Chapter 1 - "I am in charge"

Act 1 - Prelude

"That's this batch finish."

Ren leaned back on his chair, then proceeded to stretch after what felt like an eternity, slumping over his table. Stacks and stacks of papers sat on his tabletop, but even more papers scatter on his wooden floorboards. He took a quick glance outside and saw a full moon rising high in the sky.

Ren lazily reached out for his phone with his left hand. He lifted the phone over his head, opening it shortly. The month, and time displayed on his lockscreen.

"2:16 AM huh? That's not good," he thought out loud.

He gently tossed the phone over to his bed, before taking another breather. Signs of fatigue began showing on him as his eyelids get heavier by the minute. They would close involuntarily for a short while before he snaps them wide awake with what little remaining energy he had.

"Just 2 more and I'll be..." he tried to get up, but the involuntary closing of his eyes were getting harder to resist. It was as if his body is fighting his urge to push through, but he knew that he has a set of reports to submit tomorrow, and he intended to finish it no matter what.

"Zzz..." or so that's what he planned to do, but his body's desire for sleep was too much that he ended up sleeping, slumped over the papers that he finished, slightly crumpling them as his arms moves across the tabletop.

The snores of an overworked student echoed across the room.

And a mysterious circle of light illuminates the boy's body.

A circle of light that soon engulfed him, leaving behind an empty chair.

Ren was nowhere to be seen.

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Act 2 - A strange dream, or is it?

"Ohh! Finally! The summon was answered. It's a great success!"

The muffled voice of an elderly man can be heard by Ren in his now half awake state. Sounds of other people murmuring then added to the old man's scream.

"Strange, why do I hear people talking? Is it a guest? Wait, what are they even saying?" thoughts filled up Ren's mind as he grunts uncomfortably, moving like he is in bed.

"O' thank the holy pantheon! Our prayers have been granted!" the old man screamed once more.

Finally at his limit, Ren slowly opened his eyes to find out what the ruckus was all about. His sight was welcomed with the sight of a red carpet sprawled out beneath him. Which was a surprise since he remembers that his bedsheets only come in white colors, not to mention he also remembers not falling asleep in his bed last night.

"Ohh... Hero, have you awaken?" the same voice asked to him, prompting Ren to look up to discover the source of the voice, and finds an old man in exotic clothing staring at him with a look of amazement in his eyes. The sight of a strangely clothed stranger in front of him made Ren alertly survey the surrounding area. His head scans around wildly.

Stone walls, people in metal suits, wielding blades, and a magnificent throne standing at the far end of the room. Extremely far from his room's wooden floor, painted walls, and wooden furniture.

"A medieval setting? Wait a second, where the hell even am I? What language are they speaking?" questions formed in Ren's mind but he couldn't even find it in himself to ask, he just stood, or rather lay there speechless in front of the old man.

"What's wrong hero?" the old man inquired once more, but Ren just kept staring silently in response.

"Ohh! I get it! Since you're from another world, you must be confused as to what I am saying right now. I see, I see. A mistake on my part but easily fixable."

"LOQ~ LIN~ ME~ VI~ E~ LON~, CON~ TI~ SAP~ NOS!"

With a mysterious chant delivered by the old man, a pillar of light descended upon Ren. He felt a strange, yet familiar sensation envelopes his body. After the light faded, the old man came into view once again.

"Do you understand me now?" Ren's eyes widened as familiar words came out of the old man's mouth. In which he responds with a slight nod, and a soft grunt.

"Magic spells? No, there's no doubt about it. I just witnessed magic at this moment.. I see, I think I get the situation now," Ren summed up his thoughts and deducted the most obvious answer to his questions. After all, he's already seen this scene countless times in the books that he'd read, and shows he'd watched.

He stood up from his laying position to get a better view of his surroundings.

"So I've been summoned by you, is that right?" he finally spoke to the old man.

"Ohh! Yes yes! I am your summoner!" the old man screamed in glee as his summoned hero finally spoke to him.

"Our kingdom is in a dire situation right now. That's why I followed the instructions left behind by our ancestors to summon a great hero that will save us in our dark times. An oh so powerful individual gifted by unbelievable power by the pantheon, that would be you."

Ren silently clenched his fist as the man continued on speaking about the situation.

"Oh that's right, the king should be able to do a better job of explaining the situation to you rather than me."

With that, the old man turned over to the throne and gave a small nod to the person sitting in the middle.

"King Galen, if you would please."

The one called Galen walked towards the summoning area. The clanking of his heavy armor can be heard echoing throughout the room. His majestic cape dragging behind him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you hero. I am King Galen Ironblade, the ruler of this kingdom bearing my family's name."

"My name is Ren."

"A strange name. You really are an outlander. Now let me continue where Phoros have left off." he took a quick glance at the summoner whose name was said to be Phoros.

"So here's the situation, the proud Ironblade Kingdom was once a well feared country in the Central continent. However, ever since the demon invasion which took over a portion of the continent's northern territory, the situation has shifted. As the holder of the world's mightiest military power, we took it to ourselves to protect humanity from these invaders. But alas, the absence of our main forces is now being exploited by our neighboring countries to take over some of our territory."

"We don't desire to wage war amongst ourselves seeing as we have a bigger problem at hand, but the greedy nobles from the countries we share borders with aren't being considerate. That is why--" King Galen kept going on his story, but was abruptly stopped as the young boy looking at him and made an annoyed face.

"Enough!"

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Act 3 - Hero?

Everybody in the throne room let out surprised gasps in response to Ren's sudden outrage. King Galen and Phoros stared wide-eyed, still in the middle of processing what had just happened. King Galen's wife and child who were sitting back at the throne were in most shocked as they just witnessed their king, the most powerful man in the kingdom, got shouted upon by a mere boy.

"Hey..." Ren said, breaking the silence.

"What made you think it's just ok to drag people from other worlds, say all this crap about heroes and demons and territories, and just assume that I'm going to just roll with it?" he complained.

"I'm living a quiet life in my world, working my ass off to study and work towards achieving my dream. But now look at me, I'm in another world with people I'm not familiar with, and by the looks of things, I'll end being a sacrificial pawn, or a puppet that would mindlessly follow all of your orders."

"Hero..."

"I'm already familiar with this scenario, and guess what? I won't be playing along. That's why--"

Ren turned towards the old man Phoros.

"I demand for you to return me to my world."

After his short outburst, almost everyone in the room were left with frowning faces, including the king. Phoros was the only one remaining calm, scratching his short beard as he appears to be deep in thought.

Finally, a knight with a unique-looking armor compared from the rest in the room approached the summoning area. He has an incredibly lean body. A red cape hangs behind from his armor, and the handle of a massive claymore sticks out from behind him.

"Hey commoner, I don't know what your deal is, but that is no way to speak to the king," the knight said, trying his best to let out a calm tone.

"Did I ask for your opinion?" Ren retorted.

"Why you--" the knight finally snapped, grabbing his blade but King Galen silently raised his hand, ordering him to stop.

"Stay out of this Lawrence."

"But--"

"That's an order," the king insisted.

"Tch."

The knight called Lawrence let go of his blade and walked a fair distance away from the three.

"Done getting your shit together? Now let's get back to my demand."

"Watch your mouth you brat," King Galen said calmly.

"Brat huh? What happened to hero?"

"Clearly you are of no heroic qualities. It seems we have made a mistake. No way someone as rude, and vulgar as you could be the one told by the prophecy."

"That's on you," Ren replied.

"Phoros."

"Ahh yes, well I got some good news, and I got some bad news."

"Go on."

"Good news is, the summoning can be redone. We can try again to see if we can finally get the hero we the prophecy foretold."

"And?"

"The bad news is, well it's not bad news for us, but for this lad over here. We can't return you to your world."

"..." Ren remained silent.

The old man then let out an ominous smile.

"After all, the resources we gathered to summon you can no longer be retrieved, that's why we're gonna have to use you as the resource itself."

"What do you mean?" Ren asked.

Phoros did a slight nod, prompting all the knights in the room to draw out their swords. Lawrence, who is the closest also let out his sword which was so big that it's almost the size of his body.

"We just have to extract your blood and redo the summoning ritual."

With this, King Galen finally drew his sword which was also big but not as massive as Lawrence's.

"I told you to watch your tongue you brat."

"We already saw this possibility coming. After all, you have to have some back up plans. This would've been quite problematic for us but fortunately, King Galen was a few steps ahead," Phoros explained.

"You see, the summoning ritual is still not complete. The last remaining part of the ritual is where you'll be granted the powers of the 'hero.' But thanks to your childish outburst, we no longer need to handle that part. Which means as of now--" Phoros trailed off.

"You are but an ant trying its hardest to hear a lion howl in pain," King Galen finished, as he brought down his sword towards Ren.

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Act End - The Rebel's Rampage

"Well, at least I tried."

"What?!"

To King Galen's surprise, to what he thought was an easy kill right in front him, Ren effortlessly stopped the sword strike, grabbing the edge of the blade with his bare hands. Even though the blade was stopped, King Galen still tried to force it down onto the young man, but it was futile. Ren's arm wouldn't even budge despite the amount of force King Galen is exerting.

"How?" he could only mutter.

"Your back's wide open!" Lawrence, who was behind Ren, took the opportunity to strike him down.

"A knight attacking someone from behind? That's not very noble is it?" but before Lawrence's blade made contact with its target, Ren was already out of sight, even leaving behind such remarks. Ren's sudden disappearance gave way for King Galen's sword to continue its way down, crashing with Lawrence's blade. The two pulled their weapons apart immediately.

"So since there's no way for me to get back to my world, I guess I'll just have to wing it from here on out." King Galen and Lawrence turned around to identify the source of the voice. There stood Ren, arms crossed looking deep in thought as he stares at the ceiling looking unamused.

The two then got back on their fighting stance, the other knights present in the room also decided to join the fray, surrounding Ren.

"How? How do you possess such power? The summoning procedure is still not complete?!" Phoros pressed for answer as he was the one most bewildered by the situation.

"LOQ~ LIN~ ME~ VI~ E~ LON~, CON~ TI~ SAP~ NOS~" Ren recited.

"Why that's the translation spell I casted on you a while ago!"

"It's not just a translation spell. Be honest with me, you don't understand these chants you speak of am I right?" Ren asked Phoros.

"It's the language of the pantheon! The ancient ones who bestowed magic upon our people! Of course no one understands the chants!" Phoros exclaimed.

"Speak my tongue, and inherit my people's wisdom. That's what those chant means. The moment you casted the spell to me, not only did you give me the ability to understand you, and speak your language, but you also gave me all of your knowledge," Ren explained.

"It gave me quite a headache really, being overloaded with so much information, that's why it took too long for me to respond to you earlier," he added.

"So you--"

"Exactly. The moment I thought my life was in danger, I completed the summoning ritual myself, granting me the heroic power that you deny from me."

"But you did not cast out any chants."

"I believe you're familiar with incantation-less magic yes? I did get it from your memory."

Phoros was taken aback by everything that Ren just said that he fell flat on his bottom. The shock was too much to handle, and the realization that it was all his doing made him speechless.

"I... did this?" he muttered as his mind was broken.

"If you have the great mage Phoro's memories, then why are you still here? Isn't it your desire to go home?" Lawrence asked.

"When I say everything, I meant everything, unfortunately the wisdom passed onto me said that there's no way to get back. that's why I got furious earlier, I just simply couldn't accept it. Although I took my chances and just asked anyway, hoping for a different answer," Ren answered.

"I'm stuck here, but I don't like the idea of being your pawn so I'll just go out there and have fun with these 'heroic' powers. I don't get to do this much often," he added.

"But your powers as the hero is needed by this world! You can't just abandon us!" Lawrence tried his best to reason but it looks like Ren is not getting the least bit persuaded.

"After everything you've shown to me? And the memories I obtained? Hell no, you can all go die for all I care," Ren retorted.

"WHY YOU INGRATE! KILL HIM! DECAPITATE HIM! CUT OFF HIS LIMBS! CUT OPEN HIS STOMACH! I DON'T CARE HOW JUST KILL HIM!" King Galen finally exploded. All the knights in the area, Lawrence and Galen included, charged towards Ren.

"Now that's more like it, your true colors are finally showing."

A strong shockwave exploded outwards from Ren's position as he lightly stomps his feet on the ground. The rupture sends everyone charging towards him to be knocked back a great distance. The surrounding pillars of the room got cracked, and the walls shook. The disturbance caused more knights to enter the throne room, surprised at the state the room is in.

The knights charged together, aiming at the one threat in the center of the summoning area. Those struck down by the earlier quake quickly got up on their feet and joined their advancing comrades.

"How annoying."

A sword swung just past Ren but he dodged it with a well timed turn. He hit the attacking knight on the back of the head with an elbow strike, knocking him out, then sent him flying with a kick. He carried the momentum of that kick to strike an approaching knight from behind, sending him flying as well.

Some of the knights stationed at the throne room guarded the queen and the princess. All of them left in shock as Ren effortlessly kicks away every knight that approaches him. They came in flying in all directions, some of them hitting the walls and passing out, while some who landed safely, stood up then attacked again.

"GRAAAAAAAAAGH!" amongst the attacking knights, Lawrence saw his chance to strike a blind spot.

"MMFFMMM!" however, Ren's heroic reflex was fast enough to grab Lawrence in the face, muffling his voice. He used the poor knight's huge body mass to swat away the approaching attackers before finally sending him flying towards the window leading outside. The sound of shattering glass filled the room.

"That's disgusting," Ren said as he wiped the hand he used on his torso.

Seeing their champion easily dealt with, the other knights' morale shrunk. They looked in horror as the incarnation of disaster stood there, making all their lives' worth of training useless.

"DIE!" as a last ditch effort, King Galen attacked Ren from behind, but as expected, the young man easily dodged the attack. King Galen's momentum brought his head near Ren, to which he caught it with the underside of his foot, stomping the king's head onto the ground.

"What a pathetic show of display O' great lion. How come the ant is stomping its feet over your head?" Ren mockingly asked.

He then proceeded to kick the king over to the throne. The knights stationed there caught the king before he hits the ones sitting on it with terrified looks on their faces.

After observing the mess that he made, Ren made his way over the broken glass window where Lawrence lay unconscious. The other knights still on their feet simply looked at him with fear in their eyes. The throne room is in shambles. And the proud army of the Ironblade Kingdom have been put to shame.

"Curse you! You won't get away from this! I will hunt you down to the ends of the world you hear me! You serve me! ME! ONLY ME!" King Galen mustered his strength to verbally attack Ren, but he merely ignored it as he opens up the broken windows. A gust of air came blowing onto his face, and the sight of a city came into view. Beyond the city lies a mountain range that stretches out onto the horizon, meeting the setting sun.

Ren turned around, facing the throne room. The sunset shone behind him, showing himself as a silhouette to his audience. To which he then spoke...

"No, I don't serve anyone. Like I said, since I can no longer return to my world, I'll make the best of my time here and do whatever I feel like doing."

Ren took a few steps backward until his back is touching the window's edge.

"Remember this. I am in charge."

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