*CLang!
A dissonant sound rang out as a spear collided against the armor provided to me
'They're always so persistent.'
A spear thudded right by my head, threatening to pierce through it if it weren't for my entire being hypersensitive right now.
It was a strange sensation to be hypersensitive to my surroundings, but it was also a familiar one.
'An Adrenaline rush.'
I felt it in my heart as the spears glowed briefly before a snake man suddenly appeared besides me, glaring at me from within their helmet made of an ox's skull.
The specialty hormone produced by the brain in flight situations that induced many effects on the body including but not limited to.
Faster heart rate, heightened senses, faster breathing, stronger muscles, reduced sweat and a few others.
I swiftly pulled out my military issued combat knife and stabbed it into the man's skull, piercing their jaw and reaching the brain while dodging all of the bone.
And the reason for its creation was a simple one.
Survival.
I dashed through the gap of the falling body, briefly borrowing their spear and counter attacking the snake woman that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
The aftereffects of Adrenaline rushes weren't light in the slightest as it utilizes the long term potential of the body for short term survival, damaging DNA
but why would the body produce such a harmful hormone you may ask?
Gunfire crackled behind me as I ran through the forest clad in bulletproof armor, sweat pouring out of every pore.
Well you would only be able to enjoy the after effects if you lived to see it.
Snakes tried to coil around my legs as I leapt over their open jaws filled with a gleaming red poison.
And I was very invested in staying alive even after dying once.
My black pupils snapped to the side where I caught sight of the tail end of an enemy unit dodging into the tree ahead of me.
Pulling out my bow from my inventory, I snatched an arrow from the ground and nocked it onto my bow.
Pulling the trigger, the recoil from the M14 traveled across my entire body as flashes of light lit up the forest around me
Discarding the bow into my inventory, I leapt over an overturned column of stone and leapt across a chasm separating one island from the other.
Catching sight of the Snake people waiting at the other side, I instantly dodged backwards and fell into the valley below me.
Using the Kunai, I slammed its sharp edge deep into the stone and caught my falling body, jolting my body and nearly dislocating my left arm.
Eyes flickering, although I never wanted to emulate Tarzan, my body moved on instinct, forcing my hands to grab the vines in hopes of not falling to the spiked pit of death in the valley below.
Throwing all sorts of things at me, a rock struck me straight on the forehead causing me to black out for a brief second.
Recovering the very next second, I flailed my arms around and somehow caught the tail end of one final vine hanging off from the tree canopy.
Arcing upwards, just before I reached the vertex of the arc, the Kunai's string had enough of the abuse it had just went through and suddenly snapped, sending me flying
Crashing into the shrubbery at the end of the valley, I hurriedly rolled through the bushes as the sound of gunfire faded into the distance.
Now sore and aching all over, my body was bleeding from everywhere and the wound on my head was doing me no favors, half blinding me with crimson red fluid.
'Oh that's blood.'
Absentmindedly realizing that fact, what remained of my logic center hurriedly dragged the surrounding shrubbery around me and hid my wounded body within.
Blocking off the entrance of the little ruin with pieces of stone and wood, I lay against the ground taking heaving breaths as the adrenaline slowly left my limbs.
Then there was silence in both worlds as my pursuers searched for me.
'I feel tired...'
Feeling a distinct heaviness on my eyelids, although I knew it wasn't the correct option in this situation as I was bleeding from my head, it was just so compelling.
Eyes feeling as if weights were attached to them, I felt something cool run across my head for a brief moment before my eyes shut.
---
'...I don't recognize this ceiling, but then again, I don't recognize many ceilings nowadays.'
Staring at the ceiling of something straight from the medieval era, stone bricks were sequentially layered atop each other to form a wall and ceiling.
'Now I know for a fact that these aren't the pyramids, not enough yellow.'
Pushing myself up and off of the ground, I was greeted with the sight of a small room decorated sparsely with a bed, table and chair.
It was interesting how prison like this room was bar the windows and door being unlocked.
'And I don't think they did anything to me besides clean me up a bit.' Observing myself, I was clad in the same blue robe that should've been covered in blood, my blood specifically.
Funnily enough, there weren't any tears despite how many times spears had struck through and cut my flesh so it seems that these robes were now affected by the same magic that had adorned my previous ones.
'So the final question should be how did I get here?'
Last I recall I was faint from blood loss and was being hunted by very skilled snake people who could throw spears and teleport to them
And unless I miraculously healed and dragged myself across the numerous floating islands all the while not being caught by those snake people to this place and forgot all of it conveniently then this was suspicious to the highest degree.
And I know for a fact that the human body couldn't do this without outside help.
'I wonder if I can still be considered human after having no head though.'
Shaking my head I walked out of the room and saw several more of these wood doors lining a hallway.
Most of these doors were half broken revealing their bloodied and vine infested insides as something unknown wriggled within shifting the colors of the room
I didn't stay long enough to find out what it was.
Moving along the hallway, I made a turn and found a door made of stone carved with the sigil of a snake coiling around a blade.
"...Ah." Letting a dumbfounded sound, I stared at the door which was the main reason I came here in the first place.
'...I think I know who brought me here now.'
Now looking at my surroundings in a new light and ignoring the rooms filled with writhing reds and greens, I pushed the door.
Well after much effort that is, the door was purely made of stone so it was just plain heavy.
Wiping the sweat off of my head, I scanned the room I finally found myself in.
It was like any other chapel or church built in the old era of 200
With tall overarching pieces of white stone, two giant statues with a hair structure akin to Meduse if she were a man and buff stared down with blue gem like eyes.
Stone benches lay strewn about the church as they roughly faced the broken podium laying on the ground as the fragments
And right behind that podium was a woman kneeling on the ground, wearing a similar blue robe as mine only with a few additions to its surface.
"You've awakened I see Warrior..."
Raising their head hidden underneath the hood, locks of green fell out from beneath revealing a face that was surprisingly doll like as it was hidden behind a blindfold.
Staring at my general direction she spoke softly "Are you healthy? My friends found you collapsed on the ground and brought you here."
"I'm fine" I rolled my arms while staring at the woman kneeling on the ground clad in a blue robe that seemed absurdly big for a woman her size.
"...I see."
"..."
Falling silent, a subtle silence stretched on as questions dotted my head while the woman in front of me just seemed to prefer the quiet.
It was only when I stated to ask questions did the fragile silence break like glass
The question about her identity seemed pretty clear however.
"I am Slade, do you care to tell me your name Messenger?"
"Messenger... I haven't been called that in a long time..." Tilting her head, the Messenger seemed to see past her blindfold and stare at my very essence.
"Slade was it? Were you sent here by the Gods?"
I blinked.
"Don't lie to me Apostle, which God were you sent by? The Undertaker? The Manipulator? The Warmonger? Who?"
Staring at me despite the blindfold covering her eyes, a distinctly fanatical zeal seemed to emanate from her body as she continued to spout out names that seemed vaguely familiar but at the same time not.
"Was it our Goddess the Mother? Or was it Twins of Time and Space? Oh! Is it the Actor? Who pray tell was the one who sent you in our time of need?"
"Uh..."
"Is it the Breathing Sea? Or is it the Living Earth? Oh! Did the Fanciful Breeze send you? Or did the Infernal Blaze do it? Please! Tell me!"
Staring at the Messenger, the calm cool and collected vibe I got from her was ruthlessly torn apart revealing to me the chatterbox that lay beneath.
'Please stop talking lady so I can understand what the hell you are saying.'
Grimacing slightly at the voice that seemed to relentlessly question everything that ever existed, the Messenger seemed to notice how unbecoming she was as she cleared her throat.
"Ahem, I'm sorry, that was unbecoming of me." Bringing her small fist to her mouth, the Messenger coughed.
Smoothing down her garments from the place she was seated, I noticed that despite speaking as if the world would end if she didn't she didn't even move a single inch from her spot.
Now calmed down, I blinked as the excitable little doll that just screamed happy go lucky instantly transformed to a prim and proper maiden with a polite demeanor.
Smiling lightly, the Messenger stared at my chest and smiled.
"You should've said that you were the claimed of the Undertaker, things would've been over much quicker if you had."
'You didn't even give me the chance.'
Shaking my head at her shamelessness, I looked at my chest.
'But I guess Death is also called the Undertaker... Fitting.'
Recalling the skull insignia with glassed and a hood, I turned to look at the Messenger that still sat stock still on an altar
+++
Tree that found out Adrenaline could somehow cause DNA damage