ã€ŠSundered Fateã€‹


 One - Dirt

    ¡°Look at him.¡± The emotion in those words filled the air with dread, a tangible sense of danger welled up in the air and festered in the hearts of all who heard him. A being stared into a display that projected the object of his hatred.

    ¡°Look at him, Huilar.¡± The being turned to a slender tall figure that seemed to exist of living shadow. ¡°Look at he who crawls through the mud and dirt like an insect.¡± Huilar doesn¡¯t respond, knowing that while it may have been framed as conversation this was just his master ranting.

    On the display is a man or boy really. A human at that. He appears to be walking through the woods, the sun shining down on him and the sky is blue and clear. For a human, it is a perfect day. For the being it is sickening. The joyful mood that the boy seems to be in, doesn''t help his mood any either.

    It was well known that looks could kill. Laser beams from the eyes, soul invasion spells, corruption magic, or even a mental magic cantrip would turn someone''s brain to mush. However, this human was outside of the domain that this being controlled, and beyond outside of what many would understand as the universe, a lesser understanding and flawed, but an understanding nonetheless.

    All of the beings in the room where at least one step removed from their mortal origins, even the rats, if there were any to be found, would possess qualities that most Earthly humans would understand, only as magic or trickery in the best case. All of this was known to the being who brooded over the image of the nemesis who, despite all of this had thwarted him repeatedly on a world where he chose to make a play for power. It just made his failing that much worse.

    ¡°And you know the worst part..¡± The being leans back in a throne that is made of red bones that creaks under the shifting weight. ¡°The worse part..¡±

    Another voice speaks up then, a huddled form that is tied to the throne by a chain of black iron, that glows with runic patterns that let off the bright glow of power. The form as not moved in centuries and simply lies on the soft bedding that has been provided for it.

    "The worst part is that he doesn''t know who you are or that you even exist." The mocking tone is clear, and the shaking is evident in laughter, which is a low croaking sound that fills the space even as it causes clear pain.

    The being regards the form with a level stare. He had long thought that she had long since lost what had remained of her mind. Apparently not. That laughter causes his blood to boil and he clenches a fist. A wave of power floods through the chain in the shadowed form. The laughter cuts off, but she doesn''t scream.

    After a moment he relents. For it is true the mortal doesn''t know he exists, believing in a mere fantasy over what was true. the being is also aware of the little he has gleaned from the insects'' mind that should he learn the true nature of things he likely wouldn''t have the fortitude to stand against his plans.

    But alas such is the way of things that exist beyond the veil. Not even Burytal lord of the Infinite Path could affect something so huge and powerful as a veil between realities. For that was who he was a ruler of one of the infinite realms of the abyss and among it¡¯s most powerful denizens.

    But Burytal mused, he didn''t need to rent a veil a sunder no. His mind was focused on that specific mortal. To be thwarted was one of the most irritating things to a devil. Plans laid over millennia or centuries foiled by a nobody. Someone who didn''t even realize the import of actions taken.

    It was irritating to the extreme, but he long had started to form his plan of action. To directly acted a single mortal was normally beneath him and his station, however when that mortal vexed him so he was willing to forget the slight to his self-image.

    The turned his slight from the mortal and looked again at the crumpled form what had once been a mighty and overwhelming enemy, now reduced to this state as nothing more than a small pet he kept for his amusement.

    "You are right, of course, he doesn''t know who or what he has impeded. To think that such a ridiculous scheme to fool me was brought to fruition by this lowly being is nothing short of an offense to my very name." His voice takes on a sinister edge, "Perhaps it is time he learned of exactly the realm that he has chosen to enter, perhaps it is time he learns of who I am." The unmistakably vile smile that blooms across his features could cause even paragons of light to question whether they would step up to face this being in that moment.

    "You would knowingly take such a chance? I don''t dare hope that you be so foo~oolsih" The voice hisses out from beneath its dark covering. Scorn and condescension are evident. "To think you would invite such a challenge, it is impressive how stupid you can be at times and still wear the crown."

    ¡°I risk nothing, you overestimate the cost. And the challenge, look at yourself Winterhier, I do not think you are in any position to question my power here.¡± The cool delivery speaks of confidence and absolute certainty.

    As he finished speaking the being reaches out with magic, the vast reserves of power that dwell within the devil churn silently in his depths. There is a wrenching sensation as what passes for air in this place is displaced by a sudden glyph that twists itself into being.

    The creature, scrambles of it''s post the yanks the chain to its limit to get as far away as possible from the hideous symbol. Turning her head away Wyhte is unable to even look upon the abhorrent pictograph, a complex overlay of images and symbolism hat is her current form is well beyond her understanding.

    ¡®To think the fool would really do it.'' This thought bounces around her head as quickly as it appears the symbol flashes, not out of existence, but deeper into in. The writhing mass emptiness that is left in its wake is just as horrifying, if for different reasons. Through the gap in all of reality, the chaos of creation, that which lies at the convergence of all planes is, given a pathway into the world.

    Wyhte doesn¡¯t hesitate after seeing this and dives for the rift. The chain which had she had been slowly compromising over the last three decades fails in a brilliant fizzle of color. She almost makes it.

    A tight hand grasps her around the neck and hauls her back as the rift begin to shrink and shrivel as Burytal pours out more of his power to close the rift.

    ¡° No no little lizard, the master wishes you to remain for a time more, step with us will you.¡± The voice the speaks almost directly into her ear is quickly sweet and venomous and long nails that curl around her neck prick her flesh and draw out thin lines of blood.

    For a minute she struggles while the rift shrinks smaller and smaller. Then with a flash of deep red light, it''s gone.

    Whyte goes limp in her captor''s grip. As Burytal turns to face her again, a mock disappointing frown covers his features. "Now now, dearest pet, you were the one reminding me of risks. Yet you would step into the chaos itself. How very hypocritical of you."

    "Looks like we''ll need to have a new chain made, Maya dear, please see to it that the little lizard doesn''t stress too much till then." The faux kindness in this voice grates on Wyhte as she is dragged away by the woman, knowing that she is in for an unpleasant time for a while more.

    <><><>

    I stood in the forest that bordered my apartment complex on the edge of the city. I liked nature quite a bit, even though most of the time that was from a distance, where no wild animals could mistake me for food.

    Under a canopy of trees that seem to reach into the bright blue sky, and provide enough shade from the hot summer sun, that made staying outside just bearable enough for me to take it without questioning mysanity for doing so. Truthfully, Iwas out here most of the time or went for walks in the well-worn trails that swayed drunkenly through the forest. I liked watching the birds.

    It said online that is was good to have a hobby to fall back too when you are feeling down. I was feeling down, I wasn''t depressed .. I think. But after the servers had shut down on my game, I had lost a large part of who I am and struggled even now to fill the void it left behind. I didn''t tell anyone, of course, they would think I was having an episode.

    Not that there was anyone to tell.

    The foster parents who raised me dumped me as soon as I wasn''t profitable anymore and I was left alone. Not that I wasn''t a little grateful for them taking me in the first place. But they were always distant and blunt, never looking for connection, apart from the few times an inspector showed up. I had known much worse situations and just went along with it, not relying on them for anything outside of the very basics.

    I had a backpack with me it carried all of my things as well as some notebooks that I would use later to see if I could write anything down and get the thoughts out of my head. That sometimes helped, not always of course but they had been getting worse when I had lost the game.

    I planned to get in contact with the developers later that day and see if they were working on any new projects that I would be interested in. Or maybe even try to open a private server of the game world so I could go back and relax every once in a while.

    I avoided human contact as much as possible, I was wary of other people, that was born from a lifetime of mistrust and abuse at the hands of strangers from an early age. A time I repressed with great diligence, even when I was in a much better place such as this.

    The dead leaves on the trail crunched underfoot, as I stepped deliberately around small annoying rocks that would always be underfoot if I didn''t look out for them. Following this trail wasn''t difficult being my regular route, a relatively flat ordeal that leads to a quiet glade that I liked and as the park itself had not seen many visitors in ages, this spot was happily mine.

    I was not in a rush. Slowly I walked into the glad which was almost a perfect circle. This was a place for me to watch and observe life slowly show itself around me. I sat on the far left of the bench that was in the direct center of the open space. I relaxed into the seat and went still, with an arm resting on the edge.

    My fingers brushed the edge of the plaque that dedicated the bench. I didn¡¯t look at it, having read and reread it thousands of times by now. I gazed in one direction for a long time, just letting the world melt away from me. I hadn¡¯t always been like this person I was now, a reclusive gamer I used to.. have them, Lyla and Marc. But no, I couldn¡¯t let my thoughts spiral like that.

    I let themflow out of my mind, simultaneously feeling guilt and the familiar anger that were at constant war with each other. The ebb and flow around their memory was something that I had constantly struggled with never letting either side completely dominate my emotions. There was a lot of history for me to simply fall into anger and hate. And so I pressed down on the emotions not wanting to deal with the complexities that were interwoven with my thoughts of them.

    In retrospect that probably didn¡¯t help my emotional stability too much. Oh well.

    I slipped into an almost meditative trance, trying to find my zen as some guy online had called it. But thinking of nothing was the most impossible thing that I have ever tried doing, so I settled for focusing on the world around me. Inspecting the small details, the bend of grass from the slight dew, the number of coloring leaves on the trees, and the birds that flitted between them now and then.

    Then something changed in the air. I felt it like a small twist of wind, all the animals bolted I saw only the rustle of branches and sway of grass as whatever smaller critters had found me approachable were now gone.

    I got up and looked around. What the hell, normally nothing happens here that is why I like it so much. Then I felt a burning sensation, I smelled burnt flesh. That was all secondary however to the clawing pain that crawled up from my back and snaked its way around my flesh. The pungent smell overwhelmed me and gagged in revulsion at the burning of my flesh.

    Not really wanting to I fumbled through the pain, pulling the hem of my shirt up and looking down, stunned at what I found.

    Red light seeped out of my skin, burning the outer layers away and forming intricate symbols all over my body. I collapsed in pain a scream wrenching from itself from my body, the pain was only growing. Then it reached a peak and felt my mind fading out, a sudden flow of warmth flooded into my being.

    I lay bonelessly on the ground, not wanting to move or do anything to risk another attack of pain, not sure what started it and what had ended it either. I was stuck waiting as my mind slowly came back from that place driven by pure instinct. I relaxed slowly, my mind racing as the strange sight came back to me.

    Slowly, carefully I lifted my arm in front of my face. They were still there, like freshly closed wounds, thin slices only millimeters deep, but noticeable when seen all over my body like fresh scarring. I already had scarring, this was still different somehow this was more like some kind of sick ...carving into the canvas of my skin. Strangely, if such a word has any meaning in this situation I was that they were almost fully healed.

    They were strangely appealing and frightening to the eye and me for having them just appear like this it was a bit unnerving. I rolled on my back, not wanting to look at them anymore. Trying to figure out the why so many possibilities running through my head and most of them utter nonsense. Something else then caught my eye. Another blood-red light seemed to be above me.

    The blood-red pinprick of light hovered there just sitting in the sky, I moved my head to the right to get a better look and found the dot followed. I was already starting to hate the color red.

    I got up slowly, not looking away from the newest strangeness, newly found scarring put to the side for the minute. This thing above me was different, sure the first time had hurt badly and I didn¡¯t want to repeat it. But this, this was different I could feel this light. As it grew brighter and brighter I felt it touch my face and almost threw up.

    The very real sense of utter revulsion exploded in my mind when the light reached the intensity of a small Christmas bulb. I struggled to keep my glasses on my face as the hacking continued as the light grew steadily brighter.

    I couldn¡¯t bring myself to look at it again. That helped some, but even feeling its rays on my skin made my skin crawl. It was like nothing, my mind tried to come up with a comparison something that would be just as bad, but every time I had an idea it was immediately discarded as useless, nothing could capture the sheer disgust that was evoked.

    The light built to an intensity, before erupting out. A pillar of red light engulfed me, thankfully the original stomach-turning feeling was gone and I just stood in the beam before the world turned white and then I was ... was standing in a dark room. Huh.

    I was there and now I was here. It didn''t even feel like I had moved, but this was not the sunny glade I had just been in. This was a damp and grimy looking cave, seemingly made out of a plain rock. I couldn''t tell however as the only meager light was provided by three braziers that were arrayed around me forming a triangle.

    My brain did it''s best not to shut down here. Light, pain, and a change in scenery is was all a bit much. I jerkily glanced around, stunned as I waited for the next dramatic thing to find me. Knowing that I was able to do nothing like my world shattered around me.

    It took a few minutes for me to stop wildly peering into the dark, hoping to preempt anything that would spring happen, simultaneously not knowing what I would do if something did happen. Then I noticed something. The half of the bench where I was sitting not moments before was also with me inside the triangle formed by the lights. My bag down underneath where I had stowed it, charred grass also littered the floor, all-round me, forming a perfect ring.

    I am not sure that I ever had a moment where I realized I had been .. teleported... That word just was not anywhere in my head. I was not in denial, there were just some things that are not the first thing that I would think off. I like to think that I am at least intellectually inclined, the other choice being physical, and that just wasn''t me, so it was brains or nothing.

    As I gazed at the bench I noticed the metal was still intact and was relieved, however, the sight of the ruined monument to my chosen siblings was what stabbed into me and brought about the reality of the situation crashing to the forefront of my mind.

    I spun around again, trying to find .. something.

    "Ummm... Hello!?" My voice echoed around the chamber and reverberation back to me. "Is anyone there, I seem to be..uhh here... Now" I waited.

    <><><>

    In a place far from the Infinite Labyrinth, but just as desolate as the tower at its heart, another woman stirred for the first time in thousands of years, ancient magic flowed of her and into the voidal chasm around where her form hung from hundreds of chains which stretched taught in every direction, seemingly fading into the background. Unlike those of Wyhte, her chains never glowed and would never glow.

    Ancient beyond what most people could understand the being was still very much alive, although she too had slept for some time now. The intermittent visits her captors used to do, having long since ceased for some reason or another.

    And she too is awakened. In her vast mind, a small point of light brightens and shines for a brief moment in time, something that has not happened in a very long time. It let a wonderful trickle of strength flow back into her emaciated form.

    Nyx stared transfixed by the light. Feeling its true conviction and exploring the path to being on the other end. A boy, no more. The chains shook as Nyx¡¯s body convulsed, unknowingly as her mind read the boy before her. Saw him falling into the abyss, and felt the tunnel through the very reality that grounded all things, the chaos of creation. The backdrop and convergence of all planes.

    As she watched the bot fall, gazed at him knowing him in truth and seeing what lay beneath the shell. The window was closing fast, time being as twisted as everything else when the chaos was involved. Nyx shoved a return gift of power as the true belief of one of her most devoted priests came to wash over her.

    She had felt his convictions had seen into his mind as well as soul, already knowing him better than he knew himself. The power traveled down the link just as the light glimmered out and the boy, Jace she told herself, Jace, arrived in the abyss. Already her wakefulness fled. That was the most power she had drawn on since her imprisonment even now traveling down through the chaos itself to him.

    She didn¡¯t know if the chaos would eat away all the power before it even reached him, or if the stretch of space would be infinite and thus never reach him. Or if any number of things could go wrong. But the attempt was made anyway.

    Time will tell, the consequences for her were more immediate. The chains grew ever tighter around her, the blackness of space folding in on itself at the edges forming new chain links as they creaked and groaned as if to grind her to dust.

    They could not of course. Even a goddess bound for a hundred thousand years would not be broken by simple chains. That being a relative term, as this chain was not simple or in most ways even a chain.

    Nyx fell asleep almost peacefully, despite the conditions, for the first time in so very long.

    <><><>

    Slowly the echo of my voice died away, and nothing. I bit my lower lip, unsure of what exactly I was going to do next if there was no one at the end of this crazy ride. Then I heard scrabbling, muffled off in the dark. I turned to face it quickly, a mix of apprehension and eagerness played in my heart.

    Then the sound grew... it sounded like a group of people coming up from somewhere over in the dark. I stayed within the light, reluctant to wander into the dark, hoping that I would get some answers.

    There was a squeak that echoed around, as someone opened a door that leads out of this bleak chamber. Instantly the chatter became apparent as whoever they were speaking in a language that I did not recognize.

    Several torch lights were illuminating the forms that came through the door and I once again stared in amazement. I had expected humans, I only realized this after I saw the very non-human beings that were now in front of me. It must have come as a shock to them as well as they seemed to freeze. We stared at each other.

    I had been through quite a few shocks today and sound myself, already recovering from this latest development. They were gray and had about a foot of height on me. They had only a single eye which was entirely green orbs that sat in the middle of what passed for a face, their massively muscular exposed chests were covered in loose fabric that I struggle to even call clothing, and each wore a loincloth, not the warp around eastern style either the caveman, thread with a sheet hanging down deal that provided as much in the way of protection as it did in actually covering anything up.

    Then one at the back grunted something out in that guttural language and they all seemed to relax and look at me strangely. I didn¡¯t like the strange demeanor at all and it is not helped by the unsettling grins that sprung up on the one whom I presumed to be the leader.

    "Hel-hello there .. ah..friends... I am Jace..do you... kn.." I trailed off as the looks didn''t change and if anything got more savage. They barked at each other and I put down my hand. They either didn''t understand me or didn''t care as they moved forward as a group.

    I backed up as they approached my already weary mind, realizing, almost bemusedly that no friendly faces were approaching me, just thuggish smiles. I flinched as one barked a command.

    A smaller one in the front growled back with what I could almost tell was glee before raising a sword at me. The blade was wickedly curved and sharp, even though I could see a layer of rust and something I didn''t want to identify caking the side of the blades, the edge, however, seemed to be especially polished and sharpened as the metal glistened in the flickering firelight.

    He howled as he leaped forward. I instantly thought he, because that was made very obvious when his clothing as it was flapped about wildly on his descent. That impressive leap threw him a good couple of meters and into my triangle of light.

    He was crouched low when he landed bringing him down to my height, his blade pointed right at me. He seemed to sway a little. I backed up even further, bringing up my hands to say hold on in the universal sign of defenselessness.

    This was the wrong move. He lunged at me, blade leading the way. I panicked as I realized that I was about to be run through. I jumped back barely avoiding the stab, but straight into the braiser that was at my back.

    I felt pain lance up my spine from the metal rim. I glanced behind me just in time to see the thing topple from its cradle and crash to the ground. Fire spilled out, presumably from--

    I felt another searing pain in my chest and looked around belatedly to see the creature, now, no person in my mind pulls out his sword. He withdrew the point slowly and I screamed.

    ¡°GGUUAHHHHAAAAAAAAA." I had never been stabbed before. It was novel and terrifyingly painful. I collapsed as the blade left me, already overwhelmed by the pain. Without thinking about it I pressed a shaking hand to the wound, wondering morbidly if that was going to help me now.

    The creature stepped back and opened his arms wide. The feral look on his face was alien to me and the snake-like nose flared as he took a deep breath. His face was alien, but his posture and gaze spoke of scorn and derision.

    Not that I cared what this oaf was mocking me for at this point I was too busy trying feverishly to figure out something... anything. But nothing was coming to me unless these things were not going to kill me I was going to die here.

    Even as I thought his it was not a possibility at this point, already the one in front of me had lower himself into the crouch again. Almost the same as before.

    As I stared death in the face I was simply in pain and could already feel myself growing weaker from the original stab wound that still radiated pain whenever I breathed.

    The creature said something, it easily reached me, however, I couldn''t understand word s any more than I had the first time around. The sentence went on and on for a second time. The other warriors that now surrounded me, save for the side with the burning lake.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    I was not ever someone would describe as a confrontational person by nature, I stuck to the people I knew and didn''t venture too far outside the world I lived in. Being thrown by a beam of light to the aliens which attempted and mostly have succeeded in killing me at this point, would throw anyone off their axis for at least a little while.

    I have been called other things though, vindictive, petty, and pervert up there with the top few that have cropped up, before and after the disappearance of my family. But some of those people were much worse than me and didn''t get a vote in what I was.

    I felt blood well in my mouth and for the first time in a while felt a sneer creep its way onto my face in the face of the idiots taunting. I could recognize anything as taunting, I have had the practice. And now in the face of death was not the time to change who I am. So despite the very real fear and despair, I pushed them aside to spit blood at the creature.

    It must have been some of my last energy as it arched beautifully before splattering on the ground before him. I didn''t speak, mainly because they wouldn''t understand but also because what needed to be said was already said.

    At this point, I was looking at him, but only in the sense that I had my face turned in his general direction. I had already tuned out him and whatever reaction he had, although by the grumbling he didn''t sound pleased. I wondered if spitting on you was a universal gesture of disdain or just something that humans and whatever they were shared.

    Unbidden memories of the twins surfaced in my, things that I hadn''t thought about in a long while. The time we spent playing by ourselves in the small glad we found. The darkness that they pushed back, from my time alone in a cell being cut open time after time after time. And the bad times as well, the fights we had near the end and then alone again.

    My head tilted down and I wondered when the blade had come again. This directly in the center of my chest skewering my heart.

    My mind went ... off.

    <><><>

    In another cave, in another world entirely, another female stirred. Old certainly, but by no means ancient. She stretched atop the pile of furs arching her back, letting out a deep purr. As her mind stirred awake, she felt a hole in her being, long empty, filled again. That completion threw her into shock as a feeling so familiar and yet new at the same time washed through her.

    Then she yowled in empty rage as the void opened again, smaller but still there. This small part of her, made smaller by the sudden change, was like a bristle in her paw. Made ever more distressing by its sudden disappearance.

    Her mate entered the cave and padded up to her side. Gently licking her face as she pressed her belly to the floor, feeling the loose keenly once more.

    ¡°What troubles you, Mya?¡± The low, calming tone of her life long partner echoes in her mind.

    ¡°No, no need to speak I already know. You only get like this when you remember him ¡° After finished cleaning her he moves to lay down and drapes one paw over her, putting his face right next to her¡¯s.

    ¡°Talk to me kitten.¡± His voice is imploring with a hint of command that comes from his time controlling his children, who even now he has just left after hearing Mya¡¯s sorrowful sound echo out of their home.

    "Yes, but this time it''s different. I..I.." She hesitated not wanting to say the words and breath life into her thoughts that would only bring her life thoughts back to full force. She hardens her resolve under the comforting weight of her mate''s paw. "I felt his presence again.¡± Even in the telepathic speak her words come out as a whisper.

    He takes a second to respond, ¡°Yes, I too sometimes feel him watching us. The kids too, he would have liked them. Although I am not sure what he would think about me...¡± His self deprecating humor is lost on Mya.

    "Wha.. what... No, you''re not listening! I felt him again Nil. The bond was made real again...¡±

    His head pulls back to look at her. "But ... but I thought you said that was impossible. Without the bridge, or the mechanisms or even the host... How.."

    ¡°I know! I Know! I know what I said. But I felt him I still feel him, different sure but it¡¯s him. He¡¯s back or they¡¯re back maybe? I was never sure about that other woman... but I have to go find him. There had to be a way to get to him and ... and ..¡± Without realizing it she was on her feet and pacing the room in excitement and adrenaline.

    ¡°Calm mate of mine, calm. We are not going to go find him.¡± His chuckle cuts across her mind, ¡°You are acting like an excited kitten again.¡±

    "WHAT do you mean we''re not going to go find him!? He''s my... my.." Again she couldn''t finish her thought, the emotions that welled up were overriding much of her thinking.

    ¡°Well for one, your pregnant. Again. ¡±

    ¡°I am?¡± The force from the previous statement deflating like an arrow hitting the dirt.

    "Yes, you are. And for another thing do you know where to go, even a vague direction."

    "No." Her voice is soft and vulnerable, aside few would associate with her. The massive lion lets out a chuff at his mate''s cuteness which still can get to him after all this time together.

    "No that''s right. And would your companion, who raised you from a cute, mewling little kitten and raised you into the mate to the most powerful beast in the whole range feel about you traipsing around with a litter of his grandkittens at risk?" dulcet tones, soothing over the fresh loss like a balm. Mya found herself returning to her normal self and knowing that Nil was right. About most of those things.

    She slumped back over to her side and gazed at him, adoringly. "Thanks, my Mate. I was just so... so... SO, Happy for a second there. You have no idea the sense of completion, what it feels like to be whole after so long.."

    "No, I don''t." He pads over to her again and touches her nose with his own," And one more thing. If you are right and He is returned to you..to us, then do you think there is much that could stop him from coming to you."

    The half blissed-out half despairing sigh that reached Nil, makes him pause. "It will depend on how much he realizes about our world and the so-called game he played. For if he has returned then it is not from by the Gods Bridge. Which means .. something but I don''t know what that is yet. But you are right he will probably come if he learns the truth."

    For a moment they stayed like that enjoyed each other''s company. Before simultaneously getting up and making their way to the cave entrance

    As they do Mya reaches up and whaps her Mate on the head. His chin slams into the ground. "And what was that nonsense about being the strongest beast. Please dear, you are lovely, but we both know that simply isn''t true. "

    "Yes yes, of course, excluding you dear always we would never fight!"

    ¡°My I forgot about myself I was thinking of Maru. He was gathering quite the aura last time I saw him.¡±

    ¡°Maru!! You think that cinder head..wait when are you spending time with Maru.¡± Mya ignored him.

    "Or Samson, Everbright, Mily, hmmm let''s not forget me in there."

    ¡°Okay, okay I give up. It was just a line I hoped to slip by you! Now tell me..¡±

    <><><>

    I lay on my bed and watched as the clock, slowly tickled on the wall. In the digital age having an analog clock was a bit of an anomaly. This particular one was a fake, it''s outward appearance was simply a facade, the winding mechanism, and a direct connection to a small motor which in turn had a wireless connection to my phone, constantly syncing the time together with the digital world. This machine was a happy cat face I looked at was a happy little lie. A deception, not unlike me.

    I hid behind the mask civility that I once always held with them around. But how was used as a tool, just another way to fit it.

    Another tick, as the minute hand clicked 1/60th closer to the time when I would wake up. I gazed up at the photo that was tapped to the ceiling, three smiling children. The larger black-haired one wore familiar sweatpants and a graphic tee. A blonde-haired boy was standing next to him, quite a difference in their stature. They both held wooden sticks out like swords in front of them. Another blonde, a girl was hanging onto the black-haired boy and peeking over his shoulder as they squared off.

    That picture had been captured at the moment by a nice couple who had decided to send a copy to us after finding the picture entertaining. At the time, of course, it was nothing I wanted or cared much about. I had kept it and in truth forgot about the picture until I was forced to find it again.

    A weight settled on my chest. I looked down to see a kitten. She was small and in the darkness, it was hard to make out any coloration. I didn''t have a cat.

    Just then her eyes reflected up ay me, ¡®mew'' I wanted to keep her. That face was adorably fluffy. I found myself already planning out my budget for next week to include kitten''s needs. My hand moving automatically to stroke her fur.

    ¡®Purrr'' She let out a small contented purr and lay down as if for a nap, right on top of me. My fingers found their way to her neck and I found the light collar attached, I sighed and realized that she must already have an owner. I squinted and tried to make out the name.

    - Mya -

    Hey, I had a cat called Mya as well, not in this place but still. For now, I contented myself to let her lay on me as the time ticked forward.

    Another tick echoed in the otherwise silent room which I lived out of.

    5:55 ¡®mew¡¯

    I started moving swinging up and pulling my head out of memories as the time approached. My computer was already on of course. The time had come, I get out of my bed and prepare to go to work. I started booting up programs and finally opening the game launcher. My stream was officially licensed and almost had a religious following, from both the companies promotion and my exploits in-game.

    ¡®Meow¡¯

    Logging in I checked the screen, two character options as always were available to me, I selected the knight, who was resplendent in high-level gear and was my main face through which the outside world saw me.

    I liked to open my stream when I was already in the game, past all of the outer layers of that broke through the immersion of my play. Everything went to silent mode as I clicked the enter world.

    My whole screen flashed to pure white, blinding me and I pushed back shocked and felt myself fall back off my seat, the searing intensity of the light washing away all other sights. I tensed up expecting to hit the ground and bounce off the hardback chair that I was so familiar with.

    I closed my eyes and fell.

    The excepted landing never came. Instead, I felt soft fluffy surfaces beneath me. I opened my eyes slowly, not wanting to be met by that light again.

    There was white again. But it was less intense than before and didn''t hold that someone-just-shoved-a-flashlight -in-your-face intensity from before. Carefully I lowered my arms and peeked around. I found myself in a white room. The ceiling, floor, and walls were all an inform white only offset by the shadows that were cast from, white lamps that stood on small white tables in the corners of the room. I looked down and found myself on, surprise, a white bed. But I was wearing my regular clothes, a dark gray pair of sweatpants and a familiar graphic tee that had holes in the chest area exposing my skin to the white world.

    To say that I was feeling a bit surreal was to understate many times over how I was feeling. Surprising I felt no fear or even alarm. I just felt serene and at ease. It was an incredible sensation. There were no windows or even a door however and I contented myself with just examining the lights that emitted a shade of white light that seemed to match the tone of everything else perfectly.

    As I was looking at one of the things that seemed to simply exist without any need for anything, I noticed something new happening. The wall next to me rippled slightly, like a disturbed lake, the disturbance growing ever greater. I felt no fear as something moved toward the room how could I, I was here.

    I dropped the lamp and watched it snap back to its position in space is if it had never been moved. I was almost distracted by them again except the wall, bulged out near the bottom of the surface and something pushed its way into my space.

    A small cat. It was a dark gray as well but had pretty purple patterns along its sides and across her whole body. Her. I mused to myself, that seemed right somehow. I bent down and picked her up. She was so soft and fluffy.

    I cradled her in my arms and sat on the ground. I knew his cat. Her name was...was... Mya yes that was it. She was my pet and later the companion and still later my greatest ally. But this was her when we had first met, a small kitten that I got from one of the starter quests. Hmm, didn''t I just start that game...

    She licked my face and I held her tighter. To be able to hold her like this... this ... what was this a dream. But something itched at the back of my mind, a thought that wanted to be thought.

    Mya squirmed in my arms mewling piteously. She scrambled and I felt she wanted to be let go. So I did. She landed gracefully and padded over to the wall. This might have been the one that she came through I was not sure. She turned and looked at me halfway there. I stared back not comprehending.

    ¡®

    Until it clicked, she wanted me to follow her. I got up and did happy to oblige her, after all this time being on seen through admittedly super high fidelity graphics under my monstrous computer set up, it was still infinitely better in person.

    When she saw me following she went right up to the wall and sat, licking a paw as I strolled over to her.

    "Hey kitty, so what is it, did you have something to show me?" My voice sounded strange and distant to my ears, echoing weirdly off the walls. It was an almost pleasant experience. "Woah, that''s nice." I listened to the sound of my voice bouncing back to me a couple of times before looking down at the cat.

    She sits and looks at me with her head canted to one side then, turns and without noticeable effort walks into the wall, pushing through the supposedly solid surface. I blink and know what she wants to me do I step up to the wall and step into it. It feels a bit denser than water at first, but then I take a second step and it is more difficult than the last. I step again, another increase in difficulty. I start to enjoy the challenge of continuously moving forward. Then I press up against a membrane. An area of toughness that is more difficult than the rather shallow increase in pressure thus far.

    I step forward with purpose and push myself against it. I can feel it flexing around my form as I lunge into the pliable surface. I stay like that a second leaning all of my weight into the strange sensation and then...

    I jolt upright, gasping and heaving for breath. The stale cave air came back in a rush, I splutter and cough, my lungs refilling at last. Holy shit holy shit holy shit. What WAS THAT!? oh my god. I remember everything and the hidden sense of euphoria is gone now replaced by some creeping chills as I remember pushing through the wall. I had not even noticed that I hadn''t closed my eyes and was just seeing the same shade of white through whatever I had just walked through.

    Reliving memories and hallucinating Mya at the same time and strange white room. I flopped down against the cold hard ground and immediately regretting it as I stuck my head against the stone. By the time the stars had gone, I was staring up at the ceiling of a dark cave.

    Firelight flickered in the corner of my vision. The indistinct haze of rocks above me, let me know that I was back in this place and that something was different. Everything was a blur, I squinted and looked up my hand unconsciously coming up to fix my glasses. Glasses that were no longer there. Right blurry vision, not a knock to the head just bad eyesight.

    I think they dropped when I was stabbed the first time. It could have been the second time, I was not sure how much that mattered at this point. I almost laughed to myself at that, ¡®Oh yes, just casually stabbed, that''s right through the heart.'' I didn''t say this out loud, of course, having no desire to ... die?... well go through that thing again.

    The fire that spilled, had seemingly gone out, however, the other two were still burning away. I could still see where my blood and spilled out over the floor, it covered a large pool of where I had been laying. I could feel the sticky feeling on my back as well, my shirt must have gotten completely soaked in the stuff. The two gaping holes in the front didn''t help either. I took it off and found the back caked with red.

    There was no water nearby that I could see and I wasn''t even sure if any amount of scrubbing would get this out. My pants had some as well, although they were still in fair shape, unlike the shirt.

    That¡¯s when I realized what I had already known but not processed, no water. No water meant that I was going to die here again. This was a severe blow to my state of mind. I struggled with myself over my next course of action. No food no water no shelter.

    No food no water no shelter no food no water no shelter...no food..no water...

    A sat and contemplated my problems which seem to be mounting by the minute. The one brazier that was face down left a patch of darkness in the triangle. Then my eyes fell on the bench, or at least what was left of it. The small pile of shattered wood chips left me no doubt that the creatures had taken it apart.

    ¡®nonononono¡¯

    I crawled over to the pile and dug desperately through the small pieces knowing that I wouldn''t find it but frantically hoping that I would. But it was gone I sat back, staring blankly, they had taken my backpack as well it seemed, although that was infinitely less important to me at that moment, compared to the dedication plate it that was also taken.

    I found myself thinking about those creatures who had killed me the moment that had seen me. True they had me fight some sort of one on one ritual killing thing, but that wasn''t much comfort. What I did know however was that they were living beings as well, however inhuman. Living things required nourishment and water. So the answer to my problems was there all sorted. Just take the water and food from the massive sword yielding insanely strong monster people. Easy. Especially since they already showed the ease with which they killed you once, so now hungry and thirsty this time should be different.

    I needed more information.

    I got up gingerly and began to search the room this time making as little noise as possible. I was pretty sure that the creatures that had found me had not heard me call out, and were doing something unrelated when they had stumbled across me. I remember the surprise on their faces... At least I hoped it was a surprise. Not a very comforting thought, but at this point, I doubt a little comfort would do me any good at this point.

    Having not seen the telltale glint of glass reflecting light that I was hoping for, I was stuck fumbling around in the dark slowly. Strangely, my eyes adapted well, then if they couldn''t focus all the way.

    I started at the door that the group had come through and hopefully left through. I moved with deliberate slowness, placing my foot down exactly where I wanted it to be making every action a decision I made, it didn''t eliminate all the noise I made, the sound of shoes on the stone was deafening in the otherwise quiet room.

    I held my breath with the last step and found the door. It was wooden and fit surprisingly well into the stone frame that housed it, a strange piece of actual design that threw me off the general feel of the place as a cave.

    The door was larger than I was accustomed too and not that I was close I could see the hinges were rusted and brown with age, whatever the original metal was, it had not held against the test of time well it seemed.

    With that decision made I couldn¡¯t open the door. Too much risk of sound, and if the rest of the place was anything like this cave sound would carry. I couldn¡¯t risk those brutes finding me again.

    I was actively avoiding thinking about how just ten minutes ago I was dead as far as I knew. However before places where the sword had stabbed into me were now healed over, only a discolored scar to show that they had ever been there in the first place.

    Too much weird shit has happened to me in the last... I wasn''t sure, a few hours maybe, to me... felt like a few hours at least. Of course, coming back from the dead was so far up there that it was not even worth thinking about right now. That whole experience had been so outside of what I had thought death was going to be like it was not worth me thinking about, especially on an empty stomach.

    I made my way around to the left, carefully feeling along the wall and paying as much mind, to details that I could make out, as I could. The rest of the room appeared to be an attempt at a spherical chamber. The number of jagged rock and outcroppings made it a very poor attempt but the idea was there. Soon I came to the other side there was no door like I hoped, however, something did catch my interest. This side was closest to where the brazier that I had knocked over was. I could see the clearly defined area where whatever super fuel was burning in those things and splashed about. There was a section of much cleaner stone. It was only slightly of a lighter shade than the surrounding gray stone.

    As I looked closer at the discoloration I was surprised to see that a slight heat haze still distorting the air around near close to the ground. It was still putting out heat, granted I was only guessing how long I had been ... out... However even the lowest approximation I had put it at least a few hours from when I first arrived.

    I leaned down and slowly lowered my hand to a height where I could feel the temperature, I get surprisingly close to the floor before I felt the prickle of warmth. I pulled back and studied the patch of hot stone.

    ¡®Well, at least I have fire sorted, for now at least.''

    I moved on, taking care not to come too close to the new hazard in the room.

    After I completed the tour of my room I found no other exit. And it seemed I had already seen everything this room at to offer. I felt a sense of disappointment well up, and frustrated I grasp my hands into fists squeezing as tightly as I could manage trying, and only most succeeding to stave off the wave of terror crashed over me. One of my legs gave way as I struggled to remain upright.

    There was nothing here. No explanations, no answers, and no hope. I wasn''t even aware that I was looking for that last one until I didn''t find it. I breathed in ragged gasps, my racing thoughts already beginning to slow. This silent frustrated angry that I stew was made all the worse by my inability to express it for fear of being brought down again.

    I stumbled over to center to the room and sat against the upright stand with no brazier. The other to merry lights hadn''t dimmed in the slightest and I wondered how long they had been burning down here for. They were inverted domes that had little spokes on the rim. The bowl was plain and seemed to be made of shiny metal, but given the occupants down here I doubted that they cared much for gilding.

    For how long I sat, I couldn''t say. Even if I had a watch I wouldn''t be able to see it enough to tell the time. I wondered at the immensity of the shift that had occurred in my life, I would have considered in almost dreamlike, apart from the death, pain, and having no shirt. I poked my gut that stuck out a way over my waist. I had once tried to gain a more athletic form when Marc had convinced me to at least attempt it. I had tried, I had not succeeded.

    I sighed and stood. My emotions have settled. I was ready to try and find a way out of this situation. The first step is to figure out what the hell is going on. From there, we''ll just have to see.

    There was not much else to do really. The first thing that I did was walk over to the brazier it seemed pretty flush with the ground and I had been worried that it would still be hot to the touch as the stone was. I carefully felt the air around the base but found no heat, which was pretty odd considering. This metal must be some super heat insulator.

    I used the little spikes to grab onto, that being the only reasonable place to grip the otherwise smooth surface of the thing. It was weighty like I had suspected but nothing too strenuous. I lifted it with no problems. Only as soon as it was off the floor and a small gap created, bright burning flames flowed through the gap.

    They poured out like a liquid. The wave of heat alone hit me like a physical force, I dropped the dome back down sealing it inside once again and jumped back even as I felt the heat engulf my feet. My jump was hasty and lacking coordination, I stumbled and fell on my ass.

    That minor sting was nothing when I saw that the bright flames already licking my shoes, and the small pool steadily flowing out of the spill and onto the ground.

    I scramble, hopping over to the raised platform once more, simultaneously trying to removing my shoe''s soles as they burned through. The smell of burning rubber spurred me on.

    Thankfully only a splash of the stuff had made it on to me and I quickly removed my socks as well set them off to the side. While they weren''t burning, they were smoking and I wasn''t going to risk anything as I watched the fresh fires burn my shoes away, and acrid smoke wafting around the room.

    I could see the slowly cooling pools of rubber be engulfed yet again by the thinning sheen of liquid fire as it spread out. Even as I backed away I still felt the draft from the heat swirling and disturbing the air in the room noticeably.

    The spectacle didn''t last very long and was almost beautiful to watch as the liquid-like substance burned away in almost picturesque flames. Even the small amount that I had inadvertently let out again seemed to spread a noticeable, if not as large, splotch of discoloration on the stone.

    I tensed suddenly and looked at the still-standing remaining braziers. I hadn''t noticed it before but there was little to no heat coming off them, even when I was standing so close. It was nothing compared to what had to be a relatively small amount of the fuel or whatever rocket fuel served as such for these, now much more sinister seeming lamps. I froze.

    ¡®Ha Ha,'' I had to visibly keep the chortle from escaping me as I realized what I had just thought''. Whoever heard of a sinister lamp. What I had thought to just be some kerosene burning there was, in fact, something far different. My mind boggled at the properties that I had just discovered. To still burn after having no oxygen and after so long. Why wasn''t the ground molten stag underneath? Why did it flow so well, and such heat? Why do the ones behind me let out no heat even as I stand in front of one? I only feel a slight rise in temperature, nothing like the variable blast furnace when I lifted that only a fraction.

    I had no answers as usual. That seemed to be happening a lot recently.

    Steadily, growing more confident with each step I walked toward one of the upright ones and had a look inside. They were all stationed about two meters away from the dais on which I had first arrived, itself being about another two meters in radius sitting, only a few tens of centimeters off the ground.

    The stands held up that held them up were about a meter in height and made of three beams of wood crossed together. Without my glasses and unwilling to get too close, now knowing that these things weren''t exactly stable. I figured that if I could knock one over if I threw my weight around a little I figured it would be better not to get to close.

    I could only make out the inside and knew that I was missing details. There was what appeared to be a perfectly still liquid inside. Through the flames, it was near impossible to get a clear picture.

    I found myself moving forward almost unconsciously as I stared into the blaze, wondering at its properties. I could see a distinct line where the strange liquid reached and simply became the flame. On the inner lip, there were what seemed like some form of inscription. I couldn''t make anything out and was left frustrated yet again.

    The longer I stared into the flame the weirder it was. I remember the one I had touched when I had thought it''s light gone out. It was cool metal. I reached out a finger and light made contact with the one in front of me. It was also cool, I traced my finger along the bottom to the base, feeling the cool surface and marveling.

    Then it hit me that I was standing so close to this thing. I didn¡¯t remember crossing the distance, having only known that I was standing still until that very moment. I froze. Scared to even breath very hard. But steadily it¡¯s presence grew more firm in my mind as I allowed myself more movement. Slow and careful. I lifted my finger off and turned away. Not wanting to be entranced by the flames again.

    My eyes landed on the perfect thing. The empty stand was still fallen off to the side where it fell during my ¡®fight'', or more fittingly execution. I shivered. What bothered me more was the scene that played out in my mind right before I woke up or came back or maybe reanimated, I wasn''t sure what to call it, than the death that I had right before it. I had died. And it was the strange happy dream that bothered me more. That in of itself was more unnerving than I when I had found myself alive and fully healed from what must have been two mortal wounds.

    As my thoughts slowly came together, the liquid fire and light show in the sky, and the resurrection? I felt the answer was right there, on the tip of my tongue but my mind was rebelling against the idea. I had seen those things hundreds and thousands of times before. Not on Earth per se, but not really either. This confusing line of thought was almost always what preceded thing about the game. The game was full of these spectacles, hell my character Luu-Ri, is or had been before the end game and server shutdown that had turned my life upside down, one of the most prolific mages in the world. But that was a game, and my other character, the main I had what was it almost nine years, had been an, among other things an Ascendant Knight of Nyx, the Goddess of Night the first mother, she who birthed the very world. How many resurrections had I performed under her blessing, another thousand easy?

    But that was the game. A fiction that first we, then I as well as many millions of others had immersed ourselves in. The surreal thought that I was somehow in the game moved across my mind. But I quickly squashed it, for many reasons, among them, is that I didn''t believe it, not really. I had no idea when tech capable of recreating anything like this would be real, and I honestly rejected the possibility that it did outright. The few other reasons were for my sanity and sense of grounding. I would accept the magical world to be real before I accepted that this was a game that I didn''t know, or had been shanghaied into playing, and from a park bench, please. And so it was.

    I nodded a few times. Conforming and reconfirming, actively making myself believe it was true. I won¡¯t say that it was a snap. I stared into the magical fire. Replaying the spill and the vast swath of damage that had been done to the floor.

    I spun surveying the room. Then faced the brazier again. I felt I was right about this, each passing moment the feeling grew within me, nothing else came to me. No other possibility, limited as my education was. Four clicks to fork never failed. Slowly the world around me changed. No, nothing moved on its own, no doors suddenly opened and gave way to a perfect forest. No. no. This change was personal.

    It wasn''t a heroic or noble sense of adventure or even desperation to get back to where I was, as boring as it sounds while I had nothing here, there meant just as much to me. That I could lose nothing. I would have to find another game that I was good enough at and liked to play. Or get a job in a warehouse somewhere and bide time. For what I wasn''t sure, but it was a stable if unfulfilling life that I lead. Without the game or Lyla and Marc around it was going with the tide. A boat on a beach left with the tide to rot and fall apart.

    The simmering change stirred within as I reminisced, and examined my life. It was faint at first but grew in the back of my mind, it tainted my thoughts of my life even as I replayed them in my head it was not something new I found this woven throughout my recent past, each day getting more and more intense.

    Some times hit you when you least expect them, a sudden glorious insight into some factoid that changes you, some ineffable revelation that changes your reality. This was not like that I felt the traces of my rejection scattered throughout, unwilling to be broached either because of fear or stubbornness I didn¡¯t know. But now as emotions swelled within it felt like a glorious release. I felt no attachment to Earth.

    ¡®To be clear I felt no attachment here either.¡¯ The more calm side of me noted ideally, but couldn¡¯t arrest the feeling within.

    Something was lifted from me as I examined my surroundings anew, for the first time seeing the strange alien environment and wondering at it. A simple rock cave was not all I saw no. Now I see something far more interesting... Opportunity.

    That''s what this was. I was in, or at least believed myself to be an entirely new world. It was a hope, more than anything else at this point. But I felt secure in making this bet and couldn''t wait to go all in.

    I turned to the brazier and clenched a fist. To have already died, and feel this way about leaving Earth I will admit that also made me uneasy. The emotions that came to light and their virulence, I hadn''t expected. Sure I had repressed emotions, who didn''t but to this extent?

    I lifted my hand and considered it. To have already died...

    I stuck my hand in the flames.

 Two - Fire

    The flames danced around my clenched fist. I let out a sigh of relief as I stared at my hand. I could feel them if only lightly, I could feel the gentle caress of tongues that reached out and flowed around my fist. I couldn¡¯t for my life say what I was feeling, not really. I didn¡¯t think that flames could be felt in this direct way. But I also knew that flames produced heat and so much of what I thought seemed irrelevant at this point.

    I gently moved my hand pack and forth, and watched the swirl I created a ripple throughout the surface of the lamp. The sight was entrancing, so strange and completely different and alien to my mind that I could still feel parts of myself, wanting to pull back even as I saw that, I was not burning. I forced myself to do this, partly yes out of a sense of wonder and enjoyment. But partly so that I could ingrain even deeper than what I understood and what I knew was now all in question. The very fact that I was here and doing this threw so much of what I thought grounded my reality.

    I pulled back and knew that I was a step more comfortable with the new aspects of this world. Admittedly being brought back to life by some mysterious power that took the form of my fake cat was an even larger part that I was practically forced to accept.

    I focused on the now however and found myself exploring, the first thing that was done to me on this crazy night. The once glowing, and now otherwise ordinary-looking scars of cravings in my flesh. They were strange as they almost seemed natural now, it was only out of reflex that my mind called them scars. I ideally traced one as I thought about that, turning the concept over in my mind and finding it less and less alien. How strange. But I stopped, I had enough questions already and no way to get answers.

    I turned my attention back to the fires, a realization coming to me. They didn¡¯t put out heat when they were contained within the brazier, that much was at least was known if not understood. To bad though as that meant I would have to remove them if I wanted to cook with it. Which I would need to do unless of course I didn¡¯t find any food and dyed of starvation.

    Then another thought rocked my, that of course that it was possible that I wouldn¡¯t die...again... and would still need to find food. That was both comforting and slightly alarming, to know or at least hope/dread that, even in death there would be no escape from whatever torment that I was thrown into was terrifying.

    I couldn¡¯t decide whether I wanted that or not. Even if I just stood there, those creatures... I really need to think of a name for them, calling them creatures is getting a little tiresome. Names are important, so they have one green eye and they are huge. Green Death, was a bit on the nose and gave them more power over my terror than I wanted them to have. My practical side wanted to point out they did scare the shit out of me, but I had to get passed it.

    I turned over what I knew about them in my mind and suddenly it fits together. Monogreels. There that was a fine name for them. A little non-sensical maybe, but it¡¯s not like I am writing a book about them.

    I didn¡¯t know by what magic I was brought back to life so I was unsure when I would start to get hungry. I could already feel the tickle of thirst at the back of my throat. I looked down and found my hand ideally playing with the fire.

    I needed to know more. Outside this room was a total mystery. ¡®No¡¯ I corrected myself mentally, ¡®I know that outside are the Monogreels.¡¯ They had already proved that they would kill him on sight, and whatever thoughts I had originally had about an open dialogue to learn about my situation had gone out the window with my death.

    ¡®Wrong again¡¯ I thought, there is magic or at least something that is preventing me from losing a hand in this fire. That is also outside.

    What it came down to still through was I needed more information and the only way to do that is going outside. I won¡¯t deny the prospect scared me. To willingly walk closer to the source of my own death was going to put me way over the edge.

    But maybe that would be a good thing. Being wired and wound tight would be better than being overly casual with what I was about to attempt. I crossed to the door and found a sturdy metal handle. I rested my hand on it and breathed collecting myself.

    I tensed to push it open. And then heard that awful scrambling sound that foretold the approach of the monogreels last time. I was frozen as the strange sound made it¡¯s way closer, quickly overpowered by that same guttural language from before. I heard one barking at another that snapped me out of my fear-induced shock.

    I backed up, trying to make as little sound as I could, before whirling around and looked for something...anything that might help in this situation. There were no weapons of course and I didn¡¯t even have the pocket knife that was in my bag. There were no hefty rocks, small stones but nothing that could cause some real damage.

    My eyes landed on the oddly light sections of floor that formed a distorted figure eight around the bowl of the brazier that had fallen over. That could do damage. I jogged over to the platform just as I saw the door opening.

    I didn¡¯t try to hide my noise now and sprinted for the closest one. I couldn¡¯t just run into it this time as it was sitting at an angle slightly off from the door. I expected a slight turn and came up to the light.

    I looked to the door and saw the troop, I wasn¡¯t sure if it was the same group that had ambushed me the first time. They looked pretty similar but, they were eight massive aliens swords and a few other weapons I didn¡¯t have the time to do a detailed study.

    I resisted the urge to dump the contents right away. It was difficult, but I focused and centered and waited. I hoped the glare from the light would hide my form behind the stand. It was a small hope, the crisscrossing beams did little to hide me from anyone with working eyes. But these had only one eye, and it was green so what did I know. I would take anything I could get.

    I was tense and could practically feel the adrenaline building in my system, sending my heart racing. All the while I willed myself not move. As I peered out from behind the bowl, those green eyes passed over me.

    Once, twice, three times.

    Four times...

    Fi- That one saw me, it did a double-take and opened its mouth to screech, something incoherent.

    The world slowed in that single moment down to bullet time. And I acted.

    Being unpracticed in the art of the fight, let alone armed with a what was essentially a bucket of oil set alight, it was difficult for me to gauge exactly how I should use my hastily improvised weapon. Besides the obvious of course.

    But the time for thinking was done, I was acting on pure instinct now. With an incoherent scream torn from my throat, I grabbed the bowl of flaming magic oil and ran at them. As they had just come through the door, they were still mighty close together, with a few still being outside the cave.

    Whether it was the sheer fear of a madman carrying a bowl of fire at them or the incredibly stupid fearless courage I charged them with. They didn¡¯t react for precious seconds. Vital seconds. Mortal seconds.

    When I got within two meters of them, I think they understood what kind of suicidal mission I was on. Their surprisingly high pitched ¡®growls¡¯ of fear were wonderful.

    I stopped and threw the bowl forward.

    The memory of throwing water on my friends, from a bucket, came to me during that mad dash, the water gun fight that had gotten progressively less about the guns and more about delivering as much water to the other two as possible. Buckets came out but were surpassed by noses in the end, as all things would be.

    This...this was not water though. I would never through this on either of Lyla or Marc, not after our fight from before, not after our thousandth fight.

    The flaming liquid arched through the air, sticking in one clump, but I still felt no heat from it. For that single millisecond, I thought I was gonna die again. Then the heavyweight of the bowl and the sight of them being perfectly fine caught up to me and I dropped my arms.

    The wave of heat incinerated my eyebrows. And I threw up my arms, now hearing the clang of the bowl on the floor over the screams.

    I stumbled back, blinking furiously to wet my dry eyes again. There was not a lot I could do at this point but hope and get back. I turned and almost tripped over the lip of the dais, still blinking now but for the stain of bright color that now engulfed the middle of my vision. A riot of reds, yellows, and orange-colored everything in front of me, giving it the appearance of flames.

    The screams continued still, fresh ones starting now. I could tell that at least on some level I was victorious in my first ever...¡¯ fight¡¯. Seemed a bit odd to call it that now, however, anything else would make me feel weird so I stayed with that.

    I turned, still seated to look at the effectiveness of my new weapon. The first one I saw, I recognized as the first one that was in their formation, the first struck. He had a hole through him. A fresh cauterized whole about a foot wide right over his sternum. tiny patches of blackened and burned flesh stuck to him as well. The initial volley had gone well.

    After that things got a little messier.

    I didn¡¯t know what I had excepted. I had hoped that this would kill them, yes, but that was to prevent me from dying. That and I thought that with the games super-realism I would be pretty prepared for the sight. And of course, I was right and wrong. The sight was gruesome yes, even with the heat boiling the blood away, and the wounds being more sealed shut than not.

    The smell was what I was not prepared for, it was sickeningly sweet. The smell of cooking meat was so similar to that off actually cooking meat. I could feel my hunger poke it¡¯s head out of the hole of craziness that I was in and took a look around.

    Thankfully none seemed to be alive still. It was impossible to tell how long I had sat there staring at the corpse with a surreal whole though his body, leaving the floor completely visible, not even bones remained in the way.

    The next guy was similarly dispatched, although his death came from a missing stomach, the arc of my throw seemingly unabated after passing through the first guy. Having not seen what happened I couldn¡¯t be sure how a couple of guys standing of either side were taken out. But If I guessed from the burned patterns and the way the third guy has half twisted around, I thought it likely that he had panicked and when attempting to shake it off had doused the two off to either side. Which was lucky for me, as if even one got past I would have been toast as well.

    After that, the last remaining three seemed to have been standing in the runoff when the liquid hit the ground. From the dais, it was hard to tell as the flames even now burned brightly. The screams had all stopped which was a mercy, to who? I did not contemplate.

    I stared at the burning bodies, the world seems to turn around me as the surreal aspect of what I had just done caught up to me. I wasn¡¯t the type of person for self-recrimination. I did not, and would not allow myself to think of this as murder. They had already killed me once, with no remorse and would have done it again.

    I remembered the cruel mockery that had played across the small-one when he had killed me and I knew just knew that I would be dead again if they weren¡¯t. I was sure. Right? NO. I was.

    Okay. I tentatively got to my feet, and immediately decided to wait it out a bit longer as the adrenaline crash came in.

    I started shaking, and not from the cold. Seven creatures dead at my hand. They gave as much quarter as they got. I felt a wave of fatigue come over me and I lay down watching the fires slowly start to dim.

    I lay on my arm as the shaking died down. Considering what I had just been through, I felt that was probably a record somewhere. Although I doubt wherever I now have much use for the stupid amount of world¡¯s records that Earth did. Me and mine felt they were all a bit crazy for even considering some of the things they had done. We had used that as our excuse when we decided to do something a little crazy.

    That inside joke had lasted a while.

    My attempt to avoid the subject was interrupted then. Something was happening to the bodies. At first, my thought was that something within them had caught and started smoking. The white fog-like could that drifted off the even as they burned looked like regular smoke at first. Then it began behaving strangely.

    The white smoke twisted upon itself and flowed down again. Slowly at first, then picking up speed it flowed from the slain monogreels before jerking suddenly in my direction. It flowed along the floor, as if dense, but appeared as a light cloud.

    Then something stirred within the mists and a guttural grunt sounded out as a shape loomed up. Shit.

    In the light of the still-burning bodies of his compatriots, the monogreel was even more intimidating. The left side of his body was covered in small wounds and large splotches of flesh that had burned away. He staggered, but only slightly and looked around before his eye landed on me.

    I jumped up and looked around for any more weapons that were laying around. In-front of me was the stand used to hold up the lamp.

    The creature screamed at me.

    ¡°GROAAAAAR!¡± His voice echoed around the small room, and the malice his very gaze contained was enough, freeze the blood in my veins. I felt my hand begin to shake slightly under that glare and the weight of the stand was very noticeable. I brandished it before me the best I could, but when I caught a glance at the blade he held I felt more than a little foolish, if still desperate enough to continue.

    He pointed his blade at me. And spoke some harsh words, that I couldn¡¯t understand and didn¡¯t catch the meaning off. He hadn¡¯t spared a glance for his fallen comrades. As he finished whatever speech he was giving and then started to run at me.

    I couldn¡¯t say that I had a plan. And then an odd cool sensation ran up the inside of my legs, growing more intense as the moments passed. That was secondary as the pace of the creature increased. While his wounds appeared to slow him.

    His blade was a least 65cm long and had reached over my unwieldy stand. The first swing came from the high on the right, a simple diagonal chop that aimed to cleave me in two from neck to groin. I swung up and met it, trying as much to knock the blade aside as to catch the swing. I wanted no part of that attack, seeing the bludging muscles and the wooden nature of my defense, I couldn¡¯t help be skeptical of how much protection this did indeed provide.

    I knocked aside the swing catching the blade and bringing it harmlessly around the side. I almost had time to celebrate, when my inexperience caught the better of me. The heavy kick he delivered right to my chest hurt sent my tumbling back. I swore I heard the sound of rib breaking.

    I wheezed and fought to stay upright as I backed away from the monogreels approach. Somehow I held onto one leg of the stand with a death grip.

    Apparently, he didn¡¯t feel the need to finish me off with that opening. The almost casual stroll he affected was mocking my ability to fight back against these creatures. I felt something stir and roil within me as that disdain got to me. True I was physically the equivalent of a child when compared to the power he held, but I had already killed seven of them.

    I tried to step back and almost tripped, the lip of the dais was right there. I stepped up on it, finally regaining some breath. The longer strides of my opponent had brought him closer than I would have liked.

    I was unwilling to turn my back to him and expose myself for an even easier death than I was already in store for, I started to edge around my mind focused on the only thing that was going to get me out of this situation.

    Faint red light painted the slowly moving monogreel. I wasn¡¯t sure how smart they were, but if they wielding weapons they must have some intelligence. I wasn¡¯t sure how long it would take this one to realize I still had a weapon against him, on already proven extremely effective.

    I was halfway there when it¡¯s single eye seemed to flick over past me. The widening was definitely a universal sign for a realization. There was no moment where we both looked at each other like in the movies, I simply took off.

    This was my chance of getting out alive and he knew it as well. Ignoring the wrathful scream from behind me I sprinted as hard as I could.

    The monogreel was gaining on me fast having raised his sword again for another brutal chop. I felt something propping me up, pushing me faster. I pumped my legs harder, digging deep for this longest run of my life. The stand I still carried flailed madly in the corner of my vision.

    In reality, I was only four or five paces from the still-standing lamp, but that distance seemed to stretch before I even is I ran. I could feel the pounding of feet right gaining on me for every stride I made. Then I was there.

    I reached out a hand and lifted the whole thing with one hand up of the stand and into the air before me. I then use all the athletic ability that I possessed, turned one the spot shifting into a whirl that had my gained momentum behind it.

    Even so, I was still slow. When I turned the monogreel towered above me, filling my entire vision with his presence, blade already falling towards me. I was using the brazier as almost a frisbee at this point, seeing the flames also coming toward him he tried to pull back but we were both completely committed at this point and nothing was going to stop either attack.

    Metal flashed.

    I felt solid contact and could feel the impact translate through the sturdy metal edge. This by itself would have been a good hit I think but not enough to stop myself from then being killed. The burning liquid, however, was fluid and splashed out onto the creature.

    He had been too hasty to withdraw and his blade was unable to block. Even if he could the magic oil would not have been stopped by a blade. I dropped my arms as another intense wave of heat engulfed me. I backed away again as he didn¡¯t even have time for more than a short scream before it was cut off.

    I turned my back on the now corpse and walked to the dais... or tried to. I felt one of my legs give out with the second step. A rush of fatigue and lightheartedness came over me. My grip on the stand failed and it clattered on the floor.

    I found my breath coming to me in starts and stops. My already shocked system now becoming even more overwhelmed by the flood of adrenaline that poured through me.

    Still, on one knee I tried to push off the ground. But was so dizzy I couldn¡¯t find the strength.

    Something was wrong. Hmmm...

    I looked down to see if I had any injuries and found my entire front covered in blood. It ran fresh and still bright red. I raised my free hand to find the wound.

    The blade hadn¡¯t missed me after all. My heart sank as I found the wound in my neck, a small slice opened the side. It was deep enough to sever the artery there. I doubted I would last another few seconds.

    Dread filled me. I stark desperate terror. I lifted my other hand o my thought completely forgetting about the metal bowl. My hand flew up so fast that I wasn¡¯t able to realize it hurt until it was already pressed against my neck.

    It didn¡¯t just hurt it burned. The flames were bright and big enough that they rolled up my face and to my eye level. The blast of heat and pain was enormous.

    I screamed. Both my hand and neck simultaneously went up in flame. I had to close my eyes from the light. I found myself flashing from conscious to the unconscious as I lay on the floor writhing in pain.

    I kept my hand on the wound. I passed out at some point. I clung to one desperate and overriding thought, throughout the pain from the flames that ravished my neck and hand, ¡®maybe this will keep me alive.¡¯

    <><><>

    I admired the amazing details on the screen before me. The upgrade to my hardware had come after I had reached a threshold in my agreement with Intergate Solutions. Having reached my ten millionth viewer just this past video, and I was now eligible to receive the upgraded support package for my content.

    I would never let it be known, but I wasn¡¯t a fan of streaming the game. It was partly because of the PK and in-game backlash that I would receive and partly because in my heart I didn¡¯t like other people seeing my play. That¡¯s why I had opted for the video content creator package and not the streamer persona.

    I was hard enough for me to show my edited play, but I drew the line at live unedited footage. Unfortunately, when this option had opened up for me, it was too good of a deal to pass up and so I had jumped at the chance. Even now knowing how it would feel, I still would do it again the pay was needed.

    I kitten jumped up on my desk just then. I glanced at her before doing a double-take.

    Something niggled at the corner of my mind then, a thought worming its way into the for. Some sense of Deja-Vu came over me as I looked at the purple and gray cat. Slowly I reached out a hand and stroked her. Her soft fur familiar under my hand.

    Something flashed into my mind. An idea, ¡®this wasn¡¯t real...¡¯

    I looked around at my room. Nothing was out of place and nothing seemed wrong. Except of course the cat. I don¡¯t have a real cat. That was familiar as well like I had had that thought before. The memory was just out of reach, dancing frustratingly on the edge of my awareness of it.

    Just then I felt a small tongue lick my hand. The kitten purred and looked up at me with some definite emotion that I was not able to identify. She was sad, her ears drooping slightly.

    I watched her for a time the strange atmosphere affecting me, my mind drifted as I watched the kitten slowly make her way around my whole hand. I kept still and just stared, the memory at the back of my mind a distinct thing that grew clearer and clearer just as I focused on it.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    The cave. I was still in a cave. This is or was a memory. A piece of my past that I am reliving in my mind, except now I have a cat. That also happened last time. When I was stabbed twice and definitely died. Does this mean I am dead again? What happened? The more recent memories are more fragmented.

    I eventually give up on figuring out that mystery for now and refocus on the now. The room is as I remember it. I look at the screen again and see my character is standing on a desolate road. The dust blows through constantly, and while it looks amazing my visibility is near zero. The map is the only reason why I haven''t lost my way in the sandstorm.

    I remember this. I was on my way to a dungeon in the Alsen Desert, which had been a relatively new zone discovered sometime about two years ago when I had first started to play solo, or at least only by myself but utilizing multiple characters.

    This time when I looked around the room I started to notice something that twisted the idea that this was a memory. When I had done this dungeon I still had a reasonably tidy room.

    Lyla wasn¡¯t around anymore to get on my case. However, there simply wasn¡¯t that time for my room to fall into the state of disorganization that is was now. This state was more akin to what I had left not more than a day ago when I had left for that trip into the forest that got me landed here.

    Okay, now that I had established this placed unreality I wasn¡¯t sure what to do next. Last time I was not here for this long of a time and never even considered this line of thought. I sat there for a time, but no white room appeared, no flash of light and blissful sensations surrounded me.

    I didn¡¯t want to be here. That was true as well. Something in me rebelled against this place, my understanding of it only brought that emotion into the light. I wracked my brain until I noticed the kitten tried to squeeze itself underneath my hand. I chuckled at its antics and let up on my tension.

    Let¡¯s take this in comparison to the previous experience. I woke up and logged in to the game. That was pretty unspecific as far as memories went, I must have done that a thousand times over. Much of the time following the same pattern, it was the game that was different for me then. But now I had realized what was going on.

    By doing so I had already broken the script of what had happened. I pondered that, in the previous dream/memory thing like this I had done everything like before, so perhaps that meant this time I should play out the scenario as well.

    I placed my hands on the keys. Sand and a hot wind blew across my arms. I jerked back, the intensity of the feeling was incredible. It had felt so real. Stunned I looked back at the keyboard and reached out again.

    More prepared this time, when the feeling washed over me I reveled in the new and discordant sensations that ran through my brain. When I pressed the keys I could feel the sensations change throughout my body. From the corse and slightly unstable stand to the baking heat that had no apparent source in the real world.

    I was playing my mage character this time around, having only recently created her I was working on improving her to the point where she could be the second in my party of one, with my other character. And this being a relatively new character her level growth rate was pretty explosive considering the time I invested so far.

    Time flew by, without me noticing as the new overwhelming sensations held my focus throughout the otherwise monotonous trip. Finally, I reached a small oasis. Everything was rendered as beautifully as I remember it being. The maximum graphical settings for the game pushed the limits of what the monitors would handle.

    Massive standing stones blocked off the small patch of the desert from the storm raging outside. That, of course, would not normally be enough, however, I saw the tell-tale blue glow of rune light dancing around the small door cut in the rock.

    Immediately upon entering, the severe nature of the environment fell away. A gentle and cool breeze relieving some of the worst of the annoying scratches left by the sand. I turned my characters head and got a better look at the environmental runic wards that sheltered this place. I maneuvered over there as well, taking screenshots of the wards.

    This time around my character was a purest caster, unlike my powerful knight who would tank for the duo, she was geared mainly towards more doing more damage. Some concepts didn¡¯t translate well to this particular game, one of the few reasons why it was both extremely popular and had received a wave of negative criticism from the MMO fanatics who carried their holy trinity to every game they could.

    That was foolish in my mind this game rewarded innovation and getting the objectives done, and didn¡¯t focus at all on roles or other ideas that would limit player experimentation. For instance, while this character, Illoya, was a caster mage type there she also was a priestess of Nyx just as DreadKnaught was.

    So I took in the runes. I knew that if I destroyed these runes the safe zone, it created from the storm would fail with it. The game focused on immersive features and very little was decided solely by developer design. Everything had an in-game counterpart, with the devs taking up roles to repair some of the things that they deemed most important if they ever got damaged.

    The oasis was destered not even NPCs manned the some fifteen stalls of colorful fabric that sat arranged around the small lake of fresh water. That was my next stop, having to feed and drink water as your character was another point that the devs recieved a lot of flac over. Althought personally I didn¡¯t mind it.

    I crouched near the edge of the pool and received the interaction keys. The canned animation for refilling water supplies, took into account your personal stores and containers, doing each separately. Finally, after refilling I/she took a drink. Then I felt the amazing almost sweet tingle of clean water run down MY throat.

    I had almost expected it. However, it was a different experience to feel the coolness of the water inside of my throat than it was to feel the sun on my skin. I am not sure exactly why maybe the nature of something that you could feel inside yourself was more personal than something outside?

    I was not prepared to speculate on that right now. In a dream about an experience that never happened, it was almost funny that such a thing would matter to me now.

    I made my way around the pool, crossing through the shafts of light that passed through the odd triangles that formed from the misaligned stones that created this shelter. Through the gap, I could see the ward light constantly flaring a light blue. The light that streamed in had an odd tint from the environmental dome that was under continuous pressure from the outside winds. That combined with the emptiness of the place gave it a mysterious atmosphere.

    The main attraction, that I had come here for was my true destination. Into one of the stones was built a set of double doors, that also had runic symbols covering the surface. These glowed a sickish green. As I approached a curious feeling of disquiet appeared in my mind, only getting stronger with every step I took closer to the doors.

    I pushed away from the keys. Almost instantly the feelings and sensations faded. The sudden loss of what felt like all my senses, only to find myself back in my room again was disconcerting, more so than I had originally thought it would be.

    ¡°woaa..¡± I held my head in my hands for a few seconds letting reality, or whatever passed for reality in this dream state to reassert itself. The fact that even here if I didn¡¯t know that I was still laying, probably some type of dead on the floor of a stone cave, I would have never guessed this was a fake either. Something much more strange than the already extremely weirds stuff that had been happening to me already.

    ¡°Alright, focus Jace. One thing at a time, for now, take it as it comes.¡± I gave myself a whispered pep talk, feeling myself calming already.

    I got back to the keyboard and as soon as I got close to it the sensations returned, a whole new set of senses opened back up to me. The powerfully disturbing runes of the door still were just as potent as before, but after taking the time to ground myself I was able to push through my intense discomfort and reach the door.

    There was a simple interaction key to enter, as I did the sensation of a rough metal door came to that same hand which she used to push on the door. What also came was another feeling, one that I didn¡¯t have a name for. It was akin to constantly receiving a low-voltage static shock, expect it was constant and covered small pieces of my hand.

    The action completed and the odd feeling vanished as soon as her hand left the door. Instead of going right in I couldn¡¯t help but reexamine the door. I backed out and closed it. Going through the animation several times now I finally saw, what should have been more or less obvious. The static feeling came from the runes themselves as my character touched parts of them to push the door open.

    Finally, I stepped inside the dungeon proper. A staircase extended into the dark, sconces on the wall already held several regularly space torches. I moved over to the topmost one and interacted with it pulling it free, and holding it out in front of me. The freedom in this game was great.

    I could feel the heat from the torch touch my face. I flinched back as the memory of searing pain engulfed the left side of my face. I dropped the torch, from the intensity. Struggling with the memory as it came back into focus.

    Picking up the torch again I followed the stairs down aways. The light from my torch only extended about five feet into the gloom.

    I remembered this dungeon quite well as it happened. I pressed a hotkey on my keyboard, on instinct if nothing else, to prepare a spell for a known enemy. I knew at the end of the stairs there was a pack of gowls that were weak to fire.

    The first time around I had used to the torch as a weapon to beat them back until the spell had enough charge to clear the group.

    This time however I would not be caught by surprise. Well, I suppose that was truly nothing in the game would get me. The rush of completely foreign and strange rushing patterns that formed within my real/dream body was enough to spook me.

    I jumped back from the keyboard, my chair sliding away. I stared in shock at the screen and keyboard, this was one hell of a dream. Just like everything else I had felt what Illya would have felt. Was that magic I had felt, that was the only reasonable explanation.

    I sighed and lowered my head again into my hands. ¡®Reasonable.¡¯ This was describing an ESP experience from an avatar in a game, in a dream brought on by some most certainly dead state. Well, that''s not really true, this is all a dream, to begin with then anything could happen. Just because it didn¡¯t feel like a dream doesn¡¯t mean it wasn¡¯t... of course, I knew that the cave wasn¡¯t a dream. But that was completely different somehow, that feeling was so solid and concrete in my mind that to doubt it was like doubting that the sun would provide light, or the next day would come.

    I didn¡¯t have that strange, admittedly mysterious, certainty that I did awake.

    I reached out again for the dreamboard. As before the feelings returned when I got close, the massive spell charge that had built up throughout my dithering was immense. The feeling of surging untapped power cycling through my body was incredible.

    Way more than enough to clear the first group.

    Spellcasting in the game depended a lot of the different classes you picked, your control screams and a dozen other points that all could impact things on the small to a much larger scale. The method I was using now was called charge casting, where a charge was built up from mana and then released into whatever spell needed it. But demonstrating that this was an incredible game once again, that wasn¡¯t the only method I had used and had also started the runic empowerment cycles from a different class. This would constantly cycle power runes in sigils to improve the spells I cast, this had also been cycling and powering up for the same time.

    Even as this relatively early stage in the development of my character, she was a powerful spell slinger. The knowledge I had gained from years of experience even playing as a more melee-focused class structure gave me plenty to think about, and more than one advantage in areas where I could just throw money at the problem to fix it, mainly with gear when I first started to level her.

    Suffice to say this character played along the boundaries of many styles and played with the limits like they were more of like general suggestions made by someone who didn¡¯t understand the game, rather than what the devs said.

    The spell I used was a simple fire wave with a modicum of concussive force thrown in for good measure, as the gowls had gotten very close at that point and I wasn¡¯t sure that they would die right away.

    Right now, that was not an issue the insane charge time had given and was even now giving me an absolute advantage. The price for such power was not inconsequential of course, although my high gear standard was helping greatly, already offsetting the runic costs by approximately my regeneration amount.

    I thought for a moment about using other spells first but ultimately decided that going with what happened already, even given the changes that were now made was my best course of action. I couldn¡¯t risk it. If something would prevent me from re-entering that white world, it would not be because I couldn¡¯t follow a script, at least to the best of my ability.

    One of the drawbacks to this method was that the more mana I channeled, the higher I would stack a slowing debuff that was brought on by the complex nature of the spell. It was called concentration and was almost universal for casters, each subgroup having different methods of combating it or even overcoming it. The split mind trees were almost required for any serious magecraft build and I had had long hours of back and forth with fellow players about the build necessity of that entire branch of skills.

    Eventually, I reached the bottom of the stairs and was only a single step away from where I knew from the past I would trigger the monsters. I tapped the forward key, at the same time pulling up the simple spell runes for the cast of [Concussive Fire-Wave] without any delay the three runes blazed in the vision of my character and echoed in my mind. The firey symbols burned then, something on the outside caught my attention just before the spell went off. My hand in dream¡¯s world blazed with fire.

    The skill went off and the world went white.

    There was no transition this time. I felt my butt connect with the ground, but there was no pain that would normally followed. I leaned back on my hands and waited. The bright white flash that had oversaturated my vision slowly gave way to the soft whites of the lamps, the walls, the ceiling and all the rest. I had excepted this, if not the abrupt transition.

    When my sight had entirely returned, an inconsequential oddity among a whole lot of weird was the perfect sight that I had here, even without glasses. Although maybe it wasn¡¯t so odd if I accepted the fact this was a dream as well.

    Already the calming and overriding sense of bliss that this place possessed was trying to worm its way into my mind. I could feel that this time, maybe because I was aware of it being there I could now detect it. I resisted, and it seemed to work.

    I looked around, but Mya was gone. Already the entirety of my memory was in place. The fight, and fires, the gash in my neck everything. I wondered what it meant that I was here. Had I failed to cauterize the neck wound in time? Had some other wound got me before I had found it?

    Impossible to say right now. I think that the first is most likely.

    I got up from the floor and sat on the soft bed, but there was something new. The once square room was now rectangular, the wall facing me had been pushed out and another thing had been added.

    It was a pedestal that sat in the middle of the floor, above it hovered a glob of ... stuff. It rippled slowly in some unseen breeze.

    I got up and went to get a closer look. It was a large sphere, the ripples remained constant throughout its surface and otherwise smooth texture. The consistency remained me more of a light gel than a lake.

    I reached out a poked it. My finger deformed but failed to break the surface. The indent slowly corrected itself, remaining in its deformed shape much longer than I expected it would. I poked it again. It was like some weird floating clay.

    I grabbed a handful and pulled it off the main ball. It came away easily, almost weightless in my hand but having definite texture.

    This place was so weird.

    I started to pull it apart, but some of it was clumped in the middle and the two pieces I had pulled off it. It didn¡¯t fall to the ground and remained floating in the air.

    ¡°Woah... that¡¯s cool.¡±

    Just then I heard a purr and something rubbed against my leg.

    ¡°Mya! You here finally. Look at this stuff kitty, it so weird!¡± I wasn¡¯t surprised that she had turned up, that being what happened last time I was here.

    The cat looked at me curiously. Then at the floating glob thingies.

    She got on her haunches. I was watched with anticipation as the small kitty got ready to pounce.

    ¡°Go on you can dooo it!¡± I cheered her on.

    She leaped gracefully in the air, performing an incredible feat and making it all the way to my floating glob of stuff.

    She snagged a pawful on her way down.

    I clapped, ¡°Very nice kitty, ten out of ten. Hey, wha--¡± She was licking the glob stuff of her paw. ¡°Nono you don¡¯t know what it is, silly kitty it could be dangerous.¡±

    She tilted her head at me as if to say ¡°really?¡±

    ¡°Ye-- No, your right it''s fine.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure where that sudden surity came from, much like the in the cave, this was a deep unshakable knowledge that had no root cause in my mind. I looked at the glob in my hand and shrugged before taking a bite.

    It tasted of nothing. The cooling balm feeling though was familiar and I remember the smoke from right before my fight with the lone survivor. Mr. Too-Cool-To-Die had distracted me from that latest development, and what''s more, he didn¡¯t even seem to notice it.

    As the cool gel dissolved in my mouth it spread the feeling threw first my head than my whole body. The numbing coolness of whatever it was froze over my mind and ... and I was being affected again. The chill woke me up, and I found that whatever resistance I had put up to the bliss was gone, if it had even mattered in the first place.

    I shuddered as I remembered my thoughts under its influence. I looked down at Mya to see she had become more vibrant in her colors. The purple patterning now slightly more distinct against her dark gray coat.

    I shuddered again, this must be what it¡¯s like on drugs. Really good uppers. I took another bite, of the tasteless mass. Whatever it was, I had already eaten it so had Mya. More, it had helped me fight off the effects of this place and think clearly again. So I would risk having more of whatever it was.

    My mind became clearer and clearer. I had finished the small amount I had taken originally but was now reluctant to get more the chill in my mind didn¡¯t seem to be fading. And I wondered if this could do anything else.

    I noticed my first sense of color in this world besides Mya and my clothes. Everything was going blue. At first, I thought it was just this strange space being even weirder, but the cat was also being tinted bluer and bluer by the second.

    Soon everything looked some shade of deep blue.

    The cat seemed fine, and I wasn¡¯t going to panic over this. Whatever was happening to me was alright. That firm belief stayed even through the refreshing icy coolness in my mind. I had half thought that was a figment of the drug magic going on.

    Mya looked up at me then. She was still her cute kitten size, however, her eyes seemed deeper somehow and slit pupils now framed inside irises that held depth and clarity missing from them earlier.

    Then she nodded at the wall. Before going back to trying to catch the floating glob of mind-numbing gel.

    I hesitated to wonder if I was just seeing what I wanted to, but no that was clearly my kitten nodding to the wall on my right. It was a plain surface like before. Last time I had walked through a wall to get to the real world, was it the same this time around? It seemed like it.

    I stood before it. I looked again at the kitty and put up a hand to wave.

    I opened my mouth to say something but shut it just as fast having no words for this situation.

    I stepped into the wall. Surprisingly it was easier this time, I walked almost confidently forward. Just like last time all I saw was the white of the walls, everywhere I looked the same white a uniform and continuous color. I might as well have been blind.

    When I found the barrier, my foot broke through mid-stride. But the expected rush of reality did not return. Instead, I was just standing there, waiting.

    When I finally decided that something was different this time I was faced with a choice. To keep moving forward, literally, blindly. Or try to make it back to the wall and the white room.

    I wasn¡¯t sure. This was the way shown by Mya, and although it was odd I trusted her, she had not lead me astray yet. Nothing seemed to be exactly the same this time around anyway. Maybe I just had to move further out this time.

    I kept going.

    I didn¡¯t bother to count my steps this time and was surprised when I felt my other foot connected with a barrier. It didn¡¯t shatter instantly like the last one, I pulled my foot back and stepped into it hard. It was thicker than the last but shattered all the same. My foot landed on the other side.

    I still was here. I sighed and continued on, not needing to debate this time.

    The third barrier I found after what felt triple the distance. This one, however, was different, much like the first time around in this white space this barrier was pliant and flexible as I walked into it. Slowly I felt the stretch tighten and had to lean into the divide. I never stopped stepping forward, at the same pace I had maintained throughout.

    I took a step against the film that tried to push me back, the pressure reached a maximum before it snapped and I felt myself rush upward.

    I slammed into my body and shot upright again. Wheezing and coughing painfully, putting all my weight on one hand as I struggled for breath...again.

    <><><>

    Wyhte opens her eyes. And although a strong desire to shake her head at the incredible headache that settles over her from use of a skill in these circumstances, it is worth it.

    From beneath the heavy black cloth her captors keep her under unless they want to especially torture her that day, her skill Peer Through Infinity is heavily blocked, although not completely. Having seen the ¡®human¡¯s¡¯ arrival and subsequent misadventures, it was hard to draw a parallel between the bumbling round human boy and the fierce and highly lethal warrior the had been called DreadKnuaght.

    But never having heard of the bridge project or it¡¯s collective effects, she was unaware of much that could explain away the differences in appearance. However having cultivated the Peer Through Infinity skill for a long time, working tirelessly for an edge against the one who thought to keep her hostage here, she had honed it to perceive all of physical space and some outside it as well. When used it would give her a view unlike anything of wherever she was looking at the time. Given her state reaching the stage of truth tampering with any ¡®newly¡¯ created ability was an incredible feat that spoke of the sheer willpower Wyhte possessed.

    Also the amount of time she had. The cloth that was almost casually thrown over her was also no simple cloth. She gazed in the direction of the boy, not knowing what to make of him.

    Even now Wyhte has seen the supposedly human boy return to life twice and the second time after having defeated a troop of monstrous creatures. Admittedly ones from a lower circle, but given what little she had seen off the boy, she had no doubt that before this he didn¡¯t fight anything. The echoes of power that surrounded him were extremely unrefined.

    He was also not human. Of that, she was almost one hundred percent sure. Maybe 97% sure. Even with the great truth of insight woven into her skill, she could only see the edges of the disguise shell that wove deep within him. Such a spell or ability whatever it maybe was on an almost disturbingly powerful level. And coming from a world where that should have been impossible, and given his obvious lack of fighting skill and even what appeared to be basic knowledge. Just who and what was he... He was actually fat for the empty heavens! How could this person give so much trouble to Burytal?

    But she had seen the other side of him, the DreadKnaught and that other woman, who was him as well apparently... somehow. Wyhte sighed under her cover and knew that something was missing from her explanation. And it had to be something big. But after being out of the planes for so long it was to be expected.

    Wyhte muscles rippled under her scales, a low hiss of breath escaping her throat. She is still sore from the whip, that Burytal¡¯s insane lover, Cleo gave her the last time she was caught making an escape. That wouldn¡¯t stop her though. Her pride was stepped on and the humiliation of being kept as a pet for these beings drove her on. For a few thousand years now.

    After so long laying still was a natural power that she constantly used. Peer Through Infinity and Influence the Infinite were the two abilities she had cultivated in the truest sense, with Stillness in Infinity being a close third that her pride refused to acknowledge even if it was the first.

    Peer is the most highly used and usable it was by far the strongest.

    ¡®Influence had a nice ring to it, however, if a more realistic name was given to it, perhaps Gently-Nudge-The-Infinite is more accurate. ¡® she mused to herself. She smirked to her self, massive fangs reflecting no light under the canopy.

    What surprised her was the Burytal had not seemed that concerned with the boy at all. Seemingly only glancing at him less, as if already mentally marking him dead. Only concerned when he could finally check the box.

    Wyhte hoped that he could keep his surprisingly cavalier attitude awhile longer.

    She, of course, knew he was more than human, but that would not be enough to sway her hopes past what she could manage already. She knew that whatever Jace was there was not much chance of him matching Burytal, and too even take a guess on how long such a thing would take if was even possible...

    But no.

    None of those things would be enough to sway her opinions yet, such an untested, unfit and unarmed... race or inheritance or boon all would not be enough to see hope in that. She had caught glimpses of his personality, the truth that hid inside. And it was familiar. The stubbornness, rugged determination, a crass vindictive streak. All hidden behind an intellectual mind. Sure there were other things, the frightened boy being held above all now as the unfamiliar and hostile world found its way inside his head. The scorned and closed-off the self from whatever troubles he had on the other world and surely left some marks on the apparently human boy.

    But it was still there. The Ancients Disdain was what the races of the world called it. She saw it in his eyes when looking around for the first time. Saw it in the splotch of blood that landed at the foot of his first killer. The savage attack made of rolling flames.

    She wondered how much of the boy was kin to her.

    The savage feral smile that decorated her simian face was reas0n enough for her to be thankful the cloth was here.

    It had been thousands of years since anything draconic came to the Labyrinth.

    <><><>

    I could hear my breaths wheeze out my throat, which felt misshapen and strange. I lifted a hand and felt along my neck were, the deformed and burned skin still remained. I traced my outer edge of the deformation up onto my face where it stopped, thankfully, just beneath my eye.

    Whatever brought me back, apparently didn¡¯t heal all of me. Which was strange because the last time both my wounds were gone. I wondered if only life-threatening wounds were fixed when I came back. There were light twinges of pain coming from the hand I was leaning on as well, the one I had held to my throat.

    Sure enough, it had the same melted and rehardened wax look of fresh exposed to fire. There was little pain thankfully, and almost none when I breathed so that was good.

    ¡°Well, this could have been worse.¡± My voice came out harsh and gravelly, belying my age. While it wasn¡¯t exactly something I wanted, it wasn¡¯t like I had been having such a conversation with the creatures, and before that even how many people had I talked to socially. Zero, at least in person.

    I stood and stretched, working my neck as well testing for any changes to my range of motion. My hand was a little stiff in places but seemed to be in exceedingly better condition than anyone else who had come in contact with the fire. The melted slag of what used to be a corpse next to me testified to that.

    I did a double-take next to me as another large splotch of discoloration now decorated the floor, where the rest of the contents of my final weapon had spilled out when I had dropped it. I did a once over of that side and found that it too hadn¡¯t come out unscathed, although the fleck of burned skin was nothing much to worry about.

    The brazier, however, had landed top up and sat on the ground blazing away... with a full bowl of magic fire liquid... magic oil... magic gas...liquid fire... inside. I wasn¡¯t sure of a name that fit. The liquid fire seemed best in my mind.

    There seemed to be the same amount of liquid fire as when I picked it up. That of course was disproven at least in some amount by the now slagged monogreel that was next to me.

    Unless... yes... I was wrong on a principle that was completely new to me, something that I just wouldn¡¯t have considered. What if no one came to refill these because no one needed to. Some type of self accumulation or even creating its own fuel, that was so cool. For a second, dreams of planes that could fly forever danced in my mind, before I shook myself out into the present.

    I groaned as I got up, feeling a stretching in odd places thanks to my newest scars. I had never had burns like this. My fingers get probing at my neck feeling the edges and deformity of the scar. I stood and got my bearings again in this newly altered room. I was not really sure why the liquid fire caused the floor to change color like that. The lighter shade of stone was only a few shades lighter gray that the original dark and reflected more of the light coming off the fires. However, the room was still mostly in shadow now that the fires had died down while I was ... recuperating.

    I would have to deal with that soon.

    My mind was adjusting to my new environment rather well, I patted myself on the back. Now, much crazy shit had I taken without my mind turning on me? A lot. Maybe it was the game, or maybe I was just much more mentally resilient than I had realized. Some times it¡¯s good to surprise your self I guess!

 Three - Edge

    I had turned off my sense to smell at this point. The combination of smelling cooking meat and knowing that it was from an at-least developing intelligence was giving me queasy feelings. Those feelings were mostly hunger, which is the other reason I had decided to focus on other things.

    I walked up to the closest brazier and took a hold of it, carefully this time, so as to not touch the liquid fire. This brought my hand in direct contact with the rim. As soon as my fingers touched it I felt a low intensity static. Immediately I pulled back.

    I flexed my hand a few times, trying to peer through the haze of partial blindness to see whatever was printed on the inside edge. No amount of squinting would bring any focus. Carefully I placed my hand back on it, the expected static was there again.

    Static was the best description that I had for the feeling, although if I was pressed I would be hard to describe the exact feeling in its own terms. Almost tangible static charge, like sticking your hand inside a computer enclosure you have just turned off.

    I dragged it using only the tips of my fingers and only using the single already burned hand. Just in case something happened. Like this, I went around the room and gathered all three, in a line facing the door.

    It didn¡¯t escape my mind that the feeling from the edges of the bowls was very similar to the one that I had felt in that, death-dream-game-hallucination thing. Could this mean that runic enchantments were on the bowls as well? But why had I not felt them before, surely I couldn¡¯t have overlooked it.

    The feeling was subtle, yes, and even as I thought about the stress I was under in both circumstances I wasn¡¯t sure that I wouldn¡¯t have noticed something like this. Another thought that percolated was that how did the dream have that sensation in it if I hadn¡¯t felt it before. And even now I couldn¡¯t see whatever was causing the feeling, above what looked like some discolored smudges that circled the rim.

    Was my brain just leaping to conclusions amid a not-dying fever state? Were they dreams or some other way of getting information? Or were these the missed information being processed out by the stress?

    I tentatively accepted that last one for now. It was the most plausible and right now it didn¡¯t matter much. I sat and looked at the three fires that burned before me. Bright yellow and orange light danced around everything in sight. The dreams as a way of getting information. But that only happened when I almost died right? It didn¡¯t feel like something that would happen when I went to sleep normally.

    Oh god sleep. I hadn¡¯t had a proper sleep since I got here. Too much had happened. Admittedly I don¡¯t think that I could get to sleep without some sort of aid at this point. My growing hunger alone would stop me from sleeping.

    The three braziers, they were my proven weapons against the enemy. Since there appeared to be different ones from the few that had killed me the first time, I had to assume there were at least another eight. But likely much more.

    Hopefully since in recent fight they hadn¡¯t gotten reinforcements it was unlikely that the camp or whatever they had was close. Even then with all the screaming, it would be a nice surprise if nobody had heard. That wasn¡¯t normally how things went through so I had to prepare.

    I looked around again. These three weapons were almost too effective, I had gone from being able to do nothing against them to be able to take on a whole gang just by having them. Some minor skill was involved and a larger portion of luck, but that didn¡¯t matter in the end. I had won. Barely.

    Well... I had died. So maybe I didn¡¯t win after all?

    I was alive now though so maybe I did? I wasn¡¯t sure of the rules on who counted what victory. I walked up to the slaughter at the door.

    ¡°Well, fellas? Who won do you think?¡±

    I started to search through what was left of them. As before they wore only that insufficient clothing. The weapons they had carried, with no scabbards of sheaths or anything. The blades themselves varied in condition, from melted useless slag iron to only half-melted. Not being any time of chemist or blacksmith I was not sure which was more impressive. Burning through flesh and bone like it wasn¡¯t there, or the incredible melted metal art that the liquid fire had created.

    I counted myself lucky that I still had a hand and moved on. While some things would make me stop and think, there was a sense of pressing urgency that had been growing in me since I woke up the first time after being stabbed to death.

    What was important and becoming increasingly apparent was survival. Information was good and I would take what I could get, but after so much happening to me and the fatal nature of my first few ¡®adventures¡¯ it was becoming increasingly apparent that I would have to move forward.

    My search wasn¡¯t a complete waste, they all had carried weapons, the best condition award went to a sword that seemed to be melted in half across the blade. I was able to snap that section of the still cooling metal and now had a sharp edge to cut things with, if horrendously under-serviced.

    Eventually, I had a small pile of similarly affected weapons that were tagged as ¡®usable¡¯. The half-a-sword, remained the best out of the lot, followed by another sword that had taken the flamberge thing a bit too far, and now had no edge but otherwise was intact. A heavier greatsword that seemed to have suffered the least, but only due to its relative size. This one was almost useless to me as I had had trouble holding its massive weight up for more than a minute without dropping it. Finally, the rest were mostly just blades that had had their handles melted off.

    That had even me something to look at, the design was almost entirely a solid piece of metal. No doubt whatever blacksmith who made this was a bit overzealous with their craft. This made the greatsword in a similar category to the liquid fire, in that it was a more of one shot, drop it on someone blade edge first and hope for the best.

    But...something was missing...the stands. Yes, I had forgotten the tri legged stands that the braziers were originally on. I glanced around and found that the one I had defended myself with was gone, a small wooden block charred black was all the remained. Even that surviving was more than I had expected. The other two were intact.

    All in all a rather sad assortment of tools to deliver death with. I was surprisingly ambivalent about that, the dealing death aspect of this. They had spilled first blood, the easy truth, when that happened an irreconcilable wall had formed between us. A declaration of war between me and another species. That was that I kept telling myself.

    Somethings I hadn¡¯t thought about when I came up with my on the spot plan, the door was now gone. When it caught, I am not sure but with the entrance brightly as brightly lit as it was, I couldn¡¯t miss something like that. That pretty much sealed the deal with moving on. Moving Forward. But it opened new challenges as well, whereas before I had nothing now I would have to carry around my motley assortment of weapons if I was to stand much a chance.

    I studied the problem, my bare feet starting to ache from the lugging and hauling I did. I took a seat on the low dais with my arsenal arranged before me. This was pretty much all I had, along with my clothes. The t-shirt being ruined beyond being a blood-soaked rag at this point.

    An unfortunate reality was settling into my mind as I looked around. I couldn¡¯t take anything with me right now. My main tactic now was to dumb the liquid fire onto unsuspecting targets. Unfortunately, the tunnels outside the now non-existent door looked just as dark as the cave. Which meant taking along even one brazier would ruin my element of surprise.

    ¡®Well, maybe...?¡± I stroked my chin, ponderously. ¡°The monogreels carried touches, so it stands to reason that those cocky bastards would assume that I am one of them. Until they see me of course...¡±

    After some thought, I concluded that I would have to take one of them anyway. And risk whatever consequences that may bring. My main argument was that if I ran into another patrol they were gonna be difficult for me to kill with just a couple broken swords. And if I was carrying this thing then there wasn¡¯t much that they could do against it. I hadn¡¯t seen any ranged weapons among the dead, which meant that they would have to get in close to me to kill me and that was were this fire liquid shone. Figuratively, of course, it was brighter than some light blubs from back home.

    ¡°Ahhh reason tho art¡¯ my fickle mistress...¡±

    I wish I had more time to experiment with this liquid fire. There was something that I wanted to test now, however. I set aside the blade for a second and picked up the middle brazier. I took it to the dais on the other side of all the equipment that I had in the world and got ready to test my hypothesis.

    I set the bowl on the edge facing away from me and carefully began to tilt up. The liquid fire did as it always did and began to flow out the rate increasing as the angle increased. I took this opportunity to look at what it was I dealing with.

    For the millionth time, I wished I had my glasses. ¡®To get them back would be reason enough for me to kill the whole tribe of them.¡¯

    I blinked. Where had that come from, such hyper aggression for glasses? Yes, I was frustrated, but that seemed like an overreaction, at least to the glasses.

    I watched the liquid fire pour out and pool below the lip of the dais. The heat was intense but tolerable. It seemed that I was getting used to it. Good thing I figured that I was probably gonna be around it lot.

    the liquid that had yet to go up in flames was the same yellow-orange as the fire. Slowly the bowl emptied and is was left looking at a sea of flames.

    Quickly I set down the bowl and had a look inside. More miscolored blurry segments. More runes? At the very bottom was a flat red stone. It seemed to be worked into the metal seamlessly and if the texture wasn¡¯t so obviously different I might have said they were uniform.

    It was also interesting but not exactly what I was after. Then... there. I started counting.

    One-one thousand

    two- one thousand

    ...

    A clear crystalline substance seemed to be seeping out of the metal, refilling the bowl at a visible rate. Most importantly, it wasn¡¯t on fire or even the same colors for that matter. Then a drop reached the stone in the center.

    A puff of flame.

    ¡°Oh. Wow.¡± my breath was a whisper. It was more than I imagined. I darted my hand in and taught one of the clear drops on my finger.

    Carefully I extracted in from the bowl. It sparkled slightly in the light of the small beads of flame that were now becoming more and more frequent as the build-up of this mysterious substance grew with every passing second.

    I lifted the drop closer to my eyes. It seemed to have facets even in this phase and remained perfectly still on my finger. I am sure it looked quite nice. Unfortunately, it didn¡¯t seem to do anything else.

    A thought occurred to me then. When that second bowl was upside down the floor underneath it was undamaged. My mind buzzed at that, there was something there. Ideally, I watched the drop while my mind worked.

    Two other similar incidents the first was that I could stick my hand in there and I was fine. The other was much shorter and I was surprised I remembered it in such detail. When I had first unleashed my new weapon against the monogreels, there had been a moment when the liquid fire emitted no heat. Then I had dropped my bowl to my side.

    Then I dropped the bowl...

    That was the key, the bowl. But how? Obviously, some magic was involved, had to be. I kneaded my burned hand, then in surprise looked at it. Only after taking my hand out of the bowl did it start to burn.

    So inside the bowl fire burned without heat...but that wasn¡¯t quite right to. I had stuck my hand above the bowl. So maybe in an area above the rim as well? A cylinder is drawn by the rim itself.

    I was proud of that reasoning. I was finally coming to grips with this new world is not just theory, but in practical terms as well.

    The bowl filled slowly and because I was distracted I had to dump out and start my timing again. In the end, I found that the bowl refilled in, very approximately, twenty minutes. From being empty to burning at what seemed to be the default fill level, the time was pretty amazing considering I understood nothing of what was happening.

    It looked like magician style magic, rabbit out of the hat illusions. But I had felt the heat from those flames and even the light that was produced would make me question if this was a true ¡®illusion¡¯ or ¡®deceptions¡¯ at work.

    I thought about that for a minute. Then poured out the contents of the bowl. Again I watched as the clear liquid became yellow-orange. And again. Each run through the time was similar, the bowl of the thing filling up in twenty or so minutes.

    Then I had an idea. I picked up my ruined shirt after a run had finished and the flames leaped and danced in the air before me. I poured it out again, and before the clear liquid could form I stuck my shirt onto and around the center stone. Happy for once that I was an XXL.

    Slowly the bowl refilled again. This time through the clear liquid had no way to reach the stone and rested against the shirt. I was not sure that it wasn¡¯t water, but I wouldn¡¯t risk drinking it. The small drop that I had seen was clear, but held to a ball shape almost too well and appeared to even my impaired sight as... almost sparkling. And not with carbonation.

    When the level rose to a certain point I had been willing to sacrifice the busted shirt to the flames, just to see if this could work. But that didn¡¯t happen. The liquid didn¡¯t seep through the material and simply rested against it.

    And after twenty minutes that was it. A full bowl of strange clear liquid with a blood-stained shirt at the bottom. I was not surprised, a little curious, but I had almost no expectations going in and was prepared for anything at this point.

    The bowl was dark so without any light forthcoming, carefully I carried the bowl back over to my collection. I set it down on the dais, the reflected light made the strange liquid even more apparent, strange light patterns bounced off from the inside the liquid, giving more detail to its crystalline structure.

    After five minutes of nothing changing, I found that the liquid only filled to that line on the inside rim, where the row of unidentifiable characters cut off the lip of the bowl. Shrugging I set it to the side on with the other bowl and now had only two lights.

    I stopped my experimentation there for now, although the loss of light didn¡¯t bother me I still wanted to use them as a weapon and not a school science project.

    Next, I went over and picked up the half-sword. Experimentally I swung it around a bit. It felt odd to be swinging around what amounted to a knife with a long handle and shoddy point, knowing that I might have to use it to defend my life. Hopefully with more success than the last couple times.

    I was beaten. Setting down the blade after nearing twenty minutes of ¡®practice¡¯ with my blade it was apparent that while coming back from the dead had obvious benefits, I was quickly running out of steam for the day. Or maybe night. I wasn¡¯t sure, but like a lot of things I was finding out that it mattered very little.

    I lay down on the stone, unsure of how or even if to get comfortable. The blade was still gripped tightly in my hand by the time I drifted of to sleep, still wearing my only slightly bloody sweats and no t-shirt.

    My dreams were muddled and confusing, I drifted in a world of sound light color and words. Everything sort of melded and reformed creating the strangest experience of my life. Sounds became colors and vise versa. Light the shone from no sources and seemed to paint things in strange colors would change into words that crawled off the surface float lazily through the air. There had been no beginning, as there was no end. One moment I existed in that world the next my eyes snapped open.

    I froze listening for anything that could have woken me. Nothing. I stood and looked around. Nothing had changed. A sigh of relief escaped my lips as I took in the dark gloomy cave. The fires brought a much-needed cheer and more uplifting feeling to me.

    I sat up and blinked away the last vestiges of sleep shaking out my limps to try and get some feeling. I jumped up and froze realizing that I was about to start doing. I had never felt the need to stretch as soon as I woke up before, besides the obligatory one of course.

    I found myself falling into an old routine that Marc had established for me a while ago when I had tried, to ¡®get in shape¡¯ with him. That had ended quite soon after I started, my heart was never really in it.

    I found myself wishing that I had stuck with it back then if nothing else than to be able to lift these things better. The bitter thoughts about Marc and Lyla, simmering below the surface which I forcibly tamped down on hard, I couldn¡¯t let my emotions bog my down here.

    The routine was a simple-seeming set of stretches although the difficulty ratcheted up when Marc had demonstrated his form compared to mine. The two were not even comparable, where he could put a whole hand on the floor I could barely get to my shins. Push-ups were worse.

    Slowly I went through all that I remembered of the routine, not having practiced it in what felt like ever. That progress had slipped backward over the years. But I pressed on, determined to at least go through the motions of all that I remembered.

    I stopped after something that must have been close to an hour. The timing was getting to be a little bit of a problem, my phone along with everything else was in the bag, which was taken from me. I maintained a small hope that my glasses and my bag were fine and only being pored over by those idiot savages. It was not a realistic hope I admitted to myself, but I clung to it nonetheless.

    The first stirrings of hunger were coming back to me, but I pushed those down as well. I had nothing to eat and thinking about it would only make me hungrier. I picked up my half-sword, flicked it around again, once again feeling strange about carrying the very brutal looking weapon. The coat of blood on the side was not helping my hopes at all. What were they used to cutting down...

    ¡®Hopefully, they are tasty... whatever they were... such a variety of colors I didn¡¯t even notice.¡¯

    I stuck the blade in the back of my pants and pulled the strings tight knotting them well. Then I scooped up a brazier by the bottom, it was impractical and pretty heavy, but it was when I woke this morning that the decision stuck in my mind. I needed it to even the odds.

    With purpose, I strode to the doorway and hesitated. I teetered on the edge of the pass into the unknown, there was very little reason for me to wait around and do nothing. I needed to eat, and drink, and most importantly get out of this cave. I peered into the darkness, finding only more stone walls that extended into the darkness. It was unfortunate that all that was left of those touches brought in by the last group had been in even worse shape than the weapons they had.

    I stepped into passed the door, after all, that had happened to my body that I didn¡¯t understand it was time to bring what would and could give me pause up a level.

    I felt something within me shift at that moment when my foot landed on the other side of the door. Some mental key was turned. As the change washed over me I kept walking into the dissipating darkness ahead of me. Moving forward.

    I didn¡¯t bother trying to hide my presence, at this point, it would probably be more of a hindrance than anything else. I was not going to be able to hide with this literal spotlight that I was caring around and anyone that could hear me could see me coming from around the corners.

    The walls were much the same on this side of the door. The only visible thing that didn¡¯t appear entirely natural was the door frame itself, and that was only a thin sliver of space. The pile of fine ash where the door had been, was proof enough that whatever tiny amount of security it provided was now gone.

    I moved slowly at first. Not out of a need to be quiet, more the opposite I wanted to hear anything coming. Slowly I began picking up the pace while maintaining my vigilance. This tunnel that was slighter larger width than the room I was just in. It didn¡¯t appear to have any support system and seemed almost natural. Almost of course because there was a door at the end.

    Occasionally I would look back at the door, where I could still see light spilling from the one remaining brazier. But slowly, even that vanished into the darkness. And still, the tunnel continued on, and on. It¡¯s direction perfectly straight.

    This told me to things, the sole purpose of it was to get to my room. And also that it was easy to defend if that became necessary but I would have nowhere to go if whoever overcame my defenses.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

    It was after a long walk that I finally saw something different. It was a tall figure outlined at the very edge of the light of my flames. I could barely make it out through the fire and the dark. It was his torch that made him stand out against the blackness. I stopped, frozen, waiting for a reaction. When none came I was almost relieved. However, this was no time for that.

    I moved almost painfully slowly setting down the brazier. I didn¡¯t want to risk overwhelming the light provided by his flame and be discovered. I withdrew the half-sword from my pants and gripped it tightly. Sinking into a crouch I stared at his back. Was this a guard for this tunnel? But facing out, they expected me to be dead maybe? But they must know that the other party was missing at least if not dead ...right?

    I crept forward padding lightly across the smooth stone on bare feet. Even as I was moving I was surprised at the ease at which I had so little sound. I hadn¡¯t noticed it earlier when it didn¡¯t matter to me however now I could barely hear my steps. Now if only I could see it would be easy. However my night vision seemed okay, but I didn¡¯t have glasses and being in the dark still slowed my progress considerably.

    His torch guided me in the right direction. As I got closer, I noticed he was at least two heads taller than me and had a sword rested on his shoulder. He held the torch in his other hand and seemed to be staring fixedly in one direction. I was sure he wasn¡¯t expecting anyone from this way.

    I crept up on my prey. I was tense but felt my body start relaxing as I skulked through the dark tunnel. I was trying to come up with a plan when the monogreel grunted and hefted the blade of his shoulder.

    I scrambled back already chastising myself and getting ready to run, but it was for nothing as he moved further into the lightroom and turned out of sight. Curious I crept forward, his torch was leaning against the wall just on the inside of the tunnel, the other room seemed to be well lit now that I could see it.

    The guard, if that¡¯s what he was, was taking a piss against the wall as I peeked around the corner. He still carried his sword in one hand, and I wasn¡¯t sure that I could take him even now. I leaned back and breathed deeply thinking. I didn¡¯t know enough. I didn¡¯t know if the guards would switch or even if they did. I silently contemplated, I couldn¡¯t risk him seeing the light. If he even glanced into the tunnel before resuming his watch I was busted.

    I peaked back around the corner and waited for an opening. Watching him, I would almost mistake him for human. Besides four limbs and generally similar in other anatomical areas his face was quite different than humans. Something different about this one was his eye was a much lighter green than the others I had seen, who had varied a bit in body structure but had had the same shade of green in their eyes.

    Soon he finished and dropped his cloth back into place before I pulled back and waited. I picked up the torch as well, as an afterthought. In my mind, I saw his tall stature. I was not sure if I could kill him in one shot like I had the others. While the blade was still a foot long at least, he was taller than me and would be able to move much faster.

    The more I thought about it the more the fear gripped me. I couldn¡¯t do this. I would be overwhelmed in a second, whatever I was I was no swordsman. Or much of fighter. I regretted putting the brazier down and losing a way to kill them instantly.

    Shit shit shit. The fear I had thought I was ready for. How could I be ready! I shouldn¡¯t be here trapped between a magic lamp and a terrifying murderous one-eyed thing. Something inside my mind fought the panic attack that ripped through me. My mind retreated against the onslaught of terror.

    I had killed eight of these things already, their bodies barely recognizable. This was only one more, no reason to panic so for one measly brute.

    My breath was coming quick and shallow. Then I heard a grunt come from behind the wall. He was right there.

    Anger flashed in my heart. This one insignificant shit would not break me. And like that my mind exploded back out burning away the fear and terror that had so quickly come over me.

    I let out an incoherent scream as I felt the creature take another step moving into striking range. There was no skill behind my wild one-handed swing. I carved a massive arch in the air, looking to use surprise for the moment necessary to find a target.

    I had started a low swipe looking to lop off his sword arm. I had less than a second, but I changed my mind at the moment I saw him, I turned further into the swipe and looked to carve up his chest through whatever important bits that my blade could find.

    My guttural horse voice must have been truly surprising because he had frozen and simply stared in my direction a strange expression on his face. That only lasted until my blade touched him though, his skin parting easily. He screamed as I carved upward. The strike lost momentum much faster than I was expecting it to.

    In any case, I had to let go the handle and jump back as I saw his arm twitch right before his much longer sword came sweeping around to cut me in half. I threw myself back as hard as I could. It wasn¡¯t fast enough I felt my skin part just before I left the arc and felt hot blood well up and drip down my stomach. I light wound thankfully and only seemed to have broken the skin.

    I stumbled backward attempting not to fall on my back and thereby losing my life.

    The creature howled as it looked down at the handle that jutted out of it torso before grabbing the blade and yanking it out with another heavy grunt. Even I knew that was bad for any injury, already his leg was being covered in a layer of blood.

    That left me weaponless except for the torch, and that wasn¡¯t much of a weapon. It was a heavy wood and could be used as a club, and was longer than the sword so maybe I was underestimating it.

    I snarled at the creature, actually snarled. My feral instinct from before not fading as I waited for its move. But this wasn¡¯t chess. I swung the torch down and stepped in as the creature watched. His blade came around and slammed into my torch, which knocked me back several steps. I was surprised the torch was in one piece still but didn¡¯t have time to question it.

    The creature staggered forward and swung again at me. The devastating power behind the massive swing was evident. I wanted no part of blocking one of those blows and hastily stepped back. Then I saw it as soon as I got that distance. The opening that I needed. The world slowed down, as it had before. I moved at the same speed but acted so much faster. Red light bathed the alien out of nowhere as I stepped into the space created just behind his swing. I brought the club/torch down as hard as I could on the side of his knee.

    There was an audible crunch that echoed strangely in this slow perception as the heavy torch slammed into the knee and pushed it into a position that didn¡¯t at all look like what a regular knee could do.

    The distorted and drawn-out scream of pain that followed was considerably higher pitch than before and seemed much more intense than the last had been. I pulled back and reset again. The sloppy but brutal sword swing that came to cut my head off was almost predictable.

    The sword scored sparks of the wall. And slammed into the stone, and stuck.

    I didn¡¯t stop and slammed my club down on that arm that was stuck holding the sword. Another crunch and scream of pain. The creature''s arm flopped uselessly at its side and it pointy teeth gleamed savagely in the light from my weapon.

    Then the accelerated time faded, as a wave of fatigue hit me. I wasn¡¯t too bad, but it was noticeable. The increase in the monogreel¡¯s apparent speed, threw me off as the creature¡¯s foot came up much faster than I was expecting and landed a heavy kick, almost identical to the one I had suffered before.

    I tried to step back, but the dulled reaction times left me flat-footed and I only got a step away before the long leg punted me away.

    That was all he got of course as the broken leg gave under his own weight and he crumpled to the floor, another scream of pain being pulled from him.

    I couldn¡¯t scream. I couldn¡¯t even breath. All the wind had been knocked out of me and I took a heavy crack to the head when I fell. Stars and splotches of color danced in my vision as I gasped and tried to take in any air.

    The edges of my vision were going dark as the lack of oxygen slowly overcame my brain.

    A bright red light danced over my vision. That was the third time I had seen that light, and it had slipped my mind every time. I tried to focus on it, just for something to do. It wasn¡¯t like the light that came to snatch me away from my glade, whenever that was. A day, three, who knows how long it had been.

    This light was lighter and didn¡¯t have that appalling sense of disgust that had overwhelmed me before. Then the mote drifted out of my view. But I still thought about it, even as the world was washing away.

    I gulped air. And another. The fading reversed itself as my mind cleared up as well. As soon as I felt able I rolled to the side and pushed up. Looking over to my enemy I found his one eye still open and staring at me.

    He was a mess. The pool of blood that surrounded him was not growing any longer. how he was still alive was beyond me, how much blood was that on the floor? When he saw he get up, he let out a barking curse and started moving. He was dragging himself over to the wall.

    I picked up the pace and stumbled to my feet. Scooping up my club along the way. Even now he was going for his sword, pulling himself up using the wall, which he did surprisingly well, even with a broken arm.

    I wasn¡¯t one for torture and was drained from the fight as it was. I swung directly at the back of his head. The snap, this time, was more final.

    A red light flashed again. Brighter this time. I found my vision wasn¡¯t impeded at all and even my night sight was unaffected. I sighed and pushed the corpse over with the still flaming torch. The body flopped bonelessly to the ground.

    I was glad these creatures looked and were built very much like humans. If its knee had worked another way, I would be dead. Again. And this time I would have left enemies alive as I slipped into that strange place again.

    The exhaustion caught up with me at the same time a strange exhilaration filled me. I leaned against that same wall, and slowly sunk down next to the brutalized body. The bloodied torch I lay carefully within reach but set it aside as my hands began to shake. The conflicting emotions pulled a crazed giggle from me that sounded defending in the recent silence.

    White smoke began to drift of the body then. I sat up straighter and looked. I remembered this from the first time, although that had been interrupted. Same as before the smoke drifted upward before streaming in my direction. It was like a wave and when it hit me that odd cool oil sensation flowed up my arms, and any other place the stuff torched. I could feel it inside me.

    That wasn¡¯t just in my head I realized, actually had a sense of exactly where the smoke was inside me. It was bunched together and compacting into some white blob shapes that I remember from the room.

    ¡®I guess that was more real than a dream.¡¯ That thought gave me pause and I thought about what exactly I had done. I had eaten this stuff somehow, the damn cat did as well. I focused on the feeling I had of it had simply trying to get a better understanding.

    As I did, as if almost sensing my attention the flow slowed then stopped altogether. I blinked, unsure if I had done something to make it stop. I tentatively explored the feeling that came through so clearly in my mind even though I had never experienced anything like it before.

    No... wait that was wrong. Something similar, not identical not even close really, but the same state. However, the dream again rose in my mind, the feelings of torrents of mana flowing through my body. This lacked that intensity, the drive burn of fire that built and built as the spells worked to compound my damage. What Illoya had felt was like a being in the center of a raging river.

    Again with the dream. The suspicion I held that the dream was more than it seemed, even given that I experienced it right before returning from the dead. There was still more, three times now I knew something in the dream that translated into reality. I frowned, and what¡¯s more both times that dream had revolved around the game.

    I like to think that I wasn¡¯t an idiot, but something within me resisted the involvement of the game, as it had resisted the very notion that magic was real. I still wasn¡¯t sure, the runes feeling the same could be a coincidence or something more. Something using my understanding of the game to pass information to me. That explanation worked for me if only as words that might be true and not something I even could vaguely say to be true and still keep a straight face.

    If this worked it would a step closer to ...something that I wasn¡¯t sure. But something. I refocused on just the memory of mana, drowning out everything else.

    As I felt again the mana flowing inside Illoya and me. I sunk into the memory even deeper than I thought possible my mind connected, at once to the memory body of Illoya and my real body. I was pulling more detail than I thought I would ever get from a dream.

    For a second I thought nothing would happen, then I felt the cool energy in my shift. Beginning to follow the complex interweaving of energy that built the structure that was pictured in my mind.

    But something was different. The pattern was there I could feel the cooling sensation alongside the burning one now, two different bodies having a completely separate met uniquely similar process happening inside them.

    The flow sped up within me now. The energy moving much slower than in the vision. It crawled along with the structure¡¯s pattern like some slime leaving behind a thick trail of the stuff.

    I was too focused to on the memory at this point and the duality that is produced in my mind to pay much attention to the small things, which was when the small glob of energy that came from my most recent opponent ran out.

    Inside me, a desolate feeling welled up, and my mind was pulled into itself. I viewed a pinprick of light surrounded by raging darkness, its shape was those toxic emotions given form and substance. I could still feel and sense from my body and interconnected mind. However, the overlapping images flattered slightly as I felt the strange feeling of regret and pain come over me. I struggled to keep my hope alive, even as I watched this new scene with rapt attention. This faltering caused my fears and emotions to well up once again, stronger and more intense than before threatening to topple on sanity into a pit of despair that I feared from which I would never wake.

    The fear and suppressed doubt and anxiety that lurked within the back of my mind over the last, the day returned even now after I had thought I had gotten over or at least dealt with them. But for naught, it seemed.

    My mind held on in the storm of emotion that rolled through me, like a small candle in a storm at sea. The small light buffeted by the darkness on all sides each time the emotional turmoil grew.

    I knew on some small level that this was important to hold onto. This small spark. I fumbled about with unfamiliar senses as the dark world attempted to snuff out that little light. Yet it struggles on, and so do I.

    Slowly I rain in my wild heart. Pulling the tenuous threads of my emotions back into my heart, where they are normally tied so tight. A pressure resists me, growing stronger even as I try to pull myself back together. The light steadily grows brighter and the darkness recedes bit by bit.

    I needed something to fix the problem. The closer my mind becomes to stability the easier it is to feel the source of that pressure. The unfinished pattern emits gloomy dispirited feeling that is almost unnaturally powerful. I have to finish the pattern. But how...how ... as

    My mind scrambles in desperation making my physical body twitch and buck as and my breathing already raspy breath grew short and quick. Then the answer came to me, in my panic I had forgotten. I had more, of whatever energy this was, stored within me. I had no idea where but I knew that it was there.

    So I searched desperately, turning my attention away from the small light, even as my mind juggled the different things that kept trying to tear me apart from within. I kept the memory in my mind that few second of perfect clarity from another life looped in my mind, and I still focused on the energy structure, as well as keeping my mind from unraveling.

    I didn¡¯t let anything go for more than I second without making sure that it was the same while I searched for that extra energy. The complexity in my mind was growing ever greater, I was already surprised that I could take the strain as it was. But it wasn¡¯t that bad considering, yes there was a slight headache building but considering half the tasks I barely understood that was already amazing.

    I was coming up empty only darkness surrounded me not that cooling flow that I so fervently searched for.

    ¡®meow¡¯

    ... my mind flickered at that sound. It was so unexpected that I almost fainted from surprise. Where did that come from, that damn spooky kitten got me every time.

    ¡®meee~~oow¡¯ I followed the sound of her cute voice until my eyes landed on the light. Of course. I berated myself internally for not checking that important thingy first. I followed the kitten''s voice again, but differently this time. Unsure of exactly how or what I was doing, but wanting... no needing to go to her.

    As I got closer her fluffy face appeared in my mind mind¡¯s eye and she looked up into it as if knowing I could see her. Hell, she probably could. Relief flooded me as I saw her walk over to the glob of energy that still floated meaninglessly in the white room. That was surreal and would be a huge revelation in any other circumstance, however now was not the time for anything new.

    Not that the universe seemed to be giving me much quarter in that respect.

    I moved closer to the light and found it to be an orb sitting in this dark space, I pressed my hand to it. The surface was not warm like I had expected but cold and biting to the touch. Then another feeling rose to meet it, from somewhere...else... inside of me, the energy appeared inside my real-world body.

    As soon as that connection was made and the flow of cool energy was again moving through my body I felt the emotional and mental pressure from the structure vanish like dust in a breeze. Along with it, the darkness retreated like a quick tide. It was replaced by a dull gray void.

    Just before my awareness was pushed out of that place I saw the outer edge of the space for the first time, the darkness having dispersed out into only a thin layer. In this place my sight was perfect, and I couldn¡¯t miss the sight of the horrifically complex pattern and eldritch scrawling all over the outer edge that leaked a crystalline vaporous light into the space. Perfect sight meant I could make out every little detail of every little symbol that covered the immense larger sphere that contained this small light ball.

    Then I was whisked out. Whatever that was it made my pattern look like a lego model with discolored pieces compared to a model airplane setting sail around the seas of Neptune, that was then put inside you or me in this case. The mind space that was now free from the clutter of emotional turmoil took a minute to try and analyze the specific and superbly odd feeling that I had before pushing it aside, yet again refocusing on the life and death struggle that was underway within me.

    The original and denser cooling-energy took over the duty of following the path. I wasn¡¯t sure even after all that it would be enough, even after all I had been through, but I could only keep going. I blinked as my sight returning the to the outside world. But immediately shutting my eyes again to focus internally. I could still feel the path that the cool-energy had followed.

    The complex structure was barely half-finished, and I could still feel the slow movement of cool-energy along with it. I wasn¡¯t sure quite what I was doing. That should have stopped me, it didn¡¯t though. I was tired of things happening outside of my control and without my knowledge, and now that I had something that I was seemingly gaining some modicum of control over I stuck to it. Foolhardy as that had already proven to be.

    I hoped nothing would come to disturb me, even with the fight no one had come to check on the guard, so I was a little confident that at least there were no other permanent stations nearby, like other guards.

    I felt the energy become thinner and thinner, eventually forming fine wire-like strands of the substance that followed the pattern, I could feel its slow movement as it spread out, evenly forming perfect gossamer threads out of what originally felt like energy slime. I could feel them responding to my will with greater and greater precision.

    Until they didn¡¯t.

    The rotation stopped and suddenly I felt stiff and drained. It took me a moment of complete panic and existential terror at the thought of that nightmarish turmoil again before I realized that nothing more was happening. The structure was completed. The, now thin flowing web changed again, solidifying into the complex shape in my ...body. The feeling of it dulled, but was still there squirming into ...me. Then it settled, my proprioception added a notch to its highly metaphorical belt.

    The mental machinery I built...somehow...was slowly turned into a lower and lower gear. The memory from the dream of Illoya that had caused the trouble in the first place continued to play over and over again my mind seemed unable to disentangle so quickly after such a powerfully disturbing event.

    That small light. It was the most prominent thing in my mind now. That small something that was me in a way that was far outside of my comprehension that I didn¡¯t even have words to describe what it is. Metaphysics was never what I was interested in.

    ¡®heh..was is right...¡¯ that was the last thought I had for a bit.

    Eventually, I found myself simply laying against the wall strength returning at last. The blankness of that mental oblivion melting away. I ¡®woke¡¯ feeling pretty good. I could still feel that new structure inside me. It wasn¡¯t doing anything but it was there. To be honest I had my fill of that particular thing for now. The idea of what it could be was tantalizing sure, but the almost wiping of my existence felt like a stretch past what I could get excited about.

    My first order of business I got up and pushed the cooling corpse out of the way. I am not sure how long I was in that trance-like state, so couldn¡¯t say for sure if the body was cold but couldn¡¯t work up enough shits to give about him now. The blade that still was stuck in the wall was complete and only had that characteristic bloodstain down the center to mare its appearance.

    Now that was worth my time.

    This particular sword was a double-edged bar of steel, or what appeared to be steel, with the same all-metal design and a slightly curved segment at the top. I could easily fit both my hands around the over the long handle, and in fact, it was required as the blade was pretty heavy.

    In total length, the blade was three and a half feet and the handle another hair over a foot. I found myself resting it on my shoulder much as its previous wielder had done. After wiping the blood from the half-sword I stuck in the back of my pants again. I picked up the torch and held it out in front of me taking a look around the room for the first time.

    It was almost as empty as the tunnel had been except I could see another tunnel branching off, except this one had torches placed in sconces at the entrance, that provided light to the room but not the tunnel.

    I made my way back up the tunnel to my lamp and stopped. Unsure of how to carry everything at the same time already I was overencumbered and with no points to dump into strength, never really sure why strength related to the creation of more space in a bag. I sighed and bemoaned the loss of my own backpack for the third time, in this case, its basic ability to hold things.

    I sat again near the brazier letting the sword fall next to me, but not too far out of reach. My feet were starting to hurt after stepping on the uneven stone floor, but I ignored it unable to do anything about it and needing to press on. I was glad the ground seemed relatively flat so far.

    I examined the torch, as much as I could. Not surprised to find that it was different than what I had originally thought it was. The ¡®standard¡¯ torch that I was familiar with from D&D was a stick with some cloth wrapped around the top, that seemed to burn forever. This was another thing entirely. In hindsight, the metal cap that was flush with the wood, and seemed to be constantly on fire was probably the reason that my attacks were as effective as they had been.

    That and the mysterious red light.

    ¡°Just when I thought I caught a break,¡± I muttered quietly to myself my harsh rasp slightly off-putting, even to me.

    The torch was of course, completely out of focus and lacked any distinguishing detail. In disgust, at my poor vision, I threw it into the lamp. The heat from its fire vanishing as it entered the bowl.

    Well, at least I could say that I got that right. Too bad I couldn¡¯t eat it.

    My hunger had grown while I was otherwise occupied with more mystical bodily problems and was one of the reasons that I knew that time had passed.

    I looked in the direction of the body and realized I had actual heat now, that wasn¡¯t going to melt through the flesh before I could bite into it. I would just have to figure out how to butcher up a monogreel and hope they were biologically compatible. And that I wouldn¡¯t explode after eating them. I was pretty sure that whatever was bringing me back to life couldn¡¯t heal that.

    I rubbed my hand through my hair thinking of possibilities. Nothing seemed viable, not if I was counting on fighting again. Which I did. Anything that I used to carry around all of my newly acquired stuff would hinder any running away I had to do later. That was something I also counted on doing. Not that I stood much chance at running away. These super athletes compared to me. I poked at my belly and watched flop a little. I sat up suddenly a thought growing in my mind.

    Was that the answer then. I couldn¡¯t run away anyway. And even then I was at a dead end. I had already said I would move forward. But maybe...maybe I hadn¡¯t taken it far enough. Maybe I needed to commit to an all in. Take everything I had, and more than that take myself and the tiny flimsy security I had in that cave and move forward. Move Forward.

    An all-in gamble. I was a fan of the massive play that paid off in the end. But even if I liked doing it in my heart, that was different from actually doing it. The game was where I had done it most. And this was no game. Everything was so very real. And to go all-in here meant that death was pretty final. Resurrection or not, once I was caught that would be it. In the worst case that meant endless, perpetual agony.

    This was no game. Or at least, I speculated morbidly, not a game to me. Unfortunately everything else aside, this place was very dungeon-like. That thought died quickly in my mind and faded. What I did think about was game experience with the large choices that I had ever gone all-in on. They were very few. The streaming, the game, ...and the twins.

    So the bad, the excellent and the gut-wrenching blissfully-painful anger-pain-sorrow.

    I would call that a mixed bag.

    I sat in silent thought for a long time.

    I really couldn¡¯t make this decision on an empty stomach, or without water for that matter. Neither of which seemed readily available at the moment. But that was part of the problem. I groaned.

    I had played it safe in my life for a long time.

    ¡®hehe,¡¯ I chuckled at my turn of phrase. ¡°Played.¡± How I ironic. I resolve that this isn¡¯t a game to turn around and say that. Was it just a turn of phrase. Sure, it could be taken that way but I liked to look deeper. If I had ¡®played¡¯ the earlier parts of my life safe, and the result was the shut-in that I had become. Maybe it wasn¡¯t such a good idea to play it safe.

    No, I didn¡¯t feel bad about being the introvert, or even a shut-in. That wasn¡¯t it. Now shut in a cave by myself, save for the killer monsters that lurked around that would probably have been a problem. Progression. Moving Forward. These things were missing from my personality.

    Had they ever been there? I wasn¡¯t sure, Lyla and Marc always pushed me and I was happy to go along with them.

    Friendship? IS that missing as well. Could it be? No. I had friends and that had hurt. I didn¡¯t need anymore. I snorted. Then did a quick check for that pressure again afraid it had come back. But no, just my mind being caught up in its thoughts.

    I stood resolve building in me as I headed for the room where I had first arrived. I had to get my things together. There was still the issue of how I was to carry everything. I had some ideas earlier, but I was sure that new issues would pop up. But what else was new.

    Oh yes. I had a cat.

 Four - Reason

    I made my way back up the tunnel and into the room. I turned over my ideas for how I was going to do this, and tiring not to second guess myself ...again. It only took five minutes for me to second guess everything that I resolved to do.

    I sighed and bemoaned my lack of conviction in the face of big choices. Admittedly choices that could end up with me dead or worse. But this was the situation and so far everything has slipped into places that I don¡¯t want to go.

    So I continued until the once-doorway and found everything exactly as I had left it. The single burning brazier still lit the room and the non-flammable that just sat in the other bowl. Truthfully if I didn¡¯t know any better I would say that it looked just like water from here. It¡¯s clear appearance belying the not so subtle damage that it could cause at any moment.

    I surveyed my equipment and tools and went over the more concrete plan for a way to carry this thing in my head. It would cost me a lot in the way of resources in the short run mainly in swords. But by my estimate, that meant almost nothing at this point, I could keep my undamaged blade and one more, before metal would become a problem. Or maybe not, maybe I had plenty and was overestimating. I would be the first to admit that this was not in my wheelhouse. We would just have to see.

    My plan was a straight forward idea. I needed a way to carry these bowls around with me, without actually carrying them. I couldn¡¯t drag them along, because while that would be ideal, they could spill over and then I would be in trouble. So I wanted something more stable. Nothing I could think of was without inherent downsides and the plan I chose was no exception.

    But maybe this was wrong too. Again it came down to information. Whether I could move out of here and find somewhere else relatively secure and be able to get there, was still up in the air for now. For all, I knew I could be in the middle of these creatures lair and have no way out through miles of unending hallways, and if that was the case anything I did to try and carry along more stuff would just become a hindrance and I would have to drop it.

    That brought me up short. If that was the case carrying just the one brazier would cover everything that I needed really. I could just leave the rest here. This room appeared out of the way if the two corridors that I had seen were anything to go by. And the fact that they had remained even after the monogreels took everything that had came with me, said that they must have had some idea what they were already.

    I had already started getting all the metal together as I had these thoughts. My original plan was to forge a sled out of melted blades and the wooden poles for support. But now, I wasn¡¯t sure that I wanted to go through with that. My decision to move forward had remained of course staying here was continuous death from dehydration, in the best case, and that was not an option.

    That doubt was stronger now that the rush from surviving whatever had happened with that energy. Now that I was feeling a little more like myself I saw that even though I still had that same sentiment extreme measures that I was considering were more than a little dangerous.

    Doorways. That is what stopped me now. There was no guarantee that the door and pathways would be of similar or larger size to the seld. That would also be a huge problem if I had to retreat fast and keep all my weapons. I would have to leave them.

    There had to be another option.

    I thought about what I needed. Could I forge gear? The plate of metal that I had envisioned would have been rather simple, the tricky part would have been molding the surface to hold the braziers and finding a way to pull it. Anything more complex than that would be pushing the limit of what I could fumble my way through.

    And then what would I make? There were no good options besides, armor and even then I wasn''t sure I could move at all in what would have to be plate armor. Badly made plate armor at that. I had no training in any particular weapon, so any weapon was equally likely to be useful in my hands.

    I tapped my chin in thought meandering about the room. Another part of my mind entirely had drifted to the structure that was apart of me. It was physically a part of me, I could feel it inside my body. At the same time, the feeling of the whole structure that existed in the back of my mind was not routed in my physical understanding but seemed to be superimposed over me. It moved with me and easily conformed to all parts of my body where it flowed mainly through my hands and torso.

    The complex interplay of shapes and seemingly random patterns were cool looking. And meant absolutely nothing to me, I only knew what my character had been doing in-game at the time and it was an easy bet that they did the same thing. Not a sure bet, but I was willing to take that chance. But besides it simply being there it did nothing, I didn''t have the same control over it as before. What was wet clay before was now fired and glazed. A finished product.

    My momentary excitement over the thing had died down again and now I was focused on the side benefits that I had gained from the experience. Fortunately whatever doubts I had had about magic, were now effectively quashed my stubborn resistance had no ground to stand on after that ordeal.

    Everything had felt real as now and I hadn''t for a moment thought it was anything but a situation where I had put my life at risk because of ignorance. But that seemed to be a running theme in my new life, and I didn''t see that ending as much as I would like it to.

    Even the prospect of getting more of that cooling-energy... damn I couldn''t keep calling it that now that I was out of danger. Things needed to have names, especially since I was most likely going to have to deal with it again eventually.

    ...''FIUAD''... yes that''s what I would call it. Fuck-It-Up-And-Die. Direct, vulgar enough to grab my attention and a good reminder of today''s lesson.

    Frustrated I threw my hands up and sighed. I needed to keep that ideology from before but needed to be smarter about it as well. Unsatisfied I left the room once again and walked back to the brazier that still had the torch in it. I grabbed the torch and pulled it from the fire.

    Only as the fresh surge of heat rolled over me did I realize that more than just the end had been in the fire and the wooden top section burned away. The metal head hit the ground with a clink and rolled way still burning with fire and leaving a small trail of flames itself as it went.

    I almost screamed in frustration, keeping it in and swallowing my self-pity and recrimination. Slowly I followed after the end as it came to a stop. I had suspected that this metal was what had provided the fire, through some magical and altogether different method than the braziers did.

    What they did share was an apparent immunity to heat. Or at least a heat conversion of astronomically high that even magical ever-burning flames couldn''t heat the outside. Unlike the flames of the brazier, these did put out heat, once outside of whatever magical influence that the bowl had on fire, they seemed to be just regular flames.

    Could this be useful? That was the golden question of the day.

    I stood over the cap and contemplated it. It seemed to be stuck on the top of the stick and I could still see the bit of wood inside the end that hadn''t been affected by the flames. That probably meant the inside was at least partially protected from the heat as to not destroy the wood.

    I punted it back across the wall with the stick. Ugg... if I could only see...

    I was back where I had started. Leaving behind most everything that I had collected for some uncertain venture it to the unknown. I growled. Unwilling to go and knowing I had to. Thirst would soon become a problem.

    What I needed was to find my backpack. That was probably the best idea I had had. I wasn''t even sure if it was still around. It contained drinking water, breakfast bars, my phone, and was a bag. I still wouldn''t be able to see, but it would be a huge start. My phone was most likely useless now, but the rest would be worth having.

    If the tunnels continued to be like what I had seen eventually I would have to fight again and I was not looking forward to that. I paced back and forth in the small tunnel and looked into the darkness beyond the light.

    Time ticked on and no answers came to me. Then something snapped within me. I picked up the brazier with one hand and scooped the torch head into in. Dumped the branch into the flames, steadied the sword on my shoulder as I rested the brazier on my hip.

    Then I walked steadily not thinking or listening to the voice that screamed in my mind, its desperate pleas falling on deaf ears as I marched with determination in the direction of the illuminated cave. Soon I passed the body and the voice was so loud that it contested with my thoughts in the depth of my mind. But I recognized it now something was influencing my emotions ... again.

    Not something apparent as the almost failure in forming the structure had done, it was more subtle than that. I was not sure where the root for this was, but as before the influence grew more apparent as I resisted it. I marched against my mind, unable to say where the strength to do so came from.

    Something in that moment was like a sudden rush of clarity the veil fell and for a split second, I had seen past the enforced indecisiveness in my head. A headache started to bloom as I walked on reaching the end of the tunnel and where I had turned back last time. An ice pick was being driven into my skull when I took that last step across the threshold. But a track of my mind held on. The pain grew with each step and slowly all parts of my mind were being consumed by the sourceless agony.

    My vision darkened around the edges, I tasted a coppery tang in my mouth, blood most likely. My vision faded more after that, becoming a pinprick that matter not at all as I could not see already. My body moved on autopilot. The only thought was to end the influence on my mind.

    Crossing that room was herculean labor. Mental labor, of course, I didn''t think I had it in me to do a physical one. Then a thread snapped and I felt the backlash as awareness came rushing back to me and the pain faded. I collapsed to a knee. Out of breath for what felt like the hundredth time in just a few hours, as new challenges had been throwing themselves at me left and right.

    It only took me a minute to catch my breath and stand up again. I wasn''t physically exhausted this time, and whatever fatigue I felt quickly recovered while I was outside of whatever influence I was under.

    I stood and looked around this new tunnel. The rock was a noticeably lighter shade of gray here and the smell. There were a thousand unidentifiable scents in the air. I hadn''t noticed before but where I have had to breathe stale air for some time now.

    I didn''t look back as I started forward. Knowing that I probably would come back at some point was enough for me.

    I maintained a steady if slow pace as to not miss anything of these tunnels, even if so far they had been boring at best and fatal at worst. To say that I was being cautious, was to say nothing at all.

    This tunnel was relatively straight until it wasn''t. The first twenty yards beyond the entrance were flat and even. Then came a turn to the right, as soon as I rounded the bend the tunnel began sloping downward and began winding out of sight.

    So I began walking down it. After I rounded the first corner, I finally saw something that was new. A beam of light cut across the darkness of the tunnel, the open entrance to a room was visible even from here.

    As I got closer I noted that the light seemed relatively steady and didn''t flicker as the firelight I had with me did. I moved in a half-crouch next to the wall that the light spilled from. It was my luck really that I hadn''t run into another patrol. I was beginning to think I might be wrong about those patrols anyway. Surely enough time had passed between when I first was killed to now that there should have been another one if they were on any regular schedule that is.

    The other option was they were just two different roving bands that happened across me. That was seeming more and more likely, and what I thought was a guard had to have been some trailing scout or something.

    I peeked into the room then instantly pulled back. I didn''t get a good look at anything just enough to check for any enemies inside. There were none.

    That was good. I stepped inside taking in the room more thoroughly. The room was well lit but I couldn''t find the light source. Until I looked up. A familiar bowl shape only on a much large scale caught my attention. Maybe five times larger than the three I had or found or whatever.

    I circled the base and saw that it was suspended like a chandelier, by chains from the ceil. The more powerful light and its scattering off the walls must have limited the flicker that a fire normally provided.

    There were some other interesting things in the room as well. There was one wall that was much more craggy than the others as if that one had been left as is when the room was excavated and the rest were smoothed out.

    There was also a glowing rock, on the other wall adjoining the badly cut face. It pulsed almost undetectably in the brightly lit room, with an inner light that was. It was a bright white stone and didn''t have any other apparent purpose.

    I was unwilling to drop anything scared as I was of a sudden encounter. I studied the white stone in the wall for a second, but unlike what I expected I couldn''t see anything on there that might have been a rune. The plain wall just wasn''t that interesting and while the massive lamp atop the room was no doubt filled with the same liquid fire that had been both a blessing and a curse to me, I was already struggling to carry my one out of three and still be able to do anything else. There was no way that I could take that monstrosity anywhere, even if I figured out how to get it down. And to tell the truth to myself at least, I didn''t want it anyway. I didn''t need another problem in my life.

    I was about to turn back to the white stone and had already started to lift the sword of my shoulder when the hair on the back of my neck stood on need. It felt like it was trying to jump off my neck. I spun around and instantly noticed that something was happening in the room.

    I felt the tell-tale build-up of power tickle my senses, and a visible dark stain was appearing in points all over the room. I didn''t stick around any longer and quickly jogged around the edges of the room to get out. In the process spilling some liquid-fire and receiving some new burns on my skin. The flash was gone so soon that I barely noticed to pain.

    Once I was through the door. I lay my brazier down next to me and get close to the wall to watch what happens inside the room. Whatever was going on in there was serious...magic I guess. That was pretty much an all-encompassing term, right?

    Slowly the stain spread outwards. The amorphous blobs began taking on a definite shape.

    I got a sinking feeling just then. Something tickled my mind, a thought that was yet to be had, an intuition that grated at not being known. The shapes continued to grow and grow outward. Before splitting off and beginning to grow downward.

    Then it stretched up and grew into a tall form. Then the arms. It was obvious at the point that was forming was a god damned monogreel. A whole fresh squad of them.

    I moved further behind the cover of the wall and set down the sword and took up the brazier carrying it on my shoulder and staying as close to the wall as possible.

    I resisted the urge to douse them right away. Despite the risk and the inherent dangers, I was curious. These creatures were spawned in. That meant the dungeon idea that had been so appalling to me before was becoming more and more likely.

    The process took a little time. But eventually, the new squad formed and were standing and grunting, completely naked this time, and looking about confusedly. Then the white stone lit up bright flashed.

    They all were blinded and howled as the light blasted out, eventually, the howls stopped and I heard the mad scramble of feet. Inside the room, the eight monogreels were fighting and smashing into each other to get to the stone. They didn''t seem to speak at all this time. The steady thump of flesh on flesh as they attempted to beat each other to within an inch of life was chaotic and brutal. I didn''t think that they were trying to kill each, maybe they were like chickens, trying to determine a pecking order?

    The first guy that got knocked out was pushed to the side by the movements of the others. They literally kicked him to the curb. With an uneven number, the chaos of the fight increased. They had no recognizable skill and didn''t seem to behave like they knew more than how to swing their fists about wildly.

    Even given that I still didn''t think I could beat them in any sort of fight planning, strategy and good use of tools could help me only so far. I still had to be careful if anything this all out nothing held back brawl that they jumped into the moment they saw each other proved that as much as I looked down upon them. They still had the advantage than me in at least two areas, raw physical ability and numbers.

    After the first guy went down the fight was relatively short, each time a monogreel feel the ones fighting ended up closer together. They never fought two against one. It took me a while to notice that, but after I did it became clearer with the exchanges.

    Soon it was down to the last two. These were naturally the biggest and toughest looking ones out there. That surprised me as they had looked pretty similar when they had spawned none had stood out as these did now.

    Normally I would have discounted it as a trick of the mind, or me not taking a good look. However, this was a magical world now, as I had learned from painful experience I could discount nothing. Maybe there was more to this brawl than simply violence and dominance.

    As the last two wailed on each other I watched but couldn''t see any changes happening, besides the obvious and when one fell the last didn''t seem to be in great shape. But he didn''t slow down and made his way to the white stone.

    Belatedly I realized that this was a perfect opportunity. I turned the corner and raised my sword. And watched as the last man standing put his hands on the stone and sank to his knees, strength finally giving way.

    I contemplated what it was I was thinking about doing. They were all down and posed no immediate threat to me, and this one even had his back turned. Did I want to kill them like this? Could I? It was one thing to act at the moment, adrenaline-pumping heart racing, life literally hanging on by a thread of chance, but another entirely to think about attacking what amounted to unconscious people.

    Were they people? I wasn''t sure, I had seen them appear out of the air, yes, did that make them less of people somehow, even youths. They didn''t look or act like youths. But how was I supposed to know?

    There was another softer flash of light and the last-man-standing was bathed in light. This was the time to strike, his back was turned and his focus on something else. He turned and walked to the wall that looked like the surface of the moon. Placing a hand on the stone.

    For a second nothing happened then slowly very slowly the wall began to ripple and morph. The stone slowly began to flow across the face to his hand. I watched transfixed as I saw someone performing some magic right in front of me. I almost forgot why I had come in here in the first place.

    I raised my sword high and walked silently lifting my feet and padded into the room. He wouldn''t see me coming, and I had to believe that after two deaths at the hands of these creatures that they were hostile to me for whatever reason. Could I risk not attacking in this moment of weakness?

    My indecision almost cost me before, almost breaking my sanity before I had overcome it. I stood and two deceive steps forward before pulling the blade over my head with as much force as I could bring to bear buried the curved end segment down into the back of its head. He collapsed without a sound, pulling the blade out of my grip as he went.

    Red light flared and I watched it fade. There was no source and the only way that I could tell it had left him and entered me was that I saw the shimmer of light flow up the blade. I was not sure what it was, of course.

    But I was not done.

    I wrapped a shaky hand around the blade. Then another, I squeezed until my hands turned white and slowly moved the blade. I tried not to see the drip of gore and brains that coated the end. Tried and failed.

    After that one, it was easier. I went around the room and brained all the monogreels. This was no different than what they did to me when I first got here. They are monsters, I saw them spawn for goodness sake. That''s what they were dungeon mobs.

    That was made easier as well by the red light the flared and flowed with each stab, after the first couple I focused on that instead of the deed itself and tried to figure out what it could be.

    I couldn''t bring myself the quite believe it even as I repeated the reasonable mantra in my head.

    '' we are at war. we are at war. they started the war. I was defenseless both times they attacked first. Once is personal, twice is a pattern.''

    Like that, I slowly got through the grisly task. I had always known that I wasn''t quite a good person, this only seemed to prove that on some level I was always right.

    When I was finished I went outside the room. Needing something else to look at for a while.

    As I sat there I felt the now familiar and terrifying cooling sensation of FIUAD as it slipped around the corner and up my arm. I was terrified to think of anything. The experience with my rampant emotions had left a vivid reason why not.

    So as with the first time I had received this, without knowing what it was I let it travel into me, then through my body to that other space. I let my mind blank for a good twenty minutes before examining myself for that telltale feeling.

    It was gone.

    Breathing out a sigh, I focused internally on the structure I had built inside myself using the FIUAD. I hadn''t been able to make anything out of it before. Now I focused on it and tried to pry apart its secrets.

    I was starting with an advantage, I reasoned, I can at least assume for now that it will perform at least similar to the game, right? Well, I had to start from somewhere and that seemed the most logical. Even given the circumstances.

    It took a minute for me to grasp the whole pattern as it existed inside me. The fine detail was not apparent in the memory but made obvious using the wire-thin strands of FIUAD.

    The two spells that were active in the memory were the charge cast and the runic empowerment cycle. Neither of those did much without some third spell to cast after, however, they could be activated at least then not used. The power would dissipate and the runes would fade.

    I had absolutely no idea how to activate them when it wasn''t hot-keyed and macroed to hell. Now in a real body, I was at a complete loss. I reasoned that mana was the issue. I had none. And Illoya had bucket and buckets full. So did Hiron, who later become known as DreadKnaught. Too bad that I wasn''t either one of them right now, as they could breeze out of here.

    I the pattern mostly consisted of twists and spirals that looped together and ran along my arms, right down the center then coming back up and filling my torso with much the same. There was an odd patch of much stricter spherical shapes that were scattered throughout. They seemed to have a much more rigid design to them, almost, and I tentatively labeled them as the runic portion of the structure. It was hard to tell though as at the time I had them running concurrently and it seemed that the structure was interconnected at serval points in each of the five different spheres, which in turn supported the whole thing.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    My musings were interrupted when the soft pounding of many feet came from down the tunnel. The muttering guttural language a dead give away for what I would find coming round the corner any second now.

    I jumped to my feet and brandished the sword. Before I snapped to my senses and lay it in easy reach on the wall and grabbed the brazier up. Holding the two edges palm down and ready to try and improve the technique of throwing liquid fire on my enemies.

    My main weapon was not just the fire, but also surprise. So I decided to take the initiative again. I jogged lightly and rounded the corner, using what I could see of the torchlight as a guide to how far the leading creature was from around the bend.

    When I rounded the corner I came face to face with a creature, its one eye widening in surprise, even as I pushed the bowl forward with all my strength.

    It was much closer than I expected and with my shove, I made contact with his chest.

    That was bad. Because of course now he wouldn''t burn, quickly as I could I threw myself back and away. With the fire-altering metal gone, the tunnel exploded with heat, as I turned around the corner. I backed up quickly knowing that I had made a huge miscalculation.

    I was thankful for the screams that I heard, as it gave me a sense that I did more than one person in damage.

    The problem was that when I rounded the corner and pushed out it hit the chest of one of the monogreels. He was so startled that he hadn''t reacted in time to get me. However, the moment that I had used so effectively in the past to distribute the liquid-fire and catch multiple enemies in the initial wave was gone.

    I was sure that the first guy in the line was gone, having received most if not all the liquid fire. How many would come around the corner had yet to be seen. I had no time to berate myself over the mistake and prepared myself to fight a losing battle.

    I willed myself calm. Nothing but my luck and my forward-thinking would win me this fight.

    I had known that at some point that something would go wrong with my plans, whichever one I had chosen, and minimizing that risk was one of my goals. It seemed I had failed pretty spectacularly.

    I could see the fire from around the corner and some even spilled over. Should I run for it? Is this enough of a delay to get out of sight?

    Then a monogreel charged round the corner. Or staggered in more accurate. His sword was not up and he was pounding his feet on the ground, desperately trying to put out the fire that licked at his soles.

    He saw me and his eye locked on me, finding the source and now outlet for his rage and pain. He advanced on me, lunging no doubt aiming to skewer me. It was a very similar situation as to what had happened before, except instead of being on my knees with already fatal injury, I was now holding a weapon while the creature was on fire.

    This time would be different.

    I backpedaled quickly and held the sword stiffly in-front of my body ready to ward off the oncoming rush. I wasn¡¯t sure how much damage the fire was doing or would do, but right now he was still standing. The tunnel wasn¡¯t big enough for the massive arcing swings that I had used before.

    Just then the momentum of his charge ebbed, whether he had run out of steam or something I wasn¡¯t sure but this was my opening. Almost in an attempt to copy his lunge, I did the same, although at this point I was only at about two meters from him. My heart was pounding as my mind registered the sword that was barely a foot away from my chest.

    I ran forward swatting at the blade with my own, then hold it in two hands and then stabbed out. I closed my eyes involuntarily as the blade crossed the distance, at the last second I managed to open them. Just in time to see my sword impale the creature.

    It screamed out arcing its back and throwing back its head. I followed through almost, on accident and dragged the blade down with all the strength I could muster. Red light again started to flow. It was faint and almost unnoticeable even in the gloom.

    I celebrated for a single second, mentally high-fiving myself, but was interrupted when another one came around the corner. I had forgotten about the others.

    ¡°Focus fool, ¡° I muttered to myself and then the first one collapsed in-front of me, entrails spilling out the bottom of what used to be his torso. These two had the liquid-fire on and around there feet as well, although they didn¡¯t seem to be as badly affected as the first one. I pulled back yet again into, what I hoped was, a fighting stance. A little bend in the knees straight back and trying to take in both attackers at once.

    I was positive I could not take both of them at once. So I quickly tried to think of a plan. They seemed wary of me, or maybe just trying to wear out the fire on their feet. I watched the burn and turned the sword around in my grip.

    I had seen javelin throwing done before but never attempted it myself. I held my ground and maintained my patience waiting for what I thought was about to come. I had seen it, I think, something registered to me that I should watch that back guy a little he was my target.

    I noted the position of the first monogreel¡¯s sword on the ground, about three meters to my left still resting underneath it¡¯s fallen owners hand.

    Just as I was about to second guess my intuition it happened. The one in the front made a little cry and his ankle gave out with the leg he stepped with. And of course, the one in the back noticed, his eyes jumping to this wounded companion. I threw.

    I had not known I could throw that fast with such a heavy object. As soon as I released the sword I dove/fell for the new one I had seen. I heard the roar and hoped that meant I had hit something. This new sword was slightly wider and had no curve at the end and looked much more like a long sword from a fantasy movie if of course, that fantasy move had a truly realistic amount of blood and gore.

    It took me a second or two to worm the hilt free of his hand and bring it round to face my enemies once again. The one who had succumbed to the damage down by the fire was recovering from the pain a little quick for my liking and was already on his feet if a bit unsteady. I focused on him and charged forward, blade leading, screaming in terror and rage.

    He still seemed a bit stunned and couldn¡¯t react in time to my sword stabbing up through his neck. I was shocked, not having expected him to die so easily. The now expected red light, and I pulled my blade free as the body collapsed.

    I finally saw the result of my through. The blade was tuck through his upper thigh and he was limping quite heavily. His other hand gripped the handle and tried to remove it even as he went. That confirmed for me that they were both inhumanly tenacious and pretty stupid in this regard.

    I felt my heartbeat increase yet again as I realized that I was the one who held the advantage yet again. I stepped back, avoiding the arms of the first guy as I watched this third approach me, all the while he got weaker and weaker.

    A supremely alien feeling welled up in me as I found myself wanting to be the one that ended his life. Not his stupidity, my blade and my will that was what he would die by. I growled and stalked forward.

    I could even register the surprise on his face as the change came over me. The first swing I took was not at his body and I ignored the sword he raised high as my blade connected with the one in his leg.

    the blade ripped up and the incoming strike was thrown completely wide as I stepped back slightly. The blade had sliced almost completely through the leg. He fell heavily on to it, the oddly positioned blade making its way inside of his chest.

    ¡°YOU want to KILL ME!¡± I slammed my blade¡¯s edge into his face and he fell back.

    ¡°Again.¡± slam. ¡°And AGAIN!¡± slam. ¡°I. WON''T. FUCKING. LET. YOU.¡± I punctuated each word with a mighty chop of the blade. ¡°I. WANT. TO. LIVE.¡± slam. slam. slam. crack.

    Something crunched and as I drew back my arm for another swing another couple of monogreels rounded the corner. I roared at them. My voice raw from the screeching, but still filled with bass and fury. These two who had been pretty uninjured by the fire. paused for a moment before dropping their weapons.

    The turned and ran, almost falling over each other as they made their mad scramble for the exit tunnel. I gave chase to these foul beasts, screaming madly as I closed in on them. I jumped over a couple of bodies as they passed out of sight.

    I stopped and fell heavily against the wall. Those last few moments had been a bit of a blur and I slumped against the wall surrounded by the dead. Exhaustion quickly rendered me unable to move and I barely noticed that energy enter me again. I let it settle again out of my reach.

    The world spun around me and I felt that I was on the verge of unconsciousness. I pushed myself over that edge.

    I was blissfully free of dreams.

    <><><>

    Allios stood above a field of battle. The screams and wails of the dying mixed with the desperate rage of the defenders as they tried to beat back the oncoming hordes. The Endless, the most ancient of enemies from back before the beginning of time. Or so the ancients said anyway.

    Allios didn¡¯t believe it. People were proven to romanticize their enemies, pushing them further and further away from themselves. To kill them and feel like they were doing something right. In this case, whether they were really from the before time was largely unimportant. They were powerful enough for that to be true.

    Not all, of course, the incursion that was happening in front of them was one of the rather weaker creatures that spilled onto the world. Weaker was a relative term, of course, most of the creatures were from the first three circles were fodder to him that could be blown out like a candle in his very presence. Anything above the fourth would require him to look in that direction.

    That being said he stood above the battlefield without moving, waiting for anything that would prove difficult for the champions to handle. He could see them in the distance, this was an important test of their mettle and would prove to be instrumental in bringing out their full potential. That was one reason these creatures were called Endless. It was difficult for him to not act, as he watched over the defense.

    Occasionally the wall on the city below suffered a moment of struggle before a wave of power would wash away the few enemies before they could establish a proper foothold inside the defenders. They would win the day, as it was now at least.

    The flap of wings blew a gust of wind around him. Allios enjoyed the air as the smell of death that lingered here was blown away, temporarily. He didn¡¯t turn around already guessing who it was that came up to him.

    ¡°Your Holiness.¡± Valiea¡¯s light voice reached him, just as he suspected, his head Valkyrie was not above checking on him now and again. ¡°How goes the day?¡±

    ¡°Enough, Valiea. You know full well how I fell about that title.¡± Allios¡¯ voice was smooth as silk even as he faced away from the kneeling beauty, dismissing her greeting without further comment.

    ¡°We will win this day... if nothing greater shows up.¡± The last part was almost a mutter.

    Valiea took in the posture of her father and walked up next to him. ¡°Something troubles you again Father. Will you tell me?¡±

    ¡°I can smell the coming battle. It was a toxic wind that blows from the depths of the abyss, something is coming here.¡± He confidently says.

    Valiea frowns, ¡°ahhh... I see that you have taken to repeating Clarisa. Please, Father, don¡¯t. You just sound ridiculous.¡± She sighed out a heavy breath, holding back laughter.

    ¡°Eh! What I sounded dramatic and mysterious! You wound me, fair daughter.¡± He paused and ignored the snort of badly suppressed laughter from behind him. Feeling his chuckle flow out. then he becomes serious again. ¡°You are right, of course. Clarisa has seen that something powerfully will come through this breach before we can close it.¡±

    ¡°So that is why you are staying out of this battle, I thought you were behaving unusually carefully today.¡± Just then Allios¡¯ hand twitches and a wave of power rolls down the hill.

    ¡°I¡¯m helping ... see¡± he gestures to the wall where soldiers who were about to be overwhelmed suddenly find their opponents simply gone.

    ¡°Yes well, there is something I have discovered that we must speak about after the battle.¡± Her tone is mysterious and light at the same time.

    ¡°Oh?¡± Allios has puts a bit more attention on her without taking his eyes from the battle happening below. Thinking for a minute his voice comes out almost too casually, ¡°This is to do with...Anya¡¯s...situation?¡±

    ¡°Yes. After a thorough investigation, I can confirm that she seems to be sneaking around with a man she seems to have found wandering the streets one day.¡± The much lighter topic puts Valiea in a better mood as well as thinking about her sisters'' antics. ¡°I believe she still thinks it is a secret. It¡¯s cute how she thinks to hide something like this from her big sister.¡±

    ¡°Wait. Wait. This person. He is from here, then.¡±He gestures around, indicating everything around them. ¡°The mortal planes.¡± It was not a problem just more surprising to think about.

    ¡°Yes, it appears so. I believe that he is a lesser nobility from one of the Faye people, maybe some variation on elvish or royal lines from a lower court certainly. I was unable to tell. But defiantly not from the fallen.¡±

    ¡°What does he do?¡± The casual question belied the weight that hid behind it.

    ¡°He appears to be studying weapon-craft under various blacksmith and foundry masters. They met while Anya was exploring some enchantment works for her research.¡± She sighs in disappointment, ¡°their first date, as it were, was them working on some weapon improvements that applied to the weapons of the local champions.¡±

    Allios focuses his attention on Anya who is flying above the battlements and dealing death from above with her bow. He instantly analyzes her flight path and scans the wall section over which she flies. There. A tallish armored figure stands with a sword in either hand and fights on a section of the wall that had needed no assistance from him over the hours of combat.

    Even as he watches magic arrows fall into the crowd picking of pierce targets as the man hews the other down with assistance from soldiers.

    ¡°I think I--¡± his voice trails off as he feels the mana that always precedes a great beast making its way into reality.

    Valiea sighs, having felt the disturbance as well. ¡°I had hoped...¡± she trails off leaving that hope unsaid, but not unheard.

    ¡°No time for that now, pull the champions back and begin gathering them behind the walls.¡± Allios starts walking forward even as he gives commands. His eyes lock on a point in space, on the far left side of the city. ¡°And tell Anya to get that man out if she wants him alive much longer.¡± The space was directly in the path of the beast that even now was pushing itself through the bounds of reality.

    As he picks up his stride, sharp red light pours off him. The air is suddenly heavy and moves oddly under the constant influx of energy. Valiea can only roll her eyes as her father enters the fray once more.

    A solid red javelin appears in his hand as his forward momentum flows perfectly through his body and the javelin flashes across space like a lightning bolt, like some god, had reached down with a paintbrush and lightly swept it over the sky. Which is not far from the truth.

    This being on the oldest skills Allios has kept in his arsenal, it is extremely versatile as well as powerful. This is only a probe though.

    The javelin has left his hand and is within meters of the target before the beast has even shown itself. The void cracks open, and a wave of flames explodes outward turning to ash anything remotely close to the three-meter flaming cut in the air.

    Then it steps through, a being that is made of living rock and flames. The spear splashes against its frame doing almost nothing, except denting the rock armor a fraction.

    ¡®Something strong indeed.¡¯ Another bright red javelin takes shape in his hand. Expect this one is much more than the last one. Patterns of gold light dance along its surface that looks like some exotic red metal. A nameless power can be physically felt in the air if anyone were around to feel it. The mana in the air almost shivers in the presence of the weapon, before it too is gone leaping across the intervening space. Before splitting into twelve identical forms in mid-air, each staggered and arcing in union.

    Having just stepped from the corruption into reality once again, and being attacked immediately the creature searches out for the source of the attacks. Before spotting him and the next wave of javelins coming in.

    It bellows and the flames around it respond raging higher than before. Crawling off the ground into a protective shield.

    The first few javelins bounce directly off the barrier, then clash of energies sounding like a dull thug as the force behind that throw is absorbed. The impact sends scorching waves of fire in oblique directions, a rebound while the javelin itself is sent flipping end over end off the shell before dissipating back into the air as if they had never been. Then the fifth stabbed into the barrier and stuck causing the flaming barrier to shudder. Then the sixth also stuck the shaking barrier, quickly followed by the rest until the barrier shattered.

    The creature screamed as that least two in the wave found their way into its rocky form.

    A low roar of approval went up from the crowd of soldiers who could see the giant enemy take the hits.

    Allios grinned to himself and a third javelin was prepared, stronger yet again. This time reaching near the maximum of what Allios was capable of. The crack of displaced air drew everyone¡¯s attention.

    The creature was attempting to raise another shield but was unable, as the disruption caused by the projectiles was more than just on the physical level. Even if the two that had stuck in it didn¡¯t hinder its body they had a greater unseen effect on its ability to defend itself.

    The third throw was just as perfect as the first two. This one didn¡¯t break apart, didn¡¯t spread its power out, but focused it into the blade and the mass.

    Being over a kilometer away gave the projectile plenty of time to be seen by all as it flew straight over the heads of the peoples who manned the wall and even as they watched beat back another wave of creatures.

    Allios didn¡¯t wait for it to strike the target before he jumped after it, at the same time reaching above his head to unslinging an ax. The large single head took up a large portion of the ax¡¯s haft, although at also two meters long that wasn¡¯t much of an issue.

    With the powered leap into the air, Allios called to his power and unleashed it into the air. The thin red light dyed the air as he reached the apex of his jump forward, that had carried him over half the distance to the massive creature.

    Valiea watched from afar as the massive figure trailed after his javelin like he was being pulled along with it. She looked up and felt the power in the air, before deciding it was time to obey the directions she had been given.

    Leaping up much more gracefully than the raw strength powered flight that Allios displayed, she glides down over the same direct approach her father had taken. Sticking close to the ground and picking up speed as she follows the hill down to the city below.

    As she watches the creature attempts to erect another shield in front of the javelin, but the weak defense is shattered, with enough force for the shards to be sent high into the air. Then Allios arrives and his ax falls with seemingly immense weight and power.

    The blow cracks into the creatures head, biting deep into its face splitting the rock with ease. Although in only sinks about a foot into the massive creature, Allios immediately pulls back and using the massive form below him performs a backflip off the creature, just as the rest of the skill connects.

    The mass of red energy that followed in this wake pulled itself together and mimicked the ax blow, only this one was ten times the size and carried the same energy density over a much greater blade.

    Allios lands just in time to cover his face as the flaming creature is split in two with an incredible force that cracks the ground beneath as well as sending chucks of the enemy everywhere. He doesn¡¯t celebrate however, as even amid his flying attack, Allios could sense the same feeling happening again and again in a tight cluster in front of him.

    With a thought and effort of will, a sphere of energy expands around him. It glows a faint yellow and seems to be perfectly smooth, floating in between solid and pure energy states. Allios opens the skill up and allows more of its true potential to take form around him. There is only a subtle shift in hue and brightness to indicate anything has changed.

    And seeing an opportunity he also calls upon another ability to convert energy into personal power. Then the air and space are sliced apart, the massive fire wave from earlier repeating again and again as more of the creatures emerge from the depths.

    The intensity turns however when the flames suddenly are pulled from everywhere to the figure that stands ahead of them. Slowly a red tint is creeping into the world around him.

    Allios lifts his ax again studying the new enemies with a keen eye from behind his shield they look very similar to the first, but with the Endless you could never tell solely by appearance.

    Allios narrowed his eyes and subtlety shifted into a more serious posture. While he was confident in beating these things it looked like there was going to be more than an easy victory today.

    <><><>

    I woke up sometime later. The first thing I noticed was my throat was parched and day, I swallowed and felt the ache ease slightly. I had gone almost a full day at this point without water. Groggily I pried my eyes open and blinked awake looking around at the bodies scattered around me.

    I stare at a red mass of lumpy something as my mind tries to figure out what is going on with that single piece of evidence. I am sure that I have never seen that before and let my eyes take in all the details.

    The horrific picture becomes clear a moment later when I see the legs and torso attached to the mutilated remains.

    Did I do that? I turn away and stand up, trying to understand what had happened. I had ... lost control near the end there. When I the fight started I was prepared to die and couldn¡¯t see myself coming out of this. And when I did. I had a rush of something...pleasure, exultation...vindication. It was at that moment that I took back imitative, a small amount of control returned to me then. I had won the fight.

    I only got here a day or so ago and I already felt so different. That outburst was not something that I remember ever happening to me before. The brutality and savage glee that I had felt were not emotions that I identified with.

    I felt fear then, at what I would become if this involuntary change continued. Over a month, a year? More? Would I become some time of human monster? Revealing in the blood and carnage?!

    I stood against the wall as I surveyed the tunnel. I let myself see the bodies and the blood. The death that I had brought to these creatures, no matter what they were, they were also alive and flesh and bone. I let it all in and touched up my mind. Wanting to see the reaction I had.

    Nothing. Good.

    I wouldn¡¯t let myself be changed. Not like that at least. Empathy, also wouldn¡¯t serve me here. I would have to find a middle path.

    My crisis over, I pushed off the wall and looked around. I pulled the corpses together along the wall. They all had some manner of edged weapon and it was quite the arsenal I arrayed, six swords were just more that I couldn¡¯t carry.

    Next, I checked out the room that, seemed to serve as some sort of, spawn room? I wasn¡¯t sure but so far that is what it looked like, no matter how improbable that sounded.

    Inside the room, I looked around. The corpses didn¡¯t bother me as much this time. I went to the wall were the victor of the brawl made been doing something to the stone. I glanced at the white glowing stone as I passed through, but I wasn¡¯t reluctant to touch it, unwilling to have anything more that I didn¡¯t understand going on inside me.

    The uneven wall had frozen in the middle of whatever process the monogreel was doing, it had frozen with ripples in the surface quite visible. It looked almost like a lake¡¯s surface if that lake was spread over a texture of rock. The dichotomy was strange and I had nothing similar in my memories of Earth, or the game at that.

    In the center of the ripples, was a sword hilt, the wall seemed to be flowing to it. The metallic tilt jutting out of the surface like a sword sticking out of a lake. The imagery was not lost on me and I took a moment to appreciate the bizarre amalgam of a familiar scene.

    I put my hand on the hilt and tried to yank it out. I held fast. I felt that no matter how hard it was tugged on it would not come free. I took a better look at it.

    Where the stone met metal, I found the answer there was no division between the two, it was not a sword in the stone. I should have suspected given the evidence. The sword was actually forming or was forming from the wall itself, right now it was just a strange artifact of the wall.

    I marveled at the senselessness and then had an idea and looked closer at the other rest of the wall. I wondered if this was why the wall was so uneven. Then I got a bit scared. So many weapons from this wall, I had no idea how many monogreel that was between me and an exit. Presuming one even existed.

    My eyes went again to the white stone and I wondered. It was just sitting there, glowing faintly even in the light from above.

    Why did they fight to touch it? And not just get weapons immediately. Did these creatures have the ability to manipulate the rock innately? And if so why was this the first I was seeing it?

    NONO! Damn, I would not do that again, I had already made a mistake and it had almost cost me.

    I looked up, ignoring the white stone. The massive, bowl of familiar colored metal hung above me. If that was what I thought it was then potentially a huge find, but like with everything else I couldn¡¯t use it.

    Why would anyone put it up there like that, it was so dangerous. Whoever designed this place was clearly not worried about earthquakes. Or maybe the whole room was warded against heat like I suspected an area around those bowls were. That was a risk I wasn¡¯t willing to take of course, but the thought gave me a larger view of the world. Even if it wasn¡¯t true the possibility existed, and I wouldn¡¯t know until I tested it.

    Was it possible for me to go for an hour without me running into anything? Although I was pretty miffed at this point that none of these creatures carried any food or more importantly water. I was starting to get a little worried.

    Here I was in there home, such as it was, and no food or water. If these creatures didn¡¯t drink or eat then, I also wouldn¡¯t. I might end up eating them. That was a more enticing thought than I thought it would be.

    It was clear that I might have a third thing influencing my mind. Something hungry. I had to admit to myself though I would have had the thought anyway. They weren¡¯t human, so it wasn¡¯t cannibalism, right?

    I left the room and collected the pile of swords that I had put together before stacking them inside the room, then I dragged all the bodies into a pile outside.

    It was gruesome work. I ended up using the wall where the body whose head looked like mush was, as I even the thought of trying to move that gave me a queasy feeling. The evidence that I wasn¡¯t entirely there something I didn¡¯t need reminding off.

    After that task was finished I went for the brazier. Around the corner, I found an interesting scene. Off to the side, a fire burned and I realized it was the torch head that I had put in the bowl earlier. Must have been thrown out with the rest. Two bodies were in the middle of the room, they were barely half there, from the ground up they seem to be melted.

    It took me a moment to figure out what happened.

    These two must have been used as a bridge to cross the liquid-fire as it burned. That was more, forethought than I expected of these creatures. I didn¡¯t want to speculate on whether these two poor saps were alive at the time.

    Let¡¯s see~~. Two ran, three died to me, and these two. That was only seven. There should have been one more, all the groups had eight in them so far. It was perplexing, then I realized that by the wounds only the first one was missing. That one I had run into... and dumped the entire contents of the brazier on.

    There was no sign of him/it.

    I dragged these two as well, piling them with the rest.

    The brazier had refilled by now and sat flaming where I had set it earlier. It wasn¡¯t much of a funeral pyre, but then again I was not at a funeral.

    Besides swords, they had dropped a couple of torches which I stored in a row next to the haphazardly stacked swords. I wanted to move all my stuff up here, now. This room was only a couple of tunnels away and had only one exit. I wasn¡¯t worried about the group that would show up here sometime later. I planed to time the spawn so I would know when to get out, but right now I was getting a headache and could only think about going to look for supplies.

    So I scooped up my brazier and the smallest and lightest looking sword I could see. That wasn¡¯t saying much unfortunately as I found it¡¯s weight only slightly less than the original sword I had, with a very similar design.

    I was getting pretty good at not cutting my head off at this point. But anything more than that I was winging it and hoping for the best. That seemed to be working out decently at this point, which was both due to my luck and I am sure there either total disregard of me as an opponent or their similar lack in and practical sword skill.

    I was thinking it was a combination.

    I waited for the bowl to refill and used the quiet moment to get my head together and continue on the mission I had assigned myself, for myself. Then moved out. I passed the telltale, patch of miss colored ground that indicated a liquid-fire burn. The lighter stone made it even more noticeable than in the far off, and the darker room that I had arrived in.

    I passed the ever-burning torch head, deciding after the fact that it would serve as a good waypoint if these tunnels ever started to branch off. I wasn¡¯t sure of the dynamics of cave formation but was pretty sure that they would make very little sense if applied to this situation.

    However, I couldn¡¯t stop my mind from trying.

    There was only my light to illumine the darkness from here on, as far as I could see. Around the first corner, I found another tunnel with the same craggy stone walls. So I restarted my exploration.

    I had another reason to be thankful that these flames didn¡¯t put out heat, as my dehydration would have crept up on me much faster than it did. I followed the tunnels for only five more minutes before finding another room. This one was empty, aside from being the same as the first one that I had found.

    I passed it, with only a quick scan for supplies that I would need. Nothing.

    I moved on, at the end of this tunnel was the first branching path that I had seen down here. A stone division popped up in my path and the two tunnels veered away from each other, from the little I could see at their mouth.

    I stopped and listened. Even holding my breath, and focusing on the way ahead of me. Any indication of anything would be good. At this point I was not hoping for anything, knowing how my luck had been I would probably be thrust into another life, or death...eh...eternal damnation, situation.

    Nothing. A blessing and a curse I told myself, as per usual I will never be able to make an informed choice.

    But even on Earth, did I ever have truly informed choices? I pondered as I set off, there was always a hidden side that only revealed itself after the face. The fine print of life, if you will. Well since it¡¯s me your talking to then, yes I think I will. Well thank you m--

    I coughed harshly. Water, right.