VRMMO: World's First Glyphborne

Revenant tried to speak, weaving together cleverly crafted lies he had prepared to defend himself. These question were, after all, inevitable with the knowledge he held and how freely he shared it with those below him. But his voice immediately caught in his throat as he began to spill those lies, and instead started to choke on them.

They felt like a lump, filling his entire throat and the more he tried to force them out, the larger the lump grew. All he could do was swallow the lies, and replace it with the truth. It was an influence he was already starting to feel.

If he told the truth, then everything would be okay. He would feel better after telling the truth. It just made sense. After all, who didn’t love hearing the truth? The truth was fantastic and lying... lying was just horrible.

Lying was what made this choking feeling in his throat. Lying felt like it was actually trying to kill him. But telling the truth... that would make him feel so alive. It was so right!

No! He couldn’t! This wasn’t him!

Revenant let out another choked gag, as his body fought against him, as did his mind. He forced those thoughts away, knowing who was forcing them into his mind. He tried to look away from those enthralling eyes, but his body refused to do anything until he followed their orders, and yet he was putting his everything into keeping himself from doing that.

Belladonna scowled, increasing the intensity of the mana flooding her eyes, causing them to glow brighter and for their strangle hold on Revenant’s mind to tighten. She could feel him fighting her, feel him resisting with every fibre of his being, and she needed him to break.

Tears of blood started to trickle from Revenant’s eyes, as he shuddered and choked. His mind killing itself as he fought tooth and nail to resist. But there was only so long he could hold on for. So he moved his fight somewhere else, forcing his mind to move his arm.

"I’m..." He strained the word out, as his hand started to fumble around the pouches that hung on his belt.

"From..." His hand found the pouch he was looking for, quickly slipping inside and grabbing the small object stored within.

"The future..." He gagged out, before thrusting his hand forwards. He pressed the stone in his hand against Belladonna’s chest, causing her to gasp in shock before her skill immediately cut off.

She staggered backwards, her muscles suddenly turning to jelly as her eyes stung. The mana inside of her body had suddenly gone wild at the stones touch, throwing her entire system through a loop.

Revenant panted heavily as he collapsed to his knees, his own system suffering from the same effects as the stone was still clutched tight in his hand. He struggled to get it back into his pouch, before gasping as he finally regained order within his body.

"Don’t you ever do that to me again. I might not have your strength, but there are plenty of ways to keep things like you in line. Ditainium. Made for people like you." He half explained, before rising to his feet and glaring down at her.

Belladonna rose herself, rolling her neck and flexing her fingers as she resisted the urge to punch him. One touch from that ’Ditainium’ was enough to make her feel like she did in her real body.

Weak, useless and every part of her being fighting against her to keep her that way.

"I don’t know why you thought your skill would work..." Figg said, helping Belladonna to her feet with a kind, warm smile that hinted at a little worry for her mental state.

"Maybe you should take a break, you know? Remember reality and stuff. I know the game is realistic, and it can be hard to remember, but it’s just a game in the end. You can’t force anyone to-"

Belladonna cut him off by whipping her head towards him and locking eyes with him, as she activated the skill again.

"Answer truthfully, How much have you donated to your favourite streamer?"

Figg, taken off guard by the sudden turn, didn’t possess the same mental resilience and guard as Revenant as he immediately blurted out the answer.

"I don’t know the total, but once I donated a grand just to have a one on one chat with them and spent most of the time gushing about how much I love her content."

He blinked a few times as Belladonna cut off the skill before his hands clamped over his mouth and he stumbled back as his eyes widened in shock and pure, unrestrained horror.

Vestra burst out laughing, unable to help herself, as she jabbed a finger towards him.

"Ahaha! You are a certified Simp! I bet she thought you were a total creepazoid after that! I can’t believe you just said that all because of a skill in a game!" She howled with laughter.

Belladonna looked over at Vestra, her eyes starting to glow again, "Shall we do you next? Just so you know how real it is?"

Vestra’s laughter immediately died out, as she yelped in fear and clamped her hands over her eyes. She turned away, starting to walk around the room blindly as she, badly, sang the theme tune of an old space cowboy anime to herself as if to drown out Belladonna’s voice.

Belladonna smirked to herself, and then turned back to Revenant.

"So, the future huh? You’ve done this all before. That’s why you know everything. Well... Almost everything."

Revenant grit his teeth, scowling deeply at her as if he was contemplating her real murder, rather than just in the game, to keep his secret before he just sighed.

"Yes. You got me. I’m from the future. Specifically I’m-"

"You’re a Regressor!" Lilith shouted with a gasp, "You died in the future and came back to play your favourite game again and become the very best of all. No wonder you are such an edgelord!"

All of the party, excluding Vestra who was still badly singing the theme tune to avoid her own embarrassment, turned to Lilith and gave her a variety of strange or curious looks. Revenant looked both impressed and annoyed at how accurate she was.

"What?" She muttered with a shrug. "I like to read a lot. It’s a classic genre. I am allowed nerdy hobbies too, you know. I’m not just the super hot fiancée."

Revenant sighed again, this time with a little added annoyance at being interrupted.

"She is right. I am a Regressor. I come from a future in which the world ends, over run by monsters and defended by the remaining members of the human race, who wield the magic of this game."