Forged in Lightning

He touched his cheek, feeling the electricity flowing between his fingers, Aegeon was lucky, his head didn't have a hole in it, of course that runt aimed for his head, he let out a short sigh before continuing to sprint towards the forest, lightning trailing behind him, his hand latched onto Isabella's.

Should I just die? The insane thought surfaced, it would fix a lot of problems, maybe this time he could kill Theodore faster, not having to be on the run like a wounded animal didn't sound so bad.

"Hey, cut it out, you're scaring me" Isabella spoke, noticing the way his gaze felt distant. her eyes widening in concern.

He shook his head, escape, that's all he should be worried about right now, the sounds of the horse's drawing near did not diminish or increase. He took this as a sign to make sure to run to where horses couldn't follow him.

He entered deeper into the forest, where the trees would make chasing them harder.

Aegeon's, heated breath left his lips, his thoughts trailed back to the fight, it turns out focusing everything you had in one blow only sounded good on paper.

He was tired, he was hungry, his body ached like it had never done before, even breathing was arduous labor, all Aegeon wanted to do was lay down and sleep, even death felt like the better alternative.

Lamenting why Gideon arrived 'earlier' was useless, obviously the extra time in the cave had something to do with it, but why was he even there? Was he hunting traitors of the golden order? That was the most logical conclusion, running into one former member, was a coincidence, two was a pattern.

Would he run into a third?

As much as Aegeon knew about the game, it didn't involve the people, and it didn't help that the main characters in Deminos were mostly solitary, even the classes that usually belonged to a group were solo members of said group.

Like the paladin class he initially chose, the lore behind it was a member of a fallen order where all members either fled or died.

Most quest concerning other people, either ended with the player killing them or them dying. The only notable named characters were Trancendants, like the LightKeeper Gideon, or the Sword Saint of Ice. Who, you'd only ever hear of, or never meet.

A truly remarkable and cheerful game, he clicked his tongue.

"What?" Isabella asked, breaking him out of his stupor.

"You can let go now" she said shyly, her cheeks flushed red, with a bashful look in her eyes.

"Oh Right" He scratched his head "Sorry" He let go of her hand, and slowed down before coming to a stop, the sound of his pursuers no longer entering his ear.

In reality Aegeon must have lost them long ago too lost in his thoughts to notice.

He hunched over breathing heavily, his hands resting on his knees the want, or rather the need to vomit almost overcame him.

"Fuck that golden-haired prick" His voice came out hoarse, no longer in overdrive everything hit him like a truck, the constant abuse of his body catching up with him.

He was even tempted to just lay down and sleep.

"Oh my, a paladin that curses this much" He turned to look at her, annoyance evident in his eyes, she covered her mouth with her hand as she spoke, her eyes widening in an exaggerated fashion.

Aegeon was almost sure she was full of shit.

He clicked his tongue, straightening up, he closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead, a prayer leaving his lips thanking his god for the victory and the escape.

The air around, them got colder, his eyes instinctively turned towards Isabella.

Thats odd I'm not supposed to feel the cold.

An icicle formed in her hand, her hands moved swifter than he could follow, her right foot stepped forward, her hand bringing the icicle under his chin, he flinched for a second before hesitatingly surrendering. She walked forward, pressing it until he backed up against a tree.

Her eyes narrowed, her eyebrows furrowing, a serious look on her face, an almost accusatory look in her eye, Aegeon could almost swear to see some fondness hidden beneath it all. 

"Who the hell are you?" She pressed the tip under his chin, drawing lightning.

What the hell is she on?

"And don't give me that Aegeon bullshit, or that other name you made up with your shitty lightning trick"

His eyes widened, "You remember"

What the fuck? he internally panicked.

"Of course, I remember you oaf, your damned god is fucking crazy" Her cheeks flushed as she remembered the first time she was reset.

'Way to show her. 'He almost instinctively rolled his eyes.

"That power with a mortal" She looked at him with incredulity, shaking her head at the thought of it, her voice almost dripping with pity.

"Do you know how boring it was to wait for you to finally kill that bastard? Only for you to die the second we did it." She rolled her eyes a disappointed look overtook the incredulity.

She pressed the tip and poked his chest with her finger.

"Now who are you and why did you come to save me, and don't give me some bullshit like your god told you"

"Fucking insane really, that's the one thing you kept consistent."

"Cause what kind of freak, dies over and over again for some complete strangers." She clicked her tongue.

If he just pushes his chin further, maybe he could die in one swift motion, plan better, save them and run their separate ways.

"And don't think you can just reset your way out of this one," She poured water, over the kindling of his idea, she turned her gaze and looked at the ice, almost admiring it "this right here is true ice, it will stay with you even in death"

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

She rolled her eyes, pressing it harder against his chin.

He raised his hands up in surrender, his lips beginning to move.

"My name is-"He stopped for a second, his eyes narrowing, a look of disdain appearing on his face "fuck you" His voice rising, "that doesn't matter" he enunciated "what kind of ungrateful piece of shit are you?" He pressed his chin into the ice, causing her to stumble backwards.

"Reasons, identity" He gave her a look "does it really matter?" He continued to walk forward.

Yes, but he wasn't going to let this upstart press him.

"How many times did I die for you? How many times did I walk through that door just to get my ass handed to me." He walked forward with every word.

"And this is the thanks I get?" He laughed mockingly, "I mean come on" Her back hitting the tree behind her, his face hovering above hers. "We could have planned, you could have let me know, yet all you did was find different ways to call me a barbarian"

"Here I was thinking some type of butterfly effect was making you talk more, differently" he looked up and laughed before looking into her eyes. "But no, it was you fucking with me."

"Tehee" She weakly said, "Sorry " the ice dissipating as she sheepishly rubbed her head.

"No hard feelings, right?"

"That was just normal ice by the way."

"You know what they say curiosity kill the slumbering dragon?" She blew some hair off her face.

He sighed, "You're actually so annoying."

She frowned "You take that back"

"Oh Revera, I'm such an Idiot" Embarrassment creeping up his spine, things don't just change like that, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. He almost face palmed. How could he not know something was amiss?

He stepped back, turning away to hide his embarrassment.

"Do you want the honest truth?" he composed himself and looked at her, Isabella's beauty was truly out of this world, she made everything around her look dull.

She slowly nodded.

Should he tell her? Sure, why the hell not, it wasn't like he was professing some nefarious plan.

"I hate to lose" It was the truth, his stubborn nature, his pride, his hatred for failure drove him. Of course, that wasn't the only thing, but it was the fundamental reason.

Quiet you

She looked at him, like she was looking at an escaped asylum patient.

"Seriously?" her face filled with shock "You're insane" She paused, red creeping on her olive oil skin, and here I thought you had a crush on me.

He turned and glared at her, "are you sure that you're actually the daughter of a duke?"

In reality she was the anthesis of what he would expect from a pure-blooded noble, and specifically an ice user, where was the ice-cold jade beauty?

"Hey that's rude" She stomped her feet on the floor, her cheeks puffed up.

"Lucky for you I think besides me and that crazy knight, I'm the only one that knows about your regression trick, courtesy of my amazing god." The snow around them glowed as if to reciprocate her words.

"And since we just killed that knight its only just me"

"So, what's the plan big guy?" She patted his back.

"I don't know" He paused "we've never really gotten this far." The words feeling odd as they left his lips. He turned to look around, his eyes widening in panic when he recognized where they were. All the bizarre happenings linking together, a mystery that he asked himself solving itself, from his discovery.

"Hey, did the Pope of the Church of Thorns die yet?"

"Yet?" She spared him a look of confusion "Not that the Duke's house knows of" She touched her, chin her face tilted slightly as she looked at him.

"Why?"

Shit