At first, Max couldn’t understand what he was looking at. How could he have completed the sub-goal? And, at this moment? It was puzzling. There was only one explanation Max could think of while staring at the familiar stranger in front of him. He moved his feet slightly and bent his knees. Since magic wasn’t an option, things were probably going to turn physical.

  “Are you okay?” Adelaide looked at him puzzled. There was innocence in her question.

  “Who’s this, Max?” Sister Delilah stood up. “Is she a friend of yours?”

  Max was about to reply when he noticed the colour of the stranger’s face was turning paler. As if trying to play off the suddenly strange atmosphere, Adelaide tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as she began to walk backwards towards the stairs. “A-Anyway, I only just got here, and I heard from Kurt that Max was up this tower.”

  “Bless you child, you must’ve travelled a long way.”

  “Right… I should rest.” As quickly as she had come, she was suddenly taking off back down the stairs.

  “Is it something I- Max?”

  Without thinking, Max ran after whoever was using Adelaide’s image. It was a very good copy, as one could expect from a five-star story completer. He had a funny feeling he knew who it was. There was only one mysterious during person, who is both unaccounted for and more than knowledgeable about the appearance and mannerisms of Adelaide. It seemed like the system hadn’t been including people he had met before starting the six-star story.

  While he ran down the stairs, he kept expecting to run into ‘Adelaide’ on the spiral staircase. There was not a trace of a girl in high fashion. Instead, the only person he encountered was a familiar, lanky butcher’s boy carrying a huge tray of selected meats. There were an alarming number of raw cuts of meat next to the cooked ones.

  “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

  “Have you seen Adelaide?”

  “Funny you should mention her,” Kurt looked shocked. “She just showed up at the gates of the estate. It’s why I took so long. Why?”

  “I saw her, just now.”

  Kurt frowned, “That’s impossible. She was escorted to the West Wing to recover… Where is she now?”

  “I don’t know. I was chasing after her.”

  “I didn’t see her on the way up.”

  It was only then Max realised he had missed his opportunity. He had already ran past the broken window. Max let out a disappointed sigh before they both started to climb up the tall stairs. “How is Adelaide?”

  “Looking rough, to be honest. I wouldn’t be surprised if she hadn’t had a hearty meal in a long time.”

  “She’s looking skinny?”

  “Very.” So, they met two different Adelaides.

  “Why did she come here?”

  “Apparently to see me,” Kurt mirrored Max’s disbelieving eyes. “She ran out of money a while ago and was getting desperate.”

  “What’s going to happen to her now?”

  Kurt gave Max a reassuring smile. “Villagers stick together.” It was Max’s turn to mirror his expression. “We’ll get her healthy again or give her some funds to look after herself. Whichever she prefers.”

  “Good. It must’ve been overwhelming for her in the big, bad world.” Max thought Kurt would join in on the light teasing. Instead, he was only met with an unimpressed look from him. In a split second, Max began backpaddling. “Well, I imagine she went to the city. It’s so different compared to… home.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Kurt allowed for a moment of awkward silence to develop between them before finally acknowledging his words. “You’ve been hanging around Aldwin too much.” The words cut Max deep, making him reevaluate the first six months of this life.

  Max didn’t say anything when Kurt opened the door to reveal a still Pompey, alone in his bed. There was no wicker basket, holy text, or nun. It was like they didn’t exist. Confused, Max looked instinctively behind him. Did the nun jump out of the broken window as well?

  “What’s the matter? You look like you saw a ghost.”

  “Where did Sister Delilah go?”

  “Who?”

  “The nun?”

  Kurt gave a confused look. “What do you mean ‘nun’? They’re all Sleipnir believers here. Nuns aren’t really part of the religion.”

  Turning to the only person who could make sense of what had just happened, Max came up to Pompey’s bed only to be met with a frightfully familiar sight. He didn’t need to worry about the three-day timer for Pompey anymore. Unfortunately, it also meant no more answers for him.

  “Please tell me you found a way out of this hell hole,” Cy cried out as soon as Max opened the entrance to Nik’s workshop. Max instinctively raised an eyebrow at the shoddy piece of crooked metal Cy had been desperately trying to bend into… something. “What’s so funny? This is meant to be your job, take over.”

  Obediently, Max began getting ready without any arguments. Cy tried his best to wipe away the sweat and particles of metal blown up into his face. Examining the piece of metal and ignoring Cy’s bitching, Max’s mind was still trying to digest what had happened this morning. Pompey’s nonsensical words, ‘Adelaid’s’ appearance, Adelaid’s appearance, Sister Delilah’s vanishing act, Pompey’s death; where should he start. “A lot happened while I was gone,” Max interrupted. Cy pouted when he realised he was being ignored. “I’m just going to list everything off. You stop me when you have questions.”

  “Hopefully, it’ll explain your fate being suddenly wonky. What the fuck happened?”

  Max took in a deep breath before letting the words spew without stop. “Kurt left me with Pompey, who was a bedridden weirdo. He confirmed completing a five-star story and kept talking about how I was approaching my final days. And final days as in dead-dead; no more reincarnations. I think that’s what Darius means by becoming an after. Anyway, a nun joined us. Only it was the mayor’s long, lost daughter. She’s a nun now. We chatted for a bit, I told some stories, and Pompey revealed we need to add your name to their crystal. Also, the aliens are after the crystal for whatever reason.

  “Anyway, Adelaide showed up. But then a prompt also appeared revealing I’ve met all the five-star people. I think it was Aldwin. It’s just my hunch. And then the fake Adelaide ran as soon as she saw a nun. I chased, she vanished, Kurt revealed the real Adelaide had shown up at the estate. We went back up. The nun was gone, and we found Pompey dead in his bed.”

  “… Quite a day out, then?” Cy looked lost with how to handle the overwhelming summary. “And did you write my name on the crystal?”

  Max frowned at his ridiculous response. “I can’t write.”

  “Then get Kurt to write it for us?” Cy scoffed at the weak rebuttal.

  “Kurt was busy with the dead body. Apparently, Pompey was his bio dad’s favourite magic man, so they’ll be planning an extravagant funeral for him. Besides, he didn’t say how we should write your name.”

  “You think we’d need to use runes?”

  “Maybe,” Max admitted. A magic bouncing crystal? Sounded like a potential experiment June and her followers would do. He pondered for a second. “Should we ask Kurt when he’s free?”

  “We don’t have many other options without significantly more risk.” Max watched Cy’s face drop when he threw the forged scrap of metal back into the melting pot before accepting the waste of his afternoon’s labour.

  Cy took the chance to grab a snack out of his pocket, as he thought to himself before asking, “Tell me more about what Pompey said about your final days.”

  “Out of everything that happened, that’s the one you’re asking about?”

  “What did you think I would want to talk about?”

  “Aldwin? Adelaide? Sister Delilah?”

  “Ah, I’ve got a couple of questions about them too,” Cy admitted. “But I want to know about this final death.”

  “From what I could gather from his ramblings, we are all edging towards a ‘final end.’ Higher difficulty stories hurry this process along. Apparently, it’s one of the reasons why I smell something rotten.”

  “Are there any other indicators?”

  “Seeing things in reflections, then glass, liquid, lights. He also mentioned a ‘her,’ and how I was supposed to meet ‘her’ at some point.”

  “You don’t know who she is?”

  “Haven’t the foggiest.”

  “Could she be the nun?”

  The idea of Sister Delilah being ‘her’ was oddly frightening to Max. There was something off-putting about how everything unravelled in Pompey’s room. He was used to strange beings and inexplicable occurrences thanks to story progression by the system. This one took the cake as one of his most unsettling and exciting events he had experienced in many lifetimes.

  “Are you scared?”

  Max dropped the metal tool he was holding in surprise from the question. On the other end of the room, Cy watched him with a genuinely concerned look. “Scared? Of nuns? I guess they’re kind of intimidating-”

  “Of the final death, dumbass.”

  “Nope.”

  “Really?”

  “Well, death is inevitable.”