《The Returned》


 Lets go home?

    "Hah.....hah.....hah" a lone figure stood on top of a mountain of corpses, he wore a black leather armor that was torn and missing a few parts the torn parts revealeddeep stab wounds on his body, he raised his head and looked at the carnage that happened here today.


    Only his eyes were visiblefor his face was hidden behind the bloodied white mask that only had openings for his eyes if it weren''tfor those it would have been a faceless mask.


    His eyes were cold and almost lifeless as he scoured the battlefield, he started walking slowly his steps were heavy as tho his legs were strappedwith heavy iron balls.


    His back was covered with several arrows that have pierced it cleanly.


    "Hah....how much longer..." the man mumbled with his tired and hushed voice, he walked straightwithout a purposehe walked and walked until he saw the light in front of him.


    He looked at it closely the light looked like a golden door, the light beckoned to him to come closer and without hesitation, he slowly walked forward.


    "I...might just...let them kill me...already" the man mumbled as he walked through the golden door.


    He covered his eyes with the last remaining strengthhe had in him, as he took few steps he opened his eyes he was truly confused as to where he ended up, he looked around and saw tall buildings with glass windows on them he saw signs and the road he recognized from his deepest memories.


    "Am...I home?" the man wondered but his train of thoughtwas interruptedby loud noise, "Put your hands in the air right now!" he looked towards the source of the voice. He saw a large group of humans dressed in green uniforms and helmets with black masks that covered their faces.


    "Heh...I guessI am truly...back" the man let out a small laugh and collapsed on the stone ground.


    "Wait!? Is he one of the chosen!? Damn it get the medicsquick!" the voice that previouslyyelled at the bloodied and collapsed man yelled out commandsin panic.


    "Am I dead?" the man covered in black leather armor wearing a white mask was sitting down in a complete darkness, there was no ground no sky it was a complete darkness.


    "No I guess not seems I am just dreaming again" the man let out a voice that sounded he didn''t care at all that he was surrounded by complete and utternothingness almost as he was completelylifeless.


    "The last thing I remember..." the man spoke once again but paused for a second and continued on "ah yes the alliance launched their attack on me and after that...buildings, green uniforms, humans...I am back aren''t I?" the man asked but no answer came as he was alone in that darkness.


    A white light appeared in the completedarkness, the man looked at the light and just slowly mumbled: "time to wake up I guess".


    The man opened his eyes, it took him a while to get his eyes adjusted to the light that emanatingfrom the celling when his adjusted he slowly moved his head and looked around.


    He was lying down on a bed covered in a white blanket, he saw strange contraptions that made a lot of noises they were all going "beep...beep...beep" he tried to move but he was stopped by the rattling sound near his legs and arms.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    He looked at them and saw that he was bound by metal rope no metal cuffs to the side of the bed both his arms and legs were bound he couldn''t move an inch.


    "Well, I guess I am not going anywhere for a while....at least I still have my mask on" the man mumbled and closed his eyes again in an attempt to fall asleep again.


    But his attempt was crushed by the sound of the door opening, he opened his eyes and raised his head as much as he could and looked at the person that entered, it was a blonde heard beauty that was dressed in a green shirt that exposed a little of her bountiful breasts her similarly green long skirt fluttered around but it did show a little of her slender legs that wore high heels that made "clack" sound every time she moved.


    He looked at her face she was truly a great beauty with those green eyes, long eyelashes, cheery lips but the man was not interested in her in the slightest as the opposite sex he only looked at the items she carried in her arms, a pen and a notebook he thought to himself how is she going to torture him with those items, well it is possible to stab him with a pen.


    While he was having all kinds of thoughts the blonde haired woman moved over a chair closer to the right side of the bed and sat down, she smiled sweetly at the man and spoke with a sweet voice.


    "Good morning mister Aleksei how are you feeling?" the blonde haired woman spoke to Aleksei as she crossed her legs.


    Aleksei looked at her without moving nor spoken he only stared at the woman, the blonde woman looked back at him with a hint of nervousness she spoke again "ah my apologies I forgot to introduce myself my name is Emily Sanders, I work for the united earth federation UNF in short, you are probably wondering what is happening right now but rest assured it will all be explained to you!" Emily spoke in an enthusiastic voice.


    "UNG?" Aleksei spoke with his lifeless voice that made Emily jolt back from her constant babbling.


    "Ahem, right we can start from there" Emily cleared her throat and began explaining the situation of the past 10 years.10 years ago large number of people age 17 to 30 started disappearing all across the world the higher ups of all the countries thought it was some new cult that kidnapped people so they didn''t spare that much time in that matter.


    But it was not long after that the strange beings calling themselves ancient ones arrived. They gave a message to the people of earth that a great threat is approaching earth a threat we could not fend off ourselves so in order to help earth survive they send the chosen people to other worlds to learn and to train themselves for the upcoming battle with the unknown enemy.


    The ancient ones spoke that the chosen ones will return in 10 years bearing powers to stop the world from falling into the enemies hands and in 3 years after the chosen return the enemies will appear and the battle will begin.


    The ancients told the humans to stop fighting between themselves and created a united earth that will stand against the enemies that come to invade.


    "And so the UNF was founded exciting right!" Emily spoke with a proud voice but when she looked at Aleksei her blood froze as she looked at his eyes.


    Instead of his usual lifeless eyes, they were almost burning with hatred, Emily gulped down and slowly spoke to Aleksei who she thought would explode any second.


    "Um..mister Aleksei what''s wrong?" Emily asked with caution.


    "So...it was them...who sent me to that hell...ancient ones where can I met them?" Aleksei spoke slowly but with a clear hint of hatred in his voice.


    "...Umm...you can not meet them they never showed up again after they disappeared the first time" Emily spoke.


    "I see" Aleksei''s eyes calmed down and his lifeless eyes returned which made Emily sigh in relief, it was strange she never felt such clear hatred before in her life, she explained the situation the world was in, too many of the chosen ones that returned to earth but this was the first time she meet someone like Aleksei.


    "Mr. Aleksei what happened to you in the world you were sent to?" Emily was curious about Aleksei''s situation as it was clearly not normal, well the whole transported to another world was not normal but his situation was a whole different situation from the other chosen.


    She looked at his medical file and she was shocked by what she saw in it, 80% of his body had burn marks on them, and the rest of the body scars not even a little of visible healthy skin was on him only burns and scars.


    "Do you really want to know?" Aleksei turned his head around and looked at Emily.


    Emily couldn''t help but sweat a little as she stared into those lifeless eyes but she forced herself and answered Aleksei''s question "Yes please tell me"


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    Just a littleprologue hope you enjoyed.

 Living Hell

    "Are you sure this is enough?" Alekseitold his dark and filled with sadness story, Emily never spoke a word she just listened to all the things that happened to Aleksei while he was still living in the world he was forcefully thrown into he didn''t even finish it but Emily didn''t have the stomach to hear the full version only the tip of it.


    "Umm...excuse me I need to go and give my report" Emily forced her smile but it was not sweet and gentle anymore just forced, she exited the room and went down the hallway but in her mind the things Aleksei said still remained in her mind.


    Aleksei started his story from the begining,he was just a 15-year-old boylike any other he woke up that faithful day like always he got dressed, eaten his breakfastwith his parents and went to his school like always.He lived in a small town calledNeviksa in Russia his parents owned a small flower shop, money was sometimes a problem for them but they still lived happilyevery day.


    While Aleksei spoke of his parents and life before the world transferthe look in his eyes softenedbut the lifeless look returned as soon as he continued his story.


    He took the usual shortcut through the back alleys like always, but this time something was different he could feel it with his body strange wind blew out ofnowhere some nearby light started flickering, it scared him at first but the strange phenomenonstopped after a couple of seconds.


    Aleksei felt relievedand shruggedhis shoulders, he looked at his little wrist watch "Crap I''m gonnabe late!" when he saw that he was gonna be late for his classes he started running.


    While he ran strange red hole openedup in front of him he didn''thave any time to stop or to move to the side to avoid the strangered hole that appeared out ofnowhere.


    "What the hell?!" Aleksei was swallowed by the red hole, the light was so bright that he had to cover his eyes with his hands.


    "Is this the one we are supposed to train? He looks rather weak doesn''the?" a deep voice entered Aleksei''s ears, he slowly moved his hands and openedhis eyes.


    He was shocked and scared he didn''t know what the beings before him were, they were gigantic they wore strange golden armors and their faces were hidden behind white faceless masks that only showed strange yellow light in them.


    Aleksei gasped at these majestic beings, it wasn''tlong before he spottedbig white featherywings on their backs that were folded, only one word came to his mind.


    "Angels..."


    As soon as he spoke one of the angels flew closer to him, the angel slowly moved his gigantic hands towards him, Aleksei was panicked becauseof the giant hand approaching him but he was frozen his legs refused to move because of fear, he closed his eyes awaiting death but that never happened.


    He openedhis eyes and looked at the hand that picked him up?


    Aleksei was surprised he accepted pain and death but instead, the angel gently picked him up, it flew towards the rest of them and placed on something that looked like a round stone table.


    He was surrounded by 10 angels that were identical. It wasn''t long before one of them spoke to him with a gentle female voice "Welcome chosen one we shall be your guides and masters while you inhabit this world, fear not you are not in danger here"


    Aleksei listened to the gentle voice that calmed him down greatly, he asked them how he ended up in this place and why the angels explained to him that he was one of the chosen that was going to defend his world from the forces they could not defeat with their own strength.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Aleksei was told that by being summoned to this world he immediately gained a unique power that only he had and no one else in this world or any other.


    He was excited at first he always dreamed of being a hero that protects the weak and is an ally of justice but his dreams were crushed by what came next.


    One of the angels waved his hand and a human man in strange looking clothes appeared, he wore tattered clothes that had many holes in them and the stench that came from him made Aleksei almost puke.


    The man looked even more scared than when Aleksei first saw the angels, but this man actually pissed himself as a puddle appeared beneath him he screamed some words in a language Aleksei didn''t understand he looked like a madman yelling like that.


    "Aleksei your task now is to.....kill this man with your power" Aleksei froze up after hearing the voice of the angels that commanded him to kill this man?


    "But....no I mean...why do I have to kill him? And besides, I don''t know how to use my power! And even if I did I wouldn''t do something that awful!" Aleksei was scared at first but he yelled back at the angel''s unreasonable request that demanded him to kill some innocent man that did nothing to him.


    The gentle voice from before was instantly turned into a cold one "refusing to follow orders is unacceptable punishment" the angel that stood in the center of the others raised his hand and white fire appeared on the tip of his finger.


    The angel pointed his finger at Aleksei and the white fire moved at amazing speed towards Aleksei "know pain lowly creature" as soon as the angel spoke "Arghahrgfara!!?!?" Aleksei started screaming as the white flame engulfed his body.


    He felt so much pain that he could not even describe it felt like millions of needles pierced his body over and over, it felt like the eternity passed before Aleksei dropped on his knees and the fire stopped.


    His face was horribly burned his clothes and his body as well, the skin was hanging from his body he looked more like a skeleton than human.


    "Do not worry you shall not die, but you can not be healed nor restored to the way you looked, and you will always feel the pain of the holy fire on your body as a reminder of what happens when you defy a divine being, now rise and do what you were told" the angel spoke in a cold voice.


    Aleksei slowly stood up his body felt like a living hell with every step he took towards the trembling man he spoke "I''m...sorry" "I''m sorry" tears formed in his eyes as he spoke.


    He raised his hand towards the trembling, the man seeing that in his desperate last attempt to save his life stood up and rushed towards Aleksei while screaming, but Aleksei didn''t move at all and spoke one last time "I''m sorry" red light flashed in Aleksei''s hand.


    The man stopped moving and fell down on his knees, he didn''t understand what was happening to him he couldn''t control his body at all, soon blood started flowing down his nose, his mouth, he cried blood tears, his ears started bleeding from every hole in his body blood started flowing out.


    Soon the man collapsed down into a puddle of his own blood with a shocked look in his dead eyes.


    "Ho..blood magic how rare...bring the next one" the angels spoke and soon a new human appeared but this time it was a woman, Aleksei apologized again when he killed her the same way as he did the man.


    The next one was a small child a girl no more than 4 years old, but Aleksei could do nothing other than apologize and try to end their lives as painlessly as possible.


    The angels repeated this so called training over and over and over with different races and ages soon Aleksei didn''t even care anymore he would kill whatever the angels summoned this was their twisted way of training.


    Emily couldn''t take it anymore and excused herself by saying she needed to give her report, Aleksei just stared at her she left his room.


    Emily stopped in front of the door that was guarded by two soldiers carrying guns in their arms, they were dressed standardly in green uniforms with helmets and black face masks.


    Emily took out her identification card and showed it to the guards, they saluted her and opened the door for her, she said her thanks to them and entered the room.


    "So commander how was the new chosen, I heard he regained his consciousness" Emily stood near the door, straightened her back and saluted towards the elderly man that was sitting down in his leather chair.


    "Yes, general Blythe he has regained hisconsciousness...as to how he was well...to be honest, I have never seen such a broken human my whole life" Emily spoke with a grim look on her face.


    "Hmm..tell me in details" Blythe spoke.


    "Yes, sir!" Emily yelled and saluted once again before she gave her full report on the chosen Aleksei, but she decided not to speak of the strange divine beings that Aleksei called angels that looked a lot like the ancient ones that delivered their warning to earth, she decided that more investigating was needed before giving her report on them.


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