The Demon King ripped the players' souls from Earth upon the moments of their deaths by hijacking a Hero Summoning ritual performed by the Heilicht Empire--a thriving, successful, but highly humanity-centric nation in the world's setting somewhat opposed to the Kingdom of Viskard where you all started out. The Empire had figured out a way to reduce the stringent requirements of the ritual, which is normally a last resort for any nation in the world because of the immense magic power and approval of the Spirits it needs in order to work. This reduction also affected the outcome of the ritual, however, meaning that humans could basically be chosen at random rather than because of any heroic qualities, childlike belief in magic, or whatever other cliche "chosen one status" a usual Summoned Hero would have. These Heroes would also not have the protection of any Divine Spirits like a Reincarnated Hero would be granted when such a Divine Spirit summons them for their own purposes. Nonetheless, these "lesser" summoned heroes from our world would still have things like modern education, more varied imaginations, and other such things that would give them a big head start compared to the humble farm boys of this world trying to become knights. The Heilicht Empire's plan was to create a Heroic Army, in order to not only render Demons and other Feral Races extinct but to eventually expand their empire over the entire continent. They didn't care that they were essentially kidnapping people from Earth. These goals, however, would merely be background material that players could interact with or ignore.

The Demon King told the players at the beginning of the game to "find my palace." The Demon King's castle was located on a lonely island to the north, full of dead trees and covered by black clouds lit by crimson lightning. It was the island that appeared in players' visions, the black mountain that "held them in sway" whenever their souls separated from their bodies. They were free to get to this location however they wished, but going straight there by ocean would have been very, very difficult due to enormous sea monsters, dangerous demonic coral reefs, and malignant, willful storms swirling in the skies all around the island. The easier way, as hinted by the Demon King, would be to find the Greater Dungeons scattered around the lands. Featured in wars of ancient past or ruled by high ranking demons subordinate to the king, these dungeons would be found in various places and feature all kinds of challenges. At their innermost chambers, a teleportation array could be found along with lots of other things--treasures, weapons, and so on, with the journey also teaching the players about Dungeon Cores and the nature of Demons and Monsters and all that jazz.

These arrays wouldn't take them straight to the Palace, however, they'd have to survive the Island as well. But once they made it to the Demon King, once they confronted the being that brought them to this world face to face, he would sit upon his throne and look down at them over the rim of a glass of wine. And he would ask them one question:

"Having seen so much of it, do you think this world is worth saving?"

The Demon King wouldn't want to reveal too much about himself or the world, at least so long as he didn't see it as pertinent for his plans. And the players would already know by this point his stance on giving out "help" or "cheats." But, he did have a goal and he did need the players to be strong enough to accomplish it. If they didn't want to, he would not force them, and would instead give them some fitting reward and let them do as they pleased within the world. He would even offer hints, if they wanted to try and find a way back to Earth. But otherwise he would begin to explain himself at least a little bit. Essentially, Demon Kings and Heroes both exist because of the nature of magic. In this fantasy world, there was no Afterlife. Worshipping Divine Spirits or the Maker doesn't guarantee one some kind of heavenly reward, it simply influences the strength of various forces within the world, how much they can interfere, and so on. Souls are recycled after death and reincarnated, but the Memories, Will, and Emotions that are scrubbed off of those souls to prepare them for rebirth enter the world as a form of energy, which is Mana. Mana responds to the Will of a magic user to impose that will onto the World. The closer one's will aligns to the World, the easier the magic is to perform--sheer reality warping is possible to some degree, but it takes an enormous amount of energy and has significant side effects. There's more detail to this, but there are two big takes: 1, Summoned Heroes have more knowledge of how something like "fire" or "lightning" works, so their imagination of a "fireball" or "thunderbolt" aligns more closely to non-zero percent possibilities that the World can allow more easily, hence why they tend to become more powerful with magic even if they don't have Cheats. And 2, the collective "wills" of people (such as worshippers of the Divine Spirits) and the "acceptance" of those wills by the World, can cause independent magical effects.

Because people believe in Good and Evil, and because it's easier to look for others to save them and others to blame rather than taking any responsibility for themselves, Mana collects around powerful Souls and transforms them to some degree by the Will of the World. These are the native born Heroes, those who are called to Save, and the native born Demon Kings, those who are called to create Bad Ends. Non-native Heroes, those who are Summoned, are imbued with power and will by their summoners in addition to other advantages they have, and these can become the source of "Cheats," or as the inhabitants call them, "Codes." They have some aspect of the Maker's Design "encoded" into their being, allowing them to bend the Maker's Rules or else otherwise exploit them in some way.

Our story's Demon King, however, is a unique case. After becoming aware of the cyclical nature of Heroes and Demon Kings, he also recognized that there could be no peace between them. Demons aren't just "misunderstood," they are destructive and bear fundamental natures opposed to humanity. Humans aren't "the real monsters," they are driven by survival and there will never be enough resources for them to share endlessly. There was never any way, whether among each individual race or across the world's cultures, for there to be any kind of permanent, lasting peace. So a Hero who was supposed to destroy Demons decided instead to Rule them. A savior became a symbol of Evil and Treachery to his people, and a symbol of Salvation and Order to his enemies. By seizing power over Demons, by engineering an arms race, by holding territory, and by planning both war and peace, he turned the entire world into his "game." One sword kept another in the sheath, and rather than pursue the Hope of Progress he carved the world's Stagnation into Stone. Because, at some point, something would have to force a change in the very nature of the world in order to get it back on track. Someone outside the game would have to flip the board to end the stalemate. And so, hated by those he saved and a hero to those he killed, he became the first "Damned Hero" and called himself a Demon King.

However, the Demon King's research into how to make this happen would uncover something worse than what he originally intended. And this is why he began researching the process of Summoned Heroes, and tried to push the world into using the ritual in order to set his plan into motion.

He would give the players more limited information, not just because he believes in struggling to be strong, but because giving them too much would put his plans at risk--their opponents may be capable of taking said information from them by force, according to him. He would task the players with finding, and specifically capturing, three people.

Nikolas Lanzeknecht, the King of Swords. A young man who was one of the few natives of the world born with a Code of his own, though some might say it was more like his nature as a human had been distorted. Unlike Monsters, which have all the same qualities of being from the moment they are born and normally only change due to external factors (the Players' various Transformations are of course, an exception) or Demons, who Inherit power from their ancestors, or the similar True Dragons who share Memories through their genetic line rather than engraving it upon their souls, Humans' abilities are like the throw of the dice at birth. A Goblin will always be "about as strong as a human child; about as cunning as a wolf; and having enough magical energy for a mere handful of spells." A Goblin in a magically rich area might change into a Bluecap, or a Goblin that has plenty of natural food in its territory might grow large enough to be a Bugbear. Humans, however, will always be human...yet one human might be Stronger, another might be Faster, and a third might be more talented with Magic. When the Dice were thrown for Nikolas, they determined that his perspective of the world would rest upon the edge of a sword.

Yes, he's based on Shirou Emiya and a specific fanfiction, shut up. Essentially, his Code made the nature of his magic and abilities geared towards only one thing. If he were to cast the Wall spell, his Wall would not manifest as barrier in front of him, but as a barrier placed perpendicular to him--so that its edge, not its flat, faced his enemies. If he cast an ice or earth element spell, the structure would always take a bladed form. Spells like Mana Slice were almost instinctive for him, while something as simple as Mana Orb took an incredible amount of concentration and used more Mana than usual. With the Templar Knight Zieglar, who was then just a Squire, and the retired Adventurer-turned Farmer Lear who he once called the Stone General of Viskard, and other members of a previous generation's Hero party, Nikolas earned his title in the last war against the Demons that drove them almost completely out of Viskard save for the area immediately around the western mountains and northern forest. His ultimate trump card, the true manifestation of his Code to impose his Will upon the World, was the Endless Edge Horizon--a world in which everything he sees is a sword.

It was originally intended that the players would encounter him first during a shortlived war against Orcs, then again at various points, culminating in a battle between him and his nemesis Zawisza, the Black Knight Lord of the Demon King. With the player's help to buy time, he would activate the Endless Edge Horizon and face Zawisza upon a grassy, open field under a starry sky. When Zawisza took a step, however, he would hear not the soft rustle of plantlife under foot, but the clink of steel. Literally everything in this world would be a sword to Nikolas, whether it be blades of grass, a layer of stone that rises from the ground like a great shark's fin, or the very wind itself. Zawisza would still, of course, be a powerful opponent, and force the King of Swords to call down the stars themselves as celestial, raining swords--a spell called "Last Stardust," of course. Followed by condensing the very light of this Endless Horizon into a blade, the "Brave Shine," which with a single swing would bisect Zawisza while utterly exhausting the hero. Allowing the Players, at that point, to capture him.

Their second target would be the Sword Saint of Yamajima, Miyamasa Mushimura. Yes, that's a mashup of Masamune, Muramasa, and Miyamoto Mushashi, again shut up. If Nikolas is "one who has been granted authority over all swords," then Miyamasa is "one who has purely pursued the path of the sword as a worshipper on pilgrimage." Asking either one of them who would win in a fight is met with a scoff by both parties. Miyamasa is a native Hero in his own right, but does not possess a Code, or any blessing from a Divine Spirit, or even any special enchanted weaponry unique to him. Rather, he has perfected an absolute technique of the blade arts, first from his homeland and secondly from across the nations. In his hands, even hair or cloth can tear flesh and split bone, and a tree branch can defeat a dozen blademasters. The pinnacle of his studies is the "Zansabetsu Ken," or the Sword of Discrimination. While many forms of martial arts and swordsmanship seek "nothingness," to ascend from the mortal plane, to leave behind materialism and selfishness, Miyamasa's ultimate breakthrough came from the realization that his opponents could never do such a thing--for if they could become one with the universe, they would not seek to fight him. So instead he sought to understand their materialism in its entirety, and by applying this to his art he became capable of "discriminating the cut." If he deems that the heart is to be the target of his attack, his thrust will not pierce skin, muscle, nor bone otherwise. If his slash is to cripple the wrist of his opponent, their sleeve remains intact. Such a technique allows him to take away whatever worldly fetters hold his opponents back, though sometimes that may mean their lives.

I hadn't gotten around to thinking about how the Players would capture him yet, but he was a very Kenshin Himura-esque personality. They would at least have to travel across the ocean to the other continents and the nation of Yamajima to find him. He would be able to explain to Players some of the concepts surrounding Souls in this world, and the strange nature of their connection to their new bodies. One of the advantages of a Reincarnated Hero is that, because their Soul is from outside the World, its memories, will, and emotions are not stripped from it the way others are during the reincarnation cycle. However, the Demon King's alteration of the Summoning Ritual placed their souls in Monster bodies, which undergo frequent change. During these changes, their Souls temporarily disconnect because the new Monster body isn't meant to hold a Human soul, and while the Demon King's modifications will keep them anchored in most circumstances, the World's "filter" still recognizes them as a foreign entity--essentially, they are setting off the game's anti-virus/cheat detection programs and they have not been whitelisted as an exception. Yet this also poses a danger to them, because while they are certainly exceptions, they are not the only exceptions of this kind. Sometimes, a Memory, Will, or Emotion is too strong to be dispersed through the Mana after it is separated from a Soul. Because they hold on to some semblance, they have a "clinging" nature, and collect other memories to themselves. When enough of the same memories (such as negative feelings, or matching ideals even from different persons) coalesce, they cause Mana to resonate to a Will that has no Soul, and an "Intelligence without Essence" is formed. It cannot exist in the physical world, because it has no Soul to tie to a body. It continues to grow in the astral plane outside the world, until it perhaps has the opportunity to latch onto a drifting Soul, or until a Divine Spirit or some other means disperses it properly. Such an existence is miserable indeed, and given the usual nature of their form, these "Things" exist in an incomprehensible state that can only do two things--observe the world as they grow, and wish for the destruction of that which they cannot have. Thus are formed the Mazoku, the "Divine Demons," and their Greaters, the Eldritch Powers.

The third person the Players would be sent to retrieve is the foremost Archsage of the world, the living library of all magic, Zebulona Acacia Artz. And here, if the players had not met other NPCs involved in Heilicht's Summoning Ritual or a few other planned characters already, they would finally meet someone else who had been called from Earth. Zebulona, once known by another name, died a truly wretched death in our world and was given a chance to reincarnate, if she would serve the will of a particular Divine Spirit. Upon accomplishing her task, she chose to remain in this world and continue trying to understand it--perhaps with the hope that she could not only return to Earth on her own terms one day, but bring the magic back with her as well to fix the problems she saw in "the real world." She would be found living in an isolated tower deep within the Demon Wastes north of the Heilicht Empire. To reach it, the Players would have to traverse the Labyrinth Seal, an enormous tower with an exponentially greater maze beneath it, connected to a myriad of natural tunnels running beneath a mountain range. The tower was built as a method of funnelling all the Demons in the dark underworld of the peaks into one location. If they tried to physically cross the mountains, the armies of mankind could meet them in the field. If they tried to sail around the coasts, the icy storms of the north and the navies of humanity could head them off. And if they tried to burrow beneath, they would find themselves trapped within the tower. Even if they could escape, it would buy time for the Empire to amass their troops and predict the point of emergence from the tunnels.

Zebulona would be able to explain many aspects of Magic, Skills, and the history of the world and its Heroes both native and summoned. From her, players could learn several interesting tidbits about the Maker and Divine Spirits as well--including events like "Days of the Dark Sun," when the very "rules" of the world seem to change for some reason...usually after someone discovers great and powerful magic, or a Hero performs some deed that literally shakes the world to its foundations. For example, the great Hero Adelwulf, who was also summoned from our earth, was responsible for a Dark Sun that turned the Pyromancy magic into a Lost Art, making it impossible to freely manipulate the Fire element to that same degree ever again. Zebulona would speculate that the Maker decided to break up the spell formations for that power because Adelwulf, using his knowledge from our world--"the desire for a weapon he came so close to possessing"--not only used it to control fire, but was able to impose a Will upon the World that aligned with the natural order in such a way that something like the core of a sun itself was unleashed upon Demonkind during that war. If such a thing had become common knowledge, the Heilicht Empire Adelwulf helped expand would probably have accomplished his dream goal of "the annihilation of the Demonic races on Aedven." For Humans this wouldn't be such a bad thing, but the Maker seems to want the demons to exist for some reason and thus they continue.

If the Players could actually reach her, given the hordes of monsters and the tower full of traps and the chaotic mazes they would have to get through--they could possibly go over or around the mountains I guess, but there were a lot of issues either way because that area was like "end game" levels of random encounters--then Zebulona would come willingly, as not only is she intrigued by everything that's going on, but she would have had some inkling of what the Demon King was planning.

While I've listed them in order, the Three VIPs wouldn't actually have to be "captured" in that manner. In any case, if the Players ever succeeded in getting them all back to the Demon King's Palace, the next bit of the story would unfold as such:

The Demon King takes his three "prisoners" aside and explains something to them that the Players are not made privy to just yet. Against all odds, the Heroes agree to help the Demon King, and he gives the Players another task--to find a specific "newborn" Hero. Not a literal baby, but someone who is destined to become a Hero, someone whose power has been growing. And someone whose path they have already crossed.

At this point, depending on who the Players had interacted with and who I felt would elicit the greatest response, I would reveal the "new Hero's" identity as one of several possible NPCs. The young Squire of Sir Zieglar, Trent, could be the one. The angry, troubled Geir could be as well. As could the amiable, yet strangely cold-blooded young swordsman, Wulf. And a multitude of others, out of many groups of characters the Players would inevitably meet in their travels.

But the Demon King would have something else to say: This Hero does not know he is a Hero yet...nor does he know that he has been a Hero many times before. And the Demon King would ask the players to imagine something for him.

Imagine your typical otaku NEET who gets summoned into these Isekai stories. Imagine that this absolute loser, this big nerd, this dumbass who wanted to be special so bad but never made an attempt to connect with other people or better himself or do anything that would have made his life happier, finally got to come to a world that catered to his every whim. He got a harem for no real reason, because he's clearly not a ladies' man or a real eyecatcher, but somehow they just fall in his lap. He got an overpowered cheat code because why the hell not. So on and so forth. Now, if you were that guy, when the end of the adventure came around...would you give any of that up? Imagine that you choose to stay, to live out the rest of your days in a fantasy. There's nothing really wrong with that, in the grand scheme of things. And imagine if you were to Reincarnate a second time--oh boy, a brand new adventure, all over again, right? You mastered the sword the first time, so what about focusing on magic this time around?

And in the process of learning magic, you learned even more. Enough to understand the kind of game you were really playing. And it's a fun game. A game you never want to end. But even the best open world, free choice, radiant quest RPGs can get boring at some point. You played every class. You even did a couple of Evil playthroughs. You've used every customization option for your character, swapping back and forth between gender and race and whatever else.

But you still don't want to stop playing. Is it possible to add some mods? How can you make the story fresh, when you've seen it all before? If only you could erase your own memories, so that you could really experience it all over again...

A humble farm boy becomes a knight and saves a princess. He lives and dies happily, and you wake up from his dream. A plain peasant girl who's clumsy somehow is also beautiful and has a special power, and two hot boys want her! How will she ever save the world? When she fails, you wake up and wonder what you could have done better. Next time, a young monk finds out he has a great destiny but he doesn't feel ready. He tries to run away, and ends up dragging new friends into a war he was supposed to stop. In moments of desperation, he loses himself to a power...a power that you gave him, and you step in to give him a little help before you sit back and keep watching the newest episode. And when it ends, you decide to watch something different--maybe something about a vicious child-king, who beheads a northern lord too honorable for their own good and plunges the kingdom into war...

Again, and again, and again. How many lives have you lived? How many times have you splintered your personality? What happened to all those memories? Does it really matter, as long as you have your fun? Are you good, or are you evil? Who cares! You're the one who decides how to play the game!

This is the being that the Demon King won't name, the being he fears will tear your minds apart if he knows that you know his secret. This is what he needs to save the world from, if he wants the "games" being played with this world to end. This is the "Chosen One."

The players would have to discover the Chosen One's whereabouts, and try to figure out how far along "he" is with his newest playthrough. How can they trigger him? Are his various "characters" real people? Are they split personalities? Is he always aware of what's happening to them, or does he only see it in retrospect? Upon finding a few McGuffins in other dungeons, and defeating a few other big name creatures in the world--essentially depriving the Chosen One of what he needs for his perfect story to play out--they would eventually come to the time of the final battle.

The Demon King, with the help of the King of Swords, the Sword Saint, and the Archsage, has crafted a weapon. It is a cursed, distorted blade. However, upon summoning an incredibly weak monster, the Demon King strikes it for a total of one point of HP Damage. But, there is a point behind this. This is a sword of sealing, not necessarily a sword of killing. All the same, he will need time to use it. You must buy him that time.

The fight with the Chosen One would require the players to use every power, every skill, every racial monster ability they have accumulated up to this point. Legends, heroes, maybe even lesser demon kings in their own right, this motley crew of reincarnated beasts would throw everything they had at this "Hero." Upon forcing him into a corner--maybe feeling betrayed by his friends, even--the NPC would pull a Naruto, an Ichigo, a "Super Powered Evil Side." The fight keeps going--and again, if they've played their cards right, the Damned Heroes are winning! And then the Chosen One's true personality emerges. He might try to change the battlefield, or plunge them into a dungeon, or give them some other obstacle besides a direct fight. They keep going. Then, after exhausting so many different Skills, the Chosen One speaks yet another chant...

"Open Console. Difficulty Down: Hardcore Extreme to Hardcore."

With this, a whole new level of power unlocks for the Chosen One. He would most likely be able to defeat the players (or at least that's what I planned) at this point. However, before he can strike a killing blow, the "NPC" speaks up. Whether the Players were their friends at some point or not, this "partitioned personality" is not dealing with the exposure of their fake existence very well. To deal with this mental distress, the Chosen One does a sloppy job of trying to "finish off" the Players, and uses one of his near-infinite repretoire of powers to warp away.

Some kind of Training Arc, or another Dungeon Run, or something would occurr here. Maybe at this point players are questioning their motivations, or they're affected by the loss of the NPC friend or some other disaster that has happened over the course of this monumental battle. Eventually, they get geared back up to engage the Chosen One again, and this time the Demon King's Generals (most of whom they would probably have met by this point) will come to back them up.

Twice more they manage to wear down the Chosen One. From Hardcore to Very Hard, to Hard mode. He uses some kind of skill to separate the group, so that he can kill the Generals without the Players interfering. He has figured out that they are somewhat like him. During the time that the Players are separated from allies and each other, the Chosen One will appear to each of them to try and tempt them, while also trying to tease out their stories. He is able to discern the plans of the Demon King...but somehow, that strange enchanted sword doesn't make sense to him, even with all the Analysis skills in the world.

As the Players make their way back to rejoin each other, the Chosen One has rallied up the various kingdoms to start a war against the Demon King. The Three VIPs MIGHT be able to talk some of this down, depending on what actions the Players also took within the kingdoms--did they befriend the prince, or did they terrify the village, and so on. During this war, things just keep going downhill for the Chosen One, and it seems like he's starting to lose his grip. The game isn't fun anymore. From Hard mode to Intermediate. From Intermediate to Normal.

The Players have gained enough power at this point, and have enough allies, that the Chosen One is starting to wonder if they're really able to kill him. After so many loops, so many acquired Skills, so many Cheats, so many weapons...how can nothing he has really be enough? While the war continues to rage, he warps away and the Players have to chase him down. I figure they're like, dragons or teleporting sorcerors or super speedy naruto-runners at this point, so it's not another extended mini-arc like before.

On a field far from their allies, they continue the battle. From Normal, to Easy. And then the Three VIPs join the fight! The Endless Edge Horizon, the Sword of Discrimination...and the Lost Art of Pyromancy, are all brought to bear! From Easy, to Very Easy, but the battle is coming close!

The Chosen One has his "villainous breakdown." How dare they!? This is his world! His game! He makes these characters, why shouldn't he do what he pleases with them!? He doesn't deserve this! This world is supposed to be payback for his shitty life in the real world! The life that he never wanted, all the bad things that were never his fault!

The Players, who have worked and grown for everything they have, with no cheats and very little help, can tell him to go shove it.

"OPEN CONSOLE! ENABLE: GOD MODE!"

Your MP is set to Infinite.
Your HP is set to Infinite.
Your SP is set to Infinite.
HP Regeneration set to Instant.
MP Regeneration set to Instant.
SP Regeneration set to Instant.
Skill Cooldown set to Instant.

In a blink he overpowers the King of Swords, the Sword Saint, the Archsage, and all the players. He doesn't even have to try anymore, and of course he feels like teabagging, like taunting.

Then the Demon King goes for the Sneak attack. Before that cursed blade can touch his skin, the Chosen One dodges--even while wondering why he should even bother to do that. In an instant he raises a hand to smite the Demon King. But the Players, whom I assume would of course interfere, manage to knock him off course even if they can't wound him. The Demon King attacks again, but a barrier is raised. It will never run out, because the MP is infinite. But with the player's combined strengths, they can shatter it--and the strange sword plunges into the Chosen One's chest.

"Normally a 'cursed sword' does something like, increase damage when the user's HP is low." The Demon King would smile maniacally as the Chosen One screamed, a thousand shadows of a thousand Heroes echoing behind his eyes. "This one does more damage the higher the target's HP is, and right now? Yours is a sideways 8."

The Chosen One's form warps and distorts. The "characters" he cultivated over so many years turn on him, and despite fighting agonizing pain he manages to destroy those personalities one by one. The pain is so intense it damages his very Soul, and he continues to suffer as his Skills are broken down like layers of peeling paint. Soon he cannot even remember his past reincarnations, as this personalized Hell consumes his entire being. The Demon King turns to his Damned Heroes.

"This is it. No more final forms. Just one more cutscene to watch. And a choice to make." He points at their foe.

"After everything you've seen, everything you've lost and gained. Is he worth saving?"

If they choose to let him live, the Demon King is able to disable the God Mode with, of all things, a prayer to the Maker. With a single HP point, and barely a single memory left in his head, the Chosen One is now just like any other human--or at least, your normal amnesiac Hero, and not some kind of abomination masquerading as one. If they choose to kill him, the Demon King again disables the Cheat, and as a boy with no idea what is happening to him or why pleads for his life, he rips out the Chosen One's heart with a solemn look in his eyes. "This is what it means, I guess, to be a Demon King. Killing Heroes."

At this moment, the cursed sword--sticking up in the ground, point first--releases a pillar of light that engulfs them all.

A black void, yet three walls are filled with screens of light. A man in all white--his suit, his gloves, his hair--sits on nothing with his hands folded. He watches the group through spectacles that reflect the blinding light. The Demon King is just as flabbergasted as the Players.

"Oh, NOW you show up!?"

At this point, the Maker would ask questions of the players, and answer their own. He would explain that neither he, nor any of the Divine Spirits, are true "gods" in any sense that the Players would think of the term. He is merely a being, of a higher realm than humanity, engaging in the act of "sub-creation." Souls are not truly his domain, so he cannot guide them to a heaven or damn them to a hell--thus the endless cycle. But to retain everything from their previous lives, would turn them into the same twisted creature as the Chosen One, thus their memories, wills, and emotions are purified. Yet he cannot destroy these things any more than he can destroy matter or energy, and thus they are simply converted to the new form, Mana. The changes Mana has wrought on natural development requires that a System be put into place to control it. When Humans became aware enough to use the System for their own benefit, some also chose to defy it, and the Ancients split into "Demons" and "Humans" which further subdivided. The Maker has been tweaking his System ever since--it needs to be perfect, it needs to make sense, it needs this and that and the other. Yet no matter what he does, it is never enough. He cannot create a perfect world.

The Demon King would argue in a heated debate. The System tries to define and measure everything, and in doing so only discovers its own limitations. The changes to the System ripple out to everything that relies on it, from monsters to men, and they're stuck repeating scripts and exhausting every option tree in a pointless cycle for eternity. The Demon King argues that, by comparison, the Earth--with all its flaws, with all its stupid people, with all its culture clashes over this that and the other--is a far better world, because it is a truly Free world where Will doesn't have to have magic in order to come to fruition.

Thus the Maker would turn to the Players.

"Then, I ask of you. Of the two worlds, which do you prefer?"

Depending on your answers, a lot of different things COULD have happened. Personally, I would hope you'd probably all have seen enough hell in fantasy land that you'd actually choose Earth. I also debated throwing some Christian religious references in there (the Maker being something like an angel who isn't fallen, but who wanted to share the experience of the Creator and realized in the process some facets of the Creator's being that nothing else can emulate), but I know that wouldn't be cool with everyone and at the end of the day it's an RP, not a sermon. But, overall, I wanted to emphasize some of these concepts--the inability of imperfect, falliable beings to create a perfect world, the importance of making efforts to change what's around us instead of expecting or hoping for it to fall into our laps, our own inability to fix every problem in life even if we work hard for it yet still managing to move on. Things like that.

If players chose the Earth, and wanted to return, they would be returned to the moment before their death. And, in a flash of insight, they are able to do something they couldn't do before that changes the outcome of events. Whatever happens would be influenced by their skills and experiences in the other world, and those things that they couldn't take back with them were "converted into magic" that allowed a single change to the chain of causality.

If players came to some conclusion that the fantasy world couldn't continue as it was, then something else would happen to change their fates as well. A really touching scene I had imagined a few times was that of poor little Miiba, an eight year old girl kidnapped off the streets. As she re-awakens from what seems like a day dream, the difference here is that she thinks to yell out for help when the car pulls up alongside her. She starts to run from the hand that reaches for her, but it still snags her backpack. With some goblin-like ferocity she tears free, but another person in the car has run around the side to grab her as the trunk pops open...Then he gets KNOCKED THE FUCK OUT by a tall, broad shouldered teenager with a couple of piercings, fiery red hair, and a mean scowl. The car takes off, and the boy crouches down to look Miiba in the eyes. Then he smiles, pats her on the head, and asks if she's okay. While they wait for her parents to come pick her up, he takes her to the bakery he works at, where his bosses--a huge burly guy and his lovely wife--offer her a cupcake with a little Goblin Hero face on it.

Another example--a big burly dude, walking out of a boxing gym and thinking that he's overworked himself, his knees hurt, and he's getting too old for this shit, suddenly has an epiphany that if he doesn't take care of himself his heart is probably going to give out. He needs to find something to do that would relax him, give him some kind of calmness in his life, and on a whim decides to go to the park. As he's sitting on a bench, just people watching, a young lady comes by and pins a flyer on the park's bulletin board. It's a flyer for a local fundraiser, something to help a local children's home. And, bouncing happily after the woman, is a little girl with chubby cheeks and a big hat shaped like a blue, wobbly lump of jello. Her dress, with big frilly skirts, matches the color. As the big man watches, unable to help smiling a little bit at the child's antics, she notices him and comes running right up. She doesn't seem to speak too clearly...but somehow, the man feels like he understands her. The young lady comes to retrieve the girl, apologizing, but the big man waves it aside and asks if she works for the children's home. After a bit of small talk, the lady mentions that they could use some strong hands to help around the place, someone good with fixing things, landscaping, a few things like that. As he stands with popping knees, the man offers to come take a look, and they head off--the blurbling girl in blue clinging to his leg the whole way.

If the players chose to leave the fantasy world as it was, and to stay in it, then their epilogue would be one of many more adventures to come--perhaps they would even found their own kingdoms, ascend as Divine Spirits, or other such things. If they chose to change the fantasy world, but to still remain in it, the ending might have a bittersweet flavor--they might change or remove the system, which would alter the course of magic and vastly affect the existence of the Divine Spirits that show favors, and though it might be more free, the world would never be the same.

No matter what happened, the Demon King and the Maker would be left behind in the black void room. They would have a conversation, which like everything else would depend on the Players' actions. Since I like to think most players would choose to return to Earth, I had always imagined that the final scene would be a panning shot over several Players' new/resumed lives...and ending with an interview on a big TV screen somewhere in the city, where a new game designer with black hair, red sunglasses, and a hairband in the shape of horns behind his ears, is eagerly discussing his next project, something he wants to design to really test players' creativity, and how it's based on the Isekai genre boom from Japan...