“You haven’t gained any levels yet? How did you survive this long alone in those woods?” Harvey asked the shaking man.

  “You make this sound like a game, man, but it’s not. We’re in hell right now, there’s no other explanation!” He shrieked.

  “Hey! Unless you want to let more of those things know where we are, you’re going to have to calm down. We can share what we know and hear your story, but let’s do it somewhere other than the middle of the road next to a pile of bodies. Alright?” Julian responded sharply, still catching his breath.

  “O… Ok, you’re right.” He hesitated as he looked around, the panic in his eyes slowly being replaced with fear as he looked over the town. “I’m sorry, bro. I know you guys got me out back there.”

  Hannah retrieved what arrows she could from the dirt, bodies, and buildings she’d variously shot, but most were unserviceable. When she unslung her quiver to replace the gathered arrows, she paused for a moment.

  “Oh, thank god, I can channel essence into the quiver to generate new arrows. I had no idea what I was going to do once I ran out.” Hannah announced.

  “I knew it! I knew there’d be an easy way to get more.” Harvey said.

  “You did? Why didn’t you tell me?” Hannah asked.

  “No, I didn't. I just didn’t want you to be mad at me.” Harvey laughed. “I should’ve thought to check earlier, though. Julian and I inspected our weapons earlier, and mine lets me use the mana bolts while his sword can sharpen itself.”

  “I don’t blame anyone for missing it. We haven’t had a second of calm to get our heads straight since we got here.” Julian added.

  “The smithy looks relatively intact. Should we make sure it’s clear and then rest for a minute?” Harvey asked.

  “Sounds good, everyone gather behind me and we’ll move in together. Harvey, can you stick by my shoulder? That wand seems more maneuverable than a bow in tight spaces.” Julian suggested

  Everyone agreed and moved to stand in a line behind Julian before he slowly pulled open the door. The room was dark, lit only by streaks of moonlight shining through gashes in the roof high above and small windows along the back wall. Standing shelves, tables, and a brick forge cast long shadows.

  Harvey gulped, but stayed close as Julian crept into the room, sword in hand, and began methodically exploring every path and corner. Luckily, their eyes had long since adjusted, and they weren’t hopelessly fumbling in the dark. Looking out the back window, Harvey saw a small yard with open crates of tools outside an impossibly dark cave. Even from afar, he could see pickaxes and shovels, suggesting the cave might actually be an old mineshaft. Sitting on a table along the outside wall was a glass lantern. It only took a minute or so to find an old match, finally letting them see clearly.

  “Wow, there are a lot of tools in here. Hopefully, we can get some use out of them.” Julian remarked.

  “Get some use out of them? Are any of you guys blacksmiths? Bold of you to assume any of this matters.” The scared man sniped.

  “Anything helps, right?” Julian chuckled. “But you’re right, I’m no blacksmith. Let’s just calm down a little bit. Why don’t we introduce ourselves? I’m Julian, died in a house fire less than a day ago and left behind a wife and two kids in LA.”

  “I’m Hannah. Grew up on a farm in Idaho with my family and died fighting cancer.” Hannah added

  “And I’m Harvey. Also from California, up near San Jose, and I died in a car crash.”

  The man hesitated before following suit. “My name’s Gabriel. I’m from Mexico City and I’d have to guess I got shot…”

  “Mexico City? Your English is perfect.” Hannah commented.

  “I’m not speaking English. You’re speaking Spanish.” Gabriel replied.

  “I definitely don’t know Spanish. I took two years in high school, but that was forever ago.” Hannah continued.

  “Wait, listen to the words we are saying and not just what we’re hearing. I can hear the difference when I focus on it.” Harvey instructed.

  The group continued talking until they realized they were speaking different languages, despite being able to understand each other perfectly.

  “Weird.” Harvey muttered, “But it’s great we won’t have to worry about language barriers when we find other veilstriders. That would’ve been a logistics nightmare.”

  “Who cares about logistics? Hell doesn’t have to make sense. It’s just hell! I knew the cartel would get me killed, but now that I’m here, I wish I had listened to my mom!” Gabe exclaimed, jumping to sit on one of the sturdy wooden tables next to the forge.

  “I’m not so sure that’s where we are,” Harvey replied. “All of us died less than a day ago, and no religion I’ve ever heard of mentions magic powers. Hell is supposed to be fire and brimstone, yeah? And where are all the people who died yesterday? Last week? 40 years ago?”

  “It’s a pretty small sample size, it could just be chance that all of us died today,” Julian said.

  “True, but it doesn’t feel like it. If the veil is the line between life and death, and The System calls us veilstriders… Doesn’t that sound like we’re here to walk that line? The System told me I could see my family again if I survived. It also said I’d been brought back to participate in some integration trial. I think that’s the trial, to walk between life and death. To fight our way back home.“ Harvey said, passion burning in his soul as the dots connected in his mind.

  “You’re delusional, man. We’re never getting out of here.” Gabriel snapped.

  The blatant disregard bothered him. Was he going to give up before he’d even tried? Frustration gnawed, but he kept his tone measured, trying to make him understand.

  “Why waste time giving us these swords and wands, carving massive tattoos across our bodies that let us use magic, and make us stronger when we kill demon dogs unless we have the power to fight for our lives back? Why put us here just to suffer?” Harvey bit back.

  “Because we’re terrible people who lived terrible lives!” Gabe shouted, tears streaming down his face.

  Rage sparked in his chest. Maybe it was true about him. Apparently true about Gabe. But Julian was a hero, and Hannah fought one of the most brutal battles any young woman could ever have to face. Who was he to judge them like that?

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  “The System told you all that? It didn’t tell me any…” Julian froze as he spoke, light pouring out of his eyes. Soon, the same was happening to everyone as their vision rose out of their bodies and up through the roof until they were staring down from high in the sky.

  All around him, the godly voice of The System boomed. Not wrathful or loving, simply a voice conveying absolute authority.

  People of Earth, your world has matured enough to join the wider cosmos. Essence, the foundation of all existence, floods the planet, preparing it and those who inhabit it to stake their claim on eternity.

  With this awakening, you stand upon a threshold — one that opens into possibility, peril, and purpose beyond imagination.

  Countless powers throughout the stars strive to shape destiny, to claim dominion, to etch their legacy into the Tapestry of Eternity as the one true path to power. And now, they look to your planet as a prize.

  To assess Earth’s potential — to judge whether it has produced souls strong enough to stand alone, or is destined to become fuel for another’s path — trials have been created.

  Your rulers shall face true royalty. Your armies shall face endless hordes. Your dead shall face those who defy death. Your faithful, your tyrants, your creators and destroyers… each shall face trials suited to the legacies they seek to build.

  Whether by blood and ash or faith and fortitude, you now fight for the direction of your world.

  Rise, or be remade in another’s image.

  Visions raced through his mind as The System spoke.

  He saw the earth far below as if he were sitting on the International Space Station. It really did look like a little blue marble. Power washed over it as the night sky shattered like broken glass, waves of radiant light cascading down to bathe the planet, carving unfathomable arrays just like when he received the weave in his own skin. The starry void mankind had looked into for millennia was gone, replaced by a new one full of color and mystique. It was like the sky he’d known was a painted dome, separating them from the true cosmos beyond. When it shattered, his home was laid bare to the infinity that waited behind the curtain.

  He saw plants and animals grow and mutate, essence flooding their bodies as they began to hunt each other, not for food, but for essence.

  He saw flashes of humans in trials just like his own. Armies, plagues, and angels all threatening to overcome the fragility of man.

  Before he could wrap his head around it all, a second voice entered his mind. This time it was a gentle, female tone — not emotional, but calm and instructional, like a teacher reading from a script.

  Harvey Thorne, your status at the time of Integration has placed you in a scenario against the Undead Army of the Necrolord Pantheon, whose legacy seeks to consume all life and unite the cosmos in undeath.

  This trial takes place in the land where life and death meet, with two portals to Earth embedded in the heart of each faction’s territory.

  – Veilstriders may return home only through the portal in the heart of the Undead Lands.

  – The Necrolord army may invade Earth only through the portal in the heart of Veilstrider lands.

  All who stand beside you are those who died within the 24 hours preceding Earth’s Integration.

  All who stand against you have had their levels and legacies restricted to match a newly integrated species. These limitations will ease over time.

  Initial placement within the zone was determined by age and adaptability. Those most likely to become competent survivors were seeded near advanced outposts; those deemed too young or too old to fight were placed deeper within Veilstrider territory.

  Struggle, and you may one day return home. Fail, and your body shall become a weapon in the Undead’s pursuit to eradicate all life.

  Good luck.

  The voice retreated from his mind, but instead of returning to his body, Harvey’s sight soared off into the distance. The dark, dense forest gave way to sparser growth, replaced by black stone. Craggy outcroppings rose from the ground like shards of glass buried in the dirt, and erratic shadows flashed as lightning lit up the pitch black sky.

  Far below, he saw giant spiders as tall as a table with legs made of bone stretching out from torsos covered in black chitin, skittering towards the forest. Each had a human skull, with faint teal wisps floating in cavernous eye sockets. Above them, massive gray bats rode the wind, unleashing unholy screeches into the night as they searched the treeline.

  There were no plants, no rivers, and no life for dozens of miles in every direction. A sickly turquoise haze rose from the ground ahead, where he saw small groups of skeletal soldiers clad in beautiful, black metal armor marching away from a fortress of black stone. The clatter of bone and steel-covered feet pounding into the rock created a nightmarish clangor.

  The rapid advance of his vision slowed as he came to face large metal gates topped by soldiers patrolling the battlements of the fortress wall. The cloud of gas was so thick he could almost taste it, and even though his brain had no idea what it was, Harvey knew it was nothing good for him. Behind the walls lay a warcamp, where the ceaseless sound of hammers striking metal signalled the call to arms. Barking wolves with exposed ribs, black steel jawplates, and glowing eyes clawed at their cages, begging to be set loose so they could satiate their hunger.

  In the center of it all, a man sat atop a stone pillar on a black throne, a shimmering golden portal swirling behind him. He wore an exquisitely crafted metal chestplate with teal gemstones inlaid at the chest and shoulders that bore a crest Harvey had never seen before. A helmet rested on a black sword stabbed into the rock beside him, and the long head of a skeletal dragon rested in his lap. He stroked its ivory horns, an unholy clattering rumbling from its throat like a cat’s purr. His face had the same chalky gray complexion of the other veilstriders he’d seen, but there was no living flesh left to offset the dead. Both of his eyes were radiant teal orbs, and his long white hair, parted down the middle of his head, cascaded down to his shoulders. A handsome smile crossed his face as he surveyed his camp, and Harvey swore he stared right at him before The System whisked his vision away.

  Moving even faster, he saw the barren wasteland below him once again transform into the dense forest, and was surprised to see the sickly purple trees with their black trunks morph into a vibrant green. Soon, he was looking over rolling green hills with a roaring river criss-crossing below him, where deer drank their fill to the sound of songbirds in the trees. It was nature in its purest form in a way Harvey had never seen before.

  Soon after, they arrived at a similar fortress of deep brown, but nobody patrolled the battlements atop the large gate. Instead, they saw rows of tents with a multitude of scared and confused veilstriders all sitting with the same thousand-yard stare Harvey assumed he had as the vision commenced. They were all either young children or elderly, and it was obvious by the tears on many of their faces that they weren’t handling the situation well despite the safety the walls provided in the short term. On a similar pillar in the heart of the fort, a teal portal matching the general’s eyes shimmered, awaiting his arrival.

  His vision faded to black, and suddenly, he was back in his body, seeing with his own eyes. The musk of coal and dust snapped his consciousness back as he stumbled backward, coming to rest on a table.

  A screen appeared in front of his face.

  Quest: Rise or be Remade - Integration Trial

  The battle between life and death rages, each standing in opposition to the other’s goals. Defeat the Necrolord Army, Slay their Champion, and Escape the trial. 0/1

  Reward: Variable based on performance

  “The only way out… is through an army,” Harvey said, his voice heavy.

  “An army that’ll make it to Earth if we fail,” Julian replied, meeting his gaze. “I don’t know how yet… but we’re not letting that happen.”