An Even Split

"What the heck happened?"

He mumbled to himself. "Why was the quest completed so suddenly?"

Yuri thought about it.

"Are you alright?" the girl said.

"Not really. No… We might now be alone here. Wait here!" he urged her.

Yuri dashed around the vicinity but there was no other player around close enough to be considered by the quest as him finding someone.

He went back to the girl, and she asked, "Are we in danger?"

"No… it is okay now. I made sure of it."

He tried to analyze what happened because it was all too fast. The quest was to find another Mage. If it was one of those boys or the girl, then he would have completed the quest much earlier. But when the dragon in the sky appeared suddenly and interacted with him by transporting him to where he was now, that was when the quest had been completed. Then he realized that there was only one possibility left.

"THE DRAGON!"

Yuri had now realized that the Dark Red Dragon that came and transported everyone with such administrative authority was a Mage.

"But which Mage?" he mumbled.

"Is everything alright? You still seem troubled."

"No… it's fine. It's fine…"

If the Mage had such authority here, that meant that the whole game itself was owned and under the full control of the Mage.

"Yeah, well, I have to go now," the girl said. "It's like 6:55 pm now. It was nice playing with you. And let's team up again sometime. I don't have any friends to play with."

"Oh, sure! That would be gre- it's 6:55 pm? OH SHIIIIT! I have a meeting to go to!"

"Bye!" the girl said while logging out instantly.

Yuri logged out of the game and he felt a little dizzy but slapped his face to fully regain back his senses.

"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!!! I'M GOING TO BE FUCKING LATE!! AND MIGHT FUCKING START A WAR WITH THE TERRAMAGE!!!"

His smartwatch had tons of missed calls and text messages, asking him where he is, and what time he is going to arrive.

"FUCKING GAME!!! FUCKING ALARM!!!"

Yuri cussed out everything, though he knew he was the one at fault here. He ran to his closet to dress up in the fastest way he could. Martha, the hot glasses reporter that now works for him and the one he assigned to manage the location of the meeting and other arrangements had texted the location and he read them.

*Good afternoon, sir! The location for the meeting is at the Takeshiba Pier, sir. You will easily notice the boat that you and the CEO of the EDEN Group when you get there sir.*

"Alright. It's Takeshiba Pier. How far is that from here by car? What... like 9 minutes? Fuck! I'm still going to be late if I go by car!"

Yuri thought that every second mattered now, and as he was unsure of the personality of the TerraMage who had a history, according to Botan, of being a part of Jihadist groups. He just didn't want to offend his Muslim guests as a sign of his duty as a host.

"Sebastian! Where the hell are you when I need you!"

Then he remembered that he was processing another AI Object. Although, this time, it still didn't have enough time to complete the AI object generation.

"Fuck it!" he said. Hoping that the same thing would happen again.

"SYSTEM! GENERATE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE OBJECT NOW!"

By now, it wasn't about a concern that he might provoke a war between Mages or any other consequential reason. He just wanted to prove to Sebastian that he was capable of functioning like a full-grown adult, even though he is still 18 years old.

[AI OBJECT GENERATION IS STILL PROCESSING]

"Rush it!"

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO PROCEED? NOTE: OBJECT MAY CONTAIN UNPREDICTABLE PROPERTIES DUE TO NON-COMPLETION]

"Yes!"

[GENERATING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE OBJECT LEVEL 2]

The System began to generate AI in its physical form. The Mana Particles gathered and produced a 4-foot-tall girl standing in his bed. She had long hair and a muscular tone, and her facial features looked like the girl from the game he had just played. Although it was weird, Yuri ignored it and said.

"AI!" he shouted while shaking the newly generated girl's shoulders. "I need you to take me to Takeshiba Pier as fast as possible! Do what you have to do! I permit you."

The artificial intelligence then answered and said, "Yes, Master."

On the white-sheeted bed, not wearing any clothes, she pressed her body against her master. And she kissed him on the lips to initiate the merging process.

"WTF!"

The girl morphed into a metallic slime that enveloped Yuri inside of it. They fully merged with Yuri giving him a different design for his Exosuit. It looked similar to the Dark Red Dragon in the VR game. His armor had scale-like exoskeletons and his wings were touching the floor while it was tucked closed, and it had a bat's wings type of characteristics.

Yuri was alright with what was happening so far, as long as he was able to get there in time. The AI had control of his Exosuit and obeyed his commands to get to the pier as soon as possible. She flew him outside the window of his Condominium and dived out of one of the highest floors of the skyscraper.

Falling straight to the ground, the AI took a moment, while falling in the air to gain sufficient balance and coordination as his wings challenged the wind's updraft.

Suddenly, his huge wings spread out like a glorious golden eagle, when it caught the wind, the AI flapped it downwards, and it boosted him straight up.

They then flew on the orange sky, as remnants of the sunset's rays were still visible from the sea.

The AI quickly directed all their force to arrive at the Pier within one minute only. They arrived at the pier. It was exactly 7:00 pm.

"Master. You have received a text message from Martha Akio."

"Reading it out loud now, 'Just in time, sir. We, your guests, and I can see you from up there. We are down here on the ship, sir' Text message over."

Yuri looked down and saw a large Cruise Ship on the docks and ready to depart, with a woman waving her hand and several men wearing Thobes, long gowns that are traditional clothing for Muslim men.

There was one man in particular that Yuri noticed differently than all the others. The man wore a white thobe and a white Taqiyah. He was standing at the bow of the ship, staring intensely at Yuri, who was flying in the sky. This was the first time that he saw a real Mage in physical human form. And he felt something intense. Was it fear? Was it hate? No. Yuri felt the most excited he had ever been in his life, and he gave a smile from above while returning the intense look and manifesting a staredown between him and his fellow Mage.

"Master, I sense imminent danger on the ship," the girl AI said.

"It's okay… AI… He can sense the danger in the sky too."

Yuri had an intense feeling of power that he never felt before.

"AI. Text Martha to let the ship depart, and head toward Oshima Island. Tell her that I will follow from the sky. And to explain the situation to our guests."

"Yes, Master."

Yuri flew straight into the sea, ignoring his Muslim guests, and headed straight into Oshima Island.

Oshima Island was a special kind of island 100 kilometers away from Tokyo. It had the only desert landscape in Japan due to the island being volcanic territory. It is uninhabited and had a beautiful view of the summit of Mihara Mountain.

As Yuri flew towards the island, on the ship, Martha explained the situation to the guests.

"Good afternoon again! Thank you for being patient, Mr. Hayashi has told me that we are to head to Oshima Island, and he will meet us there. So please, relax and enjoy. Dinner is already being prepared."

One of the men that seemed to be the lowest rank of them and who was the only one fluent in English came forward and asked Martha,

"We truly appreciate your hospitality and entertaining us on a Cruise Ship with only us and the ship's staff on board. But may I ask, what your superior has in mind for taking us to the island?"

The man in white walked toward them, moved his chin back, and made a clicking noise with his tongue, indicating his friend not to proceed with his inquiry.

His friend stopped talking and said, "Please, pay no mind. We will be patient. Thank you."

The man in white walked back to the bow of the ship and smiled while looking at Yuri flying at great speeds like a demon.

"Interesting!" he grinned, then suddenly ran towards the edge of the ship and jumped into the sea with his body posing not like he was diving into the water but he looked like he was jumping on solid land.

When he was near the water, his white thobe had ripped open and beneath it was concealed Magitek Armor that was based on the design of Muslim Medieval Armor.

He extended his legs and feet, the armor now had completely covered his body with plate mail, which was flexible due to the chain mail and it also protected him from blunt attacks as there were rigid plates on several parts of him. His helmet fully covered his face and but its top was very similar to a Construction Engineer's helmet's design.

His armor suddenly boosted itself with bursts of flames coming from what seemed to source from the armor in his legs, charging him forward into the sky. Then as he lost his momentum, his legs blasted a wave of energy against the sea, and that pulled forward pillars of sand rising from the sea floor.

He kept doing this again and again. Jumping against the pillars of sand then bursts of flames from his legs would charge him into the sky again, repeating this process.

"I can't fly. But Allah, Subhanahu wa ta'ala, has blessed me and graciously disclosed unto me the Ghayb…" (Ghayb means the "Unseen")

Yuri turned around and saw a man in armor flying in flames and leaping against pillars of sand.

He smiled. And paused to let him catch up.

"I'm not going to win this race, with an unfair head start," Yuri said.

The man saw Yuri in the distance suspended in the air, and looking at him as if he was waiting.

As he got closer able to be heard by Yuri he shouted, "Are you sure about that? Know this! It was only allowed that you gain a head start because you needed it in the first place."

Yuri couldn't understand him speaking in fluent Arabic, but the AI translated it for him and he laughed. "Oh really, beard man!" he shouted in Japanese.

When they were caught up with each other, suddenly, the man took a staff from his inventory.

Yuri was still laughing, thinking the bearded man would never be able to beat him.

Then when the man was pushed into the air by the burst of flames, he lifted the staff above him and threw it like a javelin straight into the bottom of the sea.

"What the heck is he doing?" Yuri said to himself.

"Master, detecting a large amount of energy coming from the bottom of the sea."

The sea slowly bubbled making a straight line path toward the island. Then due to great energy coming from the staff that was struck on the seafloor, the sea split in half.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Yuri exclaimed.

The sea had divided into two huge walls with a dry seabed path in the middle leading straight into the island.