"Hey, stranger." A voice broke Michael put of his thoughts. He had been thinking of the reason why his trait had screamed at him, of how the one Infront of him was fit for it. He came to the conclusion that it was the one who gave that old man the power to control vines and roots.

He looked at his left and found that the one who called him. It was a young boy, almost thirteen but his eyes spoke of the things he had seen. Dark grey that mimicked black, they had a tint of red in them. He wore torn and dirty clothes that should be rags but they did cover up what was supposed to be covered.

"Good to see you back. Thought you'd be trapped in Limbo." The boy had a heavy and foreign accent that caused him to strain his ears to hear what the boy was saying.

He looked away front the boy. "What do you mean by 'stuck in Limbo'?" His question caused the boy to pause for a moment before he started once more. His voice was now old and seemed to contain wisdom of ages past. "You must be from the other side. You all are so confused when you come here. Goes to show that the only thing you can rely on are the muscles and skills you have, non of that shimmering nonsense." As he spoke his voice grew fanatic to the point, Michael looked away from the roots that formed their cage, to check if the boy was well.

When he turned he was met, in the same spot that the boy was, by a grown man. The boys black hair had turned into a salt and pepper coloration, and his once smooth face was filled with a dirty and thick white beard. His boyish face was also forgone and he now had a very handsome face. He was struck with shock.

"Who are you? What are you?" Michael asked in horror. The man had just appeared or the boy had turned into a man in a few seconds. The man stopped what he was saying before he bust out laughing. He laughed for a while before he stopped with tears in his eyes.

"You truly don't belong here." He spoke in between his laughs. "In chaos- that's where you are - perception is relative." He stoped to swallow saliva. "I believe, in your perception I just aged from a boy into a man. However, in my perception you have been stuck in your thoughts for a few decades." He looked at the man in shock. He tried to understand what that meant but every thought he had was squashed involuntary. He didn't want to be stuck in his thoughts for god knows how long.

"Is that what you meant by Limbo?" This gained a nod from the man. Michael could see that his face had a few wrinkles that weren't there a second ago. "You keep slipping in and out of Limbo. That's dangerous, very very dangerous."

"What's Limbo?" A hint of fear now marked his voice. "You see in these parts. Everything is in chaos. Time, fate, destiny, thoughts and even space. Nothing works as you know since the other side has order and order begets rules. Rules of time, rules of nature and all the others. In here, you may live an entire life and when you die you find that it was all a dream." He paused and let out a small grunt. It was one of effort and afterwards he reverted back to a boy.

His lost accent returned and even the leather armor he wore turned into rags again. "Time also has no meaning here. There are some, the rare few who have the ability to impose their wills on the chaos. Like giving parameters to the chaos. I can control time, age forward into a point in my life where I have a certain skill and then turn back into what I was, keeping the skills and abilities I had. These are what we call gifts of creation or as people on the other side call them, traits."

When the boy mentioned traits, Michael remembered his. He then turned to the boy, "what if you never learnt that particular skill in your life?" He was trying to understand the trait of his fellow prisoner.

"You did it again, slipping in and out of Limbo." An accusatory tone was what he got. "Have not being paying attention to what I've been telling you. It's dangerous not only for you but also for me." His voice took on a darker tone. He looked back at Michael, his left eye now had a deep scar on it.

"You didn't answer me. what is Limbo?" He asked more forcefully. His patience with the boy starting to grow thin. The boy didn't even think before answering. "It is a state, one where your thoughts consume you and drown you into madness. It happens because time is relative to the one experiencing it and also since thoughts have a mind of their own. They entice you to think more, thus creating more thoughts and the cycle continues. You finally get consumed by these thoughts becoming a monster that is a cumulation of thoughts, a wild beast that can turn the minds of others it sees to become like it and since time is relative to the one experiencing it, you are trapped in a state where you don't feel like time is passing. That is Limbo. Forever trapped as a beast that searches for infinite knowledge only to question it. Neither dead nor alive. Something in-between."

Listening to the haunting words, Michael felt a chill down his back. Remembering that he had been slipping in and out of this state. He was about to ask another question when he heard the sound of footsteps.

Slowly a large man walked towards their cage of vines. His skin was red, with patches of black around it. He wore an apron that seemed to be stained with dried blood and held a large cleaver in his hands. "Hash, you in here?" His voice rang out and then silence for a moment.

The boy turned to where the sound was coming from. A smile crept on his face. "I'm here and I have a friend." The man who was cutting the vines stopped for a moment. He seemed to debate whether he should rescue both.

Michael noticed how, when the large man was thinking he seemed to stop at intervals. Distract himself with something else, a movement or just a deep breath, but he did it so well that Michael would have thought it a normal quirk of the man.

He seemed to have come to a conclusion and continued cutting up the vines. Standing before the two chained up men, he first freed Hash handed him a blank mask and they both turned towards Michael.

"Will you come with us, or will you stay here and possibly turn into a Limbo demon?" Life or a fate worse than death. Obviously he chose life. The large cleaver severed the vines that held him and his feet touched the floor.

Once they were on the floor he started to remember or more specifically started to have ideas of how he could have just burnt everything and be free. He felt that it was doable.

He didn't have much time to continue thinking as he felt a slap land on him. "Stop doing that." A tired voice told him. Looking back at Hash he saw him wearing a tired expression. Looking back at the giant man he found him to be much smaller. He now looked to be at the age Hash had been the first time he saw him.

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"Follow me, I know the way out." Passing through vine cells, he saw dozens of people. They looked odd as if there were things underneath them, they slithered like snakes before converging in their hearts.

'I hope I don't end up like that someday.' He said looking into one that had a pure white eye and another pure black. Turning towards the two boys, he saw them discussing something about a ritual. "....Monday and then we will attack them. Hopefully they don't succeed."

As they ran, Michael looked upwards. He saw a large distance away there was a dark red sun and it's light passed through the hole in the far away roof before it dissapeared somewhere in the middle.

"We wait here." The boy told Hash. He stopped and so did Michael. Michael thought back to how, no thought of using his trait ever came up in his head when he was trapped. He also thought of how they all came rushing towards him when he was free of them, like a river that had finally been freed from behind a dam.

He looked at one of the cells close to them, drawing closer to it. A small flame lit up in his palm. It was purple and produced no sound, heat or smell. The only way you could know that it was there was if you looked at it. He inched his hand closer to the vines. The flame as if excited started growing erratic, however Michael forced it to calm down and it did. Like his telekinesis, the flame seemed like a part of him. An arm he hadn't known he had.

The vines as if sensing the flame pulled further away from it. He kept pushing towards the vines but had to stop. He was about to touch the vines, to see if they can burn when he heard a growl. Soft but filled with malice. Looking Infront of him, he saw a Limbo demon. This one was large and bulky. Two arms and an extra, entropic one growing on its back.

He turned towards the other two but all he saw was a dark and empty hallway. They hadn't escaped, or else he would have heard them the only explanation that was left was that they had been separated. Remembering the working of chaos that Hash had told him, it wasn't that uncommon for space to be separated.

He turned towards the beast and no longer holding his flames back he let them loose. Using his telekinesis to hold the Limbo demon in place, he pointed his arm at it and a stream of purple fire engulfed it.

It seemed to soon to celebrate, since the vine dungeon opened. Dozens of Limbo demons escaped and like bloodhounds they all looked at him. Under there thoughts he started feeling, weird thoughts entering his mind.

From what chaos truly was to how potatoes functioned. He was slowly sinking into Limbo, and when he only needed that one final push to descend he heard a raging voice come from him. "Wake up, weakling." The voice caused him to snap back into reality to find himself being watched by dozens of Limbo demons.

They all seamed to be waiting for when he would descend and join them. Seeing that he had regained his mind, they raged and tried to crush him. One that was two times taller than him, tried to crush him but felt itself being thrown backwards. They all did. The wave of force came out of Michael and pushed them away from him. The giant, although too heavy for him to push was not fully balanced and thus fell down. The rest, who had the sizes of children or young adults found themselves hitting the walls or being thrown further back in the hallway.

The purple flames, lit up again and jumped towards the giant who immediately started to thrash about on the ground. Michael watched it burn, soundlessly as both the flame and the giant didn't make any sound. In fact, non of the Limbo demons made any sound, whether walking or their way of roaring. You just heard the sounds in your mind, like thousands of thoughts fulling your mind, causing it to pause for a second.

He was forced to jump out of the way, as one of the demons pounced towards him. He leaped a small distance and threw out a kick towards it's midsection. It was thrown small distance away and on the ground it started burning. In the hallway, he saw that those he had thrown away were starting to come back. Pointing his hands at them, he allowed the fire to shoot towards them. "Burn." He seemed very happy to finally use his abilities. The dark hallway was filled with purple light for a few seconds before it stopped.

Michael looked at his work for a few seconds before he started walking away. He didn't get far, before he felt a heavy weight on his side. He was thrown towards the wall, colliding with it. He was getting up when he saw a large burning hand shoot towards him. He tried to push on it but his weak telekinesis only stopped the punch that he saw. He didn't see the other punch. It hit his stomach and caused him to collide with the wall again. This also caused him to break concentrated, causing the Puch he had stopped to reach his cheek.

His brain was thrown towards the skull and he could swear he had felt them touch. He saw, vaguely another punch and was sure he would faint if he was hit again. He tried to send a wave, like he had done before but the demon stabilized itself and prepared another punch. However things was all Michael needed, he rolled and the punch missed him. He felt the ringing in his ears and his vision was filled with white dots.

Pointing his arms at the demon he tried burning it, it seemed to have and effect since the demon kept away from the stream of fire. "So you fear fire. Good."

Trying something he had seen before he entered the fog, from those who controlled the elements, he formed a film of flames on his body. Like a cloak, although he seemed to have stretched his abilities further than he could since the flame cloak was flickering, as if it were close to dying. Seeing this, the he rushed towards the giant to kill it before the flames dyed and the giant ran away.

"Get back here you coward." He tried to goad the giant into facing him but failed. It seemed to hold some intelligence, even when it had gone mad. The chase went on for a while but eventually, the cloak fizzled out. The two paused.

A cruel smile spreading onto the giant's face and an equal frown being shaped onto Michael's face. " Easy there. I can leave and you never have to see me again, right big guy." He was filled with nervousness. As the silence continued he heard thousands of thoughts in his mind. They were all laughs, every laugh he had ever heard started to surface in his mind.

Michael turned around and ran. He tried. However, the giant caught up to him in a few moments. It launched a fast punch towards Michael. The smile grew larger but that smile froze when the punch was close to Michael's body. It saw tiny sparks of purple and when the punch was a small distance from him, it was consumed by flames. It tried to put out the fire that was slowly spreading, and with a desparete attempt tried to cut off the arm.

However, a kick to it's midsection caused it to pause. It looked at Michael with anger, and with it's arm and midsection burning, rushed towards him. It seemed to have resigned itself to death, but it would take it's murderer with it. They exchanged blows and with each hit that landed on Michael he felt a part of his body being broken. The giant wasn't doing any better. Its body was filled with flames that ate away at it, and the flames on the arm and midsection had merged. This caused it's right side to be filled with flames while it's left was a patchwork of flesh and fire.

After a few more blows, the giant stooped moving. It stood there, like a burning statue. Michael wasn't doing well also since his body was bloody and broken. Some bones weren't in the direction they were supposed to be in and others pierced through the skin. They were both hanging on for dear life, but with the fire consuming the giant, they both knew who would live albeit a few more seconds.

It crumbled into blackened flesh that broke up when it hit the ground. A breath of relief passed through his lips.

"That was amazing. This is the reason I came here." He spoke to himself, waiting for his death.

He was about to close his eyes when he saw a ring of light. It rise from the giant's remains and passed through him resting behind him. Like a giant halo, a purple halo. It rotated slowly, before letting out a beautiful array of purple flames. Instantly, he felt his flames and telekinesis grow stronger. The wounds in his body started to heal, slowly and painfully the bones snapped back into place and those that were outside his body sinking in. His skin mended itself leaving him with numerous scars on his body.

He stood up and looking at the burnt corpses if Limbo demons, he walked towards the light that led outside.