"Anxiety is the beast that hunts me. Are these sensations just a clever fabrication?" -A Player

Pirugan Continent

Demeter Forest

Leilan drove the glaive portion of her pole-arm through another taur demon as she subdued the previous with a swift kick to the jaw. She pulled the weapon free and swung in a wide arc, slicing the chest of a third that entered the fight a split-second too late. The monster stumbled back from the blow but managed a sloppy recovery. It lashed out with its trident and one of the points grazed Leilan's leg.

The fight was frustrating. She knew that if she had retained her full strength, the taur demon would have been dead by now. But due to The Reversion, she was back to square one. She didn't look forward to the painstaking task of recovering her lost power.

She finished off the enemy and spared a glance at her Player who fought alongside the soldier named Carther. They stood back to back and cut down any enemies that attempted to attack from the other's blind side. Ray's fighting style with the katana was rather clumsy when he took the offensive, but Leilan was surprised by his astounding reflexes. He had an impressive awareness of the battlefield, but the holes in his stance forced him to put more effort into blocking. His balance was put to the test when he ducked under the blade of one enemy as another forced him back on his heels. The katana stabbed through the gut of the first demon and then swung to disarm the second. He was talented without a doubt, but he lacked true combat experience.

Carther gave Ray orders when the situations changed, and the two fighters would shift positions accordingly to better fend off their attackers. He leveled his glaive parallel to the ground and implemented an interesting technique where he feinted with a horizontal strike and then shifted his weight with a back step to redirect it in a diagonal arc.

Leilan was grateful for the veteran warrior's assistance. She needed the power from her Player.

An explosion rocked the western wall of the outpost and a group of red demons flew through the sky in a mess of limbs and fire. The force of the blast also knocked the shielded monsters off their feet, leaving them exposed for the crossbowmen in the towers to finish them off.

The soldiers manning the cannons ordered the wagons forward for better accuracy and to avoid any possible ambushes from the forest.

Leilan heard a familiar female voice next to her as she defeated another taur demon.

“I've never seen blood and pyro demons fighting together. Even the taurs joined in,” Irina said. She sliced the throat of an approaching blood monster with her broadsword. The winged creature attempted to bring down its scythe with one last attack but received a fist to the face for the effort. She drove her sword through the demon's chest.

Irina was right. It was rare to have different types of demons fighting together. The various attributes usually kept to their own or attacked neighboring clans. Territorial disputes were especially common between the blood and pyro types.

Another mystery to solve.

The guards standing on top of the wall managed to keep the climbing demons at bay. They resorted to spears since the archers and crossbowmen lacked a proper angle from some of the hastily constructed towers. One of the guards screamed as a black blood demon swooped in from behind and sliced his lower back. It landed on the platform and drove its weapon into the face of another guard. More of the flying monsters settled behind the wall and lashed out, hoping to distract the soldiers so their allies could scale the walls.

Leilan broke off from one of her engagements to meet up with Ray.

She noticed he was accessing the database on his wrist. The restriction on the previous board must have lifted. The strange barrier that protected him from attacks emerged, followed by the holographic screen. After a brief moment, Leilan felt a surge of energy enter her body and weapon. However, she noticed that it was not nearly as potent as the energy she received at the start of the battle.

Leilan observed Ray and noticed his clenched jaw and furrowed brow. He struck out with his katana in a vent of frustration when the shield lowered. Leilan could now see more holes in his stance. His reflexes seemed slower, but his face didn't betray fatigue.

She decided it was best to inquire about this change when the fight settled.

The battle on the ground appeared to be well in hand, but the skies were turning into an issue. She took flight and rammed into two flying blood demons with the armor of her wings.

Ray stared at the board of orbs and gritted his teeth. The barrier that surrounded him provided protection while he spent his time shifting the board, but the longer he took, the more time he was away from the fight. He also didn't want to disappoint Leilan by giving her a meager portion of power. He was better than this. The chaos of the fight and meeting expectations began to weigh down on him. His brain overloaded with misgivings. Dulled his senses.

He accidentally touched a water orb and began to move it around the board to start making the combinations. He realized at the last minute that he was dragging the wrong orb.

Dammit! No! I wanted a light orb!

There was no way he could amend his mistake since he already started moving the orb. He couldn't possibly get a combination of light orbs together, so he decided to make a combination of water instead to at least increase the combo.

As he finished the board, it locked up with its big red X. He glanced at Leilan's stat screen.

The Divine Harbinger Suzaku, Leilan/Type: God/ Type 2: Attacker/Attribute: Fire/Sub-Attribute: Light/Active Skill: Southern Seven-Star Formation/Leader Skill: Dance of the Crimson Heaven

If Ray had picked up the right orb, he could have made five combos of one light combination and four fire combinations of three. One of the light orbs on the board was all the way across from the other two it needed to match up with. There was no way he could use a blue orb to get it all the way across to the other light orbs while also circumventing his pair of fire combinations.

Leilan's leader skill gave her three-and-a-half times more power if wood, light, and fire orbs had three matches or more at the same time. He first wanted to attempt to get these combinations, but then he realized that the only way her leader skill would work is if all three attributes actually attacked. Leilan could only attack with fire and light. Without another monster in his team with a wood attribute her leader skill was completely useless. A complete oversight.

These were amateurish mistakes. He imagined the people of his world were laughing and face-palming.

This realization only built on his frustration. He disengaged the barrier and attacked his enemies with wild strikes and ignored everything except for the opponent in front of him.

The last of the demons retreated into the forest, crippled by the lack of air support due to the god monster that thwarted any semblance of momentum that they had previous. The soldiers on the wall were once again free to deal with the enemies outside the gate, and the archers found that many of their targets were easy to pick off as Leilan herded them together in the sky. The monsters in the field were cut down by Ray and Irina's forces with a limited number of casualties. Most of the survivors received mostly minor wounds.

The soldiers of the outpost let the wagons through and raised a victory cheer as the assisting soldiers of Millshore joined their comrades-in-arms.

The same hospitality was extended to Leilan, who was pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome.

The upbeat atmosphere was short-lived as a pair of soldiers dragged a bound, thrashing blood demon along the ground. Its black, leathery skin was covered in splotches of purple and red blood. The men heaved the demon forward and it landed on its face at Irina's feet. It twisted its permanent grin from the dirt and let out a choked laugh.

Irina crouched next to it. It gave off a disgusting, pungent odor as it breathed heavily through its spread teeth.

The soldiers waited in silence for Irina to speak.

“Why are blood, taur, and pyro demons working together?” Irina asked. “You little freaks have hated each other for years, and now you're buddies? Why the sudden change?”

The blood demon cackled, “We have a similar interest. We love human squeals. So long, loud, and high-pitched. Even the male ones. I wish I could collect them in jars and listen to them every night before going to bed. Heh heh."

Irina punched the demon in the jaw. She was hoping that some of its teeth would fall out so its stupid grin wouldn't be quite so annoying. She was out of luck. The demon licked its bloody lips gleefully.

“I'm not buying it. You don't value your lives, so killing you isn't enough for me. I would sure like to torture you. I wonder if I'll enjoy your squeals as much as you enjoy ours.”

The demon let out a choked laugh. “Oh my, don't put that image in my head. A human deriving in pleasure, how disgusting.”

Irina's eye twitched and she frowned deeply at the demon. It's laughter rose until it went into a gurgling coughing fit.

The soldiers surrounding them shifted uneasily. Carther began to step forward, but Irina held out an arm to stop him.

“Please, let me kill this filth,” Carther growled.

The demon spit a glob of purple blood at Irina's feet and laughed even harder.

Before Irina could speak again, Leilan stepped forward and crouched next to her, staring expressionless at the demon. Irina didn't move to stop her when she noticed the slight twitch of the demon's mouth. The monster's laughter faded as Leilan examined it. It worked to retain its composure, but it was wavering, even if just a little.

Finally, Leilan spoke, “If you demons really do have such a common interest, then you would have taken advantage of an alliance a long time ago. So I don't believe you either. Who or what is behind this?”

The demon chuckled with a mix of blood and phlegm. “The dark one. He sees all. He knows all.”

The creature tilted its head and scanned the weary, angry faces. It stopped when its eyes settled on Ray.

"You say we don't value lives." It lifted a long, trembling finger at Ray. "Them...they are worse. So much worse! Hahahaha!"

Leilan turned to regard Ray. He stood there with a fist clenched and his eyes lowered. His mouth set into a line, and he whispered something inaudible.

Leilan didn't question the demon further. She knew that this was all the information she would get out of it. Besides, the creature was near death. The particles of data that began to float off its body increased in rate. The demon laughed hysterically until its life ended.

Pirugan Continent

Demeter Forest

The days following the attack on the outpost were relatively quiet and uneventful. Small groups of demons risked exposing themselves to venture a glimpse of the outpost, but other than a few skirmishes out on the road with some caravan deliveries, the area was mostly free of any real resistance.

More mining parties arrived from Millshore to collect the ores discovered at the base of the mountain, and the increase in soldiers outside of the outpost instilled a sense of comfort for the miners who were willing to stray from the safety of the walls.

The presence of Leilan and Ray also aided in lifting everyone's spirits. Some normal dungeons were discovered along the base of the mountain as the digging continued deeper. The duo of Player and monster took the opportunity to explore these dungeons and collected the rewards hidden within.

Leilan observed a change in Ray. She still recalled that last bit of energy she received from him during that first battle and how weak it was compared to the first burst of power she had drawn from him. There was still hesitation in his movements, but as they made their way deeper into a dungeon, his concentration improved and his body flowed more naturally in combat.

There was a look in Ray's eyes at times that seemed distant, like he was lost in thoughts that did not relate to the situation in front of him. He was a different person. A person who was elsewhere.

Leilan dismissed these observations. The time would come to address them. She didn't know him. A part of her didn't really care to know him. The other half of herself wondered if Ray cared about this world. It was just a game to the Players. They didn't truly die. How much could they value failure? How far were they willing to go to really risk themselves for the sake of their comrades?

But for now, they were doing well and gaining levels at a decent rate, while also developing a positive relationship with the people of Millshore. These interactions were invaluable. Even with the uneasy exchanges between the town and monsters in the past, it proved easier for at least Leilan and Ray to travel without any disturbances from the local humans. It was bad enough that the area was teeming with demon monsters and whatever else might be lurking out in the surrounding forest.

Then on the fifth day, a special dungeon was discovered.

A squad of Irina's soldiers escorted Ray and Leilan through the passage in the mountain where the dungeon was discovered. Irina herself decided to tag along out of curiosity. It was the first time it felt necessary to bring such a large group, but the soldiers felt uneasy about this particular dungeon. It wasn't a feeling they could readily explain.

The passage into the mountain peeled off with a steep descent, and everyone kept their hands free in order to make the trip down safely. The miners had explained that they never even used explosives to discover the tunnels or resorted to any amount of digging. It was just simply there. A few of them decided to venture a look, and that was when the massive stone double-doors were discovered with the strange symbols etched around them.

They arrived at the door after a few narrow, dangerous curves that brought them spiraling down through a misty darkness. It was illuminated by a light from some unseen source. The presence of the door was enough to indicate that it was indeed the entrance to a dungeon.

Leilan and Ray approached the large door and examined the symbols at its sides. Three vertical lines were etched into the right side to indicate that it was a special dungeon. These dungeons were rare and typically much more difficult than normal dungeons. According to the game guide, they could also have rare materials for forging and upgrading weapons or creating items.

Ray had only been in the virtual world a few days now, and he found that the other dungeons were not too difficult, thanks mainly to Leilan's natural skill in combat. But he felt taking on a dungeon of this level so early might be biting off more than he could chew. He'd relied on Leilan to take care of some of the heavy damage dealing, while he was content to deal with the smaller groups. He could heal Leilan using heart orbs on his board, but the Player's hit points were a bit trickier. The Player was the core of the team. If the Player fell, then the monsters went with him.

Ray felt Leilan's gaze as he began to weigh the possibilities of success based upon their experiences in the other dungeons.

“What do you think?” Irina asked, interrupting Ray's thoughts.

He answered her, but did not take his eyes from the stone door, “I'm not sure. Leilan and I are gaining strength pretty fast, but that typically happens in worlds like this. Earlier on it is much easier to gain levels, but as you get higher and higher, it becomes increasingly difficult and requires more experience. That being said, the previous dungeons have proven to be pretty simple despite just two of us fighting. It might be doable.”

I guess I can consider the area around the outpost as a sort of 'departure town' like in typical online games, Ray thought. But still...

Irina tilted her head. “Wait, you've been to other worlds like this?”

“Well, no, not necessarily. Not physically at least. But I do know the basics of how these worlds function. Let's just say I've been exposed to situations with similar criteria.”

Irina nodded, but Ray could still see the lines of confusion on her face.

Leilan moved forward and rested a hand on the door. She closed her eyes. Everyone around her stood silent until she opened her eyes and backed away.

“Something the matter?” Ray asked.

“We need to enter this dungeon,” Leilan answered immediately.

Ray walked up next to her and stared at the door as if there was something there that he missed. He saw nothing of note.

“Why do we need to enter this dungeon so badly?”

Leilan shook her head. “I can't explain it. I just know.”

“If we fail this dungeon, then we could lose a lot of the experience we gained,” Ray said. He attempted to mask his apprehension.

“I am aware.”

“There's only two of us, and we can't even use your leader skill yet without another monster in our team.”

“I know.”

Ray sighed and rubbed the back of his head. Leilan's tone exacted an influence on him that felt all too familiar. Peer pressure from his monster partner was palpable. He was supposed to be calling the shots. He was the Player. So why did it feel like this decision was out of his control?

Leilan was so insistent upon attempting the dungeon. He didn't see how he could argue. It was going to be a tough dungeon without a doubt. He would have to be at the top of his game.

He remembered his first day in the Departure Tower when he fought alongside the tamadra to take down the many floors of monsters. Their teamwork had been spot-on during the fights, and his orb combinations turned the tamadra into a force to be reckoned with. But now...

Leilan placed a hand on his shoulder that woke him from his thoughts. Her gesture was soft, but her eyes held a hard intensity as they analyzed him. Ray wouldn't have been surprised if she read his mind just by scanning his face.

At that moment, Ray decided not to think. Leilan's eyes were telling him not to. He didn't know. There was no explaining it. Ever since meeting her nothing had felt in his control. It was like being dragged along by a leash.

The soldiers gasped as he placed his hand at the center of the door. His body just moved on its own. A thin line of light appeared at the top and drew its way down the center. It disappeared into the ground and the doors opened inward with a low rumble to reveal an illuminated cavern.

Irina stepped forward, peered into the expanse and let out a low whistle. “Well, at least it's lit up.”

The rest of the soldiers drew back instinctively as they expected monsters inside to start pouring out. The cavern remained silent.

“Well, I suppose this is where we part ways,” Irina said. "Make sure you don't get yourself killed. It would be a shame to lose new friends so soon."

With that, she signaled for her men to head back the way they came. She risked another quick glance over her shoulder as she made the ascent, but found that Ray and Leilan were already gone.

“Do not think,” Leilan said.

Ray stared uneasily into the various passages that broke the cavern walls. He barely heard Leilan's words, partially because he didn't want to hear them since they only emphasized his past incompetence. Brooding on it only made him worry about precipitating similar mistakes.

Leilan's words came in harsh force, “You think too much when the fight breaks. You do fine at the start because you have no time to consider consequences once you become engaged. But when you have even a moment of breathing room, your thoughts stray towards the negative. At the end of the fight, when victory is assured, you begin to relax. You put way too much pressure on yourself, and that leads to self-doubt, which then clouds your judgment and makes you stiff.”

Ray was amazed that she had figured out this much about him in just a few days. She must have been watching him closely in their short time together. The words stuck in his throat as he tried to speak.

“What are you over-thinking?” she asked.

Leilan stopped in front of him on a narrow natural bridge and turned to him purposefully. Ray took a step back as she gave him that hard stare.

At first, Ray thought that her stare was an indication of a critical opinion of him, but it held not a shred of judgment. It seemed more like a matter of understanding. Her question may have been rather blunt, but it just paralleled her intense personality. There was not a shred of anger to be seen in her eyes or her tone. Ray couldn't quite place it, but her straightforward way of speaking was something he wasn't particularly used to. It wasn't necessarily unpleasant either, even with his reluctance to discuss the subject.

Ray settled his hands on his hips and stared up at the ceiling of the cavern as he struggled to find the right words.

“You are doing it again,” Leilan said.

He stared at her bewildered.

“Thinking. Even now you do it too much. With me, I don’t want you to worry about coming up with the perfect choice of words. There is no such thing. Just put them together. That is it.”

“Okay. Anxiety,” Ray blurted out. He took Leilan's suggestion and just threw out the first words that popped into his head. He'd heard the word from himself and other people his whole life.

Leilan waited for him to continue.

Ray forced himself to stare straight at her. “Yes, you're right. I tend to think too much. I am the type of person who thinks negatively about things before considering the positives. I worry that other people will get hurt because of my mistakes. I also hate disappointing others. There.”

There it was. He laid it all out.

Leilan smiled. “Well, that's more like it. Now you can start acting like a man.”

Ray tore his eyes away from her. Expressing his personal flaws to someone he had just recently met was not a usual occurrence. He knew that she now understood what he meant about disappointing other people; after all, she was among them.

But...it's not real. So why do I care? He forced himself to deny what he began to take as reality.

“As we move further through this dungeon,” Leilan continued. “I want you to shut all of that out of your mind.”

Ray waited for her to continue but soon realized that she was expecting some sort of confirmation from him.

“Right, got it,” he answered. “I'll work on it.”

Without another word on the subject, Leilan continued leading him through the dungeon.

Easier said than done, Ray thought. And then, Oh shit, wait a second.

He looked around for the unseen cameras that were likely broadcasting everything that happened to the people of his world.

Ugh, how many people heard that?

Seattle, Washington

United States

The Gamemaster walked along the line of computer stations as his staff continued operations for streaming the events of the virtual world to the public. Large monitors were mounted all over the walls with tables mounted underneath, supporting machines that evaluated Player vital signs, neural link compatibilities, intrinsic setting synchronization and so forth. On the front wall was the largest monitor that depicted a pale white image of a young female who sifted through collections of data that she gathered from her observations of the virtual world.

The A.I, Lo, truly was the finest master of her craft. The data that she delivered to the workers at their stations was awe-inspiring.

The Puzzle and Dragons Viewer app was largely successful just as predicted, already surpassing one hundred million downloads and rising.

The Players proved to be more competent than the Gamemaster ever hoped. The battles in the Departure Towers were just a taste of the kind of potential the Players had, and they would only get stronger during the next few days.

The view count rose dramatically a couple hours earlier when a young female entered a skirmish almost immediately following the completion of her respective Departure Tower. She and her monster partner were ambushed by a group of highwaymen, and the sound of battle had reached the ears of some taur demons that were also passing through. It became a three-way battle with the female and her monster emerging victorious.

Thinking back to the battle once again aroused the Gamemaster's curiosity. He went back to his station and pulled up the files of the girl and her monster.

The first bits of their files read:

Player File #173:

Subject: Lucy Cranston

Gender: Female

Blood Type: O

Height: 5' 5''

Weight: 120 pounds

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Brown

Monster File #1265

Subject: Ethereal Guardian Seiryuu, Karin

Gender: Female

Type: God/Physical

Attribute: Water/Dark

Rarity: 7 Stars

Active Skill: Eastern Seven-Star Formation (Changes all orbs to water, wood, and dark orbs)

Leader Skill: Dance of the Rising Dragon (Attack x3.5 when attacking with water, wood, and dark orbs types at the same time)

His reading was interrupted by a flashing alert in the top-right corner of his screen. He clicked on the alert and an image popped up of a young male Player in black armor walking alongside a female monster wielding what appeared to be some sort of pole weapon. They were in a vast cavern.

The female stopped at a natural bridge and turned to regard the Player. The conversation seemed to get a little heated, but the microphone at the Gamemaster's station was currently muted.

One of the workers at a station lifted a side of his headset and nudged his neighbor. "Poor guy looks like he's about to have a heart attack."

She laughed. "Yeah, but can you blame him?"

A third spoke up, "What a lucky bastard though..."

"Oh, I think she's scolding him."

"Haha. He's getting life advice from his NPC!"

The Gamemaster ignored the conversation, accessed the dungeon's layout and jumped between different viewpoints in various chambers to see what opposition the two would be up against. The dungeon was mostly empty, and he frowned at this peculiarity. The icon in the bottom-right indicated that it was a special dungeon, but there seemed to be nothing interesting of note.

He reached the last chamber and panned the screen back and forth until he came upon an individual that crouched near the back wall. The monster wore gold armor with angelic wings folded on the back.

The Gamemaster analyzed the monster and pulled up its file. He scanned over it and his excitement grew.

This! This is it!

He rose from his seat and shouted to his staff, “I am sending a transition file to a number of you! We have a Player who has entered a dungeon in the special boss category. This is going to be an important fight, ladies and gentleman. Let's give our viewers a show shall we?”

If the fight went well and his people did their job, the view count could easily double. This was going to be the first true fight in the virtual world. A battle between god-type monsters.

The golden knight swam in a sea of conjoined thoughts and emotions. Fear melded with joy, and anger became constricted by deep despair. He felt an uncomfortable pulsing sensation behind his eyes. Faded cracks appeared and mended themselves over his vision like bursting blood vessels. A crimson hue shadowed from the edges of his vision. His breathing labored as the strange power of the chamber weighed itself upon him and intruded within his very being.

He forced his head down and stared at one of his armored hands.

Something had been there. Something had been in his hand. But now it was gone. Was it something important? He couldn't be sure.

He had no feeling. If there was no feeling, then how could he even care in the first place? Every time he strayed to consider his thoughts the hostile red in his eyes seemed to tremble with anger at the resistance.

My name...

The red that intruded upon his eyes enveloped them and piercing pain stabbed throughout his brain. It was a torture that threatened to rip away his existence, to discard it into a limbo that would leave him floating without purpose or meaning. He wanted to grab his head to numb the intensifying pain, but his body froze against his will. The spasms subsided briefly, but it lingered just outside of his consciousness, as if daring him to defy it again.

My name...Ver-

The evil red stifled the thought, and then he knew no more.