Sweat dripped off Eli’s body, drenching his tank top. He struggled to finish a set of pull-ups and push-ups in his room, his muscles having lost a bit of tone over the last few months due to his neglect. His ear implant was on, indicating he was listening to music. The playlist was a collection of songs Serenity/Yumily had used during the tournament, which he’d found quite catchy. It drowned out the sound of his heavy breathing and any other sounds in his house.

When he was finished, he showered, dried off with a towel, brushed his teeth, and put on a fresh set of clothes. While making his way downstairs, he turned off the music by tapping his ear implant, which allowed the television in the living room to reach him.

When he entered the room, he saw Jillian sitting on the couch, clipping and polishing her toenails while occasionally looking up at the screen. A news broadcast covering the most recent events within the Shattered World was playing, catching Eli’s attention.

“Liyla has taken control of the Sages of Destiny guild and has restored order to the Savringard island. Many thought that she’d struggle to fill the shoes of Makaroth and Synopse, but that isn’t the case at all. She’s been taking a very pro-active role in moving the guild forward, streaming herself and earning a spot in the top 10.” A VGN broadcaster spoke while standing in front of a screen which displayed Lilya’s livestream.

“Some viewers still can’t quite believe Makaroth is truly gone. I know I can’t, but, I’m still very eager to see what Lilya will do next.” His co-caster played off of him.

“Me either. It’s just a shame, though. After all of that, the one who caused his deletion, Aegis, hasn’t even logged in to stream since escaping Stormtop.”

“Yes, all that young boy ever truly wanted, it would appear, was attention from his father.” The two casters gave each other forced looks of sympathy.

“What a bunch of bull. Those guys don’t ever stop, do they?” Eli rolled his eyes at the screen while tapping his wrist implant to mute it.

“Hey, I was listening to that.” Jillian looked at Eli, tapped her implant to unmute it, and returned to her nails.

“Why?” Eli asked her with curled eyebrows.

“Dunno. No one else good is streaming right now,” she shrugged, throwing him a devious smile, which got her an eye-roll from Aegis. “So,” She leaned back and clapped her hands together, putting her nail clippers and file down. “What’s the plan now?”

“What do you mean?”

“We beat Seraxus for Rakkan, and you got your father to quit as you asked… we’re wealthy now… so what’s our next move?”

“Waiting for Yumily’s Airship to get back to Kalmoore so we can log in and keep playing, right?” Eli shrugged.

“And after that?” Jillian pressed.

“I think… well, I’ve been thinking of a way to help Rakkan a little bit more…”

“I meant long term,” Jillian shook her head at him. “Your father is level one with Synopse. They’re both hanging around Orm, on Kalmoore.”

“So?”

“So, he’s there because he wants you to forgive him,” Jillian replied.

“Why would I?” Eli sucked his teeth.

“He did just give up everything he’d ever worked towards for his entire life just to keep a promise to you,” Jillian said matter-of-factly.

“Just to save face. He couldn’t hide from what he’d done anymore,” Eli scoffed.

“You don’t truly believe that’s the only reason, right?” Jillian looked at Eli skeptically. He hesitated in responding, avoiding her gaze.

“So what? You’re telling me you forgive him?”

“Not completely, but…”

“But what?” Eli snapped back quickly, and she could see the anger building up in his eyes despite his best attempts to hide it. Jillian sighed and began fidgeting with her wrist implant, trying to change what was on display on the television. As she did, Eli saw a headline flashing over the screen that read, ‘VGN’s Newest member, a world-renowned musician and broadcaster, will be unveiled shortly!’

A second later, a new video began to play. It was a recording from an eye implant that Eli had never seen before. The person doing the recording was seated in a hospital bed, wearing a white gown.

It only took a moment for Eli to grasp what Jillian was showing him - it was the day he’d been born from Jillian’s implant recording. She looked to the side to see David holding him, cradled in blankets and swaying him back and forth.

“He’s beautiful,” David whispered with teary eyes. “How’re you doin’, lil fella? Do you know who I am? I’m your papa,” David spoke to baby Eli in a cutesy voice as tears ran down his cheek.

“Don’t hog him. I want to hold him too,” Jillian chuckled at David.

“Just a bit more. I want him to know my face first so he likes me more than you,” David teased.

“Wha, c’mon. That’s not fair!” Jillian growled while David laughed at her reaction.

“Why are you showing me this?” Eli turned from the screen to look at his mom on the couch. She wasn’t watching the screen but was fully attentive to Eli’s reaction.

“Because I want to remind you who it is behind that Makaroth character that you just beat down so thoroughly in front of the whole world. He’s an idiot, he makes mistakes, he’s sometimes so incredibly selfish, and tunnel-visioned on his own goals that he forgets the entire world around him, and makes decisions without properly thinking out the consequences. But, he’s still your father. And I know he still loves you today as much as he did here. He just doesn’t know how to say it.”

“It sounds an awful lot like you’ve forgiven him,” Eli crossed his arms.

“No, I haven’t. Not yet, at least, but… I’ve decided I’ll give him a chance,” Jillian took a deep, anxious breath, turning away from Eli’s gaze as she prepared her following words carefully. “The reason Makaroth and Synopse are both at level 1 still is because they are hoping I will delete Pyri and start over with them. They’ve invited me to play with them, and I think I will accept.”

“Wait, what?” Eli shouted in disbelief. “You’re going to leave our group to play with David? After everything he did? You didn’t even want to play games anymore because of him!”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Yes, you’re right.” Jillian nodded back at Eli slowly. “And thanks to all the time we spent together, I’ve learned to stand up for myself and never be ashamed of what I can do. It’s meant the world to me, the time we’ve spent together in-game, and I hope to spend more time with you like that.”

“Then why are you going to reroll?” Eli asked.

She gave him a look as if the answer was obvious, “I’m 44 years old, playing with my son and his teenage friends. I need to start playing people my age at a certain point.”

Eli shook his head at her. “We don’t care about how old you are.”

“I know, but I do.”

“What if we need your help? What’re we going to do without you?”

“You haven’t needed my help for a long time, Eli. Those Vindicator guys may say stuff like that, but they’re only bitter,” Jillian reassured him.

“Huh? Of course, we need you. Without you, we-”

“Eli,” She deepened her tone and gave him a scolding stare. “World first to get all crafting masteries intermediate? I had nothing to do with that. Arallia? I wasn’t even there. Your rare class? I wouldn’t have ever thought of that. Finley’s plan to destroy Kalmoore? It went right over my head, and your strategy to stop him was pure genius. I could keep going on, but you get the picture,” Jillian explained.

“Bu-”

“I know, I have high APM. But do you have any self-awareness for yourself and your party members now?” Jillian tapped her wrist implant to pull up video clips from the tournament. First, she showed Darkshot’s fight with Alicia. Next, Lina’s fight with Zuon, followed by Aegis taking on Seraxus, and lastly, Rakkan taking on Seraxus.

“You guys will be fine without me, and you shouldn’t have to worry about your mom watching over your shoulder all the time while you play.”

“I…” Eli was getting ready to protest, but he could see in Jillian’s eyes that she’d already made up her mind. “But, with David? Really?”

“Eh, yeah… Synopse and I go way back as well, though, remember? It should be fun. If it isn’t, I’ll ditch them and hang out in the Aphrodite Temple all day.”

“Ugh, please don’t give me that imagery,” Eli threw his hands over his eyes, causing her to giggle. “You’ll still be on Kalmoore, though, right?”

“Yup. I’ll be coming to claim my horse and house in Rene.”

“I’m not building a house for Makaroth, though. And you can’t force me to forgive him, or play with him.”

She raised her hands to show her innocence on the matter. “I won’t, I promise.”

“Alright…” Eli said while going deep into thought, pondering everything she’d said. He wasn’t given much time to do so, though.

“And you, you’ll be starting University soon, right?” Jillian asked.

“Huh?” Eli replied, caught off guard as though he’d completely forgotten about it.

“You still want to be a doctor, don’t you?”

“Yeah, of course.” Eli nodded quickly. “But, what about the stream? We’re making so much money…”

“We’ve got enough money to last us our entire lives, and we haven’t even gotten the income from the tournament streams yet,” Jillian replied. “And it’s not like school goes for the whole day, you’ll still be able to stream and play with your friends. I don’t want you to give up on your dream.” Jillian stood up from the couch and began stretching.

“Yeah.” Eli’s mind trailed off again. “Yeah, you’re right. I can probably do both.”

“Great!” Jillian cheered, throwing her arms around Eli and pulling him into a tight hug. “I’m so proud of you. Of everything you did.”

Eli huffed as though he didn’t want to be hugged, but didn’t put in any effort to resist her embrace.

“Alright.” She let go, “Ready to log back in? We should be arriving in Kalmoore any minute now.”

“I guess so.” Eli took a deep breath and eyed the sim-boxes resting off to the side of the living room. He hesitated for a moment before walking to it, grabbing his simulation suit that was sitting on top, and putting it on over his clothes. As he finished putting his on, Jillian began putting on hers.

“See you inside,” Eli smiled at his mom, and she nodded back. He climbed into the machine and shut the top, logging into the game world.

Not more than a few seconds after he had, a notification popped up on the television and switched over to a VGN broadcast.

“Breaking news! Aegis has finally logged back in and has begun streaming after his short hiatus! Anyone who has been seeking answers on the Makaroth situation may just finally get them!”

Jillian rolled her eyes to herself while tapping her wrist implant to turn off the television. She climbed into her sim-box and logged in a few seconds after Aegis had.

Aegis materials just a few moments before Pyri did in the game world. His Avatar appeared inside a well-decorated cabin on the lower deck of the ship with a double bed, in a lying position. Bright sunlight was shining in from two round windows on the wall above the bed, illuminating Lina’s shining purple hair.

Before Aegis’ body had even finished forming, she jerked her head to meet his eyes excitedly.

“You’re back!” She smiled ear to ear, jumping towards him on the bed with her arms stretched out and wrapping them around him as best she could.

“Hah, whoa, yeah.” Aegis smiled at her and hugged her back. “It wasn’t that long, was it?”

“Four days in-game, almost,” Lina explained.

“Right, the simulation speed always makes things wonky.” Aegis pondered while Lina pulled away to look him in the eyes. Almost immediately, she could tell something was off.

“Everything okay?” She asked curiously.

“Hm? Yeah, I guess. Gonna have to make some announcements soon, but they can wait,” Aegis replied.

“What sort of announcements?” She asked with concern in her eyes.

“Nothing bad, I promise,” Aegis reassured her while simultaneously motioning to his livestreaming icon with his eyes. Within seconds, his viewership count had flown up from 0 to 10 million.

“Oh, right.” Lina immediately changed her demeanor upon spotting it. She pulled away from Aegis’ body so that she was no longer sitting on his legs, and slid off the bed to stand beside it so he could get up. Aegis picked up on this and climbed out of bed after her, quickly leaning in to give her a light kiss on her lips.

“Don’t be shy for them, you’re my girlfriend, right?” Aegis smiled at her, causing her face to burn cherry red. Having done it on purpose to see her brush brightly, he laughed the moment it happened. Lina returned a pouting stare at him for a moment, but a smile crept up behind it.

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of popping explosions, prompting them both to look out the windows towards the source.

Under the morning skies, an island could be seen floating above the black sea of mist on the horizon.

“Kalmoore…” Lina whispered, and the two exchanged excited looks before rushing out of the room. Several hallways and a staircase later, they arrived on the deck of Yumily’s airship alongside everyone else.

Yumily, Kenji, Rakkan, Darkshot, Pyri, Darkwing, and all of Yumily’s NPCs were present, moving towards the front of the ship to get a better view. A shadow was cast on their ship from the large wings of Ysil’mareina, who continued to soar above them, letting out a light roar of excitement.

“Of course, fireworks to welcome the brave saviours of the world home,” Darkshot spoke in his manliest voice while squinting and pointing forward at the edge of the nearing island.

Hovering above the edge of Kalmoore was a fleet of 10 Airships, all with unique and distinct designs. Not a single one looked anything like any of the Airships Aegis had seen in the gameworld thus far, but he recognized a few of the designs from the blueprints Leonard and the Carpenter Guild’s leader had.

Atop the airships, crowds of people could be seen, but they were too far away to make out individual names. Instead, their eyes were drawn to the fireworks being shot from the ships and into the sky, lighting it with bright, wondrous colors. Magic was used to dim the skies around the fireworks so they could be seen clearly despite the time of day.

“We’re finally back home,” Serenity smiled, looking to the others, who smiled back.

“Feels like it’s been forever,” Rakkan commented.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Darkshot nodded in agreement. Aegis didn’t speak at all at first, but instead just looked on at the fireworks. It wasn’t long before his eyes wandered away from them to look upon the island itself.

The vastness of green fields and forests, with the distant mountains jutting out of the landscape—it looked nothing like Tarolas. A heavy wave of comfort, calm, and familiarity hit him. He was completely off guard by his own emotions and felt tears swelling up inside him, but he wasn’t sure the reason. He thought on it and narrowed it down to three: he was really happy that they were finally back in Kalmoore with all of their friends, or he was sad because he knew that not long after their ship landed at the Kordas Skyport, Pyri would be leaving their party forever. Or, he felt relief that he’d accomplished everything they’d set out to do, and he didn’t let anyone down who believed in him and had helped him on his journey.

As Yumily’s Airship got closer to the fleet above Kalmore, the passengers came more clearly into view, and he spotted Quinn jumping up and down and waving at him, smiling. Beside her were Herilon, Sapphire, Miranda, Ren, Yuki, Tullan, and dozens of other familiar faces. They were shouting so loudly that he could hear them over the fireworks, even though they still had a distance to go before they reached them.

It was then that Aegis had his answer, as the look of joy on their faces caused the tears to stream down his cheek. Lina, who stood beside Aegis at the front of the ship, noticed them and smiled.

“We did it,” Lina placed her hand on Aegis’s and intertwined their fingers.

“Yeah,” Aegis nodded.