Chapter 3

Hm. He seems angry. That's good! Go and pop a vein, you big crow. So, what was the wording? Aschente? Nah, I challenge you to a d-d-d-duel! Nah. you looked me straight in the eye, we gotta fight! Game on? Ugh, aw shit. He's waiting.

-Ehem- "Yeah, alright. First of all, we're gonna swear on our essence the terms of our agreement. If you win you shall get my hat and my life. No killing though. If I win, you shall grant me a wish, nothing that would kill you." I said looking him straight in the eye. My back is sweating, I am controlling my sweat so he doesn't notice. But his pressure is immense. Had he kept attacking it would have been really dangerous.

After observing me for a few seconds, Mr. Chicken Pox himself stimulated his essence, making him bright and shiny. Like a cold icy statue.

"Very well. I, the first of the second star, Ishmallah of the Dusting Fade. By the will of my own essence and the luminous sea of the Great One, I mark this Oath on my soul. In the next challenge. Where I to lose, I shall grant one Wish to the Blighted One." As the future boss of KFC spoke, from his voice, the world resonated like a wave, from the echo of his voice white motes of light rose, indicating the Oath had been heard by the Great One. Good.

My turn. "By the authority granted to my soul, I, the Blighted One, Keeper of Secrets and Cosmic Shadows bind my words to my eternal fate. I call unto thee, Norns of the North. To witness my Oath. Shall I lose my match against Ishmallah of the Dusting Fade, my hat and my life will be his."

With my words, invoking my true nature, and the attention of the three Norns, a giant golden vegvisir, shone behind me, illuminating the world. Whispers in the wind, offering their acknowledgment in the past, present, and future.

When the effects ended, I smirked. Heh, fools. I DON'T HAVE A HAT! HAHAHAHA! Well, I do, a baseball cap, but who cares about that. No one specified which hat they wanted. Morons~

With the Oaths taken, a momentary silence passed on the seal. "Alright nugget, the game is easy," I said with a clap. Removing Mr. Hat from my head, I reach inside and with a flourish, I bring out, a big red cube and fourteen twenty-seven-sided dice. How does a twenty-seven dice work you ask? Who knows! Don't ask me! "These are the dices of doom! Twenty-seven sides and they force you to follow the number. So no cheating! And this." I say as the giant cube began spinning mid-air "Is the Locust board."

Is spinning so fast that even with my reflexes I couldn't see the cubic shape, just a circle. It suddenly stopped and fell to the ground. Opening up. From the cube, a wave of blue energy swept everything. The charred and broken street became an infinite green landscape, with hills and grass. The black sky became a cartoonish pasty blue, the red sun became a giant yellow babyface. Ugh. I am already feeling disgusted.

And on the floor, a giant game board, with squares from 0 to 1000. We were on the 0, of course. "Now, to play you must bind with your energy the seven inactive dices, then you may activate only one of them. The highest roll starts first. The goal is to reach the last square. On each square you'll face a challenge, pass the challenge and you'll unlock another dice for the next round, allowing you to roll higher numbers. Fail and you get one dice deactivated. If you only have one dice and fail you will pass the next turn." Phew. There. Explaining things is hard!

Taking out a dagger I slash my hand, grabbing the dice with my slashed hand I bathe them in my blood. Allowing it to absorb it. After that my hand naturally heals. Yep, I am awesome. The angel, looking unamused, scoffed and tried to go directly to the end of the board. Shame that a translucent barrier appeared in front of him, repelling and forcing him to crash at my feet.

Hah!? Is that an expression? Hes bewildered! "Hahahahahaha! Look at your face, you look like a fool!" Turning to me, he tried to attack me, but another barrier appeared, forcing him to bounce from it and crash in the other barrier, making him crash again at my feet.

"Hahahahaha! Oh yeah, keep going Dustfeather. You amuse this mortal." I say with a smirk and a mocking tone. What? I may as well get my licks whenever I can. "Ah, ah, ah." I wiggled my finger as he keep trying, raising his strength more and more. "Welcome to the Doom Dimension birdy, not even Yahweh could do as he wishes here. Only the rules of the cube work here."

-Sigh- "Very well human." As he slashes his arm, he moves his blood to wash the dice, as the dice greedily absorb his blood on our square a table appears. There we must roll our first die.

"Well, well, let's check my luck today." Rolling a die, I got a 23. "Ha! That's right bitch! I am the queen of the dice! Fear me! Your turn Bird-On-A-Wall."

With his usual cold, and probably fake calm, he threw his die, Seraphines do have limited precognition, so the fact that his eyes dimmed a bit even before the number is revealed means he got a low number. A 22. Nice, I go first.

"Ha! See ya loser!" I exclaim as I throw my super awesome magical high-only die. "WHAT."

"Hmpf. It seems you're not going far, Mortal." Smug bastard! Fine, whatever. two squares. As I walked to the middle of the square, four obsidian walls surround me, and the roof comes next. I find myself in complete darkness.

Isolated from the outside, I can't see anything, even my glasses seem to not work. There's barely air here, it seems it's slowly leaving this 'room'. So, what to do?

I have been locked for twenty seconds. The air is thining way too much. I have absorbed all the oxygen I could and gonna keep my breath. But I can only hold on for so long you know? I am not a beast after all.

I am touching the walls, something must be on them. Centimeter by centimeter. Nothing yet.

It's been 50 seconds. I still haven't found anything yet.

Two minutes. I have found a letter. I think, or perhaps it's just a symbol? It's an O, or a 0. Or a circle. Ugh.

It's been five minutes, I feel a bit light-headed. I have found a few letters carved randomly on the walls. I think I am gonna search the roof and the floor as well.

Seven minutes since I was locked in this box.

I think I have found every single symbol carved. So, A A I I E E E E O H H H W W T T T T R R S : ?

So yeah. Thirty symbols. Twenty-eight letters, a question mark, and a colon. Alright, based on this, it's a question.

First of all the placements of the letters. 5 in each wall, roof, and floor. They don't make sense by themselves.

I think I have to say the question and then give an answer. However, I will only be able to say two phrases. Before running out of air.