Chapter 3: Meeting your Makers

As the door fully swung open, he saw what looked to be something impossible. Instead of the neutral plain walls he had gotten used to in the past couple of hours, he was outside.

Taking a step through the door he found himself in a field of trimmed grass with warm sunlight pouring down on him. In front of Tide there was a table with five figures sitting at it. Each of these “people” were vastly unique. His body quickly approached and had him sit down at one of the heads of the table.

On the left side of the table, there were two individuals that appeared to be complete opposites. One was goliath of a man, every inch of his body covered in bulging muscles. He must have been at least eight feet tall and had an axe to match his size.

Tide realized that the axe was probably heavier than himself yet rested on the man’s back without difficulty. Even looking at the man Tide felt an instinctual and almost primal fear come over him. He was drinking out of a large flagon which Tide assumed was full of some sort of alcohol sloshing inside.

He would have kept his eyes on the dangerous man, but the person next to him was even more peculiar. In stark contrast to the giant of a man the person next to him was as skinny as a street sign. Rather than the glow of vitality of the warrior next him he seemed to be very ill. His skin was very close to almost looking a pale green. During the time it took Tide to walk over to the table the man coughed up a foul fluid that he collected in a vial for some reason.

On the other side of the table the occupants were even more bizarre. One of them had the body of a woman who was very normal, if not on the athletic and lean side. This would have been fine and all, but instead of a normal head and neck she had what could only thought of as a reptilian snake head. A forked tongue darted in and out of the creature’s mouth. The snake-woman hybrid looked bored and was twirling a crimson dagger around in her hand at a swift pace. She would occasionally stab a piece of what looked like raw meat in front of her and swallow the chunks in one go.

The person sitting next to her was almost the most unsettling. This was because he was someone Tide recognized. It was the old man that joined the waiting room right after Tide did. He assumed the man was just a victim like the rest of them, but obviously not. Now the man was clad in a somewhat simple, yet exquisite robe. This elderly and grey-haired man was the only one at the table who was actively looking at Tide. The made eye contact for a brief moment, but in that second Tide felt extremely uncomfortable and laid bare like there was nothing he could hide. He wanted to look away but couldn’t. It felt like his eyes were being sucked into the man’s immeasurably deep blue eyes. The moment was only broken once the man smiled and gave Tide a wink.

Once he was able to free himself of that uncomfortable eye contact, he could see the last member at the head of the table sitting opposite of the chair Tides body was bringing him to. The only way to describe the woman was perfection. Beautiful golden hair flowed down her perfectly symmetrical face like sunshine. Her locks only stopped once they rested on her armored shoulders. Her armor was a piece of art, every inch engraved with flowing golden runes that circulated it. This armor also did very little to hide the woman’s beautiful well-proportioned figure under it.

If Tide saw this woman in any other context, he would have been elated at getting the chance to even witness her. Instead, his heart was filled with rage and hate. As she continued to read out some more information about Tide from the scroll in front of her Tide placed where he heard her voice. She was Alianda, the person who Tide wanted to kill the most.

This was the person who started this all. On the day when he started the trials she had appeared. She was the one that gave a halfhearted explanation to the confused and scared people that were brought to the trials. The monster that stuck them there and forced them to kill monster and each other just to survive. Rather than an angel she looked like a devil to Tide.

By the time the Tide fully absorbed the bizarre group of people, the angelic woman had finished reading a quite detailed summary of his exploits in the trial. She set down the scroll in front of her and looked up at him.

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“Hello Tide, I bet your pretty confused on what’s happening right now, so give me a second to explain.” Alianda said with a voice as sweet as honey. Direct eye contact with her made Tide’s lust swell, but his distain and hatred quick made him snap out of it.

“You’re in no danger here, one could even say that this is a special opportunity for you. You see for the past 85 days you were apart of our special test group!” Alianda said in joyful voice like it was an honor to be apart of it.

“You see we are planning on taking the humans from your world and adding them to the trials. We were a little concerned about how you would all cope due to the lack of exposure to mana and magic on your home world.” Alianda continued speaking with a bright smile that Tide felt was mocking him. She wasn’t looking at him as a person, she looked at him like he would a puppy. Based on her explanation, perhaps it was more like looking at a lab rat.

“We were slightly disappointed in the initial survival rate in your species. Roughly eighty percent of our test subjects died in the first couple of weeks. Many even ended their own lives rather than participate. On the other hand, the other twenty percent pleasantly surprised us with your adaptability and cleverness. Due to this we want to discover what made you and the other survivors different.” At this point it was apparent that all the pain and suffering he went through was simply to appease these beings' curiosity.

“I will be removing your restraints to allow you to talk and answer and queries we have. Alright!” She cheerfully said while waving her hand.

Suddenly like a weight was removed from him Tide once again had autonomy over his body. Using his regained freedom, he quickly stood up and acting on his anger. If he could kill these beings, perhaps he and everyone else could be free. Odds of that was low, but it would also just feel great to kill the being who set this all up.

Instinctively, he began to start an invocation for a stone spear that would skewer Alianda across from him. As he did so the faces of the table’s occupant all were shocked at what he was doing.

As he finished the invocation, he channeled his everything into the spell. He lunged forward shouting.

“STONE SPEAR!”

At that moment Tide heart dropped. Instead of a sharp pillar of stone shooting out all he did was stir up a slight breeze by waving his hand. Normally his mana would course through the spells pattern before activating, but his mana well was tightly closed.

There was a brief moment of silence as everyone took a second to understand what just happened. Tide braced for the worst, what happens to pet that lashes out at their owner? They Get Put Down.

Tide glanced to his left as he saw the giant man next to him swing his arm towards him. As the palm got closer it got larger and larger.

In that moment Tide mentally sighed and closed his eyes, ready for the man’s hand to launch his head from his shoulders.

Much to his surprise rather than a sharp pain and the sound of breaking bones, the force of the man's hand rattled his back and the sound of boisterous laughter belted out.

Opening his eyes, he noticed that everyone at the table was smiling besides the skinny man who was plugging his ears. The giant next to him was keeled over in laughter slapping his leg with a huge jovial smile on his face. Each slap rang out like a gunshot shaking the whole table. The snake lady let out some rapid hisses that Tide assumed was her form of laughter. The old man just had the same cryptic smile that he had earlier. Alianda the recipient of the would-be attack let out a brief giggle before trying to recover a somewhat professional attitude.

“I can see why he survived so long! He’s got some fire to him! That’s what I like to see!” The Man's deep loud voice said while ringing throughout the whole field.

“A very decisive individual, there was almost no hesitation to his actions just now. Good execution of the spell despite the fact he is devoid of mana.” The cryptic man noted while nodding, showing his approval.

To Tide all this seemed like they were mocking him. All his anger dissipated and was replaced by despair as he plopped back on to the chair defeated his head hanging low.

“It looks like he really hates you Alianda. This is refreshing, normally you're the popular one” The snake lady next to him added in a raspy voice.

At this point Alianda fully regained her composure and began to speak again, but she seemed to also be amused.

“Enough Dredge, quiet down” she said directed towards the large man who was currently splashing the liquid in his mug all over the table.

“Eh hem. Did you get that all out of your system?” she asked now directing her words to Tide.

She then waved her hand once again and Tide’s body once again went ridged. This time he still was still able to speak.

Tide raised his head up and realized he could do nothing here beside play ball. He was at these being's mercy and had no power at all. A toy strung up to amuse them by participating in in the trials.

“I guess so. What questions do you have for me?” His voice rang out hollow.

“Great, now that that is out of the way, let's get started then! Alianda said just as cheerful as before when he first walked in.