Starbound: A Space Odyssey

Lenny glared at Peri, "Why I have to begin?"

"Simple." Said Peri, "You know why. I don't remember about my time in the Challenge Dimension, all I have is some fuzzy and unclear memories about my time there."

Lenny stared at Peri's eyes, seeing if what she said was true, "You really don't remember?"

"Not at all."

"What does your memories show?" Lenny asked.

"It was a forest, or at least how I see it. I can only remember being thrown out of nowhere in the middle of a jungle-like place and survive waves and waves of animals, and monsters. I don't have any recollection of the details. After I finished the Challenge, I was given the mark in my hand that granted me with power. From that day forth I became completely different from any other Floran. The power granted to me was very simple, I was given the ability of the Greenfingers of my race, wisdom way beyond normal Floran Warriors and the ability to control the nature, plants, at my surroundings. That's why I'm different from all of my peers. That's also why I decided to leave once for all my village, since I was different, I wanted to find my own Warrior's Path."

"That's cool." Lenny commented when he heard about Peri's power.

[So, it's the same as his powers...] Lenny thought to himself, [I have met only 1 other Floran that had survived a Challenge Dimension before, as Florans usually don't leave their village and explore, is very unlikely they find those doors. That Floran i met also had the same power as Peri. He was a Warrior, but was granted wisdom and the power of nature.]

"Anyway, It's normal, I mean lost of memories, for people that came out from the Challenge Dimension." Lenny casually leaned on the wall and took off his had, "Everybody that I met and survived the Challenge also had the same symptoms as you. They all forgot, to some degree."

"..."

"But..." Lenny suddenly spoke before Peri could do so, "There one type of people that never forget. While Floran, Apex, Hylotl, Avian, Glitch and Human forget after leaving that place, Novakid is the only race that can remember their time in that hellish place. I don't know why, but only Novakids have shown to be able to remember their experience in the Challenge Dimension."

"Seriously?" Peri was surprised, after all, different from Lenny, she never met anyone else but him that had the mark.

"Yes..." Lenny took a bottle of booze from his PIPS and drank a mouthful of the alcohol, "It seems that us, Novakids, have some kind of link with the Challenge Dimension, or some link with the person that created such places."

Lenny glanced at Peri and said with small smile on his face, "How lucky of you. Don't having to remember what you did there."

Peri looked at Lenny that had a grim expression on his face as drank a bottle of booze in one go, "You still want to speak?"

"Yeah, just give me a moment until I get more drunk." Lenny took a few more bottles of alcohol and drank them all in one go. With another bottle on his hand, Lenny started his narration, "It all started 16 years ago, when Oscar betrayed me for the sake of the Human female, Ferris Laparte. After I was left behind in that USCM facility, I went outside to explore the desert planet, trying to find a way to leave the place. When entered in one of the caves I found, I saw it."

Lenny's voice became more serious, "The mysterious gray door that hovered right in front of me. It was very strange, seeing a door that seemed to not be connected to anything at all. My first reaction was to examine it further as I thought it was some kind of teleportation device the USCM developed."

"As I was inspecting it, the door suddenly opened and pulled me inside that pitch-black hole. When I regained conscience, I realized I was in the middle of a desert. Different from the planet I was, this desert was red, not yellow. Before I could understand what was happening, I was suddenly attacked. They missed and I was able to see my enemy. It was some kind of race that resemble Humans, but they had pointy ears, white skin, blonde hair, and were slightly taller than average Humans."

"I tried to talk with them, but our languages were different from one another, and as they kept trying to kill me, I had no other choice than kill them first. In less than five minutes in that hellish place I already dirtied my hand by killing two people."

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"What really caught my attention was how they attacked me. They could simply create water, fire and wind out of nowhere. I observed their bodies after killing then, but I didn't found a PIPS, that means they weren't using some kind of Tech Ability to control the elements."

"Moving on. As I was walking around, searching for answers, I heard some voice speaking directly into my mind. It was a stiff and feminine voice that somewhat explained where was I and what I had to do to leave there and return to the real world."

"The voice said, 'Kill everyone', it continued, 'This is the Slaughter Challenge Dimension. Only the last standing duo in the entire Dimension will go back'. And so it began, the game of kill or be killed. After hearing what it said, I thought to myself, why duos? And then I remembered of those I just killed, it were two people. That could possibly mean there was team system in the challenge and it left me wondering who was my teammate?"

"The answer was quite simple, my teammate was none other that the nearest person of the Challenge Dimension's door when I activated it. Yes, the one sent there with me was Oscar."

"I didn't manage to find him even when the Challenge was over...Well, back to what I was talking. When the voice said only when one person was standing, it really meant it. It wasn't just the challengers, I had to kill the natives of that place as well."

"I hesitate at first, but after killing a few challengers, I started to feel good. As some kind of energy enveloped my body and made stronger. I wanted strength, I wanted to live on and get back to my world. I'm a selfish person that always think of myself before anyone else. I did what you would expect me to do, I hunted down and killed challenger just to get that feeling again. But I didn't realize it was addictive, and after some time, I lost reason and started to kill everything in my way, men and women, children, young and old. I pulled the trigger, again and again against the challengers and those innocent natives."

Peri stared Lenny, but his face was simply emotionless as he described the events, "There was about two hundred of those pointy-ears Humans, the Challengers, and more than one thousand natives, apparently normal humans that were in what seemed like medieval age, with swords and stuff. I killed about 300 to 400 people, I lost count after I went into a complete killing spree."

"Even if such a valuable prize, my power, that the mark granted to me, I still hesitate to use it. Having to remember the atrocities I did to earn such power really makes me hesitate to use it. The shadows of the innocent I killed still hunts me every night, every second. It really is a torture having to live on carrying such guilt and sin in my back."

Lenny chuckled as he said, "Even Oscar looked at me in a different light. I remembered seeing a glimpse of him when I was in the killing spree. He looked at me with horror clearly in his eyes. I never saw him fearing anything, but at that moment, he feared me..."