8 Chapter 8: Into the Fog

"These are all places people have disappeared…as of late I caught some sightings of things actually moving in the fogs as well, and not just disappearing people. As if something is coming out… instead of just going in."

"Beasts? Creatures? We know the undead walk the earth in some places; it can't be unheard of that something would come out from a fog that could make people disappear…" Alexandra's eyes shifted to the window looking out to the street. The rain for some reason today didn't seem as inviting and fresh.

Jaeger patted her shoulder, "It's okay…at least we know that something is out there. A lot of people in the middle sections are turning a blind eye to it all, those in the high section probably don't even care…but we do."

True, they could leave the city with the knowledge of all these occurrences. Somehow though…each of them couldn't bear the thought of doing so, as if some internal drive they were aware of was pushing them to stay.

Jack sighed, looking at the equivalent of a group of kids around him "We either step into the fog…or wait for something to step out: it is as simple as that." It wasn't though, simple words can't explain complex problems so easily in this world. The choices however, could be simplified of course.

"It isn't…" Everyone said together.

Jaeger understood his meaning, "Who is willing to go into the fog" He raised a hand.

Everyone looked at him strange but soon their hands touched their chins or reached for a smoke in thought.

Solomon looked at Ana who nodded to him, "Think about this…why hasn't anyone from other cities showed up either lately" Everyone turned to him with a weird look.

"What?"

"Haven't you noticed? How could the number of people dwindle within the ground sections unless nobody else was coming in, I haven't seen any merchants from anywhere else and when I asked a friend of Malcom's…zee…he said not a soul had come through the underground tunnels lately. Not a merchant, a client, not even rats."

'That isn't true but…' Jaeger smiled as he fidgeted with his lighter before lighting up a smoke.

"I want to go into the fog…if what you say is true, and then the other cities are having this happen too. Thus, we would have to live outside the cities which is dangerous enough…especially our city with not a soul in its vicinity for a long…long distance" Alexandra gave him a thumbs up, Ana and Solomon raised their thumbs too.

Jack looked at Malcom who shrugged, jack wouldn't leave Solomon and Malcom wouldn't leave either of them, so their thumbs rose up as well.

With a consensus they layed out the supplies they had on hand, just in case they left here to somewhere else. Malcom had a particular item called an Illusion Umbrella, it was like the floating neon signs made from illusion and light but differed by bending light to obscure that with which was within.

Jaeger eyed Solomon's dimensional bag who laughed at his guilty but jealous looks.

"You're lucky…last time I saw Zee, I traded for a jacket with a dimensional pocket on it. I got the pack, Jack doesn't need one, Malcom doesn't want one….so you can have it." Solomon tossed a pitch black leather overcoat. It was actually a magical item, albeit the pocket that touched the right peck of the chest. Jaeger could fit either of his guns into it, and with the half a cubic space within he slipped the long barreled derringer and its rounds inside as well as the rounds for the other gun.

"I gotta name that miraculous thing…how about the Lance." Jaeger slipped 'Lance' into a thigh gun strap he already had and his spirit driven pistol in his holster under the armpit.

"Oh yeah the blade…anyone got a sheath for a big knife?" Jack tossed him a thigh strap, and somehow coincidentally it was for his other leg, "Uh thanks…"

Solomon cleaned off his armor hidden under his clothing, and then reversed it and put the armor on top to wear now that it might not matter to be seen in it. Jack sat back and drank with Malcom. Jack was a simple fighter, and Malcom was a man of tricks. They had all they needed.

Alexandra grabbed a couple overcoat jackets and hats and twinned up with Ana. The difference between them was merely their height it was comical.

"Hey you got one of those…what was it, eternal flame lanterns?" Jaeger asked looking over to Malcom.

"Yeah…take the old one, the one I traded to Zee for is larger anyway and is the illusion umbrella…the flame ain't eternal, but while a magic crystal sits in it….it'll be goin." Malcom threw over an 8 sided lantern with a rounded half bowl bottom. The lantern was 4 inches wide and 7 inches tall from base to lantern peak. A loop big enough for two fingers was set on top and so Jaeger simply hooked it to his waist.

"Rub the bottom, from one side to the other…depending on how far you run your finger depends on the intensity of the flame within. You have to draw fire energy though into it, even if it's the flame of a fire…it's an eternal lantern, but that doesn't mean the flame is undying." Malcom made sense of things to Jaeger who nodded noting his help.

"Ready?" Solomon looked to everyone.

Alexandra looked to Jaeger who in return gave her a smile, "Leave a note telling him to go to a guy in the underground called Zee…Malcom you think he would mind? If shit hits the fan, Zee would gain a pyromancer….not a bad thing."

Malcom raised an eyebrow but nodded; "Yeah sure" Malcom and Alexandra wrote up a letter and left it on the counter before locking up the shop.

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It was night time, so some people had gone to their homes or apartments littered amongst the non-fog sections. Even more so knowing that some Fog had made a bunch of people disappear. The middle section was lively, but even the people there were hesitant to look at the street far below.

The rain too swelled, peppering the streets and any view of things occurring or being seen so those in the middle section even more so as well were superstitious at this point.

"Mommy? Why did uncle tom not show up for dinner tonight?" A small child with slightly ragged clothes looked up at his mother who was cautiously walking the back streets to her apartment.

"Well…since daddy had to go up into the sky, uncle tom must have left the city to adventure for us! You know how he is, always striving for us" She smiled, but her eyes were looking back and forth.

Silence.

She stopped walking, and gripped her hand tighter.

"Mommy…your hand is tight." He said looking up at her innocently, she looked down at him with sad but confused eyes "I'm sorry honey…" but the quiet around her was unsettling, why couldn't she hear the rain? The sound of at least some people moving about above or adjacent? She wasn't dumb, but she wasn't strong either.

*whoosh*

"Uhn…" A man came sprawling out from a corner, "Excuse me sir! I seem to have lost my way, could you walk me home?" She didn't care if this was some mongrel, she felt safer in numbers.

Except the man seemed to have not noticed as he slowly shuffled forward like a drunk haggard.

She saw it…the red mixed with the water below his feet, it was blood. She slowly cast her gaze up to his golden iris laced eyes in horror. Skin had been torn from his face, and what looked to be a well suited and thin waist was revealed to be one with less than average amounts of organs.

"The undead…" She sputtered, but her child was looking at the man naively.

"Mister…are you okay?" He asked looking at the man up and down.

"Don't go near it…" A voice echoed down the alley behind the woman who spun on her toes and glanced out of the corner of her eyes.

Solomon strode forward and stood next to her, "Go home…don't look back, and lie or kill your way into the middle section. Don't let them stop you even if you have to sneak in…good luck" He then charged forward, and brought his fist forward exploding the man's head as somehow his skull had scrunched together right as the fist neared it.

She gaped in horror before a big burly man grabbed her shoulder, lifted her up with her child and set her on the street away from the alley. She finally felt out of the presence of death, and began to run clutching her child as tight as she could.

"The others weren't as lucky…I didn't expect undead to be that which lurked within" Jack said walking back up to Solomon.

"They aren't…look at the marks, a creature other than man turned this…man…into a undead."

Jaeger walked up, peering over the body with keen eyes, "He's right…this isn't normal, far less of him would've been left on the bone if it was the undead…it killed him to kill him and turn him…not to consume him. Something else is out here…and we don't know how many undead are around either. This is just the periphery of the fogs edge." Everyone gathered in the alley, and stared forward and out into the abyss of grey that made up the fog. Indeed it was darker than regular fog, and far more obscured. It was like a smoke.

Jaeger and Solomon were the first to step forward to the fog, and when they reached the edge everyone tied a rope around their waist and held hands in an arc and grid like flying geese with Ana and Alexandra in the middle.

"Deep breathe…step…" They all moved at a rhythm, causing an echo to spread out from the sounds of boots and shoes and then silence overcame the alley once more.

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Everyone looked around in the fog, it was dark but nothing seemed different? The cobblestone was the same beneath their feet; bouts of fire didn't shoot out. It was quiet though, unsettlingly quiet.

"You hear that?" Solomon whispered to his right to where Jaeger was, who tugged on his hand to bring him in closer. Jaeger looked around to center his bearings and hearing and then listened to what could be approaching them.

*flap* *flap*

"Wings?" Jaeger couldn't see it, but something was definitely flying towards them.

"Everyone to the side!" Solomon gestured with his arm and because everyone was holding hands Solomon and Jaeger led them to the closest wall before they spread out and kept their backs to it. Albeit that Ana was behind Solomon and the same for Alexandra behind Jaeger. It wasn't that they were weaker, but incase shit hits the fan, they had to give them time to use their abilities.

"Hello…"

"Who the fuck…Hello?" Jack spoke out into the fog which buffed his voice back into his ears.

"Hello…Adventurers! Welcome to Dark Game!" A flying imp like demon with a hook like nose appeared before them from the fog, it was just barely 2 feet tall.

"Imp demon?" Malcom whispered ciphering through his memories of creatures from books.

"Why do people always…know what, fuck you too…." The imp waved his hand over his body, and grew larger until he looked like a regular teen. The only difference was the Red iris's he had that glowed against the fog around him like a neon ring.

"Dark game?" Jaeger asked curious but cautious.

"Yes…see, I bet you walked in here thinking you'd figure some things out or be the heroes…nope…gods are playing a game right now, there are some rules in case of utilizing the powers of such people…technology…magic…powers…blah blah…"

"Hey…sorry we got off on the wrong foot, you smoke?" Jaeger hefted up a smoke from his palm and the wafting scent of Vanilla was caught by the Imp.

"You? A human? Offering me, a beast, a smoke?"

Jaeger smiled, he didn't come in here to be the hero or the villain. He was merely curious, and saw the inevitability of the fog giving him no options at all. He wanted to willingly come in, and the fact the undead were attacking those who hadn't yet, proved you had to go into danger for safety and not stay where you thought was safe.

The imp didn't say it specifically, but when he was mentioning the intention of coming in here he implied that no matter whom you were and what motives you had, the fog would come regardless to steal you away.

Jaeger lit up a smoke to prove it wasn't poisonous, and acting on the fact that fog couldn't reach into spaces opened a door to a shop nearby. This was indeed true, as the fog hadn't entered the room till he opened it. Jaeger shuffled everyone inside, and then gave a look to the imp in human form. It seemed amused and so followed him in. Jaeger shut the door, and the fog that was inside faded away.

"We have a lot of questions…but I won't ask much of ya, here" Jaeger tossed him a smoke, and the Imp caught it with its hand. It smelled it, and then one of its fingers caught fire. It lit the smoke off its finger and took a deep breathe.

"You have my attention…" The imp smiled, to be given something like this? Great. The people he served kept people like him merely as guides, informants and information sellers to those that first entered the 'Dark game'.

"What is the fog" Jaeger grabbed a seat and sat down with the Imp.

"Well…the fog is like the fog of war; it shows the border of things. It takes where you are, and displaces it into a new reality. Like two dimensions stacked across each other, and you can't see the other one. When you enter the fog, the world you know is the same but those of it are not…making sense? Ooh this is different…" It sniffed the smoke that came out the end of the cigarrete with a smile.

"I see…it is like a dimensional gate way, not fog or water particles…but merely a facet to spread out and pull those to the other side."

"You got it! It would scour the world for people, and for those it couldn't get to would send the endless undead that comes from the other world along with those…horrors'…." The imp lowered the hand smelling the smoke as if it thought of something that made its soul leave its body.

As much as Jaeger wanted to dance around to the great phenomena happening around him, and as much everyone but Solomon was shaking at the prospects bombarding them it just wasn't who Jaeger was. He was clear headed at all times, which made him antisocial sometimes. In cases like this though, he would think first before reacting.

"Alright question two…how do we leave the fog, and what will we be met with once we leave it?"

"That sounds like two questions…but I like you so…the fog is merely a gate, and once you leave it that fog will fade away. I know I said before it was like a gate but in some ways as well…it is merely pushing you from the same world back into itself. It is hard to explain but…let's just say you will be arriving where you once were, albeit with different things occurring in the world around you. What comes after is much simpler to answer…the 'Game' is based upon quests you will take part in, events that will strike this city and the world itself, currencies, the strive for gaining power and ability through quests…thus, what you will be met with are merchants of those things, temples of those gods, advocates of their causes, and creatures of their own creation…it is indeed…a dark game that they play…"

"Games usually have advancements right? How do we know we 'level' up? What is the end goal of the 'game'?"

"The end goal is what you choose it to be, you can survive or exceed your limits…strive for power, dominance, or prosperity. They say that if you attain quite a bit of things…you can be granted one wish that allows you to do whatever you wish. Some become a new god, others change the world…this has gone on for a long time."

Jaeger came to a sudden realization! "The powers you spoke of…are they granted, bought? Can they be passed down?"

Everyone thought over this question until Solomon's eyes grew wide, "Yes…the proof is us Jaeger…if this has indeed gone on, then players who survived the game were left alone in the world and thus powers were passed down…the fact they didn't say anything about the game could only mean they are not allowed to. Magic affinities also apply to genetics and can be passed down…that would only mean the powers granted by us, had….had come from the dark game"

Everyone sat a little deeper in their seats to this Epiphone.

"You got that right…certain temples will give you powers, skills, rewards, etc…they can indeed be passed on. There are items too, what usually happens is the items given by those temples after a player dies….is that they are brought back to the temple they were received from, most of the time you all call these artifacts. In fact, they were merely items that came from players."

"Fuck me…" Jaeger subconsciously looked at the lantern set on the table, and the faint glow of warm light it gave off. This was a dead man's lantern, which was obvious of course but put in this context was estranging to know.

"Alright…what does it take to get out of the fog?"

"Live…every time someone comes into the fog, they have to survive what is within it…like a tutorial to weed out the weakest. So far a couple hundred have made it through already…not bad."

"Thousand have gone missing though…that means 1 in ten die. " Malcom looked warily at the window out into the fog.

Jack patted him on the shoulder, "It was inevitable"

Jaeger tossed the vanilla pack on the table, and sat back in his chair as a faint blue glow lit up a lightning bolt on his hand. He had of course come into the fog with L1, it was the most useful thing he could do other than metal related things.

His mind now accelerating faster took what the imp said, and categorized it and then filed it in the back of his mind.

"What is in the fog…" Ana asked, as everyone was thinking and taking in what was said before.

"This…I can't say, nor is there a point to..." The imp put on the cigarrete on the table and stood up.

"What will the city look like, got a map?" Solomon asked as the Imp held onto the door handle and changed back to its original body.

"No…you have to buy that, you have to explore to expand that map. There will be many things you will learn…you seem like good people, and I ain't some bad guy so I will tell you one thing to help guide you…"

Everyone leaned in to listen to him, he looked across them all before speaking in a hoarse voice "The spirit…it is the scariest…you can't fight or defend against it…when you get cursed by it…you can only hide in buildings not touched by the fog…but it will try to get in…the creatures you can fight…but don't make noise…move…." The imp looked back out into the fog, and the cold breeze that was coming down near its ankles. It slipped out the door, shut it with its tail, and flew away.