There were endless branches, it seemed that all of existence. Was branches. Branches to the right, branches… to the left.
Far beneath, branches, the entire world was simply a complicated twist and turns of endless branches.
After the sun fully rose, the horizon completely disappeared. As if it were an optical illusion.
The world seemed to function differently here. Many universal laws seemed to be completely ignored. The one such as gravity, was only partially working the way it should.
Archie walked to the edge of the branch, only he could never reach it. That was, because gravity was pulling him towards the branch, shifting as he moved. He could walk a full loop around the tree.
Thinking of it as quite bizarre. Archie continued to walk across the labyrinth of colossal branches. Searching for something, or more precisely someone. There had to have been other people here.
Even if they were native to this newfound world, he could learn a lot about this place.
For example, was there magic? Abilities? Powers? Archie was dying to know.
His main goal was to get back. However, it couldn't hurt to learn a fireball or two.
Archie walked across the branch with a cheerful grin, picturing himself using spells and such. Completely disregarding his tree branch problem.
The world seemed to bend as Archie walked upwards, he had plenty of experience with vr. So he had already adapted to motion sickness.
"CAAAAAWWWW"
A low-pitched roar echoed throughout the labyrinth, the ground slightly rumbled from small tremors. Most likely caused by something that happened far away.
Archie quickly straightened himself, staring off into the distance with a serious expression.
'That's right.'
Archie thought.
'If there's magic, then there's probably monsters as well.'
A sense of eeriness slowly seeped into the surroundings. It was even worse that everything was quiet and still. Without magic or weapons, Archie was at a serious disadvantage.
Then something broke the silence. A small twig fell from above, bouncing on the large branch and appearing to stick to the side.
'Above?'
As soon as Archie looked up, he saw a monumental figure falling from above, it had to have been at least four buildings wide. With dark grey fur, it resembled something close to a ginormous lynx cat.
The giant creature was upside down and fell into the large tree branch mere feet away from Archie. A creature of a similar size was on top of the large monster. With colossal wings spanning from its back, and pure obsidian black skin. With massive talons digging into the lynx like creature.
Archie only saw this for a split second, the tree branch broke and shattered, sending Archie flying upwards and falling right above the enormous monsters.
The wind was loud, and several growls could be heard from below. The branches were shattered and crushed under the weight of the colossal creatures. Forming a gaping hole that continued to lead down.
'Damnit.'
The wind continued to crash into him.
'Damnit!'
Closing his eyes.
'Am I? Going to die.'
Reopening his eyes and being almost blinded by the high pressure wind. Archie was quite surprised to see a large body of water below.
The two colossal creatures crashed into the large pool of water. Forming a massive splash that covered most of the viewable forest. Then Archie followed them into the massive pool of water.
—
Archie slowly opened his eyes. His vision was somewhat muggy. His eyes slowly adjusted and as he began to look around.
Halfway submerged on what seemed to be a river bank, there was dark brown sand and high rocks. The rocks formed a halfway dome, creating a cave. Behind Archie, there was nothing but dark blue water for miles.
Pulling himself out of the water, and laying down on the soft dark brown sand, Archie turned his head and happened to spot a small gap where the cave continued.
"This, has to be."
Taking a deep breath.
"The worst fantasy world ever! Where's the cheat skill? Where's the system? Where's the pretty girls who love me… for some reason!"
He continued babbling to himself, changing his voice to sound deeper.
"Oh no Archie, we can't do that, that would be easy and nice. Why! Can't I have something easy and nice! Just once within my life!"
Archie pushed himself off the ground and began to walk into the cave, further mumbling to himself.
The cave walls were dark. However, they were not as dark as they should have been. By all means it should have been impossible to even see without a light source.
The rocks themselves were strange, they were dark grey, but there were lines of dark green spread throughout the interior of the cave. Archie thought they looked like veins.
The cave was narrow. Archie looked at a wall surprised.
That part of the wall. Seemed to be charred? Archie thought to himself about how a monster probably lives here. What he would do if he encountered it. He didn't have a weapon so he would probably have to flee.
As Archie continued, he saw another strange thing. The cave seemingly ended, well not entirely.
The cave continued, only it seemed to be made from stone bricks, as if created by human hands rather than formed naturally.
Human engineering felt rather refreshing. At least it confirmed that he wasn't the first human to visit such a place.
There was a stone door blocking the path onward. Grabbing the door knob and pushing, the door wouldn't budge. The hinges must have been broken.
"Why, won't, this open."
Bashing echoed throughout the walls of the narrow cave.
"Oh."
Archie ceased his mindless attempts, and pulled the door handle instead.
The door opened flawlessly.
Archie stared at the door, with a rather complicated expression.
Inside the room, there rested a stone pedestal, carved from some kind of dark green stone, there was a dark brown book resting on top of the pedestal. There were also lights hanging from the ceiling, from some kind of chain? The lights themselves looked like some kind of bright glowing rock.
Archie examined the book, it was burned, yet intact.
It was rather strange, he just happened to have stumbled upon this? Doubting if he could really trust it.
Archie extended his hand, reaching for the old book. When he touched it.
Nothing happened, Archie stared expressionless.
"I was almo–"
Suddenly flames began to manifest themselves all around the room, the rock burned and melted, molten rock began to drip from the ceiling. Archie quickly grabbed onto the book and ran as fast he could. Running straight out the door, the flames followed him, as the cave continued to melt.
Archie glanced back while running. The molten rock seemed to spread like a disease. There was also a dim blue light that seemed to be him.
The dim blue light floated forward, reaching his fingertip, then it vanished without a trace. Archie temporarily ignored it for now. As he continued running.
Outside light came within view as he reached the outside of the tunnel, the molten rock continued to spread right behind him, Archie hesitated as he stared at the water.
Shaking his head, he jumped in without a second though and hurriedly swam forward. Turning around, he saw the molten rock continued to spread and devour the small shore. The entire thing melted and sank into the ocean.
Archie swam in place, staring at the crime scene.
Far above there was a maze of endless vines, there was also what seemed to be an island a good distance away.