Welcome to Or-Garth, the place of gods.

There are multiple paths to the next floor, all paved with blood and rewards. The gods bless those they find worthy and punish those who have earned their ire.

David watched the message vanish with a frown. There was no clear task, which was alright because he already knew what he wanted to do on this floor. He ushered the others into Or-Garth. There were no gates, no walls either. The city was a spread of gleaming stones and towers. The roads were polished stone, kept pristine by a complex weave of essence David could sense, but couldn’t comprehend.

“Do you think leaving them there was wise?” Zoey asked as they walked the street. David stared at the floating tower in the distance. It stood like a dreadful monolith, darker than everything else in Or-Garth. Light danced on the surface of the stone like water reflecting sunlight. It was beautiful and awful to behold. Overhead, people flew—in strange variations of magical artifacts. A chariot trotted in the distance, swerving away from a silver-haired man as he zipped past.

“I don’t think that’s an issue,” Elisha responded. “What are we supposed to do here? There was no specific task in the message. And this place looks like the Disney Olympus animation set.”

“We are going to join the tournament or whatever it is called here,” David said, wheeling around to face the others. “There is supposed to be a competition here that’ll help us move to the ninth floor from the sixth.”

“That sounds too good to be true,” Zoey said and David nodded. She realized what he wasn’t saying a moment later. “It will be difficult.”

“Yes,” David said. “Perhaps impossible, but I think it is worth trying. I don’t know who we will be fighting against, but I think we have grown enough to hold our own, don’t you think so?”

“Against that?” Elisha asked and the others followed his gaze to stare at what David could only describe as a giant troll. It was about five feet taller than David, and as broad as the length of a horse. It heaved a large stone-made hammer on its shoulder, waddling away.

“It is slow,” David said, turning back to his siblings. “And yes. If we want to get out of this tower, we have to do it soon. And this is the fastest way.” He stopped to look around, searching for any navigation aid that would help him find the place they had to go.

“We should have kept one of them alive to act as a guide,” Zoey said, frowning. “I don’t like standing here like this. We are exposed. Anyone can see that we are new.”

“How about we ask someone?” David asked, walking up to the first person he found approachable. The man was dressed in fine leather armor, a broad sword hung from his back. On the back of his left hand, David saw that he had seven tower rings, all wrapped in weird thorn-like vines. The man stopped when he sensed David coming at him, a frown spreading over his face for a moment, but he didn’t go for his sword.

“I am sorry,” David said, hands up. He wasn’t armed, but everyone in the tower knew that didn’t mean much. He could be as dangerous without a sword as he would be with one. “We just popped up here and we would like to know where to go for the competition.”

The man looked past David to Zoey and the others and then back to David. His brows shot up in disbelief and then he shrugged.

“There are portal booths all over the city,” the man said, frowning. “You can use them with essence for transportation within the city. The Hall of the Chosen is somewhere within the monolith that stands in the center of the city’s ring.” He pointed at the tower. “Just will the portal to take you there and you’ll be transported there.”

David nodded, turning to leave, but the man called him back. “You are from Earth, right? Yes, you look like it. Small advice, friend? You should wait until you all have at least nine tower rings before you try to compete. You might miss it, but at least that is better than dying. The people there are not all from Earth, and even those from Earth are stronger than you are.”

David grinned. “How do you know how strong I am?”

The man stared at him as if he was stupid, his frown growing darker. “Some of us have the skills to uncover power ratio. I don’t, but I can sense that you just got your fifth tower ring. And unless you don’t know how the tower works, you should know that puts you below someone like me. And believe me, I am not strong enough to be in that tower.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

David nodded with a grin, gave him a shallow bow, and walked back to his siblings. The man had unknowingly given him a measurement of what to expect at the competition. If people here still measured strength by tower rings, then there was no way he’d lose.

“Are you sure about this?” Zoey asked as they searched for a portal gate. David half-turned to look at her. She looked skeptical, scared. “He did say there were stronger people there. That worries me.”

“And we have mostly fought against people stronger than us, Zoey,” Elisha said before David could respond. “I am more excited to see these Otherworlders and see how they measure against what we have been against so far.”

“I want to go home,” Chloe muttered and that stopped all of them in their tracks. David faced her, his smile came easily as he crouched before her. She’d grown taller in the short time they had journeyed up the tower. Her eyes were sadder, subdued.

“Soon, Chloe,” David said, he wanted to promise more, but he decided against it. “We just have to find our way out of here.”

The portal gate was a simple archway. It was unmanned and unguarded. They were directed to it by a woman who seemed in haste to get to some kind of training. The arch had familiar symbols cut into the stone, but they stayed dull. David placed his hand on the stone and hissed as it pulled essence from him to fire up the portal. Soon it was swirling with essence, vibrating as it came to life. They waited for the surface to steady into a sheet of white and then David extended his hand to Chloe who held on to Elisha.

“The Hall of the Chosen,” David said and the surface of the portal shimmered. On the other side, he could see other people. Someone peered at the portal and moved away from it. David sighed, bracing himself for the post-transit effect. He walked through the portal, pulling Chloe with him.

A slim woman shifted away from him, giving him space to step out. He could see she was armed with a twin short sword. And she wasn’t the only one. The place was crowded. And from what he could see, it was exactly how the other man had described.

The portal trembled and winked out after Zoey and David felt the brunt of multiple essence rage directed at him. Chloe’s hands shook in his and David pulled her close. Many were staring at them. Some were not even humanoid. He stared back at them, holding gazes until the pressure eased off and he heard Zoey gasp.

“What was that?” Zoey asked.

“They were testing us,” David said. The woman he’d seen immediately after he came out of the portal gave him a pitying smile, but David wasn’t interested. He couldn’t find anyone as big as the troll they found early, but there were other slightly larger people. They towered over the rest. One was bare from the waist up, his eight tower rings large on his back. They were animated, spinning slowly, the space between each ring flaring with angry red.

“How many people do you think?” Elisha asked, his excitement loud in his voice. David shrugged, one hand protectively over Chloe. “That’s an elf, yeah?”

The man he pointed to had the pointy ears and unblemished skin that elves were known for, but he was tree-bark dark and two horns pushed up from either side of his head. He held a simple spear, but David could feel it draw essence toward itself.

“I don’t think so,” David said. “And remember, these people are not our friends.”

Something moved above him and he looked up to find three figures perched on the large chandeliers. Their wings pulled in, except for one—her wings flapped lazily. They were pure white, edged in gold. As though she’d dipped the tips only moments ago. Her eyes were fixed on him—no—on Elisha. She had a curious frown, one that worried David.

“Elisha,” David called. “I think you have a fan.”

Elisha looked up, his hair bouncing slightly. David saw his eyes widen and then his face split in a grin.

“Oh! She’s going to try to kill me.”

“Why?” David asked. Elisha shrugged.

“I don’t know, but I can feel her revulsion from down here.”

David weighed the woman above them. She had moved to join the other. They argued for a moment and suddenly she pulled her wings back and fell. It was graceful. Perhaps the most beautiful thing David had ever seen. And when she pulled her wings back out to slow her landing, it was divine. She marched over to them, her gaze meeting David’s for a moment and then settling on Elisha.

“You, I challenge you to a d—”

“No,” David said, his voice pushing through the murmur and low noise of the hall. The woman whipped around to glare at him. “Not now, not here. And not without a good reason.”

“You are no better,” she said, her voice a blade-like whisper. “But him? He carries the darkness and he must be culled.”

“Stop your religious crap,” someone said behind the woman. “You followers of Vish’Lir think you carry purity because you look like angels or glow and all. I call bullshit.”

The man speaking lay on the floor, his eyes closed. Feet shuffled to expose him as the woman searched for the source of the voice. He wore a long dark jacket over a plain shirt and trousers. His boots looked overused and his exposed arms were covered in old scars. But when he opened his eyes to look at the woman, David heard her gasp.

“Another cursed one,” she muttered and the man chuckled.

“Maybe we are all cursed then?” He said, his pupils glowing white and streaked with thin, jagged black lines, fragmented. He grinned and closed them again. She stared at him for a moment and quietly pushed off the ground, her wings taking her up to where her friends waited.

“That will be trouble,” Zoey whispered to David, but Elisha was grinning. David’s mind was wheeling with thoughts.

Cursed? They were cursed?