Chapter 17: Motives

Tayo laughed out loud at Daro’s comment. Overhead, thunder rumbled, deep and ominous, like the growl of something ancient and watching.

“You're serious?” he said, still chuckling.

Daro is unmoved. “The goal is to get lightning to strike the sword before the storm ends.”

Tayo’s laugh faded. “This is wickedness.”

But Daro was already turning away, cloak dancing with the breeze. “Meditate and concentrate. Remember, heart and mind.”

He walked off, leaving Tayo standing beneath the heavy sky.

The bonfire crackled at the center of their circle. Gusts of wind swept through the ruins, and thunder rolled in the distance. Hiro and Henry sat close to the flames, laughing as they rotated a skewered fish over the heat.

Daro sat apart, eyes on the flickering light. He noticed the fire waning.

“Watch the fire,” he said.

Henry straightened. He picked up a small log, closed his eyes, and focused. A moment passed, then his hands began to glow with heat. Then the log burst into flame. Hiro clapped, impressed. Henry looked startled at first, seeing his hands wreathed in fire, but he quickly patted them out.

“Your turn,” Daro said to Hiro.

She took a smaller piece of wood, narrowed her eyes in concentration—but nothing happened.

“Why can’t I do it?” she asked in frustration.

“Here.” Daro handed her Tayo’s bow. “The bow helps you manifest your ora and convert it into an energy nature.”

Hiro took it. She drew an imaginary arrow and held her breath. Nothing. She sighed and let her hands fall. “You'll get it eventually,” Henry comments.

Thunder rumbled again, louder this time. Henry looked up. “Where’s Ray?”

“He’s training,” Daro replied.

Under the thunderous sky, Tayo trained alone atop the stone pillar. The wind blasted in every direction, but rain hadn’t fallen.

He swung the sword, his movements were smooth but ragged with fatigue. Intermittently, he pauses and points the sword to the skies and called out. “I call on Thorrr! Zeus! Jupiter!”

He remembers one other name, probably the one he should have started with, “Sangoooooo!”

Nothing answered but the moaning of wind. He paused, stretched his back, and sighed.

Then, without warning, the sky split with a vicious crack—but not where he’d hoped. Pain exploded through him as lightning struck.

Not the sword.

His groin.

He hit the ground, curled up, and moaned in pain.

Tayo limped through a quiet valley, wincing with each step. Eventually, he stopped and peeked down inside his trousers. It’s still intact. He let out a breath of enormous relief.

Not that he ever intends to use it in this world but it's nice to know his body is complete.

He limped onward.

Back at the bonfire, Tayo appeared like a ghost from a warzone—his clothing charred and singed, hair frazzled.

Henry blinked. “What the hell happened?”

Tayo eased himself onto a stone by the fire. “Lightning happened.”

He shot Daro a glare, but the elf only nodded, satisfied.

“Good,” Daro said. “All that’s left now is to reach level thirty-five.”

Tayo groaned and reached for a grilled fish.

“It didn’t work,” he muttered. “I can’t use lightning. I should be practicing water instead.”

“You’re hurt”, Hiro commented. “I can help. I’ve been learning to heal.”

“I’m alright,” he lied.

Hiro tilted her head. She had just seen him limping. She didn’t push it.

“It was the sword that got struck.”

She glanced at the sword, pristine and undamaged. But she said nothing. He was a tester. Maybe he knew something she didn’t.

She turned to the fire again. Moths had begun to flit about, drawn to the light. She reached out, trying to coax one onto her finger. It darted away.

“Please continue”, Henry said.

“My boyfriend, Haruto,” she said softly. “He lost his leg. That’s why I joined. To find an item that can restore him.”

“How’s he doing?”, Henry asked.

“He’s stable.” She stretched a hand to another moth. It too avoided her, this one fluttering too close to the flames. “It was my idea to enter the game. I wanted to see its beauty. The possibilities…”

She smiled a sad smile, one aware of the irony, now that she's trapped in here. The fire flickered in her face. “Once I find it, I’m done.”

She flinched. That last part had accidentally slipped out. She glanced at Daro. Was he listening?

She tries to recover, “—I’ll be able to focus, help everyone find a way out.”

Henry smiled. He saw the save for what it was and respected it.

“What about you?” Hiro asked Tayo. “Why did you enter?”

“I came as a guide,” he said quietly. “For the boy I was with. Outside, he was dying. Bedridden.”

“And now?”

“He’s... dead.” Tayo shook his head.

Hiro’s heart sank and was about to offer condolences, but Tayo moved past it before the grief could resurface completely in him.

“What about you?” he asked Henry.

Henry scratched his cheek. “Honestly? I came in because of friends too. They wanted to meet the girls.”

Tayo smiles. “Jim told me it was the other way round.”

“Who's the one with the girlfriend?” Henry countered, then grew serious. “I came in here to meet someone special and for the adventure. I didn’t know my life would be the price. Maybe it was a mistake coming in here… but I’m glad I met you guys.”

“Be glad all you want,” Daro said, standing now. “You won’t be here much longer if you don’t get stronger.”

He walks toward the fire.

“Get some rest. Your final test is soon.”

“What’s the test?” Hiro asked.

Daro’s eyes glinted in the firelight.

“Facing me.”

He extinguished the fire with a kick of sand.

Far away, in the haunted silence of the Temple of Eaki, the monstrous goblins and Kilobons gathered. Their master, Gotar, stood at the altar of Ea, armored, ready for battle.

He reached for the statue’s hand—stone fingers outstretched in an eternal gesture of peace—and held it gently.

“You were always kind to me, my lady,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t crouch in the dark any longer.”

Then, with a sudden clench, he crushed the hand to dust and looked straight into its eyes.

“This is our world. Not theirs.”

Behind him, a Kilobon scrambled into the chamber, panting.

“My lord,” it wheezed in beast-tongue. “We searched everywhere. We still don’t know where they went.”

Gotar didn’t turn. A wave of wind erupted from him, a blade of air slicing through the room and halting a hair’s breadth from the Kilobon’s throat.

A pause.

Then he exhaled slowly.

“Let’s go over the area again,” he said, voice cold and low. “Together.” He stood up.

The blade of air reversed direction, a boomerang of death. It returned—not to the creature’s neck—but to the statue of Ea. It cleaved through her form with ease, shattering the divine effigy into rubble.

The gods of this world were dead and he was in charge now.