This chapter: 4261 words

Current stats: 29265 /50000

This was really fun to write, hehe~

This is a warning... again... those who haven´t left yet, seriously consider your mental health endangered by my story by now ;)

No map, it seems, the poll has spoken with two to one against the map.

Well, I really like this character~ he is absolutely epic, I always wanted to make this kind of character!

Is insanity contagious? Yes, yes it is...

Happy reading!

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The leaves rustled in the warm breeze as the first signs of a storm made themselves known. Animals and monsters alike as if sensing the upcoming disaster scurried away towards shelter. The blue sky above a certain island remained undisturbed and to the average person nothing seemed to be amiss on this beautiful day in paradise.

The storm was approaching that much was sure, yet insensitive creatures that humans are, they were incapable of knowing beforehand. Currently on this particular island only a single such creature missed the signs.

Covered in a layer of white sand and in a state of unconsciousness this person lay beneath a palm like tree close to a beach with startlingly blue water.

A leaf slowly fell towards this persons head and landed neatly between his eyes. The disturbance, though minor, was enough to rouse the man who opened his eyes to an entirely different world than the one he had known until this point.

As he slowly looked around, groggy and confused, he started to realize that he really was awake and with this realization he was not only assaulted by countless questions but also by an accompanying sense of foreboding.

His name was Ethan.

A citizen of the proud city of Balsch and former thug who through sheer power of will left his old line of business and decided to pursue a more honest path in life. The path of a soldier, fighting the evils that threatened his country and defending the innocent he himself had once endangered.

This man had turned his life around only a few months prior to the recruitment for the fight against the immortal army. Disposable pawn that he was, Ethan was placed at the frontline, doomed to die, yet miraculously it would seem, he had survived.

As he now cautiously rose to his feet the last memories he had began flashing before his eyes. They were not clear, rather distorted and filled with the taste of alcohol and a cheap meal. Yes, he had been drinking with a group of soldiers, comrades in arms. There was a bar, filled with merry laughter, there was a story and the alcohol he could use to drown the images of death and gore which he had experienced only hours before.

Then ...what? A fight, he had once more lost to his temper. As much as a man wanted to change, old habits die hard after all. He left the bar, the memory got blurry, so blurry he clenched his fists in pain as his head seemed to explode. What happened after he left?

Only blackness came to his mind as he was unable to reconstruct what game of the gods may have led him to a beach. There was no beach near Lavender as the city was enclosed by the mountains.

For a few minutes the former thug Ethan just stood and gazed at the endless sea, then he pinched himself to wake up from this disturbingly realistic dream. Although he pinched himself with all his might he soon was forced to accept the undeniable reality in front of his eyes.

He was on a island.

Why would he be in such a strange place, the man wondered in disbelief. Maybe this truly was a game of the gods... no of god. He had seen the being. He was so close to god himself...

Ethan shook his head and brushed with his hand through his short black hair, shaking unimaginable amounts of sand out of them in the process.

Ethan had never been a religious person. His parents, though respectful towards the local church and its priests, had never hidden the fact that they didn´t believe any of the nonsense they spouted.

They saw religion as just another scam. A way to earn money by making people believe in whatever was convenient for you and making them pay for nonsensical things like holy water, bread or blessings.

Ethan had been strongly influenced by his atheist parents and liked to compare the various churches to the organized crime he was a part of. In the end he never really cared enough to talk against the church. It was a dangerous thing to do with all those crazy fanatics who just have to take every mistake and nonsense in their holy scriptures seriously, after all. Many people who talked openly against religion in general just disappeared. Like his parents one day, but that was another matter entirely.

Thus Ethan, a man with no religious inclination whatsoever, had been faced with a so called god. Sure, the power this 'Jii-Emm' had displayed was devastating, simply too unbelievable to be the power of anything but a legendary being, or a god... yet Ethan didn´t quite believe this person was a god.

Jii-Emm clearly wanted to save the immortals, yet he failed to do so. Many were saved, that much was sure but didn´t the church, no matter which one you asked, say that god was almighty? If he was, he could have saved the immortals, or turned them back to normal afterwards.

Ethan´s logical mind began to take apart this so called god and easily came to the conclusion that this was again, as expected of religions, a hoax. But if the gods didn´t play their games with him, who else could it be? How could he have ended up in this forsaken place just like that?

The foreboding feeling was still going strong in Ethan, he had been absentmindedly walking along the beach for a while now and still couldn´t find anybody or anything of note. There were many things to see in this tropical paradise, a place Ethan had only ever heard stories about, but it would be a lie to say he enjoyed his walk.

Too many questions clouded his mind for such a useless thing to even register in his head.

With a sigh Ethan stopped walking. He had come to the conclusion that this was a futile struggle and he would need to find a different way out of this mess. Thus Ethan ,who was finally truly coming to terms with the fact that he was stranded in a desolate island, decided to prepare a small shelter and search for water and food.

The search for food was over before it had begun as even a cursory glance at the trees on the island revealed countless exotic fruits. Ethan even recognized the Baohui fruit, a fruit that was ridiculously expensive due to the fact that it grew so far away from Balsch. Ethan was a bit excited at the prospect of eating one of those fruits, that were normally only affordable by the nobility.

Water wasn´t a problem either because Ethan soon found a stream that was well hidden behind dense foliage. The only reason why he had found it so quickly was the rat monster that crawled towards the stream in order to drink. Ethan had spotted it after half an hour of randomly walking around the island and was about to warily retreat when he noticed what it was doing.

He thought he was pretty lucky so far but then he remembered how unlucky he had to be to even get into such a situation in the first place and his smile faded in favor of a frown.

Thus the last necessity for now was shelter.

Booom.

Thunder struck across the heaven. Ethan noticed the upcoming storm only now and his frown turned into a grimace as he watched the black clouds approaching on the horizon. In the blink of an eye there was a full-blown storm ravaging the island and Ethan who still didn´t have a shelter and was out of time to build one scurried towards the center of the island in hopes of getting away from the beach. Ethan was unfamiliar with the ocean and didn´t trust the high waves that clashed with the land.

Along the way he didn´t meet any other creatures as the islands inhabitants had long since hidden themselves away from natures wrath. This was to Ethan´s advantage as he didn´t have his weapon and was unable to defend himself if there were any aggressive monsters around.

Finally heavens decided to release their pent up load and rain fell. Lots of rain. It didn´t start slowly at all and just seemed to keep pouring buckets of chilly water.

Ethan was soon soaked and miserable and still searching for a dry place to sit out the storm. A hollow tree! In a rush Ethan entered the cramped space. This would have to do for now, he thought grimly. His make shift shelter wasn´t completely waterproof and drops kept hitting his head but Ethan managed to preserve more body heat like this than by standing in the pouring rain and he was very thankful for that fact.

Suddenly after maybe twenty minutes of wet chaos the sky, which had been dark as night lighted up and the rain stopped as abruptly as it had started. Ethan sighed in relieve and barely thought about this strange weather phenomena. The more pressing issue was for him to get out of his confinement, which proved to be a difficult task. He briefly wondered how he had managed to squeeze into this small space in the first place.

When he got out of the tree Ethan wasn´t surprised to see himself surrounded by many different kinds of monsters. There were snakes, lizards, birds and rats as well as some big insect that looked like a centipede and all of them seemed to want a piece of him. Just great. Ethan did what he does best and ran as if death itself was chasing him, which in a way he was.

The beasts came close to catching him when he accidentally tripped over a tree root, which he could have sworn wasn´t there before, but managed to escape by rolling into a thorny bush and crawling deeper into it.

By now his clothes were torn in several places and his face and arms were bloody. Several centimeter long scratches marred his skin, not that he cared, exhausted and desperate as he was. Today it was just one thing after the other it seemed, yet Ethan had only been on the island for three hours at most. Ethan was terrified, just how was he suppose to survive like this?

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A sand covered person lied on the beach beneath a palm tree, his undisturbed sleep came slowly to an end and gave way to the grogginess a person would feel after sleeping more than needed. He tried to turn around and sleep some more when the sensation of crumbly hot sand shocked him out of his peaceful sleep.

Ethan opened his eyes to the paradisiacal sight of an azure blue sea filled with countless fish which sometimes jumped into the air in an attempt to conquer the sky. The pristine white beach and the palm like tree, not that Ethan knew what a palm was, seemed familiar to the puzzled man. For a moment he felt himself reminded of a dream he had not too long ago... then he realized the 'dream' was no dream at all and he was once more unable to pinch himself awake.

Anger gripped Ethan as he screamed and shouted in a strange fury. He had never been choleric and found his sudden outburst strange and somehow uncharacteristic. after all he had always been the type of man who kept secret grudges instead of simply getting angry at people and letting his fury take over. It was a different matter when he was drunk but Ethan felt sober...

Countless insults left Ethan´s mouth as he never paused even when he, mindful of last time´s shower began constructing a shelter with fallen trees and branches.

The result was a lousy excuse of a shelter and Ethan had to exert his entire willpower not to smash the thing in a rage. He didn´t stop himself from cursing though. There was simply no need, or so he thought.

The noise on the other hand had attracted a lot of unwanted attention though, Ethan of course couldn´t know about that. A group of red frog monsters with green stripes which were as tall as a man approached the soldier who was so absorbed in his curses to notice. One of them jumped on top of the freshly constructed shelter and smashed it to pieces. The frog didn´t hesitate to lash out at the man in an attempt to eat him.

To his own surprise Ethan easily evaded the frogs attack, his body moved on his own in never before seen flexibility and speed. Before he knew it he had executed a fast series of punches and knocked the first frog out.

Its comrades however, intent on revenge and hungry, always that, attacked Ethan cautiously. They were almost casually dealt with by Ethan. His hand on his face he laughed in exhilaration at his mysterious battle prowess.

What the heck was going on?

Didn´t matter, he was mighty!!!!

Thus with newfound arrogance a new hunter walked the deep jungle of the island and targeted countless innocent(?) monsters.

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On a beach a black haired man awoke, his first thoughts were dedicated to his beloved parents and how their lives had been cut short by some religious fanatic.

"Son, remember to never trust the church, no matter which, because even if they seem like rivals they are in truth connected behind the scenes."

His father had always been so wise, he seemingly knew everything there was to know about the underground and the church was a mighty power there indeed. Ethan sighed. His father along with his mother had disappeared a long time ago. Not even a corpse was found.

At the thought of them Ethan´s eyes grew moist. Why was he remembering all those years in the slums without them now of all times? He hadn´t cried for them even when they disappeared, so why...?

Memories flooded Ethan´s mind. Something strange was going on here. He had been here before, that he knew, but why did he keep waking up in the same place with different... emotions?

Countless theories entered his head as he contemplated and yet couldn´t put a finger on what might be going on here. His biggest suspicion was that some drug developers were using him as a not so voluntary volunteer in testing their latest magic drug.

The thought made Ethan cry. Why was this happening to him? Was he supposed to build a shelter again? But it had just been smashed! So unfair!

Ethan tried to calm himself down with all his might, realizing that these thoughts and feelings didn´t seem to be his own. Just like the anger... What the heck!

Thus in a struggle against his own nature Ethan spent an entire hour crying and trying to persuade himself into getting up and building that wretched shelter.

Unbeknownst to Ethan a tiger monster had been watching him ever since he had gotten up and was now sneaking up on him, yet Ethan remained oblivious to the danger as he was too busy with himself.

Rawwwr!

The tiger jumped for the kill, but was repelled by a magical barrier that surrounded Ethan. suddenly all kinds of magical knowledge clogged Ethan´s mind. He felt himself capable to rival even the greatest of mages but that did nothing for his emotional stability.

How could he be happy about this if the kitty hated him?! Waaaahhh!

In sadness Ethan threw his hand forward and invoked a spell. The black and white tiger was wrapped in green light and... melted. It screamed in agony, ran away as fast as it could but the melting happened too fast and before the tiger even realized it, it had already turned into a puddle of blood that quickly seeped into the white sand and colored a big area of the beach crimson.

Ethan was sad because the poor kitty died and wailed louder than ever for a few minutes.

Well... at least the tiger wouldn´t be mean to Ethan anymore, he shrugged and got back to his self pity.

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Green eyes opened slowly, already knowing what to expect. A beautiful blue sky entered this persons vision and he dared not glance sideways, the knowledge of the past, a reminder of what the other selves had done, fresh in his mind. Who was he really? What a foolish question to ask, he was Ethan.

A smile crept towards his face as he slowly got up and inspected the familiar surroundings. The pool of blood, the ocean, the fish and tropical trees... It was soooooo~ beautiful!

"Awesooome!"

Ethan ran towards the water and immediately jumped into the ocean, enjoying the cool water and the hot sun to the fullest. He dived into the water and quickly familiarized himself with the waves and salty water. Ethan had before this episode of strangeness never even been close to the sea after all.

Inside the water there were many multicolored fish with big fins and sharp mouths, which looked like piranhas. Thus Ethan, who didn´t know about piranhas, played with the hungry fish and chased them around the water. He merrily laughed and sang a happy song which he only knew by melody, making up a song as he went.

Fun! It was sooo much fun to play in the water, or so Ethan thought. After some time he tired of the ocean and jumped out of the water. Ethan had decided to play rabbit and merrily hopped around the palm trees close to the beach when he noticed a hurt Piranha in the water. His face switched to a frown and he sprinted towards the suffering creature and picked it up.

"Poor fishy! Who did that to you~ ahhhhh I neeeeed to helppp youuu." For some reason his speech became incredibly annoying to the only observer present, not that he knew or cared for that matter.

Ethan´s speech was extremely slurred and even the fish seemed to look at him as if he was an idiot. Maybe he was.

"AAAAhhhh doooonnn´t woooorrryyyyy fishyyyy~ I´lll helllppp yooouuuU"

So annoying, a certain observer thought and tried not to end this trial, right there and then.

Ethan then cast a powerful healing spell on the purple fish and its injury was healed in the blink of an eye. The fish seemed surprised at this development and looked at Ethan with grateful saucer eyes when-

"Ahhh so hungry~" Ethan said some dangerous words and began gathering some dry branches which was a difficult task, considering it had rained only a few hours prior.

After a while Ethan, who still carried around the fish, which for some reason didn´t die despite staying outside the water for so long, had enough dry wood for a simple fire. He proceeded to light the fire with some convenient flint, that he could have sworn wasn´t there before.

When the fire was ready Ethan mercilessly pierced the fish, which struggled for its life, with a stick and roasted the blood oozing dead fish over the fire, not minding the fact that the organs were still in their respective locations.

When the fish was crispy black, because Ethan had held the thing directly into the flame instead of just close to it, Ethan took a bite, a stupid grin on his face. He had never stopped smiling during the entire cooking process.

The inside of the fish was raw and the outside was charred, the fish which still had its intestines was by no means edible yet Ethan ate the thing, bones and all with the greatest pleasure.

A bystander would have barfed by now, well... maybe that happened unbeknownst to Ethan.

There was no pity in this Ethan, the fish he had saved was savored to the last bit, making one wonder why he had bothered healing the thing in the first place.

There was a part of Ethan though, a voice inside his head it seemed, that kept yelling at him to stop it. Ethan was confused... who was this voice? It was Ethan yet it wasn´t Ethan, how strange indeed. Well, Ethan decided to ignore the voice and do as he pleased, the voice should just wait until it was its own turn~

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He was awake in an instant, there was no hesitation when he opened his eyes and saw a scenery he remembered clearly. A beach, an ocean, an island. Same old, same old

The black haired man got up and started shaking of the layers of sand and dry salt that made his scratched skin itch. The blood that the thorny bush which the first Ethan had hid in, had drawn was already turning black, sand was caked on top of the wounds and Ethan looked at them in disdain. The first Ethan was a joke. What a useless person, to get hurt because of a useless bush?

How dumb could he be. For a moment Ethan refused to be Ethan because he would be too similar to the first Ethan for his liking yet common sense told him that he couldn´t stop being Ethan. Ahhh... how bothersome, Ethan though and searched for something to do.

By his experience the loop would restart once he killed something, so Ethan resolved himself not to kill anything. Who knew what happened to the other Ethans after all?

There was a voice going full blast in Ethan´s head, telling him what to do. Shelter this, shelter that.

Ethan wanted to tell the voice to shut up, but thought it was a waste of time as the voice clearly was his very own. Ahhh... what to do?

He just sat there staring at the ocean for a while, he disliked blue, it reminded him of his mother´s eyes. She was dead, that much was sure, so why was he thinking about her once more?

Ahhh right, Ethan´s mother had given him many wisdoms, she was even more influential in the underground than his father, yet Ethan´s father never even suspected her to be the true power behind his successes. A great woman. She never tried to flaunt her status, just killing the people that piss you off was enough after all right?

Ethan always thought that his father had been a lucky man, that is until he disappeared. Nobody should have known about Ethan´s parents, yet they disappeared. It was the church that much was sure. They had spoken against the church one time too many. Their deals had left the church with a little less money than the church would have liked so there was no other choice... Ahhh oh beautiful religion... Ethan mused, a fire burning inside his emerald eyes.

He had never felt the need of vengeance before, yet... here he was, imagining the painful death of countless saints and oh so holy paladins. Maybe that Jii-Emm too~ he thought and was still painfully aware of the fact that Jii-Emm was too powerful a foe for him. Hell, he suspected Jii-Emm was behind this entire island bullshit. What was this psychopath doing to him?

Ethan was aware of the other... states of mind?... he had gone through ever since he had come here, one of them was still talking about the importance of shelters in his head after all. Ethan wished the voice would just shut up.

A roar tore through the heaven as a green scaly round monster rolled towards Ethan who looked on in disdain. A fight...again? Was this Jii-Emm´s doing? He couldn´t be sure. There were too many things he didn´t know about his enemy, too many questions unanswered.

"I won´t humor you Jii-Emm." Ethan said in a chilly voice. His observer was secretly surprised, but wasn´t ready to stop his test.

Ethan then simply walked away from the monster that kept rolling after him. When the roller finally caught up with Ethan, he simply used the memory of the depressed Ethan to blink to the side and continued his casual stroll. The enraged roller aimed at Ethan once more and Ethan used earth magic to redirect the roller so it would roll straight into the sea.

The beast shrieked in pain and left the salty hell as fast as possible.

Ups... didn´t wanna kill it...Ethan thought and mentally apologized to the monster when a great idea hit him.

A sadistic smirk on his face Ethan approached the beast, which was writhing in pain. He casually extended his hand towards it and threw some healing magic at the roller. It immediately stopped struggling and sighed in relieve.

With a kick the roller once more rolled towards the ocean all the while screaming in protest. The thing tried to escape the painful ocean yet Ethan had quickly erected a barrier at the shore. The roller howled in pain, scales being dissolved by saltwater and blood started flowing freely from newly formed wounds.

Saltwater, what an idiotic weakness to have for a monster that lived on an island or so Ethan thought as he smiled in contemptuousness while he periodically healed the monster, thereby prolonging its suffering endlessly. The azure sea was dyed in red that day, no fish dared jump out of the water and no cricket dared sing it´s song in the evening. Instinct told all beings on GM island to lay low while the mightiest predator was on the hunt.

A happy smile spread on Ethan´s face.

"Jii-Emm, I know you´re there... wanna play?"