Consumption of Worlds

”Alright, bring up the best player in this batch. ” Alex spoke while standing behind a large floating monitor. He looked anxious.

The technician beside him began typing away before eventually bringing up the matchs statistics.

”Number one is the contestant R. Hall. Their player name is… LightningGhost. ”

”Ugh. ” Alex rubbed his eyes at the ridiculous name, ”At least tell me they have a high growth potential. ”

”According to the system, it estimates his growth at 680% higher than the average player, with a growth cap around the average of a champion. I think youve found the one sir, maybe the system is blessing you. ” The techie laughed.

”Hmm. Maybe. Hows this groups average? ” Alex shrugged off their remark.

”The median is around… 200% growth rate, but its excluding someone. ”

”Hall? ”

”No, somebody else with the name A. Auclair. They have no username yet. ”

”No username? So its safe to say they don know about the Hex Trials. ”

”Most likely. Let me enter their UID into the system and pull over their stats. ” They began typing away at their computer while Alex returned his gaze to R. Hall.

He enlarged Halls stats and almost all of them were higher than every other contestant in the trial. There were a few exceptions as some contestants had specializations that broke through Halls rank in a particular category. But overall, nobody was better than him.

Alex smiled and brought up the live footage of him in the trial. Currently he was on his way to the city.

”Um, sir. I-Ive never seen anything like this before. ”

Alex turned back to the technicians screen and froze.

”Call my father. ” He turned to his secretary, ”Now! ”

”Yes! ”

***

[Would you like to enter a username?]

”No. ”

[Would you like to enter a username?]

”No. ”

[Would you like to-]

”Auclair! There? You happy?! Magic piece of shit. ” He snapped.

[Are you sure you want your username to be: (Auclair There You Happy Magic Piece of Shit)?]

He let out a defeated sigh.

”No. ”

[Would you like-]

”Auclair. ”

After setting his username properly, he had to sit down and rub his temples. He could feel a headache forming already.

”You alright there buddy? ”

”Hmm? ”

Auclair looked up to see a rather tired looking individual. They wore extremely neat clothes and had ragged hair.

Judging by their clothes, hes not from the city. Unless the city is more advanced on the inside than out.

”Im fine. ”

”Judging from your clothes- ” the person started.

”Yeah, yeah, yeah. ” Auclair waved them away causing them to laugh.

”I was just gonna ask if you wanted to team up. Itll make it easier on the both of us down the line. Those on teams can leave together if they complete the task, instead of only one person leaving. ”

”Task? ”

”Ah, I see, you must be from a world outside the syndicates authority. No problem Ill help out some, just say, Menu! Oh, and you can say it in your head if you want to. ”

Menu.

[Auclair]

[Rank: Bronze]

[Species: Error]

[HP: Error]

[Mana Level: Error]

[MP: Error]

[Strength: Error]

[Endurance: Error]

[Agility: Error]

[Reflex: Error]

[Traits: Error]

[Skills: Error]

”Whats all this mean? ”

”Ah, well just to let you know, only you and the organizers can see this. And to answer you, its the numerical equivalent of your strength. ”

”Oh, its all just errors. ”

”What? ”

”Everything just says error. ”

”Is it possible to get a broken system? ” The person muttered as they began scouring through their memories of all previously broadcast matches, the ones theyve seen at least.

Finally, they looked back at Auclair and stated, ”Its not something Ive ever seen before. ”

”Oh, well its not too important to me. ”

”A-alright then. You can either manually navigate through the system or use your mind like before. If you look at your quests, you can see the current task they have us doing for the trial. ”

”Okay. ”

He looked at the screen searching for the correct tab before finally pressing it.

[Search the city of Eaglehand for a strong relic.]

”Its rather bare bones. ” Auclair said.

”Yes, we
e supposed to investigate the city to find it. Sometimes you get lucky and it also tells you a clue! ” The person said with great excitement which looked weird on someone so tired.

”Ah! Im LightningGhost! ”

”Excuse me? ”

”Its my username! ”

”Is that not supposed to be your name? ”

”Uh, no. ” They answered with a rather confused face.

”I see. ” Auclair nodded, it seems he had misunderstood what username meant.

”Whats your name? ” Hall asked, probing Auclair for information.

Auclair groaned, even before his sealing, he was never a people person. In fact, he had kind of abandoned his job as a god and lived a quiet life alone. Well, that was after the agreement, before that he was even less of a people person, especially considering there were a lot of galaxies missing from existence now because of him.

And before even that… well, there were some people he didn mind. But that was a long time ago now.

”Auclair. ” He answered.

”Whoa, username man! Youve gotta keep a low profile, there are lots of nut jobs out there who take the games too seriously. ” He laughed.

”It is my username. ”

”Oh, never mind me then. Wait, right, you didn know what a username was. So thats your real name, huh? ”

Auclair shrugged again.

Hall looked at Auclair with pity.

”Lets get going to the city. ”

Hall walked past Auclair with confident steps. As they did so, Auclair reached out and grabbed the back of his shirts collar.

”The system mentioned grander rewards once youve fulfilled your required amount of games. What does it mean? ”

”Are you sure you want to do this? ” Hall said with narrowed eyes.

”Just answer the question. ”

”You saw your rank right? This is the bronze league, the more matches you win, the higher you go. If you fail a match you stay in your league. A champion can wish for anything. ”

”Anything? ” Auclair narrowed his eyes.

”Anything. But there can be only one champion. ”

Hall snatched Auclairs wrist and twisted it.

***

”What is it? ”

”Father, I have a question. ” Alex hesitated.

”Obviously, now get on with it. ” His father sighed at his sons behavior.

”Have you ever seen a player that has all their stats being an error? ”

”No, thats impossible. The system doesn make mistakes and you know that. ”

”Well, theres a first for everything. Theres a new player, A. Auclair. All of their stats- ”

”What did you say? That name, repeat it. ”

”A. Auclair. ”

”Find out their first name now! ” His father jumped out of his seat back at the office. He could feel his his lungs burning as he screamed.

”Dad, you know we can do that. ” Alex started getting nervous. ”They don allow it. ”

”We own them, they
e ours! ”

”They
e still gods dad! You know we have to abide- ”

Alex looked back at the phone only to find the call disconnected.

”Shit! ” He looked at his secretary, ”I think my father is coming. Get everything ready! ”

”Sir? ” The technician called out.

”What?! ” Alex snapped.

”The screen sir… ” The techie lifted his finger. ”Thats Auclair right there. Right next to Hall. ”

Alex turned his full attention to the screen while his secretary scrambled about. He didn know who this Auclair person was, but they were an impossibility. The system broke with their appearance, and his father was anxious about them.

It was the worst case scenario for the two of them at the moment.

***

[Yohr. Hes finally here. Get ready.]

Yohr sat in an ice-filled bathtub with wires attached everywhere along his body. At the sudden message, he slowly rose his head to read it. His listless eyes slowly regained life with each word. Between all the long hair covering his face, a slightly manic smile could be seen.

”What a beautiful crescendo. ”

***

When his wrist was twisted, Auclair had a brief moment of confusion. Since when could someone move his wrist? His hand still gripped the shirt, but his arm had definitely been moved against his will.

He pulled Hall closer before letting go and punching him in the face, sending him flying to the dirt road beneath their feet.

He still has a head? He pondered as he watched Hall starting to get up. Of course he wouldn let that happen.

Hall was obviously confused too.

He actually hit me? It hurts too. Just what- As he got on his legs, he felt a punch in the stomach.

He fell back to the dirt as he coughed up blood. All before seeing a glimpse of a shoe rapidly descending towards his head.

Auclair crushed the other players head, killing them instantly. His brows furrowed in frustration.

Three hits? Have I really fallen so much? He looked at his hand in disappointment before looking at Halls corpse.

He bent down and dipped his finger in the blood before raising it to his mouth.

”Bitter. I was right, you really were a bad person. ” Auclair smiled.

***

”Show me. ” A visibly disturbed man entered the room. Despite his hulking physicality, he truly seemed worried. His skin was pale and his real hand was trembling, he left in such a hurry he didn bring his prosthetic arm.

”Father, let me handle this. You have no right to interfere anymore. ” Alex said obviously trying to hide his worrying.

”Suddenly growing a spine? ” His father scoffed, ”Alex, you
e going to have much bigger problems than me and the board, if its who I think it is. So. Show. Me. ” He drove his finger into his sons chest.

”…Fine. ” Alex turned on the large monitor, which was paused on Auclairs figure.

”It really is him. After all these years, hes finally broken the seal. ”

”Father? ”

”Son, ” he placed his hands on his sons shoulders, ”there will be a reckoning if that man survives the trial, which I have no doubt he will. I must go speak with the gods, theyll know what to do. ”

His father quickly started going further into the building only to stopped by his sons shout.

”Father! I won let you, unless you at least tell me who it is! ”

”… ”

Although it pained him, he was no longer the manager of the games. So he did need his sons permission. He balled his hand into a fist. It was time his son grew a spine anyway.

”That my son, is the God of Death, the Keeper of the Afterlife, the Guard Dog of the Heavens, and the Consumer of Worlds. His name is Adrian Auclair and he will kill us all if we don stop him. ”

Alex was genuinely shocked. He had never once seen his father so obviously nervous in his life.

”Go. ”

As his father quickly left, Alex yelled a curse in the silent hallway. All the workers were deathly quiet as they watched their boss and former boss panic so openly.

Alexs father reached the lowest part of the building, deep in the earth, he had to go through many, many security checks. Even Alex had to go through all this, something that had been instated long ago when they first captured the gods.

It was to keep people out, not the gods in. The gods were already trapped, but a person might be able to break them out. Might, was the keyword there.

Finally, after what the former manager thought was far too long, he entered a nigh empty dark room. Towards the end of the hall was a single small bathtub.

He hesitantly walked forward and stood before the god of space, Yohr. Auclair mightve been the gods previous guard dog, but Yohr had taken up the mantle since Auclairs sealing.

”Hello Hero. ”

Yohrs low voice echoed in the room which was quickly followed by a chuckle, then a cough.

”Yohr. I need access to the gods. Auclair is back, we need to seal him again. Erus can hold him up using the system. ”

Yohr raised his head. His hair swayed slightly in the water as it filled most of the tub. His gaze locked onto Hero and he tilted his head.

”How long do you think Ive been in this tub? ”

”… ”

”For my hair to be this long, it mustve been awhile. ”

”Nows not the time for this. ”

”Hero? ”

”What? ”

”What makes you think we want to seal Auclair anymore? I never wanted to seal him in the first place, and the others are willing to go through hell to leave this place. ”

Yohr cackled.

”Hoisted by your own petard. ”

Then Yohr disappeared from the tub.

He reappeared in an alleyway not too far from the skyscraper. His naked body shivered from the cold air as his weak limbs caused him to fall to the pavement. The skyscraper was messing with his magic so he couldn go far, but now it was enough.

He created another tear and fell through it to a very remote place.