Age: 20 years, 4 months
Weeks passed before Asura and her friends regrouped to take on their third legendary monster. While there were a few incidents with the pain bursts resonating in her, the angel put them out of her mind and tried to ignore them. Skyth had located the angel monster, and B4hamut, Scalios, Asura and Andremedia were flying high above the clouds while they waited for the girl to meet them.
“I hate being so high,” Andremedia whispered and hugged herself. Her colorful fae wings cast rainbows across the clouds when the sunlight passed through them. “I-it's so cold!”
“It's not that cold,” B4hamutt said with a chuckle.
“You only say that because you're a dragon,” Asura said angrily. “Dragons and leviathans are better conditioned for such things. I, on the other hand, keep getting ice in my feathers.”
“I don't know why she's making us wait up here so long,” Scalios said before he glanced around. “I understand being paranoid, but come on. There aren't that many people trying to follow us around. There's no way they could have followed us here.”
“I wonder how many people have killed those two bosses now,” Asura said before wrapping her arms tightly around herself.
“No idea,” B4hamutt said with a shrug. “There was only an announcement when we did it, since we were the first. Since we released the information on the second one, there have probably been a few dozen. Well, if they found that wall monster. It probably spawns in other ways we never found. Oh!” He stopped when a message popped up in front of them.
Skyth invited them into a group, which they quickly accepted. “Sorry I'm late!” she said. “I'll be heading up soon! I figured it out though. Can you guys meet me over Camelot?”
“Huh? Why?” Asura asked before they started flying towards the dragon lands.
“It took me ages to figure out. This boss is hidden in the lore. Remember how Camelot used to be an angel city, before the war?”
“Yeah?”
“The angel is hidden high up in the clouds! The only way to get to it is by using the wings of the angels,” Skyth said with a chuckle. “I'd been wasting all my time searching in the angel lands for it, when it was up in the sky all this time. Really high up.”
“Are you sure?” B4hamutt asked. When they crossed into dragon lands, the clear weather gave way to thick clouds and below they could hear the sound of rain pouring.
“Yes! I've fought her already. I uhhhh, got thrashed,” Skyth said with a chuckle. “But she's really high up. It's Syn the seraph.”
“The queen of the angels?” Asura asked with a gasp. “But she's dead! Been dead for... well, years before the war ended. Wasn't she corrupted by the demon's assassination attempts and died during the dragon's final push?”
“Nope. She's hidden in the clouds. She looks weird, but I'm very sure she's the boss. I'm here, how long until you'll arrive?”
“We're almost there,” B4hamutt said. Within a few more minutes of flying the group caught sight of the leviathan, hovering above the clouds.
“Took your time, huh?” Skyth asked before motioning around them. “What do you see?”
“Clouds,” Asura said with a chuckle. “Looks like a rain storm.”
“Yup!” the leviathan said before pulling out a small tomb. “I found this while going through Sanctuary's ruins. Just an old history tome. One of dozens.”
“It tells us how to find Syn?” Andremedia asked as she looked around.
“Sorta. Mentions how she'd ride into battle on the clouds themselves, surrounded by... well, that's not important. What is important is when she did, her clouds shot lightning. That's why we had to do it today, another storm was moving in.”
“So she only comes out during the lightning storms?” Asura asked, her eyes scanning for any sign of the ancient angel. “Then where is she?”
“Hidden amongst all these clouds is one of gold. That triggers the fight. So, everyone, get looking!” Skyth said before flying off.
The others nodded and flew off as well, looking through the field of dark clouds for the golden prize. “Are you sure it's still here?” Asura asked after searching a few dozen clouds in vain.
“Yes. It's not very big, so make sure to look close,” the leviathan said softly. “Whatever you do though, don't touch it. It'll teleport you to the fight.”
They searched through the clouds, but after a few minutes of no sign, Asura began to get bored. She flapped her wings and blazed across the field, flying so fast the clouds under her were scattered aside. Her eyes quickly glanced left and right, trying to catch sight of anything gold while she crisscrossed across the field.
The world fizzled out for a moment before reappearing. “Huh?” She stopped and looked around, but her friends were gone. “Uh oh. Guys, I think I found it!” The clouds around her began to shift and writhe. A scream tore threw the air, louder than the crack of lightning. She covered her ears and darted back. Then she saw it.
Wrapped in the clouds was an angel. At least, it had been once. The clouds seemed fused to its body and it stood over twenty feet tall. Syn, the fallen. Chunks of the once glorious angel's armor were torn away, revealing disfigured red skin beneath. The giant angel lifted a hand, the clouds themselves fused with her arm, and held it towards Asura.
“Um, guys? I definitely found her. Oh shit,” she said with a nervous gulp.
“What? Where is it?” Skyth asked.
“I don't know, I was flying and I think I slammed into it. Just, hurry up! I don't know how long she'll wait before attacking.”
“Damn it! We'll find it! Just stay away from the clouds, she uses them to launch lightning and will try to grab you!”
“What?” Asura looked down and let out a shriek. She drew her blade and sliced, cutting a large tentacle of cloud. Unsurprisingly, the cloud just formed around the blade and gripped her. She shrieked again and pulled away, barely escaping its grasp before it could get a firm grip. “Hurry it up! I don't know how long I can hold up against this by myself!”
“We're on our way! We just need to find it! We'll be there as soon as we can! Assuming it's still there...”
“What?” Asura asked and flew up higher, out of reach of the clouds.
“Sorry, didn't mean to say that out loud!”
Syn let out another pained scream and held out her hand. Unsurprisingly, a large golden Excalibur formed in her grasp. The angel held the sword out towards Asura before letting out yet another scream. A dozen rays of light shot out and flew straight at the much smaller angel.
“Ice shield!” Asura yelled and held out her hand. The rays slammed into it, creating dents in the wall before three beams broke through and slashed into her, eliciting a groan. The smaller angel quickly sheathed her blade before looking down. “Very well. I know I can't fight you one on one, but I can fight you this way. Tornado!” She held her hands down at the clouds. A large tornado formed and began to swirl about, clearing a small space in the clouds. She dove through it, though a moment later it closed back up. The rain poured down on her, chilling her body while she flew. She shook her head, trying to ignore the cold before looking back towards Syn.
The larger angel had reversed her position, now dangling upside down from the clouds, still melded with them. She held out her sword and another burst of rays shot out to pursue the smaller angel.
“Ice shield!” The shield formed again, managing to block all the blasts this time. She grinned before drawing her sword and, once the hail of rays stopped, stabbed into the shield so it split down the middle. “River's course!” she yelled before plunging forward. The rain swirled around her and she shot straight at the larger angel.
Syn looked confused, but slowly raised her sword. The two blades clashed against each other and Asura plunged her free hand forward, against the abomination of an angel's chest. “Tornado,” she cast before kicking out and away. Fierce winds quickly enveloped the large angel, tearing the clouds from the monster's body.
Syn let out another pained scream when her mangled body had its white, cushy supports torn from it and she plummeted. For a second Asura thought she had won, but then the creature looked up. Wings spread out from the large angel's back. They were missing the majority of their feathers and the skin was charred black and rotting. When Syn flapped her wings feathers and pus spilled out, oozing across the once beautiful wings. Asura struggled not to gag when the larger angel flew straight at her.
“Eep! R-river's course!” She flew through the rain, as fast as she could. “Crap, crap, crap, AHHHH!” The disfigured angel was suddenly in front of her, blade at the ready. Asura shrieked and tried backing away, but Syn was too fast. The monstrous angel cleaved down, forcing Asura to block with her sword. The blow nearly knocked her sword from her hand before cleaving deep into her shoulder even through her guard.
“AGHHH! Hurry it up! I can't survive long like this!” she screamed before turning to flee. “She's fast! Even in the water with river's course, she's faster than I am!”
“We'll be there soon,” B4hamutt yelled. “Just hold on as long as you can.”
“I'm trying, but this isn't ea-- EEK!” she barely parried another strike while her free hand covered her bleeding shoulder. “She's brutal!” Another powerful strike sent her backwards. Asura growled and wiped the rain from her eyes. She flew up and through the clouds, her vision clearing when the rain was abandoned below her. Asura watched the cloud line and held her shoulder. “Greater h-- GAHHHH!” she screamed when a blade pierced through her stomach from behind. She struck back, shoving off Syn and turned to face the larger angel. Her HP were already dangerously low. “G-guys, I need some help. I-- o-oh shit. Ice shield!” Ice encircled her just moments before a torrent of rays slammed into it. They didn't stop though, and after a few seconds the shield crumbled from the assault. She screamed and brought up her arms up right over her face a moment before she was enveloped in warmth.
Pain failed to hit her and she slowly lowered her arms. B4hamutt smiled down at her, a grin on his face while he held her in a protective hug. “You okay?”
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“Took your sweet time, didn't you?” she asked before holding her shoulder again.
“Sorry, it wasn't easy to find,” the dragon said before releasing her and turning around, his gauntlets ready. “Heal yourself, we'll take care of her.”
“On it,” Asura said before pulling back while B4hamutt and the others charged forward. “Greater heal. Regeneration.” Her HP shot back up and the wound knit itself. She glanced to her MP and let out an annoyed sigh. “I won't be good for a while on spells, I'm almost tapped out. Need to regen some of it. I should have brought the satchel, but I figured the stat penalties wouldn't be worth it with so many of us.”
“Fine!” Andremedia said while circling around, struggling to pepper Syn with arrows, despite the constant movement and wind. “If your HP is good, we could use you!”
Asura nodded and charged towards the massive angel. Skyth, B4hamutt and Scalios were attacking the angel in close combat, with the dragon focused on keeping the blade knocked away. Syn was being pushed back and down.
Realization dawned on the smaller angel. “Guys! Stop her!” Asura yelled and flew after them, sword ready. “She's trying to get back with the clouds! Use a wind spell, knock them away! Damn it! Guiding blade!” Her sword flashed out and she appeared in front of Syn, slashing across the larger angel's shoulder when she passed. Asura quickly dropped down and held out her hands. “Tornado!”
Nothing happened and she let out a curse. “I don't have enough MP!” She whipped around and gripped her sword in both hands before she shoulder slammed the boss from behind. “Keep her away from the clouds!”
“RAWGGGGG!” Syn shrieked and held her sword high while the group cut into her. Lightning crackled from the tip of the blade before it shot up from the clouds under them. The electricity enveloped all of them and sent them tumbling out from the sky with pained cries.
“Owie,” Asura groaned before spreading her wings and trying to steady herself. Under the clouds again, the rain pounded on her. “P-pain feedback... t-too high for these... I don't know how much more of this I can take. Everyone okay?”
“Fried, but fine,” B4hamutt said with a groan. “Damn it. She's in the clouds and... huh?” The rain began to weaken around them.
“I don't think this is good,” Andremedia said before they looked up. The torrential pour began to turn to a light sprinkle before completely disappearing. The clouds shifted around and formed a large orb of gray. Electricity crackled ominously along the edges while they watched.
“That definitely doesn't look good,” Scalios mumbled before they quickly regathered near the bottom. “Heal yourselves. Media, heal Asura, she doesn't have any MP.”
“On it,” the fae said and held out her hand. While they healed up, the shifting clouds above finally finished compressing. The skies were once again clear and the large orb of condensation descended towards them.
“Circle it, we don't know what it's going to do, so try to keep apart. We don't want to all get wiped out at once,” B4hamutt said before the others nodded and separated. Skyth let out a scream when suddenly a bolt of lightning struck from the cloud, zapping her wings. One of the wings burst into red sparkles and she plummeted towards the ground.
Scalios dove down after her while the other three focused on the cloud. “It might be targeting our wings,” Asura yelled before sheathing her sword. “Use wind spells to... I got it! Media, can you use a tornado arrow into its core?”
“I guess, but I can't see Syn to hit her!” Andremedia yelled and flew up, a lightning bolt missing her narrowly. “It won’t do much damage!”
“I know, just try it!” Asura yelled and flew at the cloud behemoth. The fae shot an arrow out and cast the spell. The smaller angel flew after it, following its path as the windy arrow tore through the clouds. She held her sword point forward. The arrow stopped suddenly and a wind burst struck through and revealed Syn. Asura plunged her sword into the larger angel's chest. She tore the blade out sideways and slashed as fast as she could.
The clouds started to close in behind her, though a moment later a second burst of wind tore through the clouds and opened a pathway to her. B4hamutt flew in through the hole and held out his hands. “Tornado!”
The clouds around them parted once the powerful winds encased the corrupted angel. Syn let out another scream of pain before she lifted her sword to strike the dragon down. When the blade came down Asura quickly quickly it with her own, kicking her leg into Syn's hip and pushing off it to give herself better leverage. “Get her!”
B4hamutt nodded and tore his claws into the gargantuan angel. Asura focused on parrying Syn's large blade, moving around rapidly while she kept the dragon safe. The others soon returned, Skyth's wings restored and joined in the assault. They worked in tandem, blowing the clouds away and focusing primarily on keeping the disfigured angel distracted. It took everything she had to try and deflect the sword enough to keep them safe, but she refused to surrender.
Syn struggled to pull from them as it raised a hand “Greater he--” Her words were cut off when Asura's fist connected with her mouth.
“Not letting you heal!” Asura yelled before gripping her blade firmly in both hands and slashing it down across the larger angel's wrist as hard as she could, managing to lop it off entirely. With the blade toppling away, Asura moved forward and placed a hand to her chest. “Tsunami's ra-” Before she could finish the spell, the other angel's hand lashed out and gripped her by the throat, silencing her. She tugged at the hand helplessly, the woman’s grip like steel.
“Asura!” B4hamutt yelled and shot up, gripping the hand and trying to tear her free.
“Rapture,” Syn said before white light enveloped the smaller angel.
Asura let out a scream when pain burned through her body and her HP plummeted down to zero. The world around her turned black and she floated in a void. Despite the fact the pain was supposed to be gone, she could still feel it. It streaked through her body like white flame, while she screamed and writhed. Finally, after so much mind numbing agony, the pain slowly faded and she went limp.
She laid there, unmoving and waiting. Sweat coated her body and she tried taking slow, deep breaths. “The hell... w-was that?” she asked with a groan and rubbed her arms. Though the pain was gone, she swore she could still feel it off in the distance. Asura slowly sat up and brought her menu up, starting a report. She then froze when her eyes went wide with fright. It was the same as last time. It wasn’t the game, though. The conditions, the pain. It all made sense.
“Oh god,” she whispered before looking at her hands. “I have virtual nerve syndrome.” She slowly pinched herself before shaking her head. “No. Calm down. Even if I have it... it just means I have to be careful. If I tell my parents I have that they'll cut me off for sure... I just... just need to be careful.” She gulped before bringing up the menu and lowering the feedback levels, though she doubted it would do much good. Asura shivered and looked down at her hands. “It's fine. I'm fine. It's not like I have to endure much longer. It'll... all be over soon. It's not important.”
She closed her eyes and relaxed. It didn't take long before a small message appeared in front of her, alerting her that someone was attempting to resurrect her. Asura quickly accepted before reappearing by the others. She had to flap her wings to keep from plummeting.
“You okay?” B4hamutt asked and stared at her.
“F-fine. Just, didn't expect that. Heh. How did the rest of the fight go?” she asked nervously.
“Fine,” he said. “Are you sure? We heard you screaming after you died, but then you got knocked out of the call. What happened?”
“Oh, it was nothing.” Asura softly rubbed her shoulder. “They just upped the sensations for this fight again and... well... rapture hurts a lot. I didn't expect it. I'm fine now.”
The dragon opened his mouth to say something else, but was cut off by Skyth. “Come on, she said she's fine. Let's loot the chest and get out of here, it's freezing!”
B4hamutt glared at the leviathan before turning away. A short distance from them a large golden chest stood on top of an even larger cloud. They flew over towards it before taking a deep breath.
“Three down, only three to go,” Asura said with a soft smile. When they opened the chest a loud gong played.
“Please remain logged in,” a female's voice echoed around them. “A game master will be with you momentarily.”
Scalios frowned and took his rewards. “A game master? What could they possibly want? Do they think we cheated to find these items?”
“I don't know,” Asura said nervously and took hers. “I've never heard of the game masters coming to meet the players though. They usually only appear during major festivals and events.”
“Maybe it's because we're the first ones to do this,” Andremedia said.
“I don't know what they want, but I'm not waiting to find out,” Skyth said before her hands danced through the air. “I've got my reward so I'm leaving.”
“What? NO!” Asura said quickly and grabbed the leviathan's hands. “If you leave now, it's not like it would stop them if they intended to punish us. We haven't done anything wrong, so I'm sure we're not in trouble. But if you run off, you might get in trouble.”
Skyth sighed, but slowly lowered her hands to her side. “Fine. I guess you're right. If we were in trouble they'd just transport us to a jail or something... ugh.”
“We should land,” Scalios said. “We're still in an instanced area, so there shouldn't be any issues if we go straight down. They wouldn't set the entire area to being sky only.”
“Right,” Asura said before they tucked in their wings and descended. They soon made it to the ground and sat down to wait. After a few moments she received a private call from B4hamutt. She glanced to him before accepting it. “Yes?”
“Asura, I know something is up. You were lying before. What really happened?”
“Now's not the time. Mutt, I'm fine. Really... I think I just... might be getting VNS,” Asura said and lowered her eyes to the ground.
“Virtual nerve syndrome... but you aren't a pro. How could you possibly get it?” B4hamutt asked before he leaned back, keeping his eyes on the others while scratching his face to hide his talking. “Do you have your feedback on max?”
“What? No! I haven't done that in ages... I just play a lot. I probably had it too high,” she whispered gently. “I had some other incidents with the previous fights and just... I'm sure it'll be fine. I lowered the feedback, so I should be fine.”
“You shouldn't be playing if you're suffering from that, you'll... you'll...”
“What? Go into a coma? Die?” Asura asked with a chuckle. “I'm not playing the max feedback games like the professionals. I'll be fine, really. Please, don't tell the others. I'll be... gone soon. I don't want them thinking I have other issues on top of everything else.”
“But--”
“Please. For me?”
The man went silent for a few moment. “Fine,” B4hamutt finally said. “I'm... I'm sorry. You're right. It's not like you'll have time to suffer the worse effects.”
“I know... besides... I'm not going to have enough time to see the end of this war, the next quest or the last of these monsters. At least, at this rate. I don't want to... lose what I can do. If they find out I have it, they’ll kick me from the game. You know that...”
The dragon nodded. “I know. I'll keep my mouth shut. I promise.”
Asura nodded before ending the call. A moment later she let out an annoyed groan and spoke up. “Are they really this slow? Why did they tell us to wait if they weren't going to pop up?”
“What if it was a preset reward?” Andremedia asked. “It might just be waiting for the next available game master then?”
“I hope they'd... huh?” Asura looked up when the clouds above disappeared. A beam of light shot down from the sky moments before a human appeared in between them. No armor, no weapons, no distinguishing characteristics of any race. Just a human.
“Hello,” he said before he tapped on the air. “Ah, the slayer group. I've been wondering when you five would trigger this. My name is Andre, I'm one of the game masters in charge of AI distribution and development. I've come to award you your limited edition prize. Here.” He held out a large golden orb, with the letter M emblazoned in red on the front.
“What is it?” Asura asked before B4hamutt reached out to take it.
“A one-time use special key. This will allow one of you a chance to take the mastery quest,” Andre said while he kept tapping on the air. “Okay, logged as received... it's a special reward for being the first group to take down three of our special bosses. We really thought people would have killed more of them by now, even as well as we hid them. Congratulations on finding the Eater, by the way. We didn’t expect the event trigger to be how it’d be found. You guys took down three in a year, quite impressive.”
“W-wait,” Asura said, unable to take her eyes off the key. “Y-you mean... this will let us take a mastery quest... now? As in, without making us wait for the quest time?”
“Yes. Normally we only give them as rewards to people behind the curve, but this is a special reward. One that has been discussed very, very heavily. It'll only work for one person, one time. So use it carefully. Good bye,” the man said before he disappeared.
Every eye in the group turned towards the orb, though a moment later they turned to Asura.