The Ancients World

~~~(Location: Safe House in Greshina, Elven Kingdom)~~~

~~~(Time: 7:14 PM)~~~

Terox, Helda, and Melimora sound like they\'re having fun with The Shattering. Every time it sounds like they\'re having a blast, Sally jitters in excitement. "You don\'t have to lay here with me. Go and play with them." In an instant, she\'s already up and out the door. I can\'t help laughing at how badly she wanted to play with them.

Didn\'t even bother saying goodbye. That\'s rare. I\'m now alone and left with my own thoughts about tomorrow. All this work for Sally is going to pay off and after we\'re done here. We\'ll be heading to The Kingdom of Avalon for my tier-up quest. I don\'t want to know how difficult my second tier-up quest is going to be. I can only assume that it\'ll be something I\'ll die from.

I haven\'t died yet in this life, which means I haven\'t lost a level yet. Doing the tier-up quest raises that. It\'ll be adjusted to my level, meaning I\'ll be facing things that can kill me and tank my attacks. I\'ll have to do it alone. Hailey would be the only one that can help me, but she hasn\'t decided if she\'s coming with Sally and me after this. She has Jasmine to consider.

Jasmine hasn\'t made a choice about anything after this either. Terox, Helda, Melimora, and everyone else will be staying here to lead The Elven Kingdom and people to a better life. Meaning after we\'re done, we\'ll be parting from these friends that we made. "I wonder what kind of work they have ahead of them." Rebuilding the Elven Kingdom from its foundations won\'t be easy.

My eyes close, and I think about my journey up to this point. I\'ve done good, but I\'ve done more bad than I should\'ve. I\'ve shown heartlessness and an obsession with power and winning. I\'ve taken credit for people\'s accomplishments. Blue Chaos, especially. Without everything he posted on the forums, I wouldn\'t have everything that I have now.

Sally knows some of the truth, but Hailey knows most of it. How I\'ve rewritten history in my favor and the cost that act had. Billions of lives. Babies, children, adults, and elderly... All of them we\'re equally annihilated in The Collision... Those are on my head. I\'ve bounced between accepting responsibility for my actions and denying it too.

In some ways, I\'m more like my mother... The same denial of responsibility and reactions. Talk about a hit to my pride and ego. I know I\'m her favorite, and it\'s hard to see anything about my mom as bad. The things that I do see as bad I inherited from her. No matter how much I want to deny it. Hailey is a chaotic mess sometimes, but that\'s just who she is.

Thinking about my family has me wondering what they\'re doing. Dad said they\'d be going on their own adventures back when I met up with them on the player continent. Mom was devastated when we left, but I think she\'s doing good. She\'s having fun out there with her husband and Marcus. Knowing them, they\'re probably doing something unreasonable.

~~~(POV: Hailey Adamo)~~~

~~~(Location: Safe House in Greshina, Elven Kingdom)~~~

~~~(Time: 7:22 PM)~~~

There are a lot of people having fun out there now, but I\'m not in the mood to get rekt by Sally in The Shattering. It\'s not fun playing against her. Jasmine has decided to join them, leaving me alone in our room. My mind is empty right now. Nothing to think about seriously or for a long time. I\'m pretty tired, to begin with.

Hearing them having fun is making it harder to sleep. Not because I want to have fun with them, but because I can\'t sleep. The good thing is they can be as loud as they want. No one is going to come over and give us a hard time. Not with the lockdown and everyone confined to their homes. The guards might say something, but they\'ll all be dead tomorrow.

We\'re attacking earlier than I thought we would, but that\'s great, in my opinion. Less time consumed doing all this grunt work. My brother and Helda would consider this necessary, and in a sense, I agree. I also think that too much preparation can be a bad thing too. They don\'t know that wasted time planning is important too.

That\'s just the difference between my brother and me... Boy... We\'ve come a long way since those times mom, and I were ready to scratch each other\'s eyes out. I was a terrible daughter, and the future me, from what Cera told me, isn\'t better. The thought of becoming a Crack Whore still makes me sick, but he told the truth. I know it.

I\'m glad that my parents will never know this truth, and I\'m glad that I was smart enough to see that Cera was different. That he had an advantage, no one else had. My confrontation with him led to the knowledge I have now. I don\'t know nearly as much as my brother. Knowing what I know already haunts me... I couldn\'t imagine what it\'s like for Cera.

All the things he knows much fester in the back of his mind. I have a feeling that he\'s a bomb that\'s ready to explode if someone presses the right buttons. And that scares me. Cera has a lot of power. He\'s basically a God compared to the rest of the players and normal NPCs. If he were to unload his trauma into a violent outrage, nothing short of another God could stop him.

I\'ve been thinking about going with him to The Kingdom of Avalon. Jasmine wouldn\'t mind going with us. The bad part is we can\'t all right on Cera. Three separate people using him as a flying carpet won\'t work. However, there are other options. Airships leading out towards Avalon, and teleportation gates outside The Elven Kingdom since they\'re not here.

I need to go to Avalon, too, just like every other player out there. It\'s an important point for all classes and tiering-up. "You must be thinking about the same thing as me." My brother\'s voice raises me from my lazy stupor, and I lock eyes with him. Despite our differences in personality. We both like time to ourselves.

~~~(POV: Helda Vora-)~~~

~~~(Location: Safe House in Greshina, Elven Kingdom)~~~

~~~(Time: 7:31 PM)~~~

Sally lays down her card, and I cringe as I see it. Marking another win for her and another bitter loss for Meli. "GODS DAMNIT!! YOU\'RE PULLING WINS OUT OF YOUR ASS!!" There is no way any of us are good enough to beat Sally at The Shattering. She\'s won 5 games in a row, and we\'re all getting sour about it.

Her cards are not ones you\'d win with, but the way she plays them every time makes me want to throw a rope around her neck and string her up. "Oh, c\'mon guys! It\'s getting easier every single time. At this point, I can win with my eyes closed!" Sally\'s words have their intended effect, and we\'re all giving her a look of death.

She smiles in a confident, almost cocky, way as she claims her cards and prepares for another game. "Okay, I\'m getting the next shot at her. I\'m sick of this shit." Jasmine takes Melimora\'s seat as Melimora gets up and leaves to cool off. There is fun in this, but not the same fun Sally is having right now.

My eyes look towards the doorway, and I see a fuming Meli enter the bathroom and the slamming of the door. "RRRAAAGGHHH!!!!" The next sound I hear after her scream of anger is glass exploding. She\'s punched the mirror in the bathroom. It\'s rare to see her that mad. I look at Sally, and she has a satisfied smile on her face. I wish someone were good enough to beat her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: Below this line, I\'ll be keeping Cera\'s player information. That way, I won\'t have to place it into the story above anymore. It takes about 180 words up.

[Slayer (Zern) Lvl.196]

[Exp: 40/100%]

[Title: The Son of Arch-Angel Michael (Hidden)]

[Stats] [Strength - 7095][Endurance - 7045][Dexterity - 7215][Speed - 8240][Focus - 19,660]

[Mana aura control: 6/100%]

[Health: 76,560,000,000/76,560,000,000] [Mana: 216,600,000,000/216,600,000,000]

[Stat Points: 50] [Armor rating: 500]

[Inventory] [Dice of Wayland (Divine)] [Hardened Tree sap Armor (Very Rare)] [The Witness (Legendary Sword)] [Fenrir\'s Whistle (Divine)] [Sally\'s Dresses 5x] [Camping gear] [Food Rations 3x] [Dried meat 3x] [Fishing poles 2x] [Fish 8x] [Festival Garbs 2x]

[Passive Perks]

[Inheritor of the Sword] [Son of Heaven] [Slayer of Evil] [Holy Willow Trees Savior] [Finder of Legends] [The Divine who has Legend] [Destined for Greatness] [Dungeon Diver] [An Overachiever]

[Active Skills]

[Heavens light Lvl.59 325/5900] [Protected by Heaven Lvl.59 225/5900] [Slash Lvl.77 4600/130000] [Parry Lvl.53 80/5300] [Double Strike N/A] [Kingslayer N/A] [Raging Machine N/A] [Winged Glory] [Angelic Flight] [Divine Pressure Exertion] [Divinity Pulse] [Controled Fun]