Choice
With the checklist of "Survivor's Boon" options floating unsupported in front of her, Alesha mentally sighed, wishing she had a chance to better figure out her situation before making her choice. She was still a sword, but she had no clue what the next story would be, what abilities she would need and whether the sight she had regained would come with her beyond this inbetween-space. His explanation had clarified a lot… but it had left her with just as many questions, if not more.
She didn't have time to worry about any of that, though, so she quickly skimmed the given list. There were more options than she expected -- and some of them looked like obvious traps. One of them in particular made her fervently wish that she had the time to fully understand her current situation before choosing.
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ALESHA WILLIAMS ~ SURVIVOR'S BOON OPTIONS
▢ Skill Carryover - Plunder
▢ Skill Carryover - Troll's Regeneration, Mental Fortitude, Psychic Blades
▢ Skill Carryover - Gluttony
▢ Skill Carryover - Life Detection
▢ Skill Carryover - 5 random
▢ Choose-Your-Own-Role (1-time only)
▢ Advantageous Spawn Point (1-time-only)
▢ Title Carryover - Hated By Gaia
▢ Title Carryover - Sacrificial Lamb
▢ Title Carryover - She Who Escaped the Seal
▢ Participant-Recognizing Magic Eye (With Usage Log)
▢ PAD Chat App
▢ Five-Use Skill: Teleport To Set Location
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After skimming the options, she didn't know how much time she had left to choose. Since Plunder would be useless if the next Story was one without abundant Skills and the others just didn't seem as advantageous as they could be, she ruled out the specified skill options and looked over the remaining Boon choices. "5 random" skill carryover could be useful, but it could backfire by getting stuck with useless skills. She mentally bookmarked it as a viable option.
The one-time advantages looked like trap options, so those were a no-go. Only "She Who Escaped the Seal" was even remotely tempting in terms of title carryover; the others were basically curses. Thus, title carryover options were a no as well.
She wondered what the Magic Eye option was about. Would the next Story make it difficult to tell each other apart from "NPC's," yet at the same time, necessary? That could be troublesome. However, there was a chance this was a trap as well. Upon seeing it, a Participant would obviously assume the Boon would be a necessity. There was no way a Chaos Demon would make this so easy. As for the PAD Chat App, that skill made absolutely no sense; but that was precisely why it drew her eye. PAD, being in all caps, probably stood for something -- and it was likely important. She wished she had more time to puzzle this out.
The final Boon's use was straightforward, but again, quite limited.
Thinking about that, Alesha suddenly remembered what Zorhellian had said about the Boons. He had said that each one was "soul-altering magic that will be carried with you throughout the remaining two Stories -- and beyond, if you can survive that long!"
Were his words spoken carelessly? Were they something she could afford to look over?
No.
As intriguing as the PAD Chat App was, she guessed that it would, at most, be useful only through the end of the Storytelling Games. That was the same for the trap options: Magic Eye, single skills, 1-time story boons, and even the 5-use teleportation skill. If she used the teleportation option during this next Story, could the "set location" be reset for the final Story? What about afterwards? Knowing how sadistic Zorhellian and Rogork both were, she thought it improbable. More likely, using it after the "set location" was determined and she moved worlds could strand her in whichever world it was if she tried to reset it later.
She had barely any time left now. How many seconds? Ten? Two? She didn't know.
All she knew was that she felt like trusting her intuition was the best choice.
With that, she made her selection. It was more or less a gamble; however, she felt confident in her choice, because she had acquired some pretty decent skills in the last Story. Having some of those permanently would be nice. Particularly Life Detection or Battle Foresight.
As she made her choice, a neat checkmark drew itself on the box next to her chosen option on the lined piece of paper.
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…
☑ Skill Carryover - 5 random
…
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Perhaps this wasn't the right decision. It wasn't specialized for whatever Story was coming next, which could prove to be a bad move; however, the potential for flexibility was just too enticing.
A moment later, everything faded to black and the next Story began.
----
A secret passageway, about five minutes ago
Captain Swallow was confused when Alesha suddenly snapped at her mentally, telling her to shut up and then saying something about "Hated By Gaia" that made no sense.
Who are you talk- "ing to?" She asked, the first half of her question conveyed mentally, before the rest of it suddenly came out of her own two lips. What?
It took the Captain several moments to process what had occurred. Bana Laoch was nowhere to be found, the King was dead, and she was back in control of her body.
It had happened.
This fact was not well-known even among those who were involved in ritual Hero Summonings, but the death of the Demon King was not the only way to send Heroes home. In fact, the quickest way for the Heroes to go home was if one of them killed the human King. When a Hero killed the King, the summoning magic was directly undone, sending the Heroes back immediately. Though, if anyone else killed the human King, it wouldn't work and the only remaining method for their return would be to kill the Demon King.
That was why the King had been so extremely paranoid about the Heroes. Yes, there was a history of misbehavior of those summoned from other worlds, which was definitely problematic; but what he really feared was what would happen if the Heroes ever discovered there was a quicker and easier way to go home. Heroes were not saints, after all. There was no guarantee they wouldn't kill him in order to return as soon as they learned it was possible. Keenan, for example, was definitely ruthless enough to do it.
On second thought, he might have actually decided to protect the King in order to make sure he stayed in a world where he could control the undead. The Heroes were said to come from worlds without magic, after all.
Captain Edelle sighed, looking at the King's corpse.
Was this what you called a "self-fulfilling prophecy?" His actions, likely rooted in paranoia that the Heroes would betray him, had given one of the Heroes plenty of reason to want him dead. It had even been one of the most seemingly harmless ones, too.
The war with the demons was far from over, but now that the King was dead and the Heroes had returned to their own worlds, the Kingdom would be at a grave disadvantage. Leaderless, with the elite force they'd been training for nearly six months suddenly wiped out in one go.
It was but a small consolation that Keenan would have been banished from their world just like the others, thus ending his rampage through the Kingdom.
Edelle stood there for another minute while brooding on these dark thoughts.
That was when something rather unexpected appeared: another of those golden windows, glittering with what seemed to her like a honey-laden trap… or perhaps a heaven-sent opportunity.
Either way, did she really have a choice in the matter? Who could dare refuse a Goddess's offer?
*****
QUEST COMPLETE: Punish the one responsible for sealing the seedling
REWARD: The Goddess's favorability towards you has been upgraded to 'favorable' from 'neutral'
Opportunity to become an Apostle of Toltura. Do you accept?
*****
When she looked back on this moment months later, Edelle wished she had thought to ask what Toltura was the Goddess of before rashly accepting. Maybe she should have even risked offending the Goddess by refusing.
Perhaps then her world might have been spared the consequences of the Goddess's interference.