Death

"Hahahaha! This is fun, isn't it?" The figure laughed maniacally as I let out another ghastly scream.

Over 2 hours had passed since the figure started torturing me. He would first use his knife to cut into my body and immediately proceed to rub salt in my wounds. It was miraculous that I had only passed out a couple of times from the immense pain.

And so, another hour passed, but somehow, I was able to get used to the pain and I only winced each time salt was applied to my wounds. This didn't go unnoticed by the guard, and he was immediately infuriated.

"This is no fun. Let's increase the pain, shall we?" The guard let out a weird laugh and went to get a pair of wrenches.

"I'm back~~ Let's begin, shall we?"

Freeing one of my hands, the guard grabbed my pinky finger and proceeded to twist my fingernail off. Going in order, the guard slowly started to rip off all of my fingernails. Each time a fingernail was taken off felt like hell descending. The guard, however, did not stop there and went back to break all my fingers one by one.

After what felt like eternity, the pain finally subsided, and the guard started to look bored. The guard was just about to grab another torturing mechanism when suddenly footsteps sounded from outside the cell.

"Time for his public execution, this'll be a fun one!" The voice of the king sounded from behind.

"Yes, Your majesty." The guard politely saluted and proceeded to free my body.

I, however, did not resist nor try to escape, I just calmly followed the two outside where my execution was to take place.

Slowly approaching the stage, I looked at the massive crowd outside awaiting my execution.

'That bastard managed to convince all these people, hunh?'

I sighed internally. I knew that the people were not at fault here and that any citizen would believe in whatever their king says.

As I arrived on the stage, I immediately recognized the mechanism that was before me.

'Impalement, hunh? This is going to be painful…'

I then scanned the crowd, and I soon found my ex-wife along with her new husband carrying my little daughter on his back. I was hoping to see my daughter's concern for my death, but it was in fact the complete opposite. She was clapping her cute hands together and laughing happily with my ex-wife and her new husband. I instantly knew that that bitch must've instilled her disgusting ideals onto my precious daughter, but I couldn't do anything about it; I was going to die soon.

"Ladies and gentlemen! What we have here is the biggest threat the kingdom has. With him gone, we won't have to worry anymore!" The king's booming voice suddenly appeared from above the stage.

Loud cheers erupted from the crowd, and they all started chanting something.

"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!"

'Twisted people…' I sighed inwardly.

"Let's not wait any longer! Put the threat onto the impalement mechanism!"

As soon as those words left the king's mouth, two guards came up to me and carried me above a large, wooden spear sticking upwards from the ground. I took a deep breath and prepared for the worst.

"Release!"

Immediately after I heard those words, I felt an unimaginable amount of pain tearing into my flesh around my rear area. I started to scream in pain and almost soon after, I passed out.

I soon gained consciousness again and pain overwhelmed me once more. I could feel my vision getting blurry and my body becoming colder by the second. I could faintly hear the cheering from the crowd as I neared my death.

My life slowly started to flash before my eyes as I recalled everything that happened during my lifetime in a span of a few seconds. Right before I died, the teardrop that I had not seen since my youth finally escaped my amethyst eyes.

Right when the teardrop left my face, I felt a sense of calmness surge throughout my body. My vision went black, and all of my senses started to fade away. I honestly didn't feel much different from my usual self, dull and emotionless.

A few moments later, my thoughts slowly started to scatter, and I felt my consciousness slip away from my grasp.

…

After drifting in the void for what felt like an eternity, I was suddenly summoned to a place where many wondering souls like me gathered. Keeping my usual calm demeanor, I did not show a hint of awe or shock. After briefly counting the number of souls there, the estimate roughly came out to about 1,000 souls.

Many were confused by the sudden gathering, and some were even starting to panic.

However, I calmly started to examine the unique appearances of the other souls. Some wore weird short sleeve cotton clothing with weird drawings on them and others wore basically nothing at all except for some leaves covering their private areas. It was certainly a unique sight to behold.

While continuing my examination of the other souls gathered around me, a loud and domineering voice suddenly boomed from all directions.

"Welcome wandering souls! Momentarily, you will go through a series of trials for another chance at life!"

However, after hearing the voice, many of the souls still had sorrowful expressions on their faces. I could instantly tell that they didn't want to live and that they were the same as me.

"Hahaha! Of course, you will be rewarded as well. Let's just say this: whoever wins will have any wish they have fulfilled." The voice chuckled in a casual manner.

After hearing these words, many who hadn't been paying attention suddenly perked their ears up like curious little bunnies. However, I wasn't interested in any of this.

A few moments later, a bright figure that shone brighter than the sun slowly started to descend from above. The entire void seemed like it was covered in light that was emitted from the figure. All of the souls beside me looked up in awe as they couldn't help but stutter in fear.

"W-what is that thing?!" Someone who was wearing a blue robe with shiny armor underneath it shouted in terror.

After hearing this, all of the souls started to panic. They even tried to get away, but they were ultimately stuck in place due to fear.

"Don't worry, I will not harm you."

"My name is Kaia, the angel of light. Let's now start with the rules of the trials."

Even after learning the figure's identity, many were still glued to their feet from horror. However, the angel of light paid no heed to this and continued his explanation.

"There will be three trials in total. Starting with the first trial you will have to gather as many coins as you can in a 24-hour time frame. All of you will be transported to a random terrain where coins and items will be hidden. Items are essentially weapons and magical potions which can give you buffs. You will be given a watch in order for you to keep track of the time, buy and sell items at no additional fees, as well as see how many coins you have. The watch will also provide the locations of the top three souls who have the most coins. Just so you know, stealing and fighting is allowed. You will be transported soon, good luck!"

I promptly closed my eyes and sorted all of the information given to us. I curled my lips upwards as I noticed the many intentions of the trials and the lack of information that was given.

First of all, the intention of this trial was to get us to eliminate each other. There were clearly not enough coins to circulate around and so our only choice was to fight each other. In addition, the buy and sell function will also make the items extremely valuable, meaning that most of the time the participants will keep their assets in item form. Since we are able to exchange items for coins and vice versa at no additional charge, many will want to exchange their coins for weapons that can assist them and exchange them back at the very end. Secondly, it was never stated how many people were able to pass the trial. Was it the top 20? Or was it top 10? Who knows?

Before I could process any more information, I felt a warm glow emitting from my body. I slowly opened my eyes and scanned my surroundings. What I saw shocked me to the core.

Vast mountain ranges loomed over the horizon. The dense forest next to me exuded a sweet but earthy scent into the warm, moist air. The occasional gust of wind made my eyes sting as my crow-black hair fluttered in the air. I squinted my eyes and looked at the blazing sun that was shining brighter than the angel of light itself. I instantly covered my eyes and looked away.

Considering the fact that I no longer had a physical body, I was surprised at how real everything felt. I then furrowed my brows as I suddenly recalled something.

'Wait, if we no longer have our physical bodies, how are we able to fight each other?'

My questions were quickly answered as an overbearing voice sounded above me.

"I was able to briefly alter your bodies into something similar to your real physique."

I quickly lifted my head up and what met my eyes was a small figure that was similar in shape to Kaia, the angel of light. I swiftly came to a conclusion that the figure was a clone of some sort of the angel of light. Its bright figure devoid of any features slowly came up to me and handed me a weird item. It was small and had a circular opaque glass in the middle with two straps dangling from its sides.

"This is your watch. You'll have 5 minutes to get accustomed to it and the trial will start shortly."

I nodded my head and quickly started to examine the peculiar item in my hands.

A deep frown appeared on my face as I struggled to activate the strange device. I recalled the name of the item and proceeded to follow its instructions. I watched the watch for a minute straight and still nothing happened. I quickly became annoyed and threw the item on the ground.

I took a couple of deep breaths and bent down to pick up the watch, but I chuckled in embarrassment after seeing words on the back of the watch.

'To activate the watch, say [activate]. To buy items in the shop, say [buy]. To sell items in the shop, say [sell]. To activate leaderboards, say [leaderboards]. To check your items and coins, say [inventory].'

I scanned the words and read them inside of my head. Murmuring the word 'activate' out loud, the black, opaque glass in the center of the item suddenly lit up. The glass then emitted a seemingly intangible white screen into the air which displayed a couple of blue numbers signaling the time I had left until the beginning of the trial.

After going through all of the options that the instructions gave me, I stuffed the watch into my waistband and patiently waited for the trial to begin.

After a few moments, the small clone of Kaia spoke.

"The trial will now commence. May lady luck be on your side."