Saga of the Last Valkyrie (On Hold)

Chapter 5: Everath

"And with that, the potion should be complete." Alicia explained as she topped off the still boiling potion and finally put a piece of cork bark into the top of the glass to seal it. "Just be sure to remember that it takes two threads of Earth Root for every one petal of Plague Flower."

"Again, we can't thank you enough for this, Lady Alicia." Morton, who was supposedly Marshvale's mayor, said as he accepted the potion from Alicia's hand. "I'm sure that I speak for all of us when I say that I will be doubling the amount of prayers that I give from now on."

"N-no... that's not really necessary." Alicia tried her best to smile at their well wishes. After all, the only reason she knew about this event in the first place was because it had already been a quest in the game. And seeing as she was fanatical about everything involving healing within the game, she'd been sure to memorize it. "The only thing that I've granted you here is knowledge, so please do not think of it as anything grand."

"'Humility in the face of praise shall earn you more than rewards ever will.'" The mayor nearly cried as he recited the verse, and Alicia visibly flinched in embarrassment as it was something that she'd once wrote down in order to appease Sera's 'Let's be gods!' phase. In accordance, all five sisters had sat down one night and created something similar to their own bible, which they introduced into Everath Online and created the Church of Light. Though, all of Alicia's verses were nothing more than quotes, really. And hearing one being said back to her now... She was definitely going to make Sera delete the bible from the guild once she logged off! No other person could ever know about this!

While the Church of Light had been a player-made guild, and even though they had almost conquered all of Everath with it, the guild itself had really only had five real people. Rather than get other players to join like everyone else did, Sera wanted to have just the sisters as members so that the guild could be related to their family. However, in order to make up the numbers, Sera had paid with in-game currency in order to buy and create an army of NPCs for them. And after buying guild halls in nearly every large settlement in the game, they had ended up with over a million NPCs following their fake religion. Though now that said NPCs seemed like they were human, Alicia was now worried that they had accidentally formed something similar to a cult.

"We will take your teachings to heart, Lady Alice." Morton said with a light bow. "It truly is wonderful to have you back on Everath."

"Back on Everath? What do you mean?" Alicia asked curiously, momentarily forgetting her embarrassment.

"Well... you disappeared for quite some time, did you not?" Morton asked. "I may not be an expert, but I believe it's at least been a few hundred years. Well, perhaps that might not be so long to one such as yourself."

"A few hundred years?" Alicia asked. "What are you talking about? I've logged on every day for almost three months now."

"You've been gone somewhere ever since the Great Cataclysm, have you not?" Morton sounded confused.

"What Great Cataclysm?" Alicia asked, suddenly wondering if Everath had completely changed its story with just a single update. "Is that why all of the old settlements are destroyed now?"

"I apologize, your grace. But my knowledge of history is a bit lacking." Morton replied apologetically.

"Then where can I find more information on it?" Alicia asked.

"I believe I can help you with that, at least until you find a proper library." The old woman from before suddenly made her appearance again. "What is it that you wish to know of exactly?"

"Let's start with the Great Cataclysm." Alicia chose.

"I believe that it was recorded to be a thousand years ago now, not a few hundred." The old woman corrected Morton's words. "In a sudden flash of light that enveloped the entire world, the Five Valkyries disappeared. And without their light, darkness began to reign throughout the land."

"What darkness?" Alicia asked hesitantly, wondering just why this story was revolving around her and her sisters seeing as they were only players.

"From the books I read in the capital, all I can tell you was that strong monsters swept over the land." The old woman explained. "Apparently Everath's strongest warriors disappeared along with the Valkyries. And without their help, civilization was easily overrun. Villages were trampled, towns were ripped apart and even the most fortified cities burned."

"From what the books tell us, the world before the cataclysm used to be almost peaceful. The mortal races had conquered most of the world, and only a few threats challenged us as we expanded into lands unknown. However, seemingly in a short amount of time, everything changed. Without our warriors or the Valkyries to lead us, the mortal races were pushed to the brink of extinction, our population was cut to a fraction of what it once was and the forces of evil claimed the land that we had ruled over." The old woman said sadly.

"That's terrible..." Alicia said now, wondering just why the developers would make such a story-line. It almost sounded as if they were trying to push the blame onto why everything had changed onto her and her sisters! Why?! Was this revenge for almost ruling the world?! That wasn't even her idea, it was Sera's!

"Indeed it was, and it still is, to some degree. But I believe everything will start changing for the better now, simply because you are here." The old woman gave a broad smile. "Welcome back, Lady Alicia."

"T-thank you..." Alicia replied hesitantly, wondering just what kind of plot the developers were trying to achieve... or were they trying to achieve anything?

Having been having doubts ever since she'd discovered that the old woman was just an NPC yet could act like a human, Alicia wondered just what she'd gotten into. Sure, this was still definitely the world of Everath, otherwise she wouldn't be able to use any of her spells. But... why did everything seem almost real? The wind, the overly enhanced smells, the gore and her inability to log out, the new emotions of the NPCs... Everything seemed to be pointing towards a scenario that she'd read about several times before back while she was still on Earth, but such a thing couldn't happen, right? Everath couldn't have turned real, right?

"Might I ask a favor?" Alicia asked to the old woman.

"Please, Lady Alicia, anything that I could possibly offer!" The old woman agreed readily, despite not even knowing what the favor would be.

"Would you let me hold your hand?" Alicia asked, making the old woman slightly confused before she hesitantly held out her hand to comply. And upon holding the old woman's hand with her own, Alicia as she was sure that she'd just confirmed her worst fear. After all, the woman's hand was cold.

Despite all of the technological breakthroughs in recent years, no matter how much the game could make a person think that an in-game item tasted just like the real thing, there was one thing that the Ever-Fantasy System could never seem to get right. And that was another person's hands, be they NPC or player. No matter how much the technology advanced, a persons hands would always feel warm seeing as the system only monitored a person's overall body heat. However, this old woman's hands were cold...

"Lady Alicia? Are you alright?" The old woman asked after several minutes of having her hand held, and Alicia slowly dropped it before smiling at the woman.

"I'm sorry, I'm just thinking about a few things." Alicia apologized before beginning to walk out of Marshvale's apothecary's store. "I'll speak with you later."

Quickly moving behind the building as soon as she was out of the front door, Alicia made sure that there was no one watching before she drew her sword again and looked at it's blade fearfully. However, now wasn't the time to be shy as she hesitantly slid the blade across her open hand until she turned it at enough of an angle to where it finally cut her skin. And as it did... she flinched. Not because the sword had cut her, but because of the pain. Actual pain! Everath Online had never had a pain feature before, so why was it here now?! Everything all seemed to lead to one conclusion, and she didn't like it one bit! Everath had become real!