Unbreakable Fate

Artemis turns to Olyx and pinches the bridge of her nose in annoyance. Her hand drops once more. "You wanna tag along, Olyx, or are you gonna stay here and be a lazy blob?" She says, seemingly going from annoyance to lighthearted jabbing in the matter of seconds with a smile on her face.

"I have absolutely nothing better to do and I'm as confused as you seem to be about all of this." Olyx replied and began a lazy walk following in the other girls tracks.

Artemis nods and begins following after the slime girl, "Then I guess we have an adventuring party." She says feeling nostalgic for the times in UF when she would start taking on dungeons.

"So where are you two from?" Ophellia said, turning her head to face the two, "Any dark secrets that I might end up getting killed for?"

"Widow's Peak in the Southern Alliance." Artemis says quickly, going over the way Arthur had written her character. "Never really been out of it unless for personal errands." Wait... Albion and Vahla were part of UF, so we're still technically in UF just the real world and the VR world merged. Which must mean the other areas are in this place as well.

"I heard that they have a nasty civil war going on," Ophellia replied, "Something to do with Alveri wanting to wipe humans out. Shouldn't you have been drafted into the army?"

Artemis reels back a bit in shock, "Really? Things were tense, I know, but they hadn't gone to war in my time. Then again, I don't remember the past seventy years. Maybe they did and I just never caught wind of it." Had they gone to war? I never got much into politics and was pretty secluded before everything happened.

"Last I heard, at least," Ophellia answered, glancing over her shoulder at the two, "It was a couple of months ago. It could be over now,"

Ophellia fell into silence afterwards, passing through Reksha relatively easily. It was probably too soon for news about her theft to had spread, but she kept an eye on any guardsmen they passed. Just in case.

With no attachment to anyone in this town and the only person she said a word to being the bread maker, Artemis doesn't see a point in sticking around any longer than she needs to. She still doesn't believe Ophellia was dead, maybe she would go and try to find her after this business with Svari was finished. It would be a proper quest to undertake and one she should have started out on. She doesn't say a word as they pass through the town.

After walking in silence again until they'd moved about half a kilometer away from the village, Ophellia stretched her arms behind her back.
"We're gonna have to walk all night at this rate," She said nonchalently, "There's not really anywhere safe to camp on this road."

"There's a cabin in the backwoods not too far from here." Artemis says offhandedly. "Should be enough room to accommodate us all." She continues. "I had passed it on my way to Reksha, got distracted trying to find some food." Another lie to pile onto the others. She had disposed of the body rather well, she would think, having drug it off a ways from the cabin itself and leaving it for any animals to come across.

"Scared of the dark or something?" Ophellia asked, grinning. Usually, she'd avoid smiling as it exposed her elongated teeth, but it was dark enough that she wasn't overly concerned. "You get to see all kinds of monsters at night."

"Just bringing up the option since you felt concerned enough to say there wasn't anywhere safe to camp on the road" Artemis says while shrugging. "Sounded like you were afraid of the spooky creatures of the night for a second." She says playfully before calling to Olyx, "Where do you think would be better, Olyx? The road or the cabin?"

"I don't think slimes, of all things, get to make decisions," Ophellia said, "If she were a monster that was even remotely dangerous, like a Vampire, she might get a say, but..." Ophellia kept walking, not looking at the two as she spoke. "Feel free to go to your cabin if you're scared, but that'll be where we part."

"You're really saying vampires are dangerous? They flash their teeth and that's all they're really good for." Artemis says with grit at Svari's rude comment towards her friend.

"I've never seen a Vampire kept as a pet," Ophellia answered, amused that she'd gotten a rise out of one of them, "What about you?" She said, abruptly changing the subject, "You said something about your backside being more like a spider's earlier; so what exactly are you?"

"I was a Drider before some alchemist came and took one of my best assets." She says as she turns her head to try to look at her backside. "I think I kept a fairly good amount of those assets though." She smirks, "And you? We all have something. What's your deal, eh? Two halflings stacked on top of one another?"

"That wouldn't be very fun, would it?" Ophellia said, "You'll just have to hope I slip up and reveal my dark secret in idle conversation, or for someone who actually knows their stuff to call me out."

"At least you have a dark secret, that's enough to keep me slightly interested." Artemis replies, "I have noticed that you look like an older friend of mine, if that's any consolation." She finally admits. You and her both share a common way of speaking. Like you're better than others.

"Are you saying I look like an old woman?" Ophellia asked, pulling an exaggerated frown. "And here I thought we were almost friends."

"Of course, this might just be a coincidence. I might just be running my mouth a little much." Artemis says, seemingly backing off from her accusations. "Wouldn't want to have my nice figure burned at the stake for a mistake I made, right?" She says bringing her arms behind her back.

"Why would you be burned at the stake for that?" Ophellia asked, "That's only for heathens; how barbaric do you think we are?"

"Rumors spread of the Vampire Queen's return. Execution is inevitable" Artemis replies, paraphrasing Svari's words. "Besides, she was killed. By the way, was that kill ever confirmed by anyone other than the one who slain her?" Artemis asks with a polite tone and an even more polite smile.

"I think so," Ophellia replied, "The hunter challenged her to a duel and killed her in front of the King's army."

"Alright, then. Thanks for the information." Artemis says with a hint of disappointment on her lips as her polite smile fades into a frown. I was hoping to get all of my stuff back. Gods damn it all there was some valuable stuff in that castle.

Ophellia let the conversation die, amusing herself with idle thoughts and looking at the stars. In all likelyhood, they'd be beset by monsters soon. Undead would also show up from time to time.
"Watch out for zombies; if they kill you, you'll come back as one."

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious there." Olyx snapped. In truth, she hadn't been listening to any of the conversation as they'd wandered down the road, but once the words Vampire Queen had come into the picture, she'd tuned into the pair of them.

"Sorry, but I'm dealing with an amnesiac and a monster that doesn't usually get much smarter than rock," Ophellia snapped back at Olyx. "I'm here, trying to help you and you have the audacity to get cheeky."

"You shouldn't talk about yourself in that way... Uh. What's your name?" Olyx asked.

"None of your business," Ophellia answered, "Besides, you'll probably last a week before some adventurer hunts you down for a few silver."

"Someone forgot their cornflakes this morning, didn't we. I'll just call you Onee-chan and never leave your side then." The slime girl smiled innocently at the other woman.

Ophellia took a deep breath, resisting the urge to call the slime a weeaboo faggot, and kept walking. She hadn't expected other players to be this annoying. She just had to ditch them as soon as she got the chance.

"So Onee-chan. How's life?" The slime jovially asked the other woman, winking at Artemis as she did so.

"Ay, Onee-chan is a very nice lady deep down under all that malice." Artemis says cheerfully winking at Olyx. "I think she's tsundere for us, Olyx." She muses as a smile breaks on her face.

Ophellia's eye twitched in anger.
I thought I'd left those fucking weebs behind. She thought angrily; but, she had a role to play.

"What's an 'Onee-chan'?" She asked, turning her head and sounding genuinely confused.

"You are, Onee-chan" Olyx giddly spat out, trying her utmost to not burst out in laughter.

While Olyx tried her best to not laugh, Artemis cracks up laughing. "Onee-chan is Onee-chan~" Artemis says through pauses in laughter, trying her best to add a sing songy voice to it.

"Are you two right in the head?" Ophellia asked, substituting the words "Fucking Retarded" with the typical slang of Albion peasants.

"Ay, we're just having some other worldly fun, Onee-chan." Artemis replies gleefully as she tries to keep up her teasing between giggles. Once it subsides just slightly, she continues, "Maybe to try to take our minds off of this strange situation. Or just to toy with ya."

"Oh, right," Ophellia said, still keeping up her act of feigning ignorance, while also wanting to make sure they were aware of the dangers that finding a player they didn't know would bring, "There was someone who led an Inquisition platoon, his lieutenant kept calling him that."

"Really?" Artemis says quizzically. Well, Olyx is here and it's recorded that Ophelia was here. So, maybe other players managed to make the jump as well. It's entirely possible that people I've met recently have all been players. Her face goes puzzled as she begins thinking, but with a wave of her hand it disappears as if all of her thoughts were for naught. Nah, that's crazy.

Ophellia carried on in silence, her ears searching for any of the noises that might indicate they were being hunted. She briefly paused at a corpse in the middle of the road, putting her spear through its skull, but didn't take further action.

"Wonder what did it in." Artemis says as she begins to look around for a cause. Her hand resting on her sheathed knife as her awareness begins to rise. They hadn't seen a traveler in a long time, or, she hadn't. Truth be told she was pondering the possibility of this situation and what it would mean for Arthur's body and to a further extent the real world.

Ophellia suddenly thrust her spear towards the ground, jumping backwards as soon as she'd retracted it. Where she'd previously been standing, a rotted corpse lay; still half in the ground. From the trees either side of the group, the sounds of more undead could be heard as they shuffled towards the party.

"They probably did him in," Ophellia said, watching as they slowly came nearer.

"Ay ya undead pricks. This here corpse was a buddy of mine. Name was Charlie. He was a good man but He owed me a drink." Artemis chides the zombies and unsheathes her knife. "Now by my calculation you all owe me one." A shambling undead gets closer to her and she plunges her knife right into its head easily and jumps back.

After delivering a kick to the nearest undead's head, flooring it, Ophellia used her 'Shadow Step' ability. She took a single step forward, and appeared behind the group of undead. She stabbed with her spear again, lodging it in on of their heads, and ran forward. The corpse fell, and she used her spear as a vaulting pole, drop-kicking the next undead in her path.

With the zombies in such close proximity, Artemis can't get her bow and arrows out fast enough. For this fight, at least until she can get some distance, she'll have to rely on her knife. Her knife begins to glow a bright red, creating a beacon in the darkness on her and her companions. She plunges her knife into the earth and suddenly, a pillar of fire extends from the ground a few feet in front of her immolating the nearby undead and killing them near instantly.

Landing on top of the undead she had kicked, and crushing its head with her boot, Svari glanced around. Including the ones she and Artemis had killed, there were 14 undead. Another approached her, only to have its head sliced in two by the edge of her spear. She spun around, driving the bottom head into another, yanking it free and sending the other point into an undead that was facing her.

After dispatching the last of the group, Svari looked to Artemis.
"You don't look much like a mage," She said, wiping bits of undead off of her weapon.

She raises and plunges her knife into the ground once more, chanting an incantation as she does so and rings begin to appear around her group of enemies. "It's because I'm not. I'm a magic archer by trade. Unfortunately, I'm not fully equipped at this moment." She raises her blade from the ground and flashes it in the moonlight before deftly moving from undead to undead who have seemed to have been frozen in their position and stabbing them in the head "Just making do with what I have." She continues with a smirk as the magic binding circles disappear one after another from the undead once the blade leaves their mushy heads.

Three days later - The Fallen City; Armilar

Ophellia sat with her back against the wall of the ruined church as she read the book she'd stolen. In it, were detailed descriptions of many rituals involving demons, but the main reason she'd taken it was because it, or at least its name, had been in the game-version of UF. A quest item involved in her personal favourite questline; Deus in Absentia. She'd completed the quest several times on different characters just to unlock every ending and to experience the quest again. She hadn't told either of her companions the full story yet and as she wasn't entirely sure how to go about it, she resolved not to.