Chapter 282: Getting Close

{I want to let everyone know that I have a p-a-t-r-e-o-n with two new exclusive stories on it. One is The Aeternus Universe, and the other is a new story with a basketball system. I hope you guys will give it a chance. The link is /easyread. Remove the dashes. Webnovel censors the word.}

While Kings and Generals speak of war, Cera and Sally are still traveling. The trip passes, and the distance is covered. They're getting closer to the southern border of the elven kingdom. Hailey is already meeting up with Jasmine and is likely on her way to the border herself. The night is falling on this final day, and that means it's time to camp. Cera brings Sally and him down, and he sets up camp and a fire. The sun is quickly setting, and with it, the temperature is dropping. The two sit close to the fire and relax. Knowing that tomorrow they're reaching the border.

Sally cuddles closer to me, and I wrap my wing around her. Even though she is unaffected by the cold due to her class, she still likes the sensation of being wrapped in my wing. I don't mind it either. We're camping in an open field in the middle of nowhere. The sky is clear, and the stars are shining. The earth could never give a view like this. "Do you ever wonder if we're doing the right thing..." Sally asks me a question and breaks the calm silence. I look down and at her. She curled up in my wing and is staring into the fire.

I can try and get really philosophical with my answer, but I don't think that's needed. "Right and wrong... It can't be applied to your want for revenge... After everything you've been through, you have every right to do this." This is my personal opinion. Something that I believe. Sally is entitled to vengeance and has the right to pursue it. The rights and wrongs of society don't concern us cause society never cared about Sally. She stays silent at my words, and I can see on her face there is a lot she wants to talk about. She'll speak when she's ready.

I think it's my turn to share some history on my life, get her mind off whatever's causing her to have these thoughts. "You want to hear a story?" I ask her as I look into the fire too. She lets me know with a grumble. "Before we came to this word, us players had visited other worlds. Some of them are similar to this world." I'm talking about how I've, and many other billions have played other VRMMORPG's. The times spent on them, in a sense, they are different worlds. She raises her head and looks at me. Having a hard time believing it.

I've played other games before I started playing The Ancients World. It gave me the chance to travel back in time. To be different. "We could come and go in these different worlds as we pleased. Spend as much time as we wanted. This world is different cause we can't return to our own." She's fully invested in my new topic now. "In these worlds, I was a different person every time. I'd be a mage in one and an archer in another. This was before all of this." I use my hand to indicate everything around us. In these worlds, I wasn't this powerful.

These were the games I played before I started playing The Ancients World. "How is that possible? There is no creature or God that could come and go between worlds as they wished." She slaps me with some logic, and she's right. We made these worlds so we can play in them, so in spirit, they were never real. Everyone thought that The Ancients World was the same. She's waiting for me to continue, and I smile at my success in distracting her from the depressing thoughts in her head. I should pick up where I left off.

I take a breath and prepare more. "You're right, Sally. We didn't go to worlds that already existed. We went to the ones that we had made. In a sense, you could call us Gods, but we're far from it." We're not really Gods cause we didn't actually create life. I can't find a better description for it, though. "This world was thought to have been created by us. The supposed designers claimed that it was. But they lied to us, and we came to learn that it's much more than that." She's speechless. I don't know if she believes the story, but it's the truth.

Sally and I have grown very close, and I've shared the secrets that I carry with her. The fact I'm a player, and the differences between us. She has accepted it all and never shown any signs of leaving me, but hearing this paints me in a new light. "That's some of the history of my people and how we came to be here. There is more if you want to hear it..." She tilts her head back towards the fire. She shakes it, having heard enough for one night. My thoughts drift to Hailey and where she's at right now. Her schedule is tighter than ours.

While Cera and Sally camp out for the night, Hailey is just arriving her the city her friend is in. Jasmine is someone that Hailey has been traveling with for some time, and after growing close enough, she got a quest from Jasmine. The quest led to the same place where Sally had spent most of her young life as a slave. Jasmine was a slave at a different point in time, long after Sally escaped. Hailey is coming all this way to tell Jasmine that she got revenge for her and that they have a new mission to go on.

I look ahead and see the small town that Jasmine decided to tell me the story about her past. Jasmine gave me the quest once we arrived here and when I accepted it. She said she couldn't come out of fear. Once I was finished, I was to return here. Now that I'm done, it's time to see my friend again. I walk into the town. It's one without walls and barely any guards. I paid for her to stay at an inn for a month, but it's been less than a week. I see the inn ahead, and I smile. I walk towards it and enter. There is a party and drunks having a good time.

I walk up to the bartender, and I remove my hood. She recognizes me as Jasmine's friend. "I didn't expect to see you so soon. I take it that your mission was a success?" I nod my head, and the bartender prepares a drink for me. "A toast to you then. For ending a blight on all life." I raise the tankard in celebration with her, and I chug the alcohol. I slam the tankard down and wipe my lips. "She's upstairs in her room. She had too much to drink and passed out." I laugh cause that sounds just like Jasmine. She's a party girl.

historical

I turn and make my way towards the stairs. I climb them, and the noise of the party fades. I learned that inns have their wall magically enchanted to help drown out noise for their sleeping customers. I bet Cera knew that long ago. I see the same door, and I walk to it. I gently knock on it, and I hear footsteps coming towards the door. It slowly opens, and I see Jasmine poke her eye through. As soon as she recognizes it's me, the door swings open, and she leaps into my arms for a hug. I'm a few inches taller than her. She's shorter than the average woman.

We stop hugging, and she pulls me into the room. "You're back way sooner than expected! Does that mean you did it..." I make my way towards the table and take a seat. I look at her and smile. I nod my head, and I get a notification from the system marking the quest's end. Looking at the quest can wait. She's stiff for a few seconds, but I watch her fall to her knees and begin to cry. "I can believe it's over... Those bastards are finally dead..." I watch and my heartaches. I've never had an experience with sexual violence.

So I can't relate to being a slave in the slightest. All I can do is try to be the best friend I can be to her. She looks at me, and my heart cracks. She's smiling and crying at the same time. I stand up from my chair and walk over to her. I get on the ground, and I place my hand on her back. "It's over, Jasmine... They're gone for good..." She lets the pain out as I say those words. She wails and screams out. Letting everything she's bottled up over the years out. She hugs me again, and I hug her back. Doing all I can to make this better.