Beeping sounds echoed inside Slave 135's head, pounding his brain without mercy.
The mechanical screams of [ERROR] did not stop, never granting him a moment of peace, nor the slightest solace after everything he had been through.
His eyes opened ajar once again. Death was not what he thought it would be like, not the first time nor this one.
But at this moment, he thought of everything... maybe since the beginning he never died, not yet at least.
Living inside a tower... entering the Trial Zone.
Such things were meaningless to the dead.
But he was alive.
Till recently at least. For what happens now, he wasn't sure... what he saw when his eyes opened was not a scene less disturbing than the giant eye.
Everything had been stripped of color... the monsters, the blood, the blade in his hand, and even the mud.
And for some reason, he was moving backward.
Walking backward along with everything else that existed around him.
His open eyes didn't follow his will. They could not move. Neither could his head. But he recognized the scenery slowly unfolding.
The place where he first arrived when the platform disappeared and the Trial began. The gloomy trees surrounding him. The monsters standing in the same positions.
But that wasn't the end of it. His wounds also began reversing rapidly.
Torn flesh pulled together, mending itself.
Spilled blood flowed back to where it belonged... even the damage he suffered on the platform before the beginning of the trial was healed.
The awe of the moment stripped him of all thoughts related to the battle, the monsters, or his survival.
This was something a normal person could never fathom witnessing in their lifetime, but that awe did not last long.
The moment his field of vision caught the monsters, he realized they were healing as well.
The same way he was.
His heart leapt into his throat, though he remained frozen in this colorless world.
Soon, the reversal slowed.
He saw the blade he had dropped earlier, the one taken from the goblin.
It moved.
Sliding closer to him, before returning to the hand that had first held it before being bitten by the wolf.
Another realization followed.
The monsters he had killed were not revived. The dead stayed dead.
The living returned to full fighting power.
The changes were favorable.
But the number of the dead did nothing to reduce the number of monsters that would come after him.
Not in the slightest.
Some part of him wished they would remain frozen forever.
But then—
[All Errors Fixed.]
'Shit,' he cursed inwardly.
[Trial Resumes in 3]
His eyes strained, desperately searching for a path. A way to survive.
[2]
The monsters began regaining focus. Hunger burned clearly in their stares.
[1]
There was no more time.
He had already chosen the path that would let him live longer.
He did not know if he could survive this attempt, nor whether he would be restored again if he died.
Was a second time possible?
Or maybe a third?
But he knew one thing: he did not find this way of dying pleasant in the slightest, nor the sensation that came before death.
[Trial Commences]
The mechanical voice announced in his head, like a war drum resuming the madness.
The gray world regained its color. So did Slave 135.
And of course, the monsters.
~Screech
The crazed cries didn't faze him. He started sprinting with everything he had toward the only thing that offered a chance at survival.
At least longer than last time.
He refused to die again...
Ahead of him loomed a massive tree, similar to the others, yet far larger.
Fortunately, he reached it before the monsters did.
Gasping for breath, he drove the blade into the bark and began climbing.
He ignored everything rushing at him, chasing him, and climbed higher, aiming for a massive branch that could serve as a foothold and a defensive position.
~Huff... Huff...
The sprint was wild. His muscles were screaming along with his lungs. His stamina was depleted, yet he reached the spot he aimed for.
He had gained ground in this hell.
Standing on the branch, he turned back toward the climbing goblins and leaping wolves.
He swung his blade wildly, like there was no tomorrow.
Bodies fell, one after another.
He stood carefully, making sure not to get surrounded, not to get bitten.
His feet were his greatest assets. He could not afford to lose them.
Losing them meant instant death.
"How many more?" he muttered. "How many before this ends?"
The words echoed into nothing.
Many of the monsters were wounded badly enough to fail climbing again.
But they were still alive.
Some were crippled.
Some circled the tree, waiting for him to fall.
He did not know when their numbers would ever decrease.
After everything, he hardened his resolve to not be greedy for the wounded. He would finish them later... once everything was over.
For now, he had to defend his foothold.
His arms went numb. His body trembled on the verge of collapse.
He gritted his teeth and held on.
But something changed... the monsters started falling back.
Slowly, they were retreating from the tree. Even the wounded and crippled monsters started crawling away.
Slave 135 was puzzled. "What's going on now?" He did not understand.
Were they retreating?
Regrouping?
Preparing a counterattack?
He had seen monsters before. They were not that smart.
These did not look smart either.
"DAMMIT!" he screamed at them. "COME BACK HERE NOW!"
He was exhausted, broken, and utterly spent.
A prolonged battle lasting hours or days was something he refused to imagine.
Such a battle was frightening to fight alone... calling it a battle was even laughable...
He screamed again. "Dammit, get back here! I will not die again, you fu—"
"Ah."
The words died on his lips.
He looked down at the branch he stood on.
At the tree he had trusted with his life.
The only thing he believed in within this world.
The trunk was split open.
A massive maw lined with ragged, irregular teeth gaped beneath him.
And his body.
It was bitten in half.
~Buff
Blood flooded his throat as he started falling off the tree… or rather—
The upper half of his body.
Disbelief written in his eyes, now fixed on the tree. He watched as he fell, the tree chewing and swallowing his lower half.
~Thud
The familiar darkness welcomed him once more.
[ERROR][Detected Death][Denied][Initiating Restoration Protocol]