Chapter 5

Terrifying as the realization that we were being watched by some malevolent presence was, I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the screen. The glowing eyes bled red light as they stared right back. As the breathing got louder in my ears, cold sweat began to stream down my face. My throat was dry and my teeth began chattering uncontrollably, feeling as though I’d been plunged headfirst into an icy pond.

“Alexia Fox, you have been weighed and measured.”

The words came from everywhere at once, a harsh and guttural voice that squeezed the breath from my lungs as though by a ruthless granite fist. I could feel Allie’s hand clutching mine in a deathgrip.

“Know that you have been found worthy to stand trial before the Orb Keepers of the Ark.”

Even as the echoes of that last sentence began to fade away, blinding arcs of crimson lightning began to form all around Allie. We both let out cries of surprise, but before we could do anything else, they gathered around her left wrist. With a burst of light and crackling sounds, they condensed into a brilliant orb that was absorbed into her skin.

The whole process only lasted a couple seconds, and I was relieved to find that Allie seemed unharmed by what had just happened.

As the eyes in the screen began to draw closed, I wiped the back of my hand across my forehead as I slowly let out the breath I’d been holding all along.

“Are you al-” I began, put Allie jumped toward the screen.

“Wait!” Allie cried out suddenly. “What about him?”

“Uh, what about me? Honey, that’s not nice. Just let the big evil presence go back to sleep,” I thought, and if ever there had been a time for my latent psychic powers to awaken, I prayed to any god that would care to listen to please, please let me project one single thought to my beloved - shut up!

Of course, it was already too late. The ominous red eyes began to open yet again.

“Kaizer Lee has been found unworthy to enter the Ark.”

“No, that can’t be! Why?” Allie shouted.

“There is corruption in his flesh which shall devour his life essence within 62 days. Only the strong may stand trial before the Orb Keepers.”

What? I thought I had a whole year left! I felt like I’d been gut-punched. I hadn’t even made my peace with the idea of only having one year to spend with Allie. Now it seemed as though I wouldn’t even get that long.

“You must reconsider! Kai is the undisputed champion in his discipline. Beyond that, he’s one of the strongest people on the planet He’s just sick at the moment. If his condition can be cured, he will conquer any of your trials!” Allie said resolutely.

I didn’t know whether to feel horrified or moved by Allie’s words. These trials didn’t sound like a sunday picnic. Then again, if I didn’t go, who would watch my girl’s back?

A moment passed while the presence seemed to deliberate. All the while, Allie’s hand was squeezing mine so hard it wouldn’t stop shaking.

“Only superior blessings are capable of saving his life within the allotted time. As great bounties may only be earned at great risk, such may only be earned within the highest tiers of the trials.”

“That’s fine, we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Very well then. Kaizer Lee, you shall be allowed to stand trial through a provisional orb. You have one day to choose your trial.”

“May I join that trial as well?” Allie quickly asked.

“Your choice does not concern us, human.”

Allie nodded in satisfaction while I still sat there with a stunned look on my face. I felt like I’d been clubbed on the head. 62 days left to live? Trials at some mysterious ark?

Because of the myriad different questions whirling through my head, I didn’t even get to say anything before the same red lightning produced another orb of incandescent light that was promptly shoved into my left wrist.

Its job finally done, the eyes finally disappeared from the screen and the lights flickered back on.

“We did it!” Allie cried out excitedly while hugging me tightly.

“Uh-huh,” I managed, still feeling numb.

“Oh, would you take a look at that?”

Allie was holding my left wrist up to the light, peering curiously at it. Looking down, I saw that a complex marking had been left on my skin. It looked like a tattoo, only no ink could have been so vibrant in color and complex in its details. There was an outer circle of black inside which three curving lines intersected at the center. Only after a closer examination did I realize that each stroke was actually formed by hundreds of characters so small I hadn’t realized it at first. One line was red, another was blue, and the last one was white.

“Do you have one as well?” I asked.

Allie showed me the inside of her wrist, where an identical tattoo could be seen.

“What are they?” I wondered out loud, tracing my finger over it.

Immediately upon contact, I felt a jolt in my brain as words came to me unbidden.

Orb User Tier F

Orb User Level: 0

Mana Orbs: 0

Skill Orbs: 0

Special Orbs: 1

“Orbs?” I mumbled dazedly, moving my finger away. Immediately, the words in my head vanished. “What the hell is this?”

“Oh, that’s interesting. Open your special orb, Kai.”

“What? How?”

Allie blew out a breath. “Focus your attention on it. Imagine yourself grabbing that option.”

“What? There’s nothing to grab!” I threw an uncomprehending squint in her direction, but she was already gone. Her eyes were already glazing over while her finger lay on her wrist.

Frowning, I tried what she said. When I laid my finger on the strange marking, the same list popped up again. This time, I tried to focus all my attention on the Special Orbs line.

All I got was itchy eyes from squinting too hard.

“Hmm, I see,” Allie was murmuring, slowly nodding to herself.

I for one, couldn’t see shit.

Grumbling to myself, I clenched my jaw and glared furiously at the Special Orbs option with my mind’s eye. That finally seemed to work, as new words appeared in my mind.

Special Orbs

Orb of Trial - Provisional (1) - Time remaining 23h 51m 23s.

A couple more grunts later, I managed to select the Orb of Trial.

Orb of Trial - Provisional

Allows the user to stand before a chosen Orb Keeper and undergo one of the Trials of the Ark. Note that each Orb Keeper has their own criteria and agenda. Choose wisely, as both risks and rewards may vary.

Warning! This is a provisional orb. As such, you have [23h 50m 42s] until it expires.

Would you like to select an Orb Keeper now?

What was this Ark they kept mentioning? The only one I could remember was from the Bible. Hadn’t that involved the whole world dying in some kind of flood? I didn’t like the sound of that at all.

Also, who were these Orb Keepers? Were they the ones who decided who gets to enter this Ark? If so, it would be important to know more about what their criteria for selecting candidates would be. And why would there be a warning about each Orb Keeper having their own agenda? Did this mean they each had different motives for conducting the trials?

Wait a moment, was this why people had been disappearing all over the world? They had been collected into this Ark? Why? Was some world-ending disaster on its way? Would I wake up tomorrow only to find a giant asteroid falling on my head?

I shook my head with a grimace, feeling a massive headache coming on from all these questions. Looking over to Allie, I could see that she was still absorbed in her examination of the orb. Was there something else I had missed? She had always been quicker on the uptake than me, especially with new stuff. I had always relied on her to help me figure out the newest phone or set up the wifi router.

Allie was sitting cross-legged across from me, her eyes still vacant as she explored the mysterious symbol. I sat back with my chin in my hand and continued to explore the familiar contours of her face. Her full lips glistened enticingly as she bit on them - a habit of hers whenever her brain was fully engaged on a fascinating subject. Her hair fell in rich cascades of gold till they hovered just over her generous breasts. They pressed up against a thin white cotton shirt that struggled to contain them. Two perfect dark circles immediately drew my attention as they were outlined against the fabric.

“Kai, don’t just sit there drooling at my boobs again.”

Startled, I looked up guiltily only to find Allie still fully absorbed in whatever introspective analysis she was carrying out.

“Am not,” I grumbled, indignant that she should be so petty as to call me out on it when she didn’t even see me do it. Besides, it wasn’t as though they would be wearing down from being admired.

“I don’t need to see to know you’re doing it, babe. A woman can always feel her man’s eyes on her,” she said, though her eyes still stared straight ahead, unseeing. “Now stop distracting me and do something useful. Did you know you can focus on almost anything in that menu to gain more information? At least look over the different Orb Keepers so we can pick one out.”

With one final look at my girl’s wondrous cleavage, I reluctantly went back to the menu inside my head. I quickly found that she was right. I only had to focus on the words “Orb Keeper” and immediately, new words appeared into view.

Orb Keepers

User access restricted to Trial level 1, Tier Rating B or above. Displaying results..

Arctis Trial level 1 Tier Rating A Users 9/25

Charon Trial level 1 Tier Rating B Users 94/100

Eledar Trial level 1 Tier Rating B+ Users 19/50

Leschem Trial level 1 Tier Rating A- Users 25/40

Manathaim Trial level 1 Tier Rating A Users 16/30

Xuros Trial level 1 Tier Rating A+ Users 1/20

As I was reading the list, the number of users for Charon ticked up to 95/100. Was this some sort of waiting list, where the trial would only launch once everyone was ready? If so, that meant that particular trial tested 100 people at once. What kind of test would that be? How many would pass? Most importantly, what would happen to those that failed?

Moving on, I focused on different parts of the menu, trying to glean as much information as I could.

Trial level 1

Orb tier limit: E.

Orb level limit: 5.

Mana orb allowance: 100.

None of that made any sense at all. I could only go deeper to see if I could find some answers.

Orb Tier Limit

Only users with orb tiers at or below the displayed value may participate.

Orb level limit

Only users with orb levels at or below the displayed value may participate.

Mana orb allowance

Users may only spend the amount of orbs specified in the displayed value.

Charon

Information Restricted.

What the hell was this? Restricted? Besides, it still didn’t tell me what an orb was supposed to do at all. Since I didn’t have any orbs other than the Trial Orb, would I be getting orbs in the trial itself?

“Kai, which keepers can you choose from?”

“Trial level 1 and rank B or above only.”

“Mmm. Then I think we should join Charon’s Trial.”

“Huh?”

I drew away from the words in my head and found Allie staring at me with a determined set to her mouth.

“Your provisional Trial Orb is only good for one day, right? It says the number of users is the queue, and the trial will start an hour after it is full. Since we don’t have any way to know how quickly the queues fill up, we should join Charon’s before doing anything else.”

“But we don’t know anything about these trials, except for all those ominous warnings from the guy at the shop.”

“We’ll hope for the best but prepare for the worst. Luckily, you left your swords here when you moved out. Between that and the guns in my armory, we should pretty much be set.”

“Wait, your Trial Orb doesn’t have a limit, right? I should just go in first, see what it’s like.”

“No way,” Allie said flatly, scowling at me. “We go together all the way.”

“We only need one cure.”

“So if we go together we’ll double the chances of getting it.”

“That also means double the risk.”

“Forget it, there’s no way I’m letting you go in there alone. Not a chance in hell.”

“Allie, we have to be sensible-”

“Fuck sensible.”

“And practical-”

“Fuck practical.”

I reached out to grab her hand, but she pulled away from me, glaring furiously. Then her eyes suddenly brightened, and a small smile curved her lips. I only realized what was going on when she laid her finger on the mark at her wrist, and by then it was too late to stop her.

“It’s done. I already joined the queue. Now hurry up and join with your orb before it gets full.”

“Allie, dammit-”

“You’re wasting precious time. If the queue fills up before you join it..” she said threateningly.

Just like that, it was done.

Two hours later, we stood side by side as we watched the queue finally tick up from 99 to 100.

A new alert popped up in my head.

Your queue for Orb Keeper Charon’s Trial is ready.

Prepare to stand before the Trial of the Ark.

“Finally,” Allie muttered.

“Final checks?”

“I think we’re all set, but it doesn’t hurt to check.”

The remaining hour was over in a blink.

“Remember to stay behind me,” I said, pumping the matte black Benelli M3 shotgun in my hands and glaring at the now-familiar crimson light that began to fill the room.

Allie, who was checking on the Armalite X-10 TAC14 assault rifle hanging from her shoulder strap, looked up at my words.

“Always, my love. Now, go forth and conquer,” she said, blowing me a kiss.

Then a searing light engulfed the whole room, marking the start of this fateful trial.