As the end credits began to roll, the young man behind the screen smiled and shook his head.
"I've played this quest several times, and Leon's death still gets me."
Alex ended his recording session and uploaded the video to his cloud, planning to edit it on his tablet later at school. He then glanced at the clock in the corner of the screen, eyes wide at what the time read.
"9 pm?! The store's gonna close soon!"
He quickly grabbed his phone, keys, and a random cap from the TV console, then snatched a black jacket hanging from the door handle before rushing out.
Locking his apartment, Alex hurried to the elevator, took it down to the ground floor, and made his way to the nearest store to buy groceries for dinner.
As he walked, he checked his phone and saw multiple messages from friends and classmates, replying with brief answers before scrolling to the latest broadcast his grandmother had posted in the family group chat.
"Seriously, grandma, you gotta stop believing everything you see on the internet..." he muttered under his breath.
Entering the store, he headed straight to the groceries section and started picking out everything on his list.
Once he finished, he headed toward the counter, and on the way, he passed the game section, and his eyes caught sight of a familiar poster.
It was the poster for the game he had just finished playing, Deity Rising.
However, this poster was slightly different.
"Best DLC of the year… Deity Rising: Raviaz's Revenge."
Alex read the tagline beneath the poster with a sense of pride, almost as if he had helped create the game.
Of course, he hadn't, but he was one of the first 100 to pre-order and had received special rewards that only 99 others shared.
"Who would've thought they'd make a DLC about the final boss..."
Indeed, Deity Rising: Raviaz's Revenge was a DLC that didn't follow the main gender-selectable protagonist—Cameron (Male) or Camellya (Female)—but instead followed the game's final antagonist, Leon.
The story followed the same outline as the main game, but from Leon's point of view, offering insight into how he became the final villain.
The DLC was well received by many fans who appreciated seeing the story from Leon's point of view, but there were also those who disliked this approach, believing not every villain needed a backstory to explain their actions.
As Alex stepped into one of the long lines at the store counter, he pulled up Deity Rising's website and navigated to the forum section to see if there had been any updates to the Tier Lists.
"Nothing new here as expected."
Deity Rising's combat system featured playable units known as 'Battlesuits,' which players could use to progress through story chapters and endgame content after completing special missions to farm component blueprints and craft them.
Battlesuits were ranked from C to SSS, although the base level of any SSS Rank Battlesuit began at S, only reaching SSS and unlocking additional abilities after players farmed upgrade materials to enhance them.
However, there were two exceptions to this rule, the two entries sitting at the top of the Battlesuit Tier List page on Alex's phone screen.
"Camellya's battlesuit, Deity Regalia: Type Myrvalis, released alongside the main game's final chapter, and Leon's battlesuit, Deity Regalia: Type Voltarch, released with the DLC."
Those were the only two battlesuits in the game that could be crafted directly at SSS Rank.
'Sometimes, I feel like the devs put more work into Leon's Voltarch than Camellya's Myrvalis.'
That thought passed through Alex's mind as he scrolled through the Battlesuit categories, seeing Voltarch placed at the top of each one with an SSS-Tier rating.
Because of its top-tier all-around performance, many began calling Leon the 'SSS-Rank Villain,' which only increased his popularity among the fanbase even further.
Alex closed his browser and opened the mobile version of the game on his phone, and when he tapped on the DLC, he was met with a loading screen that displayed one of his favourite illustrations in the background.
It showed a side profile of Leon, his hand raised, sword pointed toward the protagonist, whose face wore a troubled expression.
'It really fits. They were close friends, after all…'
Alex quickly slipped an earbud into his left ear to listen to the sound as the opening cutscene began.
The scene picked up immediately after the main game's conclusion, with the protagonist standing amid the ruins of the castle where the final battle had taken place.
Leon was just that strong, after all.
As Camellya stood silently, the clouds darkened overhead, and an overwhelming pressure swept across the land, its source rushing toward her location.
She turned, eyes widening at the sight of the newcomer, a tall, muscular man whose expression was completely blank.
If it weren't for the blood dripping from his clenched fists, no one would have guessed the storm of emotions he felt upon seeing Leon's corpse.
[Sir Hugo...] Camellya muttered.
The man named Hugo slowly turned to her, anger flashing momentarily in his eyes before he sighed and lowered his gaze to the ground.
[…]
Camellya stood in silence, unsure of what to say at that moment.
What could she possibly say to the father of the young man she had just killed? Even if that young man had betrayed them all and sealed his own father away after becoming an Enemy of the World.
After a few moments of silence, Hugo finally spoke.
[The Ruler…was it you…?]
Camellya shook her head, finally finding her voice.
[No…it was…Leon.]
[I see…so you succeeded,] Hugo muttered, a complicated look in his eyes.
Camellya's eyes widened at his words, her earlier hesitation dissolving like smoke as she stepped forward and asked, [You know why?!]
Hugo turned toward her, and she flinched, stepping back, then shook her head and moved forward again.
[Why? Why did he do all of that…?]
Hugo stared at her in silence for a moment, then looked up at the darkening sky and muttered, [Why, huh?]
Sadness filled the man's eyes as he spoke.
[It's a long story. A story…of a Raviaz's Revenge.]
With that, the camera panned toward the setting sun, obscured by clouds, before beginning to rewind, as if time was flowing backwards.
At that moment, Alex lifted his gaze, noticing there was only one young woman ahead of him in line.
He stepped forward, then lowered his gaze back to his phone, eyes landing on the loading scree—
**BANG!!!
"?!"
He flinched, instinctively turning toward the source of the sudden, deafening sound, just in time to see a group of gun-wielding men in balaclavas storming through the store's entrance.
The instant he decided to dash behind the nearby shelves, they opened fire, bullets flying through the air faster than his body could move.
One second, he was letting go of his shopping basket, the next, he was hitting the ground, pain spreading from his stomach as the taste of blood filled his mouth.
Distant screams echoed around him, and he felt the weight of the woman who had been in front of him collapse onto his legs, just before all sensation in them faded away.
In his dimming vision, Alex caught sight of the cracked screen of his phone, where it had landed near the counter, the game's loading screen replaced by the scene of a character waking from a bed.
Displayed at the top left corner of the screen was the name of the character.
Leon Raviaz.
And then, his vision permanently went dark.