The room was still awkwardly split into two. Grey landscape was on one side. The Voices and I were all on the darker portion. In between the two was a fallen tarp that had signs of claw and fire damage. Then there was an image of Xin.

Her projection slowly faded away into darkness. My heart thumped rapidly from seeing such realism. I had to focus. Once again a strange quest stood between me and information about my fiancée . This time the ante had been upped. Part of me was worried about something similar to happening ever since James brought it up. To find out that Xin had pulled herself together and refused to, whatever they called it, was insane.

“What now?” I asked. My psychiatrist said to focus on one task at a time. Xin and the question of her existence would be an issue for later. Anywhere but here and now. There would be plenty of time to think about it.

“Now, we stop delaying that boy's attempts at a summons.” Jean waved an arm dismissively. The liquid that made up her clothes seemed to lose cohesion as she moved. “We get you into place, and you figure out how to shatter his essence so someone more suited to our needs can complete his task.”

“What about my normal character?” They had answered this before, but I wanted to make sure.

“It will still exist, Hermes,” James said. “If he releases your summon or kills your familiar body, your consciousness will move back to its normal body.”

I tried to decipher that concept. They phrased it a bit oddly. Then again these were machines that, in theory, had a limited view upon my world and all the ideas of multiple character accounts. Essentially they were saying there would be two of me at once. One would be this familiar. The other would be me as Hermes, who would exist on autopilot. That part worried me.

“Will this familiar body go on autopilot too?” I asked. James stood nearby watching the distance.

“As you know, if your world causes a disconnection with ours, then yes, the autopilot will take over.”

“Okay.” That was doable. It was actually kind of interesting. With William Carver, I had posed as one person for four weeks. Now I got to be something else entirely while still having my own character. How many other players of Continue Online would ever get to say such a thing?

“I believe it’s my turn,” James said.

I nodded.

“Do you think so little of killing this other Traveler?” The black man asked calmly. The Jester's face faded in briefly and then back out. It was almost like the Voice gave brief reminders of its smiling existence to mess with me. Part of me was continuously bothered at having gained the attention of such a creepy being.

“Ha, Ha, Ha.” It laughed.

I fidgeted. In front of us there was a scene coming to life. Dusk had climbed up my shoulder and was looking forward with his head cocked. The forest from earlier with its circles and [Lithium] writing was much larger now. One hand idly twirled around [Morrigu’s Gift] as we stared.

“An answer, if you please,” James said.

“No. Killing should never be easy.” I responded. It felt like a textbook answer that my mind was rapidly unsure of. This was just a game, right?

“Yet, you are willing to do so for your fiancée ?” James wasn't smiling right now.

“This kid, Requiem, is a Traveler, it’s not real, they still exist outside of here.” That was a lame justification. I remembered the games of my childhood where there were all these player versus player events. In those programs, another person was just a little figure a few inches high. Clicking away at them was nothing.

In here everything was the same size as me. Everything was real looking. Travelers felt pain and were mentally immersed. How on Earth could anyone be so passive about ending another person’s life in such a situation?

“What if it was out there?” Jame increased the stacks with a simple question.

“I don’t want to think about that,” I said slowly.

“Very well. That is answer enough.” My chosen Voice said.

“For now,” clacked the Jester. A frozen face was peeking out from behind one tree and smiling at us. Its voice was much clearer than the young man in his circle of white chalk. I was pleased to see a slight scowl on the other player's face.

“He can’t see us, right?” I asked.

“No. That Traveler will be talking with Vlad.” Jean waved an arm in the air while interrupting the conversation between James and I. Her actions seemed to upset the black Voice. I was still marveling on hearing an accent.

“Vlad is?” I had never heard of this Voice.

A figured popped into the distance. He was a good two feet taller than any other Voice I had ever seen, topping even Leeroy.

"Vlad?" I raised an eyebrow in question at James.

“What do you think?” James almost snapped the question at me.

“He’s very shiny,” I said. The man was almost comically glistening. It was like someone took an ember skinned body builder and drenched him in show oil and said ‘start posing’. Vlad must have known what was going through my mind because he actually did pause to flex some biceps.

“Take it off!” The Temptress yelled from nearby. She sounded like a lusty, drunk woman at a male strip club.

“It’s already off, except the loincloth, and sorry, Mez, only Jean gets at these goods.” The newest voice said. Vlad also had an accent, almost Russian or some other country in that area. I was not experienced enough to tell the difference.

“You could get a collar. Then you’d have something to take off.” I said.

“That’s a good idea!” The large wall of glistening muscle brightened. It seemed like his chest grew even shinier as his face smiled. “I’ll do that after settling it with the twerp here.” He thumbed over his shoulder at the projection of Requiem Mass.

Event! Essentially Bare

Vlad, Voice of the Other Realm Denizens finds himself constantly under attack by certain females to disrobe himself. Jean, the Voice of Blood is perfectly willing to gouge out the eyes of offenders who dare gaze at her man’s privates.

You’ve suggested other apparel items that won’t taint the majesty of his chest. Plus it allows Jean to buy him something he might actually wear, sort of. Their bedroom antics will be the bane of many other Voices. They should get a room.

Vlad and Jean will provide you an additional reward for completion of your current task.

To be revealed upon completion

Neat. It struck me as odd how quickly they acted upon things. All it took was an idle comment regarding male stripper apparel and bam, a pop-up box resulted. Then again being here in this room seemed to have much quicker results than any other place in Continue. I had gone for weeks in-game with only one message. The was no telling what this reward would be either.

“But if they get a room then I can’t watch…” The Temptress groaned in frustration. Her tail lashed to one side while both fists clenched. “Well, there are other forms of entertainment.” She winked my way.

Xin was alive. Xin was here. Xin existed. I told myself over and over to stop staring at other women and tried to focus on the situation in front of me. There was a much more intriguing situation in the projection anyway. The Traveler that all these Voices seemed to want dead was moving his lips in a silent chant. All the items in the circle started smoldering and crumbled. Lines shot from each tiny pile of items and spiraled towards the center. They touched together and a plume of smoke quickly grew to fill the circle.

“Tramp...” Jean muttered. She was nearby with her arms crossed. Her eyes were playful and she licked one long tooth. The slippery looking ink that clung to Jean’s skin rippled as she let out a deep sigh. “Not that I don’t understand, my man is hot.”

I shrugged. “Not my type.”

“HARK, MORTAL!” Vlad had both hands held up in front of him. His body faced towards the projection of Requiem Mass. Fog had started to roll through and the ground in front of him fell away like a cliff's edge. There seemed to be a connection between the two gatherings of smoke. Requiem’s head jerked up like he heard Vlad’s words. He scrambled to stand up and made a bow.

“This is weird,” I said.

“These are fun to watch.” Jean wasn’t watching the young boy. She was staring at Vlad’s backside.

This was a weird situation. A beautiful woman was on either side. Jean seemed focused on Vlad. Mez, the Temptress, looked at everyone and even shot me the occasional wink. James just watched it all with both hands clasped over his belly.

“I’m surrounded by a bunch of voyeurs,” I muttered. Once again the [Instant Gratification] quest box came up in my face which was declined.

“WHO DARES CALL UPON ME!” Vlad shouted.

Requiem said something. It was difficult to tell exactly what since there seemed to be no audio. I looked at James. The black man raised one eyebrow. My head jerked towards the scene in front of us.

“I can’t hear him,” I asked.

“Ah. Sorry. Sometimes I forget that you don’t see things the same way we do.” James said. "Does that bother you? Being so limited in sight?"

I shrugged. "I only know how to be human." The idea of being a Voice, or anything else, was strange to consider. What would this familiar quest turn me into? Please don't let it be a frog.

James nodded slowly and stared at the interplay between Vlad and the Traveler Requiem Mass.

“My Lord, I seek to create a pact between myself and one of your servants.” Requiem sounded high strung. Continue Online had age requirements or I would think he was really fourteen. Maybe it was cultural.

They spoke back and forth. Vlad did all sorts of posturing. The Traveler groveled accordingly and managed to actually keep his responses fairly calm considering the situation. Too many words rippled between the spaces in front of Vlad all the way over to where the projection of Requiem Mass was. It was neat seeing both sides of this situation. Vlad seemed to be hamming it up. Each time his words boomed forth there was a flexing of muscle.

It was all very neat, but it also was putting me to sleep. I could barely stand reading financial contracts when it was my job. Now that it was no longer a requirement for survival I wanted to tune out even more.

“HERMES!” Vlad had turned around and boomed again. I winced and saw him alternately flexing his pectoral muscles. “Oh, sorry. Got into character there.”

"It's okay." I would too if my body was built like his. If my chest looked anything like that my day would probably pass making strange poses for a good laugh. At least my gut was slowly fading.

“You want anything out of this twerp?” Vlad thumbed at the projection of Requiem in his forest clearing.

“I get a say?” My forehead wrinkled.

“ACT NOW!” Vlad boomed with a giant grin. His hands were held up towards the sky. Not that there was a visible one here on in the dark side of this glitch induced room.

Dusk nipped at my ear.

“Oh. Right. Can I get cupcakes?” I’m sure there was something more useful to ask for. It didn’t matter. This wasn’t a game that I played for gathering items and finding secret ways to be brokenly overpowered. For me, it was all about exploration and the journey to new places. I just had to get some skills together first so that the games mechanics wouldn’t destroy me.

I could almost imagine a box saying ‘Ding, you found a new area!’ followed by a ‘You’ve been given a love tap by a giant squirrel. You died.’ For me, it would probably be a giant spider who happened to live in a very scenic location. Like, a giant lake spider. The thought made me shudder.

“Cupcakes?” Vlad almost boomed the word but managed to regulate himself.

“I’ve been promising Dusk some,” I said.

“Okay. Let’s see what the twerp's got.” He turned back around to face the foggy mass. There was a pause. “What are cupcakes?”

“Desserts from their world,” James answered the question.

“Oh.” Vlad turned and went back to negotiations. They were absolutely riveting. I could see Requiem pulling items out of player inventory and shuffling through them. Finally, the youngster sat down and started crafting something right there. The large Voice and his glistening muscles wore a huge grin.

“He tried to tell me cupcakes don’t exist.” Vlad curled one hand. A ball of fire appeared and he hurled it off the cliff. An interesting light show appeared on the other side, but it seemed restricted by the same dome of energy that held the fog in. Requiem looked up briefly with a worried expression.

“No, I got them going during my time as William Carver too,” I said.

“Did you? I must have been busy doing someone interesting.” Mez yawned and stretched both hands into the air.

“Tramp,” Jean said. She rolled her r’s and slurred p’s. It was weird to hear any accent in this game. Most players that I had dealt with all used standard English.

“We get it, Jean, you’re jealous.” Mez curled to one side playfully. The Temptress started to reach for my arm, but I dodged away.

Their conversation was starting to get on my nerves. Changing locations put me next to Irene. She was standing there looking down at a clipboard full of scribbles. As my footsteps and the tapping of Carver’s cane grew closer she looked up. I curled my lip inward to frown while looking at the image of Requiem Mass.

“Your readings are interesting.” Irene startled me with her sudden words. I glanced over. She was looking into the space near my head. It was strange to be, almost, looked at so intently.

Of course, there was the fact that these Voices were actually hanging around longer. Normally they just popped in and out of existence. This must be an important event. Or they were getting too comfortable with me. It was hard to draw the line between these AIs and normal people. Maybe after my next log out I should go find real people to hang out with. That might help me keep my mind from merging reality and virtual. Hopefully, it would be someone that wasn’t tied to me from work.

“HE MADE-” there was a pause while he toned it down “something like a cupcake. We can pull it over as part of the summon materials, your call.” Vlad said. His accent made all the a sounds longer than was heavy on the d’s and w’s. I wasn’t sure what to think of the strange combination. Plus there was the fact that his ears were slightly pointy on the bottom.

“Dusk?” I asked.

The [Messenger’s Pet] fluttered his wings and ran in a circle excitedly. There was also a thought bubble above his head that depicted a cartoon version of himself drooling.

“Sure then,” I said.

“One cupcake, coming up. Then it will be your turn.” Vlad waved at the fog and an object came flying out.

“Are we doing a doorway again?” I asked Vlad. James sat there making noises to himself. His eyes seemed to flash with muted anger when I directed my attention elsewhere.

“Not exactly,” Vlad said. He smiled and I saw all the muscles on his arm ripple again. My head just shook back and forth slowly. I had thought Leeroy was over the top. This guy was another level entirely.

“James, I’ll try to send you messages more often. I don’t know how it will work with this quest.” I waved my hand at the fog. There were a lot of details to get and it didn’t seem like there was much time. Vlad was entering the final phase of his negotiations. The Voice had a really loud voice.

He actually looked a bit happier and nodded in my direction. “We’ll figure something out, Hermes. Have no fear.”

I smiled weakly at his sentence. This was all for Xin. She was the source of everything for me. For over a decade, we had been friends. For years, we had been more than that, at least when she wasn’t up in space doing training missions or testing.

There were too many things to figure out.

“Here. One cupcake.” Vlad turned and walked back from his ledge and fog. In his hand was the worst cupcake I had ever seen. Even Dusk seemed taken back.

“I don’t know, little guy,” I said. “It might be a while before we get to a town to buy more.”

Dusk managed to turn his face up. His neck twisted as he contemplated the dessert from a ninety-degree angle.

“Be quick. There are things to do.” Vlad shook the small baked good.

Dusk eyed Vlad, then ran down my arm to grab the cupcake. Soon he was back up on my shoulder sniffing and nibbling burnt edges.

“Did he even put frosting on there?” I asked Dusk. The small [Messenger’s Pet] shook his head. “Jerk. Don’t worry, Dusk, I’ll get him for you.”

The [Messenger’s Pet] kept chewing. He didn’t seem upset about the flavor so much as disappointed. Dusk was used to chewing [Coo-Coo Rill]s raw and fish creatures so the flavor might not mean much.

“Alright. Deal's set. I’ve agreed to lend him one familiar, that’s you, Hermes.” He threw both hands up in the air. “And in exchange we get a doorway into the realm!”

“Even if I-” I swallowed slowly and chose different words “complete this quest?”

“Even if. Who’s awesome? This guy.” He grunted and used his thumb to point towards his chest. Then he flexed everything a few times. Jean was outright smiling.

I shook my head. That seemed like weird bargaining. “Is this portal for you?”

“Nope. Demons. It’ll allow us to start another plague for the world if we need one. Nothing beats a demon invasion.” Vlad smiled and his teeth were disturbingly white compared to his reddened skin.

“That seems harsh,” I said. A plague of demons did not sound useful to my enjoyment of the world. This was a game world, and the Voices were tasked with running it. They must have a strange view on things to set up situations like a demon portal invasion.

“Your concern is touching, Hermes, but everything will work out in the end,” James said. He took a step forward.

“It is time,” Irene mentioned. She was still following that space that was almost next to me.

“What about those demons?” I asked. Vlad had lifted one giant arm and drug me near the cliff’s edge. I stumbled backward and tried to ask my question towards James. He would at least provide me some details.

“You’ll see,” Vlad said. My foot slipped off the edge and I windmilled forward in a panic.

“Ahh!” My eyes cast backward as the outcry escaped. A black ledge fell away into fog and nothingness. Where I stood before had been a slightly more relaxing perspective. Now here I was hanging on.

“Sorry, Hermes.” Vlad didn’t sound sorry. He sounded amused. His shoulder muscles rippled as one giant arm lifted me up.

“No, not again.” I flailed my arms. This time it wasn’t Shazam sending me off into the distance. It was a giant, burly man who wiggled his pectorals in my face.

“It’s a natural consequence of gravity, what goes up, must come down!” Vlad put another hand in a very tender spot and hefted me over his head. I gasped and secured myself. Hitting him back after getting this quest seemed like a bad idea. Plus he was easily twice my size and a wall of muscle.

“Just throw him in so we can go back to my place.” Jean had one hand on Vlad’s flexing muscles.

“YOU GOT IT, SWEETIE!” He boomed. “Hermes, say hi to the twerp!” Vlad then threw me off the virtual cliff and into the swirl of crimson.

I twisted and tried to reach out toward the ledge above. James and the female Voice stood up near the cliff’s edge. Vlad towered over both of them and was waving goodbye. His hand covered a clear smile. There was enough time, as the game interface flooded me with fog, to see Jean shrug and say "What, he agreed, didn't he?"

Warning!

Consciousness Relocation in progress.

This was just a game. The words flashed through my mind again as everything around me started warping.

My hearing was the next thing to be assaulted. Howling wind whipped by in waves. Eyesight had been reduced to little slits that could only see a swirl of colors coming at me. Everything was spinning as it rushed in my direction. Only I wasn’t going towards it on my own. I was being pulled like there was a rope around my waist dragging me across a huge distance.

Everything snapped into place like a rubber band. I huffed and tried to calm down.

Landing hadn’t hurt my legs at all. No,, instead it felt like my vision and hearing was being run through a blender. I would have retched. As it was the vitals for my EXR-Sevens were flaring up wildly as the ride continued. My stomach contents threatened to crawl their way up and out.

There was still far too much fog. I waved one hand around and took note of something tiny in my grip. It looked like the same smooth black of [Morrigu’s Gift] but the shape was all wrong. My vision cleared up enough to reveal a pitchfork.

“What?!” I exclaimed. My voice was super high pitched and almost chattered.

“What’s this?” I exclaimed at the same time as another voice outside the fog.

System Notification!

Glitch reporting process has been completed.

Error, primary avatar not found. Bonuses unable to be applied at this time. Please log out and back in.

Oh. Right. I was going to be a familiar or summoned creature of some sort. What exactly had they subjected me to? I spun around and tried to look behind me. There was a tail. I had a tail! How neat! My arms were really short, though. That was extremely weird. The limb felt like my arm, it bent like my arm, but it was chubby like a baby's.

My legs were even worse. They just kind of hung there beneath me. I tried to kick one. It responded but felt lethargic. Almost like trying to make a fist upon first waking up. Nothing clenched right.

“God this is pathetic.” Someone muttered. I ignored them and tried to figure out what those things just out the edge of my vision were. They moved rapidly. Fluttering. Every time I turned to turn to see them my body spun.

“You’re my familiar? That’s what I bargained so much for?” The other person said. “What a rip-off. I’m going to find those executives and give them a piece of my mind.”

Wings. That’s what they were. I had wings attached to my back that were moving quick like hummingbird's. They left small dark trails behind them either from light being blocked out or some special effect.

“Come on. I don’t have all day. You got your cupcake.” The young man said. I twisted my face. Dusk had been the recipient of a cupcake, not me.

Plus it looked poorly made and extra gross.

“Whatdoyouwant?” I tried to speak in my normal tone. The game translated my thoughts far too quickly. Part of my tail was curling about the pitchfork’s bottom portion. That was weird. I got distracted watching it and spinning around like a drunk trying to find their pocket.

“The terms of our contract. I need to make sure you understand them.”

“Nope!” I said quickly. My tone almost sounded happy.

“Rule one, you must do exactly as I order.”

“Hah! Okay!” The words escaped me before they fully registered. Continue Online must be translating super fast. Was it part of this character? I focused on my arm and tried to use identification.

Skill Used: [Identification] Results: [Red Imp] Height: 2' 5” Weight: 24 Lb Details:

Likes: Anything fast, flying, playing tricks, sneaking up on people, all reptiles, and the color red

Dislikes: Walking, people who speak slowly, people who breathe loudly, all felines, and the color green

Racial Features:

Imps suffer a -75% to all actions using their legs due to extensive flight time

Night vision activates automatically

Demonic Language activates automatically

The list went on.

“Rule two, you can’t lie to me.” Requiem Mass was going on about his list of items like they were important. I tuned in just enough to laugh.

“Hah!” I nodded too quickly. My brain was already trying to figure out ways around these tricks. If I was going to be acting as a demon, then it would be a simple matter of thinking like one.

Besides, in all the childhood stories I had ever read, demons often followed those rules anyway.

“Rule three, you cannot harm me directly or conspire to harm me.” He smiled as I went still. Requiem Mass had effectively limited my actions with that one.

“Ah. Well, there goes all my fun.” My tail lashed back and forth. Everything was bobbing up and down due to my wings. I had to concentrate to move them around.

There were a few other basic system notices that helped me out. Off to one side there was an autopilot menu option for maintaining altitude. I glared at the small box until it was on.

“Are you listening?” Requiem asked.

My head shook, now it was time to start acting. “Notin theleast, youtalk too slow.”

Synchronization 15%

Neat! That was a new one. Hopefully, it operated like William Carver’s progress bar and would allow me access to more abilities as time went on. For now it seemed like flying and stabbing people were the only skills available to me.

“It doesn’t matter. You can’t get out of that circle until you agree to those terms.”

“Okay.” I looked back up into the sky as if there was a great decision weighing upon me. It was extremely dark up there. No stars, no sun, just gloom. At least it was visible gloom, being an [Red Imp] with night vision was already paying off. Where was this while I was down in the caves? Dusk was such a cheater if this is what he got.

I looked around. Requiem was busy scowling and digging through a backpack for something. Behind him were withered trees that looked like they were barely hanging on to life. They must have been lacking sunlight since birth to look so twisted and gnarly.

“Well?” He asked.

“ShutupIam thinking.” I managed to slow down my words just a little bit. My synchronization bar actually dropped a percent from my efforts. It was enough to make my teeth grind. That felt weird too, I ran a tongue over the edge only to find out that my lips were far thinner than expected and the teeth were sharpened.

“Your master made this deal, you must honor it.”

“Agggh!” I shouted at him and stabbed the little pitchfork at the air. William Carver’s introduction had been soft and slow. This was something that I was literally thrown into. Still, it was also very interesting. I felt myself grinning despite the messiness of my situation.

“Cupcakes! I demand better cupcakes!” I figured sticking with the classic would serve me well. Dusk might pop in at any moment. Or he might not. I was unsure how the [Messenger’s Pet] or [Morrigu’s Gift] would translate over. The weapon from William Carver had to stay with Hermes, right?

“Okay. Sure, we can do that.” Requiem Mass was nodding. There was something in how he pitched his forehead and turned his lip up that said he’d rather beat me senseless. “Deal.”

The dome about me dropped away. I was no dummy. Requiem Mass was fast, but this was something I had prepared for. Especially given how he glared at me through the summoning circle's protective shell.

I fled straight up.

Synchronization 16%

“I’m ordering you to come down here!”

Something around my neck warmed up slightly.

“Okay! I will!” I did no such thing. Strangely the slight heat around my neck didn’t get any hotter. My arms were too chubby to bend right. The pitchfork was used as a makeshift latch to grab at the edge of something. My eyes looked down and saw a collar.

“Why aren’t you coming down here!” Requiem Mass shouted up at me.

“You didn’t saywhen!”

“Right now!”

“Dowhat now?” My voice squeaked out defiance. “That’s a…”

Wait, what was he doing? Requiem’s lips were moving. A tendril of fire grew to one side and his arm stretched out wide to grab it. Flames danced around his fingers as he hurled the pillar of fire up in my direction.

I dodged without putting much thought into it. There was a small box up to one side that spoke about [Survival Instincts] and [Fire Resistances]. I didn’t have much time to pay attention to it as he hurled another stream of flame in my direction.

“Nyaa!” I stuck out my tongue and gave him the biggest raspberry available. It was a terrible idea.

You’re not that Tasty

Total Damage: 10%

My tongue was bleeding and my cheeks puffed up. I managed not to cry out from the feedback. Luckily the ARC wasn’t extremely intense about everything that the player felt with regards to pain. Nothing could compare to William Carver’s heart attacks anyway.

“Oh, I’ll get you.” Requiem was shaking his head up and down quickly. “You’re going to love this.”

Then the world started to fade away. What was happening now? Had I failed so badly that the Voices were already recalling me back to the Hermes character? This had been fun actually. Teasing some young brat of a teenager who seemed to think everything should bend to his will.

Suddenly that weird vortex of light appeared. The wind tore at my hearing. Colors swirled all around in a rush. Everything induced vertigo. I had enough time to see Shazam’s passive face staring down at me. Her hands glowed green with a healing spell.

I turned, retched, and groaned as the world spun again.

The jerk Requiem was pulling me back.

I was still feeling violently ill from the jerky summons. My vision was blurred. Something tore at my back and made me cry out. What escaped was a string of violent curses that had never come out of my mouth before. That must have been the [Red Imp] in me talking.

“I’ll teach you. We’ll start training right away.” Requiem’s face was almost fervent. I felt even sicker looking up at him. This must have been what prisoners of war felt like during our last global conflict.

Something bound my wings together. A message appeared on my interface telling me flight was no longer an option. My synchronization points dropped a full five percent from humiliation.

Requiem Mass threw a punch towards my face. I had a few moments to contemplate how large his fist seemed to be compared to my own short body. Xin. I could suffer through anything to give her a chance. I waved one free finger and pinned the quest reward text off to one side of my player interface.

“You made me waste my mana.” He snarled. “And you want a cupcake? Here!” Something was shoved into my face.

I coughed and sputtered with a suddenly dry throat. Meanwhile, the beating continued. My body was far too small to fight back. The wings on my back were bound in some sort of rope. Requiem Mass looked downright disturbing for a teenager. Was this really another human being? Could anyone look at a living, breathing creature like he gazed at me?

Then I remembered. He didn’t think that I was a real person. Requiem Mass thought I was a computer program acting out a part. I would show him. Somehow the tables would turn and Requiem would be the one being beaten soundly.

“We’ll do this again tomorrow until you understand that I’m not playing around,” Requiem said. My eyes drifted to a small pop-up message on one side.

Character Traits Established:

[Rude] (3), [Self-Serving] (2), [Clever] (4), [Greedy] (1), [Defiant] (6)

Something intelligible escaped me. I managed to smile. This pain was nothing compared to what William Carver had felt. It was nothing compared to what I had done to myself. Suffering this was nothing, not when it was for Xin.

Health Successfully Reached Zero!

Total Damage: 100%

Your summon status is being released.

I could have logged out and let the autopilot take it. My time was spent studying the young man who was trying his hardest to beat some sense into me. His gaze was far too serious for one so young. How had he been raised to think that hitting someone taught a lesson? The feedback was muted enough that I could gather all sorts of details before being presented with a death screen. Luckily, this was a game. Reaching zero health was just a chance to take a bathroom break.