Collide Gamer

John prided himself on a near flawless memory.

Of the morning of his wedding day, few details remained by the time he had reached noon. He was vaguely aware that he had gotten up, done the routine, and marched to where he was expected to be. He had not seen his women all morning, a separation of the sexes had been instituted in anticipation of the final event. A last withdrawal, before everything would return to a new level of normalcy.

“How are the nerves?” Maximillian asked.

“I honestly feel like I am dreaming,” John responded.

“Then you are like every other man in existence.” The best man of the wedding smacked the groom on the shoulder. “Come on, you have a speech to hold.”

John felt like he was floating as he walked outside the tent. There was the stage, positioned right where he had held the opening speech with his wife-to-be. She was not there. This was his speech to hold, a final addressing not of the public but of the few dozen that had been allowed to enter the cathedral during the ceremony. It would not be televised. It would not be recorded. It was for their memory and their memory alone.

He climbed the stairs, walked to the podium, and looked over the familiar faces before him. Least he knew the relatives that had made their way to this occasion. Rave’s grandparents were still foreign to him and, if he was honest, he did not know much about Regan, Nariko or Liz either. Irielz sat in the small crowd, around her Maximillian’s other women, Alice and Laralia, smiling up at him encouragingly. The succubus, too, was a distant acquaintance at most, but they knew each other enough to care.

There were Magnus and Nina, sitting arm in arm. There were Romulus, Sol and Luna, beholding him with quiet approval. There were Emrik and Marcella, for once the Speaker was smiling openly. There was the Horned Rat, an odd presence that John had felt the need to invite all the same. For as muddled as their relationship was, they still owed each other much.

There was William, who bowed his head respectfully when John’s gaze drifted over him. There was Daiyu, who sat beside the empty chair of her mistress. Lu Zhi had decided to compromise the thinning cover on their relationship to be with Rave during this time. There were Chemilia and Ted, the latter leaning on the former. There was Horace, the foremost loyalist John had in the political arena and a friend of a sort close enough to invite. There was the Splatterknight and Hyozuma, recent additions who fell in the same category.

There were other faces in the back. Friends Rave had made during her work. Friends that John had made during his politicking and adventuring. Friends of the sort that could be called on in an emergency but that were seldom involved in the life otherwise.

In totality, the crowd was less than 60 people. A huge wedding by some measures, a tiny one by others, and a miniscule one, certainly, measured against his importance in the world and the vista chosen.

“I thought…” John began to speak, only to stop and reconsider his words. He shook his head, then continued as he had planned, “…that I would be holding a grand speech at this point. I thought that I would be addressing the nation one last time as a bachelor.”

He glanced at the cameras. They were representative of the crowd beyond those directly in front of him. There would be no cameras inside the cathedral, but there were plenty of guests beyond those he had wanted present at the exchange of vows that crowded beyond. There was no stopping them from filming.

“I thought I would do another one of my indulgent monologues… but I can’t. Standing here, all I can think about is what awaits me. The rite that is long overdue… and that I shall delay no longer.”

John pressed a button, which sent a signal to the multitude of people standing at the ready around the veiled cathedral. He turned around, to see the ludicrously sized cloth fall off the grand building like a dress off a woman’s curves.

Though John had greater appreciation for the female form, the building was gorgeous all the same. It was gothic and yet not. Lorelei had worked together with Scarlett and Eliana to attempt to make her vision of the world something that the naked eye could see.

In place of the usual spires were rounded arches, coalescing at the roof’s zenith. The slanted stone slabs came in a manifold of muted colours, prismatic scales designed not to compete with the more colourful stained glass windows that were used in the construction of each of the towers that marked the cardinal directions and the large belltower that rose from the centre of the cathedral’s body.

As it was a construction not of Christianity but of the Order, the cathedral was not laid out like a cross but akin to a golden rose. Outer walls of various heights encapsulated a garden of gold-leaved trees and flowers, to try and attempt the look of petals. Try and succeed, in John’s estimation.

“The Cathedral of the New Dawn, sponsored, named and designed by my Lorelei,” the Gamer said. “It is my honour to be the first man to be wed in such a place.”

With that, he stepped away from the podium. Behind him, Maximillian did his part as the best man. “Follow me, everyone!” he declared.

John walked down the path between stage and cathedral. It was only a hundred metres long. It felt like forever. He walked through gorgeous arches, past carefully laid out gardens, always towards the dark oaken door of the building of prismatic colours and glowing lights. Only the finest resources of the original Guild Hall had been allowed to be fashioned into a house to the Lady’s worship.

The doors opened on their own, enchantments on the hinges reacting to his approach. When he stepped inside, he was treated to the true splendour of such a building. For day and night, artists had worked to get the structure prepared for this day. They were not finished. John could see it in the smooth surfaces between ornamental pillars and the relatively simple paintings that decorated the ceiling. Only the central dome had been completed. John had to tilt his neck all the way back to get a proper view of it as he walked down the aisle. His feet fell softly on the golden carpet.

Depicted was the Lady of the Lake, a green-haired woman that resembled the Gaia he knew in the most important details. The waters were surrounded by golden shores that transitioned into the petals of a rose.

When his gaze wandered down, he was not surprised to find Gaia herself hovering above the central dais. The supreme deity wore her elaborate black dress, shimmering with the otherworldly powers she wielded, concentrated into leylines that ran over its surface.

There was a moment of rage inside his soul. A simple and intense reminder that this was the deity that governed the world that had allowed his parents to die. In the joy of the day, that rage was simply subsumed.

“If I may do the honours?” the supreme deity asked.

“It would be my privilege,” John responded. Their intended taker of vows, Lucifrena, stood just a few steps removed on the dais.

The groom turned around and faced the room. Rows of benches were being filled by those that had followed them in. Compared to the sheer size of the round chamber, the crowd looked even smaller than it had been in concept. They barely filled the first row of seats, a semi-circle around the platform in the middle. Behind John rose a shrine fashioned from gold, Mithril, and precious gems, a relic that William had brought over from England and that now had found its home here.

John adjusted his suit. Was he presentable enough? He had exchanged the usual Suit of the Chosen for a white one for this occasion. A dark blue shirt and a golden tie all matched the colours of the occasion, he hoped. The only part of him that was black were the shined shoes he wore.

Irrational nervousness crashed down on him in waves. He had not experienced stage fright in a long time. Now that he was the man of the hour, now that the eyes of everyone were upon him, he felt something far worse. They were all there to witness his greatest triumph, the gaining of the fairest bride on the entire planet. What if they were going to watch his ultimate humiliation instead?

Of course that was ridiculous.

And yet...

“Thank you all for being here,” Maximillian raised his voice. The gravity king climbed three of the five steps of the dais, then stopped and faced the crowd. “It wasn’t too long ago that I had the honour of hosting many of you for my own wedding. John had nice words for me to say then… and I will not break with that tradition.

“As men of character and import, it’s rare to have good friends. Many relationships are transactional. Transactional relationships may become friendships, rarely, but they always begin with doubt. Rare is it to have a friend as a king. Rarer is it to have a peer. The rarest is to have a comrade, a brother in soul, who one can trust with life and purpose.”

Maximillian smirked over his shoulder for a moment, a confident smile on his lips that managed to distract John from his onsetting panic for a moment.

“We are not the same people. We come from very different places. Abyss and mundane, Austria and America, royalty and middle class. We have been opponents, ambivalent sharers of space, friends and now… we are as close as two men can ever hope to be. It is my truest honour to stand here as your best man.

“To you, the few that were invited to watch this most important moment of his so far, I will not waste much time extolling his virtues. Each of you has benefitted from him in some way. Each of you has no doubt also suffered under his whims a bit. He can be conceited and he has his own goals. Truthfully, we have spent many drunken moments arguing.

“But is that not the essence of being peers? Is that not the essence of being a good friend? To argue, perhaps loudly, about the greatest and smallest of things? What friendship is born out of agreement? None at all.”

Maximillian stopped for a moment, to adjust his tie. A born and groomed public speaker, he knew exactly when to let the crowd rest and when to recover composure spent on wide gestures.

“John and Jane,” he continued, “are, perhaps, the most deserving two to ever be called a power couple. Though their names may delude one to think they are just average people, they are anything but. They found each other in the middle of this continent and have been changing lives ever since. He pulled her out of being just another talented woman without ambition. She pulled him out of being content with being a stammering nerd. They, in the most complimenting sense that there ever could be, deserve each other.

“Is their relationship unorthodox? Of course it is. Even as one blessed with several loving women myself, I find myself staggered by the scale of their little web of adoration. That it functions is a credit to its strong core. A beating heart that can sustain the functions of such an extensive body.”

The gravity king took another pause, fully turning to John, only to bow at the hip.

“To you, my friend, who has stood by me at my direst time, I wish the greatest of blessings. You have nothing to be nervous about. All is as it ought to be.”

Perhaps it was a break of protocol, but John could not stay where he was. He descended halfway from the dais, to embrace his brother in all but blood in the final embrace as a bachelor. Maximillian laughed, responding to the sudden hug in kind. They separated when the sound of distant violins began to ring through the cathedral. The musicians, led by Siena, were announcing the arrival of the bridal procession.

Emerging from side corridors of the cathedral entered the people John cherished above all. Siena, Undine and Nightingale were first. The sole violin thrummed gentle tones, accompanying a rising chorus of slime and harpy. The immaculate construction of the cathedral emphasized the tones into a sanctified echo.

Nathalia and Eliana emerged next, then the elemental girls, all of them dressed in dresses of fine make yet simple design, an unspoken statement that they would not outshine the bride. Momo followed, then Lydia, Nia, Metra, Scarlett, Beatrice, Lorelei, Lee, Delicia, Claire, Hailey, Lu Zhi, Ehtra, Moira, Nahoa and Lyndell. Even Fianna was there, though she was disguised, part of the crowd of lesser acquaintances that had been allowed entry. There were all of his loves… except two.

Just as John began to wonder, they emerged – Rave and Aclysia.

Both dressed as brides.