You Already Won

They made it to the mountain base a lot faster than Jonathan expected—another reminder that having powers made life a lot easier. Even uphill treks felt like fast-forward montages when you could bend energy to your will. Sšurtinaui stopped suddenly, one hand raised, her eyes glowing with a faint violet as waves of Ryun pulsed silently from her form. The detection scan took a few seconds before she nodded. "Clear. Let's go."

The three continued upward, each alert for creatures, natives, or just…whatever counted as enemies these days. In Requiem, everything could be one. Even the air if you weren't careful.

Jonathan fell into step beside Caroline. "So…back home. When did you get pulled into this magical chaos?"

She flicked her ponytail. "2018."

"Wait. 2018?" His eyebrows shot up. "That was like six years ago!"

She shrugged casually. "I've been here for three."

He stopped mid-step. "But…that doesn't—"

Sšurtinaui cut in without missing stride. "Earth time and Requiem time aren't synced. Two Earth years equal one Requiem year."

Jonathan froze again. "So…this four-month event is actually—"

"Eight months," Caroline finished, grinning. "Bingo. You're going to feel every second of it."

He groaned. "I need a calendar. I can't keep running on anime logic."

They laughed, the tension briefly melting in the mountain air. Then Jonathan turned to Caroline again.

"Also—two questions."

"Let me guess," she said, amused. "Yes, I'm a real girl."

"Wait, how did you—?"

"And if I wasn't?" She beamed. "I am now. Requiem lets people be who they are, whether it's from pixels or prayers."

He blinked. "That's…actually a solid answer. Second question… how old are you?"

She thought for a moment while the background blurred behind them. "I'm at least 24 now." She glanced at him. "Why do you care?"

"I wanted to fu—" He stopped himself mid-sentence.

Her eyes narrowed, amused. "You what?"

"Make sure I had my comebacks preloaded," he said with a weak grin.

Sšurtinaui, up ahead, turned just enough to tease. "Aww. So that's how you operate."

Jonathan rolled his eyes and gently pushed her face away. "Woman, you need to learn to m.y.b."

"Myb?"

"Mind your business. Caroline, have you taught her nothing?"

Caroline snorted. "Duh. Kinda hard when outlanders are hunted."

"…Oh yeah," Jonathan muttered. "That part slipped my mind."

"Good thing we didn't," Sšurtinaui called back.

The wind picked up, and the peak of the mountain loomed closer.

"What was your second question?" Caroline asked, smirking as she climbed up another ridge.

"Oh—it was nothing now," Jonathan replied quickly, his eyes darting away. "Since you're a girl and all."

She chuckled, clearly not letting that go anytime soon.

Sšurtinaui rolled her eyes. "Caroline, mind running detection?"

Jonathan raised a brow. "Didn't you just do that like five minutes ago?"

"And why can't you do it at all?" Sšurtinaui shot back without turning.

He scowled, but Caroline jumped in to soften the blow. "Mixing up detection methods is smart. If someone—or something—has a counter to her style, mines might slip through. Layers keep you alive." She lifted a finger and a sigil appeared above her head.

Jonathan sighed. "Why can't this be a fun anime world with power-ups and tournaments…"

Caroline paused. "You're literally in a deathmatch fantasy realm with magic powers."

"Yeah but like… the fun kind."

Before she could retort, her sigil flared to life. A pale pink symbol burned into the air above her palm, then widened like radar.

"Something's here," she warned.

"Correction—something sees us," Sšurtinaui added grimly.

A deep rumble answered them.

A hulking troll-like creature, easily three stories tall, burst from the trees—its body a mossy mass of stone and muscle, eyes glowing red beneath a spiked bone helm.

"Shit," Jonathan muttered, immediately launching himself backward with a burst of Ryun.

Sšurtinaui stepped forward, calm as ever, and conjured a luminous green bow from thin air. Three arrows blinked into existence, doubling in size as she nocked them all at once. She released—their spiral flight cutting through the air like jade comets and slamming into the troll's chest.

The creature staggered.

Then Caroline raised a hand and pointed. A shimmering sigil appeared midair. It echoed and duplicated—an exact copy forming on the troll's forehead.

The creature froze… then screamed… then faded, its form unraveling into dust and vanishing with a hum of distorted energy.

Jonathan stood there, jaw slack. "Well… okay then."

"Get used to it," Caroline said, brushing her fingers off. "Requiem's not an anime, remember?"

"Could've fooled me," he muttered, still watching the air where the troll had been.

A few more creatures had appeared—twisted hybrids of scorpions and hawks, serpents with spider legs, even a creature made entirely of smoke and bone. But nothing lasted long. Between Caroline's quick-trigger sigils and Sšurtinaui's ruthless precision, they were just stepping stones on the path forward. Jonathan helped too—though it was mostly distraction and the occasional blast of lightning-charged Ryun when something got too close.

As they neared the cave's shadowy entrance, Jonathan glanced over at Caroline. "Hey, question—your powers. Are they magic or Ryun? Bit of both?"

She blew a strand of hair from her face. "In my game, it was called magic. But here, it's technically Ryun—just operating off my game's internal logic. Most of my attacks are, like… 'programmed.'"

"So it's automatic?"

"Mostly. Or toggleable. Like, I can set a spell to burst on contact or explode after a delay. Some things take aura to maintain, others are cast-and-done. It's kind of like managing cooldowns with stamina regen."

Jonathan stared at her, blinking. "That's such bullshit."

Caroline just grinned.

Sšurtinaui chimed in, "Not all powerful beings are video game avatars, if that makes you feel better."

"It doesn't," he muttered. But since he became Jafar or whatever, he figured it evened out somewhere on the crazy scale.

As they crossed into the cave, the light dimmed and the sound of the outside world faded to a hush. Sšurtinaui and Caroline instantly shifted into stealth mode—silent steps, scanning cover points, gliding through shadow like veteran operatives.

Jonathan, not wanting to be left behind, tried to mimic them.

Tried.

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He rolled into cover like he was reenacting an action movie. Slid behind a jagged rock formation and peeked over it with two finger-guns like he was clearing a room in VR.

"Clear," he whispered, unnecessarily.

He barrel-rolled again—directly into a rock.

"Will you stop being an idiot?" Sšurtinaui snapped under her breath, staring at him like he'd brought shame upon three generations of shadow operatives.

"I'm blending in," he whispered.

Caroline stifled a laugh behind her hand. "Yeah, if this cave was a comic con."

Jonathan just smirked and gave a thumbs up. "Stealth: Level 100."

"Gods help us," Sšurtinaui muttered, continuing forward.

Caroline's eyes glowed faintly as she tapped the side of her screen. The clairvoyance skill pulsed, illuminating a soft blue trail only she could see. "This way," she whispered, motioning for them to follow.

The cave was wide—unnaturally so. The air was thick with silence and the stench of ancient death. Massive bones littered the floor, some with bite marks larger than Jonathan's torso. Whatever lived here once had been monstrous.

Sšurtinaui pulled a mask from her pouch and placed it over her face. A shimmer ran across her body, and she faded to translucent. Jonathan blinked. "When did you—?"

"Caroline gave it to me," Sšurtinaui said without looking back.

Caroline flashed a grin. "Don't worry, I'll get you something too."

Jonathan scoffed. "I wasn't worried. I've got a decent kit."

"Oh yeah," Caroline teased. "Red lightning and regeneration. Truly versatile."

"Shut your mouth."

"Shut it for me."

"Y'all gonna learn—"

The words were cut off by a sudden hiss of energy—a shot of Ryun screamed out from the darkness, barreling toward them.

But Caroline was already in motion. A sigil burst to life in front of her, spinning like a wheel of light. The Ryun bolt slammed into it and dispersed in a shatter of sparks.

She cracked her knuckles. "Finally," she smirked. "About time we ran into someone."

Sšurtinaui shifted into the background. Jonathan rolled his shoulders and flared his lightning. His grin was tired but real.

"Let's see what welcome committee looks like in this damn cave."

Jonathan narrowed his eyes at the emblem—VR, clean and bold, slashed through with a black strike like someone had rage-quit the universe. The white hooded cloaks shimmered with faint Ryun lines, and the one who spoke had a calm, almost corporate tone.

"Was that an Arcane Reversal from Arc Sigil Unite 4?"

Caroline tilted her head. "And if it was?"

They didn't seem fazed. But Jonathan noticed Sšurtinaui crawling along the far wall, moving like a shadow. He was quietly impressed he could even see her now.

"You're an outlander?" the figure asked. "If so, we have no reason to fight. In fact—" He pushed his hood back, revealing a sharp-faced man with neon-blue hair and eyes like cold, glowing glass. "—you might belong with us."

Caroline raised a brow. "With you?"

"We are The Eternal Arcade," the man said proudly. "I'm GlitchFreak. This is Mythra and RespawnX." The two others nodded—one a tall woman with wires braided into her hair, and the other a stocky brawler type with glowing tattoos across his arms.

"The Eternal Arcade…" Jonathan muttered.

"A guild?" Caroline asked dryly.

"A truth," GlitchFreak corrected. "Founded by the first batch of Outlanders who accepted the truth: Requiem is an elaborate VR simulation. The only way to win is to level up, defeat the bosses, and break the system."

Mythra stepped forward. "We don't follow the Supreme Families. We don't worship Kings. We raid, conquer, and climb. Power is the only metric that matters."

"And you thought I'd just join?" Caroline crossed her arms, unconvinced, especially because they attacked first.

GlitchFreak nodded. "Outlanders shouldn't fight each other. You know how this works: Guild up, level fast, win big. We have contacts, buffs, tech-enhanced Ryun manipulation—"

"Oh, well in that case," Jonathan said, raising a hand mockingly. "Hi. I'm North. Outlander. Everyone seems dying to know lately."

GlitchFreak smirked. "Then you know this world's just another raid map. You want to win? You'll need more than a pretty girl and improvised Ryun lightning."

Jonathan stepped forward, red and black Ryun dancing between his fingers. "Yeah, maybe. Or maybe I do it the hard way. I'm quite fond of challenges."

Mythra narrowed her eyes. "That sounds inefficient."

"And I like inefficient," Jonathan said. "Now are you here to trade information, try to kill us, or just pitch your weird gamer cult?"

GlitchFreak's grin faded. "Shame. Could've used you."

From the shadows, Sšurtinaui motioned: "I'm in position."

Caroline's smirk matched Jonathan's. "Then it's your turn to lose a life."

The cave lit with sudden Ryun flares.

The air cracked with tension. Then Mythra made the first move—snapping her fingers as code-like Ryun glyphs unraveled around her arms like a virus. She vanished in a blink—teleport glitch.

"Right side!" Jonathan yelled just in time to see her reappear mid-air, hurling a spiraling disk of glitched Ryun that screamed like a corrupted file.

Sšurtinaui was already moving. With a silent draw, she loosed two arrows glowing green, turning off her invisibility. They split mid-flight into ten. Each hit the spinning disk at a different angle, exploding into a green mist that carved the ground into pitted stone.

From the opposite side, RespawnX charged forward like a tank. With every step, the ground pixelated—Ryun warping into hard squares. He threw a punch, and it sent a shockwave forward like a gravity hammer. Jonathan dodged, but his shoulder still clipped a wave and launched him into the wall.

"I felt that in my teeth!" he barked, pushing off the rock with a wince. Blood dripped from his lip—but already the golden glow of regeneration started knitting his ribs.

Caroline stepped forward, her eyes glowing as four crimson tails formed behind her like foxfire—Ryun-weaved tails of pure code and memory.

"Coded Sigil: Crimson Cipher!" she called.

Each tail lashed outward, whipping around RespawnX and lifting him into the air—before slamming him down like a ragdoll across the cavern floor. The impact shook stalactites loose.

But GlitchFreak was already mid-cast. "Initiating World Lag!" he roared.

The world skipped. Jonathan blinked—and suddenly Caroline was being electrocuted by a frame-stutter blade buried in her side. GlitchFreak smirked. He had used a Desync hack. Though it only worked once per battle.

"Hunter's Breath," Sšurtinaui whispered, fading into the mist. Her bow vanished and a short spear formed in her hands, glowing with layered Ryun glyphs like vines etched into steel.

She lunged at Mythra, who blocked with twin daggers coded like PS2 memory cards. They traded slash after slash, Mythra moving in and out of glitch steps—Sšurtinaui predicting her flickers perfectly. On one final dash, Sšurtinaui dropped to a knee and swept the spear across her opponent's ankles, flipping Mythra mid-glitch. As she flipped, an arrow shot upward, impaling her shoulder and pinning her mid-air.

Jonathan meanwhile faced off with RespawnX again. The hulking brute was regenerating—some kind of "checkpoint recall" power—but Jonathan didn't wait. He flared red and black lightning around his arms, pushing all Ryun to his right fist.

"Electric Flash Jab!" he cried, ducking under a wild swing and uppercutting RespawnX in the jaw with a jolt that lit the cavern like a storm. Bones cracked.

RespawnX reeled back—but a checkpoint glyph blinked under his feet. He reset to his previous state. "Cheap trick!" Jonathan yelled.

"And you're spamming it!"

Jonathan threw a feint left, then used his momentum to slam both hands into the ground, blasting a concussive field upward that temporarily blinded and stunned the brute. Before he delivered a powerful lightning punch to the gut sent him flying. Jonathan staggered back, breathing hard as he watched the brute fall limp.

Caroline screamed behind him. GlitchFreak had tried to cut her again, but this time her tail blocked it mid-slash and retaliated with a burst of data-like fire, melting the edge of his blade.

"End of file, bitch," she growled, driving her knee into his gut.

GlitchFreak teleported out—but not fast enough. Sšurtinaui nailed him with a wall pinning arrow as he rematerialized, embedding him into stone.

Jonathan dragged his sleeve over his bleeding eye. "Anyone left?"

Mythra freed herself with a burst of Ryun and tried to lunge for a final blow—only for Sšurtinaui's spear to come spinning back like a boomerang, knocking her unconscious.

Silence.

Panting, burned, bleeding—but alive—the trio stood victorious.

Jonathan wiped blood from his cheek. "I think I pulled my shoulder… but they weren't as bad as Joan."

Caroline fell back onto a rock. "That was amazing."

Sšurtinaui smiled faintly, "Let's not make that a habit."

Jonathan grinned. "Speak for yourself—I'm starting to get used to this chaos."

GlitchFreak coughed, blood dribbling down his lip as he glared at them from where he was pinned to the cavern wall.

Jonathan wiped soot from his hands, cracked his neck, and gave the guy a tired grin. "Hey man, what's your real name?"

"Fuck you," the pinned man spat, chest rising and falling with fury. "I don't swing that way."

Jonathan raised an eyebrow. "Chill. That wasn't even a flirt. Just figured might as well hear the name your mama gave you, not your failed Twitch handle."

GlitchFreak mouth opened in protest—

Then. Spit. Just missing Jonathan.

He rubbed his neck. "Alright… I was gonna let you go. Take your bruises, crawl outta here, rethink your cult—whatever."

Sšurtinaui shot him a sharp look. "That's a mistake."

Caroline crossed her arms, eyes narrowing. "Yeah. You realize they see her as an NPC, right? And they'll definitely try to kill us later."

GlitchFreak laughed, even through the pain. "We shouldn't have attacked without warning. But you understand how things are in this verse." He looked at the elf. "You can't tell me she's not just a npc to help your party."

Sšurtinaui's face didn't change, but her aura spiked—barely controlled.

Jonathan winced. "Well… yeah. You kinda sealed that." He stepped back. "Welp, looks like you gotta go."

Before another word could be spoken, Caroline moved—three of her crimson-coded tails shot forward, spearing all three cultists in a single coordinated strike. The cave echoed with wet, distorted crunches. Their bodies twitched as their Ryun scattered like broken pixels.

"XP secured," Caroline muttered, brushing hair from her eyes.

Jonathan exhaled slowly. "Okay. I was serious about letting them go."

"You're new," Sšurtinaui said simply.

"You're soft," Caroline added.

"I'm just not a psychopath," he replied.

"You'll adjust," they both said at the same time.

He blinked. "Wow. Y'all rehearsed that?"

They didn't say anything when he started rifling through what was left of the Eternal Arcade members. It wasn't right—but it was what was expected. This world didn't stop for morals. And if he didn't loot them, someone else would.

Their gear was mostly junk—robes and gauntlets—but the cloak one of them wore was intact, stitched with shifting lines of digital blue. Barely singed. And the boots? Auto-fitted the moment he slid them on.

Jonathan sighed. "You know, I didn't kill them. But I might've. That's… that's weird to sit with."

Caroline was still organizing her loot screen, red tails of code flicking with each mental selection. "You didn't. I did. And if you hadn't, you'dn't be breathing. So what does that tell you?"

"That you're all insane?"

Sšurtinaui stepped lightly across the cave floor, brushing her fingers against the wall as if checking for echoes. "No. That's just Requiem. Even without the outlanders, this place is survival first. You were born late to the party."

Jonathan adjusted the cloak on his shoulders. "Yeah. Still feels off, though."

"You'll get used to it," Sšurtinaui said.

"Or die," Caroline added, cheerfully. "But hey, you're still alive. So cheers to you."

Jonathan gave a dry laugh, but deep down he did feel it—that shift. That tilt in perspective. The tiger, the owl, the screaming humanoids… they were easy to kill. Easier to justify. But these guys? Earth-born, maybe even gamers like him? That was a heavier weight. And it hadn't crushed him.

The realization also sparked something else. He'd held his own. Again.

Joan of Arc with a halberd nearly ended him, and someone dropped a planetary blast at the starting zone—but since then? He'd survived, adapted, even thrived.

He glanced at Sšurtinaui—calm, aura precise.

Then at Caroline—radiating power with every smug grin and calculated strike.

Could he beat them?

Not yet.

But one day?

He'd make damn sure they couldn't beat him.