No one moved for several seconds after the ghastly figure made its pronouncement.
Tom stared at the figure. His mind refused to work, and his mouth gaped like a fish out of water. He would have stood and run but his body was frozen solid, nothing moved, nothing worked, no matter how hard he will his body to something, anything.
“Ahhhhh…. Was that too much?” The arms on the hooded figure slowly descended to his sides and the fires behind him slowly died out, as it hummed out a voice that could only be described as, well… normal.
“What…. the fuck…. just happened?” said a confused voice from Tom’s left.
“Ah good, at least you’re not mute.” Said the hooded figure cheerfully. “As I just said Dave, you four have been chosen, by me, to serve as my horsemen of the apocalypse.”
“Yeah… look that still doesn’t explain much.” The heavy-set guy on Tom’s right said as he slowly stood on shaky legs.
Tom agreed. His mind was filled with questions.
“How the hell do you know my name, is what I want to know.” Dave, the voice from the left, came again; more forcefully this time. Tom looked over as he rose to his feet to see a wild-eyed and bearded man wearing a long-sleeved grey sweatshirt lying on the ground, glaring at the hooded figure.
“Well, firstly, I know all your names: Dave, Tom, Mark, Adam.” He said as he pointed to each of us in turn. “Because I have been watching all of you for a very long time, Earth is about to go through some very big changes soon and you have been chosen as the first of your planet to ascend to the multiverse and join the rest the enlightened beings that call it home.” The hooded figures voice took on a grandiose tone as he raised his arms back up and struck a dramatic pose.
No one moved again as Tom and the others stood looking at the hooded figure in disbelief. If Tom hadn’t just been transported here magically somehow, he would have thought that this was some weird gameshow with hidden cameras and an announcer about to pop out from behind a hidden door.
“Yeesh, tough crowd” The hooded figure said tightly. “Fine, this should explain things” he sighed.
*DING*
A calming sound rung through Tom’s head as a blue screen popped up in front of him.
*Welcome to the System, beginning Introduction*
More swearing was heard from Tom’s left as the screen scrolled up to reveal more writing.
Status
Name: Thomas Moore
Race: Human (G)
Class: None
Subclass: None
Level: 0
Attributes
Strength: Estimating
Agility: Estimating
Endurance: Estimating
Vitality: Estimating
Intelligence: Estimating
Wisdom: Estimating
Skills
None
Titles
Selected of Lemures
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Affiliation
None
Tom read the screen.
It wasn’t answering any questions.
A series of words and numbers that made little sense and raised yet more questions in his head.
What is this? The hell is a Human(G)? Why are the attributes estimating? What do they mean? Why does this look like a game? But most importantly…
“What is The System?” Tom asked aloud.
“Glad you asked” the figure said, raising its arms wide into the air again as the black flames at his feet rose back to their original towering heights. “It is a way of life, a controlling force of unconscionable power, a superpower of galactic proportions. It is the nexus of the universe, it has dominion over everything, it is the arbiter of all that ever was and is. It is all those things and more. It is, supreme.” The figure heralded grandly, his voice reverberating off the walls, creating an echo that lasted well after he had finished speaking.
Silence reigned in the room as the four humans stood dumbfounded.
“Seriously?” the figure muttered under his breath. “Alright look” the figure sighed as he lowered his hands and spread them out before him, the fires behind him also dying back to embers on the floor. “The system is essentially like your earthly gods, but with more power. A lot of more power.”
“Ok” said Tom hesitantly, the figures mood swings making him even more nervous. “And what does it have to do with us?”
“Glory” the figure boomed, raising his hands back towards the ceiling as the flames redoubled their efforts to burn the ceiling down. “The system is the crucible for all planets, all races, all people. Through its trials and tribulations, you will all learn true power. You will conquer worlds, galaxies even, as you gather armies that cover continents and leave your enemies trembling before your might.”
Another moment of silence passed in the wake of the outburst.
“I’m dead right? This is just some weird hallucination before I die, right?” said the 2nd person on Tom’s right, Adam, he guessed from the figure’s introduction before, who was looking on with a bemused expression as he clutched his temple.
“Yes, but also no” the figure responded cheerfully. “You all technically died back on Earth before I brought you here. I managed to heal you all and stuff your souls back inside your bodies. I will accept your gracious adoration now.”
“I died? W.. Bu… But I feel fine now. There nothing wrong with me. How does that make sense?” Dave yelled, clutching his chest, his face strained.
“Well, yeah. That’s the thing with being healed. It makes the owie stop hurting.” Said the figure with a healthy dose of sarcasm.
“Although you gave it a red hot try there, Dave. I didn’t know it was possible to take that much heroin and cocaine at once. Talk about trying to ride the white lightning. That must have been one hell of a trip before, you know, your heart basically exploded”
Dave stood there, his eyes bugging out of his head as the figure pointed at him, extolling his manner of death.
Am I really dead? Tom thought to himself. He thought back to the moments before he appeared in the room, easily able to recall all the details. The rain, the cat, being forced to get things for his sisters party, not looking forwards to having to deal with his family, especially his mother. It was all there. He remembered the car hitting hi… did he?
I felt something, but it wasn’t pain. The hell happened to me? Tom’s mind was still muddled, almost like it moving in slow motion with all the revelations pouring out of …. He didn’t even know the name of the… thing? In front of him. His mind was whiplashed, trying to figure out some sort of normalcy, and the yoyoing mood of the figure was really not helping.
He looked to his right, the two men standing there had equally puzzled and confused looks on their faced.
“Well anyway I’d love to stay and chat, but I have other things I need to do.” The figure explained happily “Also,” He said, his voice now taking on a dark and dreary turn “you guys are boring as hell. Do you know how expensive this was to do? It took a lot of time and money to set all this up you know, and your all standing there like someone just hit you over the head with a hammer. You could at least do some worshipping or something, seriously what does a god have to do around here to get some love.” The figure grumbled as he removed a small brown sack from within the folds of his sleeve, before throwing the sack to the figure on Tom’s right, Mark, he assumed.
“Here, you’ll need this. Good luck with the trial”
“Wait, what Tri…” A voice started to say, before a black void opened up beneath the feet of each four men, sucking them in.
Tom instantly felt the floor disappear as his stomach lurched. He felt his feet being pulled downwards, but the rest of him sorta.. stayed in place. From Tom’s perspective his legs, as they passed through the circle of darkness, became elongated like thin strands of noodles. His torso quickly followed and he watched as he became spaghettified before his eyes.
He looked up as his neck and then head pass through. The light from the circle slowly dwindled before shattering into a kaleidoscope of colours that slowly shrank from view. As the light finally faded, his mind registered that it was the same feeling as the tunnel that had brought him to that strange room in the first place.
He felt for his chest with his arms. He could tell he was gripping himself by the increased pressure he could feel in his chest, but just like last time, could not feel anything in his arms or legs, even though he could tell he was moving them.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, a bright light exploded near his feet, and Tom was forced to cover his eyes.
He felt an impact on his back, and found himself rolling ass over head as landed on something hard and flat. Forcing his eyes open, Tom blinked rapidly to force them to adjust to the brightness in the room.
He found himself in lying on a grey stone floor that had been somehow made perfectly flat. Not a single imperfection, chip or dent marred its pristine surface. The walls of the room were also made from the same perfectly flat grey rock, and they formed a square about 15 meters square. One on side of the square lay a simple wooden door with a handle that was currently closed. On the other side opposite the door, smack bang in the middle of the wall, was the black portal that appeared beneath him in the other room.
Before Tom could even move however, 3 other figures came rocketing out of the black hole. Straight into where Tom was now laying.
Some slight screaming, swearing and then grunts of pain echoed around the small room as the four of them experienced a more fleshy and painful version of a dodgem car pileup, and then tried to untangle themselves and crawl out of the sorry heap of ‘slightly’ injured flesh and bone that now lay on the floor.
“Well, that sucked!” Came a low voice from within the pile.
Some groans answered him as they continued to un-pretzel themselves from each other.
Finally, Tom managed to get out from underneath the rest of them and found his feet. A thought occurred to him, that was quickly verbalised by ‘Adam’.
“Okay, now that we have survived the hands down worst… whatever the hell that was in... wherever the hell we are, can someone tell me just what happened?”
Before anyone could respond, another calming *DING* was heard in Tom’s head, and a blue screen popped up in front of him.
*Welcome to the Trial Dungeon of Lemures*
Please enjoy your stay