Day of the rising sun, one of few days in Slane theocracy when most people are freed from working. For it is an annual holiday. As said by the Church, it is the anniversary of when the 6 Great Gods defeated all of evil, of course everyone knew that the date was highly standardized, because it was impossible to defeat all evil across the lands in just one day. Alas that did not stop people from enjoying this rare occasion, when families met to pray together, when church gave blessings for no tithe and when the Bishops gave their wisdom to all people.

But the atmosphere of this day of happiness was very tense, many people were uneasy. Due to what happened two days ago. Many couldn't believe their ears and eyes when they heard what happened, the tavern close to the Temple spontaneously combusted and exploded, in the middle of the day, when the sun was the highest. Because of that, the Capital had to be put on lockdown, no one could leave and no one could enter. Which made the situation of Vincent difficult.

-We’ve been on lockdown for two days, because you decided to “cover the tracks”. No one is hunting us Vincent. It was very stupid of you…- is what he said, but in his mind he knew that if some people were to start looking, they would eventually find this tavern too.

-Mind of a Virtuoso cannot be understood by the pleb.-Vincente answered to this triggering assault of words.- Alas no one yet has figured out it was us.

-Not us, you.- he said with an irritated voice to a mask that was currently on the dresser, leaning onto the solid stone wall.

-Our body, my friend.

-It is MY body. I did lend you it, but only to gather information.

-And did I not? You saw, others were here.

-Curse you, but you have a point.- he scratched his chin a bit too hard for his liking.

-I knew the name, yet I do not know the person. Who is this Ornalius that slipped my mind at the moment.

-Ornalius, in the days of Yggdrasil was one of the best rated sharpshooters in the entire game. His combinations of job classes was the most min-maxed thing I ever saw. No armor, no Magic resistance, even no damage. He purely went into range and accuracy.- answered with passion Ixlente.

-Interesting. Yet I do not see how that matters.

-He trained me. It was expensive as shit to get lessons from him, but with my ShakeSphere I was able to have 5 lessons.

-Ahhh… I see. So it was your master. Heartwarming.- the mask would roll his eyes, if it could.

-Spare me your fake sympathy.

-You are right, I do not care.- if Vincent was able to turn himself around, he would.

-And yet you should. Two days before the game stopped, and we got here. I saw him. And if he appeared here six hundred years ago. That means he is probably dead. Yet it also means we are not the first, and hopefully not the last. If he was transported here with five other players, that means even right now. I might not be alone.- the realization of the situation, forced his legs to straighten. He stood up as if given order and smiled with determination as he clutched his hand in the air.

-Overdramatic, is what you are my friend. We’ve no notion of that. But yes, this is a possibility…Any plan?

-One. Find them. We’ve yet to go to the Capital Archives.

Capital Archives. In slane theocracy, preserving information was a very high priority. Thus the Capital Archive was put into place. Made entirely of Marble like stone and guarded by heavy armored knights. Locked by giant metal doors, almost the same size of the Temple doors. Normally, entering is no problem. Sadly Vincent decided to blow up a pub, that's why the doors were now closed, and they opened briefly only to a few rich looking people.

Looking from afar, he stalked and noted in his mind how people looked, what they were doing, how they were behaving, all in the hopes of copying everything he saw, to the tee. The nobles that walked in and out were always in pairs, which created the first problem. Everytime they bowed, the guard only nodded back without saying anything, which made the encounter somewhat easier. The biggest problem he saw, is that everyone always had a special badge on them resembling a 6 headed menorah.

-I can't create custom illusions. Damn it.

-May I?- interrupted Vincent, rudely if Ixlente had to judge.

-You are not borrowing my body.

-That is one way to do that, but now what I was going to suggest. Just find someone that has the badge already, plenty of women of status around here. We may get lucky.

-Or… we find another way in.

Getting on top of the roof was a relatively easy task when taken into account that Ixlente Vs’ character was pretty agile. After getting a good look on how the building stands from the above, he looked around to see if there are any ways in from the roof itself.

It would be very convenient if there was and yet, there was none such entrance. That meant the only other way in, would be possibly from the back, or from under it. Which did not spark joy in Ixlente, as he had a phobia of such gross places.

-There seems to be no other way in, we might be able to glitch through.

-Glitch what through?

-Us. Back in the day, I figured out a combination of moves that could get you through a two meter thick wall.

-Any buts?

-It worked once, never used it since.

-Let us try to find someone before trying to get stuck in a wall, shall we?

Ixlente was worried that it wouldn't be so easy, but Vincent had a point, finding someone with it, kidnapping, killing or simply charming the person would yield best results, if they were to get in with grace and not get stuck in a wall or go in guns blazing. Ixlente exited the corner he stood in, and slowly made his way to nowhere down the street, looking for a person that had such a badge. Alas, this task was not of the easy kind. The people walking around were mostly of the middle class and those that had the badges, were inside guarded bars and pubs. The streets, though filled with people, were pretty boring. The stagnation that occurred throughout the northern Capital made Vincent want to puke, if he was able to.

-These people will be of no use.

-I am aware.- Ixlente gave a response. His deep sigh that followed was truly something deep, as if his heart just spoke all its worries and didn't stop. With little to no more will, he found a bench and sat down then leaned backward and sighed once more.- This is hard…

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

-What is?

-This. Everything. I've been doing nothing but gathering information, acting and bulshitting around. I just need a rest. We have yet to find any valuable information, except that there may or may not be others out there.

-Giving up?

-No… At least I think so.

-I do not often consult people, in fact it seems I have gained consciousness only recently. Thus with what little knowledge I have. I have to say, you are a little bit right.-Ixlente looked at the mask with a confused look in his eyes.- Surprised? I know. Me too. In my opinion, we should take things slower. This constant rush to gain and learn has put you under a lot of stress. And from one artist to another, stress is never a good motivator.

-So… What do we do?

-On the tavern notice board, that somehow blew up in unknown to us events, was a map of some towns. Very crude but it might help us. The map was of available mercenaries in each town. We might want to go around these towns, from north to south, and get mercenaries to aid us in searching.

-For information?

-For information.

-Let us get some sleep, and then we will do just that hmm?

-Fair plan.

It's been a week since the day they left, the midnight moon was illuminating the path towards the Capital and the stars showed the correct way. Two of the mercenaries named Reas and Jhanna were going to meet a mysterious man named Vincente. They had many questions about the job, mainly regarding the payment but the fact still stood, on the poster was an image of a god. Which made the way a little more confusing for them.

-I cannot find sense in what it all meant…

-Honey, you are overthinking it.

-But listen. A man riding alone, of not noble descent, offering a thousand currency for a god? Nothing makes sense here…

-World is long and wide, there might be a kingdom where such things are normal.

-And yet I cannot shake this feeling off of me. As if we are being led into the mouth of a lion.

-If we play our cards the right way, this man should have what he wants, and we will have enough money to buy a sleipnir, like you always wanted.

-Don't… Heh, you're going to make me dreamy.

Slane Capital, early morning.

As the sun rose above the horizon, the gates of the great Capital city stayed closed. A line spanning about half a kilometer long, formed with all kinds of people from different social hierarchy groups. But just to the right of this long line was a door that sometimes opened to let a few people in.

-Next!- shouted a man that could easily be mistaken for a brick wall. He was clearly a bodyguard.

The two of them approached and nodded at the goliath.

-Badge and Pass…-he said with an uninterested voice.

-Here you are my friend, also tell me… Do you perhaps know what caused the closing?- as he handed the papers to check, he accidentally dropped a gold coin on the hand of the guard.

-...Someone blew up a building.

-Thank you. Tell Ivor I said "hi".- the guard nodded and let them through the smaller doors.

The main gate led straight to the city streets, while the smaller side doors were only for mercenaries and people of official status. Behind the smaller doors was nothing but a long tunnel going town then straight in the direction of The Guild.

The spell of Unending Light shined every single fifty meters.

-Someone blew up a building? Horrible.

-Explosion magic is a tier higher than fire magic. Means it was someone that can use magic that most people can't even dream of grasping.

-Do you think the spell was stronger than what is in your rapier?

-My rapier has Spell of Exploding shard. It would not be able to destroy a whole building. But then again we don't know where this was and what building it was.

-That's true… Kyah!

-What?!

-A spider!

-You're the only priest of nature that's scared of spiders. I can bet my head on that.

-Shush.

It took them less than an hour to finally exit the unending tunnel and once they were outside, the smell of the city hit them from all sides. Grilled skewered meat stands, smell of good Wine and cheeses, music from local taverns that mixed in itself yet sounded somewhat coherent and probably most important, the bells.

In Slane, the bigger the bell, the more important role Gods have in the city. It was common for all major cities in Slane to compete to see who has the biggest bells. That's why every two years, the bells were replaced by bigger ones in the Capital to keep the lead. But the Capital bell was so massive that no tower could hold it up in the sky. That's why it was buried, in a giant echoey chamber under the main Temple. To let the sound flow freely to the streets, a special pipe system was put into place. The pipes traveled from the bell chamber to the streets to let people know that the Bell is there, everyday.

-I missed the Capital.

-I did not. It's very… Grey.

-I know. If you could, you would paint it green and plant one tree for every citizen. Don't make me listen to that again.

-But don't you think…-she was cut off by him kissing her. She quickly went from light skinned to a red tomato face. Yet no resistance was put. When he finally let her get a breather she pouted and said nothing. To which he only smiled.

-So? Where should we start our endeavor? We've no idea where this man might be.

-Excuse me.

The air spiked, as if chill ran down the world and stopped to bite everyone with its cold. Reas took out his rapier and thrusted in the direction of the voice, but the edge passed through air and nothing else. Confused he turned around to see a man dressed in black and white, probably a butler, wearing a mask with a theatrical smile portrayed on it.

-Im sorry I startled you. But it seems you take on the task spread out by my master. If you would be so kind to follow me where all the mercenaries have to meet…

-W-Wait a minute. I have a few questions!

-To which my Master will answer all of them. No need to prolonge our meeting and further plesantrues are also unwanted. Please follow me.

It was very unusual for Reas, not mentioning Jhanna had been paralyzed by the frost aura the butler has been giving out the entire time. But without any say they started to follow the tall sharply dressed man, towards what looked like a very fancy theather.

The whole creation was made out of marble stone. The entrance had no doors and looked more like a gate to a solidly protected city, as for the roof, it didnt exist. The only thing that could cpunt as a roof was velvety red cover that enclosed whole building on the top. Entire theather was formed to be a half circle.

There were not many seats, possibly up to few hundred which meant that this building was for more wealthy class of citizens.

Once the pair of mercenaries passed the gate, magical light hit their eyes instantly and the sound that filled the entire construction surrounded them in a split second.

Only ten other seats were taken, three groups of mercenaries and one lone wolf. They spoke of riches, mission and whatever else filled their mind. Yet one word was thrown out a lot into the air. "Vincente."

-Grass Twine, Drakhar and The elements… I don't recognize the loner. Honey?

-No… but it's a woman.- even though the lonely person was covered by a cape, it was clear to Jhanna that it was indeed a woman.

-I'm surprised not more people took upon this mission…

-Are you really?

-Riverbed. Leader of Grass twine… What a pleasant surprise.-Reas answered while gritting his teeth. Meanwhile Jhanna clenched her fist on a fireball scroll.

-So you haven't forgotten who bested you. I see you've copied your hairstyle, how mature you look now.-Riverbed, the leader of Grass twine was once master of Reas. And it would make sense, if they weren't almost the same age. He was a short but wide man with heavy armored gauntlets but the rest of his equipment was very light, on his arm was something resembling a bashing shield and on his back hung one handed, some would say broken, halabard of a very wide edge.

-I take pride in both victory and defeat.

-It always confuses me. You say that like it's your mantra.

-Better than yours.

-Im not so sure. "Abolish and Banish" rolls off the tongue better. But enough of this smalltalk. I have a feeling the show is about to begin.