《The Fall》


 Reality- Prologue

    The world of Atheria, This a boundless planet connected to many realms, and no one has truly charted this world. A world full of wonder and magic. Many descriptions were given by just as many historians throughout the ages.  The amount of adventures in this world is as boundless as the space itself for every resident of this world has its own tale, but alas not everyone''s story can be brought into light some are epic while others can be depicted in less than a paragraph to understand its essence. Demons, Elves Dwarves, Elementals, Gods, Dragons, Humans, Demi-humans, and many other races that inter vine onto a single world divided by space itself into many realms that cannot be crossed through normal means, some of those beings have powers that can destroy the world itself, and yet this story tells a rise of a single human by the name of Shade....


    Shade was born into a family of farmers, his father, his grandfather, and many of his ancestors had owned this land that he was born on. His family wasn''t wealthy, they had just enough money to feed themselves. They had their share of problem during winters that passed every year. His mother and Father died to one such winter when he was fourteen leaving him to care for his three younger siblings. 2 brothers, Zack and Dane, and his little sister Lily. Although he was taught by his parents how to tend the farms he did not have as much stamina and strength as his dad to tend to them all by himself... he had to choose to try his luck with something else and sell the farm or stay and try his best to keep the family''s tradition. If it wasn''t for his sibling he probably would have chosen the latter, but he knew what he had to do at all cost and that was to keep his remaining family safe. So he sold the fields along with the house and relocated with his 3 siblings into one of the bigger nearby villages named Salit, its population was around 2-3 thousand. The amount of people allowed for more jobs and that was what brought Shade to this village, as it would increase his chance at getting employed. For the first week the family of four stayed in a small room of a rundown inn in the outskirts of the village, that was their accomodation until Shade could find work that allowed him to buy a house, or build one himself. Shade''s hopes were soon crushed hopelessly as he could not find any work with a decent pay and as he was about to drown in despair a guard came up to him and offered him a job in the guards. This heaven sent proposition was swiftly accepted by the youth and he started to live the life of an adult guarding the village from both bandits and monsters alike.


    Although the job was dangerous by its nature, the pay was good enough to keep his family safe so he accepted, and Shade soon started working earnestly and learned the ropes of the trade the the very same guard that offered him a hand in his troubles, his name was Oscar and he was the Captain of the guard in the village of Salit. The work turned out to be not as dangerous as it would seem at first. The bandits wouldnt raid such a big village and tended to stay inside the vast forests, and the monsters rarely came out of them.


    Since humanity walked on a shaky balance as a power in this world, they did not engage in much wars and skirmishes between nations were kept to a minimum. Shade soon found friends in the village and led a peaceful life, so peaceful that it seemed that those happy times would never end, and yet something did happen, it was sudden and abrupt, two years after his parents death, all the churches of the world that served diffrent gods from the Goddess of Light,  Atheia to God of War Deus ending with even the God of Darkness Limi, they all recieved the same oracle: ¡°The Chosen Ones will come in a years time, they who cannot die as they become beings on par with gods, they will join us in this world and we must welcome them into the fold of the races with open arms¡±. Oracles in this world were not common but they were seen once in a while, but when more than thirthy churches recieve the same oracle at the same time was more than miracle... it was never heard of and so everyone anticipated the Chosen race as the god called them, and they came right on time in a years time out of nowhere....


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    The Chosen race came in hordes quite literally as they appeared from thin air all looking differently, but strangly enough, the chosen ones were wearing the same things a plain old shirt, pants, and shoes nothing else. They came into the world looking around and stumbling around as they were amazed with the world''s nature and its atmosphere. Some went into libraries to read upon the history of our lands and magic itself, others looked around for blacksmiths and other people who might have something for them to do, while most of the people went out of the villages and towns they appeared in a started to fight with small rodents and mammals that stayed near the settlements as they were safer than the forests where the monster dwell, and well every human who saw what happened next felt pity for the new addition into the fold of the races or laughed at the chosen ones as they struggled against rabbits and foxes in the fields. Strangely enough after few days they had no trouble with the rodents as they acquired weapons and started to learn how to fight, soon afterwards they would take on quests that some of the guards couldn''t even complete.


    Four Years after the chosen ones joined our race.... it happened, the first great inter-kingdom war. Few of the chosen race started to work their way into nobility be it by fame, strength, or wealth, but the title of nobility did not quench their thirst for power as they started small wars to expand their territories, people realized that the chosen ones were a double edged sword for our kingdoms, but alas it was too late, they became strong enough to hold their own in groups even the weakest of them, as they kept pouring in and raise in power, but one thing that truly changed our views from ¡°They are expendable¡± to ¡°We should not anger them¡± was when two years after they came, small lord of a nearby village tried to kill a group of the chosen ones that were there to subdue him as he got out of control, and the taxes on the village rose. The private force that the lord mustered was enough to repel them with few casualties, but they came back and after few repeats they subdued the lord and claimed their reward.


    The inter-kingdom war was both long and exhausting and the chosen ones drafted people from under their rule to fight for them in those battles. Salit was no exception as Shade was soon drafted. He pleaded to his superiors as he was the only one who was supporting his family but there were no exceptions in the recruits. After two weeks of constant riding in a caravan the young guard from Salit entered the battlegrounds. They were forced into the ranks of other guards in the front and were waiting for the horn to sound and battle to begin. This is the first point in history that started a downwards slope towards the total destruction of Atheria and its residents.....


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 Reality- The beginning of an end

    Life here~! first chapter of the story that i came up with and will slowly polish as we head into the future. Criticism and comments are all welcome! Hope this will slowly turn into a read that you will wait for. Enjoy!


    "text" for dialogue


    ''thoughts''


    Shade''s PoV:


    As i join the main force in the front of the army, i feel hopelessness. Stationed at the very center of the formation, i know what will happen to me once the battle starts..... but the fear of what would happen to my family if i desert the front line was too much to bear and i dare not disobey, or something might happen to Zack, Dane, and Lily.


    ''I can''t clam down.... dammit clam down Shade.... deep breaths dude, deep breaths....'' As I chant the mantra in my head, I look around me and what i saw made me both angry and hateful. The whole front line is made up of guards from various villages and towns and i do not see any knight, mages, priests, and paladins from orders of the churches other independent organizations. That''s when i turned completely around and see where they are stationed. They are positioned six rows behind guards a safe distance away from the war that will be with many casualties, and behind them in the very last row i see the chosen ones..... the ones responsible for this whole mess....''Damn it, why are they over there and not here on the front rows, they can''t die so what''s the problem, unlike us the real humanity.''.


    Unfortunately I don''t have more time to contemplate our strategic formation as a sound of a war horn can be heard from behind us. ''Great so it is gonna start shit.''


    "People! We are here today to bring victory to our Lord RisenBow, we will mow down our enemies in front of us and present victory to our Lord for great fame and gold!" What followed could only be described as unknown madness, most of the guards around me as well as everyone behind was thrown into bloodthirsty rage as they screamed their lungs out. ''It seems like whatever it was it didn''t affect me'' I thought  ''I am the only one who stayed cool headed after that speech which was in my opinion worse than what my younger sister Lily could come up with and she has troubles with speaking to strangers.... '' Alas i have no time to contemplate as the first order came in from the same voice that we heard minute or two before.


    "Charge!!!!!" and so we do what the voice asked us to although unmotivated, I still try to match the pace of people around me. As we close in on the opposing force i see hundreds or maybe thousands of people running towards us with weapons in arms, having the same bloodthirsty look as my comrades do, and that is when i started to slow down my pace, not too much as to arouse suspicion, but enough for three rows to pass by me and leave me a little behind. ''Great now i might not die,'' I thought as i kept looking at a good number of people in front of me. Few seconds later the armies collide and the fighting starts. Blood and screams of agony reached me and the back rows of professional warriors but most did not budge and slowly proceed forward.  The numbers in front of me started to decrease as soon as the two armies collided. I watch as my fellow watchmen from Salit are butchered by the enemy and i can''t do anything about it. ''Damn it, they are slowly getting here. I knew i should''ve slowed more and reach the very last row next to paladins....'' soon enough the row in front of me breaks and i have no choice but to retaliate and start killing. '' Hey, It''s not that bad. I am doing great, maybe I was scared for nothing.'' I think to myself as i keep slashing and stabbing killing every enemy around me, but as soon as we reach the new row of enemies i realize that my hopes were nothing but a dream, the ones i fought second before were exhausted from fighting, and the new row unlike the previous one is rested and ready to kill. Cursing my own naivety i keep slashing and stabbing, trying to find a small opening in our back row behind me to squeeze through and rest for a while so i won''t die, but the lines are tight and there is no escape. Cries of enemies and allies alike muzzle me from hearing commands of the commander hiding behind most of the personnel, my blood is pumping in overdrive and the blood of my enemies and allies soaked into my leather armor, and both my arms and legs are starting to feel like lead when i try to move them.


    ''I can do it.... I can do it..... I won''t fall.... I will survive.....''. The chant keeps me going, although i am exhausted and i try to keep up with our army, but what came next was devastating as the row i was in encountered the first row of paladins, and all i could see was the shield in front of me closing the distance, and ramming me head on.


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    ''Damn it.... i feel so shaky......Am i dying?...... Shit!!!!'', everything slowly became dark as i see me falling on my knees, and soon after face first into the blood soaked grass.


    The next  i know i feel the sun rays hitting my face, and I force myself to open my eyes. What i see can only be described as hell, countless bodies pile up around me, and half my face is submerged in a pool of blood.''Ugh, this feels very sick, dammit i gotta stand up.'' just like with my eyes i slowly stand up and the scenery isn''t any better. what i saw on the ground was only a fraction of this hell. Corpses from the battle fill the plains where the battle took place thousands of casualties, and the most disturbing scenery were a few people looting the corpses of both armies. '' Dammit if they find me, I will surely die, I have to find a way out of here.'' as my new objective was a simple one i start to look around me to see the closest way out of the plain of death, but as i turn around to see what''s behind i feel something entering me from behind, the pain was great, and i collapse onto the ground once again.


    "Who do we have here" the voice asked musingly. "Hey guys! We got a live one, What do we do now?"


    "What do you mean what? Just kill the damn straggler and get back to looting. Lord RisenBow wants us to finish this today and he wasn''t very happy last time we came late."


    "But he is from our army dude. Are you sure, you want me to kill him?"


    "So what, He is not one of us, he is just an inhabitant of this world, get over it, and finish the job given to you!" said the voice which sounded to me rather irritated to question of the youth in front of me.


    "fine.... Sorry dude, if only you were one of us, The chosen one, we would''ve helped, well at least die knowing all the family members of the casualties will be given enough money to live for the next few years in peace" said the youth to me as I felt hopeless. What came next was another dagger in my back this time i felt it near my heart and i slowly gave up.


    Unlike last time when i blacked out, this time i was conscious, it was dark and cold but i saw a light in front of me, it was warm and reassuring, and i started to walk in its direction, slowly the light seemed closer with each step i make but then i remembered what happened, and i started to think to myself of the events that led to this point.


    "Damn it, who will take care of my family now.... damn it, it''s all their fault, those stupid chosen ones, they made us die for them while they hid in the back, they come back to life, while we die and they get to be in a safe spot. How is that fair? It isn''t. They are a plague that threw us into this war, we were all happy with peace and quiet, but when they came nothing good happened in the long run. They ran rampant in our world for their greed and satisfaction.'' As I keep venting myself the light slowly retracts from me but i do not mind because i understand once i cross this light i will die.


    "They need to be destroyed..... Someone has to stop them.... But who can stop monsters who can''t die..... Only a monster can stop another monster..... That''s right a monster...... Someone has to become a monster....... But who would forsake themselves for others..... Not many even see the flaws of the chosen ones..... Someone has to do it....... Someone has to kill them...... Someone has to exterminate them...... Someone has to throw them out of Atheria.... But who...... Damn it....... If no one wants to do it, I guess i have to do it.......... Kill them....... Leave no one alive...... Exterminate them..... Death to them all..... Death...... Death...... Death....... Death..... DEATH!!!!!!!!"


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 Reality- Price of the choice

    Life here~! I was gonna do chapters everyday but I got swamped with work so might have to go and do one chapter per 2-3 days, but will try my best for those who enjoy what i write! Anyways this is the second chapter hope you will like it!!! Enjoy....


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    The murky darkness still had its hold on me as i start to regain bits and pieces of my consciousness. Light slowly pierces my vision as i slowly regain the colours of the world around me. What welcomed me was very different from what i imagined to see once i open my eyes. The bloody hell that was once here was no where to be seen, and the plains where covered by grass in all its entirety. I stood up bewildered at the sunset in front of me not thinking about anything else for the moment.


    ''Well that''s weird. How long have i been unconscious, if the remnants of the fight are nowhere to be seen.'', what was weirder was that i felt surprisingly light for someone who had been stabbed twice..... ''Oh..... wait..... Why am i alive??? Shouldn''t I be for all intensive purposes dead i mean i was stabbed in my heart.... so what the fuck....'', I tried to move my hands and what welcome my sight was terrifying. My right arm become bones.... Just bones no flesh, no muscles, just bones.''WHAT?!!?''I start looking at the sky,''God, this is a dream, delusion... Yes, it''s my mind that''s playing tricks on me.... I will look once again and my skin will be there..3....2....1....'' as I looked down on my feet i see.... bones.....'' Fuck, what the hell, how the fuck am i alive....Shit, what''s wrong with me.'', and then i remembered my vow in the void. My anger, my pride, my family, my world, and all that''s been wronged by those who came, The Chosen race.


    ''Right i chose this path.... but seriously.... why a skeleton... a feeble creature that i would have no trouble killing when i was 18. Am I to kill those who slay dragons as a skeleton?'' as i pondered my predicament and how my new body will fare in my task of extermination, I see shadows in the forest moving, and slowly appearing out of the forest. A group of wolves slowly towards me, at first i became scared but that didn''t last long as i remembered the words of my superior back in Salit ''Shade when you encounter two species of monsters run away, monsters do not attack one of it''s kind even if it''s of different species'' those words game me strength as the group came within five meters of me. I raised my hand to welcome them and said....


    ¡° ...................¡± As i tried to make sounds, a thought suddenly dawned upon me. ''I can''t speak...WHAT THE FUCK!!!'', I was panicking as i could not utter a single letter, let alone a sentence, but that had to wait as the wolves came very close to me without making a single sound, and were close enough that i could pet them. While thinking of my superior''s words i did what any sane person would do in my situation, I extended my bony left hand towards the closest wolf with the intention to pet the adorable wolfy.


    * crack *


    Before i realized what happened, the sweet wolfy that i was about to pet bit off my whole palm and started to chew on it rather content, all the other wolves saw his expression and then looked at me with eyes saying '' Me too, me too'' as they stared at the bones that make up my new existence. ''That''s my cue to leave.'' without a second thought i turned in an opposite direction, I used my entire might to muster  every single bone i had and rushed as fast as i could widening the distance between me and the wolves .... or so i though because once some time had passed and i entered the forest, i slowly turned around to see if i lost those diabolical puppies while not losing speed, only to be greeted by wolves that  sprinted in my direction avoiding obstacles while keeping up with me,''FUCKKKKKKK'' I turned my head back to see where I am going and tried to go even faster, ignoring the fact that a pack of fucking monster wolves was trying to catch up to me.


    I spent, what seemed like an eternity, rushing through the forest and then i realized, i didn''t feel very tired, in fact i wasn''t tired at all. ''At least this new body doesn''t get tired easily'' I thought trying to encourage myself while still running like a mad man through the forest. Suddenly i see a shadow walking to my right, ''No.... they are still here....'' , and I made a slight change in my trajectory towards my left while keeping pace. Another half an hour later i came out of the forest only to be suddenly greeted by lack of ground and a loud....


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    * splash *


    '' Wha.... is this water?'' realizing my sudden change in environment, I started to swim, or at least tried to, as I made movements water simply went around my bones and did not give me enough force to propel myself forward and i started to sink like a rock. This was rather scary as my number two ''Worst ways to die'' was to drown, by the way No.1 was death by psychotic killer. I sank, sank, and sank but i couldn''t feel any problems and then i realized how stupid i was, ''OH right i am only bones... Why would i need air... sheesh, its those stupid wolves, ever since that stupid beast bit my palm off i stopped thinking straight.'',  so i waited for what felt like few minutes after which i finally hit the bottom of what seemed like a lake, and i started to walk towards the shore. Unlike swimming, this experience was new and annoying as i had a hard time to propel myself forward as well, but was still making a decent speed, one which could only be achieved by a lazy ass turtle.


    After I  reached the shore, I swore to myself to never again go inside a lake... or an ocean. I sat down on the grass right next to the water and started staring at the ripples that i caused while emerging from the water. Slowly the ripples died down, and were replaced by an unknown silhouette sitting on the grass. This monster stared at the water that was reflecting his own gaze, white bones made up most of what could be seen, red glowing balls were placed in his eye sockets, and in place of his heart there was something....  It looked like a swirling ball of pure darkness, or maybe just a black rock stuck in my ribcage.  I tried to grab this ball, but my bony fingers went into the ball rather than touching it. ''Swirling ball of darkness it is.'' i thought to myself while trying to reenact sighing, as i could not even do such a simple thing in my current state.


    I then proceed to lie down on the grass and sleep, because i didn''t have a better idea, but to my dissatisfaction, it seemed i did not require sleep in my current body. I sighed in my thoughts, stood up and proceeded towards what seemed like a small mountain on the other side of the lake. Once i got there, I walked along it''s width simply because i had no better option of how to relieve my boredom, as i was right now pack of wolves can have me for dinner, a chosen one could probably just flick his hand to obliterate my existence. After a few uneventful minutes i stumbled upon an opening in the mountain, it looked like a cave, and inside of it seemed ominous, but although it looked bad, my mind was, for some reason, extremely happy, and urged my to enter and explore the cave. Having nothing better to do, I followed my instincts, and entered the cave without a thought.


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    Thanks for reading guys! Hope you enjoyed it, my writing style keeps changing bit by bit, but i hope you enjoy the change, rather than finding it annoying! Anyhow please gimme your opinion on how am i doing and on what i could improve! Next chapter should be up in 1-3 days! ;) ---Life


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 Reality- Caves Master

    Life here~! Along with the new chapter of the fall. I hope you enjoy the writing i do, and if so that''s great because i have no intention so stop until i finish what i envisioned for this fiction to be. Once more, hope you enjoy the read, here you go~!


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    The cave was rather.... dark. Red balls in my eye sockets lit the cave as i took steps, venturing  deeper and deeper, but unfortunately because of the slight light emitting from them i had a hard time adjusting to the darkness all around me. The only sounds that i could hear were from my bones grinding against each other and the rocky interior.


    I walked, and walked but i could not find anything of interest to relieve my boredom so i went even further, after a couple of minutes i stumbled upon a divergence in the path one seemed to go down, while the other was going up. Getting tired of this stupid cave i took the path going upwards, as i didn''t want to go back the way i came from. What irritated me even more was that after few more steps on the new path, it suddenly sloped down leading further into what seemed to be an endless road.


    '' Seriously, just how long will i have to walk this god forsaken path before something happens.'' As if waiting to be called upon a single skeleton emerged from the darkness of the cave, and although it looked very much like me it lacked both the eyes and the darkness i possessed. I took a step towards it, and so did my new friend. I was confused, very much so, this new friend of mine mimicked my movements perfectly, as i took a step with my right leg, so did he, as i waved at him with my left hand that lacked its palm, so did he, and as i opened and closed my jaw to make fun of him, so did he. It got irritating so i ignored the dude and simply approached him thinking either he is stupid, or i am seeing an illusion, but fate loves to repeats itself, as i tried to grab him, he put his right hand into my skull, grabbed one of my flying crimson balls, turned around, and sprinted deeper into the same.


    ''......................What the fuck?! Did he just steal my eyeball.... not this time, this dumb dude just signed his death wish... i will find him, and take him apart.'' I was pissed, very much so, in a days time i had both my eyeball and my palm stolen by what were supposed to be friendly individuals towards my new species.


    Chasing after the shadow of the skeleton, I ventured deep into the cave, taking several turns on the way and making sure i don''t lose this damn bastard. One of the good things thou, was that I could still see with my missing eyeball, although it was very confusing to see two different things with my eyeballs, I tried my best not to trip as i sprinted forward, and i was able to determine the course of that bloody skeleton while going through splits in the cave. I slowly, but surely trimmed the distance between me and him, and when i was close enough, I lunged myself towards him, successfully  tackling the bastard. Then i took upon myself the task to punish this thief of bodily parts, by ripping his bony arm out, and clobbering his skull with it.


    * Thud *


    * Thud *


    * Thud *


    * Crack *


    Finally the skull cracked under the pressure of my flurry of hits, and shortly after shattered into few pieces. Feeling my stress being lifted off my bones, i step forward towards his other hand, and pick up my glowing eyeball. Never did I think to take it out and examine it closely. It was the colour of blood, glowing a tiny bit emitting a faint red light, but the weirdest thing was it felt like it was pulsing.


    ''I am a skeleton, why the hell do i feel it pulsing, i shouldn''t feel anything.'' Knowing that answers will not come by staring at the eyeball that was staring back at me, i put it back in it''s place, and looked around where that damn bastard led him, feeling anger once again i stomped his spine, making his ribcage crack under pressure.


    I went back to looking around, '' Now where am .......'' I froze, i locked my gaze with something, and that something was staring back at me smiling gleefully. ''Who the fuck is that?'' thinking where i am, and who or what this thing might be, i look back at the nicely smashed skeleton under my foot, '' is it this thing''s master?'' Just thinking about it made my imagined skin crawl with fear and anxiety.''Damn it now what am i gonna do... should i run?'' I slowly turned back to sprint back the way i came from, but the entrance to this part of the cave disappeared. ''Well.... I guess this is the end.'' resigning to my fate, i looked at my executioner, and waited for my death.


    ¡°You are weird.¡± said the thing in an amused voice.


    I could only look at him with confusion, but i could neither reply, nor disagree, as i could not utter a word.


    ¡° Say something, it''s not fun being the only one talking.¡±


    I was getting scared of what will he do once he thinks I''m ignoring him. With a stoke of genius, I try to pantomime my way out of this predicament. After few minutes of describing that i could not say anything, he spoke again.


    ¡° Are you.... making fun of me?¡± One could hear a slight irritation and anger in his voice.


    Seeing that my genius backfired on me, I quickly shake my head disapprovingly so fast, that once i stopped i lost my balance, and fell on the floor of the cave. Thankfully for my new body, the sharp stones covering the ground did not harm me, as they would a flesh and alive human. This amused the being greatly as he started to laugh senselessly, hitting his stone chair.... or maybe it was a throne.


    ¡° Ah..... You my new friend are very funny.¡± This time there was a tinge of happiness in his voice. ¡° So you can''t speak, is that it?¡± * Nod * ¡°Do you know why ?¡± * Shrug * ¡° Hmmm, interesting, can you write?¡± * Nod  * ¡° come closer, and write to me, how you found my throne room then.¡±


    Walking towards the throne, the shapes of both the throne, and the being in it were becoming more defining with each step. The throne was made of marble, writing of some sorts surrounded the man that was sitting in it, the man was pale, one would think he was dead if it wasn''t for his deep emerald eyes that showed wisdom and power hidden within the body that was covered in a bloody red cloak. I picked up a rock that i found near me, that seemed to be easy to write with.


    '' I was chasing a skeleton'' A hint of amusement rose on the man''s face as he read my words.


    ¡° And why would you chase your kin? Shouldn''t you be friendly towards him, I mean you clearly hated that skeleton¡±


    ''He stole my eye....''


    * Silence *


    ¡° ha....HAHAHAAHA... oh my, you clearly are different from my minions, but why would he try to take it from you?¡±


    ''How should i know, he suddenly grabbed it, and started to run away. So I sprinted after him, and when I could finally nab the thieving bastard, I ended up here.''


    ¡°I see..... by the way, here is your left hand, if i may ask?¡±


    ''...... A wolf bit it off.''


    ¡°A wolf... bit your hand off?¡± His eyes widened, and he was clearly shaking ¡°.... SERIOUSLY.... what is with your luck.... HAHAHAHAAHA¡±


    ''.....''


    ¡°Anyways, why aren''t you getting back your hand?¡±


    ''I won''t be able to find that damn wolf''


    ¡°No, no, i mean you can always take that skeleton''s hand and make it your own.¡± he then pointed at the skeleton behind me.¡±


    ''seriously?''


    ¡° Yup.¡±


    Getting my hopes up, i walked towards the skeleton and i took the left hand of his, and then put it where my left hand should be. For a few seconds, i kept it there and then let it go, only to see it fall off as easily as a normal bony hand would. I quickly walked up towards the man and started writing.


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    '' Ha, ha very funny, anymore jokes?''


    ¡°What do you mean jokes?¡±


    ''It''s not working'' he then started staring at the hand i was holding and then back at me several times before making his new statement.


    ¡° you mean.... you really have no idea how to attach it to your body?¡± This time there was disbelief in his voice.


    ''Yes?''


    ¡°Oh my, did the god of monsters not explain to you, how your new body works?¡±


    '' God of monsters??''


    ¡°You didn''t meet him?¡±


    ''No?''


    ¡°Hmmm, that''s very strange most monsters that are born from other species meet this particular God when after your death, you experience strong emotions. Tell me if you could, what did you do after you died?¡± I explained my rage and anger directed at the chosen ones, and my vow to exterminate them.


    ¡° The Chosen race was to be accepted by every God, by every race, by every being in one way or another. As an enemy, friend, ally, or even a stranger, but to deny them existence would be disagreeing with the ways all the Gods have chosen to proceed with this world.¡± he said with a sigh. ¡°You, my new friend, are the unluckiest fellow I had the please to meet in my while lifetime. The God of monsters chose to make all the beings under him treat you with indifference rather than to be allied to you, and he even skipped on how your body as well as powers work.¡±


    I stood there, stupefied by the statement. The god hate me, all sentient races hate me, and my would-be allies are not my allies, because of my vow, because of my hate, because of my new found goal.


    ¡° Well, at least you got here, and that is very lucky boy, for i am as old as time,  i do not care what gods want, and i find you interesting enough to teach you about yourself, about your new position in the world, and a path that might one day lead to what you strive for with your new found life.


    I wanted to cry, cry and hug this dude, but i felt i would die if i acted like that, so i just stood there, beaming with happiness, even thou i could not express it with words.


    ¡°Now.... for your hand. I see your soul is still in it''s basic shape.¡±


    ''Soul?''


    ¡°Yes, soul. That mass of dark energy in your chest cavity is your reborn soul. The first step is willing it to become a part of you, right now although your soul and your body are attached to one another, it is nothing but a temporary form, once you merge your body with your soul completely, you will be able to start unlocking the powers of your new being.¡± sheepish smile appeared on the man''s face as he answered my query, loneliness flashed through his eyes, and it disappeared as fast as it came. ¡°Now, try to will your new soul to merge with your bones.... and those flying eyes of yours.¡±


    I closed my imagined eyelids, and tried to merge them. The ball of darkness slowly spread around all of my bones, and covered them whole, what happened next was painful, extremely so, as the darkness seeped into my bones, i felt as if my whole body was pierced by knives. I knelt onto the stony floor, trying to suppress this feeling while my soul entered my body. The pain was so strong, I wanted to faint. I was close to fainting a few times, while those entities merged, but as my consciousness slowly faded, I was always brought back by the constant sharp pain, refusing to let me take the easy way out of this mess. Finally the pain stopped, but i didn''t feel much of a change. I looked at the man in the throne, his face reminded me of the kids in Salit, the ones that just got a new toy to play with, that sent shivers down my spine.


    '' What now? More pain?''


    ¡°No, now you need to put that hand where it''s supposed to be and will your soul to merge with it, this time it won''t hurt. I promise.¡± Having no other choice, I put the hand in it''s place and willed my soul to merge with it. This time, my soul obeyed me faster than before and crept all around the hand within seconds. When the black smoke started to enter the hand, I jolted instinctively, thinking that the pain will emerge, but it never did. Once the darkness entered the hand completely, I tried to move it, and it moved just as if it was my own hand.


    He smiled at me rather mischievously. Then he looked at me and his eyes widened in surprise.  ¡° Hmmm, your soul merged completely with your body but you still have some of your soul in your chest..... you really are unlucky, it seems on the off chance that you would be able to merge your soul and body, the god of monsters chose to take away a part of your body, and seal your powers by a small margin.¡±


    '' What was it?'' I asked rather curiously.


    ¡° Don''t know, don''t care, but once you hunt and kill something that has a body part compatible with what was taken away from you, you will know what it is. Anyways, I don''t want to keep reading your scribbles, so let''s fix that voice of yours shall we?¡±


    '' You can do that?''


    ¡°Nope, you gotta do it yourself, or it will be hard for you to control your speech. Anyways remember how it felt to talk, how each word was made, how you could understand the concept of the words, and will your soul to give you the ability to speak, as it is one of the basic needs, it should not require anything in return. Once you finish, say something so i will know we can restart our conversation.¡±


    Not thinking much about the requirements that he spoke of, I recounted the times I spent teaching my younger siblings on how to talk, how I taught them the meaning of words, and how it felt speaking about it, as that was the best memory to call up those feelings, and I willed my soul to let me speak. It only took a few seconds before i felt a queasy felling around my neck. It was warm and at the same time disturbing as if something was being born from inside it. After I couldn''t feel it anymore I tried to voice a question.


    ¡°Am I speaking now?¡±


    ¡°Yes, yes you are speaking, great, you are great, out of everyone to come here you are the most interesting being, and probably the most talented one.¡±


    ¡°Praising me won''t get you anywhere you know?¡± I puffed my chest while making a self confident pose.


    ¡°Let me teach you basics of being a monster to relieve my boredom. Sitting in a throne for more than 10 thousand years can get boring. What do you say?¡±


    ¡°Why would anyone refuse?¡±


    ¡°Great, no going back for you now, fufufufufu.... By the way young one, I have yet to ask for your name.¡±


    ¡°Shade.¡±


    ¡°Okay Shade, I am Linthos, your new teacher, The Great Beast, The Devourer of Gods, The Bane of All That Lives, I am the one who swallows existences.¡±


    ________________________________________________________________________________


    Hope you enjoyed the chapter.... see you next time! Life over and out~!


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 Reality- Inner Self

    Life here~, with yet another chapter of the fall! Enjoy


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


    After our introductions, Linthos finally left his throne and we moved towards another room that was directly behind the stone throne. Unlike the dark throne room that had its floor riddled with rocks and was so dark it was hard to see much unless you were close enough. This room was lit by torches with blue flames, according to Linthos those torches are special and instead of burning, they just have the ability to shine. The floor was surprisingly clean but one thing was common in both rooms, they had very little things in them, as the throne room contained only the throne, this room only had the torches.


    ¡° Well then... before we begin let''s have you sign a contract shall we?¡± Linthos said with a evil smile.


    ¡°But you said you would teach me!¡±


    ¡°That I did, but i never said it would be for free.¡± His smile became bigger.


    ¡°What do you want from me....¡± I said as i resigned myself to the fate of servitude.


    ¡°Oh not much young one, I want you to become my champion. I can''t leave this cave because of the seal placed on me by some of the gods, and i can''t leave unless their power diminishes, and that''s where you come in. While you go about your killing spree, I want you to destroy the faith in the gods of this world. Although gods are strong beings, they can only interfere with this plane of existence only if they have enough faithful believers.¡±


    ¡°So you want me to dimish their faith so that your seal will weaken and you will be able to escape?¡±


    ¡°Shade.... It''s great that you catch on so quick.¡±


    ¡°If you will teach me, then i will do that while i kill the chosen ones.¡±


    ¡°Great, i waited for so long that few more years won''t make much difference, but remember that the contract you are about to sign is derived from dark magic, if you try to get out of doing your part of the deal, the contract will erase your existence, and you will perish before finishing your vow.¡±


    He then handed me a parchment with bloody red letters written onto it, it read -Shade will weaken the faith to the gods, and for that, he will be paid in advance by Linthos by training him to the best of his capabilities.-, finish the parchment and seeing that it does not contain any extra points for me to achieve, I look back at Linthos.


    ¡°How am I supposed to sign it? I don''t have any ink.¡±


    ¡°Oh right, forgot you are clueless about most things. Dark contracts are sealed by spilling blood onto them.¡± After hearing his explaination, I was rather confused.


    ¡°You do remember i am a skeleton right?¡± I started to become a tad worried about my new teacher. How is a skeleton supposed to give some of his blood? Seriously, either he is stupid or i don''t know what.


    ¡°Uhhhh, right right, sorry about that, blood contains a small piece of your soul, and that is why it can bind entities into contracts, so in your case seeing as your don''t have any blood...... You should will a small piece of your soul to transfer into the contract.¡±, finally getting a decent explanation I willed a small fragment of my soul into the parchment, and a black mist oozed out of my bony finger and entered the contract, sealing the deal.


    ¡°Good, now before we start what do you know about mana?¡±


    ¡°Uhhh, mages use it to create spells?¡±


    * Sigh *


    ¡°Okay so i guess you do not know much....¡± his expression change in a frown ¡°This is gonna take a while then.¡± his tone was irritated, very much so.


    ¡° Mana is a part of nature Shade. It is in our environment as well as inside us. There are many sub types of mana, but i will only tell you 5 main types as they can classify every other mana as a branch of itself.


    Holy, Dark, Chaos, Natural, and Neutral, those are the main types of mana that exist within the world. Holy mana is used by most of the gods, their followers, as well as creatures that they created to serve them such as angels. Dark mana is used by small number of dark gods, and monsters such as you and me. Chaos mana is basically a mix between natural type mana and one of the other four types. Natural mana is used by non-sentient life around us, such as air, ground, water, fire, stones, trees etc.. Last type has the most being using it, Orcs, humans, elves, dragons, elementals, dwarves, even demon tribes classify as the bearers of the Neutral mana. Although the last example might shock you as demons usually worship dark gods, and are said to be dark creatures, but in reality only a handful of them use dark mana while most use neutral one. Humans tend to not like beings that look too different from them so they don''t like, let''s say, demi humans, but since demons look more.... demonic, they are considered evil. Oh, sorry, I seem to have drifted from the topic.¡± Linthos cleared his throat and continued.


    ¡°Well, Since we use dark energy I will not teach you about other mana types in depth but it is always good to have some knowledge about your enemies. No?¡±


    * Nod *


    ¡°Well then, we will see what talent is hidden within those white bones of yours. This here.¡± He pointed at the floor. ¡°Is the reflector of the soul, simple really, you just have to pour some of your soul into the floor, and you will find yourself face to face with your inner self, and although it wouldn''t talk with you in most cases, this reflector gives your inner self a way to communicate answers to you, and once you find out what you are good at, we will be able to start your training.¡± grinning from ear to ear he said. ¡°What are you waiting for? An invitation? Just hurry up and do it!¡± The walls of the cave trembled as he raised his mighty voice. Not waiting for another encouragement, I place my hand onto the floor and poured my soul into the stone, next thing i know, i am no longer within the confines of the room, but in a never ending darkness.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    ¡°So what did he do this time?¡± I grumbled first the contract, and now this. I looked around and found something behind me. It was what seemed two huge eyes inside the darkness, they were very big and white as if nothing was inside of them but the contrasting white and black gave them a very powerful feel.


    ¡° Why are you here?¡± said a voice that sounded like few people speaking at the same time molding their words to create one from many. The voice sounded ancient and all knowing, but it did not carry any feelings in them. They were impassive as if no one truly asked the question.


    ¡°Why are you here?¡±


    ¡°To find out my talents¡±


    ¡°.....You who is born of hatred and rage, hated by the gods, have no friends with your new kin, you are the avatar of darkness and power, you control the lightning which strikes fast and hard, and the darkness bestowed upon you an ability that will surely aid you in your trials.¡±


    ¡°What ability?¡±


    ¡°You become darkness itself, no one can touch you, but you can touch no one all the same.¡±


    ¡°Uhh. So is that everyth.....¡± before i could finish my sentence i was thrown out of the darkness, I was back in that room with my new friend waiting for me to finish impatiently.


    ¡°Finally took you a while, so what did your inner self say?¡±


    ¡°Uhh, It said i control lightning, and i have an ability to become darkness itself.¡±


    ¡°What is that?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know, I just learned about it, why are you questioning me?¡±


    ¡°It is your ability and all, you should be able to instinctively activate it, but with lightning we will need to train your mana capacity, so you will be able to put up a decent fight. Anyways, try to activate that power and see what''s it all about, you should be able to instinctively trigger it.¡±


    Just like Linthos had said I knew how to start it up but did not know what it will do. So i tried to activate the ability. I felt that my soul change slightly as i trigger the ability, it slowly changed all around my body, but it took around half an hour to completely activate it.


    ¡°Done.¡±


    ¡°Well.... now we know you won''t be able to use it in combat anytime soon.¡± He looked sad. Almost pouting as he finished. ¡°Well what else did the inner self said as i can''t see anything changing.¡±


    ¡°It said that i won''t be able to touch anything, and at the same time nothing will be able to touch me.¡±


    A glint of mischief and amusement appeared in Linthos'' eyes. ¡°Okay then don''t dodge this.¡± Suddenly a large stone ball hovered around Linthos and then it came at me. I had no time to dodge it went so fast i almost lost track of it as it rushed towards me and then when it was supposed to hit my body and shatter my bones, it went through my body without any kind of resistance and simply shoved itself inside the wall behind me creating a loud *Thud *.


    ¡°Great, Great! This is great, you really are talented, but for now this will be useless as it takes too much time to activate and deactivate. We will work on that. Yes but for now I will make sure that your lightning control will be able to aid you in battle.¡±


    ¡°Uh, aren''t you supposed to teach me?¡±


    ¡°I am teaching you aren''t i?


    ¡°No, i meant teach me to mastery.¡±


    With disbelief in his eyes he siad ¡°I never said i will teach you everything, you know how long that will take? I can''t wait so long for you to get stronger. I will teach you how to train yourself when you are alone, as well as basics, but that''s all i will do. The rest will be up to you and your imagination to make the best use of your abilities and further increase your own capabilities. My First lesson for you, young Shade. If it is not written on the contract, do not expect it to be fulfilled.¡± He looked evil, truly evil. I was angered by my stupidity and how i fell for such an obvious trap, nothing i could do about it now as i have already signed the damn contract, no matter I will still come out on top out of this deal, no matter how much of a liar this dude is....


    __________________________________________________________________________


    Hope you enjoyed the chapter~! Any questions will be answered just write them. ;)


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 Reality- Basic training

    Life Here~! Sorry for the delay, i had to think a little about the plot as a whole so there wont be any plot holes along our journey. Also if someone wants to make a suggestion they are welcome to do it ~!


    Enjoy:


    ~~~~


    I spent the next six months in the same room unable to leave. You ask why? Well, my new teacher set up some kind of barrier magic on the entrance so i had no way to leave even to the throne room when i asked him why, he simple said ¡°So no one will disturb you while you practice.¡± . Let me tell you even if it was for the sake of training myself, being stuck in one room for too long can be a pain in the ass. Atleast I had the company of Linthos which didn''t help much as he did not like to converse much about himself and my stories got repetitive after the first two months.


    My regiment consisted of 4 parts. By the way the training was supposed to only have three parts but i was so talented that Linthos just had to make an extra part for me and my genius..... Not.


    First part was meditation to get myself familiar with the mana inside me as well as increasing the amount i can use until i have a hard time stay conscious. The first two days were lectures about my affinity, if someone forgot it was lightning. Basic stuff about natural effects of it as well as how it is generated, after the boring part came the actual meditation which..... wasn''t very fun, I had to sit in the same position for a few days, trying to get a feel of the lightning mana inside me as well as the dispersed one around me. At first i was bored cuz i couldn''t see any changes, but by the fourth day of meditation, I was able to slowly visualize it  and then came the hard part, I had to will the dispersed mana around me to enter my body. Some might ask why it was hard, well lets just say it''s hard to take only lightning mana from around me without pulling others as well, and if your affinity with other elements is as bad as mine was which is rock bottom. It hurts. Yes it hurts very much. I shouldn''t have nerves so i thought it wouldn''t hurt me but Linthos said since my mana and soul are connected i will still feel pain if i try to expand my mana and i do something wrong. This first step took me 2 months. At first it was a painful, but after a while I got the trick on how to do it. The easiest way for me to take more lightning mana was to move some of my mana outside of my body. I learned the hard way that mana that is not used and is in the environment will naturally attach to one another. Linthos of course just gave me the rough explanation, so i had to figure out the details myself. All in all i think i did decently.


    The second part was a dud.... yes a complete and utter disgrace on my part. It was manifestation of mana outside of my body. It was frustrating as i could not do it. Quite literally every attempt ended up with either the lightning mana to escaping all around me or discharging in all directions injuring me for the most part. After Three torturous days the only thing i got from linthos was ¡°You have no talent.¡± . He didn''t have to rub it in, when I was a guard, I asked one of the mages to see if i was skilled, but i was in the category of those that have mana, but it is so small amount that it wasn''t worth mentioning.


    The third part of my training took the longest. Since i couldn''t manifest my mana outside of my body, Linthos taught me how to do it inside. It was what most warriors do with aura. Crude way of using fighting spirit, trying to copy what mages do with magic, control and usage. Well my situation was even worse as  I had to imitate fighting spirit with my mana. This training was rather simple but because of its simplicity it was both dangerous and slow. The training consisted of me filling a particular bone with my lightning magic and keeping it stable for as long as i could. The desired result was to make my bones emit small arcs of lightning and increase both my power and speed with it. If i put in too little nothing would happen, if i put too much my bones would literary turn to dust from the electric current. This took around 3 and a half months simply because each bone had a different mass and so the amount of lightning was different as well. If not for Linthos repairing my bones every time it crumbled to dust, I was certain i would become a pile of ashes.


    Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Many of you can already guess what was the last part of the training, I tried very hard to cut the time needed to use my ability to be able to phase through things like a ghost. The result? Not very promising i spent half a month phasing in and out non stop and i was able to decrease the needed time by half a minute. My hopes shattered, and at the end of the training the opinion that Linthos had about me changed ¡° It seems you are as dumb as the skeleton you were chasing.¡± . Yep, Let''s just say my self-confidence took a hit with those words, that dumb idiotic skeleton was apparently on the same level as me. ''haaaa''.


    After finishing what seemed to be an endless boredom and pain, both physical and mental. Linthos said we are almost done.


    ¡°Well you completed the basics of magic. I hope it will help you with the task even though you aren''t as talented as i thought.¡± Linthos said with a huff as if his hope was shattered.


    ¡°Linthos am i that bad?¡±


    ¡°Hmmm..... yes but you have room for improvement.¡±


    ¡°Really?¡±


    ¡°Well if a weak person trains non stop even he will become strong one day. It will all depend on your effort and luck.¡±


    ¡°Luck?¡±


    ¡°Yes luck in not finding a monster or a chosen one or even a native that will instant kill your sorry ass.¡±


    ¡°Can''t you help with that?¡±


    ¡°Hmmm.... Nope you are on your own dude.


    ¡°Ugh......¡±


    ¡°Well now Shade off you go, try your best not to die right after we part ways okay?¡±


    ¡°I will try.¡±


    ¡°Good, take care I hope you will atleast weaken this damned seal a little bit.¡±


    I made a dejected expression as i turned towards the exit not making a sound. Slowly ascending through the tunnels of the cave, letting the mana guide me out as i didn''t receive a map from Linthos. What greeted me upon the exit was the sun rays that i had forgotten inside the dimly lit room. I was sure that if I had my flesh I would have shed a tear, but alas i have only bones with me.


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 Reality- The soul is the key

    Life here with new chapter hope you like it! Also someone rated this 4.5 stars, how the hell did this get 4.5 i have no idea.... Well i am still happy, so thanks whoever rated it that way~! Enjoy:


    As i walked out of the cave i spent most of the time i was in my new form, I knew what i had to do. Yes, you all know what i am talking about. No? Well neither do I. Seems my talent is sub-par and I will have a hard time... * sigh * Why is it that I can''t be like a hero in one of those stories? Gifted, handsome, lots of followers, and everything he wished he will have. Why doesn''t it work that way, maybe it would be too easy? Nah, even children know that there are people who have everything in their lives and they did nothing to gain it. The people who make the kingdoms and become kings, they sweat their own blood, mindstorm their brains to build their own empires and finally die few years after it is finalized, but what about the heirs of the throne that has no siblings? He gets it all: fame, wealth, girls, power. Well here i am self-pitying and an idea strikes me. So what if i am not gifted. The power is in numbers! Of course! I need to make allies, monsters, my kin who all hate the people that have been hunting them ever since they came! Yes, brilliant! But then i remember that while the monsters don''t hate me, they don''t particularly like me either. So I have to earn their respect. How you ask? Simple. The stronger you are, the higher in hierarchy you go.


    ¡°Yes, this will do for now.¡± I mutter to myself with no audience. Am i starting to become insane? I''m not sure but one thing''s for sure. Talking to yourself is never a good sign. I shake my head to clear my empty skull of the thoughts that assault me and walk into the woods, remembering that for a monster to become stronger, one has to eat, eat and get stronger. So this will be my next course of action. To hunt, and to devour!


    ¡°Brilliant!¡± I shout, failing to realize that I am already quiet a distance away from the outer rim of the forest, and I am slowly entering the part of the forest where all dangerous being are...


    ~~~~


    I kept on walking forward, deep in my thoughts, ignoring my surroundings completely. It was as  if a 5 year old child strolled through the main street of a city that was very peaceful. Let me tell you that ignorance is a bliss and this time it might be something much much worse.


    So i kept on walking, thinking about my next action which is dubbed ''Let''s train and then kill them.'', but there was a slight problem, I didn''t know 100% how this whole ''monster eat, monster grows'' thing goes on, and let me tell you while I am magically inept, Linthos told me I might have a chance with my physical side. That had my hopes up until he told me that guards training can be considered a basic one, so he won''t teach me anymore, and if i wanted to learn mroe i have to find a death knight or a death lord to teach me. Can you imagine a skeleton asking a full blown death knight for lessons? I for one can''t. Well what comes will come, so i am not stressed about this situation, but it is still a little bit stressful don''t you think?


    I still kept on walking failing to realize that on both left and right side one could see dim glowing eyes slowly moving the same direction as I am, and gazing upon my bare self. Yes, I had no clothes, no weapon. Chances of encountering a monster or an enemy of mine? Rather high, chances of survival? Slim. Chances of winning? Non-existent. This is the true face of my predicament that I am discussing with my new friends. Who you might ask? Well, after Linthos heard my entire life''s story, he stopped talking to me unless necessary, so out of boredom and insanity (i think.), I created three beings inside my mind. No, they are not real, just my imagination, one more step towards insanity. Their names were logic, instinct, and emotion. Yes those three genderless beings with no real bodies give insight to my actions because i am simply lonely and i do not mind hearing voices. More insanity points i guess? Well no matter, atleast when i hear them say something i don''t feel so bad about being all alone.


    Has anyone ever had to get a tough wake up call while thinking hard? You think so hard that you just ignore what''s happening around you and even thou you aren''t doing in on purpose you ignore someone, and that some has to poke or hit you to get your attention. Ever been in that state? Well I was in one right now, and let me tell you that my wake up call wasn''t very nice. Something hit my back so hard that i flew 10 meters forwards faceplanting into a tree. Did it hurt? Not really, but it was still annoying as hell.


    I turned around and the beings that i locked my gaze upon were beings of pure terror to me, wolves. After that one time I became phobic about them and this group seemed awfully familiar. We stared at each other until one of the wolves came in front of the pack, chewing something. Suddenly i felt like my blood would freeze if i had any, this one particular individual was very instinctive because one could see him chewing on a bony hand, yes my hand.


    '' This is bad.'' I thought to myself what should i do in this situation. Well I had 3 obvious choices and one that seemed stupid.


    Run away.


    Give up.


    Try to fight.


    And last but not least, try to befriend.


    Yes the last one was very stupid considering the last time, but all options all valuable no? So like any sensible individual with a phobia, I turned around in hopes of escape, only to get three or so wolves, and then It hit me ''they encircled me!''. So i look around to confirm my suspicion and it seems my genius did not fail me this time (damn you my genius!) as i could see the wolves all around me.


    ''Fuck, what to do now.'' I was shaking, very much so, being only bones made those funny sounds


    * clack * *clack *


    ''Well i have no armor, no weapons, but I don''t bleed and don''t get tired.'' I started to calculating my chances and they were rather evened out with an edge to the wolves with their sheer numbers.


    ''I''ll fight. Yes, let''s fight since I won''t like to take it down lying on the ground and I''ll face death on my own terms!'' with my new found resolve I charged at the closest wolf, made my hand into a sword form and clad it in lightning, and as my hand and the wolf came into contact. * twack * my expectations fell short as i tried to do what one of the mages did when they came to the village, they clad their hands in lightning and split wood in half with their hands, so i imitated them. Result? It didn''t even pierce the damn mutt, but it seems that atleast I numbed him. The other wolves staring at what transpired didn''t wait for anything else as they all lunged towards me in unison and i responded in kind by cladding myself with lightning everywhere. They looked at me with suspicion of what i am up to but did not slow down at all and they all bit me. You ask how its possible since there were so many, well what happened was since they were different lengths away from me and their speeds varied, the first ones bit me and feeling the numbness they leg go as they were replaced by other members of the pack until all had the chance to bite me. What was different from our first encounter was that my bones were glued to one another very strongly thanks to fusing the soul and unlike last time they could barely scratch me. All in all the first round ended in a draw. And that was when i got so scared that my reason flew out of the door, and was replaced by pure survival instinct.


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    Wasting no time, this time i lunged at the closest numbed fur ball, and used my finger to dig into its eyes. Unlike with a normal finger, my bones were sharp at the ends, and they had more piercing power as they had a smaller circumference. I easily reached the brain and with twirling of my finger killed the monster. Coming back to my scared self i scream


    ¡°INSTINCT IS THE BEST!¡± ignoring the situation at hand as i pump my fists upwards as the sign of my apparent victory. But this action made wolves wary of me and instead of delicious bones, they now treated me as a viable threat. The next two hours were...... scary to say the least. I felt that a part of my thoughts that encompassed my former human self were replaced by a beast that only thought was survival. The fight ended with my victory as the wolves could not damage me enough because the numbing from my lightning aura (that''s what ill call it since it sounds awesome!) made them unable to exert their full strength and unlike my limitless stamina, they could only fight for so long at full speed. Once one of the wolves dropped in speed, I targeted them with my finger of death, and slowly reduced their numbers.


    Once i killed all of the wolves, one came out of the forest seemingly waiting for me to finish. Unlike the other greyish wolves that i had killed, this one had majestic silver fur that seemed to glow under the moonlight. It''s height was twice that of a grown wolf and its fangs and claws seemed to be way sharper than the others. I felt despair once i saw this graceful creature because it looked at me with both anger and disgust. What''s more my mana seemed to be fully drained as the lightning aura had dissipated, leaving me scared shitless.


    The wolf lunged at me with speed that seemed twice of a regular wolf, and covered the distance between us in seconds, pushing me onto the ground with its enormous paw. I tried my best to struggle and squirm from under the monstrosity that now towered above me but it''s weight simply left me unable to move as it looked at me with pity for my weakness. It slowly moved its head down towards mine as it opened its enormous jaws drooling onto my bones. During this despair something clicked, be it a defense mechanism or simply I could not process all the emotions I had as something in me broke, and flood gates opened. Time seemed to slow down around me as the beast inched closer towards my skull, but the change in surroundings seemed very different as i could see something dark inside my bones, something scared shitless, it was my soul, and then i looked back at the beast that''s about to kill me, it too had a dark soul full of pride and power right where it''s heart should be, and i did what any insane person would do in this situation, I did something new and crazy.


    I mentally ordered the piece of the soul that was still in my chest cavity to intrude into the being that held me captive under its enormous weight and eat it. No idea where that came from. Last ditch attempt to survive i guess, but not even sure if it would comply. But to my suprise it did, and boy was it fast. The swirling ball of darkness jumped out of my chest, and hit the wolf seemingly seeping into the pores of the beast and what i saw gave me hope to survive. The two black masses collided and the wolf literally jumped back from pain. Then the balls merged into one and flew out of the wolf, as it fell onto the ground lifelessly as if doll''s strings have been cut. The ball returned to my chest cavity and a large chunk of it seeped into my bones. While the part that was in my chest cavity stayed there, but was a tiny bit bigger, not much but still bigger.


    I felt energized, as if more power was stored in my body than before the fight, and then I realized that i had found the loophole that gods themselves had created for me to be powerful no matter how much they restricted my freedom.


    ¡°They split my body apart, but that gives me leeway. Once the soul is bound it is hard to move it around. But since a part of my soul is free I can use it to devour others! Yes, this is great! Since soul and mana are both interconnected once i eat the soul my mana pool becomes bigger. Since my body uses my soul to move it around once my soul gets bigger i will have more power! For once those Gods screwed something in my favour! Now that i have both the goal and the means, i can continue and start what i have been waiting for, revenge and destuction of the chosen ones. ha... hahaHAHAHAHA!¡± My maniacal laugh resounded inside the forest alarming all kinds of creatures to my presence from small rabbits to beasts that could easily kill that wolf, but i did not mind because the more i kill the stronger will i become! Let them come so i can consume them for the greater good, I will get my revenge even if i have to kill everything that crosses my path just to consume it. Yes, this is not the end, this is just the beginning of what will come....


    ~~~~~


    So how did you like the new chapter? Any comments or questions are welcome and will most likely be answered unless they have huge spoilers. I am eager to answer those if you have any! Anyways hope you enjoyed it and if so, that give me my share of the daily happiness i need! Yours truly, Life.


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 Reality- Mighty Beast

    The next few days I experimented on the beasts in the forest trying to get some specifics on my new ability. I found out few interesting things, for once it seems that the soul lingers in the body for a while inside the dead body as it slowly disappears. This assumption was created as i used my new soul snatcher (i named it cuz it sounded cool) on my new specimens... * cough * animals in the forest. Unlike with the live being that i capture and drain, when i use it on beings that are already dead the amount will lessen as i wait longer to use it on a corpse, and from those assumptions.... they are assumptions because there''s more than one variable to what the changes can be tied to such as strength age etc etc. All in all i had been hunting while experimenting and my power levels are slowly increasing. To what level you ask? Well i encountered a group of wolves of the same type as before on my last day of experiments and unlike before this time when i hit the wolf with my lightning clad arm i broke its bones, yup the power up is visible. Also it seems that my phasing powers require less time to finish casting than before now i just need 15 minutes, truly a stone off my bony chest as i was wondering how long it will take until its usable.


    Well enough about what happened over the last days, what happens in present and future is more important right now! Right now im near a cave... yup another cave anyone see the fate repeating itself in the future? I do but i am still curious at what i will find in this cave. So i enter, more insanity on my part for repeat of the last time? Nah, but still stupid. But one thing is for sure different between those two caves unlike the other one which was a normal looking cave, this one is riddles with bones of all sizes, some look like they came from rabbits while others look bigger than a bear''s bones. Bigger than a bear, i wonder what monstrosity it is from and what would look like *shivers *.


    So against my better judgement and sense of foreboding i slowly walked past the bones and into the cave. One thing i noted while i was walking past the bones was the silence that i could hear, a silence so clean that no wind would dare disturb it by brushing against the leaves of the trees near the cave, it was as if the element itself was trying its best to remain unnoticed.


    Once i entered the cave i saw light from the opposite side, unlike the other cave, i could see the exit in front of me, and i cautiously walked forward, towards the light. Few meters into the cave i still hear only silence, no insect dared to enter, halfway through the tunnel i could hear rustling from the direction of my short lived goal, as i moved closer the the sounds became crispier and more defined, those sounds were of something chewing, yes very loud chewing. As i moved closer towards the exit i could feel my bones shiver slightly, as if my body feared the being inside. Alas i could not walk away, i felt as if a mysterious force forcing my body to move forward even thou my body wants to run away, and then the moment of truth came, i exited the tunnel and i entered a round cavern, the top of this natural room was blown away sun shined through the hole lighting most of it for the eye to see. Upon my arrival the sounds stopped.


    '' hmm this weird tingling feeling as if something is wrong, what is it?'' i think curiously as i look around and cannot see the being that made those crunching noises. Even thou the light shined onto the room i could not see this creature.


    * crack * * chew * * chew * *gulp* * gulp *


    The sounds started anew and i slowly pinpointed the sound, it took me a while as the circular room reflected the sound making it hard for me to find the source. The sounds came just from the edge of the room where the light did not shine and because of the contrast it was hard to spot the silhouette that was moving slightly in the dark. To inspect it and see if it was a threat i started taking steps towards the being with its silhouette slowly becoming more visible.


    Once i was close enough to see what it was i unintentionally let out a gasp, it was big, humongous. It''s body was covered, for the most part, in yellow fur, it''s underbelly had white fur, the head looked like that of a hawk. The being had four legs, tail and wings. The legs in the front looked like that of a bird, no fur, with sharp black claws that looked ready to slice through stone, its back legs looked like that of a lion. The tail was also like the one that the king of the jungle possesses while the wings that were located on its back looked majestical and big. Yes this creature is commonly known as a griffon.


    '' damn it why is a griffon here, they should not be in this part of the continent!'' I started to sweat, mentally, sweat a lot as griffons are depicted as the royals of the sky, prideful creatures that could speak any language if they wanted. They would never bow down to any being even if threatened with death and responded not well with beings trespassing upon their lairs. The title ''royals of the sky'' was granted not only because of their mentality and wisdom, but also because they had the strength to back it up. There were historical case of army trespassing upon the lands that a family of griffons had claimed for themselves, and within two hours the army was no more, the griffons ripped through the army with easy cleaving and slicing their way through and left a lone human alone as a messenger of sorts, '' Do not anger us humans, we will kill everyone who threatens us, no matter how meagre your strength is.'' they said as they ascended towards the sky with their mighty wings disappearing from the view of the survivor. Needless to say the kingdom of that army fell but that is the story for another time... maybe. This event gave a saying to all the kingdoms that learned of this: ''Do not anger the griffons and if you anger them, consider your life to be theirs.'', and yet here i am dead in a sense of the word, in its cave, dead centre in it''s land, and the only thing i have the power to say.


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


    ¡°Me and my cursed luck.....¡± my life passed before my eyes, my resolve weakened as i wait for what will be next.


    But the end did not come, leaving me confused and scared. I look upon the mighty beast, it was still laying down in the same spot, unmoving but twitching as the sounds resounded in the cave. So i moved a little closer to see why my impending doom has been stalled, and then i see it, maybe don''t see it is a better term as the sounds continue to be made but i do not see the food that should be chewed on around the griffon at all. So i came closer and realized that every time a sound is made the being twiched.


    ''how weird, if it is not the beast, then why is it ignoring me? And what in the bloody hell is making that sound if it is not the griffon?!'' my thoughts ran wild, trying to analyze my situation, but i couldn''t see an explanation, so i moved closer to get a better look, the griffon was slightly shifted to one side and i couldn''t see the other completely, so i moved closer while veering towards the side to gate a better view of the beast.


    I slowly gained a better view and it took me awhile until i could see griffon''s other side, and once i did, my jaw hit the ground, there was a hole in the griffon a red hole with the side of a basketball in it''s side slowly dripping blood onto it''s fur. The hole seemed deep and the sound came from inside of it.


    ¡°what the....¡± i was shocked, some being was eating a griffon, but at the same time curious at what creature might have done this. So like the insane person i am (I am not gonna be in self denial towards my insanity my dears), i come closer to inspect what the creature looks, once i got a good angle i see what it was and my knees buckle at the sight. There in this bloody mess of the hole in the side of a griffon was a rabbit.............


    That''s right a rabbit and unlike the other rabbits i have seen in this and my previous body, this one was black. For some reason all the rabbits i have seen were white but this one is black.'' Strange...'' i thought. This little beast did not bother to look at me as i crept in closer and it simply continued to eat the mighty beast ignoring my presence altogether. Still uneasy i tried to reach out into the hole that the fluff ball was in and to my surprise it didn''t attack me at all. It was a weird feeling, i still felt this oppressing feeling from this furball but it was too damn cute.... * ahem * i mean in what hell does a black rabbit become so scary?


    I was still uneasy about touched the rabbit but with it''s appearance i could not take it seriously, so i picked the bugger up and took it out of the bloody hole. I moved my hand to make the rabbit''s eyes meet mine and so they did. We stared at each other for couple of minutes but nothing happened atleast nothing what i had expected, the rabbit was doing nothing besides moving its adorable little cheeks.... *ahem * after a while i got used to the oppressive feeling and dismissed it altogether, i mean the little buddy of mine just stared at me with its innocent eyes and didn''t do anything scary. But besides all the bad feelings i had about him one was of other sort, it was the first monster/creature that did not attack me besides Linthos. I felt friendship between us, the brotherly kind, as if i met a comrade of mine. The bonding of our didn''t take a long time and then i decided.


    ¡°From now on you are gonna be named Black because of your hair colour!.... and you''re gonna be my first pet!! muwahhahahahaha!¡±, so i claimed the rabbit as my pet, and took the cave as my lair. I found a home for me *tear * and it was my first base of operations for me and my new company Black!


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~


    So how did you like the chapter? Any opinions or comments? If so share them with me, i am always happy to read them! And a question from me to my readers! Do you want me to make longer chapters or are you fine with them being the length that they are now?


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 Reality- Family

    Few days have passed since the cave became my home. Few things were of some importance so i''ll start with the most obvious one.... Black is weak, he is just like an ordinary rabbit maybe even weaker.... a small baby snake sneaked into my base while i was out hunting and once i came back i could see black being strangled by the reptile. I had to intervene as it seemed black''s death would be inevitable at this rate. Weird right? How can something so freaking weak kill a griffon and have such a scary pressure? Well aside the pressure which is a complete mystery i have few ideas on how the griffon got killed:


    Heart attack.


    Suffocation.


    Something stronger just killed it and didn''t bother to eat it.


    Yes the mystery wasn''t so mysterious anymore. Seeing as Black kept eating only the griffon, i just let him do his thing as he doesn''t really bother me unless he wants to be petted. How sweet! * cough *


    Anyways i slowly accumulated the souls inside me by catching live prey and feasting on their souls. Yummy. While i was hunting an idea struck me, if i can move my soul to eat other soul, maybe i can divide it. So my experiments started, i took few human skeletons from the cave''s entrance and put them inside. Let me tell you that was very tiring as i had to find the bones that were scattered around and in the end i had assembled 6 complete skeletons from the piles outside.


    In my first experiment i tried to pour my mana directly into the skeleton. At first i had trouble but i was slowly able to encompass the whole skeleton in my mana. The result was not very promising. I had to manually control the skeleton while the mana was slowly disappearing from the skeleton, and upon the end, the skeleton simply flopped onto the ground.


    ¡°what am i doing wrong? -.- ¡° i was agonizing over this fact as i tried to do something different, i poured as much mana as i could into the skeleton, the result was much worse, the bones couldn''t take such an increase in mana and shattered into dust.


    ¡°DAMN IT!¡± i shouted as one of my precious skeletons vanished.


    ¡°No, i can still do something i still have 5 of them, yes.... i can still try some more.¡± i made an evil grin, of course in my imagination as a skeleton can''t make any facial expressions. What, you think skeletons are capable of making expressions? Are you all stupid? Bones stay in one place you cannot bend them or they break! Sigh what do i have to do with you people....


    Anyways onto my 2nd specimen. In my first experiment i added only mana, this time i tried to put a tiny piece of my soul into the skeleton before pouring mana inside. The results were much better, satisfactory in fact but not perfect. What i created was a semi sentient being that followed my every order. Unfortunately the mana in their bodies was still disappearing in a slow constant rate.


    So i told it to hunt some monsters and bring their bones while eating the flesh. You wanna know why? That''s because during my hunts i also realized that inside the flesh of the beast there are trace amounts of mana and soul of the being lingering in it, although the mana to soul percentage is something like 100:1, therefore it is unwise to increase your soul this way.


    So now you all might be wondering how is he able to eat meat. Well that question is well thought out. Since bones can''t do what stomach can and digest the meat. Well it does not look pretty, in fact it looked stupid as i asked that skeleton to do it in front of me. He literary put the meat into his mouth and let it fall down.... yup, my only explanation for now is that he puts mana from his skull into the mouth and grabs the mana and soul bits and makes them his own. Yes i can''t tell you much, you might be disappointed but i can''t tell you what i don''t know.


    After my first sucessful experiment, i created 2 more of those semi intelligent skeletons and gave them obvious orders such as.


    Eat when hungry


    guard the cave


    eliminate the intruders


    bring back the bones


    This was my grand plan for now, to make few more skeleton monsters and gain power, gradually, silently, without anyone noticing the changes in power, so that they won''t come to eliminate me early on. I am such a genius!!! * cough *  anyways for the last two, i wanted to do something different, something spectacular, i wanted to create a minion that would be able to think for itself, give orders to others, and challenge my thoughts if needed. I needed an adviser and it seemed the best way to get one.... is to make one.


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    So i took the second last skeleton and this time instead of a small piece, i took a rather large chunk and put it inside. Immediately inside the skeleton''s eye sockets two bright red glowing eyes could be seen, and slowly the skeleton stood up and looked upon shade.


    ¡°who are you?¡± asked the obviously confused skeleton.


    ¡°i am shade¡± i answered feeling rather superior that my experiment succeeded! *inner giggle like a little girl * then i took a look at the skeleton he was.... an exact copy of me.


    ¡°you are shade? No i am shade!¡± the skeleton exclaimed while waiving his bony hands in the air as if making his statement more grand.


    ¡°Uhhh, no i am shade and i made you just a second ago.¡± i said rather taken aback by a creation that tries to impersonate me. Sure i wanted an adviser but not me....


    ¡°No i am shade, and i made you!¡± the skeleton exclaimed, and then he lunged at me throwning me onto the ground.


    He then attempted to take my soul! Hell, what is wrong with this one! Thankfully i didn''t use more than half of my remaining soul, so i was able to eat him instead of him eating me.


    ¡°that was scary! What the hell was wrong with him.¡± i look upon the now lifelessly resting skeleton on the ground. My next step was simple. I stomped the hell out of that one until only dust remained. Like hell i will leave something so dangerous with a chance to come back to life!


    I was sceptical with my last specimen. I didn''t wanna fight with my creation again, but at the same time i wanted someone to talk to.... * ahem * fine you win. Fuck the adviser, i am just lonely and need someone to talk to! * tear up *


    So before i ruin another set of bones, i started to play around with my soul. Attaching and taking it apart, while playing i had an idea, is wiping the memory of the soul possible? If so that may be the key to getting a friend.


    So i take a small piece of my soul and separate it from the rest. I still kept it in my body but left it in my pinky. Then i asked it to wipe itself. * lol * and to my surprise my black soul become slight greyish.


    ''interesting'' i think and then merge that piece with my own, the funny part was that although it was my soul it didn''t wanna merge so i had to devour it like any other being. The base of that soul was me but at the same time it wasn''t me.


    So with a new found idea i take exactly the same amount as i did with my impersonator, and will it to move into the skeleton, but before it had the chance to merge with the skeleton completely i ordered it to wipe itself. The soul became greyish just like before and then in it''s sockets something started glowing.


    '' i have a bad feeling about this...'' i think to myself as i recount what happened to the last one that had glowing eyes. But to my surprise this time the eyes instead of my crimson red were sapphire blue. The skeleton came to understand that it started to exist and slowly looked up to lock with my eyes. We stared for a while but he did not say anything nor has he done anything else besides looking at me, so i started the conversation.


    ¡°hello?¡± i said rather confused not knowing what to expect.


    The skeleton twitched upon hearing my voice, but he kept staring and then he said something rather scary....


    ¡°Father?¡± this unfamiliar voice came from that skeleton as he kept his gaze on me.


    ¡°......¡±


    ¡°......¡±


    ¡°Say what again!?!??!¡±.........................................


    ~~~~~~~~~~


    Life here, so how did you like it? Any questions or comments are always welcome! Btw i wasn''t gonna make shade able to raise undead but seeing as some wanted it to happen while others didn''t voice any complaints about that sort of power, and i saw that i could work with that material made this~! So i hope you enjoyed yes another weird development.


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 Reality- Son, Weapons, and scouting

    Life here~! Sorry for the great delay, there were two things that hindered me from writing more. First was that as much as i like to write, my love for reading other people fictions is greater than the one for writing. My second problem was that i was waiting for my divine writing spark to descend unto me as i was wondering what to write.


    No, i am not making it up as i go along but although i have few points in the story that i know i need to write to get to the ending/s that i want to be done, like any other stories there are many side stories along the main story line that spice the main line up, and since i wasnt entirely sure what i wanted to write as a side next. I opted to wait until i was sure that it is what i want instead of forcing it and lose interest mid way in the story and axe it making some of my fans cry in despair while others would have just shrugged it off as another incomplete FF they read to relieve their mundane lives...


    Enough ranting from me~. Enjoy the new chapter~!


    P.s. I should have atleast 4-5 chapters up in the next week so stay tuned and I am once again sorry for the delay. :/


    ~~~


    A week passed since my experiment yielded joyful results.


    If any of you don''t know what I am talking about, then i can proudly announce that i sired a son!


    At first we didn''t get along, or more like i was creeped out by a skeleton saying he is my son. I mean who wouldn''t?


    First two days were the roughest as I denied the very notion of having a kin different from my human family that thinks i am dead as far as i know.


    But the little skeleton didn''t relent his barrage of creepy cuteness as he tried at every corner make me acknowledge him as my son.


    He wouldn''t stop anytime soon, so i gave it some thought. The solution i had found was very logical in my opinion.


    Human babies for example share both flesh and blood with their closest, and that is the link that gives birth to a family while my son shares something more... something deeper and natural with me. He has a part of my soul in him, sure his bones aren''t mine but his bond with me is even deeper than most of the families in this plane of existence in my opinion, I mean what''s a closer bond than a soul bond?


    So i stopped brooding over the fact that his idea was very creepy from my perspective, i went along with him, and once i stopped being biased, i realized that he is uber cute, in a sense that a skeleton can be, whenever we go hunting he loves to boast about his prey and always displays it to me before consuming it. Truly an adorable brat.


    While i was conflicted for the last week, I used that time to replenish my soul from my experiments, the week was rather uneventful as the beasts started to slowly travel away from our lair.


    Who would blame them?


    A skeleton family was literally hunting them to extinction be it day or night. Two of them being much stronger than the other and their glowing eyes seemed to pierce through their very soul instilling dread upon their very beings.


    Let me talk about my son for a while. I named him Dee. I was never good at naming things, but i think this is a better name than the other one which I had thought of. Blue was the other name i had in mind but i rejected it since my pet''s name was Black so why would my son be subjected to a name that i gave to a mere pet.


    Dee beamed with joy once i had agreed to call him ''son''. He almost killed himself when i told him by jumping to high and almost cracking his skull as he bashed against the ceiling. Ahh youth, no matter the race, it would seem that all young ones are quite impulsive.


    ~~~


    Being my first true family in this new life of mine, i do not consider the other mindless skeletons my true kin, I proceeded to find out if Dee had talent in mystic arts.


    Unlike my time when i had help of the soul reflector, this time we had to do it the old way that i saw once when i was patrolling the village i used to live in. But unlike that time, I had to improvise a lot, i mean how am i supposed to tell a skeleton to close his eyes?


    So i opted to make him sit down and slowly drift away with his awareness, I asked him to see deep within his soul if he saw anything portraying to magic, or abilities which he might find useful. He sat there for few hours and once he came to his demeanour told me all i needed to know.


    His talent was poor... even worse than poor, his talent was nil, he had ice affinity and the best he could hope for at the moment was making the surroundings colder.


    I was stricken by grief but not because he was useless, maybe a little, the main reason was because he looked like he was about to cry every time i used my magic. It was as if he longed for power to make himself stronger and help me along the way. This made me proud but at the same time i was deeply worried for my son. Unlike me he also didn''t have a semi detached soul because when i created him, I couldn''t do it. So the only way for him to get stronger is through experience and training like any human.


    I couldn''t watch him struggle to help me, it was agonizing for us both. So I did something a normal person would have done in my situation, if he did not have the talent in mystic arts, he should study the art of sword. While I say the art of sword, I do not mean sword only, i mean weapons in general, yes one could call it the art of weaponry, but art of the sword sounds better in my opinion...


    * cough *


    I used the bones of larger animals around the cave and i used my lightning clad to slowly shave them into weapons. It took me a while but the results were better than i had expected, our rate of hunting went up big time, but it should be obvious that weapon can make a large difference when you give them to skeletons that had to use their own bodies to kill their pray, and as i recount the small hunts for wolves, foxes, and rabbits, I realize that we were extremely lucky not to have one of us die or lose bones.


    It was illogical but what could i do?


    There was no way to check why we survived this long without any tools, and while i may be a fool, i will not test this luck any further than necessary, because luck can only take us so far...


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    Dee seemed to like the new toy that i bestowed upon him. He chose a bone sword that could be use in on hand and a shield made of bones stitched with entrails of wolves, the shield was rather shaky but good enough for wolves, and the stench of death it was emitting gave chills to Dee''s enemies. He seemed to like the sword shield combo and the way he used them.... he seemed so natural as if they were limbs that he simply forgot to attach before.


    I chose a bone sword similar to what Dee had chosen but unlike his mine was bigger it was a sword bigger than a normal length one-handed sword, but it was not a claymore as i still could use one hand to freely wield the blade. I thought of using shield like Dee had but once i picked one up and practised a little, it felt wrong. I do not know why but anything other than that one sword made me frown, atleast i would''ve frowned if i could. So i choose not to sweat the small details and started to practice only with a single sword.


    Other skeletons opted for a spear, large sword, while the last one just picked up a bone and made it a blunt weapon.


    Black was still eating the griffon corpse that seemed to slowly decompose. I was sure that if i had retained my sense of smell i would''ve thrown it out a long time ago, but since Black rather liked the meet, I left it alone.


    I felt that our small squad had grown in strength and our prey had diminished, i felt a turning point that would decide how we fare in this world is upon us. So i chose to start slowly making my move.


    I ordered my skeleton minions to search through the forest and find a settlement of people. I asked Dee to remain with me even thou he was rather eager to make my wishes come true. Truly a godsend son.


    It took my minions three days but they finally found a small city north-east of the liar.


    ''Finally the revenge will start...'' i thought as i felt the emotions i locked inside myself for my own safety resurface and stir as my aura became more sinister and dark, as if death visited this realm and stood in this very stop.


    So I asked my minions to stay where they are.


    ~~~


    Me and Dee made our way towards the city that our minions were currently scouting leaving Black behind seeing as he had no battle potential and the griffon seemed to last him for a few weeks. It seemed my aura became darker once i succumbed into my desire of revenge as no beasts dared to attack us. Once they saw me they quickly turned around and bolted the scene.


    Thanks to that phenomenon we arrived at our destination in three hours.


    Someone might ask how i knew where to go or why i didn''t lose my way in the forest while making my way towards my minions.


    The answer is rather simple, I share a connection with those i created albeit a small one i can tell where they are and if they are alive, because once they die, I feel their signal disappear, and once they fulfil my order i can feel it. My bond with Dee on the other hand is much stronger than what i have with those mindless goons. I can also feel strong emotions from him, but i have only felt admiration, love, and respect from him so far.


    Once we joined up with the goons we saw the city, it wasn''t a big city but it still had stone walls around it with three gates. There was a plain in between the forest and the city spanning few kilometres around it. In this clearing there were foxes and rabbits as well as them..... the chosen ones were there as well, they looked like the first ones that came here, with their generic clothes, some had rusted weapons, others fought the critters with their bare hands. Once I saw them, I wanted to just leave the forest and rush at them, taking as many as i could with me, thankfully Dee realized what i was about to do and stopped me. Truly a great son...


    I steeled my nerves and I dismissed the idea. I ordered the spear wielding skeleton to find his way back so once we are done with our business here we will be able to go straight back to it. The rest of us then chose the gate that was the furthest from the road that seemed cutting through the forest, and then we waited for a group of adventures to venture deep enough into the forest so we could kill them without any of them running away. Few days was enough to leave never to be heard from again, so once they come back, we would already be back at our lair.


    First day was uneventful, we saw few groups of the chosen ones that headed our direction but they never ventured into the forest.


    During the second day one of the parties made its way into the forest but not deep enough for us to kill them all. I gritted my teeth as i resisted the urge to forget the plan and just kill them all, but Dee was there, thankfully.


    Then it happened, on the third day a group came into the forest. It consisted of five individuals three males, two females. Unlike most groups this one seemed prepared to venture into the wilderness. One of the males was wielding a sword and a shield while wearing chain mail. Other one had a bow and was dressed in leather clothes, while the last one was covered in a while robe, and had a staff. One of the females seemed very similar to the last male but unlike him, she had a red robe. The last member of the ground had a dagger in each hand.


    They confidently strode into the forest, not noticing the gazes of four individuals following them deeper into the wilderness...


    ~~~~~~


    So how did you like it?....


    Did you miss me atleast? QQ


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 Reality- Cruelty in Battle

    We moved stealthy following the group, trying our best to make as little noise as possible. Few minutes passed until the group of the chosen ones encountered a small group of wolves.


    ''strange.... whenever we find the wolves there''s atleast ten of them but this group consists of only four....'' I mused as i watched the group fight off the wolve''s threat.


    The tank of the group stood in front of others shielding them from the vicious blows. The ranger covered the tank by shooting the arrows at the wolves that attacked his blind spots. The thief sneaked around the tank to flank the wolves and do some damage. While the two cloth wearing chosen ones stood behind both the tank and the ranger doing absolutely nothing.


    The fight was rather boring if you ask me, the tank kept aggroing the mobs while the other two did the damage. The worst part was that i couldn''t identify what specialization those two posses as they did not join the fray.


    Once the last wolf hit the ground, i issued the order to attack.


    We moved as fast as we could while making minimal noise, once we reached few feet away from the clothed ones, they finally realized we were there. We took them by surprise if i do say so myself.


    ¡°Dee take the thief, you thugs try to kill the tank and the remaining clothed one...¡± I said as i sprinted fasted than Dee and the goons as i obviously was stronger than them.


    2 feet....


    1 feet....


    Once i got close enough to kill one of them I swung my sword towards the white coloured one.


    I applied my lightning clad to both my body and my bone sword and slashed at the defenceless chosen one.  My lightning clad made my blade even sharper than it was before and it went through his torso like a knife going through butter.


    Both our and their groups stood in silence looking at the white robed man, I was getting worried as he seemed to be alive even though i was sure i had disposed of him.


    Suddenly the upper part of the men started sliding off from the lower half where i had cut it. Once the top part of his body hit the grass, blood started to gush out from the body.


    ''Wow.... My sword is that sharp??? O_O'' I stared wide eyed at the corpse, so did Dee and the remaining members of the chosen group. This was the first time i had used the bone sword and i also coated it with my lightning, unlike the time i used my limbs this was more sharp and deadly.


    Unfortunately our staring contest ended shortly afterwards as my semi-sentient goons did not care for the spectacle i had created as they continued to charge towards the closest of the two targets that i had given them, the other clothed female in red.


    The chosen group quickly snapped out of their bewilderment and focused on their own survival rather than processing what had happened to their companion.


    Their tank quickly dashed in between my goons and the female and started taking their blows.


    I stopped gazing off and dashed towards the male ranger while Dee went cautiously towards the thief. Once i locked in the fight with the ranger, I stopped paying attention as to how the others were doing and focused on the enemy infront of me.


    At first i thought that the ranger would be the easiest to deal with and once i had finished i would help others, but my hopes were quickly dispersed as the ranger infront of me parried my attacks skillfully by letting me hit the side of his bow.


    As my attack slid off his bow and hit the ground with a loud * thud * cutting a little into the earth, the ranger retreated few steps and reloaded his bow.


    I didn''t give him the chance to fire it thou, if i was flesh and blood the shock from my sword hitting the ground might have numbed me a little but since i was a skeleton and i used mana to control my body i quickly recovered and chased after him. I turned off my lightning clad and slashed at the ranger.


    Seeing me turning off my ability the ranger rather than parrying the blow, took it head on thinking i couldn''t use it, i would¡¯ve turned it back on but i didn''t. My bone sword gritted against his bow as he tried to protect himself against the blow.


    Using this chance i looked around the battlefield to see how others are doing, and what i saw was within my expectations. Dee was holding his own against the thief, it seemed as though his shield was making the thief dizzy and wobbly with its smell, and Dee wasn''t in any rush to kill the woman. My goons on the other hand seemed to be hard pressed, or should i say goon in this situation?


    The bone claymore wielding goon was charred and presumably dead, while the other tried to desperately kill the tank infront of him by blunt blows. But it seemed the red wearing female was a cleric of sorts as she healed the tank white hitting my goon with holy spells.


    ''Great...'' I thought grimacing at the idea of her being a cleric as i focused myself back towards the ranger infront of me.


    If any of you don''t understand why i was slightly peeved then you should know that I was fairly certain that the white robed man was the cleric... I mean white clothes = cleric right???


    Anyways back to my fight, I realized that i had to do something fast to finish this and help my remaining goon. A rather simple solution came to my mind, a little cheat like solution but a solution none the less.


    So i back away half a step from the ranger and slashed horizontally towards his neck. Seeing that he would have a hard time skidding the blow upwards and downwards he would just change its trajectory towards his belly, the ranger braced for impact as he already knew that he would''ve withstood it. Oh how wrong he was on that one.


    As the blade was few inches away from the boy, I activated my lightning clad and the blade of my bone sword went through both his bow and his neck like a knife to a butter.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    I quickly looked at the head of the ranger still on his body, his face displayed horror and realization of his impending doom frozen in time as he lost his life seconds afterwards. Dismissing the thoughts that had creeped into my mind as i watched his expression, i turned around and sprinted towards my remaining goon.


    He looked rather hard pressed as I ordered him mentally to help Dee from distance. The skeleton promptly turned his back towards the back and rushed towards the thief that Dee was playing with. Playing was the only way i would¡¯ve described it as i watched him while sprinting. Dee''s shield had many scratches on it and it looked like a part of it was broken when the thief cut a part of the guts off but otherwise it seemed Dee had no trouble dealing with the pesky female. On the other hand the female had numerous gashes across her face and body, and her leather armour was in tatters.


    ''Like a predator playing with its food...'' I mused to myself while closing in on the tank that looked wide eyed at my goon who was changing his target.


    The tank started checking his surroundings once he realized that the skeleton did not seem to come back, but he was already too late. He turned his head into my direction only to find my blade cutting through his leg, I didn''t waste time and instead of finish off the tank i propelled  myself towards the cleric whose face turned rather ugly, i did not think that a woman could look so ugly.


    Not wanting to stare at it any longer and knowing that If i cut at her, the expression on her face would stay after death from the two previous examples. I turned my sword''s blunt edge towards her instead of the sharp one and hit her head with all might i could muster. She didn''t fly backwards as there was a tree right behind her that she used to, what i think, protecting herself from ambushes.


    Her head collided with the tree while my sword kept pressing, and as i ushered my strength behind my bony arms, her skull cracked and mushed her brain. I didn''t stop until i felt my blade could not go further. Once i retracted my blade, I saw the hell, I unconsciously made.


    Bone fragments seemed to protrude along with some brain matter all around her face if one would be able to call it that. Liquids were slowly dripping out of her nose, mouth, eyes, and ears, which i think was blood along with brain matter squeezed together by my heavy strike. It also seemed that i did not kill her instantly as her bodily fluids oozed onto her robe in her lower regions. Her face did not have the ugly look that i wanted to erase but at the same time it did not look like a face anymore. It was more like a pile of bones, skin, and meat mushed up creating grotesque art.


    I turned back to see how Dee and goon were doing. It seemed Dee''s motivation skyrocketed as i sent a goon to help him and he killed the thief by the blood on his bone sword and the laying female corpse. So i turned my head towards where the tank was expecting him to still be there, but i only saw a pool of blood along with a small trail of it extending towards the city, so I moved my head a little bit and saw the tank desperately limping towards the city. I turned off my lightning clad knowing that there was no need to waste my mana like that.


    I slowly walked behind him, not too fast not too slow but slowly gaining on him. I found it rather amusing watching him struggle to escape knowing that he had no chance to do so. * snicker *


    The melee fighter turned as he limped checking if something was behind him and once he saw me slowly strolling towards him with my bloodied bone sword, the look on his face was so funny i wanted to start laughing like a maniac, but i stopped myself. That would make me look like an insane person and we all know that i am not!


    Halfway to him Dee and elite goon, he survived the ordeal so he should be promoted, joined up with me and walked slowly behind me.


    Once we caught up with him, I hit him right on the chest, not too hard so he would not die, and slammed him into a nearby tree.


    It seemed he could not stand the pain and was rather exhausted because instead of fighting back he slumped down in resignation to his impending doom.


    But that did not come, confusion spelled out clearly on his face he looked me straight in the eyes, terror and fear in his eyes as he gazed upon my glowing crimson eyes.


    Although I found this scene pleasant, I did not want to waste time so I started talking to him, and anyone who saw me could have sworn i had a vicious grin on my face even thou i could not make one.


    ¡°So... Oh dear chosen one, I hope you could be so kind as to answer some of the questions i have for you.¡± I said in a playful tone that contrary to its playfulness carried a sharp and cold emotion in them.


    ~~~~


    Life here~! So to all readers, this was my first actual battle scene ever written! Besides that small skirmish with the wolves~, but i do not think that counts fully. So I wanted to know your opinion... How did I do?


    Was it average, good, or bad?


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 Reality- The Talk

    I looked down at the man before me, blood was slowly coming down from his mouth, one of his legs had a rather large cut, and his eyes stared at me with both uncertainty and confusion.


    ¡°Wha....What???¡± His voice showed his confusion well not only did he stutter but he looked very confused as if a child had wondered into the forest thinking he could easily get home only to find himself very lost inside of it.


    ¡°I said I have some questions for you that I want answered.¡± I didn''t mind his confusion, I mean there are barely any monsters capable of speaking and even less that talk to humans. ¡°So are you ready to answer my questions?¡±


    ¡°W.....Why Should I answer you?! Yo....You just killed my friends!!!¡±


    ¡°Hmm, well for once i could kill you right now if you don''t answer them~.¡± I tried very hard to disperse animosity between us by trying to sound playful.


    He shivered at that. ''Ah death threats truly get the job done when you need something'' I mused to myself as I waited for his answer.


    ¡°U...Uhh....¡±


    ¡°So... What will it be dear chosen one?¡± I asked, sure I was a patient person but that doesn''t mean that I don''t have a limit.


    ¡°That''s right! I am a player! So what if I die, I will come back in a day anyways...¡±


    He seemed to have regained some vigour while saying that but what the hell does he mean by ''player''? The questions keep piling up but it doesn''t seem like he will answer them without some sort of incentive.


    ¡°So... Will you answer my questions or not?¡±


    ¡°Why should I? You will kill me anyways!¡±


    ¡°That is true... but...¡± I raised my bone sword and drove it through his right thigh, ¡° the question is, how much it is going to hurt.¡±


    He started screaming, it seemed like it hurt quite a bit because he screamed like a wolf i once hunted. Few minutes later, he collected himself, so i asked him again.


    ¡°Will you answer my questions?¡±


    ¡°Y...Yes.¡± Tears trickled down his face.


    I let go of my sword to not move it too much as it would''ve caused more pain to him and he might not be able to answer the questions that I have for him.


    ¡° Good, first question. How many of you are there?¡±


    ¡°W.... *sniff * what do you mean how many? I am the only one here!¡±


    ¡°Ugh... I meant how many chosen ones are there on our world.¡±


    ¡°I don''t know the exact number... maybe few millions?¡±


    ¡°Oh god.¡± I raised my head to the sky, I am sure that if I could, I would''ve cried right now. He just said few million... and they can''t die. How the fuck am I supposed to kill them all then!? ¡° Fine, then tell me why have you come to our world.¡±


    ¡°oh... Uhm...We had the gods and goddesses send us here from a different world.¡±


    ¡°Okay, fair enough. Last question why can''t you die?¡±


    He stared at me, if he could, he would''ve bored holes through my skull, that''s how intense his gaze was at the moment, and right before he answered my question he moved his head and gazed towards the ground instead of towards me, like he had been throughout our conversation.


    ¡°Uhhh... we are blessed by them and they made us immortal...¡±


    Since i had to take care of my siblings once my parents died, I had gained a few insights towards the behaviour of people. For once, if they are not very good a lying or are in a stressful position they will try to avert their gaze from yours in any way possible while lying. Knowing that he is withholding something, I grasped the bone sword lodged in his thigh and twisted it.


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    ¡°AHHHHHH¡±  The male screamed even worse than he did last time, but unlike that time, I was pissed off. He dared to lie to me, and there are consequences to this.


    After a painful minute, I once more let go of the sword.


    ¡°So... Why can''t you die?¡±


    Tears covered his face, and saliva was dripping down from the corner of his mouth but with the threat of something like that happening once again, he answered this time without dodging my gaze.


    ¡°B...* sniff * because this is a... * sniff * a game...¡±


    I looked blankly at him for a few moments replaying his line over and over again in my mind. I could not understand what he meant by that.


    A game?


    ¡°What do you mean a game?!?!?!¡±


    ¡°Hiiii!!!¡±


    ¡°Answer me!!!¡±  I grabbed him by his chain-mail and brought him to the same eye lever.


    ¡°D...dad, what does he mean by that?¡± Dee asked confused, he stayed silent throughout the whole interrogation but it seemed that the last piece of news had shaken him deeply.


    ¡°ANSWER ME!¡± My voice no longer restrained in fear of reinforcements, this piece of news was scary, very much so.


    ¡° *hic * We made this game... * hic * so people could have fun and release some stress from real life * hic * or even make money from it. We created this world, it''s inhabitants, even you! We are not real in this world, we do not die because we do not risk anything by dying here!¡±


    ¡°So is that what you meant when you said that you were a player?¡± I asked with dread in my voice, rather than angry, I was scared, truly scared. If they created me, then they can end me. Thoughts of similar kind kept popping up as i mulled over this new information.


    ¡°Yes... I bought this game to play with my friends and you killed them!!!¡±


    * Ding *


    A blue window popped up infront of me and I read it carefully.


    <table><tbody><tr><td> By acquiring information from a player by means of interrogation that states the true state of Atheria, You have been given the following additions towards your core program.


    Able to see status window


    Able to see skills window


    Able to use dimensional bag


    Quests have been made available


    </td></tr></tbody></table>


    ~~~~


    Life here~! So one of the chapter I have promised you guys this week, the next one will be up saturday and I am hoping to dish out around 3-4 on sunday so be prepared!!!!


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 Reality- The Game

    <table><tbody><tr><td>Earth


    Date- Release day of Atheria Online </td></tr></tbody></table>


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


    Host: Hello this is Kim Jey, from games tv, the station that brings you news about every new VR game as well as accomplishments of players in them! Today, we have a guest, I am sure you know him, James Mcwell, he is the creator behind the new title that has made the whole world talk about it. Yes, I am talking about the game that is going to be released in the next eight hours! Atheria Online!


    James: Thanks for having me here today.


    Host: The pleasure is all mine Mr. Mcwell


    James: Please call me James.


    Host: Well then James, mind answering me as to what had inspired you to create Atheria Online?


    James: Yes... well for the most part, the current VR games available for gamers are unsatisfactory to say the least.


    Host: Oh? What do you mean by that?


    James: Well it''s like this, while i am sure most of you know that majority of VR games can be called simple simulations in 3D, there are some that truly deserve the name VR. This cream of the crop has taken AI in game to the whole new level, making people residing in the games seem practically life like, but I for one, find a huge disappointment in them as all the ''people'' in those games do not care if you are a player or an inhabitant of that world.


    Host: Uhhh, can you explain more in detail. I seem to miss what you are getting at.


    James: Ah, sorry about that. Let me give you an example with HGO, after half a year in game some players started talking to the npcs, telling them that they were created only for the player''s pure enjoyment and guess what happened. Nothing. They accepted the fact that we created them and are playing around in their world as if it was a normal thing. If you met with a person that literally revives no matter how much they die. On top of that they tell you that you are a program that they made to have some fun, do you think you would brush it off?


    Host: I would probably get scared and angry.


    James: Exactly, the true VR games lack this aspect toward npc''s thinking. Making them unable to rebel against the players. I am sure that many are happy with that but to make the VR world truly real, it has to possess inhabitants that truly reacts like us.


    Host: But won''t that be dangerous in the long run for the player base?


    James: Sure we might lose few customers that are unhappy with this, but I highly doubt the amount will be big.


    Host: Onto the next one then. In your earlier review, you said that the players and inhabitants will be different, so how do you expect the players to make sure they aren''t found out by them.


    James: Well that is easy enough to answer. First of all the revival is played off as getting help from the gods, people in a medival ages do not doubt gods. The windows that are granted to players such as quest, status, or skill windows will be invisible to everyone besides the given player unless they allow it to show to someone else. Besides that unless you say it to them or they start getting suspicious, I am sure they won''t find out.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Host: What would happen in case some npc actually find out.


    James: Please call them inhabitants as they are as much real conscious-wise as we are, and to answer your question it really depends. If a farmer finds out, he might try to convince his friends, and overall trust between us and them will drop. If a king finds out, its possible that he might order his troops throughout his kingdom to hunt all the players they can find. If a pope of the church finds out.... Let''s just say it won''t be pretty.


    Host: Won''t those kinds of events be a problem later on?


    James: Sure they will. The game was made on the principle that player should try their best to fit into the pre made society and thrive. If they fail, it is very possible that players will lose the game.


    Host: What do you mean lose the game?


    James: You want to hear the worst case scenario?


    Host: That would be great.


    James: Players will lose all non-player owned respawn points and will be slowly driven into extinction by the inhabitants.


    Host: Won''t that be a problem?


    James: Why would it be. I made this game solely to create a true world in the sense of its word. Where it''s inhabitants be it monsters or npcs will not be subjected to the whims of companies and players, and if you pressure them too much, they will bite back just like us.


    Host: So money is not your first concern?


    James: Nope~. Before being a businessman, I am a scientist, and I find more pleasure in experiments, rather than money they give me.


    Host: Well then let me ask my final question, what will happen if players will lose all means of coming back into the game?


    James: You mean when they are hunted down and have nowhere to go?


    Host: Yes.


    James: Most likely scenario is that we will shut down the game.


    Host: Really???


    James: Yes, really. So hear me, future players of AO, if you want to play longer, try your best to keep your identities as players hidden. You never know what connections the inhabitant that you tell it to has and what it will bring in the game world~.


    Host: Thank you very much, we will be waiting for the release of the Atheria Online with anticipation.


    James: The pleasure is all mine, Kim.


    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


    Life here! Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it~.


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