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Chapter 33 – Whispers of the Vast Beyond
The fire crackled gently. Ash drifted into the air like quiet snowfall, settling on Marlo's worn boots. He sat still, listening—his eyes fixed on Chester, who now leaned back lazily on a broken stone pillar, tossing a die between his fingers.
"So," Marlo said, voice dry, "you've been hiding in shadows, gambling your way out of death, and now you're… what? A tour guide to a cursed new world?"
Chester grinned beneath his mask.
"You could say that," he said. "But the truth is, this—" he gestured at the nightmare landscape around them, "—was just the tutorial."
Marlo didn't laugh. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Then start explaining."
Chester spun the die once more. It shimmered, glowing faintly with residual providence. "The world we're heading to—if we survive—it's called the Vast Beyond. A place older than the Nightmare, older than our gods. The ones who make it through this hell get thrown into that hell. Only difference is… it's prettier."
He flicked the die, and it danced across the cracked ground, landing on a seven.
"Seven. Fitting."
He stood and paced slowly, hands behind his back.
> "The Vast Beyond is layered like a broken dream. Cities built on ruins of civilizations that even the gods forgot. Skyships, ancient cathedrals, floating keeps… and monsters made from the sins of old gods. We don't just wake up there. We arrive as contestants."
"Contestants?" Veyla asked from nearby. She stood cross-armed beside Keen, her brow furrowed.
Chester nodded. "Every survivor is given a second chance. But to truly live there—to rise—you need power. And power only comes by climbing the Seven Tiers."
He turned to Marlo, his voice steady now.
> "And to climb, you must answer to your Pillar—a remnant of a forgotten god that marks you when you enter the new world. It watches you. Judges you. And only when it deems you worthy will it offer a Quest."
Marlo narrowed his eyes. "And these quests?"
Chester chuckled. "Brutal. Most people never even complete their first. The jump from one Tier to the next isn't about time, or effort. It's about surviving what should be impossible."
Veyla leaned forward slightly. "What are the Tiers called?"
Chester listed them one by one, the names rolling off his tongue like poetry etched in blood:
Initiate
Bound
Ascendant
Transcendent
Harbinger
Apex
Lord
Keen gave a low whistle. "You're telling me even Tier Four is rare?"
Chester nodded grimly. "Incredibly. Transcendents are whispers. Harbingers are myths. And Lords?" He tapped the die once more. "I've only read about one."
"And lifespans?" Marlo asked.
Chester's voice dropped, reverent now.
> "If you survive the transition and bond with a Pillar, you get 25,000 years. But the world doesn't care about how long you live. Only what you become."
Silence stretched for a moment. Even the fire seemed to quiet.
Veyla finally asked, "How do you know all this?"
Chester held up the scroll he'd found, lines of glowing glyphs etched in a divine script.
"One of my last rolls granted me this—a glimpse into the records of a God's Eye," he said. "It didn't show me everything. But it gave me enough to know what's coming."
Marlo glanced around at the dark horizon, the flickers of lightning in the distance, the subtle shifts in the nightmare around them.
"How long do we have?" he asked.
Chester didn't smile this time.
"Not long. When the final night ends, the portal becomes permanent. If we're not ready by then…"
> He didn't finish the sentence.
Above them, the stars shifted slightly—as if the nightmare itself was holding its breath.
The Final stage has began