The End of A Tale

The date was Ingrate 17, 0020. It has been almost two years since we adopted Kimi and now she was quite a member with our family. We used to venture up in the cleared dungeons in order to safely level her up, whenever we had some time left. Kimi had leveled up at a very fast pace and managed to be at par with us within very short time.

At that time, I was at level 950 while Liza was at 935 and Kimi at 890. "Hey Kimi! Want to come over the farm." I asked Kimi who was polishing her equipment. She replied, "Sorry Daddy! I got to go with Mommy to the lake for fishing." "Ok, No problem." Saying this, I left for the farm wondering how magnificent these two years have been.

The next GM stage was approaching fast and I was not in any mood for another fight. May be I was too tired of fighting. Heathway had sent me a direct message the last night asking me and Liza to come for the strategy meeting. I however told neither Liza nor Kimi about it.

That night at the dinner table, Liza made a nuclear spicy fish stew with Arcata beans that I grew in the farm. "It's so yummy!" I and Kimi exclaimed at the same time. We finished the dinner and retreated to the sofa when Liza put up her strict vice-commander expression, something I didn't see in about four years while Kimi never saw it.

"Naperjet! Did commander send you some important message?" The question shot faster than her arrows. "Um…No! I guess." She shot me another glare and then continued, "Anyways, the 900th Stage GM has been found and commander is asking us to gather for the strategy meet tomorrow at 5:00 pm."

"Daddy who's this commander Mommy is talking about?" Kimi innocently asked me, causing me to smile almost instantly. "Kimi, do you know about guilds?" "Yeah! Players make guilds to co-operate with each other. They share resources and all stuffs."

"Okay that quite some info. Your mommy is the vice commander of the top guild 'The Golden Knights' and its commander Heathway is her superior." I explained carefully omitting the part that I too was part of the guild. Liza opened to speak up when I began, "Liza please tell him that we will be there, tomorrow 5 pm. Let's go to sleep Kimi, it's too late."

The next morning, I was greeted with a puffed Kimi as I woke up. "Whoa! What happened, Kimi?" She puffed her cheeks further and began, "Daddy! You're a liar. Yesterday, Mommy told me that you too were part of the guild and you had to join after that commander guy defeated you in a duel."

"What! Liza told you this." I was not much shocked. "Mommy even showed me a newspaper article that had blow-to-blow account of the duel. I never thought in dreams that my Daddy would be defeated by anyone." She turned away from me jerking. I crawled out of the bed and went to her, "Kimi, it is not possible for us to beat everyone, every time. There is always someone who is stronger than you, its better that you should accept that try to defeat that person next time fair-and-square."

"I never expected you to give such a lecture, Naperjet. The last line of yours seems to be out of question for you." It was Liza who was perhaps using her Eavesdropping ability to listen to our conversation. "The word fair-and-square doesn't seem to exist in your dictionary, Naperjet or should I call you what others call you at the front-lines."

Kimi jumped from her puffy mood to normal smiley mood, "Daddy has a nickname? Tell me Mommy. Please…Please…Please." I thought it was better that Kimi heard that from me rather than anyone else, "Kimi at the frontlines, I am known as The Rogue Swordsman. I was about to tell you this anyway and your Mommy too was called by a lot of names like Allegro, Teacher, Professor and so on."

Liza grumped at the loss of her opportunity, "Except the first one all are given by you." Our row was interrupted by Kimi's laughter, "Mommy has got many names but Daddy's one name is cooler than all of Mommy's together." The innocence exhibited by her, made us burst into laughter.

Just after lunch, we headed out for Granddame where the HQ of The Golden Knights was. At the HQ, most of the members appeared surprised after seeing little Kimi. We arrived at three in the afternoon, and it took us till five to introducing Kimi. When the strategy meet started at five, we left Kimi in Koruko's care.

"Two recon squads wiped out?" The news was equally shocking to all the players present there. Heathway steeled his bony hands in front of his face, deep furrows etched into his brow. "It happened yesterday. We succeeded in mapping the entire dungeon without suffering any damage, though it took quite some time. We were expecting a significant challenge with the GM battle, however…"

"So we sent two twenty-man reconnaissance team from four guilds in," Heathway continued, his voice flat. I couldn't read the expression from his half-closed brass eyes. "They took every precaution. Twenty stayed back at the entrance to the lair, and when the other twenty reached the center of the room, they were engulfed in a massive explosion and disappeared. The other people were only able to spectate it."

His mouth tightened. He closed his eyes and continued."The other team rushed in immediately after the flames subsided and were killed as well. It is speculated that the GM is an archer and has WMD scale attacks." He shook his head rather than say the rest. Liza sucked in a breath next to me, then let it out in a murmur. "Forty…people…How did that happen?"

A person from the crowd rose up "Didn't crystals work?" Heathway nodded at the question. "That is my only conclusion. We have reports that from 700th Stage onwards GM chambers do not allow crystals to work. However, we didn't test it in the 800th Stage. We should assume that all master chambers will be similarly equipped from now on."

"This is crazy." I sighed. If emergency escape was impossible, the number of players likely to die of unforeseen accidents would skyrocket. The entire point of clearing the game was to prevent people from dying. But beating the masters was a necessary step…

"It's really starting to live up to that 'game of death' billing…" I tried to minimize the voice, but Heathway seemed to catch it and replied, "But that doesn't mean we can simply abandon our attempts to conquer it."

He closed his eyes and spoke softly but clearly. "It would appear that this battle will make the use of crystals impossible, as well as remove the option of a simple retreat. That means we must bring as large a party as can be effectively controlled and defeat the GM in one go." Everyone cheered in unison. The golden paladin continued, "The battle group will assemble outside the dungeon tomorrow at eight in the morning."

And saying so he left, and following the suit most of the attendees did leaving me and Liza alone in the conference room. I was quite rattled by the incident and wasn't able to digest Heathway's resolve. Koruko and Kimi later rushed in and then only we came out. That night we stayed in the guild quarters. Kimi went asleep as soon as it was ten. However, due to some reason both I and Liza were awake.

We kept staring at each other. Her sparkling hair, blue eyes, the sweet, commanding voice she was the only person that made me feel that the time I spent here wasn't a waste. "Wh-what is it?" She laughed shyly. I spoke hesitantly. "…Liza…" "What?" "Hear me out, and don't be mad. I don't want you…to participate in this boss battle. Will you wait here instead with Kimi?"

She stared at me closely, then looked down sadly. "Why would you say that…?" "I'm scared. When I think about the possibility that something might happen to you there…" "So you're going to venture into danger like that and expect me to wait where it's safe?"

She stood up and briskly strode over to me, twin fires blazing within her eyes. "If you don't come back from this, I'll kill myself. There won't be any reason for me to live any longer, and I'll hate myself for waiting around doing nothing. If you want to run, let's do it together. If you want to do it, Naperjet, so do I." She stopped, then jabbed a finger against my chest. Her eyes softened, and a slight smile appeared on her lips.

"But…I bet everyone taking part in this battle is scared. Everyone wishes they could run away. But they still got a few dozen to come. And I think it's because of the commander, Asri and you—the three strongest men in BWS —standing at the head of the party. I know it's not the kind of thing you're comfortable with. But I want you to do it for us, not for others. Let's do this together…so we can get back to the real world and meet again." I reached up and held the finger Liza was pointing at my chest. All I could feel was a terrified desire not to lose her.

"Sorry…I'm being a coward. My heart says it wants the two of us to run off together. I don't want you to die, and I don't want to die, either. I don't care…" I stared into Liza's eyes and continued. "I don't care if we never get back to reality. I want to live with you and Kimi in that little cottage. Forever…just the three of us…"

With her other hand, Liza clutched something invisible to her heart. She closed her eyes, her brows knitted, as though bearing something excruciating. When she spoke, it was a painful whisper of longing. "I know…It sounds like a dream…Wouldn't it be nice? Together every day…forever…" But she stopped, then bit her lip, cutting off that frail hope. She opened her eyes and looked at me, her face serious.

"Naperjet, have you ever thought…about what's happening to our real bodies?" I was taken aback. It was something that every player wondered at times. But with no way to contact the real world, it was pointless to worry about. It hung over all of us like a vaguely looming cloud—we just chose not to stare it down.

"Do you remember when this whole game started? When he…When Aya Shua gave his little tutorial. He said the Soul Box was designed to give you a seven-hour window without power. The purpose being…" "…to provide enough time for our bodies to be taken to a proper hospital."

She nodded at my answer. "So after a few days, pretty much everyone experienced a day-long period of disconnection." I remembered that. I'd stared at the warning blaring in front of my eyes and wondered if my brain would be fried anytime.

"I think that was the point that every player was transferred to a hospital. I mean, few families can support a human being in a vegetative state at home for years at a time. I think we were taken to actual hospitals and then reconnected…" "Yeah, you might be right."

"If our bodies are just lying in hospital beds, hooked up to various cables, forcing us to live…I can't imagine that can last forever." I was suddenly hit with anxiety that my body was getting weaker and weaker. I hugged Liza close, as though we could confirm our existence by simply touching.

"Meaning that whether we clear the game or not…there is a time limit that we'll all reach at some point…" "Yes, and it'll be different for everyone…It's taboo to talk about your old life here, so I've never said this to anyone, but you're different. I want…to be with you for the rest of my life in the real world. I want to have a proper relationship, so we can really get married and grow old together. So…so…"

She couldn't finish. Liza buried her face in my chest, sobbing uncontrollably. I rubbed her back slowly and finished her thought. "So…we have to fight now." The fear wasn't gone. But when Liza was fighting against our fate, trying to keep herself together, I couldn't let fear cloud my judgment.

The next day, we left Kimi again in Koruko's care and went to the rendezvous point outside the dungeon. When I and Liza approached the dungeon, we saw a crowd of high level players waiting there. As we came closer, they stopped talking and gave a crisp salute. Most of them were from the Golden Knights guild. I stopped and hesitated, but Liza returned the salute with familiarity. She jabbed me in the ribs. "C'mon, Naperjet. You're one of the leaders, so greet the team!"

I gave an awkward salute. I'd taken part in several boss battle parties before, but this was the first time I'd attracted so much attention. Before the 700th I was sort of a non-sense for them, at 700th I faced the GM single-handedly while after that I didn't face any SM only the GM. The last GM battle was an utter surprise as we were only the part of a recon team.

On the right, were Asri and Neetto one of the few players who used to team up with me since the beginning, "Hey man, what's up? Ready for an epic fight against an unknown enemy?" Neetto jeered with his cheerful expression. I responded with thumbs up. At eight o'clock on the dot, a number of new players emerged. Heathway was outfitted with his golden cape and two shields, joined by the other guild elites. Upon their appearance, the tension returned to the rest of the group.

In terms of level alone, Heathway was probably the only one who was at par Liza and me, but it was hard not to be impressed by the guild's sense of unity. Outside of the golden-and-silver colors, their equipment was varied, but the group aura they exuded was far stronger than the Union's. The paladin and his four followers crossed through the group and walked toward us. Neetto and others took several steps back, as though rebuffed by their personal force, but Liza returned the salute coolly.

Heathway stopped and gave us a nod, then turned to address the entire gathering. "It seems we're all here. Thank you for coming. I believe you are all aware of the stakes. It will be a terrible battle, but I believe in your ability to emerge victorious. FOR OUR VICTORY!" With a powerful cry, the entire group echoed his enthusiasm. His magnetic charisma left me speechless. Hard-core gamers typically trended toward the antisocial and uncooperative, so it was a surprise to see one display such leadership. Or was it this world that brought that quality out of him?

This was the first time, I heard his inspiring words. Mostly before that the group would find me in the dungeon mostly right before the master chamber. Heathway turned to me, as though sensing my gaze, and gave me a slight grin. "I need special help from our GM skill users today. Let's push ourselves to the limit." He wasn't referring in particular to me or Asri but to the three of us, me, Asri and himself.

I didn't sense a hint of desperation or tension in his soft voice. Only a man with nerves of steel could face the upcoming battle with such confidence. We nodded silently. Heathway turned back to the group again and raised a hand. "Let's get going. I'm opening a corridor to the spot right in front of the enemy's lair."

He pulled a dark blue crystal out of his waist pouch, and a murmur ran through the crowd. Normal teleport crystals transported the user to the floor of his or her choosing, but corridor crystal was an exceedingly useful version that temporarily opened an entire teleport gate, offering access to the specified location to anyone who wanted to use it.

The downside to that utility was its rarity, and the crystal wasn't easily available to buy at NPC shops. It had to be mostly found in dungeon treasure chests or looted from powerful monsters, so few players even wanted to use them, if they were lucky enough to get their hands on one. In fact, the murmuring of the players was not so much excitement over the glimpse of such a rare item, but rather surprise that he'd actually use one.

Seemingly unaware of the stir he'd raised, Heathway raised the crystal high and called out, "Corridor open." The exceedingly valuable crystal crumbled instantly, and a flickering portal of blue-white light appeared before him. "Follow me, everyone." He turned to look over the group, then whirled his golden cape and stepped into the light. For an instant he flashed blindingly, then disappeared. Seconds later, the four elite members followed him.

Over time, the gathering in the square had grown to a considerable number. Perhaps they'd arrived to see us off, knowing that we were about to tackle a Master. Cheers of encouragement rose as the swordsmen trickled through the new teleport gate, one after the other. Finally, only Liza and I were left. We nodded to each other, held hands, then stepped into the vortex of light together.

When I opened my eyes, I was inside the dungeon, in a wide hallway. Thick pillars lined the walls, and a giant door was visible at the end. This dungeon was made of a material like obsidian, but with a very faint hint of translucence. Unlike the rough-hewn nature of the other dungeon we saw till now, the black stone here was polished like a mirror and placed at perfectly straight angles. The air was chilly and damp, and a faint mist trailed over the floor.

Next to me, Liza wrapped her arms around herself, feeling the chill. "…I don't like the look of this…" "Neither do I" I nodded. In the twenty years leading up to today, we'd conquered eight GMs and innumerable SM's and FMs. With that much experience, you can learn to gauge the strength of the foes by the look of their lairs.

Around us, the sixty other players were bunched into groups of two or three, their windows open. They were checking their equipment and items, but they all looked tense. I walked Liza over to one of the pillars and put an arm around her frail body. I could feel my nerves working before the battle. My body trembled with anxiety.

"…It's going to be okay," Liza whispered into my ear. "I'm going to watch over you." "That's not what I'm—" She gave a little smile and continued. "And you can watch over me." "Yeah…you bet."

I squeezed harder for an instant, then released my grip. In the middle of the corridor, Heathway let his armor clank loudly and spoke to the group. "Is everyone ready? We have no information about this boss's attack patterns other than the speculation that it's an archer and has WMD scale attacks. The tanks will take forward position to absorb its attacks. Observe its patterns as best you can and strike back, being as flexible as you can manage."

The group nodded silently. "Well, best of luck," Heathway murmured, then strode over to the obsidian door and placed a hand upon it. We tensed up. I patted Asri and Neetto on the shoulders from behind, speaking as they turned to me. "Don't die on me." "Just worry about yourself." "I'm not getting knocked out while there are spoils to be had." After the bravado of their replies, the door slowly slid open, creaking heavily. All present drew their weapons. I pulled my sword and shield from my back. I looked over at Liza and her bow and nodded.

Finally, Heathway split his axe into two, raised one high, and shouted, "Let the battle begin!" He charged through the open doorway. We followed. The interior was a large domed space, probably thrice as large as the previous GM's composite lair. The black curved walls rose high, forming a round ceiling far above our heads. We rushed inside, lining up naturally.

Several seconds of silence passed. I tried to concentrate on every direction from our position, but the GM showed no signs of appearing. Each second ticking by was torture on my frayed nerves. "Hey," someone called out, unable to bear the silence any longer.

"Watch Out!" Liza cried next to me. I looked here and there with a start. There was nothing but sound of a speeding arrow. "Gotcha!" I ran towards the sound and initiated the defensive weapon art of my GM skill, Full Fortification. I expected the arrow to be a homing area effective one, so the art might negate the damage but won't deal anything to the archer.

"Everyone, stick close!" I shouted as the animation for the art ended and waited for the arrow to strike. But something totally unexpected occurred. About ten players who were quite far away didn't move expecting to be outside the range. The arrow struck my shield and the knockback threw me backwards landing about a meter away, the next thing I saw was the disintegration of the ten players who were considered outside the range of the art.

Liza drew a sharp breath next to me. I could feel my body tense up. "Dead in one indirect hit?" Players powered up in BWS through their level and skills. As your level rose, so did your maximum HP, so even if your ability with the sword was average, as long as your level was reasonably high, it was mathematically much less likely that you would die. And today's party was exclusively high-level players, so any one of us should have been able to handle even a full combination attack from a standard Master. The key word being should. But in one attack…

"This is insanity," Liza muttered. "It was a sneak attack with WMD scale art. Find it quick." We didn't know the cool-down time of the art, but based on past experience it is supposed to be more than twenty minutes, again it was supposed to be. This time due to increased concentration, we were able to hear the pulling of the string.

"There!" someone pointed up on one of the pillars but the only thing to be noticed was a rain of arrows coming down. The tanks took up the shields and absorbed the incoming art, fortunately it wasn't a WMD scale art. I took the opportunity to scale up one of the pillars and jumped from one to another looking for the GM. I pulled out a throwing pick and threw it aiming at the darkest part of the lair.

The pick hit some sort of barrier just an inch before the wall; anyone would have ignored it considering it to be hitting the immortal wall. But I caught the slight disturbance there indicating the presence of a hidden person. "Gotcha!!" I screamed and charged at the spot. Since its cover has been broken, there was no way that we would lose.

I initiated the long-range charging attack, Sonic Dive and retraced the path of the pick. The cover came out and something blocked my sword. It was no shield but a bow, the GM swung the bow hard to knock my sword back and kicked me hard in the torso causing me to fall from the pillar.

I focused hard to bring a hostile cursor along with a name. It read Atlanta: The Markswoman. By that time all other players saw the GM and assumed battle positions. I landed on my back and lost a fraction of my health. Still, what shocked me was the fact that she was equally skilled in close range and close quarters combat as she was in ranged combat.

She pulled the string of her bow and initiated an unfamiliar art, again I initiated the Full Fortification art and all other players stood behind me supporting each other. The motive being to reduce recoil, the best defense against the WMD scale arts of the GM was the Full Fortification art of mine.

The arts collided and sent out sparks in all directions. Despite all efforts the recoil was large enough to translate into a 5-sec knockback. The GM rained a lot of arrows on us while the knockback lasted. As it ended, all the members were on their feet but the GM showed no signs of hiding. The remaining players sprang up and surrounded the GM,

The battle continued another one hour, the GM fired two more WMD shots but the damage was mostly mitigated. At the end of that limitless stretch, when the GM finally split into pieces, no one left had enough strength to muster a cheer. We all sat or fell to the obsidian floor, panting heavily. However, one thing remained in everyone's mind; the last words of the GM, "The last GM is one amongst you."

And after that she disintegrated. No one had the strength to discuss that. Starting with the ten deaths on that first shot, our forces had suffered steady losses, the horrible shattering sounds popping off left and right. I'd counted sixteen before I gave up. "How many did we lose?" Neetto asked in a hoarse voice, slumped over to my left. Next to him, Asri lay flat on his back, his limbs spread apart. He could only turn his head to look at us.

I waved my right hand to bring up my map, counting the green dots. I subtracted the total from our original number. "Twenty-two are dead." Even as I totaled the number, I couldn't believe it. These were all experienced, top-level players. Even without an escape route or instantaneous healing, careful combat that prioritized survival should have kept the number of fatalities lower.

"You can't be serious…" There was none of the usual edge to Asri's voice. A dark pall hung heavily over the survivors. The game was at 90% completion but still we had a full hundred stages before us. Someone groaned, "Hey didn't that GM said that the next one is amongst us. Who's that?" I didn't have the strength to look at who was it.

Another added, "I know, all GMs have special abilities. So may be one of the three…" "What are you trying to say? If they weren't here you would have been dead long ago." It was Neetto who shouted at seemingly maximum strength. "That's true. Without that ultra-defensive attack, we would have wiped out at the first shot." Linda was the next one to come in our defense.

The three GM skill users were completely silent regarding this. While the debate continued, I looked around and saw that everyone was lying on the ground. Everyone had a relatively joyous expression; however there was one who attracted my attention completely. It was the Legendary Man, Heathway who had quite a sorrowful face.

It wasn't the sorrow of the twenty two players we lost. We had seen worse casualties but the Legendary Man never shed a tear for them. And now it seemed that he would just burst out crying, as if he lost someone valuable. 'Could it be…' A thought ran in my mind but I had no way of confirming that.

No, there was a way. I focused and brought out an HP bar it was at around 11%. "A single hit should be enough." I murmured to myself and took Liza's bow that was lying beside. It was a 50-50 chance and if I was wrong I would immediately go criminal in front of the whole team. "Sorry, I need this" I muttered, "Wha–" Liza was startled but before she could mutter anything, I pulled the string and initiated a basic art Homing Strike aiming for Heathway.

The debaters didn't seem to notice what I was doing and it seemed better that way. I released the art and the arrow straight went for Heathway. He didn't fail to notice the pale blue arrow that approached from his left, and I saw his eyes widen with shock. He abruptly raised his left hand, trying to block with his axe, but the arrow was too fast for him to parry.

The arrow hit him or at least it was what we assumed, the shriek by one of the players gathered all the attention and it didn't take them much longer to recognize the situation. "What the heck–" A chorus erupted but was interrupted by a system message above Heathway.

IMMORTAL OBJECT. A system designation that was not afforded to human players, frail and limited that we were. This is what Heathway was trying to protect during our duel—the possibility that his so-called divine protection would be exposed for what it really was.

Liza was the first one to ask, "He's designated as a system-level immortal object? Wh…what does this mean, Commander?" Heathway did not answer her confused query. He simply looked at me, a severe frown on his face. I spoke, my swords lowered. "This is the truth behind the legend. The system is designed to prevent his HP from ever falling into the red zone. The only things that can be labeled immortal objects are the environment, NPCs, and system managers, not players. But GMs are unlocked with their stages and now only one's left."

I cut off and glanced upward. "There's something that has stuck in the back of my mind ever since I came here. I figured he had to be watching us from somewhere, managing and fine-tuning the world. But I forgot a basic psychological fact, something that even a kid knows."

I trained my gaze directly on the golden paladin. "There's nothing more boring than watching someone else play an RPG. Isn't that right, Aya Shua?" The entire chamber was full of frosty silence. Heathway just looked at me, his face turned placid. No one else moved. They couldn't.

Next to me, Liza took a step forward. Her eyes were devoid of emotion, like two empty voids. When she spoke, it was in a dry whisper. "Commander…is this…true…?" He did not answer. He tilted his head and finally spoke. "…Will you at least tell me how you figured it out?"

"It first hit me during my duel with you, five years back. The speed with which you dodged my attack left me baffled. Even after years of trying, I couldn't come any closer to the feat. Your exceptional knowledge about this system wasn't something that one would gain by living here. Then today, while everyone was rejoicing the victory over the GM; you were mourning. The Legendary man, who never shed a tear in his gaming carrier, was mourning someone's loss. It was the GM who was killed here, wasn't it."

"Not everything goes by your planning, does it? This game was programmed to be unbeatable; the GM's ability was such a measure." All of us were shocked, "Then why did you allot GM-level skills to players?" He continued coldly, "No I didn't. Actually to monitor the game changes and balances, I created an AI named 'SAS' the Symbiotic Assessment System. This system was kept in-charge of all game management as I wouldn't be able to do it completely from here. But it seems that the system became sentient or something."

This was unbelievable, the game seemed perfectly balanced and fair but the more I thought, the more it explained the increase of difficulty and the large number of stages. Shua however continued, "It created a number of measures to balance the game, or should I say; make it conquerable. The first one was copying the HP in cities, to enable PvP battles in safety. Then distribution of Restoration Cubes that allow temporary access to the extermination program. But I felt that this game will fall when the second GM skill user was discovered and then third. I now know that this game is not unbeatable. Yes, I am Aya Shua, the GM who awaits in the 1000th Stage and am supposed to leave as soon as the fortress of 900th Stage falls."

He continued the explanation as we stood literally paralyzed, "All the GM's you have defeated and killed were occupying top positions in ACM Technologies. The system has created new GM skills and distributed them amongst the players using different criteria. I created my skill personally. The Twin Swords of Asri is given to player with highest response stat. Offensive Shield is for the player with highest control."

He called out his menu and set it to the visible mode. It showed some sort of battle log but it wasn't his but mine. "Your control over the weapon has increased considerably and by the time fourth GM was defeated, you had the highest control over the weapons. Even using the abilities' arts partially, before getting it. As of now, the weapons you wield are an extension of your own body. That's why you can control your shield in midst of its flight."

One of the frozen players had finally risen to his feet. It was one of the Golden Knights. His naive, narrow eyes were filled with anguish. "You…you bastard…We actually swore our loyalty to you…We put our hopes in you! And you betrayed us…" He lifted a large halberd. "You evil, twisted—!!"

And the man screamed and charged. There was no time to stop him. He took a huge swing at Shua— But Shua was faster. He swung his left hand instead, opening a window and manipulating it instantly. Suddenly, his attacker's body froze in midair, then fell with a clatter. A blinking green border surrounded the man's HP bar—paralysis. Shua kept tapping commands into the window.

"Oh…Naperjet!" I turned to see Liza kneeling on the ground. From what I could see, everyone in the chamber aside from Shua and me was collapsing unnaturally, groaning. I put my sword and shield over my back, kneeling to lift Liza up and hold her hand. Shua turned to look at me again.

"What are you doing? Killing everyone here to cover up your evil deeds?" "I thought so in the first place, but now it seems to be rude. Now that I know that this thing is about to collapse, I am giving you a chance to end it now." he said, smiling and shaking his head. "You know, I have been building the Golden Knights to bring the strongest players of the game together to later eliminate them."

He stopped and trained his gaze on me, twin beams of pure willpower. He swung his axe in air and continued, "You may think it as a reward for exposing my true identity, Naperjet. I will grant you the opportunity to fight me in a one-on-one duel, right here and now. No immortality, of course. If you beat me, the game will be over, and all players will be able to log out of this world. What do you choose? If you lose then they will lose all their hopes but I shall spare their lives in your honor."

The instant she heard those words, Liza struggled futilely in my arms, shaking her head. "You can't, Naperjet! He's trying to get rid of you…We should pull back and think this through…" My conscience agreed with her. He was a game manager, able to bend the system to his will. He might claim a fair battle, but there was no telling what he might do. The best choice here was clearly to retreat, share opinions, and come up with a plan.

I thought back to Liza's past as described down on the 331st Stage. I remembered her tears as she clung to me. How could I stand before the man who created this world for his own pleasure, kidnapped us and made us to fight and watch our friends die, and simply back down? "All right. Let's settle this." I nodded slowly.

"No…!" Liza screamed. I looked down at her. It felt like I'd been shot through the chest to do this, but I forced a smile all the same. "I'm sorry. But this has to be it. There's no turning back now…" Liza opened her lips, about to say something, then stopped and gave me a desperate smile. Tears trailed down her cheeks. "You aren't going…to die, are you…?"

"Nope…I'm going to win. I'm going to win, and I'm going to bring an end to this world." "All right. I believe you." As our conversation ended, I brought out my menu and equipped another waist pouch. I laid her body on the floor and drew out my weapons. "You said that the system you designed had evolved into a sentient, right?" Heathway nodded. "Then prove me that you are still a game manager and have the admin rights." His brow twitched but I continued anyway, "Have Liza logout immediately!"

I heard multiple gasping, mostly perhaps out of shock. But Heathway seemed to understand what I meant; I didn't want Liza to watch me in a mortal combat. He nodded and called out his menu and after fiddling with it, I saw Liza's avatar disappear, he turned the screen towards me and it read 'Soul Box Integrity – 100%; Power Output - 0'. "This is the proof that she has been logged off safely and now is on the other side."

I sighed in relief and turned to see Asri almost in tears, "Asri do me a favor; if I fall in battle please take care of Kimi." He replied, "No! No! NO… you are not going to die, not unless we meet in the real world." I responded with a thumbs up and moved on. Heathway hit a few more commands on his window that equalized our HP bars at full. Next, a system message appeared over his head reading, CHANGED INTO MORTAL OBJECT —Heathway had removed his artificial defense.

The tension rose between us. Even the air seemed to tremble with the weight of the situation. This wasn't a duel. It was a fight to kill. "I will kill you." I threw the shield at his face and he parried it with his axe and charged on me, the shield however instead of going towards the wall circled around us. I evaded his charge with ease and brought out two daggers from my waist pouches and flung them towards him.

The surprise attack caught him off-guard and the daggers slashed through his torso. Another pair of daggers came out of the pouches but this time he dodged them. The daggers swung around in the air and struck from behind. The hands again went into the pouches and this time two long swords came out and flew towards him.

He parried them multiple times but each time they would boomerang towards him and try to slash him. "What is this?" He screamed. After endless futile attempts, Heathway faltered and the swords slashed him on the neck. The swords like the daggers after hitting him went to the flying shields and attached to it.

The daggers attached themselves to the outward flanks while the swords went as a cross about the cross-section of the shield. This was the ultimate weapon art of my Offensive Shield ability, Solar Strikes which changed the appearance of my shield to that of the sun. The shield attacked him and circled around for another one.

For the first ten minutes, I didn't have to take out my sword. The shield and the initial attack was enough to keep Heathway occupied and cost him fifteen percent of his HP. I equipped the second sword Calm Psyche and rushed towards the almost confused GM. The multi-pronged attack had him out-matched and I easily pushed his HP below half.

But then something unexpected happened, Heathway suddenly began avoiding my attacks with superhuman speed, far faster than what he exhibited in our duel. "Whoa – What's that?" I was surprised and pushed back into defense. "What'd you think, am I that easy to pull off?" He burst into laughter and charged against me dodging the attacks by my shield and laughing.

A thought suddenly clicked my mind, he was the last GM and as he said, this game was supposed to be unbeatable. Then that means the last GM is supposed to be the strongest, most probably have more than one GM-level ability. "That seems to be another of your GM ability." I smirked and blocked his two axes with my two sword; the smile on his face vanished.

I pushed him away and began chaining all my weapon arts, due to my reserve weapon ability applying on the same class of weapon; I can use me weapon arts twice. But only halfway to my streak I saw the happiness and confidence in Heathway's eyes and realized that he wasn't using arts to parry my attacks but instead was using simple attacks. The result, he was losing health at a pace but was waiting for all my arts to go under cool-down.

"Whatever happens, happens!" Muttering this I gave into the temptation and went full on the GM. I have to kill him within these attacks or else I might not survive for the next one. Heathway parried the last attacks of the eight hit-combo, Hyper Vortex and all my arts went under cool-down, "Farewell, Rogue Swordsman!" Heathway jeered and initiated the seven hit combo The Tornado and lunged towards me.

The seven hit combo was now a fourteen hit and I was a sitting duck for him with no defense. The first four hits got me and snatched 20% of my HP, sending it to yellow zone. At that rate, the next ten hits would probably take out my entire HP. The knockback threw me back and I watched as the axed grim-reaper approached me.

I shut my eyes, ready for anything. A low voiced shriek came to my ears and the blows never came. I opened my eyes and saw Heathway executing his combo and someone was parrying it. It was, "Kimi!" The knockback and delay ended and I rushed towards her, but it was too late. The combo had ended and I saw her HP whittle down slowly.

She tanked the ten hits and it cost her all her HP. "No! I won't let you die, Kimi." I called my menu and brought out the Restoration Cube, the one I saved since 300th Stage. "Surprising, I never thought that a little girl like her could tank full ten critical hits." Heathway sneered. The code of the cube came up and I hit the keyboard as fast as I could.

Kimi's avatar glowed and I knew what it meant, the disintegration was about to commence. I paused for a moment, had a closer look at the screen and hit the keyboard again. The count-down had 10 secs left when I finished the typing and the cube crumbled.

The disintegration canceled and Kimi was back again with all her lives and HP. I took her to a nearby wall helped her down, "Why did you come here?" "When you and Mommy didn't return after so much time, I ditched the girl and ran up here. When I came…" There were tears in her eyes when she asked, "Where's Mommy?"

"Mommy has returned to the real world and once I defeat that guy, we would join her soon." I smiled and let her rest. I turned to Heathway who was again struggling with the shield. I noticed the HP bar above his head, it stood at 35%. Kimi single-handedly took out 10% of his HP. I recalled my shield, and stood face-to-face with the GM.

"I am amused; you know how to operate the cube." He began another round of conversation. "I studied the code for more than a decade. I know what part has to be edited and can do it within a minute." He gave a look that said 'unbelievable'. "Let's GO!" I screamed and again threw the shield armed with the swords and daggers.

The battle again continued but this time I was on back-foot. Earlier, it was the element of surprise that caught him off-guard but now it wasn't of any help. Our HP's flew down at almost equal rate, hitting the red zone simultaneously. I backed off and gained some distance, breathing heavily. His bickering attacks were too strong to defend and on looking at my weapons, I realized that their durability ran very low and they might break.

I looked at the golden paladin, his armor and weapons tarnished with the onslaught. 'Maybe this is the last…' I thought and unleashed the Sonic Dive art going straight for the man's torso. He blocked the art with his heavy twin axes, a loud explosion occurred when the weapons connected and one of his axe and my sword Calm Psyche disintegrated, their durability went zero.

There was surprise in everyone's eyes, but it wasn't all. I chained the eight-hit Hyper Vortex at point blank, there was no way to parry or evade. The art destroyed Heathway's armor, the remaining axe and took about half of his remaining HP. The cost being the loss of my legendary sword Caladbolg, and 6% of my HP.

"Farewell, Dear Caladbolg!" I whispered to myself. As of that moment Heathway lost all his armor, weapons and had HP at nearly 4%, while I still had the attacking shield with HP at 2.5%. The shield was only distracting him not doing any damage. To make any appreciable damage I must have him hit by the shield, but that seemed near impossible task now. Probably sensing my indecision, Heathway charged at me hands balled into fists.

"Hand-to-Hand combat?" I shrieked as I struggled to maintain distance aim the shield at him. I series of punches came raining upon me. I lost 1% of my HP before stopping him, locked in position. "It's over, Naperjet. You did destroy my weapons and armor but that won't defeat me." His GM ability Strong-Arms gave him extra-ordinary benefit in close-quarters and hand-to-hand combat.

I could feel myself losing ground. But I still had one last trick up my sleeve, a skill that would give me not an upper hand but level the field. Heathway's eyes enlarged with surprise and backed off. "What are those buffs? How can you manipulate the system?" A surprised Heathway asked and looking from his expression it was clear that he didn't make this; it was added by the system itself.

"This is last resort, the last mod-skill of Meditation ability." I charged at the GM, who snapped out of the confusion and tried to defend against the simple punch. I could feel the effect of the buffs gained; the hand that easily overpowered me earlier now struggled with the simple punch. The skill now gave me 10x boost to all my stats.

I rushed him up chaining all the known martial arts on him. He countered them with his simple hand-to-hand combat techniques. Both were equally effective, but my boosts mitigated the damage on me while improving the DPS of the arts. The martial arts techniques didn't had the momentary delay after all were extinguished and had very short cool-downs.

The HP of both of us hit the 1% mark simultaneously. Now a single hit from a weapon would reduce it to zero while with the ongoing hand-to-hand fight might cost us another full brawl. The only weapon around us was my flying shield, but because he was moving very fast I could not aim for him. My buff time was less than a minute left.

That meant in any case this battle will be over soon, either I should kill him with the buff time remaining or as the buffs ended so will be my life. "I want a few more minutes." I said only audible to myself. "Looks like your skill time is ending, mind telling me the cool-down?" Heathway jeered me. "This is Last Resort; it can't be used twice in a battle." I huffed, trying to contemplate my next course of action.

Only twenty seconds left, I aimed the moving shield right upon us as we were trying to overpower one-another in a stalemate. As the shield approached, I let go of the GM and grappled his arms by the wrist. He seemed to understand my plan and pushed himself further towards me. As the time was over, my stats began returning to their original values and I could feel him overpower me slowly but surely.

He easily reached for my neck and grabbed it, trying to choke me. Choking doesn't do actual damage to a player, but if someone holds breath beyond a minute and half, the player begins to lose health at a steady rate like CPD. The shield came and slashed Heathway in the chest, but in a surprising turn of events, the GM kicked the shield. It caused a dagger from the shield to misalign and hit me.

With the final attack over, both our HP's fell down shrinking slowly to zero. Only relief being that mine shifted slower than his. Heathway's HP ran zero and a split second later mine as well. Our avatars glowed and a bright white light consumed us, slowly removing the background and the players. Asri, Neetto, Linda, Smith and Kimi all their faces came up and I couldn't do anything but smiled. And then everything went totally white. I knew I wasn't going to return back but I was happy and satisfied that everyone else could.