The King caught Lyn looking at him intensely, perhaps a little angrily, as if he really wanted to hear what Decimader said happened next. Or was it… that he knew what happened next? Wait… why did he think that? That didn’t make any sense. I really need some sleep, Decimader thought, rubbing his eyes with exhaustion. My thoughts aren’t making any sense lately.
Decimader continued, “Now, to wrap it up, you need to understand that no Godra died during the whole fifty thousand years, though new ones were certainly born. It turned what was once a small group into an absurdly massive, intricate society over the millennia. Things got too complicated, too fast, and well… there was a massive coup, which sparked the old clan war mentality all over again and destroyed the Godra before they could complete their original mission given to them by the first deity.
Gaien fell apart without their guidance. I – only about a thousand years old at the time – was the leader of a small faction who saw sense and tried to save things. It was too late. The rest of my comrades got caught up like everyone else and… they were all killed in the fighting. But through some divine hand, I think, I alone managed to survive. The last member of the Godra race, I took leadership of what was left of the crumbling world, and built the Dreamscape you see today. It’s far from perfect, I know, but I was able to preserve something that maintained highly-intelligent life here. The other races, I couldn’t stop them from dying out, but I could save my family’s own human race just in time. That’s why they call me ‘The Hero’, although I’m a bit uncomfortable with the name.”
Decimader paused, realizing he was speaking increasingly fast. He intentionally slowed down and took a deep breath. “You know the rest. I formed the Legion to find the lone Heir who was created before the downfall of the Godra, for he is a threat to the entire human race’s survival. He is the reincarnation of the most prominent warmonger who destroyed my entire race. As the leader and protector of the entire human race, I won’t let that happen. I swore to myself a thousand years ago I would protect my people at all costs. That hasn’t changed.”
Decimader turned, hands on his hips, and looked at Lyn. “Now you understand the context. So… you’ll do it, I assume?”
Lyn, for some reason, seemed both disappointed and disgusted at the same time. He was trying to hide it, but not well. Decimader was confused at his reaction. Maybe he was just seeing things; he was so tired, as it was. Regardless of what he thought, Lyn walked forward and clapped his liege and friend on the shoulder, smiling.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll do it.”
Chapter Twenty
They came for him at 4 AM.
Lyght had been asleep, regenerating his spirit level, when the door had banged open all of a sudden, revealing a military sergeant he had never seen before. Without any explanation or apology, the loud stern man had driven him out of bed, bid him to dress and to follow him downstairs. When Lyght tried to protest, the man had simply whipped out a thick black rod from his belt and cracked Lyght across the knee with it. After a few moments of blinding pain, Lyght had asked the man, eyes watering, who he was and what he was doing here. All the man had had to say to that was, “Me? I’m one of your instructors. Follow me, and stay quiet.”
So, still groggy and confused, Lyght had followed the military man down the stairs and out of the hotel. Lyght walked with him now, shivering slightly in the chill morning air.
After a few minutes of walking in silence, glowering at this unexpected intruder, Lyght gave up the tactic and just sighed, running a hand through his hair, “So… where are we going? And why this early?”
The sergeant was silent for so long Lyght thought he wasn’t going to answer. Finally, the man cleared his throat and said in his stern voice, “You should be asking what you’re going to be doing.”
The sergeant shook his head, for some odd reason looking disappointed. “But since you asked, we’re going to Zone Zero – the training ground for the Legion. The terrain has been set up as an obstacle course, to put it very lightly, by the Academy instructors – of which I am one – under the direction of Lyn, the Legend you met who runs the Academy. You and all the other trainees will be subject to a highly difficult test of your overall strength, speed, skill, intelligence, and fortitude amongst other things. It’s something you may have heard about. We call it “The First Test.”
Lyght sighed and rubbed his eyes, still feeling groggy and disoriented. And distinctly annoyed. This was what happened whenever he was woken for some reason during his spirit regeneration cycle; it was a thoroughly disconcerting experience that Lyght hated. For when a Dreamcaster’s body was regenerating, most bodily processes – including heartbeat and brain activity – were slowed to near zero to reallocate energy elsewhere where it was needed. Usually, the body was able to rev up slowly for a couple of minutes if one was about to awaken. To be woken up suddenly like that however was a really awful feeling.
Lyght just gritted his teeth and tried to control his frustration. He couldn’t let himself be distracted at such an important time. He knew from talking to Lyn on the journey to Glory just how important this test was. It would determine the initial class rankings, and it was these rankings that, apparently, played a role in who got selected for the Legion at the end of the program and who didn’t. It was all-important not to fall behind at the beginning, as the fierce competition made it difficult to come back.
After about a ten minute walk along the shorefront of the channel, they exited the Heart of the city and trekked through the Belt for another half-hour or so. Both parts of the city were pretty thin in radius this close to the channel and this far east, and so it wasn’t long before they emerged out of the Belt and into the flat, open country. Only a few minutes after that they ran into a massive dark steel-link fence, reaching the channel banks and continuing as far as the eye could see. The sergeant walked them over to the nearest gate and pressed his palm against the lock. It clicked open. Lyght frowned. How did he do that?
Regardless, there was not much time for thought as the sergeant ushered him inside and gestured to the surroundings in front of them. “Welcome to Zone Zero, training ground of the Legends themselves. Dangers abound here, and nothing is safe. Know that nobody is watching over or protecting you during the test. Everything you and the other contestants get yourself into, you will have to deal with yourselves.”
“Be warned: people may die. Let’s hope you’re not one of them, eh?”
Lyght tried to look confident, and he thought he pulled it off, but he could not help gulping a little bit. He clinched his hands to steady them, slowing his breathing and analyzing the terrain. Terrain was critical. It could give him the advantage he needed to win.
They stood on the lip of a rough ravine – it was clear at the top, but a few hundred feet ahead it became heavily wooded as it sloped down gently. What was beyond that though, he couldn’t make out. It was hazy and indistinct. He thought of increasing his eyepower with Dreamcasting, but held off for now.
Wait. Get the rules of engagement first. Don’t use power before you know what you need to do with it.
So Lyght turned with his hands on his hips to his straight-backed companion, frowning, “Well?” Lyght asked. “Hmmm?”, the sergeant replied, gazing out at the horizon. Lyght put his hands out and asked, “What am I supposed to do here? This is the site of the first test, right? Well, what is the test, and what are the rules? Who, or what, is involved? How do I pass?”
The sergeant grunted. “I was getting to that.” He put one knee down in the cool, dusty ground and whipped his knife dexterously out of its sheath to draw on the ground. He started by drawing a large oval. “Here”, he began, “is the entire Zone Zero training ground.” He drew dozens of little stars around the oval, roughly equidistant from one another. “And here”, he continued “are the thirty-one students that will be taking place in this test. You are, obviously, one of them.” Lyght nodded.
He drew another, much larger star at the center of the oval. “This i
s the destination you must reach to pass the test. This is, very simply, a pass/fail test. If you reach the base in the center, you pass. If you don’t…” A wide smile spread across the man’s face. “Well, you get the point. The catch here is that there is no straight path to the base, although it is only a few miles away. The Zone has been set up as a maze of sorts, a highly dangerous and confusing obstacle course that means it will take a significant combination of skill and intelligence to reach the center.”
“Also”, the sergeant stood up, “you will notice that whether you pass or fail is not simply up to you, but the other test-takers. Only about a fourth of you, if that, will be selected for the Legion, so one might observe that you would be well served to… eliminate the others’ chances of reaching base.”
The main point is; your fate here depends on others. Not just yourself. Got it?”
“I…”, Lyght began, but no sooner had he opened his mouth then an earsplitting siren went off. The sergeant jumped slightly and retreated backwards, raising his voices as only sergeants can, “That’s the start! Oh, and by the way, you have a one hour time limit to reach the base. If you do not reach it within the hour, you will fail”. He glanced at Lyght for a moment, then turned and walked back to the Dark steel gate. “Good luck. You’ll need it.” And with that, he slipped back through the gate and closed it. As it banged shut, Lyght tried to analyze his surroundings, thinking.
Turning slowly, Lyght suddenly became blindingly aware of the fact that he was alone and unarmed in a field of thirty enemies. And he was still so, so tired. He rubbed his eyes hard, willing himself to concentrate. It was not easy. Just under an hour and a half of spirit. Why did they have to wake us up so early?
As it was, Lyght was glad he had stocked up some spirit from the day before, because he had not regenerated a whole lot the night before – maybe a half hours’ worth. As it was, he was slightly below three fourths capacity. He had to be judicious with how he used his power, especially as he was in an arena with thirty other enemies with the same powers that he had. If was as if you took his power away and asked him to fight thirty normal people. How in the world was he going to do that?
And then, it occurred to him. It wasn’t much, but it was something.
Not thirty enemies, twenty-nine.
Lyght knelt down in the dusty earth and placed his right hand palm-down on the surface. With a burst of focus, he sent a short spike of spirit deep into the rocky ground. He moved his Dreamcasting touch rapidly outward through the ground, enlarging its area and rate of increase as he went. He could leave already searched ground behind, which was the big perk of this style of communication. It saved energy.
After a couple minutes of searching, growing increasingly frustrated, Lyght detected another shifting in the earth adjacent to his. Mikael.
Lyght jumped up and jogged over to the tree line, eyes sweeping back and forth. He seemed alone for now. The chill wind picked up rapidly, blowing through his hair, as he ran along the tree line for a few hundred feet, then curled around an enormous pine trunk and hurtled into the woods. The wind lessened dramatically as soon as he was in amongst the thick pines. Lyght checked his location and set his course, nodding. He had detected Mikael’s power about a half-mile away. Luckily, they had not been placed too far from each other on the perimeter of the oval. Hopefully neither would run into an enemy on the way.
Lyght couldn’t help but smiling slightly as he eased into a steady run, pine needles crushing under his feet. This form of messaging, of code, had been his idea originally. He had only come up with it about six months ago, in fact, during their preparation meetings about their mission to destroy the Dark. The basis of the code was that they could send slight forces through the earth at a particular depth they had pre-selected – two-hundred-seventy feet – and seek out the other’s force. Where they met, they would leave the force in the ground there, and meet at the spot. It was a good idea in case they got separated, and a virtually unbreakable code they could communicate with. Who would think to look two-hundred-seventy feet into the ground with Dreamcasting or anything else, or even be able to decipher why the dirt was being shifted around down there?
Lyght took deep breaths of the crisp, pine-scented morning air as he continued trying to wake himself up. The forest was oddly quiet and still. He didn’t hear any animal life or any singing birds. Nothing. It almost felt… creepy. Like it wasn’t even real. Lyght shook his head. He still felt slow and out-of-it. That would have to change, and fast.
Not more than a few minutes later, Lyght rounded a small hillside and jumped a wide creek at its base with a touch of Dreamcasting, landing in a crouch on the wet leaves below. Oak and maple trees dominated the area, with all the pines now behind him. It was subtle, but he thought he could tell that he was in a different part of the “maze” now. Although it was forest, the terrain and tree species were certainly much different. He had also had to go around a few annoyingly placed hills to reach this spot. It was indeed a maze. Lyght felt like this was only the beginning of it.
He straightened up and put his hands on his hips, panting and looking around. Normally, a run like that wouldn’t have winded him. Unfortunately, he just didn’t feel very well right now. This test was pretty bad timing, to say the least.
After less than a minute of waiting, there was a rustling in the leaves of a maple above. Lyght tensed, but it was Mikael who jumped down and landed in a spray of leaves, looking as tired as Lyght felt. Mikael checked the surroundings and nodded to Lyght, pausing to catch his breath as well.
Lyght eyed him, “What, no witty comments? No complaints about how ‘easy’ this is? I’m disappointed.”
Mikael just shook his head, “Not today. Honestly, this guy woke me up right in the middle of my regeneration cycle. It’s really annoying, but I can’t even really think straight right now. Looks like I’ll have to rely on you to do all the thinking for me, I can still carry out a plan. I have about an hour and ten minutes stored up to use.”
Lyght turned and scanned the forest, trying to figure out what to do next. “No”, he said absentmindedly. “I mean, no, I’m not really able to think straight either. Same thing happened to me. But you heard the rules, right? We’ve got an hour to get to the base in the center, or we lose. So, I guess we’ll start to head over there, right?”
Mikael looked up and frowned, “Hang on, we’re forgetting something here. I was told that it might be a good idea to take out other contestants. If they don’t reach the goal, all the better for us – if we stop them here, they’ll drop in the rankings. We can significantly reduce the competition later by knocking some people out now.” Mikael grinned wickedly, seemingly more awake now, “C’mon, you know everyone else will be by themselves, we can take anybody two-on-one. What do you say?”
To be honest, there was a lot of sense in what Mikael was saying. And yet…
“No, Mikael. We can’t afford to waste our time on that right now. We just need to concentrate on reaching base ourselves. If we get tangled up in something too big, or get drawn into a prolonged fight, we can miss the deadline even if we win.” Lyght began to walk towards the base.
Mikael put his hands out and protested loudly, “What, so you’re saying we give up on the chance to knock other contestants out? This is a big opportunity! I really don’t think we can pass this up, Lyght.”
Lyght stopped suddenly, “No. No we can’t.” Mikael seemed confused at this sudden change of heart. Lyght spun back and began pacing, his mind seizing on to a brilliant possibility. “We do need to keep going, now, and get to the base. That way, we can ensure that we don’t run over the time limit. But when we get there, we can wait by the base and set an ambush for anyone who gets near it, knocking them out. If things get too intense or time gets too short, we can always turn around and head into base. With two of us, we should easily be able to ambush and overpower a single contestant who gets near.”
Lyght saw Mikael’s face light up as he was talking. Mikael strode
over and clapped him on the shoulder, laughing, “There’s the genius of Kona, back at it again! I honestly don’t see how you manage this on so little sleep…”
“Yeah, yeah. It’s not that great of a plan, it’s obvious.” Lyght turned away for a moment, pleased nonetheless. Putting his right arm out in a fist, he looked back at his friend. “Ready?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be, I guess”, Mikael replied, stifling a yawn, yet still reaching out his left fist to meet Lyght’s. With the plan set, the pair darted away into the wilderness, surely not far from the goal now.
To Lyght however, the journey seemed to take forever. From when they had left the creek, he estimated they had around forty minutes left. He thought it would take no more than ten or so minutes to reach the base, but he was wrong. They first encountered a hidden pool of quicksand which Mikael had to quickly save Lyght from. Heading a different way, they quickly found the path led only to a very steep cliff drop-off, with a strange yellowish pool below. They could’ve jumped down, but it didn’t seem right.
Tracing back and taking the other fork, they were forced into a network of dark caves that they backtracked out of after realizing they didn’t have enough time, lest they get lost. Finally, as the path had only led towards the cliff and the caves, the decided to jump on a large fallen log and drift down the adjacent river, which soon began to flow rapidly as other tributaries joined the creek. It took them almost thirty minutes of the forty, by which time they were too far down the river and beginning to really worry, before they whipped around a corner and rolled along adjacent to a beach landing. Lyght looked out into the woods, and his heart leaped in his chest as he saw it – the base, standing several hundred feet off into the trees. It was a wide, dark one-story building, yet still stretched hundreds of feet in each direction. It almost looked like some sort of broken-down factory.
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