One enviable evening in Ward City, the acclaimed Stephen Silworth was preparing for his yearly trip to another world. His distillery, a strange machine, used the dump of the treant, the remains of the pitlord, the fluid of the sadwraith, and several other materials one would not know about. This was his duty, to protect this world, and to do so, he had to take this potion and inject it in his veins.

The office was closed for the day, his secretary had already left. He was all alone when he used the dosage.

The next moment he found himself in an old arena. Dust was swept around by the strong wind. He was, fortunately dressed in a set of armour, since he was going to fight with several monsters. A magical axe was on his back, and a golden helmet protected his head from the potential injuries. Wearing the Aephala, his magical options seemed endless. As he tapped its power moment by moment, the axe become stronger and stronger, yet his amulet did not waver.

His first opponent was a ghoul, a small creature eating corpses, which proved to be in discomfort and did not want to fight as he felt his extraordinary magical capabilities. He wrecked its skull in one slash.

The second was a vegangen, which was a kind of creature that captured people and starved them until they stopped eating meat. Its resemblance was similar to an imp, but was a hybrid between demonoids and plants. Stephen had already had a case in which he had to deceive one to eat meat, which resulted in banishing it to another dimension. Here, he summoned a cow, cut it down in front of the demon, roasted it. His enemy was furious though, he made a protective barrier lasted until he was done. Then he stunned the creature with magic, forced its mouth open, put the meat in and made it chew on that. It dissolved to another world.

The fourth was a soul-eater, a spirit that dwells on bad memories. These creatures had human like bodies with a faint of distrust and misconception as an aura. Being sentient, he shouted out to Stephen.

“What is that your heart dwells on?”

“You know it. Not for long, though.” He walked towards the creature steadily.

“Is it your brother?”

He did not say a word.

“I know what happened to him.” The soul-eater summoned other soul-eaters.

“Great. And I know what will happen to you, you care?”

“His death was on your hands.” They chanted.

“He died in a car accident.” Said Stephen getting ever closer.

“But his spirit remained.”

“And he was suffering.”

“Your family hates you because you banished him, exorcised him, removed him from the living.” The original soul-eater became bigger and stronger, but Stephen cared not.

“Sure, and I am a fucking clown. I promised him to stop his suffering…” After saying this, he summoned a meteor, destroying half of the arena and all the creatures. The Aephala was glimmering in the dark, and as the fires were put out, a blue dragon serpent appeared. Stephen had to piss, so he went to the walls, and let it out.

“You destroyed half of my arena…”

“Shut the fuck up, Ryuui. Kami wouldn’t let you use soul eaters anyways.”

“I have a proper punishment…” The dragon laughed, and summoned the soul of his brother. “You can only win by killing him yet again.” He started running towards the dragon, but was hit by its tail and was bashed against the walls.

He felt pressure in his chest. His nose bled. He felt broken. When he opened his eyes, the ambulance was all around, performing CPR on him. He jumped up as he was given some adrenaline.

“The fuck is happening?” When he looked around, he found himself behind the trash bins of the local grocery.

“Sir, it is alright. Everything is fine.”

“Would you mind telling me, what happened?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Not at all…”

“You came into my store, slammed the racks, started chewing on the beef, pissed on my walls and came out. My employee followed you, and saw you run at the wall.”

“What a day…” He collapsed.

The next day, he woke up at the hospital, where one of his friends was working. There was nobody sitting by his bed, but as soon as the nurse realized he woke up, she called for the doctor.

“Stephen, why are you doing this every year?” The doctor got tired of his ‘vacations.’

“Sometimes I am fed up being all righteous. I am too dense. I wanted to take a break.”

“By drugging yourself with whatever you find?”

“It’s an old recipe. I wouldn’t go around tucking anything unrelated in me.”

“We got the results, and it isn’t good. The machinery can’t take magic, but I had some device at home, which helped me analyse your samples.”

“Analyse?” Stephen smirked. “My sample? Now, now. You have become daring…”

“You have cancer.”

“He?”

“On the other hand, it’s not physical, and I doubt your work, or this accident would have caused it.”

“Soul Cancer? I thought it was just a joke…”

“I have consulted with a friend, who told me that strong magic items can cause that.”

“What will happen?”

“I have never met anyone having soul cancer.”

“Great.”

“Also we have examined your body, and your chest was blue. That’s new to me…”

“My chest? Wasn’t that because of the violent massage I got from a medic? Well, I already know what caused my sickness.” He plucked all the medical accessories out of his body. “I’ve got to find a phone number. That fucking dragon…”

“What dragon?”

“Never mind. You’d be better not know about his existence.”

“The doctors haven’t agreed on letting you go…”

“I am already poor, I can’t pay for medical care. Also, I have things to do…”

“Like?”

“If you knew, I’d have to kill you.” He smirked and searched for his outfit. “I hope I turn into a ghost after I die. The worst outcome is that I get to be a millennial ghost, who always think they can do anything and have no confidence whatsoever. Bitches.” He spit in his little plastic cup. “Well, see you.” He stood up, changed his clothes and left.

After half an hour of travelling, he arrived at his office, there were two letters in his mailbox.

The first was from his secretary: ‘I am sorry for not being able to tell you personally, but due to family concerns, I have to quit the job.’ Stephen knew she had a difficult background, so he let her go.

The second was from the police: ‘Due to your unspecialized company and the way you treat your customers, it is compulsory for you to clean your name. Until you haven’t done that, you shall not accept any contracts.’

“My work for the government was for nothing.” He thought.

Reading through the letters, Stephen went to his office and took the orb off his shelf. He changed its colour to blue, and ordered to find the phone number of a very special someone.

“Yo, what’s up? It’s Stephen. I didn’t know you had a mobile phone.” Said the detective when the other answered the phone.

“We, dragons, are living in the twenty-first century, too. We have everything a human has and much more. Why are you calling me?”

“Well, Ealion, how do I become the Absolver?”