Is this really a Game?!



"Yes, I do not know why that is so shocking to you, I have spoken before as well." Elyndor looked at Reign with a slightly confused expression as he spoke.

"Well yeah, but I wouldn't necessarily call that 'speaking' … I mean, it's not really understandable by us, that's why I was surprised to hear you speak like a human now." Reign hurriedly said, slightly nervous as Elyndor himself could easily kill them all if he wished to do so.

Elyndor nodded solemnly as his gray wings retracted. "Yes, I can speak, the artifact denied us the ability to communicate with humans, but we are no longer bound by its influence."

The group exchanged surprised glances, their previous fears of the monsters quickly dissipating. It seemed that their previous guess was right, the artifact did in deed create Elyndor and the others, but something seemed to have gone wrong.

Reign stepped forward cautiously. "You were created by the artifact, so how were you still in the dungeon after the Will separated it from its influence, how were you still bound by its influence?"

Elyndor nodded again. "Indeed, we were born from the essence of the artifact itself, given life and purpose, our existence was tied to its will, until the Will of this world arrived and separated us from it."

"The influence of the artifact still remained, however, and we were unable to get rid of it, but after many years, the influence did diminish a bit, but so did the power of this world."

"Sooner or later, we would have once again been fully controlled by the artifact, and none of us wished for that as after many years, the three of us managed to change, to get our own consciousness and think for ourselves."

"We all sensed that you were connected to the artifact and decided that if you were to come to us, we would act like the other monsters who were still under its influence and allow you to pass in hopes of you defeating the spirit and taking control of the artifact, and you managed to do just that."

"With the spirit that had created us gone, we are no longer completely bound by the artifact, of course, a connection is still present." Elyndor glanced at Liara who felt her heart stop for a moment.

"I apologize for not arriving sooner, your friend wouldn't have died had the three of us gotten out immediately, but the dungeon collapsed, and we had to use our power and dig our way through, thankfully, we were able to save the rest of you from those demons."

"So that's how it was." Reign said before he sighed. He had gotten quite used to Alistair and considered him to be a friend at this point, and in the end, both he and Siggurd died without being able to do a single thing against the enemy.

The horse suddenly came in front of Reign and licked him again, causing him to smile a bit and try to get him away.

"Elandir has taken a liking to you it seems," Elyndor said as Reign glanced at him before looking at the horse.

"Elandir, so that's his name."

Suddenly, before any of them were able to notice it, the giant Tier VIII monster had arrived in front of them with a powerful jump. His landing shook the ground and caused some of them to fall down as it stared at them.

Suddenly, the monster growled in an attempt to talk to them, only for Elyndor to sigh before looking at him.

"Morgol, I told you multiple times that you need to practice in order to talk normally, none of them understand you."

The giant monster, Morgol, glanced at Elyndor and growled some more while waving his hands, causing Elyndor to sigh again.

"No Morgol, they can't understand your growls, not to mention that you were too hasty jumping here, look, you made some of them fall, if you continue acting this way, they're going to be afraid of you, you know?" 

Reign and the others stared in shock as Elyndor was acting like a big brother, scolding his younger brother for doing something. Morgol, the powerful Tier VIII being that had killed almost half of the demons by himself, including the Tier VIIs who had killed Alistair and Siggurd together with the rest of the group, looked down with a sad expression.

He growled again, but this time with slight sadness present in his voice. He seemed to be sad that he couldn't talk to Reign and the others, while also being slightly ashamed that he made them fall and get slightly afraid of him.

"It's alright, now we are out, you'll be able to learn quickly, I'm certain you'll be able to learn how to talk soon."

"Yeah, don't worry about it that much big guy, you'll get there soon."

Reign glanced at Elandir who suddenly spoke as well with a young and cheerful voice.

"You guys, why does this make me feel like you've known each other for a long time, weren't you guys separated by the layers?"

"Yes, but since the Will separated the artifact from the dungeon, we had a lot more freedom, and with our senses, we were able to sense one another and talk, most of our time in the dungeon was spent sleeping, talking to each other, and practicing our skills," Elyndor said before he sighed.

"I am the firstborn of the artifact, Morgol was created right after me, and Elandir after him, the rest of the monsters, including those guardians, came later." 

It was only now that Reign remembered that the guardians were still with them. Glancing back, he could see how scared each one of them was when they were in the presence of the three powerful monsters.

"I was created first to act as the main tactician of the artifact, Morgol was created to be the most powerful weapon and shield of the artifact, and Elandir was created to be the fastest one, the scout that could notice things from afar and make sure nothing would ever happen without the artifact knowing about it."

"We were created for the sole purpose of serving the artifact, but after being separated by the Will, we gained our own thoughts and were no longer bound to it, and thanks to you, we are only connected to it, the artifact can no longer influence us in any way possible."

"You have our thanks for that, we can finally leave this place, we can go forth and explore the universe, no longer bound to the confines of the dungeon as we have been for many years."

"The Will cannot support Morgol's existence on the planet, simply by being present, he will make it possible for more powerful demons to arrive, which will make things more difficult for you, I do not know if more Tier VII demons will arrive later on the planet, but for now, with the guardians on your side, and the artifact with her, the humans on this planet have a fighting chance, you have the opportunity to fight back against the demons."

"We are leaving now, but I have a feeling that our paths will intersect again in the future," Elyndor said as he spread his wings before a magic circle suddenly appeared around him and the other two monsters.

"I have some kind of connection with you as well, I do not know why or how, but I don't doubt that in the future, we will be able to find each other again," Elyndor told Reign before the magic circle flashed, and all three of them disappeared.

"They went to a different layer," Aethion said from within Reign, causing him to nod his head before looking back.

Many of his teammates were on their knees, weeping for the fallen, especially those that had arrived with Siggurd. They were kneeling around his body with tearful expressions.

They had won this battle, they managed to take the artifact and now the world possessed a fighting chance, but they had paid a heavy price for it.

Losing one Tier V combatant and slightly over 20 Tier IVs was a big blow, and even though it could be considered a worthy exchange for claiming the lives of 40 demons, two of which were Tier VII, it was a price that none of them thought they would need to pay today.

"To think you would leave us just as things were about to change," Basred said as he kneeled in front of Siggurd.

"You have deserved to rest old friend, we shall take care of what will happen next, humanity shall win, I am just sorry you died while thinking the opposite," Basred said in a calm voice as his lips twitched a bit.

Everybody present had fought against demons plenty of times in the past. The number of friends and comrades they had lost couldn't even be counted anymore, so they were all able to calm themselves down quickly and start preparing for the trip back. The bodies were all placed on a large stretcher that was being carried by multiple people as they all walked back to the Lumon region.