They had barely stepped into the elven land of Mek before the two gods found their way back. While they had intended to interact with the elven council or whatever kind of government they had, it had become obvious that the elves would not take kindly to humans.
Ewen seemed willing to help them, especially now that he had substantially increased his knowledge base.
The boons that he had gained from Jasper alone would probably make him another loyal disciple of the god of magic. However, he had refused to pledge himself to any human, even though it was clear that Jasper was no mere human. The elf had been quite stubborn.
The way back was almost as easy as the way to the elven lands, however, the sound of people moving through the forest was much more prominent.
While there were no sounds of battle, the orks had moved into the lands over the past day, doing their best to try and isolate the human city.
The hills made it almost impossible to see the orks before it was too late, and it wasn't long before they stepped over a hill and saw the massive army.
In front of them, a horde of green and armoured humanoids was eagerly fighting amongst themselves, and based on the appearance of these new orks, the ones in the mine had been enslaved and malnourished.
Almost every single one of the orks was musclebound and would tower over both gods. Massive tusks protruded from their lower jaw, and each was clad in the same mismatched armour the mining camp leader had worn. It was ramshackle and pieced together, but as a whole, it created an efficient defence.
The two gods were almost instantly spotted, and the green horde moved as one, quickly deciding to overpower the two stragglers.
Instantly, Celeste pulled on her power, dedicating an Energy for the day to gain access to her ability to rewind time. While that also cost an Energy for the day, she didn't care. There was no chance that they could stand against the green tide.
Energy 0/2
It felt like the world was being torn apart, and while the system didn't allow her to feel direct pain, the discomfort was immense. It was like being pulled through a clouded room which was spinning around every one of its axes. The feeling seemed to last forever, and yet it was over before Celeste could blink.
Quickly, the goddess grabbed Jasper's sleeve, and it worried Celeste to see that her husband was surprised by this action.
"What is wrong?" His voice was filled with concern.
Celeste didn't say anything. She needed to unpack this, but for now, they needed to not crest this hill, or they would face a green wave of death.
"Over the ridge of this hill, we will see the orks, so lay low." She whispered urgently, Jasper looked at her, and then he got that look on his face that he always did when he was thinking.
"Did you travel back in time?" He finally asked, and Celeste nodded.
"Huh, I do not remember that at all. The helmets shouldn't be interfering with my memory. How long did you travel back?" He asked.
Jasper was definitely more occupied by the fact that she had turned back time rather than the fact that they were barely hidden from an army of enemies.
"About ten seconds, maybe twelve?" She said, looking around to see if one of the brutes had spotted her. "Also, the orks are much stronger than we assumed. Marcusburg doesn't stand a chance." She said, and Jasper frowned.
"Sure, sure. But why can't I remember this?" He asked.
For a moment, Celeste was tempted to smack him across the head for dismissing the large mass of monsters and, more importantly, her. She took a deep breath and calmed herself.
"Jasper, sweetie, I know that you are occupied with this puzzle, but we should start moving... and quickly." Celeste hissed, growing more and more frustrated by her husband.
She tried to scramble down the sides of the hill, almost tumbling down the slopes, pulling Jasper along with her.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Finally, Celeste felt like she was far enough away from the greenskins that she didn't have to worry about it. She took a deep breath and looked over at Jasper.
Leaves were stuck in his long hair, and he didn't seem upset that he had just been thrown down a hill.
"I think I understand now. You are simply working ten seconds ahead of time. In real-time, that would be... 5 minutes is about an hour out in the real world... it would be like an eighth of a second delay. While it would mean a delay between action and observation, it would not be any greater than what is always processed by the shared server... I might have to exclude time abilities for when the game goes live. I wouldn't want some player to get a time artefact from AI-generated loot because it has found time powers in the base code. That would probably make the game unplayable for all users." Jasper said.
Celeste took a deep breath, letting it fill her lungs and she focused on the fact that she loved this dork, but she was also pretty convinced that he would never survive any kind of actual crisis.
They were cut off from Marcusburg, and going over their options, it honestly didn't look that good.
"So, normally, I would probably be able to get us through with one of my powers, but after turning back time, I don't have enough Energy to do that trick," Celeste explained, doing her best to try and focus on solving the problem before her.
Jasper nodded along. "We can try to talk with them." He suggested, though as he slowly realized something, a smile appeared on his face.
"We can challenge their leader to combat. It will not stop the horde, but it will be less organized, meaning it will be easier to defeat as it might die from internal power struggles." Jasper said.
Celeste gave him a look. "How do you know what the orks might- oh, god of knowledge, they wrote it down, didn't they?" She asked, and Jasper just nodded along.
"They wrote it down", he confirmed.
Celeste seemed unsure of that plan, though, and she let a hand run through her hair as she sighed.
"I mean... Is that really our best option? We didn't want to interfere since we might tip things in the favour of the humans too much. We need a stalemate, not an all-out victory. We could just call it for today, and end the session?" She asked, pointing out the obvious part.
They would likely not have to do anything more since the help of the elves had been secured. Still, she could see in her husband's face that logging out before maximizing the potential gains didn't sit right with him.
Jasper sighed and shook his head. "You can log out, go grab something to drink, and maybe take a quick shower. I wanna try and fight." He said, and Celeste looked at him, wondering what he was thinking.
She decided not to pressure him any further. This was a game, and it didn't feel good to leave her husband behind, but then again, that wasn't what she was doing. She was simply getting ready for them to go home, as she usually took a bit longer.
They had long ago realized that forcing Jasper to stop having fun with a game or project when Celeste needed to get ready was a bad idea. She would usually take a bit longer, and giving Jasper five to ten more minutes with whatever had him focused would usually leave him happy, and Celeste wouldn't be stressing.
She kissed him before logging out, and with a smile, she disappeared before him.
Jasper refocused himself. He was going to have to try and challenge the boss of the orks, which probably wasn't going to go that well.
He slowly moved up the crest of the hill, and before the orks could see him, he called out in a loud voice.
"I challenge the HORDE!" He even emphasized the words by calling down lightning around him.
It got the attention of the greenskins, and instead of charging him, the orks seemed to mill around, unsure of what to do.
Jasper smiled as he saw the leader spread the horde before him.
The massive beast of an ork was twice the size of an ordinary ork, which was gargantuan.
He was wielding an axe the size of a plough in one hand, and Jasper was sure that on any ordinary mortal, that thing would have been a two-handed weapon. The weapon had been hewned from a massive stone, creating a jagged edge. It would probably barely be able to hold an edge, but judging by the bulging muscles of the ork, it didn't have to.
Each step of the ork sent the world shaking, and as it came closer, Jasper knew that he had to stop this thing. Otherwise, Marcusburg wouldn't stand a chance.
"What this be? Feast come to me?" The ork's voice was rough and overpowering, echoing through the trees as it called out, scaring the few birds that had decided to stick around.
The gruff voice shook Jasper, and he had to swallow hard to be able to find his voice again. "I am the god of magic. The god of knowledge. The god of Endurance. Tremble before me!" Jasper put on his best booming voice, which admittedly needed some work.
The voice didn't seem to frighten the ork in the least. If anything, he seemed more excited about this than ever. The god of magic considered picking some powers from his endurance domain. However, it didn't really feel like he had the time to look over his options. Jasper decided that looking through the various possibilities right now would be stupid. He would simply end up exposing himself even further.
The leader of the orks had been stepping through his people, and any of his subordinates caught between their leader and Jasper had simply been stepped on and crushed beneath the ork's foot.
The massive ork was barely wearing armour. Thick hides hanging from his body, but little else. There was no metal, though the lack of armour didn't seem to dissuade the creature from combat.
"God? You? HAH! All you be is dead!" and with that, the creature lunged for Jasper.
It was fast, beyond anything that Jasper could have expected. In a single leap, it crossed the distance and slammed into him, the massive axe going to cleave him in two.
You have died [https://i.postimg.cc/tTw78S7M/image.png]
Jasper looked at that screen for quite some time, unable to express his thoughts.
He hadn't stood a chance against that thing. He was a god, and he hadn't been able to even touch the ork boss.
Had the AI placed the ork boss in that group to try to counter both him and Celeste?
It was hard to tell, but he slowly pulled off the immersion helmet and almost instantly felt like he was dying all over again.