Chapter 2 – A Game of Death

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At the beginning of time: Vehendratir the Creator and first of the old gods birthed a labyrinth of worlds connected by the very fabric of his being. First he created the spree, a plethora of failed creations that he later boxed away. Then the Heavens and the Hells with all of their inhabitants were created: the angels and demons with inherent opposing properties. The Spirit Realm and fairy-folk came next with the pit and dregs of Oblivion as it’s counterpiece. And then, in his disgust for the darkness he was born into, he turned away from The Void and left it to its own devices.

Tireless and without purpose he continued to create world upon world, star upon star, galaxy upon galaxy until he came to realize that he had no method to his creation; no meaning beyond idle amusement. So he turned from more simple inanimate objects to creating other forms of life similar to his original sentient creations. First came simple celled organisms, then plants and animals. Then he began to create the mortal races of dwarves, orcs, goblins, humans, elves, demi-humans, ents, and many other species to come. Curiously enough, the undead came next on happenstance and rose to power in their own right to challenge the power of the original immortal races. He created the 18 prime languages so that these lesser creatures could communicate with one another. With these new races came a myriad of new things to do, but his boredom was only abated for a short time and he soon began to despair. What purpose did he have being here? What was the purpose of existing? What was the meaning of life? He did not know, but the sentients he had created seemed unaware of this predicament. So Vehendratir the Creator decided to end his life, splitting himself into a hundred thousand symbiotic essence to experience life through the souls of their hosts and abandoning the creation he had spent so much time cultivating. With the creator gone and the throne of creation left unseated for the lesser gods to vie for, the races went their separate ways and began their own paths down the road of life.

Or so the legend goes.

Welcome to the Nirvana Worlds, participant. This is a Beta for the upcoming Labyrinth Worlds event, and you are now enrolled in a game of death alongside millions of your fellow Earthborn compatriots. Fight for your life... and good luck.

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Name: Trey Bon

Level: 1

Class: None

Trey groaned loudly as he slowly pushed himself up from the dark soot and gravel beneath him. His head throbbed and he was trying hard not to vomit.

Race: Human

Guild: None

“What… what the hell just happened?” muttered Trey.

Buffs: None

Debuffs: None

God damn it, these messages just kept on berating him! And that page of text about the beginning of time? What had that been about? It felt almost like someone had carved it into his memory with a hot iron due to the excruciating agony. Scattered words, symbols and categories raced through Trey’s brain, and it took an immense effort to force them away and to regain his focus. Opening his eyes, Trey took in the sight around him. The last thing he remembered before the page of text was being in that Dallas warehouse, and - much to his confusion... he now sat upon a dirt ground in a strange clearing. He put his hands along his chest where the sharp pains had radiated through his body, then put them around his thighs and looked around.

A large totem stood at least fifty yards in height to his immediate left. It loomed above him, nearly five yards across, with carvings of faces decorating its surface. The carvings were faces of angry men and various types of screaming beasts that Trey did not recognize. Many of the carvings looked sinister in nature and Trey couldn’t help but shudder when looking upon the odd monument, a feeling of uneasiness settling over him. The monument was made of a strange dark stone, absolutely alien to him in nature, with a sheen he had never seen before upon any naturally occurring rock. Around him evenly-spaced large boulders, each much bigger than he was, had been set into a symmetrical pattern around the totem. A deep, eerie green light emanated from intricate markings on these boulders, casting odd patterns onto the ground below.

A multitude of towering cliffs surrounded him and stretched into the overcast dirty brown-red sky, like the fingers of god rising to grasp the earth about the comparably tiny man. Canyons between the cliff faces led away in directions all about Trey and disappeared into shadow. Clouds of black dust floated about the valley for many miles in all directions, obscuring the landscape save for a few strange and scattered plants that varied in size but were all a similar dull-grey color. Other than the plants, the landscape lay barren and offered no other signs of life.

A strong gust of wind suddenly whipped against Trey’s naked body as it howled loudly and then died down again just as suddenly as it had come. Naked? Why was he naked? Trey looked down in confusion as goosebumps rippled across his skin. Upon standing, his muscles glistened against a soft red light shining down from two small moons in the sky. Were they moons?

Had Kyle laced that coke with something more sinister? It wouldn’t be the first time.

“This has got to be the weirdest trip I’ve ever had,” stated Trey bluntly as he laughed, his smile fading a bit as he kept looked around. The more he thought about it, the more he was certain that it must have been some sort of hallucinogen. Would that also explain the weird pains he had been having right before seeming to pass out earlier?

“What a jackass. I’ll get him for this.” His words lacked their prior conviction. This... didn't look fake. It didn't feel fake. He'd tripped on drugs before, it had never felt like this. But he didn't know how he'd gotten here, or where here even was... so that'd been his best first guess.

He forced another awkward laugh and turned his thoughts back to the page of text that had ambushed him upon waking. He could remember it in vivid detail. Unsettling. Had he just been dreaming? He tried to shake off the feeling of uneasiness as he stretched. The air about him was decently warm, and the situation reminded him of when he was a child and had gone on a summer vacation to the Grand Canyon with his parents.

Sighing, he looked down to the ground and tried to distract himself with the passing thought. Trey wondered what his family was up to. Despite the constant disappointment he presented his father with, his dad was always on the lookout for him. Trey’s lack of enthusiasm about the family business was also a source of shame for not only himself, but the extended family as well. Many of the family thought Chad, Trey’s cousin who he’d actually just shot a few minutes ago, should be the new family head after Trey’s father Ford retired. Ford hadn’t liked this one bit and had put all his bets on Trey coming into his own… but was time and time again disappointed with the lackluster efforts of his son. Trey’s younger brothers were even worse in their dislike of mafia work, so Ford hadn’t even bothered approaching those two about taking up the mantle.

Trey had always had fond memories of his parents, and he’d grown up a happy child. There were some oddities though that he hadn’t pieced together until he was in his early teenage years, such as the long trips away, the armed guards, the private jets… and the way people spoke to his father.

Years later he’d finally found out that he was the son of a mafia boss.

His father, Ford Bon, was top dog of an international crime syndicate that did their business away from the prying eyes of the law. They smuggled guns and drugs in and out of various countries, owned a couple casinos along the Las Vegas strip, involved themselves in human trafficking, and financed various pharmaceutical companies in New York. Rich and powerful would be an understatement, but his parents kept Trey out of the spotlight until his early years as a young man.

That was when he’d been initiated into the business.

“Kill him, son. Show me you can.”

Those were the words Ford had lovingly spoken to a scared teenage boy the night Trey had made his first kill. Trey’d cried, sobbed even, before shakily pulling the trigger and putting a bullet into his victim’s head. His target had been a middle aged ordinary looking man wearing glasses, jeans, and a T-shirt with a picture of New York City’s waterfront area stitched into it. Trey to this day still didn’t know what that man had done to get to where he’d been, but he did remember the begging and pleading through the gag stuffed into his mouth, and the tears rolling down the man’s face as he struggled against the bonds holding him to a metal chair.

How similar that had been to his experience earlier this very day.

Suddenly, Trey noticed something strange and snapped out of his flashback. His eyes had been glazed over and now he focused hard on the spot of interest. A set of four colored bars: one red, one blue, one green, and one white were off in the top left corner of his vision. Upon trying to focus on them, various words appeared. “HP - Health Points” appeared next to the red bar, “MP - Magic Points” appeared when trying to focus on the blue bar, “SP - Stamina Points” appeared when focusing on the green bar, and “DP - Divinity Points” appeared when focusing on the white bar.

“The fuck?” exclaimed Trey. He tried to brush them away but to no avail, and then rubbed his eyes not once, but twice. The bars remained in the top left corner of his vision. Upon closer inspection, he noted they each had the numbers “100/100” next to them, with the exception of the 1/1 white bar for “Divinity Points.”

This new addition only added to his confusion, which was growing by the minute.

Shrugging, he turned and walked over to the perimeter of where the boulders stood. Walking between the boulders, he soon came to a full stop in front of a steep very dark drop-off with no end in sight. Perhaps it was because it was more of a cave or pit than anything else, but his eyes could not penetrate the darkness below.

It had come out of nowhere, causing Trey to swiftly step back. He was terrified of heights and he could feel his stomach churn just by thinking about how close he’d come to strolling carelessly off the ledge. He took another moment to calm himself, putting a hand on his chest and taking in a couple deep breaths. Upon further investigation, after gaining his bravery back and walking around to the other side of the circular perimeter, Trey found a stone walkway leading downwards into the deep and darkened cave. He was on an elevated island of sorts with a much farther distance than he could jump spanning the length between his small platform and the land on the other side of the drop. The passage leading down into the cave was the only way forward… much to his chagrin.

***

Twenty minutes later, Trey grumpily tossed a small pebble at the totem. His back was against one of the boulders and his face wore an expression of moodiness. His stomach growled loudly as he threw the next pebble somewhat forcefully at one of the demonic faces carved into the stone pillar. He was hungry, naked and definitely thirsty.

“You could at least hook me up to an IV bag of saline jackass…” muttered Trey as he tossed a third stone towards the totem. “I know we have them in the office closet.”

Whatever drug that Kyle had mixed with that cocaine was way too strong. He had never been on a trip like this before, but knew that hallucinogens could take many hours to wear off depending on what it was and how much you took. But then again... this all felt way, way too real. Groaning, he shook his head and vowed to the god he didn’t believe in that he’d get back at his friend once he figured out what was going on.

A large shadow passed swiftly across Trey’s form. Trey raised an eyebrow and was startled when a loud *THUMP* was heard nearby; the ground shook ever so slightly. Trey leapt to his feet to face the direction from where the noise had come, his heart was beating fast. Another noise similar to rocks crashing against one another came from in front of him, and he realized that it was actually coming from the drop-off from whence he’d almost fallen into the dark pit hours beforehand. Trey stood frozen and poised to react for half a minute before building the courage to take a look. No other sounds had come in that time and he decided to sneak over to the drop-off’s edge to get a better view.

Quietly and carefully he crawled forward on his hands and knees, straining to listen for any other sounds. The noises he had heard earlier seemed to be from something large, and even if this was some sort of drug induced dream, it terrified him. As he made his way slowly forward, a bell sounded – seemingly from within Trey himself – and a mechanical feminine voice called out to him:

“You have acquired the Sneak skill. Congratulations. For inquiries, be sure to pull up your status page for more information.” The voice stated.

Trey froze. “Who’s there...?”

Silence.

He grimaced, wondering if this was his friends fucking with him. “Alright jackasses, come on out. Rachel, are you screwing with me too? Not cool.”

Another *THUD* came to Trey’s ears, much closer this time, but still from the same direction as before. Trey was almost to the edge and his heart was now pounding to the point that he thought it may break out from his chest. Breathing heavily, he finally made it to the edge of the drop off and peered into the deep cave below. The red light of the two moons glowed from above, rays illuminating the ledge by Trey's hands, only to be swallowed by the shadows beyond.

Trey continued to gaze down, eyes searching for the cause of the pounding. Nothing.

After a few minutes of staring into the abyss, he shook his head and sighed. “Ugh. I don't have time for-”

Before he could finish the sentence, an enormous, black, clawed hand erupted from the darkness below, violently picking Trey up by his torso. It snatched Trey from his perch and then brought him back down into the deep. Trey screamed in panic, unable to break free from the hand that engulfed his entire frame in its grip. It was crushing him, and he heard the sound of bones crunching right before he felt it. Trey’s rib cage was cracking open and his screaming was interrupted by an eruption of blood from his mouth. The last thing Trey remembered before he died was being tossed like a ragdoll into a giant, gaping mouth rising from the blackness - full of teeth each the size of his arm – and being ripped apart as his HP bar promptly hit 0/100.