Chapter 22: Chapter 22

“This quest is a goddamn clusterfuck,” May complained.

“Language!” Pari said jokingly. “I should carry a ruler to slap your wrist, like mean old nuns used to.”

“So, you’re saying that you’re into kinky discipline?” May teased. Pari rolled her eyes.

The two women were each engaged in dragging the body of a dead NPC demon out of the canyon and into a cave they had found. Although there were was an open sky above this terrain, they were not in the normal game world—this quest was an instance.

The dead NPCs were tall and wearing heavy armor. Even with their increased strength in this world, May and Pari found moving them slow going. And if they strained themselves too much, their stamina began dropping.

After a time, they succeeding in stashing the bodies at the back of the cave. The slain demons joined a pile of eight of their nearly identical comrades. There was only a small amount of sunlight reaching this far back, so May materialized her magical torch to better see her companion. “Do you think that’s all of them?” she asked.

“Probably. There were ten in the south half too.”

“I don’t wanna gamble—we know what happens when the NPCs see us or our handiwork.”

“You’re right. We should do a thorough pass to be sure.”

The quest was a stealth-based maze. The enemies consisted of two types of patrols. The primary patrols were too numerous and powerful to fight—they had to be avoided. They normally traveled in a predictable pattern. The secondary patrols consisted of pairs of demons, each an ordinary monster vulnerable to crits. All the monsters in this instance carried bullhorns that if blown, sent every patrol into a frenzy of searching.

May and Pari had assassinated the secondary patrols one by one, sneaking up on them from behind and stabbing them in the heart. The first time they had done this, they had not realized that leaving the bodies out in the open would raise the alarm. This had led to a desperate sprint to the exit ahead of a horde of angry monsters. They had then re-entered the instance to find it totally reset. The demon player did not want to lose their progress again. Or get them both killed.

“Let’s look over our maps, and try to find a route that won’t lead to us missing anything,” May said. Once they were sure all the secondaries were gone, the quest target would be vulnerable.

Pari nodded. It was as they were doing this that a message suddenly appeared on May’s HUD.

“What’s going on?” Pari asked nervously. Sara and Clare’s status bars had already been grayed out because they were more than one hundred meters distant. Now Clare’s stats disappeared entirely.

A second message soon appeared.

“What the fuck is she doing?” May asked in alarm. Clare’s status reappeared in the area of the HUD reserved for enemies.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Pari cried. “Is it some mind control condition?”

“Those don’t cause you to leave the party. And only a handful of raid bosses even have mind control...” May suddenly suspected what was happening.

Pari noticed May’s look of dismay. “What is it?”

“There’s a secret I’ve been keeping with Sara. She’s an anarchist.”

“Actually, my parents told me that in a text—” Pari’s eyes suddenly widened. “You think Clare’s trying to kill her for it?!” Tears started forming in her eyes.

On May’s HUD, both Sara and Clare’s stats were showing fluctuations typical of a duel. Sara repeatedly cast her spells. “We were planning on coming clean with Clare after this quest. I don’t understand why this is happening now, or why it’s gone this far. ...I thought at worst we’d end up short a tank.”

“What do we do?” Pari asked in panic.

“...There’s nothing we can do. We can’t go inside their quest.” May felt a wave of helplessness and despair wash over her. “I’m sure Sara will make a break for the exit when she gets a chance,” she added, trying to keep her voice steady. “She can run faster than Clare, and once she’s outta the instance she’ll be back in the safe area.”

They waited a short time, but the fighting continued. “Why isn’t she running away then?!” Pari cried.

May shook her head. “I don’t know. We’ve gotta be quiet though, there are still patrols outside the cave.”

“I’m sorry,” Pari whispered. She suddenly ran into May’s arms and hugged her, her face pressed against May’s shoulder. “This is so awful. Why would Clare do something like this? Sara was the only person who was even really nice to her.”

“I don’t know.” May gently stroked Pari’s hair to try to soothe her. She then wrapped her wings gently around the mage—maybe it was a little weird, but somehow it made sense to do so.

Pari finally looked up. “Will you pray with me? It’s all we can do.”

May did not believe doing such a thing would help Sara...but she supposed it might at least help Pari get through this. “Okay.”

The demon player withdrew her wings, and they knelt down beside each other. Pari prayed that Clare would cease her violence, while May just listened to her, still holding her torch. The praying did have a soothing effect on both of them, but May could not take her eyes off the status bars. Her heart sank when Clare drank a potion—what advantage Sara had gained was lost in that moment.

Finally, after a sudden terrifying drop in Sara’s health, the fighting apparently stopped. The healer stopped casting her spells. The combatants’ stats began to slowly climb. “Is...is it over?” Pari asked hopefully.

“I’m not sure.” May said. More time passed as they tensely watched for a sign of renewed conflict. Instead, three new messages appeared on May’s HUD in quick succession.

“Thank God,” Pari said. She slumped against May and cried in relief. The demon player wrapped her free arm around her. Pari looked up toward her once more. “Thank you for praying with me. I know you don’t believe...”

“It’s not like I can say for sure it didn’t work,” May whispered comfortingly. “Sure looks as if it did, after all.” Pari nodded and cuddled up against her. Despite her relief, thoughts of what Clare had done sparked the demon player’s anger.

Maybe Sara had forgiven the tank—but May never would.