Jacob felt as his life force was extinguished, he felt the void calling to him. Then time turned back a little more. The fire of his life was used up, and then time turned back further.

Jacob watched time turned back second by second. He watched as the bolt of divine wrath receded back into the sky. The death knight giant raced backwards down the hallway it had come through.

Jacob suffered untold agony for every second he regained, and he turned took back an almost half an hour. Jacob watched as events unfolded in reverse order. He was pulled back through the doorway he had made. The floor boss standing and taking a few steps back.

His great sword of darkness lifted from the ground. Calista stood before him, and for the briefest of seconds he saw life once more in her eyes. Time turned back further.

Thomas was alive, Archival was in one piece, Hellen stood tall and proud once more. The giant was once more bound, and yet he turned back further still.

He watched as the skeletons and the giant retreated into the darkness from whence, they had come. His friends tread backwards the way they had come. Down the hallway and up the stairs. Only when he once more flew high above the city did he allow his spell to lapse.

RULE BREAKER…

The voice screamed in his mind. Jacob fell, he was tired so very tired. The flames that held him aloft dissipated. His once brown hair now streaked with grey. He was older now. He turned his head as he fell.

‘There they are…It worked thank…’ Jacob thoughts darkened, he was grateful it had worked, but furious at those who had tried to stop him, “Even my lady…”

As the four members of BattleSmiths began their descent down the long spiraling staircase. Calista shouted out, “Look!” as she pointed at the falling figure of Jacob.

Violation!

Offending creature shall be slain by system…

ERROR!

Offending creature’s life span detects as infinite…

Alternate mode of punishment required…

Alternate punishment determined…

You are banned from the system and banished to the plane of Void.

Jacob fell and his friends were helpless to save him, not understanding why he was falling when he had been fine a moment earlier.

A small back doorway opened in the air, it screamed as it opened. Jacob accelerated downward pulled by the force of gravity and the suction created from the screaming doorway.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The rest of the BattleSmith’s watched on in horror as Jacob reached out his hand looking straight at them and fell through the screaming black doorway.

Many of the gods looked on in horror, others in joy, as the man who had arrived not a week prior was pulled through the black doorway.

Jacob watched as the door slammed shut, leaving him trapped in this airless void. The air very quickly spread out, dropping the air pressure. Jacob felt his blood begin to boil as did the water on his tongue. The air of his lungs poured forth from them even as he tried to inhale.

Jacob new what this place was, and he despaired. There was nothing for him here save for a slow death by the void of this space, or a fast end he had the fortune of crossing paths with a sphere of annihilation.

He felt as his limbs began to freeze, and his flames died out. There was no more air save for what he desperately tried to hold within his lungs. He had accomplished his task; his time was over and done.

He held onto hope. Jacob took in the vast empty, airless world he now found himself in. It brought to his mind a single line from an old bible he used to read with his father when he was young.

So, with his last breath he spoke, though he thought it would be a futile gesture of resistance, “On the first day, the lord saw fit to say, let the suns ignite…” Jacob cried both from the pain and from the joy of his success. The tears floating away as they began to boil in the airless near zero pressure environment of the plane of void.

From his tears came flames, and from the flames were born new stars. Born of the flames of the immortal pheonix, divine magic, the tears and last breath of an immortal being. 12 stars were born unto the void. Each star was no bigger than a basketball.

The pheonix raged against the airless void that surrounded it. It had lost another master, “GIVE HIM BACK!” the bird felt the pact sever with his death. The very structure of his totem created by his class came tumbling down. The spirits set free, but to where? For there was nowhere here for them to go.

From his frozen corpse a pale blue flame began to burn. It rose up, coalescing into a single pale blue orb of flame. Hope was its name, and so the flame of hope made a miracle. It spoke to the stars. ‘One moment we did not exist, the next we did.’ The newborn stars took in the void around them infinite and dark.

The newborn stars felt that the spark that had given them life had come from him. This being floating here before them. A connection formed between them, but now was withered and dead.

The stars grew frightened. They felt a great…something stir in the darkness. They felt uncountable things out there in the darkness. They felt that to meet one would mean their ends. They cowered not knowing what to do. Where they were. Who they were? The stars looked upon the pale blue flame.

Though it was so small, and frail. It stood against the monsters that were within and was the darkness. It filled them with something. A feeling, Hope. They had hope, they refused to accept an end to their lives that had only just begun!

So long as they had hope with them. The stars shined brighter and brighter. The knew not a limit to their brightness, and so ever brighter they became.

Slowly the body of Jacob thawed. Thou he did not stir for his life had come to an end.

Something moved toward them from the darkness. It was the same size as them they thought, but from it there was no light. They felt nothing from it but…hunger. Ever closer this spot of black approached. Appearing as a hole in the fabric of reality. The stars moved trying to avoid the darkness that move toward them.

The stars felt as if this place itself were trying to snuff them out. The raged against the darkness, fighting back.

“Why…” The voice that greeted Jacob’s soul was one of hunger. It demanded all thing to be consumed. “Why did you make them?” Jacob did not understand the last thing he remembered was his final breath.

The darkness receded, like two pieces of cloth parting, there was light here in the darkness. He watched as these bright balls of light grew ever brighter.

“Make them stop!” the voice of hunger demanded. “Why can’t you?” Jacob asked, to which he received no response. He felt the void reaching out to grab him, “I’m sorry my lady. I am sorry Hethara. I failed to keep my promise.”