Group Dungeon III

Relatively recovered from their recent trauma, Sven's party were marching towards the nature healing shrine so that Alice could get a class, their journey was almost over as the room they were approaching would be their last stop before Sven's, which was the next room over. With SunBane and Markus dealt with, the rest of the journey should be a cake walk, they'd maybe have to encounter a few low level monster hordes but with Ignis and her AOE spells, this wouldn't be an issue.

"What will we do once we all have our classes?" Alice asked as she nervously glanced behind her every now and then, no doubt the previous ambush had left her on high alerts. No one in their party had a very good perception skill, so spotting or detecting enemy intentions and movements was almost non existent, how Sven had reacted to Markus's **** attempt she had no idea.

"It can go one of two ways, either they imprison me for killing those two and lock me up until a trial of some sort." Ignis frowned, if that were to happen it would be a kangaroo court where the jury would convict Sven without proper understanding of the situation, they wouldn't know or care that it was all in self defense. Well, mostly self defense, Markus wasn't exactly black and white as he had surrendered. "Or, they could let me go on account that I'm a hero, I'm sure the minister wouldn't want his prized piggy locked up in some cell awaiting the gallows." Sven spat on the floor at that last part, the thought that he could be forgiven for his murders simply because of his status in the world left a sickening feeling pool inside of himself. Maybe this was why heroes were so feared, maybe this was why Igrasil had gotten away with killing so many people for so long.

"What will we do if they go with the former approach to dealing with you?" Ignis asked with a worried tone, some of the PikanVale aids outside looked like the real deal, it would be hard even if all three of them had classes to overcome even a small group of those veteran adventurers let alone the entire institute or god forbid, the whole town of Pikanally itself. Sven thought for a moment, he had considered this option while they had walked and had came to a grim conclusion that **** his hand.

"If we're perused by the institute or by the town itself, we'll run." Sven's eyes steeled as he considered the fate he was subjecting onto his companions. "I will not let my life hang in the hands of that conniving minister, if he spares me he will do so for untold favors and pledges of servitude towards him, all the while acting like he's doing me a favor." Sven didn't know much about that minister but from all of the stunts he had been pulling behind the scenes and the speeches he had given, it wasn't hard for Sven to imagine that the aging man was that sort of ambitious person.

"No matter what, I'll be by your side master. Whatever you decide to do, I will not abandon you." Alice made a noise to affirm the same sentiments, Sven couldn't help but let a small smile creep its way onto his face. It warmed his heart to know that he had true friends in such a time of crisis, friends to lean on and to turn to when he was struggling, in his past life he couldn't have imagined he would be a state like this with such people to call him friend, for a brief moment it made him sad that he had missed out on such feelings of security and acceptance for all those years, he didn't even try to join a guild or make friends in his last life, he would always go solo. Now as he looked at Ignis and Alice and their warm, reassuring looks he felt as if his past life was dissolving into a corner of his psyche, replaced by whatever he had become. Sven Gate the solo player pvp master, now he was Sven Gate the party leader and fledgling hero.

Before long the group entered the final room, flickering light rose up from ravines surrounding the shrine ahead of them. The room itself was littered with life, grass and small bushes lined the path to the structure ahead, trees were growing out of the cave walls and streams of water was cascading down from a mouth in the cave wall, forming a natural waterfall that pumped a heavy flow of water into the ravine below, the rush of water sent sprays into the air, forming a rainbow that spanned the length of the room. On the other side of the shrine, a flickering light illuminated from far below the ravine, no doubt a flow of magma that caused the shrine itself to be self-illuminated.

Taking in mother earths beauty, Sven and his party almost forgot about their former worries. As they walked towards the shrine they couldn't help but admire this little garden of eden, the spray from the waterfall tickling and rejuvenating their skin, Alice was breathless as she twirled around, it was everything the teacher had said it would be and more, certainly the prettiest shrine she'd ever seen and it only looked more perfect in person.

For what felt like a long dream sequence of twirling and floating she finally arrived at the monolithic structure. It was a large brown obelisk with ornate golden decorations carved into it depicting trees, animals and clouds, marks denoting gusts of wind and a prominent red sun at its centerpiece. As she stood before the shrine she glanced back at her friends, their smiles reassured her to go on. Touching the shrine she felt its marble-like texture and an uncertain warmth behind it, combined with an alien sensation that felt to her like a mixture of calmness, contentedness and melancholy that filled her for just a flash. This sudden feeling was soon accompanied by a longer sensation of power as she felt secrets of ages long forgotten filling her body, a trail of glowing green leaves circled her body starting from the feet and quickly rising well above her head. She felt the natures power enter her, all of its kindness accompanied by all of its wrath and even its apathy too.

As she grew used to the feelings of her new power the leaves died down and then vanished from sight, evaporating into the surroundings or wherever they had came from. Looking to her gnarled staff she held it up experimentally, channeling her power through her weapon with newly discovered insight she watched as the staff glowed green, pointing it at Sven she watched as he body began to glow just like her staff, the small cuts and even the dirt on his face and cloths began to close and clear away.

"Wow, that feels different." Sven admitted as he held his hands up to his face, watching his body vibrate the green glow of light from every limb and feeling a warm surge of energy course through his entire body in waves. Ignis touched him to see if she could somehow catch some of the green glow only to find that the power extended to her too now that she was touching Sven, her own small body began to radiate green as well as she felt the same way Sven did.

"Wow this is amazing, nature healing really is impressive." Ignis concurred, looking over her body as she twisted and twirled and watching with enjoyment as the glow followed her body and leaving an after image of green light where her body had been before. Sven chuckled at her antics, she really was child like at times.

"When did my dear NPC of a sister get so care free, I wonder?" Svens smile dropped as he entered a combat stance in front of Ignis and Alice, the jovial atmosphere of before evaporating almost instantaneously, even the roar of the waterfall seemed to grow silent as the figure approached them.

"Igrasil, why're you-" Sven felt sweat begin to bead on his forehead. There was no way he could take him right now, even with two companions with classes the fight would be impossible.

"Here? See, your words are predictable just like an NPC's would be in a video game. You have no independent thoughts, you're merely a script on a servers computer hard drive somewhere with scripted responses and scripted emotions." Igrasil sighed glumly as he appeared from the shadows, his red hair almost glowing like fire from the magmas light below them. "Am I the only real person left? Are the other 'heroes' just scripted NPC's like you? You've really dissapointed me Sven Gate, you know that? Here I was hoping to finally meet another human being in this world of computer game characters, but what I'm met with is yet another cliched good guy hero archetype with a savior complex." Igrasil came to a stop, his hands in his baggy pants as if he wasn't even slightly afraid that Sven would strike him.

"There you go again, talking to me or anyone else present like they aren't capable of the same independent thought as you, like it or not this is real life now Igrasil, this is no longer a game." Igrasil scoffed at Sven's words which only caused Sven's brow to furrow more so.

"This is real life?" Igrasil asked with an amused flair in his voice, raising his glowing hands he summoned several fire golems behind himself, causing Sven and his party to prepare for combat, but when his summoned beasties just stood there motionlessly Igrasil laughed at how tense they were. "This is real life you say, where I can use magic and conjure demons from the depths of hell itself?! Get real Sven! This is a video game world where the players are meant to rule over and torment the non players! How do you not get that?!" Igrasil's temper flared as he ranted, Sven could hardly believe the words coming out of his mouth, the tone in his voice was just... Why was Igrasil getting mad because HE couldn't understand why killing non heroes should be permissible?!

"How can I not understand?! How can you burn children alive, watch them scream and writhe in agony and beg for you to stop and think that this is typical video game behavior?! You're a sick freak with some seriously messed up logic!" Sven grit his teeth together as Igrasil only laughed harder.

"Yeah those developers are awesome aren't they? I've always had fantasies of burning people, wasn't it so nice of the devs to include such a power fantasy into the game as well? I got so many levels up just from killing NPC's! If I can be honest with you Sven, I haven't even killed a single monster in all my time playing this game, all of my XP has come primarily from the 'people' I've burnt to ****." Igrasil boasting tone caused Sven's fist to tighten around the base of his blade, Sven realized in that moment that there was no sense in saving this person, he was far too gone with his convictions to see reason.

Looking to his right Sven saw that Ignis was trembling, her narrowed pupils locked onto her brother, her mind awash with all of her past trauma subjected by this aspect of evil before her. Whenever she looked at him she could hear, nay, FEEL the screams of her childhood friends, their pleading and bargaining words echoing through her mind in an auditory hallucination. The words were growing louder inside of her. 'Save me Ignis!' 'Stop, please!' 'It hurts, Ignis help me!' 'Ignis it burns my skin!' 'Ignis!' 'IGNIS!' "Ignis!" She was suddenly brought out of her trance when she felt something shaking her body, gasping she pushed against the person touching her only to realize it was Sven who had been calling her name, a cold sweat had coated her body during the time they had been talking, even now that she was looking at Sven she could still feel her brothers feral eyes gazing into her soul.

"Behold my handiwork Sven, my little sister has been tormented by me so that she is incapable of even being in my presence." Igrasil laughed, no doubt enjoying his lifes work play out sadistically before his own eyes, all those years or tormenting her and subjecting her to fresh new psycological pains only for her to run away and leave him bored and alone, with no one to share his lifes passions with, his laugh began to dull before his face became hardened and serious again.

"Do you know how long I've searched for you Ignis? How many people I've had to burn to find the trails of where you'd gone to? Even your old teachers at PennyCut Academy, they were defiant at first but if you put a hot fire to their feet soon enough any man loosens their lips." Ignis's eyes grew wider some how at the mention of her old teachers, how kind they were to her, how understanding and involved they were in raising every student to the highest height they were capable of reaching, he had killed them too just like all the rest, just like everybody else who involved themselves in her life they would always end up dead because of her, all because of her...

"The trail went dead when I was lead to some bumpkin farm village out in the sticks, no body knew anything, even as I burnt their chief alive they said nothing." Sven's eyes narrowed and he could begin to see red, his hands shook from the rage and the pain he was feelings inside knowing that the old man that had given him the muddy key was now a pile of ash somewhere. "After the 10th kill without any new intel I knew that Ignis hadn't passed through the town, but by that point I was so frustrated that I just didn't care and kept on going!" Igrasils mouth frothed with mirth as he recalled in his minds eye the sights he had seen at Botany village, Sven's pupils had painfully narrowed by now and was watching Igrasil like a hawk. It wasn't that Ignis hadn't passed through the town, she had definitely stayed at the inn a couple of nights, it was the fact that the villagers had died taking this secret to their graves with them that really roused Sven's anger.

"That was until I got to one person in particular, she didn't tell me anything god damn her, but her **** cry of 'Sven please save me' while at the time was meaningless, but now with the right context, having seen you two together at the battle class I pieced together the puzzle! You really did pass through that piece of shit noob town and everyone I burnt knew so but wouldn't tell me! I gotta say I felt so vindicated that I killed so many! But also furious with myself that I didn't kill enough at the same time! The duality of man and all that shit, but what really iced my cake was the girl I killed that called your name, a simple girl, daughter to some inn keep. Maybe you know her? She sure seemed to know you." Igrasil burst out laughing once more and that was it, Sven saw red hot white and lunged forward, his pupils barely even visible anymore. Igrasil smirked as he got exactly what he wanted.

The fire golems charged forward while Igrasil stood still like a battle commander giving orders to his army, hands still firmly lodged in his pockets without a care in the world and a large shit eating grin and a dangerous glint in his eyes. Ignis was snapped back to attention at her masters sudden charge into battle, casting her fire ball she aimed it at the golems while following up that cast by enchanting Sven's Sylvian blade with fire. Alice was of a similar mind as she wreathed Sven's arms and legs with a mobility spell. Now properly buffed up Sven charged into the group with a thunderous blow, as he slashed the three in front of him all at once a fireball colided with the remaining 2 causing a chain reaction of explosions to play out from all of the golems as they detonated into a ball of soaring flames, sending Sven tumbling backwards and crashing into a tree, the **** of the blast alone unrooted the tree and sent it crashing down in Ignis and Alice's direction.

Quickly dodging out of the way the two were now separated from each other, Sven picked himself up still fueled by his own hatred to carry out his vengeance for the small hamlet he had once called home and the people that had died for his sake. However when he looked towards where Igrasil had been standing just moments before, Sven's heart dropped as he couldn't see Igrasil there any more. Had this entire event played out as a diversion for his real objective? Quickly thinking on his toes, Sven ran towards Alice using only his intuition to guide him. He was right.

Just ahead of his Igrasil was gliding across the floor using his fire step to propel him towards the healer of the group: Alice.

"First order of business is to kill the helpless healer of the group! Any MMO player knows at least that much!" Igrasil's eyes shone as he approached his target, Alice's eyes were wide with fear as she awaited her fate motionlessly, his stare had practically turned her legs to jelly, the uselessness of her situation only exacerbated by the fact that she had no access to any offensive or crowd control abilities to defend herself with at this stage. What could she do other than wait for the inevitable? Her thoughts went back to all those times Sven had saved her, how she was always telling herself she'd be more useful to the group next time round - but next time round never came, she always felt like she was holding everybody else back and she was sick of it, she was tired of being the party member that others had to rescue. Gritting her thin teeth together she resolved herself to a last ditch attempt to buy time for the others, if she could do anything right now - anything at all that could help Sven and Ignis, she would do it even if it costed her own life.

Igrasil jutted forward with his fire empowered fist and went to strike her, however as quickly as she could she brought her staff up and directed his fist off course, the fire that blew past her singed her fur but she managed to avoid a direct hit. Igrasil went crashing into the grassy cave floor beneath him, sending fragments of rock and thin layers of soil to go crashing across the room, Alice had stumbled back and had propped herself up against the fallen tree, holding her staff out defensively as she awaited his next attack. Alice could feel flames coming from the other side of the tree, Ignis was clearly using her low level fire spells to burn her way through the wood, but she wouldn't break through in time to save her from Igrasil's next attack. Picking himself up from the damaged cave floor, Igrasil glared at her menacingly.

"I didn't expect a trash healer NPC to deflect my attack like that, no doubt training with Sven has made it so even a computer program can learn a new trick or two. No matter, this is where your script ends little kitty cat, be sure to wail and meow as I burn you ok?" Igrasil began to conjure flames into his hands, no doubt a flame thrower spell similar to what Ignis was doing to tree but with much more spell power behind it. As the flames danced around his hand and charged up, Alice felt a gust of wind pass her briefly, but she could see nothing but thin air. As Igrasil was about to unleash his spell, Sven appeared out of thin air and pierced Igrasil with his blade. The red haired psychopath yelped in surprise agony as he felt pain for the first time, the look in his eyes told a whole story, the confusion of having felt pain in what he considered to be a video game, the surprise that someone so low level could actually land a blow on him, the fear that if he was defeated he could really and truly die. Sven saw it all play out on those pearly white orbs, but the story his own eyes were telling were finally being read loud and clear by Igrasil more than any words Sven could have uttered.

Grabbing the blade instinctively Igrasil tried to wrestle the blade out of his scapula only to understand his mistake all too soon, with a savage motion Sven lodged his boot into Igrasil's stomach and pulled his blade out of his shoulder with as much **** as he could manage, as the sharp blade departed from Ignis's brothers body, so too did it depart the mans fingers from his hand with one foul motion of Sven's blade. As Sven finished his sordid action, he fell backwards onto his butt from the **** if it all. Igrasil bellowed with rage as he held up his maimed hand, no fingers or thumbs to speak of, now a useless hand he couldn't use for combat. Looking to Sven dangerously he soon noticed Alice standing behind him, healing Sven and replenishing the buffs onto him, the sight caused something to click inside of his dark brain and a **** grin curled from his lips.

"Say you're a healer aren't you? Why don't you heal my hand up and I'll spare your life? You don't have to burn with the others, you can go back to class and live out the rest of your scripted, predetermined life. That sounds nice, doesn't it? Riiight?!" His face turned ghoulish as he tempted her with a pipe dream he knew damn well he wasn't gonna grant, he'd lost too much today to be so charitable.

"N-No way, you're a monster, I'd rather die than be of use to such a foul creature as yourself!" Alice readied her staff protectively once more, just as she did that Ignis blew through the other side of the tree, hopping through the charred ashes she joined her two team mates to make it a three on one once again, this time without the use of his right hand Igrasil realized he was at a clear disadvantage. He had taken them too lightly, it was time to take this fight seriously.

"Don't worry, you will die here - you and Sven both. As for my sister? She's too fun to have around, she's my little experiment after all! I want to see how depraved and empty I can make a computer program act! I want to get her to the point where she begs me to kill her, then and only then will she join you two." Igrasil bore into Ignis with his eyes, seeing her quake and tremble was all he needed to see, oh how he had missed her. All these years of being on the run she had remained a low level, never staying in one place long enough to level up, but here she was, a much higher level than he had remembered her being. For a split second he frowned as he contemplated how she had leveled up so quickly, but he soon brushed it aside as he soaked in the moment. All of her fear, her terror and agony was like life essence being fed directly into him, it was too tantalizing to spoil with other thoughts after all.

"You still think you're gonna win here Igrasil?" Sven scoffed bemusedly, causing the read head to frown. "I haven't taken an ounce of damage and your right hand is useless. Do you really think you can beat the three of us?" Igrasil smirked, such a question was obvious to him.

"Let me ask you a question in return Sven, can you live with the fact that anyone and everyone you've ever held dear will die by my hands after this day? Your lovers, your friends, the people you've helped, your teachers, heck, even the people that utter your name on the street. I'll kill them all Sven, maybe I'll leave you limbless on a hospital bed barely alive so I can tell you about it all. Maybe you can be my second experiment, would you like that Sven?" Sven saw white again and lunged towards Igrasil, the thought of Alice, Ignis and even the people who had scorned him at school being hurt by this guy, because of him... No he couldn't allow it, he had to kill this man at all costs!

"You know, you're real easy to provoke you know that?" Igrasil chuckled darkly as he dodged the thrust only to extend his leg outward to trip over Sven. Sven found himself tumbling and then weightlessness, the speed enhancement had caused him to roll out of control and that's when he realized that he was weightless for a reason: he was falling. Falling down the illuminated ravine and into the boiling magma below.

"Goodbye Sven, I'll take real good care of Alice for you now~"

Authors notes: I'm finally back! I'm all settled in with the new house now, I had to paint like 3 rooms, furnish 2 and unpack an absolute shit load of stuff. My PC is back up and running and the internet is finally working. You can now (hopefully) expect the usual daily uploads!