[The Nexus Server has crashed.]
[Rebooting server...]
[Server successfully rebooted.]
[You have been registered as Creator 401.]
[You are being transported into the first sanctuary...]
The bright world around him finally dissipated.
It all turned blank and empty, and surprisingly, it wasn’t as painful as it appeared to look.
It was his first transportation through two realities, but the sensation of being warped through temporal gateways wasn’t exactly a pleasant feeling.
Then when it was all over, he opened his eyes and found himself standing in a bright room.
His room was gone, so was his desktop and wallpaper of the Saiyan Goku.
It felt... Systematic, like he returned back to the avatar customization settings.
Then a mechanical chime in his ears brought him back to his senses.
[You have answered the Sanctuary’s call.]
[You have been registered as Creator 401.]
[Soul System Awakened Status: Null-Born.]
The voice felt too real, almost like he was actually trapped inside some sort of video game.
"The Sanctuary’s call?" In his distress, he raised a brow, and his confusion partially overtook his fears.
[You have been chosen to partake in the trials of the Sanctuary. You have only one mission, survive. The fifty Sanctuaries rest above the others like steps in the heavens. Every sanctuary is a separate realm, with its own landscape, trials, and dangers. To ascend to the second sanctuary, it is necessary to obtain the Soul Fragment which rests in the middle of the first Sanctuary. Good luck.]
The voice in his head disappeared just as quickly as it came.
"No... No that can’t be right, the trial of the Sanctuary?" He stared panicking again as he tried to make sense of it, from what the system of the Sanctuary said, the fifty Sanctuaries were each like its own paradise, having its own different trials and dangers.
But... the Sanctuary and not the New Nexus?
Back in their world, Awakeners who managed to return safely shared news about the New Nexus, it’s landscape, the kind of creatures living there.
It was one of the few things that gave all new Awakeners hope, because knowledge was indeed power.
Knowing where the danger was and how to avoid it was a game changer.
But out of all the Awakeners that returned over the years, none of them mentioned anything about a sanctuary.
The light dissolved all around him, and almost immediately, several piercing screams tore through the air, startling Ace at once.
Ace slowly opened his eyes, only to find himself standing in the middle of a forest. For a moment, he thought he was dreaming, but the air felt a bit too real, too heavy against his skin.
The trees towered high above him, stretching endlessly into the sky. They were far taller than anything he had ever seen, their massive trunks rising like pillars of an ancient temple.
But that wasn’t all.
The leaves of the trees were red, and not just a few, all of them.
Every branch was covered in deep red leaves, and even the bark, the branches, and the long roots spreading across the ground looked stained in the same color.
And all around him were the mutilated corpses of three humans.
His stomach churned, and he vomited immediately. The corpses had their stomach and chest ripped out, and from the disgusting sight he saw, their internal organs were missing.
Ace took a step backwards and as the trees finally registered in his head. The thickness of the red liquid that dripped down the leaves, the repugnant smell filled the air, and the swift change in the atmosphere.
It all suggested the same thing.
That was the blood of the three corpses.
"No... No, it can’t be, is this the New Nexus?"
Not once was the New Nexus described, as such an apocalyptic looking environment, like the end of the world had since arrived.
Almost like a response, a sharp and loud voice tore through the air. Ace turned to his back immediately, and he found a woman dressed in an adventurer’s gear running towards him.
"HELP ME! PLEASE HELP ME!!"
A cold chill ran down Ace’s spine, and his eyes widened as the panic in his chest spiked.
His instinct took over, and without thinking, he rushed behind the nearest tree and pressed himself against the rough trunk, barely daring to breathe.
Then it happened.
In the very next second, something massive dropped from above.
Ace flinched, and his heart pounded hard against his chest as he peeked out slightly and what he saw made his blood run cold.
A huge creature, shaped like a monstrous werewolf, had slammed into the woman and pinned her to the ground. Its body was large and powerful, its muscles pulsed beneath its dark fur, and its presence was overwhelming and violent.
"HELP ME!!" Her screams pierced through her throat as the wolf-like creature tore through her raw skin. It’s sharp canines and fangs crushed her bones with little ease, and it feasted like it hadn’t eaten in several weeks as her screams faded away.
Every cell in Ace’s body trembled as he watched the horrific scene unfold in front of him, by himself he couldn’t move, the bloodlust of the beast psychologically paralyzed him for a moment.
The beast raised its head up immediately, Ace’s body tensed, and he immediately hid his head back behind the tree, covering his mouth shut with his two hands.
He didn’t dare to make a sound, he didn’t even dare to move an inch. The beast remained motionless for a moment, relying on its sharp sense of smell to detect whatever was in its sensory rage.
But the repugnant smell of dead corpses, and the thick stench of blood made it difficult for it to sniff Ace out.
In the end it gave up, and it charged away searching for its next meal.
Ace sighed heavily, and his trembling legs gave out as he fell on the ground, this was on a whole different level of barely surviving from what he was used to.
He took a moment to gather himself, then he peeked out of the tree at the remains of the woman the beast had feasted on.
His face twisted in disgust and fear, the beast did not hold back, it ate all it could. All that remained of the woman was her bones and a few chunks of flesh that clung to it.
"What the hell is this place..."
Everything about this place had him on edge, but what particularly disturbed him the most was the other three corpses.
From their smell, to the freshness and blood that almost dried up, it meant that they died not long ago.
Ace stared at his palms, and he found remnants of dried blood that clung to his skin.
When he hid behind the tree, his hands were stained by the blood that dripped from the leaves, but it was a bit too soon for it to dry.
And they couldn’t have been one of those marked by the Nexus Virus like him because it happened simultaneously.
"If this isn’t the New Nexus but the sanctuary, it means... I was transported to another world?." He didn’t know how to describe it, it still felt like it was his body, but the conditions in place suggested otherwise. It was like he somehow entered into the body of an in-game character.
But a bigger issue arose, if the beast that cleanly devoured the woman moments ago wasn’t the cause of those corpse death, what was?
That was a question he definitely didn’t want to find the answer to.
He gathered himself immediately, and carefully travelled through the canopies of the towering trees that provided cover for creatures that might have the ability to fly.
As Ace cautiously travelled through the forest, he glanced at his surroundings, and what he saw petrified him. Dried up bones filled the red soil, several broken skulls formed a heap not far away from him, and the truth became clear to him.
This wasn’t an ordinary forest.
There was a term used in light novels back on earth to describe a situation such as this, in several known mythological texts, this forest was referred to as Hades Playground.
The distant cries of help and helpless pleas faded away slowly into the distance, and the forest fell a bit silent.
But Ace didn’t dare drop his guard, and as his instincts had it, the snap of a twig caught his attention immediately. He sidestepped and hid behind a tree immediately.
Then he peeked out carefully, and observed his surroundings from afar.
From a distance, he could see the shadows of three humanoid creatures approaching carefully. From their well calculated movements, to their constant vigilance as they moved, it was obvious that whatever they were, they were clearly intelligent.
’Is it a human...?’ He thought as the shadows got closer and closer, and as it got close enough, Ace’s eyes widened a bit as the three figures came into view.
They were humans.
One was a bulky bald man dressed in body armor, brown leather pants and a large sword sheathed behind his back, the second was a slimmer man with a considerable physique in a black tank top, a black pants and brown boots, and a smaller sword that fits his size.
And finally, a stunning woman in a white suit of armour, she had pale skin and clear blue eyes that complimented her white silky hair and curvy waist.
"Humans? Are they also carriers of the Nexus Virus?"
"Who’s there!?" The bald man drew his large sword immediately, and pointed it at the tree Ace was behind.
’What?’ Ace’s body tensed once more, and his eyes widened as he tried his best not to move.
’How did they know I was behind the tree?’ His senses were sharp, sharper than he imagined. He barely moved a muscle, and somehow they still managed to sense him?
Ace sighed, then raised his hands and walked out from behind the tree. There was no point trying to hide, if the man could sense him when he wasn’t moving, then what was stopping him from easily cutting him down if he tried to run?
"You are..." The bulky man’s eyes widened a bit as he saw Ace.
"A human?" The slimmer man dropped his guard, they weren’t expecting to see a human in Hades Playground, alive at that.
"Who are you?" The stunning girl asked with a firm voice, and the bald men clutched the hilts of his sword tightly.
"I am Ace Voltia."