Tree of Life

"There are demon hunters in this city," Lafaar warned his master.

"Of course there are, otherwise it would be too boring," Lenn chuckled. "Let's return to our castle in time before the sun is out."

Flying back over Harberton's run-down west end a woman's scream rang from one of the narrow alleyways of a bleak housing development. 

"Aaaaah!" a long gut wrenching scream pierced the moonlit night before it was abruptly falling silent. 

Lenn swiftly turned his head in the direction of the noise, seeing a blurry shadow disappear in the corner of his eye. Intrigued he changed his course, landing on one of the vermillion brick rooftops of the same block. The rooftop was steep and Lenn had to squat on a narrow ledge. A clothesline ran from the rooftop to the house opposite of it.

Lenn stared down to the alleyway and could not believe his eyes. What he discovered was a gruesome murder scene straight from a nightmare.

The pavement was flooded with fresh blood, splashing out of two grotesquely disfigured corpses lying in the alley. Their clothes were ripped off of them, deep parallel scratches were carved into the skin on their chapped faces and their disemboweled stomachs were ripped open with a messy cut. The victim's bloodshot eyes were full of tears, hauntingly conveying a tale of suffering. Their abdomens were torn asunder, intestines splayed chaotically across the alleyway. 

The view made Lenn gulp, never before had he seen anything this disgusting but he could not avert his eyes locked in a macabre trance.There was a thrill-seeking curiosity inside of him that was satisfied by the horror he witnessed, a morbid fascination that has always been inside of him. It was the same rush of adrenaline he experienced when he was reading horror novels, only this time it felt far more intense. 

Confused about his own morbid fascination, Lenn tried to think about it rationally "If those were humans too, are they now dead both in game and in real life?" he asked Lafaar trying to comprehend what he just saw.

"Right, a dreadful ending to a life" Lafaar responded indifferently.

"Who on earth could ever cause this carnage?" Lenn wondered, while he noticed footsteps in the pool of blood surrounding the two victims. They appeared to belong to large boots like that of a tall man. Searching for a weapon amidst the horror, Lenn found nothing but the haunting silence and the grisly aftermath of this act of unfathomable violence. "Can a simple man commit such atrocities?" Lenn wondered.

Dressed in a long coal-black coat a man appeared. He was coughing as he slouched through the empty streets, lighting the lanterns along the block. 

"Time to go" "Time to depart," Lafaar urged, and Lenn leapt from the ledge, propelling himself skyward. With robust flaps of his wings he carried himself and Lafaar back to the Undying Fortress, still trying to piece the hints together.

Once they arrived at the castle Lenn wanted to know more about Lafaar: "You are versed in all kinds of rituals, you know how to possess a different body and yet here you are as a cat."

"Why would I mind being a cat? I am stealthy and clever, what more could I ask for" Lafaar said with conviction. "But to be honest, I don't have any other choice. I am trapped inside this body, and I believe it is for a reason."

"So it is by design? Hardcoded?"

"It is a long story, Master," Lafaar said. "I was someone else once. So at least, in this regard we are the same. We share the struggle of our metamorphosis."

"But you told me you were an NPC?" Lenn was surprised.

"I still have a past. I have been part of this world since its very beginning" Lafaar's round little eyes suddenly filled with nostalgic sadness.

"So do you think this life feels just as real to you as it feels to me?" Lenn wanted to know.

"Maybe. After all, we are both somehow stranded in this world now. And it is the only one we have left. Still I do not know anything about the true nature of what we are, it is just a game" 

"For an NPC you possess remarkable self-awareness," Lenn was double-checking skeptically. "Shouldn't this be beyond your event horizon?"

"What does it really change?" Lafaar countered. "If I would have told you in your old life, that everything you ever knew was just a simulation, it would not have impacted the way you lived your life. Or would it?"

"No." Lenn agreed. "Reality is only a construct, it can never be absolute. It is only shaped by our perception, maybe what we call a tree is only the shadow of a tree. It does not directly matter what the nature of this reality is, since reality is always subjective."

Lafaar nodded while licking the fur on his paws.

"Still," Lenn added, "I would love to know how I ended up here. Everything about this game is a mystery. Most of these VR games are remnants of the Golden Age. Now nobody understands the technology behind them anymore, this knowledge got lost during the Second Dark Age. Over the course of only five generations everything became forgotten."

"And yet, this world is ever-changing," Lafaar pointed out.

"Self-replicating code" Lenn said, a long-forgotten memory resurfacing. "My father used to talk about it a lot, before… Well, it is not important anymore."

Lenn and Lafaar started to walk through the castle, also passing the Angel's Chamber. 

"What is inside this room?" Lenn asked Lafaar, still feeling uncomfortably standing as far away from the door as he could.

"It is a relic," Lafaar revealed. "The origin of your powers."

Lenn looked at Lafaar in disbelief "This can't be! Whatever is in there, it is hostile."

"So you've already been in there, Master?"

"I did when you were gone. Tell me, am I not ready yet?"

"In the beginning it may be difficult, but you need to withstand it. It only grants its power to those who have the mental fortitude to wield it like a flaming sword. You can use this room to meditate or to regenerate energy. "

"Regenerate my energy? Sometimes I can see the level of my infernal energy, so I can restore it back to 100%?" Lenn connected the dots.

"Yes, given your regeneration exceeds your energy consumption" Lafaar said. 

"I will do the math," Lenn laughed. "But next time, you can keep me company, okay?"

Lafaar sighed, "Master, I am afraid this is something I cannot help you with. If the angel rejects me, it will be the end of me. Do you think the angel is going to deem me worthy, look at me, I am just a cat," Lafaar turned away in shame and arched his back.

Lenn nodded understandingly. "I guess I will just have to push through it alone, but now my energy is still almost full, so there is no need yet."

"Keep an eye on it, Master. She will await you," Lafaar recommended.

"Whose sculpture is this?" Lenn inquired.

"I cannot say for certain, but the aura she radiates originates from the tree of life, the source of all energy and all life in this world. She is one branch of it, a branch that grew in an unknown direction resisting the urge for light." Lafaar's eyes started to glow when he looked right at his master: 

"Some may call her Lilith."