Chapter 6: The Dwarf In The Swamp

Chapter 6: The Dwarf In The Swamp

"Are you sure we're not lost?" I asked Adam looking around the swampy area, there was no path for us to go along, the closest thing to a road was the lack of foliage in certain areas of this overgrown swamp - with every step we risked being dragged down into the loose mud,

I turned back towards Adam with quiet dismay pretending I didn't just see that.

The rain pommelled the canopy above us letting no single drop hit the water, instead the leaves were shaped funnels, when the pressure from the water grew too great the log of the tree itself would start releasing a trickling stream of water from small finger-sized holes in its bark into the surrounding water - these trees were affectionately nicknamed 'pissing trees'

"What's up with the trees here? They look stupid as hell…" I commented on their strange shape,

Adam walked slow deliberate steps so as no to have his boots sink in the mud, "It's the water, this water is actually really sour." Adam explained.

"The trees here only absorb nutrients during the rainiest seasons when the water is more diluted, other than that they cut off their root's access to the soil and water, the rain is their only source of water," Adam explained.

"Damn, evolution is weird…" I commented.

"Yeah, their bark constantly produces a mucous which stops them from being corroded by the acidic waters," Adam added.

"Why wouldn't the trees just evolve to…not have to do this stuff though?" I asked.

Adam didn't reply for a while, "Look - evolution doesn't promise the best solution - it promises a solution." Adam said.

For a while, the conversation ended and was replaced with the sound of splashing, insects and the strange sound created by the rain splashing into the large leaf-bases water containers above us.

"Does that mean we're walking through acid right now?" I asked Adam calmly.

"I mean…technically, but human skin does a pretty good job not melting in these PH levels," Adam replied casually.

"Are you really sure we're not lost?" I asked

"Yes, I'm sure. Quit asking me that!" Adam said in a brusque manner.

"I dunno man, that piece of driftwood looks kind of similar," I replied looking over to a chunk of what looked like a rotted log, it flipped around slowly revealing what looked like a massive grey-blue leech clinging onto the wood, its thick pulsating body lifted it's head and turned to my direction before going back to tormenting the piece of wood.

I turned back in

"As if the mosquitoes weren't bad enough I have to put up with you…" Adam sighed smacking the side of his neck where he was presumably bitten by a mosquito.

"I can't believe you decided to get the weapons before going to look inside the tunnel just so you can drag me there with you…" I complained.

"Stop complaining, you needed your weapons anyway, plus we can't risk blowing the entire tunnels up with your over-powered magic if something was there, that'd collapse half of the city," Adam said shooting me a look usually reserved for cats that are about to push something off the table.

In the distance, light illuminated the cold, dark, foggy swamp.

"There it is!" Adam exclaimed speeding up in order to get to the building before me, there was a wooden platform with a little step-ladder into the water, it started at the base of the hut and forked out into three different direction, luckily one was close enough to us so I'd be able to get out of the water, I climbed the ladder after Adam and when I looked back down into the water my blood ran cold when I saw the massive leach from before must have been following me stopping inches from the ladder as it sank back underwater slowly, had it possessed eyes I'm sure it would have been maintaining eye-contact.

"I am not going back into that water," I said out loud, this was a message to both the leach, Adam and my future self.

The house was seemingly built into a cliff, or rather a hill was chopped in half and into that half, a wooden house was built, it looked like a shabby one-room house, it stood high above the water level being help up thick logs, a rope ladder leading up to the door.

Adam began talking in the other language, this time I understood most of what he said, but I still didn't quite feel comfortable speaking to any native speakers of the language.

"Hey, Ern. You still in there?" Adam called out as he was making his way up the stairs.

"Adam?" A deep voice asked, out came a short, stout man. His long grey beard covering most of his face, his large bulging nose and thick eyebrows greater than any humans'.

"What brings ye to my home out here?" the short man spoke in a rougher accent making him harder to understand.

"I got a job request for you," Adam said walking into the house, the house was small, but there was a small door built into the side of the wall facing the hill face, presumably it led to a more spacious area.

"Hey," I said with a raised hand.

The bearded man turned towards me, his expression changed to a more serious one, "Who are ye?" he asked.

"Yeah, I don't have a name at the moment," I replied.

The bearded man raised an eyebrow as he turned to Adam.

"Boy, you better have a good reason to be wandering around with a nameless child." the short man said in a threatening tone.

"WHY DO YOU ALL THINK I-" Adam groaned, took a deep breath before continuing, "Look, Ern - my dear friend… this nameless child is a grown-ass man… turned into a child through magic…a curse… an age and gender reversal curse…" Adam struggled to come up with an explanation towards the end.

"I see…" the bearded man, presumably called Ern said scratching his beard, the doubt was evident from his face.

"Yeah, he's right," I replied with a shrug, I had to fight off the urge to pretend to be a helpless child just to mess with Adam.

Ern breathe a sigh of relief, "I see, well good to know. My name's Ern. The only dwarf in this godforsaken swamp." He said as he extended his gloved hand towards me.

I shook his hand only to realise it was extremely hard - if I was to try and stab him, I'd dull my blade…that sounded bad, it was just a comment on his meat's toughness…that's even worse…he's hard- okay no, never-mind.

"What brings ye to me, lads?" Ern asked sitting on the small wooden stool.

"We need you to make us a weapon, we got the blueprints," Adam replied tossing him the blueprints I worked tirelessly over.

"I see…what is this supposed to do?" Ern asked looking at the mechanics, "Oh, I see…it's like a musket…but…I don't see how it'd fire anything like this…" he explained.

"Don't worry about it, we'll be using spell-orbs as ammo," Adam replied.

"Spell-orbs? You mean the little spell holding crystal balls? Why?" Ern asked.

I was just passively standing there, looking around the room. The entire house seemed well made…also, did he say he was a dwarf? Are there elves then? A shiver rand down my entire being…owl-people…

"I got ya…alright…give me a few hours and I'll get it done…" Ern replied.

"Sure, mind if we stay here until then?" Adam asked.

"Nah, it's fine, I'll bring you something to drink," Ern said heading deeper into his house through the wooden door.

"Man, I need to go over the language again, I swear to god I thought he said he'll be done in a few hours," I said with a dismissive laugh.

"That's right. He said he'll be done in a few hours." Adam clarified.

"I thought this kind of work took days?!" I exclaimed.

"For a human, yes. But for a dwarf, this is child's-play." Adam laughed.

"Besides, Ern is no ordinary craftsman, he used to be one of the top six craftsmen back in Underran, the capital of the dwarves," Adam added.

Moments later Ern kicked the door open, holding three large pints about the size of my head, he chugged his and placed the two pints down in front of us on the table.

"Thanks," Adam and I said at the same time before seeing the dwarf retreat back into the back.

"Well, drink up," Adam said holding back a chuckle.

I picked up the pint, I was never really into drinking back on earth…when you have nobody to drink with and the alcohol had little effect on you I didn't see the point.

I tipped back the massive pint to sip some of the beer or ale or whatever was inside, by mouth seemingly set on fire as I tasted it.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!" I demanded.

"Spirits, dwarves drink that stuff like water," Adam said laughing.

"I usually just leave mine, I doubt Ern will mind having our pints after he's done working," Adam added his laughter dying down.

I didn't say anything for a while…this was my chance…I could show off to Adam.

I reached my hand towards the pint, officially giving up on that movie adaptation, and moved it closer to my mouth.

"w-what are you doing?" Adam asked, his smirk turned to shock.

I took a large gulp, then another, and another.

While drinking I never broke eye contact with Adam, his face went from laughter, to shock, to concern.

"Due, stop! That pint is like one-third of your body mass!" Adam cried as I continued to drink down the liquid.

After I was done I slammed the pint down onto the table, looking at Adam who eyed his drink.

"How the hell are you still alive?" He asked, seemingly fully serious.

"Jokes on you, you can't poison me, I'm already dead on the inside."

"Wait, what?" Adam asked.

"Just joking." I replied waving my hand dismissively, "Nah, but really…"

"Man, you are a little drunk after all." Adam laughed.

"Shut up and drink your drink!" I replied.

"Nah, man. I still need my liver." Adam replied.

"Coward," I said under my breath with a sigh.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"NOPE, you're not going to peer pressure me with your mind games!" Adam replied.

"Too bad, cowards…" I replied.

Adam picked up the pint and began chugging it, it was clear to me he gagged a good few times in the process, he had to stop a few times to take a breath.

Adam was breathing heavily, "See…I did it…" his speech was slurred.

Adam looked at me only to be shocked by the grin on my face.

"W-what did you do?!" Adam demanded.

"Oh nothing, but since I'm under-age here, I turned the spirits to water before drinking it." I had to hold back sadistic laughter as I spoke, I showed Adam the inside of the pint revealing a small blue magic circle.

"Y-you tricked me-" Adam fell face-first onto the table.

"That's what you get for screwing with the one and only master of magic and witchcraft - the great… yeah, I'm nameless…I forgot…" my expression soured towards the end of the speech.

Many hours later, about two hours after Adam woke up with a crippling headache Ern walked out of the room, he was dressed differently, with a dark black apron and no gloves.

"At last, it's done," Ern said before seeing the dead-looking Adam trying to shush him,

"SHHHhhhh… please…quiet…" Adam pleaded, an expression of pain, nausea and regret on his face.

"Well I'll be damned, he actually drank it for once!" Ern exclaimed seeing the empty pint glass, he then looked over to my pint and was shocked upon seeing it too was empty.

"D-did you actually drink it?!" He asked, if not for the fact he was speaking his jaw would have been dropped.

"Technically yes," I replied.

The old dwarf wiped a single tear of pride from his eye, "There is hope for ye humans yet…" Ern said handing me the finished products, they were still warm to the touch.

I took a closer look at the weapon, it looked rough when compared to the painted ones back on Earth, the metal composing the body of the gun looked brownish-gold in colour, the handle was made from what felt like wood - but it looked black and had a glossy look it,

"How did you make it so fast?" I asked still impressed by the creation.

Ern walked over to the cupboard to my left of where Adam was sleeping, he took out a metal fork, it only had two spiky bits unlike the four I'm used to, he cracked his wrists as his palms began glowing a bright white light causing Adam to grunt something and roll over to the other side.

"Dwarves use a racial ability called Blood Forge, it lets us head our hands hot enough to melt any metal," Ern explained slowly pressing his large lands together encasing the fork in a furnace of sorts, when he opened his palm I saw the fork has become a pool of blowing red liquid, Ern placed the empty hand on the counter clenching it tightly and only leaving a small gap on the top, he then used his hand-based crucible to pour the liquid into the small hap of his clenched fist.

I looked in amazement as Ern opened his hands revealing a perfectly shaped fork.

"How did you shape it like that!?" I asked in amazement.

"Dwarves have a good few tricks up their sleeves." Ern laughed a hearty laugh.

"Anyway, thanks! I wonder how are they meant to shoot things." I wondered,

Adam groaned as he reached into his pocket, pulling out a pouch of clear glass balls.

"Adam this is not the time to play with marbles," I replied.

"Shut up and stick one in your gun…" Adam replied.

I did as instructed and planted a single marble-like object into the spinny -ammo-circle of the revolver, I stepped outside and pointed the gun to a nearby tree.

I pulled the trigger, I heard the ball crack and a solid white needle-like ray shoot out and into the tree seemingly doing no damage.

"Woah, this is awesome! You did a great job Ern!" I commented,

"Thanks, lad, but in reality, all I did was follow the blueprints." He replied with a hearty laugh.

Adam curled into a ball in the corner of the room, "Go test your weapon out or something, use magic to create more of those orbs and try imbuing them with magic energy..." Adam suggested.

"Alright… Thanks for everything Ern, I'll come back to collect Adam in a while." I said.

"No problem, watch out when you're out there though, there are some pretty dangerous beasts in these bogs," Ern warned before picking Adam up over his shoulder.

I walked a good distance away from the house to be able to test out my weapon without damaging anything, it wasn't as hard to travel around the bog as it is to reach Ern's hut thanks to the wooden platforms suspended a foot or so above the murky water held up by ancient logs, at one point the path cut through an extra-thick tree creating a tunnel offering people some protection from the rain.

My first task was to figure out how to create the bullets, after feeling one I imagined it as a solid ball of glass, filled with some sort of magical power.

Those could be fired as intended but didn't have any effect.

I perfected the shape, physical property, weight and appearance of the balls.

For ease of use, they would have different colours depending on the effect it would have, in the centre of the solid sphere of glass was a piece of text which magically always faced the reader and emitted a gentle light so I could identify which bullet was which in the dark, it was like a label.

I could create the bullets in this way, but it would be easier to name them so I can just "save" the blueprint for them mentally.

I decided on the name "Magic Bullet"…I know, but keep in mind I don't even have a name, I'm just not good at these things!

Now that I had the basic bullet, I decided to create a handful of them, and put them into the sack-bag-pocket thing from my old clothes, I tore it off because it's what I thought I'd keep my money in but since the money I got from Adam came with a pouch I decided to just keep it handy, I should get a proper box for them though… I'm keeping the magic circle recipe for these a secret though.

I imagined the balls as holding fire inside, and when I opened my eyes the magic bullets were a vibrant orange-red colour with the text "Fire Bullet" in the middle surrounded by a swirling vortex of orange flames like streaks.

I loaded six into the gun and did the thing where you spin the spinny -ammo-circle of the revolver and it makes that clicking noise.

I pulled the trigger and shot for - about a meter or so, a spray of fire, it was like a single shot flame-thrower, the tree I shot charred in an instant as the ash fell into the water causing it to boil.

"Alright… I should probably make them weaker…" I decided…

I spent the next few hours creating various new spells and experimenting with the admittedly few limitations of the system, I found it pretty easy to create new ammo, but the mana drain over time became exhausting to the point where I had to take a good few breaks.

Here is a breakdown of the bullets I created for practical use.

Flame bolt; a tamer version of the fire shot from before, it shoots a single projectile of fire at high speeds, leaving the fire at the place of impact.

Freezing bullet; a freeze-all bullet, I won't encase people in ice like in video games, but it can create a thick enough layer of ice over water to walk on it or shoot it up to the clouds to make it snow.

Healing shot; it's actually just a heal spell attached to a bullet…it's just like you expect except it stings a little wherever you get shot.

Mana shot; it's a mana-recovering projectile, the amount of mana one gets it equal to the amount of mana I pump inside when creating it, so it's more of a mana battery.

Iron shot; it simulates shooting a chunk of iron as a projectile, good for bludgeon people.

And lastly my favourite invention!

Pain shot; it's my first attempt at an illusion spell, you feel the pain, and imagine the wound and bleeding and whatnot, but after a few minutes it goes away, I'm not quite willing to test it out on myself just yet though.

For the most part, I had to use trees at my test subjects, aside from anti-tree crimes comparable with earth's deforestation attempts, I think I'm really getting a hang of this weapon.

In the distance I saw a large pile of what resembled grass and moss - naturally the first thing I decided to do is fire a fire bullet at it to see if it'll burn, of all thing I expected to happen the last was that the spell would be reflected back at me, I managed to dodge it just in time, I looked back seeing a hole burned through the tall bushes behind me.

I looked back to the pile of moss seeing that it was moving, it rose from the murky water revealing it to be a bipedal grass monster with no facial features.

Its arms were a much thicker than its legs, it walked like a gorilla - or rather ran.

I fumbled with the bullets trying to grab a different one, I picked out the iron shot and loaded it into the gun, I pulled the trigger as a chunk of metal flew at the beast tearing chunks off revealing the writhing tentacle-like like insides as they spilt out into the water pulling up dead debris and plant life only to add it to its mass, seeing the opening I took out the fire bullet and shoot inside of the creature, the spell did bounce around inside of the creature and since it already regenerated it's body the spell eventually went off charring the creature which fell into the water causing it to start steaming.

I took a look at the creature, not fully sure it was dead I loaded another iron shot into the gun and fired at it causing chunks of the creature to spray out littering the bog with plant bits, the creature released a guttural cry as it began rolling around trying to collect more plant material.

"WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM, I WAS SURRENDERING!" the creature cried turning the part of its body that must have served as the head towards me,

"No, you were paying dead…" I replied loading another few iron shots into the gun, "W-W-WAIT, NO MORE, I GIVE UP!" the creature cried lifting it's thick arms into the air above it's "head".

"Don't take this personally, but you are the definition of a swamp monster," I said pointing the gun at it.

"But I didn't do anything!" the creature cried falling to its knees.

"You tried to burn me with my spell earlier!" I exclaimed.

"I can't control the magic reflection ability!" the creature exclaimed,

"Alright, but you were charging towards me, I bet you were going to engulf me into your disgusting slimy body," I said squinting my eyes in judgement.

"...That…that hurt, man…" the plant monster said looking down in embarrassment, "And I mean…you set my insides on fire earlier…" the creature said shrugging awkwardly.

"No, I mean you look like you are the Amazon rainforest," I said pointing at the creature.

"...I…I mean sure, I put on a few pounds - but you know how it is, the plants are dying and the leaves are falling…and I happen to absorb a few…" the creature said uncomfortably.

"A few tonnes…" I said quietly for myself, but loud enough for the creature to hear.

The creature looked at me for a bit before lifting its arm to scratch the back of its head area, "I…I think I'll get going now…" the creature said before slowly walking away and eventually sitting down behind some tree.

At first, I was satisfied with my psychological warfare, then I realised that I just shot and insulted a pile of plants… I couldn't help but feel like I'm the bad guy here…

For a split second, I wanted to apologise, then I remembered this is a pile of foliage, so I decided to bury the guild and move one like a responsible adult.

I looked down to my wrist seeing it was red and hurt quite a bit.

The recoil on the gun is pretty rough though, I was shooting a lot recently, but my wrists hurt like crazy, I used the healing shot on my wrist and that helped the pain, still I should keep my arm's limitations in mind.

Soon after that, I saw Adam heading my direction along with the wooden platform, "Havin' fun with the weapon I see." He commented.

"Man, you don't even understand how much fun this is," I exclaimed.

"Well, I'm glad you're less useless now…" Adam replied.

"Do not underestimate my lack of skills," I warned Adam.

"Right, well are you ready to head back?" he asked looking over to me,

I shifted my gaze to the water whereupon closer inspection I saw the blue-grey figure of the leach from before.

"I think I'm gonna' stay here for a while…" I replied sitting down on the wooden platform.

"Don't worry, we don't have to go through the swamp - we have the recall rings remember?" Adam asked lifting his hand revealing the red sparkling ring.

I looked down and realised I too still wore my one, "Oh - thank fuck I have the ring," I said with a sigh of relief, Adam looked at me and grinned, "Come one, it's not that bad here." he said.

"I don't know about you but I'd just stay here. That leach is after me." I said squinting my eyes as I looked into the murky depths of the water.

"Whatever you say." Adam shrugged before activating the ring sending him back home, I used my one next and in an instant, I appeared outside the front door of the house,

It looks like the ring doesn't always teleport you to the same place.

When we entered the house I immediately headed to the bathroom to wash off the mud and slime from the swamp, my list of hated animals expanded by one today, at first place we have owls, followed by jellyfish and in third place we now have leaches.

When I was done I headed out to practice some more with the revolver, after all the magic wouldn't be any good if I can't hit my target.

I should ask for a sub-machine gun in the future, I'd be the best medic, just spraying the battlefield with healing spells!… actually, I doubt I could keep up with healing my wrist from all that damage.

Adam stepped out to the garden, I was there too, shooting at the sky trying to improve my grip and limiting how much the recoil swings throws me around.

"You should get some sleep, we're going to check out that place Lily was talking about tomorrow," Adam said through a yawn.

"Right… I'll get going in a bit." I replied.

Adam shrugged and went back to his room to sleep.

"How are you enjoying life?" a familiar masculine voice asked, it was the cat.

"Oh, it's you…how great… well, it was good seeing ya' but-" the cat cut me off as I was about to finish my sarcastic remark,

"Don't go to the tunnel with Adam tomorrow." the cat said in a demanding tone.

"Thanks for the advice, I'll still go though," I replied matter-of-factly.

"You weren't meant to get involved with them you dumbass, you were meant to live a normal human life!" the cat exclaimed, his tail standing tall as he hissed.

"Hm, hm, good point, counter-point, I don't care - at all," I said plainly.

"If you go there you are sure to die, or at the very least get involved in some things you shouldn't!" the cat argued.

"Cat, how old are you?" I asked simply.

"...A lot older than you, anyway," he replied.

"That explains it," I exclaimed.

"Explains what?!" he demanded.

"Your dementia, since I already told you I don't give a shit like five times and you seem to not be aware of that," I complained.

The cat was silent for a bit.

"Look… there is something very wrong going on in this world… and it's all my fault… please… don't get yourself involved while I'm working to fix things." the cat pleaded.

I guess he wasn't just a dick…

"Look here, cat. I don't intend to die tomorrow, that said I still have to go." I replied.

"What?! Why?!" the cat demanded.

"It's your fault really. If you didn't bring me here I wouldn't have made so many f-… Acquaintances… and I can't let them die." I said almost laughing.

"..." the cat didn't reply.

"I think I messed up again… fine… if you want to go die that's your business…but it's in my interest to keep you alive, so I'll be going with you." the cat said.

"Suit yourself." I shrugged going inside and shutting the door as I did.

"Maybe I should just tell Adam that we shouldn't go since there is actually stuff there…ah - but Lily might still go…plus potentially Adam could go because he doesn't want Lily to die…well…okay, maybe that last one was a bit of a stretch…"

The next day…

I woke up in my bed, I sat up, got dressed and headed to the living room like every day.

"Look who's up!" Adam exclaimed.

"Took them long enough." added the cat's voice.

"God damn it, cat! Why are you in-" I looked to the source of the sound and I saw that the cat was now less of a cat and more of a human, he was about the same height as Adam and wore an elegant black suit with a long black coat and a fedora.

"He said he's your friend," Adam said pointing over to the cat-voiced human.

His hair was grey and short, he had a beard and moustache, both short and wiry, his eyes were a crimson red.

"Definitely not." I corrected Adam.

"How cold, you know me since you came to this world!" the person who I assume is the cat said.

"You have a name or something, right?" I asked.

"Naturally, any normal person does." He commented.

I took a deep breath and sighed.

"It's Uriel." the cat-man said.

"What a dumb-ass name," I said under my breath.

"I heard that," Uriel replied.

"Alright, look here, Urine-ell, why are you here?" I asked.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that first bit, as for why I'm here - like I told you yesterday. I came here to come with you guys." Uriel explained.

"There's no need, it's probably just some drug addicts or dealers my friend saw," Adam said reassuringly.

"They're not," Uriel said with an irritated sigh.

Adam raised an eyebrow, "Then what are they?" he asked.

"Basically"…the man scratched his chin.

"Imagine each world as a country, they are very different, some have different laws, cultures, food, people - but fundamentally they are still just countries." The man explained,

"Now imagine that if you die in one of the countries you are sent to the next, then the next and so on in an infinite loop." he continued his example,

"Now what if you fall out of the cycle?" he asked rhetorically, "You become what we call a lost soul - sometimes this happens to a soul by accident, but usually it's done as divine punishment," he explained.

"Do keep in mind how rarely we get involves, that's how terrible those lost souls are." he continued.

"No, if one of these lost souls was to attach to a host it would be able to remain in this world without being pushed out like they usually are. In other words, someone is stuffing lost souls into living hosts to create demons." Uriel concluded.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Alright, let's go," Adam said before he and I left through the door.

"Man, I think your friend needs to lay off the drink," Adam said in a hushed whisper.

"Yeah, he's been drinking a lot ever since his castration, besides we're not even friends," I replied with a whisper, covering my mouth so as to make it clear I'm whispering.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP, BOTH OF YOU!" Uriel demanded as he ran up to catch up to us.

"We're going into the den of real evil, and you two are most certainly going to die, I'm going with you to TRY and stop your imminent death," Uriel exclaimed with a sigh.

"Chill, I got my revolver," I replied spinning it on my index finger like they do in movies, except I'm not good at it so it was a bit slower and actually looked kind of dumb.

"Right… and your friend here? He has his claw thingies?" Uriel asked.

"Yeah, what about you?" Adam asked.

"I'll improvise," Uriel replied with a shrug.

This gave me and Adam a moment of pause.

"Wait, you keep going on about how big of a deal this is, but decided to go in without a weapon!?" Adam exclaimed

"Relax, I'm not as weak as you humans!" Uriel replied.

"That's not the point!" Adam exclaimed.

Uriel turned to Adam surprised.

"Yeah, you're just doing this to show off, aren't you?!" I added.

Uriel let out an irritated sigh, "LOOK, I'm not trying to do something as trivial as boosting my ego at the cost of my life, that said I have been around and kicking ass for a LITTLE longer than you puny humans."

"Look, he's bragging again…" I said.

"Yeah, if what you're saying is true, then you're doing the equivalent of telling a child you're a better driver than them." Adam elaborated.

"OK, look. What I'm saying is, that I'm older than you… OK… and as a result… I'm better at some things, and worse at others!" Uriel tried to explain, his temper growing ever thinner.

"Give an example," Adam said.

"And example?" Uriel asked.

"Yeah, give us an example of the thing you're worse at than us," I said.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"I - I'm…not very good at chess..." Uriel replied.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Adam and I just kept walking towards the human capital of Exversia, sadly Uriel caught up to us quickly.

On their way down they were greeted by the dryads, Cloe the oldest dryad greeted the group with a bashful "Hello."

"Hey guys, how's things?" Adam asked.

"Good! We'll be heading to some festival with Darthold tomorrow!" The shorter dryad, Al exclaimed.

"That's nice, mind if we tag along?" Adam was clearly looking forward to it for some reason.

"of course not! We'll go tell Darthold right away!" Cloe exclaimed as they rushed off through the grass and bushes.

"Such nice kids…" Uriel commented.

"Yep, they sure are," Adam replied.

"Hey, Adam. What's the festival all about?" I asked realising that I just know that it is a festival and nothing more.

"It's just a festival. The human kingdom has two of these a year and they don't really represent anything." Adam shrugged.

"That said - they always bring out experimental booze from the dwarven country," Adam said, I could see his mouth almost watering.

"So is there anything to do other than alcoholism practice?" I asked,

"I guess, there are these games where you can win stuffed toys and stuff…" Adam explained with an uninterested shrug.

"I bet the booze is going to only get more expensive now…" Adam sighed sadly.

"Why?" I asked.

"The whole plant dying business," Adam replied,

"I didn't realise you two heard about it already," Uriel said in a patronising tone.

I was about ready to shoot him at least a few times but Adam butted in "Wait, you know about that, too?" he asked.

"Naturally…" Uriel gesture to the dead grass and falling leaves of the forest, "I'm not blind."

"Do…do you know the reason for this?" Adam asked.

"I know why the plants are dead, I have no idea why someone or something would do this to the world," Uriel explained.

"Mind explaining it?" Adam asked.

"Guess not…" Uriel sighed, "Do you remember my explanation of the world from before, the way the worlds are linked in a massive circle?" Uriel asked.

Adam and I both nodded.

"Well, for whatever reason some force in this world is keeping the souls somewhere. Like a wall, this means that the world ahead of this one is starved for new souls, nothing new can come to life there, it's a dead wasteland…or will be once the survivors die off. It seems that the soul shortage finally reached this world, nothing new can be born, soon enough they'll realise that includes animals and people." Uriel explained.

"Wait…so how come are the trees losing leaves?" I asked.

"I guess each leaf counts as an individual life…" Adam replied.

"You catch on quickly…unlike HIM…" Uriel said looking at me.

"So all life will end…" Adam said, his eyes were filled with shock hidden behind the amber glasses.

"It was going to anyway…" I replied.

"No, it's meant to keep going in a circle until they can enter heaven!" Uriel exclaimed.

"Why won't your god just come down and fix it then!?" I burst out, I guess I was holding more rage than I realised.

"BECAUSE HE CAN'T!" Uriel exploded.

We stayed silent after that for about twenty minutes.

"I…is he dead?" Adam asked the colour completely drained from his face.

"What?! NO! What's wrong with you people?! It's god!" Uriel replied, seemingly disgusted with the suggestion.

"..." Uriel didn't say anything for a bit…

"He's trapped." He finally explained.

"What?" I asked.

Adam was confused too.

"I mean, he literally locked himself in heaven by accident," Uriel said with an embarrassed sigh.

"..."

"..."

"IS GOD RETARDED OR SOMETHING?!" Adam demanded.

"The person responsible for creating the entire universe…nay universes LOCKED HIMSELF IN HIS OWN CREATION?!" I followed.

"Woah, Woah, relax there… no need for that kind of language." Uriel explained.

Meanwhile in the capital of the human kingdom, Exversia…

The massive castle stood upon the tallest part of the city, which was a large hill with a cliff on its side.

The castle was built from white bricks, the massive drawbridge always down, the many tall round towers made the place look like the castles you'd see in a fairy tale.

The interior was divided into large terraces held up with walls.

Like a layer cake with every layer getting smaller in radius, but hollow inside so one could walk through the large open area, it resembled an indoor car-park in a way, except there were a few more walls and staircases leading up, depending on the layer there were kitchens, cleaner's rooms, a treasury or two, until you reached the top of the third layer where you'd be met with may guards and if you walked past them you'd reach the throne room.

Through the cold looking halls of the castle's keep lit by a combination of the rocks that emitted light when wet and the massive glass windows lining the hall in one almost unbroken line, where nobody except the cleaners and guards wandered, walked the general from before, on his hip he carried two long rapiers, his clothes the same as usual say for a few more medals.

"What's up bro." the general said in his monotone voice as he walked into the room with the large wooden door, inside was a bed in which lay the sickly looking man.

The man on the bed coughed a guttural cough into a fine silk cloth he kept in his hand, he looked like the definition of diseased, pale, with a dried-out looking face.

"Issac…what brings you here…" the man asked exhausted.

"Oh, you know. I just came to ask how my boss is doing." The general, now revealed to be called Issac replied.

"How caring of you." the sickly man replied sarcastically.

"I know, right," Issac replied.

He reached into his pocket pulling out a small box of cookies, he extended it towards the man on the bed, "Want a cookie?" he asked.

The sickly man laughed causing him to cough after, "You're the only one I know who'd as me that question so casually." the king wore a weak smile.

Issac cleared his throat, "Perhaps you highness would partake in the consumption of this baked good?" Issac asked again.

The king reached is think arm over to the box picking out the cookie with the red paste on top, "That wasn't a complain, you know." he laughed.

"Yeah, no way I could talk like that." Issac sighed.

"And are you sure there is nothing else you came for?" the king asked, "I know you for a long time now, Issac…" he added.

"Aww thanks, boss," Issac replied.

"You were always such a pain in the ass." He added.

"Never mind then." Issac laughed.

"To think you'd be poisoned by an elf of all races," Issac said, the king has always been criticized for his diplomatic behaviour concerning the elves as a race since they were hated for their past of war and conquest.

"Issac, it was one elf…" The king replied.

"One elf is enough, I understand your approach towards elves…but seriously if you don't stop it I'm going to think you have an elf fetish…" Issac said only half-seriously.

"What a horrible subordinate I have…making fun of a dying old man." the king laughed.

"That's a stretch…maybe a hundred years ago you'd have died from poisoning but nowadays the king has so many mages and healers it takes effort to die." Issac replied.

"I guess you're right…" the king said before sitting up in his bed.

"How has the wizard situation been going?" the king asked looking at Issac with pleading eyes,

"The nobles all agreed to proceed as planned without your input. We surrendered." Issac replied.

"I see…it was probably the right thing to do..if a man who can manipulate our souls gives us a choice to side with him…it's best we do."

"It's been rumoured that he wants to create his own country," Issac said looking over at the king.

"I see…so it's either defeat or annexation…" the king sighed.

"Yeah, and with the world greatest powers fighting each other we're too drained of resources to stand a chance against him…" Issac elaborated.

"Issac…if this country is on it's way to destruction… you don't have to put yourself in danger, you're free to flee…" The king said, it was true that he loved his country, but he thought it wasn't right to put the weight of the nation on a citizen of the country other than the king.

"Don't worry about me, plus so far there has been no confirmation of whether this great wizard is even interested in world domination," Issac said in hopes of cheering the king up.

"Well, my break's almost over, I best get back to work before the Lieutenant General scolds me again," Issac said walking back towards the door.

"Consider what I said, Issac.," the king said before switching back to a more comfortable position.

Issac closed the door behind him, and walked through that same hallway, he looked out the windows where he saw the princess dressed in a fine yellow dress speaking to some maids in the field of flowers growing inside of the royal garden.

"General…" a feminine voice said from behind - Issac spun around on his heel to see the figure behind him - the figure wore a bland cloak and looked short - "Oh it's you…"

"Oh, it's you…"

"Yep - I brought the potions…" the figure opened her cloak revealing dozens of small vials of the swirling black liquid.

"I would appreciate if you stopped appearing like this in the open." Issac sighed,

"Don't worry about that - this weeks batch is even more concentrated - this one should last you for a good while!"

"I see, thanks again for helping us out with this." Issac was cautious around this woman, but she provided the black potions - something they were absolutely not in a position to refuse.

Issac took the potions and placed them on the inside of his coat - "Again, thank you for your help."

"Don't mention it! I'm human after all - I'd hate to have Exversia at a disadvantage against Underran and the filthy Dwarves…"

"Right - and we did as you suggested, we've switched out subjects from criminals to Dwarves and Elves."

"Good, I have to admit I was worried the kingdom would be too prideful to use the potions, but I guess I underestimated you guys."

"We've been keeping this a secret from the lower ranks, but if you say the Dwarves are planning to use the same tactic…"

"Right - they're prideful so they're using these potions as trump-cards, that's why you need as many demons as possible!"

"Of course… I do still think that we shouldn't act too aggressively - we don't want to start a war if it's at all avoidable."

"That's totally up to you, I just hope you make the right choices!" with that said the woman walked away from Issac, a black smoke surrounding here - "I must leave now - goodbye, General."

Issac didn't reply.

Meanwhile outside, atop the tallest tower in the castle the figure reached into the other side of her coat - pulling out a wand, "Right - it's time to activate the alleged dwarf demons…" she said through a chuckle.

As she raised her wand into the sky she began sending orders to the furthest demon from the city, stating them out-lot, speaking directly into the wand - it was planted far enough so she could make it attack any village and blame it on the Dwarves, provided nobody saw it appear.

Much to her surprise - neither the demon, nor the commands went anywhere.

"That's right - someone killed that demon…" she exclaimed angrily - remembering the mages court trying to take apart the demon corpse, forcing her to destroy it with the mages for fear of them finding something.

"Oh well, demon number two will have to do…" she said disappointed as she started casting the command spell - "The sun is still out - so it won't live for too long… perfect."

The ground began to tremble so strongly that she could feel it even all the way up to where she stood.

From outside the walls a massive, skeletal creature stood up - it's back arched backwards, its arms hung low, they were so long that it was able to touch the ground - it's head was solid black, contrasting the leathery peach skin stretched over its torso and limbs, the head looked like a raisin that began twisting in on itself.

Within seconds of the dust which the creature tore from the earth settling, it burst into flames - it made a slow swing at the walls of the city, it's thunderous smash shook the city, roofs collapsed, towers fell and the underground trembled.

Soon after the creature fell back - "Nice showmanship!" a voice said from behind her - she turned around revealing a blond man squatting down next to her, he wasn't wearing a shit - but was wearing a red coat.

"What are you doing here, Ed?"

"The boss said you could handle this yourself but I can't help but feel you'll mess something up…"

"I'll have you know everything went as planned!"

"Right - and pray tell, what are you going to do with the body?"

"What do you mean?"

"The mages court will go off digging through them again, did you forget already?!"

The figure pulled her hood off revealing a pink head of hair, "Ah! I didn't think of that!"

"Yeah, no kidding… your carelessness will get you killed one day."

"Relax - if I hurry I can still-"

"Don't worry, I popped a few explosion scrolls onto it beforehand." the blond man said dismissively.

The girl breathed a sigh of relief - "Thanks for that… "

"Whatever, just try not to think about what you're doing in the future - I'm serious."

"No need to worry! It's just a little mix-up!"

"I'm going to ask the boss to put Emi in charge of Exversia…"

"NO! - Don't you dare Edward!"

"..."

"I AM NOT GOING BACK TO SUBJIGATING VILLAGES IN THE MIDDLE OF GOD-KNOWS-WHERE!"

The man sighed heavily - "Fine… but if you pull some dumb crap like this again-"

"Stop overreacting or I'll get the wrong idea."

"Pfft - dream on shorty…" the man scoffed before standing up and reaching into his pocket for a necklace with a smooth, round, red gem in a small golden cage - it was a teleportation device, although rings are more common nowadays.

"I'm going to report that I'm done, I won't mention your screw-up… for now…"

"Thank you~!" the woman said giving him a confident thumbs up.

Edward disappeared creating a small breeze as he disappeared.

Meanwhile; Adam, Uriel and I were at the entrance of the tunnels.

"Wait, so are these…like the sewers?" I asked.

"We should go in now before it's night," Uriel suggested.

"Yeah, let's go," Adam replied.

"...so these are the sewers…"

Stepping inside I was struck with a stale, fungal scent, followed by the scent of rotting meat.

"It might actually smell worse than a sewer…" I commented.

We walked down a long staircase, it was made of stone and without Adam's torch I wouldn't have been able to see anything, if I had a fear of heights - I would have died there, because there was no railing or anything, I was just hoping the moss and slimy stone steps wouldn't make me fall to my doom.

"This place reeks of death…" Uriel commented.

"Yeah…" Adam agreed, his glasses were becoming fogged up due to how cold it was in the tunnel.

A loud guttural scream caused us all to panic, losing my footing I fell down "OH FUU-" I was cut off by water rushing into my mouth - quickly I sat up and tried to stumble to my feet after hearing the loud splashing noise.

"Light!" Uriel exclaimed as the entire room became illuminated with the light equivalent to an average day outside, it came from the ball which appeared in Uriel's open palm, the ball mas made from five magic circles with the smallest one the very top and bottom and the biggest in the middle, they all rotated in different directions.

As his light illuminated the tunnel we were finally able to see what was truly inside the tunnel - it looked like a bipedal dog, the size of an elephant - with human teeth and massive, twitching eyes that observed us - it's fur was a wet, greasy, dark brown with black patches.

The monster let out another ear-piercing screech - "It's a demon, you don't stand a chance against it." Uriel said, seemingly a little disappointed - maybe he was hoping for use to be able to go in deeper into the tunnel and see something even worse, or maybe he hoped we could actually deal with this threat.

Seemingly disregarding the light spell the monster pressed forward, ramming into me making me painfully aware of how fragile the human body is, with the might of a small truck it pushed me into a wall, even for someone like me who died two hundred times - the fact is, the nervous system is not carried over from world to world, only your state of mind.

Just barely holding back a shriek of agony I fell down into the water limply, Using the height to his advantage, Adam leapt off the stairs and onto the monster's back, digging his claws into it - the tactic wasn't very effective - in fact it turned out even less effective than expected with the monster swinging around and jumping up and down until Adam fell down into the water.

"Like I said - you're outmatched!" Uriel announced before letting go of the light spell, bathing the room in darkness, soon after the room became illuminated again - the light coming from the spear which Uriel held in his hand, its tip massively oversized, the entire spear looked like it was made from pure light.

He pulled his arm back, before tossing the spear towards the monster, it dodged it again - its unusual ability to dodge attacks and charge at people was problematic.

While the monster stared at Uriel - evaluating whether or not it should charge at him or not, it was caught off guard by Adam who dug his claws just above the creature heels in hope of immobilising it.

The creature reacted with a shriek and an attempt to dodge again, this time stumbling and crashing into a wall - it's gaze focusing on Adam who was watching Uriel - the monster followed his gaze only to be met with a solid-light spear to the torso, instantly charring it so that only a charred husk remained.

"Well - I think that should be a decent enough explanation for you two aren't meant to be here…" Uriel said with a raised eyebrow.

I was a little buy being in crippling pain to react to Uriel's attitude problems.

I slowly reached down into my pocket, pulling out a handful of healing bullets and crushing them in my hand - suddenly feeling my ribs become ribs again with a snap.

"FUCK that hurt…" I complained, standing up and spitting out the blood that pooled in my mouth.

"Shit, I forgot about you, sorry!" Adam hurried over to me where I raised a thumbs up until I was done spitting blood - "I'm good, no worries…"

"Thank for the help man! What was that spear anyway?" Adam asked looking up to where Uriel stood.

"It was one of my only offensive spells - creatively named 'Spear of light' "

"What a stupid name…" I cackled wiping the blood from my mouth before realising we're still standing a dark room - no guarantee more of them won't appear.

"Riiiight…. Well, in any case - you two should get going before another one appears."

"What about you?" the question was asked by Adam, "I think I'll stick around and see what's wrong with this place," Uriel replied.

"Seriously? We can't leave you-",

"What I'm saying is, you'll die before you'll prove useful." he reiterated,

"Well, you heard the cat - let's get going.",

"Alright - if you're absolutely sure then-"

"I'm sure. I'll be out in twenty minutes or less." Uriel said smugly before gesturing for us to leave already.

We did as instructed and despite my not-so-subtle hints to leave, Adam insisted we wait outside the entrance.

Adam sat down on the grass, pressing his back against the walls of the entrance - which double as the city walls.

He looked upset with something, I just couldn't figure out why.

Adam began tapping the ground with the tip of his foot, slowly and rhythmically at first - soon his tapping devolved into a frantic thumbing.

"Adam, stop that before you collapse the fucking tunnel on him."

I looked up confused before looking around seeing dust and crushed grass from where he molested the ground with his boot.

"Shit - sorry!" he said embarrassed before letting out a sigh.

"Are you feeling alright?" I'm no psychologist - or even just a socially qualified person, but it was clear that Adam was bothered by something.

"Yeah, I'm fine - I hate being this useless in a fight…" He sighed,

"...yeah - I know what you mean."

"...I mean, I'm sure we could come in handy in a fight - we could distract the demons for Uriel"

"I guess…"

"Plus what if he runs out of mana?"

"What are you two talking about?"

We looked over, knowing well that it wasn't Uriel, as a matter of fact, it was Lily - "What the hell are you doing here?" Adam demanded,

"I told you - if you didn't want to help out - I was going to deal with the monsters myself," she explained patting the quiver on her hip - it held arrows with golden tips which emitted a strong light.

"What are those?" I asked - I'm still not sure what element Uriel's magic is made from - whenever I try to make light it's pure white.

A solid twenty minutes passed with no response - "That's it, I'm going inside!" Adam exclaimed, I gaze down to the tormented soil, each individual drain of soil decimated under the fury of Adam's impatient foot tapping.

"I'll come too!" Lily added taking one of the arrows from the quiver, Adam didn't really respond to her - "Good luck guys!" I replied to both.

Adam spun around on his heel before starting to walk towards the entrance, then he stopped and turned back - "Wait you're not coming?"

"I mean, I'm low on mana as it is - and low on ammo too…" I explained.

"I guess you're right…"

"Yeah - we can't bring a child into the monster-filled sewers." Lily agreed.

"I'm not a child. Also - I'll have you know it's a bit late for your parenting, I've almost gotten myself killed there today already."

"Tsk…" she turned away for a second - what's her problem?

"In any case - the stalker and I will go get Uriel back, If we're not back in ten minutes-"

I cut him off "It's alright - I'll make sure to remember you guys fondly."

"I was actually hoping you'd call for backup."

"Nah - I can manage remembering you guys alone."

Adam let out a reluctant smile accompanied by a sigh and went into the cave, summoning the claw weapons from seemingly thin air again.

Lily followed, crossbow ready.

"Voice 1 : Shouldn't you go with them?"

"Voice 2 : Look - if you want to get yourself killed, go ahead!"

"Voice 1 : …"

"Voice 2 : Alright - maybe you shouldn't have the ability to get yourself killed again."

"Voice 1 : It's all that fucking cat's fault…"

"Voice 2 : I know, right? We could have killed ourselves until we reincarnate as monarchs again."

"Voice 3 : What do you guys mean!? You wanted an out all this time, you got one!"

"Voice 1 : I guess…"

"Voice 3 : Remember - that bastard promised a way out - so you better keep his promise!"

"Voice 2 : Didn't he say he was some angel or something?"

"Voice 1 : I don't know - wasn't listening…"

"Voice 3 : Well - that would imply, he has to be all honest and stuff!"

"Voice 1 : Yeah - so as long as he doesn't die or something like that, we're good!"

"Voice 2 : Yeah! Maybe he can give us the secret early!"

"Voice 1 : …I dunno… I don't really want to rush things…"

"Voice 3 : Don't tell me you want to live?!"

"Voice 1 : NO! That's not it! I'm just-"

"Voice 4 : He's saying Uriel might cancel the deal if we ask now!"

"Voice 2 : Would he?"

"Voice 1 : Thanks 4"

"Voice 4 : I gotcha, fam"

"Voice 3 : Alright - for now we wait…"

"Voice 2 : By the way… isn't Uriel like… dying in the tunnel?"

"Voice 1,3,4,5 : WHAT?!"

"Voice 2 : Weren't you guys paying attention!?"

"Voice 3 : IT'S TUESDAY - IT'S YOUR TURN TO EXIST!"

"Voice 2 : That's not how it works and you know it…"

"Voice 1 : Wait, no - he's in that tunnel."

"Voice 2,3,4 : At worst he's dying - no dead."

"Voice 3 : Fuck… all in favour of going and saving cat say aye!"

"..."

"Voice 4 : All in favour of protecting our only way out say aye!"

"Voice 1,2,3,4,5 : AYE!"

"Voice 3 : Thanks 4"

"Voice 4 : Any time, Fam"

"Fuck, I'm hearing the voices again…" I think to myself feeling the sudden urge to go help out my way out - I mean cat…

Meanwhile, deeper inside of the tunnel stood Issac, he was sitting in the wooden chair he dragged out from outside peering into the darkness of the tunnel, he knew the creatures were staring at him, but judging by their inaction they weren't commanded to disobey him yet.

"General." the same voice as from before came, the cloaked figure appeared.

Issac didn't even bother to turn around.

"What's up?…" Issac asked, his expression unchanged.

"If you don't act - I will…it's in your interest to cooperate," she said.

"And why is that?" Adam asked turning around in his chair, his eyes shot open when he saw that the hooded figure was accompanied by the Lieutenant General, Catherine.

"Why are you here?!" Issac demanded, not noticing the fact that her expression was blank, she held a blade to her throat.

Issac evaluated the situation for a second, "What did you do to her?" Issac demanded.

"Actually, we haven't done anything. The Lieutenant General got possessed by one of the lost souls, it seems she lost the battle for her body…" A sickly chuckle came from underneath the hood of the cloaked figure.

"For some reason, she was going around the big lab you guys have deeper into the tunnels - she was in search of someone following the "earthquake" earlier" - she was referring to the giant demon from before.

Issac let out a defeated sigh, "It would seem that you got me." he said.

"Indeed, now - will you do your job?" The cloaked figure asked.

Issac didn't say anything for a while…

"Fine…" He said, looking over to the Lieutenant General who seemingly returned to her senses, dropping the blade and falling to the floor, pushing back against the wall.

"W-what happened?! What did I do?!" The Lieutenant General was clearly in a state of confusion.

"As your first task you will take care of some intruders…" the cloaked figure pointed over to the dark tunnel - "We're not sure who they are - it's on powerful soul followed by two average souls - and in the distance there is a bit of an anomaly trying to catch-up to the two in-front." She explained.

The hooded figure leaned in towards the Lieutenant General, whispering something into her ear before back away.

"I just made it so if you come back without having disposed of those intruders, she'll slit her throat." She added tossing the blade towards the Lieutenant General before she turned into a black mist disappearing quickly, saying a quick "Bye!~" before completely disappearing.

"Well, …it appears we're in a bit of trouble…oh well." Issac took out a small vial of red liquid from his pocket. "Drink it, it's a health potion and stay here," Issac commanded.

"But what are-" Catherine's question was shot down by Issac "That was an order," he said, as he began heading into the dark abyss of the tunnel, the beasts seemingly ignoring him.

Footsteps rushed towards him, it was three people, a blue-haired man with round glasses and metal claw weapons, a woman with a crossbow, an elegant looking man wearing a black suit and coat with a grey beard and moustache and a child with…a gun?…

"I didn't literally mean twenty minutes!" Uriel sighed,

"Well - how were we supposed to know."

"And why is he here?" Uriel asked looking towards me.

"I CANNOT LET MY TICKET DIE!"

"...alright."

"Still - those arrows of your work wonders on the demons!" Uriel said turning towards Lily.

"Thanks - I had to work overtime to afford these."

"Oh - where do you work?"

Adam put a hand on his shoulder - "You're too innocent to know that."

"She's an assassin," I explained.

Uriel's expression shifted to a more awkward one, "Oh… I see… so a paid killer…"

"I know - truly despicable scum." Adam said turning towards Lily with a disappointed expression - disregarding the dozens of people I personally saw him kill earlier this week.

"Why'd you tell him? Now they're judging me!"

"First of all, Adam always judges you - second of all - think about how it sounds when Adam describes your job as 'not for innocent people' "

Lily thought about it for a second before turning red with embarrassment and turning towards Adam and Uriel - this time it was her with the expression of disappointment - that said Adam was sniggering to himself.

"Yo," Issac said looking at the group, were they adventurers or something?

"It's dangerous in here! You should get out of here before the monsters here tear you apart!" Uriel advised.

Issac laughed a little.

"How very compassionate of you, please reconsider this situation though," Issac suggested.

Uriel was silent while he was thinking about it.

"He's on their side," Adam exclaimed.

"Nonsense, why would a human with a clear soul ally with the fel souls?!" Uriel demanded.

"I'm very sorry about all this, the monsters here are my doing," Issac explained.

"What?! So then you're the one who's stopping all the plants from growing?!" Adam demanded.

"Yeah, Adam's drug-flowers are dying because of you!" I added.

Issac raised an eyebrow, "Y'know I'm still the general of the army… you shouldn't be telling me this…" Issac said with a casual sigh sighed.

"Answer the question!" Uriel demanded.

Issac sighed, "No, I'm just an underling…y'know make monsters in return for not having the entire country wiped out…then still get the country wiped out - that kind of deal." Issac explained.

"So you're working for the bad guy…because you though the bad guy would honour your dead about him not being a bad guy to your county?" I asked hoping he'd realise his obvious mistake.

"In hindsight, maybe this could have been predicted. But hey. It's too late now." Issac shrugged,

"Regardless, sorry I couldn't chat longer, I've been sent to kill you," Issac explained.

"Fine by me!" Adam replied as he placed the two claw fists in front of his face, much like you would with boxing gloves.

Issac charged in first, he was fast and like a bolt of lightning, he pierced Adam's arm.

It became very clear to them that he was far more experienced than them…well…maybe except Uriel, but he had to keep the light spell going.

To their left was a large drop to where presumably water would be, instead of water there was mud and several writhing monstrosities hidden in the darkness.

"Cat, I can cast the light spell if you go fight him!" I suggested,

Uriel nodded and released the light spell bathing us all in darkness for a moment.

I created a massive halo of light, where the halo was a three-layer magic circle of pure yellow light, it filled the entire tunnel with a warm light like that of the sun, that said with my mana or whatever the casting limit is called - I'd only have enough to cast that spell for ten minutes max… if I add the three mana shots I have left, I could keep going for about twenty…

"What a capable magic user you have there," Issac said.

"Yeah, they can come up with spells on the spot it's great!" Adam exclaimed as he released several jabs towards Issac, each one blocked by his blades, Issac blocked his attack with one blade and used the other one to stab his leg.

Adam let out a yelp of pain.

"FUCK" he exclaimed.

Uriel placed a palm on Adam's back, "Heal" the words echoed in the cave as Adam was enveloped in a bright light stopping all pain and removing any wounds.

"Alright, now you may fight me," Uriel said cracking his knuckles as he stepped in front of Adam.

"Alright, no probs," Issac said with a shrug.

In an instant a solid white chain shot out from Uriel's sleeve, it moved towards Issac who slashed it causing it to turn to a cloud of pale white dust after shattering into bits which filled the air.

"Hmph…nice trick, but I bet it costs a lot of mana." Issac laughed.

"What gives you that idea?" Uriel asked with a smirk.

"The fact you're laying on the floor right now," Issac replied.

"Oh…right…didn't notice…" Uriel replied.

But I have, I loaded a mana shot into my gun a snot it towards Uriel, the bullet was about to strike him when Issac cut it mid-air with his rapier.

"ARE YOU EVEN HUMAN?!" I cried.

"I hope so," Issac replied, he was looking at Adam who stood up now.

"Fairy Fire!" Adam commanded as a blue blaze from the two-circle magic circle under Issac, the flames seemingly did no damage to him.

"Yeah…I wouldn't rely on this kind of magic against me, these uniforms are created courtesy of the wizard's court and are resistant to all harmful magic…" Issac explained.

Adam stood up for another hit, he tried to lunge for his middle torso only to be hit right to the side of his neck by the metal handle of the rapier, one on each side. Adam fell to the floor getting minor burn wounds from the fairy fire…

"So, you say your friend can alter the function of spells…?" Issac asked.

The fire disappeared leaving behind a cloud of light dust in the air.

I loaded a pain and healing bullet in that order into the gun, I shot the pain one towards Issac causing him to block it again with his sword, allowing me to shoot the healing one towards Adam.

Adam stood up and planted a solid hit to the man's back with his weapon, however, the metal blades simply slid off as if Adam was attacking a chunk of steel.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT UNIFORM MADE OUT OF?!" Adam demanded jumping back to make some distance between them.

"Hell if I know, I leave that stuff up to the wizard's court nerds…" Issac shrugged before pointing his rapier at Adam once again.

"And no…he can make new ones on the spot…" Adam spoke through exhausted gasps, Adam was no amateur when it came to fighting but this man was a monster.

Adam looked to me and Uriel who was laying passed out on the ground.

"You two get the hell out of here… I'll try to buy you some time." Adam said defeated.

"I'm sorry, but I can't allow that, if they try I'll be forced to slash them from behind," Issac replied.

"Damn…so you won't even let me die in a cool way?" Adam scoffed.

"Oh, shut up, as if I'd let you feel all high and mighty before death," I replied.

Uriel was seemingly knocked out, honestly, I thought he'd be stronger, though his healing was pretty strong.

"You there, what's your name?" Issac asked looking at me.

"Why does everybody keep asking me that? I don't have one!" I replied somewhat pissed off.

"Oh, is it a slave or something?" Issac asked with a disgusted expression on his face while looking at Adam.

"Nope, he just had a hard time picking one is all," Adam replied, propping himself against the wet, slimy wall with his claws.

"...so did his parents never name him or something? How cruel." Issac asked.

"No…he just started existing at eight," Adam explained.

"Wait…what do you mean?!" Issac demanded, he was seriously confused by this.

"You wouldn't understand…" Adam replied.

"...wait…are you from another world by chance?…" he asked.

The question shook everyone, except Uriel who was out cold.

"...you mean…you're from earth too?" I asked.

"Heh…so you are from earth…" Issac's face shifted to a sorry attempt at a smile.

"Damn, for the first time… I finally met someone from earth…and now I have to kill them…" Issac said, his voice shaky if he wasn't the man he was he might have cried.

"You don't have to kill us!" Adam cried.

"I'm sorry, the truth is I have no choice because it's not my life that's on the line here," Issac said.

"What do you-" I was interrupted by Adam, "I get it… you were told to kill us, otherwise, someone dies." Adam asked.

Issac nodded.

"I see… in that case… there is no point trying to convince you…" Adam said with a sigh.

"Yeah…" Issac replied sadly.

"Get ready to die," Issac added before pointing his blade towards Adam again.

The fight continued, for every decent punch Adam would be skewered by Issac's blade,

"Wind Fist!" Adam said as a massive chunk of what looked like solid, glowing air rushed towards Issac from the three-circle magic circle from in front of Adam, it knocked him back at first but shattered soon after.

While Issac was getting up Uriel cast another spell, "Radiance!" a pinkish-yellow light poured down on Issac - as if the sun itself became a liquid - it came from what looked like a cylinder of magic circles, they radiated a pale white light.

"I told you, magic will have no effect on me!" Issac said calmly taking a second to feel the texture of the liquid light pouring over his face.

"Apollo's blessing!" Uriel said as a bright yellow light began radiating from Adam's boots, there were small yellow circles on the soles of each shoe. "It's a speed boost!" Uriel explained.

"Thanks!" Adam made sure to make use of every second he could, he rushed towards Issac, so fast that only a blur remained of the light from the boots, leaving a trail of where he moved in the tunnel.

Like a lightning bolt, Adam slashed Issac with his claws.

"So it looks like it is possible to hurt you!" Adam laughed as he jumped back, Issac was too slow to cut him down.

To us the scene looked as if Issac was desperately looking around for his attacked always getting stabbed in either the side of his back, his uniform and the ground below them became stained with blood, Adam's impossibly fast movements battered Issac for every side.

"I'm low on mana, I'll take over the lighting for now," Uriel said casting his light spell allowing me to join into the fight.

With one swift movement, Issac was able to catch Adam by the foot allowing him to plunge his rapier directly into the flesh of his leg and cut the muscles leaving his leg limp.

I loaded a heal spell into the gun, I aimed it at Adam and fired.

Issac tossed Adam aside and moved in place of Adam to take the hit healing himself back to full health.

During the entire fight Lily's been shooting any demons that tried to reach for us from the holes - the arrows she fired incinerated them almost instantly - with every bolt she fired it was as if four to eight people she was paid to kill were fired off into the distance, she saw her net-worth fall with each bolt shot.

"FUCK!" I cursed in rage as I decided to switch to offensive magic.

"Ice Block," I said as a massive chunk of ice appeared before me rising from the three magic circles located next to each other, they were a pale-blue colour.

"I told you, magic can't hurt me!" Issac said in a bored tone.

"Maybe magic can't but the physical weight of the massive boulder of ice should!" I called back while firing the block of ice and creating several other ones, I created purple circles which applied mass amounts of kinetic force to the ice.

Issac was able to keep the barrage of ice projectiles at bay with the swift movements of his rapier, shattering the ice into dozens of pieces with each slash.

"Why don't I try out some magic?!" Issac asked, jumping out of the way of the ice projectiles and leaping behind Adam who's Apollo's blessing has run out.

This caused me to cease my ice block barrage as I got prepared to improvise a shield spell.

"Black lightning," he said causing an arch of lightning to shoot from his fingertips, it was a black colour with a crimson glow, he aimed his finger-gun, at the end of his index finger was a tiny black magic circle. He pointed at Adam and with a swift snap of the finger on his other hand, the black lightning shot straight through Adam and arched on the wet floor for a split second before disappearing.

Adam jumped back, covering the place where the lightning his time with his hands and he fell to the ground with a gasp.

"...Ahhaaaactually that didn't hurt at all…man your magic is weak!" Adam said patting his torso which he was pleasantly surprised was still there.

"Weird, usually none of you should be left standing…I guess it's the light magic." Issac shrugged.

If the spell was that powerful, I needed to learn it, so I essentially stole Issac's spell but changed the colour so it'd work in this situation.

"Regular Colour Lightning!" I commanded as the same arching lightning appeared on my fingertips, I pointed the finger-gun at Issac and snapped my fingers causing a long bolt of lightning to shoot straight towards Issac, the recoil was insane and my air my was off causing Issac to only loose one leg and one arm in the process.

He fell to the floor with a loud thump…

"Damn…that must have been one hell of a spell to get through the anti-magic armour…" Issac sighed.

"Yeah, you still have a chance to surrender, I can probably heal that whole no arm no leg thing," I replied.

"Heh, the more you say that the worse I feel for having to kill you…" Issac said using his rapier as a walking stick.

I looked down to Adam, "Dude, are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah…that was one awesome spell! You have got to teach me that shit when we get back home!" he laughed standing up but failing horribly.

"BOOST!" Issac's words caught Adam off-guard as evident by Issac being able to stab Adam through the torso once more.

I looked into my ammo pouch, "I'm out of healing bullets!" I yelled out loading four flame bullets into my revolver.

Adam kicked Issac away causing Issac to fall over and his rapier to fall down into the pit.

"We disarmed him!" I said excitedly, I looked over to Adam only to realise that he too was laying on the floor.

"Looks like you guys really managed to screw me over…" Issac said seemingly accepting his defeat.

"Heal Adam!" Uriel commanded.

"Yeah, yeah. I hear you." I replied not taking my eyes off Issac I moved over to Adam and placed one hand on his torso, "Heal" I said as a lime-green magic circle appeared - light filled the inside of Adam's torso causing him to seemingly regain consciousness with a gasp, I breath a sigh of relief and turned to Issac.

I moved closer to Issac, "So…are you going to give up?" I asked.

"...I can't…the least I can do I die trying…" Issac replied with a defeated smile on his face.

"So once we kill you the person will die?" I asked.

"Most likely, however, if I was to let you live - she would certainly die," Issac explained.

"So your friend is being held, hostage?" I asked.

"She's possessed if I come back without having killed you she'll slit her throat," Issac explained, stumbling back to his feet.

"So, hypothetically…if we made it to her before she kills herself…I could un-posses her?" I asked.

Issac stood with one hand against the wall, the wounds on his arm and leg stumps were charred so he wasn't losing blood.

"If you could do something like that…then yes…but I can't take that risk!" Issac replied.

"In that case…let's fight! Let's fight to the death!" I exclaimed,

"That's the plan…" Issac replied.

"I'll heal you up first though," I explained.

"You'll what? Why?" Issac asked.

"Well, we will be fighting, it would suck if you lost mobility because of your missing limbs," I replied.

I walked over to Issac and cast a healing spell, after ten or so seconds of uninterrupted healing his leg and arm returned.

"Quite the impressive healing spell you have there…" he commented.

I took out my dagger, "Alright, let's fight!" I exclaimed.

"What the hell are you doing?! You don't stand a chance against him!" Uriel called out.

Adam stood up but kept his distance.

This was my chance, I cast "Boost!" based on how it looked, it just pushed the person forward a few meters or up to a solid target.

I shot past Issac launching myself ten meters forward.

Issac turned around to face, he ran towards me and I boosted four meters in the opposite direction, I turned around to see him, he rushed towards me again and I boosted another ten meters forward.

"Aren't you going to attack?" Issac asked.

"Nope, what's the point with my strength?" I asked.

We repeated the boost routine a few more times, ten forward four back, rinse and repeat.

Adam and Uriel were slowly following us, eventually, I was finally able to see the person standing at the end of the tunnel whom I presumed to be the possessed person.

I boosted towards them and placed a palm on their forehead, she looked like she was in her early twenties to late teens, she wore the same uniform as Issac, she was seemingly awake and just standing in the corner of the tunnel, her eyes were completely blank - like how you can tell plastic eyes apart from real ones in a matter of seconds.

This was not the ideal setting but I had to get casting,

I needed to think of a mechanism to get this to work, and I had to think of one on the spot - I created twenty-three magic, going from head to toe, each one was a thin fragile white circle, soon enough I saw one shatter - when Issac used the black lighting it was weakened by the light spell, if I make a weak enough light spell it will break due to the presence of the dark soul.

I increased the power of the surrounding two circles immensely, to the point that I made the rest disappear, I made the two circles close in like a vice until I saw the light face as a smoky white orb started to appear at various points on the girl's torso.

I continued tightening the circles, the fact I wasn't stabbed yet was proof that Issac either understood or now understands my plan.

I squeeze the two circles into one, and move them out, showing a flattened greenish-black smoke trapped between the two circles.

The two circles shattered, letting the ball of smoke bounce away into the darkness.

"Shit, it got away!" I exclaimed before being crushed by the now unconscious body of the passed out Lieutenant General.

"Somebody get her off!" I cried out for help trying to crawl away.

Issac only just caught up to me taking the Lieutenant General off me and putting her aside.

"That was one hell of a risky game you played…" Issac said.

"yeah, well I hoped you ran out of mana by now and couldn't boost…" I replied catching a breath of air.

Issac extended his arm to help me off the ground, to which I gladly accepted the helping hand.

"Well…what now?" I asked.

"It's safe to say this place isn't safe for me or the Lieutenant General…" Issac replied - the bored look returned to his face.

"Nameless child, can I ask you a favour?" Issac asked.

"Sure," I replied.

"It's two favours actually, first…want you to get the Lieutenant General away from this place, at least for a little bit." Issac said.

"Well I'll need to contact my home-owner," I pointed back at Adam, "But I think we got it covered."

"Secondly I'd like you to hold off on telling her that I'm alive," Issac said, he sounded hesitant.

"Why?" I asked.

"Now that I'm free to act how I want, I no longer wish to side with the enemy. I'm going to go take them out or at the very least do some damage, I know the Lieutenant General well, she'd try to find me and die trying to go with me." Issac explained.

"...So you're now against the demons?" I asked.

"Demons are the least of our concerns I'm afraid…but yes." Issac replied.

"Fine, but you're taking responsibility for her being pissed about lying to her," I warned him sarcastically.

"Seriously…you people are weird as hell…sorry for cutting all of you up earlier…" Issac said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it, we would have done a lot worse if it was us in your situation," Adam replied casually, although he seemed pretty salty about being stabbed.

And so Issac left the tunnels through a different stairwell than us without much of a goodbye.

We headed out of the tunnels, keeping the light spell going so as to keep the demons at bay, agreeing to take the Lieutenant General back to our home for now.

"I've been thinking... so what kind of death are we going to make up for Issac?" I asked.

"How about he tripped and fell onto his sword?…because he didn't want to kill us…or something?… Like he did on purpose." Adam suggested.

"It'll do, it sounds pretty noble actually…" Uriel said scratching his beard.

"So what are we going to do about those monsters or demons or whatever?" I asked.

"Yeah, …we should probably deal with them…" Adam sighed.

"Why not just bust the entire tunnel open so they fry in the sun?" I asked.

"I guess that could work!" Uriel exclaimed.

"There is a high risk of…y'know…collapsing the entire city in the process." Adam pointed out.

"True but we would defeat an army of monsters trying to destroy said city." I pointed out.

"No…we really should consider the consequences of this…we should evacuate the city…" Uriel pointed out.

"...ah yes let's just pop over and go like…" Adam cleared his throat and put on a higher-pitched voice "GeT oUt oF ThE CiTy, WeRe AbOuT To Blow It tHe FuCk Up!"

"...no need to be rude." Uriel shrugged.

"He has a point though, nobody would listen to us nobodies." I pointed out.

"We'll think of something…" Adam sighed.

Adam was carrying the Lieutenant General over his shoulder, she was pretty heavy for her size, and Adam was still pretty exhausted.

"Wait, let's use the teleport rings!" Adam suggested, the relief on his face was the definition of bliss.

Lily was walking a few meters ahead of us with her head hung low.

"Sure, but didn't we leave them at home?" I asked.

As Adam desperately looked through his pockets, his expression became the definition of terror, and unspeakable horror that one could never comprehend, the very act of betrayal, losing hope and existential dread seen nowhere in nature and beyond.

"It's alright… we're not too very far away." I said patting him on the shoulder.

"You're lucky you look like a kid or I'd drop kick you right now…" Adam complained.

"Relax, relax, I can carry her." Uriel offered to pick the unconscious girl over his shoulder and carrying her a decent ten meters before putting her down and demanding a break.

Lily was definitely best suited to walking - she didn't seem too tried after the whole ordeal - on the other hand, she was still grieving, holding an empty coin pouch.

"That's what I get for trying to show of…" she though to herself thinking the population of this country is about to suffer greatly from her trying to get the money back

In the end, Adam had to carry her back up the mountain, while Uriel just looked in embarrassment.

When we made it home Adam was first in the door where he fell flat onto the wooden floor, using his leftover strength to toss the Lieutenant General onto the couch.

Lily looked around, seeing me and Uriel crawling our way up the hill on all fours.

"I WAS NOT DESIGNED FOR LONG JOURNEYS!" I cried.

"Shut up… weakling…" Uriel replied he was keeping up with me for a good while until he passed out a few meters away from the door.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check out a tts reading of chapter 1 and potentially more in the future! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xorRJDGAQk&feature=youtu.be