"Finally... This is our chance to rank up!" said a voice.
There, in the middle of the arena, stood a tall and fierce warrior armed with his prestigious shield. An entity worth millions, able to conquer even the most dangerous evil of the lands. He was a guardian with years of experience raising his shield against waves of enemies.
The two allies could barely see each other in the deep darkness, lit by only a few unreachable stars above the open abandoned arena.
"Look out, here he comes!", answered the other, one of the strongest assassins.
They looked in the distance at the incoming menace. After having spent hours exploring the dungeon and defeating thousands of foes, they had finally arrived at the end of their journey. Excitement and terror. Finally, they get the chance to fight the second strongest enemy there is, Orkestra, the Last King of Vhir.
"Make sure not to get too close to him whenever he's ready to launch an offensive...", the guardian said with a shaky voice, "If you don't get hit, we'll be fine!"
The assassin took out his blades and got closer to his fighting companion. They had come so far, and this was their last chance to show their worth. The echoing sounds of the overwhelming shadow king's footings came closer. They both took each other's hand, and in that moment, they both stopped shaking.
"We have yet to meet Lily again... Remember our promise...", said the assassin.
"Now is not the time to think about this! We will meet her again!" the guardian shouted, looking at his friend with a determined gaze, "We will reach day 30 and be top 3... This is only the beginning!"
The assassin let go of his friend's hand and focused back on reading his opponent. He was always intelligent and highly tactical, which has made them the unbeatable duo. Staring at the enemy in front of them, he shed a tear. One that was long overdue.
"Ellias, I've never been able to beat this one... If I don't make it out alive now, please promise me you'll run away and find Lily alive...", he said to his friend, the guardian.
The orchestra opens. Millions of strings are played, and millions of swords appear. The sword moved following the fast and chaotic melody. Without hesitation, the assassin rushed in, evading the surrounding threats to get closer to the target.
"LEO!", Ellias shouted as he ran toward them, trying to figure out how to defend himself and Leo from the enemy's next attack.
The undead king smiled at his two worthy opponents and got ready to sweep them with his thousand swords. Suddenly the king's weapon's all rallied back to him. Ellias' legs stop, paralyzed. Leo was coming close to the king, sensing the menacing power of the attack he was preparing. He hoped his plan would work. He hoped he would too meet their good friend Lily alive. This should work for now...
But this was not a game anymore.
It was a matter of survival.
Ellias' eyes opened widely as he tried to defend himself from the flurry of swords shot towards them. He is launched behind by the sheer strength of the projectiles.
The shock has made him unable to see where his ally was. He had lost him. The weapons seemed to be held by the king's invisible hands, so there was no way to predict what they would be doing. They got him. It's over... he thought.
Ellias started thinking about the worst possible scenarios, deepening his madness. Though the vision had told him he would be able to protect him, he feared he was incompetent after all. As he barely got back up on his two feet, vision lost in one of his eyes from the impact, he suddenly got hit by one of the flying blades on his upper left shoulder. The bleeding was intense, and he laid there wondering what the point of all of this was. It hurts... It hurts...
Becoming the top 3 and returning to the real world with wealth and happiness. What an empty promise that was. Not after all we've witnessed.
After all the madness.
After all the suffering.
After all the treason.
There can be no reckoning.
Leo... Lily... I'm so sorry I got you into this...
Everything started turning blank to Ellias, and a tragic silence ensued.
---
Silence. Those were the times Ellias found himself the most at peace. At only fourteen years old, he had already witnessed what madness was, and only in his bubble could he escape it. Madness had infiltrated his family.
Before then, everything seemed normal on the outside. Question marks in place of emotions. They all looked blankly in the future, living days not knowing what the next would be. They were not the most unfortunate for sure, but only Ellias still had the innocence of not losing hope yet.
Ellias got ready and headed out to school; he was a good kid back then. The warm breeze brushed against him as he walked to class. He lived only five minutes away.
As soon as he got in, he felt emotional. He had a strong bond with his friends who shared the same innocence as him.
Lily, his closest friend since kindergarten, went up to him with her usual warm smile. It was precious to him, and he wanted to protect it. Although she has always been reserved, she was still highly regarded by her classmates. Most of the girls were jealous of her, per usual.
After being struck by her goodness and innocent smile, the guys usually developed a crush on her. However, her greatest assets were her beautiful growing brown hair and prideful grey eyes.
Ellias hugged her and was happy to see her again. It was the first day since the summer break. They got back to their seats and started catching up on life.
"How was the trip with your family?", he asked her.
"It was the best. We went to the Neatherlands and visited some of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen so far. Mom wanted to visit everything so bad, but we really didn't have enough time.", she responded and closed her eyes, "I wish you could have seen it too Ellias... Anything planned with your family?"
He felt a bit defeated but had to answer her truthfully. As he was going to open his mouth, she realized what she had done and corrected herself: "Oh Ellias, I'm so sorry, I really didn't mean to... I'm aware, I'm privileged... But I do wish the best for your family, so hopefully it all works out in the end."
Ellias felt a bit better after what she had said. He never thought about the possibility for his family to have the privilege to live these kinds of experiences and live through life vicariously... If only there was a way...
And there was one.
"What would you do with a million dollar?", Ellias asked Lily out of the blue a few weeks after the previous talk. They were now outside on a picnic table on school grounds.
"Me...", she answered, a bit shocked and taken by surprise, "I would... I think I would help others with it. Give it to some charities and help others."
"That's beautiful, it would be great to be able to impact others, wouldn't it.", he said, amazed by how mature her answer sounded, "I wish I could get a million dollar and help my family out of dept. Help my brother. Help my dad. Help my mom. They are all struggling, and I know it. They put a front in front of me as adults, thinking I don't see it..."
Lily looked concerned and sympathized with him. She wished she could support him more, but the best she could really do was to be a good supportive friend for now.
"I have been playing this game recently- I think I showed it to you before- it's called Treason and Reckoning, or TaR for short. It came out recently here and I've been playing it for since last year", he started saying.
She was confused by where he was going with this, but she did remember the game. It was a very fast action RPG game from what she remembered, with a lot of monsters all over the screen, and animations she could not keep up with. She installed it but never took the time to actually try it.
Was it actually fun?
"They have a new challenge happening where they have winners every year who can win a million dollar for being the strongest players!", he continued, "My character is not that strong yet, but I want to keep working at it and win it one day!"
"Ellias!", she said, "That's amazing... I didn't know you could do this with a game like that. I'll be there to support you all the way!"
And she did.
They played together for almost a year for her to get to his level and to get enough loot to fight alongside him and their other friend Leo. But not too long after, she could not keep catching up anymore and had to stop playing.
"Amazing, you're in the top 10!", Lily exclaimed on the phone to Ellias, "I will play with you again soon, but I really need to focus on university at the moment. You know how nursing school is."
They both laughed, "Take care Lily, hop in once in a while if you want to distract yourself for a bit. Me and Leo would love to do more trio dungeons, just how it was before..."
"The Top three thing again, huh?", she instantly said, "I know we make a great team the three of us, that's why I want to make sure I achieve my goals as soon as possible and can get back into playing with you guys. You're well on your way towards your goal too..."
"I would never accept to be in the top three without you or Leo though! Never!", he said half-jokingly.
"Well if that's so, just wait for me... I'll get there, promise", she responded, "Until then wait for me, and once I'm in the top 10 with you, and hopefully Leo too, it will mean my goals are achieved."
She paused.
"Will you wait for me? Only then will everyone's goals be accomplished. Only then will yours be. The three of us, in the top three. As we always wanted it to be. As you always wanted it be."
---
Breaking announcement! Ladder Update and Last 30 Days of the Challenge! Appeared all over Ellias' screen.
He instantly clicked on it, having waited for it all week. The last update before this is finally over, huh. He thought to himself, curious to see where he now stood on the ladder.
A surprising animation appeared, showing some of the positions moving around.
[Number 6] jumped up in ranks, gaining over 50 000 points and stealing the [Number 4] position, fighting with [Number 3] with only a 3 000 points difference.
Sadly, [Number 9] remained number 9.
That was Ellias.
He looked discouraged at his progression and knew he would not make it this round; it was plainly impossible. Even his friend Leo raised from [Number 10] to [Number 8].
"Congrats Leo you're a lot closer now. I think if I can get up to number 8 as well by the end of it, I'd be glad.", he messaged him.
"Thanks man! We worked together on this one, I wouldn't have gotten there without your help. Don't get discouraged, we will keep going on strong as a duo.", Leo responded, "Remember, we promised, we will be top 2 together!"
It was a beautiful memory of a time when they had a clear goal. Something to look forward to. It was not all about the money; it was more about their bond and passion.
This promise, Ellias had told Leo a few years ago when they were both still in university, contemplating the possibilities of life under the beautiful limitless sky. But these times are long gone, and they are now both restricted to their small dark rooms, with only their friendship as a motive.
Another message he was not expecting to see appear did inside the game while he had stopped looking at the update to talk to Leo.
"Ellias! I made it!", the message said.
Shocked, he looked back at the update screen, and truthfully, it was right there under his character, in the ladder. [Number 10] had now been taken by the person he longed to see again the most.
Like the refreshing appearance of a nostalgic spring where one could find themselves daydreaming of miracles, it finally happened. Lily... Tears started appearing on his face, now happier than ever.
"Lily, I am so happy for you! All this hard work just to catch up to us...", he wrote to her.
She was definitely happy as well, having been able to keep up her promise and hit most of her life goals.
"We can get there Ellias. Let's work hard this month to get to the top three. Now that I am here with you and Leo, I can finally tell you something!", she sent, starting to type the rest of her answer.
Ellias got up and looked outside into the depth of the night. There are millions of stars, yet only a few shine so bright. Her words resonated in his head, and for an instant, he heard her voice again in is head. They, in fact, had not talked to one another in a long time, she was out of the country studying in the United States, and had waited for this time to finally speak to him.
Excited to learn the good news, he looked back at his screen, but there was nothing.
The game had closed. Hold on, when did I close it?
He hurriedly went back to his seat and tried to get back on the game, but something else got all his attention. The ladder update had changed to something else entirely.
[Attention, Top 10. Here is your final chance to prove that you are worth the million dollars. For the next 30 days, you shall show your passion, resilience, and above all, your survival abilities. You have all done well so far, but miracles can only be given to a few; only a few can shine as bright as the stars. For this last stretch, all of your characters will be reset, and you will be playing on equal grounds. The only ones who won't are the current top three. Make sure you can catch up to them in the next ten days.]
At the end of the announcement, there was a two minutes trailer. It was the first time they had gone so far with the challenge as to make everyone reset their levels and equipment right before the last stretch. Perhaps they still had a chance to reach the top 3.
[Music starts playing, and a video starts playing. It was a teaser for the next in-game event.]
The legendary hero of the Kingdom of Pleiades, Silvionis, stood in the middle of the battlefield, panting. He is one of the leading non-playable characters inside TaR.
A decisive war that happened twenty years before the main storyline. He was always known for the thousands of enemies he slew. And there, they all laid down defeated on the battleground that would later be known as the plain of madness for the horrors that happened. Orkestra, king of Vhir was known for all the good he brought for both kingdoms. For all the economy he raised and the lives he enriched with the expansion and unity between the two kingdoms.
"It was all a lie, wasn't it...", said Orkestra, looking distraught at the sight of thousands of his soldiers and civilians.
The visuals show the hero responding to the poor last king, but the sound is cut for dramatic purposes.
Tears roll down Orkestra's face, and he lets his sword fall to the ground. His face was innocent then. Silvionis deals the defeating blows; that has now become part of history as marking the end of the war, and the fall of the Vhir kingdom.
[Black screen.]
[Will you accept this treason? ...]
[Or will you ally with the fallen?]
[New Game Start]
Ellias' excitement is cut by a sudden high pitch noise; then silence again.