[IC] Aether Saga: A Hero's Unlikely Journey (The Irish Tree and Xaltwind)

[The Irish Tree]

Your life is over.

Your life has begun.

Your "self" has ended.

Yourself has begun.

Words echoed in the dark as a girl was ripped from home and hearth, and deposited onto the cold stone. Or rather, it was as if she had always been there, lying comfortably upon a bed fit for a statue, or perhaps a very wealthy ancient ruler with a tomb fit to lie upon for eternity.

...Of course, the chill and hardness of it also meant that after consciousness was gained, discomfort replaced that sensation. Footsteps could be heard approaching as well, along with the sliding of stone. The dark of this place was nearly impossible to see through, but with each movement of stone a tiny bit of light would shine in...and the silence after each movement would soon be exstinguished by the rhythm of an ongoing conversation.

"Are you sure this is the right place? It was crawling with undead...doesn't quite seem like the kind of place some heroine from another time is going to be," a man's voice said, sounding a bit tired and insistent.

"That would be because of the curse placed upon it. We couldn't risk graverobbers stumbling upon our champion and plundering the Pillar of Worlds. It only works once, and if some plucky bandit dropped it, our last contingency would be shattered to pieces. Or worse," a stern, mature woman's voice would say, dry of mirth and emanating a tone of being "all business".

"...Noted," the male voice would respond.

"...It would seem we were a moment late. Our ward has awoken, the woman spoke again before the light clack of her shoes echoed across the stone floor. Followed closely behind, the man's footsteps were heavy and metallic, sounding like he was wearing some metal boots or armor. As our heroine's eyes adjusted to the light, she'd see that the woman was anything but an ordinary sight, a vision of binary design in how her hair was split down the center, black versus white, with twin sets of horns of those two colors perched upon her head. A cape that matched trailed behind her, making her, quite literally, a living monochrome as she approached.

The man following behind her was a tall figure, and possessed a head of hair that was grayish white, with a tanned complexion that stood out against his sterling white armor. And...pointed ears. Both would approach, with the elvish man lifting an eyebrow.

"...She's made of gold?"

"Yes. It would seem so. You must be confused, young lady...I am Gram. And...you are somewhere that you've never been. How do you feel?" she would ask, her tone dropping a bit of seriousness as she displayed concern, showing that she wasn't quite the icy bitch that one would imagine from her expression and manner of speaking.

[Xaltwind]

10 Minutes prior to being isekai'd.

"Uuuuuuugh... Today suuuuuuuucked. Jeremy messed up the entire archive with that 'new and better system' of his, and we had to spend the entire afternoon fixing his mess." A woman's voice complained as it travelled from the kitchen of her apartment to the living room.

It belonged to a rather tall young lady, of scrawny - almost waifish - frame, black matted hair tied into a braided ponytail and a who wore a pair of glasses. She was not blessed in the looks-department, with neither child-rearing hips nor ample bust to speak of. Her figure was actually more symmetrically straight than it was curvy in any one area.

"Oh well, at least we didn't lose anything, so we should be able to get back to actual work again on Monday.." She sighed, sitting down infront of a small table where a computer was resting. She placed down a mug of some steaming beverage on the table, stretched her arms into the air, let out an elongated "Hnnnnnnnnnnn!'-sound and then flipped the switch on the electronic device, booting up.

"Alright! Let's forget about all that for now! I need to log on Mammy and see if I won that auction house-deal. I could really use a bunch of Pearlstone Prisms..." She lazily spoke to herself, as if it wasn't a rather peculiar thing to be talking to oneself when there was nobody else around.

Regardless, the computer infront of her had now started up, displaying a cutesy desktop-backdrop with a bunch of kittens piled upon each other in a small heap. The sight made the woman smirk and let out a small laugh. She then operated her mouse and double-clicked an icon that look like a squashed together bunch of letters, etched into a wooden diamond-shape. After a quick loadbar filled up, the log in screen for 'Mega-Online Fantasy Universe' appeared on screen, with the bombastic orchestral music blaring to life in her speakers.

"Alright." The young woman stated, deftly using her keyboard to enter username and password before, ceremoniously, tapping the 'Enter'-key as if she was finishing up a world-changing treatise or something and sending it off to the World Committee...

After scrolling through the list of her alts, twinks, mules and mains, she fianlly selected the one she wanted and entered the game proper. Sadly, the little mail-icon next to her mini-map was not blinking, meaning she had not received anything.

"Darn... I guess that's what happens when you don't stay up all night and monitor those long 12 hour biddings..." She let out a displeased puff of air. "Ah welll, might as well do my dailies before I get started on din- Eh...?"

Suddenly, her monitor wasn't displaying the onlijne game, but rather, looked like a water that someone had thrown a stone into, rippling waves travelling from the center towards the edges.

"... What? Is this... Some kind of viru- Huh?" A tendril then shot out of her screen. A tendril that looked as if it was made out billions upon billons of swirling, rotating bar-codes... The appendage didn't feel warm or cold, sticky or soft, aggressive or gentle... It was like being grabbed by air itself, and then forced to follow its direction... Which in this case was into the monitor... The girl was too confused and astounded to even let out a scream or other sound, soon finding herself pulled into a black abyss with nothing in it...

In another world, in another form...

Looking around, there was only darkness. Black, thick, inky and unpercievable darkness. Even if one put their hand infront of their face, you couldn't see it. There were specks of light or hints of illumination anywhere, nothing to offer the slightest bit of vision - and so, nothing could be seen. Not the surroundings, not oneself, nothing.

"... Did I die?" A voice asked itself aloud.

A cold seat could be felt underneath. Whatever the voice's owner was sitting on, it wasn't very pleasant. haard and cold things were sure to give you a urinal infection, so staying put was out of the question. Carefully feeling their way to one of the edges, the being within the dark carefully made slow movements, like a blind person trying to feel their way around an unfamiliar and unknown locale.

One the edge of the stone 'bed' they were on had been found, they made sure to lower one leg first and make sure there was actually somewhere to stand, before sliding off the cold slab they had risen from. Standing wasn't much different from sitting though, it was still too dark to see anything... But, there was something else now, something other than darkness...

"Voices?" The voice questioned to itself.

Yes, voices. Words spoken by others, coming from beyond the dark. What they spoke of didn't matter, or even make any sort of sense. They were infamiliar, belonging to individuals the one in the dark had never met or even heard before. But they were getting closer nontheless.

With the first crack in the dark, it was like a chick inside a egg seeing the light of day for the very first time. The overwhelming blaack abyss retreated at the luminosity now seeping in, and the voice's master could finally see something. And the first thing it wanted to see, was itself.

With vision restored, the voice's owner raised their arm infront of themselves, and was rendered speechles. Where once a scrawny, dainty arm garbed in a dark blue shirt and pale of complexion had been, there was now a slender - but with fine musle-tone - appendage made out of, seemingly, solid gold.

The owner of the voice and golden arm had no time to further inspect themselves though. For the crack that had let light into the dark now grew, and then caused what had apparently been either a door or wall to crumble. In the new opening, two figures stood. One was a man, the other a woman. Their faces were unknown. Their voice were unknown. And they were either the most die-hard cosplayers ever to exist, or something was very wrong here. The woman approached and spoke, posing a question about confusion.

"... You could say that..." The golden-armed individual replied, only now realizing that their voice was not their own. She paused for a bit, closed her eyes, taking a breath and trying to feel if something was off or wrong... But, there was no discomfort, no aches or pain, not even an itch. "I feel... Fine. Thanks for asking." The golden one replied slowly. "Now.... Where am I, how did I get here, who're you and what's going on, if you don't mind me asking?" The gold figure asked, but not in an aggressive or panicked way, nor a demanding or entitled fashion. It was a genuine and earnest series of querries, asked politely and calmly, the same way one would normally ask for directions to a place they didn't know how to get to.

As the they waited for a reply, the golden one looked around their surroundings a bit more, slowly scanning from left to right, pausing to look at the strangers infront of them for a bit, before proceeding to scan the rest of the area... They then looked down at their own body, and noticed two important things. They were no longer wearing the same clothes they'd had on before coming here, and their ... Proportions... seemed to have been warped and expanded upon.

"Well now... These certainly grew..." The golden one said, mostly to herself, looking down at her now considerably inflated chest, lifting her arms and gently putting her hands onto her own busom. Yup. Those were definetely breasts. Big, stonking, larger-than-before, humongous honkers. Firm but soft and squishy. Nothing like the washboard she was used to. After a bit more of self-groping, she proceeded to run her hands down along her own waist and hips, confirming that these too had changed rather drastically.

After having do so, the golden woman pinched herself, first on her arm, then on her tummy, and finally on her cheek.

"Nope. Not waking up. So, not a dream then." She stated casually to nobody in particular.

[The Irish Tree]

With the assets on display being squished asserted, the Elven Paladin would turn his head away, just in time for Gram to look at him. "I am glad that you're expressing discretion, Vani. Please refrain from your usual foolishness with this one," the draconic woman would say, smiling back at the golden girl before her. "This is Vani, a Paladin of Freesia. He fancies himself a lady's man, but he's trustworthy. Now then..."

Gram would circle around the girl, amazed at her lack of general confusion. "I'm surprised that you're taking this so well, all things considered. You really are the hero of legend," she would say, stopping behind her and asking a relatively simple question:

"Would you like to go somewhere warmer? It's below freezing outside, and with attire like that, I imagine the chill will be getting to you soon." With a glance she looked to Vani, who would remove his cloak and drape it over the yet unnamed heroine to give her something moderately warm. It also smelt like cinnamon.

[Xaltwind]

So, not gonna answer all my questions, huh? Calling me a legendary hero... Calling him a paladin? Pinching myself didn't wake me up, so this isn't a dream. Or if it is, it's a far too lucid one. So, the remaining options are that I was kidnapped, in my home, while at on my comp and brought to... Wherever this is. Or, I've gone insane and ended up in my own little fantasy-world of mental delusions. The third option would b e that I somehow got translocated througb space-time and sucked into some bizarre, alternate dimension but... That... That's a bit too much, isn't it?

The golden girl listened to the monochromatic woman talk, and didn't move while she was being circled. In fact,a fter having asserted the size and shape of her body, the young lady hadn't done much other than look at her two visitor with half-closed eyes and an unplussed face. She had an expression of calm and absoltue neutrality, neither angry, upset, frightened, amused or confused. Of course, taht was just her face and body, her mind was racing with too many thoughts for it to keep up with itself. Still, when wprds were spoken of going somewhere that didn't feel like the industrial freezer ofa fast-food joint, the woman's head turned slightly backwards, towards Gram.

"Oh, believe me. I'm very confused and very distraught right now, but I don't think kicking and screaming or crying would do much good. Ah, thank you, Wally." The youthful golden one said, offering a small smile in gratitude to the elf who had given her his cookie-smelling cloak. "Going somewhere warmer does sound like a nice idea though... But before that, would you happen to have a mirror on you? I'd like to take a look at my own face." She said, and asked, at the same time.

Really. I really need to see my face. 'Cuz these golden arms sure as heck ain't mine, but they remind me very much of someone I do know. Same with the newly inflated chest and these swingin' hips... But, I can't be sure until I've actually seen my face. Hopefully it's just a trick of the lighting down here... or lack of it, to be exact.

[The Irish Tree]

"...Wally?" Vani would question, confused on the girl getting his name wrong. But she did seem sincere, so...guess that was just going to have to slide.

Gram would present her with a mirror, a relatively mundane looking compact one with a brass casing. And, despite her well-wishing about tricks of the light, she could be 100% certain that was not her face.

"I understand that I haven't answered all of your questions yet, but those will be answered. Its just, you, as someone who has likely never been to this world would have no frame of reference. I could tell you where we are, what I do for work, my political position, but then you'd be asking questions we don't have time for. Unless, that is, you prefer sitting on freezing stone in the farthest North. But I can at least say what is going on. The world is in need of someone capable of preventing it from collapsing entirely."

The dragon woman would walk with her hands behind her back, while Vani waited to help Mammonnie to her feet, doing his damndest not to stare. ...A bit hard, admittedly, considering that she was not only a scantily clad buxom woman, but was also gold in a room filled with grey and brown stone. "I know a lot of this must be confusing but...we could really use your help. I don't know if anyone else can stop a Second Final War.," Vani said, as if that last ominous term meant anything.

[Xaltwind]

"Ah, thaanks agaiin." The young woman said as the elven paladin helped her up. After receiving the mirror, she quickly took to have a look at her own reflection. She stared quite intently into it, adjusting its angle and inspecting her overall face, eyes, ears, nose, hair, chin, throat and even lips, teeth and tongue. She then returned the mirror to the dragon-woman before she had started walking and let out a small sight.

So... That's definetely Mammonie's face I've got. No mistaking it, 'cuz nobody's this pretty and has this kind of complicated hairstyle. Plus the eyes that look like sparkling gold coins, my suddenly enhanced bust, skin-tone and clothes... Yeah, no denying I'm inside Mammonie.

Her personal musings were interrupted by Gram, who seemed to have somehow been able to read her mind. A bit mildly concerning for the girl who was now in the body of her digital video-game avatar. Still, what she said did make a lot of sense. If she was not only in a different body, but also in a different world altogether, then asking mundane questions would just lead to more mundane questions, in a neverending loop or series of said questions. However...

"Ufufu~ Saving the world? You'd ask that of someone you don't know, just met and who you know isn't from your world?" The golden woman giggled softly as she asked her question. To be fair, it was a rather outlandish request to request right after meeting for the first time. "Of course I don't mind, since you asked, buuuut..." New Mammonie smiled, but it wasn't a good smile. It was more the kind of smile a loan-shark had after someone had just signed one of their shady contracts. "... Something like that'd cost you quite a bit."

The woman shameleslly made her true colors known, and they were just as golden as the rest of her. But to be perfectly honest, she was in a new body, in a new world and now was being told she was needed to save said world... That was a bit much to take in for someone who hand't been present for more than 15 minutes in the current reality. Besides, there wasa a more pressing concern at hand.

"Putting compensation aside for now, I don't know how much help I'd actually be if I'm honest. It's not like I've had much experi- _{wow, I can walk really fast even though I'm wearing heels, huh?} -ence in that field. Also, what's threatening this world? Some powerful person? A natural disaster? A nefarious organization? Pollution? An approaching meteor? You said something about a war, Wally, so I'm assuming it has something to do with that then?" Mammonie asked, while following Gram's lead, walking effortlessy and without any sign of discomfort, despite being in - as she'd mentioned - high-heeled boots. She could also tell that her body was moving very much exactly as she wanted it to, as if it were the most natural thing in the universe. A strange thought, considering this wasn't really her actual body.

For now though, she'd be happy to just get out of this glookmy, dusty... Tomb? Former subway-station? Catacombs? Whatever this dank, dark and freezing place was, Mammonie would be happy to escape it. She'd never been a fan of these types of places. They all looked the same!

[The Irish Tree]

At being told that, point blank, saving the world was going to cost her, Gram only had a smile and words to return, saying: "Thankfully, my treasury hasn't been emptied yet. And I assure you, wealth beyond measure is only the start for someone that saves the world."

Vani and Gram would lead the gilded woman forward, with Vani being surprised she could balance perfectly fine with all that...

Everything.

As they would exit the room that Mammonie had been inside, the dim ruin would be lit up in a brilliant blaze of luminance as Vani raised his hand, palm open and two fingers together raised. "Lumin," he said, before there was a ball of shimmering light trailing behind him. And then, the sight and stench that no ordinary person was prepared for would hit Mammonie...that of death. Of blood. Of long-since rot crawling its way back to the surface as soon as virgin senses were there for them to foul. Littering the ruin were countless half-rotted corpses, preserved in the cold with a fair number looking like very...very fresh corpses.

Gram would approach Mammonie and offer her a handkerchief without looking at her. "Its an intolerable stench in its own right. And part of the reason we've summoned you." Gram didn't seem all that particularly bothered by the bodies...likely because her and Vani had already seen them, and perhaps partaken in eliminating them. Gram wasn't certain if Mammonia was weak enough to vomit from something like this, but it was better to not take chances and have her vomit in the holy ruins. "In summary, the reason that we've summoned you here is because a God needs to remember how to die..." the draconic woman would say, stepping down from the last piece of a staircase leading out, crushing a skull that rolled under her heel.

"Before they restart the war that took the combined efforts of every other God in order to stop."

[Xaltwind]

"Hm-hm~ I think you and me will get along swimmingly." The golden girl said in response to Gram's promise of wealth beyond measure, and additional bonuses to boot. Not taht she actually cared about those bonuses, but this unemptied treasury had piqued her interest. Of course, she was completely disregarding the possibility that whatever the inhabitants of this reality called 'treasure' might not be the same as what she herself envisioned it to be...

Regardless, once they entered the stanky chamber of demposing bodies, Mammonie's eyes narrowed, and she grabbed the cinnamon-smelling cloak of Vani and brought it closer to her face in an attempt to make a makeshift gas-mask or something.

"That's some stench... Did somebody di-- Ohhh..." Her words trailed off as the elven Paladin brought light into the dark and the mangled, rotting corpses of many... People? could be seen, strewn about in an unceremonious way. The sight only intensified the smell, and really drove home the point that she was inside another's body, in a different world, because there was no way a video-game had the ability to disperse scent. When the monochrome woman offered her tiny handkerchief, Mammonie accepted, but just stuffed it up against her face while pressing the cloak onto it for extra padding.

Gram's next words, about stopping a god from starting a war, got the golden woman to let out a slight sneeze-like laugh. To think how many wars and conflicts had been started back in her own world, even though back there there was supposedly only one God, but different versions of him. How was it that this world then had multiple gods, but one was so much greater that it required all the others to stop them? And that would lead to the question of, if it took all other Gods to stop this one God, how the heck was a single living being - this being Mammonie - stand any sort of chance!? But, asking more questions right now wasn't a good idea.

She really, really, really just wanted to get out of this grotesque, smelly and unpleasant ... Tomb? Catacomb? Refrigerator? Whatever this place was, it was cold and dak and smelly, and Mammonie had no love for it. Getting outside was priority number one right now! She followed Gram's lead, and watched with a bit of mixed feelings as the draconic woman smushed a head without a single thought as they walked.

"I take it these weren't friends of yours then?" The gilded girl asked, assuming the answer in advance, but asking anyway. Honestly, she was surprised at how ... Indifferent... she was towards seeing piles of dead, rotting corpses. Then again, perhaps being inside Mammonie's body had some sort of adverse effect on her mind? After all, going by the Avarice Demon's life-tale, she'd killed hundreds, if not thousands of creatures up to this point... A scary thought indeed. Was she in a container so jaded and accustomed to death that the sight and smell no longer merited any sort of concern?

"So, you want me to fight an evil God to prevent a war. Which required all of your other gods in order to stop it the last time this happened?" Mammonie reconfirmed. "I hope you realize just how ridiculous that sounds, right? Granted, I don't know the extent of power your gods have, but... You do realize I'm just one single, beautiful woman, yes? Additionally, if you were under some idea that I had god-slaying powers, I'm sorry to say that those aren't part of my racial skills." Mammonie asked, questioned and explained. It felt like a good idea to bring this up before any sort of actual deal was made.

[The Irish Tree]

"No friends of anyone, graverobbers. Also, you won't be fighting a true "God", as you probably know them from your realm. Here, Gods are more...more or less just very powerful individuals," Gram said. "Even individuals who draw power through their faith in deities, such as Vani, more or less aren't channeling true Divinity."

Vani would look away, not exactly wanting to admit that. "That's not common knowledge, Lady Gram. But, yes. Basically, we're asking you to kill someone who's superhuman. Problem being, they're currently not even alive. We're working off of a prophecy from the most renowned Seer in the realm, Moria Strix." Vani would walk a bit ahead, the blinding snow giving way to the radiance that followed him from his spell showing Mammonie that there was a carriage being pulled by what appeared to be entirely skeletal horses, the carriage also matching Gram's personal aesthetic of black and white everything, split down the middle. Which was...kind of tacky.

"You don't need to agree if you don't feel like it. But we should at least get you out of this place and somewhere more...civilized," Gram would say, stepping into the carriage and offering Mammonie a hand to help her in. "After all, as far as we're aware, the only way to send you home would be that selfsame God's powers, channeled through an apparatus."

Vani didn't look particularly pleased about...any of this, really. Either from conscience or general dislike about having to kill a God, the elven paladin seemed reticent. But of course, Mammonie might not even care. Gram seemed to be all smiles and pleasantries, as if everything and every word was going as she willed it. The carriage was warm and comfortable, adorned with intricate small decor...and a skull. Like, that was a real human skull just above Gram's seat. In all likelihood, she was a necromancer of some caliber, given that the carriage had no driver at all, a mere snap of Gram's finger being all it took for it to begin moving rapidly.

[Xaltwind]

"So, you brought a stranger to this place on the premise of a prophect that you don't know if it'll actually come true or not... And you're offering to allow me not to help, with the caviat that you'd dump me in some stranger town or place, in a strange world where I know nothing if I don't feel like helping." Mammonie replied to Gram's remark about her not needing to help. But with no knowledge of what had happend tp her or where she was, no connections or familiar faces to rely on, and most importantly - NO MONEY! - There wasn't room for not wanting to help. Thus, the avarice demon gave a raised eyebrow and a slightly sardonic smile. [color?gold]"From where I stand, it doesn't really seem like there's any other choice. Oh, thank you. Such a gentleman." She replied, and then thanked Vani kindly and sincerely when he helped her into the carriage.

It was warm. Much more so than the frigid, biting and unpleasant outside. Not that the chill was actually bothering all that much despite the fact that she was wearing what essentially equated to heavily sexualized and stylized noble's wear... Or fetish-attire, whichever you prefered really. She leant back on the seat in the wagon, mulling things over in her head for a bit - but still smiling in a friendly and calm matter, with eyes half-closed and at ease.

So... If you got looks like Mammonie guys treat you this well? Huh. Couldn't get them to hold a door open for me back in my world, unless I paid'em... Just goes to show what and where a pretty face can get you... No, wait! That's not important right now. I'm sitting a Cruela DeVille-style wagon, pulled by bone-horses, with a monochrome-checkers-patterned dragon-lady and a hottie elf, and I'm supposed to be a legendary hero who saves their world... Why aren't I more freaked out? Why don't I feel any sense of panic or fear? Sure, my game-avatar Mammonie is used to taking on quests to do... Well, similar-in-nature stuff, but she's a game-character... Was... Was my psyche affected when I got stuck into her body? How'd that even happen? Aaaaargh! So many quesitons and they're all pointless and unanswerable! For now, let's just see where these two take me... I should also try to figure out how to... Access... My... Stuff... Wait. Do I even have any stuff? Did I get to bring my inventory and storage vault-stash? Woulda kinda suck if all I've got are the clothes on my back.

Mammonie would proceed to remain quiet for a bit, lost in her own thoughts and inner-dialogue. She'd pat herself along the sides, on her clothes, took off one heeled boot and shook it, then dove one hand inbetween her mega-mangos and dug around for a bit...

Nothing, huh? I can't really see anything like a HUD either... So, maybe I just got stuck inside a game-avatar's bod' and then transported to some... Alternate reality...? Weird that I'd have to go through MOFU as a sort of gateway or whatever to get here though. Wait. Maybe some things that I brought with me were actually on the ground or in some storage chest in that room I woke up in? Gah! I should've checked around for loot before going along with these people. She rubbed her forehead and let out a small sigh.

"Just out of curiosity, since I wasn't all that awake when we met... There wasn't anything else besides me in that room back in that place, was there? Like say, some of my personal belongings or other items stored along with me?" She asked, while the surprisingly smooth carriage-ride continued.

[The Irish Tree]

"This prophet of ours has never once been wrong before," Gram would say, a skeletal hand forming from a hatch in the back, carrying a tray of warm and fragrant herbal teas, a cup prepared for each of them. Gram would receive her's and sip upon it for a moment. "And, yes, if you don't wish to help we won't stop you. But at the same time, I won't be giving out charity to someone that can't pull their weight. After all, the fate of the world involves you, now. Especially since you're of a Devilish origin," Gram said, looking to Vani as Mammonie asked about her luggage and grabbed at her jubblies.

"Nope. It was just you, and we're the only ones that have been inside in...what, four hundred years?" Vani explained and asked at Gram, who nodded.

The carriage ride would continue, while Mammonie...or rather, Camilla, could feel a sense of connection to something exterior. The divide between character and player was gone...but as an avid player of MOFU, she'd vaguely see, upon looking at Vani and Gram closely...status markers. Or at least, something that was beginning to list information.

[Gram. Dragonfolk? Necromancer. Level Unknown. Kind of a bitch.]

[Vani. Elf. Paladin. Level Unknown. Has stared at your chest the entire time you searched for the Inventory screen]

[Xaltwind]

Kinda unfair to just, y'know, summon me to some weird place and then tell me to 'do this or I'll leave you in the gutter'... Not that I'd expect someone to baby me or anything, but still...

The avarice demon-who-was-actually-a-mortal-human-stuck-in-her-game-avatar listened to Gram speak and then, at some point, raised an eyebrow. Though not at what the draconic woman had said, but rather more due to the sudden appearance of... Well, some kind of Termintaor-like info pop-ups that suddenly started appearing next to the two other individuals in the carriage. It was... Bizarre, to say the leeast, to suddenly have text just randomly float next to someone you were looking at... But, more than anything...

What's with this text? Is it supposed to be some kind of objective, universal information about them? Or is my subconscious doing this? Wait... That elf's been staring at my-- uh... Mammonie's tits this entire time!? Like, I get that the're amazing, but c'mon dude! Show some self-restraint. That derscription for the monochromatic lady isn't very... Uhm... useful, either... I kinda already gathered that on my own, thank you very much Inner HUD.

The answer that she'd been summoned without any items was a rather big downer though. She wasn't exactly sure what this lady opposite her, sipping tea, was expecting her to do if she didn't have her gear. Not like someone who specialized in shooting stuff from afar was just gonna run up to a God and sock it in the nose and win... Her earlier search of herself had also revealed that she, in fact, had neither pockets nor secret compartments on her... Which made total sense, given her lack of clothing and attire. Still, there were perhaps more pressing things to ask.

"Alright. So, I'm here because you need someone to fight a bad God, I get that. However, I don't know how much you actually know about me, but let's just say that if you think I'm going to be able to punch, kick and bite this bad God into submission, then I think you'd have better luck asking Benny here to fight instead." Mammonie stated, one eye closed and the other looking at Vani, arms folded under her redonulous chest. "But I'm sure you've prepared something for me to use in order to fight, yes? Such as a God-Slaying Weapon or Anti-Divinity Trinket? *Sigh* Ah, if only I still had Chromecalibur or Star-Ender on me... Or that ridiculous railgun I got from the Christmas Event..." She asked, then went off on a slight tangent and monologue with herself, before returning to reality. Well, this reality. "Oh, and Barney, my face is up here, ya perv." She added, with a coy smirk and pointing with one index-finger up at her unfairly pretty face.

[The Irish Tree]

There was a very long, awkward pause both from Vani being ashamed of her noticing his eyes wandering, and Gram's hand shaking while holding her cup. "You...are completely unarmed? I assumed your weapon was magical in nature or...this is a problem. A major, absolute, catastrophic problem..." the dragoness would say, biting the glove of her thumb. "Are you quite certain that you're without any of your...well, means of fighting?" she would ask, letting her thumb free as she regained a bit of her composure.

Vani would rub his chin, looking Mammonie in the face. "Honestly, I had you pegged for a magician. What with the lack of armor and weapon and all. Also, yeah...sorry. Just not used to seeing people dressed so...y'know," he said. After giving it a moment of thought, Gram would ask: "What manner of weapon did you use to begin with? I've never heard of this 'Railgun'. Or Chromecalibur. Are they blades?"

At Gram's question, Vani would pat his fist into his open palm. "If you use swords, you can use one of mine. This one's only usable by someone of my faith, but back at the temple I have a few more stored."

...Mammonie would realize more and more how far into the deep end she was being thrown. But, she was also gradually getting more and more used to this state of being. Enough so that the details of the textboxes around Gram and Vani were getting clearer with more details, as if her brain was processing out a list of their general traits and abilities, but only ones known to her.

Then, Vani would look a bit ashamed. "...The truth is, we...didn't know a thing about you before we even summoned you."

Gram would wave her hand dismissively. "...It can't be helped. If you cannot fight, then...we'll have to fall back onto my other plan-" Gram would say, before she tensed up. "...Dammit. They found us-" she would say before a blinding flash of light would erupt from overhead, the carriage blown apart in an instant.

Gram and Vani would be flung from the carriage, while Mammonie would find herself relatively unharmed, sent flying in the opposite direction from the blast. The cold snow had broken all of their falls, but it seemed that while the MMO-player was fine, Vani was bloodied, a hand clutched over his chest as a gradual pulse of golden energy seeped from his palm. Gram was covered in fragments of bones, having been protected by a swift conjuration of undead around her...but blood still soaked her otherwise pristine attire.

Floating above from a singular ringed gate that had burned itself into the sky was a figure that could best be described as angelic beyond humanity. A myriad of eyes, limbs, and faces melted into three rings that rotated slowly around a figure resembling a cherubim, a small humanoid angel resembling a child. Save, however, for the fact that the child-like figure had no eyes or face, a set of empty holes serving as its eyes as it examined Gram and Vani, then Mammonie.

"So it is done"
"So she has come"
"Our Lady's antithesis"
"Demon..."
"Demon...!"
"DEMON!"

the eyeless faces of the rings spoke, the cherubim's hand extending forward, before a ray of blinding light surged forward, this time aimed squarely at Mammonie.

A wall of skeletons formed to intercept the blast, Gram's arm raised just in time to give Mammonie some defense. "If you can't fight, then run! Me and Vani will..." she said, before falling to her knees in the snow. From a glance now, Mammonie could see bars representing their very lives, both of which were far in the red and inching closer to the brink. It was likely that they were no match for this thing whatsoever.

[Xaltwind]

Mammonie didn't like the reaction that Gram was giving her after she'd asked about potential weaponry. She liked even less the comments and questions that followed. It seemed for all this dragon-woman's poise and attempts at making herself seem like some sort of mastermind, she was hardly infallible... Which was discouraging, seeing as she was supposed to be Mammonie's ally in this 'war on the evil god'-business... At the question of whetever Mammnoie was sure she didn't come with any of her own equipment, the avarice demon sighed and stretched out her arms.

"Does it look like I've got pockets? I already gave myself a search after we got into the carriage to make sure I wasn't carrying something in some weird place. Lo' and behold, there ain't nothing on me." She stated matter-of-factly. When Vani offered up the option of a sword, she merely shook her head. "I don't think I'd be much use with one of those. Didn't have any sword-skills back in MO-- home, and my class couldn't even equip them." She replied.

After Gram asked what types of weapons she used, the golden demoness tapped her chin. Did these people even know what a gun was? Let alone a magigun? Would there be any point in trying to explain that she used strangely shaped wands in order to choot magic without casting spells? Speaking of, since some kind of HUD was seemingly getting more and more clear to her, perhaps her skill-bar and other useful things like the mini-map would be coming back soon too? That'd be a huge he--

-- Suddenly, Gram shouted something, and then the carriage blew up.

"DA FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--!?"

Mammonie, now stuck in a pile stuck, with her butt sticking up towards the sky and a her head stuck downwards, was unleashing a barrage of muffled noises and sounsd which were, more than likely, a plethora of swears and curses. Eventually pulling herself free from the impromptu sub-zero airbag, she looked around at the bizarre scene unfolding before her. Vani was on the ground, obviously injured, and Gram was a ways off as well, but in slightly better condition. Though both of their health-bars had dropped - a lot. The demon did a quick once-over of herself but... Really... Nothing seemed to be off. Despite herself having just been at the point of origin of an explosion, she seeemed... Fine..? She didn't even feel any particular pain or discomfort... A bit disoriented and confused, but no agony or sense of dying.

That is, until she heard a voice from above that sounded all kinds of ominous. Looking up, she spotted what could only be describe das nightmare-fuel, and her eyes that were usually half-closed opened up fully in disbeleif. A dumbfounded expression was on her face with her jaw hanging slightly agape, as she gazed upon something she'd never seen, or even imagined, before.

"... Awesome... A Death-Baby. Nope, this is just all kinds of nope." She saidk, before bracing herself for another attack by the flying cherub-monster... Only to be saved by the sudden appearance of a wall of ... Bones... Followed by being shouted at to run and flee if she couldn't fight. Mammonie's eyes narrowed and she put her hands on her hips in a display of annoyance, despite the situation.

"And where would I run? Did ya forget I've got no clue where I am, or where to go? If I ran off now, I'd probably just freeze to death in the snow somewhere, ya moron." She stated, irritated in her tone, but not enough so to be yelling.

Plus, there was another reason to staay. Usually, she wasn't the type to lend a hand or do anything for people unless they asked or paid. But, this draconic monochrome-woman who had brought her to this strange new world, had just shielded her from an attack by an unknown assailant. If there was one thing Mammonie hated, it was being indebted to people, no matter the reason. There was nothing worse than having people who had leverage over you. Also, thhe whole running off into a frigid, frozen-over wasteland with no knowledge of where to go or what to do seemed like a supremely good choice if she was ever feeling suicidal.

Still, what to do now?

Damnit all! If only I had something I could use as a weapon... Anything, even the damn starter-weapon from the tutorial areas would've work! This is just my look, I'd put all my weapons away into my inventory 'cuz I wasorganizing shit, and then I dragged off to Wonderland and get attacked by Frankenbaby! Jeeeeeeez! C'mon, internal HUD! Show me the skill-bar or menu-bar! At least lemme get my inventory! If I got sent here without any of my items, how the fuck am I supposed tro do anything?! That'd be way too unfair. C'mon! C'mon!

While internally mologuing with herself, and not paying any attention to her wounded ... Summoners... Or the flying baby of doom, the demoness was absorbed in her own little world, irritatedly making small stomps with one legs and making ... Chopping... movements with her arm, while flicking her hand open from a balled fist into a palm... As if she was trying to make something appear in it. She really, really, really wanted to just be able to summon something to fight with...

'Cuz running way wouldn't solve anything. If she didn't freeze to death, this flying baby-monster would just snuff Gram and Vani, and then come after her anyway. So, there really was only one logical thing to do: Kill the damn thing before it killed them!

[The Irish Tree]

Parsing...
Parsing...
Parsing...
Access established. Interdimensional Link reupped. Accessing Inventory.

A small, robotic sounding voice would resound in Mammonie's mind, while the infant angel weathered the snowballs being thrown at it, which, admittedly, weren't doing nothing. It was drawing its ire more and more...and now it was shooting another laser. As expected, honestly. The beam would collide directly with Mammonie, inflicting the first true hint of pain she'd experienced in the new world she'd found herself in.

It was like...the feeling of being shocked, except it was all concentrated and circling over and over again on her abdomen, the continual beam of light trying to eat away at the demon's body, but only seeming to hurt her, not injure her in any capacity. All the while, a distinct feeling was coming to Mammonie's hand...

The itchy trigger finger that would summon her way of fighting.

Vani was struggling to make his way over, raising his shield into the air while looking at Mammonie. "Fulgur Shield!" he would shout, a bubble of lightning surrounding Mammonie, breaking the beam and giving her enough breathing room to process what she could do...or rather, what her body's instincts were telling her to do.

Gram was now unconscious in the snow, barely alive thanks to Vani's minor healing powers. But she was fading fast.

[Xaltwind]

"... Wut?"

Mammonie would state, in befuddled confusion, at the item that had just apepared in her hand. Out of nowhere. There was also the fact that she'd just heard a voice inside her own head, which didn't belong to either Mammonie or Camilla herself. Was she beinmg possessed by some evil, alien data-mind-hacking super-entity? Had she been turned into a video game-character and all of this was just someone else controlling and playing as her!? There were many questions and alarming tidbits to sit down and give a good thinking too.

Unfortunately, now was not the time to worry about such matters. There was a malicious flying death-baby that was trying to kill her, and her new ... Friends...? For some arbitrary reason. Now that a weapon had appeared in her hand, as she'd wished, the time to use it had come!

But could she use it? As Camilla, back in the fleshy world of meat-men, the only thing remotely resembling a weapon she'd ever held was maybe a squirt gun... Or a baseball bat during gym class back in her school days... Would she even be able to use this thing? Sure, Mammonie would've had no problem wielding it like a pro, but she wasn't just Mammonie, she was Mammonie's player stuck inside Mammonie!

But... For some reason... This feels... So natural...

The weight and feel of the gun in her hadn, the motion of moving it... The way to grip and hold it steady... It all felt like the most natural thing in the world. Like she was trying to ride a bicycle again, a bit rusty and wobbly at first, but with her body and senses quickly adjusting to remembering something that it knew perfectly well how to do. It was almost like her mind's eye could visualize an aiming reticule for her, moving to where the she was aiming the magic pistol. The confused epxression on her face melted away, and was replaced instead by a big old smirk.

".... Alright. You're the one who picked a fight, ugly."

BZORT!!

A strange sound errupted as she pulled back the trigger, and a blue flame was spat out of the end of Chromecalibur's muzzle. From it, a baseball-sized orb of luminous, crackling azure light was produced, and sped towards the cherubean nightmare at high velocity. But Mammonie didn't seem satisfied with just firing off one shot, oh no. The sound from earlier repeated multiple times, as she pressed down on her weapon's launching mechanism and unleashed several more shots of high-endisty magic bullets. All aimed for the little fiend in the sky.

If the macabre thing were to try and fly off or dodge, she'd lead her shots and try to intercept and anticipate it's flight and movement-path. If it tried to counter with any more of those painful, byt seemingly ineffective light-based attacks, she'd take off in a sprint, side-hop, pirouette or even cartwheel to get out of the way. Her muscles, limbs, reflexes and mind were all seeming to wake and warm up, as if they'd been asleep and waiting for something or someone to give them a shake and make them wake up again... And they seemed to be doing just that...

[The Irish Tree]

BANG

High density, limitless caliber, and enough force to punch through an entire fortress slammed into the spawnling of divinity, a large hole piercing its chest and slicing two of the rings around it cleanly in half. The infantile figure would vomit a strange golden ichor, most likely its blood, before a second shot finished it. The rest of the shots would break apart the remaining ring, huge chunks of it disintegrating upon contact with the arcane bullets. All too easily, it fell as if it hadn't just completely annihilator the two she'd just met. Slumped on the ground, the figure's remaining ring crashed down beside it, its body and rings fading into golden particles as the mouths on the rings cried out.

"Lady...Divine..."
"Demon...spawn..."
"The War...must renew..."

The voice was faint and weak, before it sputtered out entirely with one last sound of a groan. Each and every bit of the thing dissolved, leaving behind nothing but a faint stain of gold upon the snow.

Vani stared in disbelief, now carrying Gram in his arms as he approached Mammonie. "Holy Lyriel...that was amazing!" he said, grinning at the woman before him. "And here I thought you weren't capable of fighting. How'd you do that? I've seen some weapons like that before, but you were firing it way faster. And you pulled it out of nowhere!"

Vani would clear his throat, before shaking his head, knocking off a bit of snow that had come to rest upon his head. "Sorry, that's...that all can wait. For now, we have to get to shelter before we freeze in our boots. Lady Gram's out cold, so we're going to have to go on foot. But we made camp a short ways east of here, in a cave. I can at least get a fire going while we recover."

Mammonie would feel that, with the battle's conclusion, "something" was happening within her body. It was a strange feeling, almost similar to the after-effect of a light exercise. It was almost like her body was acclimating itself from that kill, readying to continue. Almost like exercise.

There was no convenient gauge for it, but she imagined that despite being max level in the game she'd come from, she had just "gained experience" in some way.

Vani would begin moving, his left hand upon Gram's back continuing to glow as he salved her wounds. "...Crap, sorry, I completely forgot to ask but...you're not hurt, are you?" Vani's question was one of concern and bewilderment as he looked Mammonie up and down...and a bit more up in the middle. Again. Then, he'd shake his head and turn around, marching on.

[Xaltwind]

Mammonie had a mixed expression on her face as she watched the little angel-nightmare fall to the ground and dissolve into sparkly particles. she looked both relieved and annoyed at the same time. Probably because, for all the trouble that that thing had caused, it went down surprisingly easily. Also, the fact that she had just heard a robotic voice inside her head, and manifested her game avatar's weapons, were still something tat felt a bit surreal and hard to digest. However, the avarice demon had no time to stand around and daydream, as the elven paladin - carrying an unconscious Cruella - came stumbling up to her side, slinging elated praise her way.

"I... Dunno... I wished really hard for a way to fight, and then I heard a robot's voice i my head." She paused and blinked, before realizing something important. "Oh, right. A robot's kinda like... Uh... A golem, I guess? Anyway. It spoke some kind of technobabble and then POOF! My magigun appeared right into my hand, right outta nowhere." She pasued again, looking down at the elaborate fusion of technology and magical artifice resting in her hand.

It was an odd sensation, to be sure. She could almost feel her items, well, the ones she had kept on her character at the moment of being pulled into the computer, at least. It was like they were in a big... ethereal... omnipresent trunk or grocery bag, and she knew exactly where everything was, despite it being nowhere and everywhere at the same time. It was, put it mildly, really bewildering and actually a bit nauseating, for it was a feeling and sensation that was completely alien to her mind. She could p0robably make use of it again if she tried, but right at this moment the golden lady didn't feel like faffing about with hammerspace-dimension-shennanigans.

"Huh. Good to see that you two survived. I'd be royally screwed if you guys bit the dust." Mammonie then added, a bit nonchalantly and perhaps a bit more pragmatically than was socially polite. "Anyway, this little fellow is called Chromecalibur. It's a magigun and one of my two main weapons. Wait. sorry, do you know what a gun is to begin with? Bah, it's too much hassle to go into details! It shots magic. Think of it as ... Uh, what's a good comparison...? It's a ... Wand... That's... Not a wand... ... ... ... You know what? Let's go to that cave you mentioned, okay?" It was apparently not her strong suit to explain things, and using game-jargin and terminology that possibly didn't exist in this world was probably not gonna help any.

There was another thing nagging at her core though. The feeling she had gotten after the angel-baby had died. that strange sensation of having performed physical activity, when she really hadn't... And the strange surge that came after... Had she just gained some kind of power, or boost? Was this what 'experience points' felt like to 'absorb' or 'gain'!? But wait.. She was max level, so how could she gain any EXP? That didn't make a lick of sense!

As she followed Vani, who had once more checked her out with a not-so-casual-gawking, along the snowy terrain, Mammonie couldn't help but be preoccupied with all of this weirdness that kept cropping up. The most noteworthy of cousre being that she was frickin' Mammonie! A game-character! How was any of this even remotely possible!? One minute, she's sitting at home infront of the PC, sipping a cup of coffee and lazily playing MOFU, and the next she's stuck in Not-Canada fighting flying death-babies in the bod' of a fictional avatar of her own creation! She rubbed her temple with her free hand, letting out a small sigh. She then looked over at the draconic woman in the paladin's arms.

"She gonna be alright? For that matter, are you hanging in theret? Looked like both of ya took a really nasty beating to that thing. Which reminds me... What the heck was that thing anyway? You guys get a lot of flying, murderous babies in this world or what?"

[The Irish Tree]

Vani was amazed at the power that Mammonie had displayed, and kept looking her weapon. "So...a golem spoke into your mind and your weapon manifested? Sounds divine in nature to me...but I don't know of any Golem Gods." Vani was lost in thought as they walked along, brought back to reality by Mammonie's attempts at explaining how a gun worked. "Oh, so its like one of those Magilocks that I've seen people carrying around. ...If that's how powerful one can get, I can definitely see the appeal. You took that thing out in an instant!"

Then came the question of Gram's well-being, to which Vani would reply with: "She'll be just fine. Gram's tougher to kill than most anyone I know. Plus, I've been healing her as we walked. One big benefit of being a Paladin is healing people just by touching them for a while. As for me...aches and bruises, but I'll live. If I took a direct hit like Gram did though, I'd imagine you'd have a holey paladin instead of a holy one." Lame joke aside, Vani at least seemed to be alright, and as a small curvature of rock and snow came into sight, he picked up the pace. "As for what that thing was...it was...I guess you could say an ascended angel. They're like, beings that used to serve the Goddess Divine before she went mad, and followed her into madness. They don't show up often but they take an army to defeat usually. Oh, there! That's the cave we used."

Inside, the smooth inner walls of the cave were dark and chilly, but it was a far cry from the frozen waste outside. Vani's light spell would make it easy to move around, and he would set Gram down with a length of cloth atop her, freshly unfurled from his traveling supplies. A bunch of burnt up firewood was sitting in the middle of the cave but looked useless as could be. Vani would crack his neck before turning to the cave entrance. "I'll go get some firewood, and then we can cook up some of these rations I brought. We won't be here long; Gram can conjure her chariot again once she wakes up, and we'll be back to civilization in no time. I'll be back," the paladin would say, marching out into the cold to get wood for a fire.

Mammonie would be left alone with Gram, who's breathing was stabilizing now that she was laying down. If she focused hard enough, she could see the bar representing Gram's vitality slowly climbing back up...but there was also a portion beyond it. A deathly slate gray far beyond her bar, as if she had negative HP.

"I thought he'd never leave," Gram said, rolling onto her side suddenly and looked at Mammonie. "You pass."

[Xaltwind]

Mammonie listened with... Moderate... Interest, to what Vani had to say as they walked. His description of the angel-baby-thing wasn't very helpful, and his belief that the robot-voice that'd spoken to her earlier was 'divine' in nature was a bit too convenient for the demoness. Sure, it could've been some kind of deity, but depictions of gods and goddesses often didn't have them described as sounding like one of those automated phone-receptionits... So, for now, the golden lady would put that idea on the shelf.

Hearing that their draconic princess was going to be fine was nice though. She smiled for a very brief and barely noticeable moment. It wasn't that she was compassionately relieved that this other woman had survived her injuries, but more the fact that she constituted 50% of Mammonie's current chances of survivig whatever the hell this bizarre wortld was. Losing one of your two tutorial-guides at the very start of the game seemed like it'd make the future... Difficult... Not to mention the two seemed to have very sperate skill-sets and levels of knowledge, losing half of that would be not good.

Once inside the cave, the avarice demon plopped herself down next to the burnt-out campfire. She looked around a bit and waved goodbye to Vani as he left, wishing him a sardonic 'good luck'... In a frozen waste like this, trees usually didn't grow very well, nor was there an abundant supply of dry firewood... If anything, she'd be surprised if the poor elf brought back more than a handful of snow-covered and frozen-through sticks at most.

Then, a voice spoke up from the bundle that the paladin had left behind. Mammonie's eyes glanced over to the side, looking at the newly awoken dracowoman. Her words were... A bit irritating, to say the least, especially given the circumstances. Luckily, Mammonie managed to retain a calm face, although her eyes did narrow a bit as she smiled at the other lady in the cave.

"Well, isn't that nice. Too bad both of you don't." She said in response, a bit of haughty confidence in her tone. "The very first baddie we run into, and you two get taken out almost instantly. You're not exactly making me have a lot of confidence for your side of this conflict... So--" She paused for dramatic effect, gave Gram a not-so-very-good-smile and tilted her head. "-- I hope that's not all you've got to say about this."

In this particular moment, Mammonie felt that she was - quite clearly - in a much better position than Gram. True, she didn't know anything about the world, and true, if she was abandoned here and now she'd likely freeze or starv,e or both, to death... But comversely, she'd just pretty much proven to both herself and these other two, that she was a powerhouse who could rather simply take out toadies from this Evil Goddess of theirs... ANd that the two of them didn't stand much of a chance against even a basic baddie on their own. Thus, Gram's earlier comments about the demoness' inability to fight, and her seemingly unneighbourly thinking of throwing Mammonie under the bus, was now probably going to come back and bite the dragon-woman in the butt. After all, Mammonie was a demon, and demons weren't above holding grudges.