Under the blazing sun, the venomous snakes' scales reflected a malicious gleam. Their cold, dry scales scraped against the branches of the great tree they clung to. More and more snakes covered in filthy scales emerged from the shadows beneath the green leaves, their pitch-black, inorganic-looking eyes fixed on the traveler sheltering from the sun beneath the tree. These snakes possessed forms beyond the evolutionary traits of creatures in the Material Universe. Crowns of multicolored scales grew from their grotesque heads as they flicked their tongues at the elderly traveler sitting beneath the tree, wrapped in an earth-yellow cloak and covered in dust, sensing the heat radiating from him. Not far from the tree lay the coastline, yet the rolling, glittering seawater beneath the sun failed to carry its moisture-laden air onto this land. Only a few blades of grass grew across the cracked earth. The spring that sustained the tree had dwindled to a thin trickle that might evaporate under the sun at any moment.
The traveler beneath the tree kept his eyes tightly shut. Sweat mixed with dust covered his gaunt, weathered face, while his cracked fingers tightly gripped an oddly shaped chess piece. A gear had been carved into its top. The pure white reconstructed polymer ivory piece had been stained pink by sweat and the blood seeping from his fingertips.
Another traveler in a long robe walked toward the magnificent tree along a path where grass and flowers continuously sprang up beneath his feet. He wore a Golden Laurel Wreath, and his snowy-white robe was spotless. Compared with the first traveler, he looked almost excessively healthy. The snakes in the tree immediately stopped rattling their scales. They watched the latter traveler with malice, bared their fangs as if to spray venom, and hissed in warning. Yet