I would have had this chapter out sooner but I guess vacation really slows you down. How am I supposed to have fun writing chapters while I'm having fun, having fun. Weeeeeeee~. I wanted to name this chapter 'This story has a plot' for some reason. I didn't.

Please enjoy.

Chapter 23: Plans

Nala was frustrated that they had allowed the man in the wolf mask to escape when they had a chance to kill him, even if they had to fight him one on one. She had wanted to duel him and had a feeling that he would have fought each of them to accomplish his goals of protecting his demon allies. When that idiot knight decided to chase him away, she wanted to knock some sense into him. She regretted that Grud had been the one to face the wolf mask instead of her. He was the lowest level party member and not a good match against an agility based fighter. She could just as easily have made a fool out of Grud, and with her abilities as Valux's champion, she would have been a good match against the wolf mask's dark powers.

She blamed herself the most, having been too careless when he was trying to escape. She could have used one of her own powers to possibly prevent him from slipping away. Nala had mentioned at the time that it wasn't surprising how he took out a hundred low level players with that kind of power. Sena just laughed and explained to them how he was worlds above what he had been when anyone last saw him fight. The question was what he was doing in the tower of all places. What was his role in the lore of the game and the main story? If he kept reappearing all over the world, then he had to be important to the main story, unless he was a player. However, she didn't believe that he was a player, because who would care so much about protecting a bunch of monsters, even if they were children. She had heard the way he spoke about them, and they were more than just a quest objective to him, so he must have been an NPC.

The small raid group finally reached the place that was supposed to be at the center of the chaos zone, and they found nothing but a glowing pool of water. They cautiously searched the holes in the wall, expecting an ambush at any moment, but there wasn't a creature to be found. There wasn't even anything worth looting in the holes they did search, so they came to the conclusion that the rest of them would be the same. They tried shouting and making noise, but nothing happened, and the party grew suspicious that there was something going on.

Star thought about why the wolf mask would have been there in the first place if there weren't really any demons to protect. They would just have to search all of the holes in the wall until they found a clue of some kind. They had to be around there somewhere if they had a guardian that strong protecting them. Unless... "He was a distraction," she whispered to herself.

"Excuse me?" Star questioned her politely, standing right next to her.

"The wolf mask was a distraction to make us think that the demons are here. They must have gone somewhere while we were focused on him. He wanted to make us think that they would be here without a doubt, but they're not. I think we're wasting our time by searching."

"If they're not here, then where are they?" Arizona didn't look convinced.

"This does look like a boss room," Star chimed in.

"That bastard tricked us! I'll kill him," Grud roared furiously, glaring at the wall with fists clenched, as if he was about to punch it.

'That worked out well for you last time, didn't it. Don't embarrass yourself any further.' Some of the party were beginning to have second thoughts about Grud. He was usually quiet and kept to himself, but had been acting foolishly since they had met the wolf mask. Nala had a hunch that this was his true personality and everything before had all been an attempt to hide the hot-headed jerk that he really was.

"They could be anywhere in the tower by now. Who knows how long they've been gone." Sena groaned. "Now we'll never complete this stupid quest."

Nala thought for a moment, trying to put everything together, and finally, came up with the only option that had a chance of success. "We have to go back towards the city."

"Don't give up. We can still find them." Star tried to encourage the party as they contemplated the idea of quitting the demon hunt.

"I'm not giving up," Nala waved a hand to dismiss the idea. "I'm thinking that there's a reason we were given a week more than we needed to complete this quest. It says we have to prevent them from escaping out into the world, so they needed to be killed. Maybe that means they are already planning to escape. If that's the case, what's the only way we know of that leads out of the tower?"

"The city," Arizona said with a smile. "Nala, you're a genius. Alright everyone, are you ready to head out?" All members confirmed that they were ready to go, so they started heading back towards the city. They traveled along for a while, passing through an area that looked a lot like an abandoned warehouse full of rotting wood. The moment they left the room, the portal behind them collapsed in on itself with a whoosh. They turned to look back and see what happened, only to be sent flying when the space that previously held a portal exploded.

Fat Steve quickly cast a healing spell as the party slowly rose to their feet. They had been thrown quite a distance by the blast and could see a swirling mass of clouds where they had been standing. The mass of clouds pulsed dully with a deep red light as it slowly expanded towards the players. They started running away from the cloud, passing through another portal and hoping it wouldn't explode on them. There were other portals that began to disappear or transform into something else entirely. One portal along their path had become, or perhaps produced, a writhing mass of tentacles connected to a large mound of purple flesh. They had to cut their way through the creature's tentacles causing it to shriek in pain, despite not having any visible mouth. Despite its menacing look, it didn't actually attack them, even after they started cutting it.

Plenty of the portals still seemed fairly stable, but other, unstable energies were beginning to interfere with them, destroying their stability as well. The further they traveled from the center of the chaos zone, the greater the number of portals that were still intact. It was a mad dash to get out of the chaos zone, and it would take hours more before they escaped. Both of the casters' stamina was beginning to run low as well, so they wouldn't be able to run for much longer. The area of the chaos zone they were in was much more stable looking, but they didn't know how long that would last. They would have to rest soon, and then start running again by the time they found their way out of the chaos zone. The next few hours would be painful and exhausting, but they had the possibility of escaping with everyone still alive.

They took a rest to catch their breath when they came to an area that looked completely untouched by whatever force was causing the disruption in the chaos zone. Soon, the portal they had come through started to flicker and dim, indicating that they needed to move on shortly if they didn't want to be killed by magical explosions or be trapped in that area of the tower. They continued to run and stop until they reached the fields of snow on the fake mountain at the edge of the chaos zone. They pushed on through the snow, struggling to move their exhausted bodies and reach the tower. The heavily piled snow dragged at their feet, slowing them down.

They were barely ahead of the deadly forces causing the area to collapse at that point, and they needed to escape as soon as possible, or they would be killed. They could see the portal up ahead as it grew darker and darker, turning to a black void as it sucked in light rather than emitting it. They reached the ominous looking portal and Fat Steve collapsed, her stamina at zero, unable to move. Nala picked her up and fell into the portal, figuring that it was probably safer than waiting around for the collapse of the false world. The others followed them in, feeling the floating sensation before being deposited sideways into the tower.

Nala landed on her stomach with Fat Steve next to her and deftly rolled away as the others fell through behind her. They landed in a pile on the poor girl, but looking at them and feeling relieved, she couldn't help but laugh. The others stared at her for a moment, and then they started laughing too. Though death wasn't permanent in the game and the penalty wasn't that severe, overcoming such a challenge and surviving together gave them a feeling of accomplishment. Even Skoff was smiling, until Grud decided to ruin the mood for everyone.

He stood up and glared at them crossly. "We still haven't done anything to complete this fucking quest, so why the hell are you all laughing?" His allies all stared in silence, irritated by Grud's attitude. "Even if you're right about that ass hole taking those demons to the city, we still have to beat them there and find them before they escape. They've got a head start on us and we have no idea where they are!"

"We should split up," Skoff spoke up. "Groups of two. Then we can windspeak to keep in contact. We'll cover more ground that way."

"Whatever. I'm heading straight to the city for now," Grud stomped off.

Bluejay sighed and stood up. "Sorry about Grud, I'll go with him." He quickly walked after his friend to catch up.

"Alright," Arizona said to get their attention as he picked himself up and swiped at his clothes to remove the dust. "Fat Steve is with me. Galahad is with Skoff. The rest of you can make whatever teams you want, but I suspect Star and Nala will want to team up. Play it safe everyone. When in doubt, run away or call for backup." Everyone listened to Arizona because he made a good leader, but they also respected his ability as a player. He was some sort of spellsword, and he was very good. Usually, combining magic and sword fighting to create an all around character resulted in an inferior character, but none of them could find a weakness in the way he fought. If he were to fight against the wolf mask in a duel, Nala wasn't sure who would win.

They spread out in groups of two as Skoff suggested, taking different paths on the way back to the city at the edge of the tower. There were five different levels that the demons could approach the three tiered city from, but they decided it would be faster if they only traveled along the three levels of the tower that the city was actually on. They would also be able to reach each other more quickly and so it would be safer as well. The players didn't know if any of them would find anything, or if the quest they had taken would end up being a waste of time, but they had to try. They all logged off, determined to continue their chase the next time they logged in. Grud might have been rude and discouraging, but he was right. It would take a good amount of effort and a lot of luck to find the demons and kill them before their timer ran out.

She had a feeling that they would be able to find the demons if she was correct, considering the time limit in which they were supposed to complete the quest. They should have plenty of time to reach the city if they hurried back, but if she was wrong and there was another exit, they would fail for certain. Something felt wrong about the demon chase and the meeting with the wolf mask back in the chaos zone She had to wonder if the wolf mask was truly the monster they thought he was. He could have killed Grud and caused a lot of trouble for their party if he knew they were coming. Instead, he had met them and talked to them, rather than savagely attack them as she had imagined he would if she ever met him. Was he really the monster that everyone had thought he was.

'Are we really the good guys?'

The Keeper

The Keeper looked down at the boy sitting in the carriage beside him, softly ruffling his hair to wake him up as they approached the neighboring village. Even though the boy was still tired, he needed an extra pair of eyes to help him spot the kidnappers. He knew exactly what they looked like, having taken the information directly from Zen's mind while he was asleep. If he had done it while the boy had been awake, it would have been a mentally draining and terrifying experience that would have left him traumatized. This way, the worst possible outcome would be a simple nightmare that would quickly be forgotten. He had the ability to take information directly from a person's mind unless they had a strong enough mind to resist him.

Zen snorted as his head jerked up and he frantically looked around, trying to remember where he was, as he was still half asleep. He stared at the Keeper for a moment, blinking his eyes in surprise before he remembered exactly what had happened the night before. He was shocked awake and he twisted his head so that he was looking straight forward, his mouth shut and his eyes peeled. He didn't want to offend the Keeper of all people, and he still wasn't sure why he had been brought along in the first place. Wasn't the man sitting next to him supposed to be all knowing and extremely powerful? How could a kid like Zen be any real help to someone like that?

The Keeper could see the gears turning in Zen's head and he smiled at the serious young man who couldn't comprehend his own worth. He had a plan for Zen that would make him worth more than the boy, or anyone who knew him, could imagine. Until then, the two of them would continue to track down Tafa and rescue her from the hands of evil men whose purpose remained unknown. What did they seek to accomplish by kidnapping a young girl like Tafa who wasn't exceptionally special or worthwhile? The most likely conclusion was that someone was after him, and that was also the most terrifying possibility of any horrible idea he could come up with. He had lived for countless years, and there were a great many number of possibilities that passed through his thoughts.

If someone was after him, that meant they knew some extremely dangerous information, and they were definitely bad people. He was someone who had very little effect on the world, despite his deep knowledge and his immortality that made others fear and envy him. There was only one reason an organization would be after him, and it was definitely an organization of some sort that was after him. Whoever they were, they had some very dark intentions that could potentially affect the entire world if he wasn't the only target. He sighed as he guessed the most likely situation and hoped that he was wrong.

He flicked the reigns to get the horses to walk a little faster as they headed into the town. They asked some questions only to find out that the men had not stopped in the village, having hurried through early in the morning. The keeper and Zen continued on, passing another town before they came to a third that had signs of their passing. It seemed they had forced a stable keeper to trade horses with them under threat of disobeying the king's soldiers. Luckily there was only one major path and general direction that the kidnappers could have fled. It seemed they were heading to the city of Bastion in the South. It would take the men a few days to get there at the speed they were going.

Mr. Keeper flicked the reigns and the horses moved at a brisk walk, their hooves clopping along the hard-packed dirt road. He could tell that Zen was impatient and not appreciative of their current pace. They both knew that the men were only getting farther away at the rate they were going, and neither of them knew what would become of Tafa if they just left her with her kidnappers. The boy grew more and more frustrated as time went on, fidgeting and moving around in his seat until he couldn't take it any longer.

"Why are we moving so slowly? Shouldn't we be chasing them down and stopping them from reaching the city?"

"Horses are more than tools, young Zen. Even if we chased after them, we wouldn't be able to catch up to them, and the horses would not fare well under such conditions. They need to rest and eat just like we do. If you want, we can lose the carriage at the next town and switch to horseback riding. We'll be able to move faster after that." Zen said nothing, just turning to face forward as the carriage rolled on.

They traveled for another day and a half, switching to horseback early on in that time. The day was growing late and it wouldn't be long before the sun fell below the horizon in the West when they neared a small village. It had a small wooden fence around it that was falling apart in some places. The gate was slowly swinging open in the breeze and there was no one around as far as they could tell. The people here seemed to be mainly livestock herders, having wide grass fields surrounding their villages that were probably used to feed herds of sheep as that was the most common farm animal in the region. There should have been some signs of life around since it still seemed as though people still lived there. However, the place was eerily quiet and they would have passed through without noticing anything if they had been in a rush.

They reached the gate and "Stay your horse, Zen. I suspect that there is more to this small village than it would appear. Let's go around it."

"Oh. Okay," Zen slumped in the saddle, clearly annoyed that they were spending time going out of their way, slowing them even more. However, as they moved around the village, a group of eight hooded men led by a devilish looking man walked out from behind some of the buildings, revealing that they had planned an ambush that didn't quite go as planned. Knowing they were there for him, the keeper sent Zen away. No one reacted as the boy galloped up the road, knowing that he could not change anything or cause them harm.

Looking at the man with twisted grey horns protruding from his head and jet black wings growing from his back, the keeper was instantly able to recognize what the creature was. It was a shade of Virufex, the right hand man of the demon lord who was supposed to have died during the great war centuries ago. He had been with the demon lord since the beginning, teaching him many of the more atrocious ways to gain power that ultimately led to him ascending to godhood. While the demon lord himself had been a human who did whatever it took to gain power, Virufex was a wretched soul that fed off of the death and destruction of other beings. He was an actual demon summoned from the void realm to attend to his master's every demand, but now that master was gone, and he was free to wreak havoc upon the world.

It was a disturbing sign that Virufex had already recovered enough of his strength to create a shade that could travel around the world and influence people to follow him. If he wasn't stopped, he would try to cause another war where he would wipe out everyone who opposed him and everyone else that he felt like killing. It was also possible that he would attempt to ascend to godhood, as his master before him managed to do so. If he succeeded, it would be more than just the world that would suffer from him. Regardless, he had to stop the monster before he could further disrupt the world and bring ruin upon everything. He dismounted from his horse, hands clasped behind his back in a posture that showed he had no intention to fight back.

The men raised their bows at Virufex's signal while some of them, including the demon himself, were grinning evilly at the keeper, knowing that he was cornered and at their mercy. They fired at the same time he waved a hand in front of him, creating a magic barrier that repulsed the arrows. He darted forwards, challenging the men to fight him in melee combat or risk hitting their own allies with arrows. He had knowledge of all magic and martial skills that the world contained, and the body to use them to their fullest, so the men he faced were as dangerous to him as a gentle breeze. He killed the evil men as easily as if they had stood awaiting their execution.

He turned his back to the shade for only a moment, but that was the moment that the beastly man struck. With terrifying speed, it aimed at his back, attempting to pierce him with a blackened blade he had pulled out of somewhere. Mr. Keeper managed to deflect the blade with an iron sword he had stolen from one of the men just before it could touch him. He could tell with only a glance that the blade was made from some powerful and sinister magic designed to kill a powerful being. It was strong enough to kill even an immortal that could not be killed by normal means. It was definitely strong enough to kill him, if the blade stabbed deeply into his body.

Virufex's minions, a mere distraction so that the demon could strike, lay dead on the ground and the two men who were not men stood facing one another. They glared at one another, each one not certain if they could defeat the other, given the circumstances. The demon had frightening speed and that ominous weapon, but the keeper was a wealth of knowledge and skills no opponent could match. They stood silently for a moment before they began to circle one another, weapons held at the ready.

"Where is the girl?" Mr. Keeper growled, attempting to restrain his fury at both the kidnapping, and the unholy abomination that Virufex wielded.

"I have her in a nearby building. I was hoping to have fun with her when I was done here." Virufex shrugged as if it was something he did often and was of no consequence.

"You're sicker than I imagined," he said incredulously. "She's just a child!" He was furious that the demon dared to speak such disgusting intentions aloud.

The demon ignored him and continued talking. "I was hoping to catch you off guard, but it doesn't seem like that will be possible. Is there nothing that can spur you into making a rash decision, you ancient freak?"

"No, there isn't."

The demon dropped his fighting stance as he bared his teeth, saying "I'll be back for you someday, you old fuck! Just wait until then." His wings unfurled and he launched himself into the sky, his magical wings effortlessly allowing him to soar through the air at high speed as he disappeared into the distance. There was nothing he could do to stop him without risking harming anyone else that might be nearby. He truly was a vile creature that deserved to die for what he has done and will do in the future.

The keeper dropped the sword and went in search of Tafa, hoping that Zen hadn't gone too far away. Instead, what he found was that the boy had circled around the village and was just then entering from another side. He was a brave young man and he tried to explain that he had returned because he didn't want to be a coward, leaving an ally to die while he ran away.There was nothing he could have done, but maybe he could follow the men and still save Tafa from them. Mr. Keeper ruffled his hair and smiled as he praised the boy for his courage.

They searched the buildings and they found the poor child had been beaten and tied to a pillar in the basement of a house. The keeper untied her and used magic to heal her wounds as he comforted her with his voice. She was too tired and weak to cry any more than she already had, so she wordlessly hugged the keeper and let him pick her up. He carried her up the stairs and outside, stopping for a moment to look in the direction that Virufex had gone. He would need eight years to properly train the two to become powerful forces that could fight against the coming horrors, and he would need a great deal of help. If another demon army rampaged through the lands, then the many living beings in this world would face annihilation.

He sat down, legs crossed and began to meditate, preparing to do something he had never done before. He had always had the ability to do it, he just never had a reason to do so until that moment. He opened his mind and spoke with the gods, telling them of Virufex's return, and warning them that the demon would likely be after the guardians next. They needed a countermeasure against the war that was almost certainly in the making. It would take Virufex a long time for his plans to get underway, but it would take time for them to stop him as well.

For eight years he trained Zen and Tafa, who willingly learned from him, teaching them magic and raising them to become heroes that would even be able to take down a new demon lord. At the end of their training, the Travelers and the Chosen would appear, their arrival making waves across the world that would change everything. The Travelers and the Chosen children were only one of the ways that they planned to fight back against the forces of evil that wished to destroy everything. It was quiet and peaceful for now, but that peace would not last for much longer.

There was no one that could tell the future, but he would be there to watch it all and keep it as a memory. He had never been involved in anything other than his purpose before, and he looked at the girl wielding a spear, asking himself if it was her that had changed him. He watched her and he wondered if she would survive, if she would still be able to smile after it was all over. In his heart, he asked them for his forgiveness as he wished them the luck. Even with all the gifts he had given them, they would need it.