LOUISE

The Knight’s Fate route began with a flashback. All the routes did, and they were all pretty much the same scene, just with a different legend as your parent, but as my forced recollection began, all I could think was wondering how this would work now. DFA’s career mode was single player. But there were at least two players in this career mode. Would Amvery and I be stuck in the same place? Would she even be a part of this?

The Knight’s Fate flashback began with me feeling enchanted, meeting with my legendary warrior parent, who just went by “Queen.” Her match was in the middle of the show, which I found interesting, as in the career mode I played, whatever route you picked got the last slot.

In the area for guests of the warriors, I watched the Protos mentally prep themselves, with the lights beaming down from the stage casting the prep area in an almost black and white hue. The warriors got ready in different ways. Some meditated, some stretched, some joked around, but even at ten or so years old, I could see the burden of their responsibility weigh on all of them.

One false move, especially by a warrior, could lead to the destruction of all life by the Dralei Va.

The idea of the Dralei Va didn’t frighten me. My speculation was that the DFA writing team had a few different factions who all had their ideas for what the game would be, and the team that was very into the Dralei Va idea had left the project early, leaving them as lore and missing data, which made them more enticing to the fanbase. I admit I did watch quite a few deep dive lore videos about them, but most of the content was fanfiction with how little info there was on them.

Interestingly, the main event was with the legendary fighter Leon, who was the parent in the Warrior’s Lot route.

Because this was like a vivid memory but one that I could control (imagine standing in place and having an intense memory, but one you are also kind of walking around in), I looked around again, spotting Amvery in the crowd. I still couldn’t believe she actually picked the Warrior’s Lot route in this world. Especially with everything that happened to the protagonist of that route.

I watched as Amvery’s father entered the stage. The opponent took to the center of the stage soon after. The two shook hands and pointed their ringcasters at the ground. Four cubes appeared in each corner, rising a bit higher than the warriors. It was the most common configuration of battlegrounds for warriors when a regular ring wasn't involved. The regular one was generally a normal ring you’d see in a boxing or wrestling scenario, but the devs were very proud of their create a ring feature, and the prologue pushed that to the forefront for this battle. Again, there were a lot of battling creative visions for the game, which in my opinion made it all the more unique and special.

Finally, it was time for Leon’s last fight.

Leon struck first, whipping his tail around. His opponent was knocked back easily by it. This wasn’t a battle with weapons, which could be much more fun to watch as Amvery's father was a master of weaponry, this was a challenge of pure physicality. The Proto warrior rose and unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks, knocking Leon back against the side of the ring. One more kick and he fell out backwards, opening himself up for a huge dive from the opponent that made the crowd clap.

I couldn’t help looking back at Amvery to see her reactions. She wasn’t even paying attention to this. Why wouldn’t this have your full attention? Maybe she wasn't adjusting as well to the flashback being effectively a waking dream.

“Watch Dad!” Amvery’s little sister shouted, loud enough for me to hear.

Amvery shrugged.

Dad’s fighting his last fight here!” the young sister said.

“I’ve seen him fight a million times,” Amvery said, getting up from her seat. “Don’t run off or I’ll smack you.”

Ah, right. This was how the Warrior’s Lot route went. The legendary fighter Leon has his last match, but your character is too egotistical to pay attention, and either goes to the food stand or buys a t-shirt. In that regard, of one playing a villain, Amvery was performing her role well.

I looked back to the battle, frustrated Amvery had taken up even just a few minutes of my attention from the fight.

Leon and his opponent were back in the ring now. Despite Leon fighting back for a bit, the other dragon still seemed to have an edge over Amvery’s father, countering any attacks he attempted. One counter slammed Leon to the ground, and it looked like it knocked the wind out of him.

The other Proto looked smug as he kicked at Leon as he lay sprawled on the ground.

As this was Leon’s last fight, it looked like age had caught up with him. Playing the route, it’s clearly obvious and not really sad. But there in person, I was lost in the moment, and screamed for the fighter, hoping my cries would reach him and give him strength.

Leon coughed, groveling on the ground. The enemy fighter laughed and climbed one of the corner cube structures. The Proto shifted into full dragon form with a burst of energy, getting ready to crush Leon. As the opponent dove with wings fully spread, Leon stood up as quick as a lightning strike, also shifting into dragon form to catch his opponent by his throat. With one swift motion, Leon slammed them down, pinning him to the ring. With that, Leon won. The lights in the arena and in the battle area turned blue, showing that Leon’s win had secured the disk city for Indicordia.

That was it. Leon, the Living Dragon, was now retired.

My voice was hoarse from screaming. I looked back to make sure Amvery was seeing this, then sighed seeing her staring deep into her popcorn. After a few minutes of soaking in the adulation of the audience one last time, Leon shifted back to human form and gave a brief speech that I couldn’t quite make out due to the quality of the speakers. In the game, the in-ring part of the flashback ended with Leon picking up a microphone.

Afterwards, I met with my mother, who had some brief words about me becoming a fighter someday. I had heard it a million times, so I tuned it out a bit, my vision following Amvery nearby. She didn’t seem to notice I was there.

Amvery and her sister stopped nearby, waiting for their father to return. The little sister cheered as Leon approached.

“I’m so glad you two could be here for this,” Leon said. “Now I’ll have a lot more time to spend with you, so try not to get too annoyed by me.”

“We’ll try,” Amvery said.

“You were so cool out there!” the younger sister said.

“Are you sad you’re done fighting?” Amvery asked.

“It’s a bit sad to let my legacy stop here,” Leon said. “But maybe you two will continue it someday.”

“’Maybe’? Are you kidding me?” Amvery said. “I’m ready to get in there now!”

“A few more years, kid,” Leon said, wearily but proudly smiling. “A few more years.”

* * *

And with that, we were back. Eight years later, conveniently putting Amvery and myself at the same age we were back home. Whoever did the prologue clearly had the most prepared for the villain route, but I also started ignoring my own flashback once I spotted Amvery, so maybe there was more that I missed, but I doubted that. I had no idea if Amvery even noticed me, it’d be very like her to walk right past me and not notice anything I was going through. Our situation was absurd; but we didn’t have a choice but to carry forward.

Both of us had ended up on the Indicordia brand. That made sense, as both of us had a similar distaste for the Crimsalia brand in general. Us being on the same brand likely meant the business with warring nations wouldn’t be of concern, save for the big events. There are plenty more examples of this game being many creative visions at odds with each other, so prepare for more cases like this.

I got very excited when I saw my first match would be against Amvery. At the very least, getting some of my frustrations out about whatever had brought us to this strange world we both cared so deeply for would help. And taking out my frustrations on Amvery Astrell was generally a good time, especially when DFA was involved. And now we were living it.

By the time my match started, I had prepared like I did before a big game, with stretching, a light workout, and some meditation exercises. The crowd cheered heavily for Amvery, but no matter which alignment you picked, the crowd cheered for your first match. I got a similar reaction, feeling giddy at living out this entrance. As I stood across from her, it hit me that Amvery looked good in the typical DFA attire, a tight top, long tights, fingerless gloves, all mostly black.

I went for a similar attire, going with wrist tape and shorter tights, as I liked how they looked better. My outfit was a light shade of blue with pink and white lining that complimented my new tail well, in my opinion. As I continued to stare at Amvery, it made me angrier and more ready to fight that she pulled off the fighter appearance so well. It also felt strange seeing Amvery Astrell with abs and a more toned body overall (she still had a bit of a chubby tummy and thighs, which was very cute), as she was not big on workouts back in our old world. While I was fuming and itching for battle, I also kept staring for some reason. I wasn’t ogling her or anything, it was just unfair that Amvery looked so good is all! She again didn’t seem to notice my gaze, thankfully. Because of that, I tried to save face when she finally did see my long stare.

“Don’t you have anything to say to me?” I asked.