You, however, have been given an alternate route by the esteemed Lady Xun Guan. Power, knowledge, and education do not only lie solely in the hands of the trainers Kulako has instructed you to free, but also in the books and teachers of the Imperium. If you choose to turn your back on the rebellion, you must prove your dedication by killing the only rebel trainers who would be capable of educating you. Destroy the four sages locked away by Lady Xun Guan and, in doing so, earn your place within the ranks of the Imperium.

Lucas studied the quest message. Earn my place within the Imperium. He looked up from the messages to see the four sages’ drooping eyes locked onto him. So, if I kill them, I’ll be the first player to have joined the clichéd villains’ camp.

He slowly walked forward.

“Boy, think about what you’re doing before you execute us. If we die here, so do the dreams and hopes of thousands of people. Don’t shoulder that sin,” the Treant in the middle-right cage said as Lucas got closer.

“Yes,” the Were-Bear entreated. “Think of all those who are oppressed, and do the right thing. Even if they aren’t your kind, they are still people. They still have feelings, hopes, and dreams. If you let us die here, then you are damning those hopes and dreams to obscurity and forcing the worst fate, the fate of a slave, on them.”

“Listen to them,” the elderly Alfar woman encouraged him. “I can tell you’re a good man. I can tell you want to do the right thing, so don’t let us down. Free us, and together, we can put an end to the Imperium’s tyranny!”

Lucas sighed. He had heard this type of quest banter and these type of good-versus-evil parallels in nearly every video game that he had played and every young adult book that he had read since he was old enough to do either. It was always “the bad guys are bad, and the good guys are good, so be the good guy.” It was part of what turned him off of the game’s storyline when he originally started playing and made it so easy to simply lean back and enjoy the gluttonous pleasures the game had to offer.

Lucas began channeling Arcane Energy into the staff. “Well, I guess, at the very least, the plot will change a little for once.” He finished Zap at the same time as he finished his sentence, and the blue-and-purple light flashed forward into the Were-Bear, causing the other three to yell and cry out in shock and fear.