“Not very impressive for the path that leads us to the upper realms.”

  Charles and I stood over a nondescript pit near Wrath’s Courtyard. Only a small circle of ornate metal at the bottom said that it was valuable at all. Not exactly the red carpet to the higher realms that I had envisioned.

  “Apparently, the Portals used to be hidden,” Charles explained. “Once they were discovered, they were kept out in the open. Kind of kills the novelty, doesn’t it?”

  “It does feel less special,” I agreed. “Oh well, not everything can be satisfying.”

  I dropped Mutya’s recovering corpse into the pit. Her body slipped into the hole and it glowed purple. A sound like a futuristic space craft whirred and blasted a beam of light into the sky. When I looked back into the pit, the body was good.

  “Catch you on the other side,” I said to Charles as I hopped in.

  A flash of purple light sparked around me. The whirring sound roared loudly in every direction and I disappeared into the black. Gravity disappeared. All senses disappeared. I was floating through a void all by myself.

  “What’s the test this time?” I asked.

  But there was nothing that responded. Oh well, I could just float here for a bit. It’s not like screaming or punching the air would make things happen more quickly. In fact, there was something soothing about this sensation. Like floating in a pool in a sleep deprivation chamber. Yet, it was also familiar. It was if I was in the nothingness that I came from before I was born. Was this the oblivion that the godless wished for?

  No, I was still conscious. And, with continued consciousness came the expected boredom. Relaxation and peace could only carry me so far. I was a creature of stimulus after all. I needed something to move towards.

  “What will you do if you reach a point where you can no longer proceed?”

  The words hung in the air. I could have sworn they were spoken, but there was no sound that accompanied them; just foreign words implanted into my mind.

  “Is that a question worth asking?” I responded into the void. “If I reach such a place, then that’s all I can do.”

  The void did not engage in further conversation with me. It closed off and left me to myself again. Boring thing. Did we really need to go through all this pageantry if it is going to spit me out regardless? Lesser demons had already met this place and succeeded; there should be no reason I wouldn’t be the same.

  But, then the void changed entirely. The blackness went away and I found myself in a familiar room, one that I spent several days within in the past. I sat in an interrogation room. My hands were placed flat on the table. Manacles were on both my wrists and a chain ran under an anchor on the table, trapping me there.

  I blinked several times in surprise. My scaled black hands weren’t tethered to the table, but my tattooed hands of skin. They looked delicate now; so weak, so alien. But, I knew them to be my own. The patterns inked upon them were identical to my own. I turned my head towards the one-way mirror along the far wall, but my face was pixelated and my last name removed from my jumpsuit.

  On the other side of the table sat a faceless detective. It wore a white dress shirt and black slacks. A notebook was open and it scribbled some words out with a pen.

  “Why should I let you go on?” The voice asked, reading my mind. “From what I see here, you should be stuck here a long time.”

  I tilted my head back and started to laugh loudly at this sham. Was this supposed to be the weighing of my soul, so late in the game? Who would actually struggle with such a thing?

  Actually, I could think of one person who would whip themselves raw as penance.

  “Because that is your design as the border between realms,” I replied. “The Follies designed you and you will let me continue onwards.”

  “My design.”

  The words echoed through the room, reverberating off of every surface. It continued rattling into my ears until the phrase lost all meaning.

  “What is your design?” The being demanded, slamming on the table.

  “I am designed to be a man in the image of God,” I responded immediately. “Admittedly, I was a failure to that design, but that does not change what I was intended to be.”

  Though I believed in and respected the Follies, they weren’t the ones who made me. I don’t know what it looked on the proper side of the world. I didn’t know what those people there enjoyed as their rewards, but I know that, by virtue of my existence in the place, that those designs were the same as what I had been taught as a boy.

  “A flawed design,” the being repeated, writing it down as a note. “Who are you?”

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “I am Ishmael.”

  “Who are you really?”

  “A killer whose name was removed from his soul,” I answered. “A man that turned into a lizard and killed as many people as he could. Someone who has cast aside all hope of being better. Someone who can no longer recognize in himself what a good person is supposed to be.”

  “What is it that you hope to accomplish?” The being continued to interrogate. “What is your new design?”

  “To defeat the strongest demons that exist and determine my place in this world.”

  Ever since I arrived and learned about the prospects of climbing up, I hungered to face these powerful enemies. I wanted to continuously test my limits. But, this being should already know that if it was omniscient.

  “What if you lose?”

  “That’s fine,” I answered truthfully. “If I am overpowered and lose, then that just means that is how good I was. It’s not as though I was the strongest man alive or anything.”

  “What if you win? What if there is no one left to fight?”

  I went quiet. I was the dog chasing his own tail, not actually expecting to catch it in my mouth. Dumbfounded, I look towards the Follies who are filming me and cackling. I cannot challenge them, not conventionally, for they are the dimension itself. Those who gave me my strength would simply rip it all away from me. So, if they are Hell itself…

  “I will end Hell.”

  “Your design has been revealed. Your identity will now be known to the entire world for what it really is.”

  Notice

  Congratulations

  You have been bestowed the Title of Great Demon

  You are now known to the world as The Dragon who Heralds the End.

  Your stats and abilities will be augmented.

  Notice

  Would you like to pay 1,000,000,000 XP to create your own Signature Ability?

  Signature Abilities must be approved by the Follies.

  You can activate this message at any time.

  “Who even has a billion XP to spend by this point?” I asked the boxes.

  But, it gave me something to look forward to. Each of the best demons of these realms had something perfect to their identity. I wondered if the Master’s martial arts was his own Signature Ability.

  Notice

  Correction

  You have a blank Ability that allows you to create a Signature Ability fitting of your new rank.

  Would you like to use it?

  “A blank ability?” I said to myself.

  Then, the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. A useless gift that was handed over to me as the world’s worst consolation prize to betraying Wrath. The ability [Nothing] sat in my ability list, ready to finally be turned into something great.

  I accepted with my mind and the ability slipped away from my ability list. A blank ability box filled my vision, ready to be filled out with whatever I wanted to put in there. As far as I knew, the sky was the limit.

  But, was that really true?

  Did everyone create a one-shot kill ability that could eliminate anyone without a sweat? No, the follies would not allow that. It was likely something strong but subtle; something that would fit perfectly in with the rest.

  What was it that I actually needed? My punches and kicks were already strong enough. I had magic that could strike from range, magic that could hit many opponents at once, and a trump card that I didn’t much care for. Everything could be as strong or as weak as I wanted as long as I performed the right stat allocations. It was an understatement to say that this stat-shift style was the backbone of my heightened power.

  “I have the perfect thing in mind.”

  I could see the words flow from my mind and populate the ability box. I grinned in excitement at how much stronger I would become.

  “There you are,” Charles commented.

  I blinked multiple times. As soon as I thought of my ability, the room disappeared and now I was standing on a large rock overlooking a hostile landscape.

  I looked to my right to see Charles stowing his pocket watch into his coat. He looked at me like he would at an employee who arrived late. But, using his better judgment, remembered his place and looked away from me.

  “Am I late?”

  “Two minutes later than I was,” Charles answered. “Maybe this means that I’m more worthy than you are.”

  I ignored Charles’ jests and surveyed the surroundings. Barren, craggy, snow-covered rocks spread out like rolling fields. Rivers of lava flowed through the landscape and bubbled into small ponds.

  All the land converged into a massive mountain in the center of landscape. It crawled up impossibly high, reaching out towards the heavens. Some superstructure could be seen perched on the peak; the Elysium where only the strongest stood and the place that we all marched towards.

  Spews of magic and rumbling booms of attacks could be heard all over the world. Everywhere that I looked, I could spot one skirmish or another.

  Notice

  Welcome to the "Final Climb" (Level 50-99)

  Map has been updated.

  A formal war for the Throne has begun. To participate, you must be in a formal faction. Only one member of the faction can be designated as the leader. This leader can issue Commands to all members. Any faction leader that reaches Level 100 can proceed to the Peak. Leave a bloody mark on this world.

  “Looks like I need to create a faction first.”

  “Already done,” Charles said. “Don’t worry, I’ve designated you as the leader.”

  “What did you name it?”

  “The Opportunistic Dogs,” Charles replied with a smile. “I thought it was fitting.”

  “How diligent of you,” I complimented warily. “Did you make this in the even that I didn’t come out the other side?”

  “One should always be optimistic. Two minutes is a long time. Speaking of, where is the dead elf you tossed in?”

  As if on cue, Mutya materialized into the world. She groggily looked around before opening her eyes in shock. She flashed a furious expression at me and drew her swords.

  I reached out with speed and gripped her neck tightly in my hand. I gave it a firm squeeze, not enough to kill, but enough to tell her that she’d die before she was able to do anything else.

  “There she is. Are you ready to be my servant?”

  But, it didn’t seem like it was my action that had the desired effect. Some lights blinked in her eyes and a despondent look crossed her face upon reading the contents. She went limp in my hands like a possum, completely at my mercy.

  I released my grip and she fell onto her knees, coughing at the ground. She still gave me a hostile expression, but, this time, it was far more subdued.

  “Good. We have work to do.”