The Realm Between: A LitRPG Saga (Books 7 - 10), page 117
He had expected Uden to raise his weapons, but instead, the half-imp turned his attention to Rerdam. “You know, there is another option.”
“Thinking about killing me would be ill-advised.” The old knight reached for the hilt of his sword.
Jin jerked his head in Azure’s direction. “Before this begins, I need to know whose side you’re on.”
Azure immediately felt his muscles tense, and he wondered if he should be drawing his weapon as well. “And if I’m not on your side?”
“You should be. You and I are the only two people who matter in this.”
Did the elf just feel that way because he had a crush on Azure?
Even if the elf was Eldyn Waeglune, the fact that he’d gone out of his way to save Azure had to count for something, didn’t it?
“I vote we kill Rerdam,” he came out with it finally.
There was no way Azure would be able to choose between his two best friends, no matter how flawed both of them were. But if these were both truly evil men, then what did that say about him for wanting to stick by them?
The old knight looked at Azure in a way that made him feel ashamed for having blurted that out. “My first duty is to protect the princess. My second is to protect Patheana. I cannot stand by and let a great evil roam The Realm unfettered. While I do not want to kill any of you, I will do what it takes to survive.”
“Then it looks like this will be a battle royale.” Jin seemed amused by the prospect, a smirk playing on his face.
From where he was perched on his tombstone, the God of Death rubbed his palms together. “It’s getting good now, isn’t it?”
Azure’s mind was reeling. Were they really about to fight each other to the death? There had to be some other, less violent way to settle this.
“Wait, guys.” He shook his head. “Can’t you see that this is exactly what he wants?” Azure pointed at Luuq. “That whole fun house was meant to bring us to this moment.
“So what if Jin is really Eldyn? He’s not evil now. He’s just trying to bring the elves back. And Uden only did what he did because he’s being swayed by the influence of The Deathlands. If we can just…all leave here alive,” he felt naive even saying it, “we can figure this out once we’re out of The Deathlands.”
“There’s no time.” The elf looked at Princess Zadori’s cage. Already, she had to crouch down; it had shrunk so much. “All that matters is that you, me, and Zadori survive. And preferably Rerdam. Uden made his bed when he entered The Deathlands. If he’d gone to Patheana like we’d discussed, we wouldn’t even be in this position right now.”
“No, we still would be,” Rerdam disagreed. “Except you’d be making the decision to kill me instead.”
Jin met Azure’s gaze. “I told you what matters most right now. If you are my guard and my friend, you will listen to me.”
“He’s also my friend,” Azure gestured to the half-imp, “and we both know he makes tons of mistakes. But this isn’t worth killing him over.”
In a flash of movement so quick that none of them expected it, Uden rushed forward and plunged both of his daggers under Rerdam’s ribcage. The old knight had been so distracted by the heated conversation going on between Azure and the elf that he hadn’t even seen it coming, his sword only half-drawn before the half-imp twisted his daggers and pulled them out.
A torrent of blood followed, and despite his pain, Rerdam finished drawing his sword, though it simply hung limply next to him.
Azure closed the distance between them to catch the old knight as he collapsed. When he did, Uden jumped away.
Before Azure could even register what was happening, the elf and the half-imp were matching blades, neither particularly concerned that Rerdam was dying.
Ignoring them, Azure fumbled in his Worn Leather Backpack for Potions of Minor Healing, but the old knight grasped at the front of his armor to stop him.
“Protect…the princess,” Rerdam said in a rasping voice as the light faded from his blue eyes, a stream of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Then he fell still, and Azure knew it was too late.
A great sorrow filled his heart from the sudden murder of a beloved comrade, but a sick sense of relief followed almost as quickly. Because the old knight had died, it meant Uden had fulfilled the conditions of the quest. He and Jin didn’t need to fight anymore.
From her cage, Princess Zadori wailed, clutching onto the bars, the word no spilling from her lips again and again. Grief dragged her to the floor to sob there, calling Rerdam’s name and reaching out as if her touch might revive him.
“Guys. He’s dead. You don’t have to fight anymore.” Azure twisted, feeling like a monster for sounding so happy.
Perhaps wanting to protect him, Jin and Uden had moved several yards away. Not only was the half-imp charging in with his weapons, but he was also wielding magic that Azure had never seen him use before.
A red cloud had formed over the battlefield, raining down fat droplets of blood. The elf seemed to be avoiding it the best he could, though the red smattering in his silvery-white hair suggested he had been caught by the tip of the spell. Without being partied, Azure couldn’t tell how his friends were doing on Health, but the fight had just begun, and neither seemed to be wounded.
Not wanting to get involved in the fight, he stayed on his knees with Rerdam in his arms. The momentary happiness he had felt faded away when he realized that Jin and Uden were determined to kill each other. Maybe he should just let the battle play out, and may the stronger man win. But the thought of losing either of his companions when it was completely unnecessary was unbearable, especially after everything they’d all just been through.
Azure would have been fascinated watching the elf and the half-imp fight if not for the consequences. Both of them moved fast and with skill, seeking out the other’s blind spots and seeming to know when to dodge an attack just in time. But barely.
Every once in a while, one would get through, but the injuries they left were mostly superficial.
Uden had clearly been training while the rest of them were off completing quests for Luuq. Not only that, but he seemed to have a whole new arsenal of spells.
Sometimes, when he couldn’t land a hit with his blades, he’d try to tap Jin with the back of his hand when he moved to dodge instead. That would cause a red glow to flash around his body momentarily. Azure couldn’t tell what the spell did because the elf didn’t react to it, but he knew it somehow weakened Jin.
“I see you learned some new tricks,” the elf said in exasperation while they were squaring off.
It was the first time in nearly five minutes that the two men weren’t locked in combat, and Azure wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass to part them further.
Knowing he’d end up injuring both of them, he stood and cast Cold Breeze in the space between them, causing both Uden and Jin to jump back to avoid being hit.
“That’s enough!” Azure put his foot down. “He’s dead.” He gestured to Rerdam. “You don’t need to fight anymore. It’s over.” His words came out like a parent reprimanding their children.
“Were you friends with Rerdam?” The elf barely glanced in his direction.
“Of course, he was my friend.”
“That’s not what I asked.” Jin shook his head. “Did you have a Relationship Status with him?”
Azure hesitated. “Well, no. But I don’t have one with you either.”
The elf ignored him and continued talking, shifting his weight with his daggers raised as he stared intently at Uden, a look of malice still on his face. “I didn’t have a Relationship Status with him either, and I know he didn’t either.” He pointed the tip of one of his daggers at the half-imp.
“How could you know that?” Azure narrowed his gaze.
“The quest is a trick. Just like everything else here.” The elf’s eyes swept around the cemetery before landing on Uden again. “We have to kill a friend. Both you and I have a Relationship Status with Uden. You and I do not have a Relationship Status together. Neither did we have one with Rerdam. That means it has to be him.”
Now that Azure thought about it, Jin was right. He didn’t have a Relationship Status with anyone there besides the half-imp and the princess. But that didn’t mean the others weren’t his friends.
“So clever,” the God of Death mused.
“You’re not that difficult to figure out.” The elf glanced at him.
“You’ve always been smart… Eldyn.”
“I’m not Eldyn. Quit. Fucking. Saying that.” Jin charged at Uden again.
The moment had passed, and the fight was back on. Reason fell away, and Azure stood there dumbfounded as he mulled over everything that had just been said.
While he had found the opportunity to part the elf and the half-imp to try to stop their fighting, Uden had found an opportunity in the parting itself.
Before Jin was able to reach him, he cast two spells. For the first, the half-imp held his arms out, his palms together, tilted sideways. He made a gesture as if his hands were a book that he was opening. When he did, a green line appeared in front of the elf at waist height. It then split into two lines, a red line forming on top of the other one that opened with his hand gesture. Jin grimaced slightly but kept approaching.
The next spell had Uden pulling his hands into his chest, palms facing out, his thumbs and forefingers touching in a circle. He pushed out from there, his fingers splaying. As the half-imp did, he puffed up his cheeks and blew out. A green cloud of noxious gas came from his puckered mouth, spreading to create a barrier three yards wide that separated him from the elf.
In response, Jin stopped, sheathing his daggers to draw his bow instead. Uden’s eyes grew wide as he realized that casting a spell to put distance between them might not have been the wisest move. Knowing that going around the cloud would allow the elf to track his movements and take an easy shot, the half-imp decided to go through it instead, zigzagging to avoid being hit. As he ran, he unsheathed his daggers again, hoping to get to Jin before he could change weapons.
But Uden wasn’t the only one with tricks up his sleeve.
With a whisper of elvish words, a small flame spiraled down the shaft of the arrow the elf had nocked before coalescing into a fireball at the arrowhead. When Jin let the arrow sail, and it pierced the green cloud, the entire thing went up in flames with the half-imp inside.
Panic raced through Azure as he watched his friend become engulfed in searing red. Reflexively, he began digging in his Worn Leather Backpack for Potions of Minor Healing, but by the time he looked back up, the elf was right in front of him. All he saw was the pommel of one of Jin’s daggers coming straight for his face. With no time to dodge, Azure crouched over in pain, holding his nose.
Level 49 Jin Umewraek delivers 41 damage.
Before he had a chance to recover, the elf was jerking his hand away. In the span of half a second, Azure was being flipped onto his back. He hit the floor hard, his breath leaving his lungs in a whoosh and his armor cutting into his skin. Then Jin rolled him over and pulled his arm behind his back, placing a knee between his shoulder blades and effectively immobilizing him.
For the briefest of moments, Azure was certain that the elf was going to kill him, too. Looking up, he could see Uden rolling on the ground, trying to put himself out. Azure could only imagine that his Health was plummeting like a rock.
“Stay down!” The elf pulled hard on Azure’s arm when he tried to struggle, forcing him to still.
“Let me go! He’s dying!” Azure growled back at Jin, a mix of anger and despair on his face.
“I know,” the elf’s voice softened, “but it has to be this way.”
Somehow, the half-imp had managed to extinguish the flames, but he was simply lying there smoldering. From several yards away, Azure could see his chest rising and falling. Uden was severely burned but still alive. That meant it wasn’t too late to save him.
Mustering up every ounce of strength in his body, Azure pushed back the pain, using one momentous effort to throw Jin off of him, even though it resulted in the dislocation of his arm. He scrambled to his feet, barely registering the pronounced aching in his shoulder or the drop in Health the injury had caused. Nothing mattered but getting the potions to his friend.
There was a brief whistling sound behind Azure followed by a thwack that caused shooting pain to course up his right leg and his knee to buckle. As Azure fell, he looked down to see an arrowhead sticking out of his shin.
The damn elf had shot him.
Level 49 Jin Umewraek delivers 245 damage.
A mix of rage and pain came from Azure’s lips in the form of a grunt as he went down on one knee. Uden was still several yards away, but Azure would crawl to him if he had to. As soon as the new determination came to him, there was a similar pain in his left leg, effectively dropping him.
Level 49 Jin Umewraek delivers 245 damage.
Azure rolled onto his side and grabbed one of the arrows behind the arrowhead before jerking it all the way through his leg. Before he could drink a healing potion, he needed to remove them both. The pain caused him to cry out, though the adrenaline coursing through him stifled the worst of it.
“Azure, stop.” Jin rounded him to stand between him and the half-imp. Clearly, he didn’t find Uden a threat anymore, or he wouldn’t have turned his back on him.
Looking up, Azure saw the tip of an arrow pointed at his face.
No longer in his right mind, he growled up at the elf. “I’m going save him, and then I’m going to kill you.”
Turning ever so slightly, Jin let go of the fletching on the arrow, the thwack quickly covered up by Azure’s scream as the arrow pierced through the wrist that had been holding the potions. The vials clattered on the floor and rolled.
Level 49 Jin Umewraek delivers 245 damage.
“If you’re going to kill me, just do it!” Azure yelled up at him, tears coming to his eyes as he realized that both he and Uden were probably going to die here—that he never should have trusted the elf to begin with.
There was no doubt in his mind now that Jin was Eldyn Waeglune resurrected.
All this time, he’d thought it was the half-imp he needed to worry about fighting his evil impulses. But there had been a greater threat in their midst all along. Now, Azure knew that the real reason why the elf hadn’t wanted to come to The Deathlands was because he had known his secret would be exposed.
Jin looked down at him as if he was pathetic. Briefly, the elf glanced back at Uden to ensure he was still immobilized before returning his attention to Azure, a heavy sigh leaving his lips.
“I didn’t want to have to do this, but it seems you’ve left me no choice.” Jin crouched down.
Was Azure about to have his throat slit? Being shot in the back would have been a much kinder death.
“The reason that Uden has to die,” the elf began to explain calmly, “is because he’s an NPC.”
The acronym didn’t register with Azure at first. It had been so long ago he’d last heard it spoken that it didn’t make sense in this world. More than likely, it meant something other than he thought.
“An NPC?” Azure asked weakly.
As he gazed up at Jin, he wondered if he could fire a spell off before the elf managed to kill him.
One thing was for certain. Jin knew magic now. Whether he’d always known it or had just learned it, Azure wasn’t sure. But it appeared that everyone had acquired new tricks from going through Luuq’s Fun House.
“A non-player character,” the elf clarified. “If we kill him now, he will just respawn back on Crescent Island for the next person who gets trapped here.”
A strange feeling bloomed inside Azure, a tightness gripping him and causing his insides to roil. The acronym stood for precisely what he had initially thought. Jin wasn’t using some term from The Realm. He was talking about video games.
“Who are you?” Azure asked, not sure what to feel anymore.
The elf stood. “I’m a person, same as you, stuck in here because of Radical Interactive, trying to find my way out. And, unfortunately, the way out involves killing him.” Jin walked over to Uden. “Part of the story was always that he had to die. It was in the original game, when he betrayed you on Crescent Island by teaming up with the Lesser Demon.” The elf stared down at the half-imp. “I always suspected that you bringing him back had been a mistake.” Jin twisted to look at Azure. “You who thinks all of this is real.” The elf’s gaze danced around the cemetery. “It’s not, you know. It’s all in your head—in my head. And I refuse to die here.” He pulled an arrow from his quiver and nocked it to the string, pointing it down at the half-imp.
“Wait!” Azure reached for him.
“No.” Jin shook his head. “I’ve waited long enough—have entertained your bleeding heart as long as I could. I allowed myself to fall into the fantasy of this place…for you—to pretend that these people were real and capable of change. But I know now, beyond a doubt, that he has to die. It became clear to me when I saw what he’d do to me if given a chance.”
“If you kill him…” Azure began to threaten, but the elf quickly cut him off.
“You’ll what? I could easily kill you next. I could have killed you anytime I wanted to, but I didn’t. Because you’re real, just like me. That is why we’re the only two that matter.”
And with that, he let the arrow sail.
HOUSE OF HORRORS
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
THE REALM – DAY 1021
Azure had cried before when one of his favorite characters had died in a video game he’d been playing, but this wasn’t like that. Not at all. While playing those games, though he had felt deeply for those characters, he had known they weren’t real. The bond that he’d had with them had not only been wholly imaginary but vicarious because he had been playing a person that wasn’t him—someone with an entirely different personality and past and reactions.
