Chapter 5 – God of the Voidlands
"Congratulations on surviving for the first ten hours! Over 1,700,000 participants have been eliminated. For your own safety, if you are below a rank C Mortal, we strongly recommend resigning from the second round.
Remember, only 100,000 participants can move on the next round, so if we go over time, we will continue until 100,000 remain. If we get to 100,000 participants before the seven days are up, we will end the event early. Survive by any means necessary, and good luck."
One half of the participants were already eliminated from the second round. Not even one day had passed, and yet, over a million people had quit, been injured, or worse. After the experience with the thief, Clico passively watched his surroundings more carefully. Nonetheless, Clico's time was peaceful.
***
Meanwhile, Stern was running away from a void beast near the rank of a high Sage.
"Ahhh! Just leave me alone!" Stern screamed as he ran. For over three hours, the voidling monster had its eyes on Stern. A monster as nearly as strong as Omira barreled towards him. If not for the shadowy creature getting distracted by random passerby's, Stern would have been dead meat. Stern's deep brown eyes and flowing black hair flew in the dark winds as he panted for breath. Too scared to worry about the fates of the poor weak passerby's, Stern ran on.
***
Nearby, Omira's hunt was going swimmingly. Dozens, if not hundreds, of poor souls were reaped by the violent Shade.
"Die, die, DIE!" Omira giggled as person after person used their emergency clauses to escape the twisted monster. Her rampage was documented thoroughly on live tv.
***
300 miles west of Omira, Aventi frowned. She took most things too seriously, and her quest to arrest Lavilin drove her to be an unfriendly companion at times. Like Clico, she tried taking more of a passive approach to the second round. Unlike Clico, she was more curious. On top of a tall hill, she watched as person after person were mauled by creeping voidlings hiding underground. One by one, normal people were plucked up by mole-like creatures.
Occasionally, an expert above the C Rank Mortal realm would pass by, but Aventi was not foolish enough to get involved with the poachers and bullies forcing the weak to resign. There could even be hidden experts masquerading as mortals.
Seconds turned to minutes, and then into hours until the first day had past.
"Congratulations on surviving for the first twenty hours! Over 2,000,000 participants have been eliminated. For your own safety, if you are below a rank C Mortal, we strongly recommend resigning from the second round.
Remember, only 100,000 participants can move on the next round, so if we go over time, we will continue until 100,000 remain. If we get to 100,000 participants before the seven days are up, we will end the event early.
We will now begin the second phase of round two. A beacon will illuminate the sky, and all remaining participants must come to the designated zone within the next ten hours. Survive by any means necessary, and good luck."
"People watching was growing tiring anyways," thought Aventi. Soon, a blue beacon shot out in the far-off distance.
"Hmm, how annoying…" Aventi pondered. The large beacon signal appeared to be over a hundred miles east. At full speed, she should make it before the ultimatum. Hopping up, Aventi started for the light.
***
Elsewhere, Stern had finally shaken off the beast a few hours ago and passed out from exhaustion in a small cave. The twenty-hour day cycle marked the loud, booming announcement, and Stern jumped awake in shock. Surprisingly, he was already within the beacon light, and the air outside the cave shone blue instead of black. Stern decided to go back to sleep.
***
Clico and Omira were a far-off distance from the beacon, and both had to go full speed towards the beacon zone. Around fifty miles in diameter, the beacon zone was the only light in the midst of the voidlands and could be seen from hundreds of miles away. The mad rush to get to the zone caused a multitude casualties. Omira crippled the legs of as many people as she could while Clico and Aventi stealthily avoided contact with others.
Six hours later, Clico's entire party entered the beacon zone.
"Congratulations on surviving for the first thirty hours! Over 2,500,000 participants have been eliminated. For your own safety, if you are below a rank C Mortal, we strongly recommend resigning from the second round."
Stern was awoken once again by the announcer. It was time to wake up anyways. Leaving his comfortable cavern, he walked outside. Flying above at the center of the beacon zone was a disturbing presence.
"At last, playthings." The void beast growled. For over 1,000 years, the beast waited. Soon, his plan would come to full fruition! The Shade would use his power to unite the voidlands and take over the country Phanec. Murdoc, God of the Voidlands, a D rank God, powered up his aura. Giving his signal, his subordinates activated a gigantic runic pattern, shutting off the cameras and sealing off the beacon zone.
***
"Woah, why did the cameras shut off?" A little girl asked. Across the globe, broadcasts of the Dungeon Party Selection had shut off.
"Who was that man? He looked powerful." A man exclaimed.
"What's going on?" Asked the broadcast stations to the Council operators.
"An unforeseen event has taken place; please standby." Replied the operators.
Minutes later, the cameras silently turned back on.
***
Murdoc's vast surveillance network of Shades, monsters, and voidlings around the world systematically learned about the Dungeon Party Selection and prepared an ambush. During the second phase, the top-secret information obtained gave way to a plan: seal off the beacon zone and slaughter everything inside. With the souls of thousands, their Shade born leader could become even stronger!
"Attention participants, I am Murdoc, God of the Voidlands. I, a D Rank God, will consume you, consume all. On this day, I declare war on Phanec and will feast on your souls!" He proclaimed in a menacing monologue.
Instantly, thousands of hidden monsters attacked the 500,000 remaining participants in the beacon zone.
"Impossible…" muttered Aventi, who fended off a weak voidling.
If what Murdoc was saying was true, their chances of survival were slim. A D Rank God was a peak existence on Ryko. Mortals made up the lowest aura realm ranging from 0-999 aura. They composed about 85% of the living population. For reference, registering with the Adventurer's Guild typically requires over 100 aura, and joining the Wizard's Association requires over 500 aura. Normal civilians couldn't become an adventurer or mage without prior training.
Above the Mortal Realm is the Sage Realm. The Sages, who could contain anywhere from 1,000-9,999 aura, compose about 15% of the population. Sages represent the backbone of every country and organization. Clico's party for example has a range of high-end mortals and a couple of Sages. The presence of Sages alone qualifies Clico's party as a legitimate professional group. This is not even considering Omira.
Above the Sages are Royalty. Only around one percent of the population are as strong as the Royalty, and for good reason. Kings and Queens rule over countries and wealthy organizations. If there are billions of mortals and hundreds of thousands of Sages, there are only hundreds of Kings and Queens present in modern Ryko. Aura capacity skyrockets up to 99,999 before those in the Royalty Realm can ascend to the Deity Realm. Ascension to the Deity realm requires well over 100,000 aura capacity.
In other words, Murdoc's power was at least ten times more than Omira's aura ceiling. Gods and Goddesses were extraordinarily rare throughout Ryko, and any Deity that was participating in the Great Dungeon Party would likely be personally asked to be in the preselected fifty members. There were perhaps no Deities participating in the Selection. Royalty Realm individuals like Omira were the highest realm in the vicinity. For that reason, Murdoc was by far the strongest entity in the Voidlands at the current moment. The Council's reaction time to the crisis would not be enough to save the majority. A slaughter had begun.
Murdoc laughed with a dark tone and shot void energy at nearby participants, smiting them down where they stood. All around, adventurers desperately tried to use the emergency clause, but there was no response from the outside. Expertly, Murdoc had sealed off the outside world with strategic advanced runes. A couple brave Wizards and Shades attacked Murdoc in futility.
"Come on, is this the best this world has to offer?" He mocked.
"Does anyone else wish to fight me? When you reach Hell, you will all die in a similar way anyways!"
Reality hit the survivors. Hell was unconquerable over thousands of years. If it were that easy, normal people could have conquered Hell eons ago. Murdoc, a low ranked God, overwhelmed every last King, Sage, and Wizard with his army of monsters. Who knew the strength of the deities of Hell were!
Omira had had enough. This ugly excuse for a Shade, 'Murdoc' was ruining her fun! It didn't matter if she would die, she would buy time for her party to escape.
"Argh!" She yelled as she charged Murdoc.
"A King challenging a God? Pathetic." He grabbed her telepathically from the air and dragged her next to him.
"At least you have guts." He sneered.
Clico knew she was trying to buy time for the Council and felt touched. By his estimation, over half of the 500,000 remaining participants were already dead to the horde of monsters. If this went on any longer, everyone would die.
Voidlings swarmed the beacon zone, consuming all in their path. Aventi and Clico desperately wanted to help Omira, but they had to worry about themselves. Stern on the other hand was using the cave as a chokepoint to fend off the void creatures.
Squeezing her body, Murdoc tortured Omira.
"Survival of the fittest. Just kill me you ugly bastard." Omira spat at Murdoc.
Murdoc clicked his teeth at the disrespect and snapped Omira's neck.
"Who's next?" He boomed.
"We'll take you on. We're gonna die anyways. Might as well die to the strongest." Cheptah shouted out at Murdoc.
With a single swipe, Murdoc slaughtered David, Cheptah, and Samcyra who had found each other in the beacon zone.
"I guess it's our turn now." Two black figures shot out at Murdoc. Clico could tell at a glance they were also Shades, like Omira.
Murdoc caught them midair as well, but with more difficulty than Omira. They were stronger than Omira, around the mid-Royalty realm.
"You Shades have more guts than the foolish humans. Where are you from?" Murdoc asked the stronger looking Shade.
"Same place that girl was from: Hell.
We escaped the Shade Lord's grasp and want revenge. We will conquer the dungeon and kill the ones who enslaved us."
"Hmm, brave to declare that in front of me, your new God. Serve me, and we'll go to the dungeon together one day."
"We will never serve you." The other Shade growled.
"Brave until the end huh? Shades should act like Shades and not people, merciless and violent." Murdoc critiqued them before slashing them into bits.
"Let's end this charade, shall we? With the spiritual energy of 500,000 souls, I could ascend to a higher rank."
"Void Fall!" Murdoc chanted his finishing move. The blue hue of the beacon zone turned to black, and the sky rained the void until the sky fell completely. In a moment, the 500,000 were finished.
***
"Congratulations participants! You're bravery and determination has paid off!" Clico awoke with a helmet on his head. It all made sense now.
From the moment they woke up in the Voidlands, it was all fake; they were never in the Voidlands in the first place. Utilizing VR technology, a dramatic scene was fabricated. In hindsight, the inconsistencies piled up too high:
Why would the Council put millions of lives at risk?
How could the Council afford response teams to save millions on a grand scale of over the vast Voidlands?
Why weren't the Voidlands scouted to stop an incident like Murdoc's slaughter from happening?
The truth was revealing. Scattered throughout Phanec were warehouses set up with VR technology to accommodate the three million in every Phanec city. No one in the general public knew it was fake, not even the participants. As a military nation, Phanec's citizens wouldn't dare risk their lives to tell the truth. Because of the soul contract, VR technology, and nature of Phanec, the scene was perfectly set for an artificial disaster.
As the cameras turned back on moments after Murdoc's entrance, the world watched in horror as Murdoc attacked the competitors as well as the bravery of the Shades and Cheptah. Scenes of participants awakening surprised the world and the participants after the God used his finishing move.
They truly were never in any danger to begin with. In awe, the world awaited what would happen next. The media feed switched over to a man adorned in extravagant clothing, the leader of the High Council and organizer of the Dungeon Party Selection, Grand Councilman Ziphe.