-Jana is dead? No! She can't be! What about our promise to always be together forever. *Sniff Sniff* if this is your fault, arrogant king, I swear I kill you!-

Ghost slams the door into the messengers face out of sheer anger and goes to his room to cry.

*Knock knock!* A gentle knocking is barely noticeable over his tears and then it stops to be replaced with Liz’s voice. “Are you ok Ghost? What did the king have to say?”

“Jana, she’s dead!” That’s all he manages to get out from his ugly snot infested face.

After telling her the devastating news she seems to have decided to leave him be which isn’t always the best choice in this scenario *Ahem*.

He then proceeds to cry out all his feelings till his tear ducts dry and he can't cry anymore. After crying his eyes out he falls asleep in his still wet bed.

He open his eyes to the rising sun and starts to get up while stretching.

-No matter what happens the sun will always rise and then set. The world is constantly changing, but what cruel dark world is a world without my sister?-

“Ghost are you awake?” He faintly hears Liz’s voice behind the chirping of the morning birds and the bad sound isolation of the wooden hut.

“Yes, I just got up. Is there anything you need?” He asks while trying to be as happy and calm as possible. Probably trying to not have another mental breakdown when everyone is counting on him.

“I think we should talk, but sadly the king has summoned you instead of me having time to talk.”

She pauses for a second as if waiting for something. “The king wouldn't call upon someone he called a failure unless it was his last choice.”

“He is a very arrogant man and barely ever admits to his mistakes. I'm afraid whether you like it or not you’re our last hope” Towards the end her tone starts to audibly shake.

“Why should I save a world that killed my sister?” He melodramatically replies back while trying to hold in his obvious anger that’s coursing through his veins like a wildfire.

“Why should I save a king that didn't couldn't even tell who their savior was? Because of his incompetence I lost my sister. If only he chose me she would still be safe.”

“Do you know what I’m thinking right now?”

“No, I don't know what you think I'm not capable of a convenient thing like mind reading!” He instantly retorts without thinking about the implications of her question nor trying to constructively find the answer.

“Magic can't be used to solve all your problems. Look at me I don't have a speck of mana in my body, yet I have lived this long, which might be the oldest ever.”

“You say that it's the king’s fault your sister died. What do you think he should die because of his mistake? Your sister died protecting him and yet you want her death to be in vain? Instead of helping the person she sacrificed her life for you want to kill him!”

Liz tries to force some sense into the ignorant kid while blatantly lying to him about not having any mana. Why would she be respected by the brat Alicia if she didn't have mana.

“I never mentioned anything about killing him! Why did you think I'd want to do that?”

-Who does she think she is! She never met Jana how would she know what MY sister wants. I know MY sister the best the nerve to tell ME what SHE thinks.-

“Right now you’re probably thinking things like, I don't know her how would I know what she wants, right?”

“Maybe.”

“Well you’re right in one way I don't know her, you do. Now you tell me would your sister want you to lock yourself inside your room like this?”

-Would she?-

“I don't know! *Sniff drip.* I don't know what I should do anymore.”

The tears start to fall again dripping into his mouth with their salty taste. “Do you really think that Sis would want me to help the people that used her as a sacrifice?”

“She never visited you after all this time, so I think, like you, she really wanted to help this world. I think she wouldn't want her killers to go unharmed. So please this is me honestly asking you to help the king and your friends.”

-Wait a second in such a game like world maybe this is part of the questline. Yeah, save the kingdom stop an army all of it is found in cheap rpgs where you start off with the king begging you to save him and kill the demon lord.-

Thanks to the sudden loss of his sister Ghost mind starts to warp and create a fake reality for him to live in. He slowly starts to convince himself that this is all just a game and his sister is alive and well.

-So if it's like this then the demon lord should have a revive crystal. This all just happened to fuel the mc’s rage and wanting to save them.-

“Fine I’ll talk with him, but I'm not promising you that I will repel the Unknown.”

“That’s fine all I'm asking you is to at least try to protect the people like Alex, Arthur, Sophia, and Alicia. You may not want to protect the king but remember he isn't the only person whose life is on the line.”

He leaves the house and sees the messenger still waiting for him after having the door slammed shut in his face. “Fine take me to your king, I’ll see what I can do for this country.”

“Follow me then.” He follow the tiny man to the same castle and then through a couple twists and turns to the grand jewel encrusted door. “Go in. He is waiting for you with a few other guests.”

He enters into the throne room and sees the king in his same old throne and position as if he never moved since they first met.

"Ghost I am so sorry about your sister's death. Please forgive me it it's all my fault. They were after my life, but instead your beloved sister took the magic. Please, I was wrong. How could I have known that the weak little boy in front of me was actually a grand and talented hero?”

He actually gets up from his throne and kneels in front of Ghost to beg for forgiveness.

“Please, avenge your sister and end the terror that haunts my poor kingdom. We can't stall for time any longer. The unknown are getting farther and farther into my kingdom."

-Sigh get on with it I have to go out and get that revive crystal nothing else matters.-

"Fine! I will help your kingdom, but if I ever find out that she died because of you then you're dead."

-Let’s just finish this quest and revive her it should be as simple as that.-

As the delusions get more and more intense to cope for his lose he almost seems to see the world in a pixel like way.

"Escort this brave hero to my personal collection, so that he can pick his tools to save our world."

The king gets up from the ground and orders his guards around, but sadly Ghost seems to have become a bit too broken to realise this is a good chance to increase his pitiable defense.

"I'm fine the way I am. Just take me out of this maze of a castle."

-Come on the faster I finish this game the sooner I get to see her again.-

The crazy fever that took over him seems to have reached its peak and probably won't disappear till he realises this isn't a game but is his reality.

"Fine, take our young hero out of the castle and then show him the way to our victory." The king tries to make a grandiose matter about sending the broken child to a war front and almost seems uncaring about broken look in Ghost’s eyes.

Sophia enters the room and immediately yells. "Don't immediately throw him in a war zone! Good king he is the only hope we have. Can you not at least teach him about war or give him some experience in fighting? Do you want us to lose our last hope?"

"That is a good idea, but what should we have him fight? Monsters and the unknown are to completely separate entities."

-Ahh, that’s right I haven't gone through anything like a tutorial yet. This must be when it finally happens.-

The delusions have sadly taken full force over him and the fantasy world he created became the reality that he sees. The coping has gotten to a complete point where he isn't even fazed at the thought of killing anyone anymore.

"Do you have any prisoners?" He suddenly has the urge to question the normally unchangeable tutorial dialogue.

"Yes, why?" The king asks him curiously.

"How about we use them as battle practice. I won't feel as bad if they are bad people like the unknown and will get battle practice. Also you will get to get rid of a unwanted prisoner." He tries to find a way to get to the ‘tutorial’ faster, so he can ‘revive’ his sister sooner.

"Sounds like a brilliant idea. Come let's go immediately there is no time to waste." The king and Sophia take him through a couple of halls and down some stairs into a cellar hidden in the middle of a hallway behind a hidden switch.

“This is where I keep the worst of the worst. Everyone here should have a public execution in my opinion, but the nobles think it would be bad for my image to publicly kill them. We decided to leave them here.”

“You killing one is a blessing to this country and to the person himself. Most have gone insane down here so be careful.”

He encounters his first ‘monster’ a lanky old man who probably ‘murdered’ people as he pleased.

-Since this is so game like and he feels so evil it should be simple to kill him.-

Ghost mindlessly launch a drop of blood through his opponents chest which then pierces his heart. He falls to the ground, but no ‘exp’ where given probably because this isn’t a game and our pour candidate has gone a bit crazy.

-Bummer that he didn't drop anything useful. I wonder why he was so easy to kill. Don't tell me that I'm already so overleveled from all the studying that this game will be easy for me!-

Ghost starts to hear the muttering between the two familiar yet unfamiliar ‘npcs’. Sadly after our candidate went a bit psycho I the bored lurking viewer can't hide myself that well anymore.

I’ll be here to point out the disparities between what he views and what is actually happening, which happens to suit my job as the Viewer quite well.

"See Sophia, he's fine with killing people."

"But how do we know he will be able to fight against an army."

"That is his destiny as our hero. If he can't fight an army, then what use is he to us?"

-I can't stand waiting to save my sister. I need to quickly get these events going, so I can save her even faster it would be rude to keep her waiting.-

"King show me to the battlefield. I want to quickly end this stupid war and go home."

-With my sister of course I wonder if this is just some high tech simulator that someone threw us into to use as lab rats. I should tell the creators that it feels so real, but the combat is meh.-

"Take this child away immediately. If he wants to go to war then let him. He can only blame himself if he dies out there, but if he does die then hopefully my kingdom will manage to survive without him."

"Yes sir!" A royal guard with an emblem of a golden dragon on his shiny white armor replies. " I won't let him die. If any unknown get too close to him I swear I will protect him with my life."

"Thank you. I will be in your protection."

-First party member get! It's even a reliable knight perfect for the mage class. I wonder if I went down the warrior class would it be a mage?-

"Go then, there is no time to waste."

They quickly head out of the maze like castle and arrive at a waiting carriage. After they enter the carriage the knight starts explaining the current situation.

"We are going to go to a fort city which is currently being sieged by unknown. The unknown look just like us, so be careful on who you hit with that magic of yours."

"Ok I got a plan to make out friendly from foe. When we get there I need you to make a command to the soldiers. Can you do that?"

-Please, I'll complete this quest in record time so that everyone will be proud of me and take care of my sister and me forever and ever.-

"Of course, as the captain of the royal guards my word is second only to the king himself in all military environments. If you need me to do something just ask.”

The royal guard proudly brags to the child hero, while the only thing that's going on in our poor candidate's mind is what he’ll do after getting his sister back.

“You may not think that your life is important. But you're the most important person here!“ He excitedly proclaims while whispering under his breath, “right now.”

Ghost seems to not be able to hear the comment as he is still in his uncaring and everything is fake state. “If you show our army your strength I'm sure they would listen to you as well."

“Come we have no time to waste let’s hurry to the carriage the sooner we get there the less people will end up dying. Explain to me about where we are going along the way!”

Ghost tries to speed up the slow plot and be time efficient about everything he has to do to quickly get his sister back.

Maybe it's for the best that his mind went into this strange coping mode instead of being responsive to reality. Maybe if this didn't happen he wouldn’t end up being able to save some of his currently living loved ones.

The carriage finally leaves The last section of the city walls and starts to head towards the fort city much to Ghosts relief.

“The city is the last line of defence before the kingdom is at risk of destruction. I call it a city buts it's more like a giant gate that stops all unwanted visitors.”

”You see the main parts of the kingdom is surrounded by mountains that are famous for having monsters that could threaten a army dwelling inside.”

“I see, so this city could be considered a part of the border?” Ghost asks while being curious about why such a city is being overrun by the enemies, but finally ends up going back to his this is all a game delusion and figures it's poor writing.

“More or less a border between the inner parts of the kingdom and the outer parts. It is literally the only way to get to the king without wasting a significant amount of men to the beasts.”

“The Unknown probably think it's better to lose men on us then the monsters since they will have to deal with us eventually.”

“Since it's the only entrance to the inner section of the kingdom they’re sending everything they have at it. I'm afraid if you don't intervene it will fall and they will continue on right to the poorly protected capital.”

“So you’re saying that it's the last line of defence to the capital and must be held at all costs?” He asks while not really caring if his thoughts are true, so that the plot can continue forward and maybe the carriage would speed up.

“It's actually much worse than that! The fort is in such a easily to defend position that the rest of the inner kingdom is poorly defended and the capital barely can be considered to have protection against a enemy attack. ” He shakes his head in disagreement.

-This game sure is tough throwing you immediately in a I can't lose this scenario. Sheesh, doesn’t the game developers know that it would make the game feel rushed and short if you have such important scenarios at the start. I don't even get to play games and I know this!-

I usually don't mention their thoughts that much when I show what I view, but these thoughts are the ideal thing to actually show. Let us all hope that the person who I chosen to view doesn’t go crazy!

They continue to push on for four days via the carriage. The first thing that Ghost notices after inwardly complaining about the realistic journey is that the battle isn't going to well and if they arrived a day latter the battle would probably would be over.

But he is after all a kid who can't understand the gravity of such situations and is currently not right in the head, so his thoughts can't be completely trusted.

"Kid you sure you want me to order them to do this?" The royal guard seems to be a bit scared and worried to do what Ghost has asked of him, but the king’s orders are absolute.

"Yes if you order them as I told you this battle shouldn't last too long." Ghost while naturally not understanding the consequences of what he is about to do.

"Fine. Sigh, this is Royal Guard Captain Theodore!" Theodore yells towards them in a magically enhanced voice that echoes throughout the fort and battlefield.

"Everyone get in the fort and barricade it shut! The hero will take care of everything that isn't inside of the fort!" Ghosts ‘brilliant’ plan is revealed in all of its glory!

They quickly scramble to get inside while Theo is giving out his next order to the insides of the fort.

"Mages gather all your mana into one big spell were aiming to wipe out as many as possible. The hero will stall while you're recharging your mana and will need the blood for his own magic!"

All the mages proceed to q gather around each other into a circle preparing a synchronized chant.

-Hmmp! Does he think I mean to stall for time. I need to end this battle as soon as possible, the sooner I end it the faster I get to see Jana again.-

Honestly I don't know where all this arrogance and power is coming from. It's as if something has awakened inside of him to accomplish his mission.

"Charge forward! We're going to take down this fort then carry on for our lord's conquest." A Unknown leader commands his troops. "*Cough cough* what was that—" A blood spike pierces out where his heart should be.

-Just like the prisoner everyone of these monsters are so easy to kill. Maybe the creator wanted to make it lifelike by adding fatal points. I shall abuse this system then.-

"Blood mist!" He shouts while being proud about how superhero like he sounds. The blood that was leaking from the commander's dead corpse starts to form a mist of red!

It surrounded a good hundred of the superior officers than. "Death field!" The blood mist forms into spikes and pierces all over everyone within it, even from inside their lungs!

No unprotected part of their body is left. It is all shredded meat. Some parts are still left, but you can't call what's left alive.

-The lifelike feeling is this games only good part it will looks like I'm slaughtering enemies and this headache is also so realistic!-

Ahh, it seems yet another important part of his brain broke under the hidden guilt and all that's left is the crazy that's hidden in all of us.

The army gets driven into chaos and he doesn’t want to give them any breathing room. "Come" the blood from the commander and his subordinates flows towards Ghost as if he is a magnet and the blood is metal.

"Blood spears!" The blood forms into a hundred spears and then shoots into the chaos. Blood and guts continue to fly everywhere.

The spears each go through a group of ten soldiers before shattering. Ghost can't help but laugh as the insanity keeps corrupting his child like mind more and more.

-Die all of you pointless mobs. I don't have time to mess with small fry like you hurry up and trigger the boss battle. She’s waiting for me and hates it when I keep her waiting!-

"Shit I didn't take out enough there’s still thousands of them. Way too many to count or care about" He lifts up his hands and the blood follows. "Just die!”

He yells annoyed by the puny little mob of creatures while the blood forms into a solid wall above thousands of monsters and then falls smashing everything that is beneath it. The blood then returns back to being a liquid revealing a pulp nothing but flesh and bones.

"Hey kid you don't have to kill them all just stall for nine more minutes!" Theodore says while obviously being afraid by the sheer amount of power that an immature kid has.

He is probably wondering why someone created such a miniature monster who doesn't care about the lives of others, while not knowing that this is nowhere near the kids actual character.

-Nine minutes is too long of a wait and all he is doing is standing there ordering me? Why don't you put in some work as well? This party member is useless.-

"Shut up! How about you get some archers to shoot at them, so it's not a one man show over here!"

Most of the unknown have an expression of pure terror, but they are starting to reform their ranks and are planning on using their only advantage their sheer stupidly huge numbers.

-Seriously does the creator of this game not understand that there is more to war than sheer numbers! Why don't they have bows? Why aren't they charging at me on horses? Is there no cavalry unit? How about magic where’s the person that burned my sister to crisp.-

"Everyone grab a bow and arrows even if you aren't experienced. There should be crossbows over there."

He hears his useless party member finally getting to work and lowering the amount of deaths on his hands."We need to protect the kid if he dies, then not only will this fort fall but our country will fall as well."

"Yes, sir!" A volley of arrows fly out of the fort. There aren't that many arrows flying, so there must not be many soldiers left. Most of the arrows hit someone thanks to the stupidly large amount of people attacking this fort.

-At least now I have time to store up blood and form a large attack. Why is everything in this game so useless it didn't even let sis play it!-

"Blood Flood!" The blood, that is painting the battlefield red, suddenly starts to levitate off the ground and form a wave that crashes into the remaining army like a great tsunami.

-Ha! That will show them who they’re messing with!-

A wall of earth suddenly spurts out of the ground acting as a barricade to stop the blood.

-Grr you think a puny dam can stop me! I’ll show you what real magic looks like.-

"Ha is that all you got mages?" He can't help but laugh at their weak attempt at stopping him with magic. "Blood dragons!" All the blood in the area forms into three different dragons.

Two have wings like a traditional western dragon, but the third doesn't have a pair of wings instead it is the biggest of the three. It is double the size of the dam that the earth mages summoned.

The two dragons take flight over the wall, while the third just breaks it down. The two dragons fly farther into the back destroying the rest of any hiding commanding officers and hopefully the mages.

The big one just crushes anything in its way. It uses its overwhelming power to crush anything that's near it and it's long tail to sweep away anything that it misses.

The unknown try to counterattack, but before they can put a crack into the big dragons blood scales it bursts.

Blood shoots out everywhere as if it was raining it. It gets shot out at a speed that pierces the ‘monsters’ surrounding it.

-Half of the army that was terrorising the fort are probably dead.- "Hu-uh Hu-uh Hu-uh Glue! P'tu kha!"

-Some of the weaker soldiers were probably designed with a puking function encase it gets too gory to make it seem more immersive.-

He looks over the battlefield and almost want to puke as well, even though he ‘knows’ that this isn’t real.

"We're ready sir.?" The mages finally being ready asks for permission to fire off their group spell.

“Fire!”

"Lightning storm." The sky goes dark and lightning bolts start to fly out of the sky hitting the terrified enemy soldiers and being conducted through all the blood that is on the floor.

The only smell that exists in this wretched battlefield the smell of charred flesh.

-This feels so real but it can't be real. I mean if this was real then I would have ended up killing thousands of people who had lives and families, right?-

There’re barely any members of the opposing force left after the magic stopped. Maybe a thousand left. Ghost seems to not be able to hold the dragons together anymore, so all the remaining blood dragons burst outwards.

"Kid! Are you ok?" He hears his ‘useless’ party member ask as his head starts to feel like it will explode.

-Sister this much is nothing as long as I get to see you again.-

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3 part 2

Everything fades to black and time quickly passes as we wait for him to wake up on the bed that he was dragged into.

-This has to stop happening to me! What's with this massive headache, fuck.-

"Kid you're finally awake I was getting worried that you might of destroyed your mind. You just use today as a rest day the unknown are too far away to attack again."

"No, we better get moving again. That last army was huge there is no way that I will have to take out anything larger.”

Ghost seems to currently still not understand what he did and might be subconsciously avoiding the thoughts that this might actually be all real.

He seems to have some inclinations that this isn’t fake or a game, but in the end he wouldn’t be able to take it if that was true.

He shakes his head shocking both Ghost and I that there‘s such a stupid amount of enemies. "What your saying makes sense, but that army was the leading invading force.

“The main force is much larger than what you just faced and there is another army of maybe a fifth of the size as the main army trailing them from behind.”

“The last army is unknown in strength, but from what the king scouts say it's a high probability that they are an elite army led by their leader."

-Fuck fuck fuck! Just how much does the stupid creator like ridiculous army's? I get that this is a strategic point where they will have to pass through, but still. Hmm at most this area can have maybe double the amount of men as before, but even that should be pushing it.-

"The army you took out had a job of scouting ahead and destroying anything on the main path. It being smaller was also the faster of the three armies.”

“The middle army destroys anything that's skipped by the lead army and the last army seems to be their last resort. They are probably the middle army's backup and a last resort incase of any strong opposition."

He visibly forces himself off the comfy looking bed and makes a decision that will make everything a bit easier, but it will cause a lot more direct blood to be spilt onto his hands.

"Than that's all the more reason for me to get up now. We need to prepare for their attack. I need to set up traps. My plan to just attack them head on is suicide there‘s no way that my mind can keep up using my ability at that level."

He stops and tries to remember all the books he stole and the games that nice old shop lady let him play in his childhood trying to look for some plan to make this easier on him.

"We need to lure them into a location that they can't out number us. The thinner the area the better. If we can cut the total amount by a tenth then I'm confident that I can take them out, while the army prepares for the next tenth. The only problem is they will definitely try to find a way around our trap."

He get out of his amazingly well ‘simulated’ blood soaked clothing and into a new black shirt and pants.

"So, I need to set up some death traps along their path and make the thin path look the most favorable. We can also do some hit and run attacks on them. A army of that size won't be able to move as fast as a individual."

The useless party member shakes his head while telling Ghost. “While that sounds like a great plan it has one major problem! There‘s no where in the armies path that will suit our needs”

- Of course the AI needs to be told what to do and when to do it. I keep forgetting this is obviously some sort of stimulation. It's so immersive besides the idiotic war tactics.-

"Think about it a little bit. We have mages that can form the blockade all we have to do is stall for time."

"That might work, but I don't think the mages will make it in time."

"Then have the regular soldiers build it with the assistance of the mages. I will try to stall for long enough. Didn't a unknown make a dam twelve feet tall why can't we do that?"

"That’s probably because the spell was sealed in a scroll and was supposed to be used as a last resort for protection. If I remember right the main army is usually behind the lead army by twelve days.“ He stops to think about how to pull off such a feat.

“I don't think that we can pull it off in that long. It isn't as simple as making a wall with a small entrance. You're asking for two mountains that's the only way I can see them being forced into going to our trap.”

“Where did you learn all these strategies from?"

"Books, I got bored of just reading about magic, so I asked for one's about strategies just incase my magic wasn't good enough. With traps I might be able to stall for another day maybe three will that be enough?"

"No that won't be enough. All of our mages will have to pour their mana into a scroll similar to the one that the unknown used on us for a good nine days per mountain so eighteen total. You need to stall them for seven days not three."

-Seven extra days without making the second group rush. What's with this game it already feels late game! Maybe it's just a beta trying out new technology by experimenting on homeless kids. No one would care if I went missing. Shit does this mean that I might get stuck in here without a way out or die by side effects?-

While ignoring his completely impossible mental crisis he tries to keeps a straight face and continue on with his mission.

The only thing that he wants to worry about is making sure his sister is actually alive. If he dies and his sister lives I think he’d be willing accept such a death.

"Ok. How about three days from traps and four days from guerilla tactics, then the mages will have to use their mana on the first wave.”

“I'm going to be tired from the stalling, so you guys will have to stall for a little bit. I will try to take down as many as possible without risking my life in the process."

"You sure you can handle this?" He asks Ghost while seeming to be holding back something important.

Maybe he wants to try to convince him not to go or something mushy and filled with death flags. In their eyes he isn’t some child monster but instead their savior after all.

"No, but if I don't then who will?" He keeps trying to convince himself by telling himself it's just a game and everything will go back to normal after he waves this country.

"I don't want you to do this it seems to risky, but it seems like our only option so go before I change my mind."

"Thank you for seeing eye to eye with me." He leaves the room while wondering how he’s going to pull all of this off.

______________________________________________________________________________

As our young candidates mind has deteriorated to the point that his thoughts are mostly gibberish.

I made a executive decision and decided to follow the general of the middle army instead of him. Hopefully his mind eventually clears up and I don't have to abandon another potential show to watch.

“General Gergal we have news from the leading army.” A young soldier speaks to the general in an arrogant tone. So the general hits him on the head with a nearby stick since the forest path is filled with them.

“About time! Did they already take down the next fort?”

The young soldier looks too terrified to answer his leaders question. “No sir. The lead army has been wiped out. There are a couple of survivors in the camp. Only twenty survived the assault.”

“No way. There's no way that the lead army failed to take out this key major fort, much less get wiped out.”

“We already perfectly understood the arrangements and planned against any problems. We even let them have a rare scroll just incase the mages managed to use army scaled spells! ”

“I don't know the details. You should ask the survivors when they recover, sir.” The young soldier is shaking violently as he tries to directs the violent general to somewhere else.

“When did they arrive?”

“Just a little bit ago. They are still exhausted I think you should wait a day before asking them anything.” The arrogant young soldier is then crushed by his mace nonchalantly.

They're probably way to many soldiers in this makeship army that he is using violence to control them.

“Someone get rid of this body and then take me to the refugees.” Another soldier comes up and gets rid of the body as if this is something normal.

Then proceeds to show his violent general the way to the survivors. The general on the other hand seems to not be satisfied with only killing the arrogant young man as he obviously has some killing intent in his eyes “Are these the remnants of the lead army?”

“Yes, sir.” In front of him are twenty or so beat up rags of men you can’t call soldiers anymore. It looks like the soldiers had to go to hell and then escape from hell! Most are missing a limb or even two.

“None of them were properly treated before they got here, sir. I'm afraid we might lose most of them.”

“Make sure one survives I don’t need the rest. All I need to know is how the area of the fort is like and how they all got wiped out. Leader won’t be pleased if I don’t take this fort down like it's just another village.”

They do as he says and heartlessly focuses on healing the member that has the most survival rate with a precious healing scroll.

“I am the general of the main army Gergal. If you haven't guessed you are in the main army’s camp. Good job on making it here. Soldier I don't care about your name nor rank just tell me what the hell happened out there.”

“A monster, that's what happened.” He is still pale even with the healing scroll healing him.

“What do you mean a monster? Did they tame a magical beast and send it at you or did one just interrupt your war because it looked fun? Or are you just insane.” He starts to wonder about this soldiers sanity.

“Neither, a kid killed over half of the army. He killed our leader at the start and then our leading commanders putting us into turmoil.’’

“Then he proceeded to kill thousands after thousands of us. Once he entered, the war only lasted for ten minutes of pure hell.” His hands are around his knees and he seems to have soiled himself at the thought of the battle .

“And how did one kid destroy the lead army?”

“He used some type of blood magic. I don’t know how but everything he did revolved around blood even our blood wasn't spared. He even made three dragons out of blood that completely destroyed most of our army. Such a small weak looking kid is actually a monster who could've possibly guessed that.”

“So, what do you think the age of this kid is?”

“I didn't get to see him that well since I was in the middle of the army, but from what everyone else was saying, before we got here, he can't be older than thirteen.”

“So a little kid younger than fourteen wiped out a army. He must be the monster that the elder warned us might come, but wait that can’t be!”

“He told us that if she attacked he’d intervene and even out the situation. We will continue on the same path men. This kid will not stop us from doing our job." He turns around and yells towards everyone in the camp.

"We will still destroy the two villages up ahead, then we shall attack the monster child and kill him for our leader!” Roars of cheering resound throughout the camp.

“The village is a day away and the one after that is six days from the previous. The fort should be five days away at our pace, so twelve days till we have to fight with the little monster!”

The army continues on their path undisturbed and with a increased momentum.

“The village is in sight let's go men! Charge!” The small village starts to be ransacked and burned down anyone who didn't flee before the army got here died a fruitless death, no exception. Most of their deaths on the other hand were instructed to be as quick and clean as the men could make them.

"That was a bad raid. There are less and less supplies in each village. I think there are also less villagers then last time too. I hope the next village is better."

"Sir it's to be expected that there is less and less. The villagers will know of our assault by now and flee the only people that are left are idiots like these. Also, as the villagers leave they will take a lot of the supplies."

"I know that. Do you think I'm stupid. I'm not a general or this army for no reason."

The soldier has an expression of pure terror and seems to have realised his errors and how the last advisior of this general died.

“No sir! I understand that even the scraps of food we find is useful for our army that is facing a famine!” He tries to flatter the general and not mention how destroying these villages take more energy than the food they find will fuel them.

At this point it might of been a better idea to go out and hunt the more dangerous monsters in the forests.

"Good, you have a good head on your shoulders if you try to be a smartass again then you won't have one."

The army continues on forward to the next village. "Gahhh!"

"What was that?" He asks them about the sudden sound no seeming be very alarmed and instead seems to be a bit annoyed.

"Sir, we lost three scouts to a random trap. Blood spikes just appeared from the ground and killed them."

"So the little monster is finally taking action. Men we need to be careful from today onward. We already lost three of our two hundred scouts.”

“You all know that without them we might fall prey to ambushes or stray beasts. From today on no more than twenty scouts will go ahead. Beware of blood and the like."

The annoying soldiers facial expression changes from worry to the brink of crying and then tries to tell him otherwise.

"Sir don't you think twenty is too many. What if he takes them all a lot then we won't be able to complete the mission. Without those scouts we will be slowed down way too much They are a rare profession for our kind you know that."

The soldier with a good head on his shoulders proceeds to lose that said head.

"Anyone else want to question me?"

"No sir!"

The army continues on their path noticeably slower than before. If they continue at this pace they’ll arrive a whole day slower.

“Sir, a mass of dead beasts are in the middle of the road. It looks like a predator killed them all, but just left their bodies there.” A new soldier tells him while shaking from fear of this psychotic general.

“... Maybe it just killed them for fun I know of a couple of beasts that do that. I didn't think any of them live in this area.”

“Double the amount of scouts and make sure they keep an eye on the forest. I don't care if we have to spend another day just incase.”

“If it's one of the monster that I am thinking of than wasting a day out of carefulness will be worth it. Also don't touch the monster meat either it's been poisoned or is the property of something we can't offend.”

The army’s pace slows down to a crawl of what it used to be. Nothing seems to be happening again and everything seems to be a false alarm. “Do we still have the one hundred ninety seven scouts?”

“Yes, sir!” The soldier says while saluting him.

“Did you count?”

“No, sir.” The soldier says while looking more and more afraid. “Then count.” The soldier then runs over to the scouting barracks then comes back.

“Finale count is … one hundred forty.”

“So you said we didn't lose any of them, but in reality we lost fifty seven. You know I don’t find the need of soldiers that can't follow my orders.”

“So, can anyone tell me how we lost so many of them without anyone noticing?” His voice becomes angrier and angrier showing them that he’s annoyed and will probably kill anyone who answers stupidly.

“No answer? So nobody has any idea how we lost so many of them. Three groups and they're all gone without any traces.”

The army continues on even slower than before being extra careful of the forest besides them..

“We can't continue at this pace. So we may be risking our lives here, but we are going to have to double our speed.”

“I don't care about how much noise we make in the process. If we see any beast kill it and move on!” There speed increases, but it can never be fast enough to make up for the lost time.

They finally arrive at the next village which is made of straw instead of wood for reasons unknown to I the visitor.

“This is the last village we will have to raid till the fort. Let's go! For the leader!” They charge into the village with the stupid tactic of crushing it with their numbers.

“What’s going on? Everyone get out of the village it smells like a trap.” The village could fit a good two thousand soldiers and since the general was in a rush he didn't notice that the village he was raiding is empty.

Luckily the general barely managed to escape, so I don't have to find another random soldier to watch over. The insanity that is Ghost’s mind right now isn’t very pretty, so I decided to hide it by being the ambushed instead of the ambusher.

The whole village is surrounded by a red sphere. The red sphere starts becoming smaller and smaller until it was just a ball surrounded by nothing. The whole village is gone.

"Men, today we lost some of the best of us. Pay him back twofold and arrive at the fort to kill that little demon. We are already three days behind schedule that's a day more than I thought."

"Sir, I don't want to go against something that can destroy a whole village."

"Anyone else terrified of him?"

"Yes sir!" A large group of men raise their hand, to many to kill apparently by the look on the generals face.

Ok. So what? He is just one man we are a army of with our entire race fighting for us. How can one person fight against an entire race?"

Everyone puts their hands down and their faces show a look of new found vigor.

"Let's go kill that vile creature for our race. The longer we sit here and complain about him the stronger he will get. If you don't want to fight him now, then what about in a week or a month. Now is the best time to kill him."

"Yes, sir!" The army starts to move at their original pace again.

Blood spikes start flying out from the forest. There isn't that many so the army doesn't gain that many more injured men. "What was that compared to last attack this is nothing."

He yells into the forest and as if replying back the blood sphere suddenly bursts sending a river of blood at the back of the army. Being confused from the sudden attacks most don't move.

"We gotta get out of the open before he attacks again we took too many casualties already. Hurry to the forests where we can't get carried away by that thing."

He starts to run into the forest hoping that the rest of the army is behind him. Some of the trees have specks of blood on them, but he doesn’t seem to notice this small yet deadly change to the forest. "Did everyone follow?"

"Yeah I think everyone followed." His new second in command replies. When he looks behind himself instead of a perfectly fine group of young men he sees injuries on all of them.

"What happened?"

"The trees suddenly shot out tiny spikes at first it wasn't much but they just kept on coming. Some of us went the other direction but most of us followed you.”

"We should find the rest of our men and hope the other group will make it. You are my new second in command."

He tells the survivor that followed him the best. "How many scouts went with me?" He immediately goes to count the scouts then returns.

"One hundred."

"With the decrease in men having one hundred should be enough. That just makes me worry more about the other side. How many men do you think got separated in the forest?"

"By my estimation anywhere from one hundred to a thousand."

"Good that's not a lot we should only be stalled for a day thanks to this fiasco. Send the scouts to find the rest I don't think we will be running into any more attacks."

The sun starts to fall down as a injured scout comes up to me and says, "Sir, we are done if we search anymore we are risking the scouts to much."

"And why is that you guys have only been searching for a couple of hours?"

"Traps, the forest is littered with traps. I recommend resting for the rest of the day and then getting out of here. We lost half of our total scouts while only finding corpses."

"Damn I never thought he would set up traps in a wide forest such as this. Looks like we are going to be stalled longer than I thought."

A long time later after the army managed to escape from the deadly trap forest everything seemed to have calmed down, but just as they start to relax once again a childish voice rings out in the distance

"Help the monster is trying to eat meee! " Ghost starts to run out of the first while screaming for help obviously to us it seems like a trap, but luckily for him all of the survivors including the healed one died.

"Don't worry kid, I will destroy these beast with this." A robed scholarly looking Unknown takes out a fire red scroll and gets ready to activate it.

A giant red fire ball pops out of the scroll and gets sent flying past Ghosts head while causing a massive explosion behind him.

“Wait don’t waste a scroll you idiot!” The general quickly stops his subordinate who seems to be in charge of keeping and using the scrolls.

“I know you have a soft spot for children, but how could you save a random kid in this type of situation. Don’t you understand what our mission entails!”

The scholarly older man ignores the generals wise warning and instead pays more attention to the blood soaked clothing. "Are you ok kid there is blood on you."

"Oh this isn't my blood, but a beast I killed in the forest. I think it might have caused a chain reaction and even more beasts started to attack me."

Ghost starts to shake the scroll keeper hand while thanking him for being a strong deterrence to the beasts and ‘accidently’ gets blood all over the elderly mans robes.

"If you guys didn't scare off the beasts thanks to your intimidating aura I’d be dead. I can't express my gratitude enough. I'm sorry, but I have a sister to take care of so I got to run without giving you anything in return."

Ghost turns around and runs into the trap infested forest while the scholarly scroll keeper yells at him not to. "Wait there traps in that forest!"

"You're too late he is already long gone. Come let's continue moving we have no time to spare."

As they continue on forward no more weird signs of anything appear in till they reach a more open area near a creek.

"Let's camp here you all deserve a break for all that you've been through. Also I recommend you getting rid of the blood that's on you. Our main enemy seems to be able to control blood."

"Ok, I was kinda thinking of not washing it because the kid seemed so sad that he didn't have anything to give me." He has a creepy expression on his face while thinking of Ghost.

"Weird and out of the question." He enters his tent first without washing any of the blood off of him..

Suddenly he’s sent flying out of his tent and then the tent gets surrounded by the same sphere as yesterday. A message formed out of blood appears in front of the scroll keeper.

"Your reward for your kindness is your life, I recommend deserting. I will not spare you a second time."

"Don't tell me that the kid from before was actually.” He stops his train of thought after realizing that how idiotic they were. That they haven't encountered any beasts, so how did a random kid find a bunch of them.

“We fell for another one of his traps. He was aiming for our magic scrolls and we just let him destroy them all. If anyone of you wants to leave do it. This war is looking more and more like a game to this child."

“I shall ask everyone once again who here is afraid and wants to give up?” The general asks his men after seeing how demoralized they became thanks to the loss of their precious resources.

A large amount of hands fly up into the air! The general is visibly angry at the fact that he can't kill all of the deserters.

The scroll keeper proceeds to lead the group deserters onto the opposite direction where they will probably starve to death in their journey back to their forest.

“Men who have remained! I thank you and so does our grand leader, we shall kill the monster that was disguising as a human from before.”

“Even if he can take out hundred or thousands maybe even tens of thousands can he take out our army with to many people to even count!”

He stops to let his remaining soldiers view around them the mass of people still left in the army and let them realise that they are the ones with the advantage.

“No! Why is he attacking us with traps and trying to stall us instead of just straight up killing us all? It's because he can’t handle our sheer numbers!”

“He is trying to thin us out before we arrive, so he can have an easier fight. We can still do this if. All we have to do is be more careful than before and keep our numbers. Even a army of ants can kill a elephant much less a army of creatures the same size as the elephant”

Eventually they reach the end of the forest and reach their destination which has been successfully fortified by the mages.

“My comrades, who stuck with me till the end, tomorrow we shall hunt down the incarnation of evil.”

“We cannot waiver no matter what happens in the next battle. We shall end it here and now. After the devil is dead that 'king' can do nothing against us.”

He stops for dramatic effect and to boost their morral which actually seems to work as they get more and more worked up.

“The fort should be just past these couple of trees. We shall rest here and be at our full battle power before we charge it with all our might and then proceed to destroy them.“

“There's no way that one child can handle our fierce number. Our goal is to have some of our remaining elites surround him and proceed to kill him. Does anyone have a unique fire ability?”

He asks out hoping that there would be a rare Unknown with an innate ability over a element to be in his group instead of the elites.

“I can use it for a little bit. I can’t guarantee that I can keep it up for the whole war.” A girl wearing a full red cloak replies. The cloak prevents anyone from seeing her actual appearance.

“No, I need you to do the opposite. Stick with the elites when they surround the devil you rain fire on him, so he can’t use his magic.”

”After that then all of you charge at him and pierce him till he's dead. Don’t stop until you're one hundred percent sure that he is dead.”

"General Gergal is that you?"

"Who are you give me your name and rank, this instant!"

"Gergal don't try fighting them you will just cough sacrifice cough cough your men." Thud! He goes over to the cold dead body. He exits the forest to look for any survivors but has a grim expression on his face as he looks at corpses.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter part 3

Eventually two smaller mountains come into his view as they stop and delay any route to get to the gates. They also would cause the soldiers to spend some time in monster infested territories of the actual natural barrier.

"Let's go men. It's just as the commander said we have the superior numbers. It doesn't matter what trap is in front of us all we have to do is destroy it! They can't stop us!”

“His second in command leads a large portion of the troops to charge in between the narrow path between the two mountains not realizing that they could at most fit five people together at once which severely limits their human wave tactics.

"You idiot if you can barely fit six people then it's a five vs the monster who destroyed the previous army. You're going to get your ass wiped out. If that devil send his blood spears down there you can expect a huge amount of casualties! You got to pull out!"

His warning seems to have only been heard by death's ears, as the idiot just kept getting farther and farther inward. All that can be heard after are screams and the iron like smell of blood. It is the wails and smells of massacre. Then it just goes quiet as if the wails were a lie and all that remains is the thick smell of iron.

The newfound silence is even worse than the constant screaming, while the smell causes the weak stomachs to release their contents.

"What are we going to do? I don't think that we can go around this mountain, but if we go down there we are only walking into our deaths." The fire girl who is holding back puking asks the general visibly shaking at the thought of going into the mountain.

"Don't be stupid I won't fall for such an obvious trap. Let's have a group of people try to scale the mountain. While they're doing that another group will try to find a way around it. There is no way it can continue for long.”

“We are already on a tight schedule, thanks to all the delays, so if either route doesn't come back in a day than I'm using a magic scroll, that leader’s master gave me. It is my last resort so I hope I don't have to use it.”

“I’ll be asking for volunteers for both of these missions. I hope everyone who has the best of luck and everyone who stays here don't expect it to be a relaxing wait. I'm going to be drilling into you the do and do not of siege warfare to try to at least give you guys a bit of military training."

A group of ten is chosen for each mission. It's only recon so sending anymore would have the opposite effect.

The sky starts to darken as he finishes giving last second teaching to the civilian army.

"Do you understand now? Well it's not like it matters if you do or not by now. Everyone get some rest I'll be on first watch. We are attacking the moment the sun starts to rise."

"Yes leader." He starts the long activating process, which doesn’t take much on the generals part and instead takes a while to absorb mana from the surroundings.

The sun starts to awake with his soldiers as he didn't get any sleep since he had to continue the activating process of the scroll.

“If we survive this battle than I’m going to kill whoever made this long ass magic scroll!”

"Wake up already we got a war to fight. We don't have the time to be wasting away asleep. The signal to start is after the magic scroll activates. Don't go charging in right after. Wait a little bit."

He raises the fully charged scroll and read it's activation chant. "Oh, lord of fire I beseech you. I ask you to send down one of your children to burn down anything and everything in front of me, so that it may be reborn anew.”

”Come forth fire phoenix burn down everything to ashes. Let the ashes become nutrients to fuel the cycle of life."

A phoenix bigger than a mountain appears and then goes flying through the mountains destroying half of each.

The phoenix let's of such a bright light that it blinds everyone staring at it. When they manage to open their eyes again they can see the light fading away.

"Everyone charge! We are finally going to avenge our fallen comrades."

Now that there is a whole mountain worth of room their human wave tactics can work yet again. Although their isn’t as much room as they would’ve liked.

"The now half mountains are not structurally sound, so no one stand too close to them." He warn the cannon fodder not wanting them to die to early.

"Sir how are we supposed to make you out if you're wearing the same armor as the infantry?”

A not so bright soldier asks his commander not understanding that he’s trying to hide from the monsters ambushes.

"Do you think a infantry would be in the back?" The general's hand twitches as if he is debating whether or not to just kill the idiot but ends up just lecturing him instead. Seeing how he is also in the back with the general he’s probably has at least some uses.

"No."

"Than I will look more like a servant then soldier. Since you know what you are looking for then it should be easy to tell that it's me."

"Now that you mention it, but what if you have to fight that armor won't protect you at all."

"You're really testing my patience here. It's the price I must pay to hide my position. Now let's get moving.”

They head on forward while ensuring the extreme heat that the phoenix left behind. Eventually the even amount of heat suddenly increases as the phoenix appears to be fighting a water dragon.

“Is that a dragon made of water fighting the phoenix that I launched?”

“The have been fighting to a standstill, since we got here.”

“That's bad, it doesn't have unlimited energy like a real phoenix. That wasn't summoning magic that I used earlier just a cheap rip off of a scroll absorbing years of magic.”

The phoenix and the dragon both look like they’re running out of energy. Some parts of the phoenix are not regrowing.

“Tell the men not to worry and our only opponent now is the monster. The mages probably used all their magic to stop my attack.”

“Why don't you tell them?”

“Didn't I just explain that a little bit ago?”

“Oh yeah, wait you want me to seem like the leader? Wouldn't that make him target me?” The stupid soldier finally realises his position and his face turned pale white like a ghost.

“Yes he will probably attack you, it's either you die now or you have a chance of surviving if he attacks you. You choose.”

The general’s dictator like rule over his soldiers finally pays off as the soldier is more terrified of him.

The cavalry charge ahead on their horses aiming to cause chaos in the enemy's ranks. They don't get far, because a wall of arrows hit them.

Horses are rare in the forest to begin with and people that can ride them are even rarer. The amount of men in the cavalry unit is only a pitiful two hundred. Mainly because of how many people died before even reaching the fort.

After the arrows stop flying the fort gate opens and Ghost is the only person who exits. The man the general made as his proxy coughs up some blood and then falls to the ground dead.

One has to wonder why Ghost would leave the fort considering how he has no melee capabilities, but I don't think he’s in the right mind to think of that.

The army remains unfazed by his death and continues on following the hidden generals orders, who is using yet another person as his proxy.

Blood spears start to fly into the mass of men who either die by the spears or get trampled to death by their allies.

Ghost seems to haven't figured out how to do anything besides controlling blood after his mind went off the rails a bit. The spears stopped spinning and turned into liquid.

The soldiers just stares at the blood that’s floating in front of them not knowing what to do about it. Then the blood changed into marble sized spheres and fly through vital spots of their victims. Some don't do a fatal blow, but the men still fall to the ground dead.

The blood that has been pouring out of its victims suddenly shoots into the air and forms a cannon. The cannon shoots blood cannonballs into the men.

The impact alone sends shock waves staggering them. Which makes one wonder why waste the energy to turn some of the blood into useless cannons.

The gates of the fort releasing soldiers into the disgruntled and confused line of the Unknown soldiers.

This causes them to be surprised since it seemed that the only strong person in the fort was Ghost and the currently manaless mages.

The cannons transform into a group of guillotines which fall from the sky cutting even the ground beneath them. Soldiers bodies get cut in half revealing the internal structure of an unknown.

Others get lucky and just lose an arm. Blood sprays everywhere, too much blood for even my peace of mind hopefully this is going to be one of the rare few wars that I view.

I had another thing that I’d nitpick about Ghost’s creations, but I don't think that's what everyone has came here to view my thoughts on a crazy kids creations.

The soldiers retreat back in their fort to rest and hide from the onslaught that Ghost was preparing to unleash. The whole are turns into a giant kill zone.

The screams are probably agonizing enough to send shivers down a dragon's back. The only thing that stops the screams is the sweet quiet embrace of death.

Ghost suddenly falls to the ground in the middle of his blood armageddon. The royal guard come out and brings him back quickly even though everyone was to scared to approach the little blood devil.

There is barely anyone left they are just a shell of what they used to be. There‘s barely anyone left standing with even fewer not having any injuries. The fire girl is nowhere to be seen and was completely useless during the entire fight.

"Let's go men! The monster's unconscious and the probably are mages are still out of juice. If we are going to take this fort it is now!"

The mighty general leads his remaining men into a charge for the fort that is a few feet ahead of tem. Then arrows fly out of the fort and into the sky. "Shields up! These arrows won't stop us!"

The arrows bounce off the shields being to weak to pierce their defence. The gates open again and soldiers charge out to confront the Unknown.

Swords clash but nothing can stop them from victory. The general confront the royal guard in front of him, whose wearing white armor that is reflecting sun and over his heart is a gold dragon.

"You're the real leader aren't you. You can fool an inexperienced kid but not me."

The general make a couple hand gestures behind his back and his five most loyal men appear out of the shadows and pierce into the guard.

"Sigh I feel bad for killing him underhanded, but I don't have the time to fight him."

Five heads roll to the ground then the generals world turns dark as his head also goes flying not knowing that an airfield stalled his loyal assassins and that he wasn't fighting against just any royal guard but the captain.

"Let's go! We need to finish this before they get organized." The royal guard and the strong capable men he found remaining in the fort finished off the rest of the stragglers. The stragglers didn’t stand a chance after having been completely devastated by Ghost.

"Let's go check on our little hero. He definitely saved us yet again and have a good talk with him about over exerting himself like that. He’s our only hope for survival after all."

They head back to the fort, where people are celebrating and grieving in their own groups.

"Hey, can't you all celebrate latter. Right now you should be respecting the people who lost their loved ones, or get to work preparing for the last army. Don't tell me you think our hero will just handle it again?"

"The last army isn't even that big there should be no problem with fighting them off. Stop being such a workaholic. We deserve this celebration." A man who wasn't even in the main fighting force talks back.

"Oh really and what did you do to deserve it?"

"I was on the front lines with you. Don't you remember? Maybe you get hit in the head to hard during your fight with their general?"

Theodore starts to name off various names. WIth each name called many of the grieving people seem to become a bit happier. "So did I say his name?" He asks the people around him because he doesn't trust this little liar.

"No, you didn't."

"I named every single soul that was willing to sacrifice his or her life for you to be able to celebrate. You say you were with me yet I didn't name you. I expect to name you next time and to see you working on improving our defence. Understand?"

He tries to apologize but Theodore doesn’t stops him. "Don't want to hear it. I want to see it. Now go!" He bolts out of there as fast as he can.

"Now any of you still think that you should be celebrating a victory while we are still at war. We have no clue how far behind the last army is. The hero stalled for seven days. That's seven days closer that the other army is to us.”

The celebrating people become dead quiet after realizing that the other army is much closer than they have realized and that they are all still not out of the deep danger. The people who were originally grieving separate and start to get back to work carrying on their loved ones sacrifice.

“We don't know how long it will take for him to wake up, so we need to prepare for a fight without him. The enemy's strength is unknown and their numbers aren't completely known either.”

“I don't want to hear don't worry they are only so many of them. Wasn't this very fort having trouble with just the front army before we got here! The army that’s going to come isn’t the weakest, but is actually probably the strongest!”

Time flies by as our candidate is still quietly asleep all the silent preparations have finished. It seems the sleeping savior has awoken before he was killed in his sleep.

"Ugg what time is it?" Ghost gets out of bed while wondering if this is what it's like to have a hangover. "Where is everyone?"

He leaves the white medical room and heads towards the top of the fort's wall and see two armies clashing with the attacking side winning the war and the defending side barely being able to hold onto their control of the gates.

"Everyone fall back we can think of a solution at this rate we will be wiped out!" Ghost tries to make them stop fighting the current losing war but his tiny child voice doesn’t seem to be able to reach their adult ears.

Ghost on the other hand seems to have regained some clarity from recent sleep or perhaps it's because he’s mind is still waking up that he actually has some care for the people around him. He sends out a blood firework into the sky to order the army to retreat from the losing fight.

"Ghost is awake we can win this war men!" Theodore's voice resounded throughout the battlefield. The fighting increases in vigor instead of slowing down like would have actually wanted.

Ghost pours mana into his mouth as if he’s preparing to breathe fire, but fire isn’t the only thing that comes out of his mouth as a much louder shout comes with it.

"Stop! At this rate both sides will take heavy casualties. One of the men is just sitting calmly in the back. Haven't you noticed their leader hasn't even taken any action yet?"

"He's right everyone fall ba—"

"Hero! I challenge you to a duel whoever wins will win this war. If you shall let my meager army go if you win I shall do the same for yours."

The masked man's young voice resound throughout the battlefield. He isn't even wearing any armor just everyday clothing!

Now that I look at it most of the soldiers from the Unknown side haven't been wearing armor only the more important people seem to be able to own some. Looking a bit deeper into the army there are even older men and women in their ranks.

"Deal, if this fight continues it will only end in heavy casualties for both of us."

"Agreed." He moves to quickly for Ghost’s eyes to register him and then proceeds to throw Ghost off the top of the fort.

"Come on am I to fast for ya!" His voice can be heard from Ghost’s original spot. As soon as Ghost hits the ground the masked man appears right above him and attempts to crush him with the momentum of the fall.

"Blood dome." A dome of blood appears around Ghost, which then shatters under the force of the crushing kick.

Thanks to the delay from the dome Ghost manages to roll over and dodge the attack. “So it's not teleportation but just you being extremely fast huh.”

Ghost tries to attack him with some half assed blood drops but the masked man moves way to fast for the blood to ever touch him much less hurt him. "If you're fast enough what's the difference between the two?"

Ghost urges the blood to become spiked armor, but before it can solidify his opponent punches it a couple times causing it to disperse. "Blood corridor." The blood forms into two walls. "If you're so confident in your speed then come at me."

"And why would I walk into my death? Nope not going in there." He rhetorically asks Ghost behind his mask which has the design of a black dragon on the right side and a white phoenix fighting on the left.

"You sure? Then I guess I can make that armor you seemed to not want me to wear."Ghost seems to be happy that he finally managed to one up his annoying foe.

“Blood arm—” He then proceeds to kicks Ghost right in the middle of the spine.

“I can still go around it. I think you should've put a wall behind you, if you can follow my speed that is.”

The walls collapse and try to drown him, but he escapes the area with his insane speed. “Seriously, you never give up do you? I think that it would be easier on the both of us if you just died.”

“You know what would make this really easy for you? Why don’t you use a sword?”

“Cause I hate sharp things.”

“...” He then appears in front of Ghost and starts to aim for more vital area’s of the body.

Bam! Crunch! His hands start to accumulate Ghost’s blood from the various wounds that are bleeding a bit to realistically for the semi sane Ghost not to realize something not so important.

Not giving Ghost any time to ponder over his realization the masked man shakes off the blood that got on him and stares at the mangled and broken body of Ghost.

This short pause gives Ghost enough time to actually wake up from his mad ramblings and start to actually think about a real way to survive this fight.

“Just go down already. I would've broken your neck, but you're so persistent that I'm afraid that I would die with you.”

“Cough! Gasp! This would of been so cough much easier if you used a weapon. You do know that cough not all of them are sharp, right?”

Ghost keeps edging him on to force him into hitting him somewhere that the blood can splatter towards a more vital area.

It seems to have worked thanks to his opponent currently hitting towards the face a bit more than during the previous beating.

Ghost is surely lucky that his opponent seems to be paying too much attention to his speed and not enough for his physical strength as none of the wounds he has are actually dangerous for him

“Question if you could choose cough your death what would you want it to be like, because I certainly don’t want to be beaten to death?”

“Never thought about it. As long as it's painless and doesn't involve anything sharp. Oh, also in a fight. Die with honor you know?”

“Well here I hope this death shall satisfy you!” He anticlimactically falls to the ground dead. Sadly thanks to the unique physique of the Unknown Ghosts limits on controlling blood is loosened.

With a bit of time and tinkering the leaders heart and brain were both ripped to shreds by his own blood. “I beat your leader if anyone else wants to fight then come out. As I promised, I shall not harm anyone who doesn't want to fight back.”

“How will you kill all of us? You look like you are about to faint any second now.”

“Shut up idiot there is no use fighting without leader. Our small army could only function with his tactics. I bet we can't even handle the previous army we were fighting. Leader knew that. That's why he made that promise to him.”

“You did it Ghost! I was worried that you would of died in during that fight.” Royal guard captain Theodore runs up to Ghost and gives him a heavy bear hug. Which causes our already severely injured candidate.

He slowly wakes up surrounded by even more unfamiliar walls. He spends a tiny amount of his time contemplating about everything that he ended up doing and about the fact that his sister won't be coming back at the end of this journey.

Sadly while he was going through deep emotional troubles a high pitch voice wakes him up from his train of thought by saying. “Ghost are you awake? A familiar female voice asks him turning from surprised to happy and finally to sounding like she’s about to cry.

“Who’s there? Show yourself!” Ghost in his half lucid state mistakes the voice of the young girl as his dead sisters, but we all know that isn’t the actual case.

“Come on Ghost it's me. Don't tell me you already forgot about me? The female voice teases him, which help him realize who’s there to his disappointment.

He finally abandons his hope that this is all a game and gives in to the depressing thoughts that this might just all be real.

“.. Alicia it's you isn't it.”

-Yeah, she is dead I’ll never hear her voice again or even get to see her corpse. Alicia’s voice doesn't even sound the same how did I mistake it?-

As we can see by his direct thoughts he has indeed completely given up on all hope, but it still hasn’t dawn upon him that he killed so many people while throwing his fit.

“I wasn’t completely here when I heard your voice. How long was I out?”

“Sir Theodore said you were out for a good week, you were healed by on sight medics and then brought back to the capital where my mother personally healed you of all your injuries.”

“Luckily water magic is the second best magic for healing purposes and the best at treating long term injuries. It's good that one of the requirements to join the royal guard is to be proficient in on actual medicine to stall for a healer.”

“Speaking of magic, how has your studies been after I left? I'm sure you have already met my your goals by now right?”

“Come on Ghost it's only been a couple of months since you left.”

“Well in that time period I managed to save your world didn’t I? I accomplished my goal for being here so fast. I thought I would get to see you beat your mother by the time I was able to leave this world. Everything feels so rushed.”

He lets out a deep sigh while unconsciously blocking all the bad memories of the war and death he ‘accomplished’.

“Well you can still see me beat my mother if you stay here! You don’t have to leave, please! Be the hero of my little world and protect it from any troubles it shall find.”

“No.” Ghost weakly shakes his head while realizing that it would be for the best that he leaves even sooner than he originally planned.

This crazy little girl might just manage to convince him to stay here much longer than he really should. She’s the only person besides his sister that he’s close to after all and peer pressure is a dangerous thing.

She grabs his hand and asks, “and why not?”

“They’re too many bad memories in this world. I think I should move on and live my life the way I used to and forget about what has happened here.”

“What bad memories? You may have lost someone close and dear to you, but wouldn't your world remind you of her more then here?”

She pushes onwards seeing how Ghost is still being tempted to stay not wanting to lose her only friend. To lose the only person that really gets her and also the only person who’s around her age.

“It's not just her! Do you think she’d want me to leave a place where I could be fed and have shelter?! No! She’d want me to stay here for as long as you guys permit and be happy instead of being sad and gloomy at my old world. The main problem is I caused the death of so many people who just wanted to survive!”

He starts to break out into tears his mental block tears apart thanks to the persistent temptations by his friend.

She sadly doesn’t understand what he is going through since in her eyes are clouded by the eyes of the victim. She can only see her people as the victim while not being able to see that the other side also had their own needs and problems.

"They were probably people like you and me. It took me till the very last fight to realize that I’ve been clouding my mind and pretending that everything here is fake to push onwards towards a destination that doesn’t even exist. Just me being a hero will remind me of all the blood I shed then used to shed more blood.”

“If you put it that way then I can see how this world might trouble you. At least take me with you!” She still being young and not realizing the major importance of the word called family begs to go with to a destination that might have no return!

“No, I cannot take you away from your family. They love you and would want to see you grow up before you leave them.”

Thanks to Ghost not having any family besides his sister and losing even that he is a bit more mature about this subject and guides her away from a decision she’d probably regret her entire life.

“Fine!” She screams at Ghost and almost storms out of the room, but then stops to think for a little bit and instead of storming off she tries to find a way to get what she wants.

“Then let's make a bet! If I can recreate your return spell and come to your world, then you shall take care of me and give me three things of my choosing as a reward.”

She childishly shows him three fingers while grinning like a cheshire cat. Her face just screams that she won and there's nothing you can do to change it.

Ghost seems to be interested in this sudden proposition and decides to edge her on instead of pouring cold water onto the fire in her eyes.

“That sound interesting and it will give you yet another nearly impossible goal to accomplish. Take them.” He throws two crimson red vials towards her, which she barely catches while looking at him with almost cat like confused expression. Her head barely tilts towards the right, but sadly nothing weird or strange happens to her eyes.

“They are vials of my blood. If you can recreate the return spell you need something to bind the two worlds together. My blood should be a good enough catalyst to forge a bridge in between my world and yours.”

“Also it should make you appear right in front of me. I don’t think it would be a wise idea to wander around my world. Now I think it's time I speak to the king about returning to my world.”

She looks at him surprised then shocked. “You will not even stay and celebrate your victory?”

“My victory that caused so much bloodshed? The sooner I get out of here the better. You would probably want to come with me to see the spell in action, so come on. Also, do you have any idea where the throne room is? This castle really isn’t easy to navigate inside.”

“Uh yeah, it's this way I think.” She leads Ghost in the opposite direction that they should of headed towards and seeing how their both directionally challenged I decided that I’d have better things to do then watch them be lost. Skip ahead a couple hours and they finally reach the throne room.

As they enter the throne room the king’s about to leave with Sophia, but as he sees them he decides to just sit back down in his nearly empty throne room.

“Come on Alicia. It took us forever to get here!”

“Oh, so it's my fault we took the wrong turn at the very beginning!!”

“Of course it is. I asked you if you knew the way and you said yes!!!”

"I said I think so you didn’t seem to know anything about the layout of the castle. I wasn't one hundred percent sure, but you surely had zero idea about where to go and wouldn’t have made it here before they left!!!!”

“Ahem!”

“Sorry for intruding my lord. This idiot wants to be sent home immediately.”

“I'm sick of this place. I saved your world now send me home. I don’t want to spend another second here. This whole adventure is probably going to haunt my dreams for years to come, thanks a lot.”

“As Sophia and I were discussing the return spell looks to be even simpler than the summoning. Your summoning made a bridge in between our worlds and you returning via that bridge should in theory close it."

Ghost proceeds to walk to the middle of the circle and light immediately starts to surrounds him, while Sophia is still explaining about the magic mumbo jumbo involved.

She stops talking as she is probably to shocked that the portal activated automatically without anything to use as fuel in the vicinity. The light takes Ghost’s body back down the unforgettable rollercoaster of a ride back to his home world leaving this bad part of his life behind him and going forward to, hopefully, a much brighter future.