Episode 15: A Change of Fate

The walls of the dungeon were dark and damp with water even leaking from the ceiling. The echoes of their drips resonated within the walls of the long stone passage. I tightly held my scythe as I scanned the dark surroundings. It felt like anything could jump on us at any second.

"Yo Orha, you don't happen to have a lamp spell, do you?" I asked my partner in crime as he blankly stared at me.

"I'm a Wizard not a flashlight." He sighed as we kept walking blindly into the unknown. "Besides, I don't have any illumination spells that won't cause some sort of explosion that will kill us."

Pouting, I adjusted my prized cap on my head and pushed forward. In the corner of my eye, I spied a glint of light that shined from a treasure chest. With a loud 'ooh', I happily skipped over and opened it without a second thought. A loud jingle rang out as I rustled through the menu to collect my items.

"You need to be more careful, M. What if it was a trap?" The Wizard scolded me as I looked through the loot I received.

"It wasn't the first and third time around. Ooh, an attack bracer!" I equipped a pair of dark chain bracers which matched the look and feel of my armor. The only reason I chose mostly dark colors was not because I was a Reaper class or anything but because I wanted my Dagon hat to stand out from the rest of my clothes.

"May I ask why we're here again? Do you really hate Wairuzu that much?" He still felt like I overreacted back in Helonia Coast.

"I-" I calmly collected my thoughts. I always tried to be funny and all but when I got angry, I really got angry. I still thought that incident back then in high school was stupid. Why the hell would Shimpei invite Hiro to our circle of friends after everything he had done to Chikamoto? "I just needed to cool off."

"It's been more than a day already." The Wizard replied immediately. Orha was the kind of person to always keep track of mundane things like time. He preferred to be organized, after all.

"I know… I just don't like the thought of a person like him playing all of us like puppets." I thought back to the events in Candeo Marsh. Wairuzu didn't hesitate at all when he barked out orders for us. He even forgot about me, causing the rest of the group to leave me alone as a result.

"Understandable." The Wizard surprisingly agreed with me. "What's not understandable is why you picked this dungeon out of all the others we could have gone to."

"Don't tell me you're getting bored." Brushing off my bracers, I raised an eyebrow at him. Even if I said that, Orha's default expression was that of boredom all the time.

"We have gone through this dungeon five times already." He narrowed his eyebrows as he let out a sigh of frustration.

"Hey man, it's my favorite dungeon. It even has a hot siren boss at the end." I chuckled, remembering the pure ecstasy of seeing that lovely monster. "Anyways, I checked the AKO forums again and saw a thread about the Gaia keys. Word is the one in the Star Sand Desert was already taken."

"I'm guessing Wairuzu and the others succeeded then." Orha held his chin in thought.

"Perhaps." For the time being, I didn't want to hear that name at all since I was honestly starting to regret not being part of the party that retrieved the first key.

"So how did that take us back to Dagon Lake?" That wasn't its official name but we decided to call it that because of our unique experience here.

"There were also reports of dungeons changing completely with new bosses and such. I assume it was triggered by the event. Maybe we'll get a cute mermaid to fight this time, eh?" I closed my eyes and imagined what such a beauty would look like as the Wizard merely sighed in frustration. Moving closer to the end of the dark corridor, I halted underneath a small archway and turned around.

"Hey, what's up, slowpoke?" I asked Orha who fell behind while looking a bit more disturbed than usual.

"I sense a dark force within that tunnel..." He spoke ominously as the both of us stared at the path we were heading down. It definitely was dark, I gave him that.

Replying with a smirk, I waved my hand. "You sure it's not just your stomach growling?"

Moving down the hallway, the air felt chillier than usual. There was a certain feeling of dread that I was sure Orha had noticed. Reaching the end, the usual pond of water where the siren would pop out of was still at the center of a hexagonal room with a single beam of light falling from the ceiling. For some reason, there was now a dark cloud drifting through the floor and biting at our ankles.

"Mortals…" A female voice echoed from underneath the water. It was definitely different from the siren that we were used to.

With a swing of my scythe, I readied for what was to come. "What'd I tell you? Cute merma-"

A dark shadow rose up from the pond and landed with a splash. Orha and I flinched as the cold water splashed onto us. Blinking, I gazed at the sight before me. A dark feminine figure stood up high with long claws on each of her fingers. Her skin was similar to those of a dark elf while her eyes were purely white. Shadows surrounded her figure, barely covering most of her body.

"YOU WILL PERISH IN THE NAME OF THE DARK LORD!"

"Well…" I blushed. "That's new."

Opening: Courage by Tomatsu Haruka

It took less than a second for her to lunge at us. Jumping to the side, we landed in the shallow water. Her health bars appeared before us as we readied our weapons. She seemed to have two so it was manageable enough for the Wizard and I at our current levels.

However, before we began the fight, Orha wasted no time telling me what we were looking at. "One of the Kali, an elite class of warriors that serve the Dark Lord. They represent death and-"

"I don't think we need a history lesson right now, Orha!" I shouted at him as he realized that this was not the time for exposition.

"Just shedding some light on the lore." He pouted as I ran up to the boss and swung my scythe down on her. She caught the blade with her nails and retaliated. Stepping back, I parried each attack she threw, sparks igniting at every hit.

"Gaia's Bolt!" Orha shot out a bolt of light which hit Kali on the chest, making her scream. I used this chance to slip in between her legs and slash at her ankles.

"And it was super effective!" I yelled as I reeled back from my attack.

"Light beats darkness after all." Raising his staff, the Wizard surrounded himself with multiple shards of light which spun around him rapidly. "Can you hold her still?"

"Sure thing!" Spinning my scythe, I opened the gate to hell once more and released a flurry of bats which flew at her. The Kali raised her hand and swiped at the swarm, slowly making her way towards us.

Before she could get any closer, however, I slammed the end of my scythe into the ground. "Shadow Hold!"

My own shadow crawled all the way towards her and held her feet in place in a single motion. She grunted as she attempted to move. She had fallen for my trap card!

"YOU DARE USE THE DARKNESS AGAINST ME?!"

"Hey if it works, it works." I grinned confidently as Orha let loose his barrage of light that struck the Kali multiple times across her body, lowering her health significantly. As the attack went on, I felt a sudden tug on my feet. "Wha-"

In an instant, the shadow below me pulled me down and flung my body across the room. I flinched as I landed hard on the wall and dropped onto the wet ground.

"What the hell?" Looking up, I saw my shadow in the Kali's deadly hands. She was manipulating it.

"I think she can use shadow skills too!" Orha yelled from the opposite side.

"Yeah! I think I got that!" It seemed as though I was barred from using shadow type skills. It was a shame I never specialized on any other types. I had spent most of the time fishing, after all.

"DIE!" She screamed. Raising my scythe, I expected her to attack but to my surprise, she turned right around and slashed at Orha. He attempted to block the strike but was ultimately knocked down since he wasn't a very defensive player.

"Good grief…" I pushed myself off the ground with my scythe and lunged at the Kali. Quickly, I switched my weapon to something I had more experience with. One swing was all it took to surround her in a fishing line stronger than any I had used before. She struggled to break free as I laughed. "Go ahead and try! That's the toughest line I got! Also the most expensive…"

On cue, Orha got back up and charged a large bolt of light. He pointed his staff at the Kali who was still struggling to get out of my fishing bind. It only took a few seconds for him to release the charge. "Gaia's Wrath!"

A large beam of light shot through her head which cleanly disintegrated it. Her limp body fell to the ground as it disintegrated into black shards. The congratulatory screen with a jingle appeared in front of us as we collected our rewards.

"I can't believe you actually wrapped a fishing line around her…" Orha spoke while sifting through his items.

"I told you. If it works, it works." As I held my cap with pride, my eyes caught a faint glimmer coming from the center of the pool. Maybe the Kali dropped something else? Wading over to the center, which had water up to my ankle, I reached down and grabbed a circular dial with eight colors: red, blue, green, yellow, violet, black, white, and orange. The latter, in particular, was already lit up. All of these colors surrounded the circle like slices of pizza.

"M?" Orha asked as I blankly stared at the relic.

"I think I'm hungry." I voiced out my thoughts without knowing it.

"What?" The Wizard asked in confusion.

"Nothing. Look at this." I held the circular dial in my hands and showed it to the Wizard. Before he could react to it, however, a notification popped up in front of me.

"Who is it?" Orha asked me as he glanced at my message screen.

"Daize... 'No time to explain. Meet us in Blizzard Berg.' That's what it says." As I spoke, a stone passage to our right slid into the ground, letting out a deep groan. This was definitely not here before. "The dungeon goes on?"

"So, what are we doing?" Orha asked as my mind debated between the two decisions I had to pick from. However, I decided to choose the more interesting option.

"I think I want to check this place out a bit more." Quickly, I typed my reply to the Archer.

Mnbbvb: 'Sorry, Daize. We're busy checking out a dungeon. I'm sure you can handle this on your own just fine, especially with Wairuzu.'

I was breathing heavily with my hands firmly wrapped around my lance until the final attack. It wasn't easy to take down a boss as strong as an Ice Golem but Rai and I managed just fine. Spinning my lance, I sheathed it on my back after we were done. The boss room itself was glittered with shiny crystals and ice but it wasn't hard to identify the pedestal at the center of the room which was now glowing blue.

"Let's not waste any more time, Rai." We rushed to the pedestal as a glowing blue diamond appeared. Holding it in my hands, I noticed how beautiful its glow was. This was the key Jayce needed in order to correct this world. I would be the one to give it to him.

"Wairuzu!" Soran came running out of the caves calling my name with Megumi and Daize trailing behind him. "We need to get out of here."

"I thought you guys were supposed to get the Gaia key!" I turned around and wondered why they were running away from the fight.

"Well, sorry we couldn't really fight four on three!" Soran shouted with an angry tone which startled me quite a lot.

Before I spoke again, I paused. They tried their best… I needed to remember that. "Fine, let's go."

"That's right. Run, you cowards!" Richter sat up and laughed even if his health was extremely low at that point. "You can't do anything to stop our perfect world!"

"Shut up!" With one last kick to the Crusader's stupid face, I joined the others and started running. Once we were sure we were far enough, we used the teleport crystals we had purchased beforehand to get back to town. It was time to rethink our plan.

"M." I called out to him with my staff in hand. The Reaper in question was a few feet ahead of me, carelessly resting his scythe on his shoulder and whistling to the tune of some song I had never heard before. The whistling echoed throughout the large tunnel we were in while the sound of water droplets falling from the damp ceiling gave me an eerie feeling. "M!"

"Huh?" Instead of turning to me, he pulled out the circular artifact we had found. In addition to the orange, the blue light was now glowing as well.

"What happened?" I asked, curiously looking at the dial.

"I don't know. It just vibrated and then next thing I knew, the blue lit up." M glanced back at the circle in his hand as he stared blankly at it. Using this chance, I swiped the thing from the Reaper as he yelled back in retaliation.

"Hey!"

"Curious…" I brushed my fingers across all eight sections of the relic before I realized what they were representing. Eight colors… "Eight Gaia keys!"

"What?" M still looked like he was confused.

"Eight Gaia keys. Each a different color!" Glaring back at the dial, I touched the glowing parts. "These must represent the Gaia keys that have been found. It's a counter, M! A counter that tells us how many Gaia keys are left!"

The Reaper blinked in disbelief as he realized how rare the item we stumbled upon was. "Well shit. If there are two lights then that means someone else got one of the Gaia keys right?"

"I suppose but we need to finish this dungeon up and get back to the others right away." I said as I handed him the relic back. Brisk walking down the tunnel, we arrived at what looked like the interior of a church. Dark candles emitting a black flame were scattered around the area while an altar sat in the middle with a few rose petals, gems… and a generous serving of blood.

"Yikes. Someone has a kink." M spun around carelessly while examining the room.

I slowly made my way towards the altar and touched the blood. Dried. This was a summoning ritual. According to all the clues, this was clear evidence of something sinister. "M, someone's trying to bridge the dark realm of Pandemonium with Azuria."

"Someone's trying to what with the who now?" He tilted his head with his usual confused look on his face.

Since he asked, I was ready to tell him the history of the two realms. "In ancient times, a war broke out between the worlds of-"

"Orha, short version." He interrupted, to my dismay.

Sighing, I attempted to simplify the story for him. "A big bad army is coming to wreck this world… led by who I assume to be the Dark Lord himself."

"Cool." M's eyes told me that he didn't listen to a word of what I just said. "Look, if there's no treasure here then we might as well split and find Wairuzu and the others."

"No treasure…" I examined the altar closely. The dried blood formed a sort of pentagram along with the rose petals. It was only now that I noticed that the center was hollowed out. "…just a puzzle."

"Great. Puzzles…" M groaned. I could tell he was itching to get some action already.

Examining the blood on the altar, I realized that they were all leading to the center but where were they coming from? One of the trails led to the floor as I tracked it with my eyes across the room. A hole was located in the wall which was not too noticeable at first glance. Inserting my finger into it, I heard M gasp.

"You sure about that, Orha? You're the one who said we needed to be careful for traps." He asked me as he reiterated my statement from earlier. At least he listened to that.

"The blood drains from here and runs up to the altar. Most of it is dry though meaning no one has used it in a while." I explained as I retraced the blood trail with my eyes to make sure.

"So we just have to get the blood flowing?" M was finally figuring it out.

"Precisely." Straightening myself, I wiped my bloodstained finger on my clothes. "There must be some mechanism to activate the flow."

"Wait…" M walked over to the altar with the relic in hand. Slowly, he placed it into the indentation in the center. "Huh! Perfect fit."

All at once, blood poured from the walls and formed a stream that even flowed upwards. The thick liquid gathered around the relic as its edges glowed a crimson color. The room around us started shaking as we stumbled back. The altar was now glowing as well. In an instant, the glowing stopped and turned into a large tremor that wiped out all the candles, leaving us in total darkness.

"Um, Orha?" I managed to hear M speak but I couldn't find him the dark. "You think you could use a spell?"

Groaning, I rolled my eyes at the question. "I told you, I don't have any illumination spells tha-"

"WHO DARES DISTURB ME!" A faintly glowing figure stood before us. It was hard to make out his shape but he was definitely towering over us. His resonating voice startled the both of us.

"Holy shit!" M took a step back before the demon spoke again.

"I HAVE ASKED THOU A QUESTION, HAVEN'T I?"

"Is that a boss?" I caught a slight glimmer coming from M as he readied his scythe. Immediately, I grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Kneel, M." I told him.

He merely looked at me in confusion yet again. "Wha? Orha are yo-"

"I said kneel!" I tried to keep my voice as low as possible as we both got on one knee before the apparition in front of us.

"Oh, great lord. We are but a pair of Envoys who have come to ask of your aid!" I raised my voice to match his.

I heard him smirk with a deep tone. "AND WHO ART THOU?"

"I am known as the Wizard Orhaxum. This is my companion, Mnb- M!" I quickly corrected myself as I preferred not to say his full name in fear of messing it up.

A pair of red eyes appeared and stared right into mine. I felt a chill run down my spine as if I was paralyzed by his glare alone.

"IF THOU ARE A FOLLOWER THEN THOU SHOULD KNOW MY NAME." The shadowy figure shifted as what looked like a devilish smile formed on its face. "AM I MISTAKEN?"

"No…" I nervously gulped. There were many demons loyal to the Dark Lord which made it hard to discern who exactly we were speaking to. The fact that he was just a dark silhouette wasn't helping either.

"Hey, Orha?" M whispered to me. "It isn't Dagon, is it?"

"Shush!" I closed my eyes and racked my brain for the answer. It had to be connected somehow. The Kali, the blood altar… Dagon Lake!

"Bisolen!" I shouted the name at the top of my lungs. Slowly opening my eyes, I found us surrounded by the dark glow as the room around us lit up to reveal a bipedal goat with large horns and dark blue skin. White fur surrounded its neck and elbows while its ears hung low with golden piercings decorating it.

"Very well, Orhaxum the Wizard. Thou has proven thyself. Tell me your desire." His voice lowered in tone as he appeared to be calmer than before.

My lips wavered as I spoke. "We desire the information. The location of the Gaia keys."

Bisolen laughed with his crooked teeth. "You seek knowledge?"

"You are the Herald of Knowledge, aren't you? You even picked to have your shrine next to a body of water, the element of which you are the master of." It was easier to identify his lore as soon as I knew who he was. All of this was taken from the wiki, of course.

"You are correct, Wizard. You amuse me." Bisolen turned around and waved his hand over the relic. "This artifact shall now provide you with what you seek but know this…"

Tilting his head to face us, we stared into his red eyes. "…the keys shall become useless when the Dark Lord invades this world."

In less than a second, the demon disappeared into darkness as the two of us were left there with a blank expression on our faces.

"Dark Lord… this just gets better and better." M said in a sarcastic tone as he leaned against the wall with a sigh. "What was that anyway, Orha? Why did you make us kneel?"

"Well, how do I explain this to you…" Scratching my head, I groaned. "Okay, you know those visual novels with a bunch of choices that lead down a specific route?"

"Like Love Plus Sakura? Yeah." Of course that was the first visual novel he named.

"This was one of those things. A cut-scene that made use of the dialogue we provided. Thankfully, I got us down the path without a fight." I only now realized how much of a close call that was. Come to think of it, the interaction itself was structured pretty well in contrast to the rest of the game.

"Why would you do that though?" M pouted as he restlessly huddled his scythe. "I bet we could've creamed him."

"That wasn't just any boss, M. Bisolen is the Dark Lord's personal assistant." I told him as I glanced back to where the demon had appeared from. "If we were to pick a fight with him, I am almost certain it would have led to our demise."

"Eh? What are you going on about?" The Reaper didn't seem fazed at all.

Sighing, I approached the altar. "Nothing, let's just get this to the others."

Before I laid my hand on it though, I noticed that one more light had lit up, the green one specifically. People were finding Gaia keys faster than I had initially thought.

"Sorry, Takamura-kun. There's nothing I can do in my position." Sakiyama-san's voice came from the other end of my phone. What she said disappointed me.

"But it's literally a guy trying to take all the keys for himself, not giving any other players a chance! If he succeeds then there won't be any other players on the council." Leaning against the wall of my room, I curled my hand into a fist in frustration.

"I'm truly sorry, Takamura-kun. When I gave your mother this number, I meant for you to contact me in regards to the ownership issue not a player complaint." The lawyer sternly told me. I had contacted her regarding the Jayce issue since she was my only contact in Ymir but it was clear that she wasn't going to do a damn thing.

"I..." I wanted to hit the wall in frustration.

"However, I will see who I can talk to. I'll get back to you if I learn anything." She added which completely caught me off guard.

"Yeah, tha-" She cut off before I could finish thanking her. Talk about rude. Putting my phone down, I turned to the AuraSphere on my bed-stand.

'Guess I should log back in and tell the others.' Grabbing the device, I was surprised as it vibrated like a phone. A soft ringtone rang out as I put it on. 'What's this?'

The screen displayed a familiar looking number who was calling me. I forgot that this thing could also act as a mobile phone. With a little hesitation, I accepted the call. To my dismay, an annoying voice came from the other end.

"Wairu- or is it Hiro in real life…"

"Shimpei?" It was his real voice this time which was as loud as ever. "How are you-"

"Oh, I tried adding my contact list to the AuraSphere, makes this thing super convenient, doesn't it?" I could hear his grin from the other end of the call as I glanced at my phone which lay beside me.

"Really? How?"

It took a while but I managed to upload my phone's information into the AuraSphere. It was more adaptable than I expected. Afterwards, I tested it out by ringing Shimpei again. As expected, it worked like a charm with the voice commands.

"Anyways, how was your plea for help?" Shimpei asked me as I scrolled through my contact list to see if they were still complete.

"Didn't go well. Sakiyama-san said she'll try to talk to someone but I doubt it will lead anywhere." Corporate workers rarely took time to handle issues that weren't part of their department. I was certain that Sakiyama was way too busy to look into the actual game.

"That sucks. I guess we're on our own then?" I could sense the disappointment in his voice as I felt the same.

"Unfortunately." As much as I wished we could get the people at Ymir on our side, it seemed almost impossible.

"In any case, I was thinking..." Shimpei's voice trailed off.

"About?" I paused the scrolling for a moment to hear him out.

"About what Sora- Genji said. About meeting up IRL. We can even invite the others too! Megumi if we're lucky…" He suggested as I wondered what Megumi actually looked like in real life. If I went along, however, I would probably be stuck with Shimpei trying to flirt with her.

Sighing, I continued my scrolling. "Why though?"

"I don't know. Just to catch up, you know. Does it have to have a reason?" He asked as I answered with a 'yeah' in my head. "Plus I think we need a break from hunting virtual keys."

"Fine. Where are we meeting then?" I was nervous asking that but part of me agreed that it would be nice to see the guys again.

"Well, we can just go to the local Wacdonald's. Or we can meet at..." I continued scrolling as he listed a variety of fast food chains mixed in with expensive cafes. However, his voice grew quieter as soon as I paused at a certain name on my contact list. Tapping it, I made sure the number was the same. I didn't know I still had that number, to be honest. I swear I deleted it a long time ago…

"Hiro? Earth to Hiro? You there?" Shimpei called out as soon as he realized I wasn't listening.

"Y-yeah. What were you saying?" I quickly closed the contacts list and tried to focus on his voice again.

"I was just listing the possible meeting locations." He sounded a bit annoyed that I was unfocused on our conversation. "I mean, there are so many places to fill ourselves up with."

"Maybe we can talk to everyone first before deciding?" I suggested, wanting to end the call as soon as possible.

"Huh, good idea…" Shimpei replied with a softened tone. "Well, I'll log in and talk to the others then! Come back as soon as you can."

"Yeah…" My body collapsed on my bed as soon as the call ended. Sighing, I opened the contacts list once more to make sure what I saw was real. Unfortunately, it was. A feeling of dread flowed through me as I attempted to delete it. My finger hovered over the button as I struggled to get myself to press it.

'Why? Why are you stopping?' I asked myself again and again. 'Just press it, you idiot.'

Before I could, however, a notification popped up from the same number. My eyes were shaking as I blinked in disbelief at the situation.

'Why? Why now after all this time?!' Opening the log, I scrolled through the messages that were long forgotten as it arrived at the latest one. It was an invitation of sorts stating the time and date of a celebration to be held at the end of the month. It was an invitation from a person that I thought was never going to talk to me again. 'Why? Why are you messaging me like it's nothing?!'

"Mari…"

Ending: Shirushi by LiSA

Next Episode: The Third Person