The whole of the cavern was a giant hole. Its edge pulsed with energy, though a fence absorbed the waves. Guardians stood solemnly around the edges, on eternal duty.

It was beyond the whole that had Wonder in a state of confusion.

It was a whole other world.

He could literally both see everything and right next to the portal. It was a world of darkness and terror, of games by monstrous beings. Ones that fed off of fear and suffering, and took great delight in their work. The Guardians were only one subspecies. Wonder could see every dark terror that humanity ever interacted with, and ever would, playing their twisted games. Some were kinder than others, and some even pampered their humans. Others were monsters of Wonder’s darkest nightmares in how they acted. Some even worse… and he was pretty sure he read that one in a blurb about one of Stephen King’s books.

How the fuck…?

Wonder managed to pull out. He knew that sight would drive most people insane. He was reminded once more he was not like most people.

For once, he was actually glad for it.

He looked around. The Guardians clearly knew who he was and he was here, but did not care. They all stood solemnly.

And suddenly the area shifted. Wonder was now sitting in a giant stone room, surrounded by eggs. For a second, Wonder expected a Xenomorph Queen to rise.

What he saw may have been possibly been worse.

The creature was nearly impossible to describe, because it kept changing. One second it had one brilliant eye, a female body, and a claws worthy of pre-mentioned Xenomorph Queen. The next second it was a Culthulu monster. The next it was only a mass of darkness with waving octopus. The next, a clown with bloody knives the size of a mountain. It just didn’t stop changing.

Wonder had a feeling he was in the presence of parent of all of the monsters, including the Guardians.

And Kat.

Wonder adjusted his bow. He doubted he’d win, with how often it was changing. But one thing he saw consistently in this Nightmare Realm: all the monsters were gamers. If he could get this one to play with an HP bar, maybe he’d win.

“Now now now! No need for that!”

Wonder’s bow vanished. He yelped, checking his status screens. Weapon has been locked by Nightmare Queen Achylon.

So this being’s name was Achylon. And identified as female.

Wonder glared. “It wasn’t the Beholder who summoned me, was it?”

Achylon giggled, and suddenly turned into the Beholder. She held this form a minute to say, “Correct!”

Wonder also realized that this was the voice who read him his announcements. He had always presumed it was Kat, and figured he used a female voice to cover his identity. It often responded to Kat’s name.

Wonder flexed his hands. “Then I’m gonna be blunt. Why am I here?!? Hoseki, not in the…”

He waved his hands around. Calling it an Egg Chamber was probably a rude. Achylon chuckled, and then morphed into the first tall, literally black-as-night, one-eyed, female-formed, clawed figured with tentacles at her lower half. She said, “Nursery.”

“Thank you! Yes! Why did you summon me?”

“Let me get an idea of what you are thinking first. What do you think Hoseki was supposed to be?”

Wonder blinked. He thought a moment. Both on what Kat, Rose, and others had told him of Hoseki’s origins, then what he saw in the portal.

“A Winner’s Circle?”

Achylon clapped excitedly. “Yes!”

She was suddenly behind Wonder, though thankfully now his size. They were then on a mountain, overlooking many of the “realms”. Achylon waved her arm out, “I won’t go into my nitty-gritty origins, but I will say I know my children. And there are many who are quite… aggressive towards your kind. But even they have to play by the Game’s Rules. Some of them are… trying not to.”

Wonder said, “When the victims win the games, they aren’t getting the prizes.”

“Correct! At least not without me kicking my children’s asses. I have had to move many Winners to my kinder children’s Realms. But it started trends of an overpopulation problem. So I needed to make a little room… so two birds with one stone time!”

Wonder got it. “Hoseki is both Afterlife and Winner’s Circle. Winners get warped there, possibly at moment of ‘death’ in another Realm. Or at least… that was what was supposed to happen.”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

They were suddenly in a movie theater. Achylon waved at the cameraman. “File 7200000923787858568567 please!”

The being gave a thumbs-up, and the lights dimmed. On the screen was a young, beautiful Hoseki. A toddler Kat was waddling away from a a hatched egg, looking confused. Achylon was somewhere in the background, trying to get a mountain to tilt the right way (Wonder would never be able to look at that mountain the right way now, he knew).

Wonder whispered, “Hey, is Kat human?”

Achylon whispered, “He’s a demigod. He lived a relatively human life until his immortal soul ended up in one of my eggs.”

Wonder nodded. “Gotcha. Zeus needs to keep it in his pants.”

Achylon instantly covered a non-visable mouth to stifle laughter.

But then a light so brilliant appeared on the screen. It was a comet. It crashed, and Wonder was nearly blinded. Yay edits.

When the light died down, there was a city of elaborate tents. They were constructed in impossible ways like buildings, so had to be magical. The castle-like one glowed unnaturally bright.

Wonder said, “The Light goddess.”

“Correct. One of my rebellious children dropped firewalls, and she got in. She ruined a world that was meant for peaceful farming with a side of hunting.”

They were back in the Nursery. Achylon said, “Now, to be fair, she seems to be lazy, so the damage is not as bad as it could be. But we have been unable to get her off. Those who are called Forest Spirits are not actually Kat’s creations, but decedents of my children who tried to get her off. None have been able to succeed.”

“So you created Malchon, in an attempt to bring a Hero or an answer from the multiverse.”

Achylon laughed, meaning Wonder’s wild guess was accurate. “Correct! However, Light was always able to create ‘another’ Quest for the Hero. So I had to interfere directly. And let’s just say you and your alternates are aaaaaaalways able to save the day.”

Wonder said, “Uuuuuuuuuh, I think you’re looking at a biased look of the multiverse.”

She giggled. “Oh, trust me darling.”

“I’m pretty sure you are asking me to kill a goddess.”

“Luckily, not that impossible. What I need you to do is a master reset of Hoseki.”

Wonder blinked. “A master reset? Won’t that kill everyone? I already told Malchon…”

“No no no! It’s actually much more complicated that that, sweetheart. Just using terminology you’d better understand.”

Suddenly they were looking at an orb. Wonder had to guess it was a globe of Hoseki. It suddenly exploded into a million pieces, and there were a million glowing sparks. They flew away, and Wonder followed them to other orbs. Ones he did recognize as Realms.

“Hoseki gets rebooted, virus gets purged, and all the souls go to other Realms.”

“There you go! Once Hoseki is fully functional again, those who are worthy will return. Others… well, we’ll find homes for them.”

Wonder shuddered, but couldn’t say much. He looked at Achylon. “What about the Lightwraiths? I doubt Light is gonna let you have her people.”

Achylon shrugged. “I’m gonna admit, I don’t know. I have had a bunch of her souls that didn’t swear alliance to Kat appear up in my list. I have a secondary recovery program for them, just in case she does abandon them.”

Fair enough.

Wonder looked, and like he suspected, saw the globe of Hoseki again. “So how do you master reset a world? And why can’t you do it?”

“Second question first. It’s a safety feature. Since the whole problem is rebellious children, if Hoseki detects one of ‘us’ attempting the master reset process, it’ll refuse the reboot. That’s why we needed an outsider.”

The globe opened up. Wonder said, “What the fuck?!? I have to go into the core?”

Achylon pointed to the core, which was a swirl of light. “Correct. It actually is a magic core, not a lava core. You’ll be safe. There are 4 entry points.”

Wonder said, “Huh? The portal in the mine won’t work?”

Achylon shook her head. “That was a good attempt by one of the Forest Spirit Ancestors. He used his experience on a previous world to dig down and deep. He figured he could get to the switch, then use one of his Proxies to flip the switch. A very good plan, and he was the closest to successful.”

Achylon sighed. “Sadly, Light figured it out. Suddenly there was giant ores of gold and valuable metals. And to make things worse, Lightwraiths ‘somehow’ leaked into his home forest.”

Wonder’s jaw dropped. Achylon nodded. “You are starting to understand what I and my children are caught in. Don’t worry, he got there before major damage was done. But he’s currently stuck in his home and Realm to make sure there are no break-ins.”

“You can’t call other gods for help? If you know of the Beholder, you know he’ll help if he has a legitimate reason to. Heck, you even managed to grab some Myzune!”

Achylon blinked. She said in shock, “Wait, what?”

Wonder and her stared off. Wonder said, “You… gave me Myzune? As a reward for stopping the mortal war?”

Achylon shook her head. “No, I didn’t. I mean… wait.”

She was suddenly gone, and the sound of wracking closets could be heard. “HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!?”

She reappeared, and a familiar box was in her claws. Wonder said, “Thaaaaaaaaaat was my actual Quest Reward?”

“Yes. I don’t know how, but apparently the Beholder is looking out for you. Ugh… I didn’t want to cross paths. He knows one of my children, and they did nooooooot leave a good impression.”

Yeah, Wonder could see that.

Wonder took the box and opened it. He nearly burst out laughing. “A dragon hatchling?”

“It fit at the time!” Achylon laughed lightly.

Wonder accepted the prompts. He then looked at Achylon. “I’ve having to deal with some shit right now. But once that is done, I can see about getting to the switch.”

Achylon nodded. “That would be appreciated. But watch out… Light now has her eye on you.”

That really meant the Fasis Plan had to work.

“Good to know. And seriously, get the Beholder to jump into this. If nothing else, he can throw up all the hell to distract Light. He may be a knowledge god… but that means he has more power than many in the multiverse.”

“Since I know he’s already nosing in, I’ll make contact. I’d say I’d keep in touch, but…”

QUEST ACCEPTED: MASTER RESET THE WORLD! BE SEEING YOU AROUND, SWEETIE-PIE!