《Spellsword: I Summoned Hope》 Prologue - Where is Hope? Prologue Where is Hope? An electronic female voice sounded inside my head. It was a voice I have always heard since long ago. It was a voice without tone, without emotion. The voice had always been like that for as long as I can remember. But today, I think I heard some joy in that voice. She, the voice, was Hope. An artificial intelligence developed using a part of my own brain. She was the other me, a part of me. "Captain, it''s a job well done." One of my subordinates tapped my shoulder. I looked back to see four people wearing black skin-tight suits under heavy metal armor components. Most of the armor parts were broken, a testament to the arduous battle we had. "Yes, it is." My voice echoed in the cavern, mixing with the humming sound coming from the platform in the middle. The platform was made out of the same material as the cavern with weird inscriptions covering its surface, and a distorted space hovered above it. It was the Hellgate, a rip in the dimensional walls allowing creatures from an unknown demonic realm to cross over to our world. We are the Special Soldier Squad, the product of human genetic modification research almost two decades ago, right after the appearance of the Hellgate. Our mission was simple: to infiltrate the deepest part of the Lair and destroy the Hellgate. It was a success. Hearing Hope, I commanded my squad to leave immediately. We hurried back to the surface as fast as we could, encountering some stragglers along the way. We were almost there when a scream pierced the air. It was one of my squad members. The relief from reaching the exit probably lowered his guard. A straggler caught him by surprise and chopped of his leg. "Axord!" I warned the other members. "Go on ahead! I''ll handle it." The Axord is a spawn from the Hellgate with the appearance of a mutated humanoid creature. It''s a bipedal with blades for arms. The blades resemble that of a mix between an axe and a sword, thus called Axord. [Hope, prioritize speed.] Giving a mental instruction to Hope, she activated all the speed boosting elements of my armored suit. Compressing air and releasing them behind me in a fraction of a second, I suddenly appeared in front of the Axord. I kicked its chest, knocking it back before it could strike down my comrade. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "Captain!" "What''s your status?" "I lost a leg, mobility down below 20%" I had no time to think about Hope''s warning. The Axord had already recovered and was rushing towards me. Those blades were sharp enough to cut through the hardest alloys, and I had no weapons to defend myself with. The weapons were all used up in the last battle in the Hellgate cavern. I picked up my squad member and with the thought [Physical Strength Boost for an instant.], I threw him as hard as I could to the exit. I barely dodged the Axords swings, grazing and destroying the auxiliary armor components on both my shoulders. [Purge.] I felt some of the weight on me disappear. I dodged the Axord''s persistent onslaught, looking for a chance to retaliate. That''s when it all went wrong. I lost my footing, and I thought that it was the end of my life. Strangely, the Axord in front of me had disappeared. As I looked at the exit, the bizarre sight almost caused my heart to stop. Everything was distorted. It looked similar to the Hellgate. As Hope''s voice faded, I felt a sudden pulling force on me. Everything around me looked like a piece of cloth being pulled into a small hole. The colors mixed and objects lost their distinct shapes. The world in my view turned black. Hope''s voice woke me up. I could feel strong winds blowing against me. Slowly, I opened my eyes, and my breath got stuck in my lungs. It was not because of the height I was falling down from. The view in front of me caused a single word to appear in my thoughts. [Hell] Prologue II - Where is Hope? Prologue II Where is Hope? "Haa.. haa.. haa.." A girl was gasping for air as she ran through the dense forest. Her small body was wrapped in a tattered cloak. She had been running for so long she had already lost count of time. She looked up and saw the red moon through the tiny gaps in the leaves and branches. Hope filled her eyes. One of the conditions have been met. "Stop running, little brat!" A loud hoarse voice came from behind her followed by numerous footsteps and clanking of armors. Wearing silver-white armors with light blue inscriptions, they were the paladins of the Church of Truthseekers. The little girl hugged the stone tablet tightly in her chest as tears rolled down her face. Was it all going to end like this? Will everything her family worked hard for disappear into nothing? Sera Ani''eth Kalah was the only child born of a simple household in a small village in the borders of the Bright Sun empire. Her family ancestry traced back to the old refugees of war, one of the few scattered remnants of the long forgotten Red Moon Kingdom. In the olden past, the Emperor of Bright Sun had declared war upon Red Moon in fear of the power that the Royal Family held, that of summoners of demons and abominations, known as warlocks. With the blessings of the Church of Truthseekers, the Bright Sun Empire led its army and the church''s paladins to destroy the smaller Red Moon Kingdom. Ani''eth was the last successor of the royal Red Moon bloodline. The church had found this information through unknown means, and had pursued her family. The village was destroyed, and her parents died to let her escape along with the stone tablet, their family heirloom. "Only use it when there''s no other way." Her mother''s last words lingered in her thoughts. She looked back behind her. The paladins were gradually closing the distance. As if fate was mocking her, she tripped on a fallen branch and rolled on the dirt. "Haa... haa... Finally caught you, you stinkin'' brat." One of the paladins approached her and lifted her up by grabbing her hair. He then slapped her face with his free hand, knocking her away to the side. "That''s for making us waste our time." He then walked over to her and kicked her in the stomach. She was knocked away rolling, blood dripping out of her mouth. No more, she thought. The pain was too much. Tears dripped down her eyes from pain and fear. Blood mixed with her saliva choked her as it gushed out of her throat and mouth. Her entire body was shivering. Wouldn''t it be better to just die? Wouldn''t it be better to just get this over with? Let the pain and suffering end. Let the fear and torment take its toll. With those thoughts, she remembered her parents'' smiles as they told her stories about their ancestry, about how their families had lived in secret never thinking about revenge for the suffering and humiliation they had received. Her family was kind-hearted and gentle, yet these people of the church declared them servants of demons and abominations. No. No. No. No. No. No!!! She will not let her family be forgotten. She was the last of their blood; her mother had told her before she slept every night. She had the talent and gifts of the forgotten royalty. Their blood had thinned, and they had lost the power to raise their kingdom back from the ashes. But she was different. The blood of the warlocks run thick in her veins. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. With trembling hands, she reached for her mouth and drenched her fingers with her blood. She then traced the inscriptions on the stone tablet. "Kill her, now!" One of the paladins shouted, noticing that she was up to something. "By the blood of Kalah, I, Sera Ani''eth, command you to come out from the gates of hell, be my servant until the last drops of my blood disappear from this world!" Before the other paladins could react, the space between them and the girl distorted, and evil miasma seeped out from the small crack that appeared. As quickly as it came, the distortion disappeared without a trace. In its place was a young man wearing a tattered robe. "Who are you!" A paladin shouted at the man. The man only looked at him with dark brown eyes. His mouth opened, but the voice that came out carried words that could not be understood. "Look at his skin." Another paladin whispered to the ones near him and they all looked at what he pointed at. The young man''s flesh that was exposed through the tears and holes on the robe he wore revealed skin covered with black layers of unknown material. Every now and then, those layers of black would move around. "He''s a demon! Just go and kill it!" A shout came from among them, and the paladins rushed at the man. As they approached him, his entire body was covered by a layer of black, then the air around him gathered and exploded. Before they could understand what happened, the man''s black figure disappeared, and one by one, the paladins were struck unconscious by an unknown force. The figure that had disappeared was already behind their unconscious bodies, the layer of black had already disappeared beneath his robe, and he said something that could not be understood. His eyes wandered around and met with those of the little girl. Slowly he approached her, then said something to her. The girl did not understand, but instead replied with "What are you?" She had not known of any demons like this. From the stories her parents had told her, she had not heard of any that appeared human-like. The man had a confused expression at first, then slowly as if catching on to something he opened his mouth and said, "Hope." ------------------------------------------------------------ So yeah, there''s a part 2 of the prologue, sorry about that. And to those who were excited thinking of Captain-sama''s adventures in Hell, sorry to disappoint you. Hell is such a gruesomely hard to survive place, so even Captain-sama won''t last long there. Anyways, don''t worry. Chapter 1 will let us see some of Captain-sama''s adventure in Hell. And also Captain-sama is named Hope. He is Special Soldier Captain Codename Hope. And the other special soldiers don''t have an AI built in their heads like the captain. It will be explained in some of Captain-sama''s internal monologues, or something. hehe. AND OH YEAH, in my draft notes, I had named the first part of the prologue as "Hope Lost" and this one, the 2nd part as "Hope Found." XD Chapter 1 - I Summoned Hope Chapter 1 I Summoned Hope The ground was cracked and dry. The air was both hot and cold. Looking up, the never setting red sun was still at the peak surrounded by the nine moons. Bizarre. It was truly bizarre. Lifting the tattered robes, the only protection I have to this insanely indescribable weather, I took a waterskin from beneath the dirty cloth and drank a bit of its contents. Although I had already purified it, the taste was still muddy. I already lost track of how long I have been in this place. "I know you''re bored, but don''t use it as an excuse to read my mind, Hope." I spoke out loud, because I was afraid I might lose my ability to speak properly if I don''t do so. I had no one to talk to in this place. I was all alone. "I said don''t read my mind. And that was a demon. It doesn''t count the same as talking with humans." I had been having conversations like this with Hope for a while now. If someone saw me and they didn''t know my background, they''d think I''m crazy. <...> "It''s amazing how an AI like you can actually stiffle a laughter. Don''t think that just because you didn''t make a sound, I don''t know what you''re actually thinking." "..." I lifted my robe once again to check my physical condition. I''ve become slightly thinner with the lack of a nutritional diet. The past few days, I had to eat demon meat in order to survive. It was fortunate that I could reproduce fire by using the suit''s functions. The suit was an addon to us from the Special Soldier project. It used nanotechnology. Comprised of a huge amount of carbon cell nanocomputers, responding to the thoughts of the user. Its standby appearance is that of a skin tight suit. Imagine millions of tiny black insects covering your body that follows your commands. "I guess that was the reason why there was no female on our squad." Hope was only installed on me. That was because I was the only successful specimen in the early stages of the project. The others died, and so they skipped of the step of adding an AI on the others. The suit was originally supposed to be used in tangent with the AI, but because of the previous reason, they used my thought samples and Hope''s response processes and installed those simple sequences on the other''s suits. They can make the suit work for the others the same as mine did, but they were unable to use the more complex ones. Creating fire, for example. By commanding the carbon cells to produce concentrated friction on a single spot, a high temperature point can be created. It was hot enough to ignite the atmosphere itself, albeit temporarily. With flammable materials, it was easy to create a campfire. With that, I was able to cook demon meat and eat it "safely". "Yes, yes. I should have followed your warning. But if I didn''t eat any of that horrible stuff, I wouldn''t last this long." "This is why you are an AI. You don''t have any sense of romance." "..." Arguing with Hope logically will always end up in my defeat. When I arrived in this place, I manage to land successfully without any injuries. But I was immediately surrounded by hordes of demons. I managed to fend them off and run away, but it left me exhausted. After that, I found a strange river that looked like flowing blood. With Hope''s suggestion, I purified it using the suit''s functions and drank it. It tasted like mud, and there was a weird aftertaste. I just held my breath and drank away. Water is a necessity for survival. After a few days of walking, I realized I had no real objectives. What was I planning to do? Why was I walking around? At first it was to simply get away from the horde that attacked me as soon as I arrived. It was only then that I realized I was stranded in this place that I found an objective. To survive and return. I hunted lone demons and ate their meat. I skinned some and made waterskins. I took the robes one of them wore. It was easy to find a way to survive, but what about going home? After a few more days, I found a strange demon in a cave. It was humanoid, and it didn''t attack me on sight. It even talked to me, but I couldn''t understand what it was saying. After a while, I heard a voice in my head, and it wasn''t Hope. It was the demon, and it talked to me telepathically. Its mouth moved as it said the words in its original tongue, but the voice that registers in my head had allowed me to understand what he was saying. He, according to him he was male, said that he was one of the more intelligent races of demons. He was not hostile, because he had already satisfied his bloodthirst: He killed his entire clan including his own family. He had stayed in this cave for centuries, meditating for some reason he won''t tell me. In those few days, I had learned a little bit about demons, and the presence in the air that has been bothering me for a while now. It was what he called Mana. It was some sort of radioactive energy, according to what Hope could detect through the suit, and the hermit demon explained that it was the source of what they call magic. Only few demons are capable of using magic, though, but they naturally feed on Mana. As long as Mana existed, they don''t need to eat, drink, or sleep. But why do they eat humans when they entered our world? Was it because there was no Mana on Earth? You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. I asked the hermit demon for a possible way back to my world. He gave me directions to a "shrine", which was the place I was right now. In front of me was a platform that looked similar to the Hellgate, naturally formed from the dry ground and covered with inscriptions on its surface. This was called Runic Script, according to the hermit demon. The only observable difference of this shrine to the Hellgate was the lack of space distortion above it. "How long have we been waiting here?" "Do you think the hermit demon was telling the truth?" "Can''t we reproduce the dimensional rip?" "..." It was all dependant on luck. An instability in space, a random experiment, or someone from my world recreating the portal to rescue me; all of this may allow a dimensional rip to form, and allow me to return home. But the chance of that happening is very low. I could only rely on luck, and believe in my former squad members to find a way. Days passed as I sat down in front of the shrine waiting. The sun in this world does not set, only the moons continue to revolve around the sun. I quickly rose to my feet and glared at the shrine. The inscriptions on the platform started to glow, and a distortion appeared above it. "This is my ticket out of this hellhole!" Without any hesitation I walked into the shrine. I felt my senses disappear for an instant, and in a flash, I was in a dark moonlit forest. A voice called my attention, and I looked at where it came. It was a man wearing silver-white armor with light blue inscriptions. Six other men with similar outfits stood behind him. "Are you all human?" I asked. I had to make sure. Their appearance wasn''t something that people on Earth would wear. It reminded me of those old medieval shows. This could be an illusion brought by demons. One of them spoke in a hushed voice, then they all looked at me with wary eyes. As if seeing something unbelievable, their eyes widened and one of the suddenly shouted. They all charged at me. [Adjust for self-defense. Full body cover. Speed boost.] The suit spread and covered my entire body, head to toes, in black. I felt the air compress around me. I released it and shot my body towards the nearest man. I struck the back of his neck with pinpoint accuracy, knocking him out. Repeating the procedure, but with lesser force from the release of compressed air, I moved between the armored men to their backs, and aimed for their napes, knocking them out one by one in an instant. The full-body suit retracted and hid under the robe. "See, they are humans, not demons." I said as I looked at one of the unconscious bodies. Wondering what they were doing in a place like this, I looked around and found a little girl lying on the ground. Her cheek was swollen, and I could see blood around her lips. I walked towards her in an unhurried pace in order not to scare her. "Are you okay?" I asked. She had a confused look on her face, then said something in a questioning tone. "Hope." That was the only name that I know. I was called Project Hope. The same name as the AI inside my head. We are both Hope. The girl said something with a smile, then closed her eyes and relaxed her body. She was asleep. "What did she say?" <"I see... I summoned Hope."> "Summoned?" I lifted her limp body, noticing the blood-stained stone tablet she was hugging. "Doesn''t the tablet look familiar?" With the girl in my arms, I turned around and looked at the unconscious men. Where they after this little girl? What exactly is going on? I looked up and saw the red full moon on the sky. It was much bigger than the moon on Earth. "I guess this isn''t Earth, huh?" "What do you think of the previous situation when we arrive at this place?" "Why would seven grown up men beat up on a little girl?" I had already noticed the injuries the girl I held in my arms had. I decided it would be safer to get out of this place first. Using the traces if what had transpired before I arrived, I ran in the direction the girl was originally headed to. "Scan for a safe place to hide along the way." ------------------------------------------------------------ Aaaaand so it begins. Warlock little girl meets super soldier guy! What''s gonna happen now?!? UNIVERRRRRRSE!!!! (i just wanted to that out of nowhere. rika style, from haganai)