Afterlife Dream

I could see surprised faces among the crowd, but obviously, no one had an answer to my question. They did not even know who I was referring to.

"DragonTalon?"

"Which one?"

There were only certain people who I was sure knew which person DragonTalon was.

I looked at PrecisionShot who stood there with her arms crossed in front of her chest in defense and Ninja who stood next to her with a defiant face. They clearly knew where DragonTalon was.

Following my gaze, ArrowRain's eyes also landed on PrecisionShot.

"Well, PrecisionShot, don't you have an answer to Antares' question?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "Care to share?"

PrecisionShot's face darkened.

"Are you accusing me of something?" she growled in displeasure

ArrowRain made a dramatic gasp. "What? Noo, of course not. It's just that you personally killed him a few times right? Surely you know what happened to him."

PrecisionShot did target DragonTalon specifically. We all knew that they held a mutual grudge against each other, there was no point hiding it. PrecisionShot snorted. "That punk went through the double door eventually. So don't pin his disappearance on me."

"He's not inside the Dark Fairy's lair map, though," Cecilia denied. "He was also not in the precursor mission. We waited for a little before entering the lair map just to be able to take him with us, but he never showed up."

"Well, then I don't know!" PrecisionShot shouted in irritation. "Maybe he died inside the precursor mission map! But then that's not my fault, right? Anyway, he did not show up here anymore. Maybe he gave up on the raid???"

Cecilia rolled with her eyes and dropped a sarcastic remark. "Yes, you are an absolute angel, PrecisionShot. No doubt about it."

Impatient, I opened my user interface screen and wrote a message to DragonTalon.

"Yo, dude, where are you?"

When I clicked enter, I hoped with every cell in my body to not see the all too familiar error line that we all dreaded to see.

It didn't show.

I heaved a sigh of relief.

But an answer didn't either.

I frowned and wrote more.

"DragonTalon, dude. Can you please just answer? What happened to you? Where are you? Chinatown? Say something."

Still no answer.

"Antares, what is it?"

Aurendiria stepped closer to me and took a look at my screen. "Well, that is a relief. Look, he is still around."

"But why is he not answering?"

"Hmmm, is he maybe sulking?" Aurendiria asked with a trace of smile on her face.

Sulking? Well, DragonTalon did sulk a lot, but this is important. I needed him to answer.

"Maybe, but I prefer to confirm that he is safe for real."

"Of course," Aurendiria agreed.

Ingenious hummed. "Well if he doesn't want to answer, no one can really force him to. I guess it is already a relief that he does not disappear."

"Um, hello?" HinoKun said with a flat tone, drawing attention back to him. "After we confirm that DragonTalon did not disappear from the game, can we go back to the fact that Antares said that he saw Suzuran and the others inside a lava lake or something similar?"

"Look, I am confident with what I saw. You can trust me or just assume I am crazy and let it slide," I answered.

"Well, what should we do if we trust you?" HinoKun squinted at me.

I swallowed. There was nothing to do, was it?

"Well, if those three are really somehow swimming inside a sea of lava, why don't you go and take a look at the Lava County?" ZhaoYun spoke up.

"Pfft."

The Dominion members started to laugh. I stared at them in bewilderment. What was so funny?

PrecisionShot rubbed a thumb against her lips to stop herself from laughing out loud. "Cute. Do you seriously think about sending us to our death and that we will fall for your evil scheme? Nice try. Try again next time."

ZhaoYun furrowed his brows. "That is not what I was insinuating at all!"

"Yeah, yeah. Say that to those who believe you. We certainly do not."

"Hahahaha, do you think that you can get rid of us like that?"

Ingenious scoffed. "I think we already said what we needed to say. Everyone, let's go."

He led the way past the Dominion members, but it was soon clear that the Dominion guild was not going to let us leave that easily.

"Not so fast," HinoKun said, stretching his arm out to prevent Ingenious from passing.

"Dude, what else do you want? Antares already got his Dark Fairy gloves. Too bad for you," Ingenious said with a smirk.

"Drop the gloves," HinoKun demanded. Ingenious burst into laughter.

"Are you serious? Last time we asked Ninja to drop the cloak he stole from Aurendiria and what did you do?"

"Ninja did not kill Aurendiria, if you recall," HinoKun gritted his teeth.

"DragonTalon and I also did not kill anyone!" I stepped in front of HinoKun.

I did not care how intimidating he looked with his level and equipment. He could kill me with one stab but I was done getting bullied for something that I did not do.

"Well, I have a proposal," SakuraChan said. "Antares, since you are so sure that Suzuran and the others are still alive and floating inside lava, why don't you help us find them?"

Ingenious chuckled. "Look at that. Now, who is trying to kill who?"

"Honestly you are just appearing as bullies now," HellWitch stepped forward as well, standing to my left side.

"Yup, you all should just back off," Livina added, stepping to my right side.

"Well, we are not letting you off until you agree to do something," Ninja said, stepping next to HinoKun.

"I guess there is no other way to talk this out then." ArrowRain aimed her bow at HinoKun. Murderous intent glinted in everyone's eyes.

"ATTACK THEM!" HinoKun shouted.

And so the fight commenced again. I did not recall the details of what happened afterward. All I knew was that players eventually got killed one by one to my left and right side and resurrected in Chinatown. Chinatown was Dominion's headquarter. I did not think that we could make it alive out there.

It would be an endless slaughter. We slaughtered them and they slaughtered us.

Slaughter after revival.

Revival after slaughter.

I could not take it anymore.

"STOP IT!" I shouted in the middle of a ferocious bloodbath. "STOP IT!!!!"

But no one was stopping. Everyone seemed to be immersed in bloodlust, becoming a bunch of killing machines who only knew to attack and not stop. I saw the grotesque mask of demons everywhere.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

The words almost resounded from the wall.

Wait a moment.

This scene...

This scene reminded me of something else.

My thought flew to a certain young woman who helplessly watched as her uncle killed her family members one by one.

Please help," she had begged strangers. "Royal Uncle is going to kill all of us. Please help."

Blood drained from my face.

Bloodlust!

The Dark Fairy's curse!!!!

"DISPEL!" I shouted as I raised my staff high toward the ceiling.

The room was cramped and we were all standing close to each other. The golden, translucent dome gently fell inside the room, encapsulating both the Twelve and also the Dominion members.

As soon as Dispel took effect, everyone stopped attacking and stood in a daze. They were all confused.

"What happened?" HinoKun asked, touching his forehead lightly. "What were we doing?"

"I don't know," Ingenious answered with a frown. He looked back at me in confusion.

"Everyone is under the influence of the Dark Fairy's curse," I commented. "You are re-enacting the assassination of the past."

"The Emperor versus the Second Prince," Cecilia ended for me. "No wonder. Wow. I never thought that the game could affect me so much.

"Of course it can, we are currently not only playing but also living within the game. The game has become destabilized as of late. Naturally, that will also affect us," PrecisionShot said.

She was not wrong.

"Look, everyone. I understand that the tension has been high lately, but I was not telling a lie when I said that DragonTalon and I did not do anything to cause Suzuran and the other two's disappearance."

"I also did not lie about seeing the three people float in a sea of lava, however improbable it might sound. I did not mean anything bad when I told you guys. I just thought I had to share."

"Despite everything that happened, I will do whatever in my might to help. That is what we want, right?"

A round of nods went through the Dominion members.

"Honestly, him dropping the gloves will not bring Suzuran and the others back, so..."

"Yeah, why don't we just help each other?"

I heaved a sigh of relief. HinoKun tucked his spear away and everyone followed suit. "So," he then said while looking at me straight. "What do you suggest, Antares?"

"Why don't we go together?" I suggested.