The Genesis Game

A bit of snow dropped on the tip of his wings, his breath showing from the cold as Seraph walked out among the tombstones,  One grave and then the next, stopping out in front of each in solemn remembrance. These had been his friends, these had been his allies, these had been his guild mates. 

In every direction the graves continued, the thousands of people whom had entrusted him with their lives lay beneath the hallowed soil.   Some more recent than others, some decades old, and Seraph knew the name on every grave. No unknown soldier was buried in this graveyard, it was his memorial to them, and he would carry their memory with him to the grave. He owed them that much. 

"Seraph, you always look so grim." A memory of Elle's voice, he turned around hoping to see her. But like the wind through his hair, she was gone. 

"Think about what your missing brother." Was something John would say as he pushed Seraph to do better, one of the few who had the courage and dared to approach Seraph and let him know when he was wrong, or if something was off. 

"Honest work to be done." Ken would laugh as he fought alongside him, like Seraph he had heavily enjoyed the fighting, and the killing had never bothered him.  

"I miss you all. I don't know how to keep you all alive." Seraph told the wind, but if the wind heard, nobody answered.

A bony hand grabbed at Seraph's ankle, a vice like grip digging into his skin.  Pulling away. Seraph managed to break the bone with the force of his movement, the gripping hand remained, the bony fingers beginning to draw blood as Seraph reached down and tore it off with his hand, tossing it away.

From all around him, the gravestones began to move and rattle.  The ground gave way as rotting bodies pushed to the surface, eyes dark with hate and animated with green eldritch energy. 

More hands clutched at his ankles, then his legs.  Despite his vast strength he couldn't shake himself loose.  Fear crawled up his spine as he spread his wings to fly away to safety aa the undead converged on him, but no matter how much he struggled, he could not shake free, and watched in horror as the hungry dead descended on him.

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The sheets were drenched with sweet, as Seraph woke up and knew he had been dreaming, though it was more than a dream he was positive. Whether his ghosts were stirring, or his memories trying to tell him something, Seraph wasn't sure. 

His thoughts turned to the past, him, Elle, Ken, John, Zoldos, Reverend and all the others that had helped him to set up the guild, back when humanity was still young and struggling in the dungeon. Friends that he had not seen since that fateful day when he had sent them to their deaths to explore and try and map out the deepest floor of the dungeon, the Loc.u.m Malificar. Of the few regrets Seraph had, sending his true friends to their deaths was one of them.

The guild had turned to player killing with him after the elves had refused to give them access to the high end items they needed to survive and advance in the dungeon.  To fall behind meant death, to be weaker then another guild would have meant all of their deaths. Some of the other guilds had allied directly with the elves, further restricted trade and further widening the gap.

 In the absence of options, they took the one that had remained.  But their goal had never been to become killers, they had always wanted to survive, and survival can force a man to do many hard things.To do less is suicide.

Staring up at the ceiling, he thought about his dream and what it could mean. Seraph knew he needed to figure it out, something rolled at the edge of his mind, a secret to be uncovered, but it never quite revealed itself.

Over on the couch, Sadie began to stir, her racial change complete.  Even now Seraph could see that her skin had lightened and pale, almost white, and like he, she now sported short horns on her forehead and her hair had turned to grey.  

"I'm starting to stall." Seraph admitted to himself out loud. "I've been running headfirst without a real plan for awhile now, and though I'm stronger, I don't think I've come any closer to saving humanity. War is coming to the dungeon, and I don't know how to prevent it."

A boot hurled through the air, striking him in the face. 

A blade reached out for his neck as Sadie moved from the couch to where he was sitting up on the body in an instant. "Now, if you ever try something like that again, I'll kill you myself."

Retracting the blade, she spoke to him."A week. You've been at this a week and already your ego is making it out like you're some sort of god.  Did you think this would be easy? It isn't, it's not supposed to be. You haven't done the work yet. You say you want to save humanity? You want to prevent that?  Be a peacekeeper, be a peacemaker, that's all you can do. Stop trying to figure out who you can kill, and try figuring out who you need to save."

Putting his hands on his knees, Seraph looked at her. "Your right, Sadie will you help me save our people?"

She glared and snorted. "Now you wanna be polite and ask. I'll help, but on one condition, you keep the elves alive too, not just the humans and whatever monster you want to make of us."

"Deal." Seraph said, holding out his hand.

Sadie just looked down at it. "Not falling for that again."

"Fine." Sighed Seraph as he moved to put all of his gear on.  "We need to get rolling anyways before all the new people show up in a few hours."