Cecil Calhoun, prodigy, thirteen-year-old valedictorian. Son of the town’s janitor and doctor, an odd pairing anywhere else in the world. Given the nature of janitors in the town he lived in, it was a respected position.

Apprentice to the old wizened archmage Sam. A master of all things religious, arcane, and the occult. Seller of all things charms, potions, Knickknacks, and baubles.

Today was the day Cecil graduated from apprentice wizard to journeyman. Which would allow him to wield his powers in the open. It also meant he could move on from cantrips to actual one rank spells. He could become the man he always wanted to be. A dense harem protagonist. He looked at a poster hanging from a wall of some niche anime.

Cecil pulled on the white cloak he’d custom-made, something that didn’t fit their modern world but screamed the words wizard. The training wand he’d been using to focus his spells was in his side pocket. Something an archmage wouldn’t need but an apprentice couldn’t leave home without. His blond hair in a ponytail, blue eyes behind coke bottle glasses, and a relatively scrawny frame.

He’d have been a generic nerd if his early homeschooling had bullies. While his brief stint in high school, a solid two years time, made it clear that even in a school of monsters, he was a prodigy.

Leaving his house was the easy part. Making it all the way to Uncle Sam’s magic shack was a 30-minute run that could be trivialized with a car ride. The thing was, very few people owned cars here. Of those who did, maybe three had an actual license. And of those three, only two actually drove. Sadly one was a professional truck driver under Sam’s employ and was busy picking up supplies for the small town. And the other one, Lorenzo, was running an errand for the old man.

“Land give me strength, wind give me swiftness.” He pointed his wand at his feet, and his legs began to glow.

He quickly made it through the countryside past the weird building they were renovating and into prairie lands. In ten minutes, he’d arrived at his destination. A little worse for wear, though on time.

He walked up to the door and knocked with the special knock.

An elderly Native American man with black hair answered the door. His face was done up in ritualistic paint, a feathered headdress on his head and paired with a feathered robe that held the skull of a small cow on his shoulder.

“Cecil, my boy! Follow me!” Sam led the boy into his shack. Towards the back room, which was hidden behind a cloth tarp.

Upon passing through the tarp, the two arrived at what one would call an elevator. The visibly one-story building had no use for such a thing. The box didn’t go up or down, while it did feel as such. It was what one would call a gate in the world that transports the box to its intended location.

“Mr.Sam?” Cecil asked.

“Call me Uncle Sam.” Sam said.

“Uh huh… Anyway, where are you taking us?”

“You’ll see in three…two….”

Ding

Cecil arrived in front of a heptagon, the symbol of his brand of magic. The symbol of the four main elements and three metaphysical. In the middle of the arcane symbol was a golden bowl the size of ahead.

“Where are we?” Cecil asked, concerned.

“Hell. Is the short answer, the long will just confuse you. Now,I want you, to go stand in the circle next to the bowl.” Uncle Sam said, pointing at Cecil.

“Ok, Mr. Uncle Sam.” Cecil ran to his position.

“Good, good.” Sam walked past the circle into the inky red darkness and then back with a rabbit covered in black fur.

“Whats that?”

“A demon. I’m gonna use it for the ritual.”

“Why a demon?”

“Why kill a normal rabbit when I can kill a demon one?” Sam said unapologetically

“Great now what then.”

Sam began to speak in a language that didn’t belong here, causing ritualistic symbols to rise from the ground. As they did, the humming of mana could be heard as it began to burn into Cecil’s flesh like a brand.

“Ahhhh!” Cecil screamed.

Within moments, the mana coalesced on Cecil’s hand, creating a symbol representing a black cat with nine tails.

As it slowed to a crawl, Sam slit the throat of the demonic rabbit. Its blood flowed into a bowl. When the rabbit ran out of blood, it fell to the ground uselessly.

Sam grasped the bowl with both hands and held it above the boy. He then turned it over onto the blond boy’s hair.

Sam then produced a pair of scissors and a comb, which were used to give Cecil a bowl cut. But, first, catching the hair in his open hand.

“Be reborn in this baptism of blood. Let this ritual mark the birth of the last true mage to walk the earth.” The bowl was removed from Cecil’s head. The blonde hair was placed inside, along with the rabbit’s corpse and a few gems.

“Form a contract with me oh being of great power and give me a familiar to help me achieve my desire.” Cecil said.

The magic stopped flowing, the magic circle vanished, and the blood, hair, and rabbit corpse were given as a sacrifice.

“That seems to be a bit more of a warlock pact than wizard pact.” Cecil said with creased eyebrows.

“Warlock would require more sacrifices and a bigger chant. I just asked the guy upstairs to give you mana channels. You’re going to be my predecessor, young Cecil. Now hold out your hand, palm down.”

Cecil did so, revealing the nine-tailed cat.

“Well shit kid. You’re going to die today. Which means I’m plum outta luck on delaying the apocalypse.”

“What. What? But my harem!”

“God damn it Cecil! This is much bigger than you can imagine. That desire, that damned early puberty desire has pushed you onto some train tracks. You’re going to die very soon in an absurd way. Then be reincarnated into a world where you’ll be able to get your damn harem!”

“Really!” Cecil seemed really happy about it.

“Cecil. You’re going to be gone from this world, with no way to speak to your mom, dad, or any of your friends. They’re going to be left behind to mourn your loss.” Sam tried to convince the thirteen-year-old boy, who was grinning wickedly.

“I’m going to go tell Bella the good news!” Cecil said as he excitedly ran towards the elevator.

Sam sighed and shook his head. It had been quite a long time since he’d been thirteen and dumb. He’d thought Cecil would have been better a genius among humans, the most gifted boy he’d trained. But instead, his life was forever changed due to a natural chemical imbalance caused by growing.

Sam brought them back to the shack. After saying his goodbyes to Cecil, old Sam began to put on his demon-fighting armor to prepare for the battle.

Cecil’s day went from bad to worse as he walked out of the building and into the open air, chanting a spell of swiftness as he ran home. Pulling out a pin and paper, he wrote a letter thanking his parents for raising him. The reality of the situation not quite hitting him as it should.

As he left the house, he heard a clicking sound followed by the smell of smoke. In moments, his home was visibly on fire. Cecil pulled out his cell phone and dialed 911.

“911 what’s your emergency.” Said a calm feminine voice.

“Jill? This is Cecil. I don’t know how…Achoo!” The smoke made Cecil sneeze, which caused him to drop his phone at an angle that destroyed it as it hit an edge bypassing its case. It bounced off the surface and into a leftover pool of water from the night before.

Cecil went to retrieve his phone but decided against it as he noticed the hair on his arms begin to stand up. Electricity, the phone was essentially dead and gone.

“Breathe in. Breathe out.” Cecil took a deep breath as he reached for his backpack. Only to find that he had mistakenly left it in the house.

His robes and hair were stained with blood. He’d need to find somewhere to wash off. Cecil had never been a superstitious person despite being aware of magic. “This is just a coincidence, luck doesn’t exist.”

As Cecil walked toward his best friend Bella’s house, he noticed that the town was in need of some severe fortification. Street lamp bulbs shattered, the sewage pipes exploded, and trees rotted and fell into homes.

“Huh. What is it, bad luck day?” Cecil said as he rang the doorbell at his friend’s house.

“Yes actually.” Said a tiny girl who seemed to be ahead shorter than Cecil, despite being the same age. Her pink hair stood out as it had been done upon braided pigtails.

“Wait, is it really?” Cecil asked, surprised.

“Yeah Friday the thirteenth, though you don’t normally care for that stuff. You smell good by the way, is that a new cologne?” The girl asked.

“No Bella, it’s actually demon rabbit blood. I got my spells today, though apparently I’m going to die and get sent to some fantasy world. My dream of becoming a dense harem protagonist will be realized soon enough.” Cecil said proudly.

“Cecil. You’re probably the densest boy I know. And I have five younger brothers.” Bella sighed before her face went white.

“Did you just say you were going to die?” Bella asked.

“I mean yeah, later on today actually, don’t know how, but it’s going to happen. Nothing I can do about that.”

“I’m coming with you.” Bella said plainly, her eyes turning extra serious.

“No. I know I have a free card. Get me out of death. But you might just die. I don’t want that on my conscience. Maybe I’ll even find my way home. So I’m just here to say goodbye.” Cecil turned around and started leaving.

Bella Wulf was not one for standing idly by as her best, possibly only friend, marched off to his death.

“I’m coming with. That wasn’t a question, it’s a fact.” Bella grabbed her friend by his wrist and squeezed.

Despite her size, Bella was very strong. Being a werewolf tends to grant all sorts of physical abilities. Even if she is technically a runt.

Cecil was stuck in place. He couldn’t pull himself free, and his strength was relatively weak, and using magic would only end with a broken wrist as she’d lose her patience if he drew a weapon.

“I won’t let you throw your life away.” Cecil said.

“Stupid hypocrit. Let’s now lets enjoy this last day on earth.” Bella then proceeds to drag the boy around the small town. Buying food, visiting the arcade, destroying the arcade due to a strange domino effect.

By the end of the day, the two were standing in an open field.

“Any regrets?” Cecil asked.

“Plenty. You never showed me your familiar.” Bella said.

Cecil nodded. “I haven’t seen it either,” Cecil mumbled. Then, holding out his marked hand, Cecil let the mana flow through the symbol.

“Appear.” He said.

A black cat appeared. It had one tail that seemed to swish in a way that left behind afterimages as it passed. On the cat’s head was a big black tophat and around its neck was a collar that looked like a red bowtie.

“Hello cat.” Cecil said.

“Hello human.” Replied the cat.

“I have a name you know.” Cecil said.

“Is that so. Well give the boy a cookie then.” The cat said sarcastically.

“The cat just talked.” Bella said, frozen in shock.

“What is your name then cat, mine is Cecil, so you know.”

“Oh believe me I knew that already. You may call me Samandreal.”

“Little Sam it is then.” Cecil said plainly.

“Little Cece for you then.”

“Hey, I want a nickname.”

“Bell,” said Cecil.

“Ella.” Said Samandreal

The two exchanged looked as though they were going to fight.

“I’ll take them both. So Sammy, we’re going to die today. What can you do about that?” Bella asked.

“Well you could get out of the. Only Cecil needs to die, you my dear Ella are safe.”

“I’m coming with him.” Bella said.

“Little Cece, convince your friend to go home.” Sammy said.

“I tried multiple times and she said no.” Cecil added.

“I have nine lives. When we die and get transfered that will cost one each. I don’t get these back quickly. Each tail takes a century to regrow. Where we go is random as we are thrown into another universe entirely. Master can build his harem in these unsuspecting universes.”

“Ok so you can give me one of your lives and we can all go together?” Bella asked.

“Yes, but should you die no where near me then your soul will be sent to that world’s afterlife where you would be lost forever. Something that i’m sure neither of you would want.” Sammy said plainly.

“I’m not leaving my best friend to some unknown world alone. I’m coming with.”

Cecil sighed. “I’m fine if she comes with.

Cecil gave his good friend a hug and held on tight as he saw it coming.

There was a giant airplane coming down towards them in the sky at high speeds. Cecil had the feeling that if he tried to dodge. They’d still die. There was no way out of the falling plane’s splash zone.

“Goodbye.” Was the last thing Bella said before everything went up in flames.