Chapter 1

"...where am i, what is this place?" the man looks around, only to see darkness, he looks at his hand, only to see that his gun has disappeared, "wha...what?, is this... the afterlife?" the man seems to be disappointed, "hah...what heaven, this looks like an endless void, should've never trusted those religious shit huh".

the man walks through the darkness, after a while of walking he stops, "...is this...really it? is this where I'll stay? ...i guess i do deserve it, staying in that dark room all the time, playing games, looking at fake women and getting turned on by a couple doing it in my bathroom! why am i so pathetic?!" the man screams on top of his lungs, only to hear it echo back.

"...an echo? wha-" as the man turns around, he faces a stone wall, "what... the hell..." he feels the wall, it seems to be stone, he then looks around to see where he is, "a cave..." he walks through the cave, either deeper or not, he does not know, the only thing he knows is that, he's alive.

"don't tell me...did i...reincar-" out of nowhere he got hit on the side by a blunt object, "gah!" the force of the strike threw him onto a wall, he falls to the ground with a broken arm, "gha! w-wha!" he looks up to what seems like a gigantic man wielding a huge wooden bat, "haagh! haah!" the man tries to catch his breath, but it seems he's unable to, as he tries to struggle to get up, he was struck again, but this time on the head.

darkness engulfs him once again, "...haah! haah! haah!...haah..." the man got into his knees after opening his eyes, touching his chest trying to calm himself down, "haah...did i.... did i just-" the floor suddenly turns into stone, the sound of water drops falling to the ground, a breeze of the wind, and the muffled screams of people can be heard.

"wha... my hands..." he took a look at his hands, it's covered in fur, and it seems like the hands of an animal, a monkey perhaps?, "w-wha-" without being given a chance, his head was sliced off, as his vision gets blurry, he caught a glimpse of his body, and the person that sliced his head off.

he was once again engulfed in darkness, "haah! a-again! b-blurgh!" he immediately throws up after waking up, he seems exhausted and in pain, but nothing's wrong with his body at all, "w-what the fuck is this?!" as he screams to the skies as it changed into lush greenery, "...a forest this time?" he looks around to only see trees and small furry animals.

he chose to stay in place and stay on guard this time, but after a while of waiting he finally moved, "...seems safe this time" he walked through the forest, after a while he hears the sound of flowing water, he decided to walk towards it, after reaching the source of the sound he quickly looks into the water.

his face seems normal, but he has weird pointy ears, "an elf? is this me?" his face looks incredibly handsome, it seems even he is surprised to see such a handsome face as his, but after a while of him looking at himself in the water, he saw a glint of light near the bushes, "gh! not again!".

he jumped away as an arrow was shot towards him, "I'm not dying this time!" he then starts to run, he kept running, and running, but eventually he was caught, "wha- what is this?!" a strange light starts to constrict his movements, he tried to struggle out of it when a man with a bow slowly walks out of the bushes.

"you! let go of me!" the man tries to kick the hooded bowman but gets his feet impaled with an arrow instead, the man screams in pain and the hooded man drags him by the feet, after an hour of being dragged through the ground, they arrived at an encampment, the hooded man seems to be talking in a language that the captured man does not understand.

the hooded man then nods and carries the captured man into a cart, in there he sees cages filled with elves, but only women and children, "haah...haah..." the man tries to cope with the pain on his feet, it seems one of the elven lady notices that he's in pain, she rips up her cloth and starts to slowly closes the man's wound.

"ah! s-slow down..." the man winches at the pain of the pressure, "i-i'm sorry..." the lady then carefully and gently ties the cloth, "I'm surprised i can understand what you're saying... do you... know what they're saying?" the man points at the hooded man outside of the cart, the lady shakes her head in response.

"but...i do know one thing... it's that, we're going to be sold..." the lady seems to be holding in her tears, in response to this the man gets furious, "w-why am i so mad? and why am i so calm in this situation? i died three times now, not to mention they were gruesome deaths, so why..." the man thought to himself.

the lady looks at his well built body and calm face and asks, "sir... are you... a warrior?" with a hopeful face, "a... warrior? i... I don't think i am..." he looks at his arms and body, it seems he is well built, with strong muscles and a great stature, the lady seems disappointed.

"...can you tell me your name?" the lady asks him while grasping her arms, "name...i guess you can call me...Roca" he chose the name that he uses on the internet, he seems quite embarrassed after saying that out loud, "...sir Roca, i beg of you, please save us" the lady grasps his hands, hoping for him to give a good response.

Roca seems taken aback by this, an elven lady with ragged clothing, a mud stained face and scars all over her body, not really a good introduction from an elf he thinks, "...but, i do not know how to fight" he answers while looking down in shame, "but...haah...i guess i was being too optimistic... I'm sorry mister Roca".

the lady seems dejected, Roca feels disappointed in himself, and that is when something was awaken inside of him, he got the resolve to fight and free the elves that were going to be turned into slaves, "...but i can try to help you all escape" hearing this, the lady looks up at him, staring into his eyes, her eyes glistening and trembling from happiness, her face full of hope, she bows down, "thank you, thank you so much...".

"can you tell me what your name is?" he asks the lady while looking for something in the cart, "it's Lyra, Lyra Ernstwood" the lady answers, "Lyra huh... then, remember my name, okay?" Lyra smiles and nods while looking outside, Roca found a small and thin piece of wood, he tries to lockpick the lock from the cages, but to no avail.

"tch, if only there was something much tougher" he starts to look around once more, a small elf seems to notice what he's doing, and so she called for him, "hey, mister, over here" Roca notices her and goes towards her, "what is it?" the small elf pulls out a small and thin piece of steel out of her mouth and gives it to him, "use this".

Roca looks at the steel and smiles, "thank you, what's your name kid?" he asks as he opens the cage for her, "Nina, nice to meet you" she seems mature for someone that looks like a child, Lyra disrupt their conversation by gently tugging Roca's rag that's covering his waist, " sir Roca, someone's coming".

Roca then feels as if something inside of him is awaken yet again and he smiles at Lyra while slowly moving towards the opening of the cart, as a man slowly gets closer to the cart, Roca pulls him inside the cart while covering his mouth, and starts to choke him slowly, the sound of the struggle seems to have attracted some of the people outside.

"both of you hurry up! after they're all out i want you all to run!" Roca grabs the man's sword and dagger and prepares to jump out, "but, what about you?!" Lyra asks while Nina opens the cages, "as i said, remember my name, Roca, we'll meet again, hopefully when I'm in this form".

Lyra seems to feel kind of emotional, and so she reaches out to his arm and casts a spell, "w-what are you doing?" Roca seems surprised at what she did, he did not expect to see magic so early, "i used up all of my leftover magic to cast a mark on you, it's the only spell i could cast with my remaining mana, and while being chained by this thing".

"I'll know it's you when i see you, and when i do, I'll surely repay your kindness" she smiles with sad eyes, holding herself back from crying, "... I'll see you later then" Roca jumps out with his sword and dagger, "we've literally just met, so why do i feel so sad just by leaving her side? what's wrong with me?".

Roca stops the humans and points his sword at them while wearing a stern face, "i won't let you get near them, i can't believe i was once your kind, I'll be sure to kill you all!" he runs towards them, wielding his sword.