Metatron

{ MAY 1st, 2160 | 1 MONTH LATER }

The preparations were set, the boundaries were covered. Materials were harvested and weapons were crafted. People by now were prepared for the bloodbath that was to come. In the end of it all, only one would remain standing.

[ METATRON TOURNAMENT ]

The name was plastered on large-scale signs that hung above the masses that lined up at Enoch District's entrance. Big and strong individuals stepped forth with confidence, while smaller and weak people shuddered with each step. Although their chances of survival varied, they all had one thing in common; greed that compelled them. It was this that brought them forwards, no matter the circumstances, in order to win themselves the final grand prize. Although the most intriguing part would be that the prize was different in everyone's eyes. It was up to them, after all, to choose what they would receive.

The tournament would take place in the remaining ruins of Crete, Enoch, Jenzaya, and Vesp District; all of which were the results of numerous revolutionary rampages, riots, disasters, and faction wars. Because of this, these districts have been long abandoned, leaving each place to become completely inhabitable. Initiate Co. took advantage of this, deciding on using the connected ruins to form an entire region of boundary for the tournament. With the limits set, competitors could find themselves travelling in areas that consist of forests, plains, rivers, and abandoned cities. It was also confirmed to be part of the tournament's ruling that personal belongings, weapons, and armor of one's own were permitted to be used in the battle-grounds. The entire battle-royale was truly an embodiment for weeding out the weak, and valuing the strong. Only those who were compatible would make it to the game's deepest ends, and only they would uncover the many truths hidden in secrecy ahead.

"When approaching the entrance, please have your civilian passports and registration passes ready. It is mandatory that we scan each and every one of your identities in order to place you in the system for the tournament." A loud monotone voice spoke from a speaker, constantly mentioning necessary reminders for everyone who lined up to join. Everyone who had registered was provided a unique QR code that they could either print out, or keep digitally on their phones to be scanned at the tournament's entrance.

As people looked around, it was evident that among these people that crowded behind one another were entire factions, while some travelled solo. There were never any rules stated against alliances within the tournament, therefore this was allowed. The only thing that everyone had to take into consideration was that the grand prize would only go to a single person—the final remaining winner.

Within hours of registration, everyone was finally enlisted into the tournament. All the identities were coded into the system, and everyone was piled into one large expanse of a room—almost like a colossal warehouse.

"Attention civilians," the monotone voice spoke aloud. "The tournament has now reached full capacity, totalling at approximately 500 contenders. You will now all be referred to as 'contenders' for the rest of this tournament"

Scoffs and coughs echoed across the expanse. People were crowded, but still distanced themselves from one another. Eyes glanced and glared at the people who may very well be their victims, or their killers. Tension was at its peak under this gigantic ceiling.

"I bring to all of your attention the rules of the game. To start off, although your weapons and belongings are permitted to use, any forms of communication are not. We ask that you all cooperate and dispose of your communication items, whether they be phones, microphones, radios, etcetera, into the latch on the way into the game's boundaries. If you do not cooperate and instead enter the game boundaries with any electronic devices, we will be notified through the gate's scanning feature and you will be eliminated immediately."

The crowd began to mumble. It seems as though people were planning to depend on communicating with one another, but this announcement had just completely disposed of that.

"In turn of removing all of your electronics, each one of you will be receiving a mandatory tablet device. The piece of equipment will be completely touch-screen oriented, and will consist of an objective board and a GPS mapping system. The device will harbor a digital birds-eye view layout of the entire tournament boundary, which we will refer to as the map. As for the objective board…"

Beep!

A loud sound resonated, catching everybody off guard.

"This sound will indicate specific objectives, both mandatory and optional, throughout the tournament's duration. Mandatory objectives will be referred to as 'Phases', and will be labelled numerically. Each one will occur in intervals whenever there is a certain number of contenders remaining. For example, Phase 2 will initiate at 100 contenders remaining, while Phase 3 will initiate at 25 contenders remaining. Failing to perform each Phase's task within its given time limit will result in immediate elimination or consequences that can put one at a major disadvantage. Concerning the optional objectives, these will be referred to as 'Specialized Phases', and will be labelled alphabetically. Unlike the Phases, these will initiate at random time intervals throughout the tournament. Although Specialized Phases are not mandatory, they will provide exclusive benefits to those who succeed in performing them. Tasks involved with Specialized Phases are more specific and challenging, whereas tasks involved with regular Phases are general and simpler. Whenever any of these mandatory or optional Phases are announced, they will be uploaded directly to your device's objective board so you can refer to them as you please. As for the rest of the device's utilities, they will come to light the more you use them throughout the tournament."

~

As these announcements clarified the specifications of the tournament, a particular group of individuals huddled together in a darker part of the room. They seemed like an ordinary faction, with nothing too intimidating to display; four males, and two females, wearing no special armor, and carrying no special weapons. To others who surrounded, they seemed like weaklings who'd become prey to their greed. But what these others didn't know was that among the individuals in this weak-looking faction was someone who harbored more greed than everyone in the tournament combined.

"Take this Gian-Luca." Midas handed him a tiny USB. "Keep this in your pocket and upload it to your device once it's been given to you. It'll provide Reed's location on your map at all times during the tournament."

"You're sure it won't be detected by the scanners?"

"It won't. There's no electrical current running through it, you'll be fine."

"Okay." Gian-Luca took it and tucked it deep into his pocket. He recalled a discussion with the team from a week back before the tournament.

{ 1 WEEK PRIOR }

"I think we can safely assume that Reed's planning to attend the Metatron Tournament."

"How can you be so sure, Midas?" Ian had asked.

"According to his location on my GPS, he's been situated at Enoch District ever since Metatron Tournament's announcement. Seems like he's waiting it out there until the event starts."

"It would make sense, I mean… any sort of ultimate power would go to the grand winner, right?" Gian-Luca shuffled his feet. "Reed seems like the type of guy to assert his dominance over others in a tournament to the death."

"Exactly. That's why I think we should attend the Metatron Tournament."

Everyone took immediate attention to Midas' words. "Attend it?"

"Yeah, attend it so we can follow Reed and recruit him into our team."

Ian then called out. "But didn't we practically fail to do that the first time?"

"I know that previously we weren't able to induct Reed into the Sins. But I think I've come up with a proper solution this time."

"What is it?"

"You all still remember that Reed is just the soul that's controlling Abel's body, right?"

Everyone nodded, unsettled by the thought.

"Then why don't we just recruit Abel to the Sins, instead of Reed?"

The room went quiet for a moment. There was some confusion.

"What do you mean?" Vidia asked.

"Even if Reed's controlling Abel's body, I don't doubt that Abel's consciousness is still somewhere in there. We just need to do something to remove Reed's consciousness from the picture, and bring Abel back out to take over his body. I think Abel would be much more compatible in character for our team, unlike the solely rage-driven Reed."

The others began to understand.

"And we have exactly what we need in order to achieve that," Midas pointed at Gian-Luca.

"Me?"

"Your memory-wiping ability will be the gamechanger here. I need you, Gian-Luca, to use every ounce of your willpower to wipe out all of Reed's memories, so that he won't even recognize that he's in Abel's body anymore."

"All of Reed's memories?"

"Yeah, you can do something like that now, right?"

"I can. But it takes a lot of energy, because normally I can only wipe the memories I know exist. If it's the memories of someone I don't know, whose past I don't know, I can't do it. Not normally at least…"

"That's why I'll have Vidia come with you. If surpassing the limits of your ability will take a heavy toll on you, at least you can have a relative by your side to keep you safe as you recover."

Gian-Luca wanted clarification. "So you want me to wipe Reed's memories, of which I have completely no knowledge on?"

"If you can, Gian-Luca. That's your ultimate move, isn't it?"

He nodded. But he had one concern to state; "Yeah, but there's a chance I might wipe every memory present, meaning that includes Abel's too."

Midas was shocked to hear this.

"When I'd previously used this ultimate form of my ability, I'd used so much power that I couldn't control how many memories I wiped. There's a high probability that I might wipe both Reed and Abel's memories altogether."

"That's okay," Midas clarified. "It's Abel's body, meaning even if all his memories were to be wiped, it'd still be him by default. As long as we remove Reed's character from the picture, that's all that truly matters."

"So what if I do wipe Abel's memories too? How do we approach him if he won't know anything?"

Midas took a moment to think about it. Everyone waited in anticipation.

"Just treat him like any other foe in the tournament."

"What? Why?" Venus had finally spoken. "Isn't that against the point of getting the imbecile to join our team? If I treat him like any other imbecile in the tournament, I might just blow his head off!"

"I know, but that's okay. He has excessive regeneration, so even if we deal any damage, it wouldn't matter. In fact, it'd be best if we do just that. If all his memories are wiped, that means he won't remember that he has abilities. We'll need to reintroduce that concept to him, without reminding him of who he was. That way we can start fresh with a clean slate. Educate him on the capabilities of the Sins while teaching him about his own at the same time, right? Then he could understand where he belongs. We just need to make our mark on him."

Venus agreed. "Then you permit me to damage him, right?"

"You're still not over what he did to you last time, huh?"

Venus shook his head. "If anyone's going to kill that imbecile, it'll be me…"

"Do your thing," Midas shook it off. "But in that case, everyone prepare yourselves. We'll be exposing ourselves to the open world with this tournament. People will know that we're the Sins after we've shown our capabilities in-game. If it's bound to happen, might as well make it flashy—strike the same amount of fear we did in them more than a year ago. With all the revolting and rampaging that's been happening in the last year, seems like people forgot about the threat we pose. We should remind them."

The rest of the Sins grinned at this. They were all finally being given a chance to shine light on themselves. It was time to open the world's eyes with their own revelations, and soon, everything would crumble once again.

{ BACK TO THE PRESENT }

Thinking of this official memory, Gian-Luca gripped the USB tightly in his pocket. It was his responsibility to initialize Abel's induction into the Sins by wiping his memories. He understood his assignment, and it was to do this successfully.

"There's so many people here, I can't see Abel!" Veronica said.

Midas reassured her. "It's okay. We'll find him out there on the battlefield. Plus, Gian-Luca's got the tracker."

"But the map's super large, it'll take a while…"

"I know Ian, but as long as we stay alive until the final Phases, we'll undoubtedly find him there. He can't die after all, so he'll definitely survive until the end. And to make things easier, I think we should all split up."

"But without communications, how can we alert each other once we've found him?"

"Make a sign of some sort. We'll figure it out. From what I can tell, there'll be a lot of things out there in the boundaries that we're unaware of that might just aid us in this operation. Be on the lookout for those 'Specialized Phases' too. We could probably get some useful stuff out of it."

The rest of them nodded discreetly in understanding. "How're we going to split-up?" Gian-Luca asked.

"Vidia's gonna go with you. Veronica, go with Ian. And Venus, you and I will embark on our own. I think we'd only get in each other's way if we travelled together." Midas brought them closer. "And all of you, don't forget about the Pact either. Just because this tournament is a free-for-all, doesn't mean we turn against each other."

The rest of them acknowledged the fact that betrayal was completely unacceptable within their team. Once a Sin, always a Sin.

~

The monotonous voice from the speaker continued to speak to the rest of the contenders.

"On your way through the gates into the tournament's boundaries, you will be provided small rations of food and water from our nutrition dispensers. Everyone will receive three sandwiches, and three bottles of water. This tournament has no time-limit, meaning it will play for as long as contenders survive. We suggest you eat your rations accordingly, as the game may last even up to a week in estimation. There will be, however, food rations you can find scattered throughout the districts."

Beep!

The large noise sounded again.

"Five minutes to the official commencement of the Metatron Tournament. Prepare yourselves."

Over the next few minutes, everyone was bustling. There was movement among the crowds, and lots being discussed. People were scared, people were ready. Some people had regrets, while others had nothing to lose. Many individuals, of many capabilities, and differing ideologies, and differing motivations, had all come together for this battle to the death—a tournament that would define the strongest of them all. Who would be crowned that very title?

The five minutes were finally up.

Beep!

"The Metatron Tournament has officially been initiated. Contenders, head to your gate numbers provided on your registration passes. Once attaining your tablets and food/water rations, enter your gates immediately. You will be warped to a location of your choosing, which you can select on your device's maps. If you do not choose, you will be warped to a random location. Good luck contenders."

Movement was instilled. People, everywhere, were walking with dread or running with excitement to their gates. People gripped the handles of their weapons tightly, while others kept them sheathed and hidden. One after the other, people were grabbing their mandatory devices and packing their food rations and water into their bags. Everyone was getting ready, both physically and mentally, for the massacre that was to come.

It was time now. Blood would be shed.