As Samuel and Luna looked at each other, Luna lit up her horn and focused on Samuel, to which Samuel put his hands in front of his face defensively.
Samuel didn’t feel any painful blast of magical lasers like he was expecting, though, and instead heard a voice in his head a few seconds later. Luna’s voice.
“Samuel, your character class has a shield, you know. You don’t need to use your hands,” Luna’s faint voice echoed in the back of his mind.
Samuel was about to thoughtlessly open his mouth to ask what was happening, before Luna stopped him.
“Shh! No-don’t!! Aede can’t know that I’m using temporary mind connecting spells, but we need to figure out what to do here. But first, let’s sort through our classes so it actually looks like we’re doing something.”
Samuel then patted himself down, to make it looks like he was missing something, before he nervously looked at Aede Bit and spoke out loud.
“Dangit! I just remembered that I’m missing an important perk! I-uh, I need to check my settings real quick.”
“Oh, yes! I-I do as well!” Luna said a second later. “I can’t fight without my super jump!”
Aede Bit looked at them impatiently for a moment, before he rolled his eyes, and flicked his hand at them, gesturing for them to proceed.
“Take off your bags,” Aede said. “You can choose your weapons and stats from there.”
Samuel nodded, and took his surprisingly lightweight backpack off of his back and rummaged through it, and his bag sort of acted as his perk and weapon selection menu, as Luna did the same with her bag, too.
“I’m pretty certain that this is going to be a battle to the death,” Luna said telepathically. “I don’t know the fundamentals of being IN a video game, but I do know that if we don’t stop Aede, only one of us will make it out of here alive.”
Luna then looked up from her bag and met Samuel’s eyes, as Samuel looked at her.
“And I don’t want that for either of us,” she said, before her eyes darted back down to her bag, with Samuel following suit. “So we need to find a way to stop him.”
“How?” Samuel asked. “He’s the incarnate being of video game player spirit, right? His power probably lies most within video games, and we’re in a video game.
Luna’s eyes darted to the floor for a moment, as if she was thinking, before her eyes lit up, and she searched through her bag quickly.
“Samuel! Equip Will’s Chainsaw Sword and the Gauntlet of Earth. I have an idea.”
“What?” Samuel asked, as he equipped both weapons.
“Will’s Chainsaw Sword is the one of the best weapons for animation locks, maybe we could use that against Aede!” Luna said.
Samuel looked at her for a moment, confused.
“What? Do you want us to actually fight Aede or something?” Samuel laughed, as he looked through his bag. “I might as well dig my own digital grave!”
“Yes,” Luna said. “We have to fight Aede, but I know we can do it.”
Samuel felt a sense of fear and unease welling up in his throat, as he gulped.
“Mum always did say that these games would end up killing me some day…” Samuel muttered to himself out loud.
When Samuel and Luna were finished setting up their loadout, Luna looked at Aede.
“Hey Aede, why are we even competing?” Luna asked. “Samuel won during practice. It’s pretty obvious that he’s going to beat me.”
Samuel looked at Luna, before Luna gave him a look that said ‘just go with it’.
“Yeah, bu-“ Aede said, before Luna cut him off.
“I feel that it would be a much more fun and entertaining battle if it was the two of us against you,” Luna said with a shield of confidence. “Two of the best gamers from different worlds, against the manifestation of gaming spirit and skill, to see if they’re truly worthy of being called, The Ultimate Gaming Champions.”
Aede But stroked his chin, as he looked at the two of them, back and forth, before a smile crept up on his face.
“Wellll… I must admit that just watching players fight has been feeling pretty old…,” he said. “Alright Luna, you’ve sold me.”
Aede then floated off his throne, his feet delicately landing on the ground, as he tied his long hair up in a ponytail, and opened a newly formed bag that had appeared next to him and searched through it.
“I’ll play fair according to the games rules, don’t worry,” Aede said, as he pulled out dual wield katanas and a belt of grenades, before he looked at the two of them, as the bag dissipated into a mass of pixels. “But don’t think that means I’ll go easy on you two.”
Luna and Samuel then equipped their chainsaw swords, and braced themselves, as they stood side by side, looking at Aede with as much confidence as they could muster.
Aede then snapped his fingers, and a large, pixelated ‘10’ appeared in the air above them, and started ticking down.
“You go in first, Samuel,” Luna quickly said telepathically. “I’ll be ready in case he prevents you from holding him in place. Remember the animation lock.”
Samuel nodded, as the timer hit ‘1’, and Aede dashed toward them in a flash.
Samuel ran to him, and tried using a power stomp to knock Aede in the air, but Aede perfectly evaded it, and slashed Samuel repeatedly, as Samuel was getting stun locked, and couldn’t do anything, before Luna jumped in front of Aede and hit him with a power kick, which Aede had blocked.
The kick didnt hurt Aede, since he blocked it, but it did push him pretty far back.
Luna quickly helped Samuel to his feet.
“Oww! Jesus! That feels way too real!!” Samuel said, as he winced in pain.
Samuel looked up at his Health Bar and saw that he’d already lost about 40% of his HP.
He then looked at Luna.
“Princess Luna,” he started, out loud, before he looked at Aede. “If I die here, I want you to know that you’ve been a good friend, and I wish we’d had more time to play video games, just for the fun of it.”
Luna was about to speak, but Samuel was already charging at Aede again, and this time, Aede struck first, and Samuel dodged his first swing, and then his second swing, and then Samuel struck.
He used his chainsaw sword to knock Aede up, off the ground, before he jumped, and slashed Aede as much as he possibly could, as Luna helped him a second later, as she slashed with her chainsaw sword.
They kept Aede locked in place for a few seconds, before Aede used a self detonation perk, where the grenades he was wearing on his belt detonated and knocked Samuel and Luna back, taking a lot of their HP, since the explosion was right next to them.
Samuel only had about 13% of his HP, and Luna had 42%.
Samuel then weakly raised his head, to see Luna, who was lying on the ground, not moving, and Aede’s HP bar, which was at 82%.
Samuel then slowly and painfully stood up, as he shakily ran to Luna, who was breathing faintly, and shook her.
“Luna! LUNA!!”
Samuel looked at Aede, who was standing with arms folded, seemingly waiting for Luna to get back up and continue fighting.
Samuel looked back down at Luna, and could feel fiery tears welling up in his eyes, as Luna wasn’t moving.
He held her close, as he thought of the brief, but enjoyable times they had together.
He thought of when he opened up to her during their gaming practice session, and the fun they had playing. The genuine, simple fun.
He thought of the game they were playing back then, and the game they were trapped in now, Zombie Hunter 3, and how much he enjoyed it(at least when no one’s life was on the line).
Then Samuel remembered that while him and Luna were practicing, there was a little bug with some specific weapons, like the Gauntlet of Earth.
The Gauntlet of Earth was really good at stun locking, if used correctly, but Samuel tried using it in one game against Luna, and the particles and special effects it had caused pretty big lag spikes, and nearly crashed the game.
“Oh god, that’s it.” Samuel thought to himself, before he continued shaking Luna.
After he shook Luna a bit more, Luna started taking faster breaths, as she tried to stand up, but immediately fell back to the ground.
“Luna!!” Samuel said telepathically. “I know how we can beat Aede, but I need you!! Please!! I need you!!”
When Samuel said that, Luna gritted her teeth, and slowly, shakily stood up, as Samuel helped her onto her hooves, before she wiped her bloody nose clean with a hoof.
She looked at Aede in defensive fury, as she lifted a wing to shield Samuel.
“What’s the plan?” She asked telepathically.
“Equip your Gauntlet of Earth, quickly. The particles overload the games memory, and caused lag spikes when we were practicing. I’m pretty sure it can crash the game, and if the game crashes with Aede in it, I think it’ll kill him.”
Luna equipped the Gauntlet, as Samuel did, too, before Luna looked at him, with a hint of fear.
“What will happen to us?”
Samuel sighed, before he continued speaking mentally.
“I don’t know, I really don’t, but it’s our best chance. Even if we die with the game, so does Aede, and he won’t be able hurt anyone else anymore.”
Luna looked at the concrete ground, before she looked forward, and let her wing fall to the side, as her and Samuel stood next to each other with their gauntlets, glaring at Aede with determination.
“Let’s do this,” they both said out loud, at the same time.
“Ooh! Determination! See, was that so hard?” Aede asked, as he pulled out his dual wield katanas.
Samuel and Luna wasted no time, as they dashed to Aede and tried punching him at the same time from both directions.
Aede blocked both of their attacks with his katanas as he grinned, before Samuel and Luna looked at each other and nodded to each other.
As Aede pushed them back with his katanas, Samuel and Luna used their gauntlets to slam the ground right next to Aede, which caused the ground to crumble with green sparkles, as small plants grew in the cracks.
A large oak tree with sharp branches then suddenly sprouted out of the ground, and hit Aede in the back, ripping his cape, and taking only a small portion of his HP.
Aede laughed as he landed on the ground, and opened his mouth to speak, before the entire game they were in seemed to slow down and lag, as more cracks formed in the ground around them, creating more particle effects for the game to render, and some of the environment around them glitched into pixels and popped in and out of existence, as the game HUD above them, like the HP bars, started glitching.
Aede’s face went pale, as he started to glitch out, like the environment around him, as he dropped his katanas and fell to his knees.
“Keep going!!” Samuel shouted to Luna out loud.
Luna and Samuel then both charged their gauntlets as they jumped into the air, and both slammed into the ground, creating more and more special effects.
“Wh-what are you doing?!?!” Aede shouted desperately, as his voice glitched, sounding almost like static.
Samuel and Luna kept punching the ground, as what was left of the environment around them was coated with a blanket of plants and sparkles, as Aede screamed horrifically, and broke down into a glitched pile of pixels, and disappeared into nothing, before Samuel and Luna phased through the floor beneath them, into a blank, black void of emptiness.
As Samuel and Luna fell into the abyss, they looked at each other, and maneuvered themselves in the air, until Samuel grabbed Luna’s hooves with his hands.
“Luna!” Samuel yelled. “I’m sorry you didn’t win. You’re a great friend, and a great leader who deserves respect!!”
“…I-I don’t care about that!!” Luna said with tears forming in her eyes. “…I’m just glad I had you…”
Luna held Samuel in a tight embrace, which Samuel didn’t hesitate to return, as Luna wrapped her wings around him protectively and formed a bright blue shield around them with her horn, as they both fell into a, now bright, white void, and held each other tightly.
Back on the stage in the middle of the stadium, the audience was confused, as they weren’t sure what had happened in that last game, before the game console on the stage sputtered and shook, and spat out Samuel and Luna, as they flew into the air and landed on top of some of the previously defeated contestants who were in front of the stage, and the console exploded in a burst of fire and pixels.
Luna then stood up slowly and shook herself off, and helped Samuel to his feet, as she apologized to the contestants they’d landed on.
Just then, there were some strange noises all around Samuel and Luna, as the stage in front of them, the trophy, and the entire stadium they were in, started disappearing into small pixels, as the many interdimensional spectators from the bleachers panicked.
Luna immediately took action and flew into the air, and focused her horn as she shut her eyes, as she casted a mega spell, and created a giant light blue bubble around the disappearing stadium, where everyone inside found themselves falling in low gravity, like the gravity of the moon.
Luna landed on the ground, and was visibly straining to keep the spell going.
Samuel patted her back, and smiled at her, as she opened her eyes and smiled back at him briefly.
When the stadium had completely disappeared, and everyone had floated down to the ground safely, Luna released the spell, causing the giant bubble to pop, and caught her breath.
“You ok?” Samuel asked.
Luna nodded, as she tried to slow her breathing.
“Y-yeah, I’m… I’m fine.”
Samuel looked around at his surroundings, as the sun was setting with a familiar, comforting sunset.
What was once a giant, intimidating stadium was now just a larger than usual garden/courtyard, next to this castle, which Samuel still didn’t know the name of.
“Well,” Samuel said, as he looked at the sunset and took a deep, relieved breath. “We did it.”
Luna walked next to him, and sat down.
“Yes, we did.”
After a bit time of time simply admiring the peaceful sunset, Luna looked back, and sighed.
“But… there’s still one more thing I have to do.”
Samuel turned around to look at her, as Luna stepped closer to the scared, and mostly confused crowd of audience members and contestants who were pulled from all over the multiverse.
Luna then briefly looked back at Samuel, with a sad expression, before she lit up her horn, which caused a small book, a pen, and what looked like a small flash drive, to appear next to her, before she levitated the book and pen into Samuel’s hands.
“Write your Xbox username on this, please,” Luna said. “And take this.”
Luna then levitated the flash drive into Samuel’s hands as well.
The flash drive was black, and had the design of a white crescent moon on it, which looked exactly like the strange symbol Luna had on her butt, which Samuel only just now noticed.
Samuel put the drive into his left pocket(the pocket he didn’t use to carry junk, and only used for important things), and wrote his Xbox username on the paper, without thinking to ask why, and gave the pen and paper back to Luna.
Luna levitated the pen and paper to her, and they disappeared in a magic flash of light, as Luna smiled at Samuel with sadness.
“I guess this is goodbye then…” Luna said.
Luna started to turn toward the crowd, before Samuel suddenly pulled her into a hug, which Luna was surprised by, but returned a second later.
“Thanks for the help, Luna. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who feels underappreciated sometimes,” Samuel said, before he slowly retracted from the hug and looked at her. “I just wish we had more time to have fun together.”
Luna gave him a more happy smile when he said that.
“Maybe someday we will.”
Samuel then remembered something, and quickly reached into his right pocket, and pulled out the ribbon from the gaming competition on Earth he’d won before he was brought to this world, dusted it off as best he could, and held it out to Luna.
“Here,” he said. “This way you can rest assured knowing that even if your subjects don’t have your respect, I do.”
Luna picked up the ribbon with her gentle, blue aura, and looked at it, before she looked at Samuel with watery eyes, as she smiled.
This time it was Luna’s turn to give a surprise hug, as she nearly knocked Samuel off his feet, as she hugged him tightly with her hooves and wings, nearly squeezing the life out of him.
It took about a full minute for her to slowly break the hug, as she looked at Samuel and sniffled, before she wiped her nose and eyes with a hoof.
“T-thank you,” she said slowly, as the ribbon disappeared in a flash of light. “I’ll be sure to treasure it.”
Once Luna took a moment to recompose herself, she then turned around and faced the crowd.
“EVERYCREATURE!!” Luna yelled, using a familiar, loud tone, so she could be heard by everyone. “I OWE ALL OF YOU AN APOLOGY. NONE OF YOU DESERVED TO BE PULLED INTO THIS UNIVERSE AGAINST YOUR WILL, SO I WILL NOW REVERSE MY SPELL AND RETURN YOU ALL TO YOUR WORLD’S. JUST… MAKE SURE TO CLOSE YOUR EYES.”
Samuel put his hands over his eyes protectively, as nearly everyone else did.
Luna then lit up her horn, and shut her eyes in focus, as she gritted her teeth.
Her horn glowed very brightly, as a swirling orb of energy formed at the tip of it, growing larger, before it exploded into a giant, circular explosion of light, which seemingly extended across the entirety of the castle, and maybe even beyond.
When Samuel opened his eyes, he found that he wasn’t on the soft grass of a large garden being overlooked by the sunset anymore, but was now on a concrete sidewalk, in his hometown, at night, being overlooked by the moon.
Samuel stood up and sighed, as he walked to his parent’s house.
He used his extra key, and unlocked the front door quietly, to not disturb his parents, since he knew they’d be asleep by now, and walked to his room, as he shut the door and turned on the light.
He then laid down on his bed and reached into his left pocket, pulling out the black flash drive and inspecting it.
“Hmm… could this work with an Xbox One? I don’t even know why Luna gave me this…” he thought to himself.
Samuel then dragged himself off of his bed and booted up his Xbox, before he plugged the flash drive in.
Samuel was relieved to find that the flash drive did fit in his Xbox, but was not as relieved to find out how much memory the drive needed him to download.
“Whatever. I need to find out what this is.”
After about two hours of his Xbox extracting the mysterious data on the drive, it was finished, and his Xbox restarted for some reason.
“That’s weird,” Samuel thought, as he turned his Xbox back on.
When the Xbox turned on though, it had a slightly different format.
His games and apps were still there, and everything else he had, but it was just arranged a bit differently.
He wasn’t sure if the drive even had anything on it, until he got a notification saying he’d gotten a friend request and a party invite, from someone named ‘XxM0ON8UTTxX’.
Samuel looked at the notifications curiously, before he smiled, and put on his headset, accepted the friend request, and joined the party.