Chapter 3 - A Second Chance

Years ago in the past...

Name: Taen Movorio

Level ???

Class: ???

Name: Chris Ederson

Level ???

Class: ???

Name: Michael Noren

Level ???

Class: ???

Taen, Chris and Michael were having the worst time of their lives. For what seemed to them to be an endless amount of time, they underwent what Maltetious claimed to be training... though the three friends found it more akin to torture and personal pleasure on her behalf. Whenever mistakes were made, which was quite often, they were punished with some form of injury. Be it temporary maiming, burns, shocks, spears through the chest... being killed off and resurrected again repeatedly began to take its toll on their psyche.

Hopelessness and denial of their situation was replaced with hatred for their captor and a desire to excel so that they may be spared the tortures that failure induced. Prizes such as food and rest-days were given for high levels of success, and it all began to take the form of a competition between the three. Often they were even pitted against each other against their will to see how they would fare, and if they refused to kill one another they were both set upon and tortured by Maltetious or her terriths; making an example of them for the third onlooker at that given time.

These months soon turned into years. Every day it was a new way to kill something, every day the trials were postponed. The three lost track of time, and had completely given up going home at this point. The only thing they had to look forward to now was completing the tests or trials and moving on to what Maltetious called ‘the next step,’ where they would be given some variant of freedom from this place. According to her, anyways. They weren’t told what this next step was but were told that they’d need all of these experiences in order to do what she intended them to do. She had also talked about ‘the great coming of Earthborn’ on occasion in reference to the All Spirit’s message, but refused to elaborate on what it was.

All types of weapons were to be mastered, while their two magic attributes were to be obtained and expanded upon. Only then would they be able to attempt the trials again. In the meantime, other forms of tests were given to them. They were taken to different places and areas throughout their training so they could practice in different elements of cold or heat - such as the plains, mountains, deserts, and ocean. Land, water and even air combat were all tested. Archery, swordplay, survival skills, varieties of new languages, battle magics, healing magics, stealth techniques, hand to hand combat (which they already knew a great deal about and was the one thing they excelled at), dagger throwing and knife play, as well as various other types of combat or specialized magics were tested and applied. The only downside to all of this was that they died so many times during this trial-and-error period that they didn’t really get to keep most of their progress. The sessions were so intense that in the beginning: they averaged a death almost every other day.

Maltetious made it a point to let them know what adjustments she had made to, what they assumed to be, their very genomes. She had given them vast amounts of speed and strength, much more than that of ordinary humans. According to her, she had manipulated and improved upon vampiric bodies to the point where they had none of what she called the ‘adverse effects,’ but still had some of the positive characteristics in order to achieve what they were now. This even included an ability to see in the dark, though when they used it - their eyes glowed a faint blue... and any sources of bright light while using this ability were aversive to them.

***

Many months ago...

“So Maltetious, I’ve got a question for you.” said Taen at one of their training sessions along a vast coastal gulf. Dark clouds covered the sky and it was starting to lightly drizzle.

“What is it, precious?” She replied, giggling while attempting to catch raindrops in her cupped palms. Maltetious had chosen to remain in her mid-twenties form over the time they had spent together, because the men had claimed that the little girl version was incredibly creepy.

Taen scowled, crossed his arms and leaned back against a sand dune. “Don’t call me that, witch. Now... many things here don’t really add up, but one thing in particular doesn’t really make sense to me. You took us from Earth right? You’ve spent years training us with various magics and weapons. But many of these weapons are primitive. Swords? Bows and arrows? If you were able to take us from earth and bring us here, why not take some of the weapons as well? Wouldn’t a gun be nice to have in one of your trials as opposed to a sword? Or is this really all just a fucked up game like the All Spirit said it was?”

Chris and Michael both look at each other and nod their agreement as they lay down recovering from their previous exercise just moments before.

Pausing, she turned slowly and responded with: “Do you know how much power and energy I put into getting the three of you here?”

“You’ve told us it’s a lot, but I don’t know what a lot entails.”

Maltetious grimaced. “To follow up that question… Do you truly think all of this is actually a game? Because if you do… then you are a fool. The All Spirit is not what it seems to be.”

Taen did not reply, and her words only confused him further.

Pausing again, deep in thought, she turned around and began to walk down the beach; wind whipping her dress and hair about in a way that made her look quite pretty to the three men despite her psychotic personality.

“This existence… This realm is special and specific to me. It is mine. Though I am a Numen, I can only truly use the full extent of my powers here. I was created this way. I am able to travel to your Earth and to other worlds as well, though doing so weakens me. One of the many reasons I took the three of you in the first place was due to this... I need tools such as you that I can use to manipulate my interests when you reach the destination I have set for you. After the tests are over.” She momentarily stopped to drink the water she’d collected from the rain drops, then shook her damp hair out while giving Taen a backwards grin. “Do you have a guess as to why I only took three of you, or why Earthborn are unable to use magic in their own plane of existence... yet are VERY able to do so elsewhere?”

Still confused, Taen shook his head no.

She raised a pointer finger skywards, and gave him a dazzling smile. “The reason is one and the same. Earth is a unique plane of existence. The magical forces there are hindered by... something else. I’m not really sure what that thing is, but not only does this… thing... block magical ability - it also, for lack of better words… increases this now latent magical pool of which the creatures on your planet innately possess when they finally travel to a world where they can use it. This in turn affects my ability to visit earth. When I visited your Earth with the All Spirit’s permission, I had no more than six minutes to locate and ensnare souls that I felt would be a good fit for the jobs I have in mind… after many years worth of saving up my energy to do so. Six minutes... That is not much time to do things, and traveling to Earth needs certain requirements to be met. To make a long story short, traveling to Earth is incredibly hard to do and takes a lot of energy, where deities and Numen only have very small amounts of time to bring things back with them before the void pulls us back to our own existences. These opportunities occur very rarely. The second question you had regarding technology - well I couldn’t take it even if I wanted to. It is against the All Spirit’s laws to look into such matters… though I am not sure why. The Earthborn who do possess knowledge of those things are systematically eliminated by the All Spirit, again... for reasons unknown to me.”

Taen scowled, drawing up his cloak and hood to stop the rain from berating his face. “So… you took the three of us… Why?”

“Because you were all close in proximity when I found you, and you exhibited qualities I valued for these jobs. Were you not warriors of some variety from where you are from? I saw you battling others in hand to hand combat and it was all I had to go off of to tell you the truth,” she snickered. She began to laugh at the expressions upon their faces in response to what she had just said.

Chris sighed with a defeated downcast gaze. “Damn those martial arts classes.”

“Yeah. So unlucky for us man.” whimpered Michael in response.

“Oh you know you enjoy my company, boys! Besides, you’re getting a head start on all the rest of your Earthborn friends. All you have to do in return is undergo the jobs I will assign you before Beta ends. Aren’t you happy that you have each other to endure all of this? BEST OF FRIENDS FOR ALL OF THESE YEARS?! You should all be honored to have such a beautiful and amazingly talented woman such as myself to spend time with!”

Michael shot her a glare and humphed, ignoring the rain as it began to get heavier in the drizzle. “If you weren’t a complete nutjob and weren’t completely hell bent on causing us pain or anguish I’d agree with you. Don’t deny it, you get off on punishing us when we screw up.”

With a frown, she turned 180 degrees to look at all of them head on. “To be quite honest, this is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I’m usually very lonely, but the past two years have been very happy for me because you three have been here to talk with me.”

Taen rolled his eyes. She was full of it. “If you wanted companionship it doesn’t make much sense to torture the people you interact with. For… wait you said two years? So we HAVE been here that long!? Nevermind, back to the big picture: it doesn’t make sense for you to do all of these sadistic things to us if you want us to both A - work for you in the future and B - enjoy our company. Makes NO sense whatsoever. What makes you think we’ll work for you when we get to wherever we’re going?”

Giggling, she skipped over and tackled Taen to the ground - pinning him there while teasing him by pushing her breasts into his face.

“Call it a personality flaw!” She said, winking and kissing him on the cheek, before getting up and loudly laughing as she skipped away again. “I have faith in you three!”

Bewildered, Taen just shook his head and began making a bed out of nearby materials he could find amidst the drizzle. There really wasn’t much to work with, but he did his best with the seaweed that’d washed up on shore.

“I’ll never understand her. Though I will admit...” he added loud enough for the other two to hear, “she at the very least isn’t a boring individual.”

“Not bad to look at either.”

“Aye. The only positive quality she has in my opinion!” scoffed Michael.

Chris threw his hands up in delight. “By the way guys, you know what I found out the other day while I was on break? If you roll up the dark grey leaves off the small berry trees back a couple hundred yards east, crush them up a little bit and smoke them, they give you a high!”

He then waved his hands around like a maniac - or better yet, like some genius who’d just made a huge breakthrough. “I’m saved boys! I call it, DA GRAY CHIEF!”

Michael eagerly held out his hands. “Pass me some if you’ve got it!”

“You’re both hopeless...” chuckled Taen. Brushing his hand through his chestnut colored hair, he took a deep inhale. Eventually settling down in the soft dirt, he closed his eyes - ignored the assholes nearby as they bickered with one another over various stupidities - and went off to sleep.

***

Upon the next day, they were woken up with a loud bang.

The three friends immediately sprang up from their interrupted slumber, not knowing what to expect next. Having memories of tricks played upon them in the past by the infamous she-devil, they could only guess at what the hell that noise was. However, all they found - to their annoyance as well as relief - was a very amused and laughing Maltetious.

“You are all so cute when startled!” She exclaimed profoundly with arms stretching out to the clear blue sky. The stormclouds had long since left, and the ocean waves made soothing crashing noises as they hit the beach. “Quiz time! Are you all ready? If you get the questions wrong, I light you all on fire again!”

Michael sneered in defiance, but not obviously enough to get himself roasted. Tucking his chin into his hands and shoving some of the wet sand out to his right for a better position to lean on, he huffed - and really hoped it wasn’t one of those dreaded Q&A sessions. “Christ I hate this woman… Get on with it, witch.”

“Very well!” She said happily, dancing and spinning around in mid air. “First question goes to you Michael! Tell me all you know about battles between mages.”

Ugh. Not another one of these. Question and answer sessions with her were often just ridiculous and had, at least at some point, an unanswerable one thrown in there so she could just fuck him up. Sighing, he reluctantly replied. “Other mages are able to sense the magical disturbance you create, enabling them to locate you if hidden and if they’re good enough at it they can identify which type of magic you are using depending on the aura it emits. They can then counter it in turn. You are still able to use magic undetected if you do it carefully or are around people who aren’t able to use it. When fighting other mages, you often involve others unintentionally if they’re nearby or can unintentionally cause unwanted destruction of things in the area when the magics clash - as the two forces can then leave the primary caster’s influence when conflicting. Other than that, you suppress another mage’s ability to cast spells if their guard is down by flexing your mana signature over theirs, though this is often hard to do.”

Pausing a moment to think and scratch his arm, he then gave another shrug.. “Is there anything else you want--- Oh yeah. You should probably take out enemy mages with basic assassination techniques such as a well placed arrow, poisons, or a knife to the back due to these previous reasons.”

“Very good! Very good indeed, my most unruly student! Now Chris, tell me about the nature of magic to the best of your ability. How is it used and improved?”

Chris was repeatedly throwing a rock up into the air, each time he’d catch it and repeat the action. “Although all things are born with innate pools of magic, only a percentage of the mortal races’ population is able to successfully tap into it without vast amounts of practice. Two out of five people on average. Earthborn and other higher races like the demons, fae and angels have a very, very high success rate tapping into their magics though. Magic is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it becomes and the more frequently you are able to use it again in turn. This is often seen with the leveling system built into these Nirvana Worlds. You can tire this so-called muscle out and use up your magic supply if you aren’t careful. If you do that, you'll have to wait for it to recharge or regain its potency when not pacing yourself. Monitor this via your MP bar. Also, the farther you are away from your intended target when using magic, the less of an effect it has. Because of this, you only have a certain length away from your body, depending on the person, for which your magic is effective. Lastly, you can cast magic without incantations or audibly commanding the magic to do your bidding, but it is often more potent if you do audibly command it because it usually gives your mind more of a focus point. Good enough?”

Maltetious nodded politely. “I suppose. And now for your question Taen, what is… my favorite food?!”

Taen winced and braced for the punishment that was almost certain to come. “Well over the time we’ve spent here I’ve only ever seen you eat thrice. So I’m gona take a guess and say it’s those weird looking frosted pastries with the berries decorating the sides. Though I wouldn’t call this a fair question.”

Malktetious screamed in delight. “No, you are most certainly RIGHT! I’m impressed that you have such a good memory! And with that, I believe that you are all ready for the trials again. You have each specialized in your chosen classes and have each reached a professional grade for perfecting your arts. Are you ready to try the first major trial again? What say you?”

All of their eyes went wide, and Michael’s jaw even dropped.

For two years, Maltetious had been putting the trials off. For two years, they had been perfecting their chosen roles of combat with intense training every single day. Taen had chosen the path of the Necromancer, using Alteration in conjunction with his Necromancy to further perfect his undead. He still had a long ways to go in terms of learning Alteration abilities, but he knew that eventually it would pay off when he learned more as it was very synergistic with minion-related classes. Chris had chosen the path of the Celestial Paladin, specializing in Celestial magic for a more offensive edge while taking Holy magic as his second attribute for a more healing based combination. Considering Chris’ sincere lack of courage, it was comical to the others that he’d chosen this path… but neither Taen nor Michael ever told him this. Meanwhile, Michael had chosen the path of the Juggernaut - choosing the Earth attribute to boost his defenses while he chose Alteration for further augment his body. This in turn resulted with gaining a wide variety of sacred arts geared towards defense.

The three men had requested these trials of her over and over again but to no avail, trying to escape the hell hole of an existence they had come to know under the iron boot of her amusements. They had struggled long and hard to get to where they finally were - spending hours upon hours of studying, training, gaining levels with their accomplishments and then losing levels via death for a final net gain. To hear her say those words of her own accord, none of them knew how to react.

“YES! OH GOD PLEASE!” finally exclaimed Michael as the other two started grinning widely and hugged each other. “It’s about time we get a move on out of here!”

She held up a hand before they went berserk in celebration of their newfound step towards freedom. “Now, now... We must be sure you pass these trials first before I let you go! They are designed to let me know whether or not you are ready, and how you will behave in future assignments I task to you. Expect the first of the trials to start tonight, though things didn’t progress as I had originally intended - I am sure that you will do much better with this go around. Please make yourselves ready, and do not disappoint me again!”

With a brief flash and crack of noise, the three men appeared back to the place they’d for so long been away from… They were back at the ruins they’d first arrived at those two years ago.

Cheers to a second chance.