'I'm freaking sure I'm not, though?'
Just to be sure, Perse took his pulse and breathed in and out a couple of times.
'That system notification also congratulated me before sending me here. Is this part of the Neo Sys- No, I doubt it.'
He didn't know how much time had passed since "magic" had made an appearance in his life and had to push all his curiosity aside to focus on the task at hand. Something difficult considering his wrist didn't stop stinging this whole time.
Perse took a deep breath before following.
"Staying here will do nothing." He said and walked towards the entrance, a feeling of anxiety rising in his throat since he saw the twins disappear, it was pressuring him to move faster.
When he entered the building, he didn't see the twins anywhere. He didn't see anything, actually.
His immediate thoughts after entering were full of curiosity. Things like "how? Where? who?", accompanied by subtle excitement and fear.
Then, the second thought was "why does this feel familiar?"
The darkness stretched beyond what he could distinguish, leaving only a torch with black fire in the middle of the giant room. He couldn't explain what he was seeing, but Perse could swear the fire had bubbles inside.
'The system notification, the laser thing, and now...'
He took notice of all the things he had seen so far that seemed to be made from the same substance and wondered how they were related. 'Maybe it is a pattern?'
Even so, he couldn't watch it properly since the flame seemed to burn his eyes just by looking at it. His nose caught a faint smell of putrefaction that reminded him of the substance attached to his body back on Earth, right after he had woken up.
Just then, he noticed a system notification above the fire. This one looked to be burning from the heat of the fire, but instead of incinerating it to ash, the fire was dyeing it with the same color.
It wasn't like the other times when the windows just showed up at random and even interacted with him. Right now, it felt as if the window had been there all this time but it was only just now making its presence known to him.
Perse wondered why all of the messages he received so far seemed to arrive so differently.
"I thought the messages back on Earth were sent by the Hiladorians but, just in case they weren't, or..." Perse remembered the first transmission when all of Neo's wristwatches had been linked. The voice that came from them had definitely said "others".
He tried to focus before completely getting lost in his thoughts. "Anyways, that's not important right now."
He read what was written in front of him.
[GENERAL INFORMATION:
MASTER ACCEPTED.
AWAIT FOR YOUR COMMAND.]
"Shit. Why does everything here tell me what to do?" He looked around and saw the infinite amount of absolutely nothing else. "Mmm. Let's listen for now."
The black fire crackled as if it was laughing at him. Perse looked at the torch feeling betrayed.
All of a sudden, the feeling of a whisper coming from far away yet so close came again, letting him know he wasn't alone.
"Olympia welcomes you." Said Set, the black-haired twin.
"The stadium has accepted your master." Said the younger one, whose name Perse still didn't know.
The twins were here again.
'Wait…' Perse looked at them again. Or at least, he tried, since it was still too dark.
Dressed with butler's clothes, each of them with a hand behind their backs and in a servant-like stance, Perse found no trace of their previous hunger or wildness. Even worse, to his horror, the younger twin smiled at him.
"What master?" Perse asked the twins. To which they laughed and kept their stiff outer appearance. "Assholes." He said.
Unfortunately, the twins didn't respond to that either. Instead, they did the same thing as they had done before. Both stayed quietly in a corner where Perse could barely see them. He knew better than to try and break the silence or to approach them.
'Their skin looks healthier, I think? And their gazes don't look as hungry anymore. But…, it feels as if they were both being held back by something.' Perse thought back at how they both stayed still before entering the arena. 'I had the system notification telling me to choose a master back then, but after entering I just somehow had made my choice. Maybe our actions are what makes us choose?'
-Swaaassssh!
An air breeze washed over the room, a sign of a door opening, but he didn't see any light. Instead, Perse heard a multitude screaming from a place somewhere inside the darkness.
'This is definitely not Earth.' He thought. 'And this is definitely not Neo's world either.'
Back on Earth, everything was grey and red, full of sorrow. Hence, the Neo system had a game-like interface and a simulator that allowed you to experience magic to a certain extent and use it as if you were an adventurer in a fictional world. That world had all kinds of dream-like settings.
Creatures such as elves, fairies, and goblins. Magic that allowed people to create and modify things the way they wanted to for as long as they could. Until they logged out.
In his world, there was hope and then there was despair. But, now...
As he was walking through the darkness, Perse felt his soul being crushed into pieces. Literally.
"Shi-" He said. The lack of air muffled his voice and made him grab his chest.
Perse stopped abruptly in his tracks.
The twins continued to walk towards the exit as Perse heard their laughs. He tried to reach his hand out to one of them in vain.
For a moment, he could see a leash in both of their necks. Green collars were made of the same stuff as the fire from the torch and the notification that teleported him from Earth.
It was only for a brief moment and he soon forgot about it as another wave of pain washed over him. This time, it felt as if his previously broken spirit was gathering again. Violently.
Then, his eyes got used to the Feeling, and he staggered after the twins.
The pair had already reached the entrance to the arena. The sudden entrance of light to the dark corridor created a juxtaposition of feelings.
'A Roman amphitheater?'
The colosseum looked closely familiar to what he had seen in history books years before. He could even see the beast pit. Excited, he looked up at the marble seats and froze.
'Am I in hell? But, I'm not dead.' He thought. 'Then, what is this?'
In the steps and the arena, all kinds of horrifying creatures were cheering. He distinguished people with missing limbs and blood dripping from their clothes. Some of them even looked like the corpses he had seen earlier.
Contrary to what he thought hell was, the place reminded him of a professional boxing game back on Earth, and the anticlimactic situation left him speechless.
He had accepted that there was something with an immeasurable amount of power that was able to transform people, teleport them and steal magic somehow. He could somehow accept all of that. But, he couldn't believe his eyes right now.
'Is that…'
-Booom!
He then heard someone scream at the distance, "F******************ck!!"
"Dw*yne Johns*n?" He said.
'Wait a moment, why is there censorship?' Perse thought.
Perse heard the younger twin laugh hysterically while Set tossed him a red jewel. He didn't see it properly, Perse was a little busy noticing the big longsword perched in the guy's chest when he heard a felt another silent presence aside from the pair of butlers.
[GENERAL INFORMATION:
WELCOME TO THE ARENA.
YOU ARE A F I G H T E R.
*Your actions are being broadcasted.]
He blinked. One time. Twice.
'Ah... I'm tired.'
Perse looked to the man that had just been thrown thirty meters from one side of the arena to the other and examined his face.
Unfortunately, it wasn't him.
'Just an alien look-a-like, I guess?' He thought as he put his hands in his pockets and began to whistle calmly.
Perse continued to walk towards the side of the arena, a little disappointed.
"Well, how sad, nothing to see here." He said, and turned around, ready to leave.
Perse's eyesight was a bit tired from all the moving around. The last time he rested was in an alley after being beaten half to death and falling unconscious. He was also really hungry.
-Thud.
Two heavy, cold hands stopped his tracks, just two centimeters away from his chest. Each twin stood next to him and looked at him warmly, smiling happily.
Perse felt shivers down his spine.
"Pretty please?" He tried.
-Booom!
And just like that, he flew all the way to the beast pit.