A warm breeze made them all feel so much better. They appeared in the middle of a grassy field dotted by longhorn cattle, small ponds, and trees. Birds chirped as small clouds passed overhead. The light felt perfect on their skin. The smell of flowers filled their noses. Victor felt heartier and then noticed his combat log on his HUD.

  Received Vitality Boost Rank 16

  9,831,790/9,831,790 health remaining

  Victor spit out in disbelief. “When I said I wanted to go somewhere safe. I had no idea somewhere this safe even existed.”

  Serena knelt in front of a sign. “No matter your destination you will reach it in a week. Enjoy your time here in my eternal garden. Signed ~D.”

  Jenora licked her lips looking at one of the longhorn cattle. She arched her back and wagged both her tails before darting off chasing the cattle for a moment before biting it. The creature turned to bubbles and in front of her a feast entirely of steaks appeared on a picnic blanket each perfectly cooked. Jenora sniffed it before eagerly digging in and consuming it all. She laid down on the blanket and closed her eyes. She slowly transformed back to her devil form before waking up. She looked around. “Hey! We’re not in hell! We made it!” She jumped up trying to punch the sky only after leaping into the air realizing she was naked and covering herself up. Brice sheepishly handed her the plate armor.

  “Where the hell are we?” Serena asked.

  Swordie in complete confusion answered. “I have no idea. I’ve never even heard of a realm like this in the abyssal labyrinth. Look behind us.” Behind them a fence ended the grass. Beyond the white picket fence a black void completely empty covered the horizon. “I know not what that is but whatever lies beyond that fence feels overwhelming. We stay here. Do not cross that fence.”

  “Is hell entirely within the abyssal labyrinth?” Victor asked.

  “No, parts of hell are entry points to the abyssal labyrinth which are considered part of the abyssal labyrinth.” Swordie explained. “The necropolis could probably be considered part of the abyssal labyrinth if he connected the portal successfully and permanently.”

  “Have we stepped beyond the labyrinth? Is this even connected to it?” Victor pondered.

  “It is. I cannot sense the worldly realm or any connection to the other realms. We are cut off here.” Swordie noted.

  Cawthorn dove toward a pig wandering nearby crashing into the ground only to be buried in sausage and bacon. Cawthorn popped his head up. He looked at the food around him. “SAUSAGE! MY MAGE WE’VE GONE TO HEAVEN! THIS IS HEAVEN!” He choked down sausage after sausage while they spoke.

  Serena shook her head. “I doubt that. Our destination is the green portal. The sign says wait a week. I say we relax and recover.”

  Swordie agreed aggressively. “It is not heaven.”

  “It says we will reach it in a week.” Brice corrected her. “We can rest but I think we’ll have to walk. The animals here literally explode into food so there’s no danger in starving.”

  Victor gently noted. “No danger is an understatement. Swordie who can cast a rank 16 spell?”

  “Why?” Swordies voice lingered expecting an answer that would irritate him.

  Victor didn’t know how to explain it without explaining his HUD in front of the group including Gargrim. He touched Swordie and said “Status Sheet.”

  “Well that is disconcerting, or encouraging, or terrifying.” Swordies confusion concerned the group.

  Brice turned to Swordie. “Oh dear. What is it Swordie?”

  “All of you are under the effect of rank 16 Vitality boost.” He noted. “This seems not to effect the for lack of a better term, food animals, but only all of you and Cawthorn are being effected by an extremely high rank spell. A beneficial spell but the existence of such a power is horrifying.”

  Emilie looked at her hands and slapped her own hand. “I can feel it. I feel practically invulnerable.”

  “Can we rest? I can’t move yet.” Serena collapsed on the ground looking to the gentle sky dotted with clouds. “Besides.” The breeze rustled her hair and she closed her eyes. “It’s so peaceful.”

  Victor laid down beside her to watch the clouds. “Would everyone like to relax for the rest of the day? I doubt we’ll reach the exit before the end of the week.”

  “Oh Goddess yes!” Jenora lay down on the grass. “A bit less stress for one day.”

  Emilie walked away from her and lay down near Victor and Serena. “We should just relax. Serena needs a while to recover anyway right?”

  “Victor could carry me.” Serena smiled at Victor.

  “I can if you prefer it.” Victor knowingly smiled. “I just thought you’d like a break.”

  “I do want the break. We’ve been struggling for a while and are lucky to have wound up here.” She closed her eyes leaning her head against Victor.

  The group began to relax as the sky darkened without going through a traditional sunset revealing stars. They fell asleep on the bed of warm grass like children in their own beds. Cawthorn landed on the grass and much like the others he collapsed asleep immediately after. The birds once again chirped and the breeze resumed as day dawned and the group woke up refreshed. Victor noticed he still had vitality boost rank 16. The group stood up Victor clapped his hands together. “Shall we start walking?”

  Serena asked. “To where? It’s not like we know where we’re going.”

  “I bet it doesn’t matter. Cawthorn could scout but if it wants us to be here for a week there’s probably nothing we can do to avoid spending the week here.” Victor took the first step toward the horizon. The group started following and joking around. Within an hour any unease they felt about the realm melted away. The mountains in the distance were beautiful, the open plains majestic, and the forest to their left verdant. The animals despite exploding into food would approach them and rub up against them.

  Cawthorn after killing and eating multiple boars finally turned to Victor on his shoulder with an almost depressed voice. “I’m full…”

  Victor laughed. “Have you ever been full before?”

  “No…” Cawthorn leaned against his cheek.

  “Aww do you not like being full?” Victor asked.

  “No… I want to eat more.” Cawthorn groaned.

  Victor gently patted his head. “Aw poor Cawthorn, you’ll be able to eat more later.”

  The group continued traveling and joking for the entire week finding nothing but beautiful scenery. They exercised every one of those 6 days working together and gathering a massive supply of food. The food didn’t seem to go bad no matter how long it sat in the pack. On the 7 th day the group woke up in the middle of the field they’d been walking through. This time however a small wooden cabin with smoke billowing from it now stood in front of them. An old short bearded man with a pipe sat on a rocking chair. He had long white hair and was a fair bit wider than he was tall. He puffed out a bit of smoke as the whistling of a tea pot broke their trance viewing him.

  He waved his hand lifting the pot without getting out of his rocking chair and began pouring 8 glasses of tea on a table on the cabins porch. “Good morning.” He raised his teacup to them and took a sip. “Try the tea it’s a wonderful way to start in the day.”

  Victor curiously inquired. “What is your name sir?”

  “It is polite to offer your names first when introducing yourselves.” He slightly tipped his cup to them rocking back and forth.

  “Of course, where are my manners? My name is Victor Vance that is Serena Brooks, Emilie Ward, Jenora Oath, Brice Pendleton, Gargrim, Cawthorn, and Swordie.” Victor cheerfully introduced them.

  He stood up and walked to them extending his hand to Victor slowly Victor took it and shook his hand. “I am Deox.”

  Victor paused confused and sure he merely misheard the short man. “I’m so sorry I think I misheard you.”

  “My name is Deox. Try the tea, it’s divine?” He pulled back his hand and took another sip of his tea sitting at the table with the other teacups.

  Swordie simply added. “Farewell friends it’s been nice knowing you.”

  Emilie put up her. “ Barrier wall !” Jenora raised her shield. Brice joined with a barrier of his own and Serena drew her blades.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Victor shrugged having dealt with powers far beyond him many times by this point and simply sat down for tea. Serena yelled at him “DON’T JUST SIT DOWN FOR TEA!”

  Cawthorn proclaimed in agreement. “HE’S THE GREAT DESTROYER! HE KILLED MORE PEOPLE THAN WE’VE ALL MET OUR ENTIRE LIVES!”

  Victor took the teacup in his hand turned to Serena and slowly took a sip. “DON’T JUST DRINK THAT WHILE MAKING EYE CONTACT WITH ME!”

  Victor smiled putting the teacup down. “It’s delicious Deox.”

  Gargrim raised an eyebrow skeptical. “You’re the great destroyer of Verdan? You don’t seem the part.”

  “Today I am but a host offering tea. Won’t you sit and share a cup with me?” Deox stroked his beard and smiled at Gargrim.

  “I dislike tea. I prefer alcohol.” Gargrim glared.

  “Do you dislike trying new things?” Deox asked.

  Gargrim paused. “No.” He reluctantly sat down and took a sip. The aroma of burning wood and maple leaves filled his nose. Somehow Gargrim felt as though he tasted his childhood digging with a pick axe. So many smiles and so much laughter rushed back to him. The tea itself felt like he was drinking a fond memory in. Despite being an old dwarf grizzled by combat and skeptical of the man in front of him he began to cry and took another sip. “It’s beautiful. It’s the best drink I’ve ever had.”

  Brice curious let his guard down and sat down. He took a deep sniff of the tea. Deox commented. “The aroma is beautiful isn’t it?”

  The memory of Brice’s friend rushed back to him. The two of them playing in a field of flowers with bright smiles, then a vision of his mother serving warm food, he couldn’t help but take a sip. The memories became more vivid and warm. He found himself wiping a tear from his eye. “It’s so delicious.”

  The others sat down skeptically. One by one they took a sip of the tea and one by one they were overwhelmed with joyful memories. Deox took a sip. “It is nice to remember the best moments isn’t it?”

  Victor didn’t remember anything and turned to Deox. “Remember what?”

  “Oh that is just precious young man.” Deox smiled at him.

  “Huh?” Victor muttered curious.

  “The tea will help you remember the best moments in your life so far, if you didn’t remember anything it is right now.” Deox chuckled.

  Serena turned to him. “Me yelling at you is the best moment of your life?”

  “Well we’re all here, we’re all safe, no one is suffering and this nice old man offered us tea. There’s no pressure, no danger, and no confusion. Life feels pretty good to me right now.” Victor smiled.

  Deox smiled. “I like this young lad. He appreciates the finer things in life.”

  Serena gently bumped his head with her fist then grabbed the back of his head and kissed him. “Love you dear.”

  Victor smiled turning red. “Love you too.”

  Brice scoffed. “Uhg.”

  Deox chuckled. “Do not worry young elf. You’ll find someone too.”

  Brice shrugged. “I might but it’ll be hundreds or thousands of years before I find someone to spend the rest of my life with.”

  Emilie put down her tea and protested. “ARE WE NOT GOING TO DISCUSS THE DESTROYER SITTING IN FRONT OF US!?”

  Deox turned to her with a frown. “We we’re discussing everything about life. I’m alive so I suppose we can turn to me if you’d like. Do you have any questions about me?”

  Emilie demanded. “Is it true what they say? Did you really cause the Great Mana Crash?”

  “I did. The Leylines , The Bearded Forge , The Heart of the Ocean , The Heart of the Crystal Dragon , I destroyed them all. Many lives were ended when I destroyed them.” He looked down at the tea and took a sip.

  Swordie angrily demanded to know. “Is it true you destroyed heaven?”

  “I suppose that is more or less true. My actions resulted in the annihilated the realm.” He took another sip.

  “You abomination. Kill yourself immediately.” Swordie angrily demanded.

  Victor glared at Swordie. “Swordie! Don’t be rude to Deox.”

  “He murdered all of heaven!” Swordie angrily noted.

  “Not exactly, though that is likely the story you’ve been told.” He took a sip.

  “Would you like to tell us the story?” Victor leaned toward him.

  “I will give you the short version. I was born with the innate skill Recipient . I can receive the innate skill of anyone who wishes to gift it to me. In heaven my party, the party of heroes across the land was losing to Conquest. He had successfully corrupted my other party members with his skill and had just used them to kill the Goddess. I stretched out my hand to the sky pleading begging across all heaven to grant me the power to avenge her. Unfortunately angels are creatures made entirely of mana. They gave me their innate skills and their mana, all of it. Most angels of heaven died that day because I was too weak to stop Conquest from slaughtering her.” He put the tea down. “My entire life was downhill from that moment, so I created the abyssal labyrinth and this realm within it to serve as the bottom of that hill. It’s not such a bad rock bottom don’t you think?”

  The group sat silently for a moment before Victor reached out to hug the old white bearded man. “It’s a pretty good bottom of the hill, but why stay here?”

  “I deserve it, for everything I’ve done. You’re the first guests to make it here in several millennia, so it is a rare occurrence for me.” He smiled.

  Emilie scoffed angrily. “So you’re what? Sorry!? Why didn’t you kill yourself after destroying heaven! You don’t deserve this! You deserve far worse.”

  Jenora put her hand up. “Emilie please don’t taunt the world ending mage.”

  Gargrim angrily demanded to know. “Why did you destroy The Bearded Forge ?”

  “And the leylines .” Brice demanded.

  Deox took a deep almost trembling breath. “Standing in the ruins of Verdan after I cast the devils out of heaven I stood on the corpse of a young girl neither I nor Conquest intentionally hurt her, we didn’t target her, she was merely in the area of our battle. I looked on in horror looking past the damage and devastation from my spells. Millions died. I realized that day no one should have this much power. I began to think and over the next 500 years I traveled to the sites of each of those major sites of magic and spoke with those around them. I made friends and cared deeply for them. When I arrived at each of them I had to kill those standing in my way. I made it quick but their ends came. I killed and slaughtered until I reached each one and I destroyed all of them. The world became a weaker, better place without them.”

  Gargrim enraged stood up. “YOU THINK THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE BECAUSE IT’S WEAKER!?”

  “It’s not a point of view, it’s a fact. The ability of one person to level a significant percentage of a city, a country, or the world makes the world a worse place. No matter how good that person is someone else could one day seize that power and use it.” Deox insisted.

  Gargrim slapped the table. “You killed millions to make them weaker, easier prey for monsters.”

  “I also weakened the monsters.” Deox corrected him. “Though the curse of Tyrant persists in devils such as your friend here and the blessing of Yggdrasil resides in your elven friend I cleared out most artifacts which grant powerful effects based on race a few remain, and it will be another 10,000 years before their effects truly disappear.”

  Brice insisted. “Why would you want to weaken others? That doesn’t make sense.”

  Deox brought up a portal showing Brices home enclave walking around unaware they were being watched. He saw his beautiful friend carrying flowers across a bridge. He raised a hand and a small white sphere began humming and sucking in air. The sound deafened them for a moment and the sphere became a tiny point of light. “I can demonstrate it perhaps most easily by wiping out one of your home towns. They won’t even know they’ve been killed since it will happen so fast.”

  “NO!” Brice leapt across the table instinctively casting “FIREBALL!” It disappeared as Deox snapped. The entire group, save for Victor and Cawthorn attacked Deox only to end up floating in the air.

  “Your entire family, all your friends, everyone you care about will be dead in a flash. They’ll never be able to defend themselves, they’ll never know they were even attacked. You’ll know though, and that hurt will never go away.” Deox glared at Brice as he launched the attack wiping out all land to one side of his cabin and the portal.

  “You killed them…” Brice began to cry.

  “That feeling of helplessness. That absolute feeling of hatred for someone stronger than you because you had no hope. Have you felt it before? I have, long ago that feeling ran rampant. Today in the Worldly realm there isn’t even a 100 tier 10 beings. Long ago there may have been 100 in a single city. Unstoppable beings like myself existed even beyond them. Remember this feeling next time you ask someone if being more powerful is good. Everyone wants to be more powerful, no one wants someone else to have that power over them.” Deox explained with ice cold determination in his eyes.

  Victors pulse raced recalling the moment the blast went out. “You… Closed it.”

  Deox put them all back in their seats. “Smart kid, observant too. I knew I liked you for a reason. Yes, I didn’t kill Brices hometown.”

  Brice collapsed on the table into his hands. “He could have done it…”

  Deox stood up and walked toward the cabin resuming his gentle smile. “Remain here. I’ll return shortly.”