Chapter 2: The Room

[Third Person's Point of View]

Sitting on his couch after a trip to the Devilson Convenience Store, Augustus' mind drifted back - as it had countless times in the past four months, to the day he had been transported to this new world.

[Flashback]

Augustus opened his eyes to a room that was dimly lit, the only source of light being the small slivers peeking through the curtains hung on the window. Shadows danced across the floor and walls, giving the room an eerie and foreboding atmosphere.

In disbelief, he rubbed his eyes and squinted harder at the impossible sight before him. A window, exactly perpendicular to his vision, where there should only be a solid concrete wall on the exact place when observed from outside. 

Strange, Augustus thought.

How did he know that?

Augustus lay sprawled on the floor, his body contorted in an uncomfortable position. His head was tilted against the wall at an odd angle, and his arms and legs were splayed haphazardly. He could see the faint outline of the shelves and objects in the dimly lit room.

He quickly scanned the area around him, and what immediately re-caught his attention were the shelves lining the walls.

Shelves were filled with various objects, from old books with faded covers to shiny swords and shields. The scrolls were neatly rolled and bound with ribbons, their intricate designs catching the dim light coming through the window. Despite the clutter of objects, there was not a speck of dust to be seen, as if someone had just finished cleaning each item meticulously.

On the wooden table to his right, Augustus could see three books stacked atop each other of varying sizes and colors, their spines cracked and worn from many readings. The small book next to them appears to be a journal, its pages yellowed with age and filled with handwritten notes and sketches.

His body twisted and contorted like a serpent as he propped himself up, his muscles aching and sore from laying on the ground for who knows how long. His fingers danced delicately over his neck and shoulder, searching for relief from the pain. And finally, in a confused and curious voice, he wondered aloud, "Where in the world am I?".

Then it hit him.

The impact was brutal.

Like a loaded truck hitting a fragile human, barreling through his body, and crashing into his soul. Augustus staggered backward, the weight of nearly two decades worth of memories crushing him.

"ARghhHhHhH" 

He let out a blood-curdling scream as he clutched at his head with both hands, reliving every moment in vivid detail. Thousands of images flashed before his eyes, each one a painful reminder of what he had lost. The agony was unbearable, but he couldn't begin to escape it. It was all-consuming, overwhelming him like a tidal wave of despair.

He gritted his teeth and hoped for it to be over soon, for he was sure of one thing, if this continued any longer, he wouldn't be sane enough to make sense of anything anymore.

It was like the aftermath of a battle, the heavy weight of exhaustion and the sharp tang of blood filling his mouth as he gasped for precious air after enduring a grueling 19 seconds of agony. The evidence of his struggle was visible in the few drops of dark red that dripped from his nose, a reminder of the physical and emotional toll he had just endured.

Slowly, his pounding heart calmed down, as he took a deep breath, and analyzed everything he had seen just now.

Indeed, he has been transmigrated.

That much was obvious at first glance, as he was sure that humans don't have wings, nor were they able to break a boulder with a punch, or spam fireballs. And they certainly didn't go around labeling themselves as Devils.

He carried the name of Augustus Ashford in his original life, which - strangely he seemed to have retained, except the surname, which Devils of his status didn't have.

Augustus remembered every moment of his two lives, his memories seamlessly merging as if he had lived both of them. 'Agreed I did live the first one, but what about the second one?'

Surprisingly, panic had not set in yet, which seemed strange given the circumstances.

Augustus was surprisingly calm for someone who should be feeling overwhelmed. Using this unusual sense of composure, Augustus decided to take a closer look at his surroundings and explore. 

While he remembered a rough outline of his second life, he lacked the time to sift through every little detail. This resulted in frequent gaps in his memory that he had to manually fill and make sense of.

'All in due time'

Thought Augustus as he decided to check his condition first. His clothes- a plain white shirt and black trousers, all made from good quality materials he inadvertently recalled, were now crumpled and disheveled as if he was trashing on the floor like a fish out of water. Strange.

Even stranger was the fact that there was a huge cut on the palm of his left hand, which looked awfully like someone had sliced a sharp knife across.

The blood seems to have clotted and the wound has started to show early signs of formation of scab, indicating that it has been over a day since the wound's induction. Maybe more.

Focusing his thoughts, he recalled getting beaten over and extorted of Lilums by Paul and his upstart gang while visiting his parent's grave.

Grave only in name, the town hall informed Augustus that his parents were one of the very few who died in the outbreak, but their body was not found. Even their deaths were reported based on the accounts of a few eyewitness hunters who were on the scene, and 'supposedly' witnessed their deaths, but the battle was in such a pandemonium that they didn't care about the body of the deceased; and after the battle when they went there, the bodies were never found.

They were declared missing in action, and after 48 hours the town hall issued a death certificate. 

After taking care of all the paperwork, the previous Augustus decided to bury the sword and the bracelet- one of the only pieces of articles they left behind, which was brought back by the hunters.

The orichalcum sword had a strange lustre, chipped at its edges which indicated that though it was well maintained, it had seen a gruesome and hard last battle which led to the loss of its owner. The Green bracelet, which his mother always wore; once a symbol of love and protection, now bore the stains of a heartbreaking loss, its owner's fate too gruesome to even imagine.

He buried them.

And when he got mugged and thrashed on his way back from the little graveyard at the corner of the town where he buried them, he was writhing with intense rage and agony.

The pain he was feeling didn't matter. All he wanted to do was to inflict the same pain, agony, and helplessness he was feeling back to them, tenfold.

Augustus was described best by those who knew him as a shy, meek, and sweet boy, which in this world of Devils, was never a good thing. He abhorred unnecessary violence. But those who truly knew him feared another side of him. He was truly a vindictive Devil.

The first time he was bullied by some students at his local school due to his soft nature, he pulled out his breakfast knife from his lunch knapsack and stabbed their genitals, leaving them to bleed out on the ground as he calmly walked away. This news caused a huge local uproar at that time. 

If it had been in his previous life, he would have been sent to a juvenile correctional facility, but this was the world of Devils, where to a large extent, might speak the loudest.

His parents being one of the stronger Devils around and them being hunters deferred the 'victims' and their parents from taking any kind of action towards him. Even if he didn't get any official punishment for his deed, except for a literal slap on his wrist from his school, it did affect him mentally.

His actions served as a huge source of trauma for a violence disliking child- himself.

From then he didn't respond to any provocations sent his way, but as slowly time passed people started to forget about this event and started bullying him again. 

He stayed silent through all of it.

Except what happened that day. That was for him, the last straw that broke the camel's back.

He wanted revenge and wanted it at all cost.

And it was that desperation that led the original Augustus to the front of the old wooden door, made of rich mahogany, positioned at the back of the fifth and final bookshelf, leading to its forbidden section.

He stood there with a golden key in his hand which he retrieved from his father's safe using the passcode - 1218, his and his mother's birthday. 

Inside the safe, were a few documents, a few stacks of Lillium, and a Golden Key with a note in his father's handwriting, that read, 'Only Use During Emergency' in cursive.

His recollection ended, as he opened the door and saw the room illuminated by light coming through a window that should not exist, leaving him to question the hole in his memories.

He didn't remember a single thing after that.

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Woohoooo, 2 chapters in a dayy yayyyyy!!!

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