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Chapter Text

Iron blade catching in its fur, a beastfolk with the appearance of a goat crushed the arm of the knight with its shield.

The result of difference in strength between humans and beastfolk-

The knight pried her sword from the creature and put it between them, intending to impale it on any further advance.

Looking on was the one she was meant to protect, a delicate princess, obviously not meant to be out on a night like this, and yet, she was. Maybe it was because of that, the knight was able to take out a few beastfolk before succumbing to her wounds.

No fear was in her eyes, getting up to one knee, and holding her sword in her good hand, a last resistance was all she could give. She steadied her hand, and lunged…

… they both fell.

And yet, the knight was the one who stood back up, blood trickled over her closed eye, and the beastfolk's spear was lodged in her shoulder, leaving both of her arms useless.

Yet she still stood, dragging her feet across the ground in fierce defiance of her own wounds. Finally she fell to her knees before her princess.

“Sorry… in the end I couldn't protect you when it counted”

*I wish you could sing for me one last time.*

The knight's vision faded, and so did her hearing, she couldn't quite make out what her mistress was trying to say.

*What an idiot, you weren't supposed to grow attached to me.*

The knight gave a weak smile, seemingly making the princess burst into tears.

*Ow that stings, don't mess with the wound, you'll make my passing less peaceful.*

Opening her eyes again she saw the princess clasp both hands together, apparently there were more beastfolk closing in, this would be their last moments together. So the knight did the same, one arm was broken and the other was pierced at the shoulder, yet she still put her hands together.

And prayed.

She prayed to no God in particular.

*Please if there is anything you can do, save this girl.*

And like that she closed her eyes, blood trickling down the edge of her smile.

*I'm sorry that's all I can do.*

But something stirred her from her resignation, despite the ringing in her ears she felt a slight and soft sound. Everyone did, it was a sound as gentle and full of life as the girl holding the knight's hands.

Despite how cold they were, they felt warm.

She let herself relax, soothed by the sweet song, she even felt enough strength to speak.

“You know… in the Slane… they say an angel would guide them in their last moment”
Despite herself she found the time to chuckle-

“But I never believed it was true-”

In that moment the princess turned to see what the knight was describing-
-and there stood an angel, as radiant as the sun itself.
*That’s not right, she can see it too?*

“Ah…”

The knight wanted to blink, to make sure what she was seeing was real, but her body wouldn’t let her lose track of it.

Spreading its way out of a bright marble armor were innumerable pure white wings, reaching far past the corners of her vision, silver and gold wrappings seemed to grow and flow out of every crack of the armor, a radiant halo made it seem like the clouds had parted and the sun shone down on the two, and yet, in the presence of this divine being her limbs seem to want to escape the rest of her body.

It felt as though a the moment the being left her vision her head would leave her shoulders, it was clearly the most powerful creature known to man, or the physical manifestation of a god, that she was sure of.

Her princess seemed to hold the same idea, the both of them felt just how powerless they were in that moment, as if they had been reduced to a grain of sand being swept up by the vast ocean. In the span of a minute they had made peace with themselves, they would have to blink eventually, and when they did, *that would be all*.

Then-

-It spoke

Words they did not understand.
”Helm, how many mobs are there?”

The God took one grave and heavy step after the other towards the two, the mud it kicked up was anihilated as soon as it made contact with it’s being, as if rejecting the idea of impurity itself. Held in its right hand, a scythe longer than a human, with a blade as circular at the halo the being wore, it would be be the implement of their demise.

“500 got it, calculate the distance the ring would need to be without hearts”

The knight knew better than to try to comprehend the words of Gods.

“Hah, guess I can let loose”

No, she understood that-

*Let loose? what would you-*

Before she could think, it spoke again.

“Fear not! You with the voice, I am here to be your protector! I am sure of it, my destiny is finally known!”

There was no resistance left in the knight, subject to the whims of a God, she couldn’t even think to struggle, one thought remained though.

”Oh, God…”

She prayed, to one God.

“… let no harm fall to the Seventh Princess, Alice Renga’ill Lander, slay her enemies, let her find happiness”

Maybe she should have stayed silent, even as she spoke, her voice broke and shattered into a million pieces, as if she had any sway of those who truly ruled the world, she could have even very well gotten her mistress killed with that, and yet…

“Hm? Seven happens to be my lucky number, very well!, I’ll grant you your wish, for her, I would even split the sun!”

Was her mistress truly chosen by God? somewhere down in her heart she felt vindicated.

It went on speaking.

“I used to hear a voice like that all the time, and now it feels like too long ago, such a thing should be cherished right?”

She had never once taken her eyes off of the being, but it was now standing right in front of her, she had never seen it move from the spot it was, and yet it was here now.

That wasn’t all, it’s hand nearly touched her shoulder, she could clearly feel the burning sensation of being in the presence of this God, this was real, not a dream.

She was close enough to see the gaps in the armor, and what lied beyond it felt-

-oddly human…

“Please…”

It laughed.

A laugh so natural, she felt perhaps this was the time to laugh.

“I already promised you didn’t I? Fine I’ll swear it!”

It took a heavy step past us, digging one foot deep into the ground, brandishing it’s scythe, tracing the length of the handle in one swift hand motion and letting it rest by its side.

It was only then that she noticed the small army of beastfolk that was closing in on them, it almost seemed insignificant compared to what stood before them.

And indeed it was.

“I!, Enter Name, Swear on the title of Seven Winged, Seven Armed Angel, I will protect her voice! So long as my body lives”

Wings spread out from it’s armor, blotting out the army of beastfolk.

Never did the knight see the being move.

Yet it was gone.

In its place, a cloud of feathers, and the army, vanished.

Chapter Text

1

In the year 2138 AD there was a term: DMMO-RPG.

That word was an acronym for “Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role- Playing Game.”

The system worked through some clever nanotechnology, the most of which, wasn’t understood by the playerbase.

What was understood, however, was the fact that these devices let you enter an entirely new virtual world, with the sensation was as if you lived in it — so long as it met some restrictions.

Among the all DMMO-RPGs, a very competitive market at the time, the scene was ruled by one game in particular, known for it’s remarkable “Player freedom”, and means of expressing oneself.

*Yggdrasil*

Running for 12 years since its inception, the game has been tirelessly worked on by its developers, and the depths of it’s world have yet to be fully explored.

One of it’s main selling points was the well over two thousand job classes, as well as a plethora of racial classes. So long as you met the requirements for these classes, you could mix and match any classes under the one hundred level limit — no matter how terrible or strong the combination.

This let each Player make an original build — or selection of classes — whenever they wanted, if you wanted to copy, you would have to know the specifics of another Player and follow them exactly.

This was complemented by the high level of customization in equipment, letting a player change the appearance, stats, and special effects of gear — so long as they had the proper data crystals.

The places to use these levels and gear were just as grand, that being the nine worlds the game housed, most of them still having secrets never found by its players, many of them lamented the Developers not making these places obvious enough to find, but they did not budge.

These worlds were, Asgard, Alfheim, Vanaheim, Nidavellir, Midgard, Jotunheim, Niflheim, Helheim, and Muspelheim.

This game would ignite the hearts of Players worldwide, calling hundreds of thousands of Players to delve into its depths, soon, when one thought of DMMO-RPGs, they thought of *Yggdrasil*.

—This however, would all have to be left behind soon.

2

A vast cityscape spread out across a large swath of land, at the edge of it a intricate wall of metal and light. The main attraction of this “city” was the grandiose stage at it’s center, with enough seats to fit twenty thousand Players.

But now there were only two people filling those seats.

A hulking Angel in a gleaming set of armor — though half of it seemed to be bindings as if to hold back some power, its many arms and wings spread across a few seats, it was if its very presence demanded respect.

If it were not so clearly angelic, it might be viewed as a monster, beneath the noble surface surely lied something not meant to be disturbed.

Next to the Angel sat a Demon, idly twiddling her thumbs. She had sharp red skin and a long tail, perhaps the model was designed to appeal to a certain type of Player.

However, the Demons clothes did not complement it at all, a standard, real world janitor’s outfit.

The former was a Seraphim — among the highest ranks of Angels a Player could achieve, they had supreme power over weaker opponents, making them a very unpopular class. The later was a simple imp, customized by the Player to look more humanoid, and it was safe to say this Demon could not be higher than level 5.

In fact, if they were not part of the same guild, the Angel’s various aura skills would tear the Demon to shreds.

Yet the two sat together peacefully, if these were monsters, their opposed factions would surely be fighting, but they were Players.

In Yggdrasil, Players could choose their characters race from three different categories: humanoid, demi-human and heteromorphic.

Humanoids were the basic Player type and comprised humans, Dwarves, Elves, and the like. Demi-humans tended to be worse looking, more like animals, but possessed superior attributes to humanoids, some being Goblins, Beastmen, Ogres, and so on. Finally, heteromorphic races had monstrous abilities, as well as appearances, but despite their stats being generally higher than those of other races, they also possessed various drawbacks. There were around seven hundred playable races in total, including the advanced versions of these races.

The two seated here were of the last category, in fact, the whole of the guild was comprised of heteromorphs, but that was a secret to those outside of it.

The Angel began speaking, a deep voice projected from it, in a uniform clinical way, clearly through a microphone.

“I didn’t think you’d show up on the last day, started feeling sentimental? haha.”

“I guess you could say that, Enter-sama”

The demon spoke in a bored voice, both of them sounded like adults, though neither of them seemed to have the spark of life in their voices. Only a lingering awkward feeling stuck between the two.

“Don’t call me that”

“You chose that ‘name’ didn’t you?”

The Angel — Enter name — folded one of his several pairs of arms over his chest, sending a scowling emoji — one of the only forms of expression in *Yggdrasil*.

“Fine fine you’re the boss… sir.”

“Don’t call me that… either.”

“Jeez, you’re no fun at all… mam.”

Enter gave the Demon a light kick, and the game calculated the damage she would receive, against her total and physical defense, with Enters attack and hand-to-hand combat rating, the total ended up being *zero,* as they were part of the same team.

“Hey! you made your character a girl under all that armor, that’s not my fault.”

Everything the Demon said seemed to be trying to provoke Enter, but they did not share any negative emotions. Perhaps it was because they were the only ones there for each other, at the end.

“Game should be closing servers in one hour.”

Enter’s microphone picked up his long drawn out sigh, even the shoulders on his character’s model fell loosely at his sides.

“I don’t want to get a real job.”

“Hah… you got that right”

“…”

“Hey…”

“What?”

The demon stood up, pulling up a console, checking the Guild register, a list of all the players who were considered part of the Guild as well as who was online, and to neither’s surprise, it was only the two of them.

“Want to test the equipment, while everyone’s gone?” The demon began to descend the steps of the stadium, heading for the stage in the middle.

“What is this, the plot of a *romcom* anime?” The Angel floated down to the center as well.

“Shut it, you know I don’t mean it like that, it’s just that… it would be a shame if these memories were left here to die… even if they’re just data.”

“I don’t want it to end.”

“I know.”

3

“Huff… huff…”

The two sung their hearts out, in the final hour of the game’s servers, neither were very good, one could say the demon was a little better, but it is safe to say they should stick to their respective jobs, instead of taking the stage.

Those being “Bodyguard” and “Manager” for the Angel and Demon respectively, even one who played the game for the majority of time the servers were running, one would question the need for a bodyguard in Yggdrasil, a mercenary maybe, but an exclusive bodyguard was virtually unheard of.

That was, except in this case. it was widely known that the developers of Yggdrasil enjoyed making collaborations to sell more cash shop items, one such collab was one with an idol company known for it’s virtual stars, in this case the idol was “Arthur” based of an ancient female king of history. She was popular due to her voice, in fact compared to most idols she was said to have a singing voice that rated in the top 5, such was it that she hosted live concerts in the ever popular game.

This however, was a point of contention within the community, for one, there was now a guild that had to be formed to protect this idol, interfering with long time players due to their high place on the leaderboard, which some had accused the developers of favoritism for. It also effected new players, other than the scandal around her two bodyguards, whenever the team had to farm or grind in certain areas, there were rules about not being able to interact or attack the idol, meaning they often got first pick of the best dungeons or they had the authority to kick other players out.

In fact, to perceptive players and high level guilds, the three at the top were known for their particularly nasty personalities, all different but united in how extreme they were when angered.

First, Enter name, the Seraphim Angel, he was generally tame even if he was described as mostly heartless, but he had absolutely no tolerance for Players he determined to be ‘Ugly’, if you had mismatched armor or tried to make a disgusting looking Player Character, he might even go so far as to PK (Player Kill) you unprovoked.

Next, Cardiovascular, the Sagittary Centaur, the second bodyguard of the idol, and was known for his ruthless abuse of game mechanics or glitches, coupled with the fact that no one understood what Job or Racial Classes he leveled to get so powerful, or what the equipment he used was able to do, there are rumors that he was able to beat a World Champion in a one-on-one battle, but the developers dismiss these claims, it later came out that he was banned from entering the World Champion tournament entirely, leading many to believe the rumor to be true.

Lastly, is the idol herself, Arthur, Racial Classes unknown, while many players knew how horrible her bodyguards could be, few knew that she could be even worse when provoked, on the outside she was as bright and shining a star as ever, that didn’t change even when people met her or got in her way, most of the time she held back the other two from getting into fights, but that was most of the time, the developers and even the idol company have tried to keep it under wraps the few times she’s made entire guilds “disappear”, some say that she just got their accounts banned, others say that the company had actually killed the players.

Besides the top three, there were actually many other members of the guild, but they either did not participate in combat or did not have high enough levels to, simply put, they were hired to keep the place running and actually manage that part of the game so that those who were best suited to combat could focus on their job alone. And that they did, at one point they reached the top 10 guilds in the world, this was unthinkable to most other high level guilds, as while they were technically a team of around 50 players, only those three actually fought in raids, insanely hard dungeons in which usually triple or quadruple the amount of players would be needed to defeat one. This was mostly due to two reasons.

The first reason was the highly specialized builds possessed by the top three, it was generally understood that you *could* make a build so powerful that you could carry the weight of more than one player on your team, but such builds either required the World Champion or the World Disaster classes. In other words, it wasn’t easy to make a combination of classes that could do the work of two people effectively, the reason being that the Yggdrasil never released the information about the classes officially, and the few fan made sources are unreliable at best, and misinformation meant to confuse other players at worst. It is said that there at least 20 classes that haven’t been discovered yet, either due to the complex requirements to get them, or being limited to specific events.

Yet the top three were known for that strength, each of them were known to be able to do the job of two to three players on their own, even Enter name who was the weakest out of the three due to his build’s focus on crowd control and massive AOE attacks could be seen fighting on equal terms with high level close range fighters. Cardiovascular was never reported to be killed by another player, meaning that his PvP record was flawless, though some still claim this is false there is no evidence to back up that claim, at some point people stopped challenging him altogether for fear of losing their items, thus he remained uncontested even if he didn’t have the most kills, and in raids he acted as the party’s tank *and* DPS, a feat again only held by World Champions, yet no matter how many times the players asked, the developers only denied that he had that class. Arthur was yet another build filling two roles, as both the healer and the support, with the constant health and buffs she could provide her teammates it was estimated that they have about a 50 levels worth of strength after level 100, even when Cardiovascular was accused of cheating, it was generally assumed that whatever build Arthur had was either impossible or the classes were chosen directly by the developers to be the strongest possible combination.

Together they made a team that was impossible to beat without overwhelming force, not that anyone in the right mind would challenge them anyway, for the fear of losing their account or punishment by the idol company. While they did not have a flawless record against raids, they had a lower than average death count against them, aided by the fact that they were still just a team of three, and of course only their successful attempts were broadcasted. There were still many fans despite the controversy surrounding them, in fact it would be appropriate to say that most people who played the game were a fan of either the idol or the 3 person raid team, seeing their impressive feats as inspiring. The people you would see most often that disliked them were either high level players that felt they were cheating, or anyone that simply hated the idol company and anyone associated with them.

“Now that it’s coming to an end, I feel like I should have tried to get to know you better Enter… you’re a lot of fun!” The demon was sitting at the edge of the stage, still holding a microphone and sighing to herself. Due to the difference in jobs the two didn’t really interact much, her main concern was sorting items at the guild as well as providing mental support to the idol, places where a bodyguard wasn’t needed. As a result, the few interaction they had were usually one word exchanges or a simple inside joke within the guild, though the two still were able to share in the experience of being near the Arthur, a generally pleasant experience minus a few scares…

“There’s a lot I wish I did differently, since Arthur graduated I’ve had a lot more free time, yet I still find myself only playing this game, how about we meet again and form a party in Yggdrasil 2?” Enter stuck around the guild, keeping it running even after the collaboration ended about a year ago, Cardiovascular stopped playing at the same time, he was only playing for the money the idol company paid him. Enter needed the money as well, but he could live rent free if he wanted, Enter lived in the storage floor of a coffee shop. Having saved the life of the owner over a decade ago now he was still allowed to live there, though when he found a job in Yggdrasil he had started to pay rent. In the past years he has been coasting on the bit of money he had saved, even if he was effectively homeless, he spent most of his income on the game, buying mostly cosmetics but some cash shop items as well.

“Sounds good, though… before that, what’s your name… like, your *real* name.” She asked and Enter was taken aback, though it didn’t take him long to respond, after scratching his head, which his model in game mimicked.

“Chen Guorong…” He didn’t remember much from his childhood, and he knew he did not have a native Japanese name, which gave him some questions, ones he never got the answers to. Though he didn’t really care about that, as long as he could live like this forever he wasn’t interested in learning about his past, this game was all he had at this point.

“Oh really?, I won’t press it though… hah… I didn’t expect you to actually answer so I’m kinda put on the spot…” She pauses for a moment, her character was hugging her knees and she used a sweat-drop emote to show how flustered she was. A few moments later she stood up and began walking off the stage, to where one of the storage areas were. “I’ll give you my name too, let me just prepare a bit… and I always wanted to try out Arthur’s mic haha..” She sounded nervous even though her character’s face didn’t move. Accurately displaying emotions in real time was still a technical limitation that Yggdrasil couldn’t overcome, therefore most people wore helmets or masks to not just stare at an expressionless faces.

“…”

The second reason the top three were unbeatable was the world items they possessed, Enter’s 7th Arm and Wing, Cardiovascular’s Spear, and Arthur’s Microphone, all of them were world items with overwhelming power, Equiped with them they could easily take on multiple level 100 opponents, as well as take on raid bosses despite their low numbers. In fact they were the guild with the 2nd most world items, only being beaten out by one of the strongest guilds in the world, **Ainz Ooal Gown**, though even coming in 2nd meant that most of the highest level guilds had one, maybe two world items, team of 6 or even 10 players equipped with a world item each would be able to beat any content available. But no one knew how many the top guild possessed, if it were in the double digits then the stories of Ainz Ooal Gown being the unbeatable guild might be true. Though, that guild is accused of cheating just as often as Arthur's.

More to the point, if she was grabbing her world item, that would be a major violation, as Arthur’s bodyguard letting someone else use her equipment would get him fired. Though, he was already out of his job…

Even more pressing was the time…

“23:59:35… she better hurry up if she wants to make it in time…” Enter spoke to himself, no one was close enough to him to activate proximity voice chat, so only silence answered him. With the speed of his character he would be able to catch up to her within the short amount of time he had, in fact, with his speed he could travel anywhere in this world, the loading times would keep him from going to other worlds. *I shouldn’t spend the last few moments of my time thinking of a guild I’ll never see again…*

“23:59:48…” He kept counting the time, closing his eyes to remember the years he spent in this game, *in Yggdrasil.* He always thought of himself as someone who wasn’t fun to be around, Arthur seemed to tolerate him, but Cardiovascular always hated him, only the staff seemed to like him, but he never put the effort into making friends with anyone. He was trying to take back all the time, if he could spend the rest of days in Yggdrasil with that demon… *right… I still haven’t heard her name…*

As the seconds counted down he felt all of it fade away… all the memories, an unusual amount of strong emotions welled up inside him, spilling out into tears… There was no change in his character though.

In one movement he was outside, the black wing hidden among the six white wings on his back flared up, the slightest twitch of it took him anywhere he wanted. And now he was only a few meters away from her… as she held the microphone, a bit surprised by his sudden appearance, but she began speaking nonetheless. “Chen! my… my name is…”

*23:59:58, 59—*

“A…”

*And that was it…, she was gone and so was the fantasy world he had been living in for 12 years…*

“I guess it was a good dream…”

*00:00:00... 1, 2, 3…*

“Huh?”

Enter opened his eyes.

He expected to see the storage room he lived in, yet he was still outside, for a moment he felt like he had been finally thrown out for being a freeloader…

This was definitely the smell of a forest, *wait… Yggdrasil doesn’t support smells, what is this?* He looked down at his hands, to be greeted by seven inhuman palms, just like in the game.

When the game ended he was supposed to be kicked out, *did they delay the shutdown?*

Still taken aback, Enter looked around to see if there were any clues.

Hundreds of thoughts rushed through his mind, wondering just what could have happened, yet nothing could explain it. If they delayed the shutdown there would have been an announcement, *or…*

Enter opened his command console, meaning to manually check the in game announcements, but…

*There was no command console.*

Enter tried another method, a GM call, they would have to respond to that, if he was stuck in virtual reality then the developers would be in huge legal trouble, yet…

That didn’t work either…

“The hell!?”

His voice echoed through the forest before fading away, without a response.

This was the last day of Yggdrasil, or at least, it was supposed to be. The announcements and developers had all said that today it would be shut down, *was this some sort of prank? The devs have always been unreliable and often messed with players, maybe they were trying to scare everyone as one last send off…*

“God damn, you shitty devs” He almost thrashed around, scared and angry at the thought that he might be trapped… but just out of the corner of his eye he noticed movement. *Someone else?*

Enter turned to the sound, a bush rustling… before a creature jumped out, one he’s only seen in games, but it used to be real at one point…

“A deer?”

Instinctively he slashed at it with his scythe, but it wasn’t a monster… it seemed like a low level animal type and yet… There was no doubt about it, that was real blood, the blood of an animal no less. He began to topple over, falling flat on his ass. On some level he knew what was happening, it wasn’t a game, yet he was still the angel he was in the game, it all seemed so incomprehensible…

*But then*

He was calm.

Like a wave of numbness washed over him the panic he was experiencing faded within a few moments…, enough to watch as the numerous abilities his character held activating, a white ring of slashing magic extended from the creature, cutting down trees and slicing up other small creatures feeding the ability until it cut down the whole forest…

Enter was specialized in crowd control, Seraphims were a race that held supreme power over weaker creatures, by killing one he had slain the ecosystem, the blood that kept his ability running eventually ran out as the creatures it was killing finally outran the slashing magic…

Enter had to come to terms with reality.

He was no longer in Yggdrasil, nor was in his storage room. Enter had somehow been sent to a new world.

A fragile world where one swing of his scythe could spell disaster…

Chapter Text

1

“Hey! hey! hey! hey! hey! Hey! Anyone there?” Enter yelled into the darkness of the forest. The menu he had grown used to like a 6th sense was no longer there for him to pull up, he called out in the hopes that the proximity voice chat… *no, was that even a thing anymore?*

There was only silence and the flight of birds startled by his outcry… But that was more than enough. “Birds…? and my voice?” Enter hummed the music from the loading rooms in Yggdrasil, testing the sounds that came out… A lapse in thought as the shock of the surroundings changing started to settle, his voice was not the one he had grown used to, rather it was almost like a choir. Sounding like no one person in particular was a strange experience… and what’s more… that constant pang of hunger in his stomach was gone…

While a Dive game could inhibit your real sensations to an extent, for users safety it was not entirely effective, many times Enter had attempted to curb his hunger by playing Yggdrasil, even resorting to eating the food in-game rather than eating in real life, which only served to make his hunger grow… Yet now that was gone, and what’s more is that the birds in this forest were not hostile… they even appeared to be real, as was the dear he cut down mere moments before. In Yggdrasil someone of Enter’s level would rarely be able to find such low level and weak creatures, even when traveling to a new world, high level players always stuck to the high level zones, especially heteromorphs like Enter, they would even be barred from entering most player hubs and cities, only being able to find shelter in guild bases. All of these violations, the sensation he felt in his hands, the smell of the forest and the blood which had long since burnt off his armor, the weak creatures and strange setting…

This couldn’t be real life, and yet, it was. The sites that Enter would have never been able to see in the real world, even inside of bio-domes there weren’t nearly this beautiful, even the rich had to stare up at a fake night sky… and yet…

“Here I am, the luckiest man in the world…” Chen Guorong, now Enter Name was in this moment, completely free. Whether this was a hallucination in the moments before his death, or truly a new world he was brought to, he decided that he would enjoy it to his fullest…

Though the world was lucky too… for Chen was not a hard man to please…

2

When taking this new reality into consideration, the freedom he felt was only second to the fear of the unknown, if the creatures here were weak, what’s to say the rest of them were at the same level. Enter, in his surprise had slain a creature of this world and effectively flattened the entire forest, in Yggdrasil, even trees had levels and ‘HP’ and not using the proper tools meant heavily reduced damage, this helped establish the level of the area more, but also meant he was completely out in the open, if someone were to attack now he would have little means of defending himself… Unless he used his world item to run away….

But it was too early to use that, for one, he still did not know how he got here, if this was still an illusion after all this time, or he was summoned by someone looking to trap and kill him, there wasn’t much he could do. Enter decided to use his normal walking speed to reach the edge of the damage caused by his skills, that being his [Horizon Slash], the signature skill of his divine tier weapon. Due to the backing of the developers and the fact that there were only 3 members of the guild that actually raided, all three of them were outfitted with divine tier or higher gear. Enter’s scythe having the highest data capacity of all the non-guild or world items they possessed, it was a marvel of craftsmanship even in the game, although there may have been other divine tier items hidden in the game with a higher data capacity, he had not seen one in all his years playing.

The skill itself was the secret to his amazing crowd control ability, an attack that would grow in size and damage for each kill scored by it, few spells or weapons were able to replicate the sort of effect it had, making it a truly one-of-a-kind item. The problem was that it was simply too obvious of a skill, not only had he accidentally cleared a huge part of this forest, the slashing magic from the skill was so unique that he couldn’t reliably remain stealthy while using it. Due to the classes he had picked up he did have access to a few spells, but nothing that could conceal his presence, after all Enter was meant to take the attention of mob monsters. Even the physical appearance of his character was flashy and bright, being an angel, along with the huge frame provided by his armor… The final nail in the coffin was Enter’s personal hangups, even in a disorienting situation like this he did not want to sully his body with dirt or leaves to conceal himself.

The most that was available to him was the next line of trees over, possibly the same forest, but without knowing where he is he couldn’t walk into it expecting it to be the same level. Enter used a slow flying speed to reach the trees, staying low to the ground in an attempt to still remain hidden. Even at the height of caution, you could not prepare for everything or dodge every attack, Enter’s HP stat was not the highest, but he was confident that no one attack could take him out in one hit, even if it managed to severely wound him he would use his world item to escape, that is how he engaged in PK battles in Yggdrasil. The idea of a threat more powerful than he could handle was hard to comprehend, preparation was necessary for any battle in Yggdrasil, there were often times where lower level gear was stronger in certain situations, though the set he had on at the moment aught to cover most of the bases.

Without any incidents, Enter made it to the trees and hid himself in the densest spot he could find, small animals scurried away in his presence, he had plenty of aura skills, but none that caused fear, so the reaction was just more proof that this was reality… Though, a thought struck him. Was he alone?

Enter took a moment to think about it, the last moments he could remember in the game were spend outside with that demon who worked at the same guild as him, what’s to say she isn’t in the same situation? If it worked the same for her, she should have Arthur’s world item, capable of reaching the ears of every player in the world, while Yggdrasil had nine worlds… but then that would mean they were sent to the same world, what if she had been sent to another world. One choice would be to immediately use the item to attempt to contact allies, but if there were enemies, they would be just as aware of your presence… In this situation Enter would use the special callouts the raid team used, but as she was only staff he couldn’t be sure she knew them. Considering she did not use the item immediately, she could have chosen to wait till she was desperate to use the item, or… the possibility still exists that she did not travel to the same world. They were only a few meters from each other at the moment of the displacement, but that did not usually matter, Enter vividly remembered a teleportation trap in another guild’s base that did something similar, placing everyone on a circle in a different room, meant to separate teams and take them out one by one.

Such a devious trap was usually only used by evil guilds, though Enter’s build perfectly countered such traps in most scenarios, the last time he could recall it happening he was swarmed by an insectoid summoner after teleporting, which was the class he had the easiest time PKing. His effectiveness as a combatant depended on the amount of enemies in a fight, the more the better, if the opponent was a summoner they were practically feeding him resources as well as sources of damage. And that particular summoner was well below his level, it’s safe to say that fight was very one sided, even against a level 100 summoner Enter was confident in being able to take them out without issue. Though, practically speaking, that was the only archetype that he was strong against, any build that was competent in magic or melee would be able to defeat him 7 out of 10 times, that is if he didn’t use his world item, in which case the scales would flip. Though that came with its own dangers, if he lost, that would mean that the world item was likely to fall into enemy hands, so he stuck to only using it in raids. Though, when he was performing upkeep on the base he would keep it on him, it was the one world item with the strongest movement capabilities, so it made retreating with it easy, even if he were to lose a PK battle with it on he would be able to move away and unequip it before losing.

Still, if this was an elaborate trap by another player, they would have done something by now, set up mines in the surrounding area, and gotten rid of all the weak monsters in the area. Yet, neither of those were true, either the enemy was extremely unprepared, or there was no enemy… While the second option seemed more likely, there wasn’t anything to say he had already been put in a disadvantageous position, there were certainly items that could trap you in an illusion, or even classes that specialized in that method of trapping. But to create an illusion this elaborate, it would require a world item, or a guild weapon specialized for it, or… a combination of classes that Enter was simply unaware of. Going forward for this idea, Enter decided to wait… and wait…

3

One week has passed since Enter was born into this world, taking into account that he hasn’t been attacked yet, he determined that this area was safe, much of the creatures around the forest were weak, the strongest one he saw, by his estimates was level 10. Going through life as his character was jarring at first, especially without a menu, but after only a few days it already felt like second nature, it was safe to say that most people who played Yggdrasil did so at every opportunity, there was nothing in real life that could compare, so Enter wasn’t special in his dedication to the game, still the thought that he could become his character so easily gave him an indescribable feeling. This revelation also came with the knowledge that his regular abilities and host of skills was able to be used through simple thought and motions, and the few spells he had access to were used with speech and motions, in a sense he had become one with the menu. There was now no part of Enter’s character that he couldn’t use, it would now be more accurate to say that it is his body now.

Living this new life brought Enter unparalleled joy, he had never once imagined a reality where he would live in Yggdrasil, for how much he played the game he would not want to live in it, the worlds were hostile and some parts were so complicated that one person couldn’t hope to figure it out, not to mention the other players. As an angel he didn’t have as much discrimination for being a heteromorph, but there were still no penalties when other players PKed him. Only, in the short time he has been in this world he could tell it was different, it was the freedom he always wanted, no threat to him had reared its head, and there was no need to eat in this new body, it was practically paradise.

Something was still missing though.

“Where the hell are the other people?”

Just as Enter said, he hadn’t seen another person since he came to this world, it would be one thing if there were no creatures as well, but this forest seemed to be full of life, just nothing he could communicate with. That level 10 creature seemed like the most intelligent creature in this forest, yet it still attempted to fight Enter, resulting in its immediate death. Enter valued his privacy as much as the next person, but a world where he was completely alone would be far too boring, it was just his luck that he began to pick up strange movements lately. While he had no skill in detection, the mask item he wore gave him something like a HUD (heads up display) even outside of the game. It was a crucial part of his job as crowd control to have precise numbers of the number of creatures, their locations, and some basic stats. The item on its own wasn’t considered good as a divination item due to its limited range, but for Enter it was perfect.

The mask had recently been showing some creatures entering and exiting the range at strange intervals, as well as making movements that imply some sort of intelligence, though it’s impossible to tell what type of creature it is. Enter hoped it was something nice looking, like a human or elf.

Taking this into account he didn’t feel the need to go out in search of others, it seemed like they were going to find him eventually. Might as well make himself presentable…

4

One month has passed since Enter was born into this world, in that time he was confident that he was neither being trapped nor hunted, whatever happened to him was a coincidence, a natural disaster, or some kind of magic. Though, through his experiments with the creatures of this world, if that demon was transported to a similar area she would have a much harder time, the difference between being level 100 and level 5 was astronomical, levels in Yggdrasil were exponential, the difference between a level 90 and level 100 player was much greater than the difference between a level 10 and level 20 player. Enter felt thankful that he prepared his character the most he could before something like this happened, even if he didn’t exactly plan on it.

What’s more, is that it was finally time for him to see what these intelligent creatures that had been trying to hide from him looked like, he had a few close calls in the last few days, as they almost ran into him. Enter was known even in Yggdrasil for being eccentric, and becoming a powerful creature in another world only heightened that aspect, he wanted to appear his best in front of these creatures, he couldn’t be completely sure of their levels but they were much lower than he was if he was able to evade them as easily as he did. “Ah that’s the last piece!” He picked a tusk out of a boar, placing it in his inventory; a limited space he could put items into while they were not worn or carried, working like a crack in space to a pocket dimension whenever he focused on it. He hummed to himself as he glided back to his cave he had been staying in, he decided it was the place that he would greet them, he couldn’t tell for sure if they were friendly, or if they were trying to launch a sneak attack on him, but either way he would decide how to deal with them once he saw what they looked like.

Enter carefully placed the newly found tusk into its place, completing the rough shape of a hand on the arm of a chair, or more specifically a throne… A throne made out of the remains of various animals he had been hunting in the month since he had arrived here, by all respects it was well made, but it had taken him a few tries to get it to stand upright at first, as well as the occasional creature in the forest knocking it over. Enter had stored his scythe in his inventory for a while now, it could still be used when he needed it, but it was simply too destructive to use when hunting, or he would have another incident like when he first arrived. Satisfied with the construction, Enter sat on the throne, being careful as to not put his full weight on it, despite his physical body being small, the equipment he wore effectively made him several times the size of the average human, the extra arms and wings also added to that weight, in Yggdrasil weight wasn’t very important, and angels were supposed to be one of the lightest creatures, it was just a result of Enter’s particular build that he ended up like this. Among the raid party he was the second fastest despite the weight, but when counting his world item he far exceeded any other player.

With his pose decided on, he pulled his scythe out of storage, if this meeting lead to combat it would be the quickest way to deal with a threat, and if it didn’t well… “Hmm, money well spent…” Enter spent quite a lot of money on Yggdrasil cash shop items, his most bought items though, were usually cosmetic, he had spent a considerable amount on this scythe to get it to look just how he wanted it. It was oversized and had two blades that made two half circles on either side of the pole, the faint glow around it made it look like an angels halo, thus it was dubbed the Halo Scythe. Coincidentally he did not come up with the name himself, Arthur was the one who named it, having a problem with his lazy naming scheme.

It didn’t take long at all for the blips in his vision to grow closer, attempting to use trees for cover, unaware that he could track their locations, by the mask’s count there was about 30 in total. He wondered just what exactly could be on the other side of those trees, humans in full tactical gear?, a pack of elves with bows drawn?, maybe just some knights of ambiguous race that all turned out to be beautiful under the armor…

As Enter was thoroughly daydreaming, he failed to notice that he had been surrounded, at least on the sides outside of the cave. He looked down to take in all the features…

Bulging eyes, bodies covered in fur and mud, flowing horns curling into strange shapes at the ends, a powerful jaw full of gnarly teeth which they were flashing, crude outfits made of animal hide and metal plates, not one of them looking like they’ve seen the inside of a shower…

“Are you kidding me?” Enter audibly sighed, the sorry state of these creatures made him want to just kill them all, though that voice in the back of his head reminded him that this was no longer a game, it was likely that he would need to restrain himself, that being said… he couldn’t help but display his disappointment. “The least you could do is make yourselves presentable, if you’re here for a fight I’ll make it quick.” He began to brandish his scythe, tracing one hand over the blade until he made one full rotation…

”W-Wait! G-Great one!- we b-beseech your help!” The one at the front spoke… looking at them, they were fairly humanoid, but it was clear they were some form of demi-human, outside of a few exceptions, none of the demi-human races met Enter’s standard of beauty. He didn’t want to hear out their request in the least… but they all started groveling, throwing gold at his feet and dropping their weapons, it would be rude to kill them now, but he wasn’t some kind of honor-less monster, or at least he believed that he wasn’t… Truthfully all those years of being held back by his guild members from attacking anyone with an ugly character had softened him, when he first started the game it was usually on sight, his sheer game skill being the only reason he wasn’t stuck at level one being killed by others. Though after the general level of the playerbase increased Enter would have been left in the dust if he did not get picked up by the company. While musing about his past he realized that they were waiting for his response…

If he had to analyze the situation it seemed like the one at the front who was kneeling the lowest was the leader, it was hard to read the emotions on their faces, but judging by the fact that none of the others had dropped their weapons they were not entirely on board with their ‘leaders’ plan. Yet they still followed, perhaps they were desperate enough to throw away pride… if that was true then the ‘offerings’ they presented were likely all they had, if he attacked now they would likely still resist though. Enter didn’t like the idea of selling his services for some some lumpy, misshapen gold, he wouldn’t outright kill them but he had no problem with leaving them to die.

“It seems that we can speak the same language, what is it that you want?” Enter spoke, still enjoying his new beautiful voice, after he put all this effort into making a throne he felt like he had the right to make demands, after all, it was clear to both him and these creatures that he was the more powerful party in this relationship. The leader must have been smarter than the rest, against a more powerful creature that can be reasoned with you must make every attempt to get in its good favors, part of him wanted to kill everyone except the leader to show his appreciation, but there would be no killing yet…

“P-Please defeat our enemies! The other Bafolk that seek to prolong their conflict!” Enter looked over the faces of the others, none of them seemed to react to that information so it was probably nothing new to them. Enter could get a grasp of the situation just from this, one being the name of these creatures, Bafolk weren’t a race that existed in Yggdrasil, but they undoubtedly exhibited characteristics of a demi-human race, unless he existed on a different axis than those of this world it would stand to reason that tactics against demi-humans would work the same against them. The second part is that they are in conflict, but even if this is the lowest ranks of their military a showing like this is sorry, the level of technology in this world would be incredibly low. The last piece of information was in the language it used, ‘other Bafolk’ and ‘prolong their conflict’ was different than ‘other people’ and ‘attack us’ meaning that Bafolk weren’t the only creatures around, and that this conflict likely didn’t start with them…

“Conflict with who?” So Enter had to make sure this was worth his time, depending on the leaders answer he would decide if helping them was worth his time. “Th-They wish to fight the humans of the Dragon Kingdom! They say we will win, but we have experienced too many losses! We will be too weak after to remain in power!” At the mention of humans Enter raised an eyebrow, though due to the many layers of armor it wasn’t visible. There were ugly humans sure, but any human was more beautiful than one of these, and so he made his decision…

“Just to be clear, if I help you, you are to make peace with the humans after.” Enter spoke his terms, he was interested in the humans of this world. It was a weight off his shoulders to find that humans did indeed exist, he would deal with whatever ugly creatures these enemies would be to find himself in a lavish human palace with the most beautiful specimens in the region. Truth be told, most people in the guild that saw his obsession with beauty as creepy at first, but after years of dealing it became clear that there was no sexual motivation behind it, in fact he saw people more like objects. Even among those who called the raid party inhuman monsters, few knew just how dangerous his view of the world was, what was seen as a harmless quirk to some was in fact the linchpin to his day to day functioning, if he did not surround himself with beauty he would slowly go crazy.

“After what?” The Bafolk leader was confused by Enter’s statement, finally lifting his head to look at the angel. Gleaming body, heavy armor, large weapon, the Bafolk was sure that this creature was a God, or at least something close, there was no explanation as to how it had eluded them for this long, seeming to disappear right when they believed they had found it or seen it… Not only that, but it had just promised to make peace with the humans, an impossible dream that some elder Bafolk have held…

“After I kill every other one of you, those enemies you spoke of.” As it just declared that it would slay the millions of Bafolk that had been raiding the Dragon Kingdom….

Chapter Text

1

“Hunter, Supreme being, are you sure we can trust it…?” A bearded face made hushed whispers to another. In this case, it was two Bafolk elders, being ‘bearded’ as a Bafolk simply means they have longer body hair, a word they borrowed from humans. “We do not have a say, it was the Chief that made the decision…” The two continued their muttering while peeking out of their window.

Windows such as these were a rarity in this village, elder Bafolk did not rule the people, but they were still respected enough to gain better housing. This house was made from the remnants of a human made one, remade with Bafolk techniques, if one to were to look at all Bafolk construction methods, this village would look considerably more advanced, but it is only their proximity to the closest human nation. Bafolk were not uncivilized, but the war that they raged against the humans made them resort to simpler methods, most homes in a village like this were simple tents made of wood and animal skin, supported by trees. In short, to Enter it appeared like the quintessential ‘beastman camp’, something so tropey that he almost rolled his eyes the second he laid eyes on it. “You buildings are shabby and ugly, are you trying to piss me off?” While he was meant to be following the band of Bafolk that lead him here, he often wandered off to inspect a tent or a Bafolk child to determine if they were cute. (They were not).

“E-yikes! S-sorry sir.. ma’am? We’re trying our best…” A nervous Bafolk spoke out, one that held a longspear, a traditional weapon for their kind. Since their fur was tougher than their skin, they had natural resistance to bladed weapons, and often used them as to not suffer as much ‘friendly fire’. Enter could tell this at a glance, many demi-human races in Yggdrasil had similar resistances if they had thick fur, the notable weakness is that they did not have resistance to blunt damage. What he could not tell however, was wether this Bafolk was female, from the voice it was hard to distinguish through the thick accent, and the figure of the creature didn’t look any different than the others… the only reason he doubted himself was the small flower that was stuck onto its forehead.

The other Bafolk were not as talkative, even without being able to distinguish their features, their shaky hands and stiff movement showed how nervous they were to be bringing such a dangerous creature into the heart of their village. Each time it stopped to insult their customs or way of life they simply waited and did not speak up, lest they anger it further… For some, usually the younger ones, it was harder to hold their tongue, but those with more experience knew that a creature like this was not to be trifled with… even to Bafolk sensibilities the creature was beyond beautiful, it made sense that something like that would be unsatisfied with the reception. Besides, they were close to the end of this stressful journey, soon this problem would be in the hands of the Chief. The group rounded another corner, with the creature lagging behind them, still attempting to catch a glimpse of something that would reach its standards.

“Ch-Chief! We have arrived with the cre- um” The Bafolk at the front of the pack was the one to speak, maybe a leader, or at least the one with the most confidence, but he did not want to be disrespectful to this strong, intelligent creature. Nor did he want to give it an honorific or address it as a higher title than the Chief…

Before he could correct himself. “Let it in, you all should leave as well, do not crowd it…” Enter could hear the same message as the Bafolk, the equipment he wore over his face served a more ‘quality of life’ function, as masks in Yggdrasil usually did. While they had durability and took up the face slot, the difference in stats was often negligible, often times players would simply forgo this slot for vanity, or wear masks to fit with other outfits, even the strongest abilities tied to masks were often considered gimmicky. Stat-wise, Enter’s mask was no different, but it helped with his role as crowd-control, allowing him to keep track of thousands of low level creatures within a certain radius, it could even show him some of the creatures stats, the catch being that it could not track creatures above level 70. Such an effect might have been strong on a lower level character, but this equipment was of the highest rarity, besides, in Yggdrasil levels were quick to gain, some even said that the true game only started once you reached level 100.

However, in this world it seemed to gain a new ability… “Bafolk Chieftain, level 12” A mechanical voice spoke in Enter’s head, the mask had begun speaking to him ever since he came to this world. From Enter’s use of the mask, it did not seem to be actually conscious, nor did it have a similar ability in Yggdrasil, rather, the one who made it was an eccentric one, writing ‘lore’ for every item she made. For this piece of equipment, she wrote that the mask’s ability to detect creatures came from an AI built into it, one that would send the information directly into the user’s brain.

Enter’s gears started to turn about what this could imply for the several other pieces of armor that she had made, but before he could give it much thought, he was stood at the entrance of the chief’s tent. It was rude to make others wait, even if you did not like them, incidentally, Enter was never late for a guild meeting. “Pardon me…” The tent that the chief lived in was much larger than any other in the village, but it was still a tent, the door was a simple cloth, though, the animal hide on the chief’s tent seemed to have many different kinds of piercings stuck to it, Enter thought their sense of fashion was bizarre.

Inside the tent, there was a greater sense of luxury than the outside would have you imagine, it was furnished with the best this village had to offer, some corners of the tent simply had gold and valuables piled high as a show of wealth. Sitting with its legs crossed in the middle of the tent was the chief, wearing a set of what looked like ceremonial armor, as well as various trinkets that seemed to serve a magical purpose. In short, he was prepared for battle.

It was a natural response, the chief was the one that devised the plan to bring this creature to their village in the first place, but if negotiations broke down he was ready to lay his life on the line to defeat it. “You may treat this place as if it was your own home, we have much to discuss…” He made the first move, attempting to extend the hand of hospitality, from the information he had gathered this creature was intelligent enough to speak and could be reasoned with. However… what he had not learned was its disposition.

“A tent is still a tent, there is nothing about this that says its a home, I’d rather live out on the streets.” To Enter, he was serious, in his old world he spent many years without a place to call a home, scrap heaps were some of the only places that he could live, surviving off of the discarded technology. “And your magical armor is all mismatched, even if it provides the best stats you should wear something that goes better together… not to mention the red fur, it clashes with everything.” Most Bafolk had fur that ranged from brown to grey, some older members having white fur, but the one sitting in front of Enter had redish fur, the color reminded him of some dwarven beards. The armor was indeed chosen for practicality over anything else, after all, in the battlefield it did not matter what you looked like, only how many enemies you could defeat before being defeated yourself, it made no sense to compromise your effectiveness to ‘look better’.

For a moment, the Bafolk chief was stunned, but before getting mad he took a deep breath and calmed himself, being the chief he was one of the few in this village that had interacted with members of other races, it was common to have these sorts of differences. For one he knew that humans often viewed Bafolk as savages and ugly, this thing looked more human than Bafolk which could explain its distaste for their homes. “My apologies, but I assure you that in this village this is the height of luxury, besides, we are in a time of war… we do not have time to worry about such things…” He spoke in a reasonable way, a skill he had learned over his many years as chief was to never be the antagonist in these talks, if the other side was the first to get angry then you only acting in self defense.

“It does not matter what time it is, if you were to die you should die beautifully.” Enter crossed a pair of his arms and looked down at the chief, attempting to force his worldview onto him. That line was able to get under the chief’s skin, should it be taken as a threat?, was this creature’s view that different? Before he could attempt to stabilize this conversation, Enter spoke up again. “I am Enter, and I already agreed to slaughter your enemies… the least you could do is have some standards…”The chief had already heard a description of the creature, hoping that it was on the lower end of intelligence… something that was simple, something that could used. Enter towered over regular humanoids, his many arms and wings made him appear even larger, it was easy to be afraid, it was clear that this creature was strong. The second thing that made it even more terrifying was that it was intelligent, a creature that was both large and smart could be compared to a giant, but in this case a dragon might be a closer match… While speaking of beauty, the glowing orbs of light past its mask had a piercing gaze, thinking of it like a dragon made more sense, dragons kept hoards of gold any anything that had value, instead this creature was one that hoarded beauty…

The chief gulped hard before speaking again. “I am Borosk, chieftain of this village… I am told that my daughter is the most beautiful Bafolk… while you are assisting us she may stay by your side as an aid…” Borosk once had to speak with a dragon, one that inhabited the forest years ago, if he approached that conversation the way he tried with this creature he would have not been alive today… This creature was far more intelligent than a simple magical beast, it knew its worth and wouldn’t be easy to bargain with… “… if you so desire, I can even promise her hand-” Enter cut him off. “Not interested, but I am curious what you Bafolk consider ‘most beautiful’.

Enter was already set on helping this village, but upon seeing the state of it his opinion of them diminished greatly. This ‘most beautiful’ might be their chance to redeem themselves in Enter’s eyes. “To be clear I will destroy your enemies for my own personal reasons, however, if someone more beautiful tells me to turn my blade on you I will not think twice.”

Enter took his leave, he would give a demonstration of his power to uphold his end of the bargain.

An hour later the village received word that the closest camp of enemy Bafolk became a scorched crater.

2

In the Dragon Kingdom there were many vassal kingdoms along the boarders that were closest to the demi-human invasion, day and night repelling their forces, however, it began to feel like every week there was news of a fort being lost to the demi-humans. One of these vassal kingdoms had already fallen completely, this recent tragedy caused some on the battlefield to fight harder. For those who could not fight, it was a sociality anxiety that couldn’t be shook easily… Each kingdom faced problems on the battlefield, as well as their own homes, the pressure of wartime caused spike in crime and those who tried to flee the country. As a result, people rarely left their homes, streets were often barren, families that could not leave were huddled together waiting for the end…

The future was grim, even in the palaces, royal families struggled to keep their composure… The madness gripped the whole kingdom, and the demi-humans never seemed to stop their assaults.

In one such kingdom, in one such palace, sat a royal girl, on the edge of a window. The girl was a princess, seventh in line, she never had a chance for the crown. The streets below here were empty like all the others, she had no audience, yet she sung.

The princess sang until the dark hours of the night, loud enough to be heard from the ground… she continued this every single day.

Soon, people began gathering below her window to hear her singing, in these dark times, her beautiful voice was the only thing that kept the people going…

Some would bring gifts, healers would sooth her throat, knights felt their pride well up once again.

From the outside, this kingdom seemed like the next in line for the demi-humans, the aid they received from the Dragon Kingdom began to diminish… it was clear they this kingdom was in its death throws.

To those inside, they were ready to accept their death… but not the death of this girl…

They fought, tooth and nail, conscripts and knights alike would return from the brutal battlefield just to hear her song.

For the girl herself… she wanted to sing one last time before she died.

3

“Hm.. do you hear something?”

An angelic creature spoke under its breath, its broad frame and many wings took up so much space that it was hard to stand next to it… but by its side was a Bafolk with red fur, wearing a dress that would be high class in even human standards…

“Shh- this is a stealth mission, just wait here until we get the signal…” The Bafolk spoke up, her voice was easier to distinguish, even to the angel, as it was the same voice that could sing, a rare trait among Bafolk. This woman was the chief’s daughter, while many did not see her as a strong successor to her father, no one could deny that her voice and her beauty had emboldened their spirits. During festivals she would come out to sing for the village, it was something that could bring everyone together, some Bafolk women even began to learn from her joining in or singing in their own home.

This was part of the angel’s plan, Enter’s plan.

Around two months have passed since Enter was invited to the Bafolk village, since then he propped up the chief’s daughter as an important figure, instructing her on how to improve moral in the village. At first she had not trusted this strange creature that had suddenly appeared, but her father convinced her to play along with it for the moment. Much to her surprise, this creature was far easier to reason with than even some members of her own race, this was because of one simple fact. It enjoyed her singing as well.

The first few times the creature had fought for them, no one was around to witness its power, enemy camps and villages would simply turn into ash, one after another. Eventually, scouts were sent to keep an eye on the next village it would be sent to… after they returned we were all enlightened to the extent of power this creature wielded…

This was a monster they were dealing with, something of unreasonable power, closer to a god than a mortal being. However, it could be spoken to, it had desires, the chief’s daughter was able to control it to an extent… as a result, she was revered within the village like never before, as Bafolk would attempt to get in her good graces, eyeing the creature that stood by her side. Even when she tried to explain that it was only acting with its own motives, and was not loyal to her, they did not understand. In the end, she resigned herself to her new role, opting to make deals with the creature to benefit the village in other ways, if she agreed to sing, it would do just about anything. Her father warned her to not be greedy, he still feared the creature, ever since he invited it to the village he had grown more humble… acting almost subservient to his daughter at times…

She sighed. “This is taking a while though… do you think they got caught?, hm.. Enter? hello?” Alas, the angel was distracted already, staring off into the enemy camp. “They’re back, two more are with them.” Enter relayed the information his mask told him to the Bafolk beside him. “Huh really?” She turned to watch the same direction that it was looking at, and after a few seconds four figures emerged, the two scouts and the prisoners they extracted with. “Rowa… chief’s daughter Rowa…” The prisoners called out to the red furred Bafolk before them, her appearance was extremely recognizable, even to those outside of the village. Red fur was a characteristic that only a few Bafolk had, its natural toughness was second to none, even wearing a dress Rowa could be considered fully armored. Naturally, only the chief and his daughter had red fur in this village.

“I’ll help them back home… you can take it from here…” Rowa gave a gesture of approval to the angel, normally it is customary for Bafolk to make physical contact as a greeting or a goodbye, but through spending enough time around Enter, she knew that was not a smart idea.

Her father had been the one to tell her about this terrifying ability, one Bafolk warrior attempted to challenge Enter to a dual, to test if it was really as strong as the rumors said… however, upon making contact with Enter’s body, he was sliced into a cloud of fur. Enter hadn’t even lifted a finger, it was an automatic process of Enter’s body, coming into contact with it would rend even the toughest of fighters, that’s why Rowa could have faith in it, or *had* to, the being was untouchable… and it preferred to follow her orders…

Rowa greeted the two prisoners by grabbing their hands, doing the same to the scouts, and not long after they hurried back to the village, running between trees and snapping sticks as they ran… the time for stealth was over, the more important to not be close to the enemy camp…

“Mh… I suppose my job hasn’t changed even in this world, these goat things sure like to put me to work though…” Enter mused to himself, even so close to an ‘enemy camp’ he could relax, in this world, the strong dominated the weak, and Enter was strong, but even among the strong he fit in exceptionally well. Every tool in his arsenal, every piece of equipment or weapon crafted for him was engineered for the purpose of slaying as many weak opponents as possible, as quick as possible. His scythe was the gold standard, even among divine tier weapons it was exceptional, some might say it was closer to a guild weapon, however it would have been the weakest of the three weapons his raid team held, the other two being World Items. Enter’s Halo Scythe could compete with the rest due to its design, World Items had the most data to work with out of any class, finding one that was a weapon would cause any player that found it to change their build to complement it, though ultimately they were made by the developers and could not always be used to their fullest extent, it was widely theorized that the devs made some world items intentionally hard to use to balance them…

Player-made items did not share this weakness, in most cases, a player made item could not have the same data capacity as a randomly dropped weapon, or custom ones made by the developers, but they made up for that with being able to be efficient with their abilities and bonuses. Naturally, the higher level the craftsmen, the better these weapons could be, sometimes matching or in rare cases, exceeding the data capacity of natural weapons. This scythe was one such exception, due to the quality of materials and the skill of the craftswoman, Enter was gifted a one of a kind mob-slaying weapon, one that even top players would call overkill. The size of the AOEs created by this weapon’s unique ability were simply too large, larger than any raid area the developers had made, while most divine tier weapons could beat it in a straight damage race, nothing could compete with the utility this weapon provided, with enough mob-enemys present it could even deliver significant damage to raid bosses due to the way the ability’s damage ramped up for each enemy killed by it.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to look around…” Enter stopped reminiscing for a moment, and began walking towards the camp… not long after he was spotted. Crowd control was simply the role he needed to fill, but after enough years of doing it he saw it as destroying the ugly, often times the lower level enemies did not receive as much time as bosses did, making them ugly, other times they were just ugly. In that sense, it was the perfect job for him, it was much like the work of a janitor, sweeping all of the trash into a pile and getting rid of it in one go…

The enemy Bafolk had sounded the alarms, and several groups had come out to fight, however Enter did not draw his weapon, after all he was at the edge of the camp. He walked and waited, taking his time to inspect the construction and the demi-humans that funneled toward him. The rugged construction and use of natural camouflage, dirt and leaves… the goat things with tangled fur and hastily-made or stolen damaged armor. Their weapons were simple spears and swords, some even brandishing clubs or stakes…

Nothing about it was beautiful, down to the filthy accessories, human skulls of various sized adorned their waists or hung around their necks, some even appeared to be caked in fresh blood… Bafolk swarmed over the angel, the beautiful messenger, delivering their death.

Weapons warped, wood splintered and the few that attempted to use their fists were annihilated utterly by the aura-effect that had been reduced to a level of ‘touch’. Enter continued to walk unimpeded, a Bafolk in his way would be walked through as if it was not there, the remnents of a living creature sliced and burned away to ash all at once… that ash then reduced to atoms as his hooves crushed them underfoot. The smarter warriors learned to keep their distance, their attacks would only bounce before reaching the angel…

“The Theocracy? they’ve finally sent their ace… to think it would appear in a place like this…”

One Bafolk that Enter identified as their leader spoke up, though Enter had no idea what he was talking about, he was focused on reaching the center of the camp. This slow walk was not for show, or to save energy, in truth, with the power Enter had, he could have wiped out every Bafolk in these mountains within those two months. That would make this end too quickly though, while he enjoyed the singing of the chief’s daughter, if he were to finish off their enemies immediately, there would be no such deal between them anymore, more importantly, he did not have the humans indebted enough to him, dragging things out only made sense.

“That being said… it seems they have learned to run away…” With the enormous head start Enter had given the Bafolk, some could still escape into the forest if his abilities did not catch up to them… He decided to kill them now, and wait a few hours before returning to the village…

In the end, one swing was enough…

The camp was reduced to a pike of smoking ash, Enter only hoped something more beautiful would grow out of the destruction.

“Hm? I could have sworn I heard a girl singing just now…”