Chapter 13: The Chase

“We’ll need more people. Do you know anyone else that might be interested in coming with us?”

“I don’t know too many crazy people,” Henry responded. “What about you?”

“I know one,” Tayo murmured.

Close by in the shadow of one of the pillars Hiro listened.

***

The stream glittered beneath the late-morning sun, the water so clear Tayo could make out every pebble on its bed. He knelt first, cupping his hands and drinking slow. Henry followed, splashing too much, drenching his beard. On the opposite bank Naori’s eyes narrowed, tracking the silver flash of trout beneath the ripples.

“Suppose you were still outside,” Henry asked, wiping his face with a damp sleeve. “What would you be doing right now?”

Tayo smiled at the thought. “It’s Saturday. Definitely playing soccer.” He tipped his head. “You?”

“Golfing—or hiking with my girls.” Henry’s voice wavered. “When I get home, I’ll never complain about being bored again.”

Tayo drew the battered parchment from inside his vest. He spread it across a flat stone; the others bent close, shoulders touching.

Naori tapped a point marked only by a crooked tower icon. “How do you know she’s there?”

“I asked around,” Tayo said. “Several NPCs suggested we start there and I have reason to trust them.” He traced a narrow road that snaked east through forest. “We ride this trail.”

They mounted, stirrups clanking, and Henry raised an eyebrow. “Just how strong is this ‘Ea’ supposed to be?”

“Level ninety, at least.”

Henry whistled long in response. Then they spurred their horses and began to gallop into the distance.

By late afternoon the forest had darkened. Tayo slowed, studying the map again, unease crawling up his spine.

“What is it?” Henry asked.

“The place seems different. We should have arrived by now.”

A shrill split the stillness. Naori’s hand flew to his dagger; Henry swept the trees with wary eyes. Between moss-laden trunks a riderless horse bolted.

“There!” Henry pointed.

“Who’s on it?” Tayo squinted—then saw nothing but a shimmer, a blur of a human outline, the kind you might see on a hot day.

A shadow blotted the sun. Tayo glanced up.

“Henry!”

A leather-winged beast swooped in, talons closed around Henry’s torso and wrenched him skyward. For an instant Tayo’s memory flashed—he remembered Guy falling off his pegasus, both burning—but he shook it off, nocked an arrow, and loosed. It pierced into the creature’s leg; with a screech it released Henry, who crashed through branches and hit the ground hard. “Not this time”, Tayo muttered, determined not to have a repeat of the past.

Goblins burst from the underbrush; wrinkled skin covered with mud. Naori’s mare reared and he began chasing some of the goblins away, separating from the main group. Arrows hissed from the canopy; Tayo’s horse neighed and toppled over. He rolled clear, firing, until his quiver lay empty, corpses at his feet.

Henry staggered upright, sword half-drawn. A grotesque bird raked Tayo’s arm, tried to snatch his bow. He stabbed it with an arrow laying on the floor. Ahead, a goblin knocked Henry out and carried him over its shoulder and sprinted. One last arrow—Tayo’s final hope—he threw it like a spear towards the goblin, it hit. The goblin fell, but new terror advanced: an armored beast-man astride a horse.

Above, the bat creature dived again, claws snagging Henry’s limp form. Tayo snatched a blood-smeared arrow, set, breathed, released, it hit. The monster lurched, losing altitude yet stubbornly flapping deeper into the gloom.

The armored rider bore down. At the last second an arrow punched through the mount’s skull; horse and rider tumbled. A translucent silhouette materialized, blade flashing—one swipe, the beast-man’s throat spurted black, and the figure resolved into Hiro, the hood of an invisibility cloak sliding back from her face.

Without words she and Tayo fell into rhythm: he picked off shrieking birds; she danced through goblins, vanishing, reappearing, each reemergence another corpse. When a goblin lunged at her exposed side Tayo was there, driving an arrowhead under its jaw.

The monster’s corpses withered to gray dust. A soft chime echoed—a level-up sound—and silence settled, broken only by their ragged breaths.

Tayo lowered his bow. “What are you doing here?”

“The General sent me to check on you.”

“Did you know we were being followed?”

She shook her head, curls plastered to sweat-damp cheeks. Nearby her stallion stamped nervously. Tayo scooped stray arrows, vaulted into the saddle.

“Can I borrow your horse? I’ll bring it back.”

“You can't leave me here,” she shot back. He hesitated, then hauled her up behind him just as Naori emerged.

“Who’s she? And where’s Henry?”

Tayo’s eyes trailed the darkening sky. “They’ve taken him—probably to their boss.”

“Then what’s the plan?” Hiro demanded.

“There’s only one,” Tayo said, nudging the stallion toward the fading path. “We find Ea. Fast.”

With that they rode.

***

Broken fences lined a dirt road that led toward a single, brooding structure—an old temple in the distant. Its sandstone surface is pale beneath the rising moon. Tayo, Hiro, and Naori rolled into the town, the dying clatter of hooves echoing off hollow houses. No dogs barked, no lanterns glimmered behind cracked shutters; everything felt hastily abandoned.

“We should split up,” Naori suggested.

“No,” Tayo snapped, his fear pretty obvious.

“It’ll be faster,” Naori replied.

Hiro studied the dark streets, then lifted her chin toward the distant temple. “He’s right. We can meet up at that building.”

Reluctantly, Tayo nodded, “Okay. If you see a monster don’t engage”. Hiro drew up her hood. With a shimmer of the cloak, she vanished. Naori went right; Tayo headed left.

House after house told the same story: half-eaten meals, chairs pushed hastily back, lanterns still burning. The chill of recent flight was obvious. At last, the empty streets funneled Tayo toward the temple steps where marble statues stood in eternal vigilance.

Inside, moonlight poured through clerestory windows, fractured by a towering crystal chandelier that cast dancing shards across Athenian columns. At the far end stood a statue of Ea—arms extended, palms down, inviting supplicants to lay their burdens there. Above her serene face, an inverted pentagon loomed like a magic symbol.

Naori sat alone on a pew, head bowed. Tayo’s boots scraped the mosaic floor, brittle echoes in the cavernous hall.

“Find anything?” Tayo asked, voice cracking with weariness.

“No. Nothing at all.” He replied, his voice hollow.

Tayo dropped beside him, exhaustion knotting his shoulders. “Dammit.”

On a sigh Naori turned his gaze from Ea’s statue to Tayo. “Back in the forest you said the land looked different. How would you know that?”

Tayo rubbed a hand over his chin considering if he should tell the truth. He surrendered. “I… may… have been a tester.”

A silence prickled between them. Naori feigns comprehension. “Oh.” He continues, “She looks beautiful,” he murmured, eyes fixed on the statue.

“Yeah,” Tayo answered. “Almost like… the scripture’s descriptions of Einstein.”

Naori stirred, brow furrowing. "The Bible?" Tayo added.

Naori considers his answer carefully. “I don’t get that reference.”

“That’s the wrong answer, Nathan.” Tayo’s heart lurched; his hand slid toward the bow resting against the bench. “Who—or what—are you?”

Naori’s expression shifted, innocence crumbling into irritation. “Shit. I guess there's no use. Show yourselves!”

Shapes peeled from the shadows—half a dozen armed figures, blades catching blue glints of moonlight. Beyond the doorway a hulking beast lumbered, its multiple eyes studying Tayo through the glass.

Tayo rose, arming his bow quickly.

Naori spread his hands theatrically. “Let’s start again. My name is Naori, once a subject of the Ancient One, Ea. And you are?”

“Ray,” Tay replied. “Were you behind the goblins that took Henry?”

“Yes. I thought interrogation would be faster on him and I thought I would be nice to you. Your turn. How did you find this place?”

“Someone told me,” Tayo lied.

Naori sighed as though disappointed in a clever but stubborn child. The beast outside uttered a hybrid of a growl and a hiss. “Bring her,” Naori said.

Two hulking NPCs hauled Hiro from the darkness, wrists bound. Blood traced an injury at her temple. They handed her over to Naori who then pressed a knife to her throat; Hiro’s breath hitched, but her gaze never left Tayo’s.

“How did you know about this place?” Naori repeated.

“Let her go and I’ll tell you everything.” Tayo replied.

Naori traced a slow line across Hiro’s cheek with his knife. She trembles.

“Wait! I remembered.” His voice rang desperate in the temple hall. Tayo lowered his bow “I remembered——I was once here”. Naori looks doubtful, “No gamer has ever set foot here. You seem eager to play me.”

Tayo frantically replies, “I have, as a tester. In the ancient world. Ea's lands, they are almost the same.”

Naori’s eyes gleamed, fever bright. “Jackpot. You were there in ancient times. Then you know about the sword. Where is it?”

“I don’t know what sword you’re referring to.”

“You should. It’s from ancient times.” Naori’s grip tightened; Hiro’s eyelids fluttered.

“I didn't spend much time in here,” Tayo pleaded. “I don’t know what sword you’re talking about.”

“Perhaps you’ll recall after she’s dead,” Naori answered. “Please don’t,” Tayo called out desperately.

Naori angled the blade on Hiro’s neck. She closes her eyes.

Tayo felt the world slow down to a heartbeat, until...