"Priam and Klaren are forces of nature. They're living manifestations of two sides of fate.
Priam was born with all the luck life could offer. Looks, intelligence, height, wealth, charm and love.
Klaren fell into misfortune and lost everything. This game is his salvation.
Two types of people in the real world flock to them like zombies. The fortunate and the unfortunate. The good people who want to be freed, and those who want to stay, the supposed evil ones.
Those two are transhuman. They represent two sides of fate, life and nature. This game is where the sides can flip upside down. Those who suffered can now prosper. And the opposite.
Me? I'm just an average guy. A mere human with his own personal power and earned accomplishments.
...No, I wouldn't say for certain Priam earned the first place. I wouldn't surely say he himself is responsible for his accomplishments. Just look at him. Everything went right for him since birth. He's built from luck, he's born in luck, and what he has accomplished could be an extension of the endless fortune he experiences since birth.
...Yes, it's like fate itself put him there, or I should say, he is a side of fate itself, just like I think Klaren is. You could also look at this as me making excuses for my inferiority to him.
And me and you? We are right in the middle of the two sides. Ordinary, average guys who had a boring life outside. We don't have a particularily large desire to flee this game, nor to stay either.
...I wonder what we can do against fate's power that hosts this tragic show of war between these two sides. Where does personal human power reach? Is there a limit?"
-Francisco Lavonte, third-ranked player.
***
Days after the battle.
"What..." Priam stared at the devastation. White fire in his eyes. Then all around his body.
The heat was felt by the two players accompanying him. Their health was actually decreasing slowly as they stood only a few meters from him.
Then, he bolted across the two hundred meter distance in two seconds.
Paul and Alex followed after him with opened mouths.
Priam stopped abruptly at the camp's entrance and the red sand beneath his feet turned black.
"No..." He said. His two fists clenched.
"Who? Valenti? No...It can't be him." Paul said.
"Definitely not. We're competing as rivals, not warring against each other. We share the same goal." Priam replied.
"But you only informed him." Alex added.
"And Lavonte. But it can't be him either. Not possible."
"How are you so sure?" Paul asked with a frown.
Priam was silent as the trio walked through the devastated camp. Mounts, pet monsters, tents, buildings, people all turned to scrap.
Knights lay dead with their white armors of the Valiants destroyed on them.
Priam looked around with a white glow in his eyes.
And all he could see...
Was his own knights, dead. No one else.
"It's only our own!" Alex yelled.
"I know." Said Priam, quietly.
"The enemy could have taken the bodies of their allies...But it could also be the work of a top 100 who also had an army." Said Paul.
"Thus making Valenti and Lavonte more suspicious." Said Priam. "But no, it's definitely Salvation. They might have gotten a powerful ally."
"We can't be sure. We need your sister. Her lie detection. Summon both of them, both Valenti and Lavonte." Paul added.
"Of course." Said the king.
"Guys..." Alex said, from a few dozen meters away.
He stood above rocks. Rocks that looked like a dismembered human. A rock human who was dismembered.
Priam and Paul rushed over.
"What Ability is this..." Priam said with a drop of sweat going down his left side of the face. His mouth open in disbelief.
They couldn't even lift the helmet off the head since the two blended together as stone. They would never know who this was.
"No way it'll work on you..." Alex said with a frown, looking at the first ranked player.
The man being looked at was silent. Staring at the rock corpse.
After a few moments, he turned towards what used to be the expedition captain's tent.
He walked slowly towards it.
The trio stood over the destruction.
"Fuck." Alex said. "What will we do with the bodies?"
The other two were silent.
Looking around. Walking tent to tent. Nothing to find. No clues. No information. About the main boss or the enemy. Everything was destroyed and razed.
The silence was broken by Priam.
"We can't have graves and tombstones in this place. It'll lower the morale of everyone. I'll burn them. It's my responsibility."
The other two nodded.
"Another stone body over there." Alex pointed towards a decapitated stone statue.
"A fearsome ability." Said Priam. "I don't know how it works, but it'll be best to avoid getting touched by unknown people."
Nothing in the area was left standing. Everything crumpled, crushed and destroyed. A complete wasteland.
Weapons of the dead were nowhere to be found. Taken to be sold or used. Only ruined armor pieces left on the victims.
"There's nothing for us here...We need to go back and have a meeting. Contact Valenti and Lavonte." Said Paul.
Priam nodded.
"Brothers, get away from here. I'll burn this place to the ground. I have a statue be made with every good man and woman's name written on it who died here, back at base."
Alex and Paul nodded. Taking their leave quickly.
Four hundred meters away from Priam, they stared at the first ranked from a cliff top.
The man in white armor with a large red cape on his back started glowing. His whole body was getting enveloped in white fire.
Then, the fire spread rapidly...In seconds a full field of fire was around him in a hundred meter diameter.
Everything burned. The fire rose up twenty meters. The king was in the middle of it.
Enhancing it further, the fire became so bright the two watching had to strongly squint their eyes.
The heat was felt from the distance they stood at. Alex took a few steps back and so did Paul to reduce their discomfort.
And then from the white fire that raged high and bright ascended a glowing winged form.
The form stood there a moment, hovering above the small sun below it.
Then in a second, a large ring appeared behind his back and the figure then at the same time bolted and crossed the four hundred meter distance in three seconds.
Paul and Alex looked up at the player who hovered above them, the glow on him disappearing.
Priam landed softly on the ground.
"We've got a lot of work to do. Sorry boys." The king said.
Alex noticed tears on his cheek and in his eyes.
Tears unaffected by the hottest fire ever.