Nightmare Realm Summoner

Pressure slammed into Alex from every direction. He wheezed, desperately trying to force his lungs to expand and draw in new air to fill them. It was only a step above useless. All he managed was a faint, feeble gasp. Darkness spun at the corners of his vision and his legs trembled desperately in attempt to stay out beneath him.

The dim gray room swam around him. There were still so many paces left between him and the door looming at the edges of his vision that he couldn’t even bring himself to think about it. It was everything he could do to just stand there while his body rebelled against him.

Veins bulged in his neck and his jaw worked as he tried to force himself to take another step forward. Every part of his mind urged for him to turn back. His limbs stubbornly fought back against the command of his mind. He couldn’t even lift his foot.

Alex’s jaw was already clenched so tight that he probably could have been through solid metal. There was no more physical power he could draw on. He simply couldn’t lift his leg. Alex could barely even breathe. But every single desperate, weak gasp was another victory.

He’d only taken three steps. But he was still awake. He was still standing. And if he could still think about turning around and moving backward, then he’d be damned if he didn’t take at least one more step forward.

Alex glared at the door with all the attention he dared spare. Whoever — whatever — was trying to force him to turn back, they weren’t going to succeed. Not this easily, at least.

He shoved a foot forward, sliding it across the ground in lieu of actually lifting it.

More pressure mounted. He tasted metal in his mouth, and something wet dripped down from his nose to trace across his lips. What little breath he could still draw was ground out from his lungs. The darkness at the edges of his vision grew to swallow up over half of the dim gray room.

But he could still see the door.

The rest of the room really didn’t matter. He didn’t care if he couldn’t see it. So long as his goal was still in sight, as long as the door was still before his eyes, then he wouldn’t stop.

Alex couldn’t stop.

The taste of blood in his mouth and his ringing ears were nothing more than distant distractions. The only thing that mattered was the next step forward. So long as his goal remained, then so did his will. The pressure was so great that he couldn’t even scream in defiance. Opening his mouth was impossible.

All he could do was try to slide his foot just a little bit further. Just a little bit further. Everything else could come after. The enemy wasn’t the room. It was his own body, which was stubbornly refusing to obey his commands. No matter how hard he pushed his trembling limbs, it remained firmly rooted in place.

Come on! Move, damn it!

Alex screamed internally. His limbs trembled harder still, the distraction of blood rolling down his lips and soaking into his clothes barely even registering in his mind.

His foot nudged forward. It was so little that he might have tricked himself into thinking it hadn’t even happened if the pressure hadn’t jumped again. The intensity of the increase wasn’t quite so much as the previous ones since his move had been so small, but it was still enough to make the darkness surrounding his vision flash a warning.

He nearly collapsed on the spot.

But he didn’t.

Out of breath, shaking like a sapling in a hurricane, Alex remained standing. He fought against the weakness assailing his own body. His senses were so dull that he could barely even use any of them anymore. But he could still see the door.

I’m not done.

Alex pushed.

His leg didn’t budge. Not even so much as a toe twitched.

He strained harder, the screaming in his mind growing louder and louder until it actually managed to part his lips with a wheeze of fury. He pushed even harder still—

“What the fuck is your problem?

The pressure shut off like someone had flipped a switch.

Alex’s scream tore out from his lungs in a breathless wheeze as he tripped over his own feet, the resistance of the pressure no longer holding him in place, and he accelerated toward the ground in a blur. His face hit cold stone with a loud crack.

He let out a gargling curse as pain flashed across his nose and blood coated the back of his throat. Alex rolled over coughing and hacking, spitting blood onto the ground as he battled for air. He pushed himself up with trembling limbs -- and then he froze.

Alex wasn’t alone anymore.

Standing before him was a grizzled man clad wearing tattered bronze and green armor. A massive halberd leaned against one of his shoulders and his face, unprotected by any armor at all, was grizzled and scarred. A faint green energy that matched his armor burned behind his eyes in an eerie gaze.

“Who are you?” Alex wiped the blood from his mouth, then coughed again and spat onto the ground. “Shit. I think I swallowed a tooth.”

The man stared at him silently for at least a few seconds before slowly shaking his head in disbelief.

“What in the hells is wrong with you, boy? You might be the stupidest, densest little shit that I’ve ever seen.”

“Thank you,” Alex said. His nose was bleeding again. More accurately, it hadn’t stopped. That was quite odd. He’d gotten so used to the System patching up his minor wounds quickly that he’d almost forgotten that falling flat on one’s face really fucking hurt. “Are you the guy that was keeping me from getting to the door?”

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“Keeping you from getting — are you an idiot?” The man blew out an explosive breath, then held a hand out to Alex. “Get up, fool.”

Alex eyed the hand. Then he rose to his feet on his own, watching the other man warily. “Who are you? And I have to assume that you’re… what, some kind of representation of the Forsaken Grounds?”

“Forsaken Grounds?” The man asked. His lips thinned as anger carved across his scarred features. “That’s what the System made this? Forsaken? Damn it to the depths of the universe. Of all the insufferable — no. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is you. Who are you?”

“I asked first,” Alex said. “You gotta answer first.”

The man’s eyes narrowed. “I am Blade.”

“Holy shit, that’s an edgy name. Did you grow up with that one? Because if you did, your mom has some serious problems.”

The man’s lips twitched in amusement. “The name is a translation. My mother was an Orc. She had some unique ideas as to what a good name is. Now it is your turn, idiotic one. What are you called?”

“Alex.”

“Boring.”

“It’s a name. It’s not meant to be cool,” Alex said.

Blade just arched an eyebrow. “If that’s what keeps you happy with it. Now, Alex — would you be so kind as to explain to me why you’re such an astronomical moron?”

“Okay. This is just a personal attack,” Alex said. His eyes flicked to the door. “I was just doing what the challenge wanted me to.”

“What challenge?” Blade exclaimed. He thrust an accusatory finger at Alex. “It was a room! A quiet room! With no words at all! You’d gotten no instructions! Nothing at all! You just started charging forward!”

“Well, it got harder to move with every step I took,” Alex said. He frowned. “And there was a door. Wasn’t hard to connect the dots.”

“What dots? There are no dots! You don’t even know what the purpose of this room is, do you?”

“Not really,” Alex admitted. He wiped at his nose again. It really was bleeding a lot. “Are you meaning to imply I wasn’t supposed to get to the door?”

Blade blew out an explosive sigh. Then a resigned expression crossed his features. “I — no. You were meant to get to the door.”

“See?” Alex raised an eyebrow. “So how did I do?”

“How would you know?” Blade asked irritably. “You couldn’t be bothered to wait five minutes for me to show up and properly explain my own training. Maybe you don’t need a teacher at all. Why don’t you do the rest of it yourself?”

Hold on. A teacher?

“Slow down, there,” Alex said, raising his hands. “Look. How was I supposed to know you were going to pop up?”

“Why would you just keep pushing forward blindly?” Blade countered. “The moment you realized that the room was doing something, shouldn’t you have spent at least a little time trying to figure out what it was?”

Alex scratched the side of his neck. “I mean, it was kind of obvious. It got harder to move with every step I took.”

“And?”

“And what? That was it. Right?”

Blade sighed. “No. That was not it. Which you would have known had you waited.”

“And how would I have known to wait?”

Blade paused for a moment. Then he pursed his lips and let out a small huff of air. “I… suppose that is true. A warrior must advance. Perhaps I am irritable after… gods, how long has it been? Too long. Yes. I must be irritable. I apologize for my zeal, Alex.”

“No harm done,” Alex said. He wiped his nose again. “So… you’re my teacher? Is that why you ate my other building?”

“I did not eat anything,” Blade said. “But before we get any farther, please. We should start at the beginning.”

Alex glanced over his shoulder. He was still several steps away from the path back to Mirrorwane. Steps that he had absolutely no plans of giving up after how hard they’d been to earn.

“Bit late for that, I think.”

Blade let out something between a snort and a cough. “You know what I meant. I am Blade, Guardian of the First Floor. And you are Alex, of…”

Alex’s eyes narrowed. “Of nobody. Just Alex.”

Blade’s features changed in a manner almost identical to how Alex would have imagined a grocery store worker would have looked when they were trying to explain basic logic to an irate customer.

“If you don’t list your proper name before ascending the tower, then you will not be properly placed in the rankings when you reach a sufficiently high level,” Blade said with a somewhat shoddy veneer of fake patience. “Which means you will earn no renown for your deeds. So I will suggest again — list your Family name. You will not have another chance. If you do not do it now, you will regret it.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. He thinks I’m an Outworlder.

“I’m not part of a family,” Alex said with a sigh. “Not the fancy System ones, at least. I’m a Nativeworlder. On 274-50. The Forsaken Grounds is in my city. I’m testing it out. That clear things up?”

Blade stared at Alex.

Then he blinked.

“What?”

“I could say it again if that would help.”

“It would not.” Blade said, suddenly looking a hell of a lot more interested. “You built access to the tower? On your own?”

“Well, it wasn’t me specifically. But my town has access. Yes. That’s why I’m here,” Alex said. “So if I’m not putting a family name down, what do I write?”

“Your Town name,” Blade said slowly. “That should do. How did you come across this building?”

“Mirrorwane,” Alex said. “And I thought you were the teacher. I don’t think I’m too keen on answering a bunch of questions when that seems to be your job.”

Blade paused.

Then, to Alex’s surprise, a smile pulled across the other man’s lips.

“Interesting. Very well. This tower — whatever the System may have named it — is a training grounds. Every floor will forge a different aspect of yourself. You may have noticed that you cannot access the System here. That is part of this floor’s difficulty.”

“I see,” Alex said. “So this is going to make me stronger somehow?”

Blade nodded. “Yes. This is the Trial of Weakness. Its purpose is to push your natural body to its absolute limits to ensure you are forged to achieve your true potential.”

“And it does that by… using a bunch of pressure and trying to crush me as I get closer to the door?” Alex guessed.

Blade hesitated. Then he nodded. “Yes.”

“So I was right.”

“You were not,” Blade said. “Knowing the goal of a task is not the same as understanding how to come to its conclusion. Getting the right answer to a question by guessing does not mean you understand the solution. You must act with purpose.”

“I — you know what? That’s actually a fair argument,” Alex said slowly. “So the test is more effective if I know why it’s getting harder with every step? And it’ll somehow make me stronger?”

“It purges the impurities from your body, then helps refine your flesh to push beyond the limits of your natural body,” Blade said, his tone turning grandiose as his gaze lifted upward. Then he looked back down to Alex, his voice going back to normal. “So, yes. It makes you stronger.”

“And I get stronger by getting as close to the door as I can?” Alex asked.

Blade nodded. “Yes. And you have done remarkably well. I have been here for some time. And in those years, very few Adept Stage individuals have had the honor of entering this tower. Fewer still have managed to make it this many steps into the room on their first try.”

“I see,” Alex said. He eyed the door. “How many steps did I make it?”

“You managed 5,” Blade replied. “The record was 15.”

Alex nearly choked. “What? 15? How?”

“Not all start at equal footing,” Blade said with a shrug. “Such is a fact of life. You should be proud. Even though you started without waiting for me to instruct you, you have earned a reasonable reward for your efforts. More than most in your shoes would have been capable of. It is not about where you start, but where you finish.”

Reward, huh? I like the sound of that. But the reasonable part… not so much.

“Deep. I — wait. Hold on. Do you have a whole bunch of motivational quotes memorized?” Alex’s eye narrowed.

Blade cleared his throat. “Is that relevant?”

“You know what? I guess not,” Alex said with a shrug. “So I suppose—”

Then, midway through his sentence, Alex burst into a sprint for the door at the far end of the room.

Alex managed two loping strides before a wall of pressure slammed down into his back like a ten ton hammer. His face accelerated into the ground and his skull cracked against the stone. Stars flashed before his eyes as darkness roared up all around him.

His lips twitched in the faintest of grins. Blade said something, but Alex couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in his ears. Darkness swallowed his vision entirely. The last thing he saw was the disbelieving look on Blade’s face.

Hah. Screw your 5 steps.

Then there was nothing but darkness.