Lira disappeared with that final snapshot of memory. Her actual disappearance was far less of a spectacle than whole breaking apart light show that led up to it. It simply was like she had never existed at all.

There was no trace of her. All the brilliant red specks of magical energy that formed her were gone, and it was impossible even to sense any remnants of them anymore.

But while everyone else focused on where Lira had been, wondering about the seeker in some capacity, Li's mind wandered elsewhere. That crossbow, or whatever sliver of it that flashed in his eyes as he saw it in the most fleeting of instants was something he thought he recognized.

Its huge build colored black and speckled with glowing yellow like the night sky and the shining white tips of the crossbow bolts made it almost completely certain that it was the [Cosmic Blaster], a Celestial class item that represented the pinnacle of area of effect damage dealing ranged weapons.

But it was not the item alone that made Li wonder. It was who he knew that used it. That was the signature weapon of //BEAST//, his old friend and guildmate. Of course, he knew that the weapon was not entirely exclusive to her.

Celestial tier items were generally completely one of a kind to indicate their vast power and to reward the enormous struggles a player had to go through to obtain them, but the [Cosmic Blaster] was the sister weapon to the [Cosmic Piercer] that looked almost identical, the only difference being that the piercer was more specialized for single target damage.

Still, it was jarring to see that weapon.

It made Li think. Ponder on Lira's words.

She had mentioned traveling to other worlds. Different realities. He already acknowledged the possibility that there might have been other players in different versions of this world, and yet, this possibility weighed on him far, far heavier now that it became personal to him.

//BEAST// was one of Li's best friends. Along with Oceanmaster, they might as well have been his only two real friends. Two shining stars of genuine human connection among the sea of fake connections and corporate, money grubbing acquaintance making that seemed to dominate his life.

All the more ironic that he made his most genuine bonds across virtual screens, but perhaps the distance of the screens was what let them set aside any differences of distance or border or belief they had to connect.

Was //BEAST// on this world?

The world seemed so desolate. Completely destroyed and devoid of life. Whatever shining place that Lira went to in order to retrieve the Prometheas was not a place that had any real life in it, only remnants of power.

Then was she dead? The possibility seemed all too high.

But what if she was not?

Would he try and go to her? Reach out to her?

Certainly, he could try to make something work with his eldritch powers that could manipulate space and time, though as of now, he did not know how large a cost it would carve from himself to break those barriers of space time.

But, as he thought about it, the question arose: should he?

He remembered the last time had had ever seen her. Through five years of knowing each other, playing Elden World, bonding, getting to know each other, laughing, and crying and getting angry together, she had always been quiet about what her job was.

Then they knew.

A quiet day, it was supposed to be. On the eve of Arboretum's fifth anniversary where they along with the rest of the ninety-five guild members had just cleared an impressive dungeon. It was after the raid, when the original three founding members kicked back to talk.

There, she revealed she was a journalist. An investigative journalist that worked with one of the few free and independent papers in the world. She wanted to let her closest friends know because the day afterwards, she was going to travel to a mounting conflict in Southeast Asia where the new cold war between east and west had caused massive tensions involving a toppling regime and a rebel insurgency.

This was the most dangerous assignment she had ever undertaken, and she felt conflicted. For most of her career, she had spent her time with lower level corruption cases of which there were plenty. This was the first time she would cover something big.

Something real, she claimed. Her whole life, she wanted to make a change in this bleak world, and when she could not, when she did not have the courage to, she escaped to Elden World to feel like she did something big.

And now, she had the chance.

But she was afraid. She knew the danger, so she turned to her two closest friends to ask what she should do.

Should she go?

Oceanmaster had said no. It was nonsensical to risk her life for anything. Nothing was worth fighting for in this world. She might as well be happy with the game.

Li had told her to go. He knew she wanted to make a difference in the world in her own way, and he knew this was big for her. He knew what it felt like to lose sight of your dreams and become lost, and he did not want that for her.

The aftermath of that decision broke the guild apart. She never came online again. Oceanmaster quit from the guild and severed connections with Li. He took an extended leave of absence from being guildmaster.

Like dominos toppling, everything seemed to go wrong after that. Elden World started to stagnate, no new content developing and the game slowly falling behind its competitors. A few developer controversies made the player base bleed, and a year later, Li was left tending to a garden full of rare, hard won seeds like a gravetender taking care of tombstones.

"Papa?"

Li blinked and looked back down, snapping his mind back to the present. The here and now in a world so very far away from where his memories were. He saw Tia looking up at him with evident worry on her face.

"You okay, papa?"

"Of course. Just thinking," said Li as he put a hand on Tia's head.

"About what?"

Li glanced around to find the rest of the party looking at him, having moved past Lira's disappearance to see whether he was okay.

No, he realized. His place was here. Right here in this world he had chosen to protect. When all was said and done, order realized and balance restored, then he would entertain bridging any gaps in his past.

For now, there was so much in the here and now. So many lives and hopes relying on him.

"Nothing much," said Li, a little loud to make sure everybody heard. He smiled and whisked Tia off her feet, putting her on his shoulder. Her ruby necklace glinted red in the night, lighting up her toothy smile in a faint shade of crimson.

"All of you, get some sleep. It is late, and I want to move soon after first daybreak," said Li. "I want to reach the Shibboleth by afternoon tomorrow. It is about time we reached the western continent."