Jade
Skeletons attacked me from all sides, faster than my body could react, coming from so many directions that I had no escape.
No. No! Just when I was starting to have fun, just when I was managing to reconnect with him!
"Watch out!" my brother's avatar shouted, appearing out of nowhere; he shattered a trio of monsters with one hand while shoving me out of harm's way with the other.
"Legiano...!" I smiled, clutching my chest. "You were so cool just now! You looked like a total badass protagonist!"
"Really?" he asked, furrowing his brows while blushing at the same time. "Gah!" he grunted as a skeleton struck him on the head.
Back in the fight, Legiano swung his mace left and right, smashing his enemies to pieces. I backed him up with my own giant wrench, along with explosive RC cars and helicopters, though I didn't deal as much damage as my brother, since we were inevitably reaching the point in the game where proceeding without a specific class put me at a serious disadvantage.
A few minutes later, however, we had dealt with the monsters, or at least, the ones in the immediate vicinity.
"Zombies." We peered through a window crack, hiding inside a house. "All the NPCs and players killed by the skeletons are rising again and joining the undead army," Legiano pointed out. "It has to be her doing!"
"M-Maybe it's an event? There's no way to know for sure yet."
"No, I have no doubt: Vinea did this. Everything she gets involved in descends into total chaos, it happened in Rearguard, in Meicaminho, and it's happening right here."
"So, what do you want to do?"
"Let's go find the source of these undead; that's likely where she is."
"Wait. Even if that's the case, she's already strong enough to wreak such havoc on the empire's capital, do you really think you have what it takes to kill her?"
Legiano lowered his head and closed his eyes.
"It's true; my sister is far more amazing than I am, and under normal circumstances, I could never even dream of defeating her." He opened his eyes, looking determined. "But this world is different. Here, in this game, I can do it! I can surpass her and show her the error of her ways!"
"The way you put it, it almost sounds like you admire her," I remarked, toying with a lock of my brown hair.
Surprisingly, my brother's avatar smiled.
"I do. A lot of people admire her, but I do so in a special way. I was never anything more than her mere shadow, but... perhaps I was happier in that position than I realized. My sister is the most amazing woman I know, and that's exactly why I have to defeat her! I can't stand watching her self-destruct the way she has been."
GUUUUHH?! If he keeps saying things like that, I won't be able to keep up this disguise! Keep being cute like that, and I'll show you exactly how rotten your sister can be, you damn hottie!
"Anelise, are you okay?"
"Y-Yeah, I am. It's just getting a little hot in here. It must be all the fires around us," I explained, walking past Legiano. "Let's hurry up and kill this girl, I'm starting to get jealous after that whole 'siscon' speech!"
"S-Siscon?! That's not what I- Hey! Wait!"
We set off, sneaking across the rooftops to avoid combat as we ventured deeper into the ranks of the undead army.
▲○X■
We encountered other players enjoying the "event", some aiding the NPC Imperial forces in counterattacking the undead, others fighting alongside the zombies and skeletons while wearing skull masks. The deeper we ventured into the chaos, moving always away from the Imperial Palace, the stronger the monsters became, the denser the enemy horde grew, and the harder it was to stay hidden.
Eventually, we reached the edge of the city where it met the jungle; there were no more rooftops to leap across or sewers to sneak through. Legiano might have been able to press on, concealed by the undergrowth, but I doubted I could do the same, and judging by the look on my brother's face, he felt the same way.
No matter; I'd seen enough to get a rough idea of what was going on here.
"Anelise, you wait here and-"
"Look!" I interrupted Legiano, pointing at a skeleton mage herding a group of prisoners into the forest. "He must be taking the prisoners to his headquarters. Maybe we could use that to our advantage?"
"…What do you suggest?"
▲○X■
"Hahaha!" I laughed, kicking my brother's avatar, bound by ropes, toward the forest. "Move, prisoner! Move!"
"Raah! What are you doing, you living worm?!" The skeletal mage glared at me with eye sockets filled only with supernatural light; he didn't attack immediately only because I was wearing the skull mask of the traitorous players, but he didn't look exactly friendly, either.
"The same thing as you, what else?" I replied, approaching the skeleton mage under the icy gaze of hundreds of undead surrounding us. Just before I reached him, however, the monster pointed his staff at my throat, and I felt it slowly draining the warmth from my body.
"Your pathetic offerings must be left with the Reaper to the east. Prove yourself incapable of following even these simple instructions one more time, and you will join the army of the dead as an enslaved corpse," the monster warned.
"Servant of Veiga, oppose Vinea once more, and I will make your immortal soul experience an eternity of horrors beyond your comprehension," I whispered, so only the mage could hear.
"VINE—?!" he repeated, but I cut him off.
"Shh! The fool I brought as a 'hostage' thinks I'm taking him to Veiga to kill him and put an end to this. It is imperative that he doesn't realize who I am."
"U-Understood, my lady. My master warned that you would come. Please forgive my rude treatment earlier, and what follows..." the skeleton whispered cordially. Then, he shouted, "Move, you pathetic worm! The master awaits this sacrifice."
We were guided through the jungle and into the heart of the undead legion.
▲○X■
We passed by military tents made of human skin where high-level undead took shelter, bone cages holding prisoners, and pools of blood from which countless monsters kept emerging and marching toward the city.
Damn, that necromancer really exceeded my expectations... maybe a bit too much!
Soon, however, we arrived at what looked like a quarry, a massive pit in the white rock, containing a colossal tower in its center made of that same white material, carved into the shape of a skeletal giant.
"The Master awaits his sacrifice." The undead mage pointed to a lift on the colossus's back, a structure anchored there by hundreds of massive bolts. He added in a whisper, "I've already informed the Master of the situation; don't worry."
My twin brother and I stepped onto the lift alone.
"Huh. That was surprisingly easy," Legiano remarked.
"Well, it's just a game, after all," I replied.
"Ding!" A bell chimed as the bronze lift doors opened into a lavishly decorated room, secured to the colossal tower's shoulders by spikes, chains, and bolts.
"Master Veiga, I have brought you a sacrifice," I announced, winking at the necromancer seated on a throne before me.
"Oh? And what gift is worthy of such a visit?" The necromancer smiled.
"Master, this is none other than the hero who quelled the Rearguard mutiny, the very same who challenged you in your old dungeon. A pure soul of the [Martyr] [Class]. Consider this my coronation gift to you."
"...Coronation. Yes, it is about time, isn't it? Mmfu. Mfufu! Mmfufufu! Mmmfufufuhahaha!" He burst into laughter. He rose from his throne and walked out onto the balcony just as the candles atop his top hat began to burn intensely. "The time has come!" he announced; lightning illuminated the clouds overhead, and powerful winds forced the forest to bow before the necromancer in the tower.
My brother took a step forward, but I held him back:
"Not yet."
I had let him go, giving him instructions on how to thrive and sow chaos in the capital, because defeating him would have cost me far more than the bounty on his head was worth; it was nothing more than an investment. It would be a shame if all my effort went to waste.
"Why not?" Legiano whispered back, annoyed.
"He's the final boss; naturally, he has an ace up his sleeve. We need to know what it is."
Well, I already knew exactly what it was, but I needed the empire to see it with their own eyes.
Then, the ground beneath our feet began to tremble. And the massive white tower, that giant made of lime, of "bone dust", began to move.
"The time has come! To annihilate these infidels!" the necromancer shouted. "Mmfufuhaha!"
"W-What?!" Legiano's eyes widened. The eyes of every player and NPC in the capital widened. "How?!"
O-Okay, I didn't expect him to get that strong...
"How?" The necromancer smiled at Legiano. "Simple: I was chosen, of course!"
"Chosen...?"
"Exactly. Chosen by mysterious, higher forces to survive your attack last time. Chosen to find this location and the massive shell mound that once stood here. Chosen to be enlightened to the possibility of using its lime as a source of death energy, a concept that had never crossed my mind." The boss paced back and forth in front of Legiano, explaining as his lime colossus approached the imperial palace. "The thousands who died suddenly due to a lack of transplant prosthetics, I'm certain that was all part of the plan!"
I took the opportunity to make a few quick preparations.
"The train raiders?! That mysterious force... It couldn't be... a woman, could it?!"
"...Mmfufu. Yes, she takes the form of a mortal woman, but I suspect such darkness couldn't be contained within such a simple vessel. No, even I don't know exactly how deep the layers of deception and shadow go with that thing. You wouldn't understand the scale of her influence unless you saw it, Mr. Defeated Hero... A map of every sewer tunnel, the routes taken by various groups of settlers and imperial guards, a plan so incredibly detailed just to put me in this position."
"Vinea...!" Legiano growled.
"Judging by your expression... Is she your rival? Mmfufu. I see. Even when I think I'm being cautious enough, that creature's cruelty continues to surprise me."
"Cautious?" I asked, crossing my arms.
"...Yes." "As the future emperor of Vanguard, it is my duty to make a point of exterminating the usurper who now sits upon my throne, the false priests who preach of lesser gods, and also..." He turned toward me with a maniacal grin, purple lightning crackling from his gnarled fingers: "Unpredictable threats!"
"BOOM!" Before he could cast his spell, I detonated the charges I had planted on the chains supporting the necromancer's headquarters atop the colossus of lime; the entire structure lurched forward, and while Legiano remained trapped by the ropes binding him to a pillar, the necromancer and I were flung from the balcony into freefall.
"Really? Some explosives and a little tumble? I expected more from you, Miss 'Mastermind'..." The necromancer smiled, conjuring a series of translucent purple barriers between us as skeletal wings sprouted from his back. "You've empowered me too much, Vinea; not even the Lumenraptor can pierce this barrier! There's no turning back now, and there is no need for two rulers of the shadows!"
"True," I smiled, dropping my disguise for just an instant to reveal my avatar's true feline form; shrouded in the dust of the explosions, no one but the necromancer would see me that way. And he went pale. "There is no need for two rulers."
"Whoosh!" The remote-controlled helicopter flying below fired the Lumenraptor relic into the necromancer's back.
"Gaaargh!" he roared, his body instantly erupting in pineapple-yellow flames. "You wretch...!" Gritting his teeth, however, the enemy not only withstood the hit but saw his transformation advance; bone armor began to cover half his body.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" I asked, firing my grappling hook into the body of the lime-stone colossus.
"Damn it!" the boss shouted a split second before slamming hard into the ground. "Aargh... aah...!" He grunted, staggering away from the cloud of dust his body had kicked up upon impact; glowing red pixels bled from his entire body, with Lumenraptor still piercing his chest from behind and burning him with holy flames, yet he was still alive.
"Huh, maybe I actually helped you too much," I remarked.
"Mmfufuhaha! This is the end, Vinea!" the boss laughed, crushing the scope that was wounding him with both bone-clad hands and reducing it to rust. "I survived your tricks, and my colossus will soon crush that pathetic empress!"
"Is that so?"
"Click!" I pressed another button, and with a second series of detonations, the necromancer's headquarters tumbled from the colossus's shoulders.
"B-But what about your friend?!"
"He can handle himself."
Veiga used the last of his power to conjure a shield of blood, flesh, and bone, but tons of debris falling from such a height overwhelmed his weakened spell and his body in an almost anticlimactic fashion.
Game Over ☠
Peridot
I could hardly believe it when I saw the colossus of lime crumbling before my eyes like a sandcastle, nor when thousands of players and NPCs gathered around us to celebrate the end of the siege on the capital, and certainly not when we received a letter from the royal family inviting us to a celebration in our honor.