Malediction of the Depth – Silence in Judgement

The first game ended in less than an hour.

Two Prey escaped through a Gate while Lea's body stood frozen in place, having failed to capture the majority.

FAILURE

PUNISHMENT ADMINISTERED

Pain.

Not physical but something worse. The entity reached into her mind and twisted. Memories surfaced unbidden, her destroyed hometown, Sinclair's face, the corruptive mud being forced down her throat, every failure, every moment of helplessness.

All of it magnified and made fresh.

Lea's consciousness screamed, but her body made no sound.

Then reality reset.

ROLE: HUNTER

NEW ROUND INITIATED

She was back at the starting position. The Hunting Ground had rearranged itself, different places in the mansion, different cage locations, different hiding spots.

And four new Prey were scattered across the grounds, already running.

Lea's body moved without her permission, hunting them down with Fourth Step efficiency.

Please... she thought desperately... Please let me stop... Let me warn them... Let me do ANYTHING!!

But her Cursed Constructs lashed out, her Judgement Blades manifested, her Shadow Sneak carried her behind fleeing victims.

She caged one.

Then another.

The third escaped while she was transporting the fourth.

FAILURE

PUNISHMENT ADMINISTERED

More pain. More memories. More suffering fed directly into her consciousness while her Malediction Path drank it in, growing stronger even as her sanity frayed.

NEW ROUND INITIATED

Again.

And again.

And again.

Hours blurred together. Or was it days? Time had no meaning here. Just the endless cycle...

Hunt. Cage. Fail or succeed. Punish or reward. Reset. Hunt. Cage. Fail or succeed. Punish or reward. Reset. Hunt. Cage. Fail or succeed. Punish or reward. Reset.

Again. Again. Again. Again. Again.

Lea's mental state deteriorated with each round. She stopped trying to resist. Stopped trying to warn her victims. Just... existed as a passenger in her own body, watching herself become a monster over and over again.

But then, during what might have been the twentieth round or the fiftieth Lea noticed something.

One of the Prey looked familiar.

Not just similar. Identical to the man she had hunted in the third round. The same terror in his eyes. The same desperate running.

And there, another one. A woman from the seventh round. And there, one of the blank-eyed Prey who'd been claimed by the entity after three captures.

They were repeating.

The same people, over and over.

Lea's consciousness, fragmented as it was, grasped the horrible truth.

This wasn't just a game. It was purgatory.

An endless cycle of being hunted for the Prey. An endless hunt for the Hunters. The entity was trapping them in the same terror, the same violence.

Forever.

Those blank-eyed Prey weren't new victims. They were people who'd been here so long their minds had broken entirely. Still playing the game, but no longer aware enough to feel it.

And the Hunters...

Lea felt her own mind cracking further with each round. How long until she became like them? How long until she stopped feeling the horror and just... hunted? Became a true monster, worn down by endless repetition until nothing human remained?

NEW ROUND INITIATED

She hunted.

Caged.

Failed.

Was punished.

NEW ROUND INITIATED

Again.

NEW ROUND INITIATED

Again.

NEW ROUND INITIATED

Please... Lea's fading consciousness whispered... Someone... anyone... Dawn... Auger... Charlotte... I don't care who. Just... please...

NEW ROUND INITIATED

...help me...

=0=0=

Jim had his own nightmare.

A maze.

Endless walls that shifted when he wasn't looking. Paths that led back to themselves.

He'd tried everything.

Trailblazer speed to run through before the walls could shift? Failed. The maze was infinite. Following the red strings of Fate? They tangled into knots that led nowhere.

Using Destiny to open a Passage? Failed. His Fourth Step ability to create gateways to places he'd been before simply... didn't work. As if those places didn't exist anymore.

Three hours had passed. Only three hours, but it felt like an eternity of identical stone corridors.

Jim slumped against a wall, breathing hard.

"Think!!", he muttered to himself, "There has to be a way out. There's always a way out!!"

But what could he do that he hadn't already tried?

Then his hand brushed against his pocket. The Adventurer's Guild badge - the symbol of the Light Seeker.

Jim wasn't particularly religious. He followed the Light Seeker because adventurers were expected to, not out of genuine devotion. But right now, trapped in an impossible maze created by something beyond his understanding...

What else could he try?

He pulled out the badge, holding it in both hands.

"Okay...", he said quietly, "I know I don't usually do this. I know I'm not your most faithful follower. But if you're listening... I could really use some help right now."

He closed his eyes and chanted the Honorific Title, words every adventurer learned, even if they rarely used them:

"Illuminator of Darkness!!"

The badge grew warm in his hands.

"Phantasmal Light shining upon All!!"

Warmth became heat. Light began seeping from the metal.

"Lord who bears the Lantern!!"

LIGHT.

The maze exploded with radiance. Every shadow banished. Every hidden path exposed. Every deception laid bare.

And Jim saw.

The maze wasn't infinite. It was looping upon itself. The same hundred corridors, repeated endlessly through spatial distortion. But right there, revealed only in divine light, was a hairline crack in reality. A seam where the loop didn't quite connect properly.

A way out.

Jim stared at it, hope surging for the first time in three hours.

"Thank you...", he whispered.

The light from his badge intensified, as if acknowledging his gratitude.

Then it stabilized, creating a glowing lantern in his hand, probably only temporary, but enough to see.

Enough to find the crack in reality. Enough to maybe, just maybe, escape.

Jim smiles, his confidence returning.

"Alright...", he said, facing the crack that only divine light could reveal, "Let's see what's on the other side."

He reached out toward the seam in reality, blessed light surrounding his hand. Pushing through the endless darkness, blinding him.

And when his badge shone brightly, he saw a form made of black blades shimmering with distortion. Against them were spider legs coming from everywhere.

He drew his sword, Curruid, slashing a leg away— crimson thorns bloomed and covered the entire leg in an instant.

Curruid is an extremely dangerous weapon, according to what Charlotte said, a single hit from the sword can spell death to anything.

The leg that had been hit reeled back, retreating into the darkness. Replaced by two more legs coming from different directions

"Where is Lea?!", he demanded as he dodged.

The legs halted and went back into the darkness...

A purple panel appears right in front of the two of them, with one giant word signifying the entity's stance...

"What do you mean no?!", he demanded, ready to swing his sword.

But an arm blocked his field of vision, Solafant had returned to a more humanoid-looking form. They were more cautious.

"I realized what this thing is...", they stare into the black smoke, "You are a Star God, are you not?"

Star God...?

The darkness trembled as if confirming his words. The panel in front of them changed again.

What is Divinity?It is Vastness, how much one can control a certain area.

And in this place, it is the highest God.