Game 15: Nikolai's Gambit

Makoto was the first to be tracked down by the thieves. He was more focused on the initial mission than on his own safety, so it didn't take long for Nikolai, the gunner, to find him. Armed with a giant handheld turret, Nikolai smiled a huge, devilish grin as he took aim at Makoto.

“This is the best part of my job. Taking out the competition.”

As soon as Nikolai began to fire away, Makoto quickly said, “Magic Art: Fairy Steps!” and just barely managed to get away. Having landed on the floor below, he then quietly said to himself, “Time for a little mimicry.” He attempted to mimic the disembodied announcer's voice, saying “Game Over,” as if he had been defeated.

Seemingly satisfied with himself, Nikolai simply said “One down. A bunch to go.” He then went to find the other players.

•

Aisha was the next to be found. As she wasn't a very fast runner, it took hardly any time for Sejun, the brawler, to find her.

“I'd hate to have to mess up such a pretty face,” Sejun complimented her, “but the boss wouldn't be very happy if I let you run away.”

However, before he could strike, his fists were met by Proteus’ antlers, as the latter had charged towards him in his deer form.

“Traitor!” Sejun screamed at Proteus. The two struggled for quite a while, but Sejun had to relent as soon as he saw his Life go from 4 to 3 to 2 quickly.

Proteus morphed back into his human form. “This fight isn't worth having, Sejun. You know me better than that!”

“Whatever,” Sejun scoffed. “Just wait until Jacques gets his hands on you.” He then ran off to find someone else to fight.

•

Next, Takeshi had been tracked down by Jacques. Much like Rita, Jacques had an ample supply of magic arrows he could use to take down Takeshi. However, because Takeshi had experience with Rita's arrows, he had learned to dodge them with enough effort.

“What are a bunch of thieves doing in a library anyways?” Takeshi asked his opponent.

“That's on a need to know basis,” Jacques blankly answered. “And you don't need to know. Ice Arrow.” Jacques fired arrows, trying to find Takeshi through the bookshelves.

“Considering you seem to think it's worth killing me and my friends over, I think I have a need to know, actually.”

Jacques found a moment to stop firing arrows. “A little birdie told us about a secret treasure hidden deep within these walls,” Jacques explained. “There were three clues to finding it: One. A grove where spring never ends. There's an enchanted garden north of here where the flowers are in constant bloom no matter the season. Two. Something old and something new crossing paths. Deep within this forest, there is a young sapling and an old rotted trunk that touch each other. Three. The treasure would be found where the man-made meets the natural. This library, seemingly built at random in this forest. Seemed like the perfect place to hide some treasure.”

“Why did you tell me all those details?” Takeshi asked him.

“Because dead men cannot speak,” Jacques told him. “Bomb Arrow.” Jacques named a type of arrow Takeshi didn't know about. It may have been a type of arrow even Rita didn't know about.

However, before he could release the arrow, Rita called out “Steel Arrow!” Jacques turned around to see where the shouting was coming from. However, he failed to realize until it was too late that he had dropped his bow in the process.

“Oh m-”

The ensuing explosion rocked the entire library, catching the attention of Makoto. “I sure hope there wasn't anything important up there.” Before he could investigate further, though, Kat and Tommy, the casters, had found him, trying to use their lightning magic to subdue him.

Rita tried to make her way over to Takeshi, hoping he wasn't caught in the explosion. She had, unfortunately, been caught by Bingo, who fought with a large gauntlet.

Takeshi himself tried to get back to the center of the library, but Javi, the swordsman, had intercepted him instead.

•

Eventually, everyone except for one person made it to the center of the library. As everyone was in such close proximity to each other, everyone hesitated to continue fighting. It was Jacques who noticed someone was missing from the crowd.

“Hey, where is Nikolai?”

Nikolai was on the floor above them, climbing a stack of old books to get a better vantage point.

“Looks like we got a full house,” Nikolai noted. “The more the merrier.” Before anyone could react, the entire library suddenly erupted in a shower of gunfire, suspiciously timed to the rhythm of classical music. Everyone else tried as well as they could to dodge the oncoming gunfire, but a large explosion had caught nearly everyone in the process.

Several players had been knocked into bookshelves, others thrown to the ceiling before dropping to one of the library's many floors, others still thrown up against the walls. Surprisingly, none of the players had been defeated in the explosion. The closest were Sejun and Jacques, who both got knocked down to one Life.

Jacques quickly recovered from the blast, emerging from a stack of charred books to make his way over to Nikolai, who had just landed back on the first floor. “Espèce d'idiot! Tu aurais pu nous faire perdre la Vie à tous!” Jacques snapped at Nikolai in French. His berating of his comrade had been cut short, however, by a single shot to the stomach. Everyone in the room gasped in horror at the sight. Nikolai had just betrayed Jacques.

“You…”

“I'm sorry, Jacques,” Nikolai told him. “You meant so much to me. But there was one last clue I withheld from you…”

“What?!”

“The fourth clue was written in the form of a question. It asked, ‘How much are you willing to sacrifice in order to find untold riches?’ I knew you wouldn't go along with it if you knew what the last clue was.”

“You… you knew…”

“And by the way, I'm the one who stole your lunch that day, not Proteus.”

Jacques said nothing. He merely accepted his fate as his body began to fade away. In no time, he was gone, and in his place, a rose sigil appeared on the floor. Nikolai instinctively walked towards the sigil, expecting to be granted his reward. None of the thieves knew what the sigil meant, but Takeshi's gang knew exactly what it meant. Trouble.

“Get away!” Takeshi shouted. “It's a trick!”

But it was too late. As soon as Nikolai stepped onto the rose sigil, he was engulfed in a column of red energy. The sigil began to grow in size, aiming to trap others in its grasp. Most of the others were too far away, but Kat became enamored with the sight of the energy column.

“It's so beautiful…” Kat said as the column engulfed her as well.

•

Everyone else had made it out of the library just in time. The library's dome structure gave way, revealing a giant monster emerging from the rubble. The monster had two heads, presumably one representing Nikolai and one representing Kat.

“How are we supposed to defeat that?!” Proteus complained.

“I've got an idea!” Rita shouted. “It's a new trick I learned from Jacques. Bomb Arrow!” She fired a single arrow at the monster. Having just been formed, the two-headed monster was in a weakened state, so the arrow was able to make its mark. The monster fell with ease.

“Game Over.”

•

As the nine remaining players watched the flaming rubble of the library crumble away, it was Sejun who made the first remark. “Proteus, on behalf of my fallen comrades, I would like to apologize to you. Were it not for Nikolai's confession, we would have never known the truth behind that incident.”

“You tried to kill Proteus over a stolen lunch?” Takeshi asked, partially confused, partially disgusted.

“We were always meant to take our vows seriously,” Sejun explained. “I just never expected our vows to lead us here.”

“So what now?” Rita asked.

“We each made our vows to Jacques, and to Jacques alone,” Bingo explained. “Now that he is no longer with us, we are no longer under that obligation.”

“You could come with us,” Proteus offered, taking the place Takeshi usually occupies. “We have a village near here that is always welcoming to new people.”

“That is a very kind offer,” Sejun told him. “I think we will take it into consideration. But for now, we must go our separate ways, and uncover that truth for ourselves.”

And so they did, leaving Takeshi's gang alone to figure out what to do next.

“Well, that mission was a bust,” Makoto complained.

“I wouldn't call it a total bust,” Proteus corrected him, as he pulled a book out from his bag. “I only took a quick glance at the title, but I figured it could be useful.”

“A Developer's Diary: Explaining the Chaos Directive,” Takeshi read the title. “By T. C. Set…”

“T. C. Set?” Proteus asked. “Do you think that's Mr. Set?”

“There's only one way to find out,” Takeshi told him. “We'll have to read through the book.”