Chapter 52: Level-3 Apocalyptic Event
With a groan, Lorik Mazefel rolled over in his bed and pressed his pillow over his ears. His Gods-damned phone never stopped ringing, did it? He’d told his guild he was taking a week off to de-stress and get some rest and relaxation, but did they listen? Of course not. Whatever it was, it would just have to wait. He hadn’t come all the way down to his remote getaway in the southern tip of South Bastia just so he could continue to be pestered with work. Or “adventure” as it had once been known to him. It was funny how quickly one could turn to the other, wasn’t it?
“Maybe it’s…important,” his wife moaned into her pillow where she lay beside him on the bed. As taboo as it was to sleep in the middle of the day, he was in great need of rest, and since his level-1 wife volunteered to work nights at an emergency clinic, she was perpetually tired and equally needing sleep.
“It’s not important,” he said groggily. “It never is.”
Honestly, couldn’t they go a week without him? With a yawn, he once again drifted off asleep, which wasn’t exactly difficult because he hadn’t fully awoken in the first place. For a good five or so minutes, he continued to lie in bed in his cozy bungalow out in the middle of the wilderness, where it was quiet, tranquil, calm, and—
Hold on a second. What ringtone was that?
His eyes suddenly snapping open, it occurred to him that the sound coming from his phone was not the ringtone he used for his typical calls, nor was it the series of beeps he used in the event of a guild emergency. It was the other one. The one he’d only heard once before. It was a series of rising and falling tones: a sound that was as uncomfortable to hear as it was ominous. Rolling back over in his bed, he nervously grabbed his phone off the wooden floor near the bed and answered it. Even as he placed it to his ear, he felt his heart begin to pound faster in his chest.
“Alex?” he asked, recognizing the ID of the caller.
“Level-3 Apocalyptic Event in progress. T7. We’re going to need you, Lorik.”
Upon those words, he leapt out of bed, sprinted across the bungalow, frantically changed into his gear, grabbed his swords, and dashed out of the front door—all without even bothering to speak a word to his wife, who would be annoyed with him for a day or two, but who would just have to understand. Apparently, an aircraft was already waiting for him. He needed to get to Tomb of Fire immediately.
****
Diala Erenir was already dressed in full raid gear and ready to go when the call came in through her phone. Sitting on her green sofa and watching the unfolding news coverage, she knew it would only be a matter of time before either Alex or another God-Slayer called her. If anything, she was surprised it took as long as it did. A level-63 healer with her talents was always going to be called in for something like this. She had begun preparing the moment she’d seen the foul creature rampaging through that town.
“Hello, Alex,” she said, answering the phone. “I know why you’re calling. I’m ready.”
“That’s what I like to hear. Airfield 22. A plane is ready for you.”
“I’m leaving now.”
With her katana sheathed and her travel bag slung over her shoulder, she headed towards the front door of her two-story home in the suburbs just outside of the city in Giant’s Fall.
****
With her beautiful, flowing, flower-embroidered wedding dress flapping as a gust picked up in what was otherwise a perfect summer day, Joan paused in her speech and took a deep breath as both excitement and jitters took hold of her. She looked across from her at the charming, confident man whose messy brown hair and crooked—but cute—nose reminded her of how out of place he looked in such a fancy suit.
To her right, over two-hundred guests, friends and family all, sat in metal foldout chairs lined up before the elevated stage as she exchanged her vows with the groom: with the man whom she planned to spend the rest of her life with.
It was for this reason she felt both shocked and perhaps even a little disappointed in him for lowering his eyes as she was speaking to him while his phone began to vibrate in his pocket.
This isn’t really happening, she thought to herself. Mikael wouldn’t do this. Not on our wedding day.
Yet as his mouth fell slightly and his neck craned downwards, a sense of outrage came upon her such that she almost felt like throwing his ring right into his face.
“Are you…for real?” she said to him. “You not only left your phone on, but you’re—”
“You don’t understand!” he said back to her. “It’s not supposed to…it’s completely off.”
“Clearly not.”
“No, I turned off everything, Jo. Everything except obviously the…”
Now, he regarded her with alarm plain on his expression as he reached inside his pocket and removed his cellphone. The mere act of doing this while exchanging vows caused both her parents as well as his parents to begin exchanging appalled glances. How could Mikael do something like this? For him to show such unbelievable disrespect to her…this was beyond the pale. It was hurtful, it was shameful, it was outrageous, and it made her question whether or not everything she’d ever come to learn and love about this man was nothing more than a—
“Jo!” he cried, the horror in his voice making her immediately forget whatever had just been on her mind.
“W-what is it?” she asked nervously.
“It’s…” His voice turned grim. “It’s a T7 Fire Wyvern, babe. Level-3 Apocalyptic Event in progress right now.”
“Fuck!” she swore, causing both her poor mother and father to gasp in confusion. They, along with the rest of the guests seemed to share another, collective gasp as Joan gripped her expensive, beautiful white wedding dress and simply ripped it off her body in front of everyone while Mikael tore and destroyed his own suit so that now the both of them stood on stage in their underwear in front of all of their friends and family.
“Selenor!” she called to the fancily dressed, olive-skinned adventurer who was both Mikael’s best man as well as a mutual guild-mate of them both. “It’s a Gods-damned—”
“I heard, I heard!” he cried, tossing a duffle-bag over the heads of the crowd, who followed it with their eyes until she jumped nearly ten feet straight upwards and caught it midair. Following the sound of torn clothing, he too was now also in his underwear, furthering the confusion of the primarily level-1 crowd.
Joan landed, and then as fast as humanly possible, she tore open the bag and began reaching inside. Now, she and her fiancé hurriedly changed into something a little less wedding appropriate and a little more intimidating. Her parents—along with the rest of their guests—watched open-mouthed as she removed her bow and quiver while her fiancé grabbed his brightly glowing spellblade.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” her father called to her. “What in the name of the Gods has gotten into you three?”
“A dragon, da. A big fucking dragon. Hun, let’s go.”
Mikael nodded, and with that, she did not waste another second apologizing or explaining. She merely sprinted with the love of her life down the aisle and towards an armored DEHV that had already pulled up as though waiting for Selenor and the two of them. What a horrible day for this to happen.
*****
It was during times like these that Angelica wondered why she was given the ability to think and feel only to be so utterly limited in what she was permitted to do to help the adventurers she cherished and loved. Many—if not most—of them were people she had first met when they were kids. Even Mister and Miss Britethorn had stumbled in here together as fresh-faced fifteen year olds all those years ago.
“Everyone, calm down,” she said, waving her finger in a motherly way. “I’m giving you the news as it comes in.”
She didn’t blame these rowdy people for their collective shock, as no one in here had known what was going on right now in Galterra—or at least they hadn’t until she’d let it slip. Since then, everyone had been badgering for updates every other second.
“What now?” someone called to her. “Anything else happen? How can we help?”
“I’m checking now,” Angelica said.
Her ears twitched as she picked up more information that could otherwise not be obtained through conventional means while residing inside her inn and tavern. Only guests with the proper upgrades were able to connect to Galterran internet or television from their rooms. For everyone else, this was essentially a dead-zone. By her estimation, the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot was approximately two-hundred-quadrillion light-years away, and it certainly didn’t connect to Galterra but to some other, more primitive civilization that had only discovered the concept of “internet” two decades prior.
Angelica looked upwards and closed her eyes a moment. Her heart—or at least what she thought of as her heart, as she did not actually possess a physical one—flooded with relief as she saw Zachys Calador awakening in the hospital. He had survived his surgery and had now been administered a light stone. His wounds were all healed, and either later today or tomorrow, he was going to receive regrowth treatment for his eye, arm, and hand.
“He’s fine,” she announced, causing the more than three-hundred patrons to erupt in such a loud, cheerful roar that the vibration of their voices and stomping feet caused two mugs to slide off the ends of two different tables and shatter simultaneously on the wooden floor.
She frowned. “You two boys clean that up right now!” she said, glaring at each one of them. For good measure, she briefly flashed red at them, knowing how that always did the trick. No one ever seemed to disobey her if she switched her name to red for a second or two.
“Yes, ma’am,” they both replied obediently, and she watched as the two of them ran together to grab a mop and broom from her storage closet across from the bar counter.
Rubbing her chin, Angelica thought on how to proceed. “How many of you wanna go help fight this thing?” she asked the crowd. As expected, the three-hundred-plus adventurers all raised their hands in unison. She smiled at them, then said, “Okay, but how many of you are actually high enough level? I know you guys all wanna help, but this is clearly a level-60-or-higher gig. Anyone lower is just gonna get themselves killed.”
Reluctantly, most of the crowd lowered their hands until about only fifty-or-so adventurers remained. “Kay, great!” she chirped. “Who here’s got an exit point in Tomb of Fire?”
Her question resulted in murmurs all throughout the gathered crowd as heads turned and fingers were pointed. After two minutes, Angelica realized that none of her boys or girls—as she thought of them—had any such exit. This caused her to frown—especially as they looked pleadingly at her.
“Guys, you know I can’t!” she moaned. “I’ll get into trouble.”
“Angelica, please,” they begged her. And she was tempted, too. Ohhh! She wanted to help so badly. But stupid Adamus would give her an earful again if she helped them “cheat” by changing one of their exit points to Tomb of Fire.
Having run this inn for thousands of years, she’d learned that there were certain ways in which she could break the rules and have a blind eye turned. For example: she could get away with giving a free drink or a free room for the night to someone really in need, as she often did. And at this, Adamus wouldn’t even bother to mention it. Even if she did so blatantly, he wouldn’t care. She’d learned she could also push her luck in other ways, too. But changing someone’s exit in order to assist with an over-world Galterran boss spawn? That…might be pushing her luck too far.
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Oh, how I hate, hate, hate him!
If not for the fact that he could terminate her life with the press of a button, Angelica would’ve already killed Adamus. She was far more powerful than he was, and for whatever reason, she’d either naturally developed—or had been instilled intentionally with—a love and protective feeling towards her adventurers: her boys and girls. Even the ones she’d had to kill, she cared for, oddly enough. So of course she wanted to help them. But she couldn’t, could she?
Stupid Adamus!
If not for him and his dumb rules, she would’ve jumped through a portal the moment Zachys came under attack and killed that little dragon with one backhanded slap to the face. She was more powerful than every Galterran boss except two: one of which wouldn’t spawn for another two-thousand years, and the other…well, that was going to be a level-5 apocalyptic event to say the least. Hopefully, the planet would survive that awful thing in five years from now when it spawned. Honestly, Galterra really needed to get its act together or it would destroy all of civilization. She shuddered to think of what would happen to her boys and girls in that event. Hopefully, if things got too crazy, she could shelter them all here for a while at her inn and help them get started on another planet or something.
“Angelica, we need your help,” said Reni Sarwin, an adventurer who had seemed to take a liking to Zachys ever since the boy had shown up with car keys and a New Jersey exit, both of which he’d made use of.
“I can’t do it, I’m sorry,” she said. Then, putting a sly expression on her face that she hoped each and every one of them could see, she said, “I’ve decided to make a really special meal for our boy. A feast. A party! He’s gonna be hungry since they used the light stone on him. Anyone feel like paying for it with their points? It’s gonna be a big, big meal. But…I wouldn’t want to break the rules or nothin’.”
Of course, all raised their hands and volunteered. She chose to let the richest one of them—points wise, anyway—fork over his points, and then she continued, “Now listen up, you guys. I’m gonna portal into his room and deliver it to him myself. But I can’t carry it all. So if you guys wanna help, you can come along, but none of you better refuse to come back through the portal with me, because that’s cheating. You got that?” she asked, winking.
There were chuckles from the crowd. “We understand, Angelica.”
“I mean it.” She wiggled her finger. “None of you better think to use my portal as a way to get to Tomb of Fire.”
“We won’t.”
****
“I love you so much, Kal,” Zach said. They were his first words upon awakening, and they were the only words he wanted to say to her. As his eye opened, he’d already found his hand in her own, and he smiled at her. There was no face he’d rather see than hers.
Helping him sit up in bed, he glanced around the hospital room, which was now a bit less spacious than it had been when he’d gone under, as a section of the floor was practically covered with flowers, chocolates, and letters, which were all addressed to him. Even still, the room was so large that it was twice the size of his entire apartment back in the Whispery Woods.
“I love you too,” she said to him. Then her eyes lit up. “You’re super popular now, by the way.”
“I’m what?”
“Yeah, you’ve almost got as many followers as me.”
Zach was surprised by how awake and alert he felt. The grogginess seemed to fade so quickly that, by the time she finished speaking, he was now widening his eye in disbelief. “They found my social media profile?”
She nodded. “Yep. They also know we’re…” She blushed. “You know.”
He laughed. “I don’t care. Let them know. You’re everything to me. I just wished I had the balls to tell you sooner.”
Her face reddened once more. “Yeah, but they’re all talking about us.”
She looked over her shoulder and craned her head upwards towards the TV. Zach lifted his own head and saw what she was referring to. In a way that felt surreal and difficult to believe, both of their pictures were now displayed side by side while a panel comprised of seven different “experts” seemingly gave their opinions on why it “made sense” that “Zachys Calador” and “Kalana Vayra” were a couple, and that “in light of recent events” it was “no surprise that the boyfriend of the princess was the one who’d bravely staved off the dragon.”
The last bit actually irritated him. It was as though they were implying that his appearance and actions only made sense because of his connection to Kalana—that it would be unthinkable if some random, ordinary person showed up and decided to put everything on the line for the sake of innocent people. Why would that be so hard to believe? His connection to Kal had nothing to do with why he’d chosen to risk everything.
No sense getting worked up over it, he thought, blowing out his stress with a large exhale.
“If you want, I can turn it off,” Kalana said.
Zach shook his head. “It’s fine. I want to hear what they’re…wait a second.” He sat a bit more upright and grimaced. “Did they just say I’m a member of the fucking Royal Roses?” he asked with a growl. “Who the fuck ever said that I was a—holy shit what the hell is that?” he screamed.
With an incredibly bizarre sound not unlike that of a cork being popped out of a wine bottle, a gigantic, dark, purple disc of spinning energy materialized in the corner of his room. It startled him so fiercely that he jumped up into a sitting position and then pressed his back flat against the wall behind the hospital bed as Kal, also flinching, drew both her daggers and raised them as though ready to strike.
Though the outer edges of the disc continued to rotate, the purple energy in the middle vanished away, and in its wake there appeared to be a hole of some kind—like a tunnel, through which a very familiar scent reached his nose. Moments later, an attractive girl with cat ears hopped through the tunnel carrying a tray in one hand and a very tall glass of what looked like cherry cola in the other.
“Hiya, Zach!” she said cheerfully, setting the food down on a table not far from the bed right beside the soda. Then she came towards him so fast she was practically skipping. She pinched his cheek and said, “Everyone’s so glad you’re okay.”
“Angelica?” he asked aloud, surprised by the sound of cheer in his own voice. “Wow, is that really you?”
“Sure is, hon.”
“Whoah,” Kalana said. “That’s the Angelica you were talking about, Zach?” Kalana seemed excited of all things. “Wow, she’s super high level.”
“Who cares about her level? How is she even here?”
“Don’t be mean!” Kalana said. “Introduce me.”
In total shock, Zach decided to just go along with it, because what the hell, really? “Angelica, this is Kalana. She’s my uhm…you know, my special someone.”
“Hi, Kalana. Pleasure to meet you!” For a brief moment, an intense, serious look replaced Angelica’s smile. “Hmm, I wish you wouldn’t have gotten rid of the buff,” she said. “Hey, I can give it back to you if ya want. Your heart is still right for it.”
“You can?” Kalana asked her.
“Mhm.”
“Wait, you can?” Zach repeated. Then he looked at Kalana. “You’ve got to take it, Kal!”
To his disappointment, she shook her head. “I’m sorry. It’s not right for me.”
“Yeah, but, Kal, this is your chance to—”
She lifted her finger and again shook her head. “Don’t forget what we promised.”
“Huh?”
“You made me promise I wouldn’t force my ways onto you, remember?”
“Well, yeah, but…”
“But nothin’. You can’t force yours onto me, either. Fair is fair.”
He sighed. “I guess that’s true.” To Angelica, he smiled and said, “How come you’re here?”
“It’s ‘cause I wanted to come see you,” she answered, scurrying back across the hospital floor as though to prepare whatever meal she’d brought here. She did not come alone, either. Men and women of varying ages—all with incredibly fancy equipment—followed on her heels, many holding plates and other utensils, as well as gigantic trays of wonderful-smelling food, pitchers of ale, and more cola to go with it.
At the same time, Fluffles, who Zach only just now noticed was here in the room with them and napping on the green chair near the bed, popped his eyes open and jumped up to his feet. Then, as though completely, totally unconcerned with the fact that an entire crowd of people were walking through a literal fucking portal, he shouted, “Zach share with Fluffles! Fluffles protect Zach and save from dragon. Now he get to have Angelica’s chicken too! More than Zach get.”
What’s going on? My life is turning into a mad-house.
As though in response to the commotion, the door to his hospital room banged open, and Mr. Oren, along with Kesten and Donovan, came rushing inside. “What’s going on?” Mr. Oren asked. “Did someone shout?” All three darted their heads around.
Then Donovan, opening his arms wide, made his way over to one of the adventurers and said, “Hey, Reni, you son of a bitch? How the hell are ya?”
“I’m good, Don. I’m here to help. We all are.”
“Damn good to hear, son. We’re gonna need ya. We’re gonna need all of ya. This is gonna be a real ugly one this time. War Council starts in four hours. You’re right on time.”
Zach watched as, one after the next, people began to flood the hospital room, and all of them came to personally thank him or congratulate him on surviving. Zach did not recognize any of these people—any except for one. Towards the middle of the line, he spotted Fluffles’ gigantic “father” striding through the purple portal.
“Thank the Gods,” Mr. Oren said, briefly embracing him. “We were looking everywhere for you, Maric.”
“I’m sorry. I was at Angelica’s. I never thought…”
“It’s not your fault.” He sighed. “We can’t do this without you, though. You’re the best tank we have. I’m just so glad you were able to make it.”
“It’s all thanks to Angelica.”
Maric nodded. Then he turned his head and made his way first to Zach, whereupon he uttered a few words of encouragement, and then to Fluffles, who he greeted with a loving smile on his face. Fluffles response was to confusingly hiss at him.
“Daddy not take away Fluffles’ chicken. He earn it.”
“I’m not going to,” he said, his deep voice coming across as eerily soft, as it typically did when talking to the cat. “I just wanted to say how proud I am of you. I heard how brave you were.”
“Fluffles the bravest cat. I save Zach.”
“Yes, yes you did,” he said, bending down and petting him.
One after the next, more people came through the portal, and a sort of “ritual” seemed to emerge—a consistent pattern of sorts. Each time someone came through the portal, they would approach Zach, make eye contact, shake his hand, exchange a few words, and then immediately turn around and seemingly forget that he was there at all, putting all of their attention instead onto Donovan. Not that Zach minded, of course. He just found this entire situation to be both strange and amusing in a weird sort of way.
Everyone’s acting like it’s just a perfectly normal thing for a portal to open up in the middle of my hospital room and for people to just come waltzing through it.
Well, maybe it was normal. There was still a lot of things Zach didn’t know or understand about the world of adventuring. Even still, this was one hell of an unexpected “event.” It only seemed to get stranger, too. Shortly after waving goodbye, Angelica disappeared and the portal closed, and then, one by one, the adventurers began to grab the plates they’d brought through with them and began to serve themselves food and drink. Eventually, Donovan approached Zach and asked, “What’ll you have, kiddo?”
Deciding to just go with the flow, Zach cast aside all his confusion and disbelief and said, “Can you get me some of the chicken and steak, please?”
Donovan made a powerful guffaw. “Sure can, Zach. And you, Fluff?”
“Fluffles want chicken!” the cat replied. “All the chicken. I get to have all of it. Zach say. Zach say Fluffles get all the chicken.”
“You can’t have it all,” Maric said. He’d been in deep conversation with another adventurer at the time and had cut off whatever he’d been about to say to answer the cat. “I’ll give him some, boss. Don’t worry. Just make sure you get Zach a portion before these greedy adventurers take it all. Gods, it’s supposed to be a party in his honor. We even brought a cake.”
For some reason, this made Kalana clap her hands together. “Did you hear that, Zach? This is a party they’re throwing for you. How cool is that?”
Zach turned over his left palm. “I am still trying to process the fact that this is even happening.” Then he smiled. “I told you how much I loved Angelica’s, right? This is…this is kind of a slice of it, I guess.”
“It smells amazing in here all of a sudden.”
“Yep. It’s always like that. It’s why I was hoping to bring you there some day.”
“I can go without the buff, you know. I really can.”
“I know, but…”
She gave him a playful nudge on his shoulder then waded her way through the unexpected crowd and grabbed a plate just as Donovan gently set one down on a dining tray attached to his bed while carefully handing him some cherry cola. Maric also returned and put down a bowl for Fluffles. The cat launched himself at the food and attacked it like it was Ziragoth.
“Where’s Rian and Lienne?” he asked, suddenly feeling guilty to be throwing a party without them—not that he’d had any say in this or even the slightest bit of foreknowledge that it was even going to happen at all.
Maric shrugged. “I have no idea.”
“Mr. Oren!” Zach called. He actually had to call the man’s name several times to get his attention, as he was engaged in some kind of tactical discussion with three other adventurers about which type of weapon would be best to pierce the dragon’s scales.
“Yeah, my man?”
“Where’s Rian and Lienne?”
“Oh, they’re right there,” he said, pointing at something above him.
“Huh?”
Zach looked in the direction indicated, then dropped his mouth as the two siblings were standing side by side on the TV as a reporter interviewed them. “What in the name of the Gods…?”
“Yeah, I stared it down,” Rian said. “But at the end of the day, I knew that my sister and Zach had my back. I’m kind of the leader of our group. By the way, you can like and follow my page at…”
“They’ve been doing interviews all day,” Mr. Oren said. “They seem to be loving this. I don’t think they’ll be too offended you didn’t invite them.”
“I didn’t even know this was going to happen!”
Mr. Oren laughed. “It’s like that sometimes.”
Amid the sea of people, Zach did not see Kalana returning to his side, and so he flinched as he felt someone grab his hand. When he turned, he relaxed and smiled as he saw her standing beside his bed with a small plate in her opposite hand. Soon after, she let go of him and began to eat. Her eyes lit with delight. “Wow,” she said.
“Right? I told you. Angelica’s is just…it’s the best thing ever.”
“You weren’t kidding.”
Although this was far from what he’d expected to see upon waking up, and although his hospital room had erupted into a noisy, loud, and occasionally heated environment as people drank and spoke to one another, Zach honestly found that he didn’t mind it. More so, he actually enjoyed their company. It reminded him that he wasn’t alone in the world. Even with his dad gone, he had Kal, and Rian, and Lienne, and Fluffles, and in a weird sort of way…he kind of had all of these people as well. That was what made it so hard to imagine them rushing off to fight that Gods-forsaken creature. He didn’t want a single one of them to die. Especially not Kal.
I can’t let her go.
That was an argument to be had later, of course. For now, he merely ate great food and drank his cherry cola. Although he only knew one NPC that wasn’t also a dungeon boss, he was sure that he’d never have a favorite greater than Angelica. Someday, he’d have to make it all up to her. It was no wonder everyone liked her so much.
Doing his best to enjoy the party thrown just for him, he raised his glass of cola as Donovan called for a toast in his honor. It made him feel kind of embarrassed and singled out, but it sure beat dragon’s fire and bounty hunters. Actually, speaking of bounty hunters, he wondered: what ever happened to Anelia? Strangely, he wanted to see her again. Having had to go through this ordeal, he couldn’t help but feel some kind of twisted kinship with her. He hoped she was okay. Either way, it was yet another problem to worry about later. For now, he merely tried to enjoy the moment.