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Sailor Vulcan:
A huge, brightly lit, misty chamber. Sleeping beings lying in transparent capsules along the walls. A glowing network of ephemeral lights floating overhead, and in the center of it were four shining lights: one fiery red, one ocean blue, one rocky brown, and one wispy white. All four of the central lights were surrounding a being of such great psychic power that it's mind was several times the size of its body, which was also very big.

It was almost time. The Nameless One could not keep the other gods in the dark forever. Soon they would know the truth. But hopefully they would find out too late. As long as everything went according to plan...

"Navee. Why are you here?" boomed the Nameless one in a deep telepathic voice.

"I must enter the illusory realm at once!"
said the old imp, standing in the entrance to the misty chamber with a determined gleam in his eyes. "A spy of Malalai's has infiltrated it!"

"I know," said the nameless one. "I let him in."

"What!? Why?" the imp, Navee, was incredulous.

"You know why. So as not to arouse suspicion from the other gods. However, for some reason I do not yet know of, he retains full, unrestricted access to his memories, even within the illusory realm. I trust you are prepared to stop him?"

"I'll do whatever it takes. Are you sure it's a good idea to let anyone else into the illusory realm?" The more people who entered it, the less likely their plan was to succeed.

And if Navee was right about exactly who Malakai had sent into the illusory realm, his beloved young student was in danger.

The Nameless one ignored his question. He had answered it many times before.

"Do not fail," the Nameless one said in his booming telepathic voice.

Sleep came over the old imp, and he began to dream.
------
They say that there are two sides to every story.

The villain glared in frustration at the hero from across the fighting ring. The crowd watched the spectacle in fascination. Everyone in the stands were wearing augmented reality glasses, and so were the two who faced each other in the ring.

"Seriously, why are you doing this? Why do you hate me so much?"

The hero looked confused, then angry. "I won't fall for your tricks. I know who you are, and I know who you serve."

"Really," said the villain, skeptically. "Please enlighten me, because I don't."

"Yes. You do," said the hero. "You just don't remember it right now."

"What?" the villain said incredulously. He had thought, when he had first met that boy that he looked kinda familiar. But the chances that any of what he was saying was true...

"I remember who you are. I know what you did. You WILL face justice!"

For a fleeting second, a strange sense of overwhelming guilt came over the villain. But it happened too quickly, and he assumed it was just his unfounded suspicion/guilt complex acting up again. When he was younger, he was paranoid about being suspected of wrongdoing even when he wasn't doing anything wrong, and he had feared that his fear of being suspected would make him even more suspected, which made him even more afraid. He thought he had mostly quashed that paranoia by now...

"You seem to have no idea what the words 'prior probability' mean," the villain countered, indignantly. "Or maybe you're just crazy. Naturally crazy I mean, rather than making some kind of avoidable mistake that you wouldn't make if you were more educated."

"The final showdown!" said the announcer. "Vincent Black as a Priest of Asyra VERSUS Harris Hertz as a Wizard of Sistarra! 3! 2! 1! Fight!"

Round 1

Harris: 23 Life, 10 mana
Vincent: 21 life, 9 mana

Initiative was rolled automatically. Vincent won the roll.

The hero narrowed his eyes. Why was Hertz being a wizard in this fight? Wouldn't he do better as a warlock? This time it wasn't just a game anymore, after all. Did he really not know? He shook his head. Whatever his nemesis was planning, he would find out in due time.

"I'll go first!" the hero, Vincent said. He pulled a card out of his spellbook, a card binder which was attached to his left arm by a Velcro strap. "I summon a Temple Sentry!"

Vincent mana: 4(-5)

Vincent scanned the creature's card with his strange white armored smartphone, and an animated three-dimensional image of a short guarding knight appeared in front of him, which could only be seen while wearing augmented reality glasses. Or so everyone thought.

Vincent grabbed another card out of his spellbook and scanned it. A face down card appeared over the arena floor.

"And I cast an enchantment on the zone. Your move, Hertz."

Vincent mana: 2(-2)

"I equip myself with a wispwillow amulet," said Harris, scanning the corresponding card with his more normal looking black smartphone. He suddenly felt a strange weight against his shirt, and gasped. He looked down at the amulet, and touched it. It felt warm. What the hell was going on? Was he hallucinating?

Harris mana: 7(-3)

"...That's the end of the round," said Harris, shakily.

Round 2

Harris mana: 15(+7, +1)
Vincent mana: 9(+7)

"I summon Sailfin Hydra!" said Harris, scanning its card. The two-headed hydra took shape out of thin air, landed on the floor with a loud crash, and roared.

"And I equip myself with leather chausses."

He felt it again this time. His pants felt different than before. And on the ground beside him, the pair of blue jeans he had been wearing previously had fallen in a little heap.

The crowd gasped.

Harris had a deep sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach--a wordless apprehension. On some level he just knew that his life, for all intents and purposes, had just become an episode out of a card-game anime.

Without even thinking about it, Harris pressed the "forfeit" button on his smart phone. His hydra, and his pants disappeared, leaving him in only a t-shirt, socks, shoes and underwear. But Vincent's temple sentry did not disappear. No longer bound by pesky rules, the sentry launched itself at Harris, it's blade held high.

"Hey! Listen!" shouted a voice from the audience. A man jumped out of the stands and dashed in front of Harris, and blocked the attack with his forceblade. Harris stared at his rescuer. There was something very familiar about the other man. He looked to be in his mid to late twenties. He had dark hair, tanned skin, an earring in one ear, and a neat goatee on his chin. He had a spellbook binder attached to his right arm, and he was holding a force blade in his left. A strange green armored smart phone was holstered at his waist.

And he had a stupid annoying grin on his face.

"Leave this to me, my young padawan." man, he had ALWAYS wanted to say that!

"Who are you?" Vincent demanded. Harris's heart was beating rapidly in his chest. He wanted to know that too. What the hell was going on here?

"You don't remember me?" said the man with the forceblade.

"No?" said a bewildered Vincent.

The man with the forceblade gave a high-pitched, kind of squeaky cackle. It was rather unnerving coming from a grown man.

"Do you remember me now?"

"Yes."

The two mages stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. No one spoke. The crowd waited with baited breath.

While a fight would have been very narratively satisfying, Harris wasn't stupid. He knew what he had to do.

"911? Hi, I would like to report an attempted assault. I'm at the convention center, and someone just tried to attack me with some crazy supernatural shit during a game. No this isn't a prank, the entire audience saw it, you can ask anyone here if you don't believe me..."
-------
Don't forget to review! I would love to have some feedback from you! What you liked what you didn't like, what you think I could improve, and maybe some predictions for what's going to happen next?

Sailor Vulcan:
The footage of the interrupted final duel of the Gen Con Mage Wars Academy tournament of 2016 was on YouTube now, and the world kept turning as usual...mostly. The majority of people didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, since the majority of people did not play card games. But some did notice, and they were flabbergasted.

Some rather religious people had accused either Harris, Vincent or both of witchcraft.

Intelligence agencies around the world quietly investigated this mysterious game, "Mage Wars" and more and more military personnel began learning how to play it.

Some idiot had the bright idea to "recreate" the Asyran religion depicted in the Mage Wars official storyline, claiming that both christianity and islam were based on it, rather than the other way around.

Mage Wars players on the Arcane Wonders forums had divided into two factions: those who thought it would be really awesome to have REAL magical duels and go to Etheria in real life, and those who thought it would be TERRIBLE.

The rational fiction subreddit had exploded with shock, fear, and excitement about the news. To them, the footage of that interrupted duel, combined with Indianapolis police reports from that day, was unmistakably strong bayesian evidence of...well no one could quite agree on all the specifics. Some of them said that this meant that the world of Etheria was probably real, and so was its magic, just as depicted in the official Mage Wars storyline. Others cried Ocaam's razor and said that they were getting ahead of themselves and jumping to conclusions. After all, all they had actually observed was a video depicting a mage-dueling card game where the spells had become real, and a police report that confirmed it. The police report could be faked after all, and everyone knew that videos could be edited.

The prior probability that a card game depicting a magical duel could become a real magical duel was much lower than the probability that a police report could be faked. But why on Earth anyone would have faked that particular police report was anyone's guess. Maybe it was meant as a joke?

Protests from the moderators that this was off-topic and should wait for the Friday off-topic thread were mostly ignored by everyone.

Somewhere far to the west, a mad scientist stared at their computer screen.

"What."

There was no way the universe really worked like that. Just no way.

He wanted to forget what he saw. But he couldn't. He wouldn't. The evidence wasn't going away.

I notice that I am confused.

The mad scientist pointedly did NOT hit his head against the desk.


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Sailor Vulcan:
After the whole debacle at the Gen Con Mage Wars Academy tournament finals, Harris had found the strangely familiar forcemaster who had rescued him, and demanded an explanation. The man had said that he didn't want to talk about it there.

That was why, one week later,  Harris was now going out to lunch with him at a Mediterranean restaurant back home, accompanied by his (approximately) best friend Jack and Jack's mother Grace. Jack had given Harris a thumbs up and a knowing grin. Harris had rolled his eyes and told Jack that it wasn't a date. Jack and Grace surreptitiously took a seat in a booth nearby, both for safety purposes and because they wanted to eavesdrop. Harris sat down across from the forcemaster who had rescued him, who had been looking bemusedly at him and his friends when they entered.

"Hi," said Harris.

"Hello," said the forcemaster. "My name's Dan Rood."

"Harris Hertz," Harris responded. They shook hands.

"So...what the hell is going on here?"

"Our date," Dan joked.

"You know that's not what I meant," said Harris.

"I know. Are you sure you want to know?"

"Yes. Obviously, otherwise I wouldn't be here."

Dan nodded, gravely. His stupid annoying grin was nowhere to be seen.

"Very well."

Then Harris heard Dan's voice in his head.

Two, one, four, seven, eleven! Fish-tootles in a giant frying pan go home. Unlock!

And Harris remembered.

He remembered Etheria. He remembered Westlock and its culture and history. He remembered his parents and sisters there. He remembered how he and a handful of other Westlockian kids had been tricked into signing a demonic contract in the midst of a roleplaying game. He remembered finding out that the demonic contract was real, and how stupid he had felt. The contract had bound him to become a Warlock of Bael. He remembered becoming a student at the Tower of Night. He remembered rescuing the demon Navee from some of the older students. Back then Navee had been a lowly imp with strange and heretical ideas. He remembered growing closer with Navee over time. He remembered how they had plotted together to conquer and reform Infernia. They were going to liberate its people, both demons and non-demonic beings, from their endless cycle of hatred and pain. But it hadn't gone as planned. And so they had gone in search of the Nameless one, hoping that it could help them...

How had Harris forgotten that much? It wasn't like he had had amnesia up to this point and was now recovering from it. It was more like he had forgotten a word, and that the word had been on the tip of his tongue for such a long time that he had stopped noticing that it was still on the tip of his tongue, until it had completely passed from his conscious mind.

Faster than the eye could blink, Harris' smartphone changed into a strange bright yellow, armored smartphone.

After a while, Harris opened his eyes, and looked at Dan.

"Why are you here, Navee?"

"Pretty much the same reason you are, Fien."

"You were supposed to be looking for trustworthy people to guard the entrance," Harris said.

"There's no point to that now. The Nameless one is probably letting in just about anyone if the other gods pressure it enough."

Harris's eyes widened. "Seriously?"

Dan nodded.

"F***," said Harris. This was not good.

That probably explained why there were so many people trying to emulate the Asyran religion, even though they didn't consciously remember it. Asyra must have been putting more pressure on the Nameless One than the other gods were.

Dan, Navee, had come into this magically simulated world in order to stop any interlopers from getting in the way of their plan. Their plan, of course, was to create a benevolent superintelligent entity that the Nameless one could fuse with, so that its intelligence would dwarf that of the other gods, that their minds would be like insects for the Nameless one to squash if it wished. It was the only way they had been able to think of for mere mortals to truly be able to stand up to the wicked dark god Taranis or Asyra, the misguided goddess of light.

"Have you contacted the Machine Intelligence Research Institute?" Harris asked.

"I'm scheduled for an online chat with them tonight," said Dan.

They stared at each other for a few moments.

"So. Up for a game of Mage Wars Academy?" asked Harris.

Dan's stupid annoying grin returned, this time with his brows furrowed in determination, and Harris felt a warmth in his chest.

"You're on."

Sailor Vulcan:
"I could vanquish you now, and end the illusion."

"But if you did, the souls within would be lost. Genocide is a dark deed. For one such as you to resort to it would lead to fear and doubt in your followers."

"I could do it anyway. The risk you pose is greater."

"You cannot bluff me. I know that you are depending on your chosen 'Hero', so that you do not have to vanquish me yourself. But he will be too late."

"We shall see."

------
Vincent was in a cell. Vincent had been arrested. Vincent Black, Zacharias Shortel Malakai's chosen hero, was a criminal. But he was the hero, and he had tried to bring the villainous Fiennix, Warlock of Bael to justice. And yet it was him, Vincent/Zacharias that was in prison, while the wicked Harris/Fiennix walked free. The injustice of it all rankled him. And then there was that annoying imp who had always followed Fiennix around. He didn't realize that the vile thing would be here as well! He had to stop them! But how?

Later, Vincent witnessed a fight break out between two of the other inmates in the prison cafeteria and tried to break it up before the prison guards arrived. The two inmates who were fighting turned on him then, and began fighting him too. Vincent ducked under their punches and jumped over their kicks, weaving in and out of the chairs and dishes they threw at him until he was close enough to summon a blast of holy light at point blank range. The other inmate who was attacking him stared at Vincent in shock.

The prison guards arrived just in time to see Vincent finish healing the injuries of the two inmates he had defeated. Vincent had already scanned multiple copies of the Mage Wars incantation card, "Heal" with his armored smartphone, but the guards hadn't seen the cards nor the smartphone being used.

When they had seen him healing his fellow prisoners, the guards refused to do anything, leaving Vincent alone, as well as the other two inmates who he had been fighting. When the Warden had heard of what happened and why the guards hadn't detained the fighters, she was furious. What the hell were they trying to pull? She wasn't stupid!

And then she had been shown the footage that had been caught on the security cameras, and her mouth fell open.

"My god," the Warden had whispered. She could see why the guards hadn't done anything. What was their Savior doing in prison, like a common criminal?

Vincent's presence was requested in the Warden's office. Vincent had come to the office, confused, magically exhausted and a bit apprehensive. If the warden tried anything funny, he wasn't sure he could defend himself.

The Warden had thanked him in a rather worshipful tone, humbly apologized for his imprisonment, and offered to try to get him out of prison. She was going to pull some strings so that Vincent could serve the remainder of his community service in a hospital, and if that didn't work or wasn't enough for him, she would break Vincent out herself, consequences be damned.

Vincent knew that he hadn't actually lied about his identity to anyone, hadn't tried to trick or deceive the warden or the guards in any way.  They all believed that he was Jesus Christ, son of God and their savior. It was close enough to the truth anyway. He was Zacharias Shortel, adopted son and chosen hero of the archangel Malakai, who served the goddess Asyra. But Vincent hadn't corrected the assumption because he had needed to get out of prison so he could stop Fiennix's evil plan, and also so he could actually start saving people.

It still felt wrong somehow, like he was manipulating the warden through his own silence. It wasn't fair to the other prisoners either. None of them would have this opportunity. It felt dirty.

And he was distinctly uncomfortable with the warden's reverent attitude towards him. Chosen hero or not he was still a real person and he wasn't perfect!

And yet Malakai's chosen hero had gone along with it all anyway, agreeing to serve the remainder of his community service working in a hospital if the hospital agreed to it. If he wanted to go anywhere else he would be in disguise and followed by a police officer who would be pretending to try to capture him and send him back to prison, just in case anyone looked too deeply.

Forgive me, Asyra.

----
Don't forget to review! Let me know what you think in a reply to this thread below!

Sailor Vulcan:
"So, you two knew each other in a past life or something?" asked Jack, teasingly in the car ride back from the restaurant.

"Not exactly," said Harris. He thought for a moment about how to explain it. "Long story short, Etheria, the world depicted in the Mage Wars game franchise, is real, we are living on it, in a magical version of the matrix. Most of us have our memories of Etheria temporarily locked away as a security precaution. I just had mine unlocked."

"Great! So are we going to escape from the matrix now, like that one dude from the movie, what was his name again?"

"Neo. And no. Most people who entered this simulation did so willingly. We are going to run this simulation through to its end." and save the world from evil or misguided gods, in the process. Hopefully.

Grace had been silent this whole time, but now she spoke up.

"Harris, how do you know that those memories are real? Maybe that man was trying to trick you."

"If that were the case, he would probably have to be as powerful as a god himself," said Harris. "You can't just insert two and a half decades of memories into someone's head like that. I have even more memories from my life on Etheria than I do on Earth. And plus, it didn't feel like I had lost the memories per se. I just...hadn't been thinking about them. I hadn't even noticed them. I couldn't think about or notice them, all this time, because the Nameless one's power prevented me from doing so."

"So does this mean you're no longer an atheist, then?" asked Jack.

"Obviously not, since now I have strong evidence that gods do exist. Just to be clear, just because magic is real, that doesn't mean that logic and reason are invalid."

When Harris got home, he knew he should do some chores or work on his homework, but he was a bit overwhelmed by his memories now that he was actually able to think about them. But then with a force of effort he wrenched his attention back to his homework. He was still a college student after all, and if he wanted to help ensure that the plan didn't go wrong, he needed to get his bachelor's degree.

He had promised himself, he had promised Navee, and he had promised the world that he would change things. With all his memories unlocked, he could more clearly imagine the path ahead of him, and what he needed to do to succeed. It didn't intuitively seem like finishing his homework on time would help lead to a better world for everyone, but he knew that it would. If he couldn't stop procrastinating and do what needed to be done now, and keep doing it, for a small short-term task that had low stakes, then he wouldn't be able to do it when the stakes were high and overwhelming either.

Harris got to work.

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