “Sure I can’t keep you around? I could do with that amount of ego boost every so often.”
“There is a place for me somewhere. My duty to this System, however, is drawing to a close.” Bernard lowered his gaze. “Let us focus on your trial before blithering over such nonsense.”
“Sure thing, Life.” She put her hands on her hips as he led her over to the edge of a plateau. “Just what is my first trial?”
They stopped, and Sally looked down at the valley below them. A teeming, writhing carpet of green, gray, and brown moved aimlessly back and forth. Groans rose up from the scores of figures as their eyes turned up to see her.
At least a hundred - maybe more. Her mouth opened in surprise and she gasped.
“First task, Mrs Danger. Take control of this zombie army.”