Aidan wandered aimlessly. Of course, he had a destination but his feet carried him here and there. Some people he half-recognized tried to greet him. He stared at them uncomprehendingly, blurting out ridiculous reasons why he did haven’t a moment to spare.

“Sorry. I left my wife on the oven.”

“I have to go. I’m glad you’re doing well Schulia. I promised Amelia I would pick up some flowers for our bathroom.”

“Shade, Sen. You look good. Excited! Did you have a good day? Good! AA Finals today, or ten minutes ago. If you hurry you can…something something.”

Sen blinked at him once and he turned away, stumbling and staggering without finishing.

Shade frowned at her. “Drunk?”

“I guess. He didn’t strike me as the type, but I guess as long as Amelia is around to keep him in check, it doesn’t matter.” The comment did not escape him as he stumbled away. They both were chuckling. “What’s the deal with guild chat? It’s so hectic today.”

Yes. Amelia would fix everything.

At last, he reached his destination. He stared at the old woman who was forming a pot that looked to him like every other. “Zaeryl.”

Something in his voice must have startled her because the pot began to deform. She scowled at him. “What is your mood? Can’t you see some of us are trying to earn an honest liv-...” Her voice faded. “Child. What has happened? You carry death with you after so long?”

“Death? So long? So you are Peligree, right? Peligree? Help me.” Aidan sank to his knees in front of her. Dry sobs racked his body and it was only moments before those muddied hands covered him and pulled him close. “Took her. They took her. It’s not fair. I was being good.”

“Oh Aidan. What happened?” She patted his face and held him. He couldn’t cry, but that didn’t mean he could catch his breath.

“I need your strength,” Aidan said after he finally caught his breath. It had seemed like ages.

Zaeryl dropped his hand as he took a deep breath and lifted his head, his voice frightening her.

“I need it. Give it to me.”

Aidan opened his eyes as he lay in the field. The acrid scent of burning and smoke. So very close to the actual smell. There was still the missing feeling of the stink of it coiling around his nose hairs. The slight feeling that something was amiss with the sensation provided by the chip and the associated Lost Sojourn gear. The field was a vibrant green, the sky a mocking beautiful blue. Birds chirped in the distance, playing in and out of the grass as just another day in virtual paradise wandered toward the future aimlessly.

Centered in the middle of the blue heavens giving truth to the lie was a system message.

Server Shutting Down 14:30

Thank You For Your Patience, Please Log Out At Earliest Convenience. We Appreciate Your Understanding.

Server Shutting Down 14:25

Thank You For Your Patience, Please Log Out At Earliest Convenience. We Appreciate Your Understanding.

An endless, mocking repetition.

Above his head his health bar pulsed unhealthy green. The final explosion had still coated him in acid and would persist for fifteen minutes, ticking away about 12% of his life a second with cold math. Ironically, the duration of the poison coinciding with the final server shutdown.

“This is the final countdown… Do do dooo doo… Do do do do dooo.”

Don’t you have an antidote?

“Do I? I don’t feel like I need it.”

Aggravating as it was to see the green bar and the health lost notifications ticking down, it wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was that his out of combat regeneration was just barely ticking up past poison damage. He would… survive.

“Go on now go… walk out that door...” Aidan sang aimlessly.

Another long and unfortunate second came and went.

“I’ll just… log out then?” Aidan giggled in the grassy field, spreading his arms as the enormity of what had just happened slowly crushed down on him. His arms moved up and down, pressing and breaking the perfect virtual grass near the base of the soil. Up and down making a faux snow angel in the field grass, a field angel. When his arms stopped moving moments later it was only a few seconds before the grass once again straightened around him. He suspected it had regenerated under him and immediately been crushed once more under his avatar. The world was nothing if not stupidly efficient.

Server Shutting Down 14:15

Time dilation was one of those things he had dreamed about growing up. It was kind of a weird thought but it felt like he was undergoing time dilation now. His senses were spread out as he watched each second of the server shutdown counter tick down. It felt like he aged a year every time it ticked down. After the hours spent fighting the final boss, wasn’t he supposed to just be tired? Wasn’t this supposed to be a victorious moment? Wasn’t this the point where all his hard work, sacrifice, and unwavering dedication were rewarded? Instead, every second that passed felt like a physical blow against his body that took ages to arrive. Even the small loot box near his head was patiently waiting for his attention. Attention that he couldn’t really be damned to give.

[Endless Heroic Class Weapon - Ascalon] - First EndGame Tier Weapon Rewarded. Generating Special Guild and Clan Abilities based on Community, The Order of White. Please select reward to loot and generate special abilities and stats for weapon.

As the first players to kill the World Boss, please insert a request that will be reviewed by moderators. Examples include suggestions for future wishlists, campaigns, events, special one-time commemorative reward-

“Time dilation blows.” Aidan sighed and slowly sat up.

“What do you do for fourteen minutes while the world dies?” As much as he wanted to close his eyes and wait for the end his brain was making it impossible.

It was probably impossible because Rave-

Stop.

“I feel like I’m in a field outside of… that place!” Aidan smiled, momentarily disgruntled to discover he couldn’t remember the name of the town, and slowly pushed himself to his feet. Sure enough there was a road, small and winding with the occasional iconic rock to show it was made of dirt. The rocks were scattered intermittently down the road. Maybe they were put there so that certain wagons would have big bumps in their journey to give people something to talk about?

“My, this road sure is bumpy!” Aidan laughed to himself, imagining the conversation between people just going about their business in the back of a wagon.

Pointless. Get in a wagon now and no one would be there anyway. You’re talking to yourself now, which is pathetic. As pathetic as it is, it is better than the truth. The truth that even if you got in that wagon you’ll never hear Forsy-.

Stop.

Server Shutting Down 14-

I said stop.

Aidan picked up his staff and brushed off his robes. He hit the accept button for Ascalon and then threw it in his inventory without looking at it. There was something wrong with looking at it now even though he was pretty curious about it. He frowned and stopped for a moment, almost reaching for it again. Why wasn’t he-

Go ahead and see what a loot stick looks like. Instead of tokens or contribution points, it just cost two of your fri-

Stop.

He would worry about the staff later, he decided! Aidan smiled and started toward the town. Skipping there with big steps and leaps and bounds. Falling a few times and rolling, somersaulting, tumbling through the grass. Despite his dallying, he was making remarkably good time. His movement speed was so damn robust now.

“I am like the fittest mage in the world,” he concluded. “I can run for days.”

No need.

“I could though.”

No more.

“Why not? I think I’ll run now! For like three days just to spite me.”

I’ve enough spite for me already.

There was now a path he was running through, though it took him a moment to figure it out. There were people on either side of him standing almost like an honor guard. Did he recognize some of them? Most of them! They stood silently with various expressions on their faces. Above their heads were their names and their community affiliations. Many of them Aidan didn’t know, or at least had never bothered to remember because they weren’t important. Many of them read ‘The Order of White,’ which gave him pause because that was his community affiliation too? He was pretty sure… yep, a quick look indicated that he was alone in his community channel.

“Hello, hello…” He waved and smiled at the nice phantoms anyway.

Phantoms. Hah.

Stop.

“They seem friendly!”

Small kindness.

“That’s pretty… pretty…”

Sarcastically invective?

“I’m not sure you can put those two words together…”

I can try something else. I’ve many opprobrious things to mention.

“...you’re kind of an asshole.”

I get that a lot.

As much as he was enjoying the sort of weirdly royal pathway of knights the phantoms had been making for him there was something about the last two phantoms in the row that seemed a bit off. One of them was looking a little too serious and the other one… the other one was practically a little girl. Her eyes said that she was old enough but the rest of her, sloppy smile, single arm, huge sword -- spoke of an immaturity tha-

That’s Raven.

Aidan frowned, “no, it isn’t. Raven isn’t a phantom.”

Server Shutting Down 13-

Stop.

Which makes the other one For-

“Stop.”

Figured it out?

“Figured what out?” Aidan nodded and did a half bow to the sweet little girl with the big sword and then gave a short nod to the serious looking man. There was something about him that made Aidan want to draw on his face with a sharpee. The only reason he didn’t? He suspected it would just lead to a beating.

Also, there isn’t a sharpee.

“Well said.”

“Aidan…” a woman’s voice. It was comfortable and familiar and immediately made him feel relief. Finally, a voice that didn’t sound so much like a prick.

“Oh, hello!” Aidan looked up to see a small congregation of people in front of the edge of town. The buildings behind them were all one-story tall, the kind of crumbling adobe mud architecture that seemed prevalent on the grass plains. The mud or clay that was used was a strange yellow color. The town itself looked so much like one of those old show story towns where people wore the large cattle and cowboy hats and spit when they talked. He half-expected most of them to be cattle hands or cowboys. Instead, they were mostly tradesmen and women, mages, a few warriors -- some of them even looked classless.

Aidan frowned. What were all these fantasy people doing in a spaghetti western?

“I can play along anyway,” Aidan decided aloud. “Howdy pards!”

“Aidan,” the voice again. The woman was tall and thin. Her high cheekbones and clear eyes making her, in his humble opinion, an outstanding beauty. Despite that there was concern in her eyes as she looked behind her a few times, as if gauging the mood of the crowd. “You should go, Aidan. Just go.”

“I just got here, little lady,” Aidan winked at her and gave his best John Wayne. “What’s say we head to the saloon and talk it over.” His face flattened for a moment as he considered the buildings behind them. “...do you have a saloon?”

I doubt they have indoor plumbing.

“Good thing I haven’t had to go to the bathroom in months, hah!”

Nice.

“Thank you.”

The woman was frowning and Aidan immediately felt bad. He shouldn’t have been ignoring Peligree. She had helped them when they were gathering potion ingredients. Despite her rather humble European supermodel looks -- she was an outstanding alchemist.

Them.

“What?” Aidan muttered distractedly out the side of his mouth.

She had helped them… she had helped us…

“Us?”

“Go away, Devil.” A rock bounced off his forehead while he was glancing to the side and having his chat.

Devil! Hah!

“Oh wow, at least you’re not like a little girl or something.” Aidan looked back to see who had thrown a rock at him, half-expecting it to be some sort of peasant child. Instead, a middle aged woman was staring at him with burning eyes. Her cheeks and jowls moving slightly in great emotion. The hatred burned bright in her eyes.

Their eyes.

“Oh, right. Their eyes.” Aidan noticed it now. Peligree standing slightly in front of the group but apart from. The nervous looks she was giving. The way they had stopped him outside of town. It was forty meters to the safe line where no fighting could occur. Aidan felt his voice hardening slightly. “Normally, I’d ask you if you wanted to take this outside…”

The rock had momentarily halted his out of combat regeneration. 36% of his health ticked down before out of combat generation kicked back in. It was only seconds before it topped him off again.

That world boss poison is no joke. If they hadn-

Stop.

“You’ve killed us,” someone behind the woman whispered. Aidan was having a hard time figuring out who it was. The phantoms were back and they were all standing behind the small angry mob.

“You look pretty spry for a corpse,” Aidan muttered.

It was like a floodgate had been opened. At first, they had stood in angry silence but his muttered comment had angered one or two people enough to start yelling angrily, and then as if by unspoken agreement everyone seemed like they wanted to get a word in edgewise. The yelling grew louder as people began talking over themselves to be heard. Terrible things were said and people said them fast and loud as if they wanted to be the first to say whatever horrible thing popped into their mind. Like they wanted credit for hurting him.

“--a family! I hope at least that someday we’d make it… but now!”

Server Shutting Down 12-

“Self-important #%@! you @#&^. Your moth-”

Squelching is weird. Thank goodness for profanity filters though.

“Probably not the best time,” Aidan said softly with a smile, appreciating the humor within the storm of insults.

“Go kill yourself!”

“Go off, we don’t want you here when it comes. Go die alone!”

Aidan frowned at that but let it go. How many times had he heard that sort of thing in his travels? “You are human.”

It’s a rule. Humans said things they didn’t mean, said things they regretted, and hurt people when they were hurt.

Raven always had so much trouble with that rule.

Aidan was distracted enough that he let that pass, too.

Peligree moved forward and stood in front of him, carefully placing herself between him and the angry people and took his hands. Despite the fact, he was just standing there making no move to defend himself and no one was throwing rocks or attacking him, it seemed she was trying to partially shield him with her body.

“Aidan?” Peligree lifted his hands and moved her head down slightly to look into his eyes. “Can you hear me?”

We’re not death.

“...deaf.” Aidan corrected despite himself. He looked up at Peligree, having trouble focusing on everything that was going on.

“Where are Raven and Forsythe?” She asked.

“Where are they?” Repeated it a few times and looked around.

Who?

Aidan looked behind him expecting that the momentary confusion would pass because they’d be standing behind him.

“Probably dead! He probably killed th--”

It was the woman again. This time though, she stopped. They all stopped. The yelling, the cursing, the screaming. She stopped because Aidan held the small little classless woman about a foot off the ground with his hand around her throat. He was a mage and his stats weren’t enough to overpower people, not really. People? Strange. Was that what this person was?

Aidan leaned down and looked at her face. The closer he got with his inquisitive eyes the more afraid she seemed to grow. Was that… people? He could crush this thing with his bare hands, a feat he wasn’t capable of against other people with more physical oriented classes. Maybe not even capable of it -- hand to hand that is -- against other magical class oriented humans. Didn’t that mean it… wasn’t a human? Was this an NPC?

A hand appeared on his arm. Peligree pushed down a little bit, straining slightly to get his arm to start to lower. Lower it did, as Aidan looked at Peligree in confusion. He looked behind him again, startled to discover that he had moved very quickly and didn’t remember removing his hands from hers the first time.

“Aidan…” Peligree tried again, but she stopped. Her mouth was open in an approximation of exasperation, confusion, horror…

He followed her gaze.

Server Shutting Down 10:28

She is trying to help you, but even she thinks it is pointless. Look at them. They think they’re all going to die.

“Hahaha!” Aidan started laughing and released the woman completely. He pulled his arm away from Peligree and turned his back. Everything slammed into place. He had been trying to remind himself that his friends had just died for him but he hadn’t been ready.

Aidan… hadn’t been ready.

It was… a good punishment game.

“They’re dead.” Aidan said, patting Peligree on the shoulder. In the place of confusion and manic movement was now calmness. Aidan smiled slightly, his eyes tightening as he realized Peligree was pulling away from him because he was more frightening this way. “They got me good.”

“Good rid--”

“--I have never in my entire life wanted to kill someone with a stick before, so please stop talking!” Aidan interrupted the woman, honestly afraid he would just start hitting her with his staff and not be able to stop.

“Despite your well-wishes and kindness, your gratitude will have to remain unspoken! Please save it for your sweet words for your children! When you see them, tell them something for me.”

Aidan lowered his head and whispered. “--tell them when you woke up, you were ashamed of yourself.”

Silence met his words as she just gaped at him like a fish on land.

Aidan paused for a moment, uncertainty playing in his eyes. “I mean, if you have children. Don’t just tell any child that. Especially, if they are not yours. Your husband? No? Yes? Hello?” He waved his hands up and down in front of the mute woman and then gave up. Maybe she was an NPC.

Things to do. Right!

“I am … not very pleased with how things turned out, and as we all know I get what I want! So! Things!” Aidan turned to Peligree and made a few gestures as he navigated his menus with lightning speed. “Here’s Ascalon! Super cool right? I don’t want it, please take it.”

“Can I take this thing?” Peligree was baffled as she looked at the trade notification and tried to understand what he was giving her. Wouldn’t this sort of thing be bound to a person?

“It wasn’t really supposed to exist so, like everything, they half-assed it!” Aidan pressed accept and after a second, two seconds, he snapped at her, “hurry the hell up.”

Trade Accepted.

“Good. Nice. Great.” Aidan raked his hands through his hair.

Server Shutting Down 7-

“Yes, yes, seven minutes until blah blah blah…” he muttered. He turned to the other window he had left open. The one about requests. He was looking around at the people again, half-tempted to ask them if they had any requests for future content. The ghost of a smile on his face as he imagined their reactions.

“Well… I have a request then.” Aidan activated the window and then spoke his request, hitting accept and dismissing the box.

The people were staring at him. Moments ago they had seemed large and hateful, but now to Aidan they seemed small, disillusioned, pathetic.

“I could just wipe you all out, save you the wait?” Aidan smiled slightly.

“Aidan…” Peligree whispered as everyone started to back up.

“No sense of humor. Besides, that would be too easy. Me!? Kill my friends? Them? Deserve it? You should all…” Aidan closed his eyes, voice trembling near the end. He opened them again when he was certain he had control of his voice. Thank god that he couldn’t cry here.

“You should all be ashamed of yourselves. I should attack you and let you kill me so when you wake up you’ll have my murder on your heads,” Aidan put a finger to his lips as he considered. “That’s super easy though, isn’t it? You can rationalize your way out of it. Self-defense or something.”

The uncomfortable silence continued as everyone moved around uneasily. They had been angry and violent before. Why was the concept of violence so horrifying now. What if… they did wake up?

“I suppose I could just lecture you for the remaining time, but honestly I suck at speeches. This is probably already boring the masses.” Aidan took the finger away from his lips and tapped his temple. “I know!”

He leaned down and picked up several rocks. “Let’s go with the worst thing I can think of to do to you. I mean, despite everything we’ve done for you. Despite all the sacrifice. Despite all the lies. Despite the army of ghosts lined up behind you… You refuse to see. I guess I’m not surprised.”

Aidan rolled several small rocks between his fingers and considered them.

He flicked a rock at the woman who had first struck him. It bounced off harmlessly, confusing her as it hit the ground in front of her. The small jump of shock having been a reaction to being suddenly pegged by a rock.

“I curse you. All of you.”

He threw another rock smacking someone who had said at some point that Raven and Forsythe had deserved what they got. The rock bounced off his chest as he scrunched up his face, trying to figure out what the point of this was.

“Aidan don-”

“You’re cool!” Aidan waved his free hand dismissively at Peligree.

“Curse you…” the man who had said good riddance.

“...curse you!” the man who had said awful things about his mother. She’d been a pretty stand up gal for all her troubles.

“...definitely curse you,” smacking the woman in the nose who had just spent the entire time calling Peligree horrible things while she tried to talk to Aidan.

Aidan skipped the people who had just been standing around looking miserable. He didn’t have all day, after all.

In fact, he had barely got half-down cursing when the end result was achieved.

[You died.]

[Last Combat Log Entry]

[In combat regeneration 1% per 3 seconds]

[Poison tick 12% per 3 seconds]

[-6%/100%]

There was just the darkness. A shame he couldn’t have seen their faces. Peligree had understood what he was doing from the start but didn’t know how to stop him. The others? Who knew? They seemed pretty stupid.

Ahh. Darkness my old frie-

“Ah crap, look who showed up?” Raven frowned at him.

“Unfortunate,” Forsythe agreed.

“Is that any way to greet your valiant leader?”

“Valiant…” Forsythe was grimacing like he did when he was eating the awful food you bought from street vendors in the game. Regardless of his expression he moved up to Aidan and put an arm around him.

“What’d the boss drop?” Raven moved into the space between them and pushed her way into the embrace.

“A dragon mount. A fire breathing dragon mount.”

“No way!” Raven’s face underwent several changes. “I know you’re lying but let’s pretend you’re not.”

“Okay.”

They stood together enjoying the nearness as the server shut down. It wasn’t very long.

Darkness again. This time there was a sort of slipping feeling. Like the moment before sleep when everything was warm and dreams were a heartbeat away.

Checking…

Complete.

Handshaking…

Strong.

Initializing Aspiration Online Authentication...

Viewing Request: “Send me to the people I love.”

...Completing Authentication.

...Confirming Request.