Well, it seemed like I had two weeks to get my shit together and become something that could survive on a massive battlefield. No pressure… I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, thinking over my options on how exactly I was supposed to gain enough levels to be a viable factor in the coming war. A few ideas ran through my mind, some of the events having coincided with my current plans anyway so not all was lost. I had hope yet that some of my other plans would fall in line, and my new scythe gave me the idea that I might have been on the right track at least. For the time being, I was happy that I was at least not kicked out of the faction and actually got a nice promotion to boot.

Vermund looked me over critically, his thoughts hidden behind an impassive mask. “You have your orders for House Tyrith. Even if you are currently too weak to truly help out, I know of a few places that might do the trick of increasing your power base.” He shuffled around the maps on his desk until he found the one he was searching for. Pulling the paper out of a stack, he extended it towards me. I took it, then watched as it vanished to add on to my map interface as two new markers towards the north closer to the central province. “Take that and don’t let us down. We shall see how dedicated you are in two weeks. Now scram… I have a lot of work to do tonight before I can get any rest.” As per his usual routine, the Captain ignored us from then on, looking his maps over as another officer came into the building to speak with the large man.

I waved at Archie and Kayla, then headed out of the building with them right on my heels. Once outside, I headed towards the closest tavern. “Well, that went a bit differently than what I was hoping. I think we can work with this turn of events though.” I opened up my map and checked the new points that were marked. Both looked to be dungeons of some kind, probably instanced areas that we could level up without any unexpected problems arising.

Archie, ever the analyst of our group, looked over the locations and raised a hand as if to adjust his glasses. “Oh we can definitely work with this. Do you know what these are?” He glanced between myself and Kayla, then saw we had no idea where he was going with this. “Guys, these are both instances that haven’t been cleared yet… Ever. Did you not read that the first group to clear an instance gets insanely increased rewards? The experience and gear are both boosted for the first clear of a dungeon, and we just got two freebies marked on our maps to take advantage of!” That did indeed change things slightly. Now we had to rush to clear these dungeons before anyone watching our streams could find them first. Thankfully the streams were only live feeds, and couldn’t be played back so the markers could be studied.

I grinned at my friends and spotted a tavern just ahead, the light and music inside being the most inviting sight I had seen all day. “Alright. We have a little time left tonight to get Aly a drink, then we will get some sleep. I have a few things to do in the morning and then we can get on the road to the first of these dungeons. Archie, see what info you can get on these places so we can prepare properly. Would hate to lose time by failing to clear them.” Aly cheered at my mention of getting her a drink, the little lush was really starting to show her true alcoholic nature… I couldn’t really blame her though, the drinks in the game really did taste amazing even if I couldn’t get drunk off of them.

“Well, Celeste and I don’t really care for the food and drink here, so I am going to take off first. You guys check your pers-coms when you log out.” She gave both Archie and myself a pointed look, not looking away until we each gave her a nod of agreement. “Great. Goodnight Fallon, Aly and Celeste.” Not bothering to sit in a chair, Kayla just stood to the side of the door for the thirty second log out period. Archie joined me at a table to get a drink, and we passed the last hour of the night in game chatting about old games and fights in fond remembrance. The talk served to highlight our previous fame for the stream viewers as well as pleasantly pass the time with pleasant conversation and laughs. In short order, we were both tired enough to call it a night and bid goodnight to our Fairies before logging out for the night.

Back in the ready room, the glaring white box was really starting to irk me in its blandness. Grumbling to myself, I finally gave in and spent the next twenty minutes playing around with the settings to add in features to the area that made it homelier. A large beanbag chair went into the middle of the floor on top of a tan carpet, the walls changed to a deep blue color and several hanging lights dotted the ceiling. Along one of the side walls I put in a huge window that showed shifting landscapes that changed every thirty seconds. Good enough. With that done, I went over to the log out console and returned fully to the real world.

Stretching out my muscles, I walked into the main room of my apartment and yawned before checking my pers-com as Kayla had insisted. A message was waiting for me saying to meet Kayla in her room once I had logged out. I sighed at the prospect of another meeting about what needed to be done in the game so soon, but headed out of my room all the same to knock on Kayla’s door.

She opened up almost right away, her irritated expression telling me I was in hot water. “Took you long enough! Get in here…” She grabbed my arm and practically dragged me into her room, shutting the door behind me. Inside, Archie was already sitting on a chair with a beer in one hand while the other manipulated AR screens. “Have a seat, I got an idea of what we are going to be facing and Archie has been adding in to my research.”

I raised a brow at her in curiosity. Kayla was never one who willingly did extra background work in the past if she could avoid it. She had always focused on her skills in the games and let others do the rest, and it had worked out well in our previous endeavors. “Okay… I am all ears, fill me in.” I did as I was told and sat down in the only other chair, Kayla sitting on her bed and folding her legs under her.

Picking up her own beer from the stand by her bed, Kayla took a sip before speaking. “When I logged out, I did some digging and made a few calls. Some of my friends are following the streams and I asked them if they had seen what was going on with the army marching towards us.” She chewed on her lip a moment, then dished up the bad news. “They did see what is coming, and it doesn’t look good… An army of five thousand soldiers is on the move, backed up by about four hundred players as well as the dragon himself. That dragon will be the biggest problem, I think. Level 100 divine ranked creature, he has some nasty abilities from what I have been told, though it all falls in line with your typical dragon boss. Breath attack, tail and claw, high defense… The biggest issue though is that it is a Divine being. It can use magic without a Fairy and he seems quite strong at it.”

That did seem to be a large issue, and not one easily overcome in the long run. Level 100 wasn’t that big of a deal when we had an army of level 50 plus soldiers, but the fact that he could hide behind his own army and rain magic down on our forces was going to suck. I frowned in thought, then looked over at Archie. “What are you estimating our forces will be? I know you have information I don’t, so give it to me.”

He smirked and adjusted his glasses then tapped an AR window before him. “In the grand scheme of things, the NPC counts will be roughly even between the two armies with our side actually having an advantage in that regard since not every soldier in the enemy province is marching. They have to leave some defenders, after all. I am estimating that a total army of about six thousand will be met by our forces of eight thousand, though we don’t have a dragon to back us up.” Draining his beer, Archie looked at me and raised a brow. “You still up to par on your RTS skills? I have never been that great at the application of tactics in them, even if I can break down all of the numbers…”

I grinned at him and nodded. “Yeah, I am sure I can still run the battle well enough with you backing me up. The hard part will be convincing the NPCs that I should be the one actually giving the orders for the battle instead of Vermund…” I tapped my chin, thinking that problem over but the answer eluded me. “Well, we will cross that bridge when it comes time. We have two weeks to get the details of both armies, then you get to have the fun task of breaking down the figures for me so I can handle deployment. I am thinking we make our way to the battlefield before we are summoned so we can get better information.”

“Agreed. That would be the best option, maybe get there a full day ahead of time so we can take control of things.” Archie nodded, and then looked over at Kayla. “I have an idea for you and me when it comes time for the actual battle. Think you will be up for some guerilla tactics with me during the fight?”

Kayla grinned wolfishly at him and winked. “Oh, you know I am always up for some hit and run devastation when it comes to large scale battles. Think you will be able to do enough damage in a short period of time to make it effective?” Her taunting tone made both Archie and me laugh. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the prospect of a huge battle was actually exciting and all three of us seemed to be looking forward to it.

“Alright, shelve that for now. Archie, what do you have on these two dungeons Vermund gave us? Were you able to dig up any information on them at all? We need to farm these locations for everything they are worth in order to level up and be effective in this battle.”

My friend shook his head at me sadly. “Unfortunately, no. As I mentioned, these are undiscovered dungeons thus far and we have no idea what we will be running into. I can guess some based on the locations, but that is all it would be and I have no confidence that it would be accurate so I would prefer to withhold my judgement on it.” He sighed and flipped through a few AR windows, looking at some information. “The game is still just too new. I found three groups who have managed to find and clear a single dungeon each, and they are rather interesting. The instances are variable in level, the mobs conforming to the average group level for the difficulty of the dungeon with the weakest mobs being the players level and then increasing as they go deeper.”

I nodded, making a mental note of that fact then asked a question that would possibly make or break my ideas. “How much experience did these groups get from the first clear, and what were the group comps?” The composition of the groups was going to be interesting to me. This was unlike any other game I had played, the Fairy system making it so that every role could be filled with half the number of people. Strategizing had become so much harder when you couldn’t judge a player by what his equipment was…

“Comps all looked standard, a tank, at least one Celestial Fairy, some DPS back up. Typical format so far, nothing is standing out to me. I did notice that no fewer than four players went into a dungeon with one group fielding ten players in the instance, so I am not seeing a high-end limit. I am seeing that the more players you bring, the harder the dungeon becomes. In theory, every dungeon could be a full raid if enough people group up for it I think.” I watched him pull up another AR screen, his fingers working the window to find what he was looking for. “As for rewards, the first clear groups each gained about three levels but failed to deal with the extra rewards boss after the final boss that counted towards the full clear. This last mob is a lot stronger than the final boss, and is supposed to give a ton of experience by itself as well as some extra goodies.” He flicked his finger over two windows, sending the screens to my own pers-com for me to view myself.

I checked over the info quickly, trusting Archie’s analysis of the fights and merely checking out the format of the instances. Of the three, there wasn’t a repeat of setting making all of them different in terms of design and mob style. The AI in the game probably made dozens of these dungeons, all of them unique in their own way so the experience would never become too repetitive to players. The average clear time was only an hour or so, but the groups had all noted that the instance could be reset after a clear in order to dive right back into it. That would make farming the places easy in that case, and I had to give a mental tip of my hat to the AI for that feature. Instance leveling was always a good option to have in a game, even if it wasn’t as fun as PvP in my opinion.

Kayla spoke up as I was reading, her voice sounding eager and excited. “Also, I would like to add that the full clear groups were going fairly slow. I was reading over the info while waiting for you Dale, and I saw that those who cleared them faster all got more rewards than the groups that went slower. I think the game is rewarding those players who complete the instance quickly in little ways. Nothing too extreme, but if you compare the total rewards per player in each group, you can see that the faster runs got slightly better results.”

This was apparently news to Archie, as he frowned and quickly got to work with his AR displays. “Wait, are you serious? How did I miss that?” He shook his head as he read, a sigh escaping him as he confirmed Kayla’s words. “She is right. Minor, but the experience is higher for the groups that had faster clear times. Nice touch.” He smiled, then hid a yawn behind a hand. “Well, I am done in for today. My armor will be done in the morning, as will Dale’s, so I am going to bed now.”

I rose from my chair with him and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, time to turn in for today. Let’s meet up in the morning at eight to get started. I have one more place I want to go while we are in the area, then we can head to the first dungeon to get to work.” We all said our goodnights and then Archie and I went to our own rooms to get some rest. There was a lot of work ahead of us with the end result still being up in the air. This battle could swing either way, and a lot depended on how much we could get done in the two week time frame.

* * * * *

Eight AM found myself and my friends back in the game and making stops all over town as we collected up our ordered gear. Archie got a new set of leathers similar to my old Grotto Guardian set but with better armor rating, while I got my new chainmail that gave me double the armor with a couple extra stat points to boot. Kayla didn’t get any new armor, hers being better than what this city had to offer, but all of us stocked up on potions while we were at it. The old alchemist also had my legendary quality elixir identified.

Potent Elixir of Advancement

This vial of highly rare liquid, when consumed, will allow the imbiber to learn from their experiences to a much greater degree for a limited time. The effects are limited but powerful, and may only be used once every 7 days.

Effect: Double all exp gains

Duration: 4 hours

Cooldown: 168 hours

That was a damn nice vial, but I had to time its use properly or it would go to waste. Perhaps during one of our dungeon runs in the coming couple days, but that would cause a bit of a discrepancy between my level and that of Archie and Kayla, so would probably be a bad idea… Oh well, the elixir wasn’t going anywhere, so I had time to figure out the best chance to use it.

As soon as our shopping and pick up trip was finished, I lead the way out of Tyrith city and off to the west into the woods with my friends and their Fairies following along. The wolves still tried to gnaw our faces off, despite being out leveled by a long shot. I even let one latch onto my arm to test out my new armor, the damage I received being the absolute minimum of one point to my HP. In opposition to that, the animal died with one hit from any of us which was expected at this level. Our travel path lead farther into the woods, heading to a location I had only been to once so far but remembered quite well.

It only took a half hour of hiking, but I grinned as we came upon a jut of rock sticking up from the ground, a dark opening descending down into the ground. “Alright guys, we are here. Come on down and check this place out, it is awesome!” Aly grinned and settled down on my shoulder as I carefully walked down the narrow path into the cave. She knew my plans without me having to say anything, as she knew exactly where we were.

“Oh, so pretty!” Kayla exclaimed as soon as we entered the tunnel lit by the fluorescent bulbs lining the walls and ceiling. Everything looked exactly as it had on my first visit, the bend in the tunnel just ahead veering off to the right which would lead to the Grotto of Tranquility.

“I know, right? This place is awesome. Come on, go ahead of me so you can get the full experience. Keep on down this path and there will be an opening into a cavern ahead. You guys are going to love this.” I stepped as close to the wall as I could and let them pass, an evil grin on my face as soon as they were beyond me and couldn’t see. I followed behind them down the tunnel where the pair froze in the opening to the Grotto itself, blocking the mouth of the tunnel. “Alright guys, have fun!” I placed a hand on each of their backs right between their shoulders and shoved them forward, then stepped back to clear the entrance.

Their exclamations of surprise were drowned out by the grating of the stone slab settling into place, locking them in and me out to my amusement. After the grinding and thud of the door sealing faded away, I heard both of them yelling through the stone as well as a few impacts as if they were beating on the door. Silence fell suddenly, then a single high pitched scream pierced through the stone. The sounds of a short battle were heard between fits of laughter from me, and even some from inside, until the noise faded and the door slid upwards once again.

Inside of the large cavern I saw Kayla laughing hard still, holding her sides with tears streaming down her face with her mirth. Curled up into a ball against the wall near the door was Archie, the source of the scream. For as long as I have known him, Archie had always been deathly afraid of snakes and this was an opportunity I couldn’t have passed up for a million dollars.

Kayla walked up to me and punched my arm lightly, her shoulders still shaking slightly with laughter. “That was epic. How did you know the snake was going to be here?” She continued past me, reaching down and forcibly standing him up on his feet. His face was pale, eyes wide as he franticly looked around in search of the source of his terror.

Seeing that the snake was gone, his eyes found me instead and his face twisted into a look of anger. Three deceptively swift strides, and suddenly my jaw was aching from the blur of his right hook that I knew was going to be coming but considered a worthy price to pay. “You son of a bitch… You knew that thing was in here and you shoved me into this hell hole anyway!” His face was flushed now, but seeing his Fairy laughing hard right alongside the still laughing Celeste made him go even brighter red.

I held up my hands in surrender, grin still locked in place. “Yes, I knew that it was in here. Consider it payback from that time in Steel and Sorcery when you locked me in that creepy ass maze full of zombie clowns.” That made Archie pause, his thoughts going back to that moment as a grin split his own face.

“Okay, fair point. We are even.” He brushed his clothes off from non-existent dust and turned towards the pool of water set below the trickle of the waterfall coming down from the opening near the ceiling. “So, why are we here anyway? Was it just so you can scar me for life with a giant snake?” He knelt down at the edge of the water and looked over the rippling surface. “Sure, it is nice here… But I am not seeing the…” he trailed off as his eyes caught the small forms emerging from the walls of the cavern.

I merely grinned at him as Aly flew up off my shoulder and darted towards one of the little caves dotting the walls. She dived into one, a squawk of surprise announcing the presence of Sarah still within. Both Fairies emerged from the cubby hole a moment later, the elderly Fairy Matriarch straightening her hair and clothes in a manner that said she was flustered by the sudden attack of affection from Aly. I turned back to Archie and grinned at him. “This is why I brought us here. Zexceed, Serena, meet Sarah. She is the one who is in charge of this Grotto and all of the Fairies here.” Both Fallon and Celeste flew up and offered a respectful greeting to the old Fairy, Aly still clinging to Sarah’s arm like a child.

For her part, Sarah seemed to accept the situation despite getting a rude wakeup call from my Fairy. “Greetings and welcome, friends of Calamity. Be at ease here and thank you for taking care of that creature for us again. We have come to enjoy not having that thing around since Calamity got rid of it the first time, and it just came back again yesterday.” Kayla and Archie both came over and greeted the elderly Fairy, their expressions slack as if they couldn’t believe there were this many wild Fairies all about them.

I chuckled at the both of them, enjoying their shock before I turned back to Sarah and smiled at her. “It is nice to see you again Sarah. I am glad I could have these two help you out in removing another of those snakes from this beautiful Grotto once more.”

The skin about her eyes crinkled up as she grinned at me. “Oh, the lady was marvelous in her efforts. The young man, however… Well, he tried his best I suppose.” She winked at Archie who flushed bright red once more, causing Sarah and the rest of us to laugh once more at his expense. “No, seriously. I am grateful to the both of you all the same.” She turned back to me and motioned me to follow her as she floated towards the water. “Not that I am complaining, but what brings you back here Calamity? I am glad to see you and Aly again, but I sense something different about you.”

My shoulders rose and fell in a shrug as I thought about how to phrase my thoughts. “Honestly, Sarah, I am here for advice and answers.” I pulled my scythe from my back slowly, holding it before me so the Matriarch could examine it. “I have stumbled upon a strange situation, and have learned about the history of the Fairies as a whole race. I was wondering if you would be able to assist or advise me about a couple things. It appears that Elrayna has set her sights on me and is interfering in my life on this world. I was hoping that as a Matriarch you would have some way of contacting the gods so that I might be able to talk with the Goddess of War myself.” I paused with a sigh, returning the weapon to my back before speaking again. “The dragon Ashkerdantus is leading an army towards this province in a hunt for Aly, and I fear I might be low on options as to how to deal with this threat.”

Sarah looked back to where Aly and the other Fairies were all surrounding Archie and Kayla, clamoring for attention and all speaking over each other in general enjoyment. She smiled and folded her hands over her stomach, watching them with a look of happiness which slowly faded as the implications of what was coming sank in. “I see… That is indeed a problem. On a lighter note, I am glad that you have shown interest in my kind and have learned some of our history. Not many humans, Outlanders or native, care to delve into the past to learn more.” She raised a hand to her chin, thinking over something it seemed before coming to a decision and turning away. “Follow me Calamity.”

The Matriarch floated away from me, heading towards the wall to the right of the waterfall. Set into the wall there was a cave opening slightly larger than the ones the Fairies hid in when the snake boss was around. Inside of the hole was a stone filling most of the space with a strange symbol carved into it. Almost like a Celtic knot, the pattern twisted and turned on itself several times to create an artistic design that was pleasing to the eye. Curious as to what this was, I looked at Sarah and raised a brow in silent question.

“This is the alter to the gods. We normally don’t have any direct contact with the Divine anymore, but on the few occasions that it has arisen this is the place we have done it.” She gestured towards the opening with the stone nestled within. “All you need to do is reach in and touch the symbol and if the gods are listening, you will be in contact with them.”

It was that easy? Simply find a stone with a pretty shape carved into it and then a person could speak to the gods of this world? Looking at the alter skeptically, I raised a hand and extended it into the opening to place one finger against the design. Nothing happened for a moment, and I was just about to turn back to Sarah and call her senile when the world around me flashed bright suddenly, forcing my eyes to close against the harsh glare.

The light faded quickly, allowing me to see once more, but what I saw wasn’t the Grotto… I was now standing in a different cavern, the walls all decorated with weapons and armor of exquisite craftsmanship and design, made of metal I had never seen before. No, that wasn’t true… It was the same metal my scythe was made out of! I whipped my head around to look behind me and found the gaze of an amazingly beautiful woman a mere pace away from me.

Taller than me by a good three inches and built like a warrior, she still retained all of the feminine looks and curves that the armor she wore looked like it accentuated in all of the right ways. How that was possible, I had no idea… Armor was supposed to be bulky and ugly, not shaped to fit a sensuous body like a party dress. Dragging my gaze upwards and away from that pulse-pounding body, I got caught once more by a face that put every other one I had ever seen to shame. Heart shaped with bright silver eyes, flame red hair cascading down to frame her alabaster cheeks and ruby red lips that seemed to put fantasies directly into my brain about what I wanted to do with this woman.

“Hmmm… I always do appreciate a good admiration or two, but perhaps you might wish to actually speak with me instead of just staring at me with those lust filled eyes?” The voice was light and sultry, but contained a power to it that snapped me out of my daydreaming and back to where I was standing. She sounded like she meant the comment about liking my looking at her like that in other circumstances, but I had to shake those thoughts from my head before I wandered back into helpless drooling zombie mode again.

“Ah, yes. Sorry, got distracted…” Score some more lame points for me as my brain tried to reboot itself after the shock of seeing this woman out of nowhere. Wait, I was in the Grotto of Tranquility a moment ago touching the… Oh shit. “You… You are Elrayna, aren’t you?” I gulped, further raising my idiot score with my slow wits.

The goddess merely laughed softly, the sound beyond pleasant to my ears as those lush lips curled into a bright smile. “Indeed I am. Goddess of War, among other titles that have been attributed to me over the millennia. And you are Calamity, Soul Reaper and wielder of Elryana’s Pride, favored of the gods and blessed by my hand personally. Glad to see that introductions are over…” She folded her arms under her breasts, which caused another short lapse of my thinking power until I forced my eyes back up to her own again.

I had to concentrate hard to keep my thoughts on the task at hand, and it was a hard task in all honesty. “Uhmm… Thank you for speaking with me, Elrayna. I am here to ask your advice on the war that is coming against me. You have blessed me and apparently chosen to support me for some reason, and I fear I may be overwhelmed by the situation I am finding myself in.” I trailed off, not sure exactly how to go about asking for her aid without sounding like a child running to his mother to stop a bully…

Elrayna seemed to pick up on my hesitation though, and shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she contemplated my words. “Yes, I have watched over the world of Grendor for a long time and have only ever found a couple people worthy of my direct attention. Your predecessor was one of those people, and you are very similar to him in many ways. Strong, driven, proud and not given to letting anything sway you from your chosen course of action. If you are feeling like the world is overwhelming to you, then maybe you need to step back from the problem and reassess the situation. I did not guide events the way I did just for you to drown in sorrow, and if this little trouble breaks your will then maybe I chose wrong in selecting you for the test to become my Paladin…”

Her words made me pause again, my mind racing to analyze her meanings until I was a confused mess. I really wished Archie was here with me, as he would be able to understand all of the intricacies of her words without any effort. As I thought about it though, a kind of understanding dawned on me and I raised a brow at her. “Are you saying that this whole thing of a dragon coming after my Fairy is a mere test you organized?”

Those ruby lips frowned slightly as she waved a hand through the air. “Not entirely… I am not the only Divine being watching over the world at the moment. My brother has decided to give a trial to a pair of Outlanders for them to become his Paladins, I merely directed his plans to coincide with my own to see if you are worthy of serving me. The war was coming one way or another, but I admit I did have a hand in directing it at you.”

Great… I had the gods of this game setting me up to get my ass kicked unless I stepped up my game in a big way. On a side note, holy shit were these AI amazing. I could see the hands of multiple AI running things and making the entire game much more entertaining than if only one program had control over everything. I drew my thoughts back on topic, and raised a brow at the goddess standing before me. “So, you mean to tell me that having a dragon backing them up is supposed to be a fair test to see if I am capable? Two Outlanders and a fucking dragon, against me? You either have damn high standards or I have yet to find the balancing act in this game of yours…”

I was graced once more with the sound of her laughter, but a sudden blur brought pain to my face as if I was hit by a truck. My HP fell all the way down to 10% with just that one hit, and fuck it hurt like hell! “While I appreciate your honesty, you will show me the proper respect. Consider that a warning.” Her arm returned to its previous position as she regarded me with those silver eyes. “As to the balance of the ploy, you have everything you need to make this a fair fight…” She raised a hand, a single finger extended to silence me before I could say anything. “But, I can see your point. Things are a little skewed against you.” She tilted her head slightly in thought, then smiled lasciviously. “Tell you what… You will be gaining strength rapidly over the course of the next couple weeks. Think long and hard over what kind of Fairy partner you want before the battle and when you can handle a second Contract. Your enemies have both received a Divine ranked partner, so I will do them one up. I will create you a Fairy to help you with whatever power you desire to even the odds. A Fairy created by the gods directly are rather powerful, and your opposition has two of them as my brother has meddled far too deeply into the affairs of this world.” Her smile turned into a wolfish grin as a fire seemed to burn behind her eyes. “He has stepped too far out of line this time, and it falls upon me to ensure the little bastard learns his place once and for all.”

Ah, that explained it. The AI was making this into a proxy war between two gods of the game world and I was now a prime pawn in the battle to come. Well, at least the game was entertaining beyond all of my expectations! I was thinking it was going to be a basic and common story line that would be mildly entertaining and I would get all of my enjoyment out of the PvP aspect of the game at later levels. This storyline was rapidly becoming my favorite part of the game, and there were still several other gods in the world beyond the Elrayna and her brother so other people would get a chance to experience something similar.

I gave the Goddess of War an equally wolfish grin as I rubbed at my sore cheek still. “You have yourself a deal. I will think of the best option to suit my abilities and will let you know before the battle ahead of me. I would also suggest you take a look at my two friends who are traveling with me. They are both strong warriors as well, in their own way, and can assist you greatly if you are looking for more disciples.”

Her eyes unfocused for a moment, then blinked as she looked me over once more. “It seems you are full of surprises my little Reaper. Do well on this task, succeed where many have failed, and I will consider bringing them into the fold as well. For the time being, I will keep a close eye on them as well as you and see what comes of the trials you have before you.” Her gaze hardened, boring into me with a power that made me feel like I was drowning. “Do not let me down, Outlander. You will not enjoy my displeasure should you fail too miserably at your challenge that I have personally arranged for you.”

With the last of her words echoing in my ears, a flash of light blinded me once more. Shaking my head to clear the spots from my vision, I noticed I was once more standing in the Grotto, hand still touching the alter in the wall. Sarah was in the same spot, and the others were all where I had last seen them too. The Matriarch seemed to know what happened though, and she reached out a hand to pat my shoulder. “Welcome back. Don’t worry, you didn’t actually vanish. You just looked like you were staring off into space for a short time.” She winked and then floated off to join the others while I contemplated all I had learned, my health still flashing in the red zone from the slap delivered by a goddess…