The Throne Room Kissed By Moonlight

The throne room was dimly lit by candlelight. The walls stretched higher than the light could reach. Each wall beside me was draped with two long banners identical to those outside.

In front of me was a long black and gold rug leading up to four thrones of varying sizes, three of which were empty. Above them was a large banner, centered between two stained-glass windows.

Moonlight shone through the glass, illuminating the figures depicted in them. On the left was a woman in purple holding a white circle in the palm of her outstretched hand, while the right showed a man in red holding a yellow circle in his.

As I neared the thrones, a woman in a mask rose from the largest seat. The ornate golden mask covered the upper half of her facial features, leaving only her dark, painted lips visible. Her long, dark brownish hair ended in large curls and covered the frame of her face.

As she stepped toward us, coming to a halt at the edge of a platform, the bottom of her black, brown, and gold dress bounced around her feet. She opened her arms as she greeted us.

“Welcome, Miss Velda. Ah, and Endymion, welcome home. Your sword?”

“Stolen.”

“Ah, well, no harm. You can always make another one.”

The knight stood at my right, his unwavering gaze fixed on the woman. His eyes were slightly narrowed, giving the impression that he was glaring.

“Well, Miss Velda, I believe it’s time to introduce myself properly. I… am the Queen of this lovely kingdom. ‘Eris’ is My username.”

She placed a hand on her chest as she spoke, smirking when she finished.

“Username… so you are—“

“Yes!” She paused to spread her arms out again, the moonlight shining down on her from the windows above. “I fell from above, along with you and our other brethren. Unfortunately… only you and I remain.”

“… What?”

Eris folded her hands and frowned. I could imagine the apologetic expression she made behind the mask.

“I truly am sorry, but there was nothing that could be done. One by one, they lost their lives to the source of the corruption.”

Corruption… she means the glitches, right?

“The glitches— the ones that separated me from my body, is that why I ended up… like this?”

“Yes, Miss Velda. The same power stripped them of their bodies as well. As beings made of pure ‘source code,’ they could do nothing to stop the corruption of their avatars. Luckily for you and Me, we found some useful bodies to inhabit.”

She smiled at me as if the loss of our team meant little to nothing. I clenched my fists, and Faye’s last moments flashed through my mind.

“Don’t you… feel anything for them? I mean, that body belonged to an NPC, but what about the others? They were real.”

Eris frowned and crossed her arms. The knight turned to look at me with a semblance of confusion in his eyes.

“Real, yes. But they failed to survive in this unreal world.”

You—! Wait…

“No, that doesn’t make sense. They should’ve been able to inhabit bodies like us. There was also that other thing, the… the support—“

“Do you remember how to call it?”

“No…”

Eris returned to her throne and sat down, folding her hands in her lap.

“Nor do I. Nor did they. As for why they didn’t inhabit bodies like us… they never tried. They were all so obsessed with returning to their own. They cried out to the skies, hoping for an answer, while I adjusted to my new body. Without bodies, their memories faded into nothing.”

No, even then—

“In the end, they became like regular ghosts. Mindless floaters haunting the space where they died. When I saw them like that, I decided to leave and never return… Do you understand now?”

I glared at the woman as she sat comfortably on her throne. She moved to rest her chin on the back of her right hand.

Even without most of my memories, I still have sentience. I’m sure they would too. But something tells me that this ‘Eris’ wants me to trust and follow her word, and she won’t accept any resistance.

Her story reeks of bold-faced lies. I can’t refute her without any evidence, and I feel like I’d lose even if I did. She put herself in a comfy spot and molded this world to her pleasure.

I sighed loudly and looked up at Eris with an indifferent expression.

“I’m glad I woke up where I did. If you’d found me first, I’m sure you would’ve filled my head with more of your nonsense.”

“What?”

Eris sat up straight and placed her hands on the armrests of her throne. Her gold-painted nails scratched against the metal at the ends as she pulled herself forward.

“Maybe you don’t understand. You have no body, no memories, and nowhere to go where I won’t find you. Make this easy on yourself— offer Me your allegiance.”

She leaned her elbows on the armrests and intertwined her fingers. The knight beside me moved his left hand to his medallion, and I remembered the action it preceded before.

If I trust what the knight told me, attempting to steal his body is a no-go. Eris has been around for longer than I have, and the things Vivian said mean that she knows how to do something I don’t.

“Well, Miss Velda? Will you thrive gloriously alongside the real protagonist of this world, or flee and struggle like a pitiful worm as your very being slips away from you?”

“I…”

I didn’t come here to be a god. I just wanted to play a game.

“I choose… to survive, my own way.”

Eris jumped to her feet and made a motion to the knight. His pupils began to glow slightly, and he spun to face me. His right arm threw his cloak behind his back as it swept outward.

I recognized the arm from when he’d stabbed me before. The hand was large and rock-like, with sharp, pointed fingers. The place where it attached to the elbow stuck out in sharp points, making the forearm look like it’d been split from a stone statue.

I saw a soft blue light shining from a slit in his chest before I swerved away. I sped toward the castle door without looking back.

“Run, little one, but remember— this world is limited. There is nowhere you can go that I cannot follow!”

I fled through the closed door and up into the sky. I turned to the place where the light rose from below. I shook my head and flew toward it, the kingdom becoming a speck of darkness behind me.