Respawn: Last Man Standing

Chapter XXIII: Of Discord and Strife

  Drake freezes for a moment, thinking about what this reflection that had told Drake to call him Chronos. "Another... war?" Drake asks. "How can you tell?".
  "When Endoindustria is being collected to one side of a universe" Chronos says, "or when other gods are gathering strength, I can feel it".
  "Endo- do what now?" Drake asks.
  "Endoindustria" Chronos says. "An internal energy. The energy that resides within the planes or mortal existence. This energy is the very foundation of the multiverse itself.... well, I guess that's not entirely accurate, per se. This energy is the start of existence itself, but the multiverse was kind of a... well...".
  "An accident?" Drake asks.
  Chronos looks at Drake with a stern face. "Why would you call life an accident? Do you not know the weight words like those have on reality?".
  "It is... isn't it?" Drake asks.
  "If an accident it may be" Chronos says, "then it'd be a happy accident for some. Especially in Gaia's case. With more planes of existence, came more life. Each with a different way to grow, learn, and commute. This doesn't bring the goddess of nature anymore lower than she previously had, but she does care- oh so much for life itself. The only one who is more happy with trying to maintain several worlds at once is... well... father".
  "You... have a father?" Drake asks. "Aren't the gods supposed to be like-".
  "We have a father indeed" Chronos says. "The Great Creator himself is the one who bestowed consciousness unto powers, however, you probably know him simply as God. He separated those powers and gave each a mind. He gave Gaia and I life".
  "That's great and all" Drake says, "but what about a war?".
  "It's not your war" Chronos says. "It's our war. The war of gods. An arms race for power, and I want no part in this".
  "What does this mean for us?" Drake asks.
  "My concern is making sure I didn't accidentally set up the table for the wrong people" Chronos says. "Long story short, this has no immediate effect on your world that I can see. However, somethings wrong with your world, and this piece of Chronos... the me inside of you... likely means that there's something you can do to tip that balance back to where it should be".
  "How will I know?" Drake asks.
  "You won't" Chronos says. "And I won't either. I can only tell you so much. Power gathers in this plane, and I'm to blame for that. However, there's nothing I can do to stop it. As it stands, the interference of humans using the Shards of Chronos is likely the only thing keeping that power out of the hands of those who may abuse it".
  "How do we do that?" Drake asks.
  "Human... your questions are becoming a burden" Chronos says. "I know not of how to fix it and maintain the human's control over this world. However, it seems as if the humans using their Respawn ability keeps the power under the grasps of humans, rather than gods. In the current situation, that is a good thing. However, people abusing this ability; such as killing each other and stealing time from one's fate, for the gain of their own... its gathering power all in a few areas. Humans can only contain the smallest fraction of power, and that gathering of time... or Respawns as you call them, allows for someone else to collect that power from them. This... Pyramid thing you're in is one such source of people stealing and collecting power".
  "So, a god is running this game!?" Drake asks.
   "What? No..." Chronos says. "You humans are making mistakes that a god could easily take advantage of! Humans are running the game... humans are killing each other... humans are gathering that power!". There was a short pause before Chronos suddenly says "Which gives me an idea".
  "Uh-oh" Drake says nervously.
  "Oh, quit your complacency, human" Chronos says. "But... if my hunch is right... this could easily be the work of a god if discord, Eris. It does add up, after all". Chronos then starts mumbling something about "Hardships.... forgetfulness... starvation... pains... battles... wars... murders... manslaughters... quarrels... lying stories... disputes... anarchy..." while most of what he said was inaudible. Chronos then looks up and says "then... up next it ruin... and finally... oath". There was another short pause before "I get it!" Chronos says. "She's bearing her children through that of mankind's actions! She's claiming this world!".
  "And that's a... bad thing I'm guessing?" Drake asks.
  "I only know of the gods" Chronos says, "not of their actions or intentions. I'm not as complete as I once was... therefor, I don't know why she wants your world, or what she'll do with it. However, regardless of if her intentions are pure or not, the agreement was to leave the humans' realms in the hands of the humans. What she's doing is going against what the gods set out to do so long ago".
  "So... my job is to... do what now?" Drake asks.
  "I do not know..." Chronos replies in an irritated voice. "You'll have to keep the balance of power in the hands of the humans somehow. Maybe continuing your plans to shut down this game would play a key in that. Life must always be gently handled on a balance. That balance is delicate, but is the key to human survival".
  "I'm not catching on at all here..." Drake says. "What does this have to do with-".
  "That'll be all, human" Chronos says. "I've kept you for too long, and too much time has passed in your world. You must now leave".
  "But-" Drake argues.
  "We won't be seeing each other again" Chronos says. "This will be the last time we speak, whether or not you're successful. I've already interfered too much".
  "But I have no idea what I'm doing!" Drake yells. "What am I-".
  "Farewell, Drake Goldermann" Chronos says as he snaps his fingers. Suddenly, Drake's head pops up. As he looks around, he finds that he was being carried on Ziya's back, and there was a lot of blood trailing from his nose, down the front of Ziya's shoulder, and all the way down to the knees of her pants.
  "Finally awake?" Ziya asks as they continue walking, moving through the corridors of the maze.
  "W-What happened?" Drake asks.
  "You were asleep for an entire day" Ziya says. "When we tried to wake you, you just suddenly started bleeding out of your nose like crazy".
  "We figured you were dehydrated" Judy says. "Your water canteen was empty, so we gave you some water from Chris's canteen".
  Chris lightly sniffles and says "It's because I lost the food...".
  "Well, dehydration can lead to many things" Judy says. "Hallucination, low blood pressure- leading to fainting... we figured something weird was going on in your head, especially after the whole... bleeding profusely thing".
  "Y-Yeah, thanks" Drake says. "Can you let me down now?".
  "Oh... right" Ziya says as she suddenly stops. She lets go of Drake so he could stand on his own two feet. However, when he tried to stand, he collapsed. "Drake!" Ziya panics.
  "I'm fine, I'm fine" Drake assures. "My legs just felt... a little weak for a second".
  "Guess you were right about the dehydration" Chris says.
  "Certainly seems like it" Judy says.
  "Do you need help walking?" Ziya asks.
  "No, I'm fine" Drake says. "I can move on my own. I just needed some time to prepare, I guess". Drake slowly gets up on his own, and then the team starts moving again. After a while of moving, the team comes up to another intersection. Ziya peeks around one corner, as Drake peeks around the other. The corner Ziya peeks around is clear, and there was no turret. However, when Drake peeked around the corner, he saw something drilled in the wall just around the corner. There were small metal boxes drilled into the wall with a small, motion sensor camera on the front. Once it detected Drake's head, it exploded, killing him instantly.
  "Drake!" Ziya yells.
  "Watch out!" Chris says as he puts his arms in front of Ziya to keep her from making any sudden movements. "It appears that they've placed explosive traps around some of these corners. We'll have to be even more careful now".
  As Drake revives, he takes a quick look at his watch. It now showed the number "1" on his watch. He quickly hid the watch so Ziya couldn't see how low he was on Respawns. Meanwhile, Chris carefully checks around the corner. He spots a turret down the next corridor, and immediately takes cover again. Chris readies his sniper rifle, but takes the magazine out and checks how many bullets are left. "Tch" Chris says to himself, "only three left. I have to really make 'em count". He loads a bullet in the chamber by pulling back the bolt of his rifle, then takes a deep breath. Quickly, he whips around the corner, and quickly takes the shot. The bullet goes right through the sensor of the turret before it had a chance to fire at him. "Quickly, let's move before things get worse" Chris says to the rest of the team. The team begins moving down the corridor, when suddenly, the wall at the end of the corridor ahead of them close with a loud thud. Immediately after, the next portion of the walls slam together, then the next, slowly getting faster as it's closing in on them.
  "Oh no" Drake says. "Not again".
  "Run!" Chris yells. The team turns around and begins running down the other corridor. The team runs as the corridor behind them collapses, nearly smashing the entire team between the walls. They ran past the next section, and accidentally activated a pressure plate at the same time they saw a turret at the end of the corridor. They began running the other way, and the walls suddenly started shifting around them. Before the turret could kill any of them, the walls closed in front of the turret and the maze began to rearrange. As the walls ahead of them opened, they immediately came across an open area in the maze. The team paused to catch their breath, exhausted from trying to outrun a maze that was trying to crush them.
  "That was highly unpleasant" Judy says between deep breaths.
  "This is new..." Ziya says. "We can't move too fast, we can't move too slow... this maze really keeps you on your toes".
  "We're almost to the top floor though" Gerald says. "Should we rest here, or do you want to keep moving?".
  "Let's keep moving" Ziya says. "We'll rest on the next floor if everyone's unable to keep moving after that".
  "Good thing none of us are asthmatic... right?" Chris asks.
  "I doubt many people on death row, who've been thrown in Pyramid, are asthmatic" Judy says. "Even then, they were probably the first ones to go".
  "Cool... just checking" Chris says.

  After catching their breath, the team moved on. They ran past several more pressure plates, and triggered them to take advantage of the walls moving to slip past several corridors at a time. Slipping past several turrets and other traps, they eventually make it down to the last corridor. As they reach the end of the corridor, with the exit on their left, they couldn't see another intersection. When they arrive at the corridor's exit, they see an open area, and stairs leading to the next floor. The last floor. "We've made it..." Gerald says. "We've actually made it to Floor 1".
  "Not yet we haven't" Ziya says. "We still have to climb those stairs. Watch your step, in case there's more traps".
  The team slowly progresses up the stairs. When the reach the top without finding any traps on the stairs, they became suspicious. When they see Floor 1, they became more suspicious. The room was wide, with white tile floor, white walls, a white ceiling, and a single black camera placed at the center of the ceiling. The entire floor was empty. No supplies, no obstacles, and no turrets. On both sides of the floor was a giant number "1" painted in bold red paint, and at the opposite side of the floor from the stairs they just cane up was just another wall. No more stairs, and no traps. Just an empty white room.