In the vast field, where the dead laid endless, waiting to either be burned or be abandoned and their souls cursed to wander in the dungeon for eternity until it was eventually merged with the Underkind, eight unlikely eyes glimmered with light.
When their eyes opened the Monk's legs finally gave up under the weight. The terror of the surprise tossed his balance and in a mere second he was on the ground.
"Survivors" he screamed, "survivors. They're here".
The scream of survivors had started to attract attention from nearby looters and estimators who looked to see what the noise was about.
An estimator raised his head from the number filled notepad he held in his hand and stared across the grey expanse for the signal that someone must have survived.
Through the thick rim of his glasses he witnesses an old man to his east point a decrepit finger at a pile of bodies that looked like they were hastily piled on top of one another.
He motioned for his assistant and they both went to were the monk was. When they got there they found that the Eight bodies the Monk had singled were still breathing, if only fraught. One of them was a big Zelion, the other, judging from the Acephon pendant in his pocket was from one of the major families, one bore the marks of the dissid lung, and the rest were all normal folk but was interesting was the scale of their injuries.
Their bodies already bore lacerations and lesions, tumor blots all before they even fought. They were supposed to be dead before they even got to the battlefield. How they lived long enough to fight and yet still survive befuddled the estimator.
He put his hand away from examining their bodies and commanded his team to take them to the hospital.
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Riley woke up to the sound of metal grating the ground. The screeching noise sounded like a siren blaring in her ears and so when she awoke, she tussled in the bed that she was strapped in and her tussling led her to fall off the bed.
For some reason her body felt immensely heavier that it usually is.
The hand that she put before her as a way to catch her fall was big and red, which startled her because she thought it was someone else's hand, but when she moved back and the hand moved with her and around her, she realized it was her hand but this only made her more terrified.
Her eyes scanned her surroundings and she realized she was in some kind of hospital, or perhaps a sick ward. The room she was in had grey walls that were stark and devoid of anything. Along the walls was a line of hospital beds and atop those beds were sick people.
Thick coughs filled the atmosphere of the ward. Riley looked to her left and there she saw a man, with purple splotches all over his face cough so hard in his hand, black blood came out of his mouth. He tried to hide the bandages that had been stained by the blood from his cough when he looked up and found Riley staring at him.
He tilted his head and opening his mouth, unleashed a smile that bared his soot colored teeth. The coughing took him immediately after. His body jerked after each cough and the blood that came out could no longer be held by the bandage as it became soggy and red and soon began to drip. And then, he released one big cough that travelled far across the ward before the silence settled in.
He did not move anymore and all Riley could do was watch and ask herself, "where the hell am I".
"You're awake" A man said as he entered the ward with a pair of nurses behind him. "Of course the first to awaken was a Zelion".
"Zelion"? Riley asked.
"Let's see" said the man as he peered his spectacles at his brown notepad, "Reveen Brakter. Soot cleaner, bodyguard and briefly a looter. Some police marks on your file, and somehow survived the final raid".
"What's happening" Riley said again, "where am I. Who are you. Where are my friends".
"Patient seems to have developed a kind of amnesia" the doctor wrote in his journal before he dumped it in his pocket. With a smile on his face, which looked like it was overworked and had not seen sleep in a while, he stretched out a hand to Riley.
Riley watched the hand stretch out in front of her, she watched it with an apprehensive front, but then stretched out her own hand to meet his, however upon doing this, she saw again how big and red it was and asked the doctor why her skin is the way it is.
The doctor looked confused, "You're a Zelion", He said, "You have red skin and strong muscles. You're tall, among other things, these are the basic facts of your race. I was going to ask you if you've fully lost your mind but considering you survived that hell that they call the raid, I suppose some confusion and amnesia is something we should be thankful for".
Riley had still not settled to the new world that she was in. Her eyes travelled to the desk drawer beside her bed that looked like it was made of stainless steel. On top of the desk was a pendant of a man in white bandages draped in a hospital gown.
The gown wore itself loosely on the man, like it was about to fall off. Riley knew immediately that this was some kind of rosary. Except instead of a cross it was a rectangle she correctly deduced was a bed. A hospital bed and the man on the rectangle was a patient.
A religion for the sick, she wondered as she spun the glimmering steel pendant in her hand. The memory of the Axis screen that appeared when she put on the visor returned to her.
The holographic screen that appeared in the weird space dictated that Riley, along with the rest of her friends had signed an agreement with an entity called the Axis. Riley tried to remember what was stated exactly in the agreement.
Almost like an unknown force had read her mind, a blue floating screen flashed in front of her. She yelped and it caused the doctor to look at her.
"There's a screen thing, a blue screen in front of me" Riley yelped as she pointed at what seemed like a screen to her but was just an invisible air to the doctor.
The doctor not taking his eyes from Riley, scribbled a few notes in his journal.
Riley figured out that she was making herself look insane in front of the doctor so she kept her peace and instead tried to look at the screen in front of her in a discreet manner.
It was a note from the being called the Axis. It read;
"Congratulations. You have made it to Svethlaad, the resting place for the sick. There are more information regarding this world and the way it works in the terminals of your axis profile and you should able to retrieve them at will. It is important you check out the information on the arcane ash and how they use it in this world.
However, I will use this medium to give you a brief overview of your mission here. Below Svethlaad runs a dungeon that goes down a hundred floors. The dungeon is a lifeblood for the people of the continent. The crystals and wildlife down there feed and power the straddling civilization that is always constantly on the brink. However because the dungeon is a dangerous place many adventurers tend to die- this provides its own benefits as their bodies can be taken and be burned for ash. Please see the terminal about Ash and its uses. Bodies that are not burned have their spirits loosened into the dungeon. They become dangerous spectrals who end up haunting other adventurers. Sometimes these spectrals merge and they become somewhat intelligent. Please see the terminal on spectrals for a more in depth explanation.
RIght now in the dungeon a mass of spectrals have merged together and become an entity known as the Undakwin. Please see terminal for more info about the Undakwin. Suffice to say, a great battle was ammassed against this entity but it was unsuccessful.
Many warriors died, including the bodies you all currently inhabit. This has posed a serious problem as it means more souls would be trapped in the dungeon, become spectrals and ultimately merge with the Undakwin. When, not if but when such a thing happens, the entity would breach the dungeons and unleash itself on the world. In case you may have noticed, there is a sickness to this world. It is very vulnerable and many people have already died.
Your duty is to stop the entity before it reaches outside the dungeon. Remember, you must not die before you defeat the entity. If you do so, your death would become a finality, therefore between now and when you mission is complete, try to keep yourselves alive. Visit the terminal on the resources I have provided you on how to survive and level up in this world. With that said. Good luck".
