After a little while collecting their thoughts (and Rosencrantz debating whether throwing his lot in with this group of maniacs), the group proceeds into the Begnin Gate, taking their first step on what should likely be the most epic, impactful journey of their lives, with surely epic battles against the forces of the Demon Lord, the source of all evil upon Generia, one for which all of the group shall be forever known in song and poetry and for the rest of all time.
....
That is, if you were reading a different story, about a different group. Perhaps you should try that instead; there are countless other heroes to read about in Generia, like the Five Heavenly Generals, the Sleeping Knights, or absolutely anybody else.
....still here?
Well, a shame. You should've taken the opportunity to run while you could, much like Rosencrantz should've. Or, well, literally the rest of the group should've, the moment Serena showed up.
....
In any case, as the group walks into Begnin, the late afternoon sun begninning its journey to sink behind the mountains of southern Begnin, Serena pauses a moment, to look behind her, as if feeling a presence, letting the entire group go past her for a moment, just a single moment.
"....there's no way those cops didn't arrest all of those guys....right?"Nothing seemed to come to Serena's attention immediately, despite her probing the surroundings. After a pregnant pause, she sighed, closing her eyes.
".....it's probably nothing. Wait...they left without me? C-come back! Keeeeeeith!"As Serena walks away with a shrug, yelling at Keith to wait for her, all of them completely miss a mysterious, robed figure, watching them from beneath a tree on the Seedsprout Road. Their entire head is concealed by a giant hood, with two red beads of light peering out from the darkness within, following the path of the group. Their body is unnaturally thin, as if comprised of branches, twigs and stricks, the robe hanging off of them and billowing in the late afternoon wind. A
nasal, high-pitched voice issues from beneath the hood.
"Iiiiiiinteresting. Very iiiiiinteresting. The Revivian with the sword......she seems dangerous. And the green-haired girl...she has power like nobody else in Generia. It is as if she a walking fount of magic, as if she were producing it simply by existing! But what could she beeeee?!"They rub their chin with two spindly white fingers, before clapping their thin, bony white hands together.
"No possible way they're a powerful adventurer, ohohoho, she's too weak and useless. But what, what could she be? Nothing to do but watch, watch them some more! After all....it's not like Lord Mephistopheles has any need of the powers of the Lord of Death, Thanatos Morta Chrysanthema any time soon! Wahahahahahahah-!"Their manaical laughter is interrupted by a fit of hoarse, dry coughing, a butterfly fluttering from their unseen mouth. After a moment of brief confusion, they run after the butterfly, grasping at it with their hands to catch it.
"No! Miiiister Jiiiingles! Get back here! Lord Thanatos needs you!"Running off into the wind, Thanatos Morta Chrysanthema, Lord of Death, King of the Afterlife, Conqueror of the The End of Life and Arch-Necromancer of the Demon Lord, runs after a butterfly.
As the group walks into the trading post and small town built up behind the Begnin Gate, looking for their night's accomodation, all eyes are on them as weird adventurers; after all, walking into a town with a man dressed as the Generian equivalent of Bigfoot, an angry Revivian in strange white garb (not a rarity amongst Revivians), two vampires with one dressed like some sort of deranged clown, a shy sheep Beastfolk and finally a madwoman taking her time to look at every shiny thing she can find and badmouthing every symbol of every goddess in sight before being smacked aside the head by the one goblin of the group (and the most normal-looking one) tends to turn eyes towards you.
Of course, most of these people then go about their day afterwards; the group aren't the first weirdos, nor even the third, nor even the hundreth to walk past the gate's entrance. Countless groups of adventurers walk in, full of all sorts of ragtag misfits, rogues of ill-repute, possible circus rejects and the like. After giving them maybe one or even two glances, they'll look away, no longer interested in what are just clearly another group of adventurers.
"Ugh, damn it! Fucking Asteria, again?! She's not even a GOOD SSR!"As the group walks into the marketplace, however, a single pair of eyes follows the group a little too closely and a little too accurately.
"....no way."Their eyes fall on one specific member of the group, the tablet in their hands playing Clash of Legends left hanging with Asteria's summoning quote playing with nobody listening.
"No fucking way."Specifically, their eyes are following Asuna, as he pockets the tablet.
"That's NOT Asuna. No. Nobody's stupid enough to wish they were Asuna here. Right?"Their eyes trace Asuna's shape; her hair, her clothing, her face. Their suspicions were confirmed. It was, almost certainly, some Revivian who'd wished to look
exactly like Asuna Yuuki from Sword Art Online.
In another life, he might have even approached her. But he lived in Generia now, and he knew exactly what that meant.
".....that poor fucker. She didn't even stand a chance reincarnating into Generia like that. What kind of a dumbass wishes to be everyone's favourite anime waifu? Why'd you wish to be goddamn Asuna?! That's like wishing to become fucking REM! Did she even think that through?! You can't even look Asuna up on Google without seeing some clock with Asuna's tits hanging out on the face! Then again...."The man whose eyes were on the unfortunate Revivian looks into a puddle.
"I can't exactly talk about stupid wishes."He groans, placing his face in his hands in exasperation.
".....I gotta finish this quest to kill the Demon Lord already. Maybe that Freya chick will let me undo this wish already so I can not be Kirito anymore. Seriously, what the hell was I thinking? Since my name's Kazuto Kirishima and it's not far from Kirito, haha, obviously I should literally become the hero of my favourite light novels after getting run over by a parade float? What kind of stupid idea was THAT?! Humans were stupid before and now they got their chance to play out all their revenge fantasies! Damn lapses in judgement-"Kicking the cobblestones in anger, Kazuto feels the familiar aura of Revivian behind him suddenly. Without looking, he already knows.
They're angry fanboys, and they really,
really hate Sword Art Online.
And Kirito specifically.
He groans, again, drawing one of his two swords from their scabbard. They weren't worth both of them.
"Alright, boys. Let's make this quick. I gotta buy dinner tonight and make my way out of here before more of you assholes show up."
Two weeks ago, in Initia...."I-I'm afraid he isn't here, tonight."
"What do you mean he isn't here?""I mean His Majesty isn't h-here tonight! H-he's gone, on.....i-important business, yes! T-to Midgardia!"
A lone, tiny courtier, grey-haired and wrinkled, was all that stood between the Initia Royal Palace, seat of all power in the Kingdom of Begnin and the residence of the King of Begnin itself, and Belphegor, Lord of Sloth and General of the Demon Lord. Their imposing, gigantic armored form stood taller than any mere man, red eyes glaring upon the small man, as rain clattered off their dark armor, a coastal storm battering the capital of Initia. Before them stood the royal seat of power, a massive edifice of white marble hewn into shape by the great dwarven architects and properly made useful by humans, minarets and towers erupting from the top and in the harsh storm winds, the red banner of Begnin blowing in the wind.
"Important business?""Y-yes! Please, turn away now, o-or I will be forced to call the guards! Y-you're not....a d-demon, are you?!"
"....you know what, I'm tired of keeping this facade up for so long. It's raining. I want to get in, you don't want to be here. I'll pay you five hundred Rhea to let me stay here for a couple of weeks. Then I'll leave, no strings attached."The courtier looks up at the armored figure, dumbfounded.
"...f-five hundred rhea? S-surely not. S-surely you're joking."
"Five hundred isn't enough? Fine. Six hundred.""I am an officer o-of the King of Begnin! I-I will not be bribed-"
"Fine. One thousand, five hundred rhea."The courtier simply stares at them, completely lost for words for a minute.
"......t-that much?"
"Yes. That much.""....w-well, um....perhaps some arrangement can be made-"
"Sweet. Get out of my way. Boys, let's bring it in."Snapping their armored fingers, Lord Belphegor shoves the courtier out of the way and trundles into the palace with a mechanical clank in every step, as a pair of small, green-skinned imps trundle up to the man, beginning to drop bags of coins in front of him. Several winged demons follow their lord in the palace, carrying all sorts of devices with them; crystal tablets, orbs and devices that the courtier could not even comprehend the use of, as well as various Clash of Legends paraphenalia. The courtier knew of the game; he wasn't into it, but he knew it was a popular trend among the younger generation and adventurers to play the game.
He calls out to Belphegor, after a brief moment.
"W-where are you going?"
"To set my stuff up. It's raining, get inside or you'll catch a cold or something."As the courtier, after a moment, nods and runs inside, Belphegor groans audibly.
"I can't believe I had to drag myself all the way out HERE to do work for Mammon. Well....I might as well pretend like I care about this whole mess. Still can't believe those guys were so easy to bribe AND that the King isn't here.""And that's two weeks Mammon thinks I'll be doing his work, right? Two weeks to get what's really important out of the way."Their eyes follow the winged demons carrying in their Clash of Legends paraphenalia behind them. Belphegor smacks their helmet, forcing their head forwards.
"Maybe this stupid thing WAS useful after all, no matter how much of a piece of junk it is."
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Topic: FEF: Wonderful Blessing IC Thread: Epilogue B (Read 186634 times)