I wake up, and this time it's in a very different but familiar place—the same place where I woke up about a week ago. A cemetery. Why am I back here? Don't tell me it's like in those movies I've seen where someone gets stuck in a time loop.
"This can't be happening…"
I mutter, exhausted. But suddenly, I feel something behind me—an aura. I turn around and see Denasaia, and I realize I'm still in my dreams.
"Hello, Roxy."
"What brings you into my mind, Dena?"
"Well, first of all, I wanted to congratulate you for beating your first trial. I wasn't lying when I told you that you could do it."
"…It wasn't easy. I almost lost."
I turn back toward the graves, and as I look closely, I see names—the names of the people my team fought against: Deodat, Seera, Sang, Amr, and other participants.
"You feel guilty, don't you?"
I stay silent. I do feel guilty, and I know very well Denasaia can sense it. She reads people like an open book.
"You're in a game, Roxy. The Deadhorses have no intention of causing a massacre in their trials."
I turn back toward Dena, confused.
"Why?"
"Haven't you noticed? Remember your visit to Daïsa—what were the people like there?"
"They… admired the participants. Like, they saw them as football players or something."
"Exactly!"
Denasaia says, moving closer to the graves. Suddenly, the world around her shifts completely—we're now in a place that's entirely white.
"There are two goals. The first is for the Deadhorses to find a body to transfer their powers and consciousness into, so they can regain a physical form. The second is to give their people motivation to live again, after having been resurrected more than two millennia later."
"So… that family I met?"
"Yes. They died during the fall of the Deadhorses. The Daïsians, like many other races, perished. Nothing remains of them."
I sigh. Honestly, it feels like history is repeating itself again. When the continent of Dalfor appeared in the 1400s, humans and hybrids were wary of each other… When we hybrids appeared, humans were wary of us. And now, with the races tied to the Deadhorses returning, we're wary of them. It's an endless war.
"Well, Roxy, you're on your way to Abundance… Let me at least reassure you: the environment there is much better than Daïsa."
"What do you know about this Deadhorse?"
"His name is Iwwer, the 25th Deadhorse. He's not particularly evil, but let's just say… he's obsessed with abundance, never satisfied with the number of objects he owns. So, that place is a huge mess."
She tells me with a smile, quickly readjusting her glasses.
"Well, I think it's time for you to wake up… You have a long journey ahead. And one last thing, Roxy."
I tilt my head slightly to the side and answer shyly:
"Yes?"
"The friends you've made—don't lose them. They'll be very important to you in the future, trust me."
The completely white world fades away, and I drift back into sleep.
I wake up in the small camp that Lesky, Amr, and I set up in the morning. We had settled inside an old abandoned house. It had been two days since we started traveling, heading toward the capital of the Realm of Davidova, Pasternak.
We were in desperate need of supplies to last the journey to Abundance, and also in need of a car—even though I think the car idea is completely dead. The only ones we'd found were either out of gas or completely unusable. After all, some of them probably hadn't been touched in over 30 years.
After putting out the fire, we hit the road again, following a national highway. Along the way, we came across some other groups of Babylonians like us, but they weren't hostile or friendly—they just ignored us or gave a brief nod. They were rare to see.
We crossed paths with very few residents of the Dark Age. Most of them must be living in large communities within bigger cities, maybe.
Suddenly, as we were calmly walking down the road, we noticed smoke—lots of smoke—rising into the sky. I didn't know why, but I felt something was wrong. Amr, Lesky, and I exchanged glances, and without a word, we ran toward the source. After a few minutes of sprinting, we arrived at a village engulfed in flames. A community must have lived here.
"What happened here?!"
Lesky blurted out at the sight of the chaos. Amr bit his lip.
"I don't know, but I don't think it was an accident."
In the distance, I saw a man lying on the ground. He looked like an old man. We rushed toward him—he seemed to have a minor injury on his leg. For an old man, he was tall and well-built, wearing a blue uniform, a long beard, and an eyepatch. He was also a Velmorin—a deer. I could tell by the enormous antlers sprouting from his skull.
I was the first to reach him, with Lesky and Amr right behind me. Lesky crouched down beside him.
"Sir? Are you okay?!"
He shook his head.
"No…"
He groaned slightly, probably from the pain in his leg. Amr dropped his bag on the ground and searched for something to bandage the wound. I looked at him.
"I'll take care of it."
Amr handed me the bandages and disinfectant, and I moved toward the injured leg. My mother, Kety, was a nurse, and she taught me a lot of things. I never thought it would come in handy one day. I poured disinfectant over the wound, then quickly wrapped it in bandages. The old man was still in pain, but he didn't scream—he held it back, probably thanks to experience and maybe a rather high pain tolerance.
While I was tending to his injury, Lesky did his best to gather information from him. He revealed his name was Vasily and that he lived in this community.
"We were savagely attacked by a group of raiders… We had already managed to defend ourselves before, but this time, we couldn't beat them. They struck us during a funeral… A band of monsters."
Lesky put herhands over her mouth, shocked by such brutality. Amr, on the other hand, looked more neutral, as if he wasn't really surprised.
"This group is dangerous… Not only for us, but for the residents as well."
Amr said, and then the old man groaned as I tied the knot to make sure the bandage held firmly.
"I had a family… a son and grandchildren, but they were all massacred…" He shed a few desperate tears.
"You're Babylonians, aren't you? I know you don't care about the fate of the locals, but… please, stop this group."
I looked at Lesky and Amr to see if they were on board with this plan, and suddenly Lesky nodded.
"Yes! We'll do it!"
I hadn't expected Lesky to accept so quickly—I thought we would at least discuss what to do first. But now that he had accepted this quest, we were forced to go through with it. Amr seemed to agree with me—I could see it in his eyes. He even gave a small facepalm when Lesky said yes.
"Thank you a thousand times… I'll reward you properly. I have nothing on me, but I have contacts… in the capital who could help you."
I stood up after putting the medical supplies back into Amr's bag.
"Do you know where their base is?"
"Yes… Keep heading south. They're located in Sokolov."
Amr took out the map he had in his right pocket and examined it.
"It's about fifteen kilometers away."
We turned back to the old man one last time, then set out toward the camp. But we had no plan, and I was a bit frustrated with what Lesky had just done—accepting a quest from a stranger. On top of that, we weren't powerful. Sure, Lesky could conjure flames, but Amr and I had much weaker powers in combat.
After walking for a good two hours, we spotted the village in the distance. We were going to prepare from afar, but then I noticed another trio approaching the village quietly. I immediately recognized Deodat. Him again? What the hell was he doing here? He was accompanied by two girls I vaguely remembered seeing in the audience when I had been welcomed on stage with the other winners in Daïs. We could potentially form an alliance—but how could I get their attention discreetly without alerting the camp?
I saw a pinecone on the ground, picked it up, and threw it. It hit Deodat right on the head. He turned around, and I made a discreet gesture for him to come closer. He seemed to grind his teeth but approached anyway, the two girls following behind.
"What do you want?!" he said once he reached us.
"You're planning to attack the camp too, right?" Amr blurted at Deodat, and he couldn't help but nod.
"Yeah, a nearby village got raided."
"Same here… So, how about an alliance?"
Deodat looked at me. I doubted I could convince him, considering I had literally killed him during the trial.
"Fine… Deepa, Senga, are you okay with that?"
I glanced at the two girls behind him. The first, Deepa, had light green hair and a tanned complexion. She was probably from the south of Suno. She wore a white dress and thigh-high boots. I also noticed a small hump on her back—she was a Nakarim, a camel hybrid. That confirmed she came from the desert. The other girl, Senga, seemed about the same age as Deepa, nearly twenty. She had pale skin, black hair tied into twin tails, and wore a black jacket with black tights. Judging by the spikes on her forearms, back, and shoulders, she was an Erivans—a hedgehog.
Both girls nodded—they weren't against the alliance. We then shared details about our powers. I learned that Deodat was the heir of the 74th Deadhorse, the one of agriculture, and his power was harvesting food from the ground—not very useful. Deepa was the heir of the 16th Deadhorse, Summer, and she could wield fire magic, growing stronger during the summer months. Unfortunately, it was October—deep in autumn. Senga was the heir of the 68th Deadhorse, Technology, and she could summon objects that hadn't been invented yet, as long as someone had imagined them.
"Well… I guess the best plan is to burn the place down entirely… It pains me to kill people, but…" Deodat spoke quietly, his profession as a policeman clearly weighing on his conscience. I continued.
"They killed so many people, and they'll keep killing… Is that what you want, as a policeman?"
He shook his head. Amr stood up.
"Let's finish this quickly…"
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Lore informations
Dalfor : A continent that appeared in 1443, its inhabitants are said to come from another world where fantasy creatures live: elves, dwarves, dragons, and more. It is situated on the north-east side of Sano
Velmorin : They are pretty tall and can reach 2.3 meters and live for 150 years. They have broad shoulders, antlers and they have deep voices as well as large and expressives eyes. They usually are organized into semi-nomadic group that migrate, they value honor, patience and tradition. They lives in temperate forest, or in greats plains. They have great strenght, an incredible stamina and endurance. They often works as hunters, rangers, natural medicine, builders, woodcraft, diplomats as well as herbalists or tamers
Vasily : An old man of 60 year old, he lives in a small town in the realm of davidova who got raided. He was a local mecanician until his place got burned down.
Deepa : She is the heir of a rich family in La Vigne, her family are well known biologist and she plan on being an entomologist. She is 19 year old. She is a heir of the 16th Deadhorse : Summer
Senga : A 19 year old girl, she was a drug dealer in the protectorat of Kaia, living this life because she has no parents and no one to take care of her. She is a heir of the 68th Deadhorse : Technology
Nakarim : They can reach a maximum size of 2.1 meters and can live up to 120 years, they have tall, lean builds, a sort of hump like crest on their back, they have though skins, narrow faces and long lashes.They are highly cooperative, they prefer arid desert or dry steppes. They can endure extreme heat. They have a good endurance, they can resist heat, thirst and exhaustion and they have an acute sense of direction. They work as merchants, caravan leaders, guildes, diplomates and they are skilled in leatherworking and weaving
Erivans : They can reach a maximum height of 1.6 meters and can live up to 85 years. They have stiff spines on their back, shoulders and foreharms, they have wide eyes, small noses and expressives round faces. They are very community driven and selfishness. They lives in shared burrows. They prefer temperate woodlands, grasslands or hilly regions. They have spines as defense, they are very good diggers, have a resistance to toxins and spoiled food. They work as farmers, herbalists, craftsmen and builders. They are skilled diggers and miners, some are trained as guards
74th-Landwir : The deadhorse of agriculture. They are the one who allows and provides peoples to eat from the floor. They seek a heir to grow food all over the world.Their heir can fasten rapidly the harvest of any types of food
16th-Summer : The deadhorse of Summer. They seeks a heir who can stand even the hottest summer.Their heirs have the ability to manipulate fire and they are stronger during (July-Augustus-September)
68th-Zukun : The Deadhorse of Technology. They seeks a heir who can look through and understand technology at it's fullest and invent new devices. Theirs heirs can imaginate an object which hasn't been invented. They have to imaginate it, every inches of the mecanism to make it fully work