Moonbridge

In the world of Gantlet where the mysterious is the norm and banal, it is separated into three realms that are called the first stage; Gantlet Woodland, second stage; Gantlet Desert. and last stage; still unknown.

Gantlet Woodland is the place where newly-arrived, confused, and lost Rune Users were brought to, taken from the original world. It is the simplest, physical-oriented, and straightforward stage out of the three as the Rune Users were only given the objective to survive its thirty-night trials with the given ability to [Adapt].

Once the Rune Users adapt, overcame, and survived the sixth lunar eclipse, they are given a path to the next stage which is the Gantlet Desert.

There, there's no right nor wrong. Everything is false and the truth at the same time. None knew or will ever know what are the objectives of the Gantlet Desert.

Instead of strong monsters, in the second stage, there are strange entities roaming around in different parts of that world. Luckily, it is rare to encounter any of the entities but when one does, their luck will turn upside-down.

No kind of punch nor any kind of kick can defeat these entities as some of them were paraphysically existing in that realm. All one can do is to give up one life or defeat these entities in any way they can discover.

These entities do not cause one to bleed nor to bruise, rather, they cause sadness, desperation, isolation, crisis, anxiety, and just plain madness to the Rune User.

Once they learned this, the Rune Users that just transported to the City of Misfortune in Gantlet Desert were terrified to go outside and those that have the courage and resolution or some driving force instilled within them from the Gantlet Woodland have gone out to explore, however, none came back to this date. But not everyone survived the woodland by overcoming it.

The brutal city was there even before the first Rune User discovered it. Signs of religious intent covered the whole city until the first Rune Users pinpointed that it was a city dedicated to worshipping a specific god, the Hell God of Souls, Felux.

The texts and archives stored in the library were only filled about the rituals and techniques to connect to the hell god which none tried because non could do it. It was too brutal and unnecessary for something that has no reward for the Rune Users. There were no signs and clues that can tell anyone what happened to the people of that city.

Although they never met this god nor felt his presence, they were certain that this god exists as there is one book that almost the entirety of the city followed and the is the book titled, "Forced Sacrifice"

The only book that they had followed and practiced for its simplicity and extreme benefit. In its content, the book tells how one can earn the stigma by performing a prayer to the Hell God of Souls, Felux. This will earn them a stigma on their forehead. After receiving the stigma, the stigmatized Rune Users can kill another stigmatized Rune Users and will be able to "loot" the dead's soul and absorbed it as raw experience that will enable the winner to rank up, making them stronger.

It was so basic and beneficial that the Rune Users that fell and stigmatized themselves followed the book mindlessly. Although they can still kill another Rune User even if the other is not stigmatized, however, there are no souls to loot, and doing so would be pointless. They would rather wait for those Rune Users to be tempted and eventually, stigmatized themselves before slaughtering them.

It is easy to picture that the City of Misfortune was a place where anarchy rules, however, it was not the case. Two True Rune Users, the strongest in the city, ruled over and convinced the people of Misfortune to follow a set of rules that will make everyone's chances of surviving equal. Because, if the chaos continued, only one victor will emerge and the rest dead. That struck fear to everyone.

So, in the meantime, the city began flourishing as a new form of civilization arose.

From there, the rest was unknown. The people of Misfortune only collected pieces of useful information they could get from the library. But then, they discovered that there exists a place far from that city, a place which the door to the final stage of Gantlet resides.

Learning this, a group of Rune Users, who were still pure and untainted from the remnants of the hell god followers chose to begin their journey in search of this mysterious place using the bits of information they got from the library and clues they have.

After approximately two months of overcoming multiple entities they encountered on their way in the seemingly endless desert, they finally reached the mysterious place called Moonbridge.

It was a place residing in the clouds as it is on top of a flattened tall mountain range that reached the skies. The black sky was clear to see and the moon was at the very top. It was as if the moon is an eye of God watching over that place.

However, they were surprised to find a few people there, one of them a Rune King. Those were the people that had the courage to venture into the endless sea of sand in the darkness with only the moonlight as their guide before they even knew of a place.

There, a farm of chylefruit existed which everyone rejoiced. Buildings from ancient times from an unknown civilization stood tall and became the residence of the Rune Users. Three years passed and some had families and had their Children of the Moon, children born in Gantlet.

Everyone accepted their fate and got accustomed to that kind of life as they try to forget their previous world. However, one day, the door to the last stage of Gantlet opened and ate the only Rune King they had.

Then a year later, one Rune Master was eaten; a half of year later, another Rune Master; three months, and another Rune Master.

The pattern was obvious to see and panic took over. However, when one Rune Master ascended into a Rune King and decided to see the last stage on his own will, the disappearance stopped and people knew how it happened. That was when it became a tradition to have a Rune King enter the door to the last stage every 2-3 years which the disappearance never occurred again.

Of course, only a few heroic people will decide to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the others after reaching such achievement in life. So, the people of Moonbridge decided to enthrone the Rune Kings and make them true kings. They live a life full of luxuries before their time arrived.

After a decade of this tradition, people saw the change in their new society. It seemed like the Rune Kings are truly fitted to be kings. Them having the capability to reach the rank of Rune King is not something to ignore. They are all incredible people that became the faces of history there in Moonbridge. Heroic and intellectual!

However, the Rune Users began to weaken over the course of time since they only rely on their Rune Kings and forgetting that they also have to capability to achieve the rank because they were too accustomed to living there.

Eventually, only a single Rune King remained with only three Rune Masters to possibly succeed him. But time was not on their side as the years were passing and the forced disappearance, which they called "Might-Eating Phenomena", may come back. If the only Rune King were to be might-eaten then there was no assurance that any of the three Rune Masters may step onto the rank of Rune King and stop the might-eating phenomena.

So without even knowing if there is one that will succeed him, the only Rune King hastily left Moonbridge to explore the Gantlet Desert in search of power and Trial Runes that can make him overcome the last stage and finally bring good news to his people. He ventured for strength for two months before coming back and entering the Door of Ascension.

Then half a year later, in the present, he was the only Rune King that ever came back to tell his tale and leave his legacy to his people. His name was Unmeig, the only Rune King in Gantlet Desert.

After coming to his homeland, Unmeig having a trip around his Moonbrige with the three Rune Masters behind him.

The three Rune Masters was an extremely old lady, a chubby middle-aged man, and a man in his mid-twenties. These three were the ones that ruled over the Moonbridge after Unmeig entered the Door of Ascension.

"Heh, I forgot how peaceful a moment can be." Unmeig laughed, overjoyed at the sight of a lively market where people filled the streets as either vendors or consumers. It looked like a night market but the people there forgot that there was even a period of time called day where an orb of fire called "sun" illuminates more than half the world. There were only nights for them and if compared to the original world, their time was in the afternoon.

Even the oldest Child of the Moon had already matured with an age of sixteen.

The news of the return of their Rune King was still on hold to be publicized so that Unmeig could enjoy the sights of his people in their natural life without being recognized. Although it couldn't be avoided that many recognized the three Rune Masters which they would then question who the person those three respected leaders were following in front of them. When the idea of the Rune King struck them, they were speechless that the four ignored.

Seeing that his people were living happy lives, Unmeig was satisfied. When the three Rune Masters saw that satisfied face, they smiled with relief. They thought the Rune King, Unmeig changed after experiencing the last stage of Gantlet but they were gladly wrong. Although deep inside them, they couldn't calm down because they were so eager to know what stories the Rune King will tell them about the last stage of Gantlet. So curious, in fact, that the youngest Rune Master, Tam Fayehin, said,

"Rune King, what did you see there?" after which received him a kick from his elder.

The Rune King then stopped at this question that made the three Rune Masters worried.

But Unmeig proceeded to answer, "When I first arrived there, my body was... lighter than ever before and a great suffocating feeling approached me which I fought."

The three Rune Masters' ears sharpened as they didn't expect the Rune King to begin sharing his experience everyone was desperate to hear.

"The only similarities that place has was that there was also sand everywhere. Craters and mountains could be seen from every horizon. No trees, rivers, lakes, sea, monsters, entities, only those beings. The sand was white and grayish, those were the source of light."

"Heaven...?" imagining the place, the middle-aged Rune Master whose named Ban Der related that place to heaven but quickly shook his head.

"No... it is anything but heaven." Unmeig looked up the moon, "When I looked up to search for the moon... I couldn't find it in the sky, but there," he reached out his hand and held the moon, he was reminiscent of his first experience of it. He then continued which shocked the three Rune Masters to their core, "I saw an orb or ball, whatever you may call it in the sky, which is mostly blue and green..."

The three Rune Masters' jaws dropped and began to tremble, their eyes shaking, "Y-you mean..." the elderly woman Rune Master reacted. None of the three could believe this revelation. What does this mean? Where are they?

"Yes..." Unmeig then rolled his head together with his eyes to look at them with a solemn expression, "I saw our original world, the Earth."