1 Prologue

The full version of this story has been posted on two other sites, so if you don't want to wait for me to get it all up here, just ask me where you can find it and I'll direct you to it.

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My name is Luka. Presumably, if you're reading this book, you already know who I am and roughly know my story. That story was published in video game format some time ago, and while the big picture is the truth, a lot of details were changed to make the story more compatible with what the designers were looking to accomplish with the game. So since people keep asking me questions, I thought I'd set the record straight on what really happened.

Let me start by saying that at the time our story begins, I actually didn't know who I was or where I came from. My life as far as I knew had begun just two years previous. I was told I'd been found wandering naked around the forest near Ilias Village, barely responsive. When asked, I could give my name and… not much else. The people of Ilias Village took me in and cared for me until I had enough wits about me to repay them with good honest work, which fortunately didn't take long because I didn't seem to be suffering from any serious physical damage aside from some hunger and dehydration. I must have been wandering aimlessly for a couple of days when I was found.

So I repaid the hospitality of the villagers by helping them with odd jobs, which they insisted on paying me for even though I already owed them my life. After a short time, I discovered that I was pretty good with a sword, so in addition to odd jobs, I got a real one: a village constable. There wasn't much for a constable to do in such a peaceful village. In theory, one of my primary jobs was to assist the soldiers in keeping monsters away from the village. We'd patrol the forests every so often when we'd heard reports of a monster sighting, or sometimes just because we were bored. In the two years I was in Ilias Village before the beginning of our story, I never actually saw a monster. We did see some evidence that monsters had been around, or at least the soldiers who were good at tracking said they had found such evidence: a slimy leaf here, a footprint there that looked sorta human but maybe not. But never an actual monster.

So I imagine most of you know all about monsters, but for those who don't know, I'll briefly explain. Monsters are all female and attack humans. Mostly, but not exclusively males, usually for the purpose of raping them, but sometimes to kidnap them and keep them for who knows what nefarious purpose, although we could all imagine, and sometimes even to eat them! Why are these monster girls so interested in rape? Well, it's because as I mentioned, they are all female, and cannot procreate any other way, although many humans do willingly break Ilias' commandment about mating with monsters.

Since Ilias Village was a pious village, and very hostile to monsters, the monster population had long since either died out or moved to places where easy prey, or willing prey, was more widely available. In addition, the devout believed that a baptism ceremony offered protection from monsters, which if true, further reduced the available stock of humans to feed on, although I didn't believe that mumbo jumbo for a second.

I'm proud to say I was pretty well liked in Ilias Village, to the point where it seemed like everyone wanted to recruit me for something. The faithful wanted to convert me to the faith of the Goddess Ilias. They were super nice people and I was grateful for what they'd done for me, but I just couldn't give myself to a faith that I didn't believe in. I'd guessed I must have been an atheist or had another faith wherever I'd come from, because while I wasn't hostile to their faith or their goddess, I couldn't really believe that some goddess created all that there is without evidence.

The soldiers wanted me to join the army. I was easily the best among them, not just with a sword, but grappling and brawling as well. Where I was deficient was teamwork and following directions. I must have apparently been a loner, because I always felt that I did better on my own, and army discipline didn't appeal to me in the slightest. Plus there was the matter of the enlistment period, which would have committed me when I wasn't sure how long I wanted to stay in Ilias Village.

You see, in those two years, little things such as smells, someone humming a tune, doing things that I didn't know I could do but that seemed to come naturally, brought back small snippets of memories, of impressions, so that by the time the story as you know it begins, I had a little bit of a better idea of who I was, although the gaps in my memory were still huge.

But before I go any further, let me avoid trying to create fake suspense here. I come from your world. 21st century, good old US of A. I'm not going to get into my biography here, because frankly, it's boring and it's not what you are reading this book for. Besides, you'll get the pieces at the same points of the story that I did as I actually lived it.

So by the time we reach the beginning of our story as you know it, I had figured out that I wasn't from the Ilias continent, and maybe not from the Sentora continent either. My dim, fragmented memories were of a technological world, of enjoying movies, video games, amusement parks, sports, and foods that didn't exist anywhere in Ilias Village. Oh yes, I love food, which is hilarious if you already know who is entering the picture very soon. One of my unknown talents that emerged quickly was the ability to cook. Some of the odd jobs I did involved cooking, and it was universally praised, at least to my face.

When I asked villagers if there were any other continents besides Ilias and Sentora, they mentioned Hellgondo in hushed tones, but knew of no others. Apparently Hellgondo was a monsters-only continent, although it hadn't always been so. Humans and monsters had once lived on that continent in relative harmony, until one day the monsters had turned on the human population and slaughtered them all, with the most savage genocide being in the city of Remina. The Monster Lord had declared war on all of humanity.

But that story bothered me, because it didn't ring true in a very important way. If we were at war, where were the mighty armies marching and clashing? Where was the front line of this war? Why weren't all the human kingdoms assembling armies to face the monstrous foe? It was the most desultory war I'd ever heard of, which sounds odd since I didn't remember any wars of any sort at the time, but when you have amnesia sometimes you know things and aren't sure why. Something was off and I was curious to find out what.

So one day, after a peaceful and enriching two years in Ilias Village, I decided I was going to go on a journey. This journey had many purposes. First and foremost, the frequency of memories coming back to me was declining. Ilias Village was not a very exciting place, and the stimuli were few. I guessed that if I traveled to new places, I'd experience new things, which would in turn stimulate more memories and give me a better idea of who I'd been.

The second purpose of my planned journey was to learn more about monsters and why humans and monsters didn't get along. Part of the answer was obvious: the dominant faith here prohibited sexual relations between humans and monsters, and preached that monsters were an abomination. There were also very feral, almost animalistic monsters, who I supposed couldn't be controlled or reasoned with, only dealt with if they became a threat. Ropers in particular were feared by every villager. Several years ago one had killed and eaten several villagers who had wandered into the forest unaware and alone, until it was hunted down and killed. Ropers are tentacled nightmares who grab and slowly dissolve their prey. They are merciless and not too intelligent. So I understood that just as some wild animals and humans would never harmoniously occupy the same territory, some monsters would never be able to coexist as well.

But neither of those problems seemed to explain the extreme enmity that seemed to exist. Yes, the Ilias faith was the dominant faith and Ilias Village was the most pious village on the continent, with a prominent temple that drew pilgrims from all over the known world, although I didn't see many of them. Supposedly, it had become very difficult to travel from Sentora to Ilias continent, and vice versa for some reason. But I digress. Even though Ilias Village was pious, about half of the villagers were not really practicing and tolerance of nonbelievers and the semibelievers was high. And in conversations with many of the not so religious males, many of them were very curious and willing to consort with a monster girl, if she was pretty enough. And if that was the case in this village, attitudes had to be even more liberal elsewhere. As for the feral monsters, there just weren't that many of them. Being unintelligent, they didn't tend to live long once they got too close to a populated area. None of this was enough to really explain all the hatred.

So I determined that a journey would give me some answers. And hopefully, some solutions as well. Why did I think that one person could make such a difference? Because it seemed to me that solutions to seemingly intractable problems come in two ways: first, problems like that need a new set of eyes on them. People that have lived their whole lives believing monsters and humans can never live in harmony will tend to just accept it as the way things are. Even those who might want things to change may have just been inside the situation so long that it can be hard to think outside the box. As an outsider, especially one with a nearly blank slate and no ingrained prejudices that I knew of, I might see things others didn't. And once one person observes a possible solution, maybe he can get others to see it too, and the idea spreads, and society changes. That's how one person can make a difference. That's what I hoped, anyway.

The final purpose of my planned journey was simply for the joy of travel. I remembered that I enjoyed travel wherever it was that I had come from, and I especially loved traveling alone. After two years in Ilias Village, I was getting a little stir crazy. My desire for answers combined with my loner instincts combined with just loving to get out meant I could not just hang out in this little village for much longer. Of course, my friends in the village were alarmed that I would travel alone, but I figured that with my solid sword skills and grappling abilities, or if those failed, my fleetness of foot, I could get me out of any trouble I encountered. Or so I hoped. You'll notice that the word "hope" is doing a lot of work here. But I'd been wandering the forests alone for at least the past year and never encountered any trouble. Maybe the monster threat was overrated.

One of the priests of Ilias Village urged me to get baptized before setting out. I reiterated that I just couldn't, because I didn't believe. What he said next surprised me.

"What if you could see the Goddess for yourself?" the priest said. "You have all the makings of a hero, and Ilias personally comes to the baptisms of heroes."

"Wait, you've seen her?" I asked, astonished.

"Of course! I am a priest of Ilias after all! I've been present at dozens of hero baptisms, although not many lately. You would actually be the first since you arrived in our village. Personally, I think Ilias brought you to us. Perhaps you'll be the one to end the terror of the Monster Lord."

I was less than convinced. Either that Ilias was real or that a baptism could protect me where my sword or feet failed me. Goddess or not, I could not bring myself to hate a whole race of beings I'd never met. Was it arrogant to demand explanations from a goddess? Perhaps, but I could only be who I was, and if she created me, she created me to be as I am. If Ilias wanted me as a follower, I needed to learn more about myself and the world. Maybe I would end up finding out that monsters were all evil and worthy only of extermination.

Oh, I guess I should bring up a bonus reason for my travels which I was reluctant to bring up because it seemed arrogant at the time, although of course now I know better: I thought that I must have been brought here for a purpose. The most likely purpose had to be to bring peace to this world. See, as I write that, even knowing what I know now, it sounds arrogant. I wasn't full of myself or naïve or anything, I was quite prepared to accept that this was in fact random chance. Or that if there was a purpose, I might never know what it is, or even be aware that I was fulfilling it.