I woke up on the couch the next day, and Lesky and I left the village, following our compass—the hologram that appeared thanks to the bracelet—showing us the way to our first trial: that of Daïs, the Darkness. I truly dread this first trial; after all, we're talking about darkness—blackness, monsters, nightmares. At least I know I have an ally I can count on to save my life.
We had a five-day deadline to reach the trial site. We didn't really know how long it would take to get there. On the way, Lesky and I got to know each other better. We talked a lot about technology and history, exchanging a lot of information. We became close quickly; I don't remember ever having someone my age this close to me in my life.
I'd always been close to the people in the asylum, but there were few children my age there—and no one I really got along with. They were all a bit… special. My parents told me that Dena takes in children with potential, especially semi-humans she rescues.
I found out that Lesky had traveled from place to place and endured very dark times under slavery. She told me she'd been used as a weapon to kill enemies, sometimes as a servant to wealthy nobles, and sometimes as a woman for rich old men. She had crossed through most eras, and what surprised me was that after the years 2100—in my own contemporary time… I wonder what they ended up calling that age—but anyway, she told me she never left her lamp, and her last memory was of the world being struck by a deadly epidemic.
Her former master had lost the lamp she lived in, and she woke up only a few days ago, completely lost from what she told me. I felt sorry for her—she had been asleep for centuries. I would hate for that to happen to me; I've already lost 50 years since my kidnapping. The upside is that I've kept my body intact.
We decided not to take the main roads or pass through villages. If we rationed carefully, we could last for several days. We didn't want to run into potential bandits, enemies, or worse—that lunatic Romuald.
Along the way, we also saw other participants in the distance heading in the same direction as us, but we didn't approach them. We also spotted monsters now and then, and they became more frequent the further we went.
The monsters we saw were black shapes, completely made of darkness, imitating the forms of humans, animals, or even objects. They didn't seem aggressive toward us—for now. I imagine they might be minions of Daïs. Aside from the monsters, we encountered survivors—ordinary citizens trying to get by. Some groups seemed peaceful; others seemed more fanatical and unstable.
After five days of walking, we stopped when we saw that the compass was pointing toward a massive mountain. It was far too large for us to climb, so we decided to go around it. But as we did, the arrow still pointed toward the mountain, which meant we had arrived… yet there was nothing in sight—no tower, no village.
"It's weird there's nothing here… Is this compass broken?"
Lesky shook her head and pointed toward what looked like a warehouse, with old rusty machines used for mining tunnels and collecting minerals for transport.
"If it's the Deadhorse of Darkness, it has to be inside the mountain… or underground, you see?"
She was right—Deadhorses were probably always in their own element. We approached the place Lesky had pointed out. There were several abandoned campfires, and in front of the mine stood two people I immediately assumed were participants. I put a hand behind my back, ready to draw my gun and shoot if necessary. But when I glanced at Lesky, she placed her hand on my jacket sleeve.
"Aristeus? Is that you?"
One of the two figures turned around and suddenly smiled at Lesky. He had a relaxed air, green hair with a slight yellow tint, a short white jacket with green stripes, a black t-shirt, and black jeans. I noticed the green tattoo on his face—was he an Ankari, these are a species mixed with duck, they tend to have green tattoo on their head as well as feathers, I guess they are probably hidden by his clothes, they are very good swimmer from what I heard and they can also fly which is pretty rare for a race to be good at swimming and being able to fly
The person next to him was a woman who I guessed must be in her twenties. The first thing I noticed were her orange wings and the feathers on her head, and when she turned around, I could see her cold face and red eyes. She wore a gray suit jacket along with a uniform that looked quite school-like. I imagined she must have been a student, like me—maybe already in university—and she was probably a Gypsari, a semi-human mixed with vulptures, they are viewed as impartial and they lives on the south in the kingdom of Okarie, they normally have black wings but some can have red wings, these are rares but it happens from what I heard.
The green-haired boy walked closer, and seeing his cheerful attitude, I abandoned the idea of considering him a threat. He came over to Lesky and hugged her—a gesture I found rather intimate. I couldn't help but ask Lesky:
"Who's he?"
To which the boy replied:
"Whaaaat, what kind of question is that?"
"Oh right, let me make the introductions," Lesky said, smiling at me as she pointed at the boy.
"This is Aristeus. He's the first person I met who lives in this world and is also taking part in the games…"
She then turned to Aristeus.
"This is Roxy. We met after I saved her life… Some participants have been trying to kill her."
I sighed when I heard that, but it was true—I seemed to have a target on my back, and the real reason was still unknown to me.
"Nice to meet you. And who's the other one?" I asked, pointing at the woman with wings.
"That's Pendo. We met on the road. She's an heir of the Deadhorse of Darkness."
Pendo gave me a cold look—I guessed she didn't appreciate me pointing at her. Thinking about it afterward, it wasn't very polite.
Pendo eventually stepped closer to us and, with a small sigh, said:
"And you two? I think I know the Deadhorse of the pink-haired girl, but you?"
I hesitated to tell her my Deadhorse. After all, Trickery wasn't exactly the most noble of them—there were worse ones, but also far better ones. Still, since Pendo was an heir of Darkness, I decided to admit it.
"Ninety-four, Trickery… That doesn't mean I'm untrustworthy. Since I arrived, everyone has tried to kill me."
I told them a bit about my adventure since I woke up, and even when I listened to myself, I thought I'd had a really crappy start. I just hoped these two wouldn't try to kill me too. But now I noticed Aristeus was the only heir whose Deadhorse I didn't know, so I turned my head toward him to ask:
"And you?"
"Me? Competition. Number 62—Concoursia," he said proudly. I had figured there was some kind of aura of battle and challenge about him.
"So, what now? I guess you're all here for the trial of the 99?"
I nodded and ended up saying with a slight complaint:
"Yeah, but it's pointing toward the mountain."
To which Pendo replied by pointing behind her, toward what seemed to be the entrance of a mine.
"I can feel the Deadhorse of Darkness nearby. I guess it's thanks to the bond between Daïs and me…"
"Can we form an alliance?" Lesky suddenly asked. I turned to her, a little panicked. An alliance with people I didn't know and didn't trust? No thanks. But since Lesky knew Aristeus, I decided to give them a chance.
"I'm in," said Aristeus with motivation, and Pendo—who seemed as reluctant as I was—eventually agreed. Finally, they all looked at me, and with a slight nod, trying to hide my doubts, I said:
"Alright…"
Aristeus turned toward the mine entrance, smiling.
"Then, let's go!"
And he headed toward the mine entrance first, and we ended up following him. Old torches had been lit and placed against the mine walls—well, that was at the start, but we could tell it wouldn't last long. So we each took a torch and ventured into the mines.
We came across creatures of darkness, but they seemed uninterested in us and moved away from the light. However, the problem with these mines was that they formed a huge labyrinth, with tunnels branching left and right, and we had to rely on Pendo's sense for the presence of Daïs.
As we kept moving forward, a question came to my mind. Every heir has a fraction of their Deadhorse's power—me, I can deceive people more easily and I'm a bit more charismatic, while Lesky controls fire magic. But I had no idea what Pendo and Aristeus were capable of, so I asked them:
"...What kind of abilities do you have?"
Aristeus was the first to answer, smiling.
"It's an accumulation ability—the more trials I participate in, the stronger I become."
Now my head turned to Pendo, who remained silent while leading the group. She eventually spoke.
"I'm naturally stronger when there's little to no light. I can also see a bit better in the darkness than you can."
I nodded—Pendo definitely had the advantage in this trial. I imagined it would be the same for me when I had to take part in a trial linked to my Deadhorse. Suddenly, Pendo stopped, and I looked in horror at what was lying on the ground—the reason she had stopped. On the ground was a corpse, the body of a young boy, and judging by the black bracelet he wore, I could only assume he was a participant who had met his end.
"That's horrible…"
Pendo crouched next to the body and examined it. I looked too, trying to suppress the acid rising in my stomach. The body had been bitten. Lesky stood a bit further back, looking even more horrified than I was. Suddenly, Pendo turned and shouted:
"Lesky! Get down!"
Panicked, Lesky ducked, and Pendo threw a knife past her, hitting something—which then revealed itself to be a sort of gigantic monster, completely black, like a wolf, much larger than any of the other creatures we had encountered. Lesky looked behind her in horror as the beast moved toward her with its claws. I grabbed my gun and emptied the whole magazine into the creature. The bullets didn't seem to do much damage, but they disoriented it enough for Lesky to move away.
Aristeus drew a short sword, and me—out of bullets—I was a bit useless, until my shoe struck something metallic as I stepped back. A sword?
I quickly crouched to grab it—it was in the hands of the dead guy. Meanwhile, Lesky had formed a sort of fireball, which she hurled at the monster, making it howl, but it wasn't enough to kill it. Obviously. So we started running, following Pendo as she tried to find the way, but the creature was getting closer and closer—it must have known the labyrinth far better than we did.
Then Pendo called out to us, pointing ahead, and our torches suddenly went out.
"I can feel it! We're almost at the tower!"
I turned to Lesky and said:
"Throw a fireball at it—it's going to catch up to us!"
Still running, Lesky hurled a fireball, slowing the creature and allowing us to slip into absolute darkness. When we passed through the door, the beast didn't seem willing to follow, as if something was preventing it.
"That was close," I said with a sigh. I turned around and saw a breathtaking sight—even in the darkness, I could make it out. It was a gigantic black tower that seemed to stretch all the way to the mountain's ceiling. But that wasn't all—around it was what looked like a city.
"So this is… a Tower of Babylon."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lore informations
Guardians of Darkness : Creatures summoned by Daïs, they make sure the towers of the Deadhorse are safe from invasion. They are black bodies that mimicks humans, animals or objects.
Aristeus : He comes from Estelis on the far south of Sano, he is aged of 24 year old and he looks pretty friendly. Aristeus is the first person Lesky met when she wakes up, he lives in this world. He uses a short sword
Pendo : She is an ancient student in an university in the kingdom of Okarie, aged of 23 year old, she is pretty cold and is wary of dangers.
Ankari They are in avarage of 1.5 to 1.8 meters and they can live between 70 to 90 years, they have feathers on their skins, they have round eyes an webbed feets.Their senttlements are built near waterway, they have a strong culture of cooperation. They tend to prefer temparate wetlands, so we tend to find them between the empire and the republic as well as in the "middle countries". They are strong swimmers, they can glide short distance, they can detect water vibrations from far away. They are known as firsherfolks or merchants
Gypsari : They are in average 1.9 to 2, 2 meters and they have a lifespan of 60 to 80 year, they have dark wings even tho some rare specimen can have red wings, they have keen and piercing eyes.They live in cliffside settlement and they values patiences, watchfulness and inevitability, they are viewed as grim but impartial.Their prefered climats are arid desert or rocky canyons, most can be found in the kingdom of Okarie They are master gliders, have an exceptional eyesigh, they are immunes to toxin and they can slow their heart rate They can be scouts, guides or handle corps
62 Concoursia : The deadhorse of competition, the one who organise games to see who the victor is. She seeks a heir who have pleasure overcoming those challenges if they are against other opponents. Their heirs get stronger the more they win challenges
Inbetween the challenges : The moments between two challenge, participants have between 7 and 14 days to attend the next challenge, they can do whatever they want between this time