Soon, they all moved out, Hale kept quiet and kept in the back of this new team as they made their way to the specified area of the alarm for a warped world. It happened to be in Cutler park reservation which was just south west of Boston, and since the Crest family was based out of the South End then everything in the surrounding south is theirs. Hale was actually quite familiar with this area as he grew up in the Needham township which bordered Boston and was where this reservation was.
They soon pulled into the parking lot, it was just past 5 am, so the sky was just becoming light as an orange hew fell on the orange and yellow leaves of the trees. Hale took in the view, it was quite enjoyable and also nostalgic. He used to spend a lot of time wandering in this small wilderness reservation, he liked the fresh air. The smog of a large city can be choking.
The Crest people split into their respective teams and fanned out as they went deeper into the reservation, nearing the river that cut through it. Hale tried to calm his nerves as this was all his idea. Everything was falling into place and it was working way smoother than he thought.
Shira spoke up and cut the silence, “Isn’t it strange that we haven’t even felt any fluctuations?”
“It is, but there could be many reasons for that, it could be that the concept is the type that could hide its own fluctuations after its emergence, or it has shrunk, or in the worst case it has become a true warped world.” Rose said.
“Wait, what’s a true warped world?” Shira inquired.
“If a warped world becomes strong enough it’ll become its own world separate from ours, it's a mirror of the land it was created in but the concept that controls that world is stronger than any of you could imagine.”
Everyone became more serious at that explanation. It truly sounded like the worst case scenario. With everyone on high alert they moved into a dead end of the trail where there was a small clearing of 30 feet, the moment they passed into the clearing Rose’s body shook violently before she released her aura, her skin began to lightly glow like moonlight.
“Reveal yourself!” Rose shouted.
Suddenly everyone felt the pressure of someone’s aura, it was obviously someone in the resonance realm. Slowly 15 people revealed themselves as they walked out of the forest and into the clearing. Michael Shea led the group and stood opposite of Rose. Suddenly the Crest people grimaced as they threw their guns to the side or else Michael could make the gunpowder prematurely explode and they only served as bombs for him.
Michael let out a deep laugh before he spoke, “Oh Rose, oh Rose. It looks like you’re in quite the predicament now.” He pushed his aura further and a red glow manifested around him, a glow that seemed to have the power to explode at any moment, as was his concept. He couldn’t help but have a wide smile.
“Michael, you wouldn’t dare. This would be an act of war between our families.” Shira said.
“Sure, sure. That is if anyone ever finds out.”
Suddenly a beam of moonlight coalesced in front of Rose and shot out at Michael, the air itself seemed to be purified as the beam passed. Michael laughed as he saw the beam, “You tried this last time.” He threw some loose gunpowder in front of him and it seemed to float and come together forming into an arrow. It shot off and the moment it touched the beam the arrow of gunpowder exploded dispersing the light of the beam. Both of their aura’s exploded and all the people around them felt like they had weights on their back, even the tree branches nearby seemed to be pulled down by the weight of their conceptual radiation.
Hale suddenly arranged himself behind Rose and pulled out his pistol. He aimed at her head, none of the Crest people could see him since he had stayed at the back the whole time. He steadied his aim and began to squeeze. As he went through the motions of his murder, a shattering sound echoed, in only a moment the space around both groups seemed to become unstable as time slowed and everything shattered like a plane of glass.
Falling. That’s all Hale felt, only a moment had passed but it similarly felt like an eternity, he saw space crack and shatter in slow motion. Now he only saw a clear sky as he fell. He felt the god’s blood become distressed, it tore his skin as it ejected from his back and a moment later he slammed into the ground, the god’s blood had cushioned his landing. The air was still knocked out of his lungs and he gasped for breath as he rolled around on the grass. The inky god’s blood made its way back into his body and pulled the burst skin back together as it went back into him.
After a minute he had caught his breath and sat up to take in the scenery. His senses told him he was in the same reservation he was previously but something in his subconscious told him otherwise. It was too quiet, and the sky was no longer sunrise but midday. Hale had a terrible thought. With his changing of the mainframe he had sent all the teams to that spot in the reservation under false pretenses, but what if there really was a warped world, just like what Rose spoke of. A true warped world. Hale suddenly felt like he may very well be the unluckiest person ever. A random spot he picked held an undiscovered warped world. Who would believe that?
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
He got his bearings back and tucked his gun back into his back pocket. With a quick use of acquisition he found that Michael just so happened to be right next to him. After walking about 100 yards he found Michael in a pile of broken tree limbs, he was awake but still in a sort of shock from falling so far, it reminded Hale of the enemies in video games that don’t die but are knocked out where they just slowly roll around on the ground. If Hale wasn’t also in pain he would have laughed.
“You alright?” Hale said, looking down on him with a calm face.
“Fuck your mother. Of course I’m not alright.” Michael took a couple minutes to slowly get up. After getting his bearings he looked to Hale, “what the fuck happened?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing.”
“You picked a random spot, right? That was our deal!” Michael said, disturbed by the situation.
“Of course I did. So now the question is, where are we? I can tell we’re in a different place than before.”
Michael looked at Hale deeply, surprised by his conceptual intuition. “Well, that only leaves one option. I can confidently say we’re the unluckiest people on earth.”
“I’ve been unlucky since I awakened so that’s nothing new. So, you want to explain what’s happening?”
Michael took a moment to gather his thoughts and sighed before explaining. “We’re in a warped world. And a powerful one.”
“Explain”
“When a warped world gets to a certain level or exists for a long time it can separate itself from the world, essentially making a small world of its own.”
Hale scrunched his face as he considered the ramifications of this, “so we’re fucked?”
“That’s a simple way to put it.”
Hale sat down on a nearby rock and massaged his temples as he contemplated what to do. This had suddenly spun out of his control and that irked him to no end. It was like the universe was working against him.
Michael stretched his body and massaged his shoulder as he watched Hale think.
Finally, Hale spoke, “Alright. You go find your group and I’ll find mine. Thankfully they didn’t see me about to execute Rose so things should be fine. But right now we need manpower otherwise the CIOs will be a problem.”
Michael took a moment to think before nodding his head in acquiescence. Hale used acquisition and found the nearest Shea member and gave Michael the direction. And with that they split ways.
Hale couldn’t find a nearby Crest member so he elected to walk in a random direction. The place was very serene, relaxing even, sadly Hale didn’t have the luxury to indulge. After walking for what felt like 30 minutes Hale started talking to himself from boredom, “Okay. So, let's get this straight. I picked out a random spot to ambush these people by having the system fake a warped world, and I just so happened to pick a spot with a real warped world. What are the chances?” He could only sigh at his luck.
He soon felt an odd disturbance in the air, and as he focused he felt an aura emanating from his right, it wasn’t quite a person’s aura. It didn’t have the natural unevenness that other awakened gave off, Hale could tell it was definitely an artifact. What a strong and powerful artifact would be found in this place? Hale couldn’t help but want to get a nice artifact in his possession, even in his unfortunate circumstances. If he had to get fucked by the universe he’d at least make the best of it. And with those thoughts, he turned course towards the conceptual radiation.
It took only a minute to get to the source, and where it led was a wide cave entrance which went in for about 15 feet before disappearing into darkness. “Don’t tell me this is a dungeon… like a video game.” Wait, this didn’t make sense. Nothing he had learned pointed to something so stupid as a dungeon being created around an artifact. So, why is it in a cave?
“I have an idea.” If the artifact was found by some abominations they would create a place to hide it and protect it since it's their source of energy. “Yeah , that makes sense. So I should expect high resistance. In the past I would have said no, but now, I think it's possible. Worst case scenario, I retreat.”
Looking more closely he saw scratches on the ground around the entrance that looked like something quite large made them. Hale was just hoping there was only one in this cave. A quick look around and Hale took out a flashlight off his belt and headed in.
The moment he walked more than 2 steps inside a horrid smell assaulted him. A stench of rotting meat, burning garbage, and something completely unexplainable was inescapable. The sides of the walls were marked by long claws, meaning that this place might have been manually dug by a CIO. Terrifying.
Hale quickly realized that this cave was much closer to a dungeon than he gave it credit for, by now he had gone through 2 different branches, and he started to realize this was more like a maze than anything else. He found himself at another split and took the 50/50. And as he passed the threshold of the new path a blur rushed at him. It reached him in the blink of an eye and dragged its claws over his chest. Blood splattered against the wall while Hale jumped backwards, and without hesitation he extended his inky blade from his left arm.
Only now did Hale get a good look at his opponent, a 3 foot tall abomination of flesh, its only truly defining feature besides for its claws that were at least a foot long, were its rabbit-like legs. It didn’t take a genius to surmise what this abomination used to be. The ink bled out of Hale’s chest wound, pulling the wound back together. It wasn't healed but it would definitely speed up the process.
Hale’s breath became labored from extending the god’s blood into a blade. The abomination moved again, both bladed hands, with three claws each slashed out at him. Hale warped the ink to shape into a shield in front of him which blocked one hand, but was once again slashed by the thing. But that wasn’t the end of Hale’s plan. The shield shapeshifted again into a blade without warning, taking the abomination by surprise. He thrust his bladed hand forward before the thing could back up and cleanly spiked its head. That was the end of that.