"It’s a simple quest, at least," Noala said.
"There is a marker, so we know where to go."
- None of that ’do some detective work to find him,’ yeah?
"Yeah. It’s nothing complicated like get this guy to do that for that dude to agree to this—that kind of nonsense."
- Ah, yes. Politics, aka ’get this guy to do that for that dude to agree to this.’
"Funny." He chuckled. "I was going to cry if it was a fetch quest."
- Cry then, you little bitch.
- What do you mean? It is a fetch quest. You are supposed to fetch the head of some guy in the middle of nowhere.
’I kid you not; he literally said lol,’ Lucifer, who was watching all this unfold from his pool of lava, mused.
He succinctly put it as "the height of modern-day pop culture rot."
"I am a little excited, though." Noala yawned. "This could be a tough boss."
- You only care about the rewards.
"That’s obvious. The knight captain at the barracks gave some kind of warning, too. Could have helped if he had specified."
- Told you you should have read up on the lore.
He was too sleepy to get into that kind of tedium.
The game had been extremely fun so far, and the edited videos had been garnering millions of views on his SilkTube channel.
That’s why he had been pushing himself to stream for longer periods for the past week. But such an unhealthy lifestyle had taken its toll on him.
"This is rough." He rubbed his eyes. "I am tired."
- Trellise lost his eyes because of this guy, right?
- I mean, dude literally took off that strip of cloth to show us. What else could it be?
- By the way, why do you play with a controller? Just use the keyboard like a cultured man.
"This way, I can relax my shoulders and—oh, we’re here."
He had traveled on foot through forests, passed the desert on the back of a camel, and rowed to reach an island in the middle of a lake.
In the middle of it was a cavern with thousands of cut marks on the surface of the stone entrance.
Here dwells a myth inconceivable. Enter at your own peril.
These words were carved on the stone slab at the entrance. They were colored in red in what appeared to be blood.
- Man, this looks fun.
- This is good old Xinema RPG fun, alright. Feel like playing some of their old titles now.
Noa ignored the warnings and entered the cavern.
It took him through a long and narrow corridor. The farther in he went, the heavier the air turned and the darker the sights became.
At the end of the corridor was a stairway carved out of stone. It led underground.
Noa unhesitatingly took a step forward, and the darkness, as if to welcome him, vanished. With every step he took, a lamp on the wall lit itself.
At the end of the staircase was a stone door. There, Noa spent some time checking his gear and potions.
"Are you ready, boys?" Noala asked. "Let’s fight this damn boss."
He opened the door and waltzed in.
But no one was there.
What greeted him was a vast cave with an island besieged by water from four sides.
A gray tree stood by its lonesome in the middle of the protruding land. Graced by the silver light sneaking in from the skylight, it looked divine.
The drenched path towards it was littered with blue grass and pink flowers. Enthralled, Noa walked towards the tree in a daze.
Standing in front of it, he marvelled at the sight.
And as he extended his arm, before he could touch it, terror washed over him. His instincts screamed at him to escape.
Noala’s controller began vibrating strongly.
"Stop. The battery is already low, damn it!"
The vibrations intensified as Noa’s instincts warned him to dodge.
He began seeing the world in red as if a filter had been placed over his eyes.
With a successful quick time event, Noa rolled to his left, barely avoiding the red blade that had pierced the space where he had stood moments ago.
He was terrified. He hadn’t heard a single sound until he was ambushed. And if not for his instincts, he would have died without even understanding how.
Regardless, his health bar had lost twenty percent of his total health.
Somehow, his arm had sustained a not-so-minor injury. He had lost some flesh, and he was losing blood.
"Bleed? This guy applied bleed even though I dodged perfectly? And why is it still vibrating?"
Noa took a potion out of his bag and drank it in one large gulp. It managed to stop the bleeding.
Noa’s wary eyes turned to the figure holding the blade.
He was covered from head to toe in black metal armor, and being dragged behind was a glaive scratching the ground. Its red sheen was shining on the surface of the water.
"What is that, a polearm?"
The controller continued vibrating for a good two minutes as the mysterious figure and Noa stared at each other.
Noala wondered if the controller was malfunctioning. So, he turned it off and on multiple times. But nothing changed.
The weight of the vibrations felt heavier by the moment, and something about the figure staring at him through the monitor felt eerie and horrific.
They were overwhelmed, both the player and his character.
Allaryx hadn’t spoken a word, but the water dripping down from the slits of his helmet and joints of his armor was enough to introduce the tenacity of his character.
- Was he hiding in the lake?
- Goddamn, he is cool.
- He can dress. He can intimidate. But can he pee his pants like Noala?
Music, accompanied by the screams of Allaryx’s victims, played over the screech of his glaive.
The boss battle had begun.