The Eden Crisis
Chapter 13: Bond of Hope

“What will you do, hero? Time is ticking away. If you don’t grasp it quickly, it will slip from your hands.” The hooded guy is back again. What does he mean by that?

“I ask again: who are you?” He throws a sword at me. I catch it and run at him. I swing, and he blocks my attack with his own sword.

“Who am I? I thought I told you that already. You still don’t get it, hero?” Anger flashes in my eyes. I push against him, and he loses balance. I attack him but my sword goes through him.

“Strength isn’t always enough, hero. Strength without will is useless. Do you have will?” I slash and slash but nothing happens. The figure laughs. He holds his hand out and shoots a red lighting at me.

“I guess you have chosen despair, right, hero?” No! As if my sword hears my defiance, the blade burns bright white. I throw the rapier, and it flies into the hooded man. White lightning surges around him. “Oh, I see. So you do have will. Yet, is it strong enough to oppose me?” The hooded figure pulls the sword from his chest and tosses it to the floor.

I wake up to a hand stroking my hair. Claire! She is awake. I lift my head and she smiles. “I want to get up and stretch my legs,” she says. She slides out of the bed and stretches. I reach over and pull her into a hug. “I thought you were going to die,” I say.

“Vergil told me you were crying.” I pull away quickly, a look of self-doubt in my eyes. “Hell, no!” I say, in a voice louder than I probably intended. “I did not cry!” Claire smiles. “I suppose you also didn’t risk your life against the original emerald dragon just to save me.” “That’s different,” I say, all too aware of the blood rushing to my face. “I mean, you’re important to me . . . I mean, to the guild and to the players depending on us to get them out of the game . . .” Claire nods. “I guess, then, my hero doesn’t want a kiss for his bravery.”

“Well, I—″Claire silences me with a quick, chaste kiss. “Thank you, Dante.” I touch my lips. “You’re welcome,” is all I’m capable of saying.

“By the way, Vergil wants to talk to you,” Claire says. “Go ahead. I need to thank Cain, anyway. We can talk afterward.” She gives me a reassuring smile, and I walk out the door where I see Vergil leaning against the wall of the shop.

“Claire is awake,” I tell him. “She told me you wanted to see me.” Vergil uses his menu and goes into his inventory. The emerald artifact appears in his hand. He hands it to me. “Take this. I can’t allow Shadow XIII to have another artifact. There is something going on with them. I don’t know what it is, but I need you to be on the lookout.”

I take the artifact and put it in my inventory. “What do you mean something is going on?” He shrugs. “All I know is, the director doesn’t want anyone getting to the final boss. I am afraid of what he is going to do. I’ll try to keep you and Cloud informed but it will be difficult. Don’t trust anyone from Shadow XIII unless it’s me or Asher.”

“All right, brother. I’ll do as you say. Let me know if you need me for anything. I want to be able to help you.” Vergil laughs. “I think I’m the one who seems to be helping you! Anyway, I have to go.” He gives me a hug and walks off into the distance.

“Thanks again, Cain, for what you did. I hope to repay the favor, anytime, anywhere.” I hear Claire as she comes out of the shop. Cain waves her off. “Just try to avoid the emerald dragons,” he says. “That antidote isn’t easy to make.” He smiles at this last remark.

Claire, too, smiles. “I have my hero here. I think I’ll be fine.” “Let’s hope so,” Cain says. “Heroes don’t always save the girl.”

Claire grabs me by the hand. “Come on. Let’s go for a walk.” She leads me through the city. I haven’t really explored much of Sanctum. If I come here, it is to see Raziel. The city is beautiful. It is all white stone and perfection.

Claire takes me to a fountain at the city limits. She pulls out a gold coin. “Time to make a wish,” she says as she gives me the coin. “Toss the coin in and give your heart a lift.” I flip the coin into the fountain.

“Well, did the fountain grant your wish?” I shake my head. “Nope, we’re still in the game.” Claire laughs and flips her own coin into the fountain. I look at her. “Did your wish come to pass?”

She smiles. “Not yet, but when you kiss me it will.” I feel heat rise in my cheeks. “I, I . . . um. . .” I lean in and give her a kiss. Nothing long, nothing drawn out, just enough to express my feelings. I pull away and Claire smiles. “I’ve liked you for so long, Dante. I’ve just been afraid to tell you. You’re always so calm or act oblivious.” Acting is what I’m good at I think. “But when you risked so much just to save me, I knew I couldn’t hide it any longer. I hope you feel the same.”

“I do feel the same, Claire. I’ve been denying it for too long. Raziel, Apollo, Nero and my brothers have all been teasing me for the last year and I just denied it. I was afraid. Still am. I mean, so many people have died to this game, and I don’t want to lose anyone.” “I understand,” Claire says. “I don’t want to lose anyone, either. That’s one reason I want to get married to you in the game. I know we only now confessed our feelings, but when you are married to someone in the game, all of your items become theirs when they die. I don’t plan to die, but if I do, I want you to have my sword Excalibur.”

“Claire, I . . . this is so untraditional, a girl asking a guy to marry her.” Claire is smiling, but I can see a beast behind that smile. I might have said the wrong thing. “Dante!” Claire yells as she smacks me across the face. “We were having a moment, you jerk!” I rub the side of my face. “Why does it seem our moments always end up with me getting smacked?”

Claire laughs and apologizes. “So, do you want to get married in the game, or not? Then if we survive the game, date for real?” “You bet,” I say, without hesitation.

It doesn’t take long for Claire to make the arrangements for our wedding. It’s unreal, honestly—and literally. Married at eighteen is weird, but it is just an in-game wedding. The days pass by quickly until the wedding, which is held in Indagatus.

All of our friends, family and guild members show up, and Raziel officiates. As soon as the wedding and after-party are over, we go a cottage in Silva Regnum. Lucien had bought it for Claire. Lucien, who still doesn’t like me.

We’re overlooking a lake at the cottage. I love it. Nature is perfect, I think. Claire and I are walking by the lake, hand in hand. “So what are we going to do with our time off?” she says. I twirl her in my arms. “Maybe we can go for a swim.” She playfully jabs me with her elbow. “Sure, let’s go!”

Claire lets go of me and runs toward the lake. I chase after her. We each put our clothes into our inventory and are down to our undergarments. I follow Claire into the lake and we go swimming to the middle.

“The water’s perfect,” I say to Claire, who sees something below the surface. I look down to see what she’s looking at. It’s a small mountain under the water. “How deep is this lake?” I ask. “I’m going to dive down and take a look.” Claire nods as I disappear into the water, using a spell to help with breathing.

I swim in the vicinity of the underwater mountain where, to my surprise, there is an opening, what appears to be a cave. I swim back up to Claire. She’s waiting on the beach.

“There’s a cave at the bottom of the lake. It’s probably forty feet down. Let’s go explore it!” Claire walks out to me and we dive into the water. She follows me down the opening in the mountain. We swim in through the opening.

We hit the surface and take in a breath. We let out gasps of wonder and excitement. “That wasn’t a cave,” I say. “It was a temple!”

We equip our armor and walk toward the temple entrance. As we approach the temple doors, torches ignite with blue fire. Words on the door begin to glow. Is it the language of Eden? Claire traces her fingers over the words and translates. “He who seeks the sapphire, enter and beware.” She looks at me. “What does it mean, he who seeks the sapphire? A jewel? Or something more?”

I cup my chin in thought. “Perhaps it means the sapphire artifact.” That would be nice. Vergil gave me the emerald artifact. The items automatically give the owner unique spells. With the emerald artifact, I have the magic earth breaker.

“So, do you want to explore the temple?” Claire asks. “Definitely! Let’s replace the sapphire artifact.” The doors to the temple open up, and we walk in. As we walk in the doors close, and blue fire ignites on all of the torches in the hall we’re in. It’s also very cold.

It seems odd to me that the sapphire dragon would be in Silva Regnum. I’d think it would be in Atlantis, on a more difficult continent. Maybe Claire knows. She does more reading than I do. “Claire, do you know why the original sapphire dragon would be in this cave given that this continent is part of Silva Regnum?”

She shrugs. “It’s possible this temple is a shrine to Atlantis,” she says. “According to game lore the original dragons are incarnations of the elements. They each guard over different nations except for the original divine dragon.” “If they guard over the nations, then why do they attack players?” I ask.

“I haven’t read anything about it,” Claire says, “but I assume it’s because humans are the reason Eden was fractured into a hundred continents in the first place. That’s just a guess, though. If you ever meet the creator of the game, feel free to ask him.” I can only smile at her insights and sense of humor.

“Come on, let’s explore,” I say. We walk down the hallway and look around at the different statues and paintings. There are several doors in the hallway, but most of them are locked. There are a few that open, but for the most part they have low-level items.

We take what we want and continue down the hallway, which he eventually ends at a set of double doors. The door handles are frozen shut. I don’t have any fire spells. I do have some magic crystals. Maybe I’ll get lucky and one will make a fire spell happen.

I toss a crystal, but it uses a thunder spell, which is ineffective on the ice. I sigh. I get ready to use another, but Claire beats me to it with her fire slash. The ice melts instantly. I push the door open and we go in.

This room is all ice. I can see an altar ahead with what looks like the sapphire artifact. I run up to it and grab it. My excitement is cut short by a deep, dark-sounding voice. “When six meet, a seventh shall rise. When both six and seven kneel to one, the seal will break. Creation will rumble and thou will know . . . Veren’s champions have come.” I look up to where the voice is coming from, and I see it, the original sapphire dragon.

The great beast drops down from above. It was hanging from the ceiling. Its presence is terrifying. “What brings two humans into my sacred temple?” it roars. I back away. “We were just looking around the temple,” I say. “We found it when we went on a swim.” I continue to back away until Claire grabs me and pulls me toward her.

“Maybe so,” the dragon says, “but I can’t allow you to just wander my temple and defile it. Now you will know true pain. My brother may have been felled by you, but I am stronger than the earth. For it is from my water that this earth has life!”

Claire and I pull our weapons out. I toss an examination crystal. It shatters, and all of the details of the great original sapphire are shown to me.

Original sapphire dragon

HP: 100,000

Attack: 200

Defense: 200

Magical abilities: Invulnerable to water and ice. Vulnerable to lightning-based attacks. When HP drops to twenty-five percent, will use absolute zero frequently. Upon defeat, will use terra frost, his most powerful attack.

“Claire,” I say, “this dragon is very strong. We need to be careful when he is defeated. He unleashes a powerful attack.” At that moment, the dragon swipes at us. Claire dodges out of the way, and I take a hit. I slide across the floor. The dragon snorts. “You honestly think you will defeat me?” it says. “Foolishness.” It gathers energy into its mouth.

I quickly heal myself and run over to Claire. I place my hands on the ground. A glyph appears on the ground, and lights draw a pattern inside the glyph. The summoning has begun.“Eos!” I cry. “Protect us! Dawn Breaker!” A brilliant light shoots throughout the room and gives form to a small, indescribable animal.

Eos jumps into the air as the dragon releases the beam of energy from its mouth at us. The beam hits a dome of golden light that had formed around us and bounces off. It is redirected and blasts the ceiling.

Eos disappears, and we take the opportunity to attack the dragon. Claire uses her fire slash and I use my sanctimonious slash. The dragon’s HP takes a hit but not much as I’d like. He has lost about ten percent of his health.

The ogre comes at us. He swings his tail and knocks us away. I get up and quickly use a restoration spell on us. The dragon snorts. “Enough with your magic!” it booms as it roars out magic of its own. “Magical binding!” I feel my body tense as my magic is bound.

“Claire . . . run! I can’t use my magic now.” Without hesitation, she says, “I don’t think so, Dante. We’re in this together!” She runs at the dragon. “Fire slash level 2,” she charges, slashing at the dragon with unrelenting force. She finishes her move by thrusting her sword into the ground, causing fire to burst forth and burn the dragon.

The dragon roars loudly. I access my inventory and use one of the magic crystals. It shatters and uses a level-three lightning spell. There is a loud rumbling, and lightning strikes down from the sky and hits the dragon.

With a tremendous roar it collapses to the ground. Claire looks at me with surprise. “Dante, he is stunned! Hurry, let’s end this!” We charge the great beast and slash at him without letup. His HP drops to a bar and a half. It’s almost over.

But no! The stun ends, and he rises from the ground again. He slams his feet on the floor and knocks us off balance. “Absolute zero!” he charges. He roars, and a cold air begins to instantly freeze the area around us. It’s impossible to outrun. We get caught in the attack. We are frozen in place.

“This ends now!” the dragon says. He comes at us and hits us with his tail. We are no longer frozen but at the cost of our HP’s dropping significantly. “Claire, I’m going to end this now,” I say. “Use your best party-based healing item. You will know when.”

I place my hands on the ground and a glyph appears below me. A purple light shines and forms a symbol to represent my Entitas. “Raijin! Judgment stream!” Lightning shoots up from the glyph and forms into a large bird-like creature.

While this is happening, Claire is accessing her inventory. Lighting shoots from the bird and hits the original dragon. Raijin soars as high as it can. I look over to Claire; she tosses an item and we heal.

Purple and white light surround Raijin. A large bolt of purple and white energy shoots down and hits the dragon. Raijin disappears in a flash of brilliant light.

The dragon falls to the ground. “Die . . . Terra frost,” it says. It falls to the ground and explodes in a bright blue-and-white light. This light is the magic Terra frost. It is known to be a disastrous magic.

Our HP drops very low, but we are still alive thanks to Claire. I search the area where the dragon died, and the sapphire artifact is lying on the ground. I pick it up and feel the power of the dragon soar into me. A new spell is added to my skill list—absolute zero.

Claire and I go back into the water and climb to the surface. We swim to the shore and go back to our cottage. I now have two of the dragon’s artifacts. I have become stronger. This power will help protect those love.

The sun is setting. Claire cooks us dinner, and it smells wonderful. She has amazing cooking skills. She can cook anything in the game and it will taste wonderful. Claire makes a delicious stew. We eat and talk about life.

When dinner is done we go to bed so we can enjoy the rest of our honeymoon. We’re going to avoid going into more caves or temples.