Lonesome Will
To fall into the space between is a death sentence. Your anomalous nature has saved you from destruction but soon you will wish it hadn’t.
Part 1: Heal your shell 4160/4160
The strong wither to dust in the space between. Will you do the same?
Part 2: Survive 21 days.14/21
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Escape the place between: 0/1
Time Limit: 86 days
Rewards: Title, Two mortal lives.
Kal tossed his copy of His Lordship Insights On The Properties of a Well-Cooked Meal across the platform to slap into the side of the remembrance stone before falling onto the growing pile of books.
“Should’ve known a book with a title like that was full of shit!” It was supposed to be a yell but the muting effect ruined any emotional release from his outburst. He probably should have felt bad about throwing Fyborh’s books around but he was hungry, really hungry.
He had thought there would be at least something about lowering a person's need for food and water but there was nothing at all on the topic after a week of reading all he had learned was that a person's need for sustenance dropped naturally as they grew in power.
Kal had noticed a lesser need for food during his time in Fallen Kartha and even when he was hungry he could ignore it for quite some time. Now however was different, he could feel that was approaching some limit. As far as he could tell his attributes had not been diminished but he was certain it wouldn't be much longer.
The only good thing that came out of the last week of loneliness was that he got a chance to sleep and it was… nice. Kal had fallen asleep by accident shortly after the beginning of the trial’s second objective. It had caused him to waste the better part of a day but the relief he felt when he awoke was palpable.
He had fought off sleep for nearly two months, only succumbing at his absolute limit, and each and every time he regretted it. Nightmares and visions had haunted him and every time he felt less and less in control of himself. He now knew much of that was due to either the gods or this Lady of Blood but he couldn't help but feel that this empty void played a part in the serenity of his dreams.
Instead of endless gore fields, bone, and blood, he dreamt of more simple times. Playing ball games with his still barely walking sisters, reading over geological surveys shadowed by his father and tutors. Gods he missed them.
Kal dragged his attention back to the task at hand. If he wanted a chance to see them again he needed to not starve to death first. He read the trial’s description again looking for any clue that could help him. The only thing that gave him hope was the demoralizing line “The strong wither to dust in the space between. Will you do the same?” Besides the implication that beings stronger than him have failed to survive in this place, it also implied it was possible.
His only real lead was the natural reduction in required sustenance but what he didn’t have was any actual mechanism for how it worked. The last survivors of Fallen Kartha had required food to some degree despite the amazing strength he had seen them wield in the vision of the first remembrance stone.
Wait! He could ask Mira. Kal went to reach into his amulet but a moment's thought stopped him in the act. No. No, he couldn’t, he didn’t dare remove her from the amulet until he had a surefire way of keeping her alive… functioning? Whatever, it wasn’t worth the risk.
Kal looked up at the final remembrance stone.
Pillar of the Forgotten One [Legendary]
What stands before you is the last remembrance stone created by ~~~~~~ The Forgotten One. Your path has already begun but will you learn the truth?
Could he ask Fyborh? Or at least the memory of him? Possibly it would definitely be easier than figuring it out completely on his own but something told him this pillar would be different than the others. It contained the truth that Fyborh and the system apparently wanted to be heard despite Fyborh’s fate.
For some reason, it put Kal on edge. He felt like there was something at the very edge of his memory, something he already knew.
“What have they done…”
Kal flinched as a grief-stricken voice entered his mind, “Fyborh?”
He didn’t recognize the voice immediately but a single tear welled up in his eye as an image of Fyborh’s study flashed into his mind. It was like his previous memory but far less vivid.
“Another memory from before, Damn it. He wanted me to know.’ Kal muttered as he wiped away the tear.
The emotion he was experiencing felt distant and hollow. It was from another time. Perhaps he had waited long enough. He was still going to starve to death at this rate but at least he could learn what Fyborh had ensured would be remembered.
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Taking a breath Kal stood and walked over to the pillar. Closing his eyes he prepared himself for the disorientating pull of the pillar. On a whim he activated Eyes of The Slayer, perhaps it would give him additional insight. It also could just as likely make the disorientation worse but Kal shrugged and placed his hand on the black stone.
Before he even felt his skin touch the stone the void tore itself apart around him his mind was thrown into the stone.
As it was every time Kal felt himself pulled by an unseen power at such speeds his mind struggled to make sense of anything but one thing was different. In his peripheral vision threads of searing light followed in his wake. Even without truly inspecting them Kal’s mana affinity resonated with the streams of potent power. One was the yellow-gold of time mana, another was the deep purple of space mana.
Seeing both of those surprised Kal but it was the last that truly stunned him, a silver column twice as thick as the first two propelled him from behind, but threaded through it was a vast array of different colors that felt familiar. Soul mana… But what was different?
In an instant, his flight ended and his perception was forcibly yanked to the ground of terrain he was all too familiar with. Scorched black earth covered the land only broken by the shattered stone, craggy outcrops, or deep scars. But that is not what drew his attention.
A horde unlike any he had seen before surged across the wasteland, tears in space spewed endless demons the size of multi-storied buildings into the sky to either fall into the endless horde or fly overhead. All the while three figures darted across the battlefield leaving nothing but blood and gore in their wake.
His perception of the battle was almost completely distorted as it was dragged along the path of one figure. Each step brought him through kilometers of endless demons and the earth quaked with the landing of his foot. A crimson blade swung an ark through the torso of a monstrous titan bisecting it and the force of the strike continued to shatter a mountain behind its target.
Fyrborh carved through the endless carnage without looking exerted in the least, “Brothers! Have the people evacuated yet?”
The golden-eyed form of Dhinir appeared beside Fyborh intercepting a bolt of pitch-black mana, “Quotz notified me just moments ago, let us finish this mess!”
Fyborh frowned but nodded and put away his sword even as another titan fell from the sky above, “Yes, Lets.”
Just before the horde surged over their position the two gods were gone and Kal felt himself dragged through the sky again as the threads of light surged up behind him once more.
Then he was somewhere far above it all, below him was a bright white star that hung silently in the void he now found himself in ahead was the dark, tainted world he had just seen but it wasn’t the only one. Seven more spheres of darkness hung in the space around him. Kal struggled to take it all in as his perception was dragged back in forth between hundreds of locations with such speed that he got only the barest flash of information about what he had witnessed.
Hundreds of sprawling metropolises lay shattered across the darkened worlds, millions of bodies filled the streets and millions more were now nothing but ash on the wind as the cores tore themselves asunder under the weight of the enemy.
Fyborh looked stricken with guilt as he looked over the countless millions, dead. Kal’s sight was wrenched once more but this time he saw streams of endless men, women, and children scrambling through huge gates of silver light. The guilt on Fyborh’s faded by a minuscule amount. He turned to Dhinir and a figure he didn’t recognize with pale drawn features and long black hair, “Shall we begin then?”
“I have used too much mana in this fight brother, I’m sorry but you will need to perform this ending alone,” Dhinir replied.
“I cannot risk weakening myself further Dhinir, I must return to Karth. There is still hope for that system.” Fyborh said, frowning.
“Of course brother, I will head there immediately. Canmis has already arrived to hold off the worst of it until I arrive”
“What about the ritual? Should you not be focusing on the firmament?”
The pale man spoke up, “I will begin the final preparations once we are done here. You will have time to assist the mortals of Kartha before I am finished.”
Fyborh nodded, “Fine.”
In one smooth motion, Fyborh unsheathed his crimson blade and held it before him. Crimson, black, and white mana began to radiate from his chest to cover the blade. At the same, his gaze focused on the eight worlds. Before Kal’'s eyes, more and more tears opened and huge demons climbed through every moment. One appeared above a city and its mere presence warped the earth around it, shattering towers and liquefying streets.
Fyborh’s expression darkened but his eyes began to burn blood red. Then his sword moved. The space it passed through on its descent separated sending threads of blinding colors in all directions. Reality around him screamed as it broke apart under the might of his swing. Space rippled away from Fyborh’s blade followed by a wave of blinding mana.
Everything the wave touched was severed. The eight dark worlds became burning crimson balls as the mana washed over it annihilating everything. The space-warping titan demons raised their arms in defiance and dark mana filled the sky.
The wave of destruction slowed but Fyborh raised his sword once more this time with two hands, “Sunderer’s Fall…” Fyborh’s voice boomed across the void before he brought his sword down once more.
Dhinir and pale god vanished, as the next attack surged across the darkness to crash into the opposing power. Reality tore itself apart in its wake, the ripples became a cascading series of perception-bending cracks of searing white light.
Three worlds shattered and warped under its power before collapsing into spheres of crimson destruction. The spheres exploded as one sending the remaining worlds into disarray. Bolts of black lighting arced from the remaining dark orbs but Fyborh simply released his sword with his left hand and sent crimson-white fire in return.
The fire and lighting surged between the fragments of broken moons and through the burning light of the erased worlds. As the lighting arrived Fyborh battered it aside with his blade and it pierced the core of the burning white sun. White columns of fire spew from its surface, washing over Fyborh and scouring the remaining planets and the demonic titans upon it.
Fyborh growled in pain but shrugged it off and raised his sword one more time, “Exterminator’s Wish!” Fyborh’s face paled instantly and the crimson light in his eyes winked out as a conduit of blinding light entered his blade before another wave of annihilation warped the space in front of him. The cracks, in reality, tore even further, obscuring Kal’s vision of the chaos Fyborh had just unleashed. The destruction raged while Fyborh gasped with exertion and sheathed his crimson blade.
Soon the churning chaos faded and when Kal could finally see what was on the other side he found there was nothing to see.
There was nothing left…