Oooooookay, here I am again!

Sorry for the slightly longer than usual wait, school is up with exams in its full glory! Which means i might be a bit slower than usual the next few weeks!

But do not despair!

Have an extra long chapter! Pleas enjoy!

Also thank you to Dan for PRing for me, you are amazing!

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Zayvin’s head snapped up.

She heard something. It was faint so she wasn’t very sure. A howl? Was it the wind? She tilted her head and concentrated on her ears.

There it was again! That didn’t sound like the wind! Especially since it didn’t seem to come from outside but from the city…

She looked down at Amelie. She was still unconscious.

This area was still within the safe zone so no monsters appeared here. Plus they were on top of a small cliff without any way for the nearby monsters to get up. In the proximity of the city there weren’t any monsters that could fly or climb up this far. None that were aggressive that is.

So she quickly decided to check what was happening. Judging from the collision Amelie probably wouldn’t wake up for a while and she was starting to become restless herself since she had nothing to do but wait.

Thus she covered Amelie with a blanket carefully and left a small note that she would be back soon scratched into the dirt of the cavern wall next to her bag. She decided to leave her luggage here after securing it with a simple binding spell.

Magic was a really fascinating thing. Once you grasped the basics on how to make proper use of it you could do almost anything as long as you could picture it in your mind. Of course you also needed the concentration and some flexible thinking to reach the desired effect.

All of this only applied if you did not use the system to assist you in spellcasting though. The first hurdle was to convert your mana into the right type of magic. Some types of magic felt fierce and uncontrollable like lightning and some felt soft and fluffy like a small kitten. Of course you didn’t physically feel the magic, you felt it with your spirit. For beginners it was a very faint sensation that grew more and more intense the more they practiced their magic.

For the binding spell Zayvin called up a robust and heavy type of magic. It was a combination of wind and earth magic that would keep small animals out of her luggage and alert her if anyone touched it. It also greatly increased its weight so thieves would have a hard time carrying off her things. It was very handy.

After she was done she quickly grew out her wings and stood at the edge of the cliff and leaned forward until she fell over the edge off the cliff. She spread her wings as she fell, concentrated her energy in her legs and pushed herself off the wall with all her might, catapulting herself forward towards the city.

5 minutes later she was over the city and looking around to see where the commotion came from. It didn’t take long for her to find people fleeing from the eastern part of the city. Thus she did the logical thing and flew east.

“No…. NOOOOO!!! HINAMIIII!”

She heard a desperate shout from close by… that voice… Suitcase?

Without thinking she headed towards the rough location it came from.

“GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER!!”

‘Over there!’, she thought and slightly corrected her course. She floated over the city nd surveyed the area, but couldn’t find him anywhere. Where was it?

Her heart was pounding urgently in her chest… somehow she felt she had to hurry or it’d be too late. She heard a faint crunching noise and turned towards it but her vision was obstructed by the buildings. While she was still hesitating wether to head towards it she heard a loud inhuman shriek followed by a loud noise like shattering glass.

She pushed back her hesitation and flew towards the source of the noise.

It wasn’t very hard to spot.

It seemed to be a gargoyle, a huge grey winged monster that was destroying some buildings. What was a gargoyle, a high level monster, doing here??

Stunned, Zayvin could just stare at it for a moment. Worry spread inside her. What if another one of those was around? Was Amelie safe?

About to curse and fly back towards her old master right away, she suddenly heard a pained scream from below.

“Uwaaah!!”

It was Suitcase.

Without thinking she dived straight down towards the gargoyle, performed a spin mid-air and kicked it straight into its jaw, causing it to stagger backwards a few steps.

The recoil was huge and Zayvin herself tumbled against one of the still standing walls of the buildings before she could steady herself.

The gargoyle had really gone all out. The impact had caused her to fall onto the floor between the buildings and into the dirt and debris caused by the rampage of the monster. The scene around her was one of destruction.

Not minding it at all she forced herself not to look for Suitcase for now and quickly gathered some magic power in her hands. She concentrated and constructed a weak barrier to stall for some time.

Without a weapon the type and strength of magic she could cast was greatly reduced.

So she quickly grabbed a small nearby piece of sharp debris and stabbed it into her own arm, causing blood to flow out.

In the meantime the gargoyle had recovered from the sudden attack and was running at the barrier in a fit of rage. How dare this puny rat interrupt his meal!!

It destroyed the hurriedly constructed magic in just 3 attempts and howled in triumph.

“Zaharon!”, Zayvin shouted and as expected the long slender staff formed out of her blood. Good thing it wasn’t stored in her inventory…

Just as the gargoyle was about to lunge at her she spun the staff around, channeled magic through it and fired it at the approaching monster.

It was another shield spell, a stronger one this time. In an instant all of its momentum was gone and it crashed into the invisible wall with force.

Not waiting for it to recover Zayvin launched another spell from her staff, a destructive one this time. It was a combination of wind and fire magic. She combined the two and spiraled it around the dazed gargoyle, creating a flaming tornado that caused the gargoyle to howl in pain.

Afterwards she called up some water magic. It wasn’t her strongest magic but it would be enough to deal with the now steaming hot stone attribute monster. She showered him with ice cold water that contrasted heavily with the warmed skin of its body.

And surely enough, the monster flinched and started twitching uncontrollably while wailing in pain and shielding its body. But the effects couldn’t be stopped. The reaction from icy cold water touching hot stone was almost instant. Huge cracks started forming all over its body, dealing massive damage to its health.

That was when Zayvin dealt the finishing blow. She ran towards the wall while gathering magic in her feet, kicked off of it to propel herself over the monster’s head and cast another spell. It was a magic called ‘Impact’. It strengthened the tip of her staff with earth magic that would cause a shockwave when it came into contact with anything. So she beat her wings and dived down on its head, driving the staff into a crack in its skull. This took the tip of the iceberg, the cracks in its skin widened and shook and finally with a last desperate howl its body crumbled, leaving but a pile of rocks.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she took a last look at the pile of rocks below her and then looked back towards the space between the two buildings it had tried so hard to destroy.

She had desperately tried to protect that space during the fight, thus why she had used the barriers and only small scale magic. Because this was where the monster had tried to get to, so she rightfully judged that another devil was there.

“Kya!!”, she screamed involuntarily at what she saw.

Indeed it was Suitcase. It seemed like he got stuck between the two walls of the building. Blood dripped down his side and slowly colored the ground red. His left arm was missing from the shoulder, it seemed she had just been a moment too late and the gargoyle had reached him and ripped off his arm. He didn’t make a sound or move at all… Was he dead?

Quickly Zayvin forced herself to snap out of the shock from the scene before her and rushed over to him.

“Thank god… he’s still breathing.”, she sighed in relief as she checked his breathing and pulse and found he had only lost consciousness.

Then she turned her attention towards his shoulder.

A part of his shoulder and the whole of his left arm had been ripped off. Muscles were ripped and a part of his shoulder bone was sticking out of the wound.

She bit back the nausea that welled up inside her while she inspected the wound and gathered some magic inside her staff. She called up some water to clean the wound. Unfortunately his arm was lost, the monster had probably eaten it, otherwise she would have been able to re-attach it.

She handled his wound delicately, which took up a lot of concentration and sweat started forming on her forehead. But she didn’t stop. After cleaning the wound she stopped the bleeding and closed the wound.

Then her knees gave in and with a thud she plumply sat down on the floor.

Her heart was racing and thoughts were flashing through her head.

This kind of wound only appeared on NPCs, if players lost limbs they would either regrow after the monster had died or they would die and respawn with their body intact.

But the gargoyle was dead and his arm didn’t show any sign of regenerating and he was still alive. This meant the system’s handling of wounds and death had stopped.

Thus it was safe to assume if they died then they would stay dead. If they received a wound the wound would be permanent and only treatable with the game’s… no, this world’s methods.

Cold shivers ran down Zayvin’s back.

What if she hadn’t showed up when she did? Suitcase would probably have died. Her friend would be dead.

She had been naïve.

She had thought the players would be safe in the city while they ascertained the situation and built up some strength. But that wasn’t the case. The logic she got used to in game didn’t apply anymore.

The gargoyle had shown that monsters didn’t keep to the borders programmed for them anymore. That meant this was unknown territory.

When she concluded thus her mind immediately jumped towards Amelie.

Was she safe?

But before she could fly back she had to make sure Suitcase was alright and would be taken care of.

Just as she was getting back up she heard hurried footsteps and the clanking of metal approaching their location.

“It was in this area! Please hurry!”

It seemed one of the civilians who had encountered the gargoyle had gotten help and guided the guards towards the location. The guards were soldiers employed by the lord to guard the city. But only the wingless squadrons were left in the city. All the others had been sent to scout the situation in the other villages situated in the cavern labyrinth.

Great! Perfect timing!

Zayvin let go of her staff, causing it to disappear back into her body. Then she ran outside of the small alley where debris lay scattered around and looked around. They seemed to be behind the other buildings on the wider street.

So she quickly flapped her wings and leapt up, flying over the building that stood in her way and landed on the street below in front of the surprised guards and the small boy that was leading them.

“Out of the way! We need to hurry and kill the monster!”, one of them yelled then, trying to pass her by in a hurry.

“Ah, wait!”

“WHAT! There is a gargoyle rampaging! Let us through!”

“N-no that is… I killed it... but…”

“Heh? It’s dead?”

“Y-yes… but… “

“What, a scrawny thing like you took care of it… Not so strong after all huh? Ahahahahah!”

One of the guards made fun of the situation, saying conceited things.

“T-that is… someone was hurt… and is stuck between some walls… could you take him to the Lord, please?”

“Eh? Ah, yes, we are going to head back then. But before that… Where are the gargoyle remains?”

Zayvin stutteringly explained the location of the pile of gargoyle rock as well as where Suitcase was. The guards promised to take him back to the castle.

“But missy, you’ll have to come along as well. We have some more questions to ask.”

One of the guards stepped forward and told her thus. He looked at her suspiciously, probably misinterpreting her shyness as the suspicious actions of a shady person.

“T-that is… the Lord asked me to go on an urgent mission somewhere so that’s a problem…”

“Oh, is that so?”, The commander squinted his eyes, clearly not believing her at all. “Then we’ll need your name. Also show us the documents for the mission.”

“Ah… m-my name is Zayvin… and I left the papers with my luggage, so…”

‘This girl… is clearly lying. This is getting ridiculous.’, the guard thought and was about to have the shady girl dragged with them by force when one of his men walked up to him after noticing his intention.

“Boss… it’s suspicious but what if they are telling the truth? You’d be in trouble… maybe you should go along with her for now?”

“What to do… I see, Zayvin, let me follow you then, I’ll take a look at the document and then head back.”

He was really suspicious of her but a mission from the Lord himself couldn’t be ignored and hindering her if she was telling the truth would have ended up in himself getting punished instead so his decision was correct. He felt it was really troublesome but he had no choice. If what she said turned out to be a lie he could always apprehend her then.

“Guys, go gather the corpse and help that fella. Move it, will ya!”

“Yes, sir!”

With that the rest of the guards left off towards the direction she had pointed to. The commander also thanked the boy for alerting them and then sent him off after ruffling his hair.

“Let’s go then.”, he said.

“O-ok, we’ll have to… fly… so excuse me… for a moment.”

“Huh?” The alarm bells started ringing in his head. “Lad, I’m a wingless devil in case you haven’t noticed.”

“T-that’s fine…”

“What do you mean fi- whoa!!”

At the end of his sentence he shouted out in surprise. Because he was floating. With full plate armor and weapon, simply floating in the air.

Zayvin had cast an earth spell on him, one that negated gravity for a period of time. Coupled with a weak binding spell this would cause him to follow her while in the air. It was similar to an invisible leash made of magic.

[A/N: Good doggy ^_^]

“Wa-wa-wa… LET ME DOWN!! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!”

The guard was starting to panic and waved his limbs wildly, cursing at her and threatening to apprehend her right then.

“D-don’t panic… it’s so you can follow… i-is it no good?”

“Eh? Ah… magic? I see…”

Slowly he calmed down and understood the situation. It was apparent he didn’t feel comfortable with it though.

“But… Why didn’t you warn me beforehand!??? Are you trying to make my heart stop?? Also where the hell are we going that we need to fly anyhow??”

“S-sorry… I didn’t… think? Also… outside.”

She indeed hadn’t thought about it… she needed to work on her people skills more. Zayvin scolded herself quietly. Then she spread her wings and took off.

“R-ready?”, she asked quietly, making sure to get his consent this time.

“No, wait!! Where outside?”

“That is… just before… where the cocoons appear.”

“O-okay.”

It wasn’t a very dangerous area, but what worried him most was this suspicious girl. She looked like an apprentice magician so he had let down his guard and was shocked at the floating spell. How careless. This mistake wouldn’t happen another time.

The commanders hand rested on top of his sword, ready to activate tha magic interruption device installed on it at any time.

“Let’s go then.”

“Yes…”

With that Zayvin waved her hand, activating the binding spell and causing him to move towards her with a surprised sound.

She then turned and flew towards the outside of the city once more. Her worry for Amelie was so strong she didn’t even think about the condition of the poor guard that was floating behind her, crying out from time to time at the speed and out of fear of falling.

‘How can she endure this??’, he thought in awe.

But after some time the guard got used to it and started enjoying the feeling of air running along his body, intruding into the spaces between his armor and the feeling of flying through the air, leaving the usual world far below your feet.

Zayvin flew straight towards the small cliff she had left Amelie on and luckily she was still sleeping there undisturbed.

With another wave of her hand the guard behind her also landed. Somehow despite the rejuvenating experience he got while flying he was still glad to feel the ground beneath his feet again.

He let out a relieved sigh and watched as Zayvin walked towards her bag.

“Eh, someone else was here too? Are they sleeping?”

He had caught sight of the improvised sleeping bag made of blankets that Amelie was rolled in in.

“Ah, y-yea… She didn’t look where she was flying… and knocked herself out… kind of…”

“Haaaaa?”, the guard made an unbelieving expression and shook his head in disbelief.

“Ah… f-found it.”

Zayvin pulled out a piece of parchment from her bag. It was rolled up and bound by a red thread, sealed with his majesty’s seal.

“S-sorry, I can’t let you open it though…”, she muttered as she brought the scroll over towards the guard.

“That’s fine. I just need to be sure its authentic.”

With that he pulled out a small identification device and turned it on. It was a device that could read the magic infused into items. Seals contained a type of binding magic. Usually the magic identification device would just reveal the general type of magic infused into an item, like what type of curse something was infused with. But it was different for magic seals. For seals the device would show the type of seal, the creator of the seal as well as when it was placed. The guard looked at the small magic machine and then he nodded, apparently satisfied with the result.

He gave returned the scroll to her and she quickly put it back into her bag.

“Nguuuh…”, a moan escaped from the blanket Amelie was sleeping in, causing both of them to turn towards it. She was waking up.

Zayvin quickly went over towards her and freed her from the blankets.

“Amelie, are you alright?”

“uuuuh… Amelie is fine… but Amelie’s head feels like it’s going to explode…”

“Amelie-sama?!”

“Huh? Zayvin, who’s this?”

“Ah… a guard…”

Amelie was a very well-known person within Firchten. She was well respected because of her powerful magic at such a young age, especially since the lord had appointed her to be the mage instructor of the city. Therefore there was hardly anyone who didn’t know her.

“W-what are you doing in a place like this, Amelie-sama?”

“Ah… Amelie and her escort Zayvin are to act as messengers for his majesty but… what of you?”

“Ah, Amelie, t-this guy…”

Zayvin explained the situation and also added how she had doubts how such a strong monster would have come into the city this easily.

“I see, that is indeed true… we have placed a number of barriers and redirection shields around the area but… Well something like this does happen. After all our spells only ward off what’s outside them. Monsters that were inside already aren’t affected at all. It isn’t strange for a monster that had been slumbering until now to awaken due to the earthquake…”

“Ah, so that’s why… the labyrinth changed due to the earthquake, so if it was freed by accident… but… there might be more of them…”

“Zayvin… its good we found out about this and that you prevented anything further from happening… but from now on Amelie suggests we leave it to his majesty. Amelie is sure he will handle it accordingly now the danger is known.”

“True…”

But… a cold shiver ran down Zayvin’s back as she thought back to what had happened.

Suitcase… What would happen to him now?

It wasn’t clear to them at that point but with this incident a seed had been sown into Zayvin’s heart. It would influence what was to happen a lot.

The black castle in Firchten

“Wh-where…”, a small voice escaped him before he knew it.

What happened? Where was this? Who was he?

“Ah…!”

Slowly his memories came back.

Right. He was Hikaru or Suitcase. He was a player in this game but then one day an earthquake happened and now they couldn’t log out. The gargoyle attacked, he tried to get away but got stuck… he watched as his sister got eaten… and then the gargoyle had come for him and ripped off his arm.

The last thing he had seen before he blacked out was how the bloody grimace of the monster as it chewed on his arm. So…

Why?

Wasn’t he dead?

Why did it hurt so much if he was dead? The pain in his head and left shoulder was still present and when he turned to look at it, his arm and half of his shoulder was missing. So he wasn’t dead…

He lost all belief he had left that this was a game. It was too real, it was too painful.

He had lost his sister. His sister was dead.

Deep down he knew she was gone, but despite that he stumbled out of bed and walked towards the window of the room.

He opened it and simply jumped out. He was only on the first floor so the fall wasn’t great. Where exactly he had been he didn’t care. He only knew it was close to the respawn area.

He lost his balance as he landed and dropped squarely on his face, but that didn’t matter.

Suitcase pushed himself back up and stumbled towards the edge of the building. He ran onto the street and made his way towards the small curch-like building that served as a respawn location for players.

If only she was there.

With a loud bang he kicked open the doors but…

It was empty.

The light reflected beautifully from the stained glass windows in the room, lighting up the desolated place, trying to give light to the souls that returned here.

But instead of light Suitcase held only darkness in his heart.

Instead of hope he only felt desperation… and hate.

He hated the gargoyle who had taken his sister away from him. He hated this city with the people that hadn’t helped her at all. He hated the person that saved him and not his sister… he hated them because he was still alive to feel this way.

But most of all he hated himself.

His weakness and cowardice. His helplessness.

Brothers were supposed to protect their sisters, yet what had he done?

Nothing.

Self-loathing and sadness overflowed and tears fell from his eyes as he kneeled down in desperation. He couldn’t put strength into his knees anymore, they wouldn’t support him anymore.

“UWAAAAAAAHH!!”

The sorrowful scream resounded through the empty room and echoed outside through the city.

He pounded his fist against the ground as he cried.

“WHY!! Why her… WHYYY!”

Slowly the self-hatred consumed him, it ate away at his mind and consumed everything. One hour later, when the maids at the castle had noticed his absence and found him outside he was still kneeling in the entrance of the building.

One of the guards tried to talk to him but when they looked into his face he flinched back involuntarily. Nothing was left. There was only passive emptiness left in Suitcase’s eyes. It was like his soul was gone.

While you wait... check for my writing progress as well as interesting bits about my world here

I've also added a few sketches of how i imagined my world and some characters

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