Valkyrie's Lament

Gate #6 - Day 3 (Part I)

“Truly this is disheartening to see.” A baby’s voice rang over Silver’s head.

Silver groggily came back to her senses. She was not sure how long she had been out, but when she heard the baby’s voice she knew that she wasn’t unconscious for too long.

“Oh? So we actually have a winner?” The baby angel fluttered around over her head, looking down upon. “So it’s true. You’re alive.” With a mischievous smile it fluttered near her face.

Silver pushed herself up into a sitting position. The magical net around her was solid blue with not a single magical energy felt from the net itself. She took it off without much trouble. “Is it over?”

“That is the million dollar question isn’t it.” The baby wiggled his brows and snapped his fingers towards her. He then winked, making Silver frown.

Turning her head, she saw Ronald completely frozen, covered head to toe in ice. His mouth was completely open; while his body was reaching over towards her. Silver didn’t feel a twinge of remorse towards the frozen statue, instead she felt disgusted at him.

“You killed him.” The baby angel chuckled. “You literally froze him. You don’t get to see this often until the higher-level games. To see this early on in the game is quite fascinating.”

The words that were coming out of the baby angel’s mouth were completely contrary to the baby's appearance. Anyone hearing this would feel unnerved, but for Silver, she expected such harsh words from the angels.

“Well then.” The baby angel straightened himself up. “Congratulations. You have survived another day. For your reward, you will be given high-level red crystals. Every day that you survive you’ll be gaining a better reward. So stay alive or die quickly. Now with that being said, there are five ‘it’ players today that have been selected.”

Silver pulled the magical net over her head. With a clutter, the magical net shattered into a million pieces, startling her a bit. She didn’t expect to become a sea of crystal diamonds all over the floor.

“Well then, I’ll be going~”

“Wait!” Silver called out to him, stopping the baby in his tracks.

“What is it now…” The baby angel frowned when he heard her stop him. He was about to leave her behind and do his usual routine of going to each player and gloating in their faces.

“Who are the people that died tonight?”

“You want to know?” The baby let out a beautiful smile that did not match up with what he said. “I’ll show you.”

With a snap of his finger, ten pictures of different people were floating above Silver’s face. Silver quickly scanned through the photos and found no one that she knew. The player that she had killed and Ronald was the only two out of ten that were present. Silver was relieved that neither Jasper nor the others were on the list.

“Now then, I’ll be going.” The baby disappeared quickly, leaving her behind before she could ask for anything else.

Silver ate one of the two deep red crystals and put the other one away. She could feel a large amount of energy fill up magic, giving the energy she needed to get up. Her wound was quickly healing and closing up the wound that she had gotten. Glancing at the figure on the floor with a frown, she walked over towards the wall where the fire extinguisher was placed.

Pulling it off, she turned and threw the fire extinguisher at Ronald.

Crack!

Crack!

Crack!

With a burst, Ronald’s ice sculpture shattered into a million pieces. Silver felt satisfied and walked out the door towards her room. The door was opened and she noticed that both Sam and Brianna were knocked out on the bed, sleeping soundlessly.

Silver felt her cheek twitches as she frowned at the two. Closing the door, she pushed a table and other heavy objects over to the door. Walking over, she closed the curtain over the window and walked towards her bed.

With a plop, she fell backwards and in seconds she fell into a light sleep.

#####

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Silver bolted up. She looked around and saw both Sam and Brianna still sleeping. Getting up, she made her way towards the door. The darkness made it a bit difficult for Silver to maneuver.

Who? She wasn’t expecting anyone this late at night. With careful hands, she quietly got up on the table and looked out the hole. It didn’t take a second for Silver to realize who it was.

“Jasper?” Silver was stunned that Jasper had found her in the hundred rooms that were in the building. She quickly got off and started to push the table away from the door.

All of a sudden she stopped.

Wait. This is too strange. How did Jasper find us so easily? Even though I told him we will be here he shouldn’t know which floor we are on.

“Silver?” Jasper's voice called out, knocking on the door once again. “It’s me Jasper!”

Silver shook her head. She remembers that voice everywhere. With a click, she slowly opened the door. “Jasper…?”

“Silver!” Jasper jumped through the door and head butted her in the stomach.

Silver felt a large amount of air escape her mouth. His small figure wrapped his finger around Silver’s stomach as he buried his head.

“I’m glad that you’re still alive.” Jasper started with glee as he looked up towards her with a bright smile. “I literally knocked on every door to find you.”

“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea….”

“It wasn’t.” He shook his head. “I got yelled at by people.”

“I see…” Silver was stunned that he went through all that trouble to go through every door to find her. “Wait, how are you back to normal?”

She pushed him off of her and took a good look at him. He was wearing the same vest color as her with cat ears and tails. Silver couldn’t help but think that this whole appearance really matched Jasper perfectly, making him look cute. “So….cute.”

Jasper frowned and gave her a glare. “Cute is not a word for someone like me. Handsome or hot is better than the word cute!”

The whole suspicion of Jasper being someone else washed completely away and she knew that the boy in front of her was Jasper she knew.

“Welcome back.” Silver reached over towards his head and ruffled it, making it into a small bird’s nest.

“Hey!”

“Sorry.” Silver couldn’t help but smile. “So, how did you even revert back?”

“That’s a s-e-c-r-e-t.” Jasper gave her a wink.

Silver felt a bit strange that Jasper would not say anything. What was worse, the way he said it with his cat ears made her feel like she was struck by cuteness. Even if Jasper didn’t do it purposely, he was such a pro at it that she sometimes believed that he did it on purpose. Her cheek twitched at Jasper’s words and she couldn’t help but sigh.

“Come in.” Silver replied, letting him come through. She closed the door behind him. “There is a spare bed that you can take.”

Her hands quickly move towards the desk, pushing it aside against the door. Jasper helped move another shelf towards the door as he struggled to push it in place. When he was done, he was huffing.

Finally, he spoke. “You’ll understand once you get tagged.”

“I’m not so sure I want to get tagged, but it seems that you have found a way to survive.”

“I’m here, am I not??” He motioned his hands in front of him.

Silver couldn’t help but grin at Jasper’s words. “Anyways, what have you been doing these past few days?”

Jasper was silent and he was thinking about what she had said. He didn’t reply for a good while as he made his way towards the free bed. Silver walked behind him, wondering why he was so silent. Eventually, she sat on the other side of the bed as well, waiting patiently on what he had to say.

Instead, he gave out a loud sigh and flopped backwards onto the bed. “The first day was crazy. I honestly thought I was going to die.”

“How come?”

“The building that I was hiding in caved in. A couple of the people I was with luckily got away safely. When we came out, we found ourselves face-to-face with a giant rat monster. You wouldn’t believe the shocking scene when I saw someone turning into it.”

“Wait….did I just hear you correctly? Who turned into what?”

“One of the players that got tagged ‘it’ got changed into a giant rat monster. Well, when she stole someone else’s patch and did not find the so-called Neospo, she changed.” Jasper's voice was strained with a dark underlying tone. “I figured this out on the second day after I saw someone else turning into the giant rat monster. I was with a group, in the south side of the city, when this happened. That’s when I saw you kill the monster.”

Silver thought over what Jasper had said. She then realized that he was talking about the time when she was fighting the rat monster herself. The strange feeling of being watched, during her fight was actually true and it was not all in her mind. “So, it was you.”

Jasper lifts up his head staring at Silver confused.

“Nothing, continue.”

Jasper flopped his head back down and continued on with his story. “Well to make matters clear, the first group that I was with on the first day were chased around the whole city. The third day, I got tagged by someone and I eventually met up with the group that you fought.”

“Why though? I mean isn’t it a competition among yourself to get a patch?”

“Yep, and a fierce one too.”

“Then wouldn’t it be better if you all went your own ways?”

“No.” He shook his head. “They were actual benefits to sticking together.”

“Such as?”

Jasper gritted his teeth and furrowed his eyebrows. Silver stared over towards Jasper, wondering why he was not saying anything. It was like he was struggling to speak, but was unable too. Beads of sweat started to form all around his body as he struggled for words.

“Never mind. There is a reason why you can’t say anything.” Silver quickly stated. She could tell that Jasper was getting blue from struggling against whatever was stopping him.

Jasper let out a loud sigh. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

Silver fell backwards onto the empty bed and enjoyed the comfort of its soft blankets. Her hands moved side-to-side, feeling the soft texture of sheets. Thinking about what Jasper said, she had a better picture of what was going on. It seems from Jasper’s clues that “it” players have a better chance of working together and possibly finding their targets.

From her memories, the group of five seem to have higher scouting abilities. They seem to be able to track down Silver’s group without much trouble and they even had an unusual power that she couldn’t even explain.

From mind controlling the resident’s of this world and even having full authority to move the residents into action. Thinking about it now, such abilities were not given to any players that were not “it” players. She had seen the ability to command the residents as well. It seemed rabbits were the ones who held some kind of power in this world.

All “it” players from her memories had black bunny ears and black vest, though she had to wonder what the players who turned into the giant rat were wearing. Then it hit her, “Hey Jasper, you said that the ‘it’ players turned into a giant rat right?”

“Yea?” He turned over towards his side.

“What were they wearing when they turned?”

“Wearing? Do you mean their ears and vest color?”

“Yes.”

Jasper thought it over. “They had on a gray vest with mouse ears and tails……!”

From the look of expression, Silver understood what Jasper had grasped.

“I knew that tagging your first player would change you to a mouse, but who would’ve thought that this was the reason why they turned into a monster.”

“Do you remember anything else? Like for example the people’s reaction when they saw them.”

“Actually yes…There were some strange reactions from the locals. It seems that they really dislike players with the rat costume.”

“Anything else?”

“They killed one of them….” His voice went soft.

Silver was flabbergasted when he heard what Jasper had said. “Really?”

Jasper nodded. “I thought it was strange at first, but they didn’t attack any one of us with the black rabbit ears. This whole time I thought it was just due to luck, but it wasn’t.” He grimaced.

“Look, luck is a skill too, you know. It’s best that you have a lot of it in these games.”

“Still….” Jasper's face was grim. “If you only saw what they would do to them….” His beautiful face turned very dark.

Silver couldn’t help but wonder what he saw. Instead, Jasper turned around onto his side, showing his back. Looking at him now, Silver got the feeling that he went through a lot during those few days and it simply showed from his hunched shoulders.

Instead, she didn’t press any further and watched his solemn back. Whatever horror he went through she didn’t know nor did she understand how to help him feel better. This whole guild business and comforting someone was something she wasn’t used to. Through her fragmented memories, all she could remember was being alone, fighting by herself, and surviving.

Friends, family, or even companions were not something that she ever had through the struggles of the game. This she felt was true in her mind and she didn’t know what else to say, staying silent.

“Good night, Silver.” Jasper softly whispered.

Silver wanted to ask more questions, but instead she left him alone. “Good night.” She stayed on the bed in the darkness, quietly listening to the soft breathing sound of the people inside the room. She too closed her eyes and let her dream once again take over her.

#####

“So, when did you come in?” Brianna asked quizzically towards Jasper who was sitting at the table. She pulled out her spoon that was in the bowl and pointed at him.

“It’s not polite to point.” Jasper took a bite out of the sandwich that he had in his hands.

“I didn’t even hear you coming in!”

“So?”

“Silver! What happened last night?” Brianna turned towards Silver who was leisurely eating her sandwich without a care in the world.

“I can’t believe I slept so hard….” Sam was mumbling underneath his breath in complete disbelief. “I never sleep so deeply…”

“See! You broke Sam!” Brianna cried out in worry.

“Calm down, I came in last night. Silver opened the door for me.” Jasper was deliciously munching on his food with a pleased expression.

“Y-you did? Why didn’t you wake me up?” Brianna frowned at Silver.

“Because you guys were sleeping so well that I didn’t want to wake you guys up.”

“Bull!” Sam thundered. “I know myself; the only time I ever sleep so hard is when I’m drunk. Any other time is not normal! What happened?” He glared towards her.

“Wait, you drank alcohol before? Aren’t you underage?” Jasper asked as his eyes got bigger.

“That’s not the point.”

“Nothing much really, you guys got drugged by Ronald.” Silver casually threw it out there not really caring about their reaction.

“What?!” Both Brianna and Sam's voice went up an octave in disbelief.

“W-w-wait. If I’m understanding you correctly, Ronald did what?” Brianna dropped her spoon onto the table with a clatter.

“He drugged you guys to keep you guys away from coming to my help. He was an ‘it’ player.”

Silence followed after as both Brianna and Sam looked at her in confusion, they didn’t know if Silver was saying the truth or not. Even Jasper was surprised to hear that Ronald was turned into an ‘it’ player.

“So, what happened to him?” Jasper asked, cutting through the silence like a knife.

“He died.” Silver casually said while she took a bite out of her sandwich.

“Died?” Brianna cocked her head.

“I killed him.”

All of the three look towards her in alarm at the nonchalant way that she spoke. They felt a shudder at how easily she just threw out those words as if it was nothing as she casually ate her food.

Sam started to chuckle and then burst into laughter. “He did, did he?”

“What’s so funny?” Brianna was looking at him strangely. “This is not funny Sam. One of our teammates turned on her.”

In the blink of an eye, Sam went silent looking at Brianna strangely. “Our teammate? I never said we joined her guild.”

“Well, I just did. I believe that during these games we need to stick together to help each other out. Soloing by ourselves will only get things worse. We’ll eventually die.” Brianna stressed her words.

“That’s just you.” Sam snorted. “I can live through this by myself.”

“Stop saying something stupid and join. Having close connections with trustworthy people is better than not having anyone in the long run. Your pride will eventually kill you.”

Silver understood Brianna's words exactly. She knew that living by herself, going through the game, and surviving was very difficult. The whole game was hell and the only way that she stayed sane was the burning desire to kill the Emperor, but even then her pride to keep to herself without anyone else's help made her fail.

She realized this mistake too late, but eventually coming back in time gave her a new opportunity. Going through the whole game by herself was not going to cut it, she knew that there were going to be quite a large amount of team games, even though she couldn’t remember the content completely. It was enough for her to realize that solo play only went so far.

Not only that she was starting to enjoy the company of people, even if she didn’t talk much. Their joys, laughs, bickering, and worries were all part of new emotions that she never would’ve thought she would ever feel again, but by forming the group she had been in the middle of such turbulent storms.

This was life, enjoying the ups and downs, that brought different blessings that she didn’t expect. She found true comrades that she never thought she would find. Even if they were people who didn’t want to join, she didn’t mind. All she had in mind was to keep in good contact with the people she believes will become a great help in the future.

“Pah, you say such childish naive words.” Sam waved his hands towards Brana. “Instead just follow me and you’ll live. I’m your brother; I’ll protect you.”

“That’s quite some caring words.” Jasper gave Sam a coy look. “I didn’t know you were that type of guy.”

“What are you talking about? Blood is blood.” Sam huffed, not quite understanding Jasper’s words.

On the other hand, Brianna was blushing from Sam’s words and looked away embarrassed. She was happy that Sam had thought of her as a family.

Jasper chuckled.

“Now, with that being said, Silver, you should follow me and become mine.”

Brianna's soft smile fell into a dark frown. She looks towards Silver with a jealous look.

Jasper spewed out water that he was drinking and stared at Sam as if he was crazy.

Silver on the other hand didn’t take Sam’s word into any consideration and instead was leisurely eating as if nothing that he said went through her head.

“Hey, did you hear me?” Sam was getting annoyed from being ignored.

“Yes, I heard you.” Silver finished eating and picked up the bottle of water. She opened up the cap and drank.

“So are you going to take my offer?”

“No.” Silver brought her water down and wiped her lips.

“Why not? I protect what’s mine.”

The word ‘mine’ made Silver flinch. She couldn’t believe that Sam didn’t fully understand what Sam was even saying. “You’re not strong enough for me to follow.”

“What?!” He slammed his fist onto the table in anger. “I know I am stronger than you.”

“Oh, please. You fell into a trap and fell asleep throughout this whole night. Not only that, I could’ve killed you a dozen times.”

Sam was silent when he heard what Silver said. “That doesn’t count. Fight me and I’ll prove that I am someone worthy of being followed.”

“Oh, really? Fine then. If that doesn’t count did you forget that you have to fight Jasper here to even have a shot at me?”

Sam snapped his head towards Jasper and glared. “He’s weak. You really expected me to fight against him?”

“Hey! I’m no weakling!” Jasper glared back with three times as much ferocity.

“Yes.”

“This is child’s play. If I win, you’ll fight me and if I fight and win against you then you become mine.”

Silver sighed at this simpleton. “Fine, but if you lose what would you give me?”

Sam was silent for a moment, while Brianna was glancing towards Sam with worry. “I’ll join your guild.”

“Deal.” Silver gave him a beautiful smile, her eyes sparkling at the prospect of having two strong fighters, especially someone of a dual element. She then leaned over towards Jasper with her hands clasped together underneath her chin. “So Jasper, what do you think?” She coyly smiled at him and Jasper didn’t like it one bit.