Hero
One moment, they were all about to die and everything was handled. Sapphire was delusional, there was no way she would have stopped the ball. She probably thought it was some divine necessity.
So what happened?! What caused the Sphere to suddenly vanish? I hadn’t even seen whatever killed me. That was.. Rare. It hardly even happened. There wasn’t even pain?
I kicked the tree a few more times in rage. How could this happen? It had been the perfect setup. I walked over and looked down at the wedding scene. It looked like a maritime disaster. The whole thing was on a massive ship that was on a beech. The altar was an anchor, there were chains instead of banners everywhere. And the priest was literally tied to the anchor. Tardriss wasn’t even an ocean nation… In fact, the only person I knew had an obsession with chains was Alissa.
Something had gone wrong. This wasn’t just some narrative mishap. Someone or something had sabotaged me. But what, what sabotaged me? It couldn’t have been the system. It was many things, but it was not capable of stopping a plan in motion. It set things up, it didn’t intervene directly.
That means… I looked over the girls. Sapphire holding her head and looking around confused, Alissa helping Bloom up from the ground, Ruby was vacantly staring at the ship. That was… wait… My eyes fell on a certain strategist. Had.. had she been here the whole time?
My mind whirled, I didn’t actually know her skill set. She was a strategist, so I had always assumed something related to planning. But thinking back… My eyes narrowed.
The first time I met her she was unconsciously being dragged around by Alissa. Alissa was a competent fighter, but she was not that smart. She had claimed Amanda was her second in command and very smart.
She seemed to be almost pleading with me at the time. The next time we met, was at the inn, she had killed me.. By slitting my throat. I hadn’t even seen her do it. All I saw was the empty chair before I died. I surely would have seen her move? Right?
Then when I came back, she was calmly drinking tea with a dagger in her thigh. The moment Alissa had appeared, she had appeared as well. Calmly next to her.. Just like now.
Maybe she.. ! I whirled around on guard, only to see Dorknozzle coming out of the forest carrying a dead baby spider. I frowned as I looked at the singular baby spider. Then they came by the hundreds and I was, for the second time in five minutes, killed. This time, by murderous baby spiders.
I respawned next to Alissa who turned to see me. Her eyes lit up. “Oh! You came to visit!” Do you like the venue? I made it perfectly for us!”
I sighed and smiled at Alissa. “Yes, it’s very.. Ship like. Did Bloom mention anything?”
She tilted her head slightly then frowned. For a moment, I thought maybe.. But no. “Yes, she told me you made her part of the harem! You have to tell me these things! Luckily, I planned ahead.”
I shook my head. “I meant about the massive water Sphere.”
She looked contemplative for a second. “Oh yea, that came out of nowhere! That would have ruined everything. I assume you must have handled it for us. Since it just vanished, and then you showed up!”
“I see, say, when did your second show up?” I asked casually as my eyes fell on Amanda. She didn’t seem to be paying attention to much of anything. She looked bored. Still, something was.. Off.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Oh? She was the first one here. I dropped by the inn in Emerald and grabbed her before getting Ruby. I didn’t know Sapphire was part of the harem, but I am glad we have both sisters!” Alissa rambled off as I stared at Amanda.
She seemingly refused to make eye contact. Not in the stupid brain dead way, but like she was hiding something. I turned back to Alissa, to find she was gone and Ruby was standing there, looking at me with desire. Her dress had glitched and she was not wearing underwear.. Again.
I ignored Ruby’s attempt to say hi and walked over to Amanda. “Hello.” I said casually as I walked up. She turned and looked up at me with clear boredom written across her features.
“Yea? Whatcha need?” She said in an annoyed tone.
I smiled back and pointed towards the hill. “That is an awful long way to go in one movement wouldn't you agree? Practically teleportation. I do wonder, can you teleport? Maybe fly?”
Amanda raised an eyebrow and said. “No? That seems oddly specific though. Maybe I can help you solve your issue?”
I bit my lower lip. “It’s just, I was killed again and didn’t see who did it. I figured it had to be someone whom I didn’t know about. So I figured I would just check out your abilities. As one of my harem members, that shouldn’t be a problem right?”
Amanda snorted and said “Why? You think I stopped time and ran up the hill, killed you, then magically used some power I didn’t have to stop the water Sphere from landing?"
I paled at her words. She smirked slightly. I bit my lower lip and said. “Apprantly not. That would be crazy.”
“I completely agree.” She responded. “Imagine pissing off someone who could do that though? That would be stupid as hell.”
I swallowed. “Maybe, but not for someone immortal.” My words were calm, but I was shivering for some reason.
“Maybe, maybe not. It’s probably best not to find out.” Amanda finished with an almost kind smile.
I turned, and walked back over to Ruby. “So, Ruby, please change your dress.” I said as I tried not to stutter.
“Oh, by the way, Hero. Maybe if you used your powers correctly, they wouldn’t backfire so badly.” Amanda’s voice was sudden and I felt a chill. I turned around, but she was still just sitting in the chair looking bored. She looked up and our eyes met. I blinked and looked back at Ruby, who had been replaced with Sapphire who was giving me a teary-eyed look.
“I am so sorry! I don’t know what happened!” She cried out as she hugged me. She then squealed and ran away.
Turning, I looked back at Amanda. She was powerful, that was certain. It meant I literally only had one option left. I glanced over at Alissa, my first wife. My only wife, and a single tear ran down my cheek. It had to end.
Alissa rushed around getting everyone to sit down as the seats were filled by spawning in NPC’s. The King was there, The General I killed was there. Hundreds of people all over the toybox, spawned into this one area.
The glitching was horrible. I watched a plastic red chair glitch into the ground then go flying into a passerby who died on contact with the menacing chair. This world was broken, it was so very broken… It was all my fault.
I pulled out the ring I had looted from General Tardriss and sighed as I looked carefully at its enchantment. One last plan, one last try. “To make things right, or all is nigh.” I whispered to myself.
I walked directly up to Alissa as I put on a big smile. Kneeling, I held up the ring. It took her a moment to notice, but she looked ecstatic as she took it. Tears filled her eyes and she slowly put it on before grabbing me in a hug. I felt her body go limp a moment later as the venom entered her system.
Instant death, a special venom only found in a very special boss encounter. One deep in the forest. A certain spider matriarch. Tears filled my eyes as I held her body close to me. Truly, she was the only one I cared about in this accursed realm. I would be back for her, and this time. There would be no harems.
The world around me screeched. I heard a horrible rending sound as the Toybox realized I had just kill a main quest NPC. It did the only thing it knew to do when that happened. The same thing that happened when I had killed Ruby during the first quest line. When I had destroyed the Emerald Kingdom, When I had…
I blinked away my tears as the world began to fade. White began to cover the world and I whispered “I’ll be back soon.” and everything vanished.
Right before I lost all sense of self, a voice cut through. It was Amanda’s. “Clever girl, let's hope you do it right next time…”
