Chapter Text
The contestant’s vision had started to fade without hesitation; his knees started to buckle in response to the damage that he sustained from a fight still ongoing.
Rayzen, despite his struggling eyes, looked up— staring at the ‘Deo Volente’ that his soon-to-be executioner had brought up into the skies. Zealot ‘Void’ was more than ready to remove that head of his from his shoulders.
For him, time had slowed down, corpses of faceless and nameless contestants that tried to rebel and escape the gameshow that the Ulacylon Megagroup Corporation had put them in.
Blood was splattered on every corner, spilling throughout the crossroads that was once an arena, one that had turned into a graveyard full of unknown nobodies.
Except for him, except for the ‘DISTINGUISHED’ contestant, that being none other than Rayzen. Who was there, kneeling on the ground, trying to dash to the side and evade the cleaving swipe that ‘Void’ was about to do.
The wishes of everyone who had perished were on his shoulder. And yet those wishes were dissipating from his mind as the moonlight only made ‘Void’s sword shine ever more.
As if his psyche had started to mess with him… He, too, could hear the voices of those who had fallen in battle. And as ‘Void’ prepared to finally strike him down… Those same voices had given the tendons and muscles in his legs a chance to start working again. Much to his surprise.
Whoosh!
Rayzen had dashed to the side, the sound of the blade striking the ground and digging itself into it had reached his ears— a sound he never thought he’d hear against ‘Void’. There was no better time to strike than now!
Gripping the hammer he had dubbed the ‘Merci-less Burden’, he used merely one hand for the counter against him, his free hand— stabilizing him and lowering his center of mass to where he wouldn’t stumble onto the ground.
And— faster than ‘Void’ could’ve moved that blade of his…
*BHWAM!* *CHK-CHKK!*
The sounds of his hammer hitting its target had rung through the gameshow’s arena. The glass faceplating of ‘Void’ had shattered into nothingness by that point, blood starting to rise from the explosion emitted by the shotgun shell it had used.
But just because he had removed the armor on his head… Doesn’t mean he had killed him, yet.
Reeling in from the recoil of the hammer and using it as a way to further improve his kinetic energy, ‘Void’ had kicked Rayzen back with a force that made him puke blood through the cracks of his welding helmet. Making him roll many times before coming to a halt.
And now… The two were on the ground, struggling to pick themselves up from the bloodied concrete that they had stained with their combined blood.
It was a contest on who could get up and attack first.
Rayzen’s hammer had been knocked away from the kick, and ‘Void’ had been separated from that forever-sharp blade that he wielded as a last resort.
However, ‘Void’ was stronger than Rayzen had ever expected— for he had already gotten on his knees, and then on his two feet.
While Rayzen was still there, groveling on the ground and gripping the area where he had been kicked, he knew that a few bones were piercing his organs; he felt that much. But he had gotten so numb that he didn’t even know anymore.
All Rayzen knew was that he had to get up; he was the only hope for the contestants in the game show.
But when Rayzen had already started to get up from the ground… ‘Void’ had already started to wrap his blood-coated hands around the handle of the ‘Deo Volente’— in a position for a thrust pointed directly towards the contestant’s heart.
By now, their limbs had gone numb, senseless in every way imaginable.
And so, ‘Void’ went in for the thrust to pierce Rayzen’s armor and through his heart.
*KKRCHSK!*
‘Void’... ‘Void’ had done it; he had done what no one else could.
‘Void’:
“Hah… I took you down with my own two hands, you NOBODY!—”
He stared down at the dying contestant, yet there was something that made him pause.
Because here’s the thing…
There was one thing he failed to account for, and that was the fact that it was Rayzen that he was fighting against; he always had something up his sleeve. And that fact had slipped through his mind the same way his blade— one darker than the depths of oblivion- had slipped into and through his heart.
As amidst that moment, as Rayzen took a blade through that determined heart of his… Had raised his sawn-off shotgun, point blank towards the opening he had made earlier with his hammer.
Right before squeezing the trigger with his index… He had one last thing to say in his dying breath.
Rayzen:
“At least… I’ll die as a nobody with a face!”
*Click!* *PHWOOM!*
Blood gushed from the recent hole the sawn-off had opened. Spewing out akin to that of a fountain.
That same sawn-off had fallen from the vanishing grip of its owner. Crashing down onto the ground before coming to a halt, just like Rayzen himself.
His vision darkened and blurred at the same time, once more. The sounds of ringing echoed through his ears, and his mind started to lose itself.
But right when death had grasped his soul and had pulled down… He was relieved to see the sight of the ‘Void’, and the life within it evaporate from this realm and into one that he hopes is worse than whatever hell he’ll endure for eternity upon waking up.
And now… The battlefield had gone still.
All that was left was the wind and the eventual sounds of Ulacylon personnel trying to revive their commander, to no avail.
It’s just that… Destiny had a different plan for the contestant whose story had ended so quickly, and so abruptly too— only 20 years old and had kicked the bucket so early on without anyone who had viewed him as an actual human.
He was only viewed as a contestant, nothing more than a source of entertainment for those with too much money to spend.
Not a single person had ever gotten close to him.
Not a memorable experience that he had experienced other than bloodshed.
Nothing. Mere nothing.
Fortunately… That was soon to change, for the better, or for the worse.
…
…
…
…
…
His ears kept on ringing, a horrid migraine being the first thing he felt upon awakening.
The taste of dirt was something he had been used to, yet oddly, he had tasted it in his mouth.
Using his arms as a foundation… Rayzen picked himself up from the face-down position he had been lying in for who knows how long, his welding helmet scattered and shattered nearby.
And so, his legs moved towards the thing that was his only identity, and upon picking it up, he looked to the skies.
Only to see a beacon piercing through the world, with halos floating above it.
A building standing so tall with a glow radiating from its center, with what seems to be a crystal being the cause of it.
The sight had captured his attention; he had been engrossed in it, to say the least.
He could only think to himself:
“(...)”
“(What… Where…)”
“(This… I… No way this is New Earth… Right?)”
“(Didn’t… Didn’t ‘Void’ stab the blade through my heart before I blasted his face into bits…?)”
“(How come I’m…)”
“(...)”
“(I… Should just be grateful that I’m alive. Now where’s my hammer?)”
Turning around and looking everywhere for a moment… He soon found his hammer— now broken with its trigger mechanism and shooting capabilities gone, broken from what he assumed to be the fight with ‘Void’.
He had no longer seen it as a “Merci-less” Burden, but rather, an “Impaired” Burden.
After grabbing it and resting it on his shoulder… All he did was simply stare into the distance, again.
It’s just that… He couldn’t stay here forever; he needed to eat, drink, clean, and all the other necessities a normal human needs.
His eyes darted around to see what he could do, and eventually… A road was there, and so was a city that it was leading towards.
Instinctively, his feet moved towards it and the city.
Eventually enough, his eyes would come across a sign that read…
“Welcome to the District of Utnapishtim!”
700m