Chapter 5 - Forge of death

"The first moon gazed upon you…"

Zane rolled on the ground, face up, staring at the bright light converging into a single point just behind the tower. From that point, a planet emitting a soft white, ethereal glow emerged.

It reflected off the tower, drawing a single line of gray shadow that stretched into the distance until it collided with a massive mirror that had appeared in the opposite direction.

The mirror projected the planet's reflection twice, making the sky appear as though it had three moons.

"The first of the three moons: forge…"

"Forge?" Zane asked.

'Yes, Forge.'

"What's that?"

'Zane, a deck has three shapes: Square, Pentagon, and Hexagon. Everyone begins with Square, which they can improve in deck quality up to Platinum—Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. The maximum capacity of cards a Platinum deck can hold is fifty.

To further increase this capacity, they have to restructure their deck from Square to Pentagon, then upgrade deck quality into Diamond. However, this restructure isn't an easy process.

To obtain a restructure token, there is a condition that one has to pass. You are better not to know that now. Knowing a lot will simply hinder your natural growth.

Restructuring is one way to increase the capacity of a deck. But there is an entirely new method to solve this problem. That is Forge. Build a completely new deck around your heart.'

"What do you mean by that?" Zane's voice was filled with doubt. He could form another deck? With another deck element?

'Yes. The tower creates 'Forge of resonance' across the globe just for the purpose of a Climber to forge a new deck around his heart. There are seven known 'Forge of Resonance's' in the world; each of them have their distinct natures. The nature of this forge is death.'

Zane was taken aback with alarm as he felt warning bells ringing in his head. His eyes began to lose focus, his breathing became shallow, and the temperature of his body seemed to freeze his blood flow. He was dying.

Zane fought the obvious death looming over him.

"At least give me a clear explanation." he asked aloud. 

'You just have to remember this: In this world only you can solve this Forge because only you can return from death. Everything you are going to experience after this death isn't real—except for the power you will obtain. I hope, when we meet next, I'll never miss Zane.'

With those final words from the system, a chilling feeling crawled down his spine as if some kind of connection he had was shattered into nothingness. Even in his final breaths, his gaze turned toward the tower. He felt the connection to it slip away.

Then there was nothing—absolute darkness.

*

* * 

The feeling of death this time was strange. It felt like he had truly died. No sensations, no feelings, just eternal calmness. That was unsettling for Zane, who had always thought death was nothing more than a step toward gaining new power.

Die for power, power for…?

Zane snapped open his eyes, his body jolting into panic mode as he struggled against something cool—water. Every instinct in him screamed for air, his brain failing to comprehend the situation as it sent signals to his lungs to draw in whatever his mouth could take.

And so, the water rushed into his lungs, burning like sharp, invasive liquid fire pouring into his chest. His arms flailed wildly, thrashing against the water as the undercurrent pushed him further. Zane kicked his legs in a futile attempt to stay afloat. But nothing worked.

"Yes, cards. My cards," he tried to pull his card out of the deck, but to his horror, there was nothing in his deck. No, it was like the deck he had now wasn't his previous one.

"Welcome to Forge of death."

It wasn't the mechanical voice of his system, but the voice of a female, calm and soothing. Zane forgot he was drowning for a moment.

"Congratulations for being the first one to challenge Resonance of death!"

Zane saw a screen, widely different from the blue screen he remembered appearing in his sight. It had a square box with empty shelves neatly arranged, the borders of this box circled by thick vines of green.

He watched the box forming around another box, which was obstructed by a fig-like substance, both of them seemingly covering a beating heart.

"Building a temporarily deck around your heart. To make it permanent, finish the objective. Until then, your first deck will be locked. Keep in mind that your deck element is useless here."

His eyes widened as his body was yanked out of the water by a powerful force, slamming him against a wooden floor.

"Ugh," he coughed out the water from his mouth, gasping for air as his vision blurred into silhouettes of people. They were shouting something in an alien language he had no memory of but understood clearly.

"Push-er stomach. Faster!" a bulky man pressed his chest harder; Zane swore he heard his ribs breaking. Either way, that was helpful as he started to breathe normally.

"Y-er okay." The man turned him to one side; quickly his breaths turned normal, and so he focused on the transparent screen blinking in his eyes.

"First objective: Reach the awakening tower."

Zane supported himself to sit, the man supporting him as his gaze cleared to the surroundings. First, he was in a boat, which seemed to be a fisherman's boat.

Second, why did the people around him look so strange?

Like the man supporting him had a build more bulky than three adults, but his head was too small, with a pair of big eyes and protruded bulges as eyebrows. His nose was just two holes in flat surface, and the mouth under it had a pair of teeth extending outward.

All the men around him had such a body structure except the little girl glancing up at him in wonder. That didn't make everything normal, because the little girl was a bit—no, a lot—weirder.

She had a round face, human-like eyes (albeit pink), long pink hair coiled around her hands and legs like a snake, and a pair of rabbit ears above her head. Her shoes were large for her build; she hugged her hands over her chest all while studying him in scrutiny.

"You look so good for a fish."