Promptly, a barrage of metal balls bombarded him. When he looked at the source, he saw fifteen armed klengans on the ground pointing more of the metal barrels at him.

The sight of them sparked something primordial in him and he curled up around Serafina while continuing to shout. He let his vocal cords vibrate until they threatened to tear. When there was no air in his lungs, he touched the fabric of the world. Aether is potential, and he wanted to build, to protect, to live, to love. Res gathered all the aether in his surroundings, pushed it out, and pulled it in. He continued pulling in and pushing out aether. Soon, there were visible ripples in reality when the intense aether wave passed. His actions didn’t stop the klengans from shooting him and injuring Serafina, so he pulled and pushed harder.

“More!”, Jason shouted in agreement.

By now, the surrounding goblins were flung back and forth when the wave passed them. With an aether enhanced voice that boomed across the battlefield, he howled: “MORE!!!”

Grass began to dissolve around him, the ragged clothes of several goblins vanished and the klengan’s chest hair merged with the wave. The wave had grown to such a size that all combatants were shoved out of the range of the wave. It nibbled away at the wall and city. It had grown to such size that Res now only flung it away like hot coals, else the force wouldn’t kill him, but Serafina too. The thought of Serafina in his arms gave him new strength as he continued to push.

The wave had now taken on a radius of half a mile and it pushed ranks of goblins back. Once again Res broke from the strain of absorbing all the ring’s aether, but he barreled through. The pure aether that rippled out of him sucked up all matter in its path and a crater formed around him. The next impact knocked the wind out of his lungs.

Another impact left his nose bleeding, and another made him cough up blood. When he started coughing up blood Jason shouted: “Shit bro, we overdid it. We can’t take that shit in again. You will need to stop hardening your mouth so I can push out the ring of darkness. If we channel it through the gem, it will lighten our burden.”

His vision had clouded over and he was clinging to his defiance, but he gave in and stopped hardening his mouth. Accompanied by a momentary burst of pain, he could feel the jewel in his mouth.

“Bro, you will need to pull all that aether through your brain and it will hurt, but you can pull through it. Don’t push it out again. As a brain core, your brain is the hardest part of your body.”

As he faced the enormous wave of aether that had reduced parts of the city wall to half its width, Res felt powerless. In that moment, he felt the desire that every human has deep down in him - to be significant - more than he had ever felt anything in his life. Roaring out his hopes and dreams, Res ignored Jason’s protests. He pulled the aether towards himself. The pain that had hampered his determination before was now only a confirmation of his choices.

A colossal tornado formed around him and dark clouds above. Cracks spread in the fabric of space and his eyes glowed as they were flooded with aether. Lightning impacted him in a rapid-fire of electricity, but Res hardly noticed it. The entire battlefield had come to a standstill. Everyone, participants, and attackers alike stared at the aether storm and the young man in the center of it all. His hair was standing on end from all the lightning impacts and his clothes were singed and bloodied.

Despite his mighty appearance, Res and Jason were fighting a losing battle. The pain was too much, their aether control sluggish. Res heard a faint cry of outrage from his left and spared a passing glance at the disturbance. There stood the prince with his entire army of elite guards. The image of the prince let old memories surface and he cocked his head back to shout: “I will not yield!”

An inaudible hum built up in the air around him while Res pushed farther, farther, farther … “Farther!!!”

Res’s motions turned frantic. He dropped Serafina and pushed himself as far away as possible. A deafening boom and an enormous shock wave racked the battlefield. From the source of the blast, Res’s body parts were catapulted in all directions. Parts of his fingers, arms, legs lay scattered around the battlefield. The prince laughed as he saw Res’s complete head impact next to him. Giggling, he walked up to the head and picked it up by the hair.

When he turned it, two moving and defiant eyes stared back at him. They expressed such disdain that the prince instinctively dropped it. Yet, the head didn’t fall onto the ground but hovered in the air. Suddenly, all goblins covered the ears while shouting in pain. When the ear-piercing shriek entered their hearing range, they rived on the ground just the same. Descending like a falling star, the sound decreased in pitch. Many didn’t see how all the scattered body parts of Res, all the blood, began to hover in the air. When it had reached the low and bone-chilling hum, all his now black body parts shot into the detonation spot.

Through it all, Res’s eyes moved around independently while his body remade itself. The booming noise cut off and the black color of his flesh faded. Only his black lifeless eyes continued their mad jittering. For a moment, Res’s body hung in the air. Then he dropped to the ground on his knees. The entire battlefield was deadly silent. The first one to move was the goblin Res had punched in the city’s street to show his power, Gagag. His voice carried over the battlefield like he was speaking through a magnification crystal.

“Vexx Nash! Vexx Nash! Vexx Nash!”

The call was picked up by another goblin. Then another and another. Soon, the entire goblin swarm drowned out everything with their booming shouts. Res was only confused as he rolled on his back.

“Jason?”

“Ahhhh, don’t talk to me. I feel like I drank some of that fire spirit from the forest tribes. This is the worst hangover of my life.“

“What happened?”

“Man, I don’t know. All I can remember was that I was in this weird space and I was going somewhere … ”

“I remember seeing the prince’s terrifying face, but apart from that I have no idea.”

As he sat up to assess the situation, a bright white light appeared in front of him. An elegantly clad klengan stepped out of the light. He wore a tight-fitting vest and a walking stick which was covered in shining jewels. “Young man, that was quite a spectacle. Our company’s broadcast has reached an all-time high thanks to you. We would like to return the favor. We will be able to guarantee that you will win by providing you an amazing … How would you say it in your world? Ahhh, yes, a domination-level bow. The only caveat is that you will need to deliver a show. You know, with your romantic acts with the woman, you have become quite popular with the ladies. They don’t want you to die. It would be against a contract we once formed, but we have broken it so many times already with the royal family. It would only be fair to break it for you too.”

Res was so overwhelmed by the fluent rapid firing of words, so he stammered out. ”You are the announcer.”

The klengan’s wide ears flapped around and he chuckled: “Yes, I am. Who else would I be? They don’t call me the announcer; I am called the Gamemaster.”

“Bro, take the offer. Think of it, they will give you a guaranteed win. That guy seems fishy, but becoming king will mean that we can whore and fight all day.”

The thought of winning, and the consequences, made his gaze snap onto the still form of Serafina. “I want you to save her.”

“My boy, let’s think about it again you could …”

“I want you to save her.”, Res stated firmly. The announcer harrumphed.

“Boy, they will need to give her a new heart, a new liver, a new lung. Besides, our two species might seem the same, but our bodies are different. We don’t even have a liver, so we would need to insert animal parts into her. Who knows what could happen?”

“I want you to heal her.”, Res insisted.

As if Res had flipped a switch, the Gamemaster’s entire demeanor changed: “If you insist.”

Accompanied by streaks of light, several klengan’s in white coats appeared next to Serafina. In an instant, they teleported away again. The announcer gave him a smile and a last wink and teleported out.

“Bro, he has played you. How could he have known what they should transplant if she hadn’t already been assessed? I was already wondering why he would offer you such a way out.”

Res balled his fists. “I made the right decision.”

Res thought about the concept of altruism and Jason added: “We will whoop the royal family’s asses for manipulating the king’s tournament, right?”

”Indeed.”

The sea of base goblins was approaching him as if he was some god. Before they could come within speaking distance, the Gamemaster teleported back in and announced. “Oooopsie, forgot. The game is over.”

The characteristic vertigo of teleporting assaulted him once again. Yet, when he thought about returning to the endless white space, he pushed back on the weird feeling. A high-pitched whirr resounded in his head and the white lights vanished. When he opened his eyes again, all the participants had vanished. Now he was the only one standing in front of an enormous army of goblins.

“Bro, what the fuck? You are already … How? How can you push against space magic? Holy Shit!”

Res didn’t like the sound of that. “What is it?”

“We have finished the transformation. We are completely made out of pure aether now. Do you feel any different?”

Res checked his entire body. “No, everything is fine … I think.”

“Shit bro, this can be fucking difficult. Imagine you are made out of inflammable gases right now. Powerful aether users could use you as some sort of battery. If I still had my old body, I could suck you up into my cultivation base. I thought we still had some time to figure this new cultivation system out, but I hadn’t expected this to happen.”

That didn’t exactly inspire confidence in him. A flash of light next interrupted his thoughts and the announcer was standing right in front of him again. He wore an annoyed expression. “Do you know how much trouble we have to go through to start a relay that is as big as a city? Don’t reject it this time.”

Res thoughts raced, and he babbled out. “You don’t even have to activate such a big array. You could teleport me to Serafina and let me watch her operation.”

The announcer tapped his cane thoughtfully against the ground and finally said: “Fine, but you will need to wear this.”

He produced a thin black band of obsidian out of his pocket and Jason hissed: “Don’t put that thing on! It is a slave collar. If you put it on voluntarily, you will need to serve the owner of the collar for fifty years.”

This intimate robbery of freedom disgusted Res and he spat on the clean shoes of the announcer. “You are filth.”

The Gamemaster looked surprised at Res spitting at him. In an instant, a klengan teleported behind him cleaned the shoe, and teleported out. With a laugh, the announcer motioned to a pad that the servant had left behind. “Sorry, this is a formality, but I will make an exception for you.”

“Bro, that guy will make hella money if he shows you to others via a … magic mirror. You can get something in return.”

Res put on his poker face and said. “I know your tricks. You will make lots of money by showing me through a magic mirror. I will come if you give me valuable information for the last challenge.”

The klengan chuckled, which made his long ears move erratically. “Fine. I won’t give you high-grade information, but it will help you at the start.”

With a deal struck, Res stepped onto the pad and accepted the vertigo of teleportation. When he opened his eyes back again, he found himself in another white room. Hundreds of klengan were walking about in white coats. Most were pushing buttons on giant metal objects and watching events through magic mirrors. Yet, Res had no time to watch the proceedings and instead had to hurry to catch up to the Gamemaster. They left the white room through a door and Res found himself surrounded by an alien-looking environment. The door led into a fifty-meter-high glass tunnel.

In it, hundreds of other klengans in white coats were hurrying about. In the distance, he could see the tunnel stretching on for as far as he could see. Beyond that, he could see a desert-like landscape with rocks mixed in for good measure. There were no trees, grass, or anything apart from that. Above him, three moons hung on the star-dotted night sky. In the far distance, Res could see an enormous glass dome in which giant towers of metal resided. An irritated call from the Gamemaster made him stop his staring and he caught up to the gamemaster. The klengans that passed them whispered or pointed at them.

After a five-minute walk in that surreal glass tube, they turned right into a white dome-shaped building. The Gamemaster pulled out a device from his jacket and talked into it. The surrounding air smelled like an alchemy potion. All around him there were injured people being transported in carts. Res gawked klengans who had hundreds of pipes pumping liquid stuck into them. Some wore elaborate metal frameworks around limbs and some were covered in bandages. They went through several security checks and he had to wear the same white outfit. The klengan guards sprayed him with tons of the weird-smelling stuff.

Finally, the announcer stopped walking near a corner and motioned for him to go on. “After you round this corner, you will see your girl being treated. There will be a camera crew there, but don’t make a fuzz about them. If you follow those principles, I will give you the tip that might save you.”

With a wink, the Gamemaster motioned him to proceed. Determined to make the best out of this situation, he rounded the corner. Immediately, he saw the twenty people that were the ‘camera crew’. They were all holding black boxes or sticks in his direction, but Res ignored them. He didn’t have to fake his concern as he raced to the small glass window, which granted him an unobstructed view into the room beyond.