When studying history, what better place to begin than the beginning? And for us, what better time to start with than the first century of the age of adventurers (colloquially called the first century AA)?

Not to say that the accounts detailed here are the true beginning of Placeholder, but the few records we have dating back before that are scant and mundane.

Truly, it is a disgrace to our profession that the [Historians] of that era didn’t write anything down for posterity!

I digress.

All that being said, the first century is known as the Age of Upheaval for good reason. In this chapter, we’ll be covering the establishment of the guild of adventurers; the contributions of the otherworlders to our technology, magic, and culture; the fall of Besti; the expansion of Gert; the Eastern Zone war (which is still going on to this very day! Though it is very much more subdued); as well as the first two [Demon Lords], and the brave [Heroes] who faced off against them.

Truly, the first century was a time of great change, and what I would give to go back and be able to observe it in person!

A Brief History of Placeholder, Volume 1. Chapter 1 introduction – “The Age of Upheaval”

-----

As I was unceremoniously dumped on the floor of the obelisk room, I couldn’t help my initial confusion.

I’d died.

That much was indisputable.

The System messages at least helped make some sense of that.

System: ERROR, Cannot overwrite Demon Lord! Demon Lord has System-level write protection and cannot be directly modified!

System: ERROR, Demon Lord not in expected location!

System: Protocol Accepted. New Game

I shakily got to my feet, wiped a layer of dust off the obelisk, and took in my new grotesque reflection.

As I looked at my stunted left arm, my twisted right leg, and my sagging and disfigured face, it was about then that I had my last sane thought.

“New Game,” I said with a wicked grin.

I laughed. It started small but soon became a long unhinged laugh, even as the next words appeared.

System: MaDnEsS FoRm SeT

-----

If you’d been in the tutorial during that clear, maybe as a freakishly intelligent giant ant or something, you would have seen quite a sight.

A madman running around yelling at things that weren’t there as often as he yelled at his enemies and who punched, kicked, or even bit giant ants to death.

If you were around to compare the madman with his previous incarnation, you might also realize that… the madman was doing better at clearing the tutorial than the sane one. The extra skills and perks easily made up for his deformed body and mind, even though he was reset to level 1 just like last time.

So, he made excellent progress. At least, when he was going in the right direction and not running from phantoms. Or attempting to use spells despite the fact that he was sitting at 0MP throughout the entire tutorial.

Anyway, even with those setbacks, he eventually made it back into the boss room.

If you had been one of the barely-sentient guardians of the tutorial, you may have thought that the boss room would be where you could finally stop him. In fact, with ranged ants on your side, how could you lose to someone whose malformed leg gave him severely decreased mobility?

That would be a good idea… were it not for the simple matter of his aura.

A wrath aura applied to dungeon ants had minimal effect. It simply made them more aggressive.

The new [Demon Lord’s] aura was not wrath.

As he approached the horde of enemies, the ranged ants immediately unleashed a salvo.

He vanished and reappeared closer, and… that was enough.

The ants that his aura came in contact with were given a taste of his madness.

Some heard screeches that were cries for help from another part of the cave. Some grew paranoid. But the most devastating of all were those that saw the madman where he wasn’t.

A ranged ant was included in their number, and it immediately turned at the threat and fired twice at it.

As the ranged ant slew one of their own number, the entire room turned into chaos.

Whether it was hallucinations of the enemy or the ramping paranoia that the [Demon Lord] caused simply by being near, the ants all turned on each other.

Meanwhile, the madman also threw himself into the fray with wicked laughter.

So, that was how the [Demon Lord] cleared the first wave of the fight without a single death.

The second wave fared no better. The elites were cowards in the first place, and the madman’s aura preyed upon their fears. That combined with [Fire Strike] meant it was barely a fight worthy of mention.

However, as the Giant Ant Queen appeared with a loud screech, the madman finally found an enemy that wouldn’t be laid low by a simple aura. That didn’t stop him, and he attempted to fight it.

It did not go well.

The boss monster’s attacks were simply too powerful, and the [Demon Lord] too slow to evade them. He was tossed around the room like a rag doll until he finally died.

There’s a saying that insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results… That’s a poor definition of insanity. However, that didn’t stop the madman from subscribing to it. Nor did it stop him from eventually achieving those different results.

On the umpteenth attempt at the boss fight, the queen made a mistake. It threw the [Demon Lord] into the channel of lava that ran down the middle of the room.

That was no issue as it could follow him into the lava without taking damage. However, it followed him all the way down as they both fell below the world.

As the giant ant queen slowly suffocated to death, the last thing it heard was the madman’s maniacal laughter.

-----

I actually got to briefly come back to myself after that. Maybe it was because my madness was tied to my body, and I had temporarily left that behind. I’m not sure.

Either way, I was greeted by the exact same message as last time.

System : Congratulations on hitting level 5 and completing the tutorial! You will be able to spend your points at the obelisk before being sent out to a randomized town.

AltSys. I thought desperately. AltSys, are you there?

A part of me knew that it was a pre-recorded message. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise. However, I clung to a brief moment of hope before finally giving it up.

AltSys… Please. If I had eyes, they likely would have been full of tears. I don’t want to live without her. And I don’t want to live like this. Please. Just end me. Just let me die for real.

No admin replied to my begging.

I would have stayed there forever, waiting for AltSys while wallowing in my grief, but I was eventually booted out of the obelisk.

It was nighttime, and I found myself in the middle of a town square that looked vaguely familiar.

Two System prompts were the last things I saw before my madness reasserted itself.

System: Zone entered, Faroff Town. Faction - Vir

System: The realm trembles as a new Demon Lord is born! Demon morale has been restored, and darkness begins its nefarious plans to conquer the world

Cackling to himself, the madman took off into the nearby woods.

-----

Jake was startled awake by a loud sound and shot up with the Hero Sword in hand. Then he looked over at the cause of the disturbance and put the sword away.

He swiped his white hair out of the way to glare at the magical facsimile of a windup alarm clock before turning it off, feeding it some mana, and stuffing it back into his inventory.

Of all the inventions to recreate here, why did we ever let that one get made? Jake grumbled half-heartedly. However, he was still grateful to the [Enchanters] who had managed to make devices like that. He wouldn’t have been able to keep up his training regiment without it.

Stifling a yawn, he packed up his camp, pulled out his sword, and then went through his practice motions.

His body protested moderately with every movement until he was fully warmed up, and even then, it still protested lightly. The cause was evident even without his display showing him the condition.

Jake glared at the icon proclaiming it, even as he wiped the sweat from his wrinkled brow.

“Yes, I know I’m old. You don’t have to remind me,” he said to the “old age” status condition.

His break over, he finished out his set.

I’m definitely getting slower. I used to be able to go through these forms in half the time.

That’s not to say that Jake was slow. After all, even glacial speed from a level 25 [Hero] would still be a passing speed for a low-level [Warrior].

His self-critique finished, he set off at a walking pace southward.

I should make it to Faroff today. It will be nice to stay in an actual bed for once.

He kept up his slow, almost leisurely pace and snorted as he thought back on his youth. I almost can’t believe we just ran everywhere back in the day.

True to his guess, likely thanks to his [Map] perk, Jake arrived in the early evening. That gave him plenty of time to learn that he wouldn’t be staying in the house that he thought he would.

“Hmm, they must have moved,” Jake muttered to himself as he thanked the somewhat confused man who answered the door.

After asking around, Jake finally made it to his destination.

“Living inside Faroff Forest?” Jake grumbled. “I know it’s safe, but why out here?” Jake pounded at the door.

An irritated voice answered him. “If you dang kids are messing up our yard again, I swear I’ll-“

The voice trailed off as the door swung open.

“Heya, geezer. It’s good to see you,” Jake said to the grey-haired [Retired Adventurer] that answered the door.

“Jake!” Garrett exclaimed before wrapping him in a bear hug.

“Easy, easy!” came Jake’s muffled cry. “I think you did damage!”

“Sorry,” Garrett replied as he let go.

Jake laughed. “I wouldn’t mind, but I ain’t as young as I used to be.”

“Aren’t we all,” Garrett nodded as he gave Jake another look. Whether it was Jake’s extra wrinkles or stark white hair, something made Garrett wince briefly, but he quickly acted like nothing was wrong. “How long has it been. 10 years?”

Jake thought a moment. “Actually, I think it was 11. I haven’t had time to come down here since the last dragon subjugation.”

“That long,” Garrett said with a shake of his head. Then he seemed to realize something. “Wait. What am I doing?! Come on in! Make yourself at home!”

Jake followed him and closed the door as the former [Berserker] frantically went around stuffing things into his inventory.

“Sorry for the mess. We weren’t expecting company,” Garrett said.

Meanwhile, Jake took a look around the cabin.

It’s a bit small, but I suppose it’s just the two of them now, he thought. His thoughts were interrupted by an exclamation from Garrett.

“No! Bad dave! Let go!”

Jake looked over just in time to see Garrett fighting a slime over a sock. The former adventurer eventually prevailed, and the slime slunk away sadly.

“David Junior’s still doing well, I see,” Jake said with a chuckle.

“A bit too well, sometimes,” Garrett sighed. “When Sam suggested we have a [Monster Tamer] try to smarten it up, I didn’t expect quite this amount of change.” Garrett gestured for Jake to take a seat, and they both sat down in the living room. “Not that it was able to get the full effect, so I guess I should be grateful that it’s smart enough to be a Roomba now. It’s nice to not have to clean the floors.”

Jake chuckled along but decided not to keep up that subject. After all, the slime was capped at that level of development because it was a summon and not the real thing. And… its summoner had died.

“Speaking of Sam,” Jake said in an effort to get off that subject. “Where’s she at?”

“Oh, she’s running some more snot-nosed kids through the dungeon. She’ll be back home later.” Garrett snorted. “Speaking of snot-nosed kids, did you know that one of them had an amulet of health the other day?”

Jake raised an eyebrow. “So? I had an amulet of minor health at the start of the War of the Eastern Zones-“

Garrett cut him off. “You’re a [Hero]. You’re supposed to get loaded up with the best gear. And this wasn’t a lesser amulet of health… or even a minor amulet of health.”

Jake’s eyes widened. “It was actually graded by the System as normal?”

Garrett nodded. “Yup. 100 extra HP. Can you believe it? It practically doubled the kid’s HP bar!”

Jake shook his head in amazement. “I didn’t even know those were being made yet.” He frowned. “High-level magic item… Getting spoonfed his first dungeon... Let me guess. Noble kid?”

Garrett nodded again. “Got it in one. Sam doesn’t like it any more than you do, but…” Garrett shrugged. “They are the ones that pay the best for being babysat through the dungeon.”

“Kid’s these days,” Jake put on his best old-timer voice, which was getting distressingly easier with each year. “Back in my day, we didn’t have no fancy magical items! We had the clothes on our back and a sharp stick if we were lucky!”

Garrett laughed. “Right? When Sam tells the story of our very first dungeon clear and explains the gear we had on, she has to swear on a truth stone, or no one believes her!”

“Well, we did also have a Titus,” Jake replied softly.

Garrett’s expression turned serious in an instant. “Jake, you know that it wasn’t your fault.”

“I know, I know.” Jake sighed. “I’ve made as much peace with it as I can… That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a part of me that wishes it went down differently. That wishes I didn’t have to murder a friend.”

Garrett stayed silent as Jake continued.

“And you’re one of the few that can understand. Since you were there. Yet every year, we have that System-cursed [Hero] day that celebrates one of the worst days of my life. I get congratulatory messages from world leaders, and some of them weren’t even alive when it happened.”

Jake stood up and started gesturing with his hands while pacing.

“They don’t understand that we only won because Titus let me kill him. They don’t know that he was the reason I was able to unlock [Limit Break]. And they certainly don’t have a clue what we were one second away from facing.” Jake paused. “I can still remember the fear in his eyes. Titus knew. Somehow. He knew what was coming, and it terrified him. When he was at the top of his power, with a literal army of monsters behind him. Who knows what horrors-”

Jake finally looked back at Garrett, who was waiting patiently, and sighed. “I’m ranting again, aren’t I?”

Garrett shrugged. “Just a little. Not as bad as you used to.”

Jake sat back down heavily. “Well, thanks for always putting up with me, geezer.”

“Anytime.”

There was a brief pause before Jake continued. “So, how has Jonathan been?”

Garrett gave a bittersweet smile. “He’s been doing better since the move to Drydal, but I have to say I miss seeing him and the grandkids.” He grimaced. “Honestly, Sam and I have been debating about making the move too.”

“Hmm. Guess that makes sense. Being around family’s as good a reason as any.”

“Yeah, but…” Garrett shook his head. “I know you haven’t been around much, but it’s gotten… Worse in Vir.”

Jake raised an eyebrow. “Worse?”

“The racism. Sam used to just have to deal with stares because of her extra pair of ears but stares devolved into jeers, and jeers have devolved into…” Garrett gave a long sigh. “We moved all the way to Faroff to avoid that. It’s an adventurer town, we thought for sure people would be better here.”

Garrett stood up and walked over to the window. “They were at the start. We were just another pair of adventurers, even if I was retired. Sam also was looked up to because she’s still the only level 25 [Arch Elemental Sorceress] in the world.” Garrett chuckled. “Nowadays, none of that matters. She’s just a mongrel with cat ears, and I’m just a dirty mongrel lover who refused to fight in any of the wars. They don’t even remember that the two of us were a part of your party when you saved the world!”

Jake didn’t reply. He just walked up behind Garrett and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Thanks, Jake. I’ve missed talking with you.”

“No problem, geezer,” Jake replied as they went and sat back down. “But can you blame people for forgetting the details of us saving the world? It’s been 50 years. That’s basically ancient history to all these youngins.”

Garrett chuckled. “Has it really been that long?”

“Yup. Tuesday’s [Hero] day marked the 50th year. That’s actually why I’m back down here.”

Garrett’s brow furrowed. “You think the next [Demon Lord] will show up here?”

Jake shrugged. “No clue. Either he’ll show up here, and I’ll slay one last threat to the world before retiring, or I’ll head south and just claim the dungeon in the swamp before he can.”

“First off, death flag. You should know better than to mention having one last hoorah before retiring-“

“Oh, come on. If death flags were real, I’d be dead a thousand times over by now,” Jake interrupted.

Garrett ignored the interruption and kept going. “But two, congrats on finally choosing to retire! Any plans on what subclass you’re finally going to take?” Garrett’s look turned contemplative. “Actually, I guess you’ll become a [Retired Adventurer] like me, so you have all sorts of options. I could even show you the ropes of being a [Lumberjack] if you-“

Jake finally held up a hand to stop him. He had to break the news, but that still didn’t make it easy. Despite everything he’d been through, his hand trembled a bit, and he couldn’t look Garrett in the eye as he said it.

“I’m retiring,” Jake started. “Because I don’t have long left.”

There was an uncomfortable pause as Garrett processed those words.

“Don’t have long left?” Garrett finally asked. “But, I’m only in my 80s-“ His eyes narrowed. “Jake. You promised.”

“I didn’t have a choice, okay?” Jake snapped. “I wasn’t just going to sit back and watch them die!”

There was a brief lull as Jake lapsed into his familiar breathing exercises, and then he gave a brief nod to Garrett.

“Alright. So, explain it to me,” Garrett said. “Why did you burn your life force with [Limit Break] after you promised not to do that again?”

“It was during a raid on the deathlands. We had a crew of a hundred seasoned adventurers and the ‘chosen [Hero],’” Jake snorted after he said those two words. “So, we got overconfident. We pushed in and destroyed one of the closest zones and thought we could keep going if they would all be that easy. We made it into another zone and were surprised at the lack of resistance.”

Jake clenched his fist.

“It was an ambush. The System-cursed [Necromancer],” he practically spat the word, “came out as we pushed further in. We quickly found ourselves overrun, and we called the retreat.”

Jake laughed mirthlessly.

“It turns out that the undead don’t need rest. We had to fight every inch of the way back to Vir’s shores as new types of abominations chased us. Morale was still high at the end of the first day, even with the near disaster.”

Jake got up and started pacing. “By the end of day 2, we already couldn’t afford to give everyone a full 8-hour rest. By the end of the week, we were completely out of potions.”

Jake’s voice turned hollow. “So, I picked up the slack. I took shifts on entirely by myself so that the others could rest. I started with sacrificing my MP since I didn’t have a use for it, but… It wasn’t enough.” He shook his head. “I had to do something, so… I sacrificed a year here to get us through a particularly rough night. Then a year there to clear out a wave with [Omnistrike] that otherwise would have had casualties.”

Jake felt tired as he continued to explain. “Did you know that [Limit Break] can let you sacrifice more than just your resources and your life force? I didn’t, but as I grew closer and closer to killing myself with old age, I knew I had to do something else. So… I sacrificed perk points. Skills. Whatever that greedy skill would let me.”

Jake laughed bitterly. “And it worked! We returned with no casualties, and [King] Vir proclaimed it a successful raid that took down an undead zone.”

“I… Had no idea,” Garrett replied. He stayed quiet for a few seconds before finally asking. “How long do you have left?”

“The System puts my age at 98 now… And I have no idea what day it considers my birthday.”

There was a lull, and Jake finally looked back at Garrett and saw him crying.

“It’s… It’s not fair,” Garrett said as he wiped at his eyes. “I’m the one who raised you, so I’m supposed to go first you ungrateful brat.”

“Sorry, geezer,” Jake said as he sat down next to Garrett and wrapped him in a one-armed hug.

The two simply stayed like that for a while.

Eventually, Garrett’s tears stopped, and he gently pushed Jake off him.

“Have you decided to name a successor then?” Garrett asked.

Jake shook his head. “Nah. No one that’s been suggested seems fit to be the next [Hero].” He chuckled. “I think part of it’s that anyone who wants to be a [Hero] either doesn’t know what they’re getting into, or they want it for the wrong reasons.” He finished with a shrug. “So, may as well just let the System decide on the next one.”

“That makes sense. But… Maybe you should at least stop by the adventurer’s guild in Faroff. Maybe you’ll find at least one youngin who could carry on after you.”

Jake shook his head. “I didn’t come down here to recruit the next [Hero], and I might have to get moving soon. I don’t think I have the time for it.”

A light smile came over Garrett’s lips. “But you have time to drop in on an old retiree?”

Jake smiled back. “My main goal down here’s to slay another [Demon Lord], but I figured I could pencil you and Sam in.”

Garrett chuckled and was about to respond when the front door opened.

“Honey, I’m home! You won’t believe what kind of brats there were-“ she cut herself off midsentence as she noticed their guest. “JAKE!” she practically shouted and nearly bowled him over with a hug as he got up.

“Heya, Sam, good to see you too,” Jake chuckled.

“You didn’t tell us you were going to be in our neck of the woods!”

Even after all these years, still just as bubbly as ever. Jake thought as she bombarded him with questions.

In the end, though, he didn’t mind it. He got to spend time with two of his closest remaining friends. What more could he ask for?

-----

Unlike Jake, the demon, known to Placeholder only as “Admin,” was in a foul mood. Not that that was unusual, more that it was a worse mood than average. The worlds he was overseeing were not going to plan, and to make matters worse, no one had ever caught the traitor.

He scowled as he poured over one more report of another impossibility on a completely unrelated world. After snarling out several demonic threats about all of the anatomically and physically improbable things he would do to the traitor when he found him, Admin had an idea.

That backwater world… Shouldn’t it have a new Demon Lord by now?

He did a quick comparison of his notes and the speed that world was set at.

New Demon Lord every 50 years… Relative time… Ah, yes. Admin grinned malevolently. Even if he doubted he would find more information about the traitor, maybe he could still use that remote world as his playground after all.

As he made his way through the dozen portal connections that he needed to take, he remembered why he didn’t go there very often.

He went through yet another portal and hit a dead end.

He ground his teeth as he backtracked and tried to remember which way it was.

All this trickery. You would think that someone was trying to hide something important, but no, it’s just a stupid backwater.

After ensuring he was back on the right track, he entertained himself with thoughts of what he would do for his next avatar.

I will have to settle for level 25 or 30. Admin thought as he checked his MP balance.

Though, he did almost crush the tablet that he checked that with.

He was still not over the fact that he had made a level 50 avatar and that it had been wiped out by a server reset.

Either way, he finally made it to the portal to the Placeholder control room and took a look. He did not find any evidence of a current Demon Lord, except in another dimension that he couldn’t even look at.

He vaguely remembered the last Demon Lord not appearing for a while after the world had started, so he concluded that the 50-year timeframe must not be exact.

I am not going to waste all of the time coming here for nothing. Admin sighed. He spent a few of his manipulation points to briefly speed up the time on that world.

There were a few fortunate things when it came to speeding up Placeholder’s clock.

First, it was one of the few things that the traitor hadn’t locked Admin out of. Second, with how insignificant the world was, it didn’t exactly cost that much. And third, the new Demon Lord showed up within a few days instead of 6 months.

Much better, Admin nodded in approval.

Then he watched the cackling madman dash off into the woods.

“You don’t have to embody the trait that you impose on mortals, you imbecile!” Admin, the totally calm and rational wrath demon, shouted.

After seething for a bit and watching the new Demon Lord fight off wolves, Admin decided that he may as well get his message through.

“New Demon Lord. Your mission is to activate all 4 elemental dungeons and then the portal in the west. Succeed, and I will reward you. Fail, and you shall die.”

He sent that message through.

The problem with the last Demon Lord is that I simply didn’t get us started off on the right foot. Admin chuckled.

The right foot was fear. Preferably abject terror.

When the Demon Lord froze in place, Admin thought he’d gotten what he wanted.

“Admin,” the Demon Lord said.

Admin frowned. Hadn’t he set his alias as “system” for this world?

“Admin!” the Demon Lord said again. “Admin! ADMIN! ADMIN!”

As the Demon Lord devolved into screaming that word over and over again, Admin was too confused to be angry. Which was perhaps a first in his long life.

With a furrowed brow, he pulled up the information on the new Demon Lord… and nearly put his fist through the console when he saw it.

“Memory Protection! You’re the same Demon Lord!” Admin shouted and accidentally left transmission on.

The Demon Lord stopped his shouting and said in a sing-song voice. “You tried to kill me, but it didn’t work. I’m back. I’M BACK! I was dead, but now I’m not. Not dead!”

He cackled before continuing, his gaze narrowing. “And I won’t listen to you again. No. No.” He covered his ears, even though Admin had never transmitted audio once. “I will never listen. I’m not here.” After that, he closed his eyes too and crouched low on the ground.

Admin’s plans were once again ruined, and his time was wasted. So, he did what any rational person would do. He turned around, exited the portal, and then promptly put his fist through the frame that was maintaining the connection.

Good luck overseeing a world you can’t get to. Admin sneered. A part of him was afraid of being found out for destroying a portal, the one taboo even a demon was reluctant to commit, but he consoled himself. There is only one other person who would be able to report me, so if I’m found out. He grinned. We have our traitor.

Admin strode away from there in a much better mood than when he had arrived.

Meanwhile, Placeholder was left alone. Cut-off and adminless.

Though, to be fair, few of its residents would ever notice the difference.

-----

Meanwhile, Admin wasn’t the only one who got to see my inglorious return.

Jack Frederickson.

Yes, Jack.

Now that’s probably a name that you don’t remember because who would bother to memorize the name of a [Village Elder’s] son when there are [Heroes] and [Demon Lords] running around?

He had actually done well for himself. Became [Mayor] when Faroff finally hit a large enough population to become a town and did an excellent job of building it into the adventurer hub it was in that day.

He also still had the uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time. So, when I appeared at the obelisk, the exact same place, and the exact same way the last otherworlders did. He didn’t hesitate.

Well, he hesitated long enough to drop his lantern in shock, but then he didn’t hesitate.

He immediately ran to sound the alarm.

-----

Jake slept through the minor earthquake and associated System message, but fortunately, Faroff’s alarm bell peeling out was loud enough to stir him from his slumber.

After a quick glance at the message, he ignored his protesting body and dressed quickly.

He was still stomping his boots on and pulling out a torch when Garrett stopped him by putting his hand on the door.

“Jake, you shouldn’t go-“ he started.

“This is why I’m here, Garrett! Don’t try to stop me!” Jake snapped at him.

Garrett snorted. “You didn’t let me finish. You shouldn’t go alone.” He called into the other room. “You ready, dear?”

“Almost, honey,” Sam called back. She strode out a second later decked out with a yellow cloak and a wand with a similar colored crystal embedded. “If it wasn’t a [Demon Lord], you wouldn’t catch me dead wearing these.” She made a face. “But, sometimes fashion sense is worth less than air magic amplification.”

Garrett nodded. “Okay, now you can go.”

“Nope, not yet,” Sam replied.

Garrett gave her a quizzical look, right up until she nonchalantly tossed him an old battleaxe.

“I thought you got rid of this!” Garrett said in shock.

Sam grinned. “Well… Your idea of getting rid of it was a bit different than mine. I figured it didn’t hurt to just keep it in my inventory. Just in case you needed it.”

Garrett looked torn. “But I can’t… I’m retired. I-“

“As much as I want to let you have time to process that thought,” Jake interrupted. “[Demon Lord] in Faroff. I need to go, now.”

“Right,” Garrett replied and moved away from the door.

Jake took off through it without waiting to see if either of them was following.

When he heard two pairs of footsteps following after him, he spared them a quick glance to invite them to his party.

Just like old times. Jake thought. He couldn’t help the slight grin that broke over his face.

“What if the [Demon Lord] left Faroff already?” Sam called out.

Jake replied, “Then if he’s anything like the last one, we just have to listen for-“

He was cut off by the sound of howls in the distance.

“That way! Let’s go!”

The party of three tore off in that direction.

They were just in time to see the fight… If you could even call it that.

They saw chaos. Some of the wolves were staggering around, others were attacking each other, and in the middle of it was a deformed [Demon Lord] who never stopped laughing. Even when he had a wolf hanging off each arm.

The trio stopped and stared at that point.

That’s the [Demon Lord]… Right? Fortunately, Jake had a way to double-check.

“[Identify],” he cast quietly to not draw attention their way just yet. “Well, level 8 [Demon Lord]. Showing up in Faroff. Where have we seen that before?”

Jake pulled his sword out of his inventory and was about to make his way forward when Sam stopped him.

“Wait,” she said. “If he appeared the same way and at the same level, do you think maybe he was brought over too?”

“Son of a dave,” Jake swore. “You’re right. He might be an otherworlder just like us.” Jake watched as the madman finished off the rest of the wolves attacking him and then watched him yell at thin air.

“Or maybe not just like us,” Jake muttered. Either way, going in [Sunder] first was off the table. Jake vanished his sword and walked slowly towards the [Demon Lord]. The [Demon Lord] didn’t notice and went into the fetal position.

Garrett and Sam followed a short distance behind him.

“Hey, [Demon Lord]!” Jake called out.

The [Demon Lord’s] head snapped up and in Jake’s direction.

Jake wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to say after that. How did you approach someone who was supposed to be the enemy of the world but may very well be another human who was just trapped in a bad situation?

However, it ended up not mattering. As soon as the [Demon Lord] looked in Jake’s direction, he leaped to his feet. Jake felt an aura unlike any he had felt before rush his way.

It whispered things to him. It brought up memories of past suffering, and-

Jake cut it off abruptly with his own aura, which he then expanded to cover the entire area.

The [Demon Lord] jerked backward as if he had been struck.

“[Hero],” he sneered. Then louder. “[Hero]!” Then repeated over and over at the top of his lungs. “[HERO]! [HERO]! [HERO]!”

Jake frowned. Not quite what I was going for.

He pulled back his aura just slightly so that it was no longer affecting the [Demon Lord], and that at least seemed to pull the madman out of his one-word tirade.

“Maybe I should talk to him first?” Sam proposed. “It might help if we don’t deal with that [Hero]-[Demon Lord] stuff right now.”

Jake shot a quick glance at Garrett. When Garrett gave the nod, he just shrugged. “Alright, it couldn’t hurt.”

Sam walked forward with her hands in a placating gesture. “Hi, there! Are you also from Earth?”

“Earth. Home. Dirt. Dirty. Dirt,” the [Demon Lord] replied. He stooped down and scooped some of the soil from the ground, and started rocking back and forth. “Can’t go home. Can’t go to the dirt. The dirt isn’t home. No. Not home. No home. Home is gone. All gone.” He let the soil sift through his fingers.

Jake and Garrett shared a look, but Sam continued on. “Uhh… Okay. Do you have a name?”

The madman looked at Sam in confusion. “Name? She doesn’t know.” His gaze turned to Garrett. “He doesn’t know.” Then he looked at Jake again and became irate. “And [Hero]! [HERO]!”

Sam got between them before it could continue. “Woah, it’s okay. The [Hero] won’t hurt you, okay?”

“Sam says the [Hero] won’t hurt,” he said. Then he started arguing with himself.

“She lies!”

“No, she tells the truth!”

“Sam would never hurt us!”

“Sam tried to kill us! Sam can’t be trusted!”

Jake wasn’t sure how long that would have gone on if Sam hadn’t interrupted.

“Uh, how do you know my name?” she asked.

“Sam doesn’t know me,” the [Demon Lord] lamented and fell to the ground. “It’s the face. She doesn’t know the face. It’s not my face. Need a new face.” He looked back up at Garrett. “His face?” Then shook his head. “No. Can’t take his face... Just get rid of this face.”

The three watched in growing concern as the [Demon Lord] began scratching and pulling at various parts of his head.

“I think I’m going to run and get a [Healer],” Garrett whispered. “He needs help. He has madness. Likely major… Or greater.”

Jake nodded, and Garrett started jogging away.

The [Demon Lord] stopped.

“Garrett’s leaving. Garrett’s scared of the face.” He shuddered. “Didn’t choose the face. Can’t choose a face. Can’t face my face.”

Knowing not one but two of his party member’s names finally let Jake put the dots together.

There’s no possible way… But…

“Titus?” he asked incredulously.

Titus shot up into a sitting posion and burst out laughing.

“The [Hero]! He knows me!”

Jake was at a loss. “But, how?”

Titus laughed. “The [Hero] murdered me. I died. I got better! Then I got worse,” he gave a forlorn look. “Why couldn’t I stay murdered? It was where I belonged. I murdered, so I was murdered. Why did I have to murder?”

Immediately after that, Titus gave a long wordless scream and clutched his head in his hands.

“Megan. Megan. Megan! Why? Why? Why!?”

Titus’ aura spiked, and it briefly touched Jake.

He’s going to transform again. I have to stop him.

Before Jake knew what he was doing, his sword was back in his hands.

As soon as Titus saw it, his tantrum ceased. He shot to his feet and backpedaled away from Jake until he ran into a tree.

“No, no, no, no, no. [Sunder]. The thunder. It’s coming.” Titus’ aura continued increasing. “It will kill me. But I deserve it. Don’t deserve it. Don’t want it! But need it!”

Jake beat the aura back and came to his senses. “No, Titus. I won’t hurt you. Just… Calm down, and we can talk.”

He made to put his sword away but couldn’t before Titus stopped him. “No! I can’t stop! I’m becoming not me! Can’t stop it! [Hero]! Please!” Titus begged. “Stop me. Please. Not the other form. Don’t let me stop being me! Please!”

Whether it was the aura of madness’ work or Jake’s own doubts, he wasn’t sure. However, he was not sure that the three of them could stop Titus if he went into another form that they knew nothing about. That… And there was an entire city nearby.

He began charging [Sunder]. “Titus… I’m sorry. Again.”

Jake blinked forward with a thunderclap.

He sliced through Titus and even felled the tree that was behind him.

However, he had missed the brief smirk that crossed Titus’ face.

There was only a brief flash of red for Jake to know that something went wrong, and he immediately collapsed to the ground.

Titus burst out laughing. “Not afraid of the thunder. Not afraid of the [Sunder]. I can reflect it! It can’t hurt me!”

“Jake!” Sam and Garrett both screamed as they ran towards him.

However, they were too far away.

Meanwhile, Titus rolled Jake onto his back so that he was looking up at the starry night sky.

“You killed me. Now, I killed you. It’s fair. Fair is fair. Killing is fair,” Titus rambled.

“Titus, don’t do this,” Jake pleaded.

“Goodbye, [Hero].” Were the last words Jake heard as a flaming boot came down on his head.