"We grind and grind. We die over and over again. We are both aware and unaware of the fact that we do this for essentially the same reason every time, no matter the seemingly differing circumstances. Yet we continue undeterred. This world is different. Something comes back with us." -A Player

Chapter 7- Defenses

Charlotte, North Carolina

United States

May 25, 2020

Real World Time- 12:20 PM

Edward Andylon sat at the bar and took a long gulp from his pint. The pilsner went down smoothly, and he felt the coldness stir his belly awake. A nice chill Pilsner Urquell was just what he needed after a long night of work at the Police Department. Drinking on an empty stomach wasn't really the wisest decision he had made today, but veteran drinkers somehow managed to toughen their stomachs up from younger days of foolish drinking habits.

The bar was relatively empty. People usually didn't come to the bars until at least late afternoon. But in Edward Andylon's mind it was always five o'clock somewhere.

He brought his mug down on the wood bar a little harder than he had intended, and it indicated his frustration to the young cop sitting beside him.

The cop eyed him over the rim of his mug as he gingerly took a sip of his own drink. He was hesitant to ask about his partner's foul mood. Everyone at the station had discovered the hard way that any question that was even inadvertently related to his family life would result in a highly undesirable outcome. It wasn't that he didn't have a good family life. As a matter of fact, he had a wonderful loving wife and two kids who were smart, athletic, and would have promising futures if they stayed the course. The problem was that he was easily irritated, and since he was in this state most of the time at work anyway, it escalated into something much more fierce. He felt that it wasn't anyone's business what happened in his home life, and even if someone didn't intend to inquire about it anyway, it was his immediate assumption.

As the young cop was about to speak, he became distracted by a commercial that appeared on the television.

A pleasant female voice spoke as images of screened electronic devices appeared: cell phones, tablets, laptops, and so forth.

"Download the Puzzle and Dragons Viewer app to watch your favorite Players traverse the virtual world to wage battles and unlock its secrets. Add Players to your alert list to receive notifications when your Players enter dungeons or engage in combat..."

Andylon took another draw from his mug in disgust as the commercial continued. Video games were such a senseless waste of time in his opinion.

He noticed that his partner was watching the commercial with clear interest. There was a mesmerized gleam in his eye that Andylon still hadn't gotten used to.

The young cop pulled out his cellphone and accessed the internet via Wifi.

Andylon sighed with exasperation. "Terry, you aren't seriously doing what I think you're doing right?" he asked the question fully aware of the answer.

"Sorry boss, this is the first I've heard of it. Seriously, the technology is friggin amazing. You should just give it a chance and watch some of it. They even say that people's real life abilities are in the game too. Pretty damn cool if you ask me."

"It's a video game," Andylon responded simply.

"Well, yes, but...it's not like you hold a controller or anything. It's like you are really moving around and actually use your own skill to fight. It takes smarts and real ability."

"It's a video game," Andylon repeated.

Terry didn't push his argument further but instead went back to the commercial. The female voice was now describing elements of the game concerning Player stats, levels, the intrinsic scans, and free-roam ability. Viewers were able to see a Player's previous rank from the original game and could place bets on who they thought would be the victor at the start of PvP battles. Of course, viewers had to be the appropriate gambling age to place bets. Viewers also would be awarded magic stones for the original game for other special contests.

"Isn't your son participating?" Terry asked as the commercial ended.

Andylon grunted, "Don't remind me."

He ran a hand through his short, graying hair as if the motion would ease his irritation. It didn't.

Terry shrugged. "Well, I'll be rooting for him. Seriously, try watching it at home a bit to see how he does."

Andylon waved at him dismissively and went back to finishing his beer. He tossed a generous tip onto the bar and rose from his stool.

"You alright to drive boss?" Terry asked.

"I'll be fine. I hold my alcohol a little too well."

Terry laughed. "Yeah all those years of experience old man." He risked the playful jab.

Andylon humored him with a smirk. "I'm not quite fifty yet. When that time comes, you can call me old all you want."

He gave Terry a quick two-fingered salute and headed out of the bar.


The Virtual World

Pirugan Continent, Demeter Forest

In-Game Timer: Day 1

7:45 PM

Leilan drove her halberd through another taur demon as she subdued the previous with a swift kick to the lower jaw. She pulled her halberd free and swung in a wide arc that sliced the chest of a third taur demon that had entered the fight just a split-second too late. The taur demon stumbled back from the blow but managed to recover itself faster than Leilan had anticipated. It lashed out with its pitchfork and one of its points barely grazed Leilan's leg.

The fight was frustrating. She knew that if she had been at her full strength the taur demon with the chest wound would have easily been dead by now. But due to The Reversion, she was back to square one. Working towards her previous level of power was going to take some getting used to.

She finished off the taur demon and spared a glance at her Player partner who was fighting alongside the soldier named Carther. They stood back to back and cut down any taur demons that attempted to attack from the other's blind side. Ray's fighting style with his katana was rather clumsy when he took the offensive, but Leilan was amazed by his astounding reflexes. He had an impressive awareness of the battlefield, and once he finished off one enemy he would parry another from a seemingly impossible angle. In one instance she even saw him angle his blade to block the attacks of two separate enemies simultaneously. He was talented without a doubt, but he lacked true combat experience.

Carther was no stranger to combat. He gave Ray orders when the situations changed, and the two fighters would shift positions accordingly to better fend off their attackers. He leveled his glaive parallel to the ground and implemented an interesting technique where he would feint with a diagonal strike and then shift his weight to redirect it in a horizontal arc. This technique took an impressive amount of muscle strength and control. Leilan was amazed that he was able to execute it after all the battles he had experienced on the way to the outpost.

An explosion rocked the western wall of the outpost and a group of red demons flew through the sky in a mess of limbs and fire. The force of the explosion also knocked the shield demons off their feet, leaving them exposed for the crossbowmen in the towers to finish them off.

The soldiers manning the cannons ordered the wagons forward to get a better angle on some of the demons that had survived the first blast. They also moved closer to the outpost for fear of an ambush from the forest.

As Leilan cut down another taur demon she heard a familiar female voice by her side. It was Irina.

"I've never seen taur and pyro demons fighting together. Even blood demons joined in," Irina said. She sliced the throat of an approaching blood demon with her broadsword. The winged demon attempted to bring down its scythe with one last attack but received a fist to the face for the effort.

Irina was right. This was the first time Leilan had ever seen different types of demons fighting together. The various demon types usually kept to themselves and even attacked other clans if they intruded on the wrong territory. Some other force was at work here to get these fierce enemies to fight alongside each other.

The guards standing on top of the wall were managing to keep the climbing demons at bay. They resorted to long pole weapons since the archers and crossbowmen couldn't get a proper angle from the towers. One of the guards screamed as a black blood demon swooped in from behind and sliced his lower back. It landed on the platform and drove the pole of its weapon into the face of another guard. More of the flying demons settled behind the wall and lashed out, hoping to distract the guards so that the other types of demons could scale the walls. The archers just simply couldn't take all of the moving targets out of the sky.

Leilan broke off from one of her engagements to meet up with Ray.

She noticed he was accessing the database on his wrist. The restriction on the previous board must have been lifted. As the holographic screen appeared on his database, Leilan felt a surge of energy enter her body and weapon. However, she noticed that it was not nearly as potent as the energy she had received before on the previous board.

Leilan observed Ray and noticed a look of dejection on his face. He gritted his teeth and closed the database. He struck out with his katana in a vent of frustration and Leilan could now see multiple holes in his stance. His reflexes seemed slower, but he didn't appear to be tired in the least.

She decided it would be best to inquire about this change when the fight was settled.

The battle on the ground appeared to be well in hand, but the skies were turning out to be a real issue. She took flight and rammed into two flying blood demons with the armor of her wings.


Ray stared at the board of orbs and gritted his teeth in frustration. The barrier that surrounded him provided protection while he spent his time solving the board, but the longer he took, the more time he was away from the fight. He also didn't want to disappoint Leilan by giving her a meager portion of power. He was better than this. But the chaos of the fight, the people of his world watching him, the expectations of his partner, they all began to weigh down on him. And now he found that his mind went blank at random intervals for no reason.

He accidentally touched a water orb and began to move it around the board to start making the combinations. He realized at the last minute that he was dragging the wrong orb.

Dammit! No! I wanted a light orb!

There was no way he could amend his mistake now that he had already started moving the orb. He couldn't possibly get a combination of light orbs together, so he decided to make a third combination of blue orbs instead to at least increase the combo.

As he finished the board, it locked up with its big red 'X.' He looked to Leilan's stat screen.

The Divine Harbinger Suzaku, Leilan/Type: God/ Type 2: Attacker/Attribute: Fire/Sub-Attribute: Light/Health: 1,294/Attack: 918/RCV: 201/Active Skill: Southern Seven-Star Formation/Leader Skill: Dance of the Crimson Heaven

If Ray had picked up the right orb he could have made three combos of one light combination and two fire combinations of three. One of the light orbs on the board was all the way across from the other two it needed to match up with. There was no way he could use a blue orb to get it all the way across to the other two light orbs while also circumventing his pair of fire combinations.

Leilan's leader skill gave her three-and-a-half times more power if wood, light, and fire orbs had three matches or more at the same time. He first wanted to attempt to get these combinations, but then he realized that the only way her leader skill would work is if all three attributes actually attacked! Leilan could only attack with fire and light. Without another monster in his team with a wood attribute her leader skill was completely useless. Another major mistake.

He completely messed everything up. They were amateurish oversights, and if people in his world were watching, then they were probably laughing at him right now.

This realization only built on his frustration. He disengaged the barrier and attacked his enemies with wild strikes and ignored everything except for the opponent in front of him.


The last of the demons retreated into the forest, crippled by the lack of air support due to the god monster that thwarted any semblance of momentum that they previously had. The soldiers on the wall were once again free to deal with the enemies outside the gate, and the archers found that many of their targets were easy to pick off as Leilan herded them together in the sky. The demons in the field were cut down by Ray and Irina's forces with a limited number of casualties. Many others received a mix of minor and major wounds, but none of them were actually life-threatening.

The soldiers of the outpost let the wagons through and raised a victory cheer as the assisting soldiers of Millshore joined their comrades-in-arms.

The same hospitality was extended to Leilan, who was pleasantly surprised by the warm welcome.

The upbeat atmosphere was short-lived though as a pair of soldiers dragged a bound, thrashing blood demon along the ground. Its black, leathery skin was covered in splotches of purple and red blood. The guards who noticed the latter were reminded of how many comrades they had lost in the battle. The men threw the demon forward and it landed on its face at Irina's feet. It twisted its face from the dirt and gave Irina an even wider grin than normal. It let out a choked laugh. Her serious expression pleased it greatly.

Irina crouched next to the demon and gave it a frown of distaste. It gave off a disgusting, pungent odor as it breathed heavily through its grinning teeth.

The soldiers waited silently for Irina to speak.

"What are blood, taur, and pyro demons doing working together?" Irina asked the demon, "You little freaks have hated each other for years, and now you are suddenly working together. Why the sudden change?"

The blood demon cackled, "We have a similar interest among us. We love human squeals. So long, loud, and high-pitched. Even the male ones. I wish I could collect them in jars and listen to them every night before going to bed. Oh such pleasure. Heh heh."

Irina punched the demon in the jaw. She was hoping that some of its teeth would fall out so its stupid grin wouldn't be quite so annoying. She was out of luck. The demon licked its bloody lips gleefully.

"I'm not buying it. You creatures don't value your lives, so killing you isn't enough for me. I would sure like to torture you. I wonder if I'll enjoy your squeals as much as you enjoy ours."

The demon let out a choked laugh. "Oh my, don't put that disgusting image in my head. A human deriving in sexual pleasure, how disgusting."

Irina's eye twitched and she frowned deeply at the demon. It laughed even harder at her frustration.

The soldiers surrounding them shifted uneasily on their feet. Carther began to step forward, but Irina held out an arm to stop him.

"Please, let me kill this filth," Carther said angrily. He didn't like this demon playing such crude mind games with his commander. He knew she had it well in hand, but it still infuriated him.

The demon spit a glob of purple blood out of its mouth and laughed even harder.

Before Irina could speak again, Leilan stepped forward and crouched next to her and stared expressionlessly at the demon. Irina didn't move to stop her when she noticed the slight twitch of the demon's mouth as it grinned. The demon stopped laughing as Leilan examined it. It worked to retain its composure, but it was wavering, even if just a little.

Finally, Leilan spoke, "If you demons really do have such a common interest, then you would have taken advantage of an alliance a long time ago I'm sure. So I don't believe you either. Who or what is behind this?"

The blood demon chuckled with a mix of blood and phlegm. It didn't have long, but it decided to amuse itself a little further.

"Heh heh. The dark one. He sees all. He knows all. Heh heh heh."

Leilan didn't question the demon further. She knew that this was all the information that she would get out of it. Besides, the creature was near death anyway. The particles of data that began to float off its body increased in rate. The demon laughed hysterically until the very end of its life.


The Virtual World

Pirugan Continent, Demeter Forest

In-Game Timer: Day 4

2:16 PM

The days following the attack on the outpost were relatively quiet and uneventful. Small groups of demons of all different attributes risked exposing themselves from time to time to get a peak at what was going on at the outpost, but other than a few skirmishes out on the road with some caravan deliveries, the area was mostly free of any real resistance.

More mining parties arrived from Millshore to collect the ores discovered at the base of the mountain, and the increase in soldiers outside of the outpost made the miners much more comfortable and willing to stray from the safety of the walls.

The presence of Leilan and Ray also aided in lifting everyone's spirits. Some normal dungeons of novice and intermediate difficulty were discovered along the base of the mountains as the miners continued deeper.

Leilan saw a change in Ray from their battle at the outpost. She still recalled that last bit of energy she had received from him during that battle, and how weak it was compared to the first burst of power she had drawn from him. There was still hesitation in his movements, but as they made their way deeper into a dungeon, his concentration improved and his body flowed more naturally when in combat.

There was a look in Ray's eyes at times that seemed distant, like he was lost in thoughts that did not relate to the situation in front of him. He was a different person. A person who was elsewhere.

Leilan dismissed these observations. It didn't feel like the right time to address them.

They were doing well and gaining levels at a decent rate, while also developing a positive relationship with the people of Millshore. These interactions would prove to be invaluable, for even with the uneasy relationship between the people of Millshore and monsters in the past, it would make it much easier for at least Leilan and Ray to travel the area without any disturbances from the local humans. It was bad enough that the area was teeming with demon monsters and whatever else might be lurking out in the surrounding hills and forest.

Then, on the fourth day, a dungeon was discovered that was much different from the others.


A squad of Irina's soldiers escorted Ray and Leilan to the passage in the mountain where the dungeon was discovered. Irina had also decided to tag along out of curiosity. It was the first time it felt necessary to bring such a large group, but the soldiers felt uneasy about this particular dungeon. It wasn't a feeling they could readily explain.

The passage into the mountain peeled off with a steep descent, and everyone kept their hands free in order to make the trip down safely. The miners had explained that they had never even used explosives to discover the passage or resorted to any amount of digging. It was just there. A few of them decided to venture a look, and that was when the massive stone double-doors were discovered with the strange symbols etched around them.

They arrived at the door after a few narrow, dangerous curves that brought them spiraling down through a misty darkness. It was illuminated by a light from some unseen source. It was too deep to have any light from the outside. The presence of the door was enough to indicate that it was indeed the entrance to a dungeon.

Leilan and Ray approached the large door and examined the symbols at its sides. A roman numeral three was etched into the right side of the door to indicate that it was a special dungeon. These dungeons were rare, and were typically much more difficult than normal dungeons. According to the game guide, these dungeons could also have rare materials for creating and upgrading weapons and items.

There were three straight vertical lines like tally marks on the left side of the door that indicated it was also a special dungeon at the expert level.

Ray had only been in the virtual world a few days now, and he found that the other dungeons were not too difficult due to Leilan's combat skills. But taking on a dungeon of this level so early might be biting off more than he could chew.

Leilan eyed him as he began to weigh the possibilities of success based upon their experiences in the other dungeons.

"What do you think?" Irina asked, interrupting Ray's thoughts.

He answered her, but did not take his eyes from the stone door, "I'm not sure. Leilan and I are gaining strength pretty fast, but that typically happens in worlds like this from my experience. Earlier on it is much easier to gain levels, but as you get higher and higher, it becomes increasingly difficult and requires more experience. That being said, the previous dungeons have proven to be pretty simple despite just two of us fighting. It might be doable."

Irina tilted her head in confusion. "Wait, you've been to other worlds like this?"

Ray shook his head. "Well, no, not necessarily. Not physically at least. But I do know the basics of how these worlds function. Let's just say I've been exposed to situations with similar criteria."

Irina nodded in understanding, but Ray could still see the lines of confusion on her face.

Everyone became distracted by Leilan as she moved forward and rested her hand on the door. She closed her eyes and seemed to be listening for something. Everyone around her stood silently until she opened her eyes and backed away.

She was struggling to hide it, but Ray could see the slight narrowing of her eyes as she analyzed the door.

"Something the matter?" Ray asked.

"We need to enter this dungeon," Leilan answered immediately.

Ray walked up next to her and stared at the door as if there was something there that he had missed. Obviously, there was nothing of note to Ray.

"Why do we need to enter this dungeon so badly?" he pressed.

Leilan shook her head. "I can't explain it. I just know."

"If we fail this dungeon then we could lose a lot of the experience we gained from those other dungeons," Ray said with a tinge of apprehension.

"I am aware."

"There's only two of us, and we can't even use your leader skill yet without another monster in our team."

"I know."

Ray sighed and rubbed the back of his head. It was a movement that showed he was nervous, but if Leilan was so insistent upon attempting the dungeon, then he really didn't see how he could argue. It was going to be a tough dungeon without a doubt. He would have to be at the top of his game, but he hadn't been for the past few days due to his nerves.

He remembered his first day in the Departure Tower when he fought alongside the tamadra to take down the many floors of monsters. Their teamwork had been spot-on during the fights, and his orb combinations had turned the tamadra into a force to be reckoned with. But now...

Leilan placed a comforting hand on his shoulder that woke him from his thoughts. Her gesture was soft, but her eyes had a hard intensity as they analyzed him. Ray wouldn't have been surprised if she knew what was going on just by reviewing his face.

At that moment, Ray decided not to think. Leilan's eyes were telling him not to. The soldiers gasped as he placed his hand at the center of the door. A smidgeon of light appeared at the top and drew its way vertically down the center. It disappeared into the ground and the doors opened silently inward to reveal a brightly lit cavern.

Irina stepped forward, peered into the cavern, and let out a low whistle. "Well, at least it's lit up," she commented.

The rest of the soldiers drew back instinctively as if they expected the monsters inside to start pouring out. The cavern remained silent.

"We need to head back to the outpost," Irina said, "I wish you luck. It's crazy, but apparently you monsters and Players can't die. Not really sure how that works. So either way, I will probably see you this evening. I hope you return with success."

With that, she signaled for her men to head back the way they had come. She risked another quick glance back over her shoulder as she made the ascent, but found that Ray and Leilan were already gone.


"Do not think," Leilan said as they made their way along one of the winding paths in the cavern.

Ray stared uneasily into the various passages that lined the cavern walls. He barely heard Leilan's words; one: because he didn't want to hear them since they only reminded him of his past incompetence; and two: thinking about his past incompetence made him worry about precipitating similar mistakes.

Leilan's words became insistent with her now forceful tone, "You think too much when you are fighting. You do fine at the beginning of a fight because you have no time to think about consequences once you become engaged. But when you have even a moment of breathing room, you start to think too much, and your thoughts most likely stray towards the negative. At the end of the fight, when victory is assured, you begin to relax. You put way too much pressure on yourself, and that leads to self-doubt, which then clouds your judgment and makes you stiff."

Ray was amazed that she had figured out this much about him in just a few days. She must have been watching him closely in their short time together. Ray wasn't sure how to react to all this.

"What are you over-thinking?"

Leilan stopped in front of him on a narrow natural bridge and turned to him purposefully. Ray took a step back as she gave him that hard stare.

At first, Ray thought that her stare was an indication of a critical opinion of him, but Ray now found that it held not a shred of judgment. It was simply a matter of understanding. Her question may have been rather blunt, but it just paralleled her intense personality. There was not a shred of anger to be seen in her eyes or her tone. Ray couldn't quite place it, but her straightforward way of speaking was something he wasn't particularly used to. It wasn't necessarily unpleasant either, even with his reluctance to discuss the subject.

Ray settled his hands on his hips and stared up at the ceiling of the cavern. It was difficult to find the right words.

"You are doing it again," Leilan said.

Ray stared at her in confusion.

"Thinking. Even now you do it too much. With me, I don't want you to worry about coming up with the perfect choice of words. There is no such thing. Just put them together correctly. That is it."

"Okay. Anxiety," Ray blurted out. He took Leilan's suggestion and just threw out the first words that popped into his head. He had heard the word from himself and other people his whole life.

Leilan waited for him to continue.

Ray forced himself to stare straight at her. It was difficult.

"Yes, you're right. I tend to think too much. I am the type of person who thinks negatively about things before considering the positives. I worry that other people will get hurt because of my mistakes. I also hate disappointing others. There."

There it was. He laid it all out.

Leilan smiled. "Well, that's more like it."

Ray tore his eyes away from her in embarrassment. Expressing his personal flaws to someone he had just recently met was not a usual occurrence. He knew that she now understood what he meant about disappointing other people; after all, she was among them.

"As we move further through this dungeon," Leilan continued, "I want you to shut all of that out of your mind."

Ray waited for her to continue but soon realized that she was expecting some sort of confirmation from him.

"Right, got it," he answered, "I'll work on it."

Without another word on the subject, Leilan continued leading him through the dungeon.

Easier said than done, Ray thought.


Seattle, Washington

United States

May 25, 2020

Real World Time- 3:40 PM

The Gamemaster walked along the line of computer stations as all of his staff continued operations for streaming the events of the virtual world to the public. Large monitors were mounted all over the walls with tables mounted underneath, supporting machines that monitored Player vital signs, neural link compatibilities, intrinsic setting synchronization, and so forth. On the front wall was the largest monitor that depicted a pale white image of a young female who sifted through collections of data that she gathered from her observations of the virtual world.

The AI, Lo, truly was the finest master of her craft. The data that she delivered to the workers at their stations was awe-inspiring.

The Puzzle and Dragons Viewer app was largely successful, just as predicted, already surpassing one hundred million downloads.

The Players had proven to be more competent than the Gamemaster had ever hoped. The battles in the Departure Towers were just a taste of the kind of potential the Players had, and they would only get stronger during the next few days.

The view count had gone up dramatically a couple hours earlier when a young female entered a skirmish almost immediately following the completion of her respective Departure Tower. She and her monster partner had been ambushed by a group of highwaymen, and the sound of battle had reached the ears of some taur demons that were also passing through. It became a three-way battle with the female and her monster emerging victorious.

Thinking back to the battle once again aroused the Gamemaster's curiosity. He went back to his station and pulled up the files of the girl and her monster.

The first bits of their files read:

Player File #564:

Subject: Lucy Cranston

Gender: Female

Blood Type: O

Height: 5' 5''

Weight: 110 pounds

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Brown

Game Attribute: Water

Monster File #1265

Subject: Ethereal Guardian Seiryuu, Karin

Gender: Female

Type: God/Physical

Attribute: Water/Dark

Rarity: 7 Stars

Active Skill: Eastern Seven-Star Formation (Changes all orbs to water, wood, and dark orbs)

Leader Skill: Dance of the Rising Dragon (Attack x3.5 when attacking with water, wood, and dark orbs types at the same time)

His reading was interrupted by a flashing alert in the top-right corner of his computer screen. He clicked on the alert and an image popped up of a young male Player in black armor walking alongside a female monster wielding what appeared to be some sort of pole weapon. They were in some vast cavern.

The Gamemaster accessed the dungeon's layout and jumped between different viewpoints in various chambers to see what opposition the two would be up against. The dungeon was mostly empty, and he frowned at this peculiarity. The icon in the bottom-right indicated that it was a special dungeon, but there seemed to be nothing interesting of note.

He reached the last chamber and panned the screen back and forth until he came upon an individual that crouched near the back wall of the chamber. The monster wore gold armor with angelic wings folded on the back.

The Gamemaster analyzed the monster and pulled up its file. He scanned over it quickly and his excitement grew.

This! This is it!

He rose from his seat and shouted to his staff, "I am sending a transition file to a number of you! We have a Player who has entered a dungeon in the special category. This is going to be an important fight ladies and gentleman. Let's give our viewers a show shall we?"

If the fight went well and his people did their job, the view count would easily double. This was going to be the first true fight in the virtual world. It was going to be a battle between God-type monsters.


The golden knight swam in a sea of his conjoined thoughts and emotions. Fear melded with joy, and anger became constricted by deep despair. He felt an uncomfortable pulsing sensation behind his eyes and faded cracks appeared and mended themselves over his vision like bursting branches of veins. A crimson hue like a shadow crept from the edges of his vision. He breathed heavily as the strange power of the chamber weighed itself upon him and intruded within his very being.

He forced his head down and stared at one of his armored hands.

Something had been there. Something had been in his hand. But now it was gone. Was it something important? He couldn't be sure.

He had no feeling. If there was no feeling, then how could he even care in the first place? Every time he strayed to consider his thoughts the hostile red in his eyes seemed to tremble with anger at his resistance.

My name...

He had a name. That was right.

The red that intruded upon his eyes enveloped them and piercing pain seemed to stab throughout his brain. It was a torture that threatened to rip away his existence, to discard it into a limbo that would leave him floating without purpose or meaning. He wanted to grab his head with his hands to numb the intensifying pain, but his body froze against his will. The spasm of pain subsided briefly, but it lingered just outside of his consciousness, as if daring him to defy it again.

My name...Ver-

The evil red stifled the thought, and then he knew no more.