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| - A figure comes in. It’s Monkey. “ Maybe a little thank you team. You know I'd like a little appreciation here. You know how hard it is to find a being that controls transport over ten dimensions? Odin says "Thank You Monkey, "Well since you're still alive, I take it you pulled off the job. Who'd you get to transport the package.” Monkey leans in, “Have you ever heard of the Wizard of Yendor? No? Well he's one of the most powerful beings alive. Not a god, demon or anything else especially important, just a regular human wizard that managed to surpass every limit we thought humans have and obtain immortality. They say he was alive before this cycle of creation." intones Monkey. “Well anyway, he lives in a dungeon he built outside of normal reality. Most frames of reality are constantly shifting in ways that should not be possible. At shifting spots in space are a few entrances to it. The popular view is he allows these openings to exist so he can watch those that are stupid enough to travel there. The few that actually make it out alive tend to come back with strange powers and wealth. Major Gods aren't allowed in which is why you sent me. I'll admit I'm a minor god. Those that have tried, get one warning and if they try to enter again they're blasted out of existence. The best they can do is send the occasional aid to their followers. That's how powerful he is,” boasts Monkey. Atlas asks, "Well if the spots keep shifting, how did you find out about it?” Monkey chatters, “Well the Wizard thought it would be a nice joke if he put the idea in a few human programmers' heads to make a game where you have to get to the bottom of the dungeon. All of them still have a weak connection with it, so I found one of them and followed the trail. It led me to an entrance. I might be a minor god but I'm still a god. I fought off more creatures, traps, curses, and even weirder things than I have in my whole life. I've been to most of the heavens and most of the hells,” Monkey pauses, then laughs, “normally to steal things. How mortals have managed to survive I have no idea. I found the Wizard of Yendor at the bottom level waiting for me. He knew without me telling him what I wanted. He was the one who agreed to transport our little group from earth to here if I agreed to retrieve something for him. Some mortal had actually pulled off the impossible and stole an amulet from him. For some reason he couldn't or wouldn't retrieve it himself. I just got back from returning it to him. You know the original Oracle of Delphi resides in that place. She did the Wizard a favor once so when she asked to live there he obliged. I asked her why she'd want to stay in a place like that and she told me something, some entity is coming; she doesn't know exactly when or what but it’s something that's coming for all of existence. She told me, ‘From a place beyond any reality I can comprehend I sensed the afterimage of the death cries of a countless multitude of souls. Mortals, gods, Powers even greater than the mightiest of gods, even the multiverses they existed in, all killed in an instant. But they weren't really dead; their souls had been absorb into an entity, a being so vast and horrible even its reflection attenuated trillion upon trillions of times almost shattering my mind. They're in it with an infinity of others, screaming. I heard voices, ‘It’s so cold here, it won't let me die, I try and go insane but it just brings me back, it’s feeding on our souls, it won't let me die.’ She told me this entity is coming, it might not be in this or the next thousand cycles of the universe but one day it will come. She's hiding there, outside reality and time, in the only place she thinks will be safe. I didn't really want to hear anymore about it, so I changed topics and asked for her help to locate the amulet. Compared to the Dungeon retrieving the amulet was a walk in the park.” Atlas responded, "I'm the oldest out of all of us here. I know what the Oracle has seen and done so if you ever hear anymore along those lines, keep it to yourself. Anyway, the Wizard actually took your word that you'd retrieve the amulet for him, Monkey.” Odin joins in, "No, he just knows that even Monkey wouldn't be stupid enough to cross the Wizard of Yendor. The reason the Wizard didn’t personally collect it is properties of that amulet are such that you have to physically transport it. The truth is for all his power the Wizard has a severe case of agoraphobia which means there's almost no reason for which he will leave his dungeon. He’s made it so that he could have his own universe to hide in. Also I'd like to second the Atlas's motion; anything that scares the greatest seer of this or any other time is not really anything I want to hear about. Atlas and I were both there when one of the Ancients escaped its bounds a million years ago. A trillion gods went insane just by being in its presence before we could finally rebind it. Those that didn't kill themselves we gave the coup de grace. If you'd seen them you'd understand that killing them was the most merciful option. The Oracle on the other hand never even blinked so I'd rather not even contemplate something that would concern her. She's more than just a seer she can control causality and space. There are other Powers that can do that with more energy even, but all of us that can, even me, are a berserker’s axe compared to a surgeon’s scalpel as to the preciseness and subtlety she possesses. Most of the Powers from millions of dimensions and we still would have lost if not for her intervention. For a moment, so brief no one but she could detect it, the entity got distracted during the battle. Seeing her opening she was able to line up causality just enough so that Atlas, the only one strong enough to hold the entity in place even for a nanosecond, held it while I and countless others combined our power and gave it over to the Wizard.so he could rebind it. In the process he had to touch its mind and went a little insane. That's how he came down with his condition. Since then he's locked himself in his Maze hardly ever leaving. Anyway, we have more immediate concerns. Good work Monkey! Well, most people never get out of that place alive. -by Alan Beck
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