If this was some sort of joke, then it's a sick one. There were no other doors, and there was no other way for me to go beside the black door.
Forced between a rock and a hard place I opened the black door.
There was nothing inside but a fog of complete darkness and just as I stepped in, my vision changed and I was on a new plane.
Looking around me, the ground was made of black dirt that extended all over the place.
High above was the dim light of a half moon shining upon this dark land enough light to see how much despair it was in.
Somewhere in the far distance there seemed to be something like a pyramid that was of such a great height that it could easily be confused with a mountain.
And at the peak of the pyramid was a bright glowing light.
It seemed like it was some sort of teleportation gate.
'That must be the way out.'
There didn't seem to be any dangerous things or creatures loitering around which made me question the 'danger' of the black door, however, it was too early to judge.
I spread my divine sense and immediately noticed something I didn't see with mere sight.
Not too far away there seemed to be a wall so high up that one couldn't see the end.
Flight was as always forbidden, so there was no hope of going past the wall nor any reason to if the exit was on the other side.
But what made me go and check on the wall where the people there, yes people, hundreds upon hundred, and even more of them were right next to the wall.
They were all chained up to the wall unable to move away.
I slowly approached them, even if my instinct was telling me not to.
Once I got closer a few of them perked up, but soon they dismissed my presence, while a fair few of them kept their eyes forward, looking at the pyramid piously.
The men and women were sitting close to the walls, their hands had chains that seemed to lock them to the walls.
Once I was at a certain distance from the imprisoned people, one fairly beautiful woman, even though the grim and dirt covering her, she spoke in a most desperate voice, "Please kind person, please help us," she asked.
The whole situation is fishy, but I needed answers.
"What's going on here?" I asked.
"As you can see," another person spoke, and the moment he spoke the woman gave him the strongest death glare I've ever seen.
"We've been captured by the Imperial family, but I swear I didn't do anything bad, could you please find a way to release us?"
"I asked first!" the woman said "Please kind man, help me, and I'll give you whatever I can, I'll never forget this favor," she said as she pressed her chest forward.
I found it strange but I wasn't ready to make a decision so early, I slowly approached the wall but stopped a few feet away from the woman.
I noticed two things, her lips slightly quivering as I got within a certain range, and the inscription written on her chains.
The inscription was a timer, and it seemed that the timer was about to be released in a few more moments. As for her lips quivering, her actions seemed to reveal her intentions immediately.
She shot forward with an extended hand aiming to grab my neck but I simply took a single step forward.
Her hand couldn't grab me as the chain came taut stopping her.
Her face had turned from that of a beautiful woman to an ugly looking creature of nightmares. Fangs the size of daggers showed from her jaws while her eyes became like those of a demonic cat.
She hissed and screeched as she was unable to get a hold of me.
I calmly looked at the rest of the captured people, they didn't look too perturbed by the sight in front of them, and I soon came to the realization that they were probably all the same thing.
I turned to the pyramid and finally understood what was going on.
"Shit," I said then started a sprint towards the pyramid.
This was a test, and an ugly one at that, these trapped things are trapped based on a timer, and they'll all be released, and I could bet my life on the fact that they'll all run toward the pyramid for a chance at leaving this place.
It didn't take much time before my hunch came true. As I was sprinting, I could hear the sound of hundreds of thousands of chains rattling.
I spread my Divine Sense and realized that all the captured people were now surging forward in a full rush towards the center of this place.
"Damn I lost too much time!" I cursed as I continued to sprint forward.
I even tried to use the Ancient Step but it didn't work, not even teleportation worked and what's worse was the fact that I was slower than the creatures running towards the pyramid.
Shit!
I cursed and cursed as I sprinted forward unable to think of anything but the worst-case scenario of me being captured here.
A couple of the sprinter creatures managed to actually reach me, but then, they completely ignored my presence as they rushed up ahead, they were really fast.
They ran using their legs and arms leaping farther than a deer being chased by a lion.
And I was actually thankful that they went ahead of me.
Because the moment a couple of the creatures made it halfway towards the pyramid, two Stone Soldiers seemed to fall down from the sky, with spears in hand, impaling the creatures into the ground.
That was a killing blow and nothing would say otherwise, however, the creatures instead of dying immediately, the two cuffs in their hands seemed to materialize the very chains that they were strapped with earlier, and suddenly the chains seemed to snap and pull the creatures away from the front with such a force and speed that I had to bend back to avoid being pulled alongside the creatures.
As I was bent back I saw the two creatures being flung back and dragging dozens of other creatures with them.
And soon more of these creatures went past the middle line and more soldiers came from the sky crashing down with their spears.
Yet the few soldiers that dropped were not enough to stop the mass of rushing creatures, and with the soldiers only able to kill off one or two, the majority of the creatures that made it to the halfway point managed to bypass the soldiers and move up ahead.
There was no time to waste.
I followed after and made sure to keep my divine sense around me and thankfully I did.
A hand attempted to grab me, it was that of the same monstrous creature of before, the one that was disguised as a beautiful woman.
"You're mine!" she spoke, but a sudden side parry of my arm followed by a burst of Qi that I channeled into my other arm and unleashed on her face in a miniature display of God's Eternal Fist sent the creature plowing through the other creatures and immediately caused her chains to manifest and pull her back amidst her screams and shouts.
'Killing blows forcefully pulls these creatures back, good to know,' I noted and then proceeded to move forward.
Many of the soldiers continued dropping and taking out any of the creatures close enough.
Though it is safe to stay behind and wait for the 'competition' to be thinned out since I won't suffer at their hands, if on the chance one of them actually makes it to the pyramid I might lose my chance to leave this place. Who knows how many can leave at once and I could pretty much presume that it will only allow one person out.
I continued running until my divine sense detected a spear coming my way.
I didn't even try and dodge but I struck as powerfully as I could with my palm to the side, forcefully changing the spear's trajectory away from my head and letting it continue its path behind me.
The pain from forcefully parrying the spear sent jolts up to the back of my head.
I almost broke my palm in the process.
Damn that spear is heavy.
The soldiers didn't seem to move from their spots and were happy culling any creature next to them.
Up ahead, the creatures were still able to use their numbers to their advantage, but that won't last for long because for every creature that managed to make it past the soldiers, ten didn't.
I kept on rushing ahead dodging anything I could and making sure to stay a distance away from any of these prisoners, I didn't want to get grabbed or slowed down by one of them.
As I was running, I noticed that one of the creatures seemed to have made it to the pyramid structure and was leaping block by block to the top.
Just as my anxiety about not making it began to rise up, another feeling seemed to overtake it.
One of the pyramid blocks that the creature just stood on seemed to turn to goo and wrapped up around the creature, gobbling it within.
Then soon it spat it out as bones and viscera.
Two chains manifested on the bones of the corpse and wrenched it back.
While it was being dragged I could see the corpse rapidly reconstructing flesh and blood and reviving the creature, pulling it as it screamed and clawed the ground hoping for another chance.
Apparently, the soldiers aren't the only thing I have to worry about.
