[ Riberia in the realm of men. The day of the trial has arrived and Argos has presented himself to the titan Hephas as a voluntary champion of the humans ]
"Hmm? I remember you, little human," Hephas replied, tilting his head. "Your name was once celebrated in the realms of men. Argos, the hero of Riberia."
It amazed Argos that the Titan even bothered to keep the name of a mortal being in mind. After all, Argos' time span meant only a moment in the Titan's standards. Not that he admired the colossal figure before him for it.
"However. Since the last catastrophe, you've had no accomplishments to speak of, and you've been indulging in alcohol. At the sight of you, I fear I must once again descend upon this world to give it the last blow."
Argos gripped the spear in his right hand tighter and tighter as the Titan's words echoed through his head. It boiled inside him and the heat drove through his entire body. It was lucky that the Titan was so huge, or he probably would have heard the champion's gnashing teeth as he did everything he could to suppress his rage.
'You are to blame for this!'
It was the Titans who started these stupid trials, after all! It was only the Titans who robbed him of his wife and his child because of the outcome of those pointless trials. What was all that for? For what!
Before he could give vent to his anger, he felt the blow of a powerful elbow in the side of his stomach.
"Let it go, boy. Direct your thoughts to what lies ahead." Whispered the dwarf.
Argos knew it was no use rebelling against the Titan now. He wouldn't be able to do anything on his own, and so he let Thorvil placate him.
"Thank you, my friend. I think it is time to enter the Pantheon with the four volunteers."
"You must mean five, lad!"
Argos questioned, looking down at the old dwarf beside him. Could it be that...?
"You're coming with me? Are you sure about this Thorvil? You might die there with me!" he whispered harshly.
"I have lived more years than you ever will, and believe me, I grow weary of life. If the opportunity comes to me to die honorably in battle, for a friend, it's a good exit."
It was a quality that Argos had always admired in the dwarves. For all of them, honor was something they held high. Not just the warriors, as was the case with the humans, but also the blacksmiths and mountain builders, the farmers and explorers. The dwarves were not a people that constantly sought only battle to achieve glory. Yet they too held battles in honor, and to die for a noble cause honored their deaths.
"So be it then, friend. Who would I be to deny you this chance?"
Being tired of life, after all, was also a feeling he knew, and which now drove him here, where he was. Who, if not tired of life, would volunteer to be a champion?
"So you are complete!" rang out the thunderous voice of Hephas. "Then I will now open the portal for you!"
The portal appeared to be an oversized stone door frame, but unlike stone, it was much sturdier; by human standards, they even considered it indestructible. But without the power of the Titan Hephas, it remained merely a useless, massive block of stone in the middle of Riberia's marketplace.
The Titan wove the circulating magic in his mighty hands into many small threads. A small, different colored carpet of magic formed between his hands and he threw it towards the portal. The carpet fit into the frame and after the movement stopped, an image like a painting was seen, but much more vivid.
In the portal, Argos recognized the image of a massive arena. What he and the others saw there in the portal was the Pantheon, the world where the Titans were worshipped and the Trial of Champions were held in their honor. The place where Argos hoped to receive his revenge.
"Now, Argos, champion of men! Enter the pantheon of the Titans, the divine battlefield! Bring glory and happiness to your people, or damn them forever!"
With these words, Hephas disappeared before the eyes of all the people gathered in the marketplace.
He did not let himself be told twice that Argos should enter. Armed with the spear, he stepped through the portal and plunged into the strange world, which he had known only from stories. Immediately after crossing the veil in the portal, it felt as if the other side was drawing him in. His body and mind were torn out of Riberia and sucked into the Pantheon. However, despite this powerful pull, he remained unharmed in the process.
Once on the other side, he was spat out, almost as if an enormous animal had swallowed him and found him inedible. A few meters further, he rolled over to the sandy ground below before coming to a stop. Everything was spinning in his head and it felt worse than waking up with the hangover from the wine.
'Is that from the teleport?'
When his head had regained some composure, he looked around and spotted his five companions who had gone through the same experience as he had. Only Thorvil seemed little taken by the journey into the Pantheon, though this was hardly surprising considering his earlier participation.
After he knew his companions, especially his friend Thorvil, were safe, he let his eyes roam the area. Wherever he looked, however, his eyes found only desolate, dune-strewn desert.
Far and wide, there was not a single tree in sight, nor was there a source of water. However, since no other peoples were to be seen, it must have meant that they were brought after all to different places of this world.
'So we won't meet any enemies anytime soon...'
"We are still alone, boy, but we should not linger here," Thorvil spoke.
He had stood beside me and was also looking around attentively. But wherever we looked, there was no life far and wide. Only the hot midday sun beaming down on our unprotected heads.
"Walking, yes. Just in which direction?"
In the middle of a desert, there was little to guide a decision. So where should Argos lead his men if he wanted to avoid certain death. Questioningly, he looked at Thorvil.
"Don't look at me. I've never been here before. I think...."
"What is this?" a fighter shouted, upset.
Both Argos and Thorvil jerked their bodies around in haste out of habit, trying to make out what their companion might have meant. Among the soldiers, the sand sank in on itself. As if someone had pulled the plug in the middle of the desert. More and more, the phenomenon spread until it reached a radius of about 30 meters.
"At Varacas..... Get out of here!" shouted Thorvil.
As fast as a dwarf could run, the old dwarf moved away from the sinking sand, with Argos following close behind. The soldiers scattered in different directions, but two of his other four companions had been too slow to react.
Where at first the sand sank only slowly, an opening appeared that revealed more and more of what lurked there. In streams, the sand trickled past many white stones and two of Argos' companions were carried away by this current.
"Help us!" they shouted as they were dragged away.
Argos tried to turn around, but Thorvil gripped his arm, not giving him an inch of leeway.
"It's too late, boy! We've got to get out of here!"
It pained Argos to have to abandon his men. But never before had he noticed such a serious expression on Thorvil's face. Whatever this phenomenon was, it had to be terrible.
A rumbling sounded from the center and where only a few seconds before there had been an opening in the sand, now an immense creature stepped forward, swallowing the two soldiers alive. It towered a good 50 meters into the sky and yet the end of the creature, which was still partially buried in the sand, could not be seen.
"Monster worm!" screamed a survivor.
Argos's eyes widened as his gaze met the monster. The white stones seen earlier surrounded by sand were not stones, but the teeth of this monster!
"What in the three! Thorvil, what is this abomination?"
Still running through the desert, they tried not to look behind. The other two companions had quickly caught up with Thorvil and Argos, and the four of them were running away from the beast, which was digging itself back into the sand inch by inch.
"It's a Desert Devourer!" shouted Thorvil.
"A gigantic worm that can grow over 100 meters long and up to 50 meters wide. Never has anyone seen the full length of such a monster, as they are still somewhat covered in the sand! Hurry, it will soon have burrowed back in."
As Argos risked a backward glance, he realized that it was indeed elaborate for the beast to burrow into the earth. That also had to mean that it only attacked when it will catch unsuspecting prey.
'Prey like us....'
It left a bitter taste. Just a few minutes had passed since the trial began and already he had lost two of his men, and not even in a fight, but to a monster.
"Over there! Quick!"
The desert, previously seemingly endless with its dunes and abundant sand reaching to the horizon, suddenly stopped just a few hundred meters in front of them. How was that possible?
"It's coming!" a soldier shouted.
Behind him, all the sand was moving, and it was obvious that the desert wolf was about to attack again. This one, however, was not to come from below like the first one, but from the surface of the earth. Half of its vast mouth was buried in the desert sand, while the other half eagerly devoured everything that got in its way.
With a leap from the last dune, they approached the solid ground and rolled the last few meters toward it before hitting the hard ground.
The Desert Devourer straightened again and released a huge, almost crushing scream into the air before burying itself again and disappearing into the desert.
"This isn't normal!" a soldier shouted in horror. "None of this! There's something not right here!"
The young warrior was breathing quick and only shallowly, so Argos had no trouble recognizing his fear. He could not blame him for this reaction. By a hair they all would have been eaten by an enormous monster, unknown to them until then.
"What is going on here, Thorvil? Just a moment ago, the desert seemed endless and now suddenly we find ourselves on the edge of a forest?"
Argos didn't understand what was going on, either. A monster in a desert in an arena of the Titans was one thing. But how could their surroundings change so suddenly? Countless amounts of sand had simply disappeared. As if it had never been there.
"These are the Titans' shenanigans, boy!" shouted Thorvil, loud enough for everyone to understand. "They are playing with our minds! Making us see things that aren't real, like this everlasting desert. It's all part of the test!"
"Damn Titans," Argos spat. "I would damn them, yet they seem too powerful."
At first, Argos had hoped to join with some of the other champions of the Trial to form a pact against the Titans. But if they could manipulate mortal beings so much, was there even a chance?
Forsaken by hope, he sank to his knees and looked to the ground.
"I can't do it, Thorvil. Even if I pass the test, I won't be able to destroy the Titans," he cried. "A child's dream. Nothing more than an illusion, like this desert."
He had given himself over to a false hope. A hope that could never be turned into reality, he now realized.
"No one can defeat them....," Argos whispered.
"Are you so sure of that, little human?"
A fearsome voice ran through the group. It felt like it was burning through the ears of the humans, drawing out their thoughts like a bottomless pit.