Chapter 27

~ The Purple Dream ~

SW/SW/SW

I’d been having the same dream for days…

A dream of being molested.

It was… quite pleasant to tell you the truth. I was lying down on the bed, someone atop me. Purple skin, soft and silky-like to the touch and deep, wavy crimson hair caressed my body softly. Soft melons met my chest as I relaxed to her touches.

I vaguely remembered red lips roaming my body before they crushed themselves into mine. I saw tattoos on her arm and cheek. They were gleaming faintly, looking eerie as well as sacred. The mouth, it moved as she spoke mutely to me, and I swore I could see fangs behind her luscious upper lip.

I saw pale arm, laced with wounds, flew to her face. The hand caressed her cheek and she leaned against it, smiling.

Who was she…?

What were we doing…?

…who was I?

I had never had such a dream before. Not until I saw the vision in the pond, where I met DPS.

It was… a dream, right?

…or maybe it wasn’t a dream at all?

0000

“Ace? Ace, are you listening?” QueeN’s voice brought Ace back to reality. He blinked dumbly before he set his eyes to where QueeN was.

“Ah, sorry. Did you say something?”

“Geez, I vas saying if you liked zat girl in ze stripped bikini. Her boobs are quite large,” QueeN pointed to the female elf in the distance.

Ace squinted his eyes to see better and answered, “Yeah, they are. Are female elves always so… endowed?”

“Zey are elves, Ace. Obviously zey hav to be large.”

“It doesn’t make sense.”

“Ach, just answer it already! Do you like her or not?”

Ace was taken aback at her persistence, “Uh, personally, I think she’s quite okay. It’s just… I don’t like her hair. It’s too short for my taste.”

To his surprise, Elvaria and QueeN shared a knowing nod and begun whispering to each other. They ignored him completely. Sighing, Ace shook his head incredulously. Girls sure were weird.

The dream occupied his wandering mind once again.

The red lips, purple skin, tattooed cheek, and crimson hair…

It was so real. Too real that he felt like she existed. Surely, there was no way normal beings could have such a weird pigmentation. Not to mention that pair of fangs, too. The fangs made her look like the fabled creature of the night, vampires.

Ace ran a hand through his hair. Maybe he was playing too much GeaOnline that he dreamt of playing it…

“H-Hey, Ace,” Elvaria slowly approached him. She averted her eyes, absentmindedly playing with her fingers as she murmured, “L-Let’s take a walk…”

“H-H-Haaaa?!” Ace took several steps backwards, blushing feverishly, “w-w-w-why sh-should I? Y-Y-You can take Tongsis with you!”

“B-But QueeN said she had something to do… Look,” Elvaria pointed to the place where QueeN was standing. The devilish mage was no longer there.

Ace gulped nervously. This was bad. He was standing too close to a girl clad in a deliciously revealing bikini, showing her cleavage and half of her ass too much. Damn, Ace felt like he was ogling at his sister. Elvaria and Nia were truly look-alike.

Admitting defeat, Ace took her for a walk. It was all bikinis as far as his eyes could see. He wasn’t a pervert, so he wished that the girls would wear a modest bikini. Sighing once again, Ace realized that that kind of bikini would never exist.

“Ace?” he heard Elvaria calling his name. “What do you think about my bikini? Does it… suit me?”

Ace spared her a glance before looking away, face painted in red, “Y-Yea… it looks good on you.”

“Th-Thank you… QueeN picked this for me,” came her meek reply.

Ace knew it. There’d be no way a kind and pure-hearted girl like Elvaria would wear something so revealing. That stupid mage… Ace definitely would give her a piece of his mind later.

“D-Do you think I’ll win? QueeN said the prize is a rare item and I want it…”

“Y-Yeah, you’d definitely win.”

This conversation had turned awkward! Ace had no idea how to talk to a girl when she dressed up so… sexy like this!

“B-By the way, it’s not like you to try so hard. What’s the prize? Is it so rare that you, a shy girl, go all out with this getup?”

To his surprise, Elvaria giggled, “It’s a secret.”

“Aw, you’re no fun. C’mon, tell me!”

Elvaria placed an index finger on her lips and winked, “A secret makes a woman woman.”

Ace arched his eyebrow and laughed, “Well, suit yourself then. They’d announce the prize in the official page sooner or later anyway.”

They walked in silence, either was busy with their own world. Sometime later, Elvaria’s cry caught Ace’s attention.

“Th-They are playing beach ball! But look! Beach ball but is not played in the beach!” Elvaria eagerly pointed a hand at several girls playing volley ball right in the park. They even set up the net as well.

It looks more like a park ball rather than a beach ball. Ace’s sarcastic side resurfaced.

“Do you want to play?” Ace asked good-naturedly. Elvaria nodded.

“Y-Yes! Oh, but it seems like it’s full…”

Ace smiled and then grasped her wrist, “Let’s look for a free court. With how crowded this place is, I’m sure they have some free courts ready to use.”

Ace might not realize it, but Elvaria was smiling. Her eyes were glued to their hands, linked together, like a bride and groom who walked down the aisle. Absentmindedly, she strengthened her grip on Ace’s hand. Unlike real human’s hand, she couldn’t feel anything from it. There was neither warmth nor cold.

But that was okay. As long as it was Ace, Elvaria was fine with it.

0000

“Ace, isn’t that DPS?” Elvaria asked meekly as she pointed at a lone figure in the distance. Yeah, it was him alright. That messy, green hair and white armor were unmistakable.

“But what is he doing here?”

Elvaria shrugged.

“Shall we go to him?” Ace offered, but was immediately rejected.

“No, don’t!” Elvaria then gasped when she realized what she was saying. Quickly she attempted to cover her mistake, “I-I mean I… DPS looks like he wants to be left alone, so… so I think we shouldn’t bother him.”

Ace paid DPS a good look and nodded, “Yeah, you’re right. His face clearly screams ‘leave me alone or else’.”

They both laughed at that.

“C’mon. You still want to play beach ball, don’t you?” Ace tugged Elvaria’s wrist and she let him guide her.

Unfortunately, DPS saw them and quickly approached. “Wait.”

Elvaria screamed inside her mind, wishing that DPS would just leave. She secretly made a gesture for him to scram, but being oblivious as he was, DPS just lifted an eyebrow.

“Seen Maria?” as usual, the guild master spoke very little. “Told me to wait there, but hasn’t showed up.”

“Huh? Did Maria say she had her party waiting for her?” Ace asked back. “You can just PM her, can’t you?”

“I did.”

“What did she say?”

“Something came up, so she told me to enjoy the event.”

Ace chuckled, “And here I thought she was in danger. In that case, why don’t you come along with us? I’m sure Elvaria doesn’t mind.”

Elvaria’s mouth went agape. No! If he came along, then the love-love tactic she and QueeN had painstakingly planned would go to waste! She made a gesture again for him to go away. This time it was a bold gesture, which was shaking her head.

“A good idea.”

0000

Ace didn’t know why Elvaria was pouting the entire time. They were no longer holding hands since the elf herself broke it in the middle of the walk. She looked terribly pissed. As for DPS, he walked in silence. Not a talkative person, he mostly listened to Ace’s remark and answered if necessary.

Now they were talking about bosses in GeaOnline.

“I haven’t faced any bosses yet,” Deucaryon didn’t count as boss, Ace thought. “Who do you think is the most annoying boss in this game?”

“Etherios.”

Wait. Ace recognized the name somewhere, but the memory slipped from his brain. “Why?”

“Because she sings,” DPS stopped to watch a beach ball play. Ace had no choice but stop, too.

“She… what?”

“She sings, Ace,” DPS repeated, then explained, “she is proficient in what we call Song Magic. Different song has different effect, from healing to status attack.”

“…and it makes her the strongest boss? I saw it in GeaOnline wikia.”

“Well, not only that.”

Ace caught DPS making a small smile, but it vanished after he blinked. When he was about to ask more, DPS cut him in the middle, saying, “You’ll know sooner or later.”

Their conversation stopped when the beach ball ended. The victory team cheered, followed by its supporter. Their ecstatic cheers completely deafened any attempt of conversation. Ace waited until it wasn’t noisy enough and asked something else instead.

“Say, do you know anything about demon?”

DPS inclined his head but said nothing, waiting for him to continue.

Ace didn’t have the gall to look at DPS in the eyes. He was afraid that the guild master would see through him with his sharp eyes. His eyes found solace in the volley ball net instead. “I seem to recall seeing a purple-skinned woman somewhere, but couldn’t remember who she was. She had strange tattoo on her cheek and this wavy, deep red hair. It was like blood rather than hair.”

“It was probably from the wikia, huh? She is famous and eye-catching. Can’t believe you’d forget her name easily.”

…I saw her in my dream…

From the corner of his eyes, Ace noticed DPS pushing buttons in his PM. Ace let out a snort. Maybe it was a mistake telling him about it. He didn’t even take him seriously.

A second later, a PM notification popped out. He clicked it and the message appeared, containing a picture of a woman.

“In her true form, she is purple-skinned,” Ace didn’t hear what DPS was saying. His eyes were glued to the picture DPS sent him.

Thump! There was a rock inside his throat, rendering him unable to breathe.

...been having the same dream for days…

…purple skin, soft and silky-like to the touch and deep, wavy crimson hair, tattooed cheek…

What the heck was going on? This woman… she was clearly a succubus, a being existed only in fantasy and game world, but he… He encountered her almost every night in real world! Plus, it was his first time seeing her and knew that she existed!

What was going on…?

Was he going crazy?

Yeah, maybe he was going crazy.

DPS' call broke his train of thoughts. As Ace listened to what he said, the rock inside his throat became bigger, almost stone-like.

“For your information, she is Hathor, one of the mid-bosses in Azariel Castle Raid.”