The Witcher moved dancing under the moonlight like a torrent of blades, dealing precise strikes at the evading Zach.
Under the red moon light of the illunary canyon cavern Zach back-peddled an incoming strike from the towering knight.
Zach clenched his teeth glaring at the armored behemoth in contempt.
"What is this..?"
Zach skills were not working.
He had tried to activate the crescent slash but the system wasn't activating it.
A thought flashed in Zach's mind.
Could it be he was outside of the world itself.
That wasnt impossible because the gods created these games, when one enter a game they probably enter a realm where the system doesn't exist.
The idea wasn't impossible.
The Witcher slashed at him and Zach doged the attack by a hairs breath.
He spotted a weakness almost immediately and stuck the knights shoulder guard.
*Clang* *Clang*
As expected the iron knight didn't buldge and kept attacking.
Maybe the knight wasn't in the game to be defeated in the frist place.
Zach jumped back staring at the knight in front of him.
Maybe he wasn't actually supposed to engage in combat with the Witcher.
The games rules stared that the wither will chase him in the maze, and never for him to defeat.
Zach looked at the sky.
The sun was going to come out soon and he had to reach the flame to complete the game lest he'd be erased.
"The Witcher is just a distraction".
Think about it, the game rules involves the Witcher so it's not going to die because you kill it.
The only way to complete the misson and survive is to touch the flame.
Zach with this in mind sheathed his blade stepping back.
'Well..'
He bolted toward the inner maze leaving the towering metal giant.
Strangly the rusty knight didn't chase after him.
It just stood there watching him as he took a turn through the right lane.
[Seeker what do you want?]
'The deceiver..?'
The air shifted and Zachs life flashed before his eyes.
He watched how he struggled of the streets as a kid.
How his mum died.
How he was called a failure.
The information came in a rush of events that his eyes and ears began bleeding.
He crouched down in pain, clutching his head.
"Aarrggghhhh"
He cried out in pain as his skull felt like it cracked with limitless information.
'What do you want...?'
'What do you want...?'
'WHAT DO YOU WANT?'
The voice got louder.
The noise slowly dissipated, fading away into nitiong as Zach mind became dead silent.
"What do you want"
This one sounded calm, like a soft whisper.
Zach was in pain from the previous knowledge and his head ached.
What does he want?...
Zach Knelt in front of the deceiver.
"I want.."
He paused.
He wants so many things.
Money.
Power.
Respect.
Everything that makes a man..
"Free.." Zach muttered.
"I want to be free" He looked up at the shadowy figure.
"Free from what exactly" the shadow gazed down at him, the whole space echoing as Zach knelt in front of it.
"From the world". He admitted.
"From every that binds a man down, powerlessness, poverty, lack of greatness"
He looked at the tilnte moon.
"I want to be free from all of that" he said in a low voice.
The deceiver looked down at him, slient, as of pondering out something.
"You want to be free..."
"Hmm..."
The shadow wraith raised his hands and snapped it's finger.
The whole realm turned black.
[Stage 3 Cleared]
[Bonus round: 4 Kill the gate keeper and finally attain all that you desire...]
Zach read it.
[...Or die]
'The place is '
This place looked exactly like his internal world.
'Wait'
[Welcome to the beast of nothingness's internal world]
[Halo of death]
Zach's steps ripped all through as he walked, around in this oddly familiar space.
"Is this normal..?"
Zach had only read about stages in a few books but this was a bit too much.
The higher he number of stages the higher the difficulty of the fissure.
Keep in mind games are special themes and dimensional manipulation created by gods.
At least that what Zach was told.
Games are ranked based on fissure level.
Delta type Games-1 stage
Beta type Games - 2 stages
Omega type Game -3 stages
Gamma type games - 4 stages
Alpha types games - 5 stages
"Halo of death..?" Zach muttered.
In the distance the Witcher stood like a statue with it's blade held upside down in the middle of it's legs.
"He exhaled."
The rewards of completely even the lowest level game can grant you a tide-turning astra as powerful as a missile, while the strongest Astras are capable of releasing the power of an atomic bomb.
Zach stared at the Witcher hand gripping the hint of his blade hand nicely on his waist.
"Well now I have to kill you" he raised his blade.
How I'll it go?.
Zach with nothing but pure skill.
Versus an armored knight with astronomical strength.
*****
Back at the canyon Eli wandered the snow going towards the fire.
Surprising Zach didn't follow her since she knew how scared he was to be alone, but she couldn't dwell on it for too long though.
She had to find other survivors to know the situation going on around the fissure if she could just reach beyond the ice.
She took a turn to a circular field littered with thyxar corpses, blood littered all over the floor.
She stood near the wall peeking as a lone man sat on an ice berg in the center, roasting what look like thyxar meat.
A long straight sword resting on the log beside him as he ate.
"Who is that" she thought.
This man had short blond hair, and his back was facing her as he feasted, his shadow streached towards her.
He didn't seem to be wearing the western dragon enterprises uniform.
No.
This one was a bright white, stained with monster blood, and had a red outline.
The logo "Central Bank" was boldly inscribed on the back of the coat.
Wait.
She squinted.
That was the central bank logo.
One of the most powerful originations in the empire?, what are they looking for in this fissure, she crouched.
Eli quickly hid as the guy turned behind him.
"I know someone is there you know.." he said lazily.
"I can hear your heart beat from hear.." he groaned.
Eli slowly revealed herself from the covers. Saying nothing.
She didn't know weather to trust this person or not, after all they were working for two completely different organisations.
The guy faced the fire once more his gaze lost in the flames.
"Who are you..?"
Eli asked.
"I don't know".
"What?".