Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.


In a land far away, a once field full of green grass and flowers is replaced by a fire taller than any man. A great roar of a majestic dragon can be heard, his form towering over the fire and his sharp fangs glinting in red and yellow.

Before him, stands a dozen of men. All clad in magical armors of great caliber, their hands clutching swords that are said to be the offsprings of the sword that once killed this mighty beast, Lore wise.

They have a chance. The men know this. It is simply because of this that they so galantly rushed to this land and face this dragon head on.

But no...

No matter how fat the reward is going to be by slaying this thing, that reward is nothing if they slay the person who is directly standing a few feet away from the beast.

Silver hair sways wildly in the wind. Her eyes, a color resembling that of molten gold, are filled with rage and her mouth is set on a snarl. She clutches the hilt of her sword tighter and as she catches sight of one of the men rushing towards her, she points the weapon to his direction.

A gnarly scream fills the air when the man suddenly catches fire before finally disappearing in the form of gold dust.

The woman feels an extreme ecstasy at this. Seeing how her enemies burn with fear in their eyes, knowing that their possibly months long of hardwork gone in an instant, it fills her with extreme joy.

"Obliterate them, Fafnir!" She screams and raises the flag she's holding with her other hand.

With a roar that shakes the ground, the dragon flaps his wings and flies upward. At this the men are quick to realize what it is that it's about to do and scrambles to get away.

But it's too late.

Fafnir forms a ball of energy in his mouth, takes a deep breath, there's a quick pause before he throws it directly to where the men are running to take cover. In a span of a second any form of sound disappears and everything is engulfed by a blinding light. It felt almost like an eternity, all is frozen, before a shockwave shakes the ground and a loud boom fills the air.

And then...

Everything is quiet.

There is an obvious crater left from where the attack directly hit the ground but aside from her and her dragon, no other signs of life form is detected.

Her win is finally confirmed when a hologram flashes right in front of her.

[ BATTLE FINISH , VICTORY ]

Joan of Arc smirks triumphantly.

She stabs her flag on the ground and her smirk quickly forms into a grin. She spreads her arms wide and as Fafnir continues to fly around her, The Witch of Orleans (a nickname people had bestowed her so graciously) laughs in an almost madlike manner.

Nobody, not a single puny Heroic Spirits could take her down.

Nobody.


At least those who are not part of the top 10 Heroic Spirits within the game.

But Joan doesn't really give a shit. She after all owns the 7th spot on the ladder and she'll stay on that spot no matter what people may say.

"Those stupid losers really thought that they could take me down," She snickers as she kicks one of the gold chest the men dropped after dying. Joan is immediately greeted by a chest full of diamonds and gold. This in turn brings a huge smile on her face and not even Fafnir's grumbling could wipe it away.

"I really wish they would stop attacking this place just to get to you." The dragon grumbles in a voice that one would not expect from a beast like him.

It is so, how does she put it, so mellow and kind. She remembers how it caught her off guard the first time she heard it. Usually, you'd expect a gruff, gutteral voice from a dragon of his caliber. Heck, most of the dragons she met before were like that.

Fafnir is simply an anomaly. She comes to conclusion.

Then again, Fafnir is not exactly an AI either.

Rolling her eyes, Joan opens a screen in front of her and transfers half of the loot to the dragon's inventory. "Oh shut up. We got plenty of golds from those bastards. Use them to fix this place." She tells her familiar who, in turn, gives her a look.

"This is the third time this happened this month. We need to set up a barrier." The dragon reasons out. Joan scrunches her nose at the suggestion.

"Barriers are expensive and you know that. We got no resources for that." A blatant lie and judging from how Fafnir is looking at her, the dragon knows this as well.

Joan of Arc is, to put it simply, a stingy little bitch.

Being at the top ten itself already rewards you with millions of golds and diamonds, not even counting the additional loot she gets whenever she takes on a quest. One barrier would barely hurt her resources but no, one million gold coins for a barrier that'll last for a year is apparently way too much. Fafnir could only roll his eyes.

"Whatever you say." The dragon responds. "Anyways, I need to go. I still need to do my homework." He informs as he folds his grandiose wings in preparation for his log-off.

The word 'homework' then earns him a disgusted scoff from the girl. "Imagine doing homework." She says and blanches. "Forget about that, let's do more quest. That guild from earlier was a fucking disappointment. I'm still pumped up."

"No," is what Fafnir simply says. This makes Joan's eye twitch and she's about to throw him her sword but the dragon is far quicker. He flicks her with his huge claws before flashing her a what she could assume as a shit-eating grin. "See you tomorrow, master. Don't stay up too late."

And he is gone, leaving only a trail of blue pixels in his wake.

"Fafnir, you stupid fucking lizard!" She screams.


IRL sucks ass and Joan fucking hates it to the core.

She wonders why must she still attend a real high school when a better one could be done in Virtual Reality. Those sentimental fools who keeps on implementing a rule that children still need to attend a 'real' school should be stoned to death in her own humble opinion.

Joan D' Arc think as she stands in the hallway. If Fafnir sees her in this state there's no doubt that he will mock her. He'll probably use that superior tone of his and say that he told her so.

In her defense, she was going to do her homework.

It's just that she had way too much fun raiding that cave she found and didn't realize that it was already 4 in the morning and she hasn't done a single shit.

Thankfully for her, Fafnir is enrolled in god-knows-where High.

"Honestly, it's just one homework." Joan grumbles and massages her nape. "That Da Vinci needs to stop overreacting."

"Am I now?" A voice says beside her.

Joan almost sees her life flashes before her very eyes at the sudden appearance. A uncharistic squeak leaves her mouth at the sight of her arts teacher.

Leonardo Da Vinci has her mouth fix in a smile but anyone who has known the teacher for a while now knows not to drop their guard down. This bitch is crazy.

"My, my, Ms. D' Arc." She says and arranges his glasses. "And here I thought you are reflecting on your actions. It seems to me that you need another session in the detention room." The teacher adds, this time grinning maniacally.

Oh shit, oh no.

Not detention. For fuck's sake, anything but that!

"W-wha—" Joan stammers. "I didn't even do anything! I mean, you can't do that!"

"I just did." Da Vinci grins smugly. "Send my regards to Mr. Gilles for me." She says and waves her hand before walking away almost in time for the bell to ring.

"No! Da Vinci, you can't leave me with him! He's crazy!" The girl screams, futilely reaching her hand out to the teacher just as the hallway starts to be filled with her fellow students who are now ready to take their lunch.

IRL fucking sucks.


After a very unsuccessful attempt of making Da Vinci retract that detention sentence, Joan makes her way to the rooftop to eat her lunch. And this is not because she don't have any friends or something.

No of course not. Psh, how could that be possible? It's not like the closest thing she could call a friend is Fafnir.

"Friends are overrated anyways," the girl says with a definitely not bitter tone.

Sniffing her snot, Joan walks towards the fence and sits down with her back on it. She takes her phone out of her pocket and opens the website of the famous Grand Order game. Or at least she tries before she remembers that she's been blacklisted to use the internet for the day, all thanks to Da Vinci.

Getting detention is equals to losing your internet surfing privilege. To someone like her who basically lives and breathes in the internet, that's like taking her life support.

"That stupid hag," Joan curses and angrily opens her lunch box. Something she immediately regrets after seeing how cutely it's been decorated. "Goddammit Jeanne." She curses once more, this time it's directed at her twin sister.

Joan D' Arc grits her teeth, takes a deep breath, before letting out one angry wail that definitely gives the birds lounging not far a heart attack. One probably dies even.

Her wailing lasts for a few seconds until her lungs starts to protest and the girl stops. She's heaving deep breaths after and then proceeds to angrily eats her food.

She wants to log-in into game so bad.

Everytime she's having a bad day, Grand Order is the only thing that could fix it.

Grand Order, one of the pinacles of the modern scientific era. Or so that's what people are saying.

2020 to 2030 is the decade of advanced science. Most cars are now powered electrically. It's easier for companies to advertise as well thanks the public release of holograms and almost everything is done digitally nowadays. She's has not met anyone who still brings actual money with them, though apparently those who are in the rural areas still do.

But if you are to ask her what's the best invention of this decade is, it's the advancement of Virtual Reality.

Everything is now possible because of it.

With Virtual Reality, you don't have to travel to have the experience of walking down the streets of Paris. You can even swim in the deepest part of the ocean within the comfort of your room. Avatar customization is one of the best part of it all, especially when you're entering a portal to a public or private chatroom, or when you're in an online shopping mall.

But the best part of it all is the advancement of online games; Fully polished graphics, outstanding music and the overall experience like you're leaving inside the game itself.

And the best one out there is definitely Grand Order.

The concept of it is pretty simple in her very humble opinion. It operates on the basic idea of an MMORPG.

In the game everyone is participating in the Great Holy Grail War. The player can decide if they want to do it solo or join a guild. Either way the rule is simple, fight each other and find the Holy Grail.

Players are divided into different classes namely, Saber, Archer, Lancer, Rider, Caster, Assassin, Berserker, Ruler, Avenger, Alterego, Foreigner, Moon Cancer and Shielder.

(There's a few anomalies from time to time. Like Fafnir who is classified under the Beast class. A class so rare that she could count their numbers with one hand.)

Players are redirected at the summoning room after their registration.

Here they can summon a Heroic Spirit that they can fuse with. But here's the catch, it's very RNG based. Which meant that most players might only be infused with a fragment of the Heroic Spirit. Of course the player can always restart the game if they want to be infuse with the full thing but the chance is as low as 0.0007%. Most of them just make use of what they have from the get go because of this.

Your luck with summoning a spirit is determined by three signs. No spark meant that it's most likely just a fragment-unless you count those very, very, very small cases of it sparking gold midway-, the second one and the third can be interchangeable as they both means that it's your lucky day because you're 100% going to be infused with a heroic spirit.

Joan was one of the lucky one.

Seeing that rainbow sparks the first time she's tried summoning nearly gave her a heart attack. She became even more ecstatic when she saw the card of Joan of Arc; like it's meant to be.

(She ended up adding an Evil trait to it a few moments later when she found out that Jeanne managed to pull Joan of Arc as well. Mostly, out of spite. This in turn changed her class from Ruler to Avenger.)

With that being said, there are also those very few cases of players not choosing to be fused with a heroic spirit (which is also an option). These players are termed as 'masters' and has the ability to control another player. The game is very strict with this one as the contract between two parties must be done willingly. On cases that it's found that one was forced to do so, they're permanently banned from the game.

Joan D' Arc hates these master-servant tandems the most.

Why? Because they're always lovers.

Stupid bastards, flaunting their relationship like they're hot and shit.

In conclusion, aside from those stupid lovers who feels the need to scream to the world that they're together, Grand Order is the best that's ever happened to her.

Joan D' Arc could probably fill one hundred pages worth of book with the things she loves about it and it will probably not be enough. She's been playing it for three years now and every year, she's gotten stronger.

All in all, she's addicted to the game and is not afraid to admit so.

Her trip down the memory lane is then interrupted by the sound of the bell ringing. It almost catches her off guard how time passes so fast. She didn't even realized how far she's gone reminiscing.

With one last gulp of her bottled juice, Joan stands up from where she's sitting and stretches.

She dreads going back to the classroom and her eventual time in detention but what can she do? She's binded by the unfair rules this school made.

Joan simply hopes that her day will not turn up shittier than it already is.


Her day ended up a shittier.

Forget Da Vinci and her heartless soul, William Shakespeare should be kicked off a cliff. English Literature class was a major pain in the ass.

Not only did the man choose her to recite a line from a play she could give zero fuck about, she ended up stammering the entire thing and making a huge fool out of her self. She could still remember how hot her face felt when everyone started laughing at her misery.

It isn't her fault that she's bad at public speaking, stupid jerks!

Then there's also that creepy motherfucker Gilles de Ray.

She still couldn't figure out what made him go borderline obsess of her and Jeanne but she sure do hate how he tends to stare at them both. It is like he's thinking of things she dare not imagine.

Joan feels a shiver run down her spine.

Kicking her door open, the girl uncerenimously throws her school bag on her bed and marches to where her VR headgear is located. She's glad that neither of her sisters are home yet because she could already hear Jeanne's nagging from miles away and Lily snickering at her expense.

Whatever, she'll deal with it later.

Joan flops down her reclining chair and wears her headgear and gloves. She had specifically comissioned this set to resemble the head piece of her character Joan of Arc in Grand Order, with the addition of metal around it to keep it in place and also to serve as a built-in earphones. It has a purple lens for a display around the eye area.

Once she's done registering her password and has entered the portal to the worldwide lounge area, the girl doesn't waste time and logs in straight into the game.

A bed of glowing flowers is what greets her first then the seemingly eternal night sky of Fafnir's garden follows. All traces of the fight that occured last night has been deleted and Joan notes the new infracstracture (a single castle tower seemingly protruding from the ground) that now stands where the crater was. The place never grows old on her and she doesn't fail to be in awe every time she sees it.

There is something about how majestic and the entire feel of it all that she likes so much. And having a dragon as its owner adds more to the fairy tale ambiance of the place.

"Fafnir!" She calls out and marches to where the Dragon is lounging. A screen is hovering in front of him and he seems to be intently reading whatever message is on it. "You would not fucking believe how shitty my day—"

"Joan, did you already checked the leaderboard?" The dragon cuts her off and she does a double take.

Fafnir never calls her by her name unless he's really pissed off or something happened within the game that directly concerns her.

"No?" She replies, uncertain. "I got blacklisted for a day. Why? What happened?"

"It's better if you see it yourself." He replies and sends the screen floating in front of her.

Joan is at first confused to what her familiar is talking about until she reads the names of those in top ten. She literally feels her blood rises up her head when realization finally dawns to her. She even swears she starts to see red.

There, on the top 7 spot is a name she's not familiar with.

The name which used to be [ The Witch of Orleans ] is now replaced by an unknown bastard called [ May King ].

"What in the actual fuck?" She swears loudly and scrolls down, only to see that she's fallen to top 11. "Who the fuck is this May King?" Joan exclaims and angrily clenches her fist.

"He used to be in the top 16 spot." Fafnir starts. "But earlier this day, he defeated Mordred in a PvP battle."

Fucking Mordred. No wonder he jumped so fucking high up the ladder. Mordred [ The Knight of Treachery ] is one of the renowed knights of the Knights of the Round guild and was on the top 8. She's part of the few Grailed Guilds for fuck's sake.

"How the fuck do you explain me falling to top 11 then?" Joan angrily asks. Defeating Morded only earns this May King her spot, not Joan's! What kind of fuckery is this?!

"It seems like after he defeated Mordred, he went on to defeat Achilles and proceeds to stole his noble phantasm. He did the same with Mordred and Clarent is no longer in her possession." Fafnir answers her with his usual calm demeanor. "His stats have stacked up thanks to the Noble Phantasms he's stolen. Word is that he's coming for Artoria or Arthur next."

Another set of profanity escapes the girl's mouth.

Mordred is one thing but Achilles? Achilles was on the top 6. That's the same guy who nearly handed her ass over to her when she invited him for a duel.

And steal Noble Phantasms? What in the actual fuckery is that?

How is that even possible?

Joan of Arc falls silent. Something doesn't feel right about this May King. If he's cheating, the devs would've done something about it the moment he defeated two of the top ten players in the leaderboard. They're pretty strict about the rules and seeing that May King is still active, he's most likely playing fair and square.

But how do you even defeat two servants and steal their Noble Phantasms?

"Fafnir," She starts. Joan fixes her eyes on her dragon's. "You say he's gonna go after either of the two Excalibur, right?"

"Yes, what about it?" He questions.

Grinning devilishly. "Well we just can't have that, can we?" Joan of Arc states and materializes her flag. With much force she burries the tip to the ground. "This May King, I shall see to it that that bastard burns to the ground."

With that declaration, the grin on her face morphes into an angry snarl. Joan of Arc looks absolutely demonic and even Fafnir feels himself shrinks a little at the intensity of it. It's been so long since he's last seen her like this and frankly it is terrifying.

"Nobody," She says through gritted teeth. "Fucking steals my spot and gets away with it."

Nobody.


If I can not bend the will of Heaven, I shall move Hell.


Ps:

D' Arc is Joan's surname (as well as Jeanne's) but she's called as Joan of Arc ingame. That's all. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.