(c) 2007 - 2008 by LFox
A World Apart
Chapter 16: Death

The gang head into the lobby of the Eden center to go to the main desk when Jessica suddenly stops.

“Hey guys” says Jessica.  Elisha and Nathan quickly stop and turn to her.  “I got something to tell you”

Elisha smirks.  “Spill it”

Jessica rubs her arm nervously.  “Well, I moved in with Vanessa yesterday”

“You moved in with her now?”

Jessica nods.

“You didn’t think about that too long” says Nathan.

“I know but, I think it was the right thing to do”

Elisha grins broadly.  “So how was your first night?”

Jessica looks at her confused.  “What do you mean?”

“Well I ASSUME you’re sleeping in the same bed so, how was it?  You guys cuddle?”

Nathan shakes his head.  “I really don’t think that’s any of your or my business”

“So?  I’m curious” says Elisha.

Jessica folds her arms and stares at Elisha.  “Yeah, we cuddled okay.  Well she cuddled me”

Elisha sighs and puts on a dreamy look.  “I bet that was nice, comforting.  You know we should go shopping this afternoon”

Jessica looks at her confused.  “Shopping?  What for?”

Elisha smirks.  “We can pick out some fancy lingerie for you to wear for your girlfriend”

Jessica stares at her blankly.  “R-ight”

“Lingerie?  So what you plan to meddle with her and her girlfriend nonstop now?” asks Nathan.

“Well I don’t have anyone for myself at the moment so I’ll settle for meddling with you two.  So how bout it?” says Elisha.

Jessica turns a little pale.  “Uhh, let me think about it”

A while later the four of them arrive in Eden inside Elwyn’s house.  Elwyn herself is curled up on the couch reading a book with her staff leaning against the side.  Seeing them arrive she sits her book to the side and stands up.

“Hey guys” says Elwyn.

“You ready to go?” asks Nathan.

Elwyn nods.  “I’ll teleport us out”

Elwyn grabs her staff and they teleport out.  Several moments later the four of them arrive in a beautiful forest area.

Elisha puts on a sly smile.  “Before we get going I got something to show you all”.  Elisha quickly takes a small white crystal out from the bag on her side.

Jessica points at the crystal.  “What’s that?”

“A memory crystal”

“You planning to make a picture?” asks Elwyn.

Elisha smiles brightly.  “A photo of the four of us.  I thought it’d be a nice keepsake”

“That’s a great idea” says Jessica.

“So how’s this work?” asks Nathan.

“Just like a camera.  Then afterwards I can download the photo and get a copy for each of us framed.  Elwyn can you use your magic to operate the memory crystal from a distance?” says Elisha.

Elwyn smiles.  “Sure”

Several moments later the four of them are all posed standing near each other.  In front of them the memory crystal hangs in the air and suddenly glows faintly.

Elisha walks over and grabs the crystal.  “Alright that should do it.  I’ll fix it up later today so we all got a copy”.  With that she puts the crystal away in the bag on her side.

Suddenly a female succubus with long black hair down to her shoulders and cruel red eyes walks out from between the trees.  She has dark red four inch high heels with dark red stocking that go up to her thighs, a short dark red skirt that barely covers her panties, a tight small dark red top with bell sleeves that can barely contain her massive breasts, a magnificent gold chain around her neck, several gold ring on her fingers and a couple bracelets on her wrists.

The succubus woman smirks at the gang evilly.  “I’ve been waiting for you four”

“Who are you?” asks Jessica.

The succubus woman walks over to them and stretches out her hand in front of her.  “I’ll give you one chance.  Hand over the Stone of Jordan”

Elwyn shakes her head.  “I don’t think so”

“Have it your way then”

Her wings flap powerfully and she flies forward towards Elwyn and lands just in front of her.  As she draws back her hand it flares over with a heavy aura of ice magic.  She throws her fist forward to punch Elwyn in the stomach but it pauses inches away stopping at an invisible wall.  A sphere of blue energy appears around Elwyn holding back the woman’s fist as Elwyn concentrates to hold a magic shield.

As the succubus forces her fist forward the magic shield glows heavily becoming even more visible than before and where her fist connects with the shield it bends inward as it’s slowly punctured.  Suddenly her fist rips through the shield and hits Elwyn in the stomach.  Elwyn is sent flying from the sheer force of the strike and smashes painfully into a nearby tree with a massive ice and frost mark across her chest and stomach.  The others quickly run over to Elwyn to check on her.

“Are you alright?” asks Jessica.

Elwyn stands up slowly, she grits her teeth with only one eye open as she holds a hand at her stomach.  Her hand quickly flares with fire and the ice over her chest quickly melts as she heats herself.

“I’m fine.  You three better get back.  I can’t protect you while I fight” says Elwyn.

“We’ll help you fight” says Nathan.

Elwyn stands up straight and shakes her head.  “You can’t fight against such a powerful mage”

Elisha grabs Nathan’s arm and tugs on it.  “Come on, we’ll only get in the way”

Nathan turns to Elisha then glances back at Elwyn realizing she’s right.  Unable to do anything the three of them run off a short distance so their out of the way.

“Can’t we call a world keeper for help?” asks Jessica.

“She’s an NPC it doesn’t breach the rules and I’m sure she knows that” says Elisha.

“Can’t we just say she attacked us too?” asks Nathan.

Elisha turns and glares at him.  “They keep track of that stuff.  Do you want to get permanently banned?  We’ll NEVER be able to come here again”

“But…”

“What about Arcueid?  Surely she’ll help” says Jessica.

Elisha shakes her head.  “Arcueid said they had a rule of no interference and despite all the danger we’ve been in she’s never broken that.  Look we’re just going to have to trust Elwyn and believe in her”

“What if she can’t win?”

“She can”

Jessica looks down at the ground sadly hardly seeming convinced.  Suddenly she perks up as she remembers something.  “Wait didn’t she say she wanted the stone of Jordan?  Isn’t that the ring Elwyn has?”

“Hey you’re right” says Nathan.

“Elwyn give her the ring” yells Jessica.

Elwyn dodges a blast of magic and stands facing the succubus then shakes her head.  “I’m never going to give her the ring”

“Just give it to her” yells Nathan.

“I’m not giving her something my best friends handed to me” screams Elwyn.

The succubus woman shakes her head.  “Idiot”

The succubus woman throws her hands out in front of her launching a huge beam of ice magic.  Just before it hits Elwyn slams her staff into the ground and beam of ice magic flies out from in front of it.  The two attacks collide sending sparks of energy flying out freezing small patches of grass, leaves and flowers over.

Elwyn strains to keep up her energy attack as it’s quickly forced back towards her by the succubus woman’s.  The two hold there for several minutes channeling more and more magicka into their attacks trying to overpower the other.

Growing tired of the struggle the succubus woman pulls one of her hands away and motions it at Elwyn flinging a small fireball at her.  Elwyn spots the fireball too late and it smashes into her face quickly causing her hair to catch fire.  Losing her focus on her magic from the fire the beam of magic she was holding back flies toward her rapidly.

Just before the attack hits her she crosses her arms tightly against her chest and holds her staff close as she just barely raises a magic shield in time.  The shield flares brightly as magical energy crashes against it and flares wildly around it.  Just as the attacks about to run out of energy the shield weakens enough for it to pass through.  The remaining energy of the attack hits Elwyn full on leaving heavy frost marks all across her clothes, body and of course putting out the fire that clung to her hair.

When Elwyn finally pulls her arms away she looks at the succubus woman.  Her eyes quickly go to the air above where hundreds of massive spears of ice hang just waiting to be used.  The succubus woman smirks evilly and throws her right hand forward causing dozens of ice spears to fly toward Elwyn at various speeds.  Elwyn stares at them in shock for several moments then starts motioning her hands at them.

Every spear of ice she motions a hand at quickly shatters into fine snow.  The spears quickly start coming faster and faster toward her in larger groups until she can barely keep up with stopping them.  Almost a hundred fly toward her, unable to stop them she thrusts her hands downward.  The spears pause in mid air inches away from her.  A moment later a ripple of magic flies out shattering all the ice spears and causing the forest to blow heavily away from the force of her telekinetic.

Elwyn glares at the woman and forms a fiery orb in her hand.  The succubus woman smirks at her and flies up into the air.  Once she’s a decent height she stops and holds out her hands in front of her quickly forming a set of ice magic orbs.  Elwyn slowly raises her hand as if she’s about to attack then suddenly teleports.  The succubus woman glances around the area frantically trying to find her before she’s attacked.

Behind her Elwyn thrusts her hand forward releasing a massive fire attack full force on the succubus woman’s back.  The flame bursts out ripping through the air and causing a nearby tree’s branches to burst into flames.  Elwyn pants heavily and watches silently as the flames and smoke slowly clear from the air.  Her eyes suddenly go wide in shock and as the last bit of smoke disappears the succubus woman can be seen hovering in the air still.

She turns and glares at Elwyn with only a handful of scorch marks across her body that quickly begin healing with her demonic regenerative abilities.  The succubus woman puts her hands together and flies forwards at Elwyn.  She stops just above Elwyn and smashes her fists down on her head sending her flying to the ground.

Elwyn smashes into the ground face first and skids along several feet before coming to a stop with her face in the dirt.  The succubus woman lands in front of her and stares down at her.  Elwyn looks up at her and slowly forces herself to stand while panting heavily from exhaustion and pain.

“You’re gonna have to do a whole lot better than that to take me down” says the succubus woman.

Elwyn breaths out heavily and raises her hands.  As she does fire engulfs her hands and the gem on the ring on her finger glows brightly.  Elwyn throws her hands forward toward the succubus woman causing a massive jet of fire to fly out.  It hits the succubus woman full force and continues past blanketing several miles of forest in a straight line with fire.

Elwyn holds her stance as she continues to channel magicka into her hands to strengthen and continue the jet of flames.  As she continues small white streaks glow on her body at various places.  As the light fades away heavy cuts are left dripping blood as she exceeds the capacity of magicka her body can handle.  As the pain becomes too much to bear from exceeding the amount she finally collapses to the ground exhausted and in horrible agony.

Ahead of her the mass of smoke and fire slowly begins to clear.  From where she’s standing a massive channel of dirt and ash stretches far into the distance with fire still burning slightly around it.  In the midst of it the vivid outline of a figure can be seen.  Elwyn stares at the smoke in disbelief as the succubus woman once more becomes visible.  She has her hands across in front of her to guard herself but despite that she has heavy black scorch marks across the entire front of her body.  As she lowers her hands back down the skin quickly begins to heal over.

“That was some attack.  I just barely managed to raise a shield before it hit” says the succubus woman.

Elwyn shakes her head as she looks on with disbelief.  “Im, impossible”

The succubus woman smiles.  “THAT is why I want that ring.  This fight is over, judging by the looks of you that last attack was pulled straight from the magicka well.  Your body could barely handle the strain of exceeding your maximum”

Elwyn groans out in pain as she tries to force herself up.  When she finally manages to stand she looks up just in time to see a massive pillar of ice magic hurtling towards her.  The pillar of ice magic slams into her turning her instantly to solid ice.  The attack continues on however icing the entire forest area behind her for up to almost a mile.  A dozen feet or so away from Elwyn the succubus woman suddenly goes limp and collapses to the ground with a vacant dead stare in her eyes.

Nathan and the girls quickly run over to Elwyn.  Nathan holds his hands out wanting to touch her but afraid to do so.  “Elwyn?”.  He turns to the girls.  “She, she’s, she’s alright right?”

He turns back to Elwyn and a large crack appears across her face.  After a moment her body collapses and shatters into thousands of pieces.  Nathan sinks down to the ground utterly shocked and heartbroken.  Tears start streaming down his face as he stares into nothing.

“She’s, she’s gone” says Nathan.

Tears well up around Jessica’s eyes.  “Why?  Why’d this have to happen?”

Elisha stands there silently not knowing what to say but a single tear runs down the side of her face.  She kneels down and puts a hand on Nathan’s shoulder.  He turns to her and buries his head in her chest and starts crying.  Elisha puts her arms around him silently and holds him tightly.

Anger forms in Jessica’s eyes and she turns behind them.  “You…”.  She stares at the succubus woman’s lifeless body on the ground.  “She’s, she’s dead?”

Elisha and Nathan turn to look at her body.

“Good” says Nathan.

“How?” says Elisha.

Jessica shakes her head.  “Let’s just log out”

Suddenly a sixteen year old girl wearing a school uniform awakens on a VR chair.  She has long black hair down to her shoulders, clear blue eyes, small breasts in the A cups, a set of two silver rings in each of her ears, a silver cross necklace around her neck and a small silver chain with crosses on her wrist.  The uniform she’s wearing is a suit which consists of a red skirt, a red blouse, a green jacket that has the school emblem on the front and a red tie.

She sits up and looks around with frightened eyes then realizes she has the helmet on her head.  She undoes the strap and quickly takes it off.  As she leaves the VR room she begins to walk down the hallway.

“Where am I?” asks the girl.

After walking through the hallways she suddenly comes to the railing overlooking the lobby of the building from the second floor.  She leans over the railing looking around and notices the gang slowly walking away.

“I just can’t believe she’s gone.  It just, I…” says Nathan.

Elisha lays a hand on his shoulder and looks at him sympathetically.  “It’s okay, it’s okay”

“NATHAN” yells the girl.

The three of them quickly look up at the girl hanging over the railing.

“Who’s that?” asks Nathan.

Jessica shakes her head.  “I don’t know I’ve never seen her before”

“She’s not even from our school look at the uniform” says Elisha.

The girl frantically looks around the floor she’s standing on.  Not seeing any way to get down to the lower level she hops over the railing and lands on the floor.  After landing safely she quickly runs over and hugs Nathan.  Jessica glares at the girl with a shocked expression and killer eyes.

“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?” growls Jessica.

The girl looks up at Nathan with frightened eyes.  “Where am I?  What is this place?”

Nathan glares at her coldly.  “Who are you?”

“It’s me, Elwyn, don’t you recognize me?”

Elisha’s face quickly darkens displaying the most annoyed and cold expression humanly possible.  She grabs the girls arm and drags her away.  “This prank is in REALLY bad taste”

The girl tries to resist being pulled away and reaches a hand out toward Nathan with scared eyes.  “Last night you came to Eden alone.  We sat by the lake and talked then we swam for a while and after we made love”

Nathan’s eyes widen in shock.  “WAIT”.  Elisha stops in her tracks and looks back at him silently.  “How did we meet?”

The girls face softens and she smiles with tears in the corner of her eyes.  “In the dungeon Nyth.  I was walking around when you three came.  I thought you were going to attack me so I held my hands over my head and yelled out for you not to hurt me”

“Elwyn?  How?”

Jessica and Elisha both stare in silence and shock.  Elisha’s tight grip on Elwyn fades and she pulls free and runs over hugging Nathan tightly.

Elisha shakes her head in disbelief.  “This is impossible”

A tear runs down Nathan’s cheek as he holds Elwyn tightly.  “I thought I lost you”

“Where am I?” asks Elwyn.

“This is the real world, how’d you get here?”

Elwyn shakes her head.  “I don’t know, I don’t know.  The last thing I remember is seeing that magic attack coming for me then suddenly I saw myself being hit by it.  Next thing I knew, I woke up here”

“It, it sounds likes she changed bodies with that woman” says Elisha.

“Is that even possible?” asks Jessica.

Elisha brings a hand up to her chin and thinks.  “Hmm, well depending on how the equipment works it just might.  The question is, who’s body is that?”

Elwyn turns to look at Elisha seeming confused.  “What do you mean?”.  Elisha grabs Elwyn and pulls her over to the wall which is shiny enough to see their reflection.  Seeing herself Elwyn puts a hand to her face in shock.  “My, my face, what happened to it?”

“The bodies we have in Eden look different to the ones we have here remember?” says Nathan.

“The problem is it’s not her body” says Elisha.

Suddenly a young girl that’s fourteen years old comes over to them in a wheelchair.  She has long blond hair down to her shoulders and green eyes.  For her clothes she has a simple short white skirt and a white blouse.

“Exactly” says the girl.  The four of them quickly turn around to face the young girl.  “I figured I’d find you here”

Jessica looks at her confused.  “Who are you?”

The girl smiles.  “You don’t remember?  I’m Arcueid”

Nathan’s eyes go wide.  “You’re Arcueid?”

Elisha stares at her seeming rather skeptical.  “Aren’t you a little young to be a world keeper?”

“My father is the creator of Eden.  Anyway the matter at hand is how Elwyn ended up in someone’s body here” says Arcueid.

Nathan nods.  “Just how did that happen?  I thought that kind of things impossible”

Arcueid smiles to herself.  “We’re checking the equipment to see if it was a technical fault but I’m pretty sure I know who did it”

“What do you mean who?” asks Jessica.

“Let’s just say, death works in mysterious ways.  Anyway the girl who’s body Elwyn is in as far as we can tell definitely died in Eden.  We’ll be informing her friends and family shortly of her demise.  We’ll also be setting up new identification for Elwyn so could you please stick around for a short while?”

Elwyn stares at Arcueid confused and turns her head slightly to the side.  “What do you mean identification?”

“Wait your saying she’ll have proper identification like a real person?” asks Nathan.

Arcueid nods.  “Of course, everyone has identification”

“Am I, am I here to stay?” asks Elwyn.

Arcueid smiles.  “I’d say so.  Also I’m sure it’s safe for you to log into Eden anytime you wish without worry of being stuck there.  I’m sure you three can work out living arrangements for her as well as getting her settled in school.  Well take care, I’ll have someone come by shortly to give you her identification papers.  And if you ever need to talk to me I’m usually around the Eden center somewhere”.  With that Arcueid turns and begins to leave.

“Wait, that’s it?  You’re giving her an identity and just letting her go?” asks Nathan.

Arcueid glances back at them.  “Was there something other than that you wanted me to do?”.  The four of them stay silent.  “I didn’t think so.  Take care”.  With that Arcueid slowly leaves.

Elwyn looks around at her friends anxiously.  “So, where is this place?”

Nathan smiles.  “This is where we go to get to Eden.  We’ll have a lot to show you.  There’s a whole new world out there for you to see”

Outside the Eden center stands as a single skyscraper amongst hundreds of others in a city that stretches for miles in every direction.

THE END

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