I had lost track of the number of drinks we shared. Five rounds, no seven? Who knew? Everything was gone in the moment. A friend from the past, from my guild, stood before me, smiling, his demeanor happy. That's all I wanted.

So, Rodger, how's the guild?

His eyes that shared my excitement dulled, and his mouth grew with a severe expression, as if I had told a poorly timed joke and ruined the mood.

I wouldn't know anything about them anymore.

What do you mean?

I've been initially looking for you under the guild's direction. We formed a team to search for you. But, after a few years and the guild's new incentives, the team was disbanded. Then a couple of us, a handful better said we took up the mantle. After a few months, it became three, and a year later, it's just me. I don't blame them much. Sorry captain, but 6 God damn years is a long time.

At the end of his words, Roger begins to choke up.

I didn't hesitate to put my arm around the man, bringing him close and holding him like he once was and always would be: family.

Living in the moment, in the warmth of a man who searched for me until, shit, seeing the expression in his eyes, until the end of time, I reckoned. For what? For me?

At that moment, my will, my faltering feelings of being the fated one, of wanting nothing more than to shift the role onto another soul, dissipated. As if a monster slain and turned to that fragmented light that travels from our plain and back into the system only to be reborn again at a set time, my feelings of inadequacy did the same.

If this man was willing to sacrifice himself for me. Who was I to not do the same? A piece of shit, that's who I'd be. From the bottom of my crystal mug, I saw my reflection; I saw a man who had wanted a way out and was now disgusted at how he had handled fate.

Euphoria is a weird thing; inspiration is an even stranger one. It's not that at that moment, I felt as if I had it all figured out; no, I wasn't that confident, and I was nowhere near feeling complete. But I had something figured out. It was as if the universe and myself were at one, in harmony for just a split second. In those gut-feeling moments, the inn turns silent, not from lack of noise but from the fact that all your focus and senses are mute as you search for answers.

What did I find inside?

What was that gut punch that I needed?

Again, it wasn't the whole answer. Our realm or my life was never dealt with in absolutes; it was merely a flaw that I hadn't seen in my past life or six years ago.

Grabbing his shoulders and then training my gaze on his eyes, I said.

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I'm sorry I took so long. Every day was a struggle to survive, let alone return, but I want you to know that returning was always my goal. I didn't want to abandon you guys, but even if I returned, my time loss has made abandoning and coming back late the same.

Sniffling, he nodded, reassuring me that he was capable of understanding even in his current emotional distress, so I continued.

When we started the Path, you weren't there from the beginning, so I'll start there. It all started with my first failed party. I had met two men on a beginner dungeon finder. Typical stuff: we ran through the Goblin-invested woods into the Staggered Mountain Pass to fight well; we fought a monster buffed by the system's malice. Making it out alive, we stayed close for a bit until, well, until my good friend Ronald died. You might remember that Global Quest, Save the Heir?

Eyes now wide and alert, he piped in.

Wait, that was your doing? Did you trigger that quest?

I wouldn't necessarily say I triggered it, but I just happened to be fated to be there when it began…

Catching myself on my words, I stopped for a moment. Wait, had I triggered it, or was I merely close by? Was this a part of the system's structured storyline, or had it derailed to crush my newly formed team? Shaking my head, I decided to move on instead.

Anyway, I pushed myself during that quest timer and ran with everything that burned in me until it was cold, but you know how that Global Quest ended. The realm's adventurers failed, but most importantly, I had also failed him. From here, I would be lost for some time, becoming a lone mercenary, then a bandit, then being influenced by great people, becoming a bandit leader turned guild leader. You join around this time. We became a guild that fought for the realm. Who didn't pass up on quests that didn't hold the incentives like gear or gold? Instead, we fought the good fight. Instead of hoarding our knowledge of mechanics, we openly shared them so no one else would ever die to a random raid or dungeon mechanic. We thought that the way to change the realm, to influence the top 8 guilds of the realm that ran the world itself, was to be the Path of Light. To be the action that sparks change. A guild that flies high and true would soon inspire others to do the same.

Taking a long drag of my mug, I said.

We weren't right with that plan.

He shook his head.

Once you left, people joined and recruited into us that you never should have. Yes, the guild grew and shot to the top. It became the newest of the top ten guilds in the realm, the burning hot sensation that overtook the realm, but at what cost? We had gone against our ways, against your mission, the one you fell for.

His fractured and pure eyes showed me that it wasn't just my disappearance that ached the man; it was watching the guild he loves become everything it set out to stop.

Don't blame them. Don't blame her.

A pain shot through the side of my head, the kind that crawls and makes its way all over, leaving a tingling sensation as it moves. Shit, I thought. I stepped onto a line my soul didn't want me to cross.

I would never blame her. Shelly is the only goddam thing keeping The Guild any semblance of its former self…but even she isn't enough.

Shelly…my lips made out the words like some child learning a new word, which the child knew carried weight and power.

Yeah, sorry about bringing her up. It probably pains you and all. But if it makes you feel any better, captain, she held on the longest. It hurt her like hell, I know it. I saw it in the way she didn't show it, but I could tell she was battling it in her own way.

My mind went dark. Every word Roger spoke was heard but not digested. Later, I thought, not now. For now, I'll say what needs to be said, and later, when I'm alone under the night sky, I'll tackle that by myself. Then, I said.

I don't blame anyone by myself. After all, we had the wrong idea from the get-go. You don't fight fire with water. Not in this realm, you fight it with a more significant fire that swallows it whole, making you the inferno in its wake.

Whatcha mean, captain?

We are doing it differently. I didn't come back alone. I have some men with their own stories that they might one day do the honor of sharing, but from what I've seen, from what I feel…they aren't just your ordinary adventurers. They got power, and with power came connections. We'll use those bridges and ladders to prop up another Guild. It will proliferate rapidly, and they'll think it spawned out of nothing. Like the Big Bang, we'll rush out. But it wasn't out of nowhere. It was 6 long years, burning away, until finally it crossed the sea.

Catching Shadeo and The Bard's eyes, I found their faces resolute and firm. They would stand with me, good, I thought.

From here on out, we'll take everything. We'll rush the progress, obtain the gear, and force the top 8 guilds to their knees; then we'll tackle the real final boss—not the new propped-up villains they place every couple of years. No.

Pointing straight up at the ceiling, past and into the sky that lies above with its eyes of twinkling stars that watched over us with a crooked smile.

I finally said,

We'll defeat the system itself.