Lasz

  Max’s view turo bck, before fading in to the inside of a vish throne room, where two individuals appeared to be engaged in fierce battle. The sound of swords g reverberated between the walls and filled the room with a solemn iy. This robably an introductory cutse, on at the start of MMOs to introduew pyers to the game’s lore.

  ‘Wait!’ Max blinked in surprise. ‘I know this pce! This is the Demon King’s Castle!’

  The final battle in Virtek’s first ever capsule game ‘Hero of Liberation’ was against the game’s main antagonist, The Demon King, who was sidered the root of all evil after sending legions of his followers to subjugate human cities and spread terror across the nd.

  This was until the humans used an a holy relimon a hero from another world. This hero was the pyable character Valerius, whose objective is lead the People’s Army, gaining strength from his unique levelling system to liberate the humans from the enemy’s tyrannical rule.

  “Argh!” A well-pced ssh from the hero inflicted a deep wound on the Demon King, returning Max’s focus.

  “You... *huff* You still don’t uand, do you hero? Do you uand?! Even if you defeat me here, your as will affeothing! They are FUTILE!” The Demon King withdrew and took a gss vial from his waist, crushing the gss in his fingers and dripping the tents onto his cerated arm. “No, not only futile; they will exacerbate your plight! For if it is not me, it will be another, and that other will be much crueller and more vicious than I; they will have no honour in the way that they-”

  “Do not speak to me of honour! The hero roared in anger. “You do not know what that word means. I have watched as your underlings raped and tormented i women and children. I have seen them burn homes to the ground. I have seen them feed on the blood and flesh of my rades as their eyes filled with mirth aasy. YOU MONSTERS KNOW NO HONOUR!” The hero swung with greater force, causing the King to be knocked bato his throne.

  “Do your words ly demonstrate my mercy?! Those humahrough hardships, yes, but those who did not resist me were permitted to live! They were allowed life under my reign! I am a leader of MERCY. My death will n about an era of peace as you have so deluded yourself into believing; it will only invoke more death! Is that what it is? Do you desire more death, hero?!

  An impcable sense of loathiered Valerius’s eyes as he stared at the demon across from him. “As expected, you know not of mercy either.” He activated a rune on his sword’s pommel, causing it to bze with heat. “There is no mer perpetual suffering.” He spat. “Be gd that I shall spare you of that realisation.”

  The Demon King was uo react as Valerius instantly gained speed and stabbed the sword into his side. Shocked, his eyes widened, and his own sword cttered to the floor. A blue light reflected in his eyes as he caught notice of an agility rune carved iher side of the hero’s pommel.

  Valerius adjusted his sword to the Demon King’s heart and pierced it without hesitation.

  “Hell is not warm enough for you bastards.”

  He retracted his sword with a spray of blood, and moved past the corpse to the inner castle, purple blood dripping dowip of his bde as he walked.

  ‘Too cool.’ Max thought to himself. He’d never seen Valerius from a third-person perspective before, but that looked really awesome; it was like a movie.

  Uedly, a ripple occurred in the floor before the throne as the ground became transparent. The Demon King’s corpse was sucked underh and caught by another demon, who was dressed like a butler.

  ‘Eh? Th-That’s what happened?!’

  In the inal game, The Demon King’s corpse would disappear when the pyer left the room, and there was never an expnation as to why. There wasn’t any underground floor in the castle either, at least not ohe pyer could access.

  Overtaken by curiosity, he jumped into the ripple to iigate.

  To his astonishment, there was a massive spader the castle, packed with demons in all dires. He appeared to be invisible to them, so he iigated with i. These were likely the remnants of the Demon King’s Army, posed of a diverse range of species. From undead liches, lesser and demi-demons, to subordinate species such as vampires, werewolves and even demonic beasts. It seemed as though there were a few of everything gathered here.

  They all seemed to be moving in one uniform dire, so Max followed with his eyes to find the destination.

  ‘Ah.’

  Of course, It ortal. The demons were moving in droves toward a swirling purple rift in the air, as they were ushered through hurriedly by their rades. This was an evacuation.

  “FATHER!” A child-sized demon ran into Max, passing straight through him as she reached the butler who was holding the Demon King’s body.

  “Don’t look, child. Your father wouldn’t want you to see him in this state.”

  “What state?!” The little girl was in tears. “He’s okay, right? He’ll be fine?”

  “...Yes, princess. Your father will be fine. He just needs some time to heal is all. Now be silent. If the hero hears us down here it will be our demise.”

  The girl looked like she was about to cry, but heless nodded and became quiet.

  After some time, the pair went through the portal and disappeared from view. Not having anything else to do, Max followed them through.

  The se ged to a clear gss ptform in the sky, positioned above a vast gathering of demons. Rather than ing out of the portal exit, he seemed to be looking down upon it.

  “Hello, person from another world.” A soothing voitered his ears. Max looked up to see a beautiful and elegantly dressed woman standing across from him. “The se you just saw is the story of how demons invaded our p.” She sat down oform and cradled her knees as she gazed down at the ground with a mencholic expression.

  “After the hero Valorius defeated the Demon King in another world, his followers came here. Though few in hey were strong and mao easily overpower the weak humans living in this world, firmly establishing footholds for themselves.”

  The surroundings ged, as time seemed to accelerate and flicker through numerous fierce battlefields.

  “It was a massacre. Humans were sughtered by the hundreds of millions over the span of several turies. I was able to give them a fighting ce, but it was barely enough for them to survive, much less retake their homends... They came at the worst possible time.”

  The dy then turo look at Max. “I suppose I should introduce myself. My name is Lucia, or as the people of this world call me, the ‘Goddess of Life’.” She smiled, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Now that you know that, the part should be a bit easier to uand.”

  Max didn’t say anything and just listened along quietly. He loved lore in games.

  “When the demons invaded, it was during a time that the gods of this world were embroiled in a civil war. Well, rather than a civil war, it was more like one of our own turraitor and wished to seize power for himself.” She swished her hand to ge the surroundings again. This time the location appeared to be a sort of underground paradise, with beautiful wildlife, magnifit architecture, and warm light ing from an unknown source. Max could actually feel a for the air which exuded a tangible soothiion on his skin.

  “That traitor was the God of Death, Obitus. To put it simply, he was delusional. He believed that if he absorbed the abilities of all the ods, he would set foot into a realm of further transdence, beyond the dominion of deities.” Lucia shook her head. “And so he started attag the ods one by one, corrupting their nervous systems with his magid abs their abilities. To be clear, gods are a form of spirit life, so abs their abilities is tantamount to killing them.”

  Max o indicate that he uood. Not sure what he would do with this information, but now he knew.

  “Notig the plight of the humans on the p surface, I used a unique application of soul magic tthen their souls, allowing them to grow strength beyond biological limitations through abs soul fragments from the enemy army.”

  Max raised his eyebrows. Was she saying the NPCs could also level up? If so, that would be pretty awesome.

  “Unfortunately, that spell took a lot out of me, and I was forced to sequester away in a safe location while my rades fought against Obitus. In the end, they lost, and he killed all of them, abs all their abilities.”

  “I’m sorry.” Max finally spoke to offer his sympathies.

  “Don’t be. They lived long and good lives.” Her face brightened a bit.

  Max was a bit surprised at how responsive she was to his ent. Was the AI a bit smarter in this game, pared to the previous one?

  “Anyways, Obitus found me eventually, and resumably drunk on his newfound powers because he took me lightly. My powers are mostly focused on healing and purifiagid I’d only retly learnt soul magic, so he didn’t even put me in his eyes as a threat.”

  “I mao take him down, but he wounded me in the process, and it was a heavy blow. Having used nearly all of my magic power at the time, I was forced to use the remaining amount to stay alive and was left in a weakeate for about two-hundred years. For the followiury, I pieced together enough mana to perform a summoning spell, bringing you here, among others.”

  “I’ve copied a small part of your soul in order t you here and create an astral duplicate of your body, and I also imbued it with the same soul magic which should allow you to absorb the essence of any enemies you defeat in battle. I hope you aid me te the demons from our world aore peace, as a hero of the people.” Lucia smiled brightly.

  Max smiled in response, while internally w if she was actually happy due to his arrival, or happy from the fact that she’d finally fihat massive monologue.

  “I uand that was a lot to take in all at once. Do you have any questions, hero?”

  ‘Questions...’ Max thought for a moment.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Eh? Am I okay?” Lucia appeared pletely taken aback by the question.

  “I mean, all of your friends are gone, you’re alone and you had to gh all of this hardship by yourself... It would be normal to feel overwhelmed by all of that, right?”

  “...Ah, you’re right. I just didn’t expect that sort of question.” Lucia took a moment to gather her thoughts, before fshing a radiant smile. “I’m okay. I speak with the humans on the p surface through prayer, so I haven’t been pletely alone.” She looked at Max with an unknowion in her eyes. “Thank you for thinking about me though. You seem like a kind person, Gun. I wish you good lu your adventures.”

  “...”

  ‘Aaaand my immersion is ruierrible game. Uninstalling.’

  With that horrible ending to the game’s introduax was transported to the surfad the game’s live service began.