“No!” A bloodcurdling scream tore itself from Langa’s dry throat as he looked at the body of the young man on the floor, and tears ran down his cheeks. He wanted to scream, rip his brain out and tear it apart for betraying him like this. The pain gripped him hard, yet he could not express it because right now, his body was not in his control. He looked at the boy’s lifeless body and whimpered. Why did it have to end this way? This child lost both his lives trying to protect him, and Langa could not do a single thing for him. He was too weak and powerless to even protect one child. Pain, tears and anger overwhelmed him so much that he felt like they would all break him into pieces.

Disbelief coloured every fibre of his being. This could not happen again. Not to a child who had been nothing but kind to Langa. His curse had struck again, stealing the boy’s luck, his life and his karma, using it to strengthen Langa. Nothing had changed in the 20 years since his father’s death.

In his mind, the memories swirled, of all the times that Makoto followed him around, worried for him and tried to protect him. The shared laughter and mirth of the previous night felt like a knife in his racing heart. His anguished cries turned into muffled sobs of pain and disbelief.

Kindaro and Ghol continued talking, oblivious to his unstoppable anguish, and that more than anything else, fuelled the rage in Langa’s heart.

“What the hell? I didn’t get his karma! The skill clearly said that I would get his karma!” Kindaro looked both pissed and confused.

Langa wanted to laugh. He got Makoto’s karma because of the promise that they had made in the presence of The Unrivalled all those days ago. His curse was working overtime to give him power on the backs of the misfortunes of the people that he cared about.

“What? Did you do the incantation wrong?” Ghol asked in surprise, her boot leaving Langa’s back, walking over to her prince.

”Watch yourself! Of course, I didn’t. It’s like the karma is just not there,” Kindaro snapped. “Shit, is it because of the Void surrounding this altar? Did it suck away the kid’s karma?”

Langa bit his lip and stayed quiet. He could feel his stamina returning, slowly, and he had no desire to draw their attention, not until he could fight back.

Ghoul’s ears suddenly twitched, and she looked up. “Your Highness, hurry up. Liv’Kungsadu is coming. I can feel him. Complete the ritual! You know that we can’t defeat him!” She shouted, snapping Kindaro out of his anger and frustration.

“Damn it!” Kindaro said, anger still in his voice, even as he once more raised his staff, and started another chant. This time it sounded like a song, like some sort of whistle.

Just as the skill took form, Langa felt his mind start to clear. He saw the brown aura surrounding Kindaro start to pour into Makoto’s dead body. He could only look on in horror at what happened next.

Suddenly, Makoto’s dead body stood up. His neck wound was still open, but the blood coming out of it was no longer red, it was now black. His eyes opened and they were also pitch black, empty with no life inside them. They looked like Calpu’s eyes in the previous battle.

Langa’s heart sank. This bastard had turned Makoto into a fucking zombie?! Killing the boy was not enough, did he have to defile his body too? Makoto would not be at peace in this state, as nothing more than a puppet to Kindaro. Langa hated this, he hated Kindaro for this. He hated himself for being too weak to prevent this.

He had to do something and now was his only chance, as it seemed that whatever skill Kindaro had used in reviving Makoto’s body had loosened Kindaro’s control over him. It seemed as if the ritual took away a lot of his mana. His mind control was not as strong now as it was before, and Langa latched on to that tiny wisp of a weakness in the skill.

While Ghol was distracted watching the entrance for Liv, Langa reached for Tonare with his clearing mind, picked it up, and threw the spear right at Kindaro’s head.

”He’s almost here!” Ghol shouted at the same moment that the spear left Langa’s hands.

The spear flew through the air and hit Kindaro right in the exposed eye that was not covered by his mask. Blood flowed from the eye profusely, and he raised a hand to stop the blood.

“Shit! You son of a bitch!” he screamed, clutching his head. There was a sound of the door breaking behind him. “I’ll kill you! Fuck, Ghol, Ascend!”

“No!” Langa screamed as Kindaro, Ghol and Makoto’s body all disappeared into nothingness. Tonare fell to the floor.

They were gone.

He couldn’t even bury Makoto. He couldn’t even put his soul to rest.

Darkness rose over the altar, and black shadows whispered to him in the darkness. His whole body quivered with both rage and pain as despair overtook his mind. The self-hatred, lamenting over his weakness shook him to the core, and he could once more feel his mind slipping as the shadows pulled him into them.

 

[Warning!! You are being pulled into a Void Territory.

You are under the Chaotic Mind debuff!]

The words swirled in front of him but for some reason, they felt distant. Someone was calling his name, but the darkness kept encroaching into Langa’s mind. The world turned red for him. The pain in his hands was forgotten as he thrashed around screaming. This was his fault. Why did he get attached to that kid? A face appeared in his mind, another person who had died because of him, even though he could not fully remember it.

His father.

His mind swam in the dark redness, and it swallowed him. The walls closed in on him, and he could not breathe, he was trapped once more in that car, in that room, in that rage. Suffocating, his whole cursed life stemmed from that one moment, and he was unable to escape any of it. No matter how hard he screamed, the walls did not get any wider, and he remained trapped, trapped in the darkness and the memories of loss, loneliness and suffocation.

His mind was in chaos.

 

Langa was 21 again, reeling in anger after another argument with his brother-in-law. That man had the talent of not just pissing him off, and making him feel bad about both himself and his curse, but also triggering the worst of his trauma. He felt trapped in his own home because of him.

“Langa please, don’t go. Reconsider,” his sister begged him. In times past, seeing her desperate face would have calmed him down, but not today.

”I can’t stand this anymore, Sis’Thandi. What more should I do for him until he’s satisfied? Does he think that I chose to be like this? That I like seeing the people I love suffer? Why is he blaming me for Neo getting arrested?” Langa shouted. The room was starting to feel so small that he could not breathe.

”I’m sorry, he’s just upset that you’re leaving now. We’re all going through a tough time at the moment. The family needs to stay together right now, we need to be strong together,” his sister said, trying to reason with him.

But this was not what Langa needed to hear. Not after giving up so many things in his life for this family. Not after living his life as his brother-in-law dictated, to stave off his curse. He had been only a child when his father died, but it seemed like every single day of his life, he was reminded that it was all his fault and that after having taken his father’s life, he did not deserve to live his life fully. Just once, he wanted to honour the man who gave his life for him, but when he mentioned it, Kgosi had gone berserk, berating him for his insensitivity, blaming him for every single misfortune that the family had gone through.

”For the fucking family? For umndeni, sisi? How much more must I do? I bought you a house, sisi, I sent your children to school, I built you a clinic… hell, I funded every single one of your husband’s failed businesses, but he still treats me like this?” Langa screamed.

He’d held it in for too long. Ever since he started living with his sister and brother-in-law, he’d been good, kept his head down, he’d lived up to their expectations no matter how much it suffocated him. He’d lived passively, never stirring the pot, just letting life pass him by. He ran for them, took endorsement deals with sportswear brands to make money for them and he gave them everything. His sister, his nephew and his niece appreciated everything he did for them, ever since he was a child, but that bastard kept treating him like he was nothing.

”I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Langa,” Thandi cried, her tears paining Langa even more than his own. He hated seeing his sister cry. His sister sacrificed everything to raise him after their mother abandoned him. His sister withstood all of her husband’s complaints about Langa and always took his side. Langa loved his sister more than anyone else in the world, and he hated that bastard, Kgosi Tlou for making her cry.

”What’s wrong with me wanting to go to Egypt? I want to learn more about the ancient myths and gods there that my father was studying. You don't get it, even though Mum was terrible to both of us, at least you were raised by your father, I lost mine!” Langa’s voice broke, and he fell to the floor on his knees. “I may not remember everything clearly, but Baba died saving my life in that car, and his studies on ancient myths and gods are the only things I have left of him. Am I not allowed to have even that piece of him?”

He looked up at his sister, his head ringing. Her face was filled with pain, guilt and sorrow. There was no escape for Langa, not from anything. No escape from his past, no escape from his curse, and no escape from his broken mind. “Please, Sis’Thandi, let me go. Everything is weighing me down, and I can’t take it. I’m choking on all of it, and I can’t escape. This room, this house… this whole fucking world, it’s suffocating me,” he cried.

Everything was black and red, and no matter where he looked, the walls were closing in on him, trapping him, there was no way out. He could cry out for help and beat at the walls until his fists were bloody, but there was no escaping the darkness.

Thandi placed her arm around him like she always did whenever the claustrophobia hit him too hard. “Langa, nkanyezi yami, breathe for me, please. Open your eyes, and look at me. You’re here with me, you’re safe. There’s lots of room. All you need to do is open your eyes. You’re okay,” she said, and her words brought him some comfort on that day.

 

But not today. Today, the red darkness circled him, creating chaos in his mind from that great fear, and her voice fell away into the emptiness, that unending Void. He could not hear her anymore.

It felt like Langa was back inside that burning car again, his father screaming. He remembered trying to get out, but everything was dark, and he was trapped. Back then his father had given his life to save him, but this time no one was coming to save him, no matter how hard he banged on the walls. No one was watching over him and no one would tell him that he would be okay.

In this unending Void, he was alone, and that emptiness was eagerly approaching him, feeding on his fear.

The redness around him turned the colour of blood, and the stench suffocated him. He could hear loud voices crying out in pain. His head was on fire, and he did not know when this pain, this torture would end. He reached out blindly, and his burning hand found Tonare.

He needed to escape from this Void, he could feel it eating away at him every second. Fear made him tremble, his heartbeat picked up, and he could feel his pulse as if it were in his throat. It hurt. The pulsing beat of his heart resonated with Tonare. It felt for a second as if he and the glaive aligned on the same wavelength and some lightning emitted in spurts from the glaive. It felt strange because he had not activated the skill yet, but he kept holding Tonare tightly. In his daze, Langa thought he heard a voice from inside the glaive, crying out his request for help.

For a brief second, no, it was less than a fraction of a fraction of a second, a message appeared in front of him, snapping him out of the stupor he was in. And then the message promptly vanished.

 

[The Deiwos Clan god: The Lackadaisical Herald of The Lightning Storm, is watching you.]

 

He gripped the spear tightly. Watching him? Someone was watching him, which meant that he was not alone. He was not empty, and he was not going to die here. ‘I am in control,’ Langa thought, repeating the mantra in his head to find more clarity. He was in a whole new world teeming with danger, but even so, there were gods in this world. Immortals who could see all, see the pain in his heart, the fear that he’d always confronted alone. There existed beings who could watch over him.

Yes. Beings whose power he could borrow to kill Kindaro. He latched onto that desire for revenge. He would rip him into pieces for wrecking his mind like this, for killing a child that Langa had wanted to protect, for desecrating Makoto’s corpse and turning him into his undead mana battery. Langa would pay the karma back in blood.

‘I am in control,’ Langa thought, and his mind cleared.

[The Onslaught of The Dark Void briefly turns his eyes towards you.]

 

“Langa! Please, please wake up?! Come on!” A desperate voice shouted, and Langa opened his eyes and swallowed the health potion that Liv was force-feeding to him. “Oh, thank the gods. You almost fell prey to the Void. No matter how much I called out to you, I couldn’t reach you. You were gone. You scared me.”

There was a desperate, distraught look on Liv’s face as he helped Langa to sit down. “Thanks,” Langa said, his voice parched.

So that was the power of the Void? That overwhelming redness that struck straight into his fears? No wonder the god who created it was known as The Onslaught of The Dark Void. It had truly felt like an unending onslaught in his mind, reminding him of memories better left forgotten. He might have been swallowed by it if that Deiwos Clan god had not looked at him at that moment. That prompt from the god had distracted him from his fears long enough to snap back into reality. If not for him, Langa would have lost himself.

As he thought about that, something else came into his mind. Was this place, the tutorial, not supposed to be hidden from other deities except for The Great Quartenity? Was that not what Sigurd had told them before? The Dark Void looking at him, and The Unrivalled being present here, he could understand, after all, they were both members of The Great Quartenity. However, the Deiwos Clan god was not one of them. If so, then how was that god able to-

“I’m sorry about Makoto. Kindaro and Ghol took him away when I was distracted with killing the maestril. Damn it!” Liv cursed.

“You can’t save everyone, Liv. Besides, you warned me that Kindaro would come after Makoto. The careless one was me,” Langa told him, fists clenched as regret weighed him down.

“Still, I could have done more.”

The pain was still there, still shaking him in a way that he’d never felt before. He could still see that boy’s face, lifeless in front of him as he lay on the cold, hard ground. He was taken too soon, and Langa could not come to grips with his death.

He reached into his inventory and pulled out the mana stone that Makoto had given him, a few days ago when he went to search for his Calling. He’d never used it, since his skills didn’t use that much mana, but that stone was still here. It was the last thing he had to remember that boy by.

“What happens to the soul if a player’s body is brought back as an undead?” he asked quietly, looking at that stone.

Liv hesitated for a second before answering, “It depends on the class of the person who performs the skill… For someone as precise and well trained in his magic as Kindaro, it’s possible that the soul is trapped inside the mindless body, like a slave.”

Langa’s hand tightened around that stone. “How do I free him?”

“You have to kill him. And I don’t mean Makoto either, because no matter how many times you do it, Kindaro can bring him back,” Liv said quietly. “You have to make sure that you kill Kindaro as often as it takes until all his respawns are used up.”

If you’d asked Langa a week ago if he would be willing to take a life, he would have said no, not unless his sister, Neo or Khaya’s lives depended on it. But right now, thinking of Kindaro’s smug face, his smile as he fought alongside him, and the fact that he killed Makoto using his own mana, Langa’s heart burned to snuff out his life.

”Then I shall kill him a thousand times over until I can save that boy’s soul, and let him find peace,” Langa said, solidifying his decision.

“I can’t fault you for that. If you need my help, I will give it.” Liv ran his hands through his hair and sighed. “The Void is encroaching on this world. The others have all left, so let’s Ascend. I told you before that I need to talk to you about something, but we might not end up in the same starting city. I don’t know which guilds will end up receiving us, but I promise that I’ll contact you on the comcer, okay?”

Langa agreed. There was a lot that he didn’t know, and having a person from a natural world like Liv by his side would be a great help. He wanted to know everything he could about the Kindaro family, and why in their struggle for power they saw fit to drag innocent children into their family matters.

The pain would always be there, and if he let it, the grief would consume him. So, Langa did what he did best, compartmentalising. He was a bit calmer now. He pushed away everything that broke the calm laziness of his mind to the background. Pushed it far into the background where lay the memories of his father. ‘I am in control,’ Langa thought, repeating the mantra in his head. He had to live in the now, but he would not forget the bad karma he had with Kindaro. He would make him regret every action he took today. Now, he had a reason to Ascend the Tower.

He closed his eyes, willing his heart to calm down. He could not control his attribute yet, and it would not do for him to lose control because he was upset about Makoto. It surprised Langa sometimes how quickly he could push aside traumatic things in his mind and return to his normal calm. Maybe it was a strength or maybe it was a mental disorder that caused his mental resistance to be so low. He had no idea.

“I’ll see you on the 1st Floor,” Langa said, clapping Liv’s shoulder. He picked up Tonare. “Ascend.”

*

The world fell into silence, enveloping Langa in a feeling of emptiness and nothingness. He felt as if he was floating in a vast river of stars. The river shimmered with a mixture of colours each more intricate than the last. That thought alone was confusing, because he was in a river, but there was no water. He could not swim, yet he was not drowning. And then he sensed the presence of four beings, their eyes fixed upon him. These beings were beyond his comprehension, their mere existence overwhelming his mind. Well, that was just his mind trying to rationalise it, because their gazes did not feel like eyes, not really. Instead, they felt like essences, presences, and karma that could destroy him into nothingness. Yet, the four just seemed to surround him, doing nothing. Even though he was from a lost world, there was only one group of four deities that Langa knew about, the first four gods that the Creator ever created.

"Be not afraid, little one. Do not agitate your soul," a feminine voice said, and it sounded as if it were coming from everywhere, and nowhere.

Langa could not help but feel afraid. Was this what it meant to Ascend?

"No," another voice spoke, its tone much gentler. "We have interrupted your Ascension. This is your Pre-Ascension Assessment. Once you Ascend, you will not remember this, so do not worry, child."

Oh, that put Langa at ease, after all, he felt like he was wide awake, but his eyes were closed. All he could do in this emptiness, was feel. He wondered if this assessment was standard procedure, if every player had to go through it before entering the Tower.

"As if we would concern ourselves with every dumb mortal that our dear sister deems worthy of passing her insipid tutorial," a deeper voice interjected, irritation dripping from every syllable. "This is a privilege afforded only to the top ten of every tutorial batch. We simply need to determine if you are worthy of our attention, or if you, like every other domain-less seraphim, will be stuck at Tier 10, gathering stars, and unable to shed your mortal coil."

"Why bother with the explanations Chaos? I predict that this child will return to me before he even reaches Tier 2," a derisive voice chimed in. Langa shivered at the sound, finding it more terrifying than the others.

"Enough of this. Let us proceed with the assessment. I do not wish to remain in my foolish brother's presence any longer than necessary," the second voice said, annoyance evident in its words.

The first voice, the one that Langa had heard upon arriving in this place, spoke again. "Mortal child, relax and allow your soul to perceive. Tell us, what do you sense? Think it in your mind, and we shall know."

An essence surrounded Langa, filling his entire being with warmth. It reminded him of the day his niece, Khaya, was born. He'd been worried about his sister, but when he'd walked into her hospital room with Neo and his brother-in-law, he'd seen the tiny bundle in her arms. Even as a child, he had been awestruck by the sight of this little human in his sister's arms. This wonderful essence was reminiscent of that day.

This was the essence of life.

"A-Rank. It could be better, but his magic potential is too low, and he may not be able to form a mana core," the second voice, Life, declared.

Then, a deeper essence started to fill him, from the bottom of his feet. He disliked the crawling sensation it brought, and it made him hyper-alert. Memories flooded his mind, of his sister holding his hand at his father's funeral, memories of Makoto's lifeless body, and Zombie Calpu's rotten skin. He wanted to shy away from it and run as fast as he could, but there was nowhere to go. Grief overcame him, and he felt as if he was losing himself. He despised this draining essence.

This was the essence of death.

"What is this nonsense sister? His potential is C-Rank. How can you see potential in a child whose mind is so feeble that even my lowest level Disciple can penetrate it?" Death said in disdain, and Langa would have protested, but he was honestly just glad that the essence was gone from him. He did not think he could bear any power worse than that.

He was mistaken.

The next essence that washed over him caused his entire body to convulse and sent his mind reeling uncontrollably. All that Langa wanted was for it to stop. It reminded him of the few minutes that he had spent trapped in the Void, his mind shattered, unable to form a coherent thought as he relived his most painful memories.

This was the essence of chaos.

"I want him. Such a weak mind would be easy to mould into a Daeva. Ah, but his potential, should he choose the right deity, is S-Rank or higher, so making him my Daeva would be a waste. Perhaps a Disciple, then?" Chaos wondered out loud.

If there was someone that he did not want as his patron deity, it was Chaos. His time in the Void had nearly broken him, and the thought of willingly subjecting his mind to that chaos was terrifying.

Suddenly, a different essence penetrated his mind. It washed away the chaotic thoughts, filling Langa with peace and serenity. It felt as if his entire mind and body were neatly organised, with nothing out of place. It reminded him of when he was a child, sitting on his father's lap as he read him stories, of picking flowers with his sister in summer, of playing video games and laughing with Khaya, and of going drinking with Neo at Pranav's tavern after school, teasing each other about the people they liked. It reminded him of the only times in his life when everything fell into place.

This was the essence of order.

"Impressive," Order said. "At a minimum, his potential is C-Rank, but with the right deity, A-Rank is not only possible but a stepping stone to immortality."

Langa was confused, they all gave different rankings, so what was the point of this? When he started to wonder if it was over, he felt a hint of another essence. This one reminded him of his days running in the forest at his rural home, past the green vegetation, it reminded him of watching the sea in Durban, of taking the cattle to the dam to drink water, and it also reminded him of his own existence. Yes, this was the essence of everything that existed.

This was the essence of creation.

"Well done, child," Order said. "This is your final assessment, you have A-Rank potential, but it can go higher, especially if you take the Infinite Challenge. I hope that we can meet again like this in less than five hundred years, when you are a seraphim, to judge if you are worthy of shedding your mortal coil and becoming a deity."

It seemed that he had passed their test, and he was glad of it. It was not every day that someone was judged by The Great Quartenity and passed.

Just as he thought the assessment was over, something else encompassed the air. It was a weak, malevolent essence, but he felt it. It was a violent, forceful and unending barrage of essence that threatened to devour everything about him. It reminded him of the accident, of the car going up in flames as he screamed in pain, watching it burn with his father inside. It was a filthy essence that caused everything in its path to rot and decay. This was a raging impurity that ate away at everything and led to destruction.

This was the essence of corruption.

The four entities around him were quiet, and Langa could feel them watching him in surprise. Had he done something wrong?

"He felt it," Death said, his voice having lost its earlier irritation.

"I can scarcely believe it. No one has felt it in... hundreds of years," Life said, his voice excited.

Order, however, was the one who sounded the most shocked. "How could he have felt it? He's from a lost world! There is no way that he could have come into contact with him and lived. You must have messed things up, Chaos... what did you do?" she asked.

Chaos laughed heartily. His laughter filled the entire space, and it carried a whiff of amusement and joy. "Why do you always blame me when things go wrong, sister? This time it was not my fault. He's branded, besides I'm sure that you saw it too, Father's Visage pulled this child out of my Void. That's probably why the child can feel his essence."

Even though she spoke calmly, it was clear that there was aggravation in Order's voice. "I know that, but it was barely for a fraction of a fraction of a second. The child must have had some prior contact with this essence for such a small interaction to awaken his sensitivity to it. That's almost unheard of, even among the branded."

"That is not important." The air seemed to get thinner as the essence of death intensified, filling the entire area. Death spoke once more, "Why is Father's Visage suddenly active now? Did he not abandon his duties, and choose to live a slothful existence away from our cause? What could that fool have possibly seen in this human boy?"

"Who knows, maybe he likes the child, or perhaps he was just trying to attract Order’s attention like he always does. But he interfered in your tutorial, sister. Are you just going to let him be?" Life asked.

Whatever was left of death in the air dissipated, and it seemed as if the essence being released now put everything back where it was supposed to be. "Of course not. Adtonifulmin will be punished, like all the others who tried to disrupt order in my tutorial. Now, I have Towers to build, and a soul to reincarnate. We are done with all the assessments, brothers. Let us go."

Was it over? Langa could not understand what the four of them were talking about, but it did not seem like they were going to punish him for feeling that essence.

"Hold on one second, Order. This child has my Void Star. Surely you won't allow him to take it into your Tower? You hate voidents, so let me take it back, how about it?" Chaos asked eagerly, and Langa felt his heart sink. He'd earned that Void Star. He had no idea what it was, but it was his reward for killing a maestril all by himself and living to tell the tale.

"It is as the child thinks. Besides, as long as he does not use it in my Tower, I shall not punish him. But if he does use unauthorised void magic, he will receive the same punishment as all the other voidents. Now, let us release him," Order said to her brother.

In the next moment, the river of stars disappeared and a path appeared in front of Langa's eyes as the essences guided him. He remembered that he had been somewhere magnificent a second ago, but right now, he had no idea what had happened to him there. Once more, he saw the thirteen pathways that he’d seen when he was first teleported to this world, as well as the insubstantial fourteenth that was ever-changing. Two of those pathways lit up in front of him, one silver, one brown.

All he could feel were these essences. The essences of The Great Quartenity, leading him and all other mortals, to the Tower. Beyond the four great ones, stood another, much more powerful essence, or were there two of them? It was unclear to Langa’s mind. Either way, he felt content in this nothingness carrying him somewhere, and he closed his eyes.