Aftermath, Part 1

Lucas's thoughts swirled around his empty head like water circling a drain, inevitably lost to the void below. Each time he tried to focus on a thought it escaped his grasp. Each was a wet fish slipping out of his hands when he held on too tightly. One of them gave a parting *blub* before leaping back into the water. A few messages appeared from the system that he glanced at haphazardly, still struggling to understand. Someone with a terrible Cooking skill was burning something nearby.

[28 Points of Bludgeoning Damage Taken!]

[Dexterity Leveled Up to Level 84!]

[Defence Leveled Up to Level 68!]

[New Status Effect: Broken Bones]

[New Status Effect: Burning]

…

Wait… didn't burning mean he was on fire?

Lucas wrenched open his eyes to find himself wrapped in a set of burning curtains. With hysterical fear he pried the twisted fabric off of him and kicked the fiery pile away before stomping out the flames in a fit of anger. Shock and adrenaline coursed through his body like a live wire, causing his limbs and fingers to shiver uncontrollably. Nothing like the threat of immolation to wake you up.

Thankfully, it seemed only the curtains had caught fire, as the rest of the room was made of solid and nonflammable stone. An ominous orange light illuminated the room through the glassless windows, their shattered remains lying on the floor in front of the opening. It reminded Lucas of the California wildfire videos he had seen online, where even the sky was engulfed in an eerie red glow.

The door into the house was completely obliterated. Wooden chunks and splinters littered the floor. A few insignificant planks still clung to the twisted hinges that held desperately to the stone. At the end of the house, covered in shrapnel from the exploded door, lay a small crumpled figure, her blonde hair splayed out wildly behind her.

Bree.

Lucas rushed over to check on the girl on the floor and prepared for the worst. He prayed that her HP had leveled high enough in the short time that she had access to skills to survive the blast.

The slow rise and fall of her chest gave him his answer. She was alive, but severely weakened and unconscious. Lucas could only hope that she had no internal injuries or status effects that would lower her HP further, as he didn't have access to any healing spells. After a quick once-over to confirm she had no visible bleeding injuries, Lucas tore another curtain from a window of the room and folded it into a pillow beneath Bree's fragile head. It was dangerous to move someone with extensive injuries, and she was already likely in the safest place in the village, so he let her lie for now. The stone home wouldn't catch fire any time soon.

Lucas rushed through the front door to search for Elvira or any other survivors and was punched in the gut by the scene playing out in front of him. Flames danced atop the empty shells of thatch and wooden cottages like barbarians looting the last remains of a defeated village. All of the buildings that surrounded the crater where the demon had once knelt were obliterated without a trace. He couldn't help but marvel for a moment at the explosive power of a Legendary-class demon. If other villages were attacked by these mutated creatures without a member of the Vanguard to protect them...

Even with Vanguard members protecting villages and towns and cities from the mutated threat, they wouldn't be able to hold out long. How many of their number still remained? A few dozen? Those Vanguard members that still lived were largely concentrated in Freehold, too. The number of powerful players that could stand up to a threat like this outside of Freehold was probably in the single digits. These Legendary-class demons could probably re-conquer Alstyn in the name of the Demon King within the year. The realization sent a shiver down Lucas's spine. Why was this happening suddenly? What was driving the AI's mutations, and how did it relate to the NPCs gaining skills?

He needed to head to Freehold immediately. Smarter people than him sat on the Council there and would be able to decipher Ben and Elvira's notes on the subject with far greater efficacy than he could.

Elvira.

Lucas frantically scanned the area in search of the elderly healer. Burning debris from houses mixed with dirt and stone that the explosion had thrown outward and covered the ground all around the village. Some mounds had clearly been molten magma that cooled into solid rock mid-flow. It was like Hell on Earth.

A weak coughing sound resounded in Lucas's ears from down the road behind the stone house. He activated [Fleet of Foot] and bound forward without hesitation toward the source. A small bit of beige linen stuck out from below a collapsed pile of rock and debris, fluttering anxiously in the wind like the flag of a sinking ship. Lucas dove toward it onto his knees and began digging through the debris, hoping beyond all odds that his savior had survived.

Lucas struggled to choke down the lump in his throat. Had he done it again? How many times would his hubris cause the death of those around him before he finally grew up?

He tried to put up a mental barrier, but the memories came cascading down despite his protests. He didn't want to remember; he wanted the emptiness to return. The nothingness that had enveloped his tortured mind in the mountains. The void. The void was cold, lonely, and listless. But at least the void didn't hurt. Now, as he cut his hands against the rough and burning detritus that buried his comrade, the hurt returned like a tidal wave and drowned him.

Images of eviscerated comrades flashed into his mind and gripped his heart like a vise. The roar of the Demon King as he unleashed a devastating attack on the line of mages and rangers echoed in his head like a siren heralding an incoming disaster. Silent, vacant eyes stared back at him. The weight of a corpse against his arms, heavier now without the lightness of life.

Lucas knew why he didn't flee the exploding demon. The thought had always lingered in the back of his mind. He could end the hurt at any moment; no more painful memories that threatened to rear their heads at random, no more guilt, no more days spent hiding away in bed. Destruction and death seemed to be the only things that followed him around anyways - always nipping at his heels, inextricably linked to his being like a shadow in the sun. Maybe it was easier to not exist.

The red HP gauge at the corner of his vision taunted him with vile implications. He was still alive, despite all he had done to the contrary. The Death Seeker survived once again while the brave and courteous and compassionate others did not. Why was he even-

Suddenly, a hand burst forth from the pile of rubble that he had been digging through. It was encrusted in a layer of white dust, but otherwise seemed unharmed. Lucas threw back a large heap of rock and dust and revealed Elvira's shoulder and face.

"You're alive!" he shouted in a burst of happiness.

"It'll take more than that to kill this old bitch," Elvira spat out with a mouthful of dust. "Is it dead?"

Lucas turned aside to reveal the husk of the demon statue that still knelt at the end of the street - or what was left of the street. Its body was burnt out and lifeless. The once red eyes that glowed with hatred had faded to stone, black streaks of magma and fire burned into creases and cracks that ran the length of the statue. Crumbling bits of rock had already begun to fall from its corpse. It seemed almost pitiful in death.

"Good," was all Elvira said. Lucas helped to finish clearing the debris around her and pulled her out. They both suffered from broken bones and had dropped below 25% HP, but the system helped to mask most of the pain. Lucas removed his remaining elite-level health potion from his inventory with a flash of light and held it out to the woman.

"You take it. If anything else attacks it's up to you to defend us. An unenviable position, but one that I cannot fill," Elvira said while refusing the potion. Lucas nodded in understanding. She was only a mid-level player, someone who had never joined the Vanguard or seriously pushed to level her combat skills. Even if she took the potion now, she'd likely die in a follow-up attack by scavengers taking advantage of the village's disarray anyways. It was better to give it to Lucas who could give everyone a chance to survive should that worst-case scenario occur.

He unstoppered the potion and drank it from his place on the ground beside Elvira, watching the corner of his vision go from red to yellow to green while he downed the red liquid.

"Bree is safe in the house?" Elvira asked between exhausted heaves. It would be some time before her natural regeneration brought her back to a stable state. Lucas wondered how this exertion would be affecting her normal body back on Earth. He imagined a nurse watching her vitals spike as her heart rate neared 200, completely oblivious to the fact that she was battling a thirty-foot tall demon made of stone and roiling magma. What an absurd world they lived in.

"She is unconscious but stable," Lucas answered, careful not to worry the old woman too much now that the health of her heart weighed on his mind. "I made sure of it before looking for you."

"Thank you for that, Death Seeker," she said. "And thank you for defending Hillsborough from that monster. We'd have suffered far greater losses had you not been here."

Lucas bowed his head slightly, accepting the humble words of gratitude from someone who had regarded him with scorn only hours before. His mind couldn't help but regard it as an insincere pleasantry, given that he had nearly caused her death only minutes earlier.

"I'm sorry for nearly getting you killed. You saved me from the self-destruct explosion," Lucas admitted while feeling slightly embarrassed. He could feel Elvira's judging eyes piercing through him despite his breaking eye contact. The ground was a more comfortable place to stare as he wondered with shame if she understood his reason for not fleeing the explosion.

"If you don't want to talk about what happened, I won't pry. Just remember that in this world we have all lost someone. Everyone has been affected - some more than others, surely. I know that carrying on with our lives can sometimes feel callous. How can we have the audacity to live out a banal existence while the ones we love can no longer smell the grass on the breeze, can no longer watch the sunset over the sea, can no longer feel the warm embrace of a friend? And yet, life goes on. It will go on without us, too. I could not fathom hoping that my loved ones suffer after I am gone simply because I am not there to enjoy life with them. In death as in life, I would wish them the greatest of all possible realities filled with love and happiness and excitement free from grief or guilt. Life is for the living, and death is for the dead. Let's not prematurely adopt the responsibility of death, especially when our time in this world is so short."

Lucas couldn't help but smile through the tears that fell freely down his cheeks. Elvira's thorny exterior didn't belie the depth of her warmth at all. She was truly a kind soul with great insight into love and life, much like Cara had been.