1 1. The System Activates

When vision returned to his eyes and the ringing in his ears stopped, the 20yr old otaku found himself in an unfamiliar place that seemed packed to the brim.

There were men and women with two pairs of wings on their back up in the sky, and the ground was full of creatures very similar to those that humanity had only known in myths, and some humanity had never heard of.

There were eldritchs, vampires, centaurs, snake women, arachnids, sirens, draconians, a Minotaur. And then there were those Akuma didn't know.

Viscous black substances that moved within floating orbs of water. Creatures that looked like rock golems but had 4 different coloured gems embedded in their bodies. There were humongous creatures that looked like a mix between dinosaurs and something from your worst nightmare.

And then there were humanoid beings that glowed a translucent blue.

It was difficult for him to make out their features since they were far away. And as he looked around, he found even more creatures.

"Did I fall asleep from all the ringing in my ears?" Akuma murmured to himself.

'This has to be a dream.'

And before he could even make sense of what was going on, a man walked up to him. Except nothing about him felt like he was just a man.

The guy had wide shoulders and a lean athletic build. His long fiery red hair flew on its own as if there was constant wind underneath it. That accompanied with his red eyebrows, flame-coloured irises, and a long white silk robe with golden patterns and golden cuffs made it obvious that he was an important figure despite the cheeky grin on his face.

"Pretty late to the party aren't you?" he slammed a hand on the otaku's shoulder and turned him around. "What's your name, Contestant no.1000?"

'Contestant? Hang on a second...'

"A-Akuma," he blurted out without even thinking, "My name's Akuma".

It wasn't his real name, instead, it was the name he used while gaming. Also, he preferred it over his real name, Siddhartha.

The two names represented very opposite things. Akuma meant "Devil" in japanese and Siddhartha was the name of the Buddha.

"Great," Leo patted his back and then turned to the crowd, "And this, Ladies and Gentleman, is our final participant. Contestant no.1000, Akuma, from the galaxy #1300!

"Now with all 1000 of you here, let's get the show started!" He snapped his fingers and immediately a black orb with bat-like wings came into existence and flitted towards him.

"Welcome to The Battle Of The Strongest! I'm your handsome host, Leo, the Zodiac Spirit of Strength! And today marks the beginning of our 113th battle royale. Sit back tight viewers, because the show is about to begin!"

Leo then turned and waved a hand at the contestants and everyone started moving towards what Akuma now noticed were seats. They were currently in a huge circular arena with seating arrangement akin to a cricket or football ground, except that the seats fit every specie present. The giant creatures shrunk in size to the height of a regular human when they moved towards one.

"For our first fight we have Nedra, a dog-headed beastman from galaxy #3330, Khepri, a siren from galaxy #4200 and Akuma, a human from galaxy #1300!"

Akuma had never for the seats, still trying to process everything. A month ago he had found a papyrus scroll in his backyard, and it was a guide on an event called 'The Battle Of The Strongest'. Of course, back then he considered it to be a lame prank by someone and threw it in a trashcan. But now it started to dawn upon him that he had no business being here. This was no dream. And he'd die the moment one of these creatures here as much as punched him lightly.

"What's the matter, Akuma?" he heard Leo's voice as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Can I... quit?"

Leo looked at Akuma like someone had just told him that icecreams are spicy.

"Ah!" his eyes lit up and the black orb appeared in front of him" ladies and gentlemen, looks like our final participant didn't come prepared. But I'm a kind Game Master, so I'll fetch something good for him."

He raised a hand to the sky, and the orb moved back and titled as if to capture the view of the sky.

'Is that orb a livestreaming device?'

A golden disc glowed around his wrist, and a few seconds later, loud whistling sounds rang out from the sky.

Two objects came hurtling down and Leo caught them both in a single hand and turned to the black orb, "This here is an artifact from Akuma's home planet, Earth, and yeah, it is what you're thinking dear audience, what allowed galaxy #1300 to partake in this contest was the awakening of multiple powerful artifacts in the galaxy. And these dual blades," he shoved it in my hands, "are one of them."

< System activating... >

< User is being registered... >

< Congratulations, you are the third person to be recognised by the Blades of Yin and Yang. >

Three blue windows popped up one after the other in front of Akuma's eyes, and no one seemed to have noticed it.

< Unlocking Beginner skills >

< The Blades of Yin and Yang

Skills: Nine slashes of Yin, Nine slashes of Yang >

< User's capability is insufficient. Can't unlock the other Beginner skills >

The blades were beautiful and slightly curved, like a samurai's sword. One had a pitch-black hilt and scabbard with beautiful golden inscriptions on it, and the other had a jade white hilt and scabbard with just as beautiful golden inscriptions.

Although they didn't seem to have the same inscriptions.

By the time he looked up from the blades, the other two contestants had already arrived. Khepri, the siren, had vibrant blue scales across her face, body and had giant bird wings of the same colour. Her claws and teeth weren't a welcoming sight though. Both looked sharp enough to amputate an elephant.

Nedra on the other hand was basically a big dog that stood on two legs and had an upper-body built like a wrestler's. He wouldn't be easy to beat either.

"All three contestants ready?" Leo looked at the three, "Begin!"

Nedra lunged at Khepri. Fist colliding against claws.

'Smart. If this siren is anything like the myths, then her voice has a mind control effect. Gotta get rid of her first.'

Akuma fit the jade sword through a belt loop on his pant, unsheathed the black one, and ran towards the two. The siren was starting to overpower Nedra, her claws getting through his defenses and leaving marks across his tough skin.

"Activate 'Nine Slashes of Yin', " I whispered.

Just as the beastman fell onto the floor, bleeding, a black arc of energy crashed into the siren. It went right through her left shoulder, and an arm fell to the ground.

"Skreeeeeeee!" she screamed in pain.

And just as she looked up front, a second slash passed through her right wing, and half of it fell down. Not wasting a moment she hurried toward Akuma, who was just about readying his third slash. A claw sunk into his face and went right through the left eye. The pain was like no other. He felt the nerves behind the eye burn. He would have stopped at that moment, but his hand was already in motion and a third slash covered the sword like a scabbard and cut through her with the swing.

She fell, sizzling where the third slash passed through her. Her body now halved. A moment later, only ash remained where her body was.

"Well," Leo whistled, "that was a pretty sight. But you can't pass to the next round unless you're the only survivor."

Akuma walked over to the beastman who was still bleeding, and without a word, put the blade through where he supposed his heart would be.

"And that's Akuma for you ladies and gentlemen! Not the most spectacular of fights we've seen so far, but an interesting fight nonetheless. Time to count your money now for those who bet on Akuma! Don't leave yet, you can head to your nearest Spirit Delivery Center during the break. Now! For the second match we have..."

_______________________________________

That night, Akuma found himself staring out the window while holding the two blades close.

He had never killed before. But why did he feel no guilt after doing so? Why didn't he hesitate? Ofcourse hesitating might have gotten him killed, but he still couldn't stop thinking about it. It was too abnormal. He looked around over to the other dormitories, there were four in total, including the one he was in. They were all much bigger than most universities back on Earth.

Thankfully he didn't have to share his room with anyone else, but other rooms in his dormitory were full of beastmen of all kinds, and two other species whose names he was told by the caretaker Spirit of this dormitory to be Draconians and Astrals.

'Astrals... so that's what the translucent blue ones are called.'

The humongous creatures were sleeping out in the open. Apparently, they were called Kaiju. There was a fifth dormitory, and it was empty, they could have used that by shrinking themselves in size like before. But they probably preferred the open ground to it. After all, the light breeze of the night felt wonderful.

Yet, there was a strange loneliness in the breeze. A loneliness of being away from home,a loneliness of being unsure if it was possible to return. A loneliness of being amidst strangers.

Or perhaps that was just him.