Zach entered the yellow portal to exit the dungeon. However, as soon as he entered the portal, it turned black, and Zach ended up somewhere else.
"... where am I?" Zach wondered as he glanced around the green land. There were trees, grass, flowers, and plants everywhere. Butterflies were flying around, and Zach could hear a waterfall in the distance. The sweet scent was filling Zach's lungs and he couldn't help but keep taking deep breaths.
Upon walking further, Zach realized that he didn't exit the dungeon, but he was taken somewhere else.
"It is not a bonus floor or something, is it?" Zach muttered as he walked forward.
He followed the sound of the water, and after walking for a while, he eventually saw a beautiful waterfall with a rainbow passing in between. The water was so clean and transparent that Zach could clearly see the fishes swimming in the river.
Zach's gaze followed the river, and it stopped on something. Someone was standing at the bank of a river with their back facing Zach. Zach squinted his eyes to take a clear look and confirmed that it was a man.
'Is that another player? But that's impossible!' Zach thought to himself. 'I am in a solo dungeon, so no one should be with me.'
"Hey, you!" Zach had no other choice but to call out the man. He didn't want to go down and meet him face to face because who knew if the man tried to do something funny to Zach.
However, the man didn't react upon being called out by Zach.
"What should I do now?" Zach glanced around and muttered, "I don't see a way out either." Zach wondered with a puzzled and confused look on his face. He was exhausted, and he simply wanted to take a rest.
He also needed to refill his HP by whatever means this game worked.
Zach glanced around to find something to throw at the man, and his gaze fell on the broken branch of the tree. He picked it up and threw it at the man, but he made sure not to aim at the man and land it near the man. However, Zach miscalculated the judgment. He forgot that his strength had increased, so instead of landing near the man, the branch passed through the man's body.
"..!" Zach was surprised to see the man wasn't bleeding, nor was there any wound on his body.
After a few seconds, the man finally reacted and tilted his face back to look at Zach from the corner of his eyes.
"...no…way…" Zach's eyes widened after seeing the man. "Fa…ther…?"
Zach shook his head and uttered to himself: "No! Father is not here. He is… dead. This is an illusion!"
The man's figure disappeared… no, everything around Zach disappeared. The scenery changed, and Zach found himself in a rather unusual place.
There were no sun, moon, or stars in the sky. The floor was hard, and the cracks were filled with red lava.
Zach was standing at the center of something he couldn't describe. It was a strange circle on the floor with weird symbols carved on it. There were five big and long stones surrounding the circle.
Zach glanced at his left and saw there were several other dozens of pointy stones like that at a distance. When he looked to the right, he saw the same thing.
"I would have preferred the previous scenery, to be honest," Zach muttered as he looked up and saw another big, long, and pointy stone. However, it was different from the rest of them. It was dripping lava at the center of the circle, spreading it to the symbols on the ground and lighting it up.
(Here is the pic for reference)~~
"This place is like a purgatory, except there is no one here."
Zach was already confused about what was happening, but now, he couldn't comprehend the situation anymore.
Of course, Zach was calm and thinking of various plans on what to do, but first, he needed to understand his situation.
"Well, well, how did a mortal enter this place?" an ethereal female voice rang in the air.
Zach looked back to see a woman with pale skin, red eyes, and white hair sitting on a giant floating throne with a colossal slat on the back. Even though the expression on her face looked rather arrogant, she looked dead from inside, as though she was bored and fed up from everything.
She was sitting in a haughty manner with her legs crossed and her one hand on the hand rest of the throne, and the other hand was twirling her hairs. She was wearing black attire with purple and red colored edges and embroidery on it with a bit of pink shade on them.
"...!" Zach jumped back and moved his hand to the sword. 'She wasn't here before.'
Zach frowned his face and asked, "Who are you?"
"I should be the one asking that question," the woman uttered. "What are you doing in my sacred space, mortal?"
"I am not here by choice," Zach replied with a shrug and continued, "I was trying to exit the dungeon, and I ended up here,"
Zach tried to look at the woman's HUD, but there was no name or HP bar. He sighed in relief and uttered inwardly: 'At least she is not a monster.'
Zach had no stamina left to fight anyone. And even if he had, there was no way he would have fought with 1 HP.
"Ahaha!" The woman laughed loudly and started giggling. She looked at Zach with her crimson red eyes and uttered, "So it was true."
Zach didn't care why the woman was laughing, nor he wanted to know what she meant by that. He just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
"Can you send me back to the entry of the dungeon?" Zach asked sincerely. "I am kind of in a hurry."
The woman jumped from her throne and landed in front of Zach. Her clothes were dragging on the ground, and she was walking barefoot.
"...!" Zach wanted to tell the woman that she was going to step her foot on the lava, but it was too late.
The woman passed through the lava; however, nothing happened to her. But, her clothes caught fire.
Zach pointed his gaze at the fire and uttered, "You might want to look at that."
****
Total players in the game 46215.
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The woman looked back and saw her dress was on fire. She simply waved her hand in the air, and the fire was extinguished. She then looked at Zach and asked, "Where were we?"
"Uhh… I was asking you to send me back to the entry of the dungeon?" Zach was being as humble and calm as he could. He didn't know who the woman was, but he knew that she was strong. Her presence was domineering, and Zach didn't want to mess with her, especially when he only had 1 HP left.
"Right." The woman nodded and walked forward to Zach. "Tell me, mortal. How did you get in here?"
"As I said, I was trying to exit the dungeon, but somehow I ended up here," Zach replied and shrugged his shoulders. "If you can just send me back, I will be on my way."
"Hmm~" the woman hummed in amusement. "So it's really true that the petty gods trapped the mortals in this… game or whatever you call it."
"But then again, I was never fond of you mortals, so I don't really care," She sneered. "I was simply here to confirm it for myself, but I couldn't enter the game for some reason. So I had to create my own sacred dimension."
Zach pondered for a while after hearing what the woman said. He first assumed that the woman was an NPC designed to guide the players somewhere or simply a bonus floor. But after listening to the woman and the way she was talking, Zach was certain that she wasn't an NPC or a player.
"Who are you?" Zach couldn't help but ask the woman. He was curious why someone would want to enter a game that was basically a one-way ticket.
"Who am I? A mortal like you isn't allowed to know my name," the woman uttered in a haughty manner. She then placed her hand on Zach's shoulder and dropped him to his knees. "And how dare you look me in the eyes. I am Aria, the incarnation of death and destruction."
'I did not ask for your name,' Zach uttered inwardly. 'She is strong. Her hand was so heavy, and I don't think she is joking about being an incarnation of death and destruction.'
Zach was in a dire state, but that didn't stop him from being 'Zach'. He stood up straight against Aria's will and gazed her into the eyes. He did the very thing Aria warned him not to do.
"You…" Aria gritted her teeth and tried to crush Zach using her hand, but Zach jumped backward and made some distance between them. "You mortal!" she yelled.
"Don't you know it's not nice to touch people without their permission?" Zach remarked. He then looked into Aria's eyes again and said with a smirk on his face: "And my name is Zach, you… monster!"
Aria's face twitched as though it was about to explode in rage and anger. "What did you just call me? A monster? Do I look like a monster to you?!" she yelled.
"Well…" Zach shrugged his shoulders and replied, "You did introduce yourself as an incarnation of death and destruction, so yeah, you are a monster."
Aria pointed her finger at the long pointy rock behind Zach and said, "How could you call the cute and beautiful me, a monster?"
"And you are a narcissist too. Great," Zach commented.
"Enough!" The rock behind Zach shattered, and lava came out of the magma.
Zach ran to the other side but made sure not to stand near any of the rocks.
"Running won't help you, you little rat!" Aria kept pointing her gaze at the rocks and shattered them while Zach kept running and dodging.
"First, you came into my sacred space. Then you disrespected me. And now you called me a monster?!" Aria yelled as she controlled the lava on the floor. "You are so dead, you mortal."
"You are wrong. Everything you said is incorrect," Zach asserted as he jumped and dodged around. "I didn't come here on my wish. I never disrespected you. And as for calling you a monster…" Zach glanced around him and saw the destruction. "Yes, you are a monster."
"You even broke through my illusion. Who are you, mortal?"
Zach stopped moving and looked at Aria with a frowned face. He furrowed his brows and asked, "You showed me that illusion?"
"Anyone who dares to enter my sacred place gets lost in the illusion and eventually dies. But you…" Aria glared at Zach and uttered, "You somehow managed to break through that illusion. I could only see one hour of your memories during the time you were trapped in my illusion."
'She managed to read one hour of my memories within less than a minute?!' Zach exclaimed inwardly.
"You must have some kind of protection spell cast on you. Otherwise, it's impossible to…" Aria stopped and looked at Zach with a curious look on her face. "Who was that man in your illusion?"
"...." Zach didn't answer.
"A brother? Maybe a friend? Perhaps, a son. But…" Aria inspected Zach from head to toe and shook her head. "You don't look old enough to have a son that old, although I wouldn't be surprised if humankind has degraded that low."
After a brief pause, Aria muttered, "Father." She saw Zach reacting to the word father and said with a smirk on her face: "I see. He was your father. If you are reacting like this, then he should most probably be dead. That's how you mortals are. You don't care about what you have, but when you lose them, you realize their value."
She laughed out loud and continued, "You should be thankful to me. I showed you the illusion you wanted. I reunited you with your father, whom you are never going to see again. Now be a good—"
Aria was interrupted by a strong punch on her face. Zach punched her so hard that she bounced on the ground a couple of times and collided with the long rock that shattered on impact. However, her body was unscathed.
"Unbelievable! How could a mere mortal inflict pain on me?" She slowly stood up with a bewildered look on her face and glared at Zach with murderous intent. "I take back what I said."
Her eyes shined red crimson as the lava around Zach began aggravating. "I will reunite you with your father. But first, I will give you the most painful death possible."
****
Total players in the game 46205.
0 new players logged in.
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