Chapter 35: A Moment's Respite

~~~

There was a joke here somewhere.

Three people — a Giant, a soldier, and a poisoner — huddled around a campfire in a canyon, surrounded by the mangled corpses of a Dragon, four festering insect-women, and a dead Prince whose head resembled a raspberry pottage.

The soldier sniffed, eating his cooked rations by the fire. “Anyone want to hear a joke?”

The Eldarin female glared at him. The Giant sitting on a boulder some ways away snorted.

No answer. Axel shrugged.

“Well, great. Now you two have made it awkward,” he complained. “You could at least join me and eat. I have rations to spare… Even for the Giant, probably.”

“How can you even eat when surrounded by… this?” Lune sighed, gesturing to the blood and corpses around them.

The smell of melting flesh still lingered hotly in the air, even after an hour had passed since he killed his assailants. 

“I had a really rough childhood,” Axel answered honestly. 

“A great understatement, I suspect,” the Giant grunted. 

Axel finished his meal, putting aside the many opened cans and tore open ration packs. He had eaten like a starving man, devouring food fit for four people with a practised pace and silence.

“Now that hit the spot,” he sighed contentedly. “First proper meal I have eaten since I got here. I don’t think me biting off a goblin’s neck counted. Now I just need a few hours of sleep, and I will be right as rain.”

“Physically, perhaps,” the Giant chuckled darkly. “That mind of yours is beyond repair. And your soul… Black as coal. There will be no salvation for you in the life after.”

“Great Ymir, please,” Lune chastised respectfully. “Do not antagonise him.”

“I am not. He cannot be antagonised,” the Giant answered. “The Demon cares nothing for insults or the barb of words. He is too broken to do so.”

“Well, if you say it like that, I can’t help but feel complimented,” Axel nodded. “But nice as this all is… I would like to go to bed now. I think I saw a nice crack in the wall somewhere I can fit into.”

“You don’t have to do that. I have a bedroll,” Lune sighed. “It’s a little small, since it's my size, but you can still lie on it and get some proper rest.”

“Oh? How generous of you, princess,” Axel grinned tauntingly. “Maybe you should join me. It’s a cold night. I could use the company.”

He had meant the words insultingly, to rile her to righteous anger. But instead of becoming flustered or enraged, the Eldarin simply looked at him in silence.

Her purple eyes were soft. Gentle.

“Do you want me to? If it would help you, I mean,” she offered quietly. The words were hesitant, but they were genuine.

It was not pity. There was a warm sorrow in her gaze.

Somehow, that tender sincerity — given to him freely and without fear — made it far worse than if she had simply stabbed him. A shameful anger burned within him, choking him. Axel was forced to look away first.

“... No,” he finally managed to say. “Enough of this. Can you guys decide if you are going to kill me now, or after my nap? I will not accept being murdered in my sleep. That is the worst possible way for me to go.”

“Agreed. There is no pride in that,” the Giant huffed.

“We are not going to kill you,” Lune sighed. “If we wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have saved you with my last gold potion.”

“I voted for killing you, if that helps,” the Giant offered. “The girl would not listen to reason.”

“I, too, vote for killing me,” Axel nodded. “Can we get to fighting?”

“Stop talking about killing each other! No one’s killing anyone!” Lune hissed.

The Giant grunted in annoyance, but backed down.

Axel sighed. “Spoilsport. If the two of you are not here to kill me, then why are you still here?”

“Put simply, you are bait,” the Giant bluntly said.

Axel blinked. An understanding dawned on him. “Ah. The Fae Tyrant.”

“Correct,” the Giant growled. “You have insulted him like no one has before. A mere roach in his garden, yet you have decimated his forces resting here and slain his greatest Lieutenants — his vassals and his sons. You have robbed him of much. If it were a rival guild that had done such a thing, his fury would be terrible, but rooted within rationality. But for a new, lone Participant to have inflicted such colossal damage… It is a wound that would have driven him to madness.”

“He’s coming here, then,” Axel scoffed. “So, I’m your ticket to revenge.”

“He might not come,” Yume added uncertainly. “Before I was called here with that bastard Troll, Father was engaged in an ongoing Guild War. Diverting his forces here had cost him ground, but he must have always expected them to return soon. Now with his best Lieutenants dead, he cannot afford to leave the front, not without risking everything.”

“That is the rational choice. Alas, he would be too furious to make it,” the Giant grinned viciously. “Our Demon here has grievously wounded his pride, and a Tyrant would not let such an insult lie, even if it might cost him his Kingdom. That fool will come, and I shall relish tearing off his lying head.”

“Right… Just checking, what level is your father?” Axel asked Lune.

She hesitated. “Last I saw… Level 76.”

Right. Well. After the Giant’s inevitable defeat, at least Axel could look forward to an agonising and slow death.

“Do not look so despondent,” Ymir snorted at Lune’s expression. “The gap between your father and me is not so large as to be impossible to overcome. The Demon is proof of that. And you know I do not speak this out of arrogance.”

“I am well aware of your strength, Great One. It is more than what mere numbers can convey. Perhaps under normal circumstances, I would agree,” Lune replied respectfully. “But you do not command an army of your own, General. More importantly, your inventory is empty. The exotic tools of war you have collected over the Zones are stolen. You would be at a severe disadvantage.”

“I still have my magic. My Titles, Traits, and Class have also been restored to their former power. It will be enough,” the Giant calmly stated. “Of the Tyrant’s army, none but his most elite could harm me, and our Demon here has seen to their demise.”

The Giant pointed to the smouldering Fae Dragon corpse, as well as the First Prince’s corpse.

“You are welcome, by the way,” Axel said. “You know, you could have warned me that I was going up against a literal Dragon.”

“The Royal Guard under the First Prince only arrived in the Zone scant minutes before they attack you. There was no time. And, truth be told, even I had not expected you to face such forces. It is unusual for a tutorial Zone to allow such flagrant disregard of the Level Limit, even if it was a Dead Zone.”

“You are Level 55,” Axel protested. “That didn't tip you off?”

The Giant coughed sheepishly. “In my defence, my mind was shaking off the burdens of enslavement. Still, I apologise. Had I known you would face such dangers… Well, perhaps it is best not to dwell on such what-ifs.”

Left unsaid was that the Giant could not help him while still under the Tyrant’s blood hold, so a warning was next to pointless anyway. But with now all of the 4 Bosses ‘defeated’, the enchantment could be broken.

“Where’s your handmaiden, by the way?” Axel asked the poisoner curiously.

“She’s off rounding up the rest of the survivors,” Lune explained. “Ymir and I easily represent the strongest entities in the Zone — barring you, of course. They will follow our command for now.”

‘Survivors’, she had said — as if those bloodthirsty creatures were somehow the victims in this scenario. 

Appropriate, Axel supposed. Their fun and twisted manhunt had turned into a bloody disaster once the helpless prey they sought turned out to be a walking nightmare of murder.

The soldier chuckled at the thought. “How much longer before your Father gets here?”

“The System is not responding, so right now the Zone might be bugged,” Lune explained. “Entry from outside would be… difficult.”

“Right,” Axel nodded uncertainly. He turned to the Giant. “What does she mean? Is this yet another thing no one has explained to me yet?”

“Your existence has caused the Admins to go into a stir. Such cases are extremely rare, and while not entirely unheard of, they are often only spoken of in legends or as jokes,” the Giant explained. “A genuine ‘Impossible Feat’... An accomplishment so outlandish that the System could not even begin to calculate the appropriate reward.”

Axel hummed. He looked to his notifications.

[Level 32]

[Remaining Skill Points: 8]

He was Level 28 when he began that encounter with the First Prince. He had received four levels for killing the Dragon.

But for killing the Prince? Nothing. The rewards usually given for clearing an Encounter? Also missing.

And the final prize for clearing the Zone, not to mention the achievement of doing it alone, within 24 hours, and while in an unrestricted level Dead Zone?

Not a single drop of XP awarded, let alone an exotic loot box or a flood of skill points. No notifications acknowledging those feats, either, save for the one Zone-wide announcement that the System was ‘evaluating his existence’.

It might just be his natural pessimism talking, but Axel felt certain that what was to come next would not be pleasant.

“So… We just wait, then?” Axel asked. “This is quite the change of pace from the day I had. Or still having, I suppose.”

“Go get some rest,” Lune suggested. “You must be exhausted. We have common cause. Ymir and I won’t hurt you.”

She glared meaningfully at the Giant. Despite Ymir’s vastly superior levels, the Giant grunted in acknowledgement of her words.

“For as long as we wait for the coward to show, no violence shall occur between the Demon and I,” Ymir agreed with her. “Barring any unpleasant change to our circumstances.”

The two had a cordial relationship, it seemed. Odd, given how her family was responsible for imprisoning him for so long.

There was a story there, and while Axel was curious about it, the promise of sleep beckoned.

His mind was beyond exhausted — though the pain might be more due to the brain damage he had given himself killing the First Prince.

“I’ll prepare your bed. Just give me a moment,” Lune said as she reached into her inventory.

Axel coughed awkwardly. “Look, there’s really no need for that. I’ll find a comfortable rock to lie on, you don’t have to treat me like—”

Before he could finish, a sudden blue box popped up before him.

The way Lune and Ymir suddenly stiffened told him they had received the same message as well.

A Zone-wide announcement. And the contents did not bode well.

~~~

[New Emergency Update issued]

[Approved by the High-Ranking Admins]

[Candidate Axel Roukin’s existence is being evaluated.]

[Current Zone is now classified as a Quarantined Dead Zone]

[No Entities may enter or leave for the duration of Evaluation]

~~~

“What?!” Yimr barked, standing up immediately. “A quarantined Dead Zone? All because of one Participant? That’s absurd!”

Lune paled. Axel hummed. “That sounds bad.”

“Of course it is!” Ymir hissed. “This prevents that fool Tyrant from entering the Zone! This was the best chance I had of cornering that miserable wretch and ending his life! Who knows how long it would take for me to hunt him down in the Hub?!”

“Forget about my father!” Lune yelled. “We can’t leave the Zone! Quarantined Dead Zones are sealed off by the System, we can’t teleport out! What if we are trapped forever here?!”

Axel hummed again. “Now that sounds really bad. Hey, just to check, is eating Bugbears and Goblins okay, or does that fall under cannibalism for you guys?”

Before either Lune or Ymir could respond, another blue box appeared.

This time, only silence followed between them.

~~~

[Council Update]

[A Sanction Duel has been proposed and approved by the Admins]

[Sanction Duel Matchup: ‘Great General Ymir’ versus ‘Candidate Axel Roukin’]

[To Great General Ymir]

[Elimination of Candidate Axel Roukin in a Sanction Duel will be given the following reward]

[1x A-Rank Title (Exotic)]

[1x A-Rank Selector Loot Chest (Exotic)]

[10x B-Rank Selector Loot Chest]

[50x C-Rank Selector Loot Chest]

[100 Auction Coins]

[+10 Levels]

[+35 Skill Points]

[Candidate Axel Roukin]

[Victory against Great General Ymir in a Sanction Duel will be given the following reward]

[Trait: The Right to Continue Your Existence (Rank EX)]

[Update]

[Quarantine will be lifted the moment the duel is complete.]

[Refusal to accept the Duel will result in the termination of all parties within the Zone.]

[Time to complete: 4 hours]

~~~