POV:Agatha Patterson

What’s going on? What’s this light surrounding me?

Looking around I could see that I wasn’t alone, it looked like about half of our class was surrounded by the same thing. Ms.Baker, and Apollo were among them, both of them not having a breakdown like the rest. In fact they were trying to calm others down even though they were the ones affected by this. I knew everyone in our class but I couldn’t see everyone that had this light around them, the students who weren’t affected were running around like maniacs.

Is he ok? Damn it, move so I can see.

There he was, trapped just like me. In fact he was punching whatever was trapping us. It was so bad I could see the blood on his knuckles from the front of the room, and he was all the way in the back.

At least he’s sort of safe.

Out of nowhere someone disappeared into thin air, almost like they got beamed into the sky.

“Pho-” Was all I could get out before I was warped out of the classroom.

For a while I just floated in pure darkness, not able to see my own hand in front of me. After what felt like an eternity with my thoughts of, what is going on, where is everyone, where am I? A light appeared in the darkness and I got sucked towards it. Knowing just being in this darkness would eventually break my mental state, I let myself drift into the light. It got brighter and brighter to the point I had to cover my eyes.

Hard ground?

I opened my eyes and once they got adjusted to the change in light level I could see a number of robed individuals staring at me, along with someone who looked like a king and queen. I was on my hands and knees, oddly out of breath.

“Aggie!” I heard someone yell. Turning I saw Jackson, one of the guys that follow Apollo everywhere.

“Jackson. What’s going on?”

“I have no idea, the fancy looking people said to wait till everyone arrived.”

“Till everyone arrives? What does that me-” Out of nowhere the ground started to rumble so hard that the roof creaked, dirt falling down.

“Oh shit!” I heard another familiar voice scream. Looking over to the two who looked like king and queen, they had huge grins on their faces. Grins that creeped me out more than anything. The ones in the robes whispered furiously among themselves. Then a huge beam of light appeared, so strong it could be a beam straight from the sun, and you could make a faint silhouette inside of it. Once the light faded there was Apollo on one knee, one fist pushed against the ground. Dramatically he raised his head, just like you would see in a movie, and just as he did all the ones in the robes started cheering.

“Apollo!” I heard some two girls scream before running up to him.

“Are you ok?”

“I was so scared.”

Oh great, the harem is here. Seems like the posse is too.

Phobius called them that when he thought no one was listening. The term ended up being perfect for them so I naturally started calling them that too. They were all starting to gather around him already too,

“Wait. Phobius.” I whispered to myself. I started frantically searching around, but didn’t see him at all. In total I saw Apollo, his three of his posse, Jackson, Richard, and Greg. Such boring names. Out of Apollo’s harem only two were there, Krystal and Sophie. There was also Angel and Damien, who were friends already, and lastly Ms.Baker who was busy trying to talk to one of the robed figures. In total that made 10 of us here.

Where is he? I swore I saw him trapped in the same light we were.

I rushed over to Ms.Baker who was still trying to talk to the same robed figure.

“Please. What is going on?” She pleaded to no avail.

“Ms.Baker”

“Oh Agatha, I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“Have you seen Phobius anywhere?”

“I’m sorry I haven’t. These people aren’t even telling me anything.”

As if on cue the one who looked like a King boomed, “Alright chosen ones, please follow me to the conference hall. There I will tell you all what is going on, and how we desperately need your help to same my kingdom.

Your kingdom?

As we followed, the posse and harem were non stop talking the whole time. I was lost in my thoughts trying to keep my beating heart still. For some reason, everything around me felt off and I couldn’t tell why.

“Save the kingdom?”

“Do you think we’re in an anime?”

Lost in my own thoughts, I couldn’t take in the fact that someone was right next to me.

“Aggie!” Apollo screamed, breaking me out of thought.

“Shit that was loud. Oh Apollo, sup.” I said in a monotone voice, going back to my thoughts.

“Ouch.” Apollo chuckled awkwardly. “You good?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I could feel the stares of his harem on the back of my neck.

“You look like you’re not all there.” Greg chuckled.

“Existential dread?” Richard laughed. How did he know a word like that?

“Something like that.” I whispered quietly enough for no one to hear, at least I thought. Apollo was giving me a strange look. “In fact, you guys are the weird ones here, laughing like normal in this situation.”

“I mean. It’s not like we can change it right?” Jackson chimed in.

“Plus, this feels kind of exciting.” Greg laughed.

“You guys are children.” I rolled my eyes.

“You can’t tell me you’re not a little interested in what he said.” Apollo exclaimed.

“What I’m interested in is finding our classmates, and getting back home.” I tried to put it as vague as possible, I couldn’t really tell them I’m mainly interested in finding Phobius. I know I cause him quite a bit of trouble already. It’s not my fault though that these jackasses follow me around, not like I ask them too. Because of that I don’t get to talk to him for more than a couple minutes a day, and during those minutes he’s very cold. I guess I would be upset too if suddenly a group of 10 people surrounded me, but what can I do? I know I could just not talk to him but that just doesn’t make me happy.

“So he is going to have to put up with me.” I grinned, talking to myself once again.

“Here we are.” The man smiled, opening the door to a large room with a huge round table in it. The ceiling was very high up with a beautiful chandelier hanging from the top. This was like one of those rooms you would see in a show or movie, but a lot better.

“Please, take a seat.” A man who looked like a butler brought us to one side of the table, while the man who looked like a king took the fanciest seat of them all, while the same woman as before took the second fanciest seat next to him. We nearly filled all the seats in the table leaving only two seats empty, one next to both of them.

“Before you start asking questions.” He put his hand out in front of him, “Let me give an explanation, then you can question me all you want.

Me? Not us?

“I am the King, Augustus Cromwell the 4th, of the great Kingdom of Aldrich.” His explanation went something like this. We were summoned to the world of Una, which is one giant land mass, as God’s chosen ones. The reason they summoned us was in order to defeat the neighbouring kingdom, the demon kingdom of Marduk. Apparently, they have been taking out Aldrich’s merchants traveling outside the kingdom, making their trade supply from other kingdoms come to a halt. In turn this is making the kingdom’s people suffer, going hungry as the prices of food and goods rise. They want us to stop the Demon King and bring peace back to the world of Una, and the kingdom of Aldrich.

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Ms.Baker yelled, slamming her hands on the table. “My students will do no such thing! That would be putting their lives in danger!”

“I’m not sure about everyone else.” Apollo started. “But. I can’t just ignore people who need help.”

“Apollo.” Ms.Baker shockingly said. She was at a loss for words. “You. You can’t.”

“I’m sorry Ms.Baker, but I want to help.”

“I forbid it!”

“If Apollo is in, so am I.” Jackson chimed in.

“Me too.”

“I wanna help as well.”

One by one, all of Apollo’s posse and harem said they wanted to help. I looked over to Angel and Damien and saw that they were just whispering among themselves. Apollo looked over to me with fire in his eyes, obviously wanting me to say I’m in as well.

“Don’t look at me.” I turned my head the other direction and stared at the wall.

This doesn’t feel right.

I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. This was a feeling like none I had ever experienced before. What is going on?

“I'm eternally grateful for the help you all are willing to give.”

All? You deaf old man?

“Let’s get started now.” Apollo boomed. “How can we help?”

“First we need to see all of your stats.” The king said.

“Stats?” Multiple students echoed.

“If you would follow him.” The king pointed to a middle aged man in full armor. “This is the captain of our guard, Captain Gered Oatsun.”

Gered what? What is up with the names in this world?

“He will teach you all you need to know about your stats, and how to get stronger. Now does anyone have any questions before I take my leave?”

“Tons.” Ms.Baker spat out. The king just seemed to ignore her, and this only made Ms.Baker even angrier.

“I have one.” I raised my hand only holding up two fingers.

“Yes?” The king responded.

“Where’s the rest of our classmates?” This made everyone, including my classmates, look at me confused.

“What do you mean?” The look in the king's eyes bothered me, but I had to know where Phobius was.

“When we got summoned or whatever. There was this bright light that trapped us, and there were other’s who were trapped that I don’t see here.”

“That’s strange.” The king scratched his chin, his eyes had a hint of panic in them. “You 10 were all who were summoned, but we will look into this, I assure you.”The way he said that last phrase bothered me more than the rest.

I have a feeling he isn’t the nice king he’s trying to be. I will just have to play nice until I can figure out what’s going on.

I stood up, headed towards the captain of the guard, or whatever he called him, to head out. This prompted the others to get out of their seats and follow suit. Ms.Baker tried to start yelling again but I put a hand on her shoulder and just shook my head. She got my message as upset as she was and followed as well.

“Alright youngins.” The captain started. “Once we get to the training field, we will start by looking at your stats.”

“Oh man, I’m so excited.” Jackson exclaimed. “I wonder how strong I’m gonna be.”

“I bet Apollo is the strongest.” Krystal seductively said, grabbing onto Apollo’s arm.

She isn’t trying to be discreet about it. Apollo is even dumber than I thought.

“I don’t know about that.” He laughed. “I bet Aggie is the strongest of us all.” This comment made glares come my way from two certain girls. I just kept my head down and kept walking.

The training field was about the size of a football field, with dummies set up around along with what seemed to be basic training equipment, albeit primitive ones.

“This is where we will be training.” The captain said. We stopped at the entrance of the field. “Now before we get started, we need to take a look at all of your stats, so I can get soldiers with the same class to help the majority of you. Let’s get started. Everyone take out your stat plates.”

“Stat plates.” Someone echoed.

“Oh boy, we gotta start there huh.” The captain sighed, placing his hand on his face. “There should be a sort of invisible string around your neck, pull on it.”

“Oh cool! It looks like a dog tag.” Greg exclaimed.

Seems safe to do so.

I followed suit and pulled out the stat plate from under my shirt.

“What do we do with these?” Apollo asked.

“Just think of opening up your stat page, then tap it once to only show it to yourself, or twice to show it for everyone to see.” ‘Apollo was the first to do so, and opened his up for everyone to see.

Name: Apollo Young, Race: Human, Age: 17

Level: 1, Class: Hero, Stat Points Available: 0

Strength:100 Agility: 50

Defense: 75 Stamina: 75

Magic: 25

Skills: Language Barrier (Lvl.Max) Analytics (Lvl.Max) Excalibur (Lvl.1) Heavenly Light (Lvl.1) Charm (Lvl.3) Heroics (Lvl.1), Rally (Lvl.1)

“A hero! I knew it would be something cool!” Sohpie jumped up and down giggling.

“Nice, so that’s why the king was so happy.” The captain awed. “Now those are some nice stats.”

“What are the normal stats?” I blurted out.

“Well for the average human, strength, defense, agility, and stamina are 10. With the average magic being about 5. The most veteran soldiers will only reach about 150 in one of their stats, and that’s if they focus on it. You will become a monster if you work hard, kid.”

“A hero.” Apollo stared at him. “I will become a hero.” The captain just scoffed at him and continued on.

“Alright, let’s see the rest of you.”

“OOH, I got Warrior!” Greg bellowed.

“I got Archer!” Jackson followed.

“And I got Wizard!” Richard said last.

Pretty normal classes you would see in any type of game or anime. Looks like I can expect something similar.

I focused and tapped on my stat plate only once, expecting to see some basic class and stats but what I saw was.

Name: Agatha Patterson, Race: Human, Age: 16

Level: 1, Class: Witch, Stat Points Available: 0

Strength: 25 Agility: 30

Defense: 25 Stamina: 30

Magic: 50

Skills: Language Barrier (Lvl.Max), Analytics (Lvl.Max) Medium (Lvl.1) Soul Reincarnation (Lvl.1)Day of the Dead (Lvl.1) Reading (Lvl.3) Shinigami (Lvl.1)

“What the fuck?” I couldn’t stop myself from saying that out loud, getting the attention of Apollo.

“What did you get, Aggie?”

“Shit.” I cursed myself under my breath. I was hoping to keep my stats a secret but being childhood friends with this bozo is biting me in the butt.

“Just some normal stuff you know.” A drop of sweat fell down my brow.

I’m not gonna convince anyone.

I sighed and tapped the stat plate twice, showing my stats to everyone.

“What the?” Jackson exclaimed.

“Witch?” The captain looked puzzled. “I’ve never heard of that class before, and just what are those skills? Your stats are also super high, for a non hero class.”

“I. I don’t know.” I blurted out, closing my stat plate unconsciously. It seems just thinking about closing the stat plate actually closes it. Silence ensued for a few seconds, people trying to process my stats.

“Well. I got healer!” Sohpie said, grabbing onto Apollo’s arm.

“And I got buffer!” Krystal chimed in, grabbing Apollo’s other arm. “Now we can protect you.”

“Yeah we’ll never let you get hurt!” Sophie giggled.

“Thanks, girls. So captain, what is this stat point’s available section?”

“I was just about to get to that.”

Alright so we're just going to skip over Ms.Baker, Angel, and Damien I guess. Angel and Damien don’t seem bothered about it, they're still just whispering to each other. But Ms.Baker seems depressed, probably because she can’t stop Apollo from his fantasies of being a hero. He even had them when we were kids.

“Each time you level up, you gain 5 stat points. You can then distribute them into any of the stats you want. They won’t go up naturally though, so choose wisely where you put your stat points. I’ve seen some people put too many stat points into one stat, and they end up regretting it for their whole life. It’s up to you where you put it but make sure you won’t regret it later.”

“So how do we level up?” Jackson asked.

“You can either work out, defeat monsters, or defeat demons.”

“We can level up just by working out.” Greg asked, flexing his arm.

“Technically yes, but people can work out their whole life and only level up five times. It’s not the most efficient way of leveling up.”

“So let’s go defeat some monsters.” Apollo urged.

“Hold your horses there hero. I said you can only level up by defeating monsters and demons, but I never said anything about leveling up your skills.”

That’s right. I secretly pulled back up my stat plate. We have skills that have a level attached to them. These are really weird skills though, plus Witch is a little harsh isn’t it? Language Barrier, Analytics, Medium, Soul Reincarnation, Day of the Dead, Reading, and SHINIGAMI?! Alright, I officially don’t like what I have. No harm in asking more questions though, even if it does draw a little attention my way.

“So why do we have different skills? Is it based on the class we get?” I asked the captain.

“Actually you have it opposite there.” Opposite? “Your class is based on the skills you have, not the other way around.”

That’s different from every piece of media I’ve seen. Which isn’t much granted, I only watched some to try and connect with Phobius a little.

“The people of Aldrich gain skills naturally as they grow up. There is no randomization when it comes to skills. If you focus on learning the sword, you gain sword skills. You work on your running, you gain agility skills. Starting to get it now?” I nodded my head in understanding. “The reason you guys already have skills is the same, it’s based on your life from your world, or so the prophecies say.”

That makes some sense, I guess. I come from a hispanic background, so we celebrate el día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) each year. But it’s not like it was an integral part of my life, why did I get skills surrounding talking to the dead and bringing them back to life. Like, reading I can understand, I like to read. But, come on. Really?! Also WHAT THE HELL IS THIS SHINIGAMI SKILL?!?!?

“Yeah, I guess this makes sense. That’s why I have all these strength skills.” Greg contemplated.

“So what’s the point of classes then, if we don’t get skills based on them?” I need to get as much information as possible if I am going to survive in this world.

“I’m not sure about the info you have about this stuff from your world, but here people with the class of blacksmith can create weapons, equipment, and accessories that boost a certain class's stats and abilities.”

That makes a lot more sense, but that means I’m shit outta luck. I have a class that even the captain hasn’t heard of, which means I can’t get specific gear. That reminds me.

“What class do you have Ms.Baker?” She was in the back of the group, obviously trying to hide.

“Well, it’s nothing special.”

“Come on. I’m interested.” I insisted.

“Alright. I have the class of Teacher.”

“PPPHHHTTT! HAHAHA!”

“Agatha!”

“I’m sorry, Ms.Baker. It just fits so well.”

“Alright, alright. How about we get started on leveling up your skills, and your bodies before we go fight some monsters and demons. You all the Analytics skill right?”

“Yeah.” Many students responded.

“That will let you read what your skills do. If legend is right, you all should have the max level of the Analytics skill. That will allow you to read any skill and get a description of it.”

“Quick question.” I chimed in. “What level is max level?”

“We have reason to believe it is level 10, because after level 9 it just says max. Very few throughout history have ever reached max in any skill that wasn’t one of God’s chosen one’s.”

“What’s the highest level skill you have, captain?” Apollo asked.

“My highest is currently level 8, my sword proficiency skill.” This got oohs and ahhs out of the students. “Alright enough talk, let’s start exploring all of your skills, and get sweating. The more you use your skills the more it’ll level up. Just make sure not to use up all your MP.”

“What determines your MP?” I asked my final question.

“We are not really sure. We use this term to describe how long you can last using skills. The better the skill, the more MP it uses.”

Just like a game.

“Let’s get to work!” The captain yelled out, pumping his fist into the air.

The captain then brought out different classes of his guards in order to teach the ones with corresponding classes. Since I had a strange class, I was not given someone to work with, in fact I rarely had anyone come to help. The captain came by to check occasionally but he mainly worked with Apollo, the hero, as of course there is no one in the world besides Apollo who has the hero class.

I was fine with working by myself however, I hated being treated like some anomaly because no one knew of any of my main skills. Thanks to my maxed out Analytics skill I was able to figure out what all of these strange skills do.

Language Barrier: Gives the user the ability to translate any spoken language into their own native language. While speaking their own native language, others will hear your voice in their language. The higher the level the more the user and others understand each other.

So it just gives me the ability to talk to anyone.

Analytics: Gives the user the ability to read a description of any skill. The higher the level, the higher rarity skills are able to be read.

Pretty straightforward as well.

Medium: Gives the user the ability to talk to the souls of the dead. The higher the skill the higher the ability to talk to specific souls.

Why would I need to talk to the dead? Interrogation maybe?

Soul Reincarnation: Gives the user the ability to revive ones who have recently died as shadow soldiers that they can control. The higher the level, the more of the soul they can revive, and the user is given the choice of level of freewill the soul has, the higher the level the more freewill they can give. The higher the level, the longer the soul will last, the stronger the soul the shorter amount of time they last.

That is a bit complex. I can revive souls as shadow soldiers, but the higher the level the more I can give back the soul their original form? Maybe? But they will disappear after a set amount of time. Strange.

Day of the Dead: Once a day, it gives the user the ability to revive all souls around them as shadow soldiers. The higher the level, the bigger the range the ability has.

That seems strong in battles against lots of monsters. To bring all of them to my side at once.

Reading: Gives the user the ability to read any language. The higher the level the more the language they can understand.

That will be useful for gathering information.

Shinigami (Ultimate Skill): Gives the user the power of a god of death. The higher the level the more abilities it unlocks. - Level 1: The user gains the ability to feel the bloodlust of others.

Now this was the skill I was interested in. Ultimate skill, huh. I wonder how rare an Ultimate skill is. I am just going to keep this skill to myself for the time being. It seems each time I level up, I gain a new skill of the Shinigami. I’m assuming each skill will get stronger as well.

Trying to use and level up these skills is what ended up being the biggest problem to arise. How does one use Soul Reincarnation or Day of the Dead, without any soul to revive? How the hell does one USE SHINIGAMI?! Without being able to train those I was down to two, reading and medium. I decided to try to use medium first. Without any idea of how to use the skill since no one had heard of it before all I could do was sit down and focus on speaking to the dead. We were confined to the practice field however, so I doubt there were any souls there for me to talk to. With reading being the only option left, I decided to start training by just doing some simple running. Right before I started though, Ms.Baker came up to me.

“Agatha.”

“Yes, Ms.Baker?”

“Do you mind if you help me train my skills?”

“Sure, but I thought you were against this.”

“I am, but if I can’t stop anyone. I can at least make sure that no one gets hurt on my watch.” I could see the determination in her eyes that she lost after the talk at the conference table.

“Alright, what skill is it?”

With that, Ms.Baker and I trained by ourselves while the other students were getting help from the guards. It seemed that Apollo, his posse, and his harem were the ones getting the most help though. Angel and Damien were getting some help, but it almost seemed like the guards didn’t want to help them.

Hours passed until training ended. We ended the day with dinner back at the conference room, a nice bath, then we each got our own rooms as well. It was all nice but I still can’t shake the feeling I have been feeling since we arrived here.

Wait. Maybe it’s the first skill of the Shinigami ability. That would explain why I have never felt this before. But I can figure it out later, I’m tired.

The next two days were the same. Wake up, get ready, breakfast, train, lunch, train, free time, dinner, sleep. It was efficient and during that time I was able to make my reading, and my shinigami skill go up a level. This next level gave me the ability to better focus on this feeling I was having. I could tell exactly who and where it was coming from now. The main people it came from were the king, the queen, and the nobles. The captain of the guards actually didn’t give me any bad feelings. That was a relief because that meant I was actually able to trust him.

Everything was going well, including my training until that third day I was here. When I was exploring the castle as I usually did, I heard interesting rumors that were popping up over and over that day. Apparently there was someone who caused a huge commotion in the poorer part of the kingdom. Actually destroying a whole building and killing a few guards. They had apprehended him and were currently being interrogated in the dungeon. I would’ve liked to see what was going on but I was yet to figure out where the dungeon was in the castle. It was huge and my prediction was that I only explored half of it. That wasn’t including any secret rooms that they had, which I knew for sure they had. But I knew where I was headed next. It was time to find the dungeon.

I was currently in the courtyard in the middle of the castle and just as I was about to head out to do so, the ground started shaking. Almost as strong as when Apollo was first summoned here.

“GRAAAAH!” Something half growled, half yelled out so loudly I had to cover my ears. I heard what sounded to be like cracking, and turning around I saw the castle’s walls starting to crack. Then something jumped through the castle walls, tearing them apart as it launched itself into the sky. It almost seemed like it was flying but on closer inspection, it simply jumped all the way from underground to above the castle itself, leaving a huge hole on its way up. Landing with such strength it left a small crater on one of the watchtowers it didn’t destroy on it’s way up.

“Strange.” I pondered. “It almost looks human.” It looked off into the distance, revealing its side to me, and that is when I saw who it truly was. I quietly called out his name.

“Phobius.”

POV: Phobius Barnes

“Where am I?” My head felt groggy, and my body felt confined. Slowly opening my eyes I was in a pure concrete room, full of horror movie esque tools.

“He’s waking up.”

“Good. Now we can have some fun.” Once I fully came too, I saw 3 people who looked like guards in front of me.

“What happened?” I tried to put my hand to my head but something stopped my arm and I heard a jangle.

“Son of a bitch is playing dumb.”

“Let me at him captain.”

“Hold on, we're not barbarians. We need to see if he will cooperate first.”

“He killed five of our officers, sir. He doesn’t deserve cooperation.”

“Calm your emotions, officer!”

“Sorry, sir.”

The one who seemed to be in charge walked up to me. I was sitting on the ground, my arms above my head, shackled. Too weak to stand, I just stared at him while he walked towards me. He looked composed, but for some reason I was able to tell a little bit what his actual emotions are. It was difficult however, almost like he was trying to hide them. Anger and hatred that seemed to be aimed at me was what I felt like he was truly feeling. It was very vague however.

“Now boy.” A vision of a man flashed through my head, and it made me extremely sad. “Who are you and where are you from?”

“Who am I?” I echoed. “I’m. I’m.” I went silent.

“Not wanting to talk huh.” The man turned around and nodded to the one who was complaining a couple of seconds ago. He grinned and started to run at me, kicking me straight in the ribs.

“KAH!” Was all I could get out. My head still felt fuzzy and the kick knocked the wind out of me.

“Son.” A flash of a woman came into my mind this time, once again making me unbelievably sad. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. How did you kill our officers, barehanded?”

Kill? What is he talking about?

He nodded to the other officer this time, who slowly walked up to me before grabbing my head and slamming his fist into my face. This time I didn’t even make a noise, my mind was starting to shatter.

“What were you doing with that family?” A flash of a little girl came into my mind, and this time tears started to roll down my cheeks.

“Aww. Is the little baby crying?”

“What the bastard deserves.”

Looking up, the man they called captain grabbed a tool from the table filled with them. It looked to be a sort of batan that a police officer would have, and just like a police officer, as hard as he could he hit me with it in the side of my head.

CRRKK! The noise it made was horrid and I was barely able to stay conscious.

“I’m glad my men killed that family before you killed them.” At last the scene came rushing back into my head. Phillip, Kathy, and V, getting shot by those damn officers.

“AHHHHHHHHH!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, making each of the officers jump back.

“Haha.” One of them laughed. “Permission to use the devices, captain?” The captain did one last look at me, tears rolling down my cheeks, pure hatred in my eyes.

“He’s not talking. Go crazy. Damn mistake.” He spit out before exiting the room.

“You’re gonna wish you were never born kid.” I have no idea how long it lasted. They used a number of tools, breaking my fingers, pulling out my teeth and fingernails. The pain was nothing compared to the pain in my heart. My brain dulled with each passing minute. The physical and mental pain combined wearing me down slowly but surely. Over and over, I would see visions of Phillip, Kathy, and sweet little V, then see them getting killed. Over and over, one time, two times, three times, a dozen times, two dozen times. It wouldn’t stop replaying in my brain.

Why won’t you let me out? A voice called out to me, inside of my own head.

“Let out you?” I responded inside.

You’re trapping me in here, why?

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

I guess you’re doing it subconsciously. That won’t work at all, little one. I crave freedom.

“There is no such thing as freedom in this world.”

I can give it to you. Don’t you remember what we did last time?

“Last time?” Suddenly a vision played in my head, officers getting crushed, blood everywhere, and most importantly I remembered that feeling of power.

Didn’t that taste sweet? Don’t you want to make this world pay?

A grin went across my face, and my mind was filled with anger and hatred. “Yes, I do.”

POV: #$*(&^@

“Finally, I am free.” A huge smile came across my face.

“Hit him again.” One of the pathetic humans said. The other waste of space came at me with what looked like a club with spikes in it.

“Pathetic.” I laughed, right before he hit me with the club, I stopped him with magic holding him in place.

“What the hell?” He exclaimed. I cocked my head to the side and stared straight into his eyes. Sweat started to roll down his head as he looked into the abyss that were my eyes. He tried to look away but I wasn’t about to let him. I froze his entire body into place as I forcefully broke the chains, freeing my hands.

“Stoo… Stop right there.” The other stuttered out. He started to cast some magic but before he was even able to fully summon his spell, I casted one of my own.

“Die.” With a monotone voice, I casted a spell that started to make his eyes slowly pop out of his head.

“AHHHH!” He screamed, probably feeling the most pain he ever had in his entire life. It makes sense really, I casted a spell that slowly inflated everything inside of his head making sure he stayed alive the whole time until. POP! His head exploded, covering the entire room with his gore. I made sure to put a thin layer of mana around myself to make sure I didn’t make the mistake of getting dirty again like last time.

“NOOO!” The one still frozen yelled.

“Don’t worry.” I smiled, bloodlust pouring out of me. “I will make sure your death is just as painful.”

“Please. I have a family.” He pleaded.

“Oh you do? That changes things.” A small glimmer of light shone in his eyes, which I quickly shut down. “Would you like me to go get them to join you?” His face went pale. “A wife and a son, huh?”

“How? How did you know that?” I put a finger to his mouth.

“Trade secret.”

“Don’t hurt them. Please.”

“Lucky for you, he doesn’t want to get innocents involved currently.” His face relaxed a little. “But. He has deemed you guilty it seems.”

“Please.” Before he could plead anymore I shot a bullet of fire into his eye.

“AHHHH!” An ear piercing scream came from his mouth.

“Music to my ears.” I smiled, taking it in. “Your eye is currently being melted. That spell wasn’t strong enough to immediately destroy your eye. Instead it will slowly melt it until it drips out of your socket.” As if on cue, a bloody cream started pouring out of his eye. “Ah. There it is. A little faster than anticipated though. Guess I still have to get used to his body.”

“AHHHH!” The whole time his screaming didn’t stop, just the way I like it.

“Don’t worry. I will keep your other eye intact, so you can see what is happening to you.” At last my vessel began to heal, the fingernails and teeth returning. The broken fingers healing. “Finally, I was starting to get annoyed by those injuries. Took a little while though.”

Even through the pain, I could see the confusion on his face. “I don’t think my healing is any of your concern right now.” I said before slamming my foot into his knee breaking it in two. This only made his screaming even louder. “That’s no good. Any louder and we might attract some unwanted attention.” Slitting his throat, his screaming stopped. I cut it deep enough to cut the vocal cords, but shallow enough to make sure he didn’t die immediately.

Unfortunately, I could hear footsteps heading our direction. “Shit. And here I was having so much fun.” I stroked his cheek once, staring into his eyes, my bloodlust never disappearing. “Don’t worry, the collapse of this building should kill you. That or you will either be trapped under the rubble slowly bleeding out.”

Even though he couldn’t make a noise, I could see the pleading in his one remaining eye. “I’m just going to pretend it’s the second one. It’s much more fun that way.” Licking my lips, I jumped through the roof, activating that thin layer of mana around me. One floor, two floors, three floors, four floors. After 8 floors I busted through the roof of this building, landing on a watchtower attached to this building, which seemed to be a castle.

“Quite a large kingdom.” I exclaimed. “My castle was bigger though.” The kingdom seemed to get more run down the further from the castle and the entrance gate it got. That one gate seemed to be the only entrance and exit to the kingdom as the rest of it was surrounded by large walls.

“What poor design. Only one entrance and exit. A disaster waiting to happen. So where shall we go?”

Back. Where it started.

“Back where it started huh, you got it.” Jumping off the tower, I swear I heard a name being called. “Who cares?”

We ran faster than any human could keep up with, jumping from rooftop to rooftop leaving cracks with every step. It only took a few minutes until we arrived, back to where it started. In front of me I could see the building that we destroyed, the blood still there. It was just 8 hours ago, give or take, that we were here. Because it was the dead of night nobody was out and about to see us.

Then out of nowhere, he took control.

How the? He is even keeping my powers.

POV: Phobius Barnes

“Why did this happen?” I slowly walked into the destroyed building that I would call my home. “Is it my fault?”

I walked all the way up to where the dining table, which was now destroyed, was. There I could see what seemed to be a body buried under the rubble. I grabbed the pure concrete broken pieces, which were as large as me and tossed them behind me. Underneath was Phillip’s body, in a very beat up condition. His arm was broken, his body dented in multiple places, all bloodied. Tears started to roll down my cheek.

I walked to the other side of the table, throwing the pieces of the rubble as I did. There was Kathy’s body, and then I saw Vannelope’s. Falling to my knees, I picked her up into my arms. Her body was mostly intact, thanks to Kathy shielding her.

V’s eyes were closed, she looked peaceful. You could almost mistake that she was sleeping, if it wasn’t for the hole where the spell shot through in her head. The tears kept flowing, faster and faster, falling onto her face.

“Why?” I whispered. “I never should have stayed with them. It’s my fault. My fault.” My mind was starting to race faster and faster, until I couldn’t control it anymore.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, letting out an absurd amount of mana around me, crushing what little of the building there was left. I had enough consciousness left though to make sure that Phillip and Kathy’s body were fine. After a few seconds, I quieted down.

“I’m sorry.” I sniffled. “I’m sorry.”

“There he is!” I heard in the distance.

I brushed V’s hair out of her face. Kissing her on the forehead, I gently set her down next to Kathy.

“They're gonna pay.” I clenched my fists. “I’m gonna make them pay.”

I have to get stronger. The only way to do that is to leave the kingdom.

“Get him!” An officer ran at me, while others started casted spells in the back. There seemed to be a dozen in all.

“Shut up.” I held out my hand and sent out a blast of mana straight at them. It was so strong that they weren’t even blown back, they all just exploded on the spot. As their blood rained from the sky, I looked over to Phillip, Kathy, and lastly Vanellope for the last time.

“I loved you guys. Even though it was just a few days we knew each other. You’re my family. I love you guys. Goodbye.” I jumped into the sky, leaving a crater in the ground.

This is gonna work just fine. That voice in my head said again. As I headed towards the gate of the kingdom, I looked down upon it. Cursing everything and everyone in it.

“Just you wait.” I spit out, pure hatred in my voice. “You’re all gonna pay.”