"Your nightmare is over."
Theo stared blankly at the four words which had been haunting his dreams for the past six days.
He was unable to believe it.
"I lost...?" His tone was filled and thickened with despair.
All the previous adrenaline from his battles so far quickly went down the drainpipe in one go, leaving him empty.
"No that's impossible!" He stood up from his chair, gripping his mouse tightly in his fist.
"Give me my mythics at least, you bunch of frauds!!"
As if it heard him, the game screen changed.
"{You entered this Boss fight fully knowing and agreeing to the Terms and Conditions stated:
• You |SerpentineShadow89| will forfeit all materials paid for in this gaming account to the Creators |GuiltySixtyNine| upon defeat.
• The enemy boss is an Unholy Mammoth armed with various endgame mythics unstated.
• Upon, clicking the 'agree' button, you have given your full consent to clauses 1 and 2 stated above."
":)"
Theo's expression paled as he reached the last line.
"DAMN YOU, WHO READS TERMS AND CONDITIONS IN 2024?!"
His throat ached after that outburst, all his veins fully visible as he barely held himself from crashing out.
He was an orphan, he had no connections expect the company that sponsored his gaming in exchange for 'Insane RPG battle clips'.
He didn't care whatever they did with it as long as he received his wager.
He sat back down, his foot tapped restlessly against the rug beneath him.
Theo had nothing but this gaming account and he had even put in whatever spare change he had to splurge on various weapon and character skins.
He couldn't remember but but the number had long passed four digits.
Hot tears rolled down his cheek, his foot tapping even faster and faster, and faster.
"TO HELL WITH THIS!" He screamed throwing his hands at the monitor screen in a frenzy.
However, at that moment, another message appeared.
"[Do you want it back?]"
A figure appeared on his screen and he recognised it immediately.
—Divine, level 900+ Unholy Mammoth.
Unlike the somewhat terrifying title, he was just a tall man with pale skin dressed in a long dark coat.
His dark gold eyes seemed to shine brighter than the system brightness itself.
"Where am I supposed to answer?" Theo pondered out loud, if there was a chance, he would take it.
After all, his entire life was dancing on this pole.
He clicked a few keys on his keyboard but nothing worked.
"Tsk!"
In the end, he hit all the keys out of the sheer frustration boiling up inside him.
"Yes, yes I want it back!" He screamed, slamming his fist into the keyboard.
His head slumped as nothing worked. His sobs filled his room.
It was over. He was finished.
"And it's all because of you sadistic fr– Huh?" He paused as he looked up.
The screen had changed.
"[Raise your head, warrior.]"
"[Do you want the power to rule over it all as the sole ruler of the above?]"
"Yes...?" Theo answered tentatively.
'Did I leave my microphone on or something?'
Another screen appeared after his confirmation.
"[Are you willing to hand over all your powers and gifts in exchange for |Divine, level 900+ Unholy Mammoth|'s Essence Core?]"
Theo's entire thought process hit the brakes for a single moment.
His mouth opened wide.
Was it another sadistic jokes made by the developers to see their players wallow in despair?
Most likely, if he said no, he would still lose his account and gain nothing out of it...
...but Theo wasn't up for a 'no' in the first place!
'Is this a joke?! Give up my account filled with insane one in a millennium mythics in exchange for a new account with the Essence Core of the boss who one-shotted me with a single attack?'
"HELL YEAH!" His attitude took a flip as he screamed excitedly.
The screen changed once again.
"[Very well.]"
Two more screens appeared.
"[Uploading data |SerpentineShadow89|.exe — 14%... 38%... 67%... 100%]"
"[Downloading data |EssenceCore|.exe — 1%...]"
Theo felt weird about this, his chest tingled within, like a small, warm ember had been born inside it.
"Why me though?" He muttered softly as he saw the numbers rise. "It could have been anyone else..."
He didn't notice it immediately, but soon he felt like his chest was set ablaze.
"Ugh... What? A heartburn?"
No, it was far worse.
His body recoiled strangely as he spat out blood, dying the table a dark, ominous shade of crimson.
Theo grasped his chest, gasping as the oxygen in his lungs thinned massively.
"Oi, you've gotta be kidding me... Agh!"
He coughed up blood again, his breathing had become raspy gasps.
Another message appeared on his monitor screen.
"[DO NOT RESIST!]"
Theo fell back on the rug, his vision was all over the place at this point.
Another message appeared but he did not see.
"[THIS IS THE FATE YOU HAVE CHOSEN, TO BE THE DIVINE!]"
"Arghhh!"
His body spasmed like an eel pulled out of water, stopping only when he hit the leg of a table.
Out of nowhere, small clapping sounds could be heard in the room, and following that, all the pain vanished into thin air.
No, it wasn't thin air, Theo could feel somewhat that it had retreated to the edges of his being, waiting for another chance to plunge his mind into agony.
His gaze slowly travelled up to see what he had it and what was making those clapping sounds and as he saw it, his pupils dilated.
Theo had never felt fear greater than this in his seventeen year old lifetime.
The Divine, level 900+ Unholy Mammoth stood in his room, his figure even more imposing than what a mere game of binary codes could express.
"I waited quite a bit, but as they say, no pain, no gain." The being spoke, his voice cool and smooth but devoid of any form of emotions.
"Contradicting myself aren't I? Considering I'm stopping your pain." Even when asking a question, there was something off about it that made it seem emotionally emotionless if that was a thing.
Theo's heart palpitated wildly in his chest, struggling to keep itself within it's thoracic cavity.
"Your eyes..." He wheezed out.
"They're different?" Divine replied, revealing that he knew of his gold eyes slowly transitioning into a bright, marine blue.
"Shouldn't you care about your own eyes instead, though?" Theo thought he could hear an atom of amusement in his tone.
His words brought a feeling of anticipation to his chest as he looked into a mirror on the wall, fighting against his shaky legs.
Just as he had expected, his eyes, previously blue, were turning into a bright mystical golden.
"B-but... why?" Theo asked in a shaky voice, trying to ignore the feeling of fear that had deeply rooted itself into him and hold a proper conversation.
Still, he couldn't help but remember how his game character was brutalized in ways no sane person would think of by this man in front of him.
He wasn't in a game right now, he didn't have any mythics or fabulous weapons to help him stand a chance to at least escape, no, he was a weak, pathetically weak human with a tough tongue.
"Time is running out and I can't answer that question." Divine replied
A sudden sense of indignation took over Theo as he shouted;
"Don't treat this like a novel, you! You could have said it already instead of wasting time saying you couldn't say it!"
Divine didn't reply, letting Theo's words simply bounce off his hard head.
"You'll know soon enough..." He spoke after a few moments of silence.
"You–" Theo wasn't allowed to finish his last words as a horrible pain shot up his spine, reaching his brain and killing him instantly.
"When you come to realize, you will only hate me more than you have ever done..."
"...brother."