Virtuality: Magic Island

Chapter 8: The Place That Never Sweats

The orange dragon raced across the sky, its wings spread out, and the air roaring in its ears. The sunlight began to tame up a bit, as Magic Island was already reaching the afternoon time. This beast liked that, however, because he and sunlight were not on the best of terms.

Axel, Lontari, and their new friend Imani were seated atop its back, headed for their next destination.

Three cheeseburgers appeared in a brief purple pillar of light, emitting the scent of cheese and meat into the air. Lontari and Axel began munching on the first two, the hot, juicy, cheesy taste filling their mouths with flavor.

"Hey, Imani, dig in!" said Lontari playfully. "Can't fight on an empty stomach, y'know."

"Thanks," said Imani, kindly taking the burger and taking a small bite.

Lontari observed her face, and nothing but sadness and fear was written all over it. The boy felt sympathy rise in his heart. He could not blame her. Being forced to do repulsive, despicable things that you normally would not even think of doing must have left some kind of trauma inside the girl.

"Hey, how long have you been under that woman's control?" he blurted out.

However, he instantly regretted it, as Imani put her burger down and just stared at the rock hard orange skin that she was sitting on, her eyes sunken from sadness.

"I'm so sorry! That was rude of me to ask! You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No, it's fine," said Imani. "I've been controlled by that witch for as long as I've been playing this game."

Lontari and Axel began to listen closely, grateful for Lucinda's defeat but feeling bad for Imani. 

Imani spoke, "I'm a famous streamer in real life, and this is my first virtual reality game. I enjoyed it so much that I didn't think I'd ever play another Overwatch match for as long as I lived. I kept battling monsters in the forest, and honing my skills, and so I reached Level 10, the highest player level out of anyone else in Skotadi... But unfortunately, that caught Lucinda's attention. She wanted to use me as a weapon against Skotadi, seeking revenge against the psychopaths possessed by dark magic for the death of her husband. Unfortunately, she just had to turned me into the very thing she hated."

"Wow," replied Axel ambivalently. "This is sad all around. I'm so sorry, my dear."

"Under Lucinda's control, I've been hurting and probably even killing others. I've been in and out of prisons and mental hospitals." She wiped a tear away with her finger. "It was horrible."

Her tone then turned assertive, "But now. I intend to use my power for good, and good only."

"Yeah, same here!" boasted Lontari, pointing his thumb at himself. "I'm a multimage, so I would know a lot about using power wisely."

Imani widened her eyes, and her mouth open wide with a smile. She had never seen a multimage with her own eyes before, only through online forums and game lore. Amazement filled her heart that she had just befriended one of these rare beings.

"Y-You're a multimage... I thought those kinds of mages were extinct..."

"Yeah," Lontari chuckled. "I get that a lot..." He took the final bite of his cheeseburger. "And you know that Occidifu guy I told you about? Apparently his armor's magic proof, but hey, there's no way that's going to help much."

"Oh yeah," said Imani, struck with fear. "He plans on stealing the Viridis, right? Without that gem, Magic Island will fall apart."

"Yeah, no kidding! That's why I plan to defeat them." Lontari took a deep breath. "But that's the problem. I've been losing every fight because their armor and weapons are magic proof, making them harder to defeat, and that fight with you... That lowered my chances of defeating these guys even more."