I stood and helped Alia to her feet. She wiped her eyes and looked unhappy. I held out her dress. She looked at me for a long moment before taking it and walking past me. She put it on while I walked over to the secret corridor and pushed the secret button. She walked over to me and asked “Where are we going?”

  I paused at that, considered her words, then asked. “Do.. you still want to travel with me?” I didn’t make eye contact. I was pretty sure now that she knew the truth she blamed me now more than ever. If she was suspicious earlier, that was the mask coming off.

  “Of course? Why wouldn’t I?” She looked at me puzzled. Bringing her hands together she swallowed and looked away. I bit my lower lip.

  “You know why.” I said quietly as the door to the secret corridor slid open and I grabbed the unlit torch off the wall. Lighting it by using the system prompt that popped up, I entered the corridor.

  “I mean.. I am not going to pretend that this isn’t… a lot for me. But.. Why would I leave the person I love because I am overwhelmed?” She asked, confused.

  I froze, then turned to her. “You can’t be serious!?” I said in surprise. I leaned the torch forward, maybe she had just been replaced with one of the mimics. But no, her eyes were completely normal.

  “What!” She snapped at me angrily. “I am going through a lot, if you have something to say, just say it!” As she said this, she summoned her bubble rifle and glared at me.

  I turned to walk down the hall. It wasn’t worth it. We just needed to find Sapphire’s spawn point and… and… “Becuase I am literally a monster Alia. Look at me! You were coding to love me. Everyone here was. I am pretty sure the King would suddenly be able to undress if I liked men!” I snapped before I could stop myself.

  Her eyes narrowed. “How do you know that I am like them? You said it yourself! I am like you now! A.. a play.. er!” She stepped forward and grabbed my hand. I pulled it away.

  “You don’t get it! You love me because you were programmed too. You all were. You are all just lifelike dolls in a toybox made by a horny god!” I said as tears streamed down my cheeks. “None of you are real! I have played along up to this point, and you certainly are acting differently. But this isn’t the first time this shit hole has tricked me! I will not be fooled again!” I screamed at her as rage filled me.

  Turning, I threw the torch down and sprinted into the hall. I didn’t want to deal with this. I needed to deal with Sapphire. She was a threat. Making my way to the other side, I pulled the lever and the door swung open. Stepping out, I noticed something odd.

  Where were the maids? Usually they were swarming around like a stupid little hive mind. But.. they were nowhere to be seen. I looked around and jerked when I felt a hand on my arm. Pulling away, I turned to find.. Alia. “Don’t run away like that!” She snapped. “I had to kill some stupid mimic thing in that hallway. It tried to kidnap me.”

  I frowned and opened my mouth to respond when I heard a voice. “There you are, Hero!” I looked where the voice was coming from right as a force rammed into me. At level 10, I fell over easily. I brought my arms up in defense. But a maid.. Wait.. a maid?! She was trying to tear my clothes off. She was completely naked from what I could see and was trying to rape me!

  I heard the bubble rifle fire and the maid fell off me, unmoving. With dozens of biters crawling over her body and eating it. I stood panting as I stared. What the fuck was going on?! I summoned my spear right as another naked maid rounded the corner and rushed me.

  Alia fired multiple shots of her bubble pistol before swapping to her rifle. The maid dodged most of her bullets like a damn maniac on steroids. I shifted and my spear made contact, barely, with her neck. Sliced through it and separated her head from her body. She collapsed to the floor unmoving.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Oh Hero!” A symphony of voices called out. I felt my spine grow cold and began to panic. Alia grabbed my arm.

  “Calm down! There may be a lot of them, but they are just fast. They don’t have powers. We can win.” Alia’s words comforted me and I relaxed slightly. Right as I did, another maid rounded the corner down the hall… and another.. And another.. And another. After only a few seconds, we had close to thirty maids barreling towards us.

  “Fuck!” I said as I grabbed Alia and activated anti gravity. We floated into the air and she kept firing. Luckily, the hallway had a tall ceiling and we pushed up against over fifty feet in the air. Alia kept firing her pistol at them and I threw my spear and recalled it repeatedly.

  We took out about a dozen before another figure appeared. I felt my blood run cold as Ruby stepped into the hallway and looked directly at me. “Oh Hero!” She said as she began to charge. I threw my spear helplessly. As expected, Ruby dodged to the right and shot a fireball directly at me.I let go of gravity just in time for the fireball to hit where we just were.

  “Fuck! I didn’t know she could do that!” Alia said in shock and pain. She hadn’t stopped firing at the maids. There were only around a dozen left. She was making quick work of them.. But now we were going towards them. I threw my spear and hit another fireball coming at us, causing it to explode midair.

  “Oh Hero! Don’t be like that! We just wanna play with you!” Ruby said as she came closer. She was naked like the maids. Never thought I would be disappointed to see Ruby without her dress. I recalled and fired my spear again, this time it got closer, but Ruby simply sidestepped it and then did something even I didn’t know she could do.

  Ruby rushed to the side and put her hands against the wall. A line of fire spread from her head directly to us. She turned her head unnaturally at us. Now Hero, Get down here and let us pleasure you!”

  “No you don’t!” Alia suddenly screamed as she pushed off of me and fired her bubble rifle. She fired it towards me! Or so I thought. Instead she fired past me, pushed her towards ruby. She fired again and kicked off a side wall, ramming full force into Ruby. This caused Ruby to fall over and the fire to stop spreading. The maids all turned and began to rush Alia.

  “No!” I said and let go of antigravity. I hit the ground hard and the maids paused, as if confused for a second. Then turned and began rushing back towards me. Wincing as I stood, I saw Alia choking ruby and punching her in the face.

  I heard her voice over the sound of footsteps. “He is mine you bitch!” Alia truly had.. A way with words. The maids reached me and I stabbed the first one in the head, she didn’t even dodge. I wondered why for a split second before another one grabbed me from behind. A third ripped my shirt off.

  “Hey I paid good gold for that!” I cried out. That was a lie. I learned early on I could just steal from the stores and nothing happened. But still! Now I had to get a new shirt. Wait, now wasn’t the time! I leaned back on the maid holding me and kicked another in the face as she reached for my pants. Two more grabbed the ends of my pants and began trying to pull them off.

  “Shit.. talk about an offer you can’t refuse..” I muttered as I struggled against them. There were too many and they were too strong. Then I heard a snap. That was the sound of a neck snapping. A moment later, Maids started screaming and falling over. The little bubble gun bugs began eating them all alive as Alia fired into the crowd like a machine gun. A few broke off and went after her.

  She pulled a knife out. I don’t remember her having that, maybe she found it? When they got close enough she did something unexpected. She smiled and slit her own throat. I stared in shock and the maids finally got my pants off and went for my underwear.

  Alia appeared above me, instantly fell on me, knocked the maid holding me down and freeing me from their grasp temporarily. She instantly summoned her bubble rifle and killed the two maids that were going for my underwear as I summoned my spear. I jerked the spear upwards and stabbed into the maid that had fallen back and was getting up.

  Ruby fired into the remaining six maids and I managed to stab a few that got to close. After a few moments, they were all dead. We sat in a castle.. In a royal hallway.. Surrounded by naked dead maids and Ruby.. Wait.. Ruby! I looked over and learned where the snap had come from. Alia had snapped Ruby’s neck. Not nicely either. She basically forcefully spun it around to face the ground. Her head was now on backwards.

  After a long moment.. Alia began to laugh. A notification popped up and I joined her.