The sound didn't just fill the air, it vibrated through Alex's chest, resonating in her ribs like a second heartbeat. She felt it in her teeth, in the marrow of her bones, a frequency that bypassed her ears entirely and spoke directly to her code.
The copper sky rippled, and words began to form, not just projected onto the air, but carved into existence itself, burning with the same blue fire that crowned the ziggurat. Ancient hieroglyphs twisted and reformed into English, as if the game was translating itself in real-time. But it wasn't just visual. Alex could feel each word settling into her consciousness, locking into the system. Something wasn't right and she knew it before the words appeared above their heads.
WELCOME, SEEKERS, TO THE ASCENSION OF THE SUN
Her interface panel exploded with information, scrolling text appearing faster than she could read. Beside her, she heard Mia gasp, Sam cursed under his breath, and Ethan's sharp intake of air. They were all seeing it too, their own panels flooding with data and information.
THE PATH TO RA'S FAVOR IS LONG AND PERILOUS,
FIFTY TRIALS AWAIT THOSE WHO WOULD ASCEND
TEN LEVELS UNDER THE GAZE OF LESSER GODS
FIFTEEN IN THE TEMPLES OF ISIS, KEEPER OF MAGIC
TEN IN THE HALLS OF OSIRIS, LORD OF THE DEAD
TEN THROUGH THE STORMS OF SET, MASTER OF CHAOS
FIVE IN THE SOLAR BARQUE OF RA HIMSELF
ONLY THOSE WHO COMPLETE ALL FIFTY TRIALS MAY CLAIM THEIR PRIZE
ONLY THOSE WHO PROVE WORTHY MAY BECOME THE BRIDE OF THE SUN
Alex's hands trembled as she tried to scroll through the text, but it kept coming, relentless.
KNOW THIS, SEEKERS:
THERE IS NO RETURN SAVE THROUGH VICTORY OR SURRENDER
NO EXIT EXISTS IN THIS REALM OF GODS
TO LEAVE WITHOUT COMPLETING YOUR ASCENSION, YOU MUST SIGNAL YOUR DEFEAT
FLASH YOUR AVATAR RED
A FACILITATOR WILL GUIDE YOUR SOUL BACK TO THE MORTAL REALM
The words hung in the air for three long heartbeats, then faded like smoke.
Silence.
Then, GOOD LUCK and MAY THE GODS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOUR
"What the fuck?" Ethan's voice cracked on the last word. "Did that just say, there's no exit? That we have to complete fifty levels or get pulled out by someone on the outside?"
"That can't be right." Mia's golden filigree pulsed erratically, matching her rapid breathing. "That's not how games ....games don't work like that. There's always an exit or logout code. Always."
Sam had gone pale, his avatar flickering at the edges like a bad signal. "Alex. Alex, tell me you can hack us out of this. Tell me you have a backdoor or an override or... just tell my you thought this through."
"I—" Alex's mind raced, fingers flying across her interface panel, pulling up system commands, searching for anything that looked like an escape protocol. Nothing. Just more glyphs, more incomprehensible code that shifted every time she tried to pin it down. "I don't understand. I cracked their security. I had access to everything, I even had access to the settings. There should be—"
"You cracked their security," Ethan said, and there was an edge to his voice she'd never heard before. "Not their game architecture. Jesus, Alex, what did you get us into? Did you scope out the action of the game in advance?"
The accusation hit like a physical blow. Alex felt her throat tighten, heat rising to her face. "I didn't know, and this isn't—"
"Hey." Sam stepped between them, holding up his hands. "Everyone calm down. Blaming isn't going to help. We are all adults, and we made the decision to go into this together. Anyone of us could have stayed back, but we all wanted to see it together."
"Calm down? You want us all to calm down?" Mia's voice climbed higher. "Don't you understand Sam, we're trapped. In a VR game. With no way out except begging some Novatech employee coming to pull our plugs or playing through fifty goddamn levels of Egyptian god trials, all because of your girlfriend wanted something that was too big for her!"
"Okay so we flash red, together" Sam said quietly. "The system said we could signal for extraction. It's not her fault for not knowing that the game played this way."
"Oh, right, just flash red, isn't that just perfect." Ethan laughed, but it was bitter, edged with real fear. "So our options are: admit defeat immediately, hope Novatech doesn't sue us into oblivion for hacking their game, and lead them directly to our operation in the real world. Where it's me not you that's looking at jail time, or actually play through their entire campaign. Which could take, what? Days? Weeks even?"
Alex forced herself to breathe, to think past the panic clawing at her chest. She pulled up her interface again, this time looking at the game stats, the level indicators. "According to this... the average completion time for the first ten levels is approximately eight hours. If we extrapolate—"
"Two hundred hours," Mia finished, her voice flat. "Minimum. That's if we don't die. If we don't fail any trials. That's if we can play a flawless game."
"And what happens when we fail?" Sam asked. "The instructions didn't say."
They all looked at each other, the same dread settling over them like a shroud.
"We don't know," Alex admitted. Her legendary confidence, the certainty that had convinced them all to follow her into this mess, crumbled. "I don't know what happens if we fail. I don't know if time passes the same out there as it does in here. I don't know anything, but I really didn't force any of you. You had the same information as me."
"So in other words, we don't know anything." Ethan ran his hands through his hair, and Alex saw them shaking. "Great. That's just fucking great."
"So what do we do?" Mia asked. She'd wrapped her arms around herself, and for the first time since the transformation, she looked small. Vulnerable. She looked so weak compared to her avatar. "Do we... do we flash red? Do we just give up and face whatever consequences. Ethan I don't want you to get arrested, that's just not fair"
"No." The word came out harder than Alex intended. They all turned to look at her. "No, we don't give up. Not yet. I'm not letting anything happen to anyone."
"Alex—" Sam started.
"Think about it," she pressed on, her mind clicking into problem-solving mode because that was what she did. That was how she survived. "If we flash red right now, we're admitting we hacked into Novatech's flagship game. They'll have logs. Evidence. We could face serious legal action, and yeah some of us might even face some criminal charges depending on how much damage they claim we did. But right now they don't know we're here, and they don't know that we are playing as a team. "
"So you want to stay trapped in here?" Ethan challenged.
"We're not trapped," Alex insisted, though the word tasted like a lie. "We have an exit strategy. We just... have to earn it. Look, Novatech designed this game to be completed. That means it's possible. People have done this; look here we still have access to some beta tester data and Q&A teams. We're smart. We're good at games. We can—"
"This isn't just a game anymore, Alex!" Mia's voice cracked. "This is our lives! Our real, actual lives! What if something happens to our bodies out there while we're in here? What if our..."
A second gong rang out, deeper than the first. The black river began to glow from within, threads of silver light spiraling up from the depths. The water's surface rippled, rising, coalescing and a shape began to form.
She was tall, lithe, her skin a deep amber that seemed to glow from within. Her eyes were feline, beautiful golden with vertical slits that tracked their movements with predatory precision. She wore armor of burnished bronze that moved like liquid metal, and atop her head sat a solar disk flanked by the ears of a lioness. In one hand, she held a staff topped with the head of a roaring lion, flames dancing along its length. When she spoke, her voice resonated with the same bone-deep frequency as the gong. With an underlying growl that made Alex's survival instincts scream.
"Welcome, children of the mortal realm." Her smile was knowing, ancient, and utterly without mercy. Sharp canines glinted when she spoke. "I am Sekhmet, the Eye of Ra, She Before Whom Evil Trembles, Lady of Slaughter. You stand now at the threshold of the First Trial."
Alex's mouth went dry.
"But I see doubt in your eyes," Sekhmet continued, prowling across the water toward them, each step deliberate and dangerous. "I see fear. You wonder if you should surrender before you even begin." She stopped a few feet away, and her golden gaze swept across each of them in turn, lingering like a predator sizing up prey. "Let me offer you a little counsel, my dear hackers."
Alex's blood ran cold. She knows.
"The path ahead is treacherous. You will face challenges that test not just your skill, but your heart, your mind, your very soul. You will confront truths you have long buried. You will be stripped bare, laid open and transformed." Sekhmet's eyes locked on Alex, and she felt pinned, dissected, seen in a way that made her want to run. "Know this, should you choose to surrender, should you flash your avatar red and call for extraction. The facilitators will come. You will be returned to your mortal shells, safe and whole." Sekhmet paused, her smile sharpening to show more teeth. "But the game will remember. And so will Ra."
"What does that mean?" Ethan demanded, his voice steadier than Alex felt. "Are you threatening us?"
"I am informing you," Sekhmet replied, her voice dropping to a growl. "This game was designed with purpose. Those who enter and flee without cause are marked. Flagged in our systems. Should you ever attempt to return, to any Novatech immersive environment you will find yourselves... unwelcome. Their will be consequences."
"Consequences, like we can be blacklisted from all Novatech games?" Sam asked.
"More than blacklisted, child. You will be remembered, and the gods..." she gestured to the burning symbols still faintly visible in the sky, "do not forget. Neither does the Eye of Ra."
Mia let out a shaky breath. "What if we play? If we try to complete the trials?"
Sekhmet's expression shifted, and for a moment something almost like respect flickered in those feline eyes. "Then you will be tested as all seekers are tested. You may fail. You may stumble. But each trial you complete will earn you power, knowledge, advancement. Should you reach the end..." Her eyes glinted. "Should you prove yourself worthy of Ra's attention, you will receive a prize beyond mortal imagining."
"The bride thing," Alex said quietly. "What does that actually mean?"
Sekhmet's smile returned, secretive and dangerous. "That, little hacker, you must discover for yourself. Know this, I am merely the first of ten. Ten trials await you in my domain before you may ascend to a greater god. Survive me, and perhaps you will earn the right to stand in front of Ra himself."
Another gong. The ziggurat's flames surged higher.
"The First Trial begins in one hour," Sekhmet announced. "I suggest you use this time wisely. Learn your interfaces. Test your new forms. Prepare yourselves." She began to fade, dissolving into silver mist. "Choose, truly choose wisely, who is best to complete each task. Find whether you have the courage to ascend. I wonder little hacker will you run back to your basement a life of empty dreams, and your life of unrequited love."
She vanished, leaving the four of them standing in stunned silence.
Then Ethan turned to Alex, and his expression was harder than she'd ever seen it. "So, fearless leader. Looks like this might have something to do with you. SO, what's the plan?"