An endless darkness filled my vision as I felt myself hovering…somewhere. Like I was suspended in air without sight, yet none of my hands or feet felt…well, they didn't exist.
Shit…did I somehow manage to fucking DIE-die?!
Just as doubt fully consumed my anxious spirit, a million stars bursted to lie around me, as if I were present for a distant galaxy's big bang.
"Congratulations, Thomas. I…truly hope I'll be seeing you." A distantly familiar voice said, sounding chipper as can be for my congrats, yet far more downtrodden tonally afterwards. Before I could figure out how to get a question out, the stars stretched into white lines all around me as I felt every fiber of my being compressed and thrusted through an endless space.
*ding*
"-ho-ho-oh my gods?! Did you see that shit?"
"All I saw was sheer Elysium dominance at the top 3!" Shouted a pair of the original water druid warriors to one another, excitedly slapping hands besides a massive wall showing the forest Cassi and I just fought at. The roar of excited voices filled the open metallic grey and black room. The same one we'd left our army behind after selecting our team, if memory serves me right.
"Woah, there he is."
"And her!"
"Sh, shut the fuck up." Groups of excited and nervous recruits bickered at one another as dozens of eyes locked onto me.
"Hey guys, hot damn it's so fucking good to see you folks." I admittedly shaking my head, feeling the weight of the quarterlies dislodge fully from my shoulders.
"Feelings mutual, champ." A familiarly snide voice called out from behind me, his very voice making my shoulder ache terribly as I turned to give him a handshake.
"Surprised you're not too busy fiddling with some shiny rock." I joked as Derrick's hand slapped against mine.
"I was, but Lonni called dibs on 'find Cassi' duty when you two finished beating the shit out of each other. Which by the way, nice work." Derrick replied, lightly socking me in the shoulder with his armored gauntlet.
"Thanks, I'm assuming you're saying that because I won though, right?" I asked, having yet to check the notification I received upon waking up here. Derrick rolled his eyes, shaking his head with an annoyed smirk.
"Duh. You cut it close as fuck though, I honestly thought you were done for a few times." Derrick replied.
"Hey! Get over here, champ!" Korbin's voice echoed across the room, causing every soldier to step aside revealing him beside Cassi and Lonni. Cass and I locked eyes, exchanging a glare before grinning at one another knowingly. Pointing out at her with both fingers, I let out an exaggerated laugh as I jogged over.
"Haha, gotcha!" I blurted out, rightly earning a light kick to the shin.
"It was a great fight regardless of coming up, try not to ruin it would, you?" Cassi sarcastically joked with a raised brow.
"Ohh I don't want to HEAR it about 'ruining' anything. What you two did was…smart. Mutiny, but smart." Korbin said, visibly settling himself down as he scanned over the army at our backs. The bridges that originally lead to the center of the endless spiraling walkway we met with other factions before the Quarterly was totally gone, leaving only a balcony to overlook the other factions' waiting pods.
"All three of you were incredible out there, regardless of who won." Lonni said excitedly, wrapping his massive arms around mine and Cass's necks. Korbin was the second closest behind Cassi, but he smoothly ducked under Lonni's arm as Cassi stepped by. I felt the big man's chest flutter though his thick armor against my cheek. Korbin strolled over to the balcony while all three of us shuffled behind him. Derrick strutted up on my side as we all gathered around one another.
"No need to gawk, soldiers! We'll be heading home soon, your reservation here is almost up, enjoy it while it lasts!" Korbin hollered to the army, as they all collectively let out a sigh of relief and resumed their conversations, still much quieter than the roar of voices I had arrived to.
"Alright, now that we've gotten out of earshot, I just wanted to say great fuckin' work to each of you. One way or another, a win this absolute can't be done without a team effort."
"Brigid was quite the testament to that one." Derrick said, earning a belly laugh from Korbin and Lonni. It took me a couple seconds to remember she'd only brought a pair of teammates to the Quarterlies only to be targeted by the rest of earth's elite warriors.
"No, haha, n-no but seriously, guys. I would've been way more mad at you two ganging up on me at the end there if you hadn't proceeded to beat the ever living hell out of each other afterwards. I genuinely wanted zero part in that scuffle." Korbin said, his eyes flickering with a quiet intensity.
"I had him. If we ran it back, I got Tom 6 times out of 10, easily." Cassi jeered.
"Would've ended it earlier if you hadn't stolen my kill." I shot back, recalling her snatching Korbin's elimination from the jaws of my victory. One I would've had over Korbin for a lifetime, now an already dwindling memory of what should have been.
"Hey easy with that, I'm 'kill' here." Korbin defensively interjected, earning a laugh from the entire group.
"Congratulations, Elysium. You have finished (1st) place in the 29th universe's first Quarterly Event! Your name and faction will forever be cemented in your universe's history, take pride in this prestigious achievement!" The system's effeminate voice announced, killing all conversation within our massive metallic waiting room. A collective sigh exited all 5 of our mouths as we listened from the balcony, the system's voice echoing off the walls of other waiting areas. Countless figures crowded their balconies, reminding me of the insane amount of contestants that took part in these damned Quarteries.
"As explained to your factions champions, all personal and factional rewards will be given automatically at the complete conclusion of the First Quarterly Event. Due to the diverse nature and time relativity experienced by our many noble contestants, each faction will receive a 10 minute grace period before being released back into the Tutorial. Your time starts now." The voice quickly concluded, triggering a notification's ding I noticed everyone else reacted to.
"Timer?" I asked, plopping down where I stood and electing to fully relax for a change, rather than race to read every notification the system tossed my way.
"Timer." Cassi confirmed after a short pause before joining me on the floor. The other three shared a few looks before shrugging and plopping down themselves. All 5 of us collectively sat around one another, enjoying a long period of peaceful silence. Even the other soldiers caught on inside the waiting area, dropping down to the floor by the dozens.
"Can't believe it's finally over. It feels like I've been waiting for this shit to end for a lifetime." Derrick said, tossing a purple stone around in his hand.
"It really wasn't so bad until I got back here. Seeing you guys fight for your lives while I wasn't sitting here was…torture." Lonni growled, his soft eyes trailing down to the ground. Derrick nodded solemnly in agreement sitting beside me.
"Well, luckily for you we handled ourselves just fine." Cassi replied with a chuckle, patting Korbin on his chest plate.
"Right, as if I expected anything else." Lonni said, turning away his visibly reddening cheeks.
"Puuuke! Ugh, get another balcony already!" Korbin heckled, earning a fiery glare from Cassi. Lonni's entire face turned bright red, glancing over at me with a little panic in eyes. I just smiled back, pantomiming a deep inhale and exhale signaling for him to do the same. As much as I want to send the lug spiraling in his embarrassment, part of me really feels like I owe him big time for that biting shit I pulled. Lonni relaxed, while Cass mercilessly laid into Korbin for getting his ass whooped by the two of us. They exchanged quips a few times, earning some cheap chuckles before finally calming down.
"Hey Tom, I really got to ask you, man. That whole biting thing uh…" Derrick spoke up, earning a stern sock in the arm from Cassi. A rune illuminated across the wall behind her, emitting white whipping wisps toward Cassi before slowly dissipating. Derrick rubbed his shoulder, then smirked while locking eyes with me.
"..so you're not going to try to, like eat me in my sleep, right? Because I have plenty of Tutorial Points for SO much cheese, name your price." Derrick finished, as Cassi fist raised up. Derrick and I both bursted out in laughter, earning some hesitant smiles from the group before they too joined in.
"Honestly though? I mean…I don't think it's going to be a threat. I'm really not sure where we stand in here right now, but it certainly feels like we've come to an agreement of some sort." I replied after the laughter finally died down, tapping my finger against my skull.
"Still saying 'we'." Korbin quietly pointed out, scanning me more thoroughly now.
"I genuinely believe 'we' is a completely accurate way to reference whatever I picked up during those loops. All they want to do is make sure we're alive, so it's not like it's all that harmful…" I said, as everyone stared quietly at me.
"Oh…right, I should say it's not harmful to my allies." I amended, seeing Cass rubbing the end of her perfectly healed nose.
"That's believable barring the fact you fucking bit me, but I still really think you should see some healers when we get back to Elysium. As much as nothing really is anymore, that scar of yours especially doesn't seem normal." Cassi said, arching her brow concernedly.
"She's right Tom. That stuff can't be good for me, man." Lonni agreed, nodding his huge head.
"I know, I know. I'll see what they can do for me." I said, immediately causing my back to become violently itchy.
"Yeah Tom, that stuff's just not normal, man. Can't go around having little spirit passengers like that." Korbin also deviously chimed in. I shot him a disappointed glare tilting my head to the side, Korbin immediately laughing in open guilt at his most likely intentional hypocrisy.
"You are an entirely different issue now. We seriously need to deal with that situation as soon as possible." Cassi very seriously replied to Korbin, addressing the dead god in the room.
"'Meh meh meh'. 'My name's Cassi, I'm the boss because I'm just strong without any caveats. Meh meh mehhh." Korbin childishly parroted back with a pursed lip.
"Good, I'm glad we're actually in agreement on something." Cassi laughed, shaking her head. The group continued to talk and periodically bicker with one another, subtly loosening the silent tension that had hung in every calm moment since we got here. Part of me felt compelled to meditate and face the rats after their intervening with the Cassi fight. Yet, the other vast majority of me simply yearned for a small reprieve from chasing skills and understanding. Right now, just for now, I just want to sit here and listen to my friends talk shit for a while…
"Attention, you have 20 seconds until you're released from the first Quarterly Event. Thank you all for your valiant efforts, and remember; the multiverse is always watching!" The system's voice announced, interrupting Korbin's hateful recollection of that real nihilistic light rogue. My muscles shivered, extending out wide into wonderfully big stretch as I clambered to my feet.
"Ugh, alright. Hope everybody packed their bags." I joked, pulling my arm across my body stretching out my shoulder muscles. The other 4 joined me on their feet, Korbin and Cassi quickly strutting past us heading toward the army inside.
"You heard the lady, folks! We're headed home!" Korbin shouted, earning a collective cheer from our army of human recruits and water druids. The sound of hearing our soldiers' hardy cheers pumped me up far more than I expected, their collective energy sending my heart fluttering with excitement.
"Attention! You will be released in t-minus 5…4…" the system's voice announced over the cheers, only further amplifying their excited roars. I glanced among my friends, feeling a final wave of pride at what we accomplished washed over me. It didn't really even matter that I got first place at this point, I'm just glad we had the privilege of seeing it through.
"3…2…"
My eyes clamped shut in anticipation, ready to feel the earth's crust sink around my boots.
"1…goodbye."
——————————————————————
A bright white light consumed my vision as I felt my entire form sucked through the floor, hurtling endlessly through a blindingly bright abyss. The same one I'd found myself in when we were teleported to the Quarterlies in the first place, only the time between felt much longer.
Woah?! I'm…so cold?
My eyes fluttered open, revealing a different, fluffier endless white as I felt my boots sink into the snow below. Raising my hand over my face to cover the sidewinding snow-storm, my bo staff dug into the snow as I did a scan across the storm.
What the fuck, what in the hells happened to earth?
"-om! Cassi! Korbin?! Where are you?!" Lonni deep shouting cut through the spiraling winds and snow constantly pelting my armor.
"Lonni! I'm here!" I yelled out, high stepping my way through the deep snow toward his voice. Several of our soldiers were wandering between us as I marched ahead, one of which I had to help yank free from a deep patch of snow. After several minutes calling out to each other and collecting soldiers, I finally ran into Lonni with a troop of giants and Phoebe by his side.
"Cassi! This way!" Lonni hollered, waving his hand for us to follow. Making our way over, a subtle orange hue slowly glowed brighter and brighter at their backs.
"Long time no see, good to see you. Have we got a head count yet?" I asked Phoebe, her fiery bow flickering through the snow storm.
"No not really, but Elysium is back there. We need to regroup now, before we can start taking roll calls!" Phoebe excellently pointed out, nodding in agreement as I wordlessly signaled for the soldiers to follow as we marched toward the orange glow. As the glow of Elysium became clearer into view, I leaned in closer to Lonni.
"Hey, has anyone seen Korbin or Tom yet?"
——————————————————————
*ding*
*ding*
*ding*
*ding*
Notification after notification flooded my ears jarring me awake, after the white light that invaded my vision was consumed by a painful purple energy. My eyes fluttered open, finding myself suspended several hundred feet in the air above an endless sea of unstable lightning mana. Chains made of pure lightning wrapped around my wrists and ankles, shocking me with an insane amount of concentrated mana with every twist and trash.
Fucking great, NOW what'd I do?!
"Thomas Murphy." A thunderous voice echoed, my head snapping my head up recognizing my patrons voice anywhere.
"Perunious! Oh thank uh, well, you. I don't know what happened, but you got to help m-"
"Cut the charade. My Chosen lost his will long, long ago. You, Galenthelos, have been found guilty of unlawful Spiritual Tamperment, and plotting to commit absolute heresy." Perunious bellowed in response, his entire giant lightning form erupting into a storm that consumed the sky.
"Wait…no I don't, you don't understand?!" I protested, as massive blue and purple streaks of lightning crackled all around me.
"By the laws and powers entrusted to the Aboriginals of the multiverse, your punishment is death."