Apotheosis of a Cynic

Despite being a sight he was used to, the wave of nausea that followed wasn't a welcome feeling. Feeling dizzy, Mathew took a shaky step back, but his foot caught a trailing arm and he tumbled backward.

Feeling a viscous and slick texture on his palm, the young cynic raised his hand and from it, a stream of crimson fluid oozed from it.

For a moment, he just stared and as he did, the metallic tang in the air thickened.

He shifted, feeling something against his leg. To his side were corpses riddled with holes and with thick and jagged bone-like objects protruding from them. Looking around then apathetically wiping his bloodied hand against one of the corpse's clothes, he says in a curious tone.

'What the hell happened here?'

Still sitting on the floor, he felt a hint of vibration through the floor. It was unsettling and sporadic as if something heavy was shifting or stomping in the distance. Then came the sharp sound of metal clanging. The vibrations and sound that reverberated through and bounced off the walls of the cobblestone passage felt like warnings of something ominous happening nearby.

But what could it be?

Shaking off the eerie sense of unease and discomfort creeping up on him, Mathew resolved himself and pushed to his feet. Then started moving down the wide passage and toward the origins of the sound.

Echoing and twisting in the air, the sounds only became louder as he got ever closer to their source.

This was starting to feel like a mistake. But he couldn't just turn around without first knowing what exactly was going on.

Step.

Step.

Another step.

The faint traces of human voices now followed the metal clanging. This was starting to feel like trouble. The survival instincts he had learned and honed daily while living in the lower districts were screaming at him. Telling him to turn back. But the curiosity he felt wouldn't allow him to. Not without knowing what was causing the disturbance ahead.

Caution, reason, and curiosity struggled desperately for superiority within his mind as he pressed on, with each step feeling bringing him closer to the source and farther from safety than the last.

Soon, he came upon a splitting path and peeked through the corner and into a large room. What he saw was a sight most humans wouldn't have nor probably want the opportunity to witness. The chances of you surviving that encounter are slimmer than that of you winning a lottery worth a billion.

Before he was a creature, he had the lucky opportunity to see images and illustrations on the news when fissure breaks occurred. A fissure is a crack in space and time that connects the real or known world called Earth to the forgotten lands also known as new terra. A distant, forgotten, desolate, and vast world that is populated by and is the birthplace of monsters known as void born. If a fissure is formed and isn't sealed off in time, a large horde of these monsters will be unleashed into the world.

And before him stood one of those very monsters. Creatures that have been corrupted by a murky and evil power known as Void energy. They are transformed into monsters or sometimes grotesque amalgamations that are so powerful that even advanced human weaponry could do nothing before them.

Among those creatures there are seven ranks separating them by strength, they are, feral, Lesser, Awakened, Greater, Corrupted, Fallen, and Mythic.

Within ranks, there is a set of classes that further separate them based on the number of soul essences they possess. Of which there are seven. Beast, Monster, Fiend, Terror, Demon, Devil and the strongest, Nightmare.

The creature in question was what the codex termed a lacertilla. A quadrupedal, three-foot-tall reptilian creature, identified mainly by the two tentacle-like appendages on its back with poisonous mandibles at their tips. The creature had been categorized into the feral rank and in the beast class, making it a feral beast.

Compared to anything known to man, this creature possessed immense strength and speed along with a hide thick enough to resist heavy gunfire, and if the potent poison it produced was taken into account, it would be a creature that humans could do nothing about. But compared to creatures from the forgotten lands this was weak, forcing it to sit in the lowest rank.

Mathew stared for a few moments, then his lips curled as he forced a crooked, humorless smile and whispered in a disheartening tone.

"Just what I needed."

The beast was dashing across the old cobblestone floor faster than physically possible for a creature that size.

The young cynic was completely focused on the beast in front of him when the sudden glint of metal caught his attention. Below the monster, there was a man clad in a silver plate armor lined with black accents that opposed the vile beast. Wielding a long sword with a jet-black blade.

Stood a few dozen steps behind the man was a beauty of a woman. Who, while wearing nothing but a thin white dress that had been torn and stained by dirt and blood, she folded her arms and stood with an impatient scowl.

From where he was watching he could even see that she was clearly saying something, but he couldn't make out what it was she was saying.

After watching for what seemed to be an eternity, Mathew clenched his jaw and retreated behind the cover of the cold cobblestone wall. This was by no means his fight. Yet the longer he watched, the heavier it made his chest feel, as though he were breathing in the tension and despair that filled the air.

'What the hell am I supposed to do here!'

He stood there with no idea what he was meant to do, so his thoughts threatened to spiral off. Should he help? No that would be pointless as he didn't know how to fight. Should he run then? But where would he go? He hadn't the first clue of where he was, let alone how to leave.

Finally, after a little bit of contemplation, he got to his feet, turned away from the battle, and said in a flat tone.

"I'm sorry, but I can't help you guys. The codex said my first trial was to survive and I can't exactly do that while being here now can I?"

He cast a quick glance over his shoulder then put one foot ahead of another, slowly making his way back down the passageway as fast as he could, walking past the corpses and heading deeper in.

'I'm sure you guys will be fine. Hell, you wouldn't even know I was gone.'

They would have had to know he was there to notice he was gone though. Whatever, that didn't matter. All he cared about was getting away before something bad happened.

But as if fate had willed for him to become involved, the wall ahead of him burst open and from it, the beast went flying into the opposing wall with the armored man plunging his blade into its body.

An enraging thought ran through his mind as he watched them fly past him.

"Because why not!'