Having tried to enter the room full of cells, contained prisoners and likely experimental subjects Carissa and Matthias hadn’t expected to become entirely covered in sand just as they were going to enter.

There remained an echo in the ears of Carissa of an angry scream of hate and pain, possibly directed at either her or Matthias but it was in their direction. There had been gunshots, she was clear on that. Despite the fact that neither of them had seen anything before they had taken a single footstep inside the large space.

A klaxon had rung out but the message had been strange. The exact memory of it eluded her, her mind remained fuzzy and detached.

As the pair entered, they didn’t lose consciousness but there was a shift, a variable which both of them had entirely unnoticed.

When they had passed through the wall of sand, both of them had their clothing changed for what Carissa noticed was designed for hot temperatures but was ornately designed with unknown patterns and shapes of animals which were unfamiliar to entered, her.

Then the moment passed and they found themselves in a vast desert region, the sun was high in the sky and waves of heat and radiation pulsed down upon the pair. The temperature was warm on her face and hair but despite the fact that her senses telling her of the extreme heat they found themselves she experienced no physical response.

She could see sand dunes in front of her, the sky was an off-pale blue with no clouds and a single sun in the sky. Her body wasn’t moving. There was no form of restriction that she was aware of but it simply stayed still as though she had stopped to admire the view.

Then the was released as Carissa began to take in deep breaths of the air. There was a purity to it, a taste of air which had never known pollution by humans. In her own home planet of Terrus she had always wanted to visit the desert, to experience the simplicity of sand and sparse vegetation in stark contrast to excesses of water the various oceans held.

Sadly, the military forces of her own world had designated them as a testing ground for weapons and due to disagreements between countries the few desert areas on Terrus had become contaminated and no-go areas.

There had been various talk on wanting to transform them back into but the number of resources and financial support involved made most balk. They had placed their hopes on the oceans instead but Carissa had no clue how long she had been away from Terrus. If she had been bought to this flooded planet along with others from their own worlds then for all she was aware time could run differently.

The rules of physics were largely similar but Carissa didn’t want to take the use of magic or sufficiently advanced technology at face value.

A desert?

No. The fact that they call themselves Ocean Gods makes sense if they flooded a planet. Or is this going to be another attempt at propaganda of the evils of this planet.

The air was arid and dry, she knew this, her throat told her this but she didn’t experience a dryness in her throat. Turning to Matthias, Carissa saw that he had simply collapsed to the ground. His own ornate set of robes were a bright blue and covered his entire body, excluding his hands, face and head.

Before she was able to move the air around him shimmered and he began to rise above the ground as he floated in front of her and an expensive red leather couch appeared in the bare desert sands a scant few metres in front of it.

Matthias floated down, as his robes billowed in a non-existent wind, as he floated down into a side position on the expensive red sofa as a matching pillow appeared out of thin air much as the sofa had beneath his neck.

Carissa froze. This either going to be one of the Ocean Gods playing another mind game or a construct designed for a set purpose. To be fair she was growing a little tired of the situation.

Both her and Matthias had made it inside the intermediate level dungeon, read through the notes of the scientist Hua Pengfei, made their specific choice and set out to fulfil it before another variable came along.

‘Not interested, not going to act, dance, sing or even fight for your amusement. I truly no longer care about the actions of the Ocean Gods. You killed a planet and decided to turn its inhabitants into playthings for stolen people to break and break again. I repeat. Not interested. You will return me and Matthias back into the Deep-Water Purification Facility, we will finish the quest, survive, destroy the place and then I think eventually all of you will die by my hands. Or rather my actions. Ocean Gateway System, cancel construct and send us back.’ said Carissa.

There was entirely no response. Not even a hint or any physical or mental association which she had formed of the Ocean Gateway System, every single time she had focused on it there had been a minor sensation. A change within her which made he aware it was in use. Even when she had first arrived underwater inside an enclosed bubble her own body had shown a reaction.

Three expensive red chairs appeared in a neat circle in front of the coach as a man holding onto a small briefcase appeared. His own clothing was a specialised type of protection suit. Typically, military style but a type which was only used for particular emergencies or for disaster zones.

There was sufficiently advanced technology which she did recognise though, the gas mask style sealed helmet hanging clipped from his neck and a small device which she saw with marking was a radiation detector.

The fact that the heat had no effect on him despite the protective materials of the suit which were entirely unsuitable to wear in the desert. The man, judging from his physical appearance showed no signs of sweat nor any of discomfort.

The face of the man was bare and heavily tanned with a degree of stubble and closely cropped hair. His eyes were dark and on his face was a bare hint of a smile.

‘Sorry, I prefer the heat. This place is the last piece of home which I was able to keep safe. Apparently, the rest was removed for safekeeping. Hard to tell how a planet can be removed for safekeeping but I’m working on locating the box they threw it into. To be fair though, most of it was pretty bad quality to begin with. Granted that I had to grow up on the place, well. I kept the place running on loop although returning here happens less and less these days. Casey? You want to take a seat? I think our guest here must be feeling hungry and she likely thinks I’m insane. Or one of those drops of water or one of the poor recycled souls. Casey, stop being rude and introduce yourself. Not funny.’ said the man.

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Carissa involuntary took a step back from the figure. She had been in the presence of Ocean Gods, their avatars, other player candidates and even a possessed Matthias which had unnerved her but this person possessed something other.

There was an oddness, a wrongness about him which warned her instincts, despite her body being reduced and technology deactivated, she still held keen senses which had in part helped in adapt to the environment on the drowned world.

All of her base animal awareness said to her that she was viewing not at a human. Not even a physical being, more of an absence, an impossibility. Carissa had studied base sciences and largely focused on oceanography and human interaction with biological alterations and technological implants but she had a rough crash course in physics.

There had been a lecture once on the concept of black holes and how they could even devour entire suns. When the Ocean God Oannes had appeared and possessed Matthias, even when the others had forced their power and presence on her she had felt something more.

And the scariest part was that she had no idea how long she had been standing there thinking. The dry heat continued and the desert beyond them continued to stretch into the distance.

‘Casey. I’m looking like a crazy person here...I mean I got the pair of them dressed up and….oh.’ said the man as he looked down as his own figure and shrugged his shoulders.

The odd man with the presence stopped for a moment as he stared down at his clothing as though he has been entirely dressed without his knowledge.

‘…. Casey. You didn’t remind me. When did we leave that tiny nuclear blast-hole? Five seconds ago? I did my work and took a moment for personal time and you don’t even remind me to…. fine. Look, I’m sorry for pushing the edge. I was angry at those idiots in that Cabal thing and how they thought getting away with it would...I’m sorry. How about after this you give me a direct breakdown of how I can apologise to the Tourism Board and make up for altering their minor reality laws and breaking a few others. You know that my involvement was minimal. Can you talk to me now? Casey?’ said the man as he began to tear off his radiation suit with apparent ease as pieces of it fluttered in front of him before vanishing in the air.

Underneath he wore a plain yellow jumpsuit with bare feet as he took off his protective boots and watched it flutter and disappear with the rest of his clothing. He walked in bare feet across the sand and waved a hand in the air randomly as he lay down on the sand and began to cover himself up.

The small suitcase held in his hand flew up above his head and began to rotate as though he had a small helicopter above him before it drifted across to one of the red chairs and settled down on one by itself.

Carissa shook her head and ignored the madness of the man and his entire conversation with air while she took a seat on an empty red leather chair and experienced comfort. When she had glanced over, the strange man had covered half his body in sand and was lying down with folded hands behind his head.

Another test? Or a mental breakdown.

She had been wealthy enough once for a relatively short-time and while she hadn’t been overly interested in buying things of quality, her ex-husband Liam had. He had taken the pair of them to the pinnacle of wealth, given hotel rooms so expensive that the average family would have had to work for a decade to afford them.

She knew the value of the chair, the hand-stitches that went into it and the amount of personal design, love and care that had gone into it. Then she experienced an image of an entire city burning up as radiation, fires and winds burnt everything and everyone down and turned them into ash.

A voice came out of the small suitcase seated on a similar chair to her right.

[Please forgive him. He overstepped his limits out of...frustration and personal anger. There are consequences even for one such as him. Would you care for any refreshments? Anything at all, Madam Acqua. I owe you my respect for your accomplishments. To fully cleanse the entire oceans of your home planet is no small achievement. Please, you can call me Casey. I am prepared to offer any refreshments or alter the environmental temperature to something more suitable to your preference. I will have to insist on keeping the desert though, Master Horus only grows nostalgic when he’s anxious. We almost missed you. Ah, forgive me. I assume this is your first time meeting a sentient, talking piece of luggage. My name is Casey. A true pleasure to meet you Madam Acqua. Master Horus will settle down soon enough and you’ll find him most agreeable.]

Given the experiences that Carissa had gone through up to now, forcefully taken from her own reality, beaten, forced to participate and to kill she wasn’t overly surprised by a talking suitcase.

The fact that she had been transported in a sand cloud from a scientific research facility into an apparent vast desert environment and was presently sitting on an extremely comfortable and clearly expensive chair was pleasant for the simple fact that there was no direct threat to her.

[Madam Acqua, I took the liberty of examining your subordinate and found that he was suffering from acquired brain injury. His soul space was forcefully entered and his identify was damaged. Only a little but an excess of metafiction was causing an imbalance in his...ah. You yourself have already been fixed. I stabilised excess genetic growth within you. Dangerous to make it worse than it already is, to be honest you were lucky the first time. Rapid uncontrolled cellular growth in a vain attempt to achieve immortality never ends well. I’m sorry, would you care for a refreshment of any kind? Water from a passing comet? An eyeball from the original water god of this world? A hamburger? A companion? Your ex-husband Liam at twenty years old? All are available for a guest.]

Carissa simply shook her head. She’d learnt enough by this point to try and keep a clear mind regardless of the situation. Having to accept it was a different matter. She wasn’t quite sure that she hadn’t simply gone insane and Liam had locked her away in a treatment facility but the truth was often stranger.

The being in the shape of a man had stood up shaken off the sand off his body and then held up a hand in the air as the skies above switched immediately to a view of stars. The temperature around them began to drop but a fireplace appeared in the middle of the three chairs as a large tent rose from the sand above and around but leaving a sufficient gap in the roof to see stars shining down.

The figure in the yellow jumpsuit kicked sand before he appeared in the free red seat nearly surprising Carissa. He ignored her presence and sat down with fingers interlaced, leaning forwards as he glared at the suitcase in the chair. Matthias continued to lay down on the couch fast asleep but moving around a little before the man glanced at him and a thick blanket appeared covering him and a matching pillow underneath his feet.

Then he turned his attention to Carissa and gave her a bright smile as he dug both feet in the sand and settled down into the comfortable red leather chair and gazed up at the stars above.

‘Casey. You talk to our lovely guest and take care of her subordinate but you refuse to answer me? Brother, I’m...well I’m glad. I messed up as well. Next time the Tourism Bureau are going to send me to a typical blasted world. You know what I mean, the ones where the ecosystem simply collapsed and everyone died of starvation, cannibalism and chaos. So, so boring. Out of all the post-apocalyptic worlds those places are the worst. No variety, no spice or imagination. Hey! Not much different to this place, right? Except for that cute little game, they got going. Oh, hi there Carissa. Did Casey offer you anything to eat and drink? I don’t know how far along you are with your personal transformation into a….ah. Spoiler. I don’t think we’re far enough along in your timeline to discuss it. I’m Horus. Nice to meet you. Say, would you like to try some freshly cooked noodles?’