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Sharp claws dig into the hand, tear the skin, turn the muscles that were once inflated by long workouts into a kind of rag with holes in the floor. Burning pain slowly spreads through the nerves reaching the brain. Curved fangs, yellowish from plaque, bite into the thigh, bite through the skin. Strong jaws close on the artery and tear it off along with a piece of muscle. I can't help it anymore, I scream in pain. My brain is in a panic frenzy trying to force my body to fight, to fight on for its own life.

The fingers so desperately clinging to the rocky floor clench into a fist that flies towards the goblin's head. There is a crunch, the phalanges of the fingers crumbled from a strong and desperate blow on a hard skull. The monster, as if not sensing my desperate efforts, clutched my hand harder. I screamed again, and then I saw with horror how a bared mouth, spotted with small teeth, rushed into my throat ...

Screaming in fear, I opened my eyes abruptly assuming a sitting position. The chest was shaking in such heavy and greedy breaths, the heart was pounding like crazy, and a veil of a mixture of green and bluish colors was slowly blurring before my eyes. Inhaling air greedily through my nose, I raised my hand and touched my neck. For a second, my mind pictured in horror a picture of torn flesh, oozing blood, but my fingers touched the Adam's apple and outlined it in a circle, and then slid slightly apart to the jaw. Everything is clear.

The second hand, perfectly obeying my commands, walked along the thigh. The soft cloth touched the rough skin of his palm. With my thumb and forefinger, I lift it slightly pulling it away from the leg, and then let it go, feeling a certain elasticity of the material. So I did it a few more times, as if there was some sacred meaning in the action itself, or maybe I just wanted to believe it.

Only the rustle of leaves above your head reaches your ears: soft, soothing and slightly muffled. The wind pleasantly caresses the skin, washing away the remnants of terrible memories as if they never existed. As if the goblins in that portal had never attacked me from behind, and I hadn't had to desperately cling to life in a futile attempt...

There were frequent, rhythmic pops overhead. Raising my head and starting to blink my eyes frequently to drive away the veil, I saw the green crown of a tree hanging over me. A huge forest giant spreading its long and mighty branches over me. I can hardly be called an impressionable person, but I have never seen such trees.

- It is a paradise? - I asked aloud a question in order to check whether I can still speak.

The voice was mine and without any changes.

The clapping sounded again overhead, and I was already able to catch their direction. They sounded from somewhere above, above the leaves and slowly moved towards me. Soon people appeared flying through the air, the guy and the girl, holding hands, merrily laughing, flapped their white wings to the beat of each other without interfering at all. They were beautiful, like two models from the cover of fashion magazines. The girl, of course, attracted my attention more than a handsome boy with long curly hair.

Angels? Is it really heaven?

I couldn't believe it. For me to go to heaven? There must have been some mistake here. A man like me will never go to heaven just because I saved a naive boy by shooting him in the shoulder. No no no. This is simply impossible.

“But no, such crap definitely shouldn’t be in heaven,” I said, throwing my head back to see the angels above my head.

Dressed in light tunics flowing below the hips, they gave me a great view of their bare bottoms. Angelic assholes were no different from those I had seen in my entire life, but here ... But each of them had no genitals. The laughing handsome man didn’t have anything hanging out, and the girl didn’t have what many men are ready to give their lives and exchange their fortune for. Everything is smooth like children's dolls. In paradise, this should not be the case. How can a place be called paradise if sex is forbidden here? Here, in general, harmony and free love should reign between everyone and everywhere.

Looking at them, I furrowed my brows. I didn't like it all. But while my mind was carefully running through all the available information, a hand slowly reached for my pants. My fingers pulled back the belt, and I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as I found the desired organ with my hand. He was there and he hasn't changed a bit.

This place seemed to me even more strange and somehow wrong.

A light breeze blew in my back, it was nice. Then it intensified so much that it seemed to me as if a huge hand began to put pressure on my back, forcing me to turn around and go around the trunk of a centuries-old oak.

A huge valley adorned with the brightest green grass opened up before my eyes. Mountains rose in the distance on both sides creating an impregnable wall. In the center of all this splendor that delighted my gaze stood a stone building standing out from the whole picture. A strange villa with many carved columns, a triangular roof decorated with frescoes and patterns of straight lines. The windows were without glass and a white cloth hung at the entrance, hiding the interior from my eyes. Greek style was superfluous here. Didn't fit in. Seemed alien. The whole valley leaned more towards the European Middle Ages, and gave away Christianity. The same angels in the sky. And here in the middle of the valley is this villa, and completely knocked out of the environment. Although, all my arguments are only a subjective assessment. Someone else in my position might say that this is how it should be and everything is perfect. But I feel strange and unsettling in it,

The wind began to blow in the back with a vengeance, continuing to push in the right direction. This action only strengthened my reluctance to go there. What for? I'm in a strange place, I don't know dead or alive, angels without genitals, a strange stone structure. If I sit here for an hour longer, I think I can find more facts telling me not to go into that building.

- Yes to you! I cursed with irritation, turning to face the wind and struggling to stay on my feet.

I had to lean towards the tree in an attempt to cope with this intensifying flow. Creaking with effort, I tried to reach one of the low-growing thick oak branches. The fingers touched the green foliage in millimeters, occasionally bending the tip, but this was not enough to grab onto. The current of the wind increased so much that I had to fall to my knees. It was already weird. I was forcibly pulled to this building, but I am stubborn.

If I don't want to, then fuck you make me do it!

I managed to reach out, grab onto a branch, and pull myself up to the tree trunk. It’s good that I didn’t disdain training at one time. Otherwise, I would roll head over heels on the green grass. But now you can be proud of yourself, hugging the trunk of a tree, afraid that I will be blown away by the breeze. To be offended. Fortunately, there is enough strength ... Speaking of her. After all, I got a level, and did not have time to allocate attribute points.

Mentally focused, I tried to open the system characteristics window, but nothing happened. Absolutely. Before my eyes was all the same dark oak bark, for which I so desperately clung to my fingers, pressing my whole body.

- Hey! What are you doing, freaks?! - I shouted indignantly when I felt someone's strong hands grabbed my arms and legs, and then with force tore me from the tree trunk.

I was lifted into the air, and then slowly carried towards the building. The earth floated under my back, because my face was turned to the sky and the angels on both sides. The guy and the girl got one leg and the hand that they were holding, because of which they had to fly sideways. It looked very strange. It seems that the wings are flapping in the air and should, in theory, fly forward, but the angel's body slides to the side.

I tried to wriggle out of their grip, but they only tightened their fingers, causing my bones to crack. Apparently someone sitting in this building wants to meet me very much, which makes me even more wary. Usually such meetings when you are being dragged end with an acquaintance with the enemy or a beating. During my short life, several times I had to flee from such acquaintances under a hail of bullets, and after another couple I had to recover for a long time in the hospital from beatings. Therefore, I have bad memories of such meetings, and it is better for me to escape from the tenacious paws of angels and slam on the ground than to get into this house.

- Hey! You! Blonde! Let me go! I yelled at the guy, "Or I swear I'll rip your damn wings off and stuff them up your ass!" And if there is no hole, then I will do it!

But my threats did not affect him, he did not even raise an eyebrow on his pretty face. As is the girl. She was insanely beautiful, but she seemed more like a lifeless artificial doll than a spiritual, heaven-born being. Then I realized that it was pointless to break out and threaten. You will need to come up with another plan to avoid all this ... or can he agree? I ended up in a very strange place, the system does not answer me, strange dolls with wings and incredible strength. We need to figure out what this place is. I'll get answers and get out as far as possible if I can. But you still need to stay alert. You don't want to fall into the trap of carelessness.

I relaxed, trying to conserve the strength I might need. I may have to run or even fight for my own life, where every ounce of physical energy will be worth its weight in gold.

My body relaxed and my head fell down, allowing me to see the building to which I was being dragged through the air, albeit upside down.

Finally, the flight ended, I was brazenly thrown onto the stone steps. Spinning in the air, I landed on my feet, mentally glad that my skills were still with me.

“Come in,” a voice rang out from somewhere inside the building, and the white cloth covering the entrance swayed invitingly.

The angels slowly landed on the ground behind me, blocking the exit at the very bottom of the steps. The guy and the girl crossed their arms in displeasure, staring at me, and did not even notice how the same breeze lifted the hem of their tunics, showing smooth skin below the waist. I was already shivering from this, and I hastened to turn my back on them.

Pushing aside the white cloth at the entrance with my hand, I entered the building. A huge room with stone arches, lurid frescoes that look like pixel art, as if the real pictures did not load due to low quality. But the more I looked at them, the clearer they became. As if right before my eyes, the mosaic began to move and decrease, new details were added, adding clarity and new details to the picture. After a couple of seconds, I frowned in displeasure, seeing in front of me a picture of the open mouth of a goblin. My throat ached from phantom pain, and even realizing its illusory nature, I ran my fingers along my neck. Everything was whole.

Passing beyond the walls with frescoes, I found myself in a round room lined with cabinets with ancient scrolls and huge books. Again, everything looked like a hodgepodge of different styles. Here are Greek scrolls, tablets with Egyptian drawings, a book lying on the tables filled with handwritten Gothic handwriting. It would seem - the abode of a man who collects antiquities, but for some reason everything seemed artificial to me. As if it was created in fits and starts, borrowing each part with a complete lack of understanding of harmony. It probably smacks of delirium, but the feeling is inescapable and difficult to describe in simple words. It seems to me that's all, there's nowhere to go.

- Do you like? came a female voice behind me as I approached one of the cabinets.

I abruptly turned around on my heels, getting into a combat stance and closing my arms. On the table sat a girl who hadn't been there before. Green long braids protruding from the light hood of a white tunic thrown over the head, falling to the hips. The abundance of gold jewelry in the hair and on the chest: pendants, rings, necklaces. There were even decorations on the feet replicating light sandals made of gold bands with precious stones. The girl was beautiful, even better than the angel outside, but that only made me more alert. Such beauty makes you distract, lose your vigilance and surrender to the power of base desires. In another situation, I would not mind, her figure and full breasts, lifting up her tunic, turn me on in earnest. But that's what worries me, like I'm a little praying mantis in front of a female of my own kind,

- Who are you? - I asked a question, trying to take a step back to the opening veranda, - And where am I at all?

- In paradise, - she replies, jumping off the table, and taking a step slapping her bare feet.

A nervous, ironic grin escapes me.

- In Paradise? Yes, they certainly won’t call me into it, and they won’t even let me in for a cannon shot, stop pouring it! You have angels flying around here without genitals, and there is no one else besides me! You can die of boredom! Turn off your pseudo-paradise and stop fooling my head ...

She smiled, and I did not finish because I felt goosebumps running down my back. In a single moment of my own heartbeat, all my courage evaporated, I became truly afraid.

The girl, slowly stepping towards me, spread her hands in her arms. As if at her command, the room began to change. The cupboards slowly turned to dust and settled on the stone floor along with their contents, the walls began to expand and their entire surface was streaked with dark metal that made its way through the hard stone. A second later, when she came so close to me that the beautiful scent of her green hair reached my nose, the room completely changed.

There were no longer the pleasant soft tones of the stone structure. All around was darkness and metal. At my feet, a small pile of human bodies slowly grew up, interspersed with some furry humanoids or beasts. Torn to pieces, bloodied with a frozen expression of fear of death on their pale faces. I took a step back, trying to avoid contact with the blood flowing from the bodies, which almost touched my toes.

The girl, as if ignoring the changed environment and the pool of blood under her feet, walked through it without taking her eyes off me.

- How do you like it?

- Gloomy, - I honestly admitted, trying not to look into those white eyes.

They were clear: no pupil, no iris or anything like that. Just one protein. It was surprising. Not to say that I'm used to this kind of thing, but when you live in the forties, you can see something else on the street. Sometimes in a brothel for a lot of money he ordered a girl who, with the help of implants and all that, created the appearance of a red-skinned demoness for herself. It was then that I had a fetish for horned ladies from the underworld, well.

- I do not like? - slightly lowering her head to the side to the right shoulder she asked.

She alarmed me, but her behavior was not aggressive. More like flirting or trying to impress, to make me feel something. But still, I didn't want her to come any closer. Aggressive or not, I don't trust her.

- Not one step closer! - I said sharply, causing the girl to stop in bewilderment.

She looked at me, and then, spreading her arms with a silent question, examined herself, even twisted a little, forcing the light tunic to rise up a little. The sight was sweet and seductive, but I cautiously stepped back a couple of steps, trying to increase the distance between us.

- Why? You don't like my body? she asked with slight notes of resentment.

- I like it, even very much! - I honestly admitted, looking with my eyes for something similar to a weapon or its replacement, - But I am no longer a teenager to drool at the sight of a beautiful body.

- You are afraid?

- Fuck you! I was devoured by goblins, I thought that I would finally die and rest. So no! I woke up here, and they tell me that this is paradise ... Yes, damn it! What is this place anyway? And who are you anyway?

- Place? It? - she asked the girl, looking around the bodies around, and then she stretched out her leg and drew a straight line in a pool of blood with her thumb, which came out really straight, - This is just a line of a possible future. Death to everything.

- What else is the future?

- In the one in which the gods wanted to destroy everyone, and you and I failed to stop them.

With the snap of her fingers, the room changed. A scarlet stone pavement appeared under my feet. Huge skyscrapers that I had never seen in my life rose around. Everything was on fire, and there were also many dead people lying around.

The picture is oppressive and terrible, but it is no different from all the consequences of the war and conquests taking place in the history of mankind. In history class, we were often shown dioramas of war-torn cities of the past, and we wandered among the ruins using augmented reality. Everything felt exactly the same now. It was hard to take seriously the picture in front of him, the brain refused to believe in its reality. But the spreading blood at the feet, the musty smell of death, the sensation of heat in the air heated by the flames - everything was real.

- What the hell are you talking about? Which gods? Let me out of here! I growled again, trying to stay away from the girl.

She no longer made any attempts to get closer, although under other circumstances and in a more relaxed atmosphere, I would not mind our acquaintance, but now ... Damn, I find in my head a lot of variations of this shit that is going on around. I must have been connected to some kind of virtual reality capsule. I heard that they started to develop quite recently. And now I’m probably inside it, and everything that happens is just an illusion, albeit a very reliable one. Only ones and zeros around.

- Brad? - the girl asked in surprise, - My task is not to spread nonsense, as you think. My task is to stop the gods who decided to destroy the inhabitants of the universe that bothered them and prevent the creation of new ones.

Does she even hear herself? It's bullshit! This is usually heard in opening cutscenes or dialogue in games. Where the beauty asks the hero to save the kingdom, and then they swung at the whole universe. Well, I'm definitely in virtual reality, and I need to somehow get out of here.

- Can this farce be enough already? Why do you need all this? Are you doing tests? A lot of idiots fell for this crap with the gods?

While I was saying this, I slowly backed away with my hand, leading in an empty space so as not to run into a wall or an invisible obstacle. The girl froze in bewilderment. Apparently in her artificial brains there was no script of behavior in this case, or a living person in charge of her asked for new instructions.

But if you think about it. How will I escape? This is a virtual world under their control. One has only to succumb to emotions and I will only embarrass myself in front of everyone by doing something stupid. I'm sure right now they are looking at me and pointing their fingers at the monitor screens laughing. Damn bastards.