3 years later at floor 1000
Avi stood, gently swaying in front of a massive golden door at the heart of a castle the size of a mountain. Her glowing eyes could be seen in the reflection of the door, along with her crimson hair and wealth of red tattoos. "Welp lets keep this train movin along." Avi hiccupped and rammed shoulder first against the golden door, causing it to slam open with enough force to shake the walls around her. "How about tha fer an entrance." Avi skipped her way inside until she found herself in front of a strangely familiar face.
"Ah little one! How you've grown!"
Avi's lips widened into a smile as she said "ya lookin for a rematch goldy locks?"
A deafening roar of laughter echoed around the massive golden hall. In front of Avi stood a familiar deer-like creature. Along with its majestic features, it was now twice the size that it once was. Though Avi had fought countless enemies, for some reason, none of the others actually spoke with her like this one could.
"I was actually wondering if you perchance wanted to converse for a while."
"Three years, 900 floors later and yer lookin to chat?" Avi stood there swaying for a second, taking a moment to ponder. "Ah what the hell I havent talked to anyone in three years anyway. Let me sober up real quick." Avi proceeded to swing her scythe blade right into her thigh. "AHHH THATLL GET YA UP IN THE MORNIN" Avi yelled as her tattoos, hair, and eyes slowly faded back to normal.
The deer creature seemed to almost wince at the sight of it. "Thats an extreme way to sober up."
"Well thats all I have unless you want to sit here while I resist the urge to lay into you and drink up that blood that I haven't had in so long." Avidia deftly bandaged her leg and plopped down onto the ground, dropping her scythes to her side. "So whats up?"
"It's been so I long, I wanted to catch up with my dear friend who I haven't seen in ages. Here. This form might be a bit easier to converse with." A layer of golden light enveloped the giant beast as its shape slowly shrank in form until it was roughly the size of a human. The ray of light soon vanished and Avidias jaw dropped to the floor. Before her stood a stunning tall curvaceous woman. Golden antlers stood tall above her glossy black hair. Her beautiful figure was wrapped in a simple yet elegant shiny black dress. "Wow. Who knew that there was such a gorgeous lady hiding in that big body of yours."
"Why thank you. I haven't had a chance to try out my human form yet so this alone has been a worthy experience." The lady beckoned for Avidia to follow and began walking towards the end of the hall. "Let's talk somewhere comfier." Avidia beamed at the idea of conversing with a friend. Though it had been fun in its own right, clearing the tower had been a lonely and arduous process and she missed the idea of companionship. Deer Lady led the both of them to the end of the glorious hall that they were in. She swung open a plain looking wooden door at the end of the hall and led Avidia inside.
The inside of the room was splendidly. It was Avidias ideal room of comfort. A small, circular office, with a fire place in the background. Rows of bookshelves lined the stone walls and odd trinkets resided within the occasional blank spaces in the shelves. A pair of comfy looking arm chairs stood by the fire with a small table in between. Avidia instantly felt some of the stress of years worth of battles melt away as she walked into the warm room and sank into one of the chairs. For some reason, a storm seemed to be raging outside, as there was rain hammering the glass window near the fireplace. Now that Avidia gave it some thought, this room was far too close to her idea of comfortable. She had never mentioned anything about comfort to anyone and had definitely never mentioned anything like that in Fallen Tower. She eyed the Deer Lady suspiciously and finally asked. "Who are you?"
The Deer Lady sighed. "Well, I knew this question would come up so lets get this out of the way. The reason this room accompanies you so well is because I have actually seen your ideal room myself." She stood in front of the fireplace and took a deep bow. "My name is Lydia and I am the developer/game master of Fallen Tower. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Avidia froze. A wave of conflicting emotions rushed over her. Though it was true that Fallen Tower was a twisted death game that broke almost every law imaginable, Avidia thrived here. She originally hated the game master with all of her power due to the shock and trauma she went through when she entered the game. However, over the past three years, Avidia grew to love Fallen Tower. The brutal difficulty and exhilaration of combat, coupled with the vast unexplored lands, gave her the perfect outlet to run wild and indulge in her wildest childhood dream. After an uncomfortably log silence, Avidia let out a sigh.
"I just want to know one thing. Why?"
Lydia stood in silence for a while, seemingly deep in thought. After a couple of minutes, Lydia carefully replied. "In truth, I wanted to give people another chance at life. I wanted to allow them to do things they never thought possible. But I also wanted to create that tension of adventure and exploration that wasn't possible through games. That fear of death in the midst of battle could only be replicated one way. Plus, you could also just chalk it up to me being crazy." Avidia laughed. "Yeah thats one way to put it."
Lydia pouted. "Hey I'm trying to be serious here and you're laughing at my dramatic speech." She finally took a seat in the squishy armchair beside her. There were dark bags under her eyes and a hint of melancholy in her gaze. A serious look came over her face as she looked directly into Avidias eyes. "Do you hate me for it?" Avidia, a little taken aback by her words, sighed. "You could say I did at first but Fallen Tower has been the best experience of my life. It did indeed give me a second chance at life and I took it full throttle."
Lydia laughed. She seemed relieved at her answer. "You sure did speed through this game that I spent so long pouring my heart and soul into. Imagine my surprise when, as Im adjusting the first raid boss, some blood soaked kid comes running in, slashing left and right. I was so shocked that I decided to just take you on myself!"
"Ahhhhhh so thats why you were able to talk." Avidia laughed as they both sank back into their arm chairs.
"So tell me. How were your adventures? I want to hear every detail." The hopefulness in Lydia's eyes almost looked like a child trying to please their parents.
"Alright, but its a long story so you best be ready to listen."
From there Avidia began recounting her story that took her from floor 101 all the way to floor 1000. She talked about all of the beautiful environments she had explored, from golden cities to murky swamps, she truly saw it all. Furthermore, the blood-rushing combat and countless life or death situations kept Lydia at the edge of her seat. Lydia was shocked to discover that Avidia had actually cleared all the way to floor 500 in just a year. On top of beautiful scenery, Avidia had fought countless foes ranging from goblins, wolves, and horned rabbits, all the way to corrupt knights, massive dragons, and even a giant penguin. Her stories spanned for hours as they laughed and even cried their way through the better part of a day. At some point, Lydia even brought out drinks and offered her own blood for Avidia to dine upon. After drinking and storytelling for a while longer, Lydia's expression grew serious. Well, as serious as a tipsy game master can get.
"Avidia, your stories have been delightful and my heart soars at the thought of you enjoying my game. However, the fact of the matter is: you've completed it. Now you have a couple options for your next course of action." Avidia looked up with her cheeks now rozy and her body now slowly morphing into its blood drunk state. "One option is that you may fight me in the form that you originally saw me, defeat me, and log out of this game. I am confident you will defeat me, as I have been busy working on a new feature that I wanted to implement into the game called the Crypt and I have not had time to train very well."
"Ehhhh excuses excuses Lydeeria yer just scared ta fight me." Lydia immediately looked away to hide the fact that she was blushing. She cleared her throat.
"A- Anyway, the fact of the matter is you have another option. I could give you a sort of new game+ mode. You would start over from the beginning with all portals locked again. You would keep your stats and items and you would gain a chance to level up even further. On top of that, I will be adding a couple other items into the game (that may or may not suite you very well) in this next update I plan to bring. The enemies you fight will be much stronger than before, and I will even throw in a couple items that will make your life easier when you return to town if you give me all of your gold."
Avidia stayed silent for a while afterwards. Though life back at earth had been great, she was honestly losing a lot of the passion that had kept her going. She had no ties and lived a pretty lonely life. On top of that, she was sure nothing could top the thrill of slicing her way through a battle whilst drinking the blood of her enemies.
"Alright I'll play your game again. HOWEVER. I have a request. You and me. Lets duke it out with some big monster in that hall over there. I can't just not fight after you have me some of the finest liquor in the land."
Lydia let out a big guffaw. "Interesting! I don't think it will be much a fight against the two of us but if I give it two more heads I think it could work." Lydia snapped her fingers and the room immediately began to shake. "Come. Let us do battle."
Avi began cackling. "Lets!"
Avi hopped up from her chair, grabbing her scythes in the process, and sprinted out the door. Lydia soon followed and the two charged headfirst at the best that took up a huge chunk of the hall. 100 feet tall and 300 feet (the hall is REALLY big) long, a three-headed dragon stood before them. Its thick scales were a gorgeous mix of jet black and gold. Its claws, each the size of a fully grown man, were razor sharp. Each of the three heads reared back and a different colored mist began to gather in the jaws of each. The head on the left gathered an orange mist, the head in the middle gathered a purple mist and the head on the right gathered a white mist.
"AHHH LYDIA YOU KNOW HOW TO MAKE A GIRL HAPPY," Avi shouted as she leaped towards the closest leg of the dragon.
"Oh hush," Lydia said with a blush as she knocked a massive black arrow into her gorgeous golden bow that seemed to be made out of antlers. "Lets take this thing down."
"You don't have to tell me twice," Avi said as she sunk both her scythes into the dragons calf. She propelled herself upwards and began climbing the dragon at a rapid speed using her scythes. As she neared the head, she shouted to Lydia, "keep the other two occuppied for me will ya." Lydia nodded and let loose an arrow that pierced the eye of the middle head. The dragons roared and began shaking vigorously in an attempt to knock Avidia off.
"That ain't nearly enough to do me in," Avidia said as she swung herself up to the neck of the left dragon. As soon as she reached her scythes around the neck, the mist in the jaws of the dragon condensed and erupted in the form of a triple attack of fire, ice, and poison towards lydia. Lydia deftly dodged the frontal assault by leaping into the air towards one of the walls and lodging herself in place with an arrow. Before the dragons could adjust their aim, Avidia planted both of her scythes around the left dragons neck and pulled.
*Shink*
The dragons head rolled off of the body and onto the floor as Avidia was suddenly blasted by a spray of blood. She opened her mouth and let the blood fall into her mouth.
"You've got such good taste Lydia."
"Why thank you! I knew you'd like it," Lydia said as she loaded an arrow the size of a bed into her bow. "Now I think I shall get the other one, yes?" Avidia smiled as she looked over just in time to see a massive air fly straight through the right dragon head. With one head remaining, the dragon began backing away from the deadly duo, realizing it had no chance of winning this fight.
"Shall we try that thing we discussed over drinks," asked Lydia as she dropped to the floor.
"I was waiting for you to ask." Avi leapt off of the dragons pack and made her way over to Lydia. She promptly hopped into Lydias arms. Lydia just laughed as she knocked Avi into her bown and aimed for the final head.
"Don't miss Avi!" With that Lydia let loose and Avi flew through the air towards the dragon. She made an x with the front of each scythe and looked directly into the eyes of the dragon. "It was fun sir dragon!" Avi laughed as she sliced straight through the dragons head, further coating her and her scythes in blood. Unfortunately, Avi had not planned out a landing path. She quickly hurtled towards the bloodstained gold floors of the hall and face planted directly into a pool of dragon blood.
Lydia made her way over to Avi. "I knew you enjoyed blood but I didn't know you liked it enough to launch yourself face first into it." Avi flipped around and slowly sat back up, licking her lips as she did.
"You're damn right I would fly into a pool of blood the first chance I got." They looked at each other and laughed.
"That was a damn good fight, quick as it was," Avidia said as Lydia reached out a hand and helped her to her feet.
"I knew it wouldn't be much of a fight with the both of us involved but I hoped you would enjoy." They booth looked over in admiration at the now decimated dragon corpse that lay limp next to them. Lydia sighed.
"Now I must offer a small gift of appreciation for showing me such a good time before I send you back to the beginning. Since you can't take your money with you, I'll give you these items to help you not stick out as much when you head back." Lydia gestured to the air with her hand and three items appeared floating before Avidia. A small silver ring, a black plague doctors mask, and an ornate looking crimson and gold flask. "On your left is the Ring of New Beginnings. As long as you wear it, it will allow you to appear as though you are a beginner to Fallen Tower. Your Weapons will change to look like plain scythes and your status screen will show beginner stats to all who view it. (Your stats will change accordingly to your actions as you level up and such) Additionally, your stats will be weakened to around the power of the first raid boss. Though you'll be stronger than any player, you won't have to worry about accidentally one-shotting a person." Lydia pointed to the item in the middle. "This is the Mask of Suppresion. It will dampen the bloodlust affect (not drunkenness) as long as it is equipped. It will also dampen your sense of smell due to the herbs inside of it so be careful." Lydia finally pointed to the last item. "This is my personal favorite, the Blood Bank. It is a flask that is able to store up to two litres of any type of blood you may come across. You can view and select the types of blood through your inventory. I even went ahead and gave you two litres of my own blood so you better be happy." Avi gathered up all of the items and gave Lydia a literal bear crushing hug.
"You cheeky bugger. Ya always know how to please me best." Lydia blushed.
"Well you are the only one crazy enough to be my friend in the first place. I might as well use my power every once in a while." Lydia slowly pried Avi off of her. "Now, sadly, we must part ways here. I will open up the portal back to the portal hall in Remedias. It should be night time back there so don't cause too much trouble." With a gesture of her hand, a tall golden portal appeared. Avi, already taking a swig from her blood bank, stumbled towards the portal. Right before entering in, she turned her head back to Lydia.
"I'll catch ya later Lyd." Avi promptly fell through the portal. Lydia looked on, a tear rolling down her cheek. Lydia's expression quickly switched from sadness to concern.
"I hope I covered everything she needed to know." Lydia shrugged and made her way back to the office.