Chapter 11: Chapter 10 - The Temple of Ezechiel

The two sprinted away, chased by a frenzied herd of zombie goats thirsty for their blood. Marshmallow, torch still in hand, waved it through the air to fend off the creatures swarming from all directions. SonicEcho, on the other hand, had stirred up quite a mess, and all the zombie goats in the area were converging on them. How come Marshmallow hadn't encountered even one before, and now they were popping up everywhere like mushrooms?

“Hey, could it be the noise attracting them?” SonicEcho shouted realizing the situation.

“Damn, Sonic! If that's the case, you're doing a great job getting us into trouble!” Marshmallow retorted. There had to be a cause-and-effect relationship between the events. Unless there was some weird shaman randomly wanting them dead at all costs, there had to be a game mechanic that drew the zombie goats to loud noises made by players.

Marshmallow and SonicEcho ran as fast as they could. Marshmallow kept the torch up, while SonicEcho continued to do what he did best: beat the goats, but now he was doing it on the run. But the goats were growing in number. A weak torch wouldn't keep them out for long, and they had already played their surprise card.

“What do we do!” Marshmallow whispered. He didn’t want to attract even more zombie goats. SonicEcho looked around.

“What's that?” SonicEcho blurted out again, incapable of lowering his voice. He had noticed a faint glow coming from a cluster of flowers at 4 o’clock. “Let's follow it!”

The two took that path without hesitation. “How do you know it's the right way?” Marshmallow asked as they ran.

“I've seen these flowers before!” SonicEcho declared. “During the day they are unlit, now they’ve lit up. They must lead to something!”

As they progressed, the number of luminescent flowers increased, marking a kind of trail. The growing illumination, combined with the light from Marshmallow’s torch, provided them with a natural guide in the forest's darkness.

Suddenly, a strong bioluminescent light appeared in the distance, following the trail created by the flowers. It was like a beacon of salvation for Marshmallow and SonicEcho, so they chased it without hesitation. They were getting closer and closer. Suddenly, ruins appeared in the middle of the underbrush, with plants and bioluminescent flowers intertwining among ancient stone pillars.

Marshmallow looked up. “Is that a shrine?” He murmured.

“Let’s go in,” SonicEcho exclaimed with a flash of determination in his eyes. “If we don't enter, we'll never know!”

“Eh? Are you crazy?” Marshmallow looked at SonicEcho. “If we go in there, then we won’t have a way out! The zombie goats will corner us!”

“Trust me!” SonicEcho shot him a confident look.

“But…”

Then, Marshmallow nodded. SonicEcho seemed really determined. The two dashed into the sanctuary and saw a structure resembling an ancient, worn temple, with stone pillars adorned with bas-reliefs of demonic goats. Marshmallow and SonicEcho stepped on a bed of luminescent flowers, and the goats ceased to approach. They began to retreat!

Marshmallow and SonicEcho realized that the light from the plants could repel the zombie goats. They couldn’t cross the bioluminescence, which seemed like poison to them. Soon, the zombie goats disappeared. Apparently, the strange bioluminescence prevented their advance. With some soil, Marshmallow extinguished the torch. It wouldn’t last long, so it was best to save it.

“How did you know this place would save us?” Marshmallow asked as he covered the torch with soil. They needed to extinguish it. It wouldn’t last long, and it was better to conserve fuel.

“Pure instinct,” SonicEcho replied curtly.

Marshmallow looked at him with a mix of disbelief and apprehension across his face. “Pure instinct? Really?” His voice wavered between disappointment and irritation. “I thought you knew what you were doing. Are you saying we just hid in a sanctuary we knew nothing about on ‘pure instinct?’”

“Come on, buddy, what were we supposed to do?” SonicEcho threw up his arms. “We were cornered every way we turned. Wherever we went, we would have found those damned beasts. I know we got lucky, but what else could we have done?”

Marshmallow gritted his teeth. On closer inspection, the guy was right. If he had been alone, Marshmallow might have thought about it more, but in the end, he would have decided to enter. In the worst-case scenario, he would have wielded his nailed board in one hand and the torch in the other, trying to fend them off somehow. He looked around and noticed something.

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“Look at these carvings,” Marshmallow said, approaching one of the bas-reliefs. “It looks like... a goat man. Have you ever seen anything like this?”

“No, nothing like this,” SonicEcho responded, shaking his head. Marshmallow touched the bas-relief and noticed small cavities on the opposite side. “There's something here.” He murmured. Marshmallow realized it wasn’t just a bas-relief, but a hidden tablet. Carefully, he pulled it from its setting and turned it over, revealing an inscription in hand-carved characters, etched with great skill.

In the shadow of these sacred ruins, as darkness falls, the plants light up the Temple of Ezechiel with a dazzling glow. They keep the damned beings at bay and offer pilgrims not only protection but also the healing benefits of their brilliant aura.

“Look, Sonic!” Marshmallow exclaimed, pointing to the tablet’s inscription. “We’re in a place called ‘Temple of Ezechiel’. It says it offers healing benefits... wait!”

Marshmallow looked at his arm. The wound inflicted by the zombie goat had disappeared.

“A goat had wounded me on the arm. Right here!” Marshmallow pointed to where he had been injured. “Sonic, we’ve stumbled upon a freaking checkpoint!”

SonicEcho nodded, his eyes shining with determination. “It was a feeling, a hunch. I knew we had to come in here.” He stood alert, eyes fixed on the temple entrance. “But one thing I know. We’ll step out soon and give those damned beasts a taste of their own medicine!”

“Are you serious?” Marshmallow asked incredulously. “We just found a haven and you want to go back into the fray?”

“Absolutely!” SonicEcho beamed like a madman. “Did you see them? Those aren’t just zombie goats, they're a walking mountain of exp! We can make huge progress in the game if we kill them all! I’m already at 60 experience points, just a few more kills and I can level up!”

Marshmallow did some quick calculations. 60 experience points? This meant SonicEcho had killed 12 zombie goats and was barely winded. A high Rank could make the difference in a player's survival. Marshmallow had almost gotten a lung punctured just to kill one goat.

“What Rank are you?” Marshmallow asked SonicEcho curiously.

“D Rank,” SonicEcho stated proudly. “I put all my Assignable Points into Strength, had 20, and with my base stat of 19, I brought it to 39. Now I’m four times stronger than a normal person. In real life, I’m an arm wrestler, so arm strength is everything to me.” SonicEcho explained. “What about you?”

So that explained why his arms were so huge. Did increasing the Strength stat also increase muscle mass? Looking closely, SonicEcho was a mass of muscles. It wasn’t just his arms that were oversized, but his legs, chest, and back muscles too. He was like a miniature Incredible Hulk.

“Why is strength everything to you?” Marshmallow asked, intrigued by this: why put all points into one stat? Even a kid would understand that wasn’t wise.

“I was skinny and weak as a kid,” SonicEcho replied, his voice thin yet steely. “Bullies were ruthless with me. I suffered both physically and verbally. I was an easy target because I was frail!”

Marshmallow, who until then had been focused on The Survivor Game, suddenly noticed a change in SonicEcho’s face. It became darker, more closed off. It was the face of someone who had known pain.

“I became angry, vengeful, belligerent!” SonicEcho continued with energy vehemently flowing from every pore. “I started going to the gym. In a year, I became bigger than any of them and beat up each of those damned jerks. My physique is all I have. I joined this game just for this: to prove my strength. If I survive thanks to my muscles, I’ll redeem myself and prove my worth not just to others, but to myself. In my eyes, I'll have truly existed.”

Marshmallow listened attentively. He understood what SonicEcho was saying. He knew what it meant to be a nobody. He lowered his gaze, taking a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking. "Before all this... before The Survivor Game, I was a soldier." He began slowly. "I've seen things most people can't even imagine. But the real war for me wasn't on the battlefield, it was when I came home."

He sat on the ground, leaning against the wall of the ruins. The turquoise glowing mantle surrounding him was reassuring. "My father... he lost his mind. He destroyed my mother’s life in a moment of madness and then took his own. I was left alone to take care of my mother and my three younger siblings. I didn’t know how to handle it all, so I turned to gambling, hoping luck could solve our problems."

He paused, taking a deep breath. "It didn't work. I lost everything we had. And The Survivor Game... well, it became my last chance. A chance for redemption, a way out of a world that seemed to have turned against me."

SonicEcho watched Marshmallow expressionlessly. He had nothing to say. After all, Marshmallow's story wasn’t original in those times.

Marshmallow raised an eyebrow and smiled confidently. With a determined look, he fixed his gaze on SonicEcho. “I didn't join this damned game to wallow in self-pity. You’re absolutely right, Sonic. Let's do it your way. Let’s give those damned beasts what they deserve.” He declared resolutely.

“Yes! Let's go!” SonicEcho responded promptly. As they prepared to move forward, SonicEcho, distracted by the conversation, tripped over a stone hidden among the luminescent flowers. This unexpected action revealed that the stone was a camouflaged lever of a mechanism. With a deep rumble, part of the temple floor began to shift, revealing the entrance to an underground tunnel. Was it a hidden passage leading to an even more secret section?

Both were astonished for a moment. In that moment, neither hesitated. They looked at each other and nodded in unison. They headed into the underground tunnel.

“Anyway, you still haven't told me your Rank,” SonicEcho asked.

“Ah, right,” Marshmallow said, thinking for a moment. “I’m an E Rank.”