Meeting/Luna: Part Four

“There are 79 Angel Candies spread out across the continent, and one jar. Consuming an Angel Candy will halt your aging for one year and temporarily bestow you with god-like power; however if you would actually like to become a god then collect the jar and as many candies as you can and fight your way past region 10, and I will bestow upon you immortality and the power to rewrite reality itself.”

Everest recounted the words of the being proclaiming to be a God. Luna nodded, “Naturally, the scale of the magic at work was proof of enough of her claim.”

“The contested zone, or Region One as it’s become known, was considered a safe zone since, if you can believe it, death is no longer possible there. People kill each other until they’ve leveled up enough to move on to Region 2. At Level 20 you’re forcibly ejected from the Region. Technically, you have the ability to leave the region at level 10. In Region 2 we are gifted with 10 lives, and forcibly ejected at level 30 unless you form a party. In the event of a party formation, all members of the party must be at level 20 in order to proceed to the next region. It’s a bizarre system with an obvious loophole. It almost seems purposeful.”

“You can continue leveling up as long you’re partied up with someone under level 30.”

“Exactly. Those at the top of the regional rankings are far beyond level 30.” Luna’s face twitched as she spoke. She wanted to fight them badly, “However, that is not our objective. She didn’t say we had to compete. The Mythos’ goal is search and rescue. Many of our Fae and Demi brethren were displaced and our goal is to be reunited with them. I’m sure Everest has already mentioned she’s looking for her family, but so too are a lot of others.” Luna took another sip of tea, “That’s just about everything as far as broad strokes go, I’m sure you have some questions for us, now’s the time as they say.”

Katya wasn’t sure how to process everything she’d just heard. To think some god decided to upend everyone’s lives for their own entertainment. It was unthinkable, and dangerous. This place wasn’t safe, nowhere on this planet was safe. Katya had been in awe of her new companions abilities and she’d been told that there were more powerful people out there, but the power scaling must be insane. She couldn’t even process how powerful the foes in Region 10 must be. She felt the sudden urge to run to her room and hide there. It was a familiar feeling. Sometimes isolation was good, sometimes it was therapeutic. Perhaps if she holed herself up in her room and closed her eyes she might be back home. Home. She suddenly felt a bit queasy. Home. Home was bad. Maybe she had wished to come here, maybe this was all her doing. Was this ALL her doing? The responsibility was too much for her to even comprehend. She was spiraling. It was best to push all these thoughts down and focus on the three people in front of her. Focus on something else.

“So…Luna, you sing- do you sing?” Ack, dumbass, the words just plopped out of her mouth. What a dumb thing to ask! That’s the best save she could come up with. She suddenly felt like bashing her head into the coffee table.

“I can. I don’t see why that’s relevant.”

“It’s not, it’s not! I couldn’t think of anything to ask… oh, wait… Everest what’s a Warhawk? I imagine it’s some sort of bird person, right?”

Everest looked at Opal then turned toward Luna.

“The brunt of the Great War took place over a 50 year period, there were great wins and greater losses on both sides. And with that came the rage of progress. Each side wanted nothing more than to end the war in as swift, bloody, and violent a manner as possible and so were in a depraved race to create the most horrifyingly devastating weapon possible. This led to the creation of a new race of beings called Chimera. The humans used every resource at their disposal including ancient summoning and polymerization spells they knew nothing about in order to fuse together different races and even spawn entirely new species of intelligent magical beasts. Some, like the Warhawks, looked mostly human except for their exceptional strength, flight ability, and ability to channel mana. Others were so terrifyingly grotesque and malicious that I won’t even disclose their names. After the war the humans disowned the Chimera they’d created and sent them to live in the Demi-zone. Of course, due to the fact that they were artificial and created by humans, they weren’t widely accepted in the Demi-zone. There were some that managed to find peaceful, accepting places such as the Overhill family, but many even to this day haven’t been able to find that same peace.”

“Our family was certainly one of the lucky ones. Especially, since we were placed under the protection of Lady Luna.”

“Speaking of,” Katya knew that what she was about to ask wouldn’t lead to a proper answer but she was still curious, “Miss Luna, what exactly is your position in all of this. Elves live long lives, or so I’ve heard, so I assume you were alive through a lot of the events you’ve described. What were you doing, and how did you gain such respect from those around you?”

Luna stared at Katya while taking a sip from her cup. She released it and it floated back to the side table.

“Is that what you’ve heard? Hmm. I’m afraid you’re misinformed. Elves only live about 40-50 years longer than humans. We elves grow to about 60 years and then begin aging backward, thus we spend a majority of our lives looking relatively young. This led to the myth that we do not age. I’m sorry to disappoint.”

Luna was sure by now that Katya was lying about her amnesia, but she also didn’t seem like she knew anything about this world. It might be possible she’s been summoned here, but that magic has been lost for almost 1000 years; Luna made sure to bury it where it wouldn’t be found. If they made it back to that place, Luna would have to check the grave. It would be unfortunate if some grave robber came into possession of those pages or that thing’s body. That wasn’t relevant right now.

Katya was a strange girl, someone whom it would be good to keep close and watch carefully. It was rather obvious that the girl currently had a crush on Luna so keeping her close wouldn’t be difficult. The question now was how much did she know and how much information should Luna share with her? There were some things she found difficult to talk about, and others that were irrelevant to the current era. It was probably best to treat her as an amnesiac as she wished. It wasn’t exactly common knowledge that Elves were not as long lived as humans thought they were but it wasn’t a secret anyone was trying to hide, it was also common knowledge that Luna herself was long lived, or more like an open secret. Only her closest circle was concretely aware that she was part of the original elf bloodline. Reactions would be mixed if she were to come out in the open and say it, which was why she led with that at the start of the meeting and as the meeting had worn on she’d become more and more sure that this girl really didn’t know anything. It was quite the interesting mystery.

“Is there anything else you wish to know?”

“I think that about covers everything.”

“Good. Oh! One more thing, have you appraised her level Opal?” Opal looked put on the spot, her eyes rolled around like pinballs as she tried to figure out what to say.

“She did. It was level 29.” Everest quickly covered for her.

“Splendid, I hope to see your battle prowess at our next skirmish.”

“Next skirmish?”

“You remember that battle we fought in a while ago?”

Katya remembered, “Yeah, that was crazy. What was that about anyway?”

“As Lady Luna said, we need to level up to cross the barrier, and almost everyone we come across is in a similar situation. They’re either trying to go after the Candies or hoping to reunite with a loved one. So when two villages meet it’s become customary to have a short battle. It helps us gain experience and establishes the power dynamic between the two.”

“I suppose that makes sense.” Katya quietly digested this information, then, “You want me to fight?!?