In real life, he's the next door neighbor and coworker she despises. In the new virtual reality video game, Fairy Tail, he's the demon king and she's a high level mage who has a secret relationship with him!
What awaits her at the top of the tower?
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When I'm talking about E.N.D (come on, we all know it's Natsu) in a cloak, this is the cloak I'm referring to ^^^ 😆 •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• *2 months later* {E.N.D'S POV} I'm bored. There haven't been any challengers in forever, mostly because the guardians of the floors are too powerful. RainWoman, the guardian of the first floor, actually had to be moved to the fortieth floor because she was beating all her challengers.
And She~Devil, the guardian of the 149th floor, is pretty much unbeatable with her ability to takeover souls. I can't say confidently that I would win if she challenged me for my position as strongest demon player, aka Ruler of the Tower of Despair.
I sigh and fidget on my throne. Maybe I should just log out? There's no work today, so Lucy is probably in her apartment.
A creaking sound breaks me out of my thoughts. Sure enough, the squeaky door is opening, which can only mean one thing: I have a challenger.
I'm pretty excited to get to fight. I'm about to go through my usual spiel, congratulating them on making it here, when I choke on my words.
It's Lucy! And instead of her usual formal dress suit and pantyhose, she's wearing a blue and white sleeveless top, blue miniskirt, and black boots. Her hair is tied up with a blue ribbon. I swallow hard, forcing myself to walk towards her.
"Congratulations for making it this far, challenger. You're pretty good for a mage, but this is where your journey to the top ends, because I'll crush you." I begin, only to be interrupted.
"Was that pun intentional? Anyway, I don't care about beating you. I just want to know where a certain demon is so I can crush him." Lucy says.
She doesn't care about beating me? But that's, like, the whole point of the game!
"Who?" I ask curiously, going off script a little. Luce smirks victoriously.
"So you are logged in right now. I don't know his character name, but his real name is Natsu Dragneel, and he has pink hair."
It's salmon! Lucy did tell me that she was going to be a mage so she could beat me, but I didn't think I was going to have so much fun with it.
I grin. "If you can beat me, Lu_Heart, then I'll tell you what you want to know."
Lucy draws a whip from her belt.
I'm taken aback for a second. In exchange for more variability in magic and versatile combat-based spells, mages have worse physical strength than demons. It's rare to see one fight with a weapon that relies on physical damage rather than their magic.
Before she can do anything though, I hit her with a simple fireball attack that kills her avatar instantly. My Luce is going to have to get stronger than that if she wants to, as she put it, crush me.
The next day, after work, I'm surprised when I hear the door creak open again. Lucy stands there, panting and out of breath.
"Please tell me where Natsu is!" Lucy pleads. I don't bother responding, and she manages to dodge my first attack, only to be hit by the second and knocked against the wall with the force of a wrecking ball. She despawns with a flash of light.
The day after that, Lucy comes again. And the day after that. Every day she comes, trying to beat me so she can find me to beat me. It's kind of ironic. As our routine gets more familiar, I also find myself taking longer to kill her.
There's no doubt that she's getting stronger, but it's also that I'm holding back more, trying to hold conversations with her, conversations we can't have in real life.
That's the worst part. I have nightmares of what'll happen when Lucy learns the truth about E.N.D being me. She'll hate me even more then.
{LUCY'S POV} I push open the door to the last floor of the Tower of Despair for the twelfth time this month. E.N.D paces back and forth, waiting for me.
"I've been thinking—"
"That's not good." I joke.
E.N.D sighs in exasperation and continues. "How do you get up here so quickly? You're only level 56, which is good, but not nearly high enough to beat all 149 floor guardians in one day."
He has a point.
"Believe it or not, I'm friends IRL with a couple of demons. The floor guardians RainWoman and She~Devil are my coworkers in real life. She~Devil says she threatened all the others to let me pass without a fight." I explain. Hopefully this won't get Juvia or Mira in too much trouble.
I can't really see anything under E.N.D's hood, but I feel like he's gritting his teeth. That's what Natsu would do.
I shake my head to clear it. Why am I always think about Natsu when I'm with E.N.D? They're totally different people. E.N.D is dedicated to his job as leader of the demons.
I hear he has more log-in hours than any other player. I've also seen how cool and courageous E.N.D is. One time I saw him rescue a comrade on a quest. E.N.D is so much cooler than Natsu.
