Flashback
In one corner of the world, there was the World Gate that led to the Demon Realm. This massive portal stood in the center of a square concrete platform, surrounded by 4 equally tall pillars of stone.
Aelis walked through the blizzard and deep snow with ease then stepped onto the platform. Usually, one needed a special, hard-to-get key, but she could bypass that. She pulled out her reliable screwdriver and got to work: as she tapped the point against one side of the hard frame, (the edges of the portal were locked into a frame like a picture in a picture frame) a screw appeared right where she had tapped.
Once she twisted the screw a little with her screwdriver, the portal lit up, blowing out a continuous, gentle stream of cool wind. Colors swirled around inside the frame. She stepped through. Her surroundings warped, and she found herself at the main doors of a dungeon.
She waved her hand to open a holographic interface before her eyes. The map of the whole dungeon appeared—all 1 000 floors, though condensed and simplified. Expanding part of it, she tapped “F 1000” with a finger for a shortcut.
Her surroundings blurred and twisted again, then she stood at the end of Floor 999 before a pair of black doors that led to Floor 1 000. With her screwdriver again, which was quite the reliable cheat tool, she tapped one of the doors. Once a small screw came up, she twisted it a bit.
The double doors opened slightly.
Aelis pushed them wide open and stepped in.
The doors slammed shut behind her.
The room was dim, and she could hardly see anything. But after taking a few steps forward, the entire arena lit up with bright lights.
“YOU SHALL DIE BY MY HANDS! I’LL DEVOUR YOUR UNRIGHTEOUS SOUL AND KEEP YOUR HEAD AS A TROPHY!” a voice yelled from behind.
Did she say that line to everyone? Aelis turned around.
Queen Fraxxenus dashed down from the air in not even half a second, swinging her iconic sword. Raging, red flames engulfed it, which could surely melt through anything in the game. And the blade itself could easily slice through the strongest armors, even Legendary armors, regardless of their enchantments and buffs.
The sword bounced off Aelis’ head.
Aelis blinked. The hit had felt like a weakly thrown rubber band. “Relax, I’m just here for a simple checkup. Calm down.”
“I WILL TAKE AFFECTION FROM NO ONE! THE WORLD SHALL PERISH AT MY HAND AND DROWN IN EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION! YOU WILL RUE YOUR PATHETIC EXISTENCE!”
“You’re just sour that you lost to the previous group of adventurers. Quit being a sore loser.” Queen Fraxxenus reminded her of someone, but who? Aelis couldn’t remember the name.
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“I didn’t lose.” She growled with glowing, red eyes. Her stare could disintegrate anything if she stared long and hard enough. And suddenly, she couldn’t find Aelis who had disappeared. She looked around…
“Hold still.” Aelis popped up behind her. But before Queen Fraxxenus could react, Aelis took hold of the base of her left horn, pulling on it gently, which tilted her head slightly to her left.
Queen Fraxxenus shrieked. Her face reddened from the touch. “Stop… touching my… w-weak… spot…” She was paralyzed. Her tail fell flat on the ground too and couldn’t move.
“Just a moment.” She put the screwdriver near her left horn and tapped it very softly.
Queen Fraxxenus groaned.
“Does it hurt?”
“A little…”
“Just hang in there.”
A red screw materialized on her horn. The lower half was in, while the upper half stuck out. Several more became visible. They were all sticking out. She fingered a few. They wobbled. Yes, they were definitely loose as she had thought.
“Mmm…” Queen Fraxxenus moaned.
“Oh, you’re enjoying this now?”
“Shut up and do your job!”
Aelis began with the first screw, twisting it until it was down in her horn tight. She went to the second…
“Aaahhh…”
“You seem to be enjoying this alright.”
“I don’t know what you mean. Shut—AH!”
Aelis rubbed her hand along her horn, then she thumbed at the base to pull up her stats on a small holoscreen. The numbers and bars were mostly fine and normal. “Everything seems okay...” She continued reading. “Except you seem to be a little bit injured, and you won’t heal for some reason. Must be a bug.” She could fix that. She released her horn, but Queen Fraxxenus still needed time to recover before she could move again.
From another holoscreen, she tapped a cotton swab icon in her inventory to transfer one into her hand.
“Nonsense! As if any mortal fool could ever match my power and leave a mark! Do you not understand who I am?! I AM THE DEMON—”
She flinched with a squeak when Aelis parted her long, red hair to expose her nape and touched the purple bruise on it with the gel-covered swab.
“There’s Magic Gel on it, so give it 10 minutes and it’ll heal up.” Magic Gel was really rare, and if it was found on the market, it was pretty expensive, but Aelis had an unlimited quantity. Entire guilds would player-kill just for some. She let her hair go.
After 10 minutes, she rechecked the small holoscreen by Queen Fraxxenus’ horn. Good, she regained the missing 0.5% of her HP. “There. You’re healthy again.” Now she had 100% of her HP again, which meant she could do far more damage; she had a passive that allowed her to do 5 times her base damage at full HP.
The paralysis was gradually wearing off. Queen Fraxxenus slowly straightened her head and turned around to Aelis with a flushed face. “Um…” She couldn’t meet her eyes but instead looked down at the floor. “I… suppose I’ll let you live this time.”
Aelis smiled. “You’re welcome”
“But only this time.”
She chuckled and bowed. “Understood, my queen.”
“Are you mocking me?” She glared at her.
“No, no, nothing like that.”
“And why are you in a bunny suit?”
“Oh, I should change out of this, you’re right. It was for an event.”
Queen Fraxxenus raised an eyebrow questioningly.
Aelis made her way to the door. “Anyway, see you!”
“Hmph.”