The tunnel at the entrance of the cave seemed neverending, and always descending. Domison wasn’t sure exactly when, but at some point during his march the natural stone floor had changed into rocky steps, then into what felt like tile stairs. He ran his fingers along the wall that he could barely make out and could feel something akin to metal paneling. Eventually, he could see a light up ahead and it allowed Domison to see to the bottom. He paused mid-step as he noticed the light flickering, and the vaguely familiar feeling of the cave tunnel that had turned into a modern-looking tiled stairwell.

‘Just a bit farther.’ Raze cooed from just behind Domison’s shoulder, ‘Almost to the departure bay.’

A muttered cackle resounded behind Domison as he continued downward once again. It only took another minute of descending for the man to reach the “departure bay”. The flickering light he had noticed earlier was coming from fluorescents lining the ceiling, clicking and losing power every few seconds. The floor was covered in cement tiles of a plain white color, worn with dirt and age, and the metal paneled walls were covered in runes that made Domison’s head spin. It was an approximation of a maglev subway station on Terra.

“What the fu-” Domison started before Raze cut in,

‘This is the departure station for your trials, which I have decided to coin… The Trials of the Abyss…’ Raze paused for dramatic effect and seemed annoyed when Domison didn’t offer praise. He glared and harrumphed and pointed towards a console that rose from the ground before continuing his speech, ‘You can choose the trial you wish to complete at that console, but each subsequent trial will only be unlocked once you complete the previous one. You will start with only the first trial available, Limbo.’

Domison only nodded and strode toward the console. It looked almost exactly like the touchscreen ticket kiosks found in a maglev station within Aurora City-State and the screen brightened as he approached. Reaching a handout to click on the only available prompt on the screen labeled “Trial One-Limbo”, Domison hesitated and looked back toward his floating guide, “Is there anything I should know before going in?”

‘Don’t overuse your mana, as it won’t regenerate while taking a trial. Don’t worry about how many attempts you need to complete each trial. And I will be spectating, so expect a performance review.’

With his final words, a wicked smirk spread across the shadowling's face. Domison wordlessly turned to press the prompt on the kiosk in front of him, and he could hear the hum of electronics kick on. One second and a gust of air later, a pitch-black maglev subway pulled into the station, nearly silent.

Domison stepped onto the maglev train as soon as the doors opened and looked around. The interior matched the pitch black of the exterior, except for the fabric-covered seats which were colored a deep, crimson red, and Domison practically sunk in when he chose the nearest seat. As soon as Domison was seated the train accelerated again, ripping down the track at a frightening speed.

Raze watched as the train pulled away and for a moment the grin slipped from his face, ‘Maybe I should have told him about…’ Then the Cheshire smile returned to his face and he began to chuckle, ‘I’m sure he’ll be fine.’

He turned to look out the nearest window and was surprised when he saw the walls of the tunnel he was traveling down had started to warp. The concrete walls surrounding him had started to stretch and crack, bubbling in some places and completely distorting in others.

“Uhhh… Weird...” Domison whispered as his surroundings continued to alter. The last place he had expected himself to be after entering his inner world was a subway. Even less so did he expect that the subway would be seemingly traveling through dimensions?

Suddenly the warping concrete walls fell away completely and were replaced with a black void. The maglev train slid silently to a stop at a flat exterior train station surrounded by darkness and lit by a lone, flickering lamp post. Passenger doors slid silently open a second later and Domison pushed himself up to his feet, feeling a slight longing for the cushy train seat as he stepped out onto the platform.

No breeze blew through the darkness to ruffle Domison’s hair, but still, a chill ran down his spine as he stood on the dimly lit platform. Next to the flickering lamp post was a small signboard, with a piece of paper pinned to it. Domison shook off the apprehension clinging to him and strode forward, reading the piece of paper pinned to the signboard.

Trial of Limbo

Walk through the void, traverse through the black.

Look into the Abyss, but it looks back.

Enter the dark and face what lay within. Whether you fight or retreat, the goal is survival. Use of mana abilities disabled. Summons & contracted familiars disabled.

Endurance +

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Perception +

24:00:00

“A timed survival trial, huh?” Domison muttered to himself as he looked out into the shadows wrapping the platform. Pabu must have been able to feel his anxiety across their connection, as Domison suddenly felt a wave of warmth and love bloom within his soul. Not allowing another second to eat away at his resolve, Domison stepped toward the edge of the platform and began his journey into the darkness.

As soon as his foot stepped off the edge of the small concrete train station platform, the shadows swallowed everything. Looking down, Domison could not even make out his own body and when he turned, the vacant station and its lone street lamp were nowhere to be seen. As the anxiety started to rise in his chest, Domison started panting lightly but he couldn’t even hear the harsh passing of air between his teeth.

Domison did his best to not allow the primordial fear stemming from a complete lack of sensory stimulus to rattle him too much. Reaching within his center, Domison tried to gain comfort from his connection to his companion but with a sense of dread, he realized that even that small comfort was completely gone. It was at this realization that a timer superimposed itself in the bottom left of his vision.

23:59:59

As soon as the first second counted down, Domison felt something touch his arm. The feeling was like a small hand grasping at him, catching only the top layer of skin and pulling, like a child trying to forcibly steer an adult in a direction favorable to them. It didn’t quite hurt, as it was more of a pinching sensation than a genuinely painful one. Still, Domison jumped away and slashed his right arm down, his sword appearing within his palm instinctively. He felt no resistance but immediately another little hand grasped at the back of his thigh, somehow catching the top layer of skin again, even through the fabric of his pants.

Domison was ready this time, beginning a spinning slash the moment he felt the contact, but even though he had moved faster, his blade still met no resistance. This time the little hand wasn’t as gentle, and Domison thought he felt claws scoring across the flesh of his leg. He tried to keep his breath steady and continue the cycling of mana within his body, doing his best to maintain his composure as the little claws started to come with more fervor.

This battle continued unabated for what felt like a lifetime to Domison, and he felt his heart fall when he took a moment to check the timer at the bottom of his vision. It had only been two hours. The grip of his sword felt slick in his hand as blood ran down his wrist from the multiple lacerations that had opened up across his arms, and Domison had to continually adjust his grip at this point. He hadn’t been able to strike a single blow against the seemingly intangible enemy and what was worse… Domison was fairly certain that the number of enemies was growing, as was their collective hunger for his torture.

The unidentified entities harassing Domison from the darkness had been seemingly trying to inflict as much pain as possible. For the first five minutes, Domison had tangled with the theoretically single entity, dancing around awkwardly as he reacted purely based on his sense of feeling. The monster in the darkness had started by just pulling at his flesh, then leaving small scores upon his skin, but after the first five minutes it had started to gouge, and after ten more grasping hands had joined in. It took only thirty minutes before Domison’s healing factor stopped being able to keep up with the constant abuse and his blood began to flow freely.

Domison realized that, no matter what Raze had said about him being able to pass the trials, he was not going to be able to make it on his first attempt. With a grunt of pain, Domison slashed toward the two hands that tore at his left forearm, claws sinking into the existing cuts on his flesh and peeling the skin away as they avoided his blow. A resigned anger built up within the man's chest as he cursed his guide for not better preparing him. That anger commingled with the rising dread as he realized there was no longer any reprieve from the assaulting hands and Domison was now regularly attempting to fight off at least three pairs of the snatching claws ripping at his flesh.

At three hours the man could barely stand, and his trembling body was on the verge of failing him. His left arm was hanging by his side, completely immobile and carved into an unrecognizable lump of meat. Domison wasn’t sure what to do, the anxiety had been burned away by visceral pain but the lizard brain at the base of the man’s skull was screaming for him to find a solution. Without a second thought, the man did what he realized he should have done from the start, and he tried to run.

Domison took no more than three steps before he was jerked to a halt. An uncountable amount of grasping hands had wrapped around him and he could feel himself being slowly raised into the air. Domison squirmed and struggled, doing his best to break so that if he could not run, he could at least fight back. That seemed to be an illogical notion, however, as the man felt his arms being pulled taut out to his sides and after a moment, felt his shoulders both pop out of place, one after the other.

The unseen entities didn’t even give the man’s body a moment to sag at the increased give provided by the dislocated appendages, and the cruel game of tug-o-war continued. Every few seconds Domison could feel his skin start to tear away around the open lacerations along his arms and pain wracked through his body with every second, but still, the man struggled. Mana was coursing through his pathways at a high velocity and he did his best to will his limbs back together, pulsing mana through his being with the intent of repairing what was being violated.

This worked for a time, and Domison thought he even felt his shoulders start to pull back towards their sockets. Hope rose within his chest and he focused on his breathing, opening the floodgate of his core and stretching his pathways with the amount of mana he forced through them. A heat started to play across his skin and Domison could feel strength and feeling starting to return to his left arm.

Gritting his teeth, Domison let out a growl and started actively resisting again. His arms started to slowly pull themselves together again, and the little hands adjusted their grip as they seemed to lose ground. This was it, he was going to make it through this. Mutilated or not, he could heal and ultimately, he knew that he had been through worse in the void of space.

In a split second, the strength of the appendages pulling at Domison increased tenfold. The incredible increase in stress being applied to his already injured body caused the man to spasm in pain and before he had the chance to attempt any more resistance, his body was split into five pieces.