The next thing he knew he was waking up in a meadow. Groggily he sat up rubbing his head. He had a splitting head ache. Looking around it looked odd. One thing people don't think about is that normal meadows have patches of tall grass, it isn't usually a nice manicured lawn. This was the latter. Squinting in confusion he ran his hand through the thick luscious extreme green grass.

  It was more than the lawn level meadow that was odd about his surroundings, everything just looked… more vibrant. The brown of the trees was a richer brown, the blue of the sky was sharper, the green of the leaves and grass was more lush.

  He took in a deep breath and the air was more crisp, and clean. It smelt of fresh cut grass and of wild flowers. There was the smell of fresh rain that was thick on top of everything else. His smell had to have been enhanced or the flowers were overpowering as the small patch was well over 40 feet away.

  His hearing must have been enhanced as well. He could hear the soft wind that was barely blowing through the trees surrounding him. The soft rustling of leaves. At the same time he could somehow hear the skittering of small insects as they scurried through the grass. The flapping of the wings of a hawk flying over his head was almost deafening. When he looked up it was flying far overhead.

  That was when he realized that he wasn't wearing the clothes he had been wearing when he passed out. Instead of the soft almost silk like clothes he had gotten from Duke Dornan, he was wearing a cotton t-shirt and a pair of basketball shorts. On his feet were a pair of nice leather boots, completely incongruous with the rest of his outfit.

  “Okay, so either I am in a different world or I am dead. Everything here is too vibrant.” Bjorn said to no one in particular. With a good bearing on his surroundings he stood up and took stock. Things seemed a little off as well when he stood. The ground seemed too far away, his arms seemed too long. He finally realized what it was, he was taller than he was used to.

  “Odd.” Bjorn thought. Other than his increased height he felt the exact same as he had beforehand. Just as strong, just as graceful, just his hand eye coordination felt a little off due to his increased size. That was when his mind realized the biggest difference. His HUD was gone.

  Over the years in the Eld the HUD had become background noise. The constant reminder and new information of both the world around him and his own condition had faded into the back of his mind. He hadn’t realized how much he had grown used to it. He actually felt a little naked without that constant stream of information.

  So naturally he did the next obvious thing and tried to pull up his character sheet. To his surprise nothing happened. Then when he thought about it for a second it was obvious that it wasn’t going to work. What truly surprised him was when a single window appeared in the front of his vision.

  Quest: Cleanse the taint. You have woken up in an unknown world. You don’t know the cause but something in this world has tainted it and is slowly consuming the world. Remove either the taint or find the cause of the taint to cleanse this world and earn your freedom.

  Do you accept this quest? Yes/No?

  Know this! You are trapped in this world until this quest is accepted. If you choose to refuse this quest then you will be trapped in this world and consumed with the rest of the world as the taint spreads. If you fail this quest for any reason you will remain trapped till either your death or the death of this world.

  “Well that is hardly a choice.” Bjorn thought to himself as he clicked ‘Yes’. He didn’t know what he was expecting but absolutely nothing happening wasn’t what he would have ever guessed. After a minute of standing there dumbly waiting for something to happen he finally decided it was time to get on the quest.

  When he looked back to the sky, the sun. Wait, there was only one sun. It hung low in the sky to one side. Based on the colors of the clouds overhead it was probably sunrise and not sunset. Guessing that he decided to head east, or at least what he thought was east.

  As his foot was coming down at the edge of the meadow the ground was suddenly not there. His foot fell through open space and seeing how he had fully committed to the step his entire body went with as well. The feel of falling lasted only a moment before his foot collided with the ground again.

  In the same instant his foot touched the ground his surroundings changed. Looking around he was now standing in a city. It was exactly what he had come to expect to see while living in the Eld. No skyscrapers, just cobblestone roads, two story houses, and the stench of shit. He had been lucky so far while in Escar as they had robust systems in place to take care of people’s bodily wastes. This city however had no such things. The road was set 6 inches below the walking paths on either side of the road. Going down the center was a disgusting mix of pee, poop, and vomit, as well as unidentifiable nasty liquids.

  When he was looking around he saw a man on top of a short ladder lighting up a lantern that was set on top of a long wooden pole. The world around him was bathed in the dusk colors of low light.

  “Ho there!” Bjorn called out in common. After a few seconds of no response he tried again, much to the same result. Slightly annoyed at being ignored he walked over to the man and tried to touch his leg to get his attention. Bjorn’s hand just passed right through the leg. Freaked out, Bjorn took a small defensive leap backwards.

  When no response was forthcoming Bjorn slowly backed away from the man. Not knowing what to do he tried to enter stealth mode. When he crouched the familiar closed eye icon that normally appeared in the center of his vision didn’t appear.

  “Right.”

  Not knowing if his stealth was working or not he slowly slunk his way down the street, constantly being bombarded with the offensive olfactory smell. The street he followed seemed to run straight with dozens of small roads leading off of this one road. Similar to how Blackrock Bay’s roads worked. As he walked he kept his eyes out for something, anything that he could use as a weapon just incase he needed to defend himself.

  That was when he kicked himself for being an idiot. He hadn’t thought to use the weapon that he always had on hand. He could feel the familiar pathways in his body that mana flowed through. He tried to draw upon that energy and with a word of power he tried to shape that energy into magic. He felt his mana drain as it tried to fuel the spell. When the mana was done being spent nothing happened.

  “Okay. So no magic.” Bjorn said to himself.

  Not long after his experiment the sun had fully set and the road was bathed in darkness. Only it seemed like the man who had been lighting lamps had already been down this section of road as every 40ish feet there was a lamp overhead shedding light on its surroundings.

  Finally after what felt like ages he found what he was looking for, and man did he find the jackpot. On the far side of the street there was a sign hanging over a door of an anvil and hammer. That plus the fact that the building was made out of stone and there was a chimney coming out of the building made him fully aware that it would at least have a knife.

  Only it was on the far side of the shit street. Not wanting to wade through several inches of funk he thought about trying to leap across the road. The path he was standing on was only 5 feet wide when the street was close to 25 feet across. Maybe if he was able to get a running start he would be able to clear it. That was a big maybe. So he tried to find a crossing, and after a few minutes he came across a set of stones set into the road the same height as the sidewalk. These stones had large enough gaps in between them that the fluid was able to pass by unhindered.

  After he was across he made his way back down to the blacksmiths shop. Throughout the entire time he was going through the city the only person he saw was the lamp lighter. All of the windows on either side of the street were dark and dead. Which gave the city an eerie feeling.

  When he got to the door he first tried the latch which was locked. Searching his person he didn’t have anything on him which would alleviate that issue and let him bypass the lock. So he decided to try busting the door down. He had seen people break down doors in the movies all the time. That was exactly what he decided to try. Taking a step back he ran at the door his shoulder leading the way. He slammed into the door. And promptly bounced off. The door was made out of solid heavy wood. Even with his enhanced almost Olympic athlete level of strength he hadn’t been able to even make it budge.

  Pain shot up his right side where it had slammed into the heavy wood. Either this door was sturdier than the doors back on earth or Hollywood lied to him. Not to be dissuaded he looked for other ways in, in his current state he would never be able to make it through this door.

  The houses on either side of the building butted right up against it making it impossible to make it around and see if there was a back door. What he did see in front of the building however was a second story. There was another door that led out onto a balcony, it was probably less sturdy than the first floor door.

  There were several support beams that were spaced out along the balcony to hold the weight of the material. They looked to be just the right size that he would be able to scale them. So with his almost superhuman levels of strength he placed his hands on either side of the beam and used them as leverage as he used his feet as hinges to allow him to move upwards.

  He quickly scaled the 10 feet to get to the bottom of the balcony. It was set ever so slightly back from where he was awkwardly hanging on the top of this pillar. Reaching out with one hand he was able to just barely get his fingers over the edge of the balcony. With his arms fully outstretched he let go of the pillar hoping for the best.

  His entire body began to swing outwards. And then it kept swinging, his hand had only a grip on the floor of the balcony, there wasn’t anything other for his grip to hold onto. As his body kept swinging he was quickly losing his grip on the balcony. In a cry of slight panic he threw his other arm up trying to find something to grab onto. Luckily there were crossbeams that he could hold onto. In a show of raw strength that he had never been able to do before in his life he grabbed ahold of the beam and held on until his body stopped swinging. Then he quickly hauled himself up one hand at a time.

  Once his feet were on the wood again he saw that were had been a window built into the wall that he could probably squeeze his body through. It would be tough as his shoulders were broad. Leaving off the door idea he squeezed through. There was only a brief moment of panic when he felt like he was stuck, after some panicked flailing he got unstuck and was through.

  Surveying his surroundings it was a landing that housed several different boxes. Looking inside he found tons of different tools, shovels, picks, pokers, axes, and spikes. With glee he grabbed an ax and a few of the spikes. Now armed he began exploring more. The landing he was on had a great view of the smithy below. He took the stairs down and found what he was looking for.

  The smithy was exactly what he expected, there were hammers of all different sizes scattered around the smithy as well as several different anvils. There were a few sharpening stones set out along the edge of one of the walls. However the far wall was filled with racks and racks of weapons.

  There were swords, battleaxes, and spears. They were all different sizes and shapes, as well as made out of different metals. They ranged from the rather mundane looking to the ostentatious. There were several weapons that looked exactly what you'd expect from animes' or video games.

  He picked up a large 6 foot long sword that was in the shape of a bat wing. With the fringes everywhere on the blade and details carved into the metal it looked awesome. He very quickly learned that such weapons weren’t actually practical. When he tried to swing the weapon it was terribly balanced and was impossible to wield effectively. He quickly learned why such weapons were never actually used in combat back on earth.

  Setting it down he went to the more normal sized weapons and he quickly found a sword around 4 feet long and nicely balanced. It was made out of dusky grey metal with blue veins running through the blade. Happy with it he moved on to daggers and actually found a dagger that looked exactly like the dagger that he had been wearing from Tayla. He loaded up with two daggers and finally moved on to bows. He found one that wasn’t too heavy of a draw weight that was made out of dark brown wood. Finally he found a quiver filled with two dozen arrows, the shafts made out of the same wood and the heads made out of the same metal as his sword.

  Finally armed, he felt better about his situation. Even though some part of him felt bad for stealing from the blacksmith he justified it by saying he was going to save this world. Making his way to the front door he found that it was bared by a heavy wood beam.

  A deep booming voice that shook both the ground and he could feel it vibrate his bones, spoke. “What do we have here? An interloper? How fun it’s been so many years since I have had a soul to crush.”

  Bjorn dropped into a crouch entering stealth as his eyes darted around the room trying to find the source of the voice.

  “Ha ha ha! Little boy you can’t hide from me that easily.”

  Bjorn tried to lift the bar on the door but it was stuck fast. With that escape route unavailable he sprinted for the stairs taking them two at a time. He made it to the second floor landing and found that the door up there wasn't locked. Throwing it open he vaulted the rail and lowered himself back down towards the street. He let go, dropping the last few feet.

  When his feet struck the ground the world shifted again. This time looking around he was no longer inside the city. This time when he landed he was out in nature again, only it was split in half. One side of the world was filled with luscious green fields of grass with cops of trees off in the distance.

  The other side was the exact opposite. There were brown, grey, and black decaying plants scattered everywhere. For the most part it was nothing but bare dirt. The dirt had veins of black pulsating energy that ran through the ground. They were thicker off in the distance. Where the two sides met the energy turned from long thick veins to small tendrils. The tendrils were clearly snaking into the heathy land and affecting the grass. As Bjorn watched he could actively see the tendrils make its way up the grass and quickly wither the plant. In a matter of seconds the plants went from vibrant and green to either brown or to dust.

  “Well now, what do we have here?” A voice said. It wasn’t the same one from earlier, it wasn’t as deep. But there were a few similar notes to the voice that made Bjorn think he was probably the same guy. He was a human, tall, and had a rugged handsome look to him. He was sporting a close cropped beard and long brown hair that was pulled back into a man bun. Long flowing robes hung off of his frame and almost touched the ground. In one hand he held a staff of gnarled roots at the top it held a pulsating orb of red energy. His eyes had a soft white light that emanated from them obscuring the sclera and retina underneath.

  “Who are you?” Bjorn asked. As he further scrutinized the man in front of him he could see the black tendrils that are affecting the landscape slowly emanating off of his body. As if he was the source of all of the death surrounding him.

  “Such a boring question. The better one is "how did you get here?””

  “Alright, I’ll bite, how did you get here? Actually no, where is here?”

  A self important smile slowly spread across the man’s face. “I will admit that is a fascinating question. One I will actually answer. As to where we are I would think that was obvious. We are inside the core of a magical beast. I don’t know the exact details and mechanics as to how it works but this core was claimed by me when I killed the beast that it came out of.”

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  “So you are the one who is creating the maulers?” Bjorn said as a little heat entered his voice.

  “No. That is the technically truthful answer. I haven’t created anything whatsoever. I have been stuck here for around 3 years? I think. Time moves oddly in this space. It is kind of hard to tell if a minute or a decade has passed in the real world. I think I have devised a method to tell time, but until I have contact with the outside world then I will be able to test my theory. With that being said, what year is it?”

  Bjorn was annoyed at the man who obviously like to hear himself talk. He was pretty sure that whoever and whatever this was he was responsible for the mauler. “I don’t know.” This answer was true on two accounts, one: most of the people of the Eld weren’t big on counting years. Two: even though he could find the year based on his time in the library in Blackrock Bay last time he didn’t want to do the math to help out this person.”

  “Ah so you're a rube then. It can’t be helped, the unintelligent are always a burden on society but unfortunately it can’t be helped.”

  “What are you?” Bjorn asked.

  “Another boring question, Why focus on such small details that don’t matter to the situation at hand? Your last question was actually more interesting. Well to be perfectly frank your question two ago was more interesting, so I think I will answer that one.”

  “How I got here is a rather long story. You see, out in the real world I was a rather powerful mage. My particular study of magic isn’t what is important, what is however is that I have dabbled a bit in mental magic. This mental magic has been important in my work. Well I did some miscalculations and my consciousness was stripped away from my body and thrust into this world. I have actually no idea what has happened to my body, it begs the question what would happen if I were to escape this realm and my body is destroyed? I don’t know and that is exhilarating.”

  As the man monologued, Bjorn finally noticed how far the corrupting black tendrils have advanced during their conversation. At the start of the conversation they were close to a hundred yards apart. While they conversed that distance stayed the same but they were able to hear each other as if they were standing right next to one another. At the start of the conversation the line that was between the decay and the life was right at the man’s feet. Now however it was about 2/3rds of the way across the distance.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “This? I assume you are referring to the slow death of this world? When I appeared in this world I was given a quest. And that was that I needed to destroy the world for me to be able to escape. For my consciousness to flee this world. It has taken a long amount of time for me to slowly kill this world. You see my magic is rather terrible at corrupting items, particularly ones that actually happen to have an inner world. So instead of being able to bend the core to my will I have had to slowly erode at the foundations of this world to regain my freedom.”

  This answer felt like the first truth that he actually spoke during this entire conversation. Taking the mans answer into account with his own quest it was obvious that only one of them would be able to leave this realm alive. He slowly withdrew the bow from his back and set one of the blue/grey arrows to the bowstring holding it at the ready but not actually drawing the arrow.

  “I can’t let you destroy this world. I also got a quest that I need to purge the source of the corruption otherwise I will be stuck there until the destruction of the world. Stop now or I will be forced to make you stop.”

  The man sighed. “Well I already knew you were a rube, but you really take the cake don’t you. You never should have told me that it would be either me or you. I was perfectly content to talk to you as I haven’t really had anyone to talk to while I hav-”

  His newest monologue was cut short by Bjorn raising his bow and drawing the arrow. This bow had a heavier draw weight than the drow bow he had back on the Eld so he had to make a micro adjustment to his aim before he let the arrow fly. It shot across the distance and stopped dead in its tracks as it slammed into a red shield that had been invisible just a moment before.

  The man sighed. “That was rude, I guess it is time to make you pay.”

  Bjorn had no doubt that he would have kept talking if not for Bjorn preparing another shot. Watching Bjorn prepare a shot was enough to make him cut his speech short this time. Instead he very nonchalantly moved forward slowly closing the distance between Bjorn and the man.

  Not to be dissuaded from fighting back Bjorn kept shooting. There was no doubt that bows and arrows were powerful. Lately during his fights lately an annoying pattern had started to rear its head. More and more often his arrows were stopped by magical shields. Now that he had his own magical shield he knew that they only had a finite amount of hp. Meaning it was only a matter of time and dedication before he could do something.

  Arrows continued to slam into the barrier as the man continued to close the distance between them. At the same time Bjorn continued to try and create distance between the two of them. The man who wouldn’t give his name managed to do a better job than Bjorn did.

  When he closed to around 100 yards away from Bjorn the red light at the end of his staff intensified. A mix of colored mana began to condense around him from his surroundings as if he was drawing on the power of his surroundings. Thick arcane words that Bjorn didn’t know spilled forth from his mouth as he chanted his spell. The mixed colored mana was green, brown, the same color red as the end of his staff, and finally the most common color was black.

  Bjorn continued to rain death down on the man but his attacks looked to be ineffective. It didn’t effect the channel or his concentration. On the contrary he actually smiled slightly as he chanted.

  The power generation was orders of magnitudes more than he had ever seen before, that included the spells that he watched Duke Dornan cast. For the first time since Bjorn began fighting fear gripped him. The chanting grew louder as it sounded like he was drawing near the end of his incantation. Not knowing what the spell would accomplish, Bjorn dove behind a boulder that was larger than he was.

  Finally the chant finished and Bjorn could feel as the accumulated mana shot forth from his body leaking back into the surroundings. After a few seconds of not seeing any other effect from the spell Bjorn dared to peek.

  The change was immediately apparent as to what had happened. The vegetation around Both Bjorn and the man had begun to decay significantly faster. Bjorn watched helplessly as the life that he was supposed to protect just died around him.

  The next major change was less apparent at first. Over the next several seconds as Bjorn watched in horror the world seemed to grow darker. Changing a look upwards he saw that the sun actually was growing dimmer. It wasn’t as if a celestial body was moving in front of the sun. No it was as if it was just producing less sunlight.

  Bjorn chanced a look back at the man to make sure that he wasn’t closing the distance even more. He was standing in the exact same place that he had been when he started casting his spell. He was just standing there with an evil look on his face. Looking down at his feet Bjorn noticed something. He had stopped directly on the edge where death and decay and life met.

  This gave him an idea. “You claim to be all powerful but you can’t enter this land can you? You are bound to your corruption. You call me a rube, you are powerless without your corruption.”

  “You misunderstand the meaning behind my actions. I am not now nor have I ever been bound to the corruption.” With that simple declaration he stepped across the line and onto the life side. Wherever his feet touched the ground and vegetation around him began to quickly wither and blacken. He let out an evil laugh and then suddenly he was gone.

  Knowing that there was no way that was the end, Bjorn's head was on a swivel. He watched the land around him and made the most fatal flaw of fighting. He forgot to look up.

  The man plummets out of the sky and slams into Bjorn’s body, bringing him to the ground. A yelp that was equal parts surprise and pain escaped his lips as he was pinned between the man and the ground around him. Even though he was tall he looked thin and light. However he learned that looks can be deceiving as even with Bjorn’s enhanced strength he wasn’t able to budge the man as he towered over Bjorn.

  Pain raked his body from where the man’s foot had landed on his shoulder but Bjorn gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain. Reaching into his belt he pulled out the dagger that looked similar to Tayla’s old dagger and tried to plunge the blade into his let aiming to sever the calf muscle.

  But he was prepared for an attack such as this and he placed his foot on Bjorn’s wrist pinning it to the ground. “Tisk Tisk Tisk.” He said as he looked down at Bjorn.

  Luckily the man placed his foot on Bjorn’s wrist when his arm was fully outstretched. This made his center of balance way out of alignment. Bjorn raised both of his legs in a feat of athleticism that he never could have accomplished back on earth and wrapped them around the man’s torso.

  With a yank he pulled backwards with all of the force he could possibly muster and actually managed to throw the man off. At the same time he used the momentum from the toss to kick upwards and spinning in mid-air landed back on his feet, blade raised and ready.

  The smile on the man’s face faded as he picked himself up out of the dirt. The look on his face said ‘You’ve done it now’. At the same time Bjorn got a sense of dread in his stomach. They stood there for a moment sizing each other up again. With the distance between them closed Bjorn realized the futility of trying to hit him with some sort of ranged attack so he left his bow where it lay 5 feet away. Instead Bjorn sheathed his dagger and drew the sword at his hip.

  Once the blade was fully drawn it was like the peace was broken. The man leapt into action flying across the short distance between the pair. Bjorn raised his sword to meet the charge but it was too late. The man was too fast, aborting the attack Bjorn had to dodge to the side, just barely dodging the fist that swung past his head with surprising force.

  “This is bullshit. He is clearly a mage, why is he so fast and strong?” Bjorn thought to himself as he dodged a series of blows. They came so fast and so frequent that it was all he could do to dodge the attacks. At the end of the series of attacks he clipped Bjorn on the same shoulder his foot had landed on. It caused pain to lance up Bjorn’s side but it allowed him to counter attack. Bjorn threw himself backwards catching himself in a one handed hand spring and he used his foot to try and hit the man as he moved over backwards.

  The attack missed but he did manage to create distance between the two of them. By this point it was painfully apparent that he was without a doubt outmatched. He was so distracted by dodging the attacks that he hadn’t noticed where he was. The man almost corralled him towards the decay filled land.

  A lunging attack quickly closed the distance between Bjorn and the man and a foot landed squarely in Bjorn’s midsection. All the air was forced out of his lungs as he was thrown backwards. He landed on the ground hard. When he landed a small poof of dust was kicked up from where his body landed.

  Bjorn sat up to see the man just standing there a smile plastered on his face, it was predatory. “What?’ Bjorn asked.

  “You have fallen into my trap.”

  Bjorn looked down and saw where he was standing. He couldn’t explain it but a sense of unease, and trespassing seeped into his psyche. Bjorn moved to leap forward to cross the distance and make it back into the life filled land.

  “Too late.” He said.

  The world shifted once again. The confusion and disorientation of these world shifts was starting to become a familiar sensation. Only this time once he got a grasp of his surroundings he realized that he was well and truly fucked.

  When his vision cleared he found himself surrounded by stone walls in a fairly large room. It was filled with racks of torture devices. In one corner was a sawhorse, in another was a giant wooden wedge. He only had a moment to take in his surroundings before a force slammed into him. He staggered backwards, throwing out his hands to stop his momentum. They came up against something metal behind him. When his hand came in contact there was a click as he felt something close around his wrist. The force continued to push to the point where he instinctively threw back the other hand to stabilize and that too became immediately restrained.

  He began to fight against his restraints but when he looked down he saw that his wrists were shackled in place by metal loops that had snapped shut around his wrists. In his flailing to try and free himself both of his legs also became trapped. The metal of the table warped creating the restraints wherever his limbs touched the table.

  Malevolent laughter sounded through the room as the man just materialized in front of Bjorn. “Ha ha ha! Welcome to my dungeon.”

  “Let me go.” Bjorn shouted.

  “Hmmm. That is a tempting offer, but no. I don’t think I will. What kind of fool do you take me for? If I let you go you will just try to kill me again rather ineffectually to be honest."

  “What is this place?”

  “I already told you that. This is my dungeon, where we will have so much fun together.” As he was speaking he slowly moved around the room grabbing implements here and there. Long thick metal spikes with blood covering the tips. Pliers that probably was used to pull teeth. Long thin needles that he could use to hammer them under Bjorn’s nails. Each time he picked up some item he inspected it for a few moments before shaking his head and setting them down again.

  “How are you able to cast magic? When I tried to cast my magic nothing happened.”

  Bjorn’s question apparently had an effect on the mystery man. He stopped what he was doing and turned to look at Bjorn, for the first time he gave Bjorn a truly appraising look. “Hmm, that is an interesting question. If i was to take a guess there is one of two reasons for that. The first one is that you lack the requisite will to cast your magic here. The second is that your types of magic don’t work in this dream world.”

  “What do you mean this is a dream world?” Bjorn asked. “It feels awfully real for a dream.”

  The smile on the man’s face grew strained and his eye twitched for a moment before clearing. “I mean exactly what I said. This is a dream world. What did you think that this world was a part of the real world? I already told you earlier that this world was inside the core. Things we do here can’t really affect the real world.”

  Bjorn frowned as he became lost in his own thoughts. Earlier he said that this was a world inside the core. But now he was saying that it was a dream world. It was obvious that he accidentally told Bjorn that, he hadn’t meant to share that tidbit of information. This man might be a powerful mage but that didn’t mean he had control over his micro expressions. Why did he hide what this world was from Bjorn? Could it be the key?

  His thoughts were interrupted by a tugging sensation on Bjorn’s hand. His mind was ripped back to the present and his surroundings as pain blossomed throughout his hand and up his arm. He looked down at his hand and saw that the man had rather unimaginatively cut off his pinky. Even though the pain was intense it was something he had experienced before so he didn’t give the man the reaction he was hoping for.

  Clearly disappointed he kept speaking. “You know that is rather rude. Why ignore me when it is just the two of us in the world?”

  Bjorn laughed, it was a sardonic laugh. “You are going to lecture me on manners? You have me tied to this table and are torturing me, not that you have done much yet. You’ve only cut off a finger that I have lost before. If you are going to torture me at least be original with what you do.” His words were technically true as the finger cut off was on the same hand that he had sawed off by Killian. That was when he realized that he actually didn’t have the spriggan for his hand. His hand was fully intact and was fully him.

  Bjorn’s words had an effect on the man even if he tried to hid it. “Oh you want me to be creative do you?” The tone in his voice should have made Bjorn worry, but he was too angry to let something as small as a tone get through his rage.

  “You coward. First you threaten a man who is clearly weaker than you, then you bring him to your little sex dungeon and tie him up. I don’t swing that way, sorry man.” Bjorn probably should have shut up but he actually learned shit talking from the best.

  “HOW DARE YOU CALL ARAXOS THE POWERFUL A COWARD!”

  Bjorn chuckled. “So your name is Araxos? Ha! I knew I could draw it out of you.”

  Araxos let out an angry scream and began chanting. After a few seconds a small red flame appeared over his extended index finger. “Let's see how you handle this.” Araxos said. As he rotated his hand downwards the flame followed hovering just an inch above his finger. He lowered his finger towards Bjorn’s stomach. Almost excruciatingly slow the flame drew closer to Bjorn’s skin. Surprisingly he didn’t feel any heat coming off the flame.

  Finally the flame sunk into Bjorn’s skin. Immediately a searing pain entered his body. It was weird though, he would have expected the pain to spread out covering a large area of Bjorn’s body with pain. Not this, it was localized to the size of a marble. It almost wasn’t too bad, then the flame began to move.

  It made its way through his body, searing organs and muscle as it passed through. It stayed the size of a marble as it slowly wormed it’s way through Bjorn’s body leaving a trail of pain in its wake.

  As his mind was trying to find a way out of this predicament that he found himself in his mind started to grasp at straws. There were a few words from the conversation he had with Araxos that stuck out in his mind and for some reason he couldn’t get them out of his head. Dream world. Will.

  If this world was truly a dream world than shouldn’t he potentially be able to sort of lucid dream and affect the world around him. He had never been able to lucid dream before but the idea was sound.

  As the flame left pain in its wake the pain began to fade, it was replaced by anger and determination. If willpower was all that he needed he had that in spades. Nothing would stop him from his quest to make Meira’s killers pay.

  The smile on Araxos’s face froze in place as something shifted. It was hard to explain but it was like the grip that he had on the world slipped ever so slightly. “What?” He said almost as a whisper under his breath.

  Bjorn’s will pushed and the world began to shake. “No, no, no. Stop that.” Araxos said. The smile began to fade on Araxos’s face, at the same time the a smile began to creep onto Bjorn’s face.

  All it took was another push of his iron hard will and he was free. As he pushed he found that it was easier and easier to affect the world around him. Whether that was because he was starting to understand what he was doing more or because Araxos’s grip was slipping, it didn’t matter the end result was the same.

  “You can’t be doing this. You are a peasant.”

  With a flex of his will Araxos was now in Bjorn’s place a moment ago. Locked in place unable to move. “You thought you were the only one who had power here. You accidentally gave me all of the hints I needed to put the pieces together.” Bjorn said with a malevolent tone.

  “Nooooo-!” Araxos’s cry of fear changed into one of pain as Bjorn began to torture the fragment of will from Araxos. He slowly stripped away first it’s personality and then its ego. With each stroke the man became less of what he once was and began to divert back into its base components.

  As Bjorn stripped piece by piece off of the form of the man its form slowly diverted from a humanoid and to a fragment. It slowly began turning into a shard that looked like fractured glass, it was the same color as the head of the staff that it brandished at Bjorn during their fight.

  Its plight didn’t dissuade Bjorn. He just methodically stripped the fragment away. Stopping briefly when it had no humanoid form left. “I don’t know what will happen to you. But if you manage to reform with your master, know this. I killed your creature, I have now killed your avatar, You are next.” With that decoration he flexed his will and the fragment shattered into a fine dust and then a blackhole formed and the dust was sucked into the hole. When it winked out of existence Bjorn got a notification.

  Congratulations, you have completed your quest.