Path of Transcendence 1: Ultimatum of the Nameless God (4 page)

The room had been empty for an unknown amount of time, since time had no meaning where this room existed. Only minds and souls could enter, it had no physical reality. It was a circular chamber more than a thousand yards in diameter. The central six hundred yards of the floor was close set blocks of perfectly smooth white marble, each one roughly trapezoidal with a curved inner and outer edge. Around the perimeter of the empty center were objects made of black and silver metal, inset with crystals in a rainbow of colors. Whether they were decorations or some kind of technological devices, it was impossible to tell. They varied in size from smaller than a fist to larger than a bull elephant, and were constructed in all manner of strange and twisted shapes.

Between one instant and the next, the chamber changed from empty to crowded. There were tens of thousands of naked people, ranging from early around mid-teens to elderly. They had all suddenly appeared, none knowing how of why they were there. As they were of varying ages, they were also in a wide range of physical conditions, but only a handful among the thousands could be considered athletic. Most of them were somewhere between average and obese. Their ethnicity was not quite as varied as their ages and shapes, but it was still covered a large segment of the national and racial spectrum of the planet Earth.

The realization slowly dawned on them, some much faster than others, that something was wrong.  As far as any of them knew, they had been in the middle of logging into Taereun: Battleground of the Damned. They were supposed to be playing Taereun: Battleground of the Damned, but instead, they were in an unknown location, in their real and naked bodies.  Thinking this was some kind of bug with the new expansion, many tried to log out of the game, but there was no log out menu. There was no menu at all. Many thought they were hallucinating.

After a few minutes of stunned silence, panic and confusion began to spread throughout the cavernous room. After fifteen minutes, the room had become a scene of pandemonium. Some embarrassed at their nudity or out of shape bodies screamed and shrieked, trying to conceal their nakedness. Others roared in incomprehension. Others stood frozen in numb panic. Yet others ran around wildly, with no purpose or destination. A few, very few, calmly moved towards the edges of the monstrous room, warily scanning for threats. Those few knew something was very very wrong and were dispassionate enough to not get swept up in the moment.

The chaos went on for nearly an hour. People started arguing. Arguments devolved into fights. At times areas erupted into brawls, and there were attempted or completed sexual assaults, by both sexes. Most of them did not believe that this was real. If this was not real, they could get away with whatever they chose to, and no one could do anything to them in the real world.

Not everyone noticed when the giant translucent figure appeared hovering in the center of the chamber. Ten times the size of a human, it appeared to be a man dressed in grey leathers, with a hooded cloak that concealed all but his mouth and chin. The corners of his barely visible mouth were turned up with wry amusement at the scene below.

Slowly silence spread throughout the chamber, as more and more people noticed the figure floating over their heads. In a few minutes, everyone was staring at the grey clad man.

“I was going to welcome you to this ethereal representation of the Chamber of Transition, but you do not seem to be in a mood to be welcomed. I always find human nature so comforting,” the man said, in a resonant baritone. “You are so vicious, so quick to resort to violence and intimidation, so quick to take what you want. You are perfect for my plans.”

Angry murmurs spread through the crowd, and some of them began to shout at the figure.

“WHAT THE FUCK!!!”

“WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?”

“LET US OUT OF HERE, ASSHOLE!”

Nothing that was shouted was any more constructive, and much of it was far cruder. Many of the people in the room were hardcore PvP MMO players, and most were generally lacking manners and etiquette. Their general mindset had shifted from fear to gamer mode, and they were acting the way they always did, when they thought they could not be reached in real life. After all a game was just a game, and it does not matter how badly they hurt others, since it was just a game.

The figure laughed, and said, “So belligerent. I truly hope that you all retain that combativeness, when I set you on your task. Because it suits my purpose, I will tell you who I am. I am The Trickster, The Game Master, The Untouchable Thief. I am The Nameless God, and you are all my servants from this moment forward. At least, you are if you wish for your lives to continue.”

Stunned silence filled the chamber for a few moments, before the people began to shout or laugh angrily or derisively. The Nameless God was one of the Shadow Lords from Taereun: Battleground of the Damned. They were Gods that were neither good nor evil, but rather pursued their own unknown agendas. The power of the Gods was almost non-existent inside the Battleground of the Damned, so the players knew very little beyond background legends.

The Nameless God simply watched and listened in apparent amusement, until the players quieted down once again. “You were all players in Taereun: Battleground of the Damned, so you should all know that my body lies trapped within the city of Haven. Well, you should know, if you paid any attention to the lore inside the game, but I am sure that most of you did not bother.

“I am sending you all to the real Chamber of Transition and placing you in the bodies of your former characters. It leads from the the Battleground of the Damned into the Lands of Despair. Your task will be to fight your way to the city of Haven, and find the keys to freeing my body from its prison. If you succeed, I will return those who still live to your original world and bodies. If you do not succeed, you will all die in the Lands of Despair.

“Just so know, those of you who die will really be dead. Your original body will die at the same time as your former character's body dies.

“To show you that I am not a heartless and cruel master, I will give each of you the memories of your game character. If you can use those memories and master the abilities you used in the game, you will really have all the powers and abilities of your character.”

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?”

“ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?”

“DIAF, ASSHOLE!”

The Nameless God looked around the chamber and smiled again, but it was not a comforting expression for the players. This was the smile of a predator looking at its prey.

“Since you are all so well-behaved, I will tell you a little secret. The souls whose bodies you are being given have been consumed to provide the power source to transfer your own souls here. You are all operating under a time limit, and it will vary from person to person. After a period of time without a soul your original body will perish. I have linked the two. so when your real body dies, the one you inhabit on Taereun will die too. None of the technological life support from your world will be able to keep your real bodies alive once the time limit has expired. Maybe four of five years, maybe ten for the strongest of you, but what do I mean by “strongest?” Does that not make things so much more interesting?

“Now, BEGIN!” The Nameless God waved his hand and the people in the room all disappeared.

When my nightmare about that first encounter with the Nameless forces me out of my sleep, it is still mostly dark outside. The dim light of the coming dawn is barely visible through the cracks in the blinds, and my hospital room is not quite so dark, as when I first woke. With the hospital still operating according to its nighttime rules, the hall outside is still silent and dimly lit.

More sleep holds no attraction for me. After all, this body has been asleep for a year and a half, so it does not seem right for me to be tired. Even if I was tired, my mind is too caught up in what comes next to sleep more.

If everyone else is really dead, the police or more likely the FBI will have questions, but I have no intention of providing them with answers. At best, I would be considered a liar, and at worst, I might be thrown in a loony bin and left to rot. No one would ever believe the truth, it flies in the face of everything considered rational in this world.

This world. I no longer think of it as my world. Taereun is my world now, but I do not know what Taereun really is. At first, whether or not I really believed that the The Lands of Despair was part of some computer program trapping my mind, I can no longer say. Now, I am certain that it is real. That strange Dvergar, Boran, said that The Battleground of the Damned and the Lands of Despair were both part of the Labyrinth of Yggr.

The city of Mountain View had an erratic ovoid shape, with its walls following the the natural flow of the terrain, and one side following the river bank it was built next to. Stretching a little more than three miles from east to west, it was about two miles from north to south. Constructed from massive granite blocks, its walls were around seventy to eighty feet. Roughly, every two hundred-fifty to three hundred feet, a tower stood half-again the walls height over the battlements. Its three gates, west, east, and south, are shielded inside roofed barbicans, that stand taller than the towers.

There was a patch of wilderness in the middle of the city, where the air felt pregnant with Power waiting to be unleashed. The tangible feeling of unbound life that emanated from trees and brush took his breath away. Never in his life had he encountered anything that felt so alive, but his eyes were inexorably drawn to the bare rock in the center. Just as the plants are filled with life, that rock embodied death. The marked contrast, surprisingly, did not feel wrong. It gave the impression that life and death go hand in hand, one inevitably leading to the other.

From the city of Mountain View, it was possible to see the light from the Chamber of Transition in the cliffs to the southeast. Atop the spire of rock in the city's center a lone Dvergar stared toward the glow. No one knew he was there. This Dvergar would only be seen, if he willed it to be so.

The Dvergar's gray hair and beard were those of one advanced in years, but the bulging muscles were those of one in his prime. Still, the Dvergar gave off an air of a being who was ancient beyond belief. Standing about 5'5” tall, he was a monster for his race.  Most Dvergar did not grow any taller than 5'. He was broad and heavily built for his race as well, his weight exceeding seven hundred pounds.

As the Dvergar turned his gaze form the southeast to the south, a slight smile touched his lips. He made a slight gestured, and an image appeared in the air. That image was centered on a Half-Dvergar, who was scaling the curtain walls of Mountain View.

Soon, that one will be here. Out of all the little humans trapped by that fool calling itself a god, he is the most interesting. While his mind and soul do not fit his body, like all the others, he is strangely an almost perfect match to that abomination of a body. Does The Nameless even understand what he is playing with? It will be entertaining to see what path this follows.

As the Dvergar continued to watched, the Half-Dvergar moved toward the center of the city. He passed through an area that was filled with people carousing and enjoying themselves. Continually looking about himself, he seemed to be searcher for something.

Curious, the Dvergar flicked its finger and a silver-grey thread of Power extended from that finger to the image.
Ah, so he is called Talon, and he is surprised at how few guards or watchmen he sees. It is no surprise that he cannot understand the lack of those who deal with crimes and criminals. Mountain View has nearly a complete lack of such activity, and those who do not reside here would never understand why.

Talon entered the buildings in the area right around the center, a mix of schools, churches, and martial training halls. It was a rather odd mix, but they fit together. The schools and training halls were shuttered and dark, but a few people, with an air of worshipers, were entering or leaving the churches. Soft, sonorous chanting echoed softly from several of the churches, in languages that Talon did not understand.

The Dvergar dispelled the image and moved to the edge of the zone of life. He watched Talon pass between two of the buildings and take his first good look at the growth in the center of the city. Unknown to Talon, another silver-grey thread of Power snaked out from the Dvergar, forming a connection between the two of them.

“That look in your eyes says that you can sense it.  Most are not able to sense the truth of Life and Death.” The Dvergar's voice was deep, sounding as though it was produced by stone grinding on stone.

Talon turned his head toward the Dvergar, standing in the shadows of the wild growth Not saying anything, the two just stared at each other for a few moments. There was no tension between them. Neither intended to attack the other, but both had a clear aura of intense curiosity in their demeanor.

“I'm a bit confused. I don't understand what you mean about sensing life and death.”

“Come with me.” Smirking, the Dvergar turned and moved deeper into the unkempt foliage.

Talon followed behind him, making almost no noise.  Yet compared to the Dvergar, he may as well have been a herd of rampaging bulls.  The Dvergar's passage was so smooth, that he neither disturbed his surroundings nor made any noise at all.

In a couple minutes, they entered the mouth of a tunnel in the central rock spire, that was hidden by the trees and brush. The tunnel spiraled down opening into a cavern fifty or sixty feet across.

Near the far wall, a naked man and girl stood on a raised part of the floor. The man was not tall, maybe 6'1” or 6'2”, but he was incredibly massive. His shoulders were broader than any normal human, and his musculature was so heavily developed, that it was on par with a Dvergar. Scars from wounds and torture cover him entire body.  The torture aside, every scar, except for brands in runic shapes, was from a wound that should have killed him. The worst of the torture appeared to be a flogging that must have torn most of the skin  and flesh from the back of his body. It left him covered twisted black and grey scar tissue. Even if his other wounds had not killed him, the flogging should have. His face was hard and not particularly good looking. His green eyes, so dark they were almost black, and black hair only added to his menacing appearance.

The girl was a beautiful Asian, who was barely 5' tall, her body extremely muscular, but nowhere near as massively developed as the man. Unlike a normal woman with overdeveloped muscles and no body fat, her skin was perfect. She was like an athlete at the peak of her competitive fitness. As muscular as she was, she still seemed like a waif standing next to the man. Her beauty was that of a wild hawk, fierce and full of pride. Agate eyes and midnight hair hanging to her knees reinforced her natural allure.

Talon stopped dead, surprise on his face.

“I thought you might be able to see those statues. They are Life and Death, the physical manifestations of the Powers, at least the only one I've seen. Only those who can touch on the Primals or the Od, or those few who have been chosen by Life or Death have that ability. You have a unique soul. I have been watching you, since you first arrived here. You are struggling to touch the Od. I have felt you doing so. Since you can see the statues, you should have little trouble learning to use it.”

Moving closer Talon examined the figures. They were perfectly still, there no sign of breathing or any movement. As with the foliage and the bare stone above, they embodied life and death. The two seemed to be polar opposites, and at the same time they fit together like the yin and the yang. The artist who carved these statues was a master beyond comparison with any sculptor ever born on Earth.

“Those are statues of Life and Death, well, Avatars of Life and Death. They are the ones I serve. I will not say their NAMES properly. You are not strong enough to withstand the KNOWLEDGE that their NAMES hold. This city is under my protection, a place of knowledge and a refuge for those who need it.” The Dvergar's face was impassive, but the warning was clear.

The way that the Dvergar was saying names, knowledge, Life and Death was not normal. There were meanings contained within the words that transcended normal sound. The way he spoke the words, carried echos of knowledge far beyond their simple definitions. The way the Dvergar spoke them was Talon a headache.

“Who are you?” Talon's confusion was audible in his voice and visible on his face.

The Dvergar laughed, though it was unclear what he was laughing at. “I am Boran, a Transcendent Dvergar. You could call me a Priest of Life and Death, though that is not entirely accurate, nor entirely inaccurate.”

“I'm Talon, a Half-Dvergar.”

“Even if your body is such, your mind and soul human and does not belong with your body. How did you come to be like this?”

“How do you know that?” Talon's face showed the shock that was too much for him to conceal.

“Did I not say, I serve Life and Death? Seeing the patterns of your body, mind and soul as easy as seeing your physical body. Your mind and soul do not belong with your body. So, how did a human come to be in the body of a Dvergar?”

“Do you know of The Nameless?”

“An annoying, upstart, self-proclaimed God, who meddles in things he should not.” Boran saw the tension in Talon break, and laughed.

Talon laughed, as well. “He took tens of thousands of people from my world and put them in the bodies of their characters from a game. If we find and free his body, he will return us to our world, before our bodies die, killing us.”

Boran squinted his eyes, looking at Talon.
This soul is barely into manhood as a human, but he has more potential than nearly all humans. He does not trust his own kind at all, but he is not even considering hiding the truth from me. He does not even realize that he is being so open. Why is he so trusting of me? I cannot find anything that should cause it.

“Did he tell you will die, if you are not returned to your original bodies?”

Talon nodded, not saying anything.

“Your body and soul may not match, but you will not die of it.  Even if your original body dies, you will live on in this one, for whatever its natural span of days may be. The Nameless is not one to be trusted. Place not your trust in gods nor rulers.”

Talon laughed, somewhat bitterly. “That sounds like quote from an ancient religious text in my world, except it says something about only trusting God and not princes.”

“There is no such thing a real god, unless you count Life and Death, but they do not call themselves Gods. The ones who attacked Mountain's View are among The Nameless' victims?” The question was clear in Boran's tone of voice.

“More or less. Menton and his Thug Horde are a bunch of trash, though. Watch your back, if you have any dealings with them.”

“If I do not wish it, none of them have the nature or the Power to see me, let alone to do me harm. The city council will deal with them, if anyone does. They are of no consequence. I will train you to use the Od properly, if you so desire.”

Surprise clearly visible on his face, Talon looked a Boran and was silent for a moment. “I would like that.”

“Follow.”

Boran left the cave by the way he entered, with Talon trailing behind him. After exiting the cave, they entered a small stone cabin. Inside were only two rooms, a main room and a bedroom, visible through an open doorway.

“Sit.” Boran gestured to a pair of stone chairs next to the fireplace, both built to seat the massive frames of Dvergar.

Taking an urn from a stone covered pit in the floor, Boran poured two mugs of a thick, amber liquid.  Handing one to Talon, he sat in the vacant chair and sipped form his. The amber liquid had a taste similar to a sweet beer, but was not exactly beer.

“Tell me more about the mischief that The Nameless is engaged in.”

Talon started by telling Boran about Earth and Taereun: Battleground of the Damned. When Boran ask detailed questions about Earth technology and VR simulations, Talon's eyes grew wide with surprise.

Boran's questions about the game and Talon's impressions of the moment he became aware in the Gate Chamber were exacting. In contrast, he had almost no interest in what happened after the doors of the Gate Chamber opened.

“Do you know where the city of Haven is?”

Boran laughed. “It can be reached by controlling twelve to sixteen of the teleport gates, depending on the specific route that you use. The Battleground of the Damned and the Lands of Despair are both parts of the Labyrinth of Yggr. The Labyrinth is divided into hundreds of pocket environments, separated by dimensional boundaries. In a way it is like those games you played on Earth. Think of each pocket as a game zone and you will not be far off in its nature. Except, this game was made by mad, self-proclaimed gods to use for their amusement. Most of the zones are meant to be used for torturing or executing those that were interred within.”

“What do you mean by 'dimensional boundaries?'”

“The shell that contains the Labyrinth of Yggr is located on Taereun. Taereun, large portions of its universe as well, is broken and twisted. Rifts and Gates tie it to other universes and dimensions in this multiverse. There are some that even reach into other multiverses. Yggr, King of the Jotun, used the already broken nature of this world to create twisted constructs of many pocket dimensions, the Labyrinth of Yggr is one of them. Because of the twisting of dimensions, the volume of space inside the Labyrinth does not equate to the volume of space taken by the Labyrinth on Taereun. The Lands of Despair alone has many many times time the area of a world such as Taereun or your Earth.

“The routes from here to the Gate of Departure are dangerous beyond your imagination. If The Nameless' body is really in Haven, reaching it may prove a task beyond possibility. You will probably die, most likely in a painful manner.”

Talon snorted. “You sound like your telling me to give up.”