The drawn steel sword shone in the light from the crystals illuminating it as it fell before them, three meters from them. It was a simple crossblade, carefully cleaned and oiled.

The spectators were stomping on the ground and chanting only one word: “Blood! Blood! Blood!”

From the sides of the arena poured armed guard-goblins. They quickly formed a circle around them, eight meters in diameter large, knelt and pointed the muskets at them. Vladimir and Adele were sure they would not miss.

The three gladiators peered at each other. A dread-filled Vladimir. He knew what was about to happen. One sword, one survivor, one winner. And the prize was another day to live.

The first to react was Sou’Rek. He leapt towards the sword with an inhuman speed. Nonetheless, Adele was not that far behind and threw the bone at him. A lucky hit pierced Sou’Reks’ biceps slowing him down. She threw herself at the sword and grabbed it together with the goblin.

Vladimir was the last to react. He saw as his mother was struggling with the goblin and instinctively moved towards him. He wanted to protect her, to protect his family. It was something ingrained so deep in him that he could not, and did not want to, fight it.

He dropped on the goblin from above with the elbow directly embedded into his spine. Sou’Rek hissed in pain and released the sword. Even though he was stronger and faster, his durability was not much higher than humans. He was also way less trained, experienced and overall much younger.

They struggled, punches and kicks were flying as Vladimir tried to grab him. It was a brutal fight, but Adele joined the fray, and the imaginary weight tipped. The duo of mother and son overwhelmed him and Adele plunged the blade deep into his chest while Vladimir held him down.

Vladimir released him as Sou’Rek slowly stopped struggling, the light in his eyes faded away.

He slowly stood up, completely ignoring the cheering and jeering spectators. His mother just stood there immovable, waiting. She held the sword alongside her body and nodded towards the sharp bone sticking out of the goblin’s arm.

He ripped the pointy bone from him. A heaviness entered his heart.

“Yahoo! This is gonna be so. Much. Fun! Don’t you dare to give up! Hehehe!” Loony chipped in but was ignored.

Adele’s face was devoid of any emotions as she readied herself. She pointed the crossblade in Vladimir’s way and a determination entered her eyes.

Vladimir shook a little bit. He looked around to see if there was some opportunity. He tried to grasp anything, but before he could even try to come up with some last-minute plan, a blade flashed before his face. He dodged with difficulty and sidestepped.

“Where are you looking? Fight!” His mother yelled and lunged forward. She clearly could not use it properly, Vladimir saw she lacks any finesse with the long blade. She used it more as a stick with the theory that the pointy end ends up in the opponent. Also, she was much slower than before, the days of rape, too little food and torture took it’s toll on her body. Plus the bleeding wound did not help too.

He dodged and avoided his mother but did not attack himself. The orcs started to get bored. Seeing this, the probable owner or organizator sharply waved and a bullet hit him in the leg with a loud bang. It tore through his thigh, creating a hole big enough to enter a finger and leave a millimetre or two between it and the flesh.

Vladimir hissed and his rhythm was interrupted. Adele was just in the middle of another lunge and pierced his shoulder.

“Hey, hey! What did I say? DO NOT DIE ON ME, knighty-boy… Remember! She murdered your father, she never even loved you! She just used you! She is Rotshield! Agent! Nothing more! FIGHT!” Loony shouted at him.

Then instinct took over, the pain was gone as adrenalin flushed his brain and body. In the first heartbeat, he ripped the crossblade from his shoulder. In the third he charged forward, grabbing her with one hand, still holding the blade, cutting his own hand. On the fifth heartbeat, he threw her on the ground, jerked the sword out of her hand and held it above her heart as he mounted over her stomach.

Then he stopped, breathing raggedly, as his mind cleared from the mindless onslaught. His mother below him was watching him with an unreadable expression, not doing anything.

The spectators were stomping yet again, chanting. The goblins creating the circle no longer aimed at them, instead, they stood, muskets resting on their shoulders and watching them with happiness as they could watch the show from the closest possible position.

Then she smiled. Smiled the same way as she served the lunch, or when they were playing together when he was a child. A happy smile. Then she uttered two words. Two words that shattered his world. Two words that started his journey. Two words that brutalized his soul and tortured his mind for eternity. The words he promised he will never forget.

Two words: “Love you.”

He plunged the bloody sword in her chest embedding it into the sand below her. Blood spilt from her mouth as she coughed with enlarged pupils.

Vladimir was shaking hard. His whole mind was filled with screeching. He cried. He screamed. He wept.

However, that was only inside of his head. On the outside, he was shaking, watching his mother die with a blade he still held in his bloody hand and unable to move. “I love you too,” he whispered back as her eyes lost their sparkle.

“I must say, knighty-boy, I am proud of you. Not everyone has it in them to kill their own mother,” Loony happily said.

An immense roaring boomed from the gallery. The cheering woke him up from the stupor and he looked up. But suddenly everyone stopped and the leader orc jumped up from his seat, carefully observing him.

He gazed back down and saw his mother turning to ash.

[The fragment found: Language Comprehension Device]

[Fragment accepted]

[Installing… Installation complete.]

[System functionality increased to 15%]

[You have killed level 1 E-O human.

[You have gained 112% Essence]

[You have levelled up to level 1]

Vladimir’s mind was thrown into haze again. Then the pain came to join the party. He fell to the ground and could not decide what hurted him more; loss of mother, his mutilated leg, pierced shoulder or broken ribs, which probably pierced one of his lungs. Even though his mind was extremely resistant, more than most common men, it started to slip.

The pain went slowly away as the Morpheus slowly kidnapped him. Before he completely fell unconscious, he saw a large-busted orcette holding a silver staff with a white gem on the end and wearing a white robe with metallic plates, making his way towards them.

⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬

Dream

“Mom!” 6-year old Vlad cried out as a man in white coat took him away.

“Don’t worry, kiddo. I just want to ask something. Your mom will be there, okay?” The man smiled as he calmed him with his deep baryton. Vlad looked at the smile and tensed. Suddenly, the man had green skin and his mouth was filled with razor-sharp teeth.

“What’s wrong, kiddo?” The man’s voice changed to rasp and brutal. It was… familiar to Vlad.

“Nothing…” Vlad whispered, scared shit-less.

“Good. Now, do you remember what happened two days ago?” The man turned goblin asked.

Vlad fervently shook his head.

“Good boys should not lie. Are you a good boy?”

Vlad teared up and started to sob. He slowly nodded.

“You remember do you? So? What happened?”

Suddenly, Vlad held a sword and his mother appeared next to the man.

He raised it and…

⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬

Vladimir slowly woke up from his nightmare, but still held his eyes closed.

For the first few seconds, he thought everything was just some dream, but the screen from the end of the brutal fight forced him to acknowledge the reality.

Everything was hurting him. He felt like a pack of horses decided to dance the waltz all over him. Strangely, he did not have a headache he was used to for the past few days.

He opened his eyes, dismissed the screens before his eyes and checked his body. The memories flooded his mind and he sighed. His mother… A single tear dropped from his eye to the marble ground.

The wounds in his shoulder and leg that should have been there for weeks were already mostly healed. There were just scars covered with fresh skin, visibly regenerating. It tickled and hurt a little bit, but nothing he could not take.

He forcefully suppressed his swirling emotions so he could focus on the situation he was in right now.

He sat up and the first thing he noticed he was not in the same cell. It had a small light source, a smaller version of crystal above the Coliseum.

This 4mx4mx4m cell was made of a black smooth, cold stone. It had a 3 metres long slab of granite he was laying on and a small, dark hole in a corner leading who knows where which he decided was a toilet.

He did not see a single door, so he was either teleported here or there was a very well hidden entrance. On the other side was sitting a cubic granite slab with a smaller one before it; a table and a chair. It was a little too big for him, but he just stood before the table. Everything looked like it was sculpted from a single piece. He could not see a single joint, cleft or interstice. On the table was sitting a big bowl with a smoking hot meal and a big canteen. He sniffed it and used the analyser on it.

[Analysis complete: canteen of drinkable water, broth from goblin meat and potatoes, granite, low-grade Crystal of Illumination. Encyclopaedia updated.]

He took a big swig of the water and looked around the table for a spoon. There was nothing else, so he used his hand to devour the meal.

After satisfying the hunger, he felt much better. Then he examined the crystal and noticed extremely small writings on it. And he was able to read it.

“I invoke the light of the world to illuminate the darkness of netherworld”

“What the… Oh… Mom… The fragment! I absorbed it while she turned to ash. I… FUCK!” He swore vehemently.

“Aww. Somebody woke up cranky. Do you need to cradle? Do you miss mommy, knighty-boy?” Loony decided to be heard at this moment.

“Shut. The. Hell. Up. You. Piece. Of. Pig. Shit!” Vladimir heaved.

Loony replied with a short laugh.

Vladimir sat back down. The memories of his family and mostly his mother, Adele Svoboda, were rapidly flashing before his eyes. He did not stop it. He wanted to remember. Then a hatred entered his heart towards the orcs. He truly hated them with all he could.

He sat down on the ground and turned on the [Meditation]. He repressed Loony, and let the memories flow;

He got towards the place right before everything went to shit. The laboratory #0 back on Earth. He saw the agent, what could as well be his mother, devastating his father’s chest with a bullet. He saw as everyone was arrested by the white light bursting from the heavily damaged accumulator.

Then he realized something; others have to be somewhere too. However, who knows where. They could be even on other planets, other dimensions or in different times, at least for what he understood. Mom must have been here for days before he landed there to be in the state she was. A slight regret emerged, which he hastily suppressed with the realization he did not have a choice. Nor did she… She died and he had to get over it if he was supposed to survive.

There must be other fragments. He seemed lucky and got the operating system and a few undamaged main components and modules. Also, there was another world-wide system. There were gods and beings of immense power. Magic was truly real, the crystals and the mysterious writing on its surface were the best proof right now.

He sighed and continued to meditate as he had nothing better to do. He needed a plan. A good one.

⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬⌬

Meanwhile in the Temple of Commerce, the boss of the Coliseum met with his brother. They were just arguing about the human.

“Kulgar, he absorbed something from her before half the city. Of course, the devils will be interested! And Ruo’Kut seemed to like him! That freaking humanophile and her disgusting tastes… But she herself is powerful enough to impede you even before the Green Council or royals!” The heavily muscled orc with small tusks, one of them replaced with a golden prosthesis and black, long, braided hair with the occasional grey streak, patiently explained. He wore a black toga with golden inscriptions woven into it, sitting behind a sturdy table from dark wood. He was just calmly observing the incensed orc, who was standing before him for a good ten seconds before he replied...

“He is dangerous, Dargan! We should put him down! He is just a human! Weak one to boot! Kill him before he will grow strong!” The organiser of the Coliseum and a fairly powerful noble, Kulgar, raged.

“Again, brother… First, devils showed a slight interest. They want to know if it's an innate ability and if it can be extracted. Second, noble Ruo’Kut showed care for this dung. I bet she already… how does she say it… Ah, tasted him. Third, the spectators liked him! Damn, they were laughing! Laughing! When was the last time you heard that at the Coliseum?” The older orc, Dargan said with a sight. He realized they just cannot kill Vladimir with so much attention gathered towards him. He would be able to take the noble matron and placate the spectators, however the devil, Ssirza The Book-Finder was completely something else.