Chapter 2 — System Change

“Ah, fuck me!”

The words echoed into the darkness. Derek knew he shouldn’t have doubted the portal back then, he knew that just by voicing his doubts, something would go wrong.

Looking around at what used to be the portal from the camp to the battle, Derek couldn’t see anything other than darkness. There was no light anywhere, no way of finding out which way went where.

And like this, time passed…

A glaive sliced through the darkness at a horizontal angle, then, slicing through the air, the glaive came down from up high. Then all movement in the area stopped.

“Heh, heh, heh!” Derek started chuckling.

While meditating, Derek’s eyes shot open with a start at the new system messages.

“What the hell is this?!” Derek was frantic.

“This sucks!!!” Derek screamed through the tunnel as loud as he could.

He tried starving himself, but he was right. His body really didn’t need much food with his endurance at what it was. Starving was actually an awful experience for him. It wasn’t like he just got hungrier and hungrier. No, once his body entered a starving state, it started drawing its sustenance from him. This made him lose health, but that healed immediately. So, in theory, his body was an all you can eat buffet that regenerates its food upon consumption. It was hell.

Derek wasn’t even sure how old he was now. He was 27 when he got trapped in the portal. What was he now? 30? 40? There really wasn’t any way for him to tell. He had gotten to the point where he would just enter a deep state of meditation and let the time pass. Only awakening every so often to make sure that nothing had changed.

“Failed attempts at suicide doesn’t make me crazy, does it? No, any rational person would try to off themselves if they went through this. Yeah, I’m fine. Perfectly fine. I wish I had a volleyball or something to talk to. At least it has a round shape. I’m stuck with Glaivey. Either way, nothing talks back. Ah, look at me, rambling again. Sorry Glaivey, you were saying?” Derek may have lost it. Years of total silence and darkness had really done him in. It wasn’t so bad when he still had the system there. It at least showed that he was making progress. Now, he was talking to a pointy stick, and it was apparently talking back to him.

“No, no Glaivey. I’ll let you take watch now. I’m going to go meditate for a while. Wake me if anything fun happens.” Derek allowed his eyelids to fall and slowly slipped back into his meditative trance.

“Huh? What’s that?” Looking throughout the infinite darkness, Derek noticed that something seemed to change.

Even then, he closed his eyes and focused his enhanced hearing toward the drum-like noise.

The banging noise was getting louder and louder, he no longer had to focus his hearing to make it out. Out of nowhere, another crash sounded out, only this time, it seemed to bring with it a crack in the darkness.

Like spider webs, the crack grew with each thump. The cracks started splitting off in different directions, not unlike a rock hitting a windshield of a car while speeding down the highway. Behind the new fissures in the darkness were just the faintest traces of light. As the cracks increased, so too did the illumination behind them.

Derek summoned his glaive and his armor, at least the armor from the neck down as the helmet no longer fit on his head with his giant beard and crazy hair. He took off toward the cracks in the darkness, prepared for anything, from death to freedom.

He finally got to the part in the darkness, not knowing what to do next.

Nothing happened. Not giving up, he came down with a

Then he got an idea, not a smart idea, but an idea nonetheless. He choked up on his glaive and took the bladed end and tried sticking it in one of the cracks.

Using the bladed end as a makeshift crowbar, Derek began trying to pry the cracks open. It wasn’t doing much, but it was doing a little. Finally, a rectangle like piece fell off and landed by his feet. Eager, he put the blade in the next crack and continued.

Like this, hours passed. The banging continued, the cracks grew, and the pieces fell to the ground.

Derek finally removed enough pieces of the darkness to see what was on the other side. It looked like a fist hitting an invisible wall.

Finally, the clawed hand pushed through the invisible wall and reached into the darkness with Derek. It took its hand out before putting both of them in the hole it made. It began pulling the darkness out piece by piece until there was a hole big enough for its body.

It stuck its head inside and started hauling the rest of its body in. Standing in front of Derek, the three meter tall, solid black creature looked at him with fire red eyes.

“Hey man! Thanks for making me a door. It was really starting to get boring in here.” Derek walked up to the monster and patted it on the shoulder.

The back of the creature’s hand hit Derek dead center on his chest, leaving his armor dented. “Hey, that wasn’t very nice.” Derek stood up and used a

The blade stopped without breaking the skin, making the sound of steel crashing against steel. The monster glanced at Derek, fang-like teeth beginning to show and a low growl radiating through the tunnel. “Calm down now. That’s just how people like me say hello. I mean, you hit me, I hit you, now we’re besties.” In his peripheral Derek could see the opening the creature made slowing, repairing, and closing.

“Anyway, it was nice to meet you. My name is Silvi, yes, Silvi with an I. Make sure to look me up if you ever get the chance. I’m moving to go ahead and get out of here. Bye, bye!” Derek dashed towards the opening, feeling the wind streak across his hair as he ducked under a blow from the monster. He dove through the makeshift door and he was out.

“Freeeeedom!!!!” He shouted as he fell.