Volume Two: The Birth of Calamity

"Wow!" says Manato.

"Right?" Yuki, his childhood friend, replies.

"Who would've known that they could build a city like this around a volcano." Akari, their classmate, adds.

"It's retarded." I quietly say, to which everyone responds with a deep sigh.

"Mark, you should learn to enjoy this little stuff! It's not everyday we get to travel and see sights like this."

"Maybe I would, if we hadn't wasted all that time travelling through that shitty desert." I scoff back.

"Oh come on, what did you expect? It's called the "dead desert" for a reason." Sam, our "unofficial" leader, says with a huge smile.

A deep sigh escapes me.

Sam earned his position as a leader in quite an unusual way. He simply learned Tasar, the language of the Empire, faster than anyone else, even me. Thus he immediately transformed into a sort of a teacher for us, and a representative of our group in general. Everyone was happy to shift all of the negotiations and responsibilities onto someone else, if he fucks up they'll have someone to blame. Sam beamed through the whole process, not complaining even once. The damn language has too many rules and exceptions for everything, and the worst thing is that it's only one language out of the dozen on this continent alone. I never liked learning foreign languages, I was never good at it, but when you have to, you do just that.

The language that we were forced to confront was more grammatically clustered than any I heard about back on Earth. It involved countless exceptions in syntax, with an alphabet consisting of forty-nine letters. In written form it reminded me of a deformed love child of Greek and Korean, which looked "rectangular" and "simple" at the same time. There's also the polite and casual form, which changes the ending of every single fucking word. Oh, did I mention that every object has a gender too? It's as if people gathered and decided to put as much bullshit into a single language as they could.

To my utter dissatisfaction, aside from magical energy and a few other races, which are rarely seen in the Empire, the whole setting reminded me of the late medieval ear. No auto-translation, no status menu, no health or mana bars whatsoever, even after scrupulous testing of hundreds of commands and gestures, in private of course. It wasn't a game, and I was forced to accept that. Which left me with no other choice than to immediately appraise their small assemblage of books.

Speaking of races, against the recommendation of the "advisors", which constantly followed me and explained everything, I went to the slave market, as that was the only possible way to see other races. I was enamoured with the idea of seeing a real cat-girl or a bunny-girl. The whole "they are savage, dirty, and uncivilized" comments were simply ignored, as I believed them to be another xenophobic societal norm in this place.

As I was explained to, all elves are instantly bought back, even before they enter the capital, many are either bought back by their families, who pay a hefty price, or sold to a "private" collector, which are actually just high nobles. So the only option left was demi-humans. The non-human traits ranged from just a tail and animal ears, to full fledged werewolves who stood on two legs. The ginger cat-girl that caught my eye proved my ideas of the not-understood tribes to be wrong when she tried to rip my eyes out. She was quickly subdued by the guards, but that didn't stop he rapid onslaught of what surely sounded like curses. This world wasn't what I expected, but it's still better than the previous one.

Well at least my powers are something that makes me stand out, which I'm not sure if it's a good thing. The less people know about me, the easier it will be to achieve my goals. But nonetheless, there are no words that can describe the feeling you get when you start throwing massive spells, like an opened fire hydrant. Maybe the image of adults throwing candies during Halloween is better.

Anyways, I feel like I'm a walking tank, an impenetrable fortress which rains chaos and destruction on anyone it meets.

But not everything is as awesome as it sounds.

My classmates, or teammates as I call them now, continue to chat about nonsense, like the weather, and nature. Manato, Yuki, and Akari are the worst, what the hell do they think this is, a school trip?

I'm not sure if this is irony, or a sick joke by fate to summon three Japanese into another world. But the joke isn't the summoning, but rather who was summoned. They're so stereotypical that it feels as if someone is making fun of us. I've read plenty of comics and webnovels, but I didn't think that the situations in them could actually be real, that people like that can exist too. I didn't interact with them that much before, but after the summoning the first thing that came to my mind was that they're being sarcastic, that it was their way of coping with stress.

But no, they're actually like that.

I scowl at the useless, carefree idiots, that continue to chat without a care in the world.

Why can't I train by myself? Why couldn't I train while we travelled?

Fuck.

If I learned anything from those stories that I read, it's that problems will appear, and the only thing that will be able to solve them is power, absolute power, like the one I posses. But I shouldn't get drunk on it, I will not become a failed background character, the one who turns evil and starts explaining their plan until they get killed in a stupid and ridiculous way, like in those third-rate stories.

I will not end up like that.

I will not fail.

I will not become my father, and for that I need to train,... and maybe wait.

...

It's still hard for me to understand how these magic baboons were able to create structures like the palace that stands before me. Enormous walls and doors, their heights not losing out to our skyscrapers, not even a bit. The only answer to the question of how they were built was "ancients" and "reinforcement magic". I kind of understand the basis behind the reinforcement magic itself, but the skill and amount of mana required is just inhuman. I tried to replicate the stone reinforcement myself, it took me more than half of my mana pool and an hour of complete concentration to create a single cubic meter of reinforced stone.

How much mana and time would it take to create a city like this?

Unimaginable.

Anyways, after a quick rest and a bath we had to attend a ball organized specifically for us. We have to do the usual political stuff, like greeting the king and his queens, small talk with the local lords and ladies, fake smiles and laughs. But at least there is something that brightens my day, the queens, they're a feast for anyone's eyes. Well endowed beauties who would instantly get labeled as "MILFs" back home.

"We could be training in the dungeon right now. Right Mark?" Lisa comments with a smile while we stand alone, savouring the few moments of rest, at least until the next noble appears to discuss his collection of paintings.

I sigh and try to appear as calm as I can.

If it was a year ago, I would be ecstatic at the fact that Lisa wants to talk to me. God knows how much time I spent trying to be friends with her, trying to find common hobbies or interests.

So much time wasted.

I even thought that something was progressing, until one of my classmates showed me a video on his phone. In the video an awkward teenager tried to hit on a pretty girl, Lisa. She "tolerated" the guy with an awkward smile until a slightly bigger guy, Sam, came up. After which a genuine smile broke onto her face, unseen by the awkward guy. The girl started to passionately speak with the big guy, even going together with the big guy to the next class, leaving the awkward teenager behind after a small goodbye and a wave of the hand.

And that awkward teenager was me.

I still don't understand how I didn't notice.

It's better to see once, than to see a hundred times.

The sudden change can be attributed to several things. There is the possibility that she may be trying to get my help with her healing magic, as I am generally the one with the most skills in the area of magic. There is also the possibility that after being transported here she started to see me in a new light and had a change of heart.

I myself actually changed, physically mostly. I started training my body, feeding mana into my muscles to make myself agile and fast. Even against the Grand Wizard's orders, I extended my bones, gaining about ten centimeters in height. They were constantly saying something about breaking synchronization with the soul and its corruption, but I didn't care much.

It's hard to be short.

I will not be a retard who casts magic from a single place and paints a target on his back for the enemy. And for that I had to change my body, which resulted in an "aesthetically" appealing frame. Everyday exercise together with Sam made my abs quite defined, it was a happy addition to the main goal.

As Lisa continues to try and chat with me, a much more likely reason comes to mind. Sam has caught the attention of many girls, including a few princesses, which means the number competitors rose sharply.

"And here is out gloomy Arch-Mage." comes a sweet female voice from behind.

Looking back I find the twins walking in my direction.

I scowl.

I'm kinda okay with the brother, Sergei. His scythe looks dangerous, but in my mind I already generated a few scenarios on how to subdue him if he ever thinks of doing anything dangerous, but his sister, Natalia, is a totally different story. After she assimilated with her powers her hair turned white and her eyes turned yellow. Creepy, but manageable.

But her powers are an issue.

Natalia looks at me, from my head to my toes, biting her lips in the process, as if she saw a juicy piece of steak. My instincts scream for me to not get close to her, and there's a valid reason for that.

She's a god damn Seer.

I can feel mana and how it changes in the air, something everyone can do. Natalia can fucking "hear" and "smell" it, whatever that means. She even says that she's already training to "see" it. She knows exactly what is happening IN my body, where the mana moves, when it moves, and what spell is coming. But as if a joke of fate, she somehow has an extremely rare mana absorption ability, she needs a living target of course, but still.

The worst enemy for a mage.

And her hungry looks are harder and harder to ignore. Both girls stand by my side talking about nonsense and shit, while I try to maintain the talk with minimal input.

Great, heal slut and mana lamprey.

My horny younger self would gladly let you eat me alive and use me in whatever way you wanted back then, but not now. Not now.

Where were you cunts when I cared about this shit?!

Thankfully Same comes and saves me, stating that he needs my input on something. After a quick "bye", I follow him to the two young princes. After a quick greeting their discussion continued, which I try to follow. The short description would be about how to improve the city's defense, countering possible "issues", and more militaristic stuff.

At some point I became Sam's "right hand". Maybe because of my magical strength, maybe because of our contrasting personalities, or it may simply be because I'm old friends with Sam. Most people would think that he's an idiot because he's tall, muscular, and into sports. But that's wrong, very wrong. He's incredibly sharp and agile in his thought process.

We continue to have the discussion with the younger and older princes. Even though they look alike, as if they were copies of the same person, just a few years apart, their demeanors are totally different. The younger one has this smug smile of superiority, as if everything is below him, the face of a totally spoiled brat, even though he's in his early twenties. In contrast, the older prince tries to appear calm and neutral, with a kind and welcoming smile, but deep under it I can feel turmoil, as if something significant is bothering him. If the older prince really cares about something this much the kingdom is in good hands. The subject flips between strategies for land and sea attacks, moving slowly to cases of insurgency caused by neighbouring countries and how to stop or counter them.

Responding to the older prince, Neusor, I try to lead him away from the idea of storing large amounts of pure mana for defensive towers, as managing the stored mana will be a pain in the ass. And in the long run it's better to create those that feed on ambient mana and essentially don't require constant maintenance. Yes, they are much weaker than the burst ones powered by pure mana, but actual battles are never short, or at least that's what books claim.

I've actually been reading more since I came here, mostly about magic and mana. Some even claim that my knowledge on a few subjects can be compared to the level of a Mage Tower's Grandmaster. These results are only because of this unsatisfiable hunger for knowledge I've always had. This "gluttony" is hard to describe, the more you read the more you desire.

And you never feel full.

The night comes fast and we decide to go to bed "earlier", which is actually far past midnight, because tomorrow will be a long day. Guided to my own room, I enter and slip out of my clothes and have another quick bath, trying to remove all of the smelly perfume that clung to me after the ball. Women in this kingdom don't know what self-control means.

Returning to the main room, I find two maids, a younger one in her teens, a few years younger than me, and a bit older one, a well-endowed beauty in her mid-twenties, standing and waiting for me. They both bow deeply and announce in unison.

"We will be under your care Lord Marcus."

I smile as at least there will be someone to warm me up.

Even without my command they start undressing, their clothes falling to the floor piece by piece, until they stand bare before me. Sitting on the side of the bed I motion for them to come closer. The younger one sits on her knees as she starts to please me with her mouth, while the older one sits behind me and starts massaging my shoulders. The younger one's skills are lacking, but she makes up for it with pure enthusiasm. The older one sits behind me, pressing her enormous assets into my backs.

Well, this isn't as good as my personal slave-maids back in the Empire, but this will do for now.

I don't even understand how I lived without this back at home.

Why didn't my family buy a slave back there? Even after my father lost his position, as one of the lead managers in the US' biggest insurance company we weren't poor.

I will not fail. I will not become like him.

But still, why didn't we have slaves? We should've had slave-maids. Someone was cleaning the house, right?

Wait.

Where were the slaves even bought?

Slavery is a normal and legal thing. Why can't I-

Suddenly a strong headache hits me, as if a heap of bricks hit me in the head, but I try to maintain the thought process.

There is something wrong here. Why can't I-

Another stronger migraine hits me, causing me to groan in pain, as if something is drilling into my skull.

Breathing heavily, I look down on the horrified girl who starts to beg for forgiveness on all fours.

What the hell am I doing?

Who cares about Earth? Who cares about that loser of a father?

I'm here now.

I'm a hero.

I mean something.

I am something.

And I will enjoy it.

The headache disappears as fast as it appeared. As clarity returns to my eyes and mind, I tell the young girl to look up. Caressing her face to calm her down, I guide her back to pleasing me and proceed to ram myself into her small mouth. Pleased enough, I throw her onto the bed and mount her from behind, circulating man around my body for the next round. At the beginning it hurt her a bit, it looks like it was her first time, but after a bit more time, her soft moan filled the room. The young one fell unconscious after about half and hour of moaning, tired and exhausted. But it's not enough for me. I look at the older one, which was waiting patiently waiting her turn, while pleasing herself with her hand in silence. Circulating mana, I restore myself for another round, motioning to the older one to come closer. She reacts with a huge smile and leaps at me with hunger. She didn't lose to the younger one in enthusiasm even a bit.

This is life.

...

I wake up with a groan and find the young slave-maid sleeping on my chest with a happy smile on her face, drooling on me. The warm feeling around me is quickly replaced with another as I shudder and feel something wet below the blanket. Throwing it off I find the older maid passionately pleasing me with her mouth with her eyes closed, until she opens her them and our eyes meet, after which she stops. Clearing her throat she bows and whispers softly,

"Good morning my Lord." looking down on my member she continues "Please, would you allow this one to finish....I was very close..." At that moment I notice her right hand is between her thighs.

Smiling, with my hand I guide her head back.

What a nympho, I had her the whole night and she still isn't satisfied.

A very lovely present indeed.

I'll take both of them with me for sure.

...

Our group gathers together for breakfast, which is better to call lunch because of the current time. As we're eating the fancy local cuisine, the carefree trio start to discuss what they want to look at in the city, but Sam stops them softly, stating that we were sent here for a very important task.

They must be faking, they can't be like that, right?

We start discussing about the next actions to take, first of all we need to hunt down the thing we were sent here for, some kind of monster deep in the dungeon. But we can only do that after we block access to the dungeon. The king's advisor also set up a few different meetings for us to meet people, namely the church and several nobles.

Preparing quickly, we get into each of our coaches and start travelling to the dungeon. The travel is a bit rigid, as several Blood Brothers are accompanying each of us and take up a lot of space in an already small carriage.

I sigh deeply.

They are nothing like what I read about. There's nothing new with overpraising, that's usually present in books, but they act the opposite of what their creed should be. When reading about them two images came to mind. The orphan vigilante in a bat suit and a gun nut with a white skull on his chest. Death to evil at any cost, night vigilantes with a strict code, absolute disregard of any political and social status, those that die without even their names known.

But what the hell is this? Where are the unseen creatures of darkness? Where are the blood thirsty knight of righteousness which would die to destroy all evil? After we were told that they would accompany us here, it got my curiosity tingling, only to be royally let down. Their leader, or as he called himself, the Inquisitor, was a guy in his late thirties with the arrogant smirk every noble has, and his subordinates were no better. The travel to the dungeon didn't improve my opinion of them, not even a bit. White and red full-plate armour? Walking around during the day with their symbols out in the open. Their stuck-up chins and condescending look, like a copy of the young prince.

There were several more thing that didn't make sense. Everyone of them introduced themselves with names, I clearly remembered that when I read about the Blood Brotherhood it was specifically written that every member discard their names and in return gets a code number.

Looking a bit more into it, I found a very contradicting piece of information. "Inquisitor" was a title given by people to the most evil entity in the Brotherhood, the one that was scorned and hated the most. An accursed creature which consumed cities and countries in search of corrupted. He murdered young and old, women and children, leaving a path of bodies wherever he went. It was written that his existence was allowed only because of how zealously he hunted down the darkest creatures in existence, he was a sort of acceptable "lesser evil".

But the person in front of me was nothing like described in the texts, and was never the leader of the Blood Brotherhood.

Confronting a few of the religious leaders about the contradiction, I was quietly explained, that the "previous" Inquisitor started a coup, and together with his indoctrinated brothers killed nearly all of their leadership. After learning of the coup, the Empire hunted down most of the fanatic, after which the surviving leadership restored the order and rebuilt the organization.

Later, rethinking everything, I found too many holes in the story. After all, as they claimed "horrible atrocities" had happened, why did they keep the same name?

Why use the title of Inquisitor, the one who started the coup?

How did they hunt the hunters?

Why was the coup even started?

But I stopped looking into it, my hands are already full with my own problems.

I don't someone else's.

Still, I'm not sure which version of the Brotherhood I prefer.

...

We arrive at the enormous dungeon plaza and gather to walk up the stairs to the dungeon entrance. A few officials arrive and we start discussing what kind of barrier we should put on the entrance. Something is screaming in my had that it's wrong to do as they say and fully close the entrance.

"Won't pressure build up?" I voice my concerns.

The eyes of a single official comes alive, as if he found hope.

"W-we are not sure Lord Marcus. Some of us-"

"Everything will be find Lord Marcus." one of the elder officials say, glaring at the one who voiced his opinion. "Those are just baseless fear. I believe my colleague is simply over-thinking."

The younger official visibly trembles. He instantly apologies and bows deeply, after which he leaves with haste. I'm about to voice my disagreement, but the leader of the Brotherhood comes closer and tells me to believe the elders, and to focus on my task.

'I should follow orders.'

What? No. There is something wrong here.

'I should follow the elder's orders.'

I suddenly find my mind empty and lost, as if I just woke up with a slight headache and some kind of motion sickness.

What happened?

What was I thinking?

Before I could trace my thoughts back, Sam tells me to join the ritual.

Everyone stood together and channeled their mana into creating a basic barrier, with very specific controls, so we, or someone else, could enable or disable it if it's needed. It took nearly an hour to set the thing up, and during the whole thing more and more people gathered in the plaza, gazing at us. After the barrier was set up, Sam had been given a short script, which we were told, was personally written by the king, to say before the endless sea of people at the plaza.

Yeah, "personally".

But we decided not to argue.

After Sam finishes the speech, we walk out of the plaza accompanied by the Brotherhood, who are here to protect us from the crowd. We reach the coaches and jump inside, quickly returning to the castle. But the whole time my blood was boiling because of all the wasted time. How many hours were wasted just standing, smiling, or walking? I need to train and practice.

God damn it.

We reach the castle quite fast, as we enter we're greeted by the princes. Sam exchanges greetings and explains the task we finished while I stand to the side and try to quietly contain my anger.

"Is there something bothering you Lord Marcus?" the older prince asks with visible concern.

"Sorry. It's-" I start but stop shortly after I start.

No, enough. I need to train.

"Actually, I wanted to know if we could resume our training. We didn't train during our travelling because of security concerns, but we've been in the city for two days already."

"We have a small Colosseum if you want to spar, but I'm afraid there aren't many enemies that can match you in that regards..." he smiles awkwardly while his younger brother glares at me. He doesn't stop me, but he doesn't give me a green light either.

Fucking politics.

I can't waste anymore time.

Fuck it.

"Than it won't be a problem if we simply take a quick tour through the dungeon? Surely we won't cause issues that way?"

"Well... I think it won't-" he responds.

"Great! Than we'll take a short dive into the dungeon."

"I am very sorry for Mark's harsh tone, but deep down I partly agree with him. We need to train." Sam interjects with an apologetic and positive tone, laughing through it as he always does.

In the end, we got the approval to travel to the dungeon and postponed the meeting with the church for a later time. We were also given a bracelet which both sides can send a signal through it if something happens, and if we either need to return or we need help. I wanted to say that I highly doubt that such an event will happen, but something at the back of my skull was whispering that it may not be the case.

After some more discussion, we organized and went back to the coaches. The trio grumbled about exploring and seeing the city, the other agreed that we need to focus on training, but in the end everyone agreed that we need to be together. The leader of the Brotherhood insisted that a few of them must travel with us into the dungeon, Sam agreed. He sat alone with me in the coach, telling everyone else that there's something he needs to discuss with me. We travel for a few minutes until Sam's monotone and apathetic voice breaks the silence as he stares out of the coach.

"Learn to wait."

"We don't have time." I tersely respond.

"I know."

"They're hiding something."

"I know." Sam repeats again.

A few long seconds of silence follow as we stare at the landscape outside of the coach on opposite sides.

"Any idea exactly what?" he finally breaks the silence.

"The crown prince shouldn't behave like that. There's no arrogance, no sneer. He's either a very poorly performing double, or something has him scared shitless."

"Don't label him. Not everyone is a badly designed template character from books or games." he says while squinting his eyes at me.

"Ha. Everyone is an archetype. Look at us. A muscle idiot and his loser friend. Thankfully, someone fucked up a few of the parameters."

We both chuckle.

"Don't rush. We'll manage it. We just need to continue playing our roles." Sam continues.

"'Playing,.. huh. I agree, but you should also feel that we don't have much time."

"Yeah."

"Mark, you need to improve your communication skills. Learn to interact with others." after a pause he adds "Maybe with Lisa or Natalia?"

"No."

"Mark, I can't be the only one holding the team together. Both of the girls need emotional and psychological support. If you-"

"Sam. No." I cut him off short.

He sighs deeply "Okay."

...

We finally arrive back at the plaza exiting our carriages, resuming our roles of positive and happy leader, and his dark gloomy friend. Sending mana into the barrier we unlock it and phase through it. The dungeon is exactly what you would expect it to be in a fantasy world, a cave with occasional monsters. We continue nearly unobstructed for a few hours as I snipe the small fries with fireballs. Not wasting time, I even train with these small fireballs, playing around with the explosion delay. Throwing another fireball between two oversized rats, killing them in the explosion, leaving behind two charred corpses. I have enough mana to burn every single rat in this dungeon one by one, but that wouldn't be training.

Natalia is happily going up to the charred corpses and turning them to dust just by touching them. Stealing mana just by touching, fucking bullshit. I don't even want to imagine what will happen if she plunges those sharp fangs, that she grew after her assimilation, into a living person.

Finally bigger enemies start to appear and we try out different strategies, switching between one on one and group on one, using only basic spells and in rare cases only using physical attacks. No one wants to get hit but we need to so Lisa can train her healing spells.

Generally everyone is serious about the whole situation, everyone except the trio. They're smiling and chatting happily about their improved skills, but mostly how cool the new lightning spell Manato cast was. In response to that he smiles awkwardly and scratches his head, leaving his back open to attack.

How can they be so carefree?

It was the same when we encountered the huge sand worm and the wyvern in the Dead Desert. Manato even picks up a dead monster's body part and starts chasing Akari with it as she runs in circles, screaming for help. Everyone just chuckles at their game.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?

Are you people sane?

Do you think this is a game?

This can't continue, this can't be allowed. I should do it.

No.

I'm the bad cop. First, Sam needs to prepare them, then I will act.

I push the problem to the back of my mind, something must be done, but not right now.

We dive deeper and deeper as we finally start meeting dangerous foes, and can start letting loose, using our high level spells and skills. Even though the monster aren't much of an "enemy", but using them as training dummies is good enough after months of gruesome physical training back in the Empire. Several of the Blood Brothers mention that we've been in the dungeon for a bit too long and we should return. I wanted to snarl at them that it's best that we continue, but everyone already did that before I could. It looks like I wasn't the only one who wanted to explore the dungeon and train my skills.

This is a good start.

We continue going deeper and deeper, meeting enemies that require attention, even from me, until we stumble across a crossroad where we're ambushed from all sides. I instantly deploy a fire barrier, giving everyone enough time to regroup and setup a defensive formation. Mountains of dead bodies grow around us as we dispatch the endless waves of monsters from all sides. The sheer number of enemies makes everyone play it safe, as even a single mistake could lead to serious injury. Everyone is giving it their best, well, except me as I simply continue to cast basic fireballs, trying to see the limits of my current skill.

Suddenly, the bracelets on our wrists start to shine with a blue light, sending a low pitched hum across the room. Sam's and my face immediately change. Not waiting for even a second, I send powerful spells into each corridor. The spells explode with intense heat, colouring the wall deep black as parts of them start to melt. I meet Sam's eyes and question bubbles form in both our heads. It should've been the other way around, right?

"Whatever the reason may be, we should return immediately." Sam voices his opinion, looking at the concerned group.

We start running back to the surface.

...

I should've listened to my instincts. I should've been braver with my decisions and theories.

Fucking inter-continental war.

We can't be here just by coincidence. The Empire knew that this would happen, and they sent us here on purpose. Even the idiots in my team understand that there's something wrong with the timing and our presence here.

The Empire is openly declaring to us that we're just puppets, nothing more.

The questions the eldest prince asked make so much more sense now. They knew about it too, but they didn't say anything. Or maybe they expected us to know the information themselves. While I'm somehow able to hide my "discontent" with the events under a grim face, Sam's mask broke several times, showing his true emotions. It looks like he didn't know either.

There were several assassination attempts on the royal family while we were gone. A few got seriously hurt, so we had to become the royal families personal guards until morning. But it didn't end there. In the morning we received information that a group of necromancers appeared in the north cemetery, raising thousands of the dead. It was decided that most of the Blood Brotherhood should stay and continue to protect the family while a few of them came together with us to solve the problem.

While we were fighting, a few undead and several feral liches slipped our notice and entered the city. I could've killed all of the undead with a single spell, but it would've taken a significant amount of my mana, and I can't afford to waste even a fraction of it. In the end, after half an hour of intensive teamwork, nearly all of the undead are lying on the ground dismembered, burned, or destroyed, and our mana reserves only increased since the battle started.

After some discussion, and a firm stance from me, it was decided that the city guard would manage the few undead that escaped, and we should travel to the south cemetery to check on things there. If the north cemetery was in that state, then the south could be in the same situation. But as we got closer and closer to the cemetery we didn't encounter any undead. Several of my teammates insisted that we should regroup with the other kingdom's forces, but Sam agreed with me that we can't allow the possibility of thousands of undead being led by necromancers and liches running around during a major battle.

I genuinely thought that we would come in time to stop the necromancers, but I wasn't prepared for what awaited us. Mountains upon mountains of dismembered dead bodies. What alarmed me the most was that most of the limbs didn't have clean cuts, it looked like something ripped them apart. I thought that it could've been a group of wild animals, or a monster that somehow crawled out of the dungeon, but there were no teeth marks. We decided that we would report the situation to the higher ups, and it would be best for us to regroup with everyone else right now.

But I will not let my guard down.

The creature that did this may still be crawling in the city.

...

We regrouped with the main force and the Blood Brotherhood, although things didn't go as planned. The whole team was placed under the command of one of the nobles, a fat, arrogant shit. By his enthusiasm, it was apparent to everyone that he's trying to use the situation to elevate his position and earn something. There were many sleazy nobles trying to suck up to each member of our team, especially Sam and I. Only Sam's constant chant directed at me to "calm down" held me back from ripping them apart.

I can see an endless sea of demi-humans pouring into the city, but I continue to stand, because the arrogant shit has a "strategy, which he believes we shouldn't be notified about. His life could be ended with a single spell, a tiny burst and we would disappear, but the problems would still be there, and even more will appear.

I continue to stand and fume with hatred at everything, the fact that we're standing and waiting for something while people are dying, the fact that we weren't notified about the reason and plans, but mostly at the fact that I can actually do something, but I don't. Sam's voice grows quieter, until suddenly the fat shit's voice breaks the silence, commanding everyone to move towards the dungeon's plaza. The procession is slow, but we finally reach the plaza and what stand before me is hard to describe.

If there was a sea of people pouring into the city, then what stands before me is an ocean of body parts, dead bodies, and people fighting against each other as they scream in hatred at each other. They're so packed into the plaza that I can't even see the black marble floor. Looking at my team I find most of them staring in horror and shaking, their eyes glued to the scene.

I don't know what I hate the most right now, the situation, the fat noble, my teammates which I'll have to entrust my life to, or me who should've done something. Sam specifically told me about the issue but I ignored it.

I will not fail.

I will not become a loser.

I will not miss this chance.

I will not become like my father.

After a command from the fat shit, we finally act. Sending a dozen powerful spells at the enemy, they collapse like ants being squashed. If I focus my eyes I can see the scorched bodies of the ones my spells killed, and it takes great effort to not do that, I don't know if this is a coping mechanism or some kind self-preservation instinct.

They're the ones who attacked.

They're the bad guys.

Sam sees something in the sea of enemies and sends a powerful beam of light from his sword at what looks like feral liches and an Elder Lich at the foot of the entrance's stairs. How did I miss them? What's wrong with me? My eyes search for any more possible liches and they stop on a figure that I believe to be undead for a few seconds.

A nearly two meter tall skeletally thin figure, greyish hair, dressed in a huge rag with a long sword in his hand, stands and stares back at us. There are several crushed liches lying under his feet. I want to send a fireball at the figure, but I stop when my eyes meet his. He's alive, or at least it looks like that, but something is screaming inside of me that he's dangerous and that I should killed him, though I don't understand what.

Why do I feel that way?

Then it hit me, I don't feel even a bit of mana coming from him. That can't be. Every living being produces ambient mana, which I should feel. But not from him, it's as if I'm staring at a wall, or a doll. I notice that Natalia is staring at him too, but with different eyes. I really want to ask her what she see exactly, but I don't get the opportunity as the Brotherhood finally reach us.

The ground starts trembling as I notice hundred meter tall giants coming from behind the enemy army. I've read about giants, but seeing them for the first time is a totally different thing. The towering frame awakens some primal instinct. Maybe this is exactly what cockroaches feel when they see humans.

As if agreeing with me, both armies start retreating, opening a path. A dozen figures in tribal armour walk out of the retreating army, everyone can feel the huge amount of ambient mana they're releasing. With a quick glance between the team, we prepare our weapons and start walking in their direction. I notice the skeletally thin figure continuing to stare at us with a look that's hard to describe. We walk towards the representatives from Paletia and stop about fifty meters apart from each other. The silence is broken by a guy with short black hair in the middle, who looks to be their leader.

"Hello, fellow summoned."

What?

My mind comprehends and understand what the guy said, but somehow I'm thinking about any other meaning to the word "summoned"? They can't mean summoned like us, I looked into the way to transfer people between worlds, but most knowledge is either lost or requires a shitton of mana.

And if they really are the summoned like us, what then?

Are they enemies or friends?

Suddenly another sharp thought crashed into my head.

'No. They attacked the Empire, they are enemies.'

HUH?

Where did that come from?

How did I get to-

A strong headache hits me as I try to maintain calm and breathe. I try to return to the thought chain but another migraine hits me. The leader of the Paletian summoned opens his mouth and I forgot what I was thinking of as I try to catch every word the person says.

When the leader finishes, we all just stand frozen, as if we were statues.

This was totally not what I expected at all.

Prophecy?

Apocalypse?

End of the world?

Team up?

More summoned coming soon?

But the possible talks or alliance instantly crumble when they voiced their only request, or should I say demand, "subordination".

No.

The air around Sam and I changes in unison, stating our unanimous opinion, and the summoned from Palteia smile sadly.

"Then we don't have a choice." the leader calmly says, "We need to be united against what is to come, and small differences are not to be allowed."

No.

My whole plan will not break apart.

There is too much at stake.

I will not fail.

I send a gigantic amount of mana into the mana bridge and the elemental energy fills my body to the limit, like a bottle of soda shaken too much. The amount of mana around me makes the enemy flinch and their eyes go wide, as I turn into something akin to a red bulb.

A vanguard with a huge mace appears before me, wanting to take the life of the mage first, but he's too late. I pour all of my rage onto him, with the single goal of burning him alive, but sadly some kind of shield saves him as he's thrown hundreds of meters away. Out of the cloud, two new summoned appear with their weapons coming for me, but I don't hesitate for even a second, starting the wide range spell casting as Sam appears before me, deflecting their attack easily. Their eyes widen in horror as two enormous fireballs descend on them.

I jump around, sometimes firing ranged spells, sometimes appearing in front of them and making a concentrated spell explode right in their faces, but that's only possible because of my modified body and coordinated my attacks with Sam. We alone hold nearly half of Paletia's summoned, not needing any words for communication at all.

Natalia stays behind us and guides us in the direction of the next possible spell or if someone has a dangerous mana flow, but that backfires as they start focusing on her. A single, powerful spell connects with her and sends her flying in the direction of the dungeon's entrance. The spell should have hit her hard, but she'll manage.

We continue to leap around and fight, regrouping and trying to make up for the loss of our seer, until a scream explodes in my head, Natalia's scream. We set a specific spell on everyone in our team, which would only trigger when life-threatening conditions are met or in the case of extreme danger. Sergei abandons his fight and leaps in the direction where his sister flew off to. I curse as he left Sam and I open from the flank.

"Help him!" Sam screams.

I wanted to argue, but when our eyes met I abandon the idea and follow Sergei.

When we arrive I find the skeletal, grey-haired figure's jaws clamped around Natalia's thin neck. Moments later Sergei's scythe collides with the figure, sending him flying through several columns as they explode in a shower of chunks. I don't know why, but the moment I saw the figure holding Natalia, a huge fireball already formed over my head, and a moment later it was sent after the figure. The spell explodes, sending a shock wave through the whole area as the columns melt down.

I may have overdid it with the spell.

Sergei tenderly holds Natalia as blood streams down her neck from an open wound. After a scream from me, Sergei breaks from his stupor and we leap back to our team, my eyes already searching for Lisa. I find her in the rear of the team, running to her Sergei places his sister on the ground and scream at Lisa to heal her. But Lisa didn't hear him at all as she's already tending to Natalia. As if calming down a bit he stands up and after looking at his sister one more time, turns around with his scythe. He stands together with me as we guard the duo from possible attacks, while Lisa desperately tries to heal Natalia.

After everyone saw the state Natalia was in, the whole fight turned to a stalemate. The leader of the opposing summoned points his axe at us, specifically at me, and announces loudly.

"Move an inch and we will attack. And if we do the girl won't-"

"Jason! Everyone, please, calm down. It doesn't have to be this way. We come from the same world, Earth." the girl with red hair next to him says.

"Nola, it's useless. They won't listen, they don't understand, they haven't seen what is to come. They-"

"JASON!" the redhead screams, quieting their leader.

The girl turns to us and starts talking, while their leader continues to stare at me, as if daring me to move.

"We don't want to fight. We're here to unite everyone. Only together will we survive the coming storm."

"What do you mean, is that why we should "unite" under you." I flatly state.

She looks at me sadly. "You need to see it to understand. And we don't have much time left."

"You attacked us, you're the aggressor, and somehow WE are the ones who need to understand?" I reply.

Suddenly, something in the back of my head screams at me to turn left, and I follow it. What I find is a figure, which looks almost human, walking down the stairs. It's hard to call it a human, as the figure's whole body is deeply burned, with it's red flesh exposed to everyone, black charred spots all across it's flesh. The very sight of it is revolting. I don't understand what the abomination is until I notice what has been screaming danger to me the whole time.

There isn't any ambient mana around the figure.

It's that grey-haired skeletal guy.

He survived my spell.

The figure continues walking down with his legs,which are barely holding upright, drag behind him.

A huge demi-human from Paletia army laughs loudly and walks out from the supporting group behind the summoned. He screamed something about "Inquisitor", after which he leaps at the figure with inhuman speed. It took him only a moment to appear near the burned figure, with his sword coming down to take the life of the person before him. A fraction of a second later, his body splits vertically, cut clean apart. The demi-human's halves fly by the side of the figure as his innards spray the burned guy, painting him red. What the hell was that!? It was as if parts of a movie were cut out, I didn't see the figure move at all. The burned figure slowly turns its neck in our direction, causing my skin to crawl.

As I'm trying to calm down, something in me screams to either destroy the creature in front of me or run, until those thoughts are interrupted by the leader of the Blood Brotherhood, who stepped out and announced loudly.

"The cursed heretic. You have finally showed your treacherous soul. By the order of the Emperor, and my power as Inquisitor, you are sentenced to death. We-"

Only to be interrupted by a ghastly voice coming from the burned figure.

"Imposters."

"Fakes."

Only now do I notice that on his chest, under the burnt and bubbling flesh, a symbol is visible, a circle and a triangle inside of each other. It somehow reminds me of the Kyrptonian symbol in red and blue, the same symbol on the armour of the Blood Brotherhood, their symbol.

I slowly repeat the words said, as if trying to make sure who he is.

Heretic?

Imposter?

Fakes?

The original Inquisitor, leader of the Brotherhood's coup.

"You will regret it, cursed rat!" the new leader scowls and screams in rage as his subordinates jump at the figure.

The figure, not hindered by the deep burns at all, moves with tremendous speed, ripping people apart, one by one, as if they're toys.

The skin on my back crawls at the possibility of the monster coming close to me. I want to help them, stop and destroy the burned creature, but the leader of the Paletian summoned eyes are still on me, as if he's waiting for me to move. I move my foot a few centimeters, to which he responds by send an enormous amount of mana into his axe, which is still pointed at me. The mana continues to circulate around the axe, ready to be unleashed on the foe. He continues to stare at me in silence, as if daring me to make another move.

Shit.

"Pathetic." the figures ghastly voice spits out, as he stands in the middle of what I can only describe as a slaughterhouse. The figure tries to take several steps in the direction of the last one, the new leader, only to stop sharply. His legs visibly tremble as he attempts to make them move.

"Die remnant of the past!" the leader screams, getting a critically needed opportunity, leaping at the figure, only for a sword to suddenly appear above him. The sword cleaves through his shoulder, carrying him into the ground, sending cracks out from the impact.

A second later, Sergei appears in front of the figure, swinging his scythe, only for the figure to somehow "feel" the attack and bend unimaginably. A sword appears out of nowhere, and redirects the fatal blow into the ground. The figure, not wasting a second, sends his sword towards Sergei's neck as the air leaves my lungs. Only for the defensive enchantments to flare and explode at the last second, sending the burned figure several dozen meters away. The figure tumbles several times, using his sword to reorient himself, somehow ends up on his knees.

Shit! Shit! Shit! What the fuck was that!?

The burned figure tries to stand up several times, but fails again and again. Blood starts seeping down from his eyes, ears, and mouth. Taking several long breaths, he turns in our direction and looks at us as its ghastly voice reaches us.

"V-a-i l-a-y-"

"V-e-i- l-a-i"

What?

I don't know why, but I repeat the word over and over in my mind until it finally hits me.

'They lie'.

What?

How?

How does he know English!?

What the fuck?!

The headache returns as I swat it away again and again, focusing on the thoughts. There is something very wrong here. I need answers. And the figure may provide at least some of them. As I'm about to leap in his direction, I notice a very sharp change in the ambient mana. I look around, trying to identify the culprit, thinking that it was the leader of Paletia's summoned, but he, and all of his comrades are staring at the burned figure in shock.

My eyes capture the slight movement of the blood on the marble floor.

Huh?

All of the blood starts flowing faster and faster in one direction, the body of the dead leader of the Blood Brotherhood. His body slowly melts and reforms into what I can only describe as a small blood slime.

The ambient mana around the slime increases as a huge face appears out of it, as if wordlessly screaming, trying to escape. The next instant, the face disappears and the red goo gathers into a small bundle, out of which the features of humanoid looking limbs break out. The tiny, humanoid creature rises to a height of about half a meter, and scans the area with its eyes, until they stop in the direction of the burned figure. The blood creature screeches and within a second it grows to a height of four meters, sleek, with razor sharp claws and fangs. It leaps at the burned figure, and with a slash sends it flying across the plaza in the direction of the city.

A moment later the creature turns in our direction and looks at us. A wide smile breaks out on its face like its found its prey. The skin on my back starts crawling again the moment it takes a step closer, only for it to sharply stop. The creature looks in the direction of the burned figure and sniffs the air a few times. A few seconds later an enraged expression appears on its face as it screeches again, but in frustration and hatred this time. Blood wings grow from its back as it leaps up and flies away, ignoring us.

My heart continues to beat loudly as I follow the trail the creature flew, until it fully disappeared inside of the city. The long silence followed as I try to calm down and analyse the situation.

"What the fuck was that!?" one of my teammates says in pure horror.

"An avatar." I quietly reply.

"What the fuck?! That was an avatar!? Shouldn't an avatar be a person? Not that T1000 bullshit!"

I also thought so, but the books lied. Only one thing could have such control over a specific element and be born out of it. I turn my head in the direction of Paletia's heroes. They also look shaken at the experience, but somehow the expression on the face of the leader and the girl next to him is different.

"They said we had time!" the girl screams. "They-"

"Stop!" the leader cuts her off sharply.

The leader looks at Sam and I in the eyes for a few long seconds.

"That,...thing, its just the beginning. More will come. And we don't have time."

As the leader is about to continue, I feel the mana around flaring up to the extreme, as if I'm being submerged into boiling mana. I notice that a few of my teammates felt something, but it'll already be too late when they really understand it. I scream at my teammates to abandon everything and run. Sam looks at me in confusion, but when our eyes meet, he wordlessly understands that something is wrong.

Sam gives the command to retreat, but I'm already moving. I notice that a single person is still immobilized. They'll be slow to act. Leaping to Natalia, I pick her up and throw her over my shoulder and start running. My team follows me reluctantly in confusion.

I don't even look back to check Paletia's summoned as I continue to run through the mountains of dead. I try to keep my eyes straight and breathe steadily, not only because I need to focus on where I'm running, but I also don't want to look at the dead bodies I pass and jump over.

Some of them may have been killed by me.

The moment we step outside of the plaza, a huge explosion resounds around which is shortly followed by a tremor that shakes the ground, making all of us stumble. The whole thing strongly reminded me of an earthquake, but the sound of tectonic plates crashing into each other is usually short. But the sound of something gigantic shattering lasts for at least a dozen seconds. The whole place is suddenly submerged into shadows, turning my head I see an enormous burning creature breaking through the volcano, sending molten rock flying around. My heart stops as I scream at my team to stand and run. We desperately continue to run as rock starts falling on the city, destroying its like a sand castle.

I feel another shift in the mana and a series of powerful lightning strikes cross the sky, then they suddenly stop. The next few long seconds of silence are interrupted by explosion of at least a thousand lightning bolts which merge into an enormous elemental bird.

NO!! NO!!! NO!!! NO!!

After a few seconds of gazing at each other, the monsters pounce at each other, as if they were mortal enemies, sending fragments of the city into the air. I regret looking back, as they very moment I look, the creatures roar and the sound blast hits me straight in the face, ripping into my eardrums. I scream in pain, as blood trickles down my ears but my voices doesn't reach me. I continue to helplessly scream, trying to make the pain stop, until I hear something. A soft male voice laughing, reaches me out of nowhere, but concentrating on the tone changes it from soft to deep and sinister. I don't have time to question how exactly I can hear it, or where its coming from, as I'm on my knees, paralyzed in pure terror. The monsters stop and both turn in the same direction, in what looks like fear. They start casting spells, which I could only describe as apocalyptical.

As if they were about to erase the whole city from the face of the Earth, every single speck of mana in the city disappears. Together with mana, the voice disappeared and the gigantic monsters start falling apart, as if they were made out of sand. I try to breathe, and understand what's happening, but the only thing I can feel is my chest moving back and forth, until it finally hits me.

We're alive.

What?

How?

...

The person to my right and left scream in desperation, trying to get out of the freezing water, but they fail again and again as the ice layer simply breaks under their weight. Many start begging for help, but it's futile.

No one will come.

The frozen dead bodies of many are already floating around, notifying everyone of their future fate.

No.

No.

Not like this.

Send all the mana I have into my limbs, I leap out of the freezing water, again and again, trying to get on the ice, but it simply breaks under me. I don't know how many attempts it took, but I finally succeeded, standing on my knees on the ice covering the lake as freezing water streams down my clothes. I try to breathe, but the air is so cold that each breath is robbing me of the last bits of heat left in me.

"Pathetic."

"He'll die."

"Doesn't matter, more than enough are left."

"No..... Only he crawled out after falling into the water. He survived."

"Are you going to nurse all of the recruits, Captain? These shits aren't even brothers yet."

"No. They're not, but he survived and that's important. Give him a spare coat."

Something warm is thrown over me, protecting me from the freezing cold wind.

"Now it's up to you to survive."

"Okay maggots! The rest is over! Pickup your shit and follow us! We have a five hour long walk to the top of the mountain, and oh boy is the storm starting."

Will I survive?

No.

No.

I will.

I will survive.

There's nothing left for me in this world.

Survive.

I send mana into my nearly frozen legs to move, and slowly they obey, moving one after another. I command the mana to warm me up in any way possible, eat flesh, consume my essence, but allow me to continue walking. I follow the stream of black figures through the storm as one by one they either disappear or fall down. Looking up at the dark sky, I see an endless sea of pitch black clouds swimming with absolutely no care in the world.

I will survive.

...

The pitch black clouds in the sky continue to move until my mind clears enough to understand that was just a memory. A memory of long past. My eyes slowly move, scanning around, trying to understand where I am. What I find is an enormous altar with two sets of columns around it, the bigger ones are further from the altar, the smaller ones are closer, all of them covered in thick snow, forming some kind of circular formation, with me in the center of it all. Looking down I find my body shredded by javelins as they pin me to the white frozen ground.

Javelins?

Oh.

Yeah.

I died.

What?

No.

This isn't...

I was in the white space.

Why am I here?

Am I....

Why am I alive?