“So far, I have three kills and counting. If we go out on the aggressive, I bet I could catch the kill leader and reclaim that bonus.” I say, as Julia and I sit perched on the ceiling, camping in our little room.

“I don’t know. Do you really think the kill leader has been sitting around this…”

From nowhere, the strange, chilling voice of Caesar echoes across the world.

“And we have a newwww KILL LEADER! Going to WrathStreak, with seventeen kills, beating Voidshot’s previous sixteen kills! You better watch out, or you may be caught unaware by this apex predator’s unending wrath, and join his ever growing kill streak!”

Julia continues talking, a joking tone to her voice. “Actually, scratch that. I am certain you will have no problem racking up the fifteen kills to take the kill leader spot. Where should we start?”

“Fifteen kills? I don’t need fifteen kills. I need fourteen kills, and you volunteering to be the final kill to give me the title! You certainly seem like you would gleefully accept such an honor.”

“Go kiss Caesar’s ass.”

“Sure, once he’s dead, as the immortal jerk deserves to be.”

“Did you seriously just call the omnipotent God who probably created the entirety of everything an immortal jerk? That certainly takes balls. He supposedly has the power to smite anyone on the spot, and could probably easily kill you if you even annoyed him. And you go around calling him a jerk?”

“He killed my father. I figure if he decides to kill me, I might as well make my opinion of him known beforehand. Nothing really to lose either.”

“I respect that. But you would lose plenty, first and foremost being the chance to ever see me again! All the beauty, the wit, the…”

“Yeah, yeah, all of my amazing traits you were just describing would be wasted, you’d never see me again, so on and so forth. What a horrible shame that would be!”

_________

Time passes quickly as we camp, mostly spent in silence. I check the time left.

Time remaining until the gate to heaven opens:

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0:27:53

“By Caesar’s horrible voice, we only have 27 minutes! We should probably clear the area nearby soon, and find which side of the tower will have the gate in this game, so we can make sure to be among the first ninety nine.”

“Good point. Also, Caesar’s horrible voice? Really? It may be unsettling, but it sounds practically perfect, not horrible. Do you just try to insult Caesar whenever you mention him?”

“Yes. It’s fun. Try it. Anyway, I say before we get out there, we should discuss our strategy so we are more prepared than before. My idea would be to always stay on the ceiling or walls when not engaged, and we engage hostiles, grav suit towards them and take the combat close range. We both are equipped with a scattershot and a starburst, so we are very well suited for close range. Add to that potential damage to them through collision, and I think it is our most viable option.”

“Agreed, sounds good. When do you want to leave our room here?”

“Probably at like the ten minute mark.” I say, as I stretch.

__________

We both leave the room, and walk back out to the main skywalk. It connects to the square surrounding the tower, branching into a “T” shape, which will connect to the other three main skywalks, forming a square around the Heavenly tower. The wall facing the tower is made out of breakable glass, which with the cybersuits, means we can easily get to the gate of the heavenly tower by breaking the glass, and then using our cybersuits to move to wherever we need to go.

I continue walking on the ceiling, Julia on my right, and look left as we step out into the end of the main skywalk, as it branches into the “T” shape. I look to my left, and see a team of competitors on the floor. I call out to Julia as I set my grav suit to fall straight towards them, and we easily kill their group, consisting of three people. They all seemed surprised and unaware of our tactics. I check my shield.

Shield:

70/100

Only thirty damage on me? Nice. I look out the glass, and see the smooth, unbreaking, white tower that stretches up to the top of the dome, begin to part in half, revealing what looks like a strange, gray liquid flowing down all the way from the top to the bottom, in between the now separated two halves of the tower.

“That must be the gate”’

I check the time left.

Time remaining until the gate to heaven opens:

0:0:32

I see some people breaking glass and falling straight towards the tower.

“Let's go.”

I fire a shot from my starburst to break the glass, and then holster it and set my grav target line straight towards the gate, Julia mirroring me. We begin to fall.

Almost at the end of our fall towards it, I check the time left.

Time remaining until the gate to heaven opens:

0:0:2

0:0:1

0:0:0

I look up, and see the gate turn a dark, empty black, in contrast with the wide tower on both sides of it. All who had previously been standing on the gray liquid were immediately engulfed in it. We both hit the liquid looking substance simultaneously, and a strange sensation washes over me. Suddenly I am in a black void, Julia beside me, and many other competitors in various other places throughout the void. A square notification appears in front of me.

Congratulations Champion! You placed: 23!

Oof. That doesn’t feel great. Sure, twenty third of ninety nine winners, but if my timing had been better I could have been much higher. I turn towards Julia.

“What did you place?”

“Twenty second.”

“Really? You beat me by one? Caesar’s an utter jerk, placing me twenty third. I should have taken twenty second place.”

“Wow, what a sore loser. Though I will say, the ending was pretty anticlimactic in my opinion, I was expecting more. Anyway, I am gonna log off. See ya later Josiah!”

“See ya!”

And with that, I see her vanish with a flash of light.