Fifty Realities

Chapter 1: Artifacts

        Exilus, the lowest class on the social ladder is an absolute wasteland. There are few buildings present and they are broken down beyond repair and overgrown with all sorts of folliage. In one of these ruins we find Dax. This particular ruin is made of large stone bricks with two walls missing. The roof barely resembles a roof, with more bricks missing than present.  The floor, if it could even be called a floor, was a single stone brick surrounded by overgrown grass packed together tight.  Trace amounts of smoke from an extinguised fire ascend past the roof. Dax ripped a peice of rabbit meat from the bone while staring at a strange item he had received from an even stranger being. It was an orange cube that had dimensions of 2'x2'x2', with some sort of hyroglyph or rune on each of it's sides. The being that gave it to him was a humanoid  with no physical features at all.  He had received the item a week ago, which was also the most recent time someone tried to raid his shelter.

        Dax believes that the cube has been keeping him safe but he's not sure how. He had examined it from every angle but was unable to find any use for it.

        Another of these artifacts that had been bestowed upon Dax is a large supply of something that could possibly be food, but it was unlike any he had ever seen. Dax had seen many strange things before, having grown up seeing things no one else could, but lately he's been seeing things a lot more frequently. It is even more rare that these items have physical affects on him. One day, he consumed one of the mystery foods, a silver sphere with thin purple stripes. Immediately after biting it everything turned grey and he was completely incapable of movement. That was a month ago and he hasn't touched any of them since. Dax also found it odd that in none of the raids past their arival, no one has acknowledged that they exist.

        Dax was snapped out of his deep thought by the sight of a large number of the featureless creatures approaching him from a distance, creating a harsh white glow in the darkness he was surrounded by. This large group was being led by a being much larger than the rest, easily seven feet tall and three feet wide. He quickly stuffed the cube into his pocket. The large being pointed to Dax and let out a shrill, static-like noise that caused Dax to rush to cover his ears. Upon seeing this, the large being turned to his right to face one of the smaller featurless beings and let out a more quiet, yet incredibly shrill static-like noise.

        One of them walked up to Dax and handed him a mushy, white orb.

        "What am I supposed to do with this?" Dax asked it.

         The being gestured to where his mouth would have been if he had a face.

        "Eat it?" Dax asked.

        It nodded, and Dax replied, with a look of disgust on his face, "No way."

The large being immediatly let out an incredibly loud shrill noise that was accompanied by an even harsher light that forced Dax onto his knees and made him feel like his ears were bleeding.

        "Allright! Allright! I'll eat it!" Dax screamed, which caused the audio assault to stop. 

        He took a bite out of the orb, and found that it was completely flavorless, and yet the texture made it somewhat difficult to swallow. The next bite of it was no easier to swallow, nor was all the bites that followed until he finally chocked down the whole thing.   

        "Excellent," the large being said to Dax, all the shrillness gone from his voice. "As I'm sure you have noticed by now, that ball has served as a translator so that we can perfectly understand each other."

         "Who are you and what the hell do you want with me?" Dax asked harshly.

        "I am the eighth nuntius, and advise you to watch your tone, the null do not react well to hostility," it  replied

        "What the hell are the null?" Dax asked with more hostility than before.

        The eighth nuntius sighed, "You are a very slow individual. The null are the ruling species of the featurless reality. Because I am a generous individual, I have decided to give you a third chance to watch your tone. If your tone is used to speak to a high class null, it is punishible by death, and I did not come here planning to kill you, only to retrieve what is the Highest's.

        "Great, another one of these high class people who think they can controll me! " Dax thought. Dax then said with as much hostility as humanly possible, "Piss off!"

        The eigth nuntius created the shrill static, and reached towards Dax with murderous intent. Before it's giant hand could reach Dax's head, another null jumped in front of Dax from nowhere and everything turned a very harsch white.