Chapter 3: Collapse of Echoes
The darkness reformed around him jagged and mangled.
Floating stone platforms hung in an endless black void.
The ground pulsed like a flickering lightbulb about to go out.
Above it all spun a Broken Wheel
a rusted monstrosity stitched from bones, chains, and fissures of age.
Other figures stumbled into existence nearby
fifteen in total, dazed and shivering.
There was a brief silence among the group...
Suddenly some began to scream.
Some prayed.
Saylor said nothing, just observed.
A voice broke the panic with a scratchy tone
WELCOME, PLAYERS.
SPIN THE BROKEN WHEEL.
RECEIVE YOUR GIFT.
SURVIVE.
ASCEND OR PERISH.
A timer appeared in his vision:
00:30, 00:29, 00:28...
A stone altar materialized
a slot carved into it, large enough for a human hand.
The Broken Wheel creaked and whined overhead, eagerly.
Lucia Payne moved first
a wiry woman with bloodshot eyes and a chain wound tight around her arm.
She approached the altar, trembling.
She pressed her hand into the slot.
The Wheel spun spewing sparks and mist into the void.
A slip of burning paper floated down.
Lucia caught it.
The others followed in chaos:
Brant Mullen, fists crackling with kinetic sparks.
Marla Grant, defensive shields flickering into existence.
Deon Kells, stone fists and grim eyes.
Fear roiled between them like electricity.
Each player received a "ticket"
some laughed in triumph.
Others wept in terror.
Saylor waited.
Not out of fear. Out of calculation. He approached the altar last.
He pressed his hand into the cold stone.
The Broken Wheel screamed. Unlike with the other players this scream was of something else.
Black lightning tore the sky.
The mist recoiled.
ERROR: GLITCH DETECTED.
The slip floated down to Saylor fading in and out sight before he grabbed onto it.
Two words burned across the ticket:
> MIMETIC SPIN (GLITCHED).
The stone beneath his feet cracked.
The platform shifted.
The other players stepped back instinctively.
Lucia stared at him — half in fear, half in fascination.
Brant whispered:
"What the hell is he?"
Saylor simply smiled.
And the Broken Field shuddered anew.
Chapter 4: Summoned to the Field
The timer hit zero.
The platforms cracked apart, drifting further into the void.
Below the players, the mist boiled up —
twisting into tendrils, jaws, malformed arms.
The first casualty was almost immediate.
Nathan Vale —
a young man who had spun a "Wind Step" ticket —
tried to leap between platforms.
The mist caught him midair.
Dragged him down.
He screamed until he was a red blur in the black.
The timer updated:
NOTICE: 14/15 PLAYERS REMAINING.
Saylor received a notice: Wind Step Synced
Panic spread like fire.
Some players jumped blindly between platforms.
Others fought off mist tendrils with unrefined powers.
Lucia lashed her chain through the mist —
grappling across chasms like a blood-soaked spider.
Brant detonated kinetic bursts to launch himself.
Deon grew stone wings and battered through the dark.
Saylor moved differently.
No panic.
No wasted effort.
He Rift-stepped
not teleporting, but slipping between broken seconds.
An ability mimicked from the mist's own nature
half real, half dream.
Inside him, the Glitched Spin pulsed.
He didn't just mimic powers.
He adapted.
He evolved.
Each fragment of death or power nearby sharpened him.
The Field shifted again.
A bell tolled in the distance —
not a welcoming sound.
Something stirred beyond the Wheel.
Something bigger than mist.
Something hungry.
PHASE ONE: FIRST GOD DESCENDING.
Chapter 5: The First Spin
The Wheel spun once more without human hands this time.
It chose.
A monstrous shape coalesced beneath it:
A skeleton draped in rusted chains.
Teeth like daggers.
Eyes burning with ancient, mindless hatred.
GOD ENCOUNTER: CALVARIX, THE BONE KING.
RULE: BREAK OR BE BROKEN.
The mist thickened around the platforms.
The Broken Wheel bled sparks into the void.
The Bone King raised a massive chain flail
each link etched with dead languages.
Instinctively Brant roared and charged first
kinetic shields flaring.
Lucia darted in tandem — blood-chains lashing.
Saylor stayed back.
Watched.
Learned.
He saw the Bone King's patterns immediately:
Heavy, slow swings.
Telegraphed strikes.
Vulnerable between chain resets.
Brant struck first a hammer blow into Calvarix's ribs.
The Bone King barely reacted.
A backhanded chain smashed Brant into a stone column.
Blood sprayed.
Brant gasped — ribs shattered.
NOTICE: PLAYER INJURED — VITALS 35%.
Lucia circled, her blood-chains wrapping a leg.
The Bone King stumbled — briefly.
That was just enough.
Saylor Rift-stepped behind Calvarix.
Phantom Echo strikes detonated along the Bone King's spine.
Bone cracked.
The god roared!
like that of someone trying to scream underwater
Brant, broken but breathing, rallied one last kinetic surge.
Lucia tightened the blood-chains.
Saylor Rift-blasted the Bone King's skull.
The Bone King collapsed.
Chains fell limp.
The mist recoiled.
FIRST GOD DEFEATED.
TICKET GRANTED.
A new slip floated down.
Saylor caught it.
The Wheel creaked above them almost as if in anticipation.
The Field split further
revealing new horrors below.
And the Broken Game continued.