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When Joker opened his eyes, he found himself on a seemingly endless beach. He was naked, lying in the warm sand, a huge cliff behind him and the sea in front of him, with nobody around. Joker felt a strange dizziness, like being drunk but at the same time not. The colors were also off, everything Joker saw was somehow colorless and grey, except for the sun, which was glowing red and the sea, which was pitch black. The sea attracted Joker, while it also repelled him at the same time. Looking at it gave him a feeling of uneasiness, like a heavy pressure on his chest that made it harder for him to breathe. It almost seemed as if there were eyes, watching him from the depths of the calm black sea, eyes lacking all hostility, instead showing curiosity, but when Joker looked closer, he was not able to see anything. Only dark water, moving in slow and rhythmic waves, each of them coming to a halt just a few steps away from Joker's feet.
He slowly walked along the sandy beach, the cliff behind him blocked one way and he did not like the thought of going into the water, so that was his only option. After walking for some time, the cloudy feeling in his head disappeared, replaced by many questions.
How did he get here, he just fought the group of hobgoblins after he found Sergej, and he remembered sitting down, because he overused his body. Did he pass out? Was he teleported somewhere?
"Character Info!"
Nothing happened, after repeatedly trying to access his character window or even suing some of his skills, nothing happened. His steps became faster and before he realised, he was already running through the sand, nothing else in sight, as if the beach really had no ending.
After hours seemed to have went by, he fell over and sat in the sand, watching the cliff behind him and the sea in front of him. Again he felt like he was watched, but again, he could not see anything when he tried to look closer into the water.
"Ok, seems like I have to get in there!", he said, slowly walking towards the shallow seawater. After he took a step towards the sea, his shadow shifted to his front, as if it came to life.
"What the f-"
His shadow reached out and when it touched the sea, it detached from him, entering the sea and disappearing. At the same time his shadow entered the sea, a mountain rose from the sea, far away from him. Was that supposed to be his goal?
The sea was not calm anymore, the rhythmic and slow waves suddenly grew, again he felt countless pairs of eyes, staring at him, but this time not just from the water. The mountain in front of him seemed to have many levels, looking like a giant's steps were hammered into the mountain. Dozens of levels, the lowest was so wide that he was not able to see where it ended, while the ones above it became more narrow, the higher they went up. All of them were empty, except for the highest point, which was enveloped by a thick, white mist. Looking one level below, he finally saw someone besides him.
There were seven shadows, without clear shapes, staring down at him with white glowing eyes, unmoving and not averting their eyes, with the red glowing sun behind them.
"Come..", hundreds of voices whispered out of nowhere. He didn't know the whisper's source, but he knew it was not the shadows on top of the mountain.
"Come to us..", the voices whispered again and Joker took the first step into the water.
The water was warmer and thicker than he thought, the raging waves getting calmer. When he stepped into the water, a small white light glew up on his chest, exactly where his heart was, and the voices became louder. He looked around and it seemed as if he could see movement in the water, which seemed to move around his ankles now, as if the water was trying to pull him deeper in.
"Come to us.. You belong here..", the whispering voices said.
"I belong here? What do you mean? Who are you?", Joker asked, almost expecting not to get an answer, while walking durther into the water, which now reached his waist.
"You brought us here.. You belong here.."
"I don't know what you're talking about!", he said and touched the water. When he looked at his wet hand, he now saw that the water was not black, it was red. It also was no water, it was blood!
"Shit!", he said and tried to take a step back, he wanted to get out of this sea of blood and get back to the beach, when suddenly hands shot up from the surface and grabbed his wrists.
"You brought us here.. You killed us.. Come..", the voices said and now there were more and more bodies coming up from the sea of blood. Pale white bodies, blue bodies, red and green and all kinds of colors, belonging to all different kinds of corpses, which came closer, all of them trying to grab him.
"What the fuck!? Don't touch me! Get away from me!", he was screeming, now punching one of the corpses, while more and more were now surfacing and surrounding him.
"You belong here.. With us..", they were whispering, perfectly synchronized.
He slowly panicked, while the corpses were trying to drag him down, while he threw one punch after the other, at the seemingly endless waves of corpses that surrounded him.
"You killed us Havoc, it's your fault!", he heard one deep and familiar voice. A green skinned orc's face, slowly came up from the blood, his shoulders and arms following, until the orc was standing in the sea of blood, just like Joker, waist deep inside.
"Karghan?", Joker asked as he recognized his friend, his sworn brother and comrade from countless battles.
"You killed us.. It's you fault..", he said.
"Your fault..", another familiar voice whispered, when one more of his former comrades rose from the blood. A pale, dwarven corpse rose from the blood, with short brown hair and a long, braided beard. The short, muscular dwarf looked at him, with the piercing green eyes Joker remembered so well.
"Uegar.."
"Your fault.. Your fault.." more and more of his former companions rose from the blood, repeatedly whispering the same. All of them saying their deaths were his fault.
"I didn't kill you.. It's not my fault..", he quietly said, taking half a step back. All of their faces, that he knew so well, because they haunted him in his dreams, everyone he lost. Karghan, Uegar, Allathór and Allatha, William, Dario, Giulia and dozens of others, slowly closing in, reaching out and trying to grab him.
"Stay away!", he said, pushing their hands away, he turned around and rushed for the beach as fast as he could.
"You can't go back.." their voices whispered, while they were pulling him back. His comrades weren't there anymore, only the unknown corpses from before, slowly dragging him back and trying to pull him deeper into the blood. The panic took over and Joker started to aimlessly throw punches around, fighting them like a madman, slowly being pulled further and further away from the beach.
"Your fault.. Your fault.. You killed us.."
Their whispering did not stop, it was the exact opposite, more and more voices kept joining in. Joker was now in a state of panic induced fury, aggressively pushing towards the beach, but as the number of undead kept increasing, he drifted away from it more and more. And then it happened, he was pulled beneath the surface, now unable to breath or see. Somehow Joker made it to the surface, taking a deep breath, he tried to wipe the blood from his eyes, that hindered his sight.
"Stop it!", he roared, blinking due to the bllod that kept running into his eyes, and for a single moment, not more than a few seconds, the corpses stopped moving. Even more than that, they backed awa from him, as if they were afraid, their whispers also stopped.
"What is this?", he asked himself. Now that they backed away, it was his chance, so he went for the beach again, when the undead started moving again. This time, they went after him more furious than before, also whispering again.
"You can't go back.. You can't go back.."
"You killed us.. You belong here.."
Again, they pulled him down, pulling him deeper and deeper, without a chance to get back to the surface, he held his breath, throwing punches and kicking around aimlessly. He was struggling more and more until his back reached the surprisingly hard bottom of the sea, keeping his eyes closed. His chest hurt, he was longing for air, but he knew that if he took a breath now, he would drown, so he kept his mouth closed and pressed his lips together. The hands that pulled him down were gone, there was only one hand left, which grabbed his shoulder and shook him. He could not hold his breath much longer, the hand kept shaking him by the shoulder, shaking him, as if somebody tried to make him sit up, despite his struggling. Joker grabbed the one who shook him by the throat and a moment later he could not hold his breath anymore, it was just impossible, so even thought he tried to resist, he opened his mouth. And instead of drowning in blood, his lungs filled with air, so he opened his eyes and saw that he was not at the beach anymore. He was back, lying on the ground and surrounded by people.