Everything was falling apart, and the ground wasn’t stable. The floor creaked and the walls tore, the ceiling burst and chunks of décor fell. It was an earthquake or rather, the world itself was being ripped apart. I looked around to find a way out of the place or I would get buried in the debris. And then I saw a single gigantic scale rise from the earth. It didn’t take me long to process what was happening; I had witnessed it before too. Muffled cries of Chaaya and Ryan fell on my ears, but the sheer fear-striking sight kept him moving. The monolithic demon that rose from the ground was so gigantic that I could only see a wide stretch of it’s body spanning to both sides of the horizon as far as I could see. If I had not known that it is supposed to be a creature, I would have mistaken it for a wall that rose beyond the skies.  

THUD 

SPLASH 

Genesis can now return to their own world. 

A part of the debris fell on me just like the last time. I removed the headgear and stared blankly at the devices connected by a messy wire management. To be honest, I couldn’t even see that; my vision was blurry from the tears silently clouding my eyes.  

“Hey! Have you gone deaf too now? Useless guy.” 

My subconscious released me when I heard those words. I asked him if he had said something. 

“Oh, course I did. I was talking to you in your- your 10 seconds of run in the game. Does Lethia mess with the connection between the two worlds or something?” 

I thought for a good second before answering, “I don’t know? I- I wasn’t in my best state of mind. It was as if I had gone back several years in my life.” 

“But that is not our biggest concern here. Was that the real Demon Lord you mentioned earlier? That thing covered the entire screen when it rose from the ground. I couldn’t even tell what part of it’s body I was looking at.” 

“Yes, I was surprised too when I went directly to the very end instead of starting from the start. Maybe, it was because the game read the last thought I had about Lethia and chose it as the save point. Let’s do this again. This time I will keep thinking about the start. If we can make preparations for stopping the mini boss's blood from coming in contact with the seal, the creature will never come out It’s hard to imagine that he will commit suicide because he didn’t do so the first time and had us kill him. It probably has to do with some condition to awaken that monstrosity.” 

“I doubt you can do that. You aren’t strong enough to keep your emotions in check.”  

His words stabbed right into my heart. Somewhere in my head I knew that it was true. I was a weak person. A very very very weak person. I only was able to be normal when I knew I had someone I could rely on. Maybe that wasn’t even true. Maybe I just acted that way because it was troublesome for people to watch if I sulked around them. In no means I had the strength to keep the negativity away when I had no one I cared for- no one that cared for me around. But I had to try, right? That was the one good thing I had. I had to try. Even if it was an hopeless attempt, I couldn’t get any lower. And so I did what I always did. I tried once more for the last time.  

“The summoning hall. The summoning hall. The summoning hall. The summoning hall. The summoning hall....”, I mumbled to myself as I placed the head gear on top of my head once again 

A vivid image of the first time we had been forced into Lethia took shape in my mind. It was breaking apart as my thoughts wavered to the possibility that even if I kept thinking about the past, there would be no way to change it. I would end up where I left the game... at the very end. No! I shaked my head to get rid of those thoughts. I would have enough time to contemplate if it did happen. But right now, I couldn’t afford to think about it. A single thought about it and I would be sent to the end ag- 

Once again, I was in Lethia. I had failed to do what I wanted to. The ground tore apart and the earthquake made the structure unstable. The room was falling apart. 

"He can’t even do that. Why go in if you can’t even stabilize your head right now. I don’t think he has what it takes.", I heard a voice directly in my head. It was Theo’s.  

“Hey! I can hear it, you know!” 

“What should I say then? Good job? Thank you for being more attentive than last try?”  

SPLATTER 

Genesis can now return to their own world. 

Once again, I had my body squished under the debris. But I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again. I closed my eyes for a few minutes. Cleared my head of all thoughts I had. The only thing in my brain right now was the image of the summoning hall. The king, the decorations, the guards surrounding us, the royal mage that had invoked us with his powers. There was absolutely nothing else in my brain then. 

“Wake up. This much rest be enough time to get yourself together. I’ve let you rest plenty. I’m a good guy after all.”, he said abruptly, interrupting my meditation. Then the look on his face changed. “And tell me if you aren’t actually up to it. From my point of view, it looks like an old memory of your is being played here and has nothing to do with the game cartridge.”  

“No. This time for sure.” I said as I closed my eyes and slid on the headgear. 

This time, there was not a single bad thought tainting me.  

I opened my eyes when the commotion was sensed by my ears. I was in Lethia! But at the same place again. 

CRASH 

CONGRATULATIONS ON DEFEATING THE MINI-BOSS!! 

Genesis can now return to their own world. 

“Again. I can do it. I have doubt in my heart and that is leading my train of thought to the end. But trying is all I can do. I am weak, but if I lie to myself enough, it will become the reality. Maybe a hundred tries later but I will shred off every bit of doubt, bit by bit till I get it right.”  

CONGRATULATIONS ON DEFEATING THE MINI-BOSS!! 

Genesis can now return to their own world. 

“Again!”  

THUD 

SPLASH 

“Again. No matter how much time this takes.”  

Genesis can now return to their own world. 

Again! Again! Again! Again! Again! 

  Again! I won’t lose Again! This time for sure!  Again!

  Again!  Again! All I know is to keep trying! Again!   

THUD SPLATTER SPLASH 

SPLASH THUD CRASH SPLASH 

CRASH THUD 

Again and again. Again and again. I kept trying to unclouden my thoughts. Each time, I felt that I was getting closer to achieving it. But the truth was far from it. I was starting to waver even more than before. I was giving in to the darkness. What if Theo was right? Maybe the RVR was unable to use the brain as a database but only displayed what was going on in someone’s head. The entire idea was farfetched from the start; like some sci-fi plot. Or maybe it would actually work for regular games... but Lethia was still out of reach. Whatever the issue was, the only thing I knew for sure was that I wasn’t going to be able to grasp Lethia again. 

“At least the main flaw: people using any point of their memory of the game as a save point and altering it; was proven wrong. You can only go to what your brain remembers as the last point.”, Theo said. 

He was the one who had raised this point in the meeting. It was one of the main reasons why our project was suspended. But hearing words of consolation was more terrifying than the gigantic demon from Lethia. I couldn’t comprehend that he would be able to have such a side to him. It was probably some nasty process going on inside his brain but if he wanted to keep everyone in control, he must have needed a lot of sweet-talking skills too.  

“Then the only remaining option is to end that beast within the ten seconds you get.” 

But what he said was impossible. There was no weapon in the game that I had knowledge of that could kill that giant monster. And even if I succeeded, I would still have to deal with the collapsing place too. “But it-” 

“I know what you want to say. How will we even do it. Does any in-game object exist that can defeat it in ten seconds? Chances are slim. But we can aways add it in as long as we can change it.”, he replied before I could even say anything. 

Actually, the plan seemed brilliant but I was against it. I had my doubts that one of the reasons I wasn’t able to intersect Lethia was because the one I was reaching for was a fake version of it. If meddling with it severed any connection it had left with Lethia, the small chance that I had always strived for would be lost. But it was the only thing left to try out. I was still trying to decide the next course of action, but Theo had already started connecting the cartridge to his computer. 

“For starters, I’m going to add an ‘Indestructible’ attribute to you, which will negate any damage from all sources. And then an item, ‘Gun’ that deals killing damage to the opponent. But before that, I’ll have to check both your and the demon’s stats to make sure that the game won’t bug.” 

We started working on editing the players’ properties, but then a strange pop-up appeared. Player Attributes Access Denied. It wasn’t allowing us to make changes to the characters, but it allowed us to add ‘The Gun’ that dealt astonishing damage to the opponents. It was allowing changes to what we had but not what ourselves. So, Theo had another idea. Instead of the attribute, he added two spells. The first boosted mana to the maximum and the other made an indestructible shield around you for as long as you had mana. 

For the topic about the demon, we wanted to see if it had any more stages and transformations that negated damage from certain sources. When we tried to navigate the opponents’ section, we came across many types of monsters, most of which I already knew of. But there was no description of any monster that matched the description of the gigantic demon that was as big as an entire continent. So, we started to rummage through all sections, trying to find anything that resembled it.  

“What!? It’s not registered as a demon. It's not an enemy.”, I spoke in disbelief. 

“It’s classified as a- It's a mount?” 

Moreover, all information regarding it was inaccessible. 

“It’s not even a boss... It’s something that the boss will merely use to ride. It’s a pet. Something that evokes the real king of demons.”