The Last Warlock

After almost a month of boring days.

Mack was already feeling much better he had also regained his muscular mass and looked normal again, not like skin and bones anymore.

Apart from the daily meals and the cat bath Mack started to exercise too. He didn't know what he will be facing when he enters the tower but he wanted to be as prepared as he could.

And today was finally the day for him to enter the door to the Tower of Chaos.

Standing right in front of the door. He had an alien backpack that looked like something made by Nasa, but black, this man really loved black clothes. And apart from the usual clothes, Mack had a gun in his left hand and another in the right hand. The Two small guns that looked like pistols made during the second war, except for the exquisite engravings that made the guns look like they belonged to some museum collection.

"How do I enter?" .

[You only need to touch the door]

And just as said, Mack approached the giant door and touched. But.... felt nothing.

"I don't think it worked. Is this thing out of battery?"

Said Mack, unconsciously turning his head back like he was talking to someone behind him. But to his surprise, when he turned his head he didn't see the bridge nor the cube nor the planet he was before.

What Mack saw was nothing. But was not a 'nothing' like the dark days from before. It was complete emptiness. And the moment he turned his head back to look at the door again. He lost the sense of touch and more nothingness. Now he could not see the door anymore too.

He looked at his foot, and there was no floor.

It was not darkness like the days before, Mack could see himself, but apart from him he could see nothing else.

No sense of touch, no sense of wind passing by him, nothing.

Complete emptiness, even his heart and mind started to feel like that, like there is nothing that mattered anymore, like there was nothing that could make him move a finger.

And just like that, Mack stood there gazing at the nothingness, his eyes, started to fade the color and he found himself thinking of why was he here. He didn't care. He could not care less.

But just as he was waving between the reasons he was here, he snapped out of the trance.

"These tricks will not work with me anymore."

"I am alone in this world. But I will never stop moving forward."

Said Mack, regaining the colors in his eyes and taking a step forward in the complete emptiness. And at the moment his foot moved, like a bubble of soap snapping, Mack could see around him again.

This time, what he saw was a room, not too big but big enough to accommodate a few dozens of people, and in the middle of the room he saw an altar, like the ones in church's. And past the altar he saw another door.

Mack took a few more steps, like someone wanting to confirm his beliefs, and stopped to look at the altar.

[Congratulations again human, you passed the first test of the Tower of Chaos. The limbo gate.]

[And I never saw someone do it this fast, it only took you four days on Earth time.]

"What? Four days? I was in that state for days? It looked like seconds to me."

[In the Limbo state there is nothing, not even time. So of course you lost the sense of time there. It may look like seconds but was actually four days.]

"I see. But at least this one was an easy test."

[Easy for you, but only a few passed this test, and is only the first one.]

"Whats this altar for? Am I supposed to do something? I'm not a man of faith."

Said Mack, looking at the altar that seemed like it came out of one of those terror movies where people did sacrifices to some god.

[This is your reward for passing the test.]

"Ohhh. Finally some good news. What kind of reward? I hope it's not underwear, I'm full of them already."

Said Mack remembering his attempts to find human underwear like the ones on Earth, in the end, the Cube gave him a brand new view of the Anatomy of the weirdest species he could imagine, he still could not believe one of those underwears that had two bags to hold something very sizeable, two of them, some aliens sure were very happy in marriage.

[Go find yourself. Just follow the procedures in the tablet that is on the altar]

"Is that another trick of yours?"

[I'm not some circus clown, I only follow my creator's instructions!]

"Ok Ok no need to be angry." Said Mack, raising his hands like someone admitting his faults, alas, better not make this book angry.

[...]

Seeing no response from the book, Mack walked in the altar's direction.

"Let's see what kind of gifts Santa is bringing me today."

After walking a few steps, he was on top of the altar and saw a small Cube. Like the one last time, but this one had a different design from the previous one and was the size of a man's head. And by the right side of the Cube, a metal sign carved with runes was there.

Mack seeing the familiar runic language spent a few seconds to read it and to confirm he was not wrong asked aloud to the book.

"Am I supposed to drip blood on top of this Cube?"

[Yes.]

"Ok"

Then Mack took a small knife from his backpack and made a small cut on his finger and blood started to drip and in the same moment, he put it over the Cube.

~Drip~

The same moment a drop of blood touched it, the cube started to hum and turn from red to bright blue. And a few moments later a small cubic hole appeared in it.

Mack was familiar with these machines already and put his hand inside to retrieve the gift.

But to his surprise, it was a syringe, with some metallic grey liquid inside.

"Let me guess...."

[Don't tell me you have a fear of needles?]

"I just prefer not to take suspicious injections with unknown contents inside."

[Up to you. But there is only one way for you to know what it is.]

~Sigh~

"Alright. Once in hell, brace the devil."

Mack looked at the syringe, and after a few seconds, he closed his eyes and lunged the syringe in his left arm, and pressed the content inside himself.

Feeling the cold liquid run in his veins, Mack got a stifling pain in the arm, but was not that strong to make him panic.

After a few seconds and seeing he was not dead, he opened his eyes and felt nothing different.

"Is this thing working? I don't see any difference. Only a bit of pain in my arm."

[It needs a few seconds to take effect]

"Ok."

And just as Mack finished talking, his eyes started to burn in pain.

"Arghhhh what is happening? My eyes are burning!!!"

And white blindness came. And with the blindness, the pain stopped.

And like a fog dispersing, his vision started to recover, and not a second later, and he could see again.

All that happened so fast that Mack barely could react.

"What was that? I went blind for a few seconds"

And like waiting to respond to Mack's doubts, a string of runic symbols showed in Mack's vision.

(Installing System)

(Starting System)

Mack looked right and left with his head but his eyes continued to show these runic symbols overlapping with his normal vision.

(System diagnosis complete. All functions available to use.)

"What system? What's happening?"

[Think of this as nanorobots from Earth but much much more advanced]

"Nanorobots? That thing is not even fully developed on Earth. What this one does?"

[Find yourself. Try looking at your gun and try using your Will to know what is this]

"I know it's a gun. I got from the Cube."

[Just try. And focus your mind on wanting to know what is. This is a basic low-level use of Will]

"Ok."

Mack took his gun and looked at it. And focusing his mind in the Will of 'what is this' a string of runic letters appeared in the right corner of his eyes.

(Single barrel revolver, common grade, made by Cube Inc)

"That's freaking cool! Now I can know obvious things that I already knew. Great!"

Said Mack sarcastically, but he himself knew this thing would be extremely useful in some situations.

[This will be of use when you encounter things from other worlds that you are not familiar with.]

"Yeap I guessed. This thing has some kind of database in it?"

[Yes. It contains most of the commonly know information in several dimensions. Mages use a spell for this. But, as one that treads the path of Magick, you can't use spells. My creator devised this method in his earlier days, combining technology and Will. The effects are almost the same as a mage spell]

"Ok. Thanks for the boring explanation. Should I proceed to the next door? I don't feel tired and there is nothing else here."

[...]

"Ok Ok sorry I was rude."

[...]

~sigh~

"All right, I guess next door it is then."

Said Mack, already walking toward the next door.