One last brave quest...
[Note: This is a rewind chapter, so the previous one is ignored, but the one before that is not]


You tap the messaging app on your phone and decide to start looking, and you saw that you got a message from Cindy.

"Holy shit big bro, did you see this?" She wrote, adding a link to some news on Chirper, which you then tapped to find out what she was talking about, and as soon as the page loaded on your phone, your stomach sank. Your favorite mobile game had just announced a sudden end to their online service. Your heart skipped a couple beats, wondering if this was a prank. You almost jumped out of bed and hopped onto your computer to look this up, wishing that it were all some big prank, but as you searched, those hopes were dashed... it was all true, the game was ending that same night.

"What?! How?! Why?!" You almost shouted despite being alone. This was a game you had grown very attached to, you'd been playing it almost since its launch, Cindy had shown it to you and was the one that got you into it. It'd kept gone strong for a very long time as the many games it collaborated it came and went, being in fact just a couple months short of its 10th anniversary.

Even though it was indeed a mobile game, at around its 3rd anniversary, a computer port had been revealed, so you could enjoy playing it on a bigger screen when you were at home, plus all of its gameplay was far smoother, since the computer was more powerful than your phone. With no hesitation you booted the game up, you were gonna play it until the very end.

Valiant Borderland was its name, cheesy as it may have sounded at first, it gradually became synonymous with countless priceless memories you, Cindy and even your other friends formed, you suffered through game-breaking bugs, server failures, faced epic boss battles, laughed, were in suspense and cried with the story as it advanced, among many, many other things. In the game, you incarnated a Summoner, a human warrior that fought in a somewhat unconventional way: By summoning heroes from the past, and as the story went, even warriors from other worlds.

Despite sounding fairly complex, the game was surprisingly easy in its basic use, tapping/clicking on the units to order them to use a basic attack, and those attacks generated a varying amount of crystals that were then collected and absorbed by your units, filling out a gauge that allowed them to unleash powerful attacks called Limit Burst and Super Limit Burst, which in addition to often hitting all enemies, also gave powerful buffs, both offensive and defensive while others recovered their health or even added elemental powers so that all units could hit even harder, among many other things.

But to master this game it required strategy, diligence to do the quests to get equipment and a measure of luck, as the way to obtain playable characters was via a gacha system, that is, randomly pulling units from a given pool, hoping to get the ones you actually wanted. For example, there was this cool-looking thunderbird that was pretty terrible in-game, and whose presence was dreaded by all of those who played.

The game employed squads consisting of five units plus a friend, with each unit granting a different set of buffs when selected as the squad leader, and the friend serving as a second leader. Cindy's starter was an aquatic lady with a pretty large chest, a fact that she repeatedly made you aware of, though mostly in jest. However, she was quite a powerful tank that carried your starter team through several worlds, until your own units became strong enough to stand on their own... And that had been a long, long time ago...

You were greeted by the game's classic home screen, displaying the last squad you'd been utilizing, which featured your own player avatar together with the first 4 units you ever pulled, all of which, by this point in the game, had achieved their maximum evolutionary tier, measured in stars and 8 being the final tier. Even though these units were very old, all dating back to the game's 1st year, due to their 8 star evolutions and a couple of balancing patches that further buffed them, they remained powerful and reliable enough to keep doing the story with.

You'd grown attached to these too, since they grew up with you in a way as you traversed the many worlds, following the ditzy rainbow-haired goddess Riddith, who served as your guide, occasional comic relief and sometimes even a direct helper on some missions, taking over the friend slot to fight alongside you. The squad consisted of:

- Reeva, a samurai/ninja looking girl with a surprisingly futuristic looking bow, sporting water/ice powers and firing arrows made of that. She was the squad leader and under your command and care, she had become a powerful nuker that with her Super Limit Burst gave your whole party a rare buff: the ability to have an extra action after casting their own Limit Burst/Super Limit Burst.

[Appearance]: [here]   [girl on the right]  

- Xel-Ha, a (perhaps formerly) wicked goddess of chaos of destruction, according to the lore, that, going by her comments upon leveling up and evolving, gradually grew attached to you, the player, being grateful for "becoming the prettiest" upon being maxed out. Despite the lore suggesting she used to be evil she wielded the Light element, which proved valuable to strike down the many dark foes and bosses you faced. Her swords of light were cool being honest, and she also inflicted debuffs that weakened your enemies' attacks.

[Appearance]: [max evolution]   [here]  

- Neithhotep: A Queen and a High Priestess, from an unit batch based on the Egyptian gods and lore, with her being the representative for the Dark element. She provided nearly all sorts of defensive buffs, including shields, barriers, ailment cleansing and curing in addition to heals and health regen all in one package, also serving as a counter for any Light based enemies you may run into.

[Appearance]: [max evolution]   [here]  

- Serena: Another water elemental girl. She served the role of a tank and complementary support buffer to Neithhotep, but upon gaining later evolutions she gained the ability to also serve as another hard hitter while still having incredible defenses, and possessing another rare buff in the game, the ability to Taunt enemies, so that all attacks were directed to her. You liked her for her abilities, but Cindy was quick to point out that she was the only chubby girl in the game and endlessly teased you about it for reasons beyond your comprehension, but despite being a bit embarrassed by that, you kept using her because she'd saved your team from being killed by powerful bosses too many times to ditch her now.

[Appearance]: [max evolution]   [npc art]  

[Appearance for Riddith]   [Bonus size art]   [Bonus size art #2]   [Beach alt]  

You checked the game's page on Chirper once more, finding out that the very last mission of the game's story mode was also finally released, to bring closure to the story after all these years, all while apologizing to the players and thanking them for their love and support all these years. You couldn't help but feel as if a hole had been punched into your heart, that today would be the final farewell.

"Alright guys, let's do this!" You said, in preparation for the final mission, you did some grinding quests to strengthen your own Summoner avatar, as he was only a few levels short of reaching level 500, at which point you'd unlock some of the most powerful passives to make him a force to be reckoned with. Even now, with the equipment you had, which was all end-game, you could easily solo over 3/4ths of the game with him alone, but the last chapter of the story was super tough and it required the full might of the Summoner and your units to be able to get through.

A bit differently from ordinary units, your in-game avatar had mastered all elements, and the powerful mystical sword you'd forged from materials taken from the toughest bosses served to give you your very own Limit Burst and Super Limit Burst that gave a plethora of useful buffs, and even packing heals as well as a good amount of damage buffs and hitting hard with the attacks themselves. By this point he was immune to ailments and was extremely tanky.

Upon unlocking max level, you gained the ability to resist death albeit while remaining at 1 HP, but being immortal until the next turn, also one of the most valuable abilities in the game, and one you'd need to be able to tank some of the final bosses' hardest attacks. You also gained a special robe that made the Summoner even more powerful than before, so you equipped it and did quests to max it out.

Despite being a bit grindy, it was fun, and you enjoyed battling with your squad. Hours later, you were finally ready, and began tackling the last chapter, learning that the dude you believed to be the final bad guy was but a pawn, as he foolishly absorbed a dormant deity's power to become stronger, but he was overwhelmed by it, and the ancient evil god indeed used that man to bring himself out of the seal that imprisoned eons ago.

This was it! The very final boss battle was here! You made sure to be all set, and brought all the healing/reviving and gauge filling items you had at your disposal to finally bring an end to the corruption that plagued the Valiant Borderland's world!

What happens next?
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May 12, 2023
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