A tense atmosphere dominated in the capitol city of Androsia. All were waiting for the gates to open. Their muscle flexed ready to charge to defend their lives. They all knew that it would be just a matter of minutes.

The first sign that their enemy had arrived was that the ground shook. They all gulped as chills ran down their spine. They could only imagine how many monsters were needed to make it possible. Those who were on the walls were shaking for a different reasons. They could see them.

Legions of monsters were surrounding the capitol city. It was too late to flee, they had to fight. Outside the gates, howls and growls could be heard. Adventurers and natives were all standing together to defend their city. They all looked at the same person. Their hero. The one who led them.

« Don't be afraid ! Today we will prevail. Believe in yourself and in your companions. We are strong. We will show them. Let us all show them ! »

« YEAH ! » All the warriors shouted drowning the sounds the monsters made.

Everyone regained their high spirit. He was a hero, he couldn't be wrong. If he led them, they all believed that they could win. They had all seen his adventures. Even when all the odds were against him, he won. Today wouldn't be any different.

« Magicians open fire ! » The hero shouted.

The magicians posted on the wall cast the strongest area of effect (AOE) magic existing, Armageddon. Tens of ball of fire fell from the sky. The army of monsters received them squarely in the middle of their ranks. Thousands of them died in an instant.

The tension skyrocketed inside the city as the order to open the gates was given. The warriors waited. The grip on their weapons tightened. When the gate was finally opened they rushed out, immediately engaging the monsters that were too close to fall with the others.

The warriors knew their time was counted. They had to eliminate the monsters in front of them before the ones who were too far arrived. It was their only chance to win.

The hero who was still on the wall shouted orders at the archers and the magicians to support the warriors while sparing their energy for the furthest monsters that were still approaching.

The situation was becoming desperate. The monsters were advancing faster than they thought possible. Before long, more monsters entered the magicians' range of attack. They launched AOE magics at them but large circles appeared just before they hit. All the magic was absorbed as though eaten by a void.

The defenders on the wall ceased their attacks and looked on with despair. They knew monsters didn't have enough intelligence to cast magic. Someone else was and this someone was strong enough to cast void magic, one of the most dangerous and unstable magic that existed.

They looked on, waiting. The warriors on the battlefield didn't understand. They felt

betrayed. The defenders on the wall weren't casting magic or shooting arrows. They were letting them being overrun by monsters they could have beaten with appropriate support.

Curses could be heard through the battlefield. They cursed the monsters who were attacking, the defenders for not supporting them and finally they cursed themselves to have believed in a man who was now abandoning them.

The tide of the battle had irrevocably shifted in the monsters' side. The one who had cast void magic still hadn't shown himself. The defenders on the walls were wary. They looked in front of them with suspicion. Where was he? Was he hiding among the monsters or was he apart from them? They couldn't cast magic without finding him first. They didn't want to waste mana as they knew that their magic would be canceled by void magic.

The hero looked closely at the battlefield. He looked even more unnerved than the rest of the defenders. He knew that without support the warriors still fighting were at a huge disadvantage but he didn't give the order for the fire to resume. Silently, he kept on looking.

Suddenly, as if remembering something he looked up at the sky. And there he was.

“BALTHAZAAR!” He yelled at the lone figure in the sky.

The defenders looked at the hero shocked. They saw where he was looking and confirmed with their own eyes that the worst enemy possible had shown up, the arch-demon Balthazaar. He was the ultimate boss, the one to defeat to beat this game

The red arch-demon with black markings all over his body was smirking as he looked at the defenders. They saw him raise his hand and whisper a few words. A magic circle appeared above the city. Lightning struck buildings. Many fires started all over. It was a nightmare.

The hero seeing his archenemy in front of his eyes forgot about everything else and launched himself in the sky using air magic. The others seeing him snapped out of their stupor and started to open fire. However, compared to before it was chaotic. Some launched their attacks on the arch-demon, others on the monsters on the ground.

Every attempt made to regain their unity and to coordinate the attacks were in vain. No one had enough authority apart from the hero to command this melting pot of people. His guild mates tried to reason with him but it was too late, he had already engaged Balthazaar.

They still tried to get back the momentum but their last ray of hope were quickly dashed as flying monsters made their apparition. They invaded the city, plucking the defenders from the walls one by one. They were fast and ruthless. Only screams could be heard as the defenders saw their comrades falling from the sky.

Elian was an archer on the walls. He was running out of mana, the energy necessary to create his arrows. He took a second out of fighting to survey the surrounding situation. The war was lost. He could see it. They would all die. There were too many monsters and too many casualties on their side.

Elian was bitter. If only that arch-demon hadn't shown up. If only that damn hero kept his position. If only they were stronger. Elian saw all his efforts of the last few months going up in flames.

He had painfully raised his contribution and reputation in the city. As it fell, everything was lost. The NPCs (Non playing characters) died reducing his hard-earned reputation to nothingness. He still kept shooting though. He had at least to survive.

As an adventurer, if he died, he would immediately respawn at the cathedral. However, he would lose a level and skill points that were really hard to level up. He had to fight. Nothing else could be done.

Out of mana, he used the material arrows he had prepared beforehand. He only had one hundred of those. He had to use them sparingly. But before he could shoot his first one, a flying demon grabbed his shoulders and flew with him in the sky.

He let out a cry of terror as a few second later the monster dropped him. He fell from twenty feet. As he reached the ground, a sickening sound was heard. He didn't die from the fall but he could feel his broken bones sticking out of his flesh.

Filled with pain, he tried to crawl to safety. He looked around him. Only chaos was greeting his wary eyes. He saw people running, fighting monsters, trying to save themselves and the ones they could see. His despair became unbearable. His strength had left him. He couldn't even crawl anymore.

He lied there alone, waiting for his death to come. As his consciousness was leaving him, he heard the sound of a flute playing. He thought he was hallucinating. However, his injuries were healing faster than they should. Slowly, he regained his bearings. He raised his head, looking for the flute player but he couldn't see him.

He wasn't the only one looking for him. All the defenders felt their strength return. The monsters' movement became sluggish. It was like a ray of hope had enveloped the battlefield. All of these could be linked to the flute player.

Balthazaar saw the changes happened. With a flick of his hand, the hero was thrown down to the ground and instantly died. He had been playing with him until now but he found a more interesting toy. He looked right in front of him. At the highest tower in the middle of town, right in front of the city crystal, a man was sitting on an archway facing Balthazaar. He was playing a flute.

His long red hair was flowing on one side of his face. On the other side, he had cornrow braids. He looked quite exotic with his feminine face but he was definitely male. His lack of a shirt insured that no one could be mistaken.

Balthazaar thought that he was an oddball. A man wearing only pants was playing the flute as if he was the only one in the world where in reality, he was right in the middle of a city being invaded by monsters. It was weird, it was interesting. He flew close to the man.

“Who are you?” Balthazaar asked him. He didn't answer, he kept on playing. The player acknowledged his presence though. He opened his eyes. He fixed him with an icy glare. Balthazaar was amused. He let him finish his piece.

They looked into each others' eyes for several minutes. They didn't say a word. And then, the music died out. The player eyes suddenly changed from the icy glare he had been giving Balthazaar to a playful one. The smile that graced his face put the arch-demon on guard. He could feel mana building. He was going to attack the player when suddenly, the latter pointed his flute at the sky.

“Come.”, he said clearly for the arch-demon to hear.

A magic circle was formed in the middle of the sky. In the span of milliseconds, dragons appeared out of the gate that the player created. They immediately started attacking the monsters. It was a one sided massacre.

Balthazaar had no time to take on what happened. The flute player had discarded his instrument and had taken a katana in his hand. Feathered wings appeared on his back. They were crimson. He slashed at the arch-demon.

Balthazaar parried but he got caught in the shock wave. He was pushed back outside the city. He should have been angry or at least shocked but he was smiling. He was happy to have finally found a worthy adversary.

Balthazaar, a arch-demon was the ultimate boss. Before now, no natives nor adventurers were strong enough to make him fight seriously. But this adventurer was powerful. He could summon dragons. He was no ordinary man.

They exchanged blows again. The both of them were smiling. Slash. Stab. Parry. The flute player didn't have a particular style. His strength was compensating for his lack of technique. Each one of his hits were extremely powerful.

On the battlefield, the defenders had retreated inside the city walls. The dragons only attacked the monsters. The fight was over for them. Elian had survived thanks to the flute player. He looked at the titanic fight taking place just outside the city. An angel and a demon were fighting.

He didn't know where the angel had come from but he was a godsend. He was fighting Balthazaar and he was holding his own. It even looked like he was winning. Elian felt his heart beat in rhythm with the clash of their swords. He held his breath as he saw the angel inflicting a deep wound on the demon.

Balthazaar was laughing out loud. He was truly happy for the first time. He felt excitement running down his spine. The fire in his eyes burned brighter than ever. They had stopped fighting and were gazing at each other again.

“You're not strong enough to beat me.”, the angel said.

“Huh? The only way to know is to try.”, the demon replied still smiling.

“Even if you know you're going to die?”

“So you want to spare me?”

“Not really but I have a better proposition for you.”

“And what is it?”

“Be mine.”

The demon was dumbfounded by the angel. He succeeded in doing what even a fight to the death couldn't do. He wiped the smile on the demon's face.

“Aren't you angels supposed to hate demons?”

“I don't know. I'm not an angel.”

The demon was making a weird face at the not-an-angel who exactly looked like an angel.

“If you say so... But before I answer, you do know that the words you use could have different meanings, right?”

“Do I look like I care?”

“Forget I asked something. And to answer your question, why should I become yours as you put it?”

“It's rude to answer a question by a question.” He said seriously with his armed crossed above his chest.

The demon felt a headache coming. By what should he start? The fact that the pot was calling the kettle black? Or that he was behaving like a five year-old? How did they even go from a fight to the death to a kindergarten argument? He shook his head in disbelief and waited for the answer to his question.

The bystanders were perplexed. The demon and the angel had stopped fighting and were now talking. They would love to know what was said but they couldn't as they were too far away. They knew that the angel was stronger, so why wasn't he destroying Balthazaar?

The monsters had all been vanquished. The dragons were perched on the city's buildings. Some were licking their claws. Others looked like they were sleeping. They were even some that were calmly looking at the two opposing forces talking in the sky.

Suddenly, the dragons stood at attention and hovered over the city. All the bystanders looked on as one by one they were sucked up by a magic circle that appeared in the sky. The angel said one last thing to the arch-demon. Balthazaar said something too. In the next breath, he flew right into the magic circle and disappeared.

The angel was left alone. They saw him looking at them. Even though he was so far away, he still had an annoyed look on his face. He murmured to himself and then just disappeared. It was anticlimactic. With no fanfare no announcement, his disappearance marked the end of the biggest event in Old Ages Online.

****

“Who was this angel?” Miss Lou Ann Carter, the announcer of Online news asked her guests. They were two top players of the two most famous virtual reality(VR) games in the world and the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Heretia, the company behind Old Ages Online and Ages of the Gods.

“The angel race hadn't been unlocked in Old Ages Online nor in any other games as far as I know.” Adam Schifft, the CEO of Heretia announced.

“So he isn't a user?” Liam Dean, the co-announcer asked.

“No, I didn't say that. What I said was that I didn't know the angel race had been unlocked for users. With the StaViCon (Standard virtual connection) it is possible to have only one character for every VR games. As such every VR company agreed to announce when a new race was unlocked.”

“So there is a rogue company who doesn't comply with the agreement?” Lou Ann scented a scoop in the making.

“You are putting words in my mouth.”

“Tom Carrere, you are the strongest player in the most popular game Ages of the Gods, what do you think of that angel?”

“Balthazaar was just playing. He is clearly superior in technique and he didn't use any of his skills. The angel wasn't much to look at.”, he answered.

“So you think that Balthazaar let him win?”

“Yes, I do.”

“But what do you think happen at the end?”

“Balthazaar opened a portal and maybe went back where he found those dragons.”

“Did those dragons belong to Balthazaar? It looks unlikely. They did kill all the monsters. Wasn't Balthazaar with the demons? He did defend them.”

“He was just protecting his prey from others.”

“Balthazaar is an NPC from Old Ages Online. There aren't any dragons in the game. Where would he gain them. Unless...” Ronald Grier, the most popular player in Continuum Online chimed in.

“Unless?”

“The game may have a new extension.”

The CEO of Heretia didn't confirm nor deny it. He stayed silent. He gave a slight smile that could have mean anything.

****

Adam Schifft left the building with his secretary and entered the car waiting for him. He looked out the window as the car started.

“Did you find any information on that angel?”

“He's a user but we couldn't find the game his avatar originated from.”

“Couldn't he be an angellis from Draconian Glory?”

“Angellis isn't available to players. And the appearance is different. Angellis as a rule are blond and blue-eyed. This one is a redhead. The markings on his body looked like writings. It might be a curse that give him this appearance.”

“And the dragons, where did they came from?”

“The only guess we can make is that they belong to the angel.”

A beep came from the secretary's phone. He looked at it. A message was waiting for him.

“President, the head programmer for Old Ages is asking for a meeting. He says it's important.”

“Did he find something on the angel?”

“He didn't say.”

“Let's go see him immediately. Is he still at the building?”

“Yes, he is.”

They arrived at Heretia's headquarters. They immediately headed to the development lab where the head programmer was waiting for them.

“What was so important that you needed to see me?”, the president asked.

“Balthazaar had disappeared.”, he said without preamble.

“What do you mean disappeared?”

“He isn't on our servers anymore.”

“Impossible.”

“I believed it too, at first. But the security measures we use are intended to prevent anyone from damaging or stealing data. The ones who took Balthazaar took advantage of a loophole. They used the pet system. Balthazaar became a pet and when the owner disconnected from Old Ages and went to another game, he brought Balthazaar with him.”

“Balthazaar can't be a pet.”

“Actually, he can. We never put a restriction on what a pet is. Basically any NPC can become a pet. And thanks to the StaViCon, they can jump from game to game with their owner.”

“How could this happen?”

“I've already explained it. No one could have thought that someone would take a boss as a pet nor that a boss will agree to become one.”

“And the dragons? Were they brought in the same way?”

“Yes.”

“What do we know about this owner?”

“It's the angel. His name's MorningStar. We don't know his level nor his class.”

“ A name and a race. Basically, you have nothing. Where did he come from? Which game did he go to after leaving?”

“We don't know. All these information are protected under the StaViCon laws.”

“What options do we have? They stole our ultimate boss.”

“None. It wasn't a theft. They did it legally.”

Adam Schifft felt helpless. How was he going to explain that to the other companies? A “sorry, our battle maniac ultimate boss is taking a stroll on your servers.” wasn't going to fly. Old Ages wasn't a popular game but it was still a classic of the genre, a medieval fantasy world. The game was still online mainly by the will of the die-hard fans who wanted to beat Balthazaar, one of the strongest boss of all games taken together.

Those same die-hard fans would have a conniption when they learned that Balthazaar had gone missing. They had spent a lot of money and time in game to be able to fight him. All of those became useless as he was gone. Adam Schifft felt a headache of epic proportions coming.

“Don't say a word about it to anyone. We need to find that freaking angel and take Balthazaar back before anyone notice that we lost him.”, he declared with a fierce look.

****

He moved through the Imperial Palace. He crossed pass with no one as no one lived here apart from him. It was the place where he decided to retire from the world at large. The place he had built after conquering the world.

Today, the peace he usually felt wasn't present. He was hard to believe that he had graduated high school and that in a few days, he would be going to college. For a while, it had been touch and go in school but it finally, ended. Now it was going to start right back again.

He needed to calm himself. Nothing good ever came from him being nervous. Maybe he could beat some monsters, it always calmed him before. However, going to a good dungeon for his level would take more time than he had.

With not many options, he decided to look for Balthazaar. He had brought the arch-demon to Forgotten Soul when he had visited another game. He was fun to play with, even though he was too serious. He would make a good distraction from his worries.

He arrived at a garden. He spread his wings and took off. When they had arrived from the other game, Balthazaar had decided to visit the Soul as he had obviously never left Old Ages online. He was curious about everything here.

He flew for about an hour before he arrived at a forest. He landed and started walking among the trees. He went forth until he reached a meadow. Right in the center, there was a statue of a woman with fairy wings. She was a forest nymph, a meliade. He had made this statue years ago on a whim when he learned the history of this forest.

Right in front of her stood a man with black tribal tattoos. He was six feet five. He was lithe with clear muscle definition. He was wearing tight black pants and an embroidered white shirt. He looked more like a guy that went clubbing than an arch-demon adventuring the world. Balthazaar stood transfixed.

“What's a meliade?”

“A nymph that protects children who are under their trees. Years ago, the land had been nearly destroyed by continuous wars. The people started a tradition of abandoning the unwanted children in the forest for them to be eaten by monsters.”

“You made this statue. You're a good guy?”

“Don't say that like you're not sure. I AM a nice guy. I got you out of your world, didn't I?”

“That's exactly the reason why I'm not sure you're a good guy.”

“Pfft. Whatever. Let's spar.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“You're too strong and I'm too weak.” Since he arrived here, Balthazaar had a rude awakening. He wasn't the strongest, far from it. He had already met five beings stronger than he was.

“You're not weak. And I want to spar. I'm your owner, you know?”

“I'm not sparring with you. Why don't you go play with the dragons. They miss you.”, he threw that suggestion at the angel.

“Oh yeah, I didn't think about them.” He left just as abruptly as he came.

Balthazaar was left alone with the meliade. He rolled his eyes as he thought about MorningStar. The guy was supposed to be his owner but Balthazaar felt like he was the angel's keeper. Since they came to this world, he had dealt with his whims on a daily basis.

They went to a festival in a human town, swimming with mermaids, shopping in a dwarf town and hunting with a bunch of elves. They did all of that in the span of one week. When he finally got away from him, MorningStar came and asked for a spar. He was tired and seriously reconsidering his decision to follow the man. He had wished for more excitement in his life but he still wanted some rest time. MorningStar was like a star forever shining, he just never stopped.

For the rest of the day, he wandered aimlessly inside the forest. The place was so calm that his soul felt rested. He tried to think of a way to grow stronger as he didn't want to remain weak. He wanted to beat MorningStar to a pulp -that was his new goal.

However, the only thing that came to mind was training and sparring. Balthazaar decided he wouldn't spar with MorningStar. The guy was too annoying and he didn't want to die out of frustration when he couldn't beat him. He loved fighting just not when he had no chance to win.

Hours later, he thought he might have had a plan. He found in himself the fortitude to deal with MorningStar again. He took off and flew in the night sky. He enjoyed the mild weather on his skin. Before long, Avantheim came into sight.

Avantheim was a floating island high in the sky. Balthazaar landed in the imperial palace, the only building on the island. He heard the flute playing and went to see the player. Before he doing anything, he wanted answers to his questions. MorningStar still hadn't explained anything to him - not about this world nor about his race. He said he wasn't an angel but every way Balthazaar looked at it, MorningStar still looked like one.

“So, what are you?” Balthazaar asked after he waited for the music to end.

“Wow. I didn't see you there.” MorningStar jumped surprised.

“You've been dodging my questions for days now. So answer.”

“Well, it's a long story. We had so much to do. I've just been waiting for the right time.” He said with an unconvincing smile.

“The time has come.”

“Okay. I warn you. It's a long story.”

“Go ahead.”

“Once upon a time...”

“It's a joke, right?”

“It's my story, I can start it any way I want.”

“Just tell it already.”

“Don't be such a drag...”

“TELL. THAT. DAMN. STORY. ALREADY.”, Balthazaar shouted.

“You look to be in a bad mood, maybe...” MorningStar shut up as he saw a tick appeared on the arch-demon's jaw. “Okay, okay. I'll tell you.” Balthazaar eyes bugged out as the marking on MorningStar shined brightly and blinded him. When he open his eyes again, a human with black hair and red eyes was smirking at him. “Once upon a time...”

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