The sun blazed high in the clear blue sky of the planet. Rays of unforgiving heat were thrown down in a relentless torrent against the sandy landscape and the black scaled beast trotting across the dry mounds and dunes and rocks of the desert.

The black figure stretched and gave a sigh as he walked. The only things he carried with him were his worn pants, a shirt that looked like it used to be a black dress shirt, and a wicked looking sword that shone blacker than his scales. The dark green eyes surveyed the landscape, a pair of dark emeralds flashing in the sunlight. Whatever the dragon was looking for they found it, a field of tall stone spires, stretching possibly miles high. Though perhaps more eye-catching was the lizard pleasantly basking on a rock. The black dragon smirked and with a clean toss of his weapon, the lizard, and the stone it was sitting upon, were cloven in two.

The scaled creature picked up his sword, the two bloody halves of the sizable lizard and started to walk towards the spires while he ingested the critter.

"The food here is good, and it's warm. . . to damn dry though." The creature growled in a loud baritone. The dragon gazed up at the blue sky and sighed in frustration.

"I hate it here. Of all the damn places to have a tournament it had to be here." He grumbled then stretched. He was tired of walking. The black dragon started to run forward and with two powerful strokes of his wings he was in the air and soaring towards the monumental spikes jutting from the earth. He alighted heavily on the ground at the base of the tallest spire as the note directed. Sand was sprayed up in a small circle around him as the dragon landed. The skullfaced creature walked towards an opening in the base of the spire that was far too detailed and shaped and tunnel-like to be natural. An eerie purple and white light was cast upon him as he entered the structure. A few more steps carried him into a cavern.

The dragon stopped dead in his tracks and simply marveled at the interior of this spire. It was hollow like an upside-down ice cream cone. However, unlike an ice cream cone, the interior of the spire was dotted and spiked all over with crystal formations. A quiet purple glow shone throughout the room and seemed to be coming from the crystals and a strange circular pattern on the floor. He took a few steps forwards as he marveled around and suddenly the circle on the floor glowed brightly as he stepped on it but he was too busy looking up at the crystals which were glowing brighter and brighter.

The dragon blinked with a sudden realization and looked down at the floor just as it reached the climax of its brightness. With a flash, a large purple iridescent ray fired from the top of the spire. A moment later, a rather bewildered black dragon appeared snarling and spitting on a Crystal floor. Others were appearing rather spontaneously here and there in bright incandescent flashes of purple light.

The night was when life came alive in the desert. All sorts of creatures who can't stand the heat in their home were out. However, on this night there was another creature in the desert. A griffin. One that would only be seen if someone happened to look up at just the right moment to see a shadow racing over the sky. The moon was full, providing ample light for night sight, but the griffin was flying too high, so he looked no larger than a bug in the clear night sky. Occasionally, he was noticed by something, but nothing was done about him.

Up in the sky, the brown griffin shivered. It had certainly been a better choice to enter the desert at night. During the day, it was hot, and there were some rather nasty creatures patrolling both the land and sky. At night, most of the weaker creatures came out, most of which couldn't even fly, not at this hight at least. And it was this hight that was causing the problem! It was a horribly cold night, and the griffin was flying well above a safe level. Even the spell that he had put on his body to resist the frost was slowly becoming ineffective. Still this hight was not because he was reckless or stupid. This height was one the exact best height for finding a spire in the desert. High enough to have very wide visibility (good thing about the desert is that it has no clouds) but low enough that a spire would stand out at a fast speed.

The griffin's brown eyes scanned the earth, calmly looking for the spire, while the rest of his body was relaxed, but alert. This could very well be a trap, but the promises in the letter were too great. He had to try. But the troubling thoughts would not leave his mind. Why? Why were the Gods not trying to stop him? They knew everything, they would have known about the griffin's plots of revenge and the letter. If the letter was true, and such power would be his, would the Gods not try to stop him before he could obtain it? Or was it that they knew he was doomed to fail? They knew something he didn't, and it was a frustrating idea. The letter and this Chess person were mysterious enough without having the ominous sign of an easy trip.

About an hour ago, the landscape had given away to sand. Back then, it probably should have been best to cast a locator spell, but he hadn't expected it to take this long to find without magic. Now he was faced with the annoying idea that he could be minutes away from the spire, wasting the spell if he cast it, or saving another hour by doing so. Another minute went by and the griffin almost missed the spires appearing on the horizon. Almost. The griffin let out a whoop of joy and slowed his flight, making a quick decent. Soon enough, he was landing in front of the tallest spire. A bit of sand was kicked up from his land, and the soft sand gave way to his talons and paws, but it felt good for them to sink into the cool sand. He took a moment to check himself. A bit of frost had built up on his wings and beak, but he was alright and they weren't going to cause any problems in the long run. The bag he'd been carrying also seemed intact. It was a rather interesting invention. Made from his own molted feathers and charmed to stay close to his body; it looked invisible. The inside was also impressive. Charmed to be much large on the inside than on the outside, it contained an assortment of already prepared spells, food items, potions, a few magic books, magical items, and a few sentiments. Anything he might need.

The griffin's brown eyes lifted up to the spire. It really was quite large. His eyes traveled downward until he saw something that looked like an entrance. As soon as he had landed, he had started gathering his magic up to be prepared for an attack. Now he was ready. Confidently, he folded his wings to his side and strode into the spire, not looking the least bit afraid. However, the inside did make him stop in his tracks, for more reasons than one. The inside was breath taking enough, and his eyes took a minute to adjust to the soft purple glow, but he was suddenly rushed with a strong sense of magic that had been completely masked on the outside. The appearance of the inside reminded him of a rock he'd once been given as a present. When he was young, he didn't know his own strength yet, so his father had given him the rock and charmed it to roll around. Of course, the griffin had chased it, and at one point he had batted it so hard that it went flying and cracked open on another rock. At first he had been heart-broken, but when he saw the inside, he realized his father had expected him to break it.

The memories of his father were starting to form a lump in the griffin's throat and he shook it away. He could let his mind drift to the past later. He was here to avenge his father, and he must stay focused. The first thing he did was locate the source of the magic. It was all around him, but the strongest was coming from the center of the cavern. When he took a few steps forward, he noticed an odd, almost glowing circular patter. It was definitely transport magic, but it was bloody strong. Enough to say... transport a griffin to another world far away. The griffin chuckled at this, already interested. He knew there were other worlds out there, in fact, his world was linked to another, almost mirrored one in the next galaxy called the otherworld. Where this spell would take him was anyone's guess.

For the first time he felt a pang of uncertainty. He was leaving behind everything he knew to go off to some random world. Still, he wasn't leaving behind anything precious to him. The one important thing in his life was gone, and the only reason he had to return was for revenge. With that thought in mind, he moved over to the circle. His talons chinked against the floor as he made his way to the center of the markings, noticing how it began lighting up more with each step. He waited, quietly observing as the light emitting from the circle got brighter and brighter until he was forced to look up and close his eyes or risk being blinded. His body and the insides of the spire were bathed in the purple light and a light ray was shot out of the top of the spire, catching the attention of all the creatures in the desert.

Not a moment later, the griffin appeared somewhere else in a flash of purple light. He staggered forward and snapped out his wings to steady himself. The air around his shimmered and crackled for a moment as his own magic fought off the purple light. His eyes opened when his magic calmed.

To most(In her world at the very least), with her parasites hidden Antoinette would have appeared to just be a normal human, even with the grenade shaped thing on her chest, since some older humans might have assumed that it was the new "style", or something like that. Most would have also assumed her to be crazy to just go out in the desert with no supplies. However, Antoinette was not a human, as she could survive without water or food for great periods of time. Actually, perhaps I should have worded that better; She wasn't completely human, so though her android part let her survive without food and water for a great period of time, but the human part made her still get hungry or thirsty, so though she could survive, the desire still remained. And eventually, if she went too long without water or food she'd just die from starvation or dehydration, or perhaps both. Thankfully, she wasn't close to dying of either cause, as she was able to get food and water from the last town in various ways, whether it be stealing it, doing small jobs, ect.

The reason that Antoinette was entering the competition was fairly obvious if you knew her back story; She really had no purpose now. She had burned down the laboratory with nearly all of the scientists killed. Even she knew that in the town she couldn't just let her parasites out, and they obeyed, though it would be very nice to have some more freedom. Her intended purpose was to be studied, experimented, and eventually be turned into the ultimate weapon, but she has failed that purpose... Antoinette could care less about this. The fact that she had destroyed what had been her home, killed many people(And severally injuring two), and was a "failure" weren't important to her. What was important to her and was her main drive for entering the competition was that he was taken away... It wasn't her fault though. It was never her fault. That female had taken him away, if she had killed her from the beginning, then he'd still here. In fact, the female should have known that he was hers. It was her fault, all her fault, but she felt satisfaction knowing that her revenge was already done. If she won, then she'd get him back, she'd make sure that no one else would take away, for he was hers, he was always hers, and he'd be hers forever more...

It had been a day and a half(excluding the time she had to rest at night, though it was a much shorter time than humans) before she finally found the spire. Though she was sweating from the heat, it would take a much higher temperature to make her too hot, and vice versa at night. She had seen some spires, but none quite like this. She couldn't really compare it to anything, as she had never seen a spire on it side turned to the larger end, which she was currently facing. She tilted her head for a moment when she first saw it, and parasite that had tear dropped-shaped eyes came out of her back to look at it before going back into her back. She then took a few more steps and entered the cavern, a purple and white light cast on her as she entered, making her close her eyes for a moment before opening her eyes to the interior of the cavern.

Once again, she stood and stared at the cavern, this time from the inside at the crystal formations, in what was probably awe, though she wouldn't know it as she was unfamiliar with what she was feeling. There was a purple glow that made her eyes have to adjust a bit, but it only made what she was feeling even stronger at the sight of it, but even at this feeling she barely showed any emotion on her face and kept the emotionless look that most would have interpreted as her being unimpressed at the sight. Even her all of parasites came out to see the sight. However, she couldn't really explain how it was happening, as being part robot meant she had the urge to try and find logic in things, but then finally dropped trying to find what what causing the glow. She then finally noticed the circular pattern on the floor, which also emulated a soft, purple glow. After waiting and nothing happening, she quickly got the hint that she should step onto the circle. She did so without a second look behind her, as she was leaving nothing behind.

Suddenly, everything grew brighter and brighter as she continued to stand on the center of the pattern, so bright that eventually she had to close them for some time before finally opening them again when her parasites poked her to let her know that the glow had faded away. She found herself in a crystal room and, once again, could not find a explanation as to why she had ended up here.

She looked around and saw lots of various races and creatures, the only ones that she was "familiar" with was the human-looking ones(Which were most likely not human at all), the rest she couldn't help but tilt her head at, which her parasites doing it at the same time in the same direction, said direction being in the same one that the black dragon was, though she wasn't just staring at him, though It could have appeared that way.