Marco’s eyes shot open then began darting around him in confused shock.

“What the fuck?!” Marco yelled as his eyes focused on the creature in front of him.

Empty eye sockets gazed back at Marco, their apathetic nature the complete opposite of Marco’s frenzied panic. White bone connected by nothingness draped in a robe of shadows moved towards Marco in complete silence before stopping a hair’s width away from his face.

The quiet was only broken by Marco's heartbeat, racing through his ears until the skeletal figure’s jaw unhinged to whisper a word that seemed to stop it.

“Calm.”

The whisper was barely audible and yet as soon as Marco heard it he felt it. The calm. A command on his existence unquestioned by Marco’s mind or body. Instinctually Marco knew what was required of him.

In his unnatural state Marco observed the monster in front of him with detached curiosity. Intricate lines stretched across the bone, flowing between bones like wind through hair. Marco traced the lines with his eyes until they led him into the black emptiness that lay in the hollow sockets where eyes could have once been.

The emptiness gave way, showing Marco light swirling in a disk, spinning around darkness in a deadly dance as a hollow center ravenously devoured every ray of light before disappearing. “What- What are you…” Marco whispered, a feeling of renewed dread trying to push its way through the forced calm.

“Death” came the whisper, almost as if carried by the wind from some far off place.

Marco paled as sweat began to bead across his skin. “Is that why I’m here?” He asked shakily, “Am- Am I... dead?”

Silence descended for 72 of Marco's heartbeats before the voice echoed again, “No. Not yet.”

With a trembling voice Marco began to ask, “Why-”

“Silence” Hushed the skull as the shadow it donned grew, floating off the skeleton and enveloping Marco in a spinning dance of shadows.

The darkness of the shadow was pierced by stars, Marco noticed as he looked around him, ‘I’m… in space?’ he questioned. Then he saw someone- no, something- hovering against the backdrop of the universe, like a shadow blocking out the night sky. It was a massive man of shadows with eyes of crimson suns that burned Marco’s eyes when he met their gaze.

“The first memory is of two.” the whispered voice from before said quietly, closer this time, as if it was behind Marco. Turning to question the skeleton Marco instead saw an inverted reflection of the dark man; a woman of light, with eyes of azure seas that caressed Marco like kin.

“Light and dark,” echoed the voice as Marco floated between the two giants, “positive and negative, life and death... creation and destruction. The two were polar opposites and would thus birth a great contradiction inside themselves- love and hatred for each other. A burning desire to become one, to consume the other or destroy the other, to become alone again.”

Marco watched the two figures in horror, each calmly walking towards the other. Each step shook Marco’s mind as if he was being pummelled by nature’s fury. Once the figures crossed the voice began again, “Yet instead the second memory was of more. More contradictions. For how could destruction bring creation? For how could creation bring destruction?”

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The world spun and Marco saw four new figures; seemingly caught between male and female, with shifting eyes of purple energy that Marco could not decipher. “Then there were four more than the two. The four who would come to be known as the high gods of men. The earth unmoving beneath humanity’s feet. The sky a gale above their heads. The water flowing in everything. The fire burning something to nothing and nothing to something.”

Entranced Marco watched entranced as the Earth took shape before him in the hands of these gods, condensing around the sun before shifting into what he knew to be home. “There would be more,” the voice said “born of the four that were born of the two. And more beyond that.”

Marco listened intently, entranced by the disturbed voice’s story, “But then something would go wrong.” The scene shifted, and now Marco saw another planet, but unlike the cradle of life he had grown up on this was a a planet of horrors. Creatures inexplicable in form roamed freely, causing Marco to feel terror from the deepest part of his soul. Above the planet Marco saw four figures- familiar to the four figures from before but somehow simultaneously complete opposites.

Genderless entities of the same fire, water, earth, and air. But... wrong.

“And now…” said the voice in a tone reminiscent of lustful desire, “There is only war!”

Above Marco something moved, causing Marco to gaze up at them. The wrong two. Then he was falling, falling so fast that the air was crushed from his lungs as the dark shadows of the voice overtook him.

When Marco awoke he was greeted by a screen in front of his vision:

Welcome to the war [new player]

Please select a username

Marco jumped to his feet as he quickly surveyed his surroundings. He was alone in a room of stone bricks, empty except for a staircase that cut through the edge of the room- going both up and down.

After several breaths to calm his heart that seemed to have recovered from the ‘calm’ imposed upon it Marco looked at the screen again. A username? ‘What the hell is going on?’ Marco wondered to himself. He’d had dreams like this before, hell sometimes he even wished he lived in a game world. But for this to really happen? ‘Impossible.’ he thought half-heartedly.

Please select a username

When the screen prompted him again Marco raised his trembling hands out of ahbit, causing a keyboard to appear underneath his fingers. The novelty, however, was lost on Marco as he tried to force himself to believe what was happening. ‘This is great.’ he told himself, ‘This is what I’ve always wanted’

With a smile Marco typed his signature name, ‘GreenEyesBoneDragon’, inspired from a card game he used to play as a child.

Welcome to the war [GreenEyesBoneDragon]

You have been selected as a player from Earth by the Titan Death

Before the war begins you will be given 1 year to complete the tutorial

Good luck player

‘So that thing was ‘Death’, one of the two things from the beginning of that trip. I wonder how many other players have been selected?’ Marco wondered as he looked around the empty room.

90 other players have been selected

Marco jumped, taking another deep breath to calm himself he thought, ‘Ok. It answers my questions… What are, um, you?’

Information not available

‘Well that’s not helpful.’ Marco thought with a snort.

‘What now?’ Marco asked himself before receiving an unexpected answer:

Continue down the stairs

Marco briefly considered walking back up the stairs before deciding against it. If this was all real then he didn’t want to piss off whatever this system was. So with a mix of curiosity and apprehension Marco walked down the stairs.