Some parts of my tale are more difficult to tell than others. And this one. I… I don’t know if I can do it.

…

But I must. I have promised myself to tell my story to the end, and that means painful times as well as pleasant ones.

So, here it begins. The calm before…

---

“Urgh,” Megan muttered. She rolled over in bed as Jake pinged the party to gather up. She was a little annoyed at him for doing a morning wake-up call that way, especially since this was the first time in quite a while that she actually had a bed she would have to get out of. The adventurer’s guild dorms were nothing fancy, but nothing fancy was still far better than roughing it in the wild.

She rolled over once more and refused to get up as the pings came again. Just 5 more minutes, she complained internally.

However, she knew from experience that if she didn’t get up soon, Sam (or worse, Lindsey) would have a go at waking her. At that thought, Megan shuddered and finally got up.

There were some benefits to Placeholder when it comes to waking up in the morning. Clothes, and people, didn’t really get that dirty or smelly unless you went swimming in a swamp. Hair was a lot better behaved, so no fighting bed-head. However, one vitally important thing was missing from Megan’s routine. Coffee.

What would it take to get some coffee? Megan ruminated while half-awake. Probably a type of [Alchemist] or something, right?

She stumbled downstairs and joined the party.

“Why are we up so early?” Megan asked. Then she took a look at Jake. He looked even worse than she felt.

“We need to get going as soon as we can,” Jake said. “And that means another trip to the castle and another talk with the [King] to pardon Titus. It should go quick since no monster wave means it’s pretty clear that Titus is innocent.”

Did he not get any sleep last night? I know the [King] said there was a prophecy that was to only be shared with him, but what could it have been to cause this?

However, Megan didn’t have long to think about that.

“Message for Jake Smith and party!” came a call from a young boy who just entered the guild.

Jake furrowed his brow and then called back, “That’s us.”

The boy ran up, pulled a piece of parchment out of his inventory, and then handed it to Jake.

Jake started reading through the parchment. He muttered through a bit of it and then got to one section where he paused. “-and as I am sure Titus has informed you, I have promised you and your party whatever aid I can give. Please return to the castle as soon as you are able that we may discuss this matter further.” Jake’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, is Titus already out? Where is he then?”

Good question, Megan thought. Let’s see, the castle is that way, and Titus is… She felt for him through the party. Off in town? What’s he doing?

Megan felt Jake ping Titus through the party. She also felt Titus’ refusal come back.

Another ping. Another refusal.

That repeated two more times, and then Jake growled. “Dang it, Titus. We can’t just turn down a summons by the [King] of Vir!”

Megan shrugged. “It shouldn’t take all of us, right? I could go check on him and see what he’s up to while you all square things away.”

Emilia gave her a suspicious look. “Are you sure you’re not just looking for a chance to slack off with your boyfriend?” she asked.

Megan rolled her eyes. “Yup. You caught me. I’m just looking for a chance to hang out with my idiot boyfriend, who didn’t even let me know he was out of jail. It’s obviously much better that I go to the castle, right?” Her voice turned deadpan. “Nothing could go wrong with surrounding a klepto with precious artifacts and royalty.”

Jake looked worried after she said that. “You didn’t steal anything from them last time, did you?”

Megan sighed. “No, Jake. I’m not that much of an idiot.” Then Megan thought of a small fib that would help smooth things along, so she went with it. “However, that’s not to say I wasn’t tempted. So, I think it would be for the best if I sit this one out. I can go figure out what Titus is up to and then meet you all later.”

In reality, Megan had not been having any problems with her klepto tendencies ever since the party had started letting her [Steal] things from them and then put them back. However, she hated their last trip to the castle since she had to act all polite, and she didn’t even do much but stand around as Jake and the [King] talked. A chance to get out of that and figure out what her boyfriend was up to was too good to pass up.

“Hmm, okay,” Jake said. He snapped his fingers. “Oh! I know! We can meet you guys back here. While you’re waiting, maybe you can ask around to see if anyone else has heard of a way home?”

“What?” Megan asked, wondering where the heck that had come from.

“Yeah, I know we still have our main quest, but maybe someone else has heard something about what we would need to do to send Titus home?” Jake paused as Megan looked at him blankly. “Titus is still planning on going home after all of this, right?”

I completely forgot that no one else knows that he’s stranded here, just like the rest of us. Megan shook her head. “Well, I haven’t heard one way or the other, so I guess I could bring it up with him.” She chuckled and continued the lie. “I would like to know his plans on that too, after all.”

With that, the party split up. Most of them went off to the castle, while Megan went off in search of Titus. Fortunately, he was close enough that Megan got a pretty good read on his location, and she soon found him in the market district.

However, it wouldn’t do to just walk up and drag him back to the guild.

What was so important that you wouldn’t rejoin the party? Megan asked herself as she dropped from the party, entered [Sneak], and tailed him.

She was a bit confused as he went up to random people, traded a few words with them, and then they would walk away from him in a bit of a hurry. She desperately wanted to hear what was going on, but she was pretty sure that in broad daylight in the middle of the road that he would still manage to catch her if she got too close. Level 5 [Sneak] versus level 1 [Detect] let her get away with a lot, but that was pushing it a bit too far.

Eventually, Titus managed to convince one man that approached to do… Whatever it was that he was looking for. Though, Megan could tell by his body language that Titus had to beg and plead for that to happen.

Titus and the somewhat nervous man then entered a shop together, and Megan looked in from the outside.

Her first thoughts were, A jewelry shop? Titus, you can’t even wear anything but the clothes you have on.

Then she immediately jumped to a different conclusion. Oh no. No. Titus, not yet.

However, Titus couldn’t hear her internal panic and continued talking with both the shop owner and the man he had brought with him inside. He kept looking at wares and shaking his head, no, but then eventually nodded vigorously.

Megan couldn’t see more than that because she didn’t dare open the shop door and get caught. She thought she saw Titus and the man hand something to each other, but that was all.

Crud. What do I do? Whatever her plan, she knew she needed to do it fast. She deactivated [Sneak] and practically burst through the door. “There you are, Titus! I was looking for you!”

Titus hastily scrambled and put something in his pocket as he turned to face her. “Oh, Megan! Hi! Sorry, I just had a quick errand to run.” Titus’ tagalong took that moment to sneak past Megan and exit the store.

Meanwhile, the shopkeeper looked on in amusement.

“Ah, yes. A quick errand. In a jewelry store. For something you can definitely wear,” Megan deadpanned.

Titus winced. “Dang it. I was hoping to surprise you.” He paused. “You didn’t see what I got you, right?”

“No,” Megan started.

However, before she could tell Titus that maybe he could still return it, he beamed and said, “Great! Then close your eyes, and I’ll put it on you!”

Megan wanted to protest. She wasn’t ready for what Titus was going to offer, but a small part of her insisted. Maybe just see it first? She reluctantly nodded and then closed her eyes.

Titus walked over to her. He pulled the piece of jewelry out of his pocket. Then he… Draped it around her neck?

She didn’t wait for Titus to tell her to open her eyes before opening them, grabbing his hand, and looking at the beautiful emerald necklace he had put on her.

She sighed and then bust up laughing.

“It was the biggest I could get!” Titus said with a look of hurt confusion.

Megan quickly waved her hands. “No, no. It’s not that.” She laughed a bit more and then calmed herself. She looked Titus dead in the eye and said, “I thought you were going to propose to me.”

Titus’ face went through many emotions, but it settled on one of horror. “No, I would never-“ he started and then tried to correct himself at a mile a minute. “Well, not never, but maybe later. Because, well, I mean, I love you, but we’ve just started dating, and you haven’t even said the L word yet, and I-“

Megan cut him off with a brief kiss to the lips. “Thank you. It’s beautiful.”

Titus only replied with a wide grin.

It was about then that the shopkeeper kicked them out, but Megan didn’t fight it. They needed to get going anyway.

She walked out of the store side-by-side with Titus, and then after hesitating for just a second, took his hand.

I’m glad it wasn’t a proposal because I don’t think I’m ready yet. She looked up at her idiot boyfriend’s goofy grin and smiled along with him. But someday Titus. We’ll get there someday.

----

Operation “get the girlfriend a gift” was a smashing success. I got a kiss, my girlfriend was walking hand-in-hand with me, and she kept looking down at the necklace and smiling.

Thank you, shiny rocks, for your ability to make girls happy. I will never doubt it again.

We had a bit of catching up to do, so I told her the story of my “duel” with [King] Vir and subsequent early release. Then I told her how I had spent the night looking around for a jewelry store before finding a good one.

I also finally told her a bit about her necklace. I didn’t mention the price because I didn’t want her to know that I was down to only 200 of my 2000 gold (paying the shopkeeper and someone to buy it for me was expensive). However, I let her know that it apparently had a very slight poison resistance effect. Not that the poison resistance was the reason I got it. I picked that necklace because it matched her eyes the best. Well, at least of the ones that were in my price range.

After that, it was her turn to tell her story. She relayed their talk with [King] Vir and how there were several new prophecies. “There was one about some kind of attack from the far south, one about an attack from the far east, and then one about wild people coming from the far north,” she said.

I raised an eyebrow. “Were they worded like that?”

She shook her head. “No. They were way more flowery, and I couldn’t remember the full wording even if I wanted to.” She paused for a second. “Though I do remember one of them. I think. How did it go? Oh, yea.”

She cleared her throat and spoke in a solemn tone. “The realm of Placeholder shall be left to an eternal cycle. As long as the age lasts, neither paragon nor lord of darkness shall meet their true end. At their fall, another shall rise. So shall it be.” She bowed her head at the end and then snorted. “I feel like some weird monk or cult leader after saying all that prophetic BS.”

I chuckled along with her. “I’m impressed you remembered all that,” I replied. Then I mulled over the actual words for a bit longer. “So if either the [Hero] or I die, we just get replaced? How does that work?”

Megan shrugged. “Who knows? These prophecies were way more cryptic than the first one.”

I frowned. “Yeah, but I guess that’s just par for the course. The first one was definitely the unusual one when it comes to prophecies.”

We walked in silence for a bit after that. Then Megan brought up something else. “There was also one more prophecy that only Jake got to hear. As far as I know, he hasn’t shared it with anyone, even Garrett. I can only guess at the content, but it was bad enough that it kept him up all night.”

“Must be pretty serious,” I muttered. “I’ll ask him. Maybe he’ll be willing to open up a bit.”

Soon enough, we made it to the adventurer’s guild. We walked inside, and I finally remembered to ask. “What are we doing here anyway?”

“Oh, right,” Megan replied. “We said we’d meet up here. Jake also suggested that we ask around to see if anyone has heard of a way to go back to Earth.” Megan shrugged. “I didn’t tell him that you’re stuck here like the rest of us, so we can just say we didn’t find anything.”

“Well,” I replied. “It’s not like we have anything better to do while we wait, and I’m kind of curious to see if anyone else has been looking.”

She sighed. “If you want to waste your time, go ahead. I’m going to go back to the dorms and take a nap then.”

I gave her an awkward wave goodbye and then went over to the first group of adventurers.

There have to be at least some people that have been thinking about going home. There’s no way everyone can have a tragic past waiting for them back on Earth, right?

I’m glad I didn’t say that out loud, or I would have had to eat my words.

“Yeah, I was barely making ends meet at a dead-end job. The 9 to 5 grind was killing me slowly. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back,” said one adventurer.

“My family is all dead. They left me in debt. I’m never going back,” said another.

“I died,” said a third.

That one gave me pause. “Wait, what?” I asked.

“Yeah, I had a massive heart attack when the vortex showed up. I was living on borrowed time.” They paused. “Pretty sure that means I can’t go back.”

I heard several more tragic backstories after that. Lost and fractured families, debts, illnesses.

Then came the last one where I thought there was hope.

“My dog died,” the final one said.

I paused for a second. “Now, I know losing a pet sucks and all, but is that really a reason to never want to go back to Earth?”

“Oh, sorry. I mean my seeing-eye dog.” They paused. “I used to be blind.”

“Right,” I replied. “Sorry for wasting your time.” I paused. “And uhh… Congrats on seeing and stuff,” I said and awkwardly excused myself.

So, while I can’t speak for all 1000 other adventurers, my random sampling definitely confirmed one thing. I was the anomaly for having a stable and happy life on Earth.

Well, at least AltSys seems to have mostly yanked people that would want to come, I said to myself with a sigh. And I’m making due, so… I guess… Good job, AltSys. Thanks.

My ruminating was interrupted by a ping from Jake to gather up.

I went and got my sleeping girlfriend, which was a bit of a risky prospect, and told her there must have been a change of plans. She grumbled a bit, but she had to take my word for it since she had dropped from the party at some point.

I followed the party’s location, and soon enough, we arrived… Back in the market district.

“We could have just stayed here,” Megan grumbled.

I shrugged. “Oh well. If we hadn’t gone, I wouldn’t have been able to ask around about heading back to Earth.” I paused. “Or find out that absolutely no one is looking.”

She thought about that for a minute. “So, you’re saying it would have been better to just stay here.”

“I… can’t argue with that.”

Fortunately, we located the party soon enough. They also had an extra.

“Who’s this?” I asked Jake after giving the party a quick wave in greeting.

“This is Eli, the [King’s] [Steward],” Jake replied. “Whatever happened between you and [King] Vir, he seems to be pulling out all the stops now. We’ve been promised horses, gear, and even some [Messages] ahead of us to prepare the way.”

“Nice,” I replied. Then I raised an eyebrow and looked back at the [Steward], who seemed like he wanted to be anywhere else. “But, why is he here?”

“That’s thanks to Emilia. The [King] was initially going to just give us a stipend to go spend, but she convinced him we could get better gear if we had a non-adventurer to trade for us.”

“Oh, right. Bartering is more expensive as an adventurer. Makes sense.”

Megan and I fell in with the party, and I got prepared for a boring day of shopping. Boring because I was sure that there was nothing I would want to get.

However, it was definitely worth the time for the rest of the party.

Jake, Garrett, Lindsey, Emilia, Megan, and Andrew all purchased some honest-to-goodness armor. Everyone except Andrew and Lindsey went with some light leather armor while Andrew and Lindsey splurged and got some chainmail. Along with Lindsey’s increased HP total, her new armor meant that there would never be an argument about who the main tank was again.

However, purchasing armor also had an interesting facet that I was surprised hadn’t come up yet for us.

Jake and Garrett were both looking at the armor when Garrett asked the shopkeeper, “Excuse me. Do you have anything bigger?”

David Junior the Second and I had been the main attraction for weird looks all day, so it was refreshing to see someone give Garrett a look like he was speaking in pig Latin and asking the best way to mow grass in the sky.

“I assure you, good sir, my armor will fit any adult just the same,” the shopkeeper replied.

Our entire party shared a look at that. We purchased one set as a test and had Andrew try it on. It fit his 5-foot frame just fine. He took it off and handed it to Garrett. Somehow, it was also a perfect match for Garrett’s 6-foot-4 frame.

As we stood there mildly stunned by the fact that armor was magically one size fits all, the shopkeeper just shook his head. “Adventurers. They always act like they’ve never seen how clothing works before!”

I kept quiet until we were done with all our armor-y purchases and then asked Megan, “How did that not come up before? Didn’t you guys have to deal with that when you got your winter clothing?”

She frowned. “Well, they just gave us one pair each. We just kind of assumed they were really good at guessing our measurements, but… I guess resizing clothes makes a lot more sense.”

We all tucked that away as a weird fact of our new world and moved on with our lives.

However, that wasn’t our last stop for the day. While Andrew and Lindsey splurged on defense, everyone else seemed to be most excited about the chance to get a new weapon. So that’s what they did. Though, that wasn’t as exciting as it could have been. They still didn’t have a way to judge equipment beyond a vague feeling that a weapon was better or worse than their current one. As for the upgrades...

Garrett got a better greataxe. It was basically the same as his old one, just looked like it was better crafted. We assumed it was probably just a straight damage upgrade.

Emilia picked up some enchanted arrows of a few different kinds. She was initially going to get a bow, but after looking at a few of them, she determined her current one (from the Faroff Forest Dungeon) was better.

Sam and Tim both got new wands. We assumed they helped with spellcasting damage somehow, but Tim also noticed that their MP pools increased by 25 when they had them out.

Finally, Megan got an enchanted knife. It was a wicked-looking thing with a sapphire embedded in the hilt, and the [Merchant] assured us that it would deal additional ice damage to enemies she hit with it. That was probably our most expensive purchase of the entire day, and the [Steward] wouldn’t have allowed it if I didn’t say she could use my stipend too. After all, there was nothing we could purchase that would be able to help me.

Jake also looked around at weapons even though everyone knew he wasn’t going to get a better weapon than his Hero’s Sword. That led to something… Interesting.

Jake had convinced the [Blacksmith] to let him try out a sword or two even though he wasn’t planning on buying anything. The [Blacksmith] let him take one off the wall and give it a few swings.

As a side note, that wasn’t too unusual even for gamelike shopping because it turns out that when a shopkeeper of any kind is in their shop, they can trade any of the goods that they still have in their store from the bartering interface. Yes, that’s incredibly convenient, and I may have made a joke somewhere along the line about never having to “check in the back.”

Anyway, Jake pulled a masterfully crafted sword off the wall, furrowed his eyebrows at a prompt only he could see, and then we watched as his Hero’s sword glowed white for a few seconds.

“What the heck was that, [Hero]?” I asked.

“Dude! It said that the sword I was holding had a better damage type and asked if I wanted to upgrade!” Jake replied. “It said that my sword was currently doing Slashing II damage, and this upgrade bumped it up to Slashing III!”

I just stared at him for a bit. “Have I told you that your class is BS recently?” I asked.

Jake laughed. “No, it’s been a while.”

“Well, your class is BS.” I paused. “And I hate you.”

Jake chuckled a bit more and threw his arm around my shoulder. “Com’on, we’re on the same side! No need to be jealous!”

I chuckled along lightly with him, but if I had been honest with myself, I would have admitted that I was jealous. Very jealous.

Negative feelings aside, I could still tell that something was off with Jake. I resolved to ask him about the prophecy as soon as I could.

After that, we shopped around to see if anyone was selling potions because they were a good thing to have in an emergency. However, the one [Alchemist] we did find had prices that were a bit too high for us to get anything. It also turns out that the potions we were given in the tutorial were on the higher end of things. That made the idea of shelling out a bunch of gold for new potions even less appealing.

We also had one last stop. The [Steward] who was babysitting us informed us that any adventurers with a class of [Wizard] or [Sorcerer] were allowed to learn the [Message] spell from either the [King’s] [Court Mage] or any of the other available [Spell Tutors] that taught it. He also mentioned that [Spell Tutor] was a relatively new class that had seemed to become available after people had taught adventurers spells.

I took the time when the [Spell Tutor] was trying to teach Sam and Tim [Message] to talk to Jake.

“Hey, [Hero], are you doing okay?” I asked.

“Hey, Titus,” Jake replied. He looked like he remembered something, “Oh yeah! You missed out on some stuff, the [King] made our quest official and-“

I cut him off gently. “That wasn’t what I was asking. You seem off today. Megan said you got a personal prophecy that has been really eating at you. You wanna talk about it?”

Jake gave me a pained look. “I’m sorry. It’s something I’ll need to work through by myself.”

As Jake paused, things grew incredibly awkward, even by my standards. I coughed and then tried to change the subject. “Well, uhh. You were mentioning the quest being official?”

“Oh yeah,” Jake said, looking relieved at the topic change. “He gave us an actual quest for stopping the portal from opening, and check this out.” His eyes went unfocused, and I assumed he was flipping through some of the status screens.

“Here we are,” he said as he performed the same flicking gesture he had done to initially show us his map.

“What am I looking at?” I asked. The map was scrolled way up to the north, but it also had a marker on it. The marker was surrounded by… Frozen walls of ice?

“After I got the quest, I went into my map, and there were four locations marked on it. It even shows the area around them!” He paused. “I’m sure you guessed, but we think this one’s probably the second dungeon.” He scrolled to the center and went to the tallest mountain. “The fourth one is here.” He scrolled way to the east, and I found myself looking at a marker inside a volcano. “And third one here.”

I nodded. “Nice, no more wandering around trying to find a submerged dungeon.” Then I realized something. “Wait, you said four markers, right? Was the first dungeon marked too?”

Jake shook his head and started scrolling. “Nah. This one’s way off to the west. In some kind of castle or something? Either way, this is probably where the portal will be opened if we fail.”

“Let’s hope we never have to go west then,” I replied.

Jake was about to reply when Sam stomped over to the party and said, “That’s so lame!”

“What is it?” Garrett asked.

“My class won’t let me learn [Message]!” she said with a pout.

I winced. “Oh, right. Avatar [Sorcer-,” I coughed because I honestly couldn’t remember if the last patch had left it as [Sorcerer] or [Sorcereress]. I plowed on, “-can only learn elemental spells, right?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “In other words, this is 100% all your fault Titus.”

I sputtered indignantly as the party laughed.

Tim was, fortunately, more successful, though we did have to stop at the obelisk for him to actually pick up the spell. 3 spell points later, and we had a [Wizard] with [Message].

Altogether it was a very worthwhile shopping trip, even if it did eat up almost the entirety of our day. From a time perspective, losing a day was acceptable. We were being given a horse each for our travels, and they wouldn’t be ready until the next day.

However, I did feel a bit guilty about the entire thing.

There isn’t really another way to think about this, is there? I thought. I made a rigged duel with the [King] of Vir and convinced him to load up my party with a bunch of gear. Which they’re supposed to use to defeat me. I paused. Maybe I shouldn’t tell the party I’m the [Demon Lord] after the second dungeon after all. I shook my head. No. I should definitely tell them. I guess I’ll hope that they keep it secret. Worst case scenario, I probably won’t be able to come back to Vir.

With that uplifting and inspiring thought rattling around in my head, the party settled in for the night. I could have also stayed in the dorms, but there would have been literally nothing to do. Instead, I chose to spend the night walking around town, looking at the sights. That feat ended up only being possible because of [Dark Vision], and I was grateful that I didn’t have to worry about pesky light issues.

At first light, I made my way back to the party, and we headed to the stables.

Jake looked even worse than the day before. That must be quite the heavy prophecy.

I didn’t have too long to wait on that because I soon got to deal with my next struggle. Riding a horse. Actually, even that’s too generous of a term for it. Even saying I had a hard time mounting a horse would be inaccurate.

“Come back here, you stupid animal!” I shouted as the horse neighed in panic and took off away from me for the fifth time.

Sam was having similar, if lesser, troubles. It turns out that horses don’t like demons or monsters. Who knew?

With Garrett and Jake both holding and calming my horse, I was eventually able to mount it. I then got tossed off as soon as they let go.

That’s it. The next time I mounted the horse, I channeled just a bit of fear aura towards it. I assumed I would be able to cow it into behaving.

That was a bad plan.

The horse took off with me struggling to hang on, and the rest of the party watched in stunned silence. As we took off down the street, I deactivated my aura and tried to calm the horse down. I did eventually succeed and manage to get the stupid animal to head back to the party.

After that, we were finally ready to say our goodbyes to Vir. We thanked the stablehands for our horses, mounted up, and were surprised when Vir also came to say goodbye to us.

… I mean the [King], of course. Pro-tip, don’t name collections of people after yourself. It comes across as egotistical these days, and it also just causes way too much confusion.

Either way, the [King] stopped by and gave us a blessing. “May System watch over your quest and bring it to a successful close.”

Jake was about to speak, but Emilia beat him to the punch. She bowed slightly from the top of her mount. “Thank you, your majesty. When we return victorious, it will no doubt be because of the assistance you have given us. We will endeavor to live up to the faith you have placed in us.”

The [King] looked delighted at that and a bit less impressed at Jake’s follow-up.

“Uh, yeah,” Jake said. “What she said.”

Note to self, let Emilia handle the nobility, was all I thought. Not that I wanted to deal with nobles anyway.

Either way, after that, we were finally off. We set off at a blistering… trot?

“Hey,” I called to Jake. “Why are we going so slow?”

“Because we are going to be traveling all day,” Emilia replied. “You don’t push a horse at a gallop for that long unless you want to be burying it at the end.”

“That may be true back on Earth, but is it true here?” I countered.

She rolled her eyes. “Yes. I talked with some of the natives. They can keep up a slow trot all day, but if you empty their stamina bar, you can literally kill them.”

“... oh,” I replied. Then I shut up and rode. Not that my mount made that easy. The animal didn’t like me, and the feeling was mutual.

We rode all day, with a few breaks for food and water for the party and the horses, and then stopped when it started to get dark.

“Thank goodness for new bodies,” Emilia said when we stopped. “Back on Earth, if we had ridden that long you all would have been too saddle sore to keep going tomorrow.”

“What about you?” I asked. “You make it sound like you would be fine.”

She rolled her eyes. “That’s because I’m the only one here who actually knows how to ride.” She shook her head. “As for you, Titus, you’re just lucky that the horses here seem to be way more forgiving than real ones.”

I grumbled but didn’t argue.

“So, you had horses back on Earth then?” Jake asked.

“Yes,” she replied. “Though, it has been quite a while since I’ve ridden.” She paused and frowned. “My father sold the horses after we lost my mother.”

I was saved from that awkward conversation by some howls that heralded the first monster attack of the night. I led them away and took care of them alone.

We were back to having a Titus watch, so I made sure to bug Jake about the prophecy again. He still refused to talk about it.

Our travels continued like that for a few days. The horses definitely made us cover ground faster, even though mine was constantly wanting to rebel.

Jake also looked more and more miserable as we went.

“Come on, [Hero],” I told him one night. “You need to talk about it! It doesn’t have to be me if you don’t want to. Just please talk to someone.”

He ignored me.

“Just tell Garrett for me. Or Emilia. Please.” I begged him.

“Why?” he snapped. “So they can be cursed with the same knowledge I am? So they can lose sleep too?” He paused and went through a few cycles of breathing. “I’m sorry. It’s just…” he trailed off and looked up at the sky.

“This prophecy is really, really, bad,” he finally continued. “And if we’re doomed to have it happen, it’s better you all don’t have to worry about it beforehand.”

“So, it’s about the party,” I replied.

“Frick,” Jake said. “I’ve already said too much.”

“You may as well tell me at this point.”

Jake shook his head. “No.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?” I challenged him. “I lose sleep over it?”

He paused at that. “Fine. But you have to promise to keep it from the others.”

“I promise.”

He gave me an appraising look. “You sure? I’m not sure if I can trust you to keep something this big a secret.”

“Trust me, I can keep a secret.” I chuckled a bit inside at that. Oh, [Hero]. If only you knew.

Jake gathered his thoughts for about a minute and then spoke in a soft voice.

“Woe to you [Hero], for calamity has been proclaimed for you and those you hold close. Your current path is lined with troubles and sorrows, and you will be hard-pressed until the day you die. As for the others, their lots have fallen.

“One, to turn back from adventuring.

“One, to sojourn in solitude.

“One, to value profit over love.

“One, to fall to grief.

“One, to be lost to madness.

“One, to betray.

And one,” Jake paused. “To die.”

I didn’t reply to that immediately. And when I finally could, all I got out was a stunned “Wow.”

“Right?” Jake asked. “What kind of isekai is this? Aren’t we supposed to be the conquering heroes? The saviors of the world? What the heck is this!?” Jake was irate when he finished and settled into a few more cycles of breathing.

I was thinking about what to say when I realized something. “One of us is missing,” I said.

“Yeah,” Jake replied. “I noticed that too. I have 8 people in my party and only 7 prophecies of doom.” He chuckled darkly. “At least someone gets out of this okay.”

This isn’t fair. They didn’t do anything to deserve this. I made my decision. “Unless all of us get out fine,” I said and looked him dead in the eye. “We’re going to defy this stupid prophecy, and we’re going to do it together. Alright? And you’re the [Hero]! If anyone can defy prophecy, it’s you!”

Jake gave me a strained smile, “I want to. I just… I don’t know if I’m strong enough.”

I was halfway to making a decision to tell him my true class then and there. If I could show him that one prophecy was foiled, surely another one could be as well.

Unfortunately, I never got there.

I was distracted by something off in the distance, and Jake turned to look too.

“Is that… smoke?” he asked.

I nodded my agreement when we heard a primal roar off in the distance. A roar any fantasy fan could place just by hearing it.

“Dragon,” Jake whispered. Then shouted. “Dragon! Everyone up!” He sprinted back towards camp as I followed. “There’s a village in that direction! We have to get there as soon as possible!”

The party was confused but used to listening to Jake’s orders. We mounted up and pushed our horses to maximum speed towards the billowing smoke.

When we got there, the village was nothing but fire.

We dismounted right next to some villagers. “Please! My daughter didn’t make it out!” One of them ran up and begged Jake.

“Which house?” I asked. He pointed, and I was off like a rocket.

I ran into the house with zero hesitation. [Fire Immunity] has its perks, after all.

“Where are you!?” I called out as I entered the blazing inferno. It was a strange thing to notice for someone that had taken literal lava baths, but this fire was hot. It gave me the distinct feeling that I wouldn’t last long without [Fire Immunity], even with adventurer levels of HP.

I heard a yell and crying from upstairs, and I made my way there. That part was almost trivial, and I was grateful for video game fire. If it had been real fire, there’s no way I would have been able to see, and I probably would have died from smoke inhalation.

I made it into the room and located the errant daughter. Her eyes bugged out when she saw me, and I immediately tried to calm her. “It’s okay. I’m here to help, okay?”

She gave me a timid nod. I picked her up, but I knew I wasn’t making it out with her back the way I came.

The room also didn’t have any windows we could use to escape. I quickly came to a decision. Time to make one. I [Earth Strike] kicked the wall until it gave way, then scooped the girl up, and leaped outside.

I took a few points of HP damage from the fall, but it wasn’t enough to worry about.

I handed the little girl back to her parents and then called out. “Anyone else unaccounted for?!”

There were murmurs, and they came to an answer of no.

I breathed a sigh of relief at that. Then I noticed that my party’s horses were there, and David Junior was there, but the rest of the party was missing.

“Where did the others go?” I asked a nearby village even as I felt for the party and partially answered my own question.

“They went off on foot after the great beast!” one villager called.

I shouted a quick thank you and then took off after them. A feat I could have accomplished even without the party interface. The burning trail left by the dragon was hard to miss.

I caught up to the party outside of a cave.

“Where’s Megan?” I asked when I got there.

Jake shushed me and then whispered. “She’s scoping out the inside of the cave. We want to keep the element of surprise as long as we can.”

I nodded at that, and we were both surprised when we heard an echoey call from inside the cave. “You guys need to see this.”

Jake and I shared a look and then went into the cave. It wasn’t that deep, and we soon found Megan standing next to a portal.

How did we know it was a portal? Well, it was two ornate arches with floating text between them that said, “Portal texture, WIP.”

Half-baked portal or not, we figured the dragon must have gone through it because we didn’t see anywhere else it could have gone.

“Do we follow it in?” I finally asked.

“I don’t know,” Jake replied. “Who knows if the portal is even safe?”

I had an idea to test that. “[Summon Dave],” I cast. I ordered the little ball of slime to hop through the portal, wait 5 seconds, and then hop back. It did so successfully. I had it do that twice more just to be sure, then I volunteered to go first.

The party agreed, and I stepped through the portal.

I found myself… In the exact same cave.

“What the heck?” I asked thin air as I looked around. The features were all the same, but no one was around, and I could no longer tell where the party was.

I went back, told everyone it was safe, and we all stepped through together.

“So, where are we, [Hero]?” I asked Jake.

He flipped open his map and then froze. “Well. That’s a thing.” He shared his map with everyone again. “New tab. Labeled Dragonlands.”

“An entirely new dimension, perhaps?” Tim asked. “If it is populated solely with dragons, it might be best to not intrude on their domain.”

---

I can still remember how I felt then. I was confident. I was sure we could take on the dragon, and Jake was too.

Even as I replay the memories, I beg myself to stop. To give up my hubris. To turn back while there’s still a chance.

The Titus in my memories doesn’t heed my warnings, though. The party marches on.

It is already too late.

----

We tracked the dragon through a forest to a wide clearing, and then the trail stopped. We kept our eyes peeled for signs of it as we stalked through the empty space.

“Do you hear that?” Emilia asked in a whisper.

“No. What is it?” Jake asked.

“It sounds like… ABOVE!” she screamed.

Her warning was too late. The dragon glided down from on high and bathed the entire party in an inferno.

I was too slow to react. The party’s HP bars fell to empty in practically no time. I was horrified, but I prepared myself for…

“ABOVE!” Emilia screamed.

The dragon’s breath engulfed our party again, but I was ready. “[DISRUPT]!” I shouted along with my snap. The flames immediately died down. “RUN!” I called to the party. Even with my timely intervention, our party had lost about a third of its HP. Fortunately, that meant they needed no additional prompting to flee.

The dragon was circling back towards us, and I couldn’t help but hit it with an [Identify].

Level 25 young fire dragon, wasn’t the [Demon Lord] supposed to be level 25?!

We weren’t fast enough to make it to the forest before the dragon finished its loop. It landed heavily in our path, and the ground shook as it did.

“You’re going down now!” Jake shouted as he ran.

“Wait, [Hero], no!” I called out as he did.

“[Sund-“ was all Jake got out. The dragon’s tail whipped around impossibly fast for something that size and tossed him like a ragdoll.

He flew almost a hundred feet and hit a tree but still had a small chunk of HP left.

Until the dragon singled him out with another breath of flames. I had nothing to do but wait for…

“You’re going down now!” Jake shouted for the second time.

I hadn’t had much time to prepare for the reset, but I had enough.

“Get down!” I shouted as I caught up to him and tackled him.

I wasn’t fast enough. The tail caught me instead, and we were both flung into the same tree he had hit last time.

I got a message from the System but ignored it. “Make yourself as small as you can!” I shouted. Jake was confused but curled up just as the dragon’s breath started.

I covered him with my body, and we managed to ride it out.

The rest of the party ran in a different direction, and Jake started running too, but paused and looked back at me.

“Titus!” he shouted. “Come on!”

Meanwhile, I was frozen.

System: Critical HP Detected. Sufficient Level Detected. Demon Lord Form detected. Auto-activating Demon Lord Form.

System: Attempting to activate Wrath Form

And finally, the most important one that had come just as I had managed to stand up, and that had locked me in place.

System: Wrath Form Activated

“[Hero],” I managed to croak out as the swirling inferno of rage engulfed my conscious thought. “Run.”