19. The Last Days

Hello, this is my first time writing a fanfiction. If you notice any errors, please feel free to give me constructive feedback. English is not my first language, so if you notice any mistakes, please mention them in the comment section at the end of the chapter. Let's begin the story!

Word Count: 4360 Words

Note: Just a reminder that I've changed the Guild Auxiliary chapter. I've made some changes in it. I've removed a couple of NPCs and added a few.

Due to my college work, I was unable to upload the chapter sooner so I've made this chapter longer. Increased the word count.

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Bruce now stood in front of a Frozen Castle in the Centre of Niflheim. The Castle was located inside a Frozen Mountain. The cave leading inside was built like a Dungeon.

It was a horrendous journey reaching here.

But Bruce had made it albeit by switching Avatars between his Vampire and Human form.

Cadis Etrama di Raizel and Vishanti.

He entered the Castle slaughtering the mobs getting in his way. Until he reached into the deepest part of the Castle. A Giant Pair of Doors stood between Him and the Boss of the Dungeon.

His Enemy unknown.

He waltzed into the room to find a Beautiful Woman sitting on a Throne made of ice. Everything in the Hall of this Royal Castle was made of ice, the carpet, the chandelier, and the pillars.

He was mesmerised by her beauty.

Her blue hair, her blue eyes and the blue dress she wore.

Her snow-white complexion.

He stood there like a fool, lost in her beauty.

Before he knew it, icicles, spears, swords and arrows made of ice made their way towards him.

Just before they could make contact with him, they collided against a Barrier and disappeared.

Bruce sighed watching the swords and spears made of ice disappear.

"Too bad, I've got my priorities straight now."

Before entering the door, Bruce having come alone, didn't wish to engage an unknown enemy blindly. He also didn't wish to get World's help.

So, the Barriers he had erected proved to be useful.

A tenth-tier spell.

Effective against low-level attacks and at least has the power to defend against high-level attacks before deactivating.

He watched as his barrier cracked under Her attack and disappeared as fragments of light.

He in his Vampire form rushed in for hand-to-hand combat. He ran crushing all the icicles flying towards him. Just as he was going to land a punch on her,

{Warning}

A message popped up, blocking his vision. His Class Priest of Moon provided him with a passive skill that alerted him of incoming dangers.

When enemy players select an attack, the system warns him of the attack during the delay time. The same applied to the Boss Monsters.

He was the Favoured One of the Moon, A Celestial Entity.

He was in a way invincible under the Moonlight.

He backed off seeing the warning signal. He created distance between them, as he observed what was about to happen.

'World?'

He stood there but there was no significant move from her side to warrant a warning. She once again started throwing her swords and spears made of ice.

<It's her special ability, Absolute Zero. Anything that comes in contact with will disintegrate upon contact. An Instant Death Ability, bypasses Protection. Grant to all, even weapons aren't spared from Ability. < p>

Even Divine Tier Weapons only last once against her and on their second hit they disintegrate. While World Items are effective against her. But they will be frozen after 3 hits. She is a powerful enemy against melee fighters but is weak against mages. But mages will lose most of their mana in trying to reach her. Breaking her defence is not an easy task.>

"Quite an advisory."

<But she makes up for it by giving a World Item as Reward.>

{ World Item: Snow Queen's Spirit }

<A World Item that embodies the power and essence of Snow Queen's Wrath. Once activated its aftermath spans whole world. It contains her anger for treatment she received. Her curse caused everything touched to turn into ice. With enough time, item when covers world in Upon activation, raging Blizzard strikes World.>

"Let's get this over with now."

---

1 Year Later

In this one year, Bruce had teamed up with those five players and adventured with them all the while hiding his Lord of the Mysteries and his IRL identity.

Even Domitor, the Heteromorphic race player whose Race was a mystery to him had later joined them on their adventures.

It was by far the longest adventure he had with other players.

They roamed the Worlds clearing dungeons. Completed quests, fought against other clans with Bruce as the wild card and played pranks with other players.

There were many great moments in their adventure.

The fight against The Death Skull, a Giant Undead Knight. Who towered 8 meters.

He was the Boss Monster of a Dungeon, upon clearing it they received a divine tier item.

The Ring of Immortality.

After the death of a player, the player rises again as an Undead. It was a unique item.

Though it only activates once. After the player died he would revive as an Undead but the next time he dies, when revived he would be back to his original Race.

The item's only redeeming factor was that it wasn't a time-use item.

In their adventures, they also fought against a Dark Revenger in a Greater Dungeon, a giant of 4 meters tall with a black charred body and lava flowing through pores in his body.

He was the toughest opponent they had faced in all their adventures. Bruce limiting himself to not reveal all his weapons and prowess was holding back. He didn't wish for this to end.

Revealing his identity would have complicated things. To these guys Hades and VladKing, Lord of the Mysteries is a legend. A legendary player of Yggdrasil.

They respected Him.

He enjoyed the carefree adventurous spirit. He enjoyed being an Enigma. After all the character Vishanti that he had created was of a carefree and laid back or lazy player.

He had committed a lot of childish deeds, if found out, all the work he had put to build the persona of Lord of The Mysteries in Yggdrasil would have been for nought.

The Persona and the character of The Fool would fall apart.

It was yet another one of his childish tantrums or his whims that stopped him from revealing his identity.

With their adventures, Bruce was able to find out about the group more. Especially the fact that Domitor is their leader.

It was VladKing who was the Clan Leader but IRL they all followed her. It was her charm and confidence that attracted those around her.

As usual, she took the lead of the party by giving instructions to others. While Bruce stood in the back to act as backup.

The Dark Revenger though stood alone but when he raised his fist, an army rose through the ground.

They were quickly outnumbered. The fight was over just as they were close to winning.

Domitor was a genius, she really had skills and was a fast learner.

They had fought him well, to be able to eat away 47% of his health. But they were outnumbered.

It didn't look like his summoning skill had any limit.

Bruce having watched all of them fall, stepped forward.

He watched as all the summons made him their next target.

{Primal Blaze}

A 10th-tier spell for dealing with mobs. An orb of Red Flame with a Golden hue materialised in front of him as he cast the spell.

As the flames of the or intensified. The or released pulses in all the direction. On the third pulse, The orb burst forth as the flames raged in all directions without harming the caster.

The summons were burned by the flames and disappeared in specks of light.

Having cleared the mobs,

Bruce cast fly and hovered over The Dark Revenger as he rained down spells on him. He rained spells as he kept dodging attacks from the monster. As he brought The Revenger's health down to the marked point. He moved ahead with his plan.

{Super-tier spell, End of Earth}

A super-tier spell that was a boosted version of a tenth-tier spell. Though it was named differently in layman's terms it could be called a Meteor Shower.

Nine large boulders, twice as big as those summoned using the Summon Meteor spell descended from the skies as they brought destruction and wreaked havoc to the land.

After the effect of the spell died down, he looked around but Dark Revenger was nowhere to be seen.

To only receive a notification stating his demise. Even their bodies and His body were destroyed.

But there wasn't much change in the landscape as it was still in the game.

'This is going to cause a lot of destruction in the New World. I don't even wish to imagine the after-effects of the spell.'

Normally End of Earth wouldn't be this destructive. But paired with Bruce's skills and abilities it was destructive. Enhanced and boosted to the limit.

He walked forward as he retrieved his Staff from his Inventory.

His staff turned into a Grimoire.

Using the Grimoire he casts,

{Super-tier Spell, Grace of Yggdrasil}

A super-tier version of True Resurrection. Those revived by it do not lose any equipment or levels.

But the spell had a limitation of only six targets.

Usually, players and parties have a limit of super-tier spells but Vishanti's Staff or Grimoire can cast spells without the need for MP from the player.

Similarly, it can cast super-tier spells independent of the limit on the player.

It has a certain limit on the number of spells it can cast per day depending on the tier of the spell. It works similarly to how Sorcerer functions in DnD.

It has a certain number of slots assigned per tier of spell, using which Bruce can cast any spell corresponding to the tier.

In Yggdrasil players had 10 minutes delay in respawn time. Upon casting the spell, five players rose back from the death.

'I wonder, if I were to use the Resurrection spell in New World, would I be bringing them back from death or creating their replica? What will it be?

Too many questions with so little answers.

Hmm!'

----

After they had revived,

"Did you take it out?"

"Why would I Revive you guys without defeating Him."

"For support."

"It was a rhetorical question, Witch."

"Stop calling me that."

"A witch will be called a Witch. I don't see any problem with it."

Before she could come up with a reply, Hades and VladKing had already made their way to check the rewards that had spawned in the spot where The Dark Revenge had died. As she tried to find a retort, she was interrupted by a loud exclamation from VladKing.

"What is it?"

It was Domitor who asked him the question.

"It's a World Item. A World Item. We got ourselves a World Item."

Chaos ensued as everyone got excited about the World Item.

"So what is it?"

"Hmm!"

Hades picked up the World Item before VladKing could get his hands on it.

"It's named Hephaestus' Net. A World Item that can be used against monsters to tame them. Everything other than World Enemies can be tamed using this item."

"An interesting item."

"True, so who should keep it?"

Helios answered Vishanti as she threw in the question. It got everyone thinking.

"I am not a Tamer and neither is anyone in our Clan a Tamer. So, what to do?"

Hades answered her.

'Quite a weird item. It's the first item that I have seen in Yggdrasil shaped as a net. Might be related to some legend but what? Hephaestus, who is he?'

<The item has quite a history associated with it. Also, Hephaestus is the God of Blacksmith from Greek Mythology. The story....>

'You don't say.'

They made their way to Vishanti and Aria to discuss further.

"All items in Yggdrasil are related to some Mythology when the items are named after God. I know that Hephaestus' is the God of Blacksmith in Greek Mythology but why does it say Hephaestus' Net? I wonder?"

Domitor wondered aloud.

Yet none of her clan members had any clue about Greek Mythology much less some God of Blacksmith.

"It might be a net made by him to trap Monsters."

"Could be?"

"Why are you guys worried about it so much?"

"Vishanti wouldn't you wonder about these things? Don't you have the urge to learn new things?"

"Don't bother Domitor. You're asking for too much from this guy."

Aria answered Domitor taking a jab at Vishanti.

Seeing Him remain silent they turned to him to check his reply.

Only to find him rooted in his spot with a smiley emoji floating above his head.

"Ahh! You would be disappointed to find out about the story of the Net Witch.

Aphrodite his wife was the most beautiful Goddess in Greek Mythology.

If you are wondering whose wife. She's Hephaestus's wife.

Well, was considered and most of the Greek Gods desired her.

But She was given to him as his wife. It was not a marriage done out of love.

As expected she was not faithful to him just as most of the Greek Gods. Hephaestus after finding out about it, built the Strongest Net he could. After all, he had two Gods to trap with it.

When later he used it to trap her and The God with whom she was having an affair.

So here you go. The story behind the item."

They were too shocked to talk about it.

"You can have it Vishanti."

It was Helios who spoke breaking the silence.

"It's a tempting offer but wouldn't you want a World Item of your own? All players in Yggdrasil dream of one day finding a World Item. Thousands of players but there are only 200 of them."

"To be honest I want it but I won't be able to continue playing the Game."

"I had been wondering how to bring up the topic. I was wondering about it. The only I could think of is to randomly say it. Else I would have failed to bring it up."

"True, my family found out about the game. So even I won't be able to play from now on. I have asked them for a couple of days. So, I guess that will be it. I was unsure about how to bring up the topic but I didn't know even Helios was facing some problems."

"So, this is it? Life is crazy. All the People You meet in your life. You never know, I met you people a year ago. Though we haven't played much together due to your busy schedule we did go on a lot of adventures together. Life is short and strange.

We went from being strangers to acquaintances.

Acquaintances to Friends. And we will never know when we will go from being friends to acquaintances.

Then back to being strangers.

Well, it is what it is. There's nothing we can do.

So what about you guys? Are you also quitting the game? "

"Yes"

"Yes"

"I'm sorry Vishanti. But our parents are friends. When Hades's parents. I mean Akira's father found out about the game. There was nothing we could have done to stop it. It was inevitable."

"I'm sorry Vishanti."

"It's okay. You guys don't owe me any apology. It's a game and we play it for fun. It's better to know about separation than to be separated without knowing it ourselves. So what else am I missing?"

"Should I say it?"

"What?"

As Hades asked the question to no one in particular but Bruce could observe VladKing's and Witch's reaction.

"Well, what is it?"

Hades seeing no objection from Vlad and Aria, revealed it.

"Vlad and Aria are set to marry next year."

---

They after picking up the loot that they gave to Bruce.

Moved outside the dungeon. Teleporting back to their Clan, Pandora's Paradise.

They after Teleporting moved to the Meeting Room of the Clan. It was a small room with a round table in the centre with grand chairs around the table.

The Clan only had five members but the table had six chairs around it. Though Vishanti wasn't a member of their Guild in an official capacity he was an unofficial Member.

After they had made themselves comfortable around it. They looked around. They couldn't come up with a topic of discussion.

"Since you will be quitting the game. What have thought about doing with your Avatars? You guys have spent a lot of money on it. Also, do you guys have any plans of coming back."

"No. As for our Avatars. I think I'll delete my account. I have to concentrate on my business. I can't waste my time playing games."

"Vlad."

"What?"

"It's fine Domitor, Vlad. I play games because I love them. I enjoy playing them. Also to escape reality."

"I'm sorry if I was being insensitive about it, Vishanti."

"But still you can't undermine others' choices."

"It's fine Domitor. I'm sure Vishanti doesn't mind it right?"

"No", hearing his reply Aria turned to Domitor as she spoke. "Domitor there's nothing wrong with what Vlad said. I mean the amount of money and time Vishanti has wasted in the game. If he had invested himself in some business I'm sure he would have achieved something in life. He wouldn't be so lonely now. Playing games."

'The audacity of this bitch. Who does she think she is? I can buy her whole family right World?'

<Should I>

'Obviously no. I'm not sure what she is trying to do here. But unlike her usual self, she isn't trying to take a jab at me here. She is countering Domitor.

That I can tell. I just got caught in their crossfire. So, don't bother. I'm not sure of the reason but they have been friends for more time than I have known them.'

<Okay >

Seeing their fight escalating Hades and Helios joined in to calm them down.

While Bruce sat down, as he watched them fight.

'Well, I am inexperienced in these things. I've never intertwined in fights between two women and I sure as hell not going to take the brunt of it now.

But still, Domitor is defending me a lot. Does she have a crush on me? I don't think that's it. Who would fall in love with someone in-game? We don't even know each other's real names. We don't even know much about each other.

She doesn't even know me IRL. She is yet to see how I look in real life. Or I am a male or worse female masquerading as a male? I obviously am not but there isn't a limit to such players here in Japan.

Well, she was bad at playing this game. All I've done is help her when she struggles.

I've not even given her any special treatment. I've treated her the same as others. Especially in chess and shogi. I destroyed them all in both games. However, I did get help from World while playing Shogi. It was an interesting game, quite different from chess but still a good game.

In the end, they still lost against me.'

Seeing their quarrel coming to an end. Bruce questioned them. "My previous question still stands. What have you guys thought of doing in this game before quitting? I will help as much as I can to help you achieve it."

Not taking in the situation Bruce asked his question. But to his dismay, they rejected his offer. Aria and Vlad were quitting the game today.

That's what he could guess from their conversation and their reply.

To not get in the way, Bruce.

"I guess I am done for the day. You all should enjoy your time here in this game before you stop. Enjoy your time."

'I am not sure about it. But why did the situation suddenly turn sour after we came back to the clan.'

---

After Bruce teleported out of the Clan, it was just them. The five friends remained in the hall.

As Helios tried to call out Domitor, Aria beat her to it.

"Akane, give up."

She couldn't complete her sentence as she saw her friend disappear in particles of light.

She had quit the game.

Being male, Vlad and Hades were oblivious to Women's matters. They refrained from speaking, alas they got dragged into whatever was going on between them.

Helios seeing her go, asked the only other person who could tell her about it.

"Arisu, what is that got you both so heated up?"

"It's complicated."

"I'm sure it's not anything major. Seeing that you are still talking to each other, unlike last time. So what is it?"

"It's Vishanti. Akane likes Him."

"What?"

It was news to them. Vlad aka Hirata and Akira were too shocked to constrain their reaction.

It wasn't just them even Helios was surprised.

"But wasn't it a crush? I was sure that she would not take it seriously."

"So you knew?"

"Yes. Well, kind of. You know her. She has never shown interest in anyone. But He was different, she would follow his command and would always seek his approval. And her drive for revenge against him. In the end, she couldn't beat him no matter the effort.

I was sure it was just her competitive spirit. Before long she would beat him and lose interest in him. But I was wrong, no matter what she or we did. We couldn't beat him. No matter the game, we always lost.

That might have led her to have such thoughts. Well, she did talk to me about how he treats her normally. How he cares for her and protects her. Despite having seen what she looks irl all due to our great lord Akira. Yet he didn't fawn over her. Well, that's what she said to me."

"Couldn't you have spoken about it sooner? You know about her family. They would never allow her to marry out of love. It is bound to fail.

Even if they did, do you think they would allow her to marry some nobody who spends most of his time playing games?

I agree that he is knowledgeable but what about money? Is he as wealthy as her?

Can he match their societal status? "

Vlad and Hades didn't even get a moment to interject or get involved in the conversation. It was a one-sided conversation from Arisu.

"Ai, we should nib this bud before it can grow any further. We can't let her suffer in the future."

"Is that why you are dropping the game?"

"Yes, I am sorry."

"So, it was you. You were the one who informed our parents about the game."

"I had no other choice. To not let Vishanti or Akane find out about it. I had to steer the direction of our life.

I know it's not his fault. He is the way he is. He is smart and is a man of many talents. But still, in the end, it's all about money and status.

Her love is bound to fail. Her family would never allow it to happen. My sister had no other choice. My parents didn't allow her to follow her love.

She gave up her life to make them understand her. In the end, they still criticised her.

I can't see Akane go through something similar."

Saying everything she had on her mind Arisu broke down.

Helios supported her as she pulled her to a chair. Arisu could have commanded or controlled through the console to have her avatar sit on a chair. But she refused to look or move.

After she had calmed down, four of them sat around the table. To further discuss the issue at hand.

Hades prompted,

"I think you are underestimating Vishanti. There is no way anyone can live a life like his without coming from money. The amount of money he has spent on this game, from my observation is more than what we as a clan have spent.

His weapons and items he carries. Plus the cash shop item rolls. Just the other day I and I were trying to get a Cosmetic Effect from the Cash Shop Item.

It was a limited Edition Effect.

One of the Birth of Evil. The effect where upon looking in the eye of the player with the effect, the target will see a heinous monster made of shadow. The player hallucinates. I gave up on the effect after Thousand Dollars but He didn't give up. He spent around 70K dollars to get it. He purchased multiple effect copies.

One for him and the others for his NPCs.

That's not a small amount for anyone of whatever category you are categorising in."

"But..."

"It is fine. It's her life and her choice. She can choose to do whatever she thinks is best for her."

"Yes"

Seeing Hirata and Ai agree with Akira. Arisu calmed down. "Fine, just don't complain to me about it later."

Having come to a conclusion already, Arisu not waiting for others logged out of the game.

"That's it for today I guess."

"Yes, but I think we should approach Vishanti about it. He's a pretty chill guy. I'm sure he can help us with it."

Helios after thinking about it, answered him.

"I don't think it's a good idea. If Arisu were to know about it, It would end up a disaster."

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**The End**

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