Chapter 3: Collapse of Echoes
The world reformed around him — jagged and wrong.
Floating stone platforms hung in an endless black void.
The ground pulsed like a dying heart.
Above it all spun the Broken Wheel —
a rusted monstrosity stitched from bones, chains, and cracked time.
Other figures stumbled into existence nearby —
fifteen in total, dazed and shivering.
Some screamed.
Some prayed.
Saylor said nothing.
He watched.
---
> WELCOME, PLAYERS.
SPIN THE BROKEN WHEEL.
RECEIVE YOUR GIFT.
SURVIVE.
ASCEND OR PERISH.
A timer appeared in his vision:
> 00:30
A stone altar materialized —
a slot carved into it, large enough for a human hand.
The Broken Wheel creaked and whined overhead, eager.
---
Lucia Payne moved first —
a wiry woman with bloodshot eyes and a chain wound tight around her arm.
She approached the altar, trembling.
She pressed her hand into the slot.
The Wheel spun — screaming sparks and mist into the void.
A slip of burning paper floated down.
Lucia caught it.
---
The others followed in chaos:
Brant Mullen, fists crackling with kinetic sparks.
Marla Grant, defensive shields flickering into existence.
Deon Kells, stone fists and grim eyes.
Fear roiled between them like electricity.
Each player received a "ticket" —
some laughed in triumph.
Others wept in terror.
---
Saylor waited.
Not out of fear.
Out of calculation.
He approached the altar last.
He pressed his hand into the cold stone.
The Broken Wheel screamed.
Not spun — screamed.
Black lightning tore the sky.
The mist recoiled.
---
> ERROR: GLITCH DETECTED.
The slip floated down.
Saylor caught it.
Two words burned across the ticket:
> MIMETIC SPIN (GLITCHED).
---
The stone beneath his feet cracked.
The platform shifted.
The other players stepped back instinctively.
Lucia stared at him — half in fear, half in fascination.
Brant whispered:
"What the hell is he?"
Saylor simply smiled.
And the Broken Field shuddered anew.
---
Chapter 4: Summoned to the Field
The timer hit zero.
The platforms cracked apart, drifting further into the void.
Below the players, the mist boiled up —
twisting into tendrils, jaws, malformed arms.
The first casualty was almost immediate.
Nathan Vale —
a young man who had spun a "Wind Step" ticket —
tried to leap between platforms.
The mist caught him midair.
Dragged him down.
---
He screamed until he was a red blur in the black.
The timer updated:
> NOTICE: 14/15 PLAYERS REMAINING.
---
Panic spread like fire.
Some players jumped blindly between platforms.
Others fought off mist tendrils with unrefined powers.
Lucia lashed her chain through the mist —
grappling across chasms like a blood-soaked spider.
Brant detonated kinetic bursts to launch himself.
Deon grew stone wings and battered through the dark.
---
Saylor moved differently.
No panic.
No wasted effort.
He Riftstepped —
not teleporting, but slipping between broken seconds.
An ability mimicked from the mist's own nature —
half real, half dream.
---
Inside him, the Glitched Spin pulsed.
He didn't just mimic powers.
He adapted.
He evolved.
Each fragment of death or power nearby sharpened him.
---
The Field shifted again.
A bell tolled in the distance —
not a welcoming sound.
Something stirred beyond the Wheel.
Something bigger than mist.
Something hungry.
---
> PHASE ONE: FIRST GOD DESCENDING.
---
Chapter 5: The First Spin
The Wheel spun once more — without human hands this time.
It chose.
A monstrous shape coalesced beneath it:
A skeleton draped in rusted chains.
Teeth like daggers.
Eyes burning with ancient, mindless hatred.
---
> GOD ENCOUNTER: CALVARIX, THE BONE KING.
RULE: BREAK OR BE BROKEN.
---
The mist thickened around the platforms.
The Broken Wheel bled sparks into the void.
The Bone King raised a massive chain flail —
each link etched with dead languages.
Brant roared and charged first —
kinetic shields flaring.
Lucia darted in tandem — blood-chains lashing.
---
Saylor stayed back.
Watched.
Learned.
He saw the Bone King's patterns immediately:
Heavy, slow swings.
Telegraphed strikes.
Vulnerable between chain resets.
---
Brant struck first — a hammer blow into Calvarix's ribs.
The Bone King barely reacted.
A backhanded chain smashed Brant into a stone column.
Blood sprayed.
Brant gasped — ribs shattered.
---
> NOTICE: PLAYER INJURED — VITALS 35%.
---
Lucia circled, her blood-chains wrapping a leg.
The Bone King stumbled — briefly.
Enough.
---
Saylor Riftstepped behind Calvarix.
Phantom Echo strikes detonated along the Bone King's spine.
Bone cracked.
The god roared —
voice like earthquakes under water.
---
Brant, broken but breathing, rallied one last kinetic surge.
Lucia tightened the blood-chains.
Saylor Rift-blasted the Bone King's skull.
---
The Bone King collapsed.
Chains fell limp.
The mist recoiled.
---
> FIRST GOD DEFEATED.
TICKET GRANTED.
---
A new slip floated down.
Saylor caught it.
Lucia caught another.
The Wheel creaked above them — not finished.
The Field split further —
revealing new horrors below.
And the Broken Game continued.