Julius woke up in a false trance.
To his puzzlement, he was in the exact same place where he had fallen unconscious.
Viktah, the mountain King was still burning from the wizard's flames and the wizard himself hadn't moved an inch.
Despite not a single thing changing in the scene, it was bright and sunny. It was no longer night-time.
Hours had passed and not a single thing had changed.
Julius slapped himself lightly.
'Well. I'm not dreaming.'
Julius tried to poke around but nothing responded.
Julius scoffed.
He had imagined this to be some sort of illusion. Some spell he must break.
Julius put his hands on the wizard's robes.
"Two can act strangely."
'Let's see how confident you are in your-."
As Julius lifted the wizard's robes they seemingly vanished and the entire wizard's body tuned into white squares with neon-blue outlines.
"Stuff..."
Julius felt his body burning.
Julius looked around.
The entire scene had disappeared. It had been transmitted into strange blue squares and Julius was now in some white domain.
The blue squares had structured hollow mountains that now crumbled into nothingness.
Bartholomew, God of the World let out a quick woof of relief.
He was an old man with balding grey hair that was barely visible upon his big head and flawless white robes. He was noticeably skinny and malnourished.
He sneaked a peek at the devious missionary who had dared to see the jewels of a God.
"I'll remember you, boy."
Julius found himself alone in a world of white blocks highlighted around the edges by some gamer-like blue.
Julius thought to himself oddities.
'So all of those people... were never real?'
'And I can't actually use magic either?'
Julius cleared his throat.
"Hades."
Nothing.
It was as if magic had never existed in the first place. But that still didn't explain Julius' current situation.
Julius felt his emotions were hollow after all that had happened. Still, he was surprised that he had found no flaws in the false world.
Julius chuckled.
'Still to have escaped because the creator was afraid of me seeing something rather personal."
As Julius was rather unsociably chuckling to himself, another Julius walked in.
A literal 1-to-1 copy of Julius' new body. Blonde hair, golden eyes, rags for clothes all of it.
He walked in with uncertainty.
"Hey."
His voice was far more mature than Julius'.
Julius looked back.
"...Hello."
The other Julius looked rather shocked.
"I'm Lucius."
Julius coughed lightly.
"Julius."
Silence descended.
Julius felt some curiosity brewing within him.
"So... how did you get here?"
Lucius shrugged, raising his eyebrows innocently.
"Well, you know. I just saved a dozen kids defeated some corrupted cavalry and then defeated some guy called Viktah, the king of the mountain. There was a wizard but he wasn't a match for the kids. Those kids were way too strong, if you gave them a minute they could destroy valleys."
"So what did you do?"
Julius chuckled darkly.
"Oh yeah. All of that stuff. Saved them all totally."
Julius cursed in his mind.
Lucius looked up in boredom.
"I guess it's just us. There's probably more people still doing the task. I'm surprised you did it faster than me because I was rushing quite badly."
Julius shrugged with guilt stuck up his teeth.
"Well, I just try my hardest. It's not like it's a competition."
"Oh but it is."
An old stubby man with hundreds of wrinkles and a short stature gowned in a flawless white toga spoke out from behind the two.
The two looked back in surprise.
"I am the God of this world. And this was your first test. It let me know a little more on the..."
The man looked at Julius eerily close.
"Ideals of those who I will be relying on."
Julius nodded carefully. He didn't feel like dying again. This was another chance.
The God looked around peskily.
"The others should arrive soon, for now, I'll put you two to sleep. When you wake, the games shall begin."
Julius shouted out as the God turned his back and began to leave.
"What games?"
The God cackled evilly.
"Games against evil, games where you die."
"And games where you don't get a second chance."
Before Julius could retort, the God was sucked into some sort of dimensional rift.
Far beyond their control, the two boys were put to sleep by some mysterious force.
Their bodies hit the floor forcefully.
When Julius woke up he was no longer Julius.
He was Julius Ferd.
In his old body, he felt even weaker and less lively than when he had just been Julius.
His wavy blonde hair had turned to a sticky medium-length black gradient and his body looked rather wasted and fatigued. He could almost see the outlines of his ribs through his black hoodie.
Who knows.
Maybe he was going a bit crazy.
He was in soaking-wet black clothes. This was his body just after he had passed from drowning.
Julius looked around seeing several other people who could be considered from Earth.
Some were covered in blood.
Others had gunshot holes in their clothes.
Everyone here had died in one way or another.
And from what Julius had deciphered, each of them had gone through the exact scenario as himself. His had just glitched a little.
Julius noticed the short stubby God from earlier.
He walked before all of the Julius assumed, dead people including himself.
His voice crashed through the domain of white pixel-like blocks.
"All of you have just completed a trial. There was no possible way to fail. Each and every move you made in that trial was ranked. We will now award you with a ranking. This ranking will determine your Talent. Higher ranks equal higher talents. All talents are strong in their own ways but they are ranked from F-S."
"A rank talents are almost comparable to -S- Rank talents but they have the biggest drawbacks in price for this comparison."
"Please view the screen before you, mortals."
Julius looked before him in eagerness.
He had finished first, so that must've accounted for something. Right?
{Name: Julius Ferd.}
{Ranking: A+}
{Talent: Hyperstat Rebellion A+}
{Description: Each stat point the player spends will equate to 25X the normal value. Every time the player levels up he will receive an ability instead of every 10 levels.}
Julius grinned widely.
"Th-this isn't too bad..."
It sounded like he had just gotten the most he could have ever wished for.
With this, it would be a breeze in the new journey that awaited him.
People around Julius were a mix of gloom, humbleness, and joy.
The God grinned slyly.
"Now remember this won't equate to all that in the long run. After all, once you all find out your flaws you may regret everything. You can discover your flaw by activating it. That is the only way."
"Anyways, I will now describe your task. If you do not complete my task and do something completely obscene and futile to the task then you can expect everything stripped from you in moments."
"I do not need people who are willing to waste two lives, on the receiving end of my benevolence."
Instantly, the surroundings changed into a lecture hall. Next to the God was a blackboard and the God carried a small piece of chalk. Everyone found themselves comfortably seated on a seat.
Julius was still quite cheerful. He had expected to get a terrible rating due to his acts and how he had failed so badly compared to Lucius but he had almost received the very best talent rating possible.
Gaining 25X the normal value of a stat was incredible and a skill per level? Julius' hands twitched with excitement.
The God drew up some fat bloke with horns with a white chalk piece.
"This here is the Demon King."
"But because the Demon King is a fat lazy slob, he's not who you're going to be fighting."
The God wiped off the Demon King and drew some strange black knights.
"These are Revenants. Black Knights, if you will. These are the most annoying things I have ever witnessed."
"If you even go a step into their territory, they will teleport to you and behead you."
The God spat on the ground.
"The Demon King here has abused this feature to gain territory on the Humans, Elves, and Dwarves. Now around 40% of the World has been corrupted by Revenants. Not even a step can be taken by the races without death."
"That's where you come in."
The God drew up heroes destroying the black knights masterfully.
"Revenants can be killed it's been done before, but Revenants are made through some strange core in the Demon King's castle. The Demon King's castle is in the center of the Demon Realm."
"The Demon Realm is twice as big as the Human, Dwarven, and Elven continents combined. And it is also the most corrupted by Revenants."
"Your task is to gain strength and then to charge into the Demon King's castle where you ought to destroy the core. Do that task and I shall gift you all you want. Money, love, happiness. Whatever you want."
A small ginger rose a hand. He had the face of an annoying little brat.
The God nodded. Everyone turned their heads.
"Aren't you God? Why don't you just go in there and destroy the core yourself?"
God snickered quietly. His snicker soon rose in volume until it become haunting comical screeches.
"You-you think I didn't try that?"
"You think this is my true form? Some dusty-baldy old man?"
"I did try what you said and guess what?"
God cursed wetly.
"I got dropped."
A sympathetic aw came out from the stands.
God laughed at this act of kindness.
"You think I'm the one who needs sympathy?"
"No, believe me. You're gonna need it a whole lot more."
Bang.
Everybody in the room was forcefully apparated to unknown locations.
God took off his toga, revealing a withered body that had turned grey and a murky black.
"I guess that was all I could hand-."
God looked right with a look of trauma on his face. He began backing away due to the primal instincts in his heart.
"Why?"
"Why are you here?"
Loud deafening footsteps reached closer and closer to God who was now backed up against a wall.
A shriek rang out.
Cliffhanger.