1 Altered Reality

Earth was finally a peaceful place after so many wars and bloodshed and many lives were lost and forgotten and it was only when Humanity was at the brink of extinction did they understand that they should be united.

And this day was called the Day Of Redemption

It was celebrated Every Year and was thought to be the most important event in History.

Until they discovered [Rules].

[Rules] were found several Decades after the Day of Redemption and no one knew who or how it was discovered but it quickly became known to everyone in a short time.

Rules were supposed to control or regulate something and that was what it did. It would set a [Rule] that cannot be broken in any shape or form but of course something that powerful had great costs.

A [Rule] has to be earned and it had to be earned by betting Worlds against each other.

Every 20 years rifts would open and be scattered throughout the continents. And this was the first sign of the event called [The Bridge] and after exactly a month would pass the rifts shall burst and [Gates] shall appear in their place on every continent.

The [Gates] would connect Earth to another world and several people would be granted a sphere with a number on it.

These spheres would be called [Keys] and this was the objective of the war, the first world to lose all of their spheres would have no choice but to follow the rules and commands of the victor.

The first World that they had fought was a medieval style world that seemed to have the same system as you would see in a japanese novel or manga complete with mythical beings such as orcs, goblins, and even Dragons and of course Magic.

And with the superiority that they had in technology, they were able to win over them as even with magic they were would not be able to stop bullets and tank shells.

And not surprisingly enough it was the dragons that they had the hardest time with as they're skin would be able to stop bullets and resist tanks shells.

But that didn't mean that they were invincible, it just took longer to kill them than the rest.

Soon after they have taken the [Keys] of that world and the people who held this world's keys decided to implement magic into this world using the [Rule].

None opposed as they had seen the power of it when it was used by the wizards and Dragons of that world.

It has been 20 years since then, and the next Rift had already appeared and it was the last day until the [Gate]'s would form.

"Ready the Artillery! Contact command for eta on the rift, Get those Tanks in position! Gunners take place!"

"Finally, we're finally getting some action"

"Dude don't say that, haven't you heard that the first [Gate] was a bloodbath"

"Yeah, since they weren't prepared and didn't know what was happening. And besides, we have magic now" He raised his hand and a small flame started forming on his palm

"Yeah i know that but what if we lose?

"Kind of unlikely though, if what I heard about the first war was true then this is going to be easy"

"But what if-"

The [Rift] that they were stationed at had started shaking and everyone had rushed to where they were supposed to be.

Within a few minutes a [Gate] had appeared in its place he could feel that everyone was tense and nervous and that they feared what would pass through that [Gate]

They didn't have to wait long as they could feel the Earth shake beneath their feet and soon a beast crawled through the [Gate] rushing forward and bashing anything in its path. Within a few minutes of its arrival it had already killed dozens of men.

"What are you waiting for? Fire!"

With the General's shout most of the soldiers came to their senses and shot into the Beast but it simply shrugged them off as if they were flies and even the Tanks would only manage to dent its hide.

"Use magic on it!"

And the people that could use magic instantly used it and threw spells into it and you could see ice, fire, lightning, and even rocks being thrown at it in high velocity and none of it did anything.

Seeing that they couldn't kill it he turned around and ran as fast as he could.

The General turned just in time to see him running away and screamed

"Shoot that Deserter!"

Some soldiers followed the General's directions and aimed at him. But stopped when the [Gate] shook once more and after a few more seconds more of that Beast rushed forth.

When they couldn't even beat the one alone and how could they possibly beat several of them together.

As for him? He kept running as far as he could.

That was 3 years ago.

Mankind has long since fallen and most of the humans have long since gone into hiding.

He walked and reached a door that was placed in the mouth of a cave that he had made into his home.

When he entered the cave he threw his bags unto the bed and walked to the stone ring on the ground.

And soon a fire had started he placed a pot on top of it and poured some water in from his bidon that he had made from simply carving a jug from a log.

He reached for his bag and opened it and pulled out some meat and placed it beside the fire rather than on the fire as he does not like it charred. After it was ready he got and filled his bidon back with the boiled water and grabbed the meat.

He ate in silence within the cave and after eating he simply threw the bones to a corner on the cave.

He reached under his shirt and pulled out a dog tag more specifically his dog tag. On it was his name Jay P. Carter, the name of a weakling, a deserter, a traitor he clutched it and thought to throw it into the fire. But he let go and continued eating and this was his normal routine everyday ever since he ran.

He doused the fire and sat on the floor.

He sat and focused and thought of a heat coursing through his body and pouring out of his fingers and gathering in the middle of his palm and when he opened his eyes he saw a flame the size of a large stone on his hand.

He didn't feel bothered by it in any way he couldn't feel it's heat in any way. All he could feel was an invisible strain on his body.

Then next came the hard part of this, he tried molding and changing it little by little.

He imagined stretching it while thinking of a lance and after 20 minutes of focusing he had finally done it.

In his hand was a lance of flame but it didn't resemble a lance except its length. So he called it an imperfect [Flame Lance]

This was what he would do everyday when night fell.

He would focus on his magic and try to change as much as he could and failure was extremely painful since if the changing process failed then it would explode in its element.

He had even tried forming a wall of stone by slowly adding other stones to stones to it, but it failed and exploded in shrapnel that would put a grenade to shame.

He stopped his magic and went over to a table and chair that he had made and sat down and opened a small notepad.

In it was every single successful spell that he modified and notes on them. [Water blade], [Stone wall], [Wind pierce], and with his current success [Flame Lance].

All of these were the spells that he had completed in these 3 years that he spent alone and it was not much but he was happy with it.

And so with that he went to his bed and slept.

When morning came he woke up and readied his things. He got his bag and a bow he had made and a simple machete that he got while visiting a town.

Almost all guns in this world was rendered useless since there were no more factories that could create bullets and any factories that would work would be instantly swarmed by what we have started to call Edens.

The Edens were the creatures that came through the [Gate] and seem to have a hierarchy and the higher they are the smaller and more powerful they become.

It was first known when the British military encountered a smaller Eden mistook it as a baby.

They couldn't pass up the opportunity and sent troops to kill it, but before they could even do that, they were assaulted by the bigger Edens and they all seemed to follow the smaller Eden's control.

And within 24 hours several british military bases fell under the command of the Eden, and some have even reported that the smaller Eden used magic at times.

It was then someone gave the theory that perhaps they have a hierarchy and the smaller the Eden was the higher it's standing was. And so they were given Rankings from the lowest to the highest. [Soldier], [Commander], [General], [Knight], [Queen], [King]

No one is sure on how many stages their Hierarchy has, so for the time being this was what everyone used.

He walked out and walked around the forest and started looking for any sign of wildlife that could be eaten.

During his walk he heard footsteps in the distance and so he ran and hid under a tree with big roots. He waited for the footsteps to come closer, but he also started hearing heavier footsteps.

They were being chased!

He peeked out and saw a woman in a handmade Cloak with several bloodstains on it, but what he focused on was what was behind the woman. There was an Eden chasing her.

He pulled his head back and waited until the Eden caught the woman and leave so he could continue hunting and rush back home.

He sat there behind a tree waiting for the woman to effectively die so he could be safe.

Traitor...

Weakling...

Failure...

He heard all the voices of his old platoon saying these things but he ignored all of them until one voice rang out.

'Are you gonna wait for her to die...just like me?...'

The voice of her daughter rang out. Tears strolled down his face as he remembered his daughter that he left and never returned to, she would have probably died long ago.

With the Woman.

She had been running for hours until she reached the forest in hopes of losing the Eden, she just went into town to a nearby village to see if she could find food for the other survivors but was cut short when an Eden saw her in the village.

She ran and ran as fast as her legs could take her, she knew that if she slowed down or stopped. It would catch her.

Until a shadow ran past her. She turned and was about to shout to the person that there was and Eden there.

"Watch ou-!"

Before she could finish. The person held out his hand and a small ball of water appeared on it, he dragged it into a line and it shot out like a blade and cut through the air and saw that a gash had appeared on the Eden's skin.

It shocked everyone including the Eden, as it had never been harmed before even when the Humans had tried to blow it up.

The man stood still, probably not expecting that. And moments later he once again ran forward and held out his hand once more and another ball seemed to shimmer. He then threw his hand forth and nothing seemed to happen until a hole appeared on the Eden's head.

The man approached the Eden's corpse and stared at it. She also went towards the corpse and stared.

The man turned to look at her, now that the man wasn't running around she could see that the man had brown hair and blue eyes with a round face and beard.

"Leave"

Huh? She wasn't sure on what the man just said, or maybe he didn't want to know what the man just said.

"What?"

"I said Leave, Leave this place and don't return"

With that the man was now glaring at her and obviously waiting for her to leave. So she started heading towards the direction of the village. She turned around and saw that he was still staring at her.

With Jay

He watched the woman leave and turned to the Eden corpse. He never thought that he could kill and Eden, he even started to wonder how many Edens have been killed these past few years, he thought maybe a dozen or so would be a good estimate.

He brought out his knife and tried to cut it's skin but it wouldn't even pierce it. He went to the wound that he caused and stuck the knife there, it seemed to work a little and he started cutting under the skin and using [Water Blade] from time to time to cut the skin.

Even while using [Water Blade] it still took him about 7 hours for him to remove it's skin. He carried the skin home but not before cutting 3 of it's teeth as a trophy and some other things.

He reached his home and placed the skin on the bed and brought out the Eden's teeth. He looked at it and noticed that it looked similar to shark teeth, an idea popped in his head and went out shortly to get a stick and some vines. He then jammed the tooth on the stick and secured it with the vines.

He now had a knife with better durability than steel. Then he thought that maybe the Eden's tooth could pierce it's own skin.

He grabbed the Eden's skin and held it's edge and pulled out his new knife and tried to cut a piece of it's edge.

And it cut! He rejoiced since now he had a way to fight off Edens and if he loses his knife then he could simply use Magic, he then started cutting pieces of the Eden's skin and placed them around his clothes by using vines as threads and placed them on his shoulders, knees, and elbows as a form of protection. He even cut off two big pieces for his front and back.

He then decided that now that he could fight off Edens, he'll try to become the soldier that he should have been.

He slept and when he woke up he packed all of his belongings and left the cave that he used as a home for three years.

And now... He set off to right this World.