Narissa was staring at the board really intensely. Puddle’s attack had begun and it was a blitzkrieg, even if Narissa didn’t know it by that name.

She had no choice but to sacrifice every other piece she had to facilitate the illusion that she didn’t really want the attack to go through; even if she did.

Most of the captures on the enemy side were from Puddle’s queen. A fearsome woman who, unlike all the other people who were trapped in here, was just putting on a facade and really liked to kill stuff. She had to get uncomfortably close to said queen to get this information. This explained why everyone was so afraid of her. They all noticed it but couldn’t really tell her for some reason until she found out for herself.

Putting her plan into motion she positioned everyone near the king in a way that they could deal with pretty much anything coming their way without any risk, leaving an opening to push the enemy's queen into a corner and making a hole in the enemy’s formation that Klaws would use to capture Puddle’s King.

At least that was the plan until Puddle suddenly stopped going after her King and began to go after her Queen Piece, Mia.

“What is the meaning of this? Are you playing with me? After all of this you are just throwing away the game?” Narissa asked Puddle outside the game world as she took a look at the board. If He made just a few more moves, no more than 3, to try to capture Mia, He would lose before he could even get near her.

“...Hahahahahaha! I don’t believe it. After all of this is this how I win? And here I was thinking I would actually have some fun. I was wondering why you were making all those moves.” Puddle said as he laughed sadistically.

“What do you mean!?” Narissa asked both surprised and afraid.

“The winning conditions of the game changed quite some time ago, well, inside anyways.”

“What?”

“Well, without any pawns left, I guess nobody informed you. The King reached a deal. The first one to lose their queen will surrender.”

“How is that possible? You are cheating! You are the King.” Narissa said in a panic.

“Not really and I am not the King. I am not a piece on the board. It would be unfair if I actually could influence my piece by talking. I am way better at that than you.”

“But…”

“Well, now you know. Try your best. Also, the Kings left the board of their own accord so no need to worry about them anymore.” Puddle said as the King pieces suddenly fell from the board on their own.

“Fuck!” Narissa said before jumping into the game world again.

Inside the game

“They are going after Mia! The Kings left the board. Klaws! Come back Now!” Narissa shouted, more as a way to blow some rage than to be heard. Klaws, as the only one following her orders to the letter, could hear any command she gave no matter how far he was now that there were no more normal pieces on her side.

Klaws quickly began to march towards the position Narissa wanted him to go. In front of Mia to block any attacks from the queen.

Everyone else was grouped near the castle in the game world but outside, in the board, they were pretty much adjacent on the board.

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Narissa tried her best to keep herself out of the game and play on the board as she could panic less there but every time the queen piece approached Mia, she would be put back in the game as the world inside was flowing faster and faster.

Try as she might she couldn’t keep herself out of the game and slowly it dawned on her. The board was just something to show what the actual game, the inside, to someone not on it. The game was entirely about the room Mia and everyone was in now. That’s why she couldn’t get out and just play, because that wasn’t the game. The pieces weren’t where she remembered them to be.

She couldn’t keep her head cool. She couldn’t move her friends as all of them were all afraid of the queen coming in their direction. At this point she was the only piece being moved for Puddle and it was working as she was losing moves when her classmates moved away from the line of fire.

Little by little she was losing hope.The game board was irrelevant now. Somehow everyone was now inside the castle, inside Mia’s room as it was the most fortified place in the castle.

*Boooom* The door exploded as the Queen entered the room.

“AH! Help me please. I don’t want to do it!” She cried as she began to advance. Not that anyone was believing her. Her face was a dead giveaway that she was enjoying all of this.

As she moved closer to Mia, Narissa began to try to force her classmates to move but none could. Not even Shishen.

As the Queen approached Mia, that was blocked by Klaws who was fully ready to fight this out.

“You will only get her over my dead body!” Klaws said with fury and rage in his eyes.

“Klaws! You only need to survive an attack from her and we win!” Narissa said, grasping at straws. If the mechanic that pieces might survive capture came into play here, they might have a chance.

“I see I can drop this facade now. Well, it was fun while it lasted. Time to do what I was told to do.”

“What?” Narissa said as everyone looked confused at the Queen who dropped any hint of malice that she had before.

“My master told me this was going to happen so he has a proposition. Just give the little girl and you all can go, after all, it’s only her they are after.” She talked as casually as someone pointing where the market was on a random street.

“No… We can’t…” Narissa said as she looked at her classmates. Everyone besides Klaws was considering the idea.

“Well, their opinion doesn’t really matter. It’s you playing. You might have allowed them to move on their own but in the end, if you really want to, you can make them move as you like. Just be a little more forceful.” The Queen said as if mocking everyone who was hearing her.

Narissa’s mind began to process what she heard. She could turn this around but there was something in the back of her mind that was nagging her. If the entire game was already predicted by Puddle, even if she tried to outmaneuver him, she would probably be just playing right into his hand.

Did she truly fear death more than she would feel bad about sacrificing Mia? All her training said that she should sacrifice Mia but her human side didn’t like that.

Klaws was looking at her with a pleading look that said that he could deal with the Queen. That she didn’t need to sacrifice Mia.

Narissa looked at him and with all her willpower, she moved Klaws out of the way. He was screaming obscenities as he moved without wanting to. He will be angry at her but he will be alive.

The Queen approached Mia, one more move and Mia would die, in her sleep, peacefully…

“Well, you made the right choice, let’s end this.” The Queen said with glee.

Narissa felt sick and everyone turned their heads to not see Mia being stabbed by the Queen’s sword. She was crying, Klaws was raging and the others looked as conflicted as her.

Before the sword hit Mia Onyx suddenly woke up and bit the Queen’s arm, stopping her.

Narissa felt panic as she saw Mia suddenly awake and look at everyone there. Once she saw Onyx and the Queen she was filled with rage. In a single motion she created a torrent of fire that disintegrated the Queen along with everything in that general direction.

Suddenly she found herself in front of the chess board. Puddle had fallen flat on its face over the board, clearly dead but with a strange smile on his face. It took a moment for Narissa to understand that one way or another he had won. She chose to sacrifice Mia to survive and that would never change.

As she looked back, seeing Mia trying to get up from the tree she was put under, all she could feel was regret at the choice she made and an insurmountable amount of disgust about herself.