Author's note:

Hey, I'm still here. This chapter is nothing special but, hopefully, it's not that bad.

IMPORTANT NEWS!

It's been brewing in my mind for a long time and I finally went around to doing it. Flight of Icarus is from now* on an original story! I went and edited the beginning chapters (they have the most changed things) and made sure I didn't follow RR (I also removed Ace using skills that shouldn't be his like fireball and smokescrean changed Meresven to Mora and corrected mistakes I found. Apparently, for at least half of my story peace was piece. It's truly embarrassing). In later chapters almost nothing is changed since I was always bad at following others' orders and pretty much everything is original.

*now means that after I'll upload this chapter I'll go and try to update the old chapters. (Sadly, my updates won't pass chapter 4.5 as re-reading all the chapters while paying keen attention to spot mistakes and irregularities takes quite a while.

To find our what has been changed you can re-read the first chapters or check out this spoiler below.

Spoiler : The game is called Regal Dream.

The game is played in a specially made room (cabin) where you strap yourself to a number of cables that keep you in the air that move your muscles somewhat so you wouldn't get too unhealthy from playing too much.

Ace started in Mora, the capital of Oradin kingdom that is in the east.

The skills are leveled: Novice[5] ~~>Average[10]~~>Advanced[15]~~>Master

The Characters list has also been expanded with many minor characters or added descriptions. Abilities have been updated with skill levels that were last noted in any of the chapters.

Characters

Titles and Abilites

There was a sickly sound when he drew his blade out of a chest of some guy that had gotten in his way. The poor fellow had though he could run his way out of the situation. Ace shook his head, another idiot.

He smiled as he noticed Kris was perfectly clean, having drunk all the blood, and put it in his sheath. There was no more killing to be done for the moment.

His eyes rose to roam around the place he found himself in. He had come here through the lake and ended up in some kind of dispute. There was no difference to him who was who so he simply got in, spreading chaos in the battle and killing anyone who got too close to his blade.

Both parties soon noticed that there was a third player but it was too late by then. Their combined groups consisted of only seven members and those didn’t look particularly happy to be forced to unite. They more encumbered each other than helped.

That made Ace’s work quite easy and he took care of them all in moments. The last one had decided to take a chance at fleeing but he didn’t get far. [Instincts of a Predator] showed Ace exactly where he was and he hunted him down like an animal.

“This place is sure dismal” he murmured as his eyes landed on a broken tree. He was in some kind of forest through which a hurricane had past through. Many trees had fallen, the few that stood had branches torn off while the ground was littered with thrash; leaves, roots and fallen branches.

He left it and went to where the lake was. It glistened beautifully in the silver moonlight, sharpening the edges and making the broken forest look even more eerie. Ace looked down on his crimson soaked clothes and decided to take a swim. It was for this sole reason he’d chosen a lake and not a mirror as his last work place.

All night he’d spread his legend throughout the whole land. Now that he had a way to travel quickly and efficiently, it would be a crime not to do so. Silver Wing was to be a legend, a monster that no one could stop. Even the rules of logic itself should have no power over him.

Cold water washed over his body as he jumped in. It was freezing! Apparently, he’d travelled north. Very fart north, he decided as a piece paper thin ice floated up to him. He activated [Excessive Heat] and felt it removing all the remnants of refreshing water as it saved him from getting a cold.

It wasn’t a trade he wanted to make so he relaxed, floating in the water and tried to control the skill. It didn’t seem to hear anything about his wishes but he tried anyway. To no avail. The skill was too stubborn to change and after half an hour Ace gave up. He turned it off and enjoyed a few minutes of coldness before getting out.

He was dripping wet so he changed his clothes and put on a fresh pair. He glanced at he water to make sure he was presentable again. Now he had dark brown pants with a golden belt and green long sleeved tunic on. He wrapped a dark purple scarf around his neck and was done.

He could go and meet with Par and the group now. Their quest should be starting any time now.

[Mirror Walk] brought him back into the noble’s house he’d started his adventure in and from there he moved to look for his friends. In here it was early morning already and they should be appearing.

They hadn’t decided on a meeting place so Ace decided to wait near the nymph fountain they had met up the day before. He found a bench and curled up on it with his head to the raising sun to dry. In moments, he was asleep without even planning to do that.

“Hey! Are you coming?” Hawk’s voice came through a fog of sleep and Ace groaned heavily. A night of murdering was fun and all but it did nothing to help with one’s tiredness.

He felt like he had been hit with a brick when trying to open his eyes. They fought against him with all they had. “We’re not going to wait for you forever” Hawk said, shaking his shoulder.

“Soon” Ace murmured, losing the battle against his eyelids. He’d opened them for a moment but they had closed up and became even heavier.

Cold water washed over his face and Ace jumped up from his place. “What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed at the smiling archer. “Getting you up. We need to go.”

Ace shook his head like a wet dog and glared one more time at the archer before drying his face with some cloth from his pack. “You could have done it in a more humanly manner, you know?” he asked with a huff, taking off after the guy who didn’t intent on waiting for him.

Hawk gave him a glance backwards. “And wasted an hour? No, thanks.”

Ace didn’t have anything to say to that so he jogged after the guy’s long steps; he’d never noticed the archer had such long legs. Did it look like their group was always moving at a snail’s pace to him? Probably.

“Do you know the quest?” the archer asked after a while. “I heard a bit about it. L needs some kind of village, right?”

“Yes, but first we need to go and take a detour to Vascas castle. He said we need to get him support there first.”

“What a needy guy” Ace murmured. “He sure is going to run us down.”

“Weren’t you the one who asked him to send us there?” Hawk asked with surprise evident in his voice.

“Why would I do that? I’ve been there before” Ace answered with a shrug. “This time I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

As he said that they came upon the rest of the group. They were standing besides the gate, ready to leave. “What took you so long?” Monthu asked with a scowl. Looks like someone’s in a bad mood today, Ace noted but kept his mouth shut for the moment. He will have time enough to annoy Monthu on the journey which will take them a while.

“He was sleeping near the fountain and didn’t get up without a prompt. I also got us horses. Didn’t they get here yet?” A loud whiny followed his words and they all turned their heads in that direction.

A man in his forties was walking up to them with reigns in his hands that held a group of horses in check. They didn’t look anything spectacular but you could easily notice they were good for new riders. There was a certain acceptance in their eyes and an air of having given up and not caring about anything.

Ace found them pitiable and would have liked to find himself something with a spirit but there was no time for that. He would have to sit on this broken horse and hope it wasn’t contagious.

“You need help kid?” the man asked Ace as he brought him his horse. It was an old chestnut mare that looked like she wouldn’t even notice if she was led down a cliff. She was just going where led and not raising her own eyes to check.

“No” he said forcibly and took the reigns for himself. He led the mare near a bench, which would help him get up, while consulting himself that she at least wasn’t a pony. That would have been the cherry on the cake and he wasn’t sure if he would have gotten on it then. There was just that much humiliation he could take.

“Let’s go” Monthu said loudly and Ace got on his horse with a sigh. The adventure was starting on a very sore note. He hadn’t planned on that when he asked L for something to do. He was already starting to doubt his decision on doing that.

They left moments after and rushed out as fast as their horses could manage. Which to be fair, wasn’t that fast. Ace had a feeling it was only slightly better than his normal walking speed and compared to Hawk’s it was as slow as a snail.

Their travel was in usual style with Monthu trudging alone while Hawk chatted with Aurora and Ace was listening to Par and watching their surroundings. They had chosen one of the main roads so there was nothing interesting to see. The travellers had thinned out once the championship had started and the rest feared to go alone.

Now that there was so much tension between all the lords, most players were gathering under their wings which left the roads emptier and brought out the outlaws. Player killing had become much more popular and rogues were banding up everywhere to catch unwary travellers.

But they didn’t meet anything to Ace’s annoyance. It had taken them a whole week to only get onto the path leading to Vascas and in that time not once did anyone attack them. A few groups of monsters had ventured in their path but Monthu didn’t attack them and they just passed through. Ace was ready to scream his lungs out by the fifth time it happened but the look in Monthu’s eyes kept him in check. It was telling him to go mad over it and Ace didn’t like following orders.

Because of that he simply logged out. There was no point to stick around if nothing was happening. At home, he could at least watch television and pretend he was having fun.

Moments after he decided that, he felt himself returning to the real world and silver walls welcoming him back. He unstrapped the cables that kept his body in the air and dropped to the ground. It was cold under his bare feet and he smiled at that.

He hated wearing slippers. They were so uncomfortable and removed the joy of feeling the floor and carpets.

He walked downstairs from his room and into the kitchen. There was no food there but some fruits so he took a couple of apples and while chewing on them called for pizza. It was going to come in twenty minutes so he went to turn the television on.

It was doubtful there would be anything interesting going there, but it didn’t hurt to try. To his surprise a show about the old beliefs was going and he was taken by it in moments. It didn’t have much he didn’t know but he liked refreshing his memory and hearing slightly different interpretations.

The bell rang and angrily he left the show. He would have sat and watched if his stomach hadn’t rumbled in hunger for the last ten minutes, apples having had little effect on his hunger.

He opened the door but instead of some pizza guy, he saw a female he wasn’t expecting to see. She was wearing a green, form hugging business dress that left her shoulders open. There was a wide smile on her face. “Janette?” he said in surprise.

“Hey, kiddo! How have you been?” she asked making her way in with his food in her hand.

“Great” he said simply, eyeing his food. She noticed it and laughed. “You hungry?” “Yeah” he murmured, his eyes not leaving the thin box.

“Have it then” she said, passing it to his hands and leading into the kitchen. “Nothing seems to be changed. You sure it has been a year since I’ve last visited?”

“Mhm...” Kirin answered, digging into the pizza. It tasted heavenly and he was hoping the female wasn’t going to try and take a bite. “Don’t worry!” she laughed. “I’m not going to steal it away from you.”

He smiled at that but hurried up with his eating none the less. He wondered why she had come now. It wasn’t any kind of holidays, nor anyone’s birthdays and she worked thousands of miles away, in another continent.

She had been sick when she was here last time so there hadn’t been any visiting done and Kirin hadn’t minded that. He preferred his solitude to anyone but he had to say Janette wasn’t the worst to be around.

She was two years older than him and she had always treated him like her little brother. But that was different than what the others did. She didn’t expect him to know nothing of life, just less than her. And that was true. She was older.

“Anything interesting happening while I was gone?” she asked, grabbing one of the apples from the table. “I heard some rumours.”

“About Vera?” Kirin asked through mouthfuls of food. “Eat before you talk!” she chastised him. “I don’t want that pizza on my new dress.” She was sitting a while table away so there was no way anything could reach it but Kirin didn’t mention it. He was busy eating.

“Some meeting later on?” he asked, this time after chewing his food. “Just been in one, but you’re not changing the conversation. What happened around here? It feels like a war zone outside.”

“Is it that bad?” Kirin asked before taking another bite. He was already half way done and that was very sad. He didn’t feel even close to full.

“So you know something” she said with a wide smile as if she just took some important information out of him. “Yeah, my parents banned Vera from seeing me ever again unless I say otherwise. It happened a couple of weeks ago.”

“They did what?” she asked, the apple falling from her hands. “How did that happen?” Kirin smiled at that. “They saw her.”

“At one of her moments?” “Yeah.” “No wonder the village’s in an uproar. The girl knows nothing but following you around. How has she been doing?”

“I haven’t seen her since the ban.” “And she hadn’t tried to contact you in two weeks? That doesn’t sound like her.”

“I wasn’t really listening” Kirin said, shrugging. “I don’t miss her that much.”

“I wonder why” Janette laughed. “Was there ever a time you liked her?” That was something Kirin never considered and now tried to remember the older times. He could say he didn’t hate her when they were in the same class but liking? Probably not. She was too annoying; admiring his every step when he didn’t like to be in the centre of attention.

It wasn’t like he had been shy. He just liked his solitude too much. And found the other kids uninteresting.

He shook his head to answer Janette while taking the last piece of his pizza. How could it possibly be gone already? “What about that other girl, the one that always looked liked she’s run away from a circus? Did you make up with her?”

Kirin clenched his teeth. “I don’t talk with her” he said, eating the last bite and standing up to wash his hands. It also had the added effect of allowing him to hide the narrowing of his eyes as he turned from her. She knew a lot but not everything.

“What happened with her anyway? You never went around to telling me” she said in a normal tone but Kirin could hear the warning in her voice. She wanted the answer and this time he wasn’t going to escape by changing the theme.

“She decided Vera was better as a friend” he said. It wasn’t like he lied, but it wasn’t all the truth either. There was more to it than simple preference, although, had there? It had been so complicated yet quite simple if one really thought about it.

Janette rolled her eyes at that but didn’t say anything. From all the people he knew, she was the best at gauging his emotions and acting around them. It was scary somewhat that he could be read so easily but refreshing too. No matter how much he hid, she knew it and didn’t really judge him.

“How long will you stay?” “I leave tomorrow morning. I made a detour on a business trip to see how you’ve been doing. Mind if I crash here for the night?”

“Go on. Should we watch a film?” “Sure and you can tell me all you’ve been up to lately. I’m sure you’ve been busy in that new game of yours.” Kirin nodded at that with a smile. He could talk about his group and the quests they’ve done. “What about you? Have you played it?”

She rose to leave the kitchen, shuffling his hair on her way out. “Of course I did. What do you think I am? Some old crone? I wouldn’t be surprised if I was even stronger than you!”

Kirin gave her a look that said dream on and went to his room to find a DVD. There wasn’t much of a choice but he remembered having one sent to him by someone and he hadn’t watched it yet.

He brought it to her and Janette snatched it from his hands. “A horror story? Really?” she asked with a look. “You know, I’m kind of happy you’re not growing up. I’d have to worry about the world then.”

“Thanks” Kirin muttered rolling his eyes. “Just put it on and come here.” She watched him plop down on the sofa before putting the film in and returning to the kitchen to grab a bag of chips. “Do you eat anything else?” she asked but Kirin didn’t feel like replying to that.

He spent the whole night talking with her and then the next day sleeping. Only after all that time did he log back in to Regal Dream. The game hadn’t changed as much as he would have liked. The group was still only half way towards the Vascas castle.

Another week passed before they finally saw the gates of the city. It brought a sigh of relief to Ace’s lips and he was sure he heard it from others too. The dark cloud over Monthu’s head wasn’t bothering him alone.

The first wall was still in ruins, it’s pieces lying all around the field, but the second one was closed and fortified. There was a line of spikes before it that looked dangerously sharp but the gates were wide open.

As they moved forward a group of players intercepted their way at the gates. “Who are you and what do you want in this place?”

“We’ve come to talk to the leaders of this city” Monthu answered in a calm tone, his scowl hidden for the moment.

“Turn around and leave! We need no preachers in here! The council has hired us to keep the likes of you out. And to tell the truth we’ve seen better ones too. Where have you come from, anyway? What beggar lord has hired you? Or did you think you can cheat the council of their castle city yourself?” one of them asked with a laugh. “You should have thought you wouldn’t be the first ones to think of it. Or you think you’re the smartest ones around?”

Monthu was about to reply with a biting remark when Ace jumped down from his horse and stopped him with a poke to his leg. “Give me five-ten minutes and I’ll have us in. Okay?”

He had a feeling it won’t be easy to convince the council already and killing their guards were hardly going to help them with that. There had to be a better way of going around it.

“A kid? What do you thi-!” the other guy said chuckling before the laugh died in his throat. Ace used [Radiant Step] and simply rose in the air. He used his fields to get higher up and before anyone knew better was over the wall.

Magic made one’s life so much easier.

Inside it didn’t take him long to locate Silver Fox’s lair and he dropped right before the man. The guy had a dagger in his hand before Ace’s feet reached the ground and he had to block it with a laugh. “It’s me!” he said still chuckling and making sure not to be skewered.

“Ace?” the man asked, lowering his weapon and taking a better look at the kid. It didn’t take him long to recognise his fellow assassin and his castle’s saviour. “It is you.”

“Councilman Owen” Ace said with a half-bow and a wide smile on his face. “I would have paid you a more official call” he said motioning to their surroundings. They were in the middle of a courtyard where the guy had been ordering a group of young soldiers. All of them were staring at him wide-eyed now. “But my team is being blocked out from entering the castle they had saved. I find it kind of unfair.”

“Blocked out? Who would dare to do that?” Owen asked in outrage. He knew Ace personally and had met Monthu after his army had destroyed the goblins and he liked both of them. Unlike most adventurers, these two were true to themselves whatever it meant in each of their cases.

“Some adventurer group” Ace said, shrugging. “They also felt it necessary to mention that we’re a ragged bunch and are fools for thinking anyone will care about our entrance.”

Owen shook his head remorsefully. “We had to hire anyone who came. We told them to check at our lists of who is allowed but now I wonder how many people had been turned around because of their stupidity. Are your people still at the gates?”

“Yeah. I told them I’ll get someone to let us in.” The man nodded before his eyes locked in on Ace’s. “How did you get in?”

The kid smiled widely and activated his ability, jumping on a thin, invisible field. Then he walked around on air for the wide-eyed crowd before landing back on earth. “This way” he said with a laugh and a ground reaching bow.

Owen smiled a bit. “The old man really knows how to choose and everyone thought he was too senile for any teachings.” “Pff... He was useless. It was just his luck I was around and conceded to let him show me around” Ace said with fake pride in his voice.

“Let’s go, your friend’s shouldn’t be kept waiting for long. They’re our heroes, after all” Owen said with his mouth’s corners still up. He really liked the kid and envied the old man his student. A dark shadow passed over his eyes as he remembered his own daughter dying a few steps away from him. “You lot! What are you staring at?” he shouted out at his young soldiers. “Repeat the first four stances, I want them perfect when I return!”

There was a collective groan from the group as they fell into a strange stance with their spears forward, their hips wide. Ace had to turn around so he didn’t have time to understand why they were so unhappy.

He moved with Owen through the streets and in moments were next to the gates. The group that had stopped Ace’s party was still there and looked a bit ashamed. “We’re very sorry, councilman! We didn’t expect him to jump over the wall and get in. We were planning to shoo these people away and then go catch him! We’re sorry you had to do it yourself! We’ll work twice as hard for this misstep.”

For all the wrong reasons apparently. Ace could see fury in Owen’s eyes raising up with every word said but the talking guy seemed to be oblivious. Poor creature. “What do you think you’re doing here?” Owen roared as the guy finally stopped in his speech. “Were you hired to guard or sleep on your watch?”

“We didn’t! We’re very sorry the kid got through us! It will never happen again!” the speaker said, taking a step back. It looked like for the first time he noticed Owen’s expression. The guy was red in face with teeth clenched and eyes narrowed into slits. That face didn’t require any great perception skills to understand.

“Useless fools! Get out of the way and let those people pass. They’re the ones who freed us! What in the world are you thinking trying to stop them?”

“Saviours?” the main one asked, repeating the words. “But they’re some beggars! Just look at their horses! No self-respecting person would sit on that!”

Ace looked at his group and had to agree to the last statement. The horses were horrible. Why had Monthu been so stingy with money? That made him think and wonder about the last time they were officially paid, received a quest reward.

He couldn’t remember the time. It had to have been ages. The last quests they had done, had been killing those giants and snakes but they hadn’t given them in since the city had been overtaken by Morion. This meant it had been a loss since snake weapons were useless and sold for nothing.

Was it possible Monthu accepted the orders from L just because of that? Was he in dire need of money and that’s why he was in such a foul mood?

Poor guys. He had his victims to gain gold from but his team didn’t have that. They were forced to survive on some quest they’d done ages ago for months with his actions. He was probably supposed to feel guilty for that but he just felt annoyed. Had he known, he could have paid, at least, for his own stuff.

“I told you to check who they are before turning them down! Have you done that at least once?” Owen shouted out and Ace took a step back. His hearing was very sharp with [All Ears] activated and shouting made his head ring.

“Yeah, we always checked!” another guy answered, seeing that this wasn’t going their way and wanting to keep their positions. “We just weren’t quick enough here. The kid just leapt from his horse and was gone before we could do anything.”

Ace laughed at that. “Sure.” “You’re not getting your reward this week! And if I find you slacking off again, you’ll be fired. Got it?” Owen asked with a glare.

“What? We didn’t do anything wrong! We just d-” tried to say another guy but he shut up as he saw the look in Owen’s eyes. There was murder there. “Yes, we understand” the first one cut in. “We will improve for sure.”

“Make sure you do” Owen said with another glare. Then he moved forward and addressed Monthu’s ragged bunch. “I’m sorry about this, please, come in. It’s an honour to have you back. Would you like to stay at my place? It’s one of the few that had been fully repaired.”

“It would be a pleasure” Monthu said, getting down from his horse and helping Par do the same. “But we came here on business which we would like to finish quickly and move on our way. Vascas isn’t our final destination.”

“I feared so. Come with me then. You deserve to be heard but be prepared that we might not agree to your proposals. You’re our heroes but not our leaders.”

“That is fine” Monthu said. “It’s all we came here for.”

Ace looked from one to the other and sensing a long discussion with neither side going down decided it wasn’t for him. “Well, since my part is finished, I’ll go look around the city. It’s been a long while that I’ve been here and I would like to see how it had changed.”

Owen looked at him strangely for that. “Do you already know?” “Know what?” Ace asked warily. That didn’t sound like anything good. “There’s someone already waiting for you. She believed that sooner or later you would come here and wanted me to make sure she didn’t miss you.”

‘Which she?’ Ace wondered. There were a few he didn’t want to see. “Ang!” came a shout from somewhere and Ace closed his eyes in pain. That was the voice he wanted to hear the least. Even Vera would have been better.

The female jogged up to him and stopped just out of his reach with a shy smile. “How have you been?” she asked, puffing. Her breath was coming out in hard gasps and her face was red from exertion.

She had ran all the way to make sure he didn’t disappear before she made contact with him.

It was pathetic.

“Fine” he said with a shadow of a smile on his face even if he wanted to throw something at her. There might still be the smallest of chances to escape this unscathed. His smile turned mocking at that but Sam never knew the difference. She was too naive to know it.

“You know, I’ve been waiting for you” she said with a wide smile that made her whole face glow. It had been one of the things he’d admired in her, the ability to be happy about little things. Or more like being happy just because nothing bad had happened..

“You did?” he asked, not taking the few steps between them. Ages ago he would have taken her hand even if for the moment he didn’t have any trouble to drag her into.

“Yeah, Vera wanted us to make sure you were fine so we all spread over the land. I chose to come here to help these people rebuild. Have you ever considered how much easier it is by having an earth mage?” Ace nodded and she laughed. “I shouldn’t have asked that. You always think of everything, don’t you?”

Ace wouldn’t have agreed to that. He might have pretended to be the smart guy when he was younger to impress her but it didn’t make it true. He was just a bit over average so he shrugged and let her talk more. She didn’t knew what hiding was so it was simple to get the information out of her.

“You know, Vera is very worried about you. She’s been going crazy, not knowing how you were doing. You shouldn’t worry her so” she said, shaking her finger at him. “You know, how she gets when she’s too worried.”

Ace shrugged again. “She overdid it.” “What did she do? Everyone is asking that her and she just tears up without answering.” “What she did?” he chuckled. “It was when she rushed over to my place with my parents there. They gave her a chance to better herself which she didn’t use.”

“But she did everything for you! What could she have possibly done wrong?” A laugh escaped Ace’s lips as he heard that. Did she see nothing wrong with that sentence? How could he possibly make her see when she found a girl controlling his every move perfectly normal?

He shook his head. “Why are you here? What do you plan to accomplish?” he asked, not faking any emotion in his voice. That meant it was left natural and it was tired and forlorn, one of a lonely child. He clenched his hands angrily at that. He was no longer a child.

“Accomplish? I came to check up on you! You’ve been away from us for so long and you didn’t come with us to the beach! We’re all worried about you! I’ve also missed you! We’re best friends, aren’t we?” she asked, her eyes widening a bit. It looked like she wanted to come closer to say something more but just didn’t know what.

Ace had no such problems. His eyes flashed red as he moved up to her and thrust his dagger through her heart in front of everyone. “Heart-Seeker” he said before catching her falling form and whispering in her ear.

“You. Are. Not. My. Friend.”