"Ah, shit…"
Isaac fumbled through his pockets with shaky fingers, the faint clink of metal echoing in the dim hallway.
After a few tries, he found the right key and jammed it into the lock.
Creak–
The old door gave way with a reluctant groan.
He stepped inside quietly, hoping no one had heard, his body leaning slightly against the frame as if the act of standing upright had become too much effort.
Step step step
He tried to keep his footsteps light, but the apartment floor betrayed him, creaking under each step.
A girl stood in front of him, glaring before pinching her nose in disgust and shouting.
"Ewww! Dad! Isaac's been drinking again!"
Isaac winced.
So much for stealth.
A young girl stood in the living room, one hand on her hip, the other pinching her nose with exaggerated disgust.
He didn't even need to look at her to know who it was.
"Piss off, Grace."
"Eek—! Dadddd! Isaac swore at me again!"
Her high-pitched voice grated against his already throbbing head.
He sighed, rubbing his temples. "Just ignore it," he muttered under his breath.
The familiar heaviness pressed on his shoulders again, not from exhaustion, but from something quieter, deeper.
Isaac brushed past his sister and headed toward the bathroom without another word, ignoring her constant whining that followed behind him like background noise.
Slam
He shut the bathroom door roughly and walked over to the sink.
Pshhhhhh-
The sound of running water filled the silence as he splashed his face again and again until the cool sting grounded him.
When he finally looked up, a stranger stared back from the mirror.
Sunken eyes. Dry skin. Greasy hair clinging to his forehead.
"…Wow, I look like shit."
He gave a hollow laugh. His reflection didn't return it.
When did I start looking like this?
He didn't remember.
But even that required energy to care.
And Isaac didn't have that anymore.
"Whatever…"
He turned off the tap, grabbed a towel, and wiped his face without looking again.
Click
The door opened.
A tall, broad-shouldered man filled the doorway, his presence heavy enough to change the air in the room.
"Where have you been?"
The voice was calm but sharp, practised.
It wasn't the voice of someone asking out of concern.
"I just went out," Isaac replied, tone flat.
He tried to slip past, but a hand shot out and gripped his shoulder tightly.
"We need to talk."
That voice, cold, controlled.
Every word dug into Isaac's nerves like a needle.
His body stiffened automatically, muscle memory from years of dealing with the same tone.
"Can we do it tomorrow? I'm tired."
The hand on his shoulder tightened.
A small pain shot through his collarbone.
Isaac didn't turn around.
"You're hurting me."
"I told you we need to talk."
The grip loosened slightly, but not enough to let him go.
He forced his arm upward and brushed the hand off, ignoring the way it trembled as it dropped.
"I'm going to bed."
"If you don't listen," his father said casually, "you know what'll happen."
Isaac froze.
He didn't need to look back.
He didn't need to hear the rest.
The meaning was always the same.
A quiet laugh escaped his lips before he could stop it, a tired, humourless sound.
"Heh."
"Was something funny?"
Isaac didn't respond. He just walked toward his room.
His mother's voice followed.
"Why can't you be more like your sister?"
He clenched his jaw.
Grinding
He ground his teeth, forcing himself to stay quiet.
'Even if I tried to explain, it wouldn't matter. It never does.'
'They'll always pick her.'
By the time he reached his door, his chest felt heavy.
SLAM
He shut it and locked it immediately.
The quiet that followed was suffocating, but it was still better than the noise outside.
"Hahh…"
He exhaled slowly, rubbing his face.
His body felt like it was collapsing in on itself, but at least he was alone.
At least in here, he could breathe.
He slumped into his chair and hit the power button on his PC.
Whirrrr
The hum of the fans filled the room as the monitor flickered to life.
Click click
The mouse moved sluggishly under his fingers, muscle memory guiding him through the familiar steps.
—♪
A cheerful tune played through his speakers.
On-screen, golden letters faded in against a starry backdrop.
.
❰The Knight of Stellaris❱
[Continue]
.
"Alright, let's just… play for a bit," he muttered.
Click
.
[Loading… 32%]
.
[Loading… 76%]
.
[Loading… 99%]
.
[Loading Complete]
.
'Finally.'
He leaned forward, waiting for the title screen to fade, but before he could move, a notification popped up.
Every word Isaac read made his heart sink further and further…
.
[IMPORTANT] Support for "The Knight of Stellaris" is ending.
[End of Service Announcement]
——————————————
We regret to announce the closure of The Knight of Stellaris. Thank you all for your support. We hope you enjoyed playing. We will keep the servers open until March 2nd, 2026, at 9:00 PM PST, so please continue to enjoy The Knight of Stellaris until the very end.
For more information, please refer to the official announcement on the TKS Forums, linked below.
https://www.tksforums.net/news/eos-announcement
.
Isaac stared blankly at the message.
"…Ha."
He laughed quietly, though it sounded closer to a sigh.
"What a fucking joke."
Click
He closed the announcement and stared at the screen for a moment, but his hand didn't move.
The game's bright logo stared back at him like a memory he didn't want to lose.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
For ten whole minutes, he sat there, cycling through menus.
He wasn't even really playing, just clicking, switching screens, scrolling through characters he'd spent years building.
"What's the point?"
His voice was barely a whisper.
Knowing it would all disappear soon made every action feel pointless.
Eventually, he opened the forums out of habit.
Maybe there'd be some kind of follow-up post, a developer apology, anything.
.
[The Knight of Stellaris - End of Service] - By Semroft.
.
He scrolled down.
The post was standard PR speak; apologies, gratitude, and a copy-pasted timeline for shutdown.
Still, it hit him harder than he expected.
The Knight of Stellaris, or TKS for short, was an RPG with life-sim elements.
It was a game Isaac had been playing since its release, a little over five years ago, when he was still in middle school.
When it first came out, its player base was huge, thanks to being one of the first of its kind.
However, as time passed, an increasing number of people abandoned TKS and moved on to other games.
Firstly, since it was a live-service game, its popularity fluctuated significantly depending on how recently it was updated.
That being said, there were many other reasons behind the player's decline; the main one was that the story lost its charm after a certain point.
At the time, there were rumours that Semroft had hired new writers, which might explain why it felt so different, but whatever the reason, it didn't change the fact that the story became worse and worse.
Even the most recent update was poorly received due to its generic feel, especially since it marked the end of an almost six-year-long story.
Unlike most, though, Isaac had never left the game.
In fact, he had done almost everything possible in TKS.
Every character he owned was completely maxed out, all of their personal stories were complete, and he had even been ranking within the top 5 in PvP consistently for the past 3 years.
On top of all of that, he had obtained every single achievement in the game, which was almost an impossible feat for a game like this.
'That didn't mean I didn't have any gripes, though.'
Even someone as committed as Isaac had been on the forums complaining to the devs about story or balance changes numerous times.
Why had he stayed with the game so long then?
There was just one simple reason.
TKS wasn't just a game.
It was his game.
It was a game that had helped him during the worst moments of his life, and so he was never able to drop it.
And now it was ending.
Scrolling through the comments only made him feel worse.
.
└ ISIMPFOR2DWOMEN: Why did they have to ruin the game?
└ PandaDigger: About time.
└ Bunns28: Lololol deserved
└ Firenzy: Ded game xd
└ Leafar91: Surprised it made it this far
└ Livia_chan: Thanks for everything
└ Omnomer: Shit game
└ Pongpong: Semroft I would like to ask why you ruined the game, the most recent update 'Light vs Dark' was very disappointing and I would like to ask how any of your team thought this was a good idea, I've been playing this game since day 1 and have been looking forward to the ending of the story, even wading through all the messy content that had been released over the years…► See more…
.
As expected, the comments were largely harsh.
There was even someone who had written a 3000-word comment describing his disappointment with the game, which Isaac found to be an entertaining read.
Seeing all of these comments, though, Isaac had a thought.
'Was TKS really that bad?'
No, not really.
Sure, the story had dropped in quality, but it was still fine.
The gameplay was solid, and the world had charm.
People just loved tearing things down when they were ending.
He exhaled through his nose and started typing.
.
└ YvetteMyBeloved: Thanks for everything, good luck on the next project! <3
.
It wasn't anything fancy or over the top, just a simple thank you for everything they've done up until this point.
He posted it and leaned back in his chair, staring at the screen until the monitor dimmed.
Then he pressed the power button.
"Huh?"
But just as the PC shut off, it suddenly powered up again.
"Is it finally done for?"
Isaac frowned.
The computer was old, sure, but it had never done that before.
'Well, whatever.'
He reached down to flip the power switch, but something stopped him.
"?"
❰The Knight of Stellaris❱ had opened again.
The title screen blinked to life without him touching anything.
He moved the mouse. It didn't respond.
Then, on its own…
.
[Loading… 49%]
.
[Loading… 83%]
.
[Loading Complete]
.
His save file loaded automatically.
"What…?"
But it didn't stop there.
The game scrolled through the menus by itself: map, world select, and to the demon realm.
His character appeared, moving smoothly without his control.
His character fought through monsters with perfect precision, cutting down everything in sight.
He should've been worried.
But instead… he felt something strange.
Excitement.
For the first time in a long while, he leaned forward, eyes fixed on the screen.
Scraaaaapppeeee
The throne room doors opened.
On the other side sat a woman with long black hair and hollow grey eyes.
The Demon Lord.
[Demon Lord, I have travelled far and wide to put an end to your evil deeds! You shall pay for what you did back in my village, you foul fiend!]
Isaac couldn't help but lean forward even more at what he was hearing.
'This… This is new dialogue?'
In all his many playthroughs, he had never once encountered this scene, and as a hard-core fan, that made it even harder for him to look away.
[...]
The Demon Lord didn't respond to the Hero's words.
[...All my companions are dead because of you. Don't you have anything to say? Anything at all?]
"Huh?" Isaac exclaimed.
The scene before him was being played through his account.
His account, in which he had maxed out every single character in the game and beaten every quest.
'What does he mean they're all dead?'
[...]
The Demon Lord stayed silent, her expression unreadable.
[Damn it all! Why—!]
The Hero raised his sword, his voice breaking.
[I'll kill you…!]
And with those words, he rushed at the Demon Lord.
••✦ ♡ ✦•••
The battle unfolded fast. Brutal. Final.
When it was over, both lay dying on the floor.
[I did it…]
The Hero smiled faintly before collapsing.
Before him lay the Demon Lord, in a similar state to himself.
[...]
She still said nothing, even while tears were streaming down her face, even when the life was fading from her body.
Her eyes were empty and held not a drop of life, and yet, she was still breathing.
Then the screen went black.
"That's it?" Isaac muttered.
He stood up abruptly.
"Seriously?"
BANG! BANG!
Someone pounded on his door, probably his father, but he ignored it.
'No way that's the end… That can't be it.'
Isaac understood what had happened: The Hero had gone after the Demon Lord alone, and because he was alone, they both ended up dying.
However, he felt like there had to be more to the story.
TKS was next to impossible without a full party; he knew that, so then why had the Hero gone alone?
'Could everyone really have died?'
But even if that was true, there was still something that didn't make sense.
Why was the Demon Lord looking at the Hero with pity?
Why had she cried when she was dying?
"Ahh–! Damn it–!" He ruffled his hair in frustration at the half-assed story he had been shown.
Then, a flicker.
The screen lit up again.
Unlike what he expected, the Demon Lord was alive, if only barely.
She stood over the Hero's body with a face full of grief before clasping her hands together in prayer.
[Mother Iria, may you guide this poor soul to rest.]
Her voice was hoarse and barely audible, but Isaac listened to every word intently.
Step… step…
The Demon Lord slowly exited the throne room, stepping over the bodies of her fellow demons before finally leaving the castle and staring at the blood-red sky.
[I guess it's almost time…]
Her tone was weary, empty.
She sat down on the stone steps, hugging her knees.
[When will it be over…]
Ting-♪
Her eyes softened.
[Ah, thank you, Mother Iria, I'm sorry for failing again.]
Then everything stopped.
Time froze.
Ting-♪
A chime echoed again, sharper this time.
And then…
.
[Do you want to save her?]
[Yes] [No]
.
He was given an option, an option to decide the girl's fate.
Isaac blinked.
"What the hell…"
The cursor hovered on its own, waiting.
He didn't even think. He clicked.
Click
.
[Yes]
.
[Choice Selected]
[Thank You, Isaac]
.
"Huh?"
The monitor flashed white.
Then everything went dark.
————「❤︎」————