Transported

I was swallowed by a bright light. That was the last thing I remembered before realizing that I was soaring through the air. The world around me was a constantly changing blur of shapes and colors. I rocketed through the air like a soundwave or particle of light, my body randomly bouncing in different directions.

I tried to move my body, attempting to regain control of myself but to no avail. It was like my body and my mana was being restrained by whatever was happening around me.

What the fuck was happening? Where am I? Even my thoughts were a jumbled mess. My consciousness struggled to stay awake.

A few moments later, the blurring of colours and shapes slowed. And I could start to perceive that I was high up in the air, with an unidentifiable landmass below me. Amidst the shades of brown and beige, there was a singular large structure that looked like a black blotch on this beige canvas from my bird's eye view.

Suddenly, the kaleidoscopic world around me disappeared and the extremely rapid speed at which I had been travelling at completely ceased, making a mockery of Newton's first law of inertia.

I started regaining control over my body and my mana, my consciousness no longer needed to struggle to stay awake as well. I realized that for some unknown reason, I had suddenly appeared high up in the air, roughly at the height where a plane would fly.

However, because I started to regain physical mobility, I could also now feel the wind buffeting against me from the air resistance. There was air resistance because the moment I exited the kaleidoscopic tunnel, I immediately began answering the siren song of gravity.

In other words, I was falling.

"Fuuuuuuuuuuuuckkkkkkkkkk!" I couldn't help but scream at this sudden and deadly situation.

200km/h – that was the speed of a human body in free fall. I randomly recalled this information that I had read somewhere when I was still on Earth. If I hit the ground at this speed, not even Zenith would be able to recognize the pile of flesh and bones that I would become.

The wind was loud, heavy and intense. My clothes flapped about wildly, and my skin even hurt a little from the wind that struck me like a thousand ping pong balls that constantly hit every inch of my body all at once. I felt like my face was being pulled back from the air resistance, like I was a cartoon character with my cheeks fluttering like a flag in the wind.

Adrenaline pumped through my veins, even without the aid of my Healing magic that stimulated the adrenal glands. Though I began panicking, my senses grew sharper in the face of this do-or-die moment.

I looked around, and was stunned at the sight. I felt the breath in my throat hitch at the glorious beauty of the world around me. A seemingly endless blue sky, while plump white clouds decorated the vast expanse of the atmosphere.

And below me, a landscape of dry, cracked earth and wind-worn rock formations dotted with mountains and hills reached out warmly to welcome me into its embrace. Actually, rather than reaching out, I was diving face first towards its hard and unrelenting surface. More specifically, I had appeared right above the single large structure in this barren wasteland.

I was no physicist or mathematician, but I estimated a good minute of non-stop, adrenaline fuelled free fall before I ended up a red splatter on the earth.

I violently shoved down the panic inside me and let the cold, logical and rational side of my brain take over. First, protect my body. Regardless of what speed I hit the ground at, my 10 year old child-like body would not survive the impact. So, I drew out the mana inside me and started layering it around my body.

The precious seconds this took drove me to frustration. Faced with my impending doom, every second felt more precious than anything I have ever treasured.

Second, reduce my momentum. Landing from this height and at this speed, even with Battle Aura enhancing my bones and muscles, would be fatal – or at the very least crippling. I was seemingly in an unfamiliar land, surrounded by an endless expanse of deserts and dry, cracked land. If even a pinky toe was broken, I was going to have a very bad time.

I channelled mana into my palms and silently cast a Wind spell. Through the palms of my hands, jets of air burst out, acting as a counter force to reduce my inertia and slow down the speed at which I was falling.

My body naturally started shift and rotate around my centre of gravity with this semi-controlled descent, allowing me to start falling vertically. Though I started falling even faster, due to this vertical body position, it was only for a moment as I started blasting fire out of the soles of my feet with [Afterburner] as well.

"I. AM. IRON MAN!" I yelled out to amuse no one but myself, as jets of air and fire shot out of my palms and feet respectively, resembling a certain genius, billionaire playboy philanthropist. I pumped in as much mana as I could muster to slow down my descent, resulting in a massive eruption of concentrated jet-like fire exploding out of my feet.

I could feel the momentum and speed at which I was falling slow down immensely, judging from the plummeting G-force that was acting on my body. I could also tell that I was falling slower from looking at the structure I was falling towards.

I could now identify the structure as a medium sized castle, or a large keep. It was almost entire black, looking more ominous than it did when I was high up in the sky.

Around the black castle, was a normal looking castle town that was separated into five blocks by thick ramparts. It was difficult to tell from the air, but it looked like the castle was built on a hill while the ramparts surrounded it like a staircase.

Though the castle looked ominous and imposing, I felt relieved that I had at least landed in civilization. I guided myself to fall in the middle of the castle's courtyard. It had the largest open space from what I could gather from the air, and so had the biggest room for error should something unexpected happened.

The speed at which I was falling had slowed down dramatically, but I was still falling at a considerable speed.

Three, two, one and Boom! I landed in the courtyard on my feet, my legs bending a little into a squat to absorb the impact. I didn't want my knees to spoil when I was older because I treated them roughly when I was young.

A small dust cloud shot up from the impact of my landing. I looked down at my body, glad to see that I was no worse for wear. My hair and clothes were a mess from the air resistance and intense wind buffeting my body, but I suffered nothing that could be considered an injury. Overall, considering this was the first time that I skydived, it was a massive success.

Touchdown! And the crowd goes wild! …Wait, that's the wrong football. Whatever, I was just giddy with joy from surviving what most people would have considered an imminent and unavoidable bloody death.

As I happily danced from my miraculous survival, I failed to notice my surroundings.

"Intruder! How dare you barge into Fort Necross! Even Heroes need to enter through the front gates!"

Around me, there was a troop of figures wearing black armour outfitted with similarly black helmets. They looked like an order of knights. Most of them drew out of their swords, while some held out spears or other forms of weaponry. There were a total of 11 of these knight-like figures that encircled me.

What was most interesting however, was that these people were not speaking the Human Language. Instead, they spoke in the still unfamiliar Demon God Language.

I held up my hands in a show of surrender, though I still maintained caution and vigilance. On an unfamiliar land, in an unknown castle and surrounded by knights I did not recognize, prudence was not necessarily a bad thing, even though I was rightfully an intruder in their eyes. And since I was amongst a group of people whose lingua franca was the Demon God tongue, it was safe to assume they were of the Demon race.

"My name is Rudeus Greyrat. I am from the Central Continent. Somehow, I… suddenly appeared, above this… place and had no choice but to fall here." I slowly and calmly explained my situation, clumsily speaking the unfamiliar Demon God Language.

The knights looked at each other with what I could only assume was scepticism, since the helmets they wore had protective face coverings that masked their expressions, judging from how they did not lower their weapons at my explanation.

One of them stepped forward, "Regardless of how you arrived, we shall now take you into custody for your trespass. Surrender your weapon and come with us peacefully."

"…"

I was silent at their request. Surrendering my weapon to a group of armed knights in an unfamiliar castle and foreign lands would be the height of foolishness. My eyes started darted around, looking for possible points of exit and holes in their formation.

The knight that spoke previously narrowed his eyes, and he pointed his sword at me threateningly.

"Obey, or be cut down where you stand."

With the offered threat, the 11 knights started releasing their aura and their killing intent. The mana in the air stirred, as Battle Aura enveloped the courtyard.

Shit. They are strong. Any one of them is easily as strong as that North Saint Kaballah I had been forced to escape from a few years back. This I could instinctively sense from the weight of their mana layering their bodies. None of them looked weak. Their stances and the way they held themselves all signalled to me that they were true veterans.

If there were only two of them, or even three, I might have been able to escape pretty easily. But 11? And surrounded on all sides with seemingly no holes in their formation? I would be absolutely fucked if I tried resisting.

It would be a scene of absolute carnage as near a dozen swords and spears carved into my body like a bloody meat puppet.

There was defiance in my heart. I did not want to submit. It would be foolish and dangerous to surrender my weapon to these foreign knights. But the real question I had to answer was this: was it more foolish to surrender my weapon or stubbornly resist and die right here and now?

The answer was obvious. As long as I was alive, there was still a chance I could escape.

I reached back, towards my sheathed sword and was strapped to the back of my waist.

The knights stiffened, their posture lowering slightly as they prepared to leap in and bury their swords into my body if they saw any suspicious movements.

Click. I undid the clasp of the strap holding the sheathe to my waist and let it fall on the ground.

"Okay. I surrender." I said, putting both hands up in a show of submission once more.

The knights relaxed slightly, but not letting their guard down completely. If they had become complacent upon seeing me drop my sword, I might have just bolted out of there with a few silently cast spells.

Unfortunately, however, these knights were well trained enough to remain cautious even after receiving my surrender. God fucking damn it. Where the fuck am I? What kind of place has 11 of these guards that were at least at the level of Saint-rank?

The knights approached me, still holding up their blade. Only after they closed the distance and were in range to immediately swing their blades and cut me in half did they relax. They lowered their bodies and grabbed my arms roughly.

"Come with us. We will bring you to see our lord. She will decide your fate."

I frowned, but was curious of this lord they spoke of.

"Excuse me. Please tell me. Where am I? Who is your lord?"

The knight holding my right arm looked strangely at me.

"You really don't know where this place is?"

I did my best to shrug what with my arms and shoulders being held firmly by two men.

"Like I said, a minute ago I was in the Asura Kingdom on the Central Continent. I suddenly appeared here. I have no idea where I am."

The knight gazed deeply at me, trying to see through any lies I might have uttered. Seeing that I was telling nothing but the truth, the knight nodded.

"You are in the Gaslow Region of the Demon Continent. This is Fort Necross. It is ruled by our lord and master – the immortal Demon King, Atoferatofe Ryback."

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A/N: And we're back! With 20 chapters lined up for a daily release as well! Maybe it's time for me to start a P@treon?