Rise of the Godking - Chapter 147

Noel gasped, looking all around at the giant, towering trees, the grassy earth that smelled of the first signs of rain, and the blue, blue sky, hidden among the canopy of leaves far, far above, looking through the gaps to grace the entire place with a pleasant, warm light…that did nothing to slow down his thundering heart.

He scrambled back on all fours, convinced that he was in a place of danger, a place of death that he knew he couldn't escape from by running, but still tried to as it was all he could do. He relaxed a bit when he used his frae to examine the surroundings and saw that it was still available to him, but the moment he remembered what had just happened, he frowned and bit his lips.

He had been disconnected from his body for the briefest of moments, floating in a void with no form but that his thoughts took in a place that he had been to only twice before. It was a state he could not have identified if not for his training...but alas, he had never been too talented in this topic.

He tried to swallow down his panic, now, remembering the lessons that he had been taught. Entering a meditative pose, he closed his eyes and imagined the outside world, calling upon all the details he had seen before being pushed onto the crystal and being sent here.

He tried not to think of the trap that had been waiting for him, or the identity of the one who had set it up. Mindmasters were a strange breed, eccentric, to say the least, and feared by all those who were below a certain power level. They could be killed by the weakest mage, yes, but if they were able to use their tricks to whisk away someone to a place where they possessed ultimate power…death was the only thing waiting for the target, and he had no intention of going out without a fight.

That last part made him shudder.



'It must be someone who knows my identity, and wants to remove me from the family… I do have a bright future, after all.'

While he was trying to go through the steps that one was supposed to take when they found themselves in a place where only their consciousness was present, he got this thought then immediately threw it away, knowing that it was time to face the truth, for once, and not fake just how important he was to the family. He was loved by his parents, yes, and a few others, but the rest only thought of him as a useless little shit that would amount to nothing in his life.



Many times, he tried to work hard to prove them wrong…but always, the going just got too tough and there would always be some or the other excuse preventing him from doing everything he could to speed along the path of a mage. He would even tell himself that he wasn't trying so that the others would have a chance…but at the moment, all such delusions had to be thrown out if he wanted to escape with his life.

Next up, he needed to find some sort of link that he could grab onto that would take him back to his physical body. This was the hardest part; whoever had brought him here would try to keep him here, but the key was that he had to keep trying, and eventually, he would find his way back.



Only…this link was very hard to find, especially for someone like him who hadn't had much practice despite being given assignments that he really should have finished instead of slacking off to watch Jessica's attempts of baking a cake for her would-be. Regret was useless now, though, so he carried on with his search…only to be interrupted by the sound of buzzing wings, and the sensation of his spikes being pulled by numerous tiny beings.

He knew that he shouldn't snap his eyes open, but his imagination went wild, conjuring up all sorts of horrific beings that might be in front of him right now, ready to swallow him whole. He tried telling himself that this was his unconsciousness which couldn't be broken into, couldn't be snuffed out without him being given an ample chance to resist, it was useless.

If not for the fact that any physical harm to his body would jolt him enough to take him back automatically, he would have feared for his life outside, too. Promising himself that he would just peek to make sure that it was nothing too dangerous, he opened his eyes a bit…and screamed.

A thousand, no, ten thousand ghouls flew all around him. When his eyes had been closed, he had been somehow transported into the deepest pits of hell, and here, he was surrounded by beings whose skin was hanging off their bones, whose eyes were naught but sunken hollows with no life within, whose mouths were opened to suck the life out of him if he gave them the tiniest chance. He turned around, but the same awaited him there, too. The sounds of their screaming, their wailing, their thrashing echoes of death given voice stopped him from sitting down and meditating again, and with his hands on his eyes to block out the images, he screamed again.

Surprisingly, a moment later, the scream was the only thing he heard. It took him a few seconds to gather enough courage to peek out, through his fingers. The sight that his eyes fell on made him frown and remove his hands from his face.

He was in a small hut, made of straw with a thatched roof and a door made of wood. It was round, with no rooms whatsoever, and on one end was a wooden cradle in which a baby was crying.

The sound of women speaking could be heard on the outside. He stood for a bit and stopped listening after understanding that it was merely the gossip of villagers, concerning only the death of a cow a village over, or the infidelity of a rogue a few houses away.

After thinking for a couple of seconds, he caught a slight hint of what might be going on. Apparently, a Mindmaster would put their targets through a series of tests that were designed to weaken them so that they would be ripe for the plucking, but it was a double-edged sword. If all the tests were passed, the target could succeed in leaving the trap…and that was exactly what Noel intended to do.

This also made him feel the faintest hint of hope, as it meant that whoever he was dealing with was not a true master. Only those not as skilled as the individuals who could directly crush consciousnesses without giving any chance such as this would resort to similar means, and this meant that there was a way for him to leave.

He waited for a voice to appear that would give him instructions, and sure enough, it came soon, echoing from all around him.

"Let's play a little game, shall we? You'll be put in different scenarios. In each one, your goal is to guess who or what is not right, or does not belong in the form that it currently is inside a certain scenario. Guess wrong, and…well, you'll find out. Good luck!"

Noel frowned. It was a puzzle, and he hated puzzles. He never seemed to succeed in solving any of them, but this time, as his very life depended on it, he set his jaw firmly and told himself that he would find the answer.

He observed the hut while continuing to listen to the conversation outside. It veered to different topics, to a village nearby that had been targeted by someone arrogant, to a man who had stood up to this despot and had been killed as he dared to question one of the family.

This mention of the family made his eyes pop. If he was on one of the islands, how could there be multiple villages? The history of the islands had been forced down his throat, as the patriarchs all wished that the younger generation of the Garbonors would retain the lease over the islands, and continue to enjoy the profits that they brought in. After experimenting with different forms of governance, the single-town-pit-underneath had been finalized. It was impossible for a place like this to exist…so that meant that the woman was the answer!

"It's her! It's this entire place! It shouldn't exist!"

Because he was desperate to be right, he threw in the last part, hoping to hit upon the correct answer in this manner, like a student writing a lengthy answer to get at least a few marks in case he was wrong.

The conversation immediately stopped, ushering in a spell of silence that swept all around him, making his skin itch and his back tingle. He couldn't explain it, but he felt as if he was being weighed on scales that he couldn't see.

Then…the voice returned.

"False."

Noel's eyebrows rose as far as they could go, and he searched the entire hut, knowing that retribution was waiting for him.

There was no one else, though. He relaxed for a bit after a few seconds…but suddenly, an image so nonsensical that it made his jaw drop immediately appeared in front of him.

The baby had gone silent, too, but he hadn't noticed this before. Its head peeked out of the cradle, but that was normal…but a second later, its body was outside, too, floating in the air as if held by an invisible person.

Cocking his head, Noel studied it, wondering what the fuck was going on. Then…it flew towards him, and a punch from its tiny fist blew a bloody hole through his cheek.