Chapter Text
They sat for what felt like hours.
Raymond guessed it probably hadn’t been that long. Maybe just a few seconds, a few minutes at most—with Evbo breathing raggedly into his shoulder, tears seeping into Raymond's shirt, and quiet mumbles.
Despite how many questions burned in his mind, the guard didn’t try to ask. He could’ve stayed, right there, gripping Evbo’s shoulders like he would shatter if Raymond even moved an inch—for as long as he needed to. As long as Evbo needed him to.
Eventually, he heard Evbo’s cries quiet. His breathing slow. His hiccupy sobs fade. And they were met with the quiet of the manor. Dirty, diorite walls, not as uncomfortable as the stone—but colder. Much, much colder. The white glass windows let a generous amount of light through, but the torches and lanterns still lit up most of the space. It smelled of a familiar smoke, one that made the guard’s nose wrinkle in disgust, but still—he held strong.
It wasn’t until Evbo pulled away that Raymond allowed himself to breathe again.
Evbo stared blearily at him for a moment. The guard met his gaze, softly, ready for the player to start crying again. But he didn’t.
Instead, Evbo slowly looked around the room, his room, thought behind his eyes. He observed the pool for a moment, then the torches, the window. The guard’s armor. Raymond’s shield. Then his breath caught, and he spun sluggishly back to Raymond.
“How did you close the door without a sword?” The player prompted.
Raymond raised an eyebrow. Why was that important? He gave a light laugh, recalling the memory. “I… I had to punch the armor stand? It took a few tries.”
Evbo processed that answer for a second. He blinked slowly, freeing a few stray tears that had built, refreshing the previous look on his face—which Raymond might’ve guessed was panic.
The guard squinted at him. “Why?”
“Just that you were maybe a—”
“A challenger?” Raymond guessed. Evbo nodded hesitantly. “Nope. All of… that is pretty new to me. Never seen any other gear besides a sword. And my shield, of course.”
The player relaxed a bit more, to Raymond’s relief.
The guard felt it was safer to press for an answer now. “How does all that ‘challenger’ stuff work, anyway?” He carefully questioned.
Evbo perked up slightly at the question. “Well, uhm, the way it was explained to me, it’s like… a choice. To become a wooden sword.” He quickly supplied as he wiped some of the wet from his face, grateful for the distraction. “You can advance through PVP civilization to get a sword. The sword. The eternal sword, the one that… yeah. I found out a bunch of the swords here are actually other weapons, too, while I was battling my way down here. The guy who imprisoned me? He was an axe, and Parrot was a bow, and that PrinceZam guy? He had a trident.” He sucked in an unsteady breath. “And… and Tabi. She was an axe.”
Raymond noted the hesitation in his voice. Like he still couldn’t believe it.
The guard let it sink in. “Wow. I mean, she always seemed more skilled than the average sword—but I always thought it was ‘cause she was careful.”
Evbo just nodded along. His eyes were far away, just as they were when he first walked in, empty and thoughtful. How they could be both at the same time?—the guard didn’t know. A few moments of quiet passed. He saw tears welling up in Evbo’s eyes again.
“What is it?” Raymond asked.
He saw Evbo hesitate for a moment. The player blinked them back, flicking his eyes up to look at the guard.
“It’s just—how could someone be like that? Be so strong, so trusting, so…” Evbo trailed off. He locked his gaze on the swaying water below. “So believable?”
“Well, I guess…” Raymond let himself pause and think.
This was new. He was still grappling with it himself.
Even when he’d seen Tabi at the wood sword level, she was a mystery. Precise and determined—giving her daily swings, carefully deciding when to leave her room, always having one eye open when she slept. There had been something different about her. He and the other guards had been slightly surprised when she’d quickly secured her three kills, effortlessly cutting and swinging her sword like it was second nature. It was like she’d had years of practice. Which, it turns out, she had.
That was a good place to begin, he supposed. “Tabi… came from somewhere else. A different world to us. It’s hard for us to understand ‘cause we don’t really, actually, know how that world works. How she works.” Raymond spoke. He silently hoped Evbo didn’t pick up on the unsure tone.
Evbo nodded. It seemed to calm him slightly, before the worry appeared on his face once again. “Thing is, I… I think she spared me? She could’ve killed me with the sword, then I wouldn’t’ve respawned, and there was no use for keeping me alive—so why wouldn’t she permakill me? The final blow was with her axe, and before she stabbed me it seemed like she didn’t want to hurt me, and I could tell there was some of the old Tabi in there, and—it’s just!” He ran a hand through his hair, along with a deep breath. “It’s just so confusing. I don’t know how she feels, I don't know how I’m supposed to feel, I don’t know how anything feels!”
The guard let himself slip again. He raised a careful hand and placed it on Evbo’s shoulder.
Evbo didn’t react. At least, not outwardly. “And… and it all just doesn’t seem like it means anything anymore, y'know? I found out that me having the armor stand in my room was just luck. Somebody else, another diamond sword, had it before I did. So it wasn’t all really meant to be, or, whatever.” His voice was thick and crackly. “I was just some guy at the right place, at the right time.”
Raymond blinked, thinking back to Evbo’s wooden sword room. The armor stand, Evbo had thought you’d have to pay in order to sleep—it must’ve been in there before Evbo spawned in. Before the guard had spawned in, probably.
“So you’re not really the chosen one, then?”
Evbo looked away from the guard’s face. He stared down at the floor. “...Nope.”
Raymond paused for a moment, then hummed. He could see the way Evbo bore his eyes down the floor, deep in thought. The guard tutted silently for a second. This guy. Hopeless.
“So now what?”
Evbo pulled his eyes up. “What?”
“So now what’re you gonna do?” Raymond prompted. Did he have to spell it out for him?
The player stared at him for a second, before looking over to the armor stand by the door. The wood was still splintered from when Raymond had punched it prior. Evbo lingered on it.
The look in his eyes was one the guard wasn’t all too familiar with. It shined.
“I go after her. I guess.” He gave a little laugh.
“You guess?”
Evbo laughed a bit more. “I know. I’ll go after her. Whether she wants me to or not.” He spoke, a confident smile on his face.
The guard gave the barest of grins in return. “So what’re you waiting for?”
Evbo’s smile wavered a bit, thinking. “...Could you walk me to the red gate?” He mumbled out, a guilty lilt to his voice.
The guard looked at him for a moment. Red, puffy eyes—scars crawling up his neck onto his cheeks, hair messy and unkempt—his shaky, unsure tone, betraying the confidence he once bolstered—Raymond couldn’t find it in himself to say no. If this were earlier, he would’ve brought up how there was no danger. All the malicious iron swords were gone, and he was perfectly safe, and perfectly capable of getting there on his own. There was no point in going with him.
But now there was.
Strangely enough, there was.
So, slowly, yet firmly, Raymond nodded.
Slowly, he rose to a stand, bringing Evbo up with him. The player stumbled a bit, leaning a portion of his weight on Raymond. Slowly, he placed a supporting hand around him, taking it. Evbo took a few careful steps forward, and Raymond followed.
Slowly, he guided him out the door, down the ladder, onto the grass.
Evbo was right. The iron sword level was absent of any of the bustling crowds Raymond had grown so used to. It felt empty. And cold.
But still, slowly, the guard and Evbo made their way to the red gate. It loomed as high as it always has, two barely scraped-up armor stands standing on opposite sides to each other. Nobody had used them much aside from Evbo and Tabi.
As they both came to a stop, the guard heard a small chuckle from beside him. He turned to look at Evbo. The player had his neck craned up, staring almost at the ceiling, eyeing the large bricks of wood, stone, and iron.
“Yknow, this makes me think back to when this all started. My first PVP battle.” He spoke, a melancholy tone in his voice. “You remember, don’t you?”
Raymond remembered. He nodded gently.
Evbo gave a bitter smile. “I remember waking up that morning. Paying my two hits. To you. My sword, on the verge of breaking—I thought I was gonna die.” He gave another short laugh, turning to the guard. “You thought so too. That’s why you picked me to go in that arena, right? ‘Cause I was weak.”
“I’m still surprised you even made it out of there.” The guard joked with a half-hearted laugh.
The bitter smile turned bittersweet as Evbo let out another giggle. “Yeah, yeah. Well, the reason I made it out is ‘cause the other guy surrendered. He threw his sword on the ground. Basically killed himself.” Evbo gave another long glance up at the ceiling. “But before that, he said some crazy stuff about the world. Said that it didn’t make any sense, and there was something more, and we didn’t actually need to hold onto our weapons.
“...But then he let go of his sword to prove it, and well—you know how that turned out. I thought he was insane.” Evbo grinned. “And now I can’t help but think he was right. About some of it, I mean. Obviously we can’t just throw our weapons around wherever, but… there is something more to this place. More than just surviving, surely. There has to be.”
Raymond stared at Evbo.
A part of him believed this wasn’t the same wooden sword he’d met back then. The way the player held himself, the scars that carved their way across almost every inch of exposed skin, the bags under his eyes—the way he looked at him.
But then again, this made sense. This was the boy who’d made it past the wood sword level. Then the stone, the iron, the gold. One after the other, bleeding or hungry, respawn after respawn—sprinting or crawling his way down to salvation. What he thought would be salvation, anyway.
It was incredible, it was appalling, it was stupid.
Evbo was stupid. Stupidly real. Stupidly hopeful.
And now every death he’d experienced, every wound he’d endured, every betrayal he’d felt—it had all built to this. To the player who was standing in front of Raymond right now. It was unbelievable. It was incredible.
This was what some people might’ve called admiration. The guard would never.
Raymond took a step back. He stared at Evbo for a moment more, then turned his head up to the Red Gate. “You’ll have to find out without me.”
The player glanced up as well. “...Yeah.” He shuffled forward toward the armor stands, drifting to the one on the right. He hefted his sword up, and with three quick hits, the gate slid open.
Evbo stumbled toward it.
Raymond watched as he slowed to stop. There was a hesitance in each step he took, careful and apprehensive, like he was walking on ice. With just one misplaced step, he could slip. It was jarring. It felt so natural—though it was the farthest thing from Evbo in his mind. Careful. When had this guy ever been careful?
He spun around to look at the guard again. Raymond held his breath.
“Thank you, Raymond. Really. For everything. Once I figure everything out, find Tabi, and understand all of—all of this, I’ll…” Evbo swallowed thickly, a weak smile on his face. “I’ll come back for you. We’ll get out of here. Together.”
Raymond wanted to say something. He really, really, did. But he found that the words got caught in his throat.
The guard couldn’t muster anything but a nod in response.
Then Evbo turned. Facing away, he walked forward, through the gate. He stepped in the tall, looming hallway, with a sense of familiarity. He adjusted the grip on his sword. His stance shifted, fixing his posture, cracking his neck.
And then the doors started to close, and oh he was running out of time, and man—why now of all times did these stupid doors have to work as intended?
Now was the time to say something. Something, something, anything really. Did he even have anything meaningful to say? There had to be something meaningful. Something real.
Then he caught a glimpse of the small flicker in Evbo’s stance. For a second, his shoulders slumped, his grip loose, his knees weak. In the same way they were when he first met him. The same way he’d looked when Raymond had woken him up for his daily swing, the same way he’d looked when he would return from the marketplace—the same way he’d looked when Raymond had chosen him for the PVP battle. Scared.
And there was only one thing he could think of to say.
“Don’t die, dude.”
The player turned to look at him with a smile. There was still fear in his eyes, his stance, his gaze. But he was smiling.
He saw as Evbo opened his mouth to respond.
Then the doors finally slid shut.
And Raymond was left alone.
Why did that feel like a goodbye? Evbo sucked at PVP. No doubt he’d be climbing down through here when he inevitably died again.
So why did that feel so final?
The iron sword level was eerily quiet. Nobody roamed around the exit. There was no familiar clinking of swords, or armor, or shields. It felt empty. He stared at the gate.
Evbo was just behind that wall.
There wasn’t anything separating them but stone and rock. If he had a sword, he could probably smack a dent into it. Smash it with an axe, wear it down with a bow, poke a hole through with a trident. It wouldn’t be easy, no, nothing ever is here. The guard tightened his hold on his shield. He stared at it like it would move by sheer will. If he thought hard enough, it would crumble, and everything would be easy.
But that wasn’t how it worked. Raymond knew that.
And so he turned away from the stony, mossy, grey wall. The stark red of the gate. He found his feet moving, before he even meant them to, slowly across the grass. They took him forward through the open space, up to the ladder that led to Evbo’s mansion. He climbed it without a second thought.
He blinked for just a moment, barely a second, and he was already in the mansion.
He punched the armor stand once again, letting the door slide shut. There wasn’t anyone out there to attack him anymore, but—it didn’t matter.
He took a seat on the edge of Evbo’s bed, staring down at the floor. Then the window, the walls. And then finally, the video journal machine. It had new entries on it. Three, or four, the guard couldn’t tell.
Raymond found himself fiddling with the machine. Scrolling through the entries. Clicking on the first one. Selecting, ‘play.’
The video began. The guard sighed, barely even listening. Just thinking. About everything.
Now it was time for the waiting game.
Evbo’s mansion wasn’t the worst place to stay, he supposed.