The new Aspects of Life and Death approached the figure laying within this underground tomb. Aside from the plain stone plinth, there were no other decorations or the usual points of interest they had come to expect from mystical places such as this.

Sally sidled up to the man. Robed, but with leather slacks and a few belts. Adventuring gear, even if they were some manner of spellcaster. A wrinkled face with a stubby nose and dark curled hair. Eyes closed, but it wasn’t obvious if he was dead or just asleep.

“If this is like a sleeping beauty thing… hard pass. I’m not breaking any laws for this chump.” She pulled a face and stuck out her tongue.

Theo shrugged and stood around the opposite side, near the figure’s head. “Perhaps I just have to hit him with my magic hammer?”

“I doubt it. You crack this noggin’ open like a watermelon and I guarantee our chances of getting out of here are basically… twelve.”

“Out of… one hundred?” The vampire raised an eyebrow.

“Plus, I’m pretty sure this is Pippy, right?” Sally crossed her arms and glared at the man.

At least, that’s what seemed to make some sense. The original Pippy, having made a mess of the world inadvertently, had put themselves to rest - maybe at the hands of the siblings - so that some status quo could be achieved. If they woke him up, then they could…

She wasn’t too sure, actually. What would happen? If this person was the key, what would they be unlocking?

“I actually have a sinister feeling about this whole situation,” she surmised.

Theo nodded along. “Same. Why did they want us to come here and meet Pippy? Surely it would be better for him to stay as a goblin while we saved the world?”

“Maybe… we’re not going to save the world.”

They both maintained some confused eye-contact for a moment. They should have gotten some clearer instructions from the previous Aspects.

Sally rubbed at her hair and scowled at the wall in thought. They had been made the new demi-gods for a reason. Bernard had said it had to be them because they were a mix of Player and Monster. Enough to accept the granted boons, but not be under the control of the System. If this was Pippy, did they have to save him with her Life magic, or kill him with Theo’s Death magic?

“Perhaps it’s a choice, of what we want to do?” She tilted her head, but wasn’t too convinced by what she was saying.

“Well, let’s think about this is in a narrative sense then. It stands to reason that one option would doom the System more, whereas the other option would give us a boost in fighting against… whatever we need to at the end to win.” Theo crossed his arms.

“Things don’t work like that.” Her tongue writhed around in her mouth. “But! That does sound quite likely based on my tired brain being unwilling to accept anything else at present.”

They both looked down at the figure.

“See…” the vampire narrowed his eyes. “I was fully on board with saving him, as I’m sure you were - until we got here and were presented with the choice.”

“Now you want to kill him, just to be contrary.”

“It’s only fair both options have representation.” He nodded and ignored her renewed scowl. “He did doom the world, or something. I’m not sure anyone fully explained it to me.”

“Any lore fell out of my head long ago. I just want to go home already.” It was at least a miracle that she didn’t have to stay here for weeks like they originally had forecasted. “Or at least eat a few more people.”

It was her own fault that she let Bernard save her from the camp. Would have been quite the sight having to chew and slaughter her way through the unprepared Players. Total waste of her purpose here, but sometimes she wanted to be the bad guy and just murder tasty people.

“Hey, fangs. We should have an eating-people vacation after this.” She licked her sharp teeth just at the thought of it.

“Sure. I haven’t had a proper meal in a while and if we don’t wrap things up here in the next day or so I will start going insane, anyway.” He grinned, the blue candles illuminating his fangs. “Good luck curtailing the Aspect of Death at that point.”

Sally wrinkled up her nose. “I really think you should have been upfront about that before you were given the job. Other than raising the dead, I’m not exactly the paragon of, well, anything - but especially not life.”

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

“Nah. Why are you even here, silly?”

She pouted. Short answer was to save people struggling in a dying System. A quick flick through the three novels' worth of exploits they’d fought their way through on Sanctuary pointed to a similar thread. There had always been the drive to make things fair and safe for everyone… so life could flourish.

“Just because you’re right doesn’t mean you’re not an ass.” She held out a finger to point at the very patient body waiting for them to make a decision. “How do we deal with this, then?”

“Rock, paper, scissors?” Theo shrugged.

“No, it has to be…” She furrowed her brow again as her boots took her pacing around the room. “If the siblings put him here like this, maybe he is in like… a coma? A suspended state between life and death?”

Theo watched her stroll around the small chamber, a soft smile on his face. “So his limbo is being spent inside an undead goblin? That said, I do think you’re onto something. We’ve done this all together, right? So why choose when we can both act?”

“I try to bring him back while you try to destroy him? A clash of our powers…” Sally sighed. This was all too much. Why couldn’t things be simple? “Fine, at least if we set things in motion, then we can deal with consequences. That’s better than sitting on our thumbs and letting the System waste away while we speak.”

“I’ll follow your lead then, my queen.”

She rolled her eyes, but returned to her position opposite him. As she controlled her breathing, she placed her left hand on the body’s forehead, and her right on his chest. Theo mirrored the placement and looked up at her for the signal, his glasses sliding down his nose a little.

“Well, here goes nothing.”

----------------------------------------

“Puh-puh-puhhhhh!” Cross weaved back and forth, almost tripping over a clump of grass.

“Would you be still and silent?” Claude worked his jaw. With the absence of the Player-Monsters and Bernice, he had not been having a good time managing the remainder of the Party.

[Poppy: You’ll give away our position <<]

The healer grabbed the goblin by the scruff of his dirty leather outfit and turned him to face the direction they were trying to travel. Kristov had spotted Brian and their group and they had made the decision that they would avoid those other Players as much as possible.

Even if they had friendly intention, they had to be safe - as they had promised to look after the goblin. And if there was one thing that Claude did not want to do, it was anger Sally or Theo.

At this point, they weren’t sure if they were truly being followed.

It could all be paranoia.

Sometimes a little bit of that was just what you needed to stay alive. Although… at this stage, he felt as though they needed plenty of luck as well. Maybe a small miracle.

With the goblin still murmuring to himself but plodding along in the correct direction, the healer looked up at the sky.

The pitch darkness that had been snaking down from the mountains had grown larger and wider. As if the void itself had started eating away at the world. Given that Sally had said there was an infinite ocean-like expanse between worlds, it certainly felt like a crack had formed and was letting in the empty oblivion.

[Poppy: You look too stressed, Claude ^^]

[Poppy: I trust Sally, don’t you?]

“Trust is not the word for it, my dear.” He shook his head and tore his eyes away from the darkening sky. “Faith is perhaps more apt. If they have truly been able to complete the trials set before them, then they are more than just a pair of friendly but violent Players. Whether they know it, or could even use their powers as needed, remains to be seen.”

“And if the two are incapable, then our looming demise is inescapable?”

Claude gave the bard a glum nod. “Unfortunately, their failure means more than the death of the party. It will be the death of the system.”

----------------------------------------

Sally shuffled awkwardly.

“You… haven’t started yet, right?” Theo pulled a face, and his glasses sliding a little further toward the tip of his nose. “Because I haven’t, and I don’t want to mess this up.”

“No, I haven’t!” She exhaled through her nose. “I don’t think I’ve ever had the weight of a world on my shoulders before. Even against the old Architect, it was only our lives on the line, really.”

“I died once,” Theo reminded her.

“Pretty sure that was your own fault, though.”

“Well… I suppose so.”

“Also, isn’t it like three times by now? Do the resets count as deaths?”

Theo hummed. “Oh, and the time that I murdered myself.”

“What? When?” Sally’s brows furrowed.

“At the cathedral. I didn’t have a clone because that wasn’t part of Lana’s blood. It was actually me from recently time traveling, and then I fought the past me and he won. When I died in the past, I respawned in the future - which is pretty neat and handy so it was a comfortable closed loop.”

The zombie maintained a neutral expression as she tried to take it all in.

“You… went back in time and your first thought was to go get murdered by yourself?”

Now the vampire shuffled awkwardly. “It made sense if you go back through it. And I hadn’t slept for a while, so I wouldn’t have been any use to you.”

“But you didn’t think to tell me at any point, fangs?”

“I only knew recently - it happened when I came back from taking my System world.”

Her eyes narrowed at him. “So what did the old you think? You must have known it wasn’t a clone you killed.”

“Honestly, I was really tired and was willing to accept that it was the reason.” The vampire shrugged, almost sending his glasses tumbling from his face. “I didn’t know time travel was possible, so there weren’t really any other options.”

“Well, you’re going to have to make that up to me. You know what you’ll have to do.”

“Yes, dear.”

She grinned. If anyone was going to get into trouble outside of the normal scope of living in a System world, it would have to be her dorky husband. “Oh. Are we like married for real now?”

“As far as you care to be, sure. My intent is to spend the rest of my unlife with you, whatever life and death throws at us.”

“Aww you sugar lump. I want that too. We’ll have to extend our people-eating holiday into a genocidal honeymoon.”

Theo grinned. “You and I together forever, Sally Danger.”

“Mush. I know it’s super gross, but as you’re my husband, you deserve a little kiss.”

Hands still on the still figure of possibly-Pippy, the two leaned forward over him and pressed their lips together.

A violent thrum of energy vibrated through the chamber, shaking the stone.

They pulled apart, eyes wide at the constant aftershocks waving through them.

“Wow,” Sally said, “this marriage shit is wild, huh?”

Theo opened his mouth up to respond, but was interrupted by the body in front of them exploding, painting them both in bright red gore.