The Ballad of Sid and the Apocalyptic Trials

 

Arisu and Keiji had come out on the other side of the portal.

“Whoa,” Keiji whispered, breath catching in his throat. “This…this doesn’t look like any dungeon I’ve seen.”

Arisu’s smile curved, faint and infuriating. “Of course it doesn’t. This isn’t just a dungeon....it’s the dungeon. Took me a while to learn how to merge dungeons to create this. You’re standing inside my masterpiece: the Apocalypse.”

Keiji frowned. “So what the hell are we doing here?”

“You’ll see.”

The deeper they went, the stranger it became. Gravity twisted until Keiji was walking along the ceiling, the world turning in weird ways. The air grew thicker, the taste of iron, charged with so much Magna it made his teeth buzz.

He went in the wide Cavern first with Arisu trailing slowly behind him. His stomach turned.

Ahead were five figures suspended from the ceiling bound by pale reed tubes , piercing their bodies and pulsing with purple light. Four of them were nothing but husks, skin shrunken, eyes hollow and lips drawn back over cracked teeth.

But the fifth was still alive. Barely.

He was finger-thin, hair clinging to his sweat-drenched face, eyes half shut, but his nails were torn down to blackened tips.

“Could it be burnout,” Keiji muttered to himself.

The tubes were connected to the man’s chest straight into a massive machine at the cavern’s center.

Keiji rushed to him. “Holy…”

The man twitched.

Keiji slowly pulled him down until he was flat on the floor. The man’s skin wasn’t just pale, it was a different colour. His veins glowed a sickly purple, pulsing in time with the machine.

“Hey! Wake up….” Keiji softly slapped the man’s cheek. “C’mon, don’t fade out on me now.”

“R…u…” the man tried to speak, but the whisper dragged itself out disappearing in the wind.

“What?” Keiji leaned closer.

The man’s eyes opened slowly, gazing behind Keiji in terror. He forced one more word through. “R…un...”

Keiji’s eyes narrowed, instincts taking over. Fire ignited under his boots, propelling him backward across the cavern, clutching the man to his chest. When he looked back, Arisu stood there, one hand raised like a claw, a soft purple glow fading from his fingers.

“Arisu?” Keiji’s voice cracked. “What the hell?”

“Ah…Almost worked.” Arisu tilted his head, lowering his hand with exaggerated slowness. “I don’t suppose you would believe I was swatting a bug on your neck.”

His smirk faded, replaced by something colder. “Tsk. I thought he’d be dead by now and yet he lingers, clinging to life out of spite. How very annoying.”

He circled the husks with a casual gaze, his fingers trailing over the withered bodies. One by one, he began unfastening them from a strange structure, each tube snapping loose with a wet hiss.

The machine they were connected to was built of radiant crystal and blackened bones. It shimmered like heat haze, warping the air around it and its center spun a disk of blue light. Four runes flowing across its surface like rivers feeding into an endless ocean.

“This,” Arisu said, spreading his arms, “is the real Summoning Gate. That person your holding is Siddarth, one of those hosts I told you about.”

“So you’re using them as fuel for the gate?”

Arisu’s eyes flicked toward Sid, then back to Keiji. “Did you think summoning was free? The heroes just popped into existence because the Church prayed hard enough? Don’t be naïve.”

“You’re insane!” Keiji hissed. “You planned to hook me to that thing, didn’t you?”

“That should be fairly obvious by now,” Arisu said moving away from the machine. “Yes. But I would have preferred you came willingly. Tsk. That’s my mistake.”

Keiji reached for the tubes, trying to pull one free. Sid convulsed violently, his veins glowing red, his blood burning from within.

“Stop!” Arisu barked. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. I have to be frank….”

“I don’t care if you’re Frank, James or George. We’re leaving and there is nothing you can do.”

Arisu chuckled. “…As I was saying, removing that will kill him”

Keiji’s fingers twitched. The fire under his boots(now burnt) flared. “You know I almost bought your whole saviour act. You talk like you care about this world but you’re full of shit. All the stuff with Rynna, Ash and even Thomlin, were your best attempts at pretending to be a manipulator. But your full of delusions.”

Arisu frowned. “Delusions?”

“Yeah. You talk like you’re a god, controlling everything, but you’re not. You’ve done all this, killed and twisted everything and you still think you're a hero. But you're not. and it's eating you alive, isn't it?…”

“You stupif…” Arisu smirked. “I am not trying to save this world. I am remaking it, that is the point of the game. To become a literal god, I need the runes etched on the hosts body. When I’m done I will change everything in this world, no more dungeons or beasts. A new order where none of this…” his hand swept toward the husks. “is ever necessary again.”

Keiji crouched back beside Sid, his hands around the tube on his neck.

“I told you not to touch that!” Arisu yelled.

“Hmm, you did. I’m just ignoring you,” Keiji yanked.

The tube ripped free with a shriek of tearing flesh and a flash of searing light. Sid convulsed, screaming, the sound raw enough to rattle the cavern walls. The machine shuddered violently, runes blazing like fire.

“NO!” Arisu rushed to the machine placing his hand and grabbing the runes. His scream echoed as his flesh sizzled against the Magna, the floor cracking.

Keiji barely had time to scoop Sid up before the floor gave way. Fire trailed behind them as they fell into darkness as the Cavern exploded.

***

After taking Lucien back, we stepped into a Dungeon unlike anything  I had ever seen. The air was heavy but it had no smell. The further we went the darker it became until the only light was Kryxx’s staff glowing.

We met a few beasts at first. Veloscrapers and Spinehounds but we cut through them easily. Then came the explosion.

A thunderous boom shook the dungeon violently. Dust rained from the ceiling and walls suddenly flared with blood-red runes, the ground splintering beneath our feet like shattering glass.

“Hold on!” Kryxx shouted, runes sparking along his staff as he tried to stabilize the collapse.

Too late.

Velma moved in a blur.

“Callen!” she shouted and with a wave of air blew me forward., then doubled back grabbing Lira and Verra — but we were all swallowed.

Enter the Apocalypse.....