With Melly’s mother out of the picture, it was time to deal with the biggest threat of them all. The god of fire. He was growing larger by the second. The inferno left in his wake fuelled his growth, turning up the heat and strengthening his power.

A white light flickered far above Melly.

Bing!

“Error!”

She only gave the fairy a quick glance before resuming her focus. The god of fire swept his massive leg under Dylan, tripping him over with an explosion of steam.

Thud! The entire ground shook.

Melly dived with Dog narrowly missing a flailing watery limb.

Dylan rolled to recover, dousing a burning hillside. Meanwhile, Clemiticus sang wildly, using his ridiculous luck stat to stay upright. The sea god stood back up and bared his fists. It was now his turn.

Dylan lunged.

Each thundering punch delivered enough force to rend a mountain apart. Yet the god of fire only laughed, burning brighter.

Melly used her legs to grip onto the whale's back. The magical barrier that protected them from the heat was waning.

“Dog! We gotta help them!” she said.

A tail wagged in response as magical water shot towards the fire god, only to be vaporised before impact.

Melly searched for the swashbuckler once again. He was still surfing atop the sea-god’s head, launching a string of lyrical nonsense towards his opponent. She flew closer him and felt the tingling sensation from the musical notes. Dog’s magical barrier grew.

“What are we going to do, Clem?”

He turned and pointed towards something below him. A flicker of lightning rippled through the watery body as the massive eel Dylan had absorbed opened its eyes. With a quick thrust, Dylan tore into his own body and pulled the eel out like a giant blade.

Then Clemiticuses’ voice rang out.

“I’ll sing you a song! A song of the sea!”

The eel glowed with electricity, mixed with the strange power of the song.

Dylan raised the eel blade far above the god of fire ready to attack. All eyes looked up, watching the executioner’s weapon. The white light from before reappeared.

Melly gasped.

Bing!

“Error!” Fairy’s voice was strangely pixilated.

Time slowed down, and the land stilled. Dog stopped moving. The flames below no longer flickered, and the smoke stopped rising. Even the Gods were frozen in place.

The white light glowed even brighter around Fairy, then the blue helper vanished from sight. Millions of Square pixilated boxes descended from the heavens and soared directly towards them.

“Oh Shit!” Clemiticus said.

“Clem! What kind of magic is that?”

Clemiticus was dumbfounded, gazing at the magic, transfixed like a child.

The white lights surrounded him and gently touched him on the head. A blinding flash rippled over him and then he was gone.

“What the! Clem!”

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The light then redirected towards her. She tried to dodge. But it was no use.

The magic touched her arm and bright light flooded her vision. Melly felt the whale below her vanish and the smell and heat of the fire with him.

She could only see blinding white light and feel weightlessness.

Then her feet connected with something. A flat ground?

With her weight returning, she stood in a massive white space with no walls.

“Hello?”

No answer came.

Melly walked a few steps forward, but it felt like she hadn’t moved an inch. Nothing in this space felt right.

POP!

She turned to see a familiar face.

“CLEM?”

“Oh, hey Melly! What is this place?”

She shrugged.

Pop! Pop!

Another two flashed into view. Both her father and Helen stood in the white space, looking surprised. The Queen made the action to take a sip of her wine and was astonished to find that her glass had evaporated.

“Okay, I can deal with the weird transport thing, but nobody takes my wine!”

Pop! Pop!

Two more figures appeared before them. They looked to be currently attacking invisible foes. Pausing mid swing, they turned around, puzzled. Melly took a cautious step.

“Thea? Nuecus? What?” she said.

Thea looked alarmed.

“What’s going on? We were just about to attack the god! Are we dead?”

A loud crackling sound like a rainstorm interrupted their reunion.

Then a massive figure appeared from within the whiteness. Sitting on a floating chair was a man. He stared down at the now complete party. Wearing a rather stylish cap, the man with a perfectly braided beard stared at them with an expression of disappointment.

Melly looked up and noticed a few words floating above his head. ‘Lead Developer Blade’ was written in blue text, while the second line ‘content creator’ was written in gold.

The man cleared his throat. “What are you idiots trying to pull?”

Melly shook her head, “Um, Excuse me?”

“I asked. What are you idiots doing? And I’m talking to you, players. You were sent here as beta testers and now you’re trying to kill gods. Are you nuts?”

The party members didn’t know how to respond.

“Do you know what would happen if the gods ended up dying?”

Clemiticus shook his head. “Do we get epic loots?”

“No! You, numpty!”

“Wait,” Melly said. “What are you?”

Blade sighed. “We, little miss, are developers!”

“Oh! Nice to meet you!” Clemiticus said. “Thanks for the game, it looks so lifelike.”

The developer looked at the player, bewildered. “You idiot, it IS REAL!”

“Wait that makes no sense,” Thea said. “How can it be a game and real at the same time?”

The developer sighed.

“Our game system took an existing unpopulated world and developed a reality altering system.”

“Wow! Sounds super high tech,” Thea said.

The developer nodded.

“Before we came around, Fanswald was nothing but a rock of primal gods fighting among each other. We tamed them and imprisoned their primal natures. Then we cast the first light, shaped the land and allowed people who wish to live in a fantasy world to migrate there. The current population are descendants from the first migration.”

Melly paused in thought. That meant that she too was a descendant.

“Then what happens if we kill a god?” Thea asked.

Blade looked annoyed. “If you kill the god of fire in Fanswald. All fires will go out. Forever. Heat will disappear and darkness will rule the land. If you kill death…” The developer shivered.

“Then we can’t die?” asked Derrick.

“Yes! Nothing will die. Not the food you eat or the sick, wounded or old. SO, I return to what I said before. You’re all idiots!”

Clemiticus chuckled nervously then said, “To be fair, we learned none of this. Heck, I didn’t even know I was supposed to be testing the system.”

The developer looked troubled. “That’s not right. You should have your memory. What has Bob done this time?” Blade shook his head. “I’ll need to check with my team. Someone’s done a whoopsie.”

Melly was baffled. She watched as the instrument of creation; the god of all gods call Clemiticus and his entire journey as a whoopsie.

Blade continued, “Anyway. Soon, the rest of the world will be unlocked for players. A rush of fresh faces will emerge into the land but first we need to stop this madness!”

Clemiticus fidgeted.

“Then it’s our job to defeat the gods without killing them?” Thea asked. “Their primal side I mean.”

“Finally, some sense. What was your name little one?” asked Blade.

“Thea sir!”

“Thea, aye? We got a good one here. Yes, the gods have to be controlled.”

A black rectangle appeared before the developer, covered in a kaleidoscope of flashing lights. He wiggled his fingers over the box with a chorus of clicks. Three smaller boxes flashed into existence before the developer and floated down towards the players.

“Ha, there we go. Take them. These will allow you to capture the primal avatars of the gods without killing him.”

Thea smiled. “Like another pearl?”

Blade nodded. “Once you capture their primal sides, you must protect or hide them. Preferably both.”

She nodded.

“And you! The noisy one,” said Blade.

Clemiticus pointed at himself. “Me?”

“Yes you! Here! Take this. You really need to work on your wisdom and intelligence stats.”

“Okay, will do. Thanks Mr Dev!” Clemiticus smiled as he collected his own God capturing device.

The developer sighed. “And the last one is for that goth girl over there.”

The Queen approached the last box.

Clemiticus looked uneasy. “I’m guessing we got to contain our new buddy, Dylan.”

The developer nodded regretfully.

“Once the primal gods are contained, we will unlock the world and the beta will be over.”