Edan was not having a good day.

A scream of horror was ripped from his mouth as he fell into empty space. The ember hound seemed to run on instinct and ignored its own feeling of weightlessness, instead, it took advantage. It clamped serrated teeth down on Edan's shoulder. His armor offered little resistance and he went breathless as pain ripped through his body.

Edan tried to turn, still falling, confused and desperate to get the creature off him. Its forelegs clawed at him as he pushed it away. Fear clouded his mind.

The creature thrashed its head, the flesh clamped between its teeth shredding under the movement. Edan beat at it with a dagger in each hand. He plunged the blades into its neck, over and over, the blood flowing out of it was whipped into the air, leaving a trail of fiery lava in the wake of their fall.

Getting his legs between himself and the creature Edan shoved, screaming anew as the flesh on his shoulder and arm tore free. It went spinning off into space, its legs and tail thrashing as it finally registered they were falling.

Heat radiated from his shoulder, but Edan was too terrified of the fall to care. He looked around, wind stinging his eyes and his hair whipping around wildly. Turning he looked at the walls. They were too far away.

The heat spread from his shoulder and invaded his chest. No. It wasn’t just from his shoulder. It was from everywhere.

Edan felt like he had been dunked in a tub of boiling water.

The creature next to him thrashed, the lines of lava along its armor plating glowed brighter and brighter before catching alight. Tongues of flame were pulled upwards and Edan noticed with horror that parts of the hound were disintegrating. Used as fuel to keep it burning.

The part of Edan’s mind not clouded with fear provided the answer. Vitalis saturation.

The fall wasn’t going to kill him, the Vitalis in the air was. He could feel it, even now, filling him up and rushing towards his SoulScape. Edan had no way to stop his fall and the longer he fell the deeper he went and the deeper he went the thicker the vitalis.

Tears stung his eyes, whether from the wind or sadness, Edan didn’t know.

He wouldn’t get to see Reema and Sanik again. He’d never get to confront his birth parents. He’d never get to tell Cassie how he felt.

There wasn’t much left of the hound. It had burned up to a piece of flesh the size of Edan’s torso.

Edan had lost feeling in his limbs. He was too scared to look. Scared they were already gone. The heat was all that remained. It sat in his naval and grew and with it, a calm acceptance took hold of Edan.

He would die now.

Edan could see the floors whipping by. The first floor was so so so far above he couldn’t tell if his classmates were looking over the edge, watching him vanish, or if they had continued running until they left the dungeon.

Aser.

Edan's short-lived acceptance of his death was tossed into the fiery anger that threatened to cloud his mind. He embraced it, it helped fight the fear. Edan roared his rage, unable to hear his own voice as the wind deafened him.

Flipping over, the wind caught on Edans armor and twisted him around, the walls flashing by in a dizzying blur. Edan swung his arms, trying to offset the momentum. Only one shoulder moved, the other remained a mass of torn flesh and muscle.

Edan felt full to bursting with Vitalis. His little maneuver had shown him he still had his limbs so it looked like an explosion, rather than disintegration was the death of the day.

The walls of the dungeon slopped inward, each floor was just a little smaller in diameter than the one before it. Far below, Edan could see something glint.

Falling had become boring.

Edan waited to explode, his thoughts dark with images of killing Aser.

Edan could see the bottom of the hole now. It looked like a pearly white stone disc.

Edan hadn’t exploded yet, and as the floor approached so too did his fears. Edan pushed at the air as if his wildly windmilling arms could stop him. He screamed.

The white disc took up his entire vision.

Edan’s mouth was open in a final scream as he hit it.

Darkness took him.

-

Consciousness returned with a vengeance.

Edan sat up, gasping and clutching at his face. He felt fine, his skin soft to his touch. Edan looked at his hands, they looked normal. Even his fingernails were neatly trimmed. He ran his right hand up his arm, to his shoulder. It no longer resembled a dog chew toy. Smooth, warm skin and muscle moved under his questing fingers as he shrugged his shoulder.

Had he dreamt the whole dungeon?

Edan looked around.

Yup, definitely still asleep. He thought, taking in the fluffy cloud he sat on. Above and around him, as far as his eyes could see, was the sky. Patches of white and orange clouds, fat and long and thin or whispy, coming in all shapes and sizes, dotted the surrounding vista.

Reaching down, Edan felt the cloud. It reminded him of his mattress, the fluff keeping its shape but dimpling under his weight as he braced and pushed himself to his feet.

This was like no dream he'd ever had. Had he died? Edan had heard of the Wider Realms, both low and high, chaotic, neutral, angelic, they came in all types. He had never heard of a confirmed afterlife though.

“You aren’t dead.” A calm voice said from behind him.

Edan screamed like a little girl and spun around, clutching his chest with one hand and raising the other to punch.

A man stood a couple of paces away. His black and red streaked hair was pushed back, though a few strands had found their way free and fell on either side of an angular face. Thin brows inched down over orange eyes as the man regarded him. As Edan watched the man's eyes turned from orange to blue, the transition almost hypnotic.

“You aren’t dead,” The man said again, brushing the hair from his face.

He wore simple, but high-quality robes of a cut Edan hadn’t seen before. The predominant color was dark crimson with lighter accents along the sleeve and waist. Designs, stitched out on fine detail, ran up the labels of the robe to the high collar.

“Though I suppose you will be soon.” he continued.

Turning around the man made to leave.

“Wait!” Edan called out, panicked. “Please!”

“Listen, kid, I know you have questions. Probably a lot. But it’s not worth my effort. You’ll be gone before I finish explaining.”

The man sounded tired. Or sad. It was difficult to tell as he had his back to Edan. He hadn’t continued walking though so Edan shuffled forward, adjusting to the softness of the cloud beneath him.

“I…I was falling. I thought I died. I…I don’t know what’s happening. Please.” Edan was ashamed of the shake in his voice. He was scared and confused and now that he wasn’t in immediate danger, he didn’t want to die.

“Your body is broken, kid. Utterly and completely. You hit my pool hard enough to shatter every bone in your body and turn what’s left to paste.” Blue eyes turned to a pale yellow and the man scratched his cheek. “I grabbed your consciousness and pulled you here. The pool…it’ll try to heal you, even as it destroys you, and I figured you didn’t need to remain conscious for that.”

Edan focused on his breathing. Keeping it nice and slow and steady as he processed what the man said. He felt a hysterical laugh bubble up and he fought against it. Edan knew if he lost control, for even a second, he’d fall apart. He needed to be calm.

A smile played across the man's lips and he inclined his head, noticing the attempt Edan made to keep it together.

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Two chairs grew from the clouds. Parts of the white fluff turned hard, darkening, before growing grain-like texture, other parts of the fluff flattened out but kept their color. Soon, two chairs of dark wood with white cushions stood facing each other.

The man adjusted his robes and sat down. Leaning back he gestured to the other chair.

“Sit, kid, make yourself comfortable. We can just talk until the end. It's the least I can do, I suppose.”

Moving stiffly, Edan settled into the chair. It was indeed comfortable, but he barely felt it. He gripped the armrests hard enough that his knuckles turned white. He refused to look the man in the eyes, instead, he looked off into the distance. Clouds drifted by slowly, almost lazily.

“My SoulScape,” the man twirled a finger through the air, indicating everything around them. “In case you’re wondering.”

“I…don’t know what happened.” So many questions ran through Edans mind he had trouble picking just one.

The man reached into the air and a teacup and saucer appeared, perfectly clasped between his fingers.

“Would you care for a drink? Tea? Coffee? Something Alcoholic? Something forbidden? Something comforting?”

Edan watched a teacup appear in his hand, the liquid changing to a darker brown as the man said coffee. The cup then turned into a small glass with amber liquid before stretching out and filling with something resembling blood. The red faded from the liquid and the glass thickened until Edan held a large pint of milk.

On reflex, he took a sip. It helped settle him. It gave him something to do with his hands. He took another sip.

“You aren’t the first to fall into my pool,” the man started, setting his saucer and cup on the armrest and steepling his fingers beneath his chin. His eyes turned white before shifting to a light purple. “Though you are the youngest. Normally it's idiots who think they have enough knowledge or strength to survive, which usually means the old or the ignorant. Not you though, what happened to you, kid?”

Edan had no reason to hide anything from the strange man so he told him. He told him about the ranking match and the reward. Edan told him about the dungeon dive and the blobs of fire and then the fight with the hound. He finished with the betrayal and his fall.

The man let him talk, his gaze never wavering from Edan.

“Betrayal is a rather common route to power in the Wider Realms,” the man said at last. He took a sip of his tea. “Doesn’t mean it’s not slimy. Nothing worse than a cowardly attack.”

“Exactly!” Edan agreed, the thought of Aser made him angry again.

The pair fell silent again and Edan finished his milk. The glass filled back up of its own accord.

“How are you feeling?” The man asked.

“Angry. Confused. Scared?” Edan shrugged. “Tired and like I want to go home?”

“I meant your body. Any loss of feeling? Cold or hot? Cloudy thoughts?”

Edan took a moment to think about it. He felt fine. He felt good actually. Light. His thoughts seemed clear and he had no trouble remembering anything, at least so far as he could tell. Finally, he shook his head in the negative.

“Resilient, aren’t you?” The man nodded in approval.

“What do you mean?”

“Your body, your real body I mean, not this consciousness, it's still absorbing Vitalis from my pool. Actually,” the man shifted forward in his seat, bracing his elbows against his knees. “Fuck it, I’ll explain things and if you die while I’m talking…well at least you were distracted, aye?”

Edan didn’t know what to say to that so he continued breathing. In, then out. Slow and steady.

“My story begins how yours ended. Betrayal.” The man said slowly as if picking apart his own story before telling it. “I’ve had time to think about it. A lot of time. Too much. And I always come to the same conclusion. It had to be a betrayal. You see, how else would they know where to attack me? How else could they make something that could hurt me? It had to be betrayal. Yes?”

Edan had raised a hand in question, the same one holding the milk. He was pleased none spilled.

“Uhh, well…you keep saying they. Whose they?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t get a good look at them, so they they shall remain. Anyway, I was betrayed and attacked. But they forget who I am,” The man laughed. Leaning back in his chair and striking a dramatic pose he pushed the hair from his face and jutted his chin out. “I fought them-yes, what?”

Edan had his hand up again.

“Who are you?”

There was an awkward pause as the two men regarded each other. The red-haired man barked a laugh which turned full-bellied and rolled around the open space, seeming to make the clouds bounce and shift.

“I haven’t needed to explain who I am in…I can’t even remember how long. Before I was…this,” the man gestured to his own body. “I was known in any realm I traveled to. Since my fall, as I’ve come to call it, those that stumble across my pool and fall in are either looking for me or are wise enough to recognize me.”

“Pushed, remember?”

“Right. I go by many names and even more titles. I have been called The First Light, The True Flame, He Who Burns, Endless, The Last Flight, and even Consumer, in certain older realms.” The man held up his cup of tea. “But given our circumstances, you may call me Kiba Teaii Mel’Aodh, or just Kiba if you prefer.”

“Ok, Kiba, you said you were attacked, but you fought them off?”

“Fought them off? Kid, I sent them running!” Kiba smiled, his eyes turning a glowing red before fading to orange, reminding Edan of embers. “But the coward poisoned me during the clash. Right here, near my heart. I’m hard to kill. Very hard. But that poison? It was like it was made specifically for me. It didn’t just attack my soul, it attacked my Path.”

Edan didn’t know something like that was possible. He’d always thought your Path was some intangible factor of the System. Normally he would have asked more questions, but at the moment there seemed little reason to. Edan could feel a heat in his chest. He tried to take a sip of milk but had trouble swallowing. His hands shook in fear and he grasped the armrests.

“Weakened, I couldn’t afford another confrontation so I decided to hide-uh…retreat. Figured no one would find me in a lower realm and I felt the Flare Calf. If you’re looking to hide in a lower realm, why not one that's not even integrated, aye?”

“Flare Calf?” Edan asked, latching onto the first unknown term to try to keep his mind off the growing heat and the fear that had begun to whisper in the back of his mind.

“Ugly, four-legged creatures. Mountain-sized and full of tentacles? Used by sects to find pocket dimensions about to open or worlds that are on the verge of integration.” Kiba shrugged, still slouched in his chair. “They’re sensitive to the budding Vitalis of a world or something. My Old Mushroom head of a brother loves them. Thinks it's fascinating how they terraform a planet.”

The description had reminded Edan of something, the rest was gibberish to him though.

“You mean the Precursor and his Vanguard?” Edan asked.

“The what with his who?”

Edan rubbed his chest unconsciously, the heat was becoming uncomfortable. Kiba noticed and for a second his eyes cooled to a sad blue before he coughed and sat up straight.

“Look at me, sitting here being chatty. Why don’t you tell me a bit about these Precursors? All the fools who’ve fallen in here, none have mentioned the Precursor.”

“The Precursor and his Vanguard. They probably didn’t mention it because it’s common knowledge, from when the world got integrated. I'm guessing that's around the time you got here as well?”

Kiba crossed his legs and gestured for Edan to continue.

Edan was about to keep talking when he gasped, clutching at his head. It felt like someone had stabbed him through the eye and he tried to blink non-existent tears from his vision. Images flashed through his mind, more thought than actual pictures.

A baby was born - New life was made, a shell was formed, a spark given life, an endless path of endless choice.

A tree was grown - Life was grown, its roots ran deep, its hunger slow, its branches sheltered all from the heat and stole life from the weak.

A wound was healed - A scar remained, a lesson learned, a new strength found.

A thousand died - And a million more were born to die so a billion could live. Life meets death and they trade pieces.

A man sits alone - Solitude is his friend, his thoughts his enemy, and all around him walks silence as his life stands still.

Edan felt himself drowning in thoughts and experiences not his own. He struggled not to be pulled down.

Eventually, the images faded and Edan was left gasping in the chair, his body slumped over and leaning heavily on the armrest. The glass of milk had vanished. He didn’t even remember letting it go.

Edan opened his mouth to tell Kiba what he had seen. What he had experienced. But he closed it again. Edan knew what was happening and by the look on Kiba's face, so too did he.

With nothing to do, Edan continued answering Kiba's question.

“The Precursor was named that because it appeared out of nowhere. One day Earth, which was the name of Terra before it got integrated, was just turning how it always turned, then the Precursor appeared in the middle of a city, I forget the name, I suck at history. If you knew my history teacher you'd know why. Anyway the Precursor came and fucked shit up. People were panicking but there wasn’t really anything they could do. More came after, the Vanguard, they just began appearing all over the world, some in cities, some in the middle of nowhere.”

The heat had begun to fade from Edan’s chest and he wondered if that was a good thing? Or was it a worse sign?

“Lucky for us the Four Star Heavenly Sect appeared. The Precursor and his Vanguard had settled down by then. I guess you could call it planting themselves? Energy leaked off them, warping the land and animals. Humans found out from the Sects later that it was Vitalis and the creatures had brought the System with them. The Four Star Heavenly Sect disciples controlled the mutated animals and helped teach us how to cultivate the wild energies. The Four Star Heavenly Sect even helps control the amount of Vitalis the Precursor and his Vanguard pump into Terra, slowing the Integration so we have a chance to prepare ourselves."

Kiba was frowning, his eyes a pale yellow, as he looked at Edan. Edan trailed off and scratched the back of his head self-consciously.

“I said I sucked at History,” he said.

Kiba stood up, his chair falling back into clouds, and began pacing. Edan watched, confused by his reaction. The heat that had filled Edan’s chest was back, but it felt denser. If the previous burn had been like cupping a candle, this time it felt like he stood before a bonfire. It made his skin feel tight.

Kiba stopped and turned to Edan, his hands folded behind his back.

“Kid, I’ll give you a choice. I can tell you the truth and you will not die happy, or I can lie and you’ll die ignorant.”

“What?” Edan snapped. “That's fucked up. If you tell me I die unhappy but you lie I’ll know you lied and I’ll still be unhappy. Why even mention it in the first place? You could have just kept whatever it is to yourself!”

“No one deserves to die ignorant,” Kiba said, his gaze calm in front of Edan’s sudden anger. Anger he suspected masked fear. “And it’s not my place to make the choice for you. So which will it be?”

Edan rubbed the bridge of his nose, fighting the urge to scream and throw his chair at Kiba. He wasn’t angry at the man, he didn’t think. He was just angry at everything and the fucking fire burning him from the inside out didn’t help!

“Give me the truth!” He snarled.

“You’ve been lied to. The Four Star Heavenly Sect didn’t save you from the Precursor and his Vanguard. They were the ones who sent it, and when they are done they will destroy your world and kill everyone in it, all to further the cultivation of one of their gods.”