《The Wanderer's Beginnings (Book 1: A Dark Tale.).》


 God Protects Drunks and Fools.

    The acrid stench of piss woke him, causing him to frown in displeasure as he opened his eyes to darkness, he reached out to support his weight as he attempted to stand only to slip and land face first in what smelled like shit, the fact that he knew the taste only serving to make him feel worse .


    He scrambled to his knees as his stomach lurched and turned bringing acid to his throat, his heart pounding from shock he tried to take in what he could with the meager light the moon that stood overhead faithfully provided.


    He turned, examining the space around him, only to be disappointed to find nothing but more faeces and rock surface surrounding him on all sides, his mind clouded as it spun trying to understand the state of events, trying to make logic out of his predicament and make a sequential chain of how he arrived here, when a stray thought hit him and he finally realised he was standing in shit, inside what was possibly a pit meant for shit, and may have accidentally swallowed some during his earlier fall.


    Pushing all other concerns to the back of his mind he raised his voice and yelled


    "Help"


    "Somebody, Help"


    Shouting variations of the timeless distress call into the night as the chill set into his bones, he was greeted by no sound other than that of his desperate voice pleading out to the cruel night.


    Soon his voice too hoarse to continue shouting, and realising that there was probably no one close enough aid him he turned around examining the surrounding, this time to search for anything that could possibly aid his escape


    But reality is a cruel mistress, finding nothing to use and the walls being too smooth to climb, he found a relatively clean spot and slumped as the fear that had gripped him since he woke up finally toke hold and left him shaking and afraid, to curb his hysteria he recited a bible verse he knew, he wasn''t religious but had modified this verse and memorised it because it sounded kind of cool when he was a teenager;


    "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, My Soul within me; My Sword, My rod and My staff, they comfort me. "


    At the moment its was the closest thing to a prayer he knew even though now he was wishing he knew an actual verse to say, but he didn''t and so he repeated the verse again and again.


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    Through it all the nights chill kept him company, and the full moon seemed to thrum at his words its light in the pit growing dimmer with each repetition, but he failed to notice this as the words were giving him a sense of calm he craved, he felt it moving inside of him, in his chest, his heart, his mind focused on just those words, forgetting reason forgetting purpose all he knew were those words.


    Soon he had fallen silent, but the words remained, he could feel them in every breath he took, every beat of his steady heart.


    And so it continued into the night, at some point the rhythym causing him to sleep forgetting the stench of his now pitch black pit prison, and so it remained until dawn when a tarvern boy arrived to dump the nights givings into the pit and noticed a shabby, oddly dressed fellow sleeping comfortably in it, The boy ran back to the town to get help and returned after a few hours with some men with grimm faces.


    They Scrambled in hurry to retrieve the obvious corpse, everyone knew better than to leave a body unburied this far North talk less of leaving it in a pit of shit, there was no more way sure to cause undead as a defiled corpse, and a single undead had eaten every last living until its rotting stomach burst, in Rottswiel  a village not far from here that had taken the custom lightly for years, it had woken in dead of night destroyed the village with no one powerful enough there to kill the dead, then it had walked in a slowly shuffle at odds with the quick animal like lunges it had attacked its prey with yet had made it to the city just after dawn with the purifying rays of the sun saving their lives


    After they retrived the body, they were about to set it on fire when the boy noticed that it had exhaled, meaning the fool was alive, so they carried him back even though he smelled worse that a Mumakils ass


    The boy, using the ropes they brought retrieved what seemed to be the mans belongings as they were where he had lain a second ago, a sword, a rod, and a staff before folling after them into the town.

 Dont Piss On Me And Call It Rain.

    The Morning Before.


    My Name is Trevor Brenton and I''m in deep shit(Author Note: *wink wink)


    I''ve always been a bit of an oddball, never really fitting in with any of the other people my age or in my immediate environment, always staying by my self, talking as little as i possibly can manage and doing everything in my power not to stand out not due to any fear but simply because when you do things start getting troublesome with people giving you more work criticising the work you''ve done or just coming to ''give their own two cents'', if i wanted your change i would open a toll booth.


    I''m an orphan, never knew who my Parents were, grew up in a very inadequate foster care system that more or less dumped me with the first selfish little cocksucker who was looking for an excuse to have the government support her fucking addiction problem, an excuse with the name of me, that selfish little bitch.........


    Calm Trevor.....Deep breaths.......Deep breaths


    Anyways growing up in such a distasteful environment gave me a rather practical and some may say cynical world view which has protected me from everything from molesters to organ harvesters(I live in a very dangerous city)while some may see that as a sad way to grow i''m rather thankful for the fact that I didn''t grow up to become like all the other na?ve little patsies who don''t understand the truth about the world around them.


    If I were asked whether I have any regrets about my growing up I would say yes, because I regret not stabbing cunt bitch in the neck the first time she passed out in front of me, and not having let her die the second time she OD''ed, why the second time you ask, well because the first time I had administered the drugs myself so if she hadn''t woken up I would have been in trouble and that would have been.....................unpleasant.


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    Anyways such is my life, it hasn''t made me into a sociopath mind you, simply practical, and because i''m not a sociopath I feel lonely from time to time and the lack of any purpose in my life made me unhappy, I want something to do, need it, a crusade of some sort to bury my head into, to seek the peek of the Universe to walk amongst the stars and slay the devils.............Ah


    Sorry, my inner disease escaped for a second, I caught this particular bug after playing hundreds of video games and reading tons of light novels, it tends to leave me in the most ridiculous situations such as attacking the bullies about to smash my head in with a ''Fist Surpassing the Nine Realms'' you can imagine the result


    Why were they about to smash my head in you ask, well, It was a morning a long time ago(today) when I stumbled upon a damsel in distress(not really) and sought to save her(no seriously, non of that happened)


    "....."


    "............."


    "................."


    They''re fucking bullies, do they need a reason to bash you?


    And so it was that a few minutes later I lay on the dirty floor of the Public Toilet of school, that I caught a glimps of the sky outside, it wasn''t a good view mind you, everything was always overcast here, but it was the sky, so as I gazed about into its depths, I made a wish almost every teenager in my position would.


    "I wish I could disappear."


    And so I did.

 Dont Piss On Me And Call It Rain. Part 2

    My heart lurched as sense of overwhelming vertigo left my eyes spinning and my head turning, I closed my eyes to clear my head and stop the dizziness from making me break down


    It was a good few minutes or maybe seconds I couldn''t tell, before I was able to open my eyes again without feeling like I had been thrown off the worlds fastest Ferris wheel. I opened my eyes and was stunned by what I was seeing, it was chaos, carnage, destruction, It was order, Peace, Creation, it was everything, it was nothing, it was incomprehensible and difficult to describe, I was witnessing two extremes of everything exist in harmony, and then it was gone.


    I suddenly realized I had stood up at some point, or maybe I hadn''t, maybe the place had simply oriented itself to make me be standing, it was a freaky thought one which inspired me to look for a way out, I knew I didn''t want to be here, a lesson I picked from all the Greek mythology I''ve read was; "STAY AWAY FROM GODS", it may sound odd considering my love for Light Novels, but it was apt, let me explain


    Imagine you are standing above an ant, you pick up the ant and seem to show it favour, you place it somewhere and watch it struggle to survive, struggle to live just a second more, regardless of how amusing or ''special'' the ant is it remains an ant, and at the slightest displeasure that ant which stood out, whether by being special or sheer dumb luck is going to be the closest one to crush, and crush you will, right before you pick another ant to amuse you


    "That should be an accurate description" a voice sounded out from behind me


    I yelled "Fuck" as I turned around to face it, what appeared before me was;


    "Morgan Freeman..?" I said in shock


    "Yes, I quite enjoy the sound of this forms voice" he replied "And to be completely honest with you, people tend to warm up to me quicker when I appear like this"


    "Who are you?" I asked, still in shock but with shock giving way to fear by the second, Fear I was trying desperately hard to restrain


    "You already know the answer to that, I am God, a God at the very least, and before you ask, yes I have chosen you to be the source of my amusement, I have chosen you to be my ant." He said relaxed manner while confirming my fears and shattering my world


    "Do I have a choice?" I knew I was pushing it, but I had to ask, his reply was a question, simple, short and explained the reality of the situation clearly;


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    "Does the ant?"


    As soon as he said I knew it was true, there was an aura of power and majesty around him that let me know I couldn''t even kill myself if he didn''t wish it, all I could do was resign myself to my fate.


    And so he began speaking, explaining how in his boredom he had created a world, a mirror of this one excluding certain adjustments which made it very different from this one, an adjustment would be the existence of magic, he didn''t dwell on the topic and I didn''t ask as something told me he would abide no more questions and the punishment would be worse than death. He explained how I was an actor on the stage of this world, how he had developed all the pieces; The Hero, The Villain, The Demon, The Gods, The Lover, The Betrayer, The Mentor, The Teacher, The Scarred and so many more, and how I was the final piece on the board; The Otherworlder. He gave me comfort in knowing that I didn''t have any purpose to achieve except my own, how I was free to do what I wanted that it was all to his amusement, so it didn''t matter whether I never left where I would be placed, or whether I went forward to kill the Hero or anything. He told me he would give me power, one power of my choice as was customary in such situations.


    "So think" he said as he concluded "Any Power you want, but remember, all power comes with a price, take you time when you are ready I will return". he said as he vanished leaving me alone in the world of mountain and sea he had created as he spoke to spare my mind from madness


    I looked out at the oceans and thought, he had made it clear I would only receive one gift, and nothing more, that gift would be the basis of my survival in this new world and though he hadn''t said anything I knew that this world would be dangerous or else he would''ve limited what I could pick as a power, but not limiting it showed that no matter what I chose, no matter how contrived would not be matchless in the world I was headed too, but yet in my thoughts I limited myself as instinct told me that the more powerful and the more of a cheat my ability was, then the more unfavourable the situations he would engineer and place me would be, but then again the ability could not be too weak as it would be the major factor of my survival in the unfavourable and new landscape I would be headed to. So I took my time sitting there as I pondered what would make be the best ability to choose

 Avoiding Death In Future Days.

    I can''t remember how long I spent there, seated on the cliffs over looking the shore and the sea in this world created for my sake but not for me, I sat and pondered, I decided and undecided, I may have held a cynical worldview before discovering that there was more to the world through the actions of that God but I still wanted...no I still want to live, I want to see what this new world has to offer, what secrets there are, what magic looks, tastes, feels like, I want to walk through the dreams of the world and feel its passions, I WANT TO LIVE.


    And for that I thought, and considered, some abilities were too strong and sure to invite the mischief of this God or others, but their Nerfed versions were too weak to apply in all the scenarios of danger I was sure to experience in a world such as this, I considered them; Intelligence? Would tell me how to use Strength I don''t have, Dimensional Manipulation? He won''t allow one strong enough to matter as it would allow me escape back to my Earth, Immortality? It is tempting but would not protect me for pain, sadness, torture, manipulation, control, madness, Adaptation skill wont help a knife in your stomach, Teleportation seems nice but is ultimately only for escape, what if I am in a situation where escape is not an option? Infinity Effect? Powerful, but an infinite amount of feathers wont save you from an inferno in other words it would require you to have enough knowledge to pick the right item to use and the interference from God would continuously place me in situations so dangerous I am more likely to die from my own actions to save myself


    And so I sat, then stood after a time, then I raised my head and looked at the stars before I called out and he was there


    "You have decided?" he asked to which I nodded but hurriedly said; "I have a few questions first" he nodded and I continued "Are you Omnipotent?" He Shook his head, I did not ask why feeling it would touch on the Pride of Powerful beings when they are unable to do something, but his not being Omnipotent meant he would not be able to grant me Omnipotence, I asked again "Are you Omniscient?" He smiled as if he had read my mind and shook his head, this was good, it meant he could be deceived and hidden from, I suppressed the grin that was trying to form and asked "Can I have Author Authority?" he shook his head and replied "I am the author", his meaning was understood that he was the only one who could hold that authority there cannot be two authors to a story no matter what others may think only one can wear a crown, I proceeded to ask "How about Absolute Existence?" to which he said "There are no absolutes" leaving me with only one choice, I took a deep breath and told him my decision


    "I want the Power of Creation", he laughed as if he had expected it all along but then I continued, "But I don''t want the Knowledge on how to use it, I want it to be in such a form that having it won''t cause you to interfere with my existence on the world"


    After I finished I stayed silent to see his response, he stayed silent as if he hadn''t expected my addendums before he finally responded saying "I will give you the Power of Creation, you will learn its rules yourself, it has the potential to make you truly powerful, but know that any Power comes with a cost, when you understand how to use this power well the price will be gone but I will warn against its liberal use before you do."


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    "As an extra due to the nature of your power, I will give you the gift of tongues, you shall have the knowledge of any language you wish to speak, it will not let you read, but you shall be capable of speaking any language you are aware of."


    As he spoke I felt a sleepiness taking over me, I couldn''t resist it and by the time he was done I could hold on no longer, and so it was that I was taken by the darkness, the next time I woke up the horrible stench of Piss and Shit overwhelmed my nostrils.....................................................


    ****************************************************


    The Dawn Wall


    "Mistress, Mistress" a shrill call echoed through the marble halls, every surface in this room was covered in white marble but gave off an eerie and overwhelming feeling of despair, from the Outside this Peak was a magnificent place where mortal dared not tread but resembled the Palace of the Gods where benevolence was abundant, however everyone one who had been inside would tell you that this place rather the hell where souls were damned for sins so heinous they made gods cringe, and the Master of this Place of Vileness was a Woman, The Mistress of the Seas, one of the Eight Guardian who held The Realms of Man from the Seas or Imprisoned as some would say, her Palace Stood at the Dawn Wall, the shore between the Realms of North and the Seas, none could pass through the wall without her permission, though non wanted to as the sea held naught but suffering and death.


    "Mistress" the cry continued, getting shriller with every call, with a room lay a woman looking to be about forty years of age, kindness and warmness in her demeanor, but her eyes, her eyes held the chill that spoke of hatred, of disdain, of Insanity held back by a thin illusion of Control


    "What is it Grov?" the woman said, raising her head calmly in time to see what appeared to be a human skeleton, but was warped and contorted in a strange manner, its ribs open and pointed outwards, the bones of its leg wrapped tightly around its neck, leaving it to walk on its hands


    This Grov, saw the calm in its mistress face and knew fear, but felt that the news it had was so important it could possibly cause her to free it from this life of damnation, swallowing its fear it  spoke without any vocal chords


    "The Moon Sang"


    At first, Shock suffused her face before she smiled, but with the smile was no kindness, no joy, but wickedness and a Sadism that chilled the bones, her entire person seemed to radiate a desire to cause suffering as she said "Really?"


    ****


    All across the Dawn wall, and every where within this world similar conversations were being had as a small number of people noticed this sign and had enough knowledge to understand what it meant, and thus began the violent stirrings of events that would shake the very foundations of this reality. But Of Course, non of this concerned the People of the small village of Vjoirshold, who as far as they were concerned had saved themselves of the disaster of an undead being born there. And Of Course non of this bothered the young man who was found unconscious in a Shit-Pit.

 Waking Up.

    I was floating, I felt empty, I was void my entire mind a mess, I could feel whatever little connection that remained of who I was quietly slipping away, slowly leaving me and turning me into nothing, all around me i saw contradiction, I saw roaring flames embrace calmly raging waters in a lovers kiss, I saw a slight breeze lift a mountain into the sky.


    I saw existence.


    But none of it mattered, because the pull on me was growing stronger and I was slipping away become nothing even as the things around me pulsed with energy


    And then it stopped.


    As soon as the pull stopped, I could feel myself growing stronger and becoming more of me with each breath, but even as I became stronger I was losing whatever it was that allowed me to come here but not enough of my mind had recovered to view anything with any sort of coherence


    And ever so slowly, I woke up.


    ********


    Von the Butcher, Vjoirshold


    3rd Person POV


    Von the Butcher was by all accounts an unpleasant man, He''d moved to Vjoirshold little over a year ago, from where?, he had never bothered to tell anyone, and in a record time of Three days had succeeded in antagonizing every villager in the little hamlet, even Mellow Melly the towns resident dose of too much kindness disliked him with such burning fervor that one would wonder what she would have done were she not so kind.


    Yet the hate of all his neighbours did nothing to upset Von, not causing so much as a twitch in his eye, all the curses threats and sideways looks did nothing to ease his foulness only intensified it


    The Entire village hated Von but had made no move to drive him out, not out of the goodness of their simple minds, but out of simple instinct of self preservation, Von was an unpleasant man, but what he lacked in manners, civility and empathy, he made up for in size, and then some. The villagers had felt that they could run him out with numbers if they needed to, but then one day a wild bull broke into the village rampaging and charging at whatever it saw, its misfortune was that during its charge it found itself in the path of Von, who had been walking calmly towards his home on the other side of the bull even as everyone else ran away from it, Von had been unarmed and even more drunk and sour than usual that afternoon, as the bull neared him, he didn''t employ any tricks simply stretched out his enormous palms, caught the bull by its horns and hefted it over his shoulder, continuing home with the beast kicking and fretting about but still unable to break him hold. The next day, Von started a special on fresh cut bull.


    After that incident the villagers knew that chasing Von out was nothing more than a pipe dream, so they stayed out of his way, however unpleasant he was the man had never gone looking for the trouble of someone who had no business with him.


    On this fine day of Galaris the god of the sun and moon who called for rest on the day dedicated to him, not many people did this but Von however relished it, Von had only one thing in mind to do, and that was to get so black out drunk that by the time he woke up he wouldn''t recognize his out stench, no simple feat, as the smell oozing off him was strong enough to make the Pigs reared by ''old man Corbin'', the village''s pig farmer cringe. He had just set out on the first cup to oblivion when the tavern pup ran into the village shouting something about a body in the Shit-pits, which to even someone as bad as Von spelled trouble, the best case scenario being what ever had killed him attacking the village, the worst being him waking up as undead and deciding he needed a snack before continuing to the next village, if the boy was right there was no time to waste, if the boy was wrong or just seeking attention, he''d hide him and the tavern keep together


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    He got up and walked towards where they''d dug the pits, close enough to reach, far enough to make sure they didn''t sleep each night with the smell of shit in their nostrils, by the time they got there, the boy had overtaken him to walk in front, while a small number of men had formed behind him as they trailed there, some carrying straw and oil formed from pigs fat to help burn the body, while the rest held some sort of tool they could use to fight, Stupid he thought to himself, if it was undead what hope did a pig poker have against it? hopefully they only needed the straw


    By the time they got there, the sun was nothing but a little crest at the Eastern hills, if this was an undead, it would have been through ripping their guts and on its way to the village before the sun showed up. As soon as they saw the body still there in the pit not moving, some of the men let out an audible sigh of relief and started working to bring it out, they''d needed someone to jump in and tie a rope about it so they could haul it out, no one seemed to be coming and time for his drinking was going, so he shoved the closest person in, the closest person happened to be the tavern pup who was looking in the pit at the strange clothes the corpse was wearing, shoving the pup had earned him bad looks around but he''d never cared before, why start now?


    They lowered the rope to the boy who was pale with fear as he approached the still figure, reaching it, he saw a slight fog leave its lips, then he shout back up that the person was still alive, he tied the rope around the body under its pits then stepped back as we the other men hauled it up, Von didn''t help of course, he came to deal with a corpse, if it wasn''t a corpse yet it was his problem. They put the person to the side and lowered the rope with a noose for the boy to step on, they pulled him out, but he was holding things he said he found in the persons hand; a sheathed sword, a black wooden rod, and a staff with an odd beast head(http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120512233525/elderscrolls/images/d/d2/Dragonprieststaff_silver.png</a>)


    The Sword seemed to be in good condition, so Von tried to take it, however when he touched it, it seemed to come alive as it pulsed with energy and threw him into a nearby tree. When the sword shot used energy to shoot Von into the tree, the body stirred slightly, showing the first movement it had done since they arrived.


    "Magic!!!!" someone hissed, they were startled and slightly afraid, but didn''t dare to leave the Mage here, what if he woke up and sought revenge?, or worse, what if he died and turned into undead?, normal undead were bad enough, what would happen if one had magic?


    And so the carried him into the village, washing him and changing his clothes, which they had their women wash carefully, such strange clothes must hold powerful magicks, they hurried to not delay and offend the unconscious mage, legend had it that even when asleep a mage was aware of all around it and could kill foolish mortals who were tired enough of life that they dared to attack them whilst they slept. In their hurry to please the mage, no one noticed that Von had failed to return with them, and no one cared enough for him to go check his home.


    They kept the mage in the finest room they had, which for a village as small as theirs wasn''t saying much, but they hoped Sir Mage would be reasonable when he awoke. Yet Sir Mage remained asleep, for three full days.


    On the fourth day, he awoke.

 Waking Thoughts.

    Tyler POV


    I woke up, my head groggy from the dreams, I lay there getting used to the feeling again, and trying to recall what I had dreamt but for the life of me I kept drawing blanks. What had happened?


    Slowly I began to feel myself again, my limbs were once more familiar, my senses active greedily sending impulses to my head like their lives depended on it, my head had cleared a bit the fog lifting enough for me to recall my circumstances and dealings with a God. At the moment it all seemed so distant, like a dream, so slowly I opened my eyes, knowing that once they were, I would see the familiar ceiling of the hospital where I provably went after the beating I was given and where i''d been hallucinating for the last, who knows how long? And so in seconds my eyes were fully open, what greeted me was not the cold unfamiliar white of the hospital ward but wooden logs cut in a crudely even way stacked against walls of mud and stone with hay and wood as a ceiling.


    Shit.


    As soon as I said that I recalled my previous accommodations which my mind had held distant for my sanity''s sake I presume, and all of a sudden the crude logins seemed not so shabby, homely in fact, but the question was, where was I? and what was I doing here?


    I made to get up causing the things that were placed beside me to rattle ever so slightly, I don''t think it was loud but yet the sound seemed to echo and resonate within me causing me to pay more attention to the other items sharing my bed; a rod, a staff, and a sword, three items simple looking, plain and unadorned lay there on the bed. I reached out to pick them up and get a closer look, but as my hand drew nearer, I could feel a sense of rightness growing within me, a connection between me and it, and it gave me comfort, somehow I knew that I had created them and they would never break, they would comfort me.


    I drew away, confused by these course of events, I had created them? how? when? my mind spun with questions when, the weapons seemed to dim and of a sudden the moment in the pit when I had been reciting the verse I used to comfort myself flashed to the front of my thoughts unbidden, and suddenly I was sure that was the moment they had come into existence, I watched myself chant until I passed out, I watched the light around draw to a point, I watched some sort energy leave my body even as I grew increasingly pale, I watched the rod, the staff, and the sword take form, and as soon as they were whole I saw them pulse with light as they stopped taking energy from me and increased the draw on the light around, I saw the earth and waste around me dry up as they lost energy, I saw the weapons start to shoot energy back into me, i reached out to touch it and of a sudden in my mind i had a birds eye view of the area around as animals in the ground died to feed my energy, i saw a the green in the vicinity lost its luster, the trees doomed to die there standing, I saw life extinguished with some small animals tuning directly into dust, all to feed my wish for weapons and to fufil my weapons purpose to protect my life, i saw it arc some condensed energy to drive off a huge person who had probably tried to help, i saw it all and i was sickened.


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    Soon the vision ended, and my view was restored leaving my heart in turmoil, I knew that they had shown me that, not from any sort of consciousness, but because we were still connected as such their entire being was shared with me, it spanned a short few moments but it meant so much. Although i was sickened, i did not, could not hate them, they had no malice but had simply acted on the basis of their birth, to protect and comfort, they had protected me from my own stupidity and the price had been the life of a small ecosystem, it was my fault, but they had done so because they lacked guidance, i would use and guide their power


    They were mine


    It was my duty as their Creator.


    I reached out and took them, the sword in my right the staff and the rod combined in my left, and I accepted the feeling of rightness.

 The Mage Awakens In Vjoirstead.

    As soon as I accepted the feelings, comfort washed over me like a wave, and in my heart I felt that with these I could live in this strange new world, with these I could survive. The Power of Creation was too dangerous, far more dangerous than I had imagined as danger lay not just in the risk brought to me if discovered, but also in the use of it at all, I had simply gotten lucky this time that the first thing I created was made to protect me and had begun to do so even before it was completely formed by drawing on the energy of the forest to complete its creation and restore the energy taken from me.


    I felt chills run down my back as I considered just how close I had come to dying, I had just arrived and barely spent any time here yet it had almost killed me! I would have to be more careful, this was a new world, a new place with different rules and if I didn''t learn them as fast as I possibly could then this place would chew me up and spit me out with nothing left.


    I replaced the weapons on the bed for where I picked them and proceeded to stand, but with my head still slightly swimming I ended up doing a clumsy job of it and bumping into the bucket beside the bed making quite a racket in turn but before I could worry about picking up the bucket to restore it to its original position the door flew open revealing a boy who looked to be about Twelve standing there petrified


    I stood stock still watching him, and the said


    "Hello?"


    The boy bolted from the door faster than a rabbit, he took off in a sprint that would make Ussain Bolt proud, and before I could call out I heard shouting "Anotala gas Shon", "Anotala gas Shon"


    It was a strange sounding language, completely unfamiliar to me, but for some reason I knew that with just an intent of will I would be able to speak it fluently, so I willed my self and understood that what the boy had been calling out was "The Mage is Standing"


    Mage?.............Oh Shit


    While inwardly musing over how frequently I''ve been involved with Shit of recent, I went through my memories to se if there was anything that would indicate why they would call me I mage, but I kept drawing blanks in memory, the only guess I had was that they had seen me create the weapons lying on my bed, that would explain it, but then did that mean that magic creating things was not rare here, in that case my ability was not as special as i''d hoped it would be, Could I be more liberal in its use? Would the knowledge of their use help me understand my own?


    While I was lost in thought I heard a clamoring forming outside the door, so I quickly grabbed the Weapons noticing that the belt on the sword hilt was far too long for my waist, I swung it over my shoulder carelessly and held the rod and staff in my hands. Standing at the ready I waited for them to charge into the room as I expected, and ended up feeling foolish, minutes later when no one had entered


    I went towards the door and opened it slowly, only to be met with the sight of a small group of people just beggining to disperse from the front of the house, and a short man of considerable width beating the same boy I had seen earlier with fists and slaps, kicking him wherever he could fit that in, from what I gathered from his words as he yelled at the fleeing boy, he was annoyed at the boy having made him waste his time by playing needless ppranks and lying about the Mage being awake


    Oh?


    My mind a mess, I hurriedly called out to the man, "Stop!"


    Mind you, I am not a crusader of Justice, neither would I claim that if someone was being hurt in front of me I would try to save them, I had been bullied for year and was averse to pain, I was a part of the masses who would walk by and pretend that it was not their problem, I did my best every day to avoid being involved with anything that could cause a beating, the man there wasn''t tall, but he had a wide frame and could probably smack me so hard my head would sing for weeks, but there was something about the boy, maybe it was something in his eyes, it wasn''t the same dead flatness I saw when I looked in the mirror, but defiance. The boy was fighting back although he held no chance, even if all he could do was run and hide but at the very least he did something, and that struck a chord in me, all these years I had complained about the unfairness of it all, whined about the bad luck and bullying, but had I ever done anything? had I defied them and fought back when everything had happened?


    No, I had let myself be abused Physically, Mentally, Emotionally, and had never fought back, but this boy was fighting, in a small manner, in a defiance only a child could escape with, but he fought. So I called out again "Stop." This time my words were in the language I had heard earlier, I just knew how to speak it, my voice was firm and resolute, so I said again as loud as I could without shouting "Stop that before I make you." my voice sounding so determined it was unfamiliar to even myself


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    He spun around on my shouting "And who''s gonna make me eh-?" the words dying in his throat the moment he laid eyes on me, he turned a stark white as the blood left his face, his fists dropped weakly to his sides, and his expressions kept changing as he realized he had just threatened a Mage


    From his demeanor, I realized that being thought a Mage might not be so bad as long as they didn''t require me to do any magic, I would have to play it along somehow.


    Ignoring him, I looked to the boy and called in my impression of a Lord I had seen in a movie once, "Come here boy", the boy though sore and seemingly thankful for my help at stopping the man was still frightened when I called to him, Walking towards me slowly he looked like at the slightest gesture from me he would bolt away, by the time he was just slightly out of my arms length that I would have to reach out to get him, he stopped, it seems like he had taken lessons from the beatings he had probably been receiving


    By this time the small crowd from earlier was forming again, so I wanted to hurry things up, "What is your name boy?" I asked


    "Vali, Sir Mage, but most here call me ''Nokravas''" he said glancing back at the Stocky man who was still standing in the position i''d left him, I noted in my mind that what they call him meant Dull Wolf Bastard


    "Who are you parents Vali?" I asked again, this time he went silent for a little before he replied "Dead Sir.", I could see his anger and displeasure at having been asked about his parents in such a dismissive manner, but it was all I could do to keep this act up and easing back now would only cause doubt about me to form in the peoples minds, so I continued by replying "I see"


    Everybody was silent as they looked at me, and I was silent as I looked up at a tree, a short while passed before I said in my Lord act, giving the impression that I would broker no negotiation "From today onward until I leave this village you will attend to me, and when I am leaving should it please me, you shall accompany me." I heard audible gasps from a few people at my words, I knew I was pushing it but I was too deep in to turn back now, I would just have to hope that they feared me much more than they resented my actions, giving no quarter I raised my head, my expression what I hoped was proud and dignified, I called out to the group which I could see consisted of men of veried ages, each of them well built, I saw women and girls squezzed in between the men and some children minding the gaps wherever they found them


    Looking over them I remembered the vision from my weapons, how they had brought me back to the village and given me a bed to lay on, from what I could see of the rest of the village, this was probably the best one so I raised my voice "I thank you for your hospitality, this village has my blessing." Although i truly wished them well, I don''t know why I said it but as the words left me, I felt a draw on my energy similar to what I felt when the Sword and rest were created, but before I began to panic it stopped when I was just slightly weak, and I felt a warmth begin to fill the village, it was somehow more welcoming and felt more safe than it had been, I''m sure they felt it too because I heard gasps in the crowd and soon they were cheering, looking back at the boy I said "Bring me a meal by noon" after which I hurried back into the room, outside I could hear hustling and bustling around as the people worked in good mood, but on the contrary I was terrified, careless words had nearly killed me again, I had to learn how to control this energy or I would not live very long in this world, but  until then I had to be more careful with my words, as words seemed to be trigger.


    At noon, according to my instructions Vali brought me a bowl of broth, carrots and meat which was probably beef, he impassively informed me that it was made by someone he referred to as ''The Farmer''s girl, Anna'', The meal was good although there was no salt but I hadn''t eaten in quite some time so I wolfed it down and returned the plate to Vali, asking if he''d eaten anything, when he shook his head I told him to tell Anna to give him a bowl too, at which point he smiled and ran out of the room


    I sat the on the bed and spent the rest of the day Contemplating.

 Interlude-The People Of Vjoirstead.

    I spent an entire day trying to evoke the energy within me


    I had felt it twice before, although I could not remember how I summoned it but I had, and if I could then, I could now. Vali brought me my meals at their hours faithfully, at first the boy glanced at me with wariness whenever he entered the room, but he warmed to me after I''d made it a point of order that any meal i was given, he was to be given his fill as well, now he just seemed curious as to what I had been doing......or trying to do. Yet I paid him no heed, and I continued searching every sensation in my body looking for something unfamiliar, and energy that would have joined me only when I entered this world, I pleaded and prodded my own body with my mind, all to no avail for I found nothing.


    I stayed searching and contemplating like that for two days, by the third I was not only deeply tired but bored as well, very, very bored. So the next time Vali came to deliver my meals I called out and asked him to sit, which he did, but in my act I had forgotten that there were no chairs in this room, or any room in the village I presume.


    As soon as he was comfortable, I took a breath and used the same commanding tone I had been using ever since I was cast into this world; "Tell me about this Village." I had wanted to ask in a more gentle form but I remembered a Quote from the movie who''s lord I was pirating, he had said "Lords do not ask, they demand." My position in this village was on a thin thread, I could not conjure a tiny bit of magic for the life of me, and even my creation ability was beyond my abilities, so the only thing keeping sheltered, fed, and most importantly, Alive, was their belief that I could destroy this village with a push of my will. For the sake of myself, I would have them believe even more.


    The boy was silent as his eyes locked onto mine, I could see fear in them, hesitation, confusion and many more emotions forming a kaleidoscope of colors swimming within his eyes, and for a moment I felt a pulsing within me, and suddenly I could see through the boy, his fear, his dreams, but then it was gone, and I was staring at a confused child who did not want to cause trouble, so I reassured him "Fear not Vali, I intend no harm to you or this village as long as I am not provoked" I watched as his tense figure relaxed slightly, but yet it was a moment before he began to speak, "What would you know Sir Mage?"


    I had read quite a few Light Novels when I was on Earth, usually the MC had the protection of the plot, a Plot armor which would allow them to act as stupid and foolishly as possible, to say things without thinking them through, but I was no main character, I had no such protection, and so knowing I had presented to these people the image of a powerful and wise mage, probably one who had used a spell to revert his appearance, I knew better than to ask questions of daily life, geography and such, from what I had seen, this place was remote, far too remote to know anything of political situations and other information of that kind, but yet they lived here, in this fantasy world, they would know things, however little yet far more than me.


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    And so I asked the most immediate question "Tell me of the People in this Village", I was currently here on their fear and regard, I had to know to what extent I was at risk.


    Vali seemed too consider again before replying but once he began, he barely paused for breath as he rambled, "Well, there are about Twenty something people here, I know cause my Mother taught me to count before she and Father passed......" reaching there he paused a bit, and once again I could feel a slight pulsing as he felt pain, but he continued "There''s Old Man Corbin, he takes care of Pigs, they stink a lot but they taste good Ma''am Melly gives us some she cooks when he kills one, There''s Old Man Corvas, Corbin''s Twin, he''s also Anna''s Father, the one who cooks for you, He''s a farmer, but he''s married with Ma''am Greta, Ma''am Sera, Ma''am Leana, and Ma''am Eanilah, There''s Mr Black, he hunts and stuff, I heard he''s called black cause his Father didn''t claim him, but when I mentioned it Ma''am Melly got really mad so we don''t talk about it, There''s Mr Von, he''s the butcher, but he''s really bad no one likes him, but he''s too big so the other men aren''t strong enough to drive him out, There''s also Ennovah, Kisela, Ulthor, and Korn, they''re Mr Corvas kids but they''re grown up so they help on the farm, then there''s the rest of Mr Covas''s Kids; Anna, Kindra, Movas and Movran they''re twins. There''s also Mr Corbin''s Kids Alvor, Varkas, Iathor, They''re grown ups too, then theres Seamus, Nakra and Solvelt." he finished listing all the people in the village displaying what I regard as a remarkable awareness of his environment at his age, but I let my face remain impassive and did my best to not look the slightest bit impressed, but then I noticed that he hadn''t mentioned himself and the Other man I''d seen, causing me to assume they were related, but he hadn''t said anything and I wouldn''t pry.


    Dismissing him, I was sure that the village was too small  to have someone who could see through my fa?ade, I would have to remain careful though, this was a fantasy world and anything could happen, that said, I dismissed Vali and returned to my contemplation, I had to learn my power, and fast.

 Tales Of The Forgotten. Part 1.

    "The People were known for their music.


    They sang melodies who''s notes strung chords in the heart of every man, woman, child and even beast who heard it, such passion it contained.


    And song was in the hearts of the people, an integral part of them, song resonated down to their very souls. Legend has it that their children did not cry shrilly when born, but laughed in delight at the tunes they heard, and sometimes  joined the music by laughing in rythym.


    The People did not war, they had no need for it, every disagreement ended with a song shared and they remebering the beauty in sound only the other could create


    Many wondered what would happen if there was a day in the City where a song was not sung, yet no one cared with Travelers and Kings Journeying for Miles just to  hear the mosst casual of the peoples songs, and the people prospered, their city prospered as their music never ended


    One day a long time ago, The Sky went dark, all across the seven kingdoms, yet the people sang even in the darkness their voices raised, their songs joyful. Even in the darkness, their song was light, but as the darkness grew, the voices dimmned as though from a distance yet they raised their voices loud as they could as a thousand songs joined into one, a marvelous song who''s sound reached Kingdoms far away, with that song the darkness seemed to retreat a little but it crashed back in like a tide into shore, the song dimmed and soon there was silence.


    The sun returned bringing with it its glory, yet no song greeted it leaving the bewildered guests of the City confused, they searched and turned the city inside out, yet none of the People remained


    Their song had ended and the People were gone."


    -Tales of the Forgotten, Robard Kester


    __________________________________


    It had been three months since I came to the village.


    It had taken some time but the villagers had warmed up to me, they greeted me on the odd mornings when I decided to take a walk around the village, although they still feared me enough that they referred to me as Lord Mage, I wont lie I enjoyed being referred to in such a reverent manner and the manner of reference was distinct enough that I still hadn''t given my name to them.


    I hadn''t made any breakthroughs in the use of my ability, but through careful selection of words, actions, and thought, I had been able to avoid causing another phenomenon that almost killed me, though I think at some point I may have caused Anna, the girl who had been cooking for myself and Vali to fall in Love with me, whether through Magic or not she had taken a fierce liking to me, I knew not because I was an expert on women but because at 16 she showed it the way only a young innocent village girl could, the attention from a girl as pretty and kind as she is being new to me I had grown fond of her, and if I didn''t have to keep my stoic image I would have already been following her around like a lost puppy.


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    I hadn''t seen much of the man who had beaten Vali, whom I''d found out was Vali''s Uncle, his name was Bartrand and he was the Tavernkeep, Vali''s parents had disappeared a few months before and his uncle had taken him in, treated him like shit but taken him in was more than most could ask for. The rest of the villagers helped as much as they could but couldn''t interfere as much because Bartrand was the second biggest man in the Village and the second most violent, The First was Von who I assume was the one my sword had sent flying with magic, I hadn''t seen any of him, the villagers think that because he''d tried to steal a Mage''s treasure he''d run from the village for fear of my wrath.


    Speaking about my treasure, I hadn''t so much as touched them since that day, but somehow we were connected, I could feel them from my room no matter where I went in the village, like the warmth of the sun on my skin from whichever way they were, and the feeling was comforting.


    Vali had grown taller in these few months, I''d had Anna preparing a bowl of whatever she served me for him, and I don''t know if it was due to the food or time like everybody else he had warmed up to me and had been asking me questions about magic, I didn''t know any magic so all I could do was give answers that were so vague and looping they could cause a computer to experience a Logic Paradox Loop.


    Also a result of being close to me, Vali''s position in the village had been raised and he was now very popular especially amongst the children, they would ask him questions about me and whether I changed into other creatures or the powers I summoned, he was young and as a result had embellished my actions by giving records of magic I had never performed, but it had served to increase my mysticism in the eyes of the villagers, so I pretended not to notice and he pretended not to notice my noticing.


    Life in the village was calm and gentle, I didn''t mind staying here until I learnt my powers properly, I had food, a Warm bed, a girl who loved me, and People who respected me, it was perfect.


    What could possibly go wrong?


    ______________________


    Author Note: Hey Guys, TheGiver here. I would like to take this time to thank all of you for reading my work, it means a lot to me. I would also like to apologize for not posting recently, I upgraded to Windows 10 previously and my Start Bar stopped working, couldn''t get to my web explorer, but then I fixed it, only for the fix to cripple my network driver, which I fixed today, so I''m back and I will try to post at least once a day, Twice if your lucky, and Thrice if I''m in a good writing mood or find a good song to write to, And Maybe Four times If I get laid(Probably Not gonna happen so......).

 Tales Of The Forgotten. Part 2.

    Three Months and Some Days Ago, Shortly After The People Of Vjoirstead Carried The Mage To Their Village.


    Von woke up in Pain.


    His Entire body screaming at him, every inch of his skin crackling and burning as pure energy ran through it.


    ''Dammit, I had no idea he was a mage'' he could only think that much regret as the pain numbed his mind, he tried to scream but every muscle in his body was tense making him unable to even draw breath, at the rate things were going, he would suffocate long before the Pain and the damage the Mage had done to him had the chance to kill him, he could feel it, whatever the Mage had done to him was inside him tearing him apart


    He watched in horror as parts of his body would spontaneously burst into flames, only to go out a second later as the chill in the wind greedily sucked out the heat from his body that was now turning blue even though he was feeling an inferno inside.


    Driven Mad by the Pain he howled, though he could make no sound, his back arched as his body spasmed, he howled and screamed, he continued putting his soul into it he howled till he couldn''t muster the energy to react to the pain, it continued for what felt like days before he passed out his mind empty, filled with nothing but the memories and echoes of pain.


    He woke up again.


    With nothing but an animals instinct, he tensed bracing himself for the pain that had swallowed him, but nothing happened.


    He lay there tense, bracing himself for the Pain, but it didn''t return, and slowly his mind relaxed even as his body stayed tense, he opened his eyes feeling like this was the first time, his mind slowly regaining faculties to know itself separate from pain


    Slowly he realized himself, who he is, who he was a lifetime ago, he glanced around to find the Sun still about to crest, showing that barely anytime had passed since the Life he''d had before the Pain. Glancing around, he noticed more details about the area that he had missed before, he noticed the blue of the sky, the white light of life in the snow, he saw a rabbit 30 feet away and could count the hairs on its head, he could tell the color of its eyes, he could see the life within it, the world was different


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    He Was Different.


    As his mind and body finally settled, he noticed that his thoughts sharper than before, enough to at least know that he was not clever, but no longer foolish enough to be cruel, his memories were clearer more pronounced shocking him as he saw what he used to be, having felt pain he was changed, Pain had shown him the truth, The Mage had shown him truth through Pain, the only way his drink addled stupid self of the past would understand, Now he understood.


    He finally saw himself, Before he big but now he was huge(Authors Note: Think Six feet Seven, with Henry Cavil''s body in Man of Steel</a>), yet all of it was toned muscle, the sort he only seen on the bodies of the most elite of Kingdom Knights when he had been a Knight, his skin was there, the color remained but gone were the browning and patches that proved his illness from heavy drinking were gone, he felt much healthier than he had before, even better than when he was a Knight, and somewhere deep inside he felt things he hadn''t for years, Loyalty, Strength, Will, And most of all Hope


    A new feeling drew his attention, he could feel the something still bringing the pain inside, it was in his chest, with every beat of his heart he felt a burn but knew it was part of the Mage''s redemption. He didn''t try to move, He knew he couldn''t, Once he could he would rise, discard his former self and seek out the Master, he would pledge himself, and he would serve. That was the resolve he held as a branch snapped and dumped snow, covering him completely, but he wasn''t worried, he could feel it in the blessing his Lord had given, cold for a few months would not kill him, so he smiled as he slept under the snow.

 A Tale Of Wraiths.

    ".......exception to the needs of Life are Wraiths. They do not qualify as undead, so do not fear the Suns rays, yet they have no need for food, water, air, or blood flowing within it, they do not posses minds capable of reason, nor Souls capable of Love or Emotion, they are not dead yet do not Live.


    They are a perverse existence who''s only purpose is to cause death to whoever they encounter, and to kill them requires you to stop them long enough to burn their bodies into ash for they regrow with even a hand left; ''I once saw a Lord make an expedition to kill once discovered in his lands, a hundred strong knights, armed with blades of the finest steel, yet more than half fell to the beast, when they finally killed the it, the Lord demanded its head as trophy, raising it to admire its feminine features. I stood beside him, eager to have it as specimen for study, only to gasp in horror as its eyes opened and it dived on the throat of the careless Lord killing him. I burnt the then immobile thing with all the Power I could muster.''


    The features of a wraith are female, all known ones are described in such a manner, reason why it would be as such remain unknown, perhaps they are as such to guile unwary men into a most unfortuned death?


    Wraiths do not harm children, odd but such creatures of malevolence that kill both men and women do not harm children of a certain range, twelve being the age I have estimated from my research. Rather than kill such children, stories of those who have survived such encounters claim that the creature take them home, care for them and raise them, protecting and showing them such motherly affection that they are  completely incomparable with the brutal agents of death who captured the children in the first place, However the day after they turned twelve they would awaken to a mournful shriek and find a distraught wraith staring at where they lay with sorrow, even after they move the wraith would remain, weeping over a sight only they see, a long time passing before they notice the now twelve child attacking it with vehemence and what to them sounded like an angry and accusatory cry.


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    Wraiths are perhaps the most mysterious of all the creatures in this book, leaving us with questions such as; where do wraiths come from? how do they procreate? DO they procreate? Legend claims that they are the corrupted souls of women who lost their children, but what is the true reason for their care of children? what changes after the twelfth birthday? what do they see lying there?


    If we can identify what plagues wraiths so I wonder


    Can we help them?..............."


    -Creatures Of Mystery, Veriand Kester


    _____________________________


    Authors Note: This is part of ground work for the events coming.

 When Time Comes.

    A lone figure stumbled slowly through the forest


    Weeping, Wailing, Crying Loud without sound.


    The figure looked female, she walked the forest unarmed, unclothe, her tree bark like skin looking dry and coarse yet her face held a beauty one could not deny if not stuck by the terror of the hate in her eyes.


    She walked slowly East, headed in the direction to the smoke from the cooking fires of Vjoirstead.


    ______________________


    "Worse than a Wraith are the Banshees, almost as mysterious as Wraiths, Banshee''s were once thought to be of same race, but through the analysis of many separate recounts I have discovered that they are in fact a Deviation or entirely different race


    By appearance alone, The differences between Banshees and Wraith are almost completely indistinguishable, Banshees and Wraiths appear entirely female, theirs breast developed, their lips thin, hair grown, their skin is dry resembling the coarse bark of a tree.


    The Difference lay in their behaviour, where Wraiths are Sorrowful in demeanour with a gentleness towards children, Banshees are the very embodiment of hate. A Banshee''s wail is a reflection of their hatred and anger given form of sound which moves with such force that it ruptures the Ears of the People and animals around, leaving them defenceless as they reel in pain, allowing the Banshee the chance to kill its victim with ease. And where a Wraith would show an almost mother like mercy to children, a Banshee shows a reflection of that in the vehemence of their hatred for them, choosing to use their long nails to stab them to death, leaving badly mutilated corpses behind........"  -Creatures Of Mystery, Veriand Kester


    _________________


    Tyler POV


    I woke up for the first time since the day in that pit afraid, I had no idea why but I had a feeling in my chest, it felt like a lump I couldn''t explain


    Ignoring it I got up and began my activities for the day, the people of the village had grown accustomed to me living among them, everyday at sunrise and sunset Vali would bring me a bowl of food, always compliments of Anna whom I''d started a relationship with, her father the Farmer was wary at first but he''d come to accept me after a few people in the village who were sick claimed i''d healed them, I was actually just experimenting with what I had done the first day and wished them good health, a feeling of slight weakness later and they were all on their feet. That is also as far as my ability to use the power has gone, I can''t conjure anything real, and most of the time when I succeed in causing a reaction through the use of blessing like statements, the blessing doesn''t last, the effects may linger, but the blessing is usually gone by the end of a day, I don''t know if this power has anything to do with the power of creation I have, but it seems different because Creation should be mme conjuring this into reality, It should be making into existence from inexistence like what I did with the weapons, I need to learn more about magic in this world as it may help me understand the difference.


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    After getting dressed, I was about to leave when I caught sight of my only possessions in this world; my weapons from my power of creation, I was wearing the cloak Anna had gotten me yet some clothes sh had sown for me from the one''s her brothers couldn''t use anymore because the clothes I was wearing wasn''t suited to the region, and a pair of boots Hunter Black had given me. I don''t know why but I packed them up, every last one and set my pack beside the door, it wasn''t like I needed them anytime soon, I would just leave it there for when I actually needed them.


    Leaving my room I was met by Vali who was waiting for me so we could begin our walk around the Village, most of the villagers had taken my presence to be some sort of good luck charm that brought prosperity to the village, making it my duty to walk around at least once, the nursing mothers all want me to hold their babies everyday, the pregnant mothers want me to touch their bellies so their children will be well, the old farmer and his brother the pig herder want me to come by as well, cause as they claim, their yields are better and Pigs happier when I''m around, I was happy about the First, the second I try not to be insulted by.


    But the best part of my day, is when I leave the village limits, and Vali stops following me as i head for the nearby river Brooke, where I know Anna will be waiting for me. Two months ago I had walked gotten myself lost and found myself at the River, it just so happened she was there standing at the edge of the river, and she was beautiful. I found myself standing there looking at a girl so beautiful she made my heart skip beats, she may not be the world shattering lead in a series of beauties that they always describe in Xianxia, but she was pretty to me, she was real to me, and she loved me, so I did the only thing any real man would have done, I walked up to her and kissed her. We''d been a couple ever since that day.


    But today, even as I approached our usual rendezvous, I felt my heart constricting and fear beginning to form as butterflies danced in my stomach, making me hurry even though I had no reason to fear.


    I reached the rivers edge, as my eyes search around for the familiar Auburn hair of my Anna, yet what I saw was a figure standing there naked, skin wooden and hair black, blood dripping down its arms as something lay below it wearing the blue cloak</a> my Anna loved with Auburn hair streaming out as blood pooled beneath it. The wooden figure heard my initial approach and turned to face me, its body a mockery of a females, its face twisted in sadness as its eyes watched me with hate, my mind still distracted at the figure on the floor I didn''t see as it opened its mouth, but I heard the screech that echoed from it, a sound that chilled my bones and shook my soul, I didn''t notice the blood dripping from my ears as I tried to take a step forward to my Anna but failed as my body tilted to the right, I saw blackness before I hit the ground.

 When Time Comes. Part 2.

    Von POV


    I was roused by the feeling returning to my limbs, it was time to go to my Lord. Yet even as I dug my way out of the snow hill that had been my bed for months I felt a stirring in my heart and knew I could not delay anymore, so using all the strength I could muster I jumped out of the snow and ran, my now small clothes were straining against my movement, but I didn''t care, pushing my body to the limit I ran in the direction of the town with hope that it was nothing more than my imagination


    The Pits were i''d been were four kilometers from the town, On my best day it would''ve taken me an hour to reach the town, but within fifteen minutes of my running I saw the village, or what was left of it, fire burned as the huts and buildings collapsed, the bodies of the people who had lived here strewn about, men, women, children, all of them lying with eyes open never to see again. In their hands the men held makeshift weapons, it seemed they had tried to resist whatever monster had caused this turmoil, hurrying North of the village, I headed towards Melly''s Cabin, they would''ve given a Mage sort as my Lord the most comfortable place in the entire Village


    I had barely walked five steps in that direction when I spotted it, A Wraith, but Wraiths would never harm a child so A Banshee, it stood there in the carnage swiveling as it looked for more people to kill, its eyes rested on me before it let loose a scream that sounded like it came from the deepest part of the Abyss, a scream that caused my skin to crawl and soul to shiver, even as i felt an ache in my ears but resolute to look for my Lord I did not flinch, reaching out I grabbed the closest plank could its end was on fire so i broke it down the middle and hefted it as a club


    Seeing its scream had failed to cause me to pass out, it let loose a shriek of rage and charged at me, brandishing its long claws to rend my skin, watching it closely and timing its charge, i raised my flaming club and smashed forward with as much strength as could enter my swing knocking it off its feet flying into the wreckage of what was once a home and shattering the contact edge of my club, it rolled before finding traction getting back up with even more hatred visible on its face as it charged me again, i swinged forward but it doged by ducking low clawing and biting at my feet, I jumped up avoiding to charge by a fraction and spun around to face the sprawling monster which was shrieking and getting ready for its charge


    I got into position as i watched the beast stalk me, it was now infuriated and wary making it more dangerous, meaning i would have to be careful now but i was worried for my Lord so i had to end this now. It charged me again, but this time i brandished the remenants of my makeshift club with one hand, i reached out when it was close enough and grabbed its neck from behind as its claws ripped into my flesh, with some exertion i pushed it face down on the ground even though it struggled and tried to escape, exerting my club arm i swung down repeatedly as i bashed its head in, when there was too little left of my club to smash i stabbed its head repeatedly with the remaining wood until its body stilled. I took off my tattered jacket ripped it into threads and tied the body which i threw into one of the fires it had caused, standing to make sure it burned before continuing towards where my Lord should be


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    I reached Melly''s cabin and saw the entire thing collapsed and burning except for a patch of wall beside where the door would have been, i took comfort in the lack of the smell of burning flesh, but was confused, if my Lord was not here, where was he?


    I felt a resonance with the whole patch of wall that had avoided burning and found an unconscious tavern boy and a Pack shaking there, In the pack was my Lords belongings, the clothes he had worn on the day of our meeting, his rod</a> and staff, plus the sword he had bestowed his blessing with were all stowed conveniently in the pack, the weapons moved and shook as if they were trying to go somewhere, i put the boy on my shoulder and picked up the pack, lifting my Lord''s sword which did not reject me i followed its shaking and headed to the river a ways from town, where i found my Lord with finger stab wounds in his body laying besides another body, a girl Anna, she had been a sweet lass.


    Placing the weapons on the ground beside him and taking several steps back, I watched as the trees and grass around wilted as his wounds healed, soon the Area around him was nothing but deadlands but he was healed, unconscious but healed. I checked the girl beside him but there was no reaction, so i left her there and moved my Lord and the boy to a safe place where they could rest. After which i headed back to the village for supplies, and to burn the dead.


    ___________________


    "When time comes


    My soul will fade


    I will be gone


    From this place


    Promise me


    You''ll leave that day


    At this Ends of the World


    My name you''ll say


    Promise me


    You''ll kiss my cheeks


    And leave a rose petal


    On my lips


    For I was yours


    But now I''m gone


    Let all your grief leave


    As the morning comes"


    - Song Of The Dead, by Unknown

 Not A Chapter (An Apology).

    I''m sorry [th_108_.gif]  I haven''t written anything of recent, Last Sunday was my birthday [th_084_.gif] [th_084_.gif] then on Monday I signed up for my country''s compulsory service [th_118_.gif] , then on Tuesday as part of the service I was assigned a place of work, so when I''m not serving the country, I''m working for it. My new employment is quite occupying, at work by 7 close around 8/9[th_115_.gif], leaving the place I have to find my way home and get ready for the cycle to repeat, Plus its a Law Office, and though I studied law, I''m a Writer Poet and aspiring musician, meaning i''m too free spirited for the place  and am slowly suffocating while everybody tells me what a good opportunity this is for me :cries: :nei: :imdead: .


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Therefore my previous promise of a frequency in chapters is now void. I will however try to make some time to write a bit which I will post at weekends, so expect something tomorrow.


    PS DM me songs that you think will inspire creativity, i''''ll try to get them, listen to them, and Write. [th_0rock.gif]

 My Eyes Wide Closed.

    "If life was a dream, then dying must be the moment when you woke up. It''s so simple it must be true. You died, the dream was over, you woke up..........."


    Ian McEwan; The Daydreamer(Real Guy)


    I dreamt


    In my dream i''d woken up in Vjoirstead a part of the people, they''d found out I wasn''t really a mage but had other strange abilities instead and had accepted me regardless, we''d even become closer now that they no longer feared me, i''d used knowledge from civilisation to develop the community so they''d made me leader, I settled disputes and made plans for the good of everyone in the village. Soon our group had grown into a small town as people had moved here from other nearby villages, one day I proposed to Anna and she accepted, I approached her father for her hand and he agreed as well, we had a large ceremony where everyone came and rejoiced with us as I was the Town head, the people weren''t too religious so there was no pledging before a god, she simply moved to my house which had been expanded as my status grew.


    Soon after, Anna was pregnant, and 8 months later we had our first child, a boy, he was premature by 3 weeks, he was small, he was weak, but the older women in the town who had helped in the delivery assured me he was healthy from the strength of his cries at birth, I named him George. Vali was there at the birth, at 23 to my 32 he was now my right hand man and helped me run the town and its affairs, he was courting one of Anna''s younger sisters so we may be related soon.


    After George we had several other children, Sarah, Micheal and Ezekiel, Ariel, and an Annabel after her mother, we lost a baby after Annabel, we never tried for another baby after that, plus I had finally invented a means for birth control to handle the town''s population issues


    Life continued, it was a lot of work, but through it all I had the support of people who cared for me, so no matter what came I was happy, and I kept working until I created a Kingdom more advanced than all the others in the Known lands because I had completely mastered my Creation ability, allowing me to Create weapons and infrastructure that the other Kingdoms couldn''t compete with so they conceded soon enough.


    Since I woke up that day, I had never used nor touched the weapons i''d created first, I always had someone else move them or keep them somewhere for me, but as a King I had to learn to defend myself, so I learned sword fighting, and it turned out I actually could use magic, so I learned it as well.


    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.


    One day when I had grown old, hundreds of years had passed, I did not want immortality so I had not created it for myself, That day a man asked for a private audience with me, at this point I was claimed to be the most powerful being to be found on this world, so I had no worries and allowed it. He walked in, an old beggar, his back hunched, his face marked, a scar with another scar crossing it on his hand showing he was once a slave but had been freed, he was dirty, stained and dressed roughly, I had not known anyone like this throughout my entire life so I was curious as to what he had to say


    Yet as he began to speak his aura changed from that of a slave become more Noble, not the sort of nobility that causes obedience, but the sort of nobility found in Unflinching sacrifice, which gives without thought for itself, he said;


    "You have forgotten, But I shall remind you."


    Suddenly, before him was a table and the three weapons I''d avoided for so long, he picked up the Sword slowly ignoring all the magic I flinging at him, he said "The Sword Guards You." he swung it, and my throne, royal armor, and crown all disappeared


    He picked up the Staff and said again "The Staff Enforces Your Will" he tapped the floor with the bottom of the staff and the world around was gone, only darkness surrounded us, desperate, I hurled magic and charged him, I was afraid, I wasn''t sure of what and why, but I knew that if he continued there would be pain


    He looked at me, he had grown younger with every word and by this point I could already see myself in my youth when I had just arrived on this world, he gazed at me with my eyes and said


    "We Created this life to protect your mind, We destroy it to protect your Soul"


    After saying that he reached out to pick the rod which floated there where it had been before the table disappeared, he grasped it, swinging down he said "The Rod Clears Your Path" the rod made impact and once again I saw my old friend, Darkness.

 As Time Flys.

    I opened my eyes with a splitting headache to see the remnants of a glow leave the weapons, the memories of what happened before I passed out, how I died, how Anna had died came to me, but I wasn''t lost anymore, I couldn''t remember everything in the dream I had but I remembered the Life we had together. I remembered that in the dream I was contented, I knew never really loved her but was contented with what I had and I was Loyal, but I didn''t love her. Though the life I had in the dream was safe, easy, but it was boring, it was exactly what I needed after the shock of her death stopping the shock from messing my mind up however if I had stayed in it I would have lost myself to the comfort and may have never woken up. Which explains why the weapons made it and broke it.


    Ignoring the pounding in my head I pushed myself up to examine my body, my injuries were gone, and except the headache there was nothing wrong with me, turning my head around I caught sight of Vali sleeping not far from me as the campfire in front of us burned, with a little thought I concluded that someone must have saved us, but that they didn''t take us back to the Village means there isn''t a Village to return to. Pain hit my chest again as tears threatened to leave my eyes but I held them back.


    A sound from the bushes outside the camp drew my attention back to the present, I looked in the direction to find out what it was when I saw him, He was tall, very very tall, though I was lying down, I knew that even if I was standing there wouldn''t be any noticeable difference, the depressing part is in spite of his height he was full and well muscled, looking like a sculpture that came to life, his jaw was straight, his hair and stubble brown, his eyes blue. I couldn''t tell his age, but from the way he carried himself I knew that if he wanted to kill me and Vali any resistance would be pointless, he was wearing a black cloak with the hood off, his clothes were the typical peasant clothes i''d gotten used to in the village, a wooden bow was slung over his shoulder while his arrows were in a covered quiver he wore on his belt beside a worn metal short sword, in his hand he held two dead rabbits and a chicken, all recently killed from the blood dripping down. When he saw me awake he dropped the game, and moved with such speed I didn''t have time to be shocked before he was there kneeling In front of me.


    By the time the shock registered he''d been kneeling for little while with his head bowed before me, Nervous I cleared my throat and said


    "Thank You for Saving us."


    "You Honor Me My Lord."


    His reply was formal, I understood that much from the Language, as the words he was using were words I''d only heard from Melly in Vjoirstead before we got to know each other, she let me know that was the way Knights spoke to their liege, She had been a servant to a Noble house before she moved here, so while she hadn''t formally learned any of it, she had been in contact with it and the Knights who knew it to pick up a little


    Though I knew he was a Knight from the fact that he could use the ''Lord''s Speak'' the normal people called it, but I didn''t understand why he was using it and kneeling before me, Knights never bend their Knee to any but their Lord, and They don''t use such formal language except in Formal gatherings, speaking with their Lord, or their fellow knights.


    My headache had mostly faded by this point allowing me to think clearly, so I asked


    "Who are you?"


    He seemed a little shocked at the question, then he thought for a while before answering


    "I was Von the Butcher of Vjoirstead, but I have been Reborn Thanks to the Blessings of my Lord, And ask the Honor of Being Named anew."


    His reply stunned me, I remembered the Only time I had seen him after the birth of the Weapons, he had been tall but not as tall as this man, he had some muscle and a large body but most of it had been hidden by a belly and fat, he had hair but was losing it in the middle, this man before me had such a bright full mane that I was wondering whether this world had gotten to the Point where they used hair attachments, in summary he was nothing like the man before me, but somehow I knew he wasn''t lying, so I asked


    "Why do you call me Lord?"


    Without hesitation he answered "Your power has granted me, Life anew, made me better, given me Purpose, and thus I pledge myself to you as my Lord."


    I didn''t know much about Medieval Knight Culture, or Knight Culture In this World but, I felt how solemn he took the words, plus I was in this world with out any support or Power of my own, my recent brush with death showed me how easy it was to die, so though I had no idea how far I could trust him I decided to accept his Service, Remembering a Knights pledge i''d seen in a movie, I decided to make it more formal


    I stood up disregarding the screams my body threw at me to Sit the fuck down, Picked up the Sword and unsheathed it and Pointed it at him, he didn''t even flinch at my action reassuring me. So Drawing a memory from a series i''d been seeing before coming to this world I asked


    "Will you Shield my back, Keep my counsel, And Give your life for me If need be, Do you swear?" with each word, I could feel the stirrings of power that I had come to recognize move and seethe, like water would in a kettle, but there was no discomfort, and the world although calm now had a slight energy crackling in the air around, the campfire jumped and raised like it was being fed, but I didn''t react and neither did he, we ignored everything and he answered


    "I Swear, by the old gods and the new."


    I felt a some energy leave me and enter him, travelling around his body before settling at his heart, and then I could feel him the way I did my Weapons, also I felt his feelings in that moment, the Loyalty that felt boundless, making me feel guilty about doubting him and planning to take advantage of him, so I gave him a pledge of my own


    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "Then I vow,


    You shall always have a Place by my side


    Food and Drink at my table


    And I will ask nothing of you that you cannot give.


    I swear this, by the old gods and the new."


    I could feel my Power clearly now, it didn''t react to my pledge as it had his, but I disregarded that to do as he had asked before and name him. Pushing the power I channeled it to the sword I held and changed its form from a shortsword to a Longsword fit for a Knight</a>(like that but with round pommel and lion face), with a golden Pommel bearing a Lion on its face.


    I touched each of his shoulders as i''d seen the Queen of England do during a Knighting I watched online and said


    "From this Moment forward I Name you, Alexander of Winter" I chose the name because it means to Defend, an I want him to defend me, I named him of Winter because of the Vjoirstead, it had always been snowing. Turning the blade to the side I held it to him and continued


    "I grant you this Sword for use in my service, Arise, Knight Alexander of Winter." As I finished I felt the energy leave me again and swirl to him, a blue light burning through his clothes into the pattern of a Lion, with his name underneath it in English, they formed a tattoo on his Left shoulder while the light faded, he rose, and in his bearing I saw the kind of nobility that you only find In a person confident of himself and his purpose. He had received the Sword while he was still kneeling, now putting it in its sheath which he slung over his back, a shortsword on his hip and a long one at his back


    With the Ceremony over I asked the questions that had been on my mind


    "Where are we?"


    "A weeks walk from the Village, My Lord"


    "How long was I asleep?"


    "Nine Days. I crafted a sled to carry you and the boy"


    His reply was unexpected so I asked


    "How is Vali? The boy there"


    He replied as quickly as always "He has no wounds I can see, but he has not woken since we left the Village"


    "What is wrong with him? And is the Village fine?"


    "I do not know, but the Village was destroyed. Only the boy survived."


    I expected as much before I asked, but it still brought me pain to hear it, so I focused myself on Vali, he was the only one I could help now.


    I walked over to where he was lying, I saw how his thin figure looked skeletal now, how his breaths were shallow, and how he struggled to pull each one, I wasn''t a doctor, so I couldn''t diagnose him, but I didn''t care.


    Drawing on every little bit of Power I could, i found it easier than I ever had, the power obeyed and surged to me, I felt the air around me turn heavy as the plants and fire surrounding us began to die, soon the air was as thick as syrup and moving was difficult, I didn''t know what to do so I simply pushed my will into, pushed my desire for him to heal and poured it into his body, but nothing happened, the energy circled his body, it filled out his form which was emaciated lack of sustenance over the few days, removed blemishes from his skin, and gave him a healthy glow but he still didn''t wake up, after a while the energy stopped being depleted and was simply circling his body before coming out, almost like a dog who was told to fetch but failed to find a ball


    I knew it wasn''t working but didn''t know what else to do, I could feel myself losing control over the power as it returned to wherever it had come from, in a few minutes I wouldn''t be able to draw on anything again, I still didn''t understand enough of this power to use it freely. Thinking fast I concluded that what was wrong with him wasn''t his body but his mind, he probably couldn''t handle the shock of everyone dying in front of him and he himself almost dying as well, so his mind had shut itself down, I didn''t have enough time to think about what to do because who knew when I would be able to summon this much power again, I''d already killed quite the number of plants to draw the energy here and at this point I was barely holding on to it so I did the first thing that came to mind


    I made him forget


    I pushed the power to wipe all his memories of the village''s death, but it I left it at that he''d want to return, so I pushed it to make him want to stay, but it failed, I wasn''t able to affect his will, I felt that I could control his body to make him stay, but I couldn''t control his will without damaging his soul. I realized that I almost did something unforgivable, but there was no time for guilt the power was slipping away faster now, so I pushed again, to make him forget all about the Village, then I willed it to make him dream new memories, of how I and Alexander had found him as a baby and raised him till now, as we wandered the Forests, how we visited a Village named Vjoirstead and stayed there for a while until we left recently.


    At this point I had used up all the Energy I had held, but I needed to continue to provide energy until the dream completes itself, so I kept supply as fatigue filled me, so I could feel myself aging, my skin wrinkling, my bones settling, white streaks appeared in my hair on the left, and my body lost the glow of youth, I felt years pass in an instant.


    The drain finally stopped as Vali let out a breath, by this point I feel I was somewhere in my Forties, and was now the Oldest looking one in the group. I slumped in weakness as the drain stopped, but Alexander was there to catch me, he helped me to my cot where he set me down, using the last bit of energy I had I thanked him, my voice sounding foreign, aged and tired to me, but I would have to bother about that when I woke up


    I slept.

 Life On The Road.

    Authors Note: So I''m gonna try to brighten the mood of the story a bit, and quicken the pace, been so long and almost nothing has happened so......


    Plus you should all be grateful. I''m using my money to pay for my Internet use and have to eat Instant noodles every day or go visit my Parents for a meal [th_015_orz-v2.gif]


    Anyways, I''m writing at work so if I don''t get caught i''ll celebrate with two packs of noodles [th_0food.gif]


    Tyler looks kinda like this</a> now, with darker hair and the white streak, the beard would still be an aged color so keep in mind


    His in story name is gonna change soon, Tyler isn''t Regal enough, it will represent who he is on the inside, but not who people will see him to be


    ________________________________


    The First thing that came to mind when I woke up was how much i''d been fainting since I came to this world. I had to have broken some sort of record by now, though I doubt i''d go collect it since i''d probably faint on the way.


    My body felt heavier than I remember and I was very hungry, but in spite of that the thing that caught my attention was something I hadn''t been able to do before


    I could still feel the energy


    It was there coursing through my veins, and it was around me in the world, I tried to reach out to it, but could only move a small amount inside of me, it was taking in more with every breath but I couldn''t move any more than the tiny bit I had, I tried to move the energy outside my body but couldn''t, it felt like something was blocking me, stopping me short of succeeding.


    I looked around me, the camp was empty, I pushed up from the tree I was resting on and found a note beside my foot, It read;


    Dear Traveler


    Like all of your kind that come here, you almost destroyed my world.


    That pisses me off Royally.


    I know is said do whatever you wanted, but that didn''t include destroying what I worked(not really) to make, so don''t do It again.


    I don''t trust you to not be careless, I''m sure you didn''t even notice the consequences of your actions, so I have created a barrier restricting the amount of power you can use, when you have enough control to break the barrier then you can use all of it. Another option would be to just wait, the barrier will slowly dissolve, You should have full control in a million years or so, by then you can blow the entire realm to atoms if you want.


    I know you replaced the memories of the young boy with you, Know that you came close to tampering with free will, In a way, you actually did mess with his will, Know that the next time you tamper attempt it, I will make you enjoy a fate worse than death and make you cease to exist. At the same time.


    Plus if you''re going to do that, do it well to make it work, I wiped your ass this time and ensured continuity for you, this is a favor to show my favour to you, Appreciate it.


    We shall speak again


    -A God.


    The letter shocked me, I hadn''t expected any thing from the god, but from the content it seems like he''d done a bit to help me, but then again it could be simply because he doesn''t want me to destroy his entertainment, either way I have him to thank, although the nerfing was sudden but not unwelcome, I had been worried over what would happen if I lost control, changing Vali''s memories had been taxing, I remember the feeling of Power surging around me if I had lost control for even a second, we would have been blown up, when I arrived here I almost killed myself, now I had succeeded in aging myself considerably, losing more than two decades of life in a moment because of my foolhardiness, since I was finding control difficult then the output should be lowered to reduce the risk of my experimentation


    The only thing that worried me was where he said he ''ensured continuity for me'', I couldn''t understand what that meant, I went through the options and the only thing that came to mind was the village, had he restored it? all the lives in it? could he?, if he could does that mean that I can too?


    The questions lead me around in circles, until I was dizzy from thought, at which point it hit me that Alexander and Vali weren''t around and the camp looked far better than I remembered from when I passed out, meaning there was no sign of destruction to scare off animals and the only person who could protect me was gone so anything predator passing by could make a quick snack of me. As if in concert with my thoughts the bushes moved, forcing me to get up ready to defend myself from whatever wanted a creator meal before it went on its merry way, but what walked out of the bushes were Vali and Alexander, In relief I mumbled out a greeting only for Vali''s response to cause me to freeze up again


    "Morning Father, you''ve woken up? I thought you''d actually die this time."


    Father? What was going on here?, since when did I become his Father?, I was barely in my twenties and new in this world, I had never slept with anyone here, It took a moment for it to register that it could be the implanted memories I gave him, I had focused on giving him a story rather than what the story said so I had no idea what he remembered so it seems he had made me his father, meaning the blanks hadn''t filled until he opened his eyes and saw me, I paused slightly while making this conclusion but though it was slight he noticed and started talking


    "You don''t remember? Maybe its a side effect of your experiments, still wont tell me what its about?"


    Alexander, hearing his words frowned slightly and approached me, leading me away from Vali who was working on the fire which had died out long ago to prepare the rabbit he and Alexander brought back with them.


    "Is it true my Lord? Do you really not remember anything?" he whispered


    "No Alexander", I replied "I''m fine, Tell me everything"


    His frown lightened a bit when I called his name and commanded me, I presume he was happy because I remembered him, but he should know that I am not Vali''s father so maybe he is going along with it not to break what he thinks I crafted, so I asked him to explain what had happened after I passed out, but my phrasing was vague, explaining how surprised I was when he started the story


    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    "I am your Knight My Lord, you saved my Life when I was fleeing from bad decisions and gave me a second chance so I gave you my Loyalty and Life, Vali is your Son, during our travels we found him as a baby in a small village that had been destroyed by a Wraith, he was a baby and had thus been spared, you took him in and raised him as your own, for over ten years we have wandered staying away from towns and cities as you instructed, Last night you were experimenting with your magic and tired yourself, did something go wrong? do you not remember all of this?"


    I was shocked at what I was hearing, but I soon enough made the connection, that god had said he wiped my ass for me, this must be it, he had given me a foundation by changing Alexander''s memories he had ensured what had been done to Vali''s would never be known discovered by him undoing my work. I was thankful, but now that both of them had memories I did not, I would have to be careful


    "I remember you and my...Son, but almost nothing beyond that"


    After I said this the frown on his forehead became even more pronounced "We should wait and see whether they come back, we will help you any way we can...." before he could say more, my stomach growled to the smell coming from our camp fire, I dismissed his concern and walked with quick strides to the meal realising as I did that I hadn''t eaten in over a week, yet aside from being ravenous and thirsty, I was fine. My mind clouded by hunger I simply told myself my weapons had provided the energy my body needed preventing deterioration


    As I reached the fire I asked for a piece which I quickly downed asking for more only to have Vali and Alex looking at me like I was some freak, I was wary about why they were loolong at me like that until Vali said


    "You know, Whenever I eat like that, you have Uncle Alex discipline me, Plus since when do you eat without your plate"


    For some reason hearing him tell me how I would have complained about the way I ate pissed me off slightly but not wanting to break character I replied


    "Come talk to me when you can use magic"


    "Achk, Low blow dad, Too low."


    Happy with myself for that retort I ignored their odd looks as I started to experimenting with what power I could draw, from my experiments and the issue with Vali I had learned that in order to use my power I needed to picture it clearly, I needed to imagine the energy even as I felt it, and at the same time I needed to hold a clear picture of what I wanted to happen, I could make things I was more familiar with faster but still not instantaneous so It wouldn''t be good for battle as I''d said before


    I tried to create snacks in my head from the picture I held of them, but when I tasted it, it was barely edible and had no taste, it simply looked like it, modifying my method and Drawing on the power in me, I pictured the most important thing I wanted in this moment. Chicken from my favourite restaurant, I pictured the taste, how it made me feel, how it smelled, how I wanted it to appear, and soon I was eating my favourite chicken, I was getting the hang of it


    I looked around and saw that Alex and Vali were fighting with swords drawn, I was about to rush out thinking something was wrong when I noticed he was just training him, I watched them fight and decided to try to create something tougher, I closed my eyes and pictured a sword in my hand, how the grip would feel on a short sword, I imagined solidity and shape of a sword, I imagined how it would feel how it made contact with things, I tuned details like that and drew on my power, but I had been careless again and soon found myself struggling to hold up in the creation, I failed of course resulting in a small explosion since the object had been unstable, but I tossed it out at the last moment saving me the loss of limb, the noise drew their attention, so to hide my embarrassment I suggested we set out, acting like I had intended to get their attention that way, although their grins told me they didn''t buy it


    We set out Alexander in front clearing a path, in the morning he had been training Vali to hunt and trained his swordmanship, but as we journeyed he trained Vali''s scouting skills and tracking asking him to identify random clues in the forest, I however walked leisurely behind them my dragon head staff in my right hand, and my rod on my waist, I had tried to get a reaction from them, because in LN most weapons have souls but there was no reaction, it seems like it doesn''t have a mind it just calculates the best way to do what I made them for, so even though they may seem intelligent when saving me, but they don''t have actual minds


    My new body seemed fit for its age, I could follow behind the two without losing ground, and although we had walked for what Alexander told me was two hours I wasn''t even winded, I may have aged but I was stronger than I had ever been, though from what I had seen I was nowhere close to Alexander but I wasn''t as weak as I had been


    My body''s new abilities gave me room to try again in making a sword, although the energy had filled up instantly when I failed earlier I hadn''t been in the mood to try again, but now I was bored and needed something to do so I attempted it, this time though my mind was clearer more focused, I noticed my dragon staff start glowing slightly, remembering the words from my dream of how the staff proves my will, it must be helping my mind focus or something so I ignored my increased focus and heightened senses to imagine a weapon, stronger than steel and sharp enough to cut through stone, providing the energy, I felt the weapon start forming in my hand, it was going smoothly so I decided to modify it a little I imagined that it would be unable to hurt any one of us three, and that only us three could use it safely


    Once I willed for the conditions to be set on the sword, I felt the drain on my energy increase 4fold, I still struggled to hold on and managed to finish it falling to my feet which called attention from the two of them who rushed to my side looking worried, I waved them off and gave Vali the sword, which made him beam up and hug me so tight I thought my neck would break


    Once we had rested enough for me to recover, we continued our Journey, and by the time the sun was setting we arrived at our first town.

 Trying My Best(Not A Chapter.)

    Sorry Guys. I''m really doing my best but have a bit of writers block, I don''t know how to proceed without him ending up op, but I don''t want a character that is all power without a brain, so even if I start to suck as we go, point it out so I can try better, Please remember that i''m an amateur, and writing isn''t as easy as you think it is.

 Camp Fire.

    We made camp for the night, although we had caught sight of a town days ago, but we were on a Cliffside and had to circle around and down before we could make the trip to it, we only had half a days walk left but Alexander reminded me that though monster and animal attacks are rare this far from the Snow regions, it wouldn''t be wise to tempt fate, some other monster from warmer climate could be passing and decide to give us the displeasure of its company


    Vali an Alexander continued their Battle Practice, You ask why Battle Practice rather than sword practice? because what Alexander was teaching him wasn''t how to foolishly depend on one weapon and claim you''re tempering yourself with it, what he was teaching him was the true nature of battle. Fights end as quickly as they start, with both sides winded and sore and one party wounded or both too tired to wound the other, leaving them open to be killed by anybody passing by, Battle is the way to victory, draw your opponent from their comfort zone, discard weapons as needed, pick up rocks branches and other miscellaneous items, throw dust in their eyes, It may not be noble, but You''ll be alive. He still teaches him sword fighting, but they do that in the mornings, most of the training time being spent in exercises to build up strength, speed, stamina, he said that if we find somewhere to settle down, he''ll create obstacle courses that''ll train reaction speed, reflexes, adaptability, manoeuvring(essentially parkour) and other skills necessary.


    I spoke more with Vali before their training started, it seems he believes that the failure of my experiment caused memory loss, as in his words; "It wouldn''t be the first time." Speaking with him I discovered, he believes I am actually his father, that I had told him I wasn''t, but he could tell from the white streaks in our hair, I couldn''t understand how his mind had created the background it had, or why it would place me as his father but I couldn''t try anything that would risk breaking the illusion, or he may revert and retreat into his mind while the hunger his body experiences but mind ignores would kill him


    As they trained, I too practiced, I trained my Creation abilities, the block God had placed after my Powers awoke was good, although it limited the size and nature of things I could make but no matter how I drained I didn''t touch what was on the inside of the barrier and as such my life wasn''t at risk


    After some experimentation I councluded that the nature of the limitations placed affected not only the size of things I could make, but their nature as well, I could create things of limited size affixed with a limited amount and simple nature of conditions but nothing like the sword I made for Vali, making it unable to be wielded by any but three of us, I created a spare sword for Alexander the same way but made it so only he could weild it, then I tried to use it only to find that its weight sporadically changed to throw off my balance and aim, it drew from my own energy to effect these weight changes making me tire quickly, and when I finally cut something by luck, I found the blade edge duller than the soles of my boots, all such inconviniences would make anybody regardless of how skilled they are lose the rhythym in a battle and that would be fatal


    Over our campfire was a skinned chicken Alexander was roasting as he fought Vali, he would make a Large move throwing Vali far off, then using his inhumane agility unfitting for one as large as him, cross over to the improvised roasting pit made for metal I created and turn the chicken, before crossing back to receive Vali''s blow, the chicken had yet to burn even slightly, as for Vali, he was learning fast, too fast, he had in truth only started his training this morning but was improving at such a speed that although older I wasn''t sure I could handle him, I believe that when I had tried to heal him with the Power of Creation''s energy I had improved his body somehow to such a level he could take blows from Alexander without immediately breaking his arms, Alexander was holding back ofcourse, but the strength he was already using was enough to a fully grown man and yet Vali received it, straining under the strength of the strikes, but tell me how many children can handle the weight of a grown man at all?


    After watching them make a few exchanges, I returned my attention back to the task at hand, I was attempting to create a mirror, I had made some but they all turned out to be glass, too fragile, or would fade turn back into mist after a few seconds, I had been going through variations to make it in my mind, yet the only thing I could come up with was using Words as replacements for the constant image I needed to hold, so I tried doing it in rhyme;


    "In form, a silver lake but solid


    Small for hand to hold


    Grows till roof it touches


    Shrink for pockets hold


    To my touch be cold


    Show me my appearance


    Remove my hearts inference


    Reflect the world around you


    A mirror you are."


    To add mystery, I spoke in English rather than the language i''d been using, it felt odd using English again but my gift of tongues assured me that I would never forget it, I was pretty sure that I could speak French, Latin, and Spanish if I wanted, but saw no need to try


    As I spoke, every word I felt the familiar drain that comes with my use of the power and a small silver liquid formed at my feet, it was very reflective but it shape was to random, so I continued my words before the drain stopped


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    "Rounded for my pocket


    Squared for my roof


    Your size I can determine


    Your Essence I can choose


    Your edges marked by frame


    Carved of wood and gold


    With each panel the same


    With a door that I can fold


    Carvings all around you


    Of beasts of Myths design


    Your face full of secrets


    men search the world to find"


    While reciting I may have gotten too into it and ended up saying unnecessary things, causing the energy drain to increase, but the size of the silver liquid grew, some branches dragged themselves towards the liquid which was forming an even face, they coiled around the liquid turning brown as they did, growing with parts of it falling off at points, forming carvings naturally into themselves, carvings of dragons, lions, werewolves, and other such things coming to life on it.


    I had found that whenever I created something, if I kept materials necessary for its creation nearby, my power would just repurpose them into what was needed, and the energy drain would reduce, but whenever I made something from scratch the drain was more, so when reciting the words, for wood I imagined that the roots and vines of the trees around would take that part and change into oak wood


    As the mirror formed I found that although I had finished talking the connection between me and it hadn''t faded, it was as strong as ever, other things I had created aside from things bound to me like my Sword, Rod and Staff, the connection to other things would vanish one they were stable, even the sword which was bound to me was weak now that I gave it to Alexander, It had accepted him because he was sworn to protect me, and it was its reason for existence to protect me so, they rod and staff I didn''t plan to give anyone, the staff made using my power easier and the rod felt like it wouldn''t accept anyone else


    It took ten minutes, record time although the item was small in hand, It could be enlarged to room height by anyone, but aside from that only I could modify it, or change features, not even time could age its wood. Holding it up, I willed it to grow slowly and watched as it went from a pocket watch sized rectangle, to a mans height and wide enough to reflect the view around me, the wood around it made it seem more like a door than a mirror, the surface was silver so it added an eerie glow to what every it reflected, but using my power it soon became as clear as the mass produced ones on earth, and on its face I saw myself for the first time


    Or maybe I was looking at someone different, I was 5''11, in my mid-forties, with dark brown hair and white streaks in my beard and my hair, both of which were looking unkempt, my eyes had gone from their original brown to a green that seemed to pulse with chaotic energy and the occasional flash of deep blue as if electricity was moving in it, but still what amazed me was how much of a resemblance I bore to Vali, I didn''t blame him for thinking we were related as somehow my aged self looked had such a resemblance to the boy that I could only be his father, I couldn''t understand how it had happened, my power had entered Alexander and he didn''t resemble me, he was blonde with deep blues that showed Loyalty, his jaw was set and his height was ginormous, so it must be me that changed to resemble Vali? Was it because I had touched his free will when trying to help him?


    Lost in thought once again I failed to notice that Alexander and Vali had stopped fighting and come over to look into the mirror shocked, Vali was the first to speak saying "Wow, I didn''t know I was this handsome"


    The blatant narcissism coming from someone who looked like a young version of myself shocked and annoyed me a little, so I told Alexander to take him and Help teach him some close quarters wrestling, it was petty punishment pitting a boy of barely 5''5 against a giant over 6 feet and very close to 7, but I couldn''t be bothered, my mind was already drawn to other matters, I shrunk the mirror after admiring myself a little more, I wasn''t exactly in good shape, but was by no means fat, or even big for that matter, just looked like someone who didn''t exercise.


    After a few bouts of wrestling we settled down to have dinner, after tasting the unseasoned bird I decided to try something again, I reached down to touch the ground and will sand grains to form a small plate, realising that I could have created an actual mirror from glass rather than from silver earlier. Ignoring my sudden revelation I placed the chicken in the glass bowl as Vali watched me with angry eyes and Alexander just observed in his usual impassive face, I focused my mind and said the magic words as I used the chicken we had as basis, since it was cooked I wouldn''t have to spend too much energy to make one considering I didn''t have that much energy left, so I spake the magic words


    "Finger Licking Good"


    The world worked with me, and soon we had a delicious and hot whole grilled chicken on our plate, so we ate and lay for the night, Alexander keeping watch which Vali would relieve him from in two hours, and which I would fail to relieve Vali from in four hours


    As I lay there looking at the moon, for the first time in forever, I felt I had a chance.

 Night Raid.

    Authors Note: Just saw the new Warcraft movie today, while not breathtaking, it wasn''t disappointing, all the hype considered I''d say that its pretty good, At least good enough to inspire this chapter.


    _____________________________


    I''d barely slept for two hours when I felt my shoulder being shaken, I opened my eyes to find Alexander sword drawn with an urgent look on his face, he only said one word


    "Ambush"


    The implication of that word was enough to shock me out of sleep, I got to my feet as fast as I could, and looked around but couldn''t find any trace of an enemy, I found Vali searching the trees for a sign much like me but couldn''t tell if he''d found something. I became sceptical, maybe Alexander was just too tired, Keeping on the unbothered sagely look i''d grown accustomed to in Vjoirstead, I approached him to quietly explain why he should fucking let me sleep when it happened


    "Uraaaaaahhaaaaaag" A frightening guttural roar sounded out, starting off a series of roars all around us, by the time they were done I had counted twenty roars coming from the cover of trees around us and ten above us


    The attack was sudden, with several huge bodies the size of three gorilla''s on each others shoulders and thrice as thick as a fat gorilla barrelled out of bushes taking us by surprise


    Using his boosted strength Alexander met the charge of one of them head on throwing it off its feet and back into the trees behind, while he maneuvered to the left and barreled into another one drawing his sword in one smooth motion


    Vali had no where near as much strength as Alexander though he was inhumanly strong, but his abilities included increased reflexes and agility allowing him to dodge the initial charge and easily maneuver his way around the attacking monsters, he''s young and isn''t a psychopath so although he could evade them, he made no move to try to kill one, as for me, the moment I determined there was a threat, the staff and rods in my pack drew from my energy and flew to my hands erecting a barrier around me that repelled the monsters in their charge


    Alexander moved between them like a God of Death one or two heads falling and hearts being stabbed wherever he passed, Vali was a mouse always somewhere else by the time you reach him, and I was an impenetrable wall. Once I saw that everyone wasn''t in danger anytime soon, I was able to observe the things that attack us, they were big very big, but humanoid, some had green skin and all of them had large fangs coming out of their mouths, aside from those two they may as well have been big humans, their clothes were tribal in nature with horns and fangs covering most of it, they hefted huge weapons bigger than my entire body and stared at me with a mix of battle-ready wariness/shock/ and defiance.


    The fight was turning in our favour even though we only had the terminator that is Alexander to deal any damage as my creation magic would take too long to cast, but at that moment a flashing light burst out of the trees towards Alexander and although his inhuman reflexes allowed him to rotate his body to avoid taking the hit on his chest he was still blown off, smashing through the treelines to a far distance, Vali seeing the situation turn bad charged towards me to take refuge in my shield, the energy I had used to heal him and my own resonating and allowing him to pass the barrier


    With our only combatant gone, we stood there in the shield defenceless, and although the one surrounding us kept a safe distance but they seemed visibly less tense than when Alexander had been ripping through them like paper. After a while had passed with no movement from them, I had had enough time to create a small black flame in my hand which I kept enclosed in energy, the flame didn''t have heat or give off any light, and was made from a similar one in one of my favourite anime back on earth, its name was


    Amaterasu!


    I didn''t have much energy left over from creating it and maintaining the shield, so  I had to use it as best I could, I was waiting for the moment when they would let their guard down and surround my shield, so I watched them carefully, I was growing impatient and was about to throw it when i heard a voice coming from the forest


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    "Asank Er Vu nedi?"


    Which thanks to my Language skill translated to


    "So that''s it huh?"


    Slowly a figure walked out of the trees, wrapped in a black robe which covered a dark green armor, he stood about six feet tall, with black hair, black eyes, a pale face and thin body, behind him came a few warrior and a bunch of skeletons, as soon as i saw him one thought jumped into my mind


    Necromancer


    He came to stand before me sizing me up, when he said in a disappointed fashion "So, you''re a one trick pony? But that''s a good trick, an unbreakable shield."


    Walking around me he seemed to be checking out our belongings as he said


    "Aside from your weapons that look quite nice, your quite the poor bunch, strong enough to kill five of my orcs but poor, mercenaries or refugees, no matter, You will all be dead soon and your nice staff will belong to me."


    He then stood behind the Orcs and seemed to be waiting for something, it soon hit me that he was waiting for my energy to run out so he could take us down, unfortunately for him i wasn''t using that much energy to sustain the barrier and could probably continue to do so for the next few hours


    As time passed I came up with a plan, once i had, i whispered to Vali to stand behind me, away from the flame and act like he was supporting me to stand, i made the staff cause the barrier to flash in and out of existence and pretended to be unable to sustain it anymore, seeing a slow delight creep on the face of the Necromancer and his followers, all except the orcs who had looked unhappy through the entire thing


    As i released the barrier and pretended to be unable to bring it back up, he commanded one of the Orcs to push forward to capture, or more likely kill us, but as soon as the Orc reached me, i shot my hand out using the black flame to burn through his body and using the rest of my energy to project it forward towards the Necromancer, whose face turned dark once he realised he had let his guard down but by then it was too late


    Using what was left of my energy i caused the flame to grow and burst on them, Spreading and covering them, i quickly put the barrier back up, i wasn''t an Uchiha and didn''t have a sharingan to control the flame making it as dangerous to me as it was to them


    Everything around us was burning but there was no smoke, screams rang out as creature of all kind rolled, jumped, did everything trying to put out the flames to no avail, their struggles only served to spread the Fire to other things, soon the entire camp was alight and burning, even our packs and things couldn''t escape the undying flame


    As soon as i had erected the barrier, i had covered Vali''s eyes and ears, it was one thing to watch something die, another to see/hear it suffer, i watched as the Necromancer and his troop burned with no escape, the Orcs ran all over trying to put out the flames but failing, yet one orc crawled its was to my barrier, looking up at me with determination, resolve, and defiance to the pain, it said to me in a deep voice which sounded like rocks crumbling


    "Crov Dan Sou Chid, Nekromancer"


    Which my ability translated to


    "Please, save our children......the necromancer"


    With that it died, but it had given me enough information to turn my gloating pride at success into horror, from what it had said and the unhappiness the orcs had shown during the time they thought they had won, i guessed that the necromancer had kidnapped their children and blackmailed them to work for it, meaning i had just killed a bunch of loyal intelligent parents who were only trying to protect their children. The shock of the revelation turned me pale as i tried to push energy to stop the flame, seeing the Orcs fall and give their death cries one by one, i was able to stop Amaterasu but by then the deed was done and everything was ash.

 After The Raid.

    Inside North-hold.


    An armoured figure ran up the stone steps to the commanders quarters in the small military garrison of North-Hold, his standard issues armor larger than his frame moved loosely as he ran, yet the figure didn''t seem bothered by the weight or ill-fitting nature of the armor, he understood that it was part of the army''s scare tactic, as once a soldier put on their armor they were almost indistinguishable from any other soldier, Aside from the commanders whose armors were tailor made for them. The running soldier was educated, a rare thing amongst the army ranks, and although his commanding officers and fellow soldiers knew about his literacy, non of them suspected the truth due to his young age which seemed to be in his twenties, the truth being the fact that he is actually a Special Agent of an elite group in direct service to the King, they handle matters which if left unchecked would threaten their Kings sovereignty, they possessed varying levels of authority, and were spread across a wide range of duties, from a Mayor to a travelling Merchant. They possess their own secret language, codes, and other resources to keep them effective and secret.


    At the moment this Agent was supposed to be at home, his duties for the day having been completed, but by simply putting on his armor and pretending to be on duty with an order to meet his superior officer he was able to enter the garrison.


    Arriving at a section of the stone walls of the garrison, he knocked three times on a particular stone and proceeded to do so at varying rhythms and repetitions on other randomly placed stones, with each knock of his hand a slight green ripple appeared on that stone of the wall, so slight that it would be unnoticeable except the individual possessed inhuman eyesight or already knew where to look and what to look for.


    After he had knocked on the fifth stone, he whispered a password into the air and pressed his had spread out to slowly push on the wall which gave way slightly, looking up he checked to make sure no one was approaching or watching him before he pushed it open and entered, closing it shut behind him.


    Once inside he called out "Infernae" at which a green ripple surrounded him for the briefest of moments before the torches on each side of the walkway lit up, the Agent walked down the path in hurried steps but didn''t run, the walkway led him deeper slowly inclining down as he approached the tunnels, a small series of paths and choices that if found by any other than those authorised would keep them trapped in an infinite maze, which isn''t actually an infinite maze just a small series of interconnected tunnels over which a Misdirection enchantment has been placed causing anybody aside from those who are aware of it to be lost.


    At the end of the walkway, he counted his steps under his breath and walked over the gap in the middle but didn''t fall down instead he seemed to hover above the gaping hole beneath him. Ignoring what his eyes said, he counted and stepped to the side, turning around and taking a few steps forward, then taking a step to the side, he continued this way before reaching another section of wall before which he stopped and entered, passing through the wall as though it wasn''t there, as soon as he passed through, a grey wind seemed to flash past the tunnels before it resumed its quiet.


    On the other side of the wall was a round room around which blue flames burned in braziers which hung on the wall, they burned silently there without fuel giving off no heat or warmth, they only gave a blue light which cast an eerie look on the room. Walking forward, he approached a pool of water in the middle, the room was dim making it hard to make out anything in the pools reflection, but if one looked closely enough they would see that the pool didn''t reflect the room or ceiling of the room, but seemed to reflect somewhere else where there was colored tiles in pattern for the ceiling in stark contrast to the earthen cave nature of the ceiling in the room


    He walked out and stood in a place where his reflection should be clearly in view of the water and said "I request an audience", he didn''t say his name or the name of whose audience he requested, they never said names, only request, as you could never tell who was listening. The surface of the water was still but then a figure seemed to walk in view dressed in common clothes seeming no different from anybody on the street, but he knew better, no one in their organisation would dare to take or give audience or permission if they were not already authorised, They were just that well trained.


    As soon as the figure appeared he did not wait for it to speak, he requested the audience, if his information required any action then he would be instructed, if not the figure would simply walk away. So he took a breath and spoke


    "I am reporting on strange occurrences in the Region within the past two weeks. Field scouts report seeing what appeared to be a Wraith but was confirmed to be a Banshee, it destroyed a small outlying village after which it was engaged by a single strange individual who bested it and burned it, after the individual departed the went in using Soul Magic to retrieve it. The Individual in question seems to be well trained and powerful, he was able to escape from surveillance carrying with him two young men, the scouts were unable to get a good look at his face but claim that his height is distinctive enough to identify him. A Necromancer was sighted in the region, A small team of three was sent to kill him but have not sent back word, No bodies were found so they may have failed and become assets to the Necromancer. A small Orc bandit group that were being tracked vanished along with the scouts who were following them, the Orc group were responsible for the massacre of several villages in the region, the scouts were ordered to eliminate the threat, their failure to send word back and the disappearance of a the Orc group and the Scouts following the Necromancer suggests that they may have all been compromised making the Necromancer a larger threat than previously estimated. I request reinforcements be sent to deal with the problem to ensure stability in the region."


    Once he finished, he stayed silent waiting for response. The figure in the pool seemed to be considering his report and was making its decision, before long it seemed to arrive at a conclusion and said in a deep voice "Standard Protocol" before moving off from the reflection of the pool.


    After receiving his orders he left, he understood that he was to go the standard meeting place a month from now to receive the agents who would handle the mess for him, letting out a breath he walked out of the room and straight across walking into another wall which he passed through taking him to a gate. Taking off his Soldier armor he changed into normal clothes, keeping the armor in his bag, then he opened the gate slipped out quietly into the street and disappeared behind a corner. Behind him the gate he passed through seemed to fade out of the wall and existence.


    ______________________________________


    Tyler POV


    It has been three days since I murdered the innocent family of Orcs who were trying to protect their children, using my biased gaming knowledge I had presumed Orcs to be violent irrational creature who were trying to kill us because they enjoyed it, but maybe if the necromancer hadn''t forced them they wouldn''t have attacked us


    We found the necromancers lair but the children were already dead, they''d been turned into undead guards and attacked us the moment we showed up, Alexander put them down and we burned the bodies


    Following the Necromancer''s trail back to the lair had taken us more than a day away from where we were attacked, he had been using magic to cover their tracks while following all of them from behind, but he failed to cover his own, he must have found it unnecessary


    As we headed back so we could make it to the Town once again, I found myself deep in depression, the screams of the Orcs kept playing in my head, the final request of that last Orc in particular haunting me, I had killed them all, Intelligent Sentient people with Families dreams and hopes, and I killed them.


    Alexander and Vali hadn''t witnessed their deaths so it meant nothing to them, although Alexander had killed a few with his sword but I think he had been a soldier or knight before becoming Von, I was the only one who had watched their flesh boil as it evaporated and their entire bodies turn to ash, It was because I couldn''t control it


    I was finally realising the limits of creation, it can make things come into existence, but the more abstract the concept of the thing, the more power it takes to make, another weakness is it takes to long to create things and they can''t be controlled once created, other things could be created to control the thing but that would take time


    I needed the power something like Amaterasu can provide, but I needed to be able to control it at will, when I used it on the orcs I was desperate and full of adrenaline, but now I realise how dangerous it had been, if I had run out of energy to keep the barrier up, or didn''t have enough energy to create water to extinguish an inextinguishable flame and in that time the Orcs had all died


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    The only way to access both the Power and Control would be a Sharingan, its wide range of abilities would be useful, the ability to see energy would help me control my own energy better, the ability to memorise and perform any action I see would help my close combat, and if the Anime can be trusted I should have better reaction time. It makes the Sharingan the perfect choice for me


    The problem is I cant wait to slowly awaken the Mangekyou and proceed, I need the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. I wasn''t too sure how to describe the abilities and look of the Sharingan in Words, so I just focused on the memories of its powers, all the abilities even the bloodline limited ones, I focused on the appearance and when I remembered and imagined all I could, I willed it using the energy and BAM pain hit me so hard me head moved back at such speed it looked like I had been hit


    My brain and eyes felt like they were being stabbed with needles and dug crudely with a crude spoon, I could feel them liquefying, burning and remaking themselves in my head, I tried to scream but the parts of my brain that handled speech and motor functions seemed to have shut down entirely, yet sensation and thought remained allowing me to feel the pain but be trapped inside my own body unable to do anything but feel it, I tried to move more energy to stop what ever was happening but all of it was already being used, and even though I could feel the energy on the other side of the barrier replenish it and it replenish itself but the changes were taking energy faster than it could replenish itself, I felt Vali and Alexander find me lying there, I heard them sigh as if used to me doing dangerous things, then I felt them carry me and keep me in an upright sitting position, I felt them put my staff in my hand and I felt it start to supply me with energy, the pain continued increasing in intensity until all I could see was white, by the time it finally stopped I passed out instantly


    I woke up feeling completely fine, no soreness no pain, but I knew I was just lucky, I cursed at my own stupidity putting my life at risk every time just shortly after I resolve not to be stupid with my power, I would have to stop experimenting and only create complex things after I had given it long and drawn out thought


    I opened my eyes and looked around, the world looked vastly different with these new eyes, everything was sharper and in focus, with a simple push of will I could see inside everything, the energy in them, or just zoom in to see their molecular links, but not really knowing much of any science seeing molecular links meant nothing to me except I wanted a nuclear explosion. Realising my thoughts  had drifted I quickly stopped myself and summoned Amaterasu which appeared on a leaf I was looking at, I pushed again shaping it into different things in my imagination, I was simple as i''d removed most restrictions when imagining it during creation, I tried a few of its other abilities before I decided to stop, I tried to pull from the familiar source of energy but I couldn''t, I brought out the mirror i''d created and stood up before allowing it to grow while standing, my actions caused Vali to audibly groan in frustration and Alexander to shake his head but I ignored them and looked at myself using my Sharingan, I could see a lot of different things but with a push of will all of that disappeared leaving only a very small almost unnoticeable dot close to my heart, I was surprised, from the feeling it had always given i''d imagined it to be almost like a river in my body, but it turned out to be so small I almost missed it even with my eternal mangekyou, I saw a steady stream going to my eyes from it, my eyes seemed to be covered with the energy, the dot in my heart seemed to be from the barrier as I could see a stream moving from it to the mirror. After analysing it a bit I concluded that to power my eyes needed more energy than I had access to, drawing from the barrier too and as a result I didn''t have any to use, on the bright side, it seemed that to power fixed effects on things i''d already created I had been using from beyond the barrier and not what I was drawing on meaning I could still use the items i''d already created and power them, I just couldn''t create anything for a while, which was probably for the best.


    I recalled the mirror to its pocket watch form, which was what I called its small form, I didn''t have a chain so I tried to be careful not to lose it, after securing my things, I approached Vali who was visibly angry with me at this point and Alexander who seemed to be worried, if I had to guess, about how he was going to protect someone who was the major threat to himself, before they could say anything I apologized for my reckless behaviour, Alexander started about how I had no need to apologize to him as it was his duty to stay by my side regardless of my behaviour, Vali on the other hand started shouting about how much of a fool i''d been while practicing my magic, putting all of our lives at risk needlessly


    I found that his words stung because they were true, although I needed to learn about my powers, I didn''t need to rush it like i''d been doing, I could take it slowly and easy without doing stupid things that could get us killed.


    Once he was done, I promised them I wouldn''t use magic again for some time, only to see them shocked, I then asked Alexander to include me in their morning training sessions, which dropped their originally frozen mouths, I watched them huddle to a side and start whispering to each other, although I couldn''t hear them, a benefit of my mangekyou sharingan and the modifications to my brain it came with allow me to lip read. I was obviously the topic of their conversation, and from reading their lips I found them thinking I''d incurred some brain damage from the experiment, to which Vali said "At least he''s not dead" which made me feel even more guilty


    The next day I joined them in their exercises, I obviously couldn''t keep up with the inhuman freaks, but it seems i''m much faster and agile than my original body, I was given Alexander''s old sword to use, Vali asked why I couldn''t just make one and I lied that if I used magic it would make me use more magic which he didn''t seem to completely accept but he left the matter. It turns out I was right, the sharingan allows me much better sight and processing which allows me to see Alexander and Vali''s Punches even at their top speed with full exertion, I can even manually turn on my bullet time, but being able to see something doesn''t mean you can avoid it, testified by the bruises I had on my arms from this mornings session


    We walked though the day and by the time the sun set, we were in line to enter North-hold, before reaching the town I had decided to keep my eyes closed and pretend to be blind to stop people from seeing my red marked eyes which I found I couldn''t change to normal as I had forgotten to add that when making it, I could still see through my eyelids if I wanted, but to others I was a blind man who closed his eyes


    I was shocked when I saw the Town up close, all around it was a massive wall Eighty feet high and according to Alexander it surrounds the entire Town which stretches to Fifty Kilometers covering their farmlands and a small hunting ground, before I could tell him that would make this a City not a town and question the need to keep a Hunting ground in the city, I heard him explaining to Vali that they categorised their settlements by the amount of Security it could provide, meaning a very small settlement with a very powerful guardian could be called a city, I was somewhat relieved to know that a Kingdom still required Cities and Towns under it to be called as such, but was shocked once again when I found out there were towns as powerful as cities


    It got to our turn in line and we passed without issue, they didn''t even check our belongings, Alexander explained to Vali again to my benefit that it was more of a show of force to anybody with ill intent entering the town than to prevent any actual entry, and that I was only during wartime that they would check for anything. We entered the Town and walked the streets before finding a suitable inn which we paid for


    We all shared a room with three beds, It had a closed off bath and hot water from what I was told were fire rocks, within which I could see flowing red energy, different from mine which is colorless, Alexander pointed out that this Inn was for visiting Nobility and rarely saw any service, and that with our funding we couldn''t stay here for long, which pushed me to enjoy the sensation of a warm bath and a comfortable bed, I wasn''t sure when I would get them again.

 On the Same Day.

    Maqued Min Alfisaq, City of Sin


    Religion in most of the seven kingdoms is pretty touch and go, Those who believe hold fast to their faith and those who don''t get drunk every evening. But even the most staunch unbelievers would tell you that ''Maqued Min Alfisaq'' was a place dammed to eternal punishment and doomed on the day the gods decide to wipe out the disgusting stain from the face of the world.


    And ''Maqued Min Alfisaq''  is, depending on the visitor, the most vile pit of scum and foulness ever to be found, or a sweet land of freedom and opportunity. In the City, a Man could be having sex with a woman on the street in full view of the populace without anyone batting an eyelid, what''s worse even, is that he could be doing so after driving a knife through her husbands back for money on the same street without raising an eyebrow


    In this very dangerous City lies a rather Medium sized establishment where the Drink doesn''t taste entirely like piss, and the food isn''t actually rotten, and in that Establishment sits a Middle-Aged man in his late thirties to late fifties, well muscled and armed sat there drinking the drinks to be had and eating while watching the on-goings of the pub, sitting beside him is his most trusted friend and guard, Agaroth, and opposite him a Loyal Steward, Novar.


    As they sat silently eating and drinking, the only waitress in the pub Merry, a young girl in her early twenties came over, she flashed them a warm smile which they returned, she then began to talk telling one story of things that had happened In the pub one after the other with barely a pause for breath, the three men were amused and didn''t drive her away as they were familiar with her habit of gossiping to any ear that would listen, they had been coming to this pub whenever they passed the City for over twenty years now, and they had known the girl and her father for a long time, before she was born they had known her mother, when her mother died in childbirth they had helped her father grieve and settle down, and whenever they passed by the pub they would bring her gifts from wherever they had been, their Adventuring days are long gone now, but every now and again they come here to drink cheap ale, and they never forget to bring her gifts when they do.


    But as she stood and regaled them with the of how she found out the traveling merchants wife had an extra piece between her legs, a group of mercenaries who had been causing trouble in the pub all night and were now drunk beyond reasoning stood up together and approached the table trying to surround it to intimidate them, a rather putrid one walked out and began to speak


    "Oy Lassie, Didn''t yer ''ear me Callin'' ye?"


    Merry annoyed by their tone and most likely trying to avoid the stench  he was giving off ignored him and continued to talk with the three men who took a cue from her to do the same, this seemed to infuriate the man who once again said


    "Dis'' righ'' ''ere iz yer las wornin'' I sed, Az punishment, bring dat tight little ass ''ere so I con fuck it"


    As he spoke, he and his troop were too drunk to notice that everyone else in the pub had cleared out when they were speaking, or maybe they had noticed and presumed it to be due to their fearsomeness, so as he spoke his men drew their weapons and he reached out to grab her from behind


    When his hand was within reach of the girl, he found that it had been grabbed firmly by the middle aged man''s hand while his other lifted his mug above his head to finish his drink, even as he slowly stood up and blocked their reach of the girl. Angered the drunk merc shouted


    "Get outta da way grand pappy er u iz gonna get hurt"


    But even as he said it, the middle aged man twisted his wrist breaking his hand and interrupting his words with his scream, before he could realise what was happening he found a hand behind his head holding it forward to receive the force and a fist breaking his jaw with a sickening crunch, the hand holding him left him at which point he fell with a thud to the ground completely knocked out.


    The surrounding Mercs were all too drunk to realise exactly how much brute force it would require to make someone''s jaw break with such an audible crunch and so they attacked him with their swords


    The Middle aged man didn''t seem worried in the least, he simply gave out a soft sigh and ducked under the blow that had been sent to his head, spinning around he caught the assailants arm and dislocated it from the elbow grabbing the dropped sword before it could fall out of the air he used the pommel to smash the head of the broken arm guy knocking him unconscious while simultaneously using the blade to knock back the three strikes that had been headed for his back, side stepping he dodged a blow from a great sword large enough to cleave him in half and raised two fingers in his empty hand at which point a small green rune flashed causing a large amount of force to cause the burly great sword user to fly back crashing through tables and through the wall out of the pub, but to anybody looking from the side it just seemed like he had sent him flying by tapping him with two fingers


    The mercs still came madly in their attacks, but the middle aged man dodged everything with ease breaking hands, wrist and feet, it almost looked like he was dancing between them but for the screams and bone protruding from the skin of those who got it bad people could almost believe it was choreographed.


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    After Two minutes had passed of the original Fifteen mercenaries, not one of them was in any shape to move, while the middle aged man hadn''t even broken a sweat, sitting down he rejoined his two companions who hadn''t even stopped eating when he stood earlier, Merry seemed a little troubled but more at how she was going to get the place clean than for the idiots on the floor, although she did pity them a little, Agaroth continued eating saying nothing, but Novar without even looking up said


    "Your Majesty, isn''t it unbecoming of you to be involved with pub fights, what would the queen say."


    Novar didn''t even pause between his food to say it causing his words to sound a bit muffled, and although his tone seemed bothered, but his expression hadn''t changed in the slightest causing his statement to seem more like a well rehearsed speech than an actual scolding, but yes, the middle aged man was the King, undisputed ruler of the


    The middle aged man didn''t respond and simply kept eating, to which Novar gave an actual sigh saying


    "I understand your frustration sire and your irritation at not being able to find a cure, but you have to understand that if word gets out that the Kings is beating the sense out of his subjects, you will lose a lot of support"


    The Middle aged man still stayed quiet, causing Novar to sigh again as he resumed eating


    The three men were silent as they ate, and the girl resumed her story, the entire situation looking somewhat comical against the backdrop of people on the floor either groaning in pain or passed out from it.


    ______________________


    Ishtar POV


    I''ve been living in North-Hold for the past eight years, ever since my parents died when I was ten I''ve had to take care of myself surviving in the streets, picking pockets, stealing what I could while dodging the guards and slavers. I got really good at moving without drawing attention, and sometimes for fun I would play pranks like stealing a some girls small-clothes and tuck the into the back pocket of their suitor leaving just enough for others to see it but not him, then i''d wait and watch what happens when he turns to leave after getting the girl all googly eyed about him and she sights her underwear in his pocket


    Yesterday I saw three people walk into town, I know their lords though they seemed to be trying to hide it by wearing common clothes, The three of them are really weird, one''s really tall, almost like a giant or an orc, I''ve heard orcs were tall, the second is a boy that seems younger than me, it seems to be his first time travelling cause he was turning his head trying to examine everything, the third one was the oldest, he kind of gives me the creeps, his eyes are closed cause he''s probably blind but he walked on his own without using his staff to feel for the ground, and at one point before they went into their inn I could''ve sworn he turned and was looking straight at me even though I was hiding behind some crates on a balcony at least a hundred meters from them, when I tried to move his face seemed to follow me even with his eyes closed, I figured I hadn''t eaten and was simply dreaming up things because he turned around and just walked into the inn, which like I thought was meant for nobles


    I decided to keep watch and wait for them to come out tomorrow, maybe i''ll be able to get enough from them to stay in an inn myself.


    __________________________


    Tyler POV


    Yesterday, I saw someone following us, it was a young girl, she was pretty so I stared a bit, but she''s not my type, and besides i''m old now, i''d just look like some pervert so its best to look away.


    _________________________


    Author''s Anger Rant


    Far Away, In a Continent to the East


    First Face Slapper: "Fang Long you cripple although you can walk and work and is actually smarter than me just less violent, how dare you look at your own fianc¨¦ Ming-er with your cripple eyes, I will kill you although you are the love of her life and prove to her by killing you that I am the one she should marry even though I don''t care about her own happiness a tiny bit"


    MC: "Fang Shou you dare attack me just because I can''t cultivate you want to steal my fianc¨¦, I will go on a journey and activate my main characters aura awakening my past life memories causing various beauties and treasures to come to me, and when their owners or husbands come I will kill them all, becoming an even bigger douche bag than you then I will come back kill you take her, kill your family, slap faces in matters that could be resolved peacefully, encounter other douchebags such as myself, then transcend and ascend to the Douchebag world with everything I have robbed and stolen"


    All the Female characters in the story: "Fang Long, I see you in a new light, come and take me even though I already have a fianc¨¦ who you killed, then kill my family for refusing to let you have me, then I will follow you around like a lost puppy while people describe my cold enchanting beauty and pale skin and long legs and black hair and etc"


    Rinse and Repeat and you have a new xianxia

 Not A Chapter (An Apology).

Sorry once again. My Wi-Fi subscription ended and I am too broke to pay it. However in my benevolence, I will try to write the chapters and post them at work.


    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    Fingers crossed I don''t lose my job.

 Children Of Earth.

    The City Of Light.


    Blackfish Hall.


    The Cheers of the crowd shook the entire stadium as the sword pierced through a gladiator with a sickening sound, with another sound it came out of him, leaving what was once a man now a corpse. The people ''lucky'' enough to be splashed by the blood celebrated even as their bodies shivered as it had been an interesting fight which they had enjoyed.


    Armed men rushed into the pit with shields aloft and herded the surviving gladiator into a corner as other men rushed in to pick up the corpse from where they would probably take it to feed the Guard hounds, once they departed, a secondary gate opened to allow the gladiator back into his empty cage.


    Another gladiator named and branded 47 stood in his own cage watching everything, scars marked all over his body and his face, they showed where he had been stabbed, kicked, cut, burned, bored and mauled by animals. One could say they were a history of his time in this place, he could barely remember a time outside of it, when he had been a normal college student before he was approached by a shady man who offered him a ''chance to leave all your worries behind and go to a new world'', he had thought the man was crazy or selling something and hoping to see a show, had agreed and gone with the flow. He woke up in a young body unfamiliar to his own trapped in a cage and found out the man wasn''t crazy and had sent him to a new world where he could leave all his past worries behind as agreed, but he hadn''t warned him that the worries to come would be worse than the ones he had left


    It had been Twenty five of this worlds years since he woke up here and in that time the only thing he knew were the walls of this Pit and his cage. When he woke up, by slowly asking the people around him he found out that he or the body he was in had been sold by his father for an extra drink and he was now a life slave, a person whose life was sold to the pits, unlike regular slaves and criminals who could leave if they won a specific number of battles he had been sold in such a manner that he wasn''t supposed to win, he was to die cheaply for the peoples entertainment, yet luck had found him in the first few matches and fear had trained him until he could survive bringing him away from the pits on his own feet every time. From his various escapes and survival he had slowly become a crowd favourite garnering fans everywhere who couldn''t wait for the day they got to watch him die, he would disappoint them for as long as he could, but no one stays in the pits forever, and he knew that his time was coming, if he couldn''t escape he would soon die in the pits.


    A guard rattled his sword against his cage yelling at him to come out already, he had been announced judging from the intensity of the crowds cheers, the chains linking his feet rattled as he walked out, they were long enough not to impair movement in the pit but they were far too effective in withholding freedom, he made his way into the pit and examined his opponent, a boy barely older than his body was when he had arrived here frightened and shaking, holding the weapon wrong too


    He walked over to weapons rack and picked his usual weapons, a short sword and a shield. When he first arrived and was inexperienced he picked bows, staffs, spears, and different variations of swords but quickly found that if you want to experiment or learn in the pits, you die. If you want to look cool, you die. If you want to play fair, you die. So the most important thing is staying alive and anything that requires adaptation will kill you, with that lesson in mind he had always picked the short sword and a shield


    The gates closed as he faced his opponent, the boy was doing his best to appear brave, it wasn''t working but it did spring up some memories in him, of when he was first thrown into a pit much like this one without any weapons and everyone expecting him to die, unlike now his first battle had been a free for all and the last two people had dealt such damage to each other that they died leaving him frightened and confused, sometimes he wishes he had died that day.


    He looked the boy over and saw if there was a chance of him surviving in this hell, If there was then he would wound him leaving him barely alive to claim victory by making everyone think he was dead, then the pit owners would scar his face and ''Re-Use'' him in another fight. But looking at the boy, he could see that if he lived and was thrown into another pit with a more sadistic gladiator, the type who enjoyed the cheers of the crowds as they tortured their opponents, he could see if the boy met any of them even the weaker ones he would suffer he was a man of few words as there were no need for words in the pit so he said to him


    "I''ll make it painless." at which the boy angrily responded "Speak for yourself old man" and charged


    Not bothering to get into a shield stance he used his strength advantage to forcefully push the boys sword to the side and stabbed into his chest whispering, "May your next Life be Better than this one." into the ears of the fallen boy, who shocked and scared but not in pain breathe his last.


    The Crowd booed at the quick ending of the match, he would probably be flogged and starved for not having toyed with the boy, but he couldn''t care, he kneeled and closed the accusing eyes even as the guard pushed him to a corner with their spears and shields, giving room for the boy''s body to be taken. Once that was over, he was allowed back into his cage, to await his next match, but in the solitude he found himself whispering a question he hadn''t asked in a long time


    "When will it end?"


    ____________________________


    The Tomb Of Alliel-ik-Gevas.


    North.


    Sheila walked low and slow with measured steps as she calculated the distance between the trap triggers in the great hall, the entire tomb had once been a grand estate belonging to a powerful mage who stories claimed had walked through worlds in his prime and had only been rivaled by the gods who had smote him just to show the heresy to their people


    Tsk, damned gods. she scoffed in her head, she had always had a practical view of life, when she was on earth she had been an atheist and a firm believer that careful planning and preparation would allow someone complete any task unscathed, but that firm belief in planning and procedure had been shaken when she was sucked into this world as she examined what she had thought to be a Hebrew relic that the seller claimed had belonged to Solomon


    She rolled to quickly cross the enchanted stretch of floor panels and jumped at the end of it, she was happy that she had gotten some small boosts in ability after crossing the portal as she had found that the physics and chemistry was different here causing most of her knowledge to be pointless but of that which wasn''t had granted her a high level of skill at using magic because she could picture and image of what she wanted, yet the physics were different enough to make her unable to theorise the calculations necessary for spatial even reality displacement, and even if she did would she have enough power to fuel the process or identify which out of a factor of n was earth? That was why she came here, to see if anything she wanted to see if anything she found here was capable of that


    Coming across a wide gap, she drew her hand across the air like she was drawing following which a green light highlighted the path her fingers followed as it formed an image in the air resembling a magic circle seen a lot in Japanese Anime which she had been a fan of. Completing the Circle she waved her hands forward causing it to scatter and slowly float forward, which caused an ice bridge to slowly form following the scattered runes, this method of magic was created by her to achieve complicated effects in real time, it was a mixture of Enchanting and Magic which allowed her to spend seconds on what would take ordinary magicians an hour. While ordinary magicians could cause elements and energy to move with will and the more powerful ones being able to do it with a single thought, but in order to cause it to create or shape itself they would have to spend hours perfecting their incantations to make sure they get it right, but her method is more like programming making the effects precise and the method quick as long as you knew what you were doing, but to make sure it wasn''t copied by the other magicians she had met in this world she had used the English Alphabet then replaced the letters with symbols just in case, then had further used encryption methods like the Caesar shift cipher to hide its meaning.


    At first, it had been difficult, costing her more time than this world''s classical magic cost but as she grew accustomed she grew faster, till she was as proficient with her encryptions as she was English, she rushed over the platform she had just made by freezing liquid particles in the air and reinforcing with magic energy constantly running through it, the bridge was solid, but as someone deathly afraid of heights she didn''t want to test that theory.


    Navigating the physical traps with a trained eye from experience, she avoided the magical ones using glasses she had enchanted to spot enchantments but inspite of that she remained careful not wanting to put her life at risk, she continued on.


    After quite a while, she arrived at what she presumed was the mage''s lab and found an old skeleton the lying on the books as if it was sleeping, she crept past it careful not to make a sound and approached a bookshelf that was one of the many covering the room, she examined the bookshelf and sending a worried glance back at the skeleton lying there she pushed on a button hidden as a breast on a carving on the shelf, she let out a slight breath when she saw it didn''t move after which she proceeded into the door revealed behind it, with a slight feeling of disorientation the cold that was habitual this far North disappeared and she found herself standing in a Large room with sunlight streaming through the windows and an impressive collection of items lying around, when she saw a few of them which she identified from their legends she was tempted to take the as they would improve her chances of survival, but any such thoughts were discouraged by her instinct which warned her that it was better to let sleeping dogs lie and only take the one thing she came for, her instinct had been able to help her survive in a new world where social order was somewhat lacking without getting enslaved, killed, or raped, so by her standards, she had pretty good instincts.


    She made her way past all of them and found what she was looking for, The Mage''s Staff. Most non magical and weaker magical people don''t know, but most powerful mages fuse their staffs with their souls and knowledge, eliminating the need for Grimoirs and such because the staff serves such a purpose, the problem with the method is if someone gets their hands on your staff you become vulnerable to them, they have all your memories at their disposal and they can use destroying the staff to kill you


    Using her enchanted glasses she examined the security enchantments protecting the staff with a little excitement, it had been Three earth years since she''d arrived here, and maybe she could finally return to the safety of her home on earth. Disabling the enchantments, she reached out to the staff and closed her eyes to examine its contents only for disappointment and anger to cover her expression, as she thought; ''the old fool mage had been able to walk worlds alright, this world!''


    It turned out that the mage had been capable of teleportation using runes he carved into his body similar to the way she drew runes in the air he was able to move about freely anywhere in this world, but the procedure to acquire that ability had needed him to split his soul and endure excruciating pain, to be completely honest he had done it by accident from what she could see in the staff, she wasn''t a masochist so she had no interest in excruciating pain regardless of the rewards it brings, since the teleportation although instant the runes had to be fed a constant stream of energy failing which it would become useless needing the user to redo the runes and endure the pain again.


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    No Thanks.


    She returned the staff to where it had been and was in the middle of beginning to examine when the place started to rumble causing her to turn around only to find that in her frustration she had triggered an enchantment while returning the staff


    Fuck.


    Grabbing the closest thing to her she shoved it into her bag without looking at it and ran, she was no longer worried about triggering an enchantment because they were all connected in a way that as soon as one blows they all activate, she dodged the falling debris, connected jumps using magic and pushed aside objects using energy pulses, barely making it out of the building she dived into the door she had entered through hoping to be taken back to the Ice castle but found herself lying on the other side of it stunned as the place she had just escaped from literally sunk into the bright hot yellow sand


    She got herself together and looked around hoping to spot something familiar, she didn''t.


    She was lost.


    Fuck.


    _________________________


    He walked the dream landscape, which appeared as it did only because he believed it to appear as it did, he was looking for the dreams from the eastern continent, so far east not many people knew about it, when he had first arrived in this world he had discovered that he had the ability to walk consciously through dreams, allowing him access to the minds of those dreaming, but dreams are a dangerous place to be, it is too easy to get lost in them forever


    But he was bored, he had been imprisoned by a Nobleman whose wife he had been sleeping with and was sent to prison where he was supposed to spend the weekend, the King had made it clear that there could be no executions or long term imprisonments without his command, anyone else and they could just make the person vanish without the king hearing about it, but he was a close friend of the Kings Wife and as such was a notable figure even if he had no authority of his own


    The Queen had been by when she heard he was imprisoned, but when she heard the reason she scoffed and told him she hoped this would teach him a lesson, It wouldn''t ofcourse but at the moment he was insanely bored, so he decided to use his ability to playout the weekend


    The Eastern Continent as he called it was a reflection of what people in his world called Xianxia as much as he could tell from their dreams, but the peculiar thing about them is that the entire continent seems to be in a sort of sleep walking trance, with only animals and plants being somewhat conscious, but all of the intelligent life he found there seemed to be stuck in a kind of dream state, he had no idea what caused it, but he didn''t care, he just needed to feed off it a little and use that to create his own fantasy with him as protagonist as he always did


    Maybe this time, he would become so powerful he would rule the Universe, he laughed as he entered his newly created dream saying "Fucking Xianxia"


    _______________________________________


    Tyler POV


    It had been about three months since they arrived at Northhold, and a day less than three months since he went blind.


    Yep, blind.


    The first night he slept in the inn it was so comfortable compared to the hard ground and insects that he had slept deeply, deep enough not to feel the reaction his newly created magical eyes were having to the energy in his body, it had mutated the eyes and seemed to be in the middle of modifying itself somehow but had as a result taken away his vision. On the literal bright side, he could still see energy which allowed him to gain a bearing of his surroundings somewhat, but he could no longer see faces, colors and other such details.


    Vali had simply grunted with disgust at the constant mutilation his magic seemed to perform and stormed out of the room, he had made sure to leave very early every day and come back late enough to not have to talk to him, He couldn''t see Alexander''s face but he could guess that it would be just as exasperated as Vali sounded.


    Alexander had felt that since he was now blind, he needed to be kept as comfortable as possible and had started doing work around Town to raise money to keep him in the Noble''s Inn. He did his best not to argue or complain since it was in fact his own meddling that had once again caused trouble and he couldn''t correct it since he still couldn''t access his energy, But he had found some other type of energy in the air, not as powerful or malleable as the one he used for creation inside him but it was something, and attempts to move it with his will were successful but the loss of his vision had further cemented his lack of faith in experimentation.


    As some sort of consolation prize for the loss of his vision, his other senses felt heightened to abnormal levels, making him able to function as normal, he would''ve used it to argue as an excuse if he didn''t feel so irritated at being unable to see.


    The energy vision was confusing as he sometimes saw shapes where people said there wasn''t anything causing him to look crazy, so he decided to ignore them but couldn''t since without his actual vision he couldn''t tell what was real and not.


    With everyone doing their own things every day, he found himself extremely bored, so he decided to start taking walks around. Once again he found himself being followed by that girl he had seen on the first day, he couldn''t see her but he could remember the nature of her energy


    She seemed to be pretty bad at being a thief, as sometimes he could hear her coming as she followed him, she never tried to stay in his blind spot(Get It :sillyp1: [th_0chis.gif] , I shall reflect [th_090_.gif]  ), even if she thought he was blind she should still take care to make sure


    As if to further cement his belief at her ineptitude, today she was being followed and couldn''t tell, at some points it even seemed like the person was standing right beside her yet she didn''t notice, until she was knocked into an alley where there were four other men waiting, to her credit though it seemed she had good instincts and instead of looking back at who had hit her she tried to manoeuvre her body midair to land outside the encirclement waiting for her, but it didn''t work as the alley was originally narrow and the people below simply widened their position causing her to land in the middle of it.


    The person who pushed her landed and the moment she saw his face she seemed to be painted with fear, he commanded the men to tie her up which they did, no matter how skilled she was, it was four men against one small framed girl, the result was obvious, though less obvious was that she was skilled enough to make the four men lose teeth and gain several cuts before they subdued her


    The entire thing couldn''t escape his energy vision, and even with the distance to the girl when the man who had pushed her began speaking he could hear them from where he had stopped, the man who pushed her began speaking


    "Well, well Ishtar, fancy meeting you here, how have you been? and about the money you owe us?" he drew every word out in such a manner that it was dripping with sarcasm, which only served to fan the rage in the girls eyes


    "I paid you your money, I just refused to become your slave."


    The man seemed to get tired of exchanging words and changed his tone to one that seemed poisonous


    "Shut up, you stupid bitch. Who helped you when you needed money huh? Who was the one who gave you a roof over your head when you stupid parents died? who taught you all those fucking skills you''ve been boasting about? and when I asked for something in return you decided to bail, i''m gonna have fun now, then my boys here will have fun, and when we''re done i''ll sell you to the boss for change"


    *if you don''t like 4th wall breaks just ignore the next line, I added it for my own amusement*


    I sighed when I heard him, it seems that no matter what you do, you cannot escape the clich¨¦ trope, I mean, seriously author?(I ran out of original situations, mess with me and break the fourth wall again and i''ll make you lose your little son in a chapter)


    *over*


    Looking back at the place, I wanted to walk away, I wasn''t even sure what I would be able to do but if I did it would make me unable to sleep peacefully for some time. Not wanting to put my life at risk, I didn''t walk up there and tell them to stop, I simply hid behind a corner and willed the energy I could see around them to move faster, it was something I had tried when I found out about the energy but I focused it around their bodies, simultaneously willing the energy just outside their range to stay dormant, it had the intended effect as I could see them moving to stop sweat from getting into their eyes, that was when I decided to come out


    I walked at a measured pace to stop my legs from giving way under me and hide how terrified I was, I approached them from behind as they stopped trying to rape the girl having noticed something was going on, I got behind the man who appeared to be their leader and putting on the act I had used in Vjoirstead said


    "You will find that my magic is not so easily shaken off" with my rapid aging, my voice had gotten deeper and more authoritative, and my face was now one that could command respect even with my silence so I got the desired effect, they spun around alert to find who had seen them as this alley was rather remote and led to nowhere, when they spotted me and the meaning of my words sunk in they paled, the rest of them tried to explain calling out excuses, the leader took a humble stance and started to speak causing the rest to go silent


    "We apologize Sir Mage, please spare us." he didn''t try to make an excuse and seemed to be the most frightened of all from the way his voice shook, I gestured towards the girl whose eyes had gone wide when she saw me, the men scrambled at my gesture to untie her, I then tilted my head towards them and stopped moving the energy around them causing them to visibly relax as they cooled down, I waved them away and they all scattered like scared rabbits


    I turned around to leave, but wasn''t surprised when I heard her call out to me


    "Wait!" she rushed to her feet following me as she pat her clothes, "Thank you for saving me, don''t mind my asking but what did you do to make scully and the boys so afraid? and can you see or are you actually blind?"


    I hadn''t used the heating trick on her so she had no idea what I had done, and she hadn''t heard when the person she called scully had addressed me as a Mage so she was unreserved asking me, though she still kept a safe distance enough to bolt at sign of trouble


    "Ishtar is it? Try to stay out of trouble." I continued walking after saying that, but she didn''t seem to take the hint and continued to follow me asking questions all the way, by the time night fell she was walking right beside me telling me about something I couldn''t be bothered to listen to as I walked back to the inn where we stayed, she was a very lively girl and maybe when I was in my younger form I would have liked her but now I simply found her tiring


    We reached the inn and I expected her to leave, but she still followed me all the way to the room and tried to come in with me until Alexander bolted the door shut


    The next day however, she was standing at the door waiting for me


    It was going to be a long day.

 And So Begins The Clich茅s.

    "......in my opinion the monsters and magical creatures that roam our world are not major threats to mankind, although they cause massive loss of lives when they appear I believe that they are simply acting as is their nature, their minds are simple hence they mean us no grudge but act as their instinct instruct, if we were to take and tame them as we do other animals their threat may vanish.


    What then? you may ask, what is the real threat to mankind? I believe our threat to lie in the hands of what some regard as mystic. Demons.


    Many of the people believe the words of the Cult of that man executed decades ago to be Pathos, and while I believe these ''Ascenders'' as they call themselves to be slightly lost in thought or deep in drink, I am forced but to share a singular point of belief with them, belief of the existence of demons.


    I may not be able to prove my sentiments at the moment, but I have seen it in my visions and I urge us to be wary against this enemy to all sentient life, and prepare thusly for the war that is bound to come."


    - Former Prince Gregory Avos, Former Seer, Former Knight of the Kingdom, Former Heir to the Avosian Empire in his Weekly Scrying report to the King


    __________________________________


    "It is common knowledge amongst the nobility that there exists only Five races and Five Kingdoms, as told by common Housewives to their children in stories, The Goblin Tribe, The Elven Spirits, The Dwarven Huntsmen, The Brenkan Smiths, and us, Mankind.


    It is also well known that until a decade ago we were at constant war with each other over matters so far back we have forgotten, my brother himself led the charge in several battles against each one of these races allowing mankind the room it needed to grow.


    Had it not been circumstances which forced us to unite against the Greater Dragon Asalvok, I fear we may have still been at war today.


    My brother is a hero. Though at peace now, we once warred and would have killed off the other races to the last child just to secure our interest, but now we have come to understand that although not of the same race we can come to care for each other.


    My brother however has seen far too much war


    I believe that years of constant war has warped his mind so much so that he has begun to crave an enemy where there is non, thankfully it has not gone so far that he is unable to distinguish friend or foe but his talk of ''Demons''. The housewives who tell the tales know better than to believe it themselves but he has begun to sing of them up every street and down every alley, the drunks of the city are well acquainted with him as they now share a hobby, his servants tell tales of him talking to walls and paintings when alone, they also report that his temper has taken a violent turn


    Reports say he has a room in his estate where he refuses to let anyone into, but when the servants were asked in the name of the King they confessed that he often goes there after which they hear shouting coming from within, they have learned not to wander too close to the place to protect their lives so they cannot distinguish his words but just this should be enough to show my brother''s fragile state


    I love my brother and this Empire, my brother''s mind was lost at war, I pray father that you do the wise thing and not let the broken reflection of what my brother tarnish the image of what he once was any longer"


    - Former Second Prince Jinathan Avos, Now Heir to the Avosian Empire in his private letter to his father, the King.


    ______________________________________


    "We NEED Help, I can''t explain it, some of the men simply went mad when they saw the red smoke, we believe its some signal of sorts, they dragged off several of the men who later came back fighting and laughing alongside them, No matter how much damage we do they heal quickly, they also have some sort of mind magic, most of my men went mad before they even touched them, I felt something creeping in my head so I fortified my barrier, send help if you can, but if you don''t hear from us again in an hour then don''t bother to waste your men, We''re already dead."


    -General Octavious Joad shortly before the disappearance of him and his men from the Northern Frontier Watchtowers


    ________________________________________


    "If I were to tell the truth, I do not understand what we did. As I stand before you my mind is far clearer than it has been for years, and in this clarity I realise that the zeal and fervor with which we pursued the casting of this spell was beyond anything we have ever felt. I was conscious of the going on''s yet felt removed from them, like it was a dream and I its spectator, now I realise that although our actions seemed prudent at the time and though we may have justified it but we may not have actually chosen as we thought and we may have just made the greatest mistake in centuries"


    The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.- Arch-Mage Tolfider, after he and the other adepts cast the  Dream sleep on the World to the East, and in their words ''Awoke from the dream''


    __________________________________________


    Ishtar has been following me around ever since that day, she takes my hand and guides me from bumping into everything as i''m still blind and she treats me as one would a father or grandfather, at first it felt awkward but now i''m beginning to see her as sort of a daughter too. Vali still isn''t speaking to me, and Alexander is still always constantly busy, I''ve found a hobby in manipulating the energy in the air but unlike the one inside me it seems resistant to my manipulation and doesn''t seem to be able to form just anything, its like a willful child, curious when you try something new, but easily distracted and bored of whatever you''re doing


    The blindness is either progressing or getting worse, I sometimes lose even the energy vision I have been making do with, and occasionally I can see slightly, its blurry and just at the point where I can barely see my hand in front of my face, but those moments are few and inbetween, I cant just fix the problem because the external energy doesn''t react to my imagination the way the internal one does


    I found out that Ishtar is uneducated, not that I can do much for her seeing as I cant read and seeing as i''m blind as well, she seems to be very intelligent and crafty street smart too, ive lost count of the number of pickpockets who tried to steal from us that she''s given advice to. I was curious about her past and she told me, her father was a farmer who drank away all the coins they had, sold all the crops they harvested to get more drink and when they couldn''t afford it anymore, sold the farm, she was an only child which reduced the burden on her mother as they had to survive without his help, then one day her mother collapsed from working too hard and malnutrition so she had to increase the income she made to pay off her father''s drinking debts which were piling, she had met the guy I saved her from, he gave her gold which he claimed were a gift to pay the debts then he had her sell him things she heard in the city, then he taught her how to pick pockets, and soon she was working for him, her mother died soon after and he promised to take care of her, right until he tried to sell her, she had escaped and had been surviving since then


    Ishtar and I have been wandering the Town in the last few days, it seems I underestimated the size of this Town, Ishtar claims to have  lived here all her life and she says that the buildings I saw after entering the gate are simply small stores in the town not the entire town itself, that further in there is a Forest within the fences of the town, there are Large Estates where the nobility live amongst other things, she also told me that the inn we were staying at wasn''t for nobles as I thought, it was too cheap and uncomfortable for, in her words, "their powdered arses"


    I''ve found that although the energy made me slightly stronger I wasn''t as monstrous as Vali and Alexander in fact one could call me feeble as evidenced from the pain in my back right now, I sat down and asked Ishtar to let me take a rest to which she affirmed and went elsewhere in the park to rob people I presume


    As I leaned on the tree to rest, hoping that I could recover my vision and energy to stop me from being so weak I noticed the energy around me vibrating ever so slightly, I watched as a crevice opened in the ground allowing shadows to crawl out, I saw the other people around me not reacting even when the shadows pounced on them, the crevice seemed to be struggling to stay open though and after a few seconds it closed dragging most of the shadows back into its depths, but as I looked around I saw some of the people who had been pounced upon and within them I saw something new


    Darkness.


    ________________________________________


    Authors Note: Sorry for the low quality of the chapter, I was in a hurry cause I need to be in an office meeting soon, I still don''t have a viable internet connection and I was moved to a desk right beside my supervisor, I also don''t have any more music to write with, and I''m pretending to be working on an office document as I type but cant afford to do so long enough to have someone read it which explains the length

 Not A Chapter (An Apology).

I wrote a chapter where i explained my absence due to medical reasons but when I posted it said I exceeded file size, then I wrote an apology for that and posted but it said I exceeded file size, so I''m writing this one to see whether it will work

 A New Arc - The Commander

    Authors Note: I want to Thank Manclank8 for taking time to ask if I was alright during my absence, this is my second attempt at writing a chapter for yesterday, as I previously explained it failed to send and since I type directly into the browser I lost it all.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    Accidentally Posted so wait for the chapter

 A New Arc - The Commander

    "From The Ground


    From The Sky


    From a Realm Beyond Mortal Eye


    All of Them Dark and Deep


    From Abyss where Tienet Sleeps


    Mortal Sin''s Immortal Form


    They Birth Chaos In minds they''ve won


    Cursed and Chained to Abyssal Hell


    The Death of Man will break their Spell"


    -Forgotten Poem


    ____________________________________


    North-Hold


    Regus, The Commander Kings Guard


    He overlooked the Guard Camp from the cliff where his tent was located, they had been commanded by the King to take all the Guard and raid the tomb of a Powerful Mage they knew of from an Old Journal they had found in order to treat the Queens ailment, considering how powerful the journal claimed the mage was many of the people going with him were going to die and he knew it but was doing his best not to think about it


    The Queen had fallen ill of a sudden and regardless of every attempt made by the Physicians, Healers, Scientist and Mages she hadn''t gotten any better, the King to save his wife had abandoned the ruling of the Kingdom and gone exploring everywhere possible to save her, as his personal Guard they weren''t a part of the Kingdom and owed it no allegiance, they had sworn themselves to the King and his cause only, starting out small they had slowly grown over time to a small troop in itself, now they had twenty of the finest fighters and three of the finest mages in the entire Kingdom as members, they were the last line of security the King possessed yet he had dismissed them from his side and charged them to finding a way to save his Queen, it was a direct order and as his subjects they cannot refuse or they would be violating their oaths


    It wasn''t known by the general populace that their Queen was deathly ill and their King had abandoned the throne to search for a cure for her, the High Counselor was there to handle the Kingdom''s affairs but they couldn''t keep the ruse up for long, someone was bound to notice soon making their current mission all the more important, the record said the mage was so powerful he could use magic to instantly move himself elsewhere without the long process the Guards mages claim are necessary for the idea to even be practical, someone like that should at least have come across the Queens ailment before and if the mages I have met are anything to go by he must have records of it, no matter what knowing is the first step to fighting anything


    To ensure that the people don''t ask question about why the Royal Guard is in a region as remote as North-Hold which may alert them that the Shackled Throne is empty they had snuck into the City without anyone the wiser, the Journal only indicated that the Mages home was in the North, but there was no map to indicate where, they were going to have to search as far as they could to find it, searching the Northern regions is a difficult thing even without the Cold seeping to their bones due to its size and the Creatures within it. There were stories of large man like creatures with white fur roaming the snow covered forest, the stories say the beast ripped a tree from its roots and hurled it at a Hunter who had luckily escaped but retired the next day, and that beast was just one of the very many problems they would have to overcome in this mission, if they somehow manage to survive, they''ll still have to survive the Traps the mage would have placed to protect himself from looters thieves and the animals in the North, and if the stories of his power are true then the nature and power of the traps would be unlike anything they had ever seen


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    He sighed as he considered everything, He forced himself to stop thinking about how many of them would die before their mission is over, he stood up and started walking to the entrance of their camp, it was High Afternoon about the time when the boy would come.


    Their Second day in the City he had been approached by a child of about Fourteen who immediately asked which group he belonged to, he then told him to let him join, aside from the fact that he was able to identify them as being different from the normal people on sight alone showed how special the boy is, as Commander of the Kings Guard he can make recommendations to the King on who to recruit, He plans to do so for the boy on their way back


    If they come back.


    _______________________________________


    Tyler POV


    Its been a month since that day when I saw the ground split open and release the demons that attacked the people with no one noticing, I had told Ishtar, Vali and Alexander about it but regardless of how hard he looked Alexander was unable to find any traces of what I thought I saw, he doesn''t complain or doubt me due to the oath but Vali thinks I delirious from the side-effects of one of my experiments, while Ishtar has been hanging around and trying to care for me the way one would a senile old man.


    I believe I saw events that day because of my energy vision which would explain why no one else can find traces of it. However i''m sure it wasn''t a dream or in my head, ever since that day sometimes I would come across people in the town while Ishtar and I are walking, these people had black spots on the energy coming out of their body and the spots seems to be growing, Not sure how to explain it to the rest I kept that piece of information to myself.


    As the days go by I find myself praying for my power to come back, I don''t have a Purpose in this world aside from Mastering my Power to keep myself safe, so far I''ve had Alexander around to protect me but for all his gifts Alexander is just a Warrior, he can keep my body safe, but if I am right and the shadows I saw along with the spots I see are the works of Demons then it wont be my body that will be in danger


    How will his Sword save my soul?

 Should I Die Before I Wake

    (Authors Note: Seems i have a thing for Red heads? What you learn about yourself as you write. Also i was able to write this chapter thanks to Manclank8 who recommended some music for me, most of this was written listening to Two Steps From Hell - Eternal Sorrow so you can choose to listen to that as you read.)


    Tyler POV


    I found out from Alexander this morning that there were different types of Knights, and amongst them different levels, it seems that although Alexander is sworn to me he isnt a Knight simply ''My Man''


    When i asked him he explained that although he was previously a Knight he wasnt a Knight, it was more of a title from being a part of the millitary troop he was registered to, but the Knights themselves are either of the Crown or the Sword, those of the Crown are mainly Nobility or anyone with a Commanding Title, but those of the Sword are the sort of Knights you''d think would be in a fantasy world, the sort who go looking for trouble and are usually skilled enough to survive it


    To become a Knight of the Crown simply requires a Landowner to declare you as a Knight, but to become one of the Sword you must have certain qualities and be Knighted by a Knight of the Sword with people present to bear witness of your oath


    Regardless of whether a Knight is of Crown or Sword there are different levels to them, namely the number of times Knighted


    For Example, the King before being Crowned would be Knighted by all of the Nobility, it is essentially a Formality but it makes him a Knight Twelve Sworn, twelve being the Number of Noble lands there are in this Kingdom, The King is also the only person who is allowed to being a Knight of Crown with Twelve Oaths. The Knights of Sword require valor for any of their Oaths to be administered, if it is seen that the other party is a Knight it would require completing a much more difficult task of Valor and displaying Nobility of Character for the other party to chose to swear you as such, members of the Kings Guard are all at least Knights Sixth Sworn with every Oath being earned by their own actions


    Being a Knight does not however grant any special previlleges aside from it being a position of Minor Nobility which would allow the bearer claim lands for himself the size of which depends on the Number of Oaths he''s taken, generally Knights of Crown are granted Lands much larger than those of Sword are allowed to claim for themselves except where the Knight of Crown is set to inherit then he would simply bear the Right to Inherit


    So although Alexander is my man, except i become a King or Ruler and Grant Knighthood to him or he goes off on a Journey of Self and Does Acts of Notable valour to be granted the title he wont be a Knight.


    By the way, it seems that granting a Sword is actually an act of notable significance to a Knight, even when done casually should they accept your sword then it will be their main blade and they will be sworn to your service without the need for fancy words and ceremonies


    Seems like i thoroughly made a fool of myself with that oath stuff i did before.


    On the other side, Vali hasnt been going out as much, he said that the Guard left for their Journey to wherever they were headed, Alexander hunted a bunch of Wolves outside the Wall and sold their pelts for a reasonable sum, it seems like the Pack leaders were direwolves, a male and a female who was pregnant, it seems their direwolf pack was dead and they needed somewhere safe for her to put to birth, so they took control of the pack, Alexander hunted them down, i now have a direwolf cloak, so does he, Vali now has a Wolf cloak, so does Ishtar


    It bugs me that i''m playing with pups while wearing their parents. They seem to like me more for it though.


    ¡°Pale though her eyes,


    her lips are scarlet


    from drinking of blood,


    this child, this harlot


    born of the night


    and her heart, of darkness,


    evil incarnate


    to dance so reckless,


    dreaming of blood,


    her fangs¡ªwhite¡ªbaring,


    revealing her lust,


    and her eyes, pale, staring ...¡±


    (I didnt write this poem, copied it online.)


    The darkness stirred, all around was barren land, rocks, fire, brimstone, and Thunder.


    This place was Al-Gozul Movuleth one of the great forbidden lands of the Abyss, a place that was so Evil even Demons aside from the strongest of them dared not enter the place.


    But in this forbidden land stood what appeared to be a beautiful woman, light red hair</a> (to be honest just use that picture as her aight?) that appeared raven black in the light of Movuleth, her skin pale and flush with blood in it, she did not struggle to breath in this atmosphere of brimstone and sulphur, and if one looked close enough they would see that she was not breathing at all, but most would fail to notice as they would be drawn into her green eyes, were this not the abyss one would think her just a beautiful girl


    But this is the abyss


    Nothing here is truly as it seems


    This seemingly innocent girl was Henrah, a demon. Last born of the Greater Demon Lillith, her Father is unknown but could be anybody from an Angel Lillith had seduced to a Farmer she took fancy to. With Demons all but forgotten in the Mortal Realms now many do not know her but this Demon in Older times was known, feared and worshipped by many as the Owner of Night, with she and her hordes of blood sucking children rampaging the Lands. But now as all Demons and a Few Gods, she is sealed, but if her Mark is right then she may walk the Lands again very soon.


    She had heard the voice of one of the mortals calling out to her in the manner she was used to before the great ritual, and she had answered directing him and manipulating him, giving promises of Immortallity, Wealth, Power, and even Love all to goad him. She had come this far to prevent anyone else from interfereing with her summoning and hitching a ride, she had given him all the information he needed to call her meaning now all she had to do was wait.


    She was a Demon


    She was good as Waiting.


    Canon Fodder POV(Author Note: He''s gonna die, why name him?)


    Inside the Forests of North-Hold


    He rummaged through what was left in the bag as he examined the runes he had drawn on the ground. For an ancient demon the materials needed to summon her were quite common place, but maybe as is he theory the materials arent the impetus themselves but simply a symbolic gesture to guide her to this plane.


    It had been three years since he came to this other world, he had been a genuis, the Youngest Professor to ever Lecturer at MIT, he had been a guest Lecturer at Havard, Browns, Cal-Tech and other Universities in a diversity of Countries. He spoke Twelve Languages ranging from Ancient Egypt to Korean, he had Eight PhDs, Steven Hawking had once admitted a massive inferiority to his intellect and all of that had been taken away from him suddenly one day when he had tested his Instantaneous Departiculation Transmutation Transition Relocation and Reparticulation Chamber, although his assistant had adviced him to wait and run the numbers and theories by his colleagues he had refused and sacked the incompetent fool on the spot, what could they have to offer that he hadnt already taken into account with his genius? So he proceeded with the experiment and had ended up here, no doubt by the fault of that foolish assistant who would have made a mistake and messed up the precise numberings he had made, he should have known better than to trust the fool''s abilities when he returned he would take care not to make use of such fools again, the magic he had learned should help him advance the course of his science and his reputation fairly well, the only thing left was to find a way to halt his aging, and he had, while examining an ancient ruin full of nothing but skeletons he had found a set of magical wardings which he ignored as he identified the conditions to be that nothing born in the world should open it, the maker was obviously foolish he should have set it to simply be that nothing can open it or destroy the item entirely, but since it has advanced his own causes as a man not born on this world he shall halt complaint


    With a little study he identified the demon he needed and after taking considerable care even for one of his intellect, he has decided to summon her, the Mother of Vampires and the only being of such power known to carelessly grant such immortality cheaply, as a precaution he was preparing another portal simultaneously, the one that would take him back to Earth.


    So what if the books he had consulted had warned against it? So what if it claimed that such practice would cause interception in the Portal? Did they know of the might of his intellect and prowess? If anybody could succeed where othere had failed it was him.


    So he continued to prepare, the moment it was complete he would activate it.


    Regus, Lord Commander of The King''s Guard


    We left North-Hold a few weeks ago and proceeded to the mages keep, when we arrived we faced no resistance and found most of the active guardians dead, some of the men activated the magical traps by accident which caused us no small number of casualties, it seems like someone had been through here, someone incredibly skilled or powerful, or maybe both, but fortunately hadnt taken anything, unfortunately there was nothing there which pointed to the queens sickness.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    We recovered anything useful we could take without causing more Deaths amongst us and started the Journey back with whoever had survived. When we reach North-Hold i plan on taking the boy with me, after getting permission from his parents ofcourse, maybe the boy could get Knighted, he''s skilled enough an young enough, with some training he could be the first of the Guard to become Knights, our King only believes in Knights of the Sword and wont shame us with a title of Crown, but because we are always by his side we dont have any acts of great nobility under our belt, but the lad is young enough to still be wild and come back to join us as a Knight.


    The freezing chill bit against faces as we struggled foward, but even in the dismal weather and with the thoughts in his head, he couldnt help the sinking feeling at the pit of his stomach.


    Tyler POV


    I now know what the black spots on peoples energy is.


    During this week i''ve been observing them, watching it spread and contaminate their energy even more, and today i saw a man go Mad once he was completely consumed by it, though i saw a smaller spark within him trapped trying to fight its way out but within minutes it was suppressed and unable to fight as it was trapped watching him crush what i think was a baby in his hands, gouge the eyes out of his wife beside him and strangle her, people were able to kill him before he hurt anyone else, but inside him i saw the small spark lose its light in what i think was grief and despair causing the darkness that had consumed him to grow even stronger


    I was shocked for a long time at the events and stood staring at his body and saw the darkness bleed back into the ground where it was ''washed'' by the energy in the ground until none of it was left


    (Although i describe it as blackness, it isnt black it actually looks like a corruption but as i do not know how else to describe it i say black, but think black as emptiness rather than color)


    As we stood there i heard something that sounded incredibly familliar, it was a car honk coming from within the forest the only reason i heard it was my enhanced hearing, but even if i hadnt heard it i would have felt it the next minute, it was coming from the direction Ishtar and Vali had wandered to and after a second of my turning my head to its direction had spread out to cover the enitre town, i could see peoples energy which i now believe to be their sould drain from their bodies, i saw the ground drained of its energy as plants died and the ground lost its luster, enchantments faded as walls and items crumbled, my staff protected me from the effects of the drain, terrified i rushed towards the direction, maybe i could save Vali and Ishtar with my staff, but to be honest i''m sure my lack of vision contributed to it because i didnt see that all around me where once stood a Town large enough to be an entire Kingdom on Earth was now nothing but black soil


    I reached the nexus of the explosion and found Vali''s energy on the ground struggling while massive amounts of Darkness tried to consume him pouring inside his eyes, nose and mouth, in his hand i saw the Sword i had given him clutched tightly even as it dug into his skin in the frostbite that appeard once the enchanted walls of North-Hold had fallen, standing next to him was a female figure that seemed to be crushing something in her hands, she glanced at me as soon as i appeared and charged me with blinding speed before i could even process the information of Vali being on the ground


    My staff reacted, even though i was too shocked to react on my own, it set up a barrier around me which blocked off her initial charge, suprised she charged again with more force and pressed against the barrier which soon began to strain under the effort, it tried to collect energy from the world around but i was out of luck as the initial drain had claimed everything to be claimed, without energy to back up its power the barrier soon shattered breaking my staff which transformed back into energy and flowed back in me, it was now far less than what i had used to create it and what it contained before, but it was energy i had access to, my rod flew in front of me as the barrier broke, it had flown towards me out of the rubble from the moment my staff had created a barrier and had just arrived in the nick of time to try and counter the charge with an attack of its own, the attack failed as the female figure put more force into her hand and the rod shattered back into energy which flowed back into me, but before i could draw on it to defend myself she had her arms around me and bit into my neck, i felt a slight drain as i lost blood and a large amount of my soul energy but i felt my energy flare up as my energy vision cut off to supply more power, i felt my energy instinctive rush into her crumbling her defenses and rip her own soul, energy and essence into me to fill up the exact amount which she had drained even as it bolstered the parts of me she had claimed inside her, i felt her stiffen even as she pushed me away to stop the drain but it was already done, i had half of her in me, and she had eaten half of me


    Then Came the Pain


    Whenever i had been in pain before it was simply of the body, and no matter how excrutiating it had been it wasnt even close to what i was feeling now which came from the depths of my soul, i felt it being attacked and eroded by hers but my energy flared up again and started diluting both souls until it started to mix together at which point i felt a connection outside my body which felt as much me as i felt to myself but wasnt me, i felt pain, anger, frustration, rage, hate, and fear coming from it, the strongest feeling being fear


    For some reason i couldnt help but ignore my own pain when i felt that fear, so i ignored my pain as best i could and reached out through the connection as best i could to comfort the connection that everything was going to be okay, i was already in too much pain to think but my actions were more of instinct than choice, like how you can''t help but ask if everything is okay when you see a sad person


    From the connection i felt shock, then anger flared up and it was closed to me, but my reaching out having been instinctive i still kept on pushing reassurance through and soon the connection opened up again, it was at this point i passed out.


    I woke up at sunset to an itching all over my body, I opened my eyes and jumped up to look around me as the events preceeding my fainting came to me, I was shocked when i realized i could see again, and was still shocked again when i saw the extent of devastation that had wrecked the town, gone was the proud structures of memory, all that remained was black earth, a few steps away from me stood Ishtar looking older that i remembered her from before i was blind, where she was once a young girl in her teens now she was a woman in her twenties</a>(without the freckles), i looked around and saw that she sat next to an emaciated figure whose neck was crushed while i was close to Vali where i had been before i passed out, he was still on the ground struggling with the shadows but his grip on the sword had weakened


    She spoke to me once i moved drawing my attention back to her at which point i realised she was the one who had attacked me


    ¡°I sense you care for the boy, he will die. There is nothing but to be consumed by the darkness.¡±


    Her voice was unlike what i remembered of Ishtar''s, but before i could ask she preempted me


    ¡°I am not the girl, she was dead and her form was the most suitable nearby, she was probably an incarnation of a mortal aspect of me, as we are now bound you may call me Henrah.¡±


    I heard her words without feeling the impact as i rushed to Vali''s side, but then her words hit and i realised what they meant for him, once again i tried to draw on the familiar energy but found it spread out in my body out of my control, with the other half of it disappearing along the connection i had been ignoring


    Realising there was nothing i could do to help i turned to this Henrah for help, she shook her head at me and along our connection i could feel confusion, curiosity, and somewhere deep and slight there was honesty


    I held him in my arms as she spoke up again


    ¡°He is strong but the darkness is stronger, It will soon consume him and there will be nothing left, neither body nor soul, if he is consumed then there will be no soul to fade.¡±


    Within the words she offered and by our connection i understood what she meant, I could feel that by offering that she was trying to be helpful but what she had said caused more pain than relief and help


    I stayed with him trying to somfort him for hours, she stayed watching an observing me for hours, i was hoping for a miracle, but her words burned like salt and ice against me


    ¡°He cannot hold much longer, What will you do?¡±


    If i left him the darkness would consume him, but if i didnt then i would have to............


    Reaching into a part of me i wasnt sure i had, i felt a coldness similar to what Henrah felt like fill me, i felt it suffuse me stopping the worry and giving me strength to do what was needed, i felt my heart go cold and only then did i notice it wasnt beating but i ignored that and focused on what i had to do, I reached down and whispered into his ears assuring him everything was going to be okay, i held his head in my hands and kissed his forhead.


    Then i snapped his neck.

 Should I Die Before I Wake Part 2

    (Authors Note: What? No Love for me anymore? Oh ye of little faith, read and trust. Here''s the continuation of the last chapter)


    I didnt kill Vali


    I broke his neck, but didnt kill him.


    Previously when i saw the other man who had gone mad, i noticed that the moment his body was hurt from the people restraining him the darkness had started to flow back out of him, so in the time i was holding Vali i was gathering all of the Creation energy i could but was hesitant until Henrah said i had no more time, so i took the risk and broke his neck while keeping him alive with my energy, it worked as the darkness seemed to flee his body but quickly faded when it found no where to clutch to


    Then came the hard part, fixing the damage


    You never really appreciate just how many nerves, connections and other posh go into making a person function until you have to fix them


    I started by realigning the bones, tough work taking into account how much energy was being drained just to keep his soul in his body, some bone fragments were shattered forcing me to fuse them back together like using a soldering gun to make computer processors, whenever it got to a point where i didnt undertand the body well enough to fix it i went the brute force route by just pumping his body full of power to accelerate the growth at those aspects then i''d step in using common sense to do the rest and in a few hours he was fine. He would ache all over especially at his neck but he was Alive.


    I was exhuasted at this point but turned my attention to the Elephant in the room, Henrah.


    I could feel her shock and amusement at the fact that i had been able to save Vali, some parts of her were happy about it while the rest of her confused at her happiness, and even more of her was too dizzying to understand what she was feeling, i found myself levelheaded and calculating as i considered for a bit before manipulating the energy to my eyes much in the manner it had been for the past few weeks noting that i now had fangs, probably from the previous infection by her but i needed to understand the extent of what hah happened, so in the most imposing look and commanding tone i could muster i faced her and spoke


    ¡°Explain.¡±


    She seemed shocked and through our connection i could feel indignation and pride swell into rage, but she quickly shut up when i glanced at her with my energy filled eyes and used some of it to summon a storm overhead quickly covering all trace of the earlier sunrise and hiding the ever present snowing wheather of the North.


    As the Storm swirlled filled with power overhead, lighting crackled through it and struck the ground filling the entire area with power once again, but it wasnt enough so i let it continue to build, it wasnt enough for what i planned to do but it was more than enough to cause awe to show on her face as i controlled the storm to stop it from hitting us, all while keeping a mask of non-chalance even though i was scared out of my skin on the inside, if not for the coldness flowing through me i''m not sure i would even be able to control this much power by simply using small amounts of my energy to hit it at nexus points


    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    I felt a slight feeling of rebelion from her so i allowed bolts of lighting strike around us and in front of her but regained control quickly, she seemed to resign herself and started to speak


    ¡°As you know my name is Henrah, I am the youngest Daughter of Lillith the Greater Demon and youngest of my sisters, i was banished along with all the other demons back into the abyss, i wanted to come out so when i found a mage i could manipulate easily i took the opportunity and gave him the information he needed to summon me, but the fool opened two portals at once which made them interfere with each other and implode dragging as much energy into itself to stabilize the rift formed¡±


    As she spoke she watched me warily, when she saw me level my gaze at her again she sped up


    ¡°I''m not lying, he did all of that, thats the reason i killed him, because i almost died when i forced my way through the unstable portal, but because i was hasty my injuries were sever and i needed a body, this girl was close by and her soul was injured so i fused us together to heal our injuries, but i was hungry after getting a mortal body, the fusion needs a large amount of energy so i wanted to feed on you to supplement it¡±


    As she spoke i checked our connection and her reaction to see if she was lying but that made me realise that she was being honest as best i could tell, and in my energy vision i could see what i now recognise as Ishtars soul energy and a strange one mixed with my own soul and my energy inside her though she wasnt able to access it because it had fused into her soul, i checked myself and saw something similar


    I decided to accept the explanation for now, and proceed with what i had planned as the clouds above us were saturated with energy to bursting point, by allowing static build up i now had access to a vast amount of energy without affecting the ecosystem too much, aside from the fact that there wont be much snow in the area for a few years but it should rain a lot, and the world should correct itself in time.............maybe


    Ignoring my self doubting questions i proceeded with what i had planned after confirming with my energy vision


    I was going to bring the town back to life

 When I Wake.

    (Authors Note: Screw It, He''s OP.)


    When i activated my energy vision earlier i did so on a hunch


    When i was blind and saw the energy in people partt of which i now realize was their souls, i hadn''t pondered the significance but now with everyone being drained dry i needed to confirm where all of that energy had gone, at which point i saw where Henrah had pointed out the portal was saturated with the glowing multi colored lights of souls


    The second point which geared me towards what i was about to attempt was the fantasy stories i''d read in my previous world where they said ''Souls Never Die, They Only Change Form'', considering that in this world that concept was fact rather than speculation, i equated that to Einsteins Theory of Relativity


    Conclusion? I would use my ability as the impetus to reverse the process


    They werent dead or destroyed, they were stuffed into a small hole and fused together as batteries, i needed to sever the connections without damaging them and provide the energy needed to recreate their bodies


    So for the first time in my Life, i willingly got struck by lightning


    Not really, but it would look like that to anyone watching, i allowed the energy flow down a constant channel maintaining as much control as i could over it then converted it when it reached a very close distance to my skin, i would have prefared it farther from me but then the power expenditure would increase exponentially, and i needed to save as much of my energy as i could to make sure the process completed smoothly


    Channeling it into the rift, i slowly filled it and gently edged the souls out of it, although the size of North-Hold was very large, there werent that many people in it because its size was geared more towards making a small ecosystem within its walls ensuring that the natives of it didnt have to risk life and limb outside the safety of the walls, so not that many souls to fix


    There was resistance in the rift and it almost started sucking the souls back in, but i slowed down the souls movement, pumped more power into the rift and kept pumping making sure to align and convert the power until it was of a suitable nature to the rift, Reversing the suction force to speed up the process of removing the souls from the rift because the faster they were out of there the faster everything else could go


    It took Ten Minutes of Detail oriented work but the souls were free


    The Rift however was unstable and would start sucking energy back into it at any moment defeating my effort but since the souls were out i loosened the reigns a bit


    Someone standing far off would only see that the constant stream of lightning striking down suddenly intensified into a gigantic beam that pressed downwards covering my body entirely as the ground cracked and gave way under the pressure, ignoring the strain i took position and angle my hands collecting the energy into them and shooting them as a horizontal beam into the rift which started closing off much more quickly than the suction of its energy ensuring the safety of the souls


    But the energy flowing to me was like a tap with a broken stem while it was on, i didnt have enough energy to regain the amount of control i had before and at the rate it was going i wouldnt last long enough to complete the work, so i allowed the protection around me fall


    Energy fell on me and ripped its way into me, trying to find the path of least resistance, which was often enough through my muscles and organs, but my energy was flowing all through my body protecting the integrity of it, just because my staff and rod had shattered doesnt mean they stopped their purpose, ignoring the burning feeling that was like i had been attempting an Eight push up before coming to this world i changed focus and acted as a stopper while channeling energy into the mass of souls


    Reinforcing them by pumping them full of power to aid their instinctive attmept to free themselves, while energizing and protecting the other to make sure they didnt get damaged during the split knowing how little i do of souls was like driving in two directions at once, i had thought my mind would be able to do it like using my left hand and right hand at the same time but i realised that this required more attention that i was able to give to both sides, but noone else could interfere or the result would be catastrophic


    It was at that moment that i remembered that Henrah was still nearby, and a part of my soul was inside of her, taking a risk i forced my will through our connection amplifying it with energy, i felt her jump at the suddeness of the act before trying to turn around and run, using what i could i released even more control on the clouds almost setting them free to rampage but held onto enough to control to channel the bleedoff towards her, it hit her like a sledgehammer so hard that i felt it through our connection, she panicked but calmed down when she noted it wasnt killing her, once again i forced my will through the connection and included a subtle threat this time


    Maybe it was the amount of power i had shown, but she was terrified of me and hopped to work as soon as she felt it, i had to guide the energy in her body to work in much the same way but at least i had a second mind to pull in the other direction for me now


    Turning back to the souls, i pulled with even more force but would regulate just how much depending on the brightness of the soul, we soon had all of them seperated and i released the stream from Henrah focusing it back on myself


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    With the souls all free, i pumped power into them, converting it into a sort of cocoon, but as i worked i noticed an even bright light coming from the sky which was still covered in my storm clouds, it was headed for the souls, i didnt know what it wanted to do with them but wouldnt tolerate any interference with my work, I did notice however that the moment i caught sight of the light Henrah Looked up and frowned, before covering herself with shadows and disappearing


    Using some of the power, i diverted it and created a barrier surrounding the entire scope of the town, blocking the light from descending


    Confirming that the light couldnt proceed i went back to work converting energy into cocoons inside which developed bodies along the specifications intended by the souls themselves, in a short while bodies formed and grew to match the impression of age contained within the soul, the bodies were newer, stronger, healthier than the old ones, best of all was because the souls designed them itself it was completely compatible with it


    Things were going smoothly but Murphy was right, anything that can go wrong, will. I no longer had any energy left to continue the work, even the amount contained in the barrier that God had put was done, the amount in my body protecting it was finished, all i had left was a little which was far from enough to ensure that the process completed


    Gritting my teeth i channeled all of the remaining energy to keep my body good enough to survive and started using the power flowing into me as was without changing it automatically with my own energy, instead i slowed the rate it channeled into the cocoons which were peviously shrinking rapidly but had slowed down, i stoppered the power allowing only slight amounts they could convert by themselves at the price of intense pain, When you shut off your tap the water dosent cease, its blocked by your tap which is taking all the hits from the water pressure, the same thing ws happening to me except my body wasnt designed for this kind of strain and if not for the energy i had left i would have burned to dust


    The cocoons slowly completed and shrunk until it was absorbed by the people whose bodies were now fully formed, i lowered them all to the ground as they were still unconscious, everybody was back even the guy who had gone mad and his family, i had noticed him and taken the care to energize his soul as it looked weak probably from what the darkness had done to it


    Everything with a soul was alive, from the insects, animals and occaisional dryad and spirit, to the people. Everything that had been killed lived and were all butt naked


    I still had a large amount of energy with me as the only thing stopping it from going wild, so i channeled energy increasing its density until it naturally formed into a solid, then i continued until everybody was covered with something resembling an uncut roll of clothing material


    But inspite of how much energy i had used, it seemed like i gathered way too much in the cloud because the only thing keeping it from going boom was me and there was too much of it to store in me so i did the only reasonable thaing that came to mind


    Looking down, i pushed the raw power into the dead black earth, i pushed and pushed, winds howled and thunder boomed showing that the storm was strong but entering levels where loosing it wouldnt destroy the entire area


    I looked up and found that the light i had been blocking earlier was no where to be found, so i released the barrier, and channeled the energy back into the ground which was saturated, i felt slight traces of my own energy recover as it had been hours during the entire process, channeling the slight traces with the power into the ground where i influenced it to change


    Grass grew around us rapidly, i chnged some of it into water, i grew trees twined with each other where the walls of North-Hold once was, i consolidated rocks into small mountains and cut them, doing every random thing i could to expend energy, at a certain point the place was no longer barren, it now resembled an Elf paradise as you would see in movies, everywhere was full of life and i had run out of things to make so i just pumped everything chuck full of energy, there wasnt much left and after pumping it into everything around i released my hold on the clouds which instantly dispersed for the most part leaving just enough as it started to rain with the sunshining giving this strange patch of color in a North full of white an even more ethereal feeling


    Falling on my ass, i saw Alexander running towards me looking haggard as though he had been running for an entire day, i then remebered that he had left the walls to search the outskirts for ice wraiths so he could kill them and sell making us rich enough that we wouldn''t have to worry about money


    I pondered on what a good servant he was as i passed out on the ground there.


    ________________________________________


    I woke up to uproarious laughter, i looked around and saw the God that had sent me to this world, he noticed i was awake and said


    ¡°Your quite toxic aren''t you? Everything you touch seems to die, though i suppose thats my fault for trying to hurry you along¡±


    Although light headed i still caught the implication of his words, but before i could speak out he spoke up again


    ¡°Dont worry i wont interfere anymore, i believe you''ve just turned enough stones to make this get intresting, from now on i''ll just watch.¡±


    The moment he finished i passed out again

 When I Wake 2

    (Authors Note: So guys its been awhile. Honestly i was lazy for a few weeks then this baby that was staying with us stepped on my laptop screen breaking the frame and hinges, then the coconut oil she was holding poured into my laptop so the display is all messed up now which gives me the worst headaches, the frame breakage gradually worsened till the filter for the fan broke and the fan itself started making the most annoying noise that i have to keep my ears constantly plugged just to use it, then with the bad power situation in my country my charger literaly blew up right beside me as i was using it in a public library, i bought another one which charged my system but the previous blowout had damaged the battery which shortened its off-charge time dramatically, and now to top insult to injury the charger i was able to get can''t charge my laptop and let me use it simultanously.


    Bad Luck Huh?)


    (Authors Note: He''s still not OP)


    ______________


    The Dark Mistress


    The Dawn Wall


    ¡°You worthless worms!!¡± the woman bellowed at the mishappen servants reporting to her who scurried out of the way as she hurled furniture at them using her magic


    ¡°I give you a simple job to find what caused the moon to sing and you have the gall to tell me you couldn''t find anything, something that powerful and you cant find a trace of it?¡± Her anger blazed as she screamed and raged destroying everything around her, including the unlucky hobbit that got caught in her storm of magic(Authors Note: Remember the woman from Chapter 4, this is her)


    Were it not for the power she was currently displaying had anyone seen her they would feel she was a warm and welcoming woman, standing at Five feet Eight Inches with blond hair neatly packed behind her(Authors Note: Not really behind her perse, check this</a> out), wearing a neat white blouse with a grey skirt(Authors Note: Kinda like this</a>) which worked together to give her an approachable appearance when coupled with her kind blue eyes and laugh lines


    But this woman was famous on the dawn wall for her creulty, she was the guardian of the East wall, the most accessible of the Walls, she had singlehandedly turned the Dawn wall into a no mans land by causing all those foolish or foolhardy enough to venture there to disappear and never be seen again, She was Her the Cruelest of the Wall guardians, often send out familiars to lure unsuspecting travelers and villagers to the wall where she would imprison, torture, and enslave them for all eternity


    Of the Eight Guardians spread out evenly along the breadth of the wall only she indulged in such, the others may have an occaisional cruel streak but they mostly keep their regions inaccessible to all contained within


    Unknown to the general public was the fact that the guardian were unable to leave the walls themselves, the legend around them say that they were the ones who had erected the walls and acted as guardians over the lands, but the truth is they were once normal villagers and travelers who had ventured into the wall and found its nexus where they were bound to the wall, gaining incredible power but becoming slaves to it losing their ability to cross its threshold.


    Hera reached out with tendrils of darkness grabbing the misshappen minions and ripping them apart even as they screamed, the moment she dropped them though, they would immediatelly reassemble themselves as part of the magic she had cast on them, but she had done nothing for their pain leaving them vulnerable to it as part of her sadism


    ¡°I dont care what you have to do, anything that can make the moon sing means power, I WANT THAT POWER!!!!!!!!!¡±  she screamed at them


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.______________


    Regus, The Commander Kings Guard


    Outskirts of North-Hold


    What Happened?


    On our way back from the mage''s den we prepared camp getting ready for sunset, but suddenly we heard an explosion far off in the direction of North-Hold, still too far to see anything with our eyes we passed it off as a battle between two mages nearby probably, seeing as an explosion loud enough for us to hear it this far away would have flattened the city, and considering the number of enchantments on the walls alone made such a thing unlikely


    We made camp, forgetting the incident as two mages posed little threat to our troop having our own mages and warriors, no one would be foolish enough to attack our band casually except we cause trouble which we hadn''t


    So we took turns at the night watch, rotating according to the winners and losers at a small game of dice, we rested and waited for sunrise


    As we trudged on soon after sunrise one of the mages pointed out that it had stopped snowing, but we didnt think much of it until storm clouds gathered above with streaks of lighting flashing about in them, we watched in horror as a bolt of lighting wider than some streams struck down continously, pale faced we looked on staring at the sky and watched it some of us gasping as round giant diamonds started forming in the sky growing smaller before dropping causing us to lose view due to the tree line


    Feeling the pit in my stomach, i was somewhat happy the retrieval mission this time made us unable to abandon anything to pick up speed, whatever was powerful enough to cause that storm was something i wanted to stay the hell away from


    In the name of the gods, let it be gone.


    ___________________________


    Alexander


    I had left the town to hunt for Ice-Wraiths, they were fetching a good price these days, we had amassed quite a sum from the dire wolves but i wanted my Lord to have the finest as we traveled and for that we needed more money


    The service of my Lord is my joy which gave me energy to go looking for Ice Wraiths which are usually hard to find, but with my enhanced senses i had the advantage in spotting them from a distance and taking them out before they could go into hiding


    But as i stalked their rumored haunt i felt an explosion come from behind me, looking back i was able to see the entire city crumble to dust from my position on the nearby mountain


    I spun around and ran, pushing myself till my joints ached and strained from the pressure, my mind blank i barrelled through anything i could break without losing speed including some smaller trees and manuevered anything i couldnt


    By the time the sun was rising i was halfway back to the town, i had been attacked by various wild beasts but i simply disregarded them and ran forward with them soon being unable to keep up, but it was then i saw the clouds gather and lightening like i had never seen before gather and stike towards where i was headed


    I kept my head down and increased my speed, my bones and muscles protesting under the strain at this point, but i continued on without resting.


    Three hours later i came to where the wall had been, running past it ignoring the plants which were growing rapidly around me, i made a charge dodging anything in my path after being hit by a tree branch which failed to break under my momentum, i probably broke a rib there


    As i ran i saw people dropping from the sky naked as they landed in different points, some almost landing ontop of me which caused me to dodge them even as i ran forward


    Soon i arrived at the centre of the storm as it ceased and saw my Lord standing there looking weak as he did whenever he used his powers, i slowed my momentum but ran and caught him as he fainted


    With a sigh i carried him on my back ignoring my body''s protest then picked up his son as i looked for shelter


    It is a joy to serve my Lord.