The 1000th Reincarnation

Cold wind wooshes past Zephyr's face while he climbs down the rope. Seong follows behind him, his foot slips hurling a small rock toward Zephyr's face.

"Hey! Watch it!" Zephyr exclaimed still annoyed by the fact they had to somehow escape this labyrinth. 

"Sorry..."

Veldris floats behind him, "I think I know what this place is. It was utilized by the Obsidian Covenant."

"For what?" Zephyr whispered.

"Torture. They used to throw prisoners down here. There's only one route for the way out. Every other way leads to a dead end. There are over like a thousand different paths that branch out as well, so it's essentially impossible to escape this place."

"There's no way that's the only way to get out of this place. The people in that clan had to have had some other route if they got trapped down here," Zephyr muttered under his breath. 

"What was that?" Seong asked. 

"Nothing."

Veldris nodded his head. "You guys wait right here. I'm gonna scout out the place, I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of here."

Veldris floats out of the area leaving Zephyr and Seong at the bottom of the labyrinth. Zephyr and Seong hop off the rope into a musty, blue firefly-lit room with no ceiling and skeletons lying over the floor. 

"So this is literally just a maze huh," Seong said. "I'm going to scout out the area real quick."

Zephyr grabbed his shoulder stopping him from going any further. 

"Don't. We don't know what's out there right now."

"So what are we supposed to do, just wait here? Forever?"

Zephyr struggled to come up with an answer. He couldn't just tell Seong that he had a grim reaper-like spirit following him around. 

"You're just going to have to trust me here. Until I tell you to come with me, we're going to stay right here."

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A young boy walks from out of the shrubbery into the open between the forest and the temple. He fixes his glasses and approaches a man five times taller than him. A man that looks like he rip a tree from out of the ground with no effort at all. He glares at the young boy raising his fist. The sun veiled the young boys eyes with the glasses reflection, but the man could already tell how relaxed and unbothered the young boy was. The man flew his arm straight into the young boys head making a giant "thud" noise at the end of it. The young boy had swiftly raised his hand to grab the man's hand, his hair being blown by the impact. The boy strengthens his grip and starts to forcefully lift the man's wrist bringing him to the ground. He turns the man around and puts his foot on his back, the man grunting in pain. By this point, everyone around him stopped fighting and looked to see what the loud thud was all about. The young boy break's one of the man's arms, while the man grunts in agony.

"Everyone," he screams. "I know the secret to this trial, if you want to pass, then join me!"

A dark figure passes him in the sky. 

Did someone just jump from the tree to the top? Na no way, that wouldn't be possible.

The young boy continued, "I'm Ryu Do-Hyun, if you would like to pass, join me, if not I'll challenge you one on one myself!" He spread his arms open welcoming anyone willing to join him. 

Ryu already knew the ending to this world. He had just been reincarnated and truthfully, was happy in this world. He was able to start over, look towards a bigger and brighter goal than what he had on Earth. Ryu, or his old name on Earth, Marcus, was a depressed individual. Day in and day out, working ten hours a day for what? He comes home just to hop on and play some games until midnight, just to go back to work the day after. Nothing progresses, nothing happens. But now he had a chance. No Marcus, just Ryu. He threw away that name a long time ago. He was going to save the world, and be known as a hero. Not someone known to just work day in and day out with no joy in his life. 

A God of this world reincarnated him, desperate to stop the calamity. Giving him divine powers and the qi of Kyomora, he was hoping that Ryu and Zephyr would somehow team up and be able to defeat whatever was invading Umbraxis. 

Fourteen other people had stopped fighting and approached Ryu agreeing that it was best to team up and pass this trial together. The rest either ran away or ran into the temple hungry for loot. 

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It had been hours since Veldris was gone. They were on their last drop of water and last morsel of food. 

"Baek, if we're going to leave, it's going to have to be now," Seong said grunting to get up. 

Veldris, where are you? If you're going to come back it's gotta be now.

Zephyr sees a black shadow floating in the distance approaching them. He gets ready to pull out his dagger, but realizes it's Veldris.

Yes! Finally. 

"Zephyr, I found the secret exit that they used if they were stuck down here. It's going to be a bit of a journey but you should be fine if you follow me."

Zephyr nodded his head, "Alright Seong follow me."

They walk into the darkness in front of them, where mysteries will soon be unveiled.