No Blessed ✓

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Nothing happened.

His tattoos did not glow, his staff did not spark to life and half a dozen men were coming for him. Mikel buried his shock under his will to live and moved forward, deciding to go with ordinary combat.

He ran towards them, waving his staff expertly and as he engaged the soldiers in battle, his staff was as effective as a sword, ridding one soldier of his eye and the next of his life.

While they fought, the sky began to crack open even more, and then the white void was back, eating up the horizon. Mikel grabbed the last warrior in a chokehold and snapped his neck before throwing the body on the ground.

Like an epiphany, it hit him: this white void was wiping No Blessed clean. An ache tore through his heart when he realized the rest of the game had been wiped destroyed already, and with it Eric, Victoria and the life he had known. The cleansing would stop only at the one link to the real world – the Life Gate.

Around him, Tyrese was standing close to the King’s prone body and Astra was sitting atop a small pile of dead bodies, panting harshly. Her clothes were raggedy from fighting, and a thin cut on the side of her face extended the small smile she gave him all the way to her ear.

“So,” she rasped out, touching her cheek gingerly, “we’ve won.”

Tyrese turned to her, blinking rapidly in confusion and surprise. “Who’s that?”

“I’m hurt you don’t remember me Cain. Were the fun times we spent barking at each other that forgettable?” Astra slid off the bodies smoothly as she spoke. She went searching around for something, turning over the dead bodies near her with her foot.

Tyrese’s eyes widened, and he leaned back vaguely. “Bay-son?”

“The one and only.” Astra squatted several metres away from the Life Gate, picking up the snake hairpin which was buried halfway into the dirt. With the hilt of her dagger, she broke it open and when a black fog began spiraling from the mass of golden pieces, she pierced her dagger through it, not batting an eye when the Demon gave off an inhumane squeal, dissipating into the air.

The noise roused Mikel, who had been staring into the distance, and he fell to his knees, the life draining out of him. The white void was drawing even closer, and nothing had happened with the Life Gate. He was going to die here.

Tyrese walked over to him, clapping him on the shoulder. “We’ve won, Druid. Why so despondent?”

“Have you?” A guttural voice answered him, and from behind Tyrese came an array of awful cracking sounds, the crunch of bones breaking and rejoining one another. They all turned to face the body of the King, which was steadily growing in size. His right eye had successfully pushed itself to the middle of his forehead, and was growing in size with the rest of his body, staring maliciously at them.

“Have you?” The King repeated, his sores breaking out even more. His large hand reached out to grab Tyrese but the ex-Knight dodged, jumping backwards. All three warriors stood near the Life Gate, witnessing the King’s conversion into repugnance.

“What are we going to do?” Mikel asked as they stared. The King released a set of guttural groans, a visible dent growing above his eye. “His heart is easier to spot now but I think he’s retained his intelligence. It’s going to be hard to defeat him.”

Around them came a baleful humming tune, twisting through the air in a subtle manner.

“We’ve got even more problems than that,” Astra said suddenly, and in her voice, there was unease. “Look at the sky.”