The Betrayal that Was(n’t) – Part 2

After we gave the Profane Magic Crystals to Tanney, we moved to an early dinner outside, and chatted a bit before going back to bed. We’d be departing for Adaville in the morning, since everyone wanted to be in their best shape in case we were attacked again.

However, I couldn’t relax one bit after tucking in to sleep in Keil’s quarters. I kept thinking back to everything that was going on, and seemingly for the first time, my mind refused to turn away from the reality of it all.

Since staying in bed with insomnia is generally a bad idea, I decided to leave the Airdrake and go outside for a change. Immediately after going out, the chilly mountain air sucked my body heat away. With no light pollution, the starry sky and the bright moon were like gemstones, reminding me of that cave we were in hours prior. I was considering going back inside, seeing as it was so cold, but then I spotted an orange light coming from the campfire that should have been more than extinguished by this point.

When I approached it, there was a single girl sitting there, not doing much of anything. She didn’t have her brightly-colored priestess outfit on anymore, instead having a simple robe and a shawl she bought back in Adaville keeping her warm.

“Can’t sleep either?” I said as I approached Yzara.

“Oh, Takashi. Guess we’re on the same boat, huh?”

The tables and chairs from earlier had been tucked away, so I took a seat next to her in a boulder that had been left over from the ruins.

“So? What’s on yer mind?”

“Shouldn’t I be the one to ask you that? You were here first.”

“Ah, well,” she said as she scratched the back of her neck. “I suppose ya have a point.” She took in a big breath of chilly air. “I’ll tell ya. But promise not to laugh, okay? It’s a bit silly.”

“I’ll try—auch!”

Without her staff around, she resorted to punching me in the arm. Classic Yzara.

“Ya know, earlier, when I healed Fianna… she thanked me for it.”

I gave her time to finish her story, but she stopped there, never saying anything else.

“Huh? That’s it?”

“I told ya it was silly!” She said, looking longingly at the smouldering fire.

“So what’s the problem? Is it because you had to use Holy Magic? Is that what’s keeping you up?”

“Nah, I’m over that trauma. It’s deeper than that, I think.” She paused, and I let her collect her thoughts. The crackling of the fire filled the silence for us. “Ya know, back when I was the Demon Queen—not in title only, I mean—no one ever thanked me for anythin’.” A pause. “I ruled over the Dark Horde using my skills, and I forced loyalty out of my Generals by force. But I never saved anyone, or even offered help to anyone. If a General was wounded in battle—too bad, it was because they were weak. I ruled over many, but I was all alone in the end. And I… only realize that now.”

A prang of guilt crossed over my chest. After all, I had indirectly helped make Yzara who she had been in the game. I didn’t come up with her lore myself or anything, but I never pushed back against her characterization when the design decisions were taken, either.

But now that she had become real, the true consequences of that work came back to affect her in a real, tangible way. She was no longer just an evil NPC, the secret final boss of this game. She had a mind of her own—and somehow, over one hundred years, she had learned how to be human, for the lack of a better term.

“And wanna know the weirdest part?” she continued, “I never really thought any of that was wrong at the time. It’s like… I’m a different person now. For the sake of spreading Baelrak’s influence in this world, I did things the civilized races would consider to be ‘evil’—but I enjoyed every moment of it. When I think back to that time, I can’t help but be a bit… sad about it. What was the point of it all? Of so much fear and destruction? Surely there was a better way, right?”

“Isn’t all this because one hundred years have passed? You have grown and changed since then. It’s only natural.”

“Maybe. But I am a few centuries old. Wouldn’t I have realized it earlier?”

I knew why she hadn’t. It was because she couldn’t. She was just an AI before—an advanced one, sure, but just a glorified chatbot. She would never be able to find those contradictions, much less act on them.

And then Yzara completely caught me off-guard. “And then it hit me—it was the White Death’s fault.”

“The White Death?”

“Yeah. I was runnin’ way for almost a hundred years, and slowly lost all my power. And Baelrak never came to my rescue or anythin’. I thought… my title, my class, and my mission were my everything. And with all that gone, I was left truly alone. I… was ready to give up when ya found me,” she said, her words barely heard above the icy wind of the mountain.

My mind was cast back to the moment when I first met Yzara in that dead, monochromatic forest. She told me that I could kill her already—looking back, she looked ready to give up.

And yet—

“But you didn’t give up, did you? Otherwise, you wouldn’t have made me doubt the situation we were in.”

“I supposed that’s true. And now, can ya believe it, I’m actually afraid I’ll return to that dark place.”

“…What do you mean?”

Her silence was deafening.

“Getting my class unsealed will basically turn me into the Demon Queen again, right? I want it back. I want it back so bad, but at the same time… Will that make it so no one will thank me ever again? Will everyone fear me again? Will… the only relationships I have be based on power over others?”

“...”

I couldn’t answer her. I mean, I had a logical answer—that she’d still keep her memories, so she wouldn’t return to how she was a hundred years ago. But the problem was deeper than that—would her power “corrupt” her again? Would her mind be tempted to do those “evil” deeds once more?

Would I treat her any differently?

We just couldn’t answer that until we got the unsealing done.

“I sure didn’t expect this from the Queen of the Demons herself. Aren’t you supposed to be evil and all that?”

“Profane Magic isn’t inherently evil, ya know. But yeah, I get it. It’s out of character for me. No wonder people accuse the Demon Queen of being behind the White Death. I’m the big, scary bad woman, blamed for all the ills of this world, after all. Sigh… forget I said anythin’.” Yeah, I won’t forget this juicy tidbit anytime soon. “There’s my stupid confession. Now’s yer turn.”

I had to think. Why couldn’t I sleep? What was gnawing at my mind so much?

The answer came to me in one of those classic “lightbulb” moments.

“I suppose I have the same problem you do, actually.”

“What do ya mean? Are ya secretly the Demon King or somethin’?” She asked in a jovial tone.

“Nah, I mean… that absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

“Ahh… I get it.”

That was a universal—or I guess interdimensional—truth. Yzara was facing the possibility of getting her “absolute” power back, and what it would mean for her personality. But I had a sort of absolute power in my bag right now. The Debuggun, a stupid joke item used to test weird features, turned out to be an absolutely world-breaking “cheat” device. But here I was, using it rather casually to delete the White Death, spawn-stun mobs, forcing them to attack, and then resetting Tanney so she would be cured of her infection. Sure, all of these things could be considered to be “good”—but what if it somehow fell in the wrong hands? The possibilities were literally endless, and most of those were quite terrible in my eyes.

Now that I think about it, I guess Yzara saw the problem way before I ever did.

When she warned me to not show the Debuggun to anyone—she knew just how powerful this thing really was, and I hadn’t even used it in its most devastating way yet.

I explained all that to the Demon Queen—well, as best I could, omitting the parts I couldn’t talk about.

“Huh… Who would have thunk.”

“W-what?”

“I didn’t think ya gave two shits about any of us. But turns out ya do.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, ya’ve always been… how to put it. ‘Detached’ from this world. A bit like the Heroes of old, but somehow different. That’s why I asked ya about yer deal before.”

Man, guess she can see through me way better than I expected.

“Right. I get what you’re saying. Well… things have changed since I showed up. I don’t feel like using the Debuggun so lightly anymore.”

“In that case, I suppose yer conundrum is easier to solve than mine. When we beat the White Death, just destroy that gun.”

“We?”

“I told ya. We’re gonna beat that thing—together. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all that. I’ll soon have most of my power back, and then we can finally stop runnin’ away.”

A smile bled into my face. “Thanks, Yzara. You’re the worst Demon Queen I could ask for.”

“Yer welcome. Now,” she said as she stood up, with a smile way too bright for demonkin to have, “how about we get some sleep? I don’t wanna get the ‘Zombie Queen’ title when we unseal my class.”