A wet, distorted sound gurgled up from its chest, deep and rattling. Then the air around it shuddered—and the shadows beneath it bubbled and bulged. It was laughing.
Not like a human. Not like a beast. Like something that had learned what laughter was but never understood why people did it.
The shadows around its body bulged and distorted. Mouths began to push their way out of its form, warping the space around its body. Dozens, maybe more, but each one different, crisply formed, as if forcing my consciousness to recognize them. Some stretched wide in silent, gaping grins, others full of jagged, shadowy teeth clicked together in anticipation.
Some whispered. Some giggled. Some sucked at the air like they were tasting the moment.
Then, all at once, they cackled.
The sound layered over itself, a dozen voices, wrong and unnatural. High and shrill, deep and grinding, some shrieking in delight, others hissing in low, guttural croaks. I think some were even chanting, but the more I caught those words, the more my head hurt. They echoed through the cavern and assaulted my ears repeatedly. I couldn’t escape that thought that they were savoring the shit situation I was stuck in. The Mauler was going to kill me, and they were going to send me off with those abyssal laughs.
I could barely stand. My breath was ragged, my vision blurry. My stats told me everything I needed to know—I had no path to victory. There was no way stats under five and a single level would let me take on what had to be a high-threat enemy.
And then I felt a pulse in my body. A deep, electric jolt ran through my being.
A new window carved itself into my vision.
***
Deific Trump Card Acquired!
[Shadow Beast: Banishment]
- Once per day, you may banish a Shadow Beast.
- Once per day, you may return the last banished Shadow Beast.
***
I blinked. The perfect solution was just handed to me? Just like that? Was I dreaming? Was this an impending death-provoked hallucination?
The Mauler took a slow step toward me, still laughing with every fiber and every mouth of its being. Even the eyes looked like they were laughing.
Well, might as well just go with it. I shrugged and pointed at the Mauler.
"Banish."
A crack tore through the air.
The Mauler’s laughter cut off. The mouths snapped shut, one by one, twitching and twisting in confusion. The Mauler, too, looked around in a panic but didn’t take any steps.
Below it, space ripped open. It was a hole of absolute darkness outlined by dark orange streaks, jagged and gaping like something had slashed reality apart with rusted claws.
Dozens of skeletal, warped arms lunged outward in a frenzy. They clawed at the Mauler, seizing its legs, its back, and its oversized head. They wrapped around its limbs with an unnatural, twitching precision and stabbed it with the sharp, bony protrusions they seemed to have.
The Mauler let out the most revolting howl as, from the depths of that abyss, glee-filled laughter started.
It was the farthest thing from the Mauler’s imitation, but closer in nature to the laugh of the mouths. Something else was laughing with delight. It sounded like there were dozens of voices, letting loose their most deranged laughter, but I kept recognizing the laughter to all be from the same source somehow.
Enjoying terrorizing the Mauler, the hands tightened. Then finally, they pulled the Mauler down.
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The Mauler roared, but the sound warped. Its voice fractured as the mouths in the shadows twisted in agony. Words came quickly from them, this time, mixing in words I recognized. Some pleaded, others screamed in rage. More mouths ripped open along its body, snapping at the skeletal hands, but the mouths evidently were not made for combat. They were only there to taunt.
The Mauler thrashed about, but those arms were unshakable. Throughout it all, my demolished left arm stayed stuck, impaled in one of its fangs. Its silver eyes locked onto me, no longer laughing.
I shot it a dry grin.
"Guess there are still some miracles left in this crapsack world.”
With a final, deafening snap, the skeletal hands dragged the Mauler into the abyss.
The portal slammed shut. What followed was silence.
It was unnerving how empty everything was.
I fell to my knees, panting, shaking, staring at the empty space where that thing had just been.
“I’m alive.”
I closed my eyes and let my two lives flash before my eyes. So much–there was so much, but the two sets of memories had melded together reasonably well. I focused on the UI in my vision, and strengthened it.
I had HP and SP, both filled to the brim. I had stats. I had a level. I had a checklist where doing one of the items awarded me a Level. And then I had a “Deific Trump Card,” which was essentially an ability I could use.
What the heck? This made more sense from the perspective of a guy from modern Earth. But here? All this stuff was unheard of. To put it in Earth terms, my current home was a hard dark fantasy setting with no video game elements, so this mish-mash was kind of disorienting.
I swallowed hard, my breath still ragged from the rush of everything that had just happened. Mish-mash aside, this was happening now. Rushing off now was ill-advised. I looked around. The cave walls down here were usually speckled with all sorts of glowing bits and protrusions, but these caverns were dark, with what I was sure were shadows leaking out of them.
I spotted a crevice in the wall, surprised I could see well enough, and crawled inside to catch my breath.
I let out a short, breathy laugh and focused back on the UI. This Checklist, my stats, and the Deific Trump Card—they didn't belong in this world. People would have talked about them. Maybe they were linked to me being from Earth? Like a special privilege of sorts? I could believe that. And thanks to whatever god decided I could use this privilege.
I willed another screen to appear—anything else that could give me more information. Nothing. I just had my Checklist, my stats, and a pop-up with the Deific Trump Card… Must have been something like an Ability Screen.
Fine. I went back to the Checklist.
***
? Escape a Shadow Beast’s grasp.
? Drink fresh water.
? Eat a Strobe Berry.
? Discover the Laughing Passage.
? Kill a Shadow Beast.
? Discover a Trial Terminal.
? Activate a Trial Terminal.
? Visit a foreign settlement.
? Activate a Nascent Terminal.
? Extinguish a Torch of Preserving Shadows.
***
I stared at the first unchecked item. Drink fresh water.
Had I never done that before? I almost scoffed at myself, but... no. Thinking back, all we ever drank in the village was boiled water, and that water came from either freaky mushrooms, dripped from the ceiling, or was collected from puddles. Fresh water was admittedly a luxury we didn't have in that collection of shoddy mushroom shacks called a village. It being an item on the list implied there must be a source of fresh water.
Then there was the next one. Eat a Strobe Berry. I knew about those. Strobe Berries only grew beyond the safe boundary of the hunting grounds—dangerous territory that even seasoned hunters avoided, because if not? Shadow Beast would catch you the way it had me. Strobe Berries had a ring of strobing light along their surfaces. They would be at home at a dance club.
And then the next few... Trial Terminals? Nascent Terminals? Foreign settlements?
I frowned. What the heck were terminals in the context of this world? There were other settlements out there? This was the first I was hearing of it. No one in the village ever spoke of other villages. Maybe there were some in the distant past, but we’ve been hiding from monsters since the start. You wouldn’t be wrong to think we were the only ones left. If there were others, why hadn’t anyone ever come looking for us? Were they just as trapped as we were?
Then my eyes landed on the final item.
Extinguish a Torch of Preserving Shadows.
I stiffened.
That was insane.
The torch burning at the top of the village’s central spire… Yeah, the shadowy flame was ominous, but that was what kept the village safe. The Shadow Beasts avoided it. Without it, there was nothing stopping them from tearing through everything and devouring everyone.
I had my doubts, but my eyes lingered on that item. It was on the list. Doing something on the list helped me… So would doing that help me, too? Maybe it would, but maybe it would hurt everyone else.