It was supposed to be over. It was supposed to end.
The endless… mindless slaughter of our kind… I thought it was finally over.
Even our one and only protection, the Captains… Captain Aurburn too… they can’t win. The Players have gotten too strong.
I should have ran far, far away. I shouldn’t have wasted time waiting for my friends to follow me.
I probably should have listened to that old man.
…
“Hey, Felix. Aren’t you coming for the celebration party? We’ll be taken to the new world, where we can join the Grand Navy, and be protected in special zones!”, said Zion.
The Silent Tower was having a huge celebration, mostly because it hadn’t be destroyed in a full week. The Captains were laughing, people were drinking, it was nice. I’ve gotten less clumsy, too.
I thought I’d attend the party later, after my shift was over. But by that time, the party will be over too.
“Oh, what the heck. Why not?”, I said, as I pack up my things.
It was a nice party, I’ll say.
…
I decided I’d return back to Riverville.
“YOU SEE? I TOLD YOU SO! THE ODYSSEY IS APPROACHING AND WE ALL WILL EXPERIENCE ETERNAL PAIN! WE WILL NEVER KNOW PEACE EVER AGAIN! THERE IS NO ESCAPE, YOU MUST RUN! RUN!”
It was that crazy guy again. It turns out he was half true. On the 25th, we’d all board a ship and travel to the new world, where its safe. Where the Players can’t hurt us.
“Oh, hey! Felix, my friend!”, said Vincent. A woman was next to him, and she waved at me too.
“Hey. How are you doing? Has everything been going well as the Riverville protector?”
“As a matter of fact, it has. It’s been going very well. This is my wife, Cammy. We met each other a couple months ago.”, answered Vincent, kissing his wife on the cheek.
“I’m proud of you! Never thought you’d get a wife, although I guess the time is ripe.”, I say, although I hadn’t found a woman myself.
Vincent and I shook hands. I had a short conversation with Cammy. It turns out she’s expecting children.
I do wish I could have stayed, but I had to get stronger with my Shadow Magic. I’ll settle down when I become a certified Advanced Wizard.
As the festivities end, I returned to the Silent Tower.
Then… the 25th arrived.
I awoke to chaos. People screaming, yelling. I heard Captain Aurborn shouting orders.
“WE NEED TO MOVE, NOW! KEEP IT GOING, WE NEED TO GET THE SUMMER HOLD AS SOON AS WE POSSIBLY CAN!”, yelled Captain Aurborn.
“CAPTAIN CANDIDATE FELIX! WAKE UP… NOW!”, said Captain Aurborn, shouting in my face.
“Ack! What’s happening? What’s going on?”
“HAS VETEX FINALLY LET GO OF HIS CARE OF US? YOU SEE, WE THOUGHT PLAYERS COULD ONLY ACHIEVE LEVELS THAT OF A MAXIMUM POTENTIAL APPRENTICE WIZARD. BUT IN THE SUMMERHOLD, WE WITNESS AN ADEPT WIZARD PLAYER. DO YOU KNOW HOW BAD THIS SITUATION IS? DO YOU, CAPTAIN CANDIDATE FELIX?!?!”, screeched Captain Aurborn.
“An Adept Player? That’s… There’s no way! How…?”
“OF COURSE THERE’S A WAY! MOVE IT, MOVE IT! WE NEED TO MOVE AND SUBDUE HIM NOW!”, said Captain Aurborn, as he took me downstairs in to the Magic Council Teleporting Room.
The MCTR is a magical underground portal that can instantly take us to where the latest “threat” has occurred. It’s what gave the Magic Council what seems to be an “iron fist”, because we could quickly and almost always efficiently deal with threats.
…But…
According to Captain Aurborn, 3 Captains have already been sent after the Adept Player. They haven’t been responding to any Messages.
Captain Aurborn is the strong captain I’ve ever known, his Light Magic rivals the magic potency of King David, if not surpasses it.
As magic energy swirled around me and my squad, I wondered.
“Can we handle this?”
No. No, we couldn’t.
I couldn’t bring myself to count the casualties. I saw a Captain getting burned alive. Captains are supposed to be extremely powerful Advanced Wizards, and I just witnessed an Adept Player destroy two of them at once.
As usual, the Player simply destroyed with no good reason. King David Silver was the only one that was still alive after the onslaught.
When we teleported, we had:
30 Soldiers
12 Commissioners
9 Captain Candidates
1 Captain.
After 20 minutes of battle, we had only 5 commisioners, 1 captain candidate(me), and 1 captain. King David Silver was on his last breath.
I shot a Shadow Blast at the Player, but he blocked it.
Captain Aurborn quickly dashed towards the Player, and slammed him into the ground with a Self Explosion.
“Felix, back me up here!”, yelled Captain Aurborn.
“R-Right!”, I say, as I shoot 4 Shadow Blasts at the Player, causing an Equinox Explosion. The Player coughed blood, and feinted. The commissioner used the “Magic Cuffs” on the Player, sending him to the tower.
“It’s over.”, I say.
It’s over, I say, as 4 other Players arrive to the scene.
It’s over, I say, as they kill Captain Aurborn infront of me, but not before he can send me back to the tower.
It’s over, I say, as I see the entire tower has been leveled to dust, and each round of reinforcements simply gets evaporated.
What was so shocking to me, was the fact that the Captains hadn’t destroyed the tower, the Players did. Now they’re strong enough to destroy the tower with their own power.
As I notice the dire situation, I use magic Flight to quickly get to Riverville.
When I arrived, I saw Vincent battling two Adept Wizard Players, and winning.
I use 4 Shadow Beams to assist him.
“Vincent, we need to get out of here as soon as possible.”
“I can’t leave them behind.”, said Vincent, struggling to take deep breaths.
“Vincent, DID YOU SEE THOSE PLAYERS? WE HAVE TO GO, NOW!”
“I said I can’t leave my kid behind, Felix! I CAN’T!”
It was obvious that single act took a lot out of his energy. He coughed a little bit of blood.
“It was all a lie. Do you know what today’s date is? The 25th. Cammy and I went to Ironport, but there was no ship. We should have taken the Galleon and sailed away, using the hundreds of thousands of fish bait on the ship to survive. But Cammy was going to give birth, so I had to hurry back to Riverville. I wanted the kid to see the beauty of our small town, instead of being surrounded by confused people.”, said Vincent.
“I’m just ranting right now. Cammy and my son are inside of the vault. Hopefully, they’ll get bored of us and we can use the chance to get to Ironport and escape.”, muttered Vincent.
“Look, I’m your friend, okay? You have to believe me… You need to take yourself and everyone else you love with me and we should go to Ironport as soon as we can! If not Ironport, the Summerhold beach should suffice.”
“Felix…?”, said Vincent, looking above me.
“Behind you!”, said Vincent, as he pushed me away and shot a Glass Magic blast in the direction of a huge Explosion Magic Blast. He lost the clash.
Vincent crouched on the ground, and coughed up more blood.
“VINCENT, YOU IDIOT! Don’t you care about your kids?”, I ask, as I blindly shoot Shadow Magic Blasts in the general direction of where I saw the Explosion Magic come from.
“Damn it… You’re right.”
Suddenly, a bright light came from the sky. It looked like an Explosion magic circle.
“Ah.”
“Vincent, I want you to know this. You were the best friend I’ve ever had. I’m everything I am because of you.”
“Felix…? What are you-”
