The stake wouldn’t budge. It was buried deep.
“Burn Heretic!”
“Rot in hell Witch!”
“Die French scum!”
The shouts from the mob crested with the roar of flames from the pyre of snapping, crackling wood beneath me. A rock grazed my forehead, and half my vision was red. Something soft and rotted splattered against my chest, but all I smelled was burnt flesh—this time it was my own.
Smoke burned my lungs. Agony constricted my vision, distorting the air already warped by the fire. My heart, already pounding madly for so long, was giving out. The end was near, and I was gripped by a need to declare once more my faith against the backdrop of inane screaming.
"No, I refuse! Not this time. Not anymore!" My singed, wheezing lungs heaved the words up at the dark plumes blotting out the sun.
My golden hair caught fire. Strands of shimmering yellow shriveled into black clumps as pain carved my scalp.
Screams tore out of my lips. This time, I no longer cared to fight them.
What’s even the point?
—
The cutscene ended with the conflagration consuming her, leaving behind a lone, burnt stake.
The sudden quiet felt strange after the roar of the mob and the crackling of flames. I blinked, and the bright glare of the screen gave way to the familiar comfort of my family's living room. The plush pillows of our well-worn couch cushioned my back. A freshly opened bag of potato chips lay beside me, its salty, vinegary scent seeping up into the cool, air-conditioned air.
“No freaking way! How can you still burn someone who has fire immunity?” I screamed at the screen, nearly throwing my controller at it.
My hand hovered for a moment before I lowered it, cooling down as the cutscene faded to the endscreen.
Flawless Conquest
628/0 Win/loss 57 Cities All Objectives Completed
198 turns
Score: 89,435,289 Rank: Divine
“Oh, I still won. Flawless, and sub 200 turns even!” My fingers dug through my dark hair, scratching the side of my head as I replayed the sequence of game events in my mind. “So… because of the martyr flag, the cutscene has to play no matter what. And they just stuck it in right before the final victory screen?”
“The game devs are being a bit lazy, aren't they? This feels like a hack.” I sank back into the couch and popped a few potato chips into my mouth.
To be fair, I was running an exploit so it was in a way, my fault.
A dialogue box popped up.
Congratulations, you have achieved rank #1 in The Hundred Years War global rankings.
Would you like to submit your score?
I blinked a few times at the message, not quite believing it. “Whoa, I didn’t realize it was that good! But sure, why not. At least all that time I spent wasn’t a waste.”
After selecting 'Yes' with my controller, a text entry field appeared.
“Hmm… a name for my epitaph?”
Normally, I’d just go with my username, but my fingers paused. That name was just one chosen by the game server—two random words with numbers tacked on the end. I’d spent so many hours doing runs of this game to get to this point.
Shouldn’t I use something more meaningful? Something that was more of a statement.
Epitaph sounded serious. I should have something that matched.
Yeah, yeah, I know everyone says you’re not supposed to give out your identity online, but it’s not every day that you’re number one in the world!
I put in my real name: Stephen Tagenet.
Next was a review of my generals, and of course number one was her.
Joan of Arc
Class: Divine Knight
Background: Farmer
Level: 50
XP: MAX
Spirit: 950
Wounds: Deceased
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 80 ? Agility: 20 ? Quickness: 40 ? Toughness: 60 (20) ? Willpower: 99 ? Intellect: 20 ? Charisma: 80
ABILITIES
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
- Divine Guidance ? Heaven's Lances ? Voice of the Maiden ? Indomitable Aura ? Righteous Fury
CONDITIONS
- Curse of the Flame Martyr ? God’s Chosen ? Virtuous ? Holy Vestment ? Demonic ? Fire Immunity
EQUIPMENT
- Weapon: Demon Soulfire Blade ? Armor: Aegis of Virtue ? Cloak: Shroud of Turin ? Accessory: Tiara of Solace
RECORD
Battles: 328 W / 0 L ? Duels: 276 W / 0 L ? Lifetimes: 255
The Hundred Years War was a turn-based strategy game set in that time period, which was considered late middle ages. You picked a side, either England or France, and fought for control of a stylized European map. While conquering cities was the goal, the real heart of the game was the generals you could recruit to lead your armies. My go-to general was always her: Joan of Arc. Obviously, it meant I always chose the French side.
On paper, she was totally OP. She had incredible starting stats, and as [God’s Chosen], she had great progression upon leveling, along with other perks.
Despite this, most strategy guides listed her as a waste of a general slot because of one thing: her curse. The [Curse of the Flame Martyr] meant that she was doomed to be burned at the stake. In game terms, at around turn 60—which was still early game—Joan would be taken by the English. She would then be burned at the stake and killed, and all you’d have left was a nicely rendered cutscene for all the gold and xp you invested in her.
But I chose her anyway, because of how beautifully her character was designed. All her abilities worked with the stats that she was high in, and covered for the weakness in her dump stats.
For example, [Divine Guidance] converted her massive Willpower into accuracy, making her abysmal Agility and Intellect irrelevant. [Righteous Fury] turned her Willpower and Charisma into bonuses that not only compensated her Quickness, but also boosted her already impressive strength. All her abilities were also army wide, which meant her entire army was basically broken on the battlefield.
When you have a general who could brute force wins against armies ten times their size, the only thing you have to worry about is getting her to the right place at the right time.
Instead of forsaking her like so many others, I decided to find a way to win before the curse could even trigger. Through relentless trial and error, I discovered that ‘turn 60’ wasn't a hard rule. Instead, turn 60 was when the game started doing morale-based probability rolls to activate the curse.
The higher the army's morale, the less likely Joan got captured.
So my strategy was simple. I just had to keep winning, and win it all as fast as I possibly could: a speed run.
Unfortunately, no matter how much I won, Joan would still get captured at around turn 80 with only half the map taken. I had lost track of the number of tries and was about to yank the cord for good.
That's when I noticed something. A detail I'd overlooked in my frustration: the sword she received from one of her side quests in my most recent game, was one that I’d never seen before in any of my playthroughs. The sword God gave her wasn’t the usual [Divine Sword of the Pure].
It was the [Demon Soulfire Blade]. And this sword granted two conditions that never appeared in the game: one was [Demonic] and other, way more important one was [Fire Immunity].
That was the key.
With [Fire Immunity], the capture event still triggered, but Joan actually survived being burned at the stake. The death cutscene was skipped and she was simply returned to my command, ready for the mid-game.
After that, taking over the map was a piece of cake. Sure, the game still forced that damn cutscene on me at the very end, but by then, what did it matter?
I shrugged as the credits started rolling over a picture of Joan standing proud and tall, with her bright blue eyes and sunlit blonde hair wavering in the wind. There was a haunting look on her finely chiseled features.
She was beautiful in this way as well.
Yeah, I know. Not at all historically accurate—I’d looked it up. But she was one of only three female generals in the game, so they sort of had to doll her up a bit. And besides, the game featured magic and monsters, including dragons. Being historically accurate wasn’t really a focus for the developers.
“Steve, you’re still up playing that game?” My sister Allison grumbled as she emerged from the shadows of her room. She walked out into the living room in her sweats and yawned, stretching one hand into the air.
“I just finished! I got number one in the world!”
“That’s great.” She stifled another yawn and then yanked open the fridge, pulling out a carton of milk.
“It's like, out of millions of players.” I smashed the controller button to fast forward the credits screen so that I could show her the rankings.
Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!
She plopped down next to me, munching on spoons full of cereal from her bowl. But then she readjusted her glasses when the game company logo showed up. A little fox whose multiple tails twisted together to form an infinity symbol.
“Is that Mugen Mirai?”
“Yeah, they’re the game devs.”
Allison leaned forward, the glare of the screen glinting off her glasses. “Really? I didn’t know they made games like this…” She made a face mid-chew, as if something tasted off. “But you know, they also made a way better game, the one that I’m playing, Hearts of Flames.”
The name rang a bell. [Demon Soulfire Blade] didn’t really match the naming scheme of all the other equipment, and so I had looked it up online. It turned out that the sword didn't actually exist in the Hundred Years' War; instead, I found it on the wiki for Mugen Mirai’s other game, Hearts of Flames.
“Umm… is there a Demon Soulfire Blade in that game?”
Allison’s hazel eyes instantly perked up. She lowered her cereal bowl. “Yeah! It’s totally central to the game. I mean I can’t tell you what it is without spoiling everything.”
I rolled my eyes. “Just tell me, it’s not like I’m going to play it at all. It’s a dating sim!”
“No! You should definitely play it. There are battles. It’s got open-world RPG elements, and even dungeons.”
“I’ve seen the game cover on the console," I deadpanned. “It’s got fluffy dresses and giant hearts all over it. So definitely a dating sim.”
She waved her hand dismissively at me. “The love interests stuff is mostly on the side, well sort of. But the story is really deep. That sword is, like, deeply tied to the villainess, Cecilia.”
“Not interested. I don’t need to know that badly.” I murmured as I turned back to the screen.
“Fine… have it your way.” Allison dropped the bowl into the sink. “I’m going to bed. You better go to bed soon as well. I promised Mom and Dad, I’d make sure you don’t sleep too late.”
“Yup, I just want to look over some of the stats before then.”
She half yawned and half waved at me before disappearing into her room. “Goodnight Steve.”
“‘Nite sis…” I waved back without looking over my shoulder because something new just flickered in front of me. “Huh?”
The set of words that was scrawled out over the screen felt bizarre and surreal.
Stephen Tagenet, are you ready to join the world of The Hundred Years War?
I'd never seen a message like this from the game before.
Was this my reward for scoring first place?
“Sure, why not?”
Just as I pressed the ‘Yes’ button, a bolt of electricity shot up my arm. Lightning struck my brain, and everything turned blinding white before fading to black.