Bethany got herself off her knees and dusted herself off as she looked around the new area she was in. It was an almost blinding white and not the way things back home were ‘white’, but real white, a brilliant white. The kind of colour you know wouldn’t last an hour being used in the real world. She couldn’t even see a difference between the floor and everything else. It was all white as far as her eye could see. As she slowly rotated and tried to take in her surroundings her eyes eventually fell on the only other figure in the space with her. This being a 2-metre-tall figure, clothed themselves in a deep navy blue toga of some sort, on their head lay a crown of sorts made up of a collection of natural resources from plants, to rocks and gems to even animal bones. But they were attached together in such a seamless way it didn’t stand out as weird or strange.

Bethany found herself curtseying to the figure out of pure instinct eliciting a chuckled out of the figure.

“Don’t worry yourself child” the figure said.

“I am Tem and I am here to introduce you to the new era your world is finally joining. I’m here to guide all of you into your first trial as well as to introduce you to the new rules your life will now follow.” The figure said.

“All of us?” Bethany looked around. “But I’m the only one here.”

Again, Tem chuckled. “You are seeing but one vestige of me, I’m appearing in much the same way to every sentient being across your planet as we speak, though many are resorting to violence rather than talking to me” Tem glanced at something just off centre of Bethany before saying, “Although you will know all about that, heading into one of the combat trials. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me briefly explain.” Tem waved her hand and two rocking chairs appeared, matching Bethany’s favourite seat back home but in the same navy as Tem’s toga.

“Your planet is now a part of something bigger. You have joined what is commonly referred to as the coalition of Trials. Thousands of millions of planets across the universe have joined and for many of them they didn’t understand what was happening, that’s why I was created. To come here to explain what is happening to you and what to expect.

"When we finish here you as will everybody else on the planet, over the age of 12, will be pulled into a trial. There you will be tested on whatever you were doing the minute you were pulled in. In your case that being a fighting rift of some kind. This set of Trials will start easy enough, and after every test you will have the chance to stop and leave or to keep going. Doing up to 10 Trials. Often these trials will be designed to teach you something new and may well allow you to prepare before testing, however this is dependent on the type of Trial you are undergoing. Why would you continue to harder challenges when your life in on the line? Well, every 5 Trials passed you gain what we refer to as a skill level and will naturally find yourself more skilled at whatever is being tested. However, I do have to be clear, these Trials can include real danger, your life may well be forfeit if they go poorly. Anyway, while the Trial rifts stabilise you will have a mandatory Trial open every 7 of your days, after 4 of these they will stabilise and start only being roughly every 30 days. I strongly recommend you get as strong as possible as quickly as possible; your planet will be changing drastically soon. I will visit for the rest of the short-term Trials but after that you will not see me again. At least you shouldn’t. Be warned unlike in here time passes normally inside the Trial. There is more to discover but adding more often proves even more overwhelming.”

Tem stopped speaking and silence reigned for the equivalent of about 15 minutes as Bethany tried to take in the huge amount of information that had just been dropped onto her lap. Her life as she knew it was clearly over, or it could be if she took proper advantage of these changes.

“Thank you Tem, I’m as ready as I’m going to be,” Bethany said, standing up from her chair,

“Good luck to you Bethany, may I recommend getting to skill level 5 as quickly as possible. I also recommend preparing fast, especially as people get closer to a skill level of 10.” With that Tem gave Bethany a small hug before the room got brighter and brighter until Bethany could no longer see. When the light cleared, she once again found herself somewhere new.