Labyrinthia: Exploring in Another World: Labyrinthia, #1

By Michael Ocheskey

Kevin was an orphan growing up in a dystopian Earth. He thought life couldn't get worse, until he died a gruesome death. Given a chance at new life by the Creator in exchange for his cooperation, Kevin is reborn into the world of Labyrinthia, where he becomes a Labyrinth Explorer. His task, defeat the monsters in the Labyrinths alongside the other Explorers to prevent them from flooding the universe and destroying all life. The problem, the explanation he'd been given has many holes; mysteries that were not disclosed. Given a new body based on his subconscious desires, Kevin begins a journey of peril and discovery. Along the way, he will make enemies and allies, build a team of fellow Explorers, and delve deeper into the mysteries of Labyrinthia and the numerous Labyrinths within.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Siren Song Publishing
• Release date: Dec 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781950005086

Michael Ocheskey

Michael Ocheskey was born and raised in Cheyenne, Wyoming and has a love for creativity, especially animation, music, movies, books, and tv. He loves digging into human creativity and is currently working toward starting multiple businesses that allow him to utilize that creativity. He is an author of primarily fantasy, but some sci-fi elements as well, and owns Siren Song Publishing, a newly created micropublisher for up-and-coming fantasy, sci-fi, and horror authors. His education was vast and varied. While he did not receive a Bachelor's degree in college due to multiple major changes, he is proud of the education he received. He was able to learn many topics that enhanced his writing and artistry including psychology, philosophy, foreign history and literature, music, anthropology, education courses, and many more. Ultimately, he ran out of funds and was forced to drop out of college before obtaining his Bachelor's degree. He currently works as an independent contractor, delivering for apps such as DoorDash and Instacart  to pay the bills, but is simultaneously working toward his goals and dreams of supporting himself solely through his creative endeavors as an author and entrepreneur. He is working toward establishing multiple businesses including a company that designs card and board games, an animation production studio, and Siren Song Publishing, which is currently a vanity press, meaning he is the only author it publishes, but he is hoping to expand it into a small publishing house with around a dozen authors in time.

Book preview

Prologue – A Dying Earth

Iwas born on planet Earth sometime around 2126. I think I’m somewhere between sixteen and twenty now, based on my appearance, but between the state of the world and my personal circumstances I will never know my actual age. Since I don’t know the day I was born, I can only estimate. My parents were murdered in front of me when I was a toddler. I would love to tell you that I was raised by a loving foster family or brought up in a caring orphanage. Unfortunately, doing that would be a lie. What’s the point of lying in the end?

I don’t know how I managed to survive. I was shuffled around from person to person, never staying in one spot for more than a month. It was like a game of Hot Potato and I was the potato. There was no governmental intervention, or government for that matter. I was a tool to be used by con artists, and when I could no longer earn them the sympathy money they were getting, I would be handed off to the next crook in line.

You see, I grew up in Hell. No. If I had, it would have been bliss. The Earth I lived on was worse than any Hell any religion could imagine. My generation was often thought of as the zombie generation, unable to die and simply surviving through primitive instincts. Our ancestors had truly fucked up this planet beyond repair. Though, I couldn’t find it in me to blame all of them.

No, I blamed the greed of those in charge. There were plenty of scientists, field specialists, and even common laymen who advocated for change, but change doesn’t come cheaply. Those in charge chose to hold on to the money and power they’d amassed instead of risking it to save the rest of us. In the end, all of the fossil fuel sources ran dry, pollution destroyed a large quantity of the o-zone layer, most of the plants died, and most of the polar ice caps melted.

As a result, the land was flooded and most of the livable space submerged. This wiped out almost four billion people and the land that was left wasn’t large enough for the remaining two billion. The situation snowballed out of control. Overpopulation in the small amount of living space that remained caused an unprecedented amount of deaths due to starvation and illness. Law and order fell apart, leaving rapists, plunderers, and murderers to follow their urges without recourse.

In time, all that remained of the once populous human race was around a few million people. That number continued to dwindle daily and even now that number was being reduced by one. That’s why I found myself praying for the first and last time in my life.

God, I thought to myself as I stared down at the missing lower half of my body. If reincarnation is real, can you please send me somewhere where I don’t have to suffer? I’m so tired. Why was I born just to live through this torture? Please, let it end. It hurts.

I had lived my entire life being used and abused. It hadn’t even been a week since I’d managed to escape my shackles and live free. Yet, here I was, dying from an explosion. Some jackasses were probably building a homemade bomb and it went off in their faces.

I found myself smiling at the thought. At least I could die knowing that karma at least provided some form of justice. That was my final thought before everything went dark and silent.

The Three Realms

Sensation seemed to return to my body, but when I looked down there was nothing there. I could feel that I still existed, but I couldn’t sense myself. I was in pure darkness when small spots of light began to appear all around me. That’s when I realized I was looking at the universe around me. I was in the middle of a mass of stars.

Is this Heaven? I thought.

No.

A voice I wasn’t expecting answered me. It sounded like an elderly gentleman. Then, from the blackness appeared a man whose skin was the color of grass. He was wearing robes that appeared to be made from leaves and his long beard appeared to be tree roots.

Kevin. He continued, not caring about my shock. The places you call Heaven and Hell do not exist. At least, they do not exist in the way that you humans seem to believe. You think that you will go to Heaven or Hell when you die based on the lives you’ve lived. However, that will not happen. You are mortal and the souls of mortals exist in a constant state of rebirth. Your cycle of life and death is your immortality. For example, you have already lived over a thousand lifetimes. You just cannot remember any of them.

As he talked to me, he placed his hand on me and I felt a spark resonate within me. Suddenly, I felt solid and I noticed I now had my body back. My complete body, unmarred by my death.

But there is a Heaven and Hell? You said it is just different from what I expected.

He smiled warmly at me and stroked his beard in thought.

Normally, we don’t go into details with mortals because you never remember anything that happens to you between reincarnations or even from prior lives. However, I think things may be different this time. Let me tell you the truth. I have a request of you. However, I cannot request this of you while you remain ignorant.

He wiped his hand in front of my face and three three-dimensional squares appeared in front of me, stacked one on top of another.

"These are the Three Realms. They are parallel universes that exist in the same space at the same time. The realm that we are currently on is the Mortal Realm. This is where all living beings who possess souls and follow the cycle of reincarnation live. There are billions of planets that sustain life and each time you are reincarnated you are randomly birthed on one of them. You could be one of the highly intelligent sentient species or you could end up as an animal or plant. You have been many different beings throughout your lifetimes.

The realm directly above yours is the Divine Realm. This is the realm of the Creator as well as the Celestials. The Celestials are immortal beings that were created by the Creator to help govern all of creation. In the beginning, there was nothing except the Creator. She created the Divine Realm, the Mortal Realm, and all that exists within the Mortal Realm in order to quell her loneliness. However, she didn’t want her creations to be puppets. She wanted those she created to have wills of their own so that they could interact with each other freely. Thus, free will was born. This free will gave everything in creation the option to choose their own way in life and the Creator watched lovingly over her creation.

This story was starting to sound slightly like the Genesis story from a Catholic Bible I’d found once in a house I was squatting in while trying to hide, but with significant differences.

"While watching over her creations, she realized that the sentient mortals did not possess the intelligence and skills needed to survive. They had yet to evolve past a primitive state and acted like nothing more than the animals surrounding them. However, she could not help them without breaking the law she had set, she could not interfere since that would remove their free will.

"It was then that she decided to create the Celestials. The Celestials were immortal beings that would live within the Divine Realm with the creator. These Celestials were tasked with watching over the Mortal Realm and guiding the sentient beings without direct intervention. These Celestials were divided into three groups, the Guardians, the Defenders, and the Watchers. These are the beings that you humans call gods, angels, and spirits, respectively.

However, there were some among the Celestials who refused to guide the mortals. They saw the mortals as inferior beings that shouldn’t be allowed to govern themselves and should be the servants of the Celestials, whether willingly or not. They started a campaign to subjugate mortals and overthrow the Creator and her loyal Celestials. They simply didn’t count on the fact that the Creator sees all. No matter how stealthily they were, their crimes came to light and they were banished.

The elderly man, who still hadn’t introduced himself, then pointed to the bottom level. I wanted to ask his name, but the conversation was so intense that I couldn’t bear to interrupt.

"The Creator then created the third realm, the Infernal Realm, to serve as the prison for the Celestials that sought domination. She couldn’t send them to this realm herself, as doing so would violate their free will. However, her loyal supporters were more than willing to handle this task for her, well, most of them were. The loyal Guardians and Defenders went to war with the traitors and upon defeating their forces, threw them all into the Infernal Realm and locked the dimensional gate.

The Watchers, who refused to take sides in the war and remained neutral, were punished for their indifference by being cast out of the Divine Realm by the remaining Guardians and Defenders. The Creator mourned for those who’d been cast into the Infernal Realm, which had been dubbed the Fallen, and her Watchers who’d been banished from her kingdom and forced into the Mortal Realm, dubbed the Lost Ones. She grieved over being bound by the law she enacted to prevent her children from becoming her puppets, unable to stop or guide the actions of the Celestials. She was forced to watch for eons as her Watchers continued to endure immortality in a sea of mortality.

At this point, the man’s voice broke and he wiped tears from his eyes, which seemed to be gazing deep into the abyss of regret. He shook his head vigorously, as if to force the memories from his mind, and finished his story.

"Things remained in an unsteady equilibrium until a few centuries ago. The Fallen had discovered a way to break out of the Infernal Realm and influence the Mortal Realm. They could only send one Fallen at a time into the Mortal Realm and they would be forcibly sucked back into the Infernal Realm within a few short hours. However, those hours were all they needed to wreak havoc. Each time they sent a Fallen into this realm, the Fallen would use a considerable amount of power to create a nest of evil. This nest birthed monstrous beings that fed off life, desiring death and destruction. The Fallen had determined that if the Mortal Realm should fall to ruin, the dimensional gate that locked the Fallen in the Infernal Realm would crumble and they would then be able to swarm the Mortal Realm, finally reaching the Divine Realm to begin their war anew.

These nests were placed at random points throughout the Mortal Realm to weaken it from multiple locations. We call these nests Labyrinths due to their maze-like layout with multiple levels. Each Labyrinth is designed to birth countless monsters and once the monsters become too numerous for the Labyrinth to contain, they are released into the Mortal Realm to destroy endlessly until they are stopped by the reluctant mortals whose paths they cross.

The old man looked at me and nodded, as if his mind was made up. He smiled gently.

Now you know the history that leads up to my request. You see, the Creator could not leave these Labyrinths alone, as they were meant to destroy everything she created and loved. While she couldn’t interfere directly, she saw an opportunity, one that created a loophole she could exploit to return the Lost Ones to the Divine Realm at the same time that she kept the Fallen from gaining power. This loophole was to create a new planet with the sole purpose of destroying these Labyrinths. The Watchers used their magic to move the entrances of all of the existing Labyrinths to this planet, called Labyrinthia, ensuring that the rest of the Mortal Realm would be safe and only Labyrinthia would face the perils of the Labyrinths.

I had listened to his story with a mix of rapture, terror, and wonder. Once he reached the part about Labyrinthia, I knew exactly where the conversation was going. I gave a wry smile and finished his story for him.

Let me guess, the Creator decided that mortals would be reincarnated to Labyrinthia in order to fight the monsters and keep the Labyrinths at bay. Doesn’t that sound a little ridiculous? How is a human like me supposed to fight against hordes of monsters specifically designed to kill mortals?

The elderly Watcher, at least that’s what I’d come to guess from the story he’d provided, placed his finger on the side of his nose and winked at me playfully.

Hehehe, he laughed. "You sure catch on quick, but you’re not quite right. Do you seriously think the Creator, who loves all her children, including the mortal ones, would willingly send them into a death trap? She may need people to fight the monsters, but she wouldn’t send you in there unprepared.

"She set up the planet Labyrinthia as if it were the setting of a fantasy game. She selects people to reincarnate to Labyrinthia based on their potential as well as their desire to help. In exchange for their help, the people are granted powers that surpass normal mortals, both physical and magical in nature.

There are, of course, normal reincarnates who arrive as babies and live their lives normally with no knowledge of what I’ve told you. These individuals can choose to explore the labyrinths if they want, but many of them prefer to remain on the surface and support the explorers. The other type of reincarnate is the Traveler. That is what I’m asking you to become. Travelers are given a new body that is already matured so that they may begin fighting immediately. They are allowed to keep the memories of their previous life as well as the knowledge I’ve just imparted on you. After all, knowledge is power.

I nodded along in understanding, until something caught my attention. Wait a minute? You made it sound like the loophole was for the Lost Ones, but all we’ve been talking about is mortals keeping the Labyrinths in check.

"Glad to see you caught on. The Lost Ones are banished from the Divine Realm for their inaction during the Celestial War, but there is one way in which they can return home. That is their redemption, but it isn’t something that I can tell you. Prior knowledge would negate the loophole as it would remove an element of free will and seem as though you were being forced to assist. You must come to learn the details through your journey, if that is what you choose. Whether you delve deeper into the mystery is your choice. You have free will and can choose whichever path you’d like.

Speaking of, now that you know the truth, it is time for you to decide. My request is for you to become a Traveler, but that is not a requirement. I know you asked the Creator if you could be reincarnated into a world that was peaceful and I definitely wouldn’t call Labyrinthia a peaceful place. You can choose to be reincarnated normally; in which case your soul will be reincarnated into a baby at random. You could end up on Earth again or on any of the billions of planets. We have no way of knowing if the world will be peaceful or if you will have another hard fight for survival. The other choice is to become a Traveler and have a life that is full of adventure and mystery. Though there is no end to the danger you will face from the Labyrinths, you would at least be equipped to handle the danger instead of being a helpless victim as you were on Earth.

I took a few moments to think, staring at the vast abyss of stars surrounding me. I could go anywhere, but I wouldn’t know where. Did I truly want a peaceful life? I know that was what I was praying as I died, but that was more regret than anything else. I knew that there was no such thing as paradise. There was trouble no matter where you went. The story I’d heard showed me that trouble even fell upon the Divine. If no one could escape it, shouldn’t I face it with the tools needed to do so?

I will help you. Please, make me a Traveler.

The old man smiled warmly and wrapped me in a bear hug.

Thank you. Your new body will be created based on your subconscious. It may not have everything you want, but it will provide you the base abilities you desired, whether it is a large body specializing in strength, a slender body specializing in speed, whatever your heart desires. When you arrive in Labyrinthia, seek out the Explorers’ Union. They will provide you the information and tools you need to begin your new life. Farewell, Kevin.

When he said my name, it made my curiosity peak. I didn’t know his name.

The Lost Ones do not have names. Although, I was often called Dionysus by those who used to worship me on Earth.

As I was about to ask, he responded as if he could hear my thoughts...which, I realized, is exactly what he’d been doing. I was just a soul without a body. I may have had a fake body he created to help me feel more comfortable, but I was still just a soul. My body was decaying on Earth. Then everything faded to black and I could have sworn I heard the words, Good luck, my child, flood my consciousness. However, this wasn’t from Dionysus. It was a woman’s voice and full of unconditional love.

Welcome to Labyrinthia

Iopened my eyes in the middle of a street, paved in what appeared to be Roman concrete. The road itself was busy with foot traffic. There weren’t any modern vehicles or even old horse drawn carriages. I did find a rickshaw here and there being pulled by individuals who seemed to be