Chapter 1

Black. That’s the next thing I remember. I was in a world painted in black, where a grey mist with tiny specks of white floated around lazily. I felt myself be weightless, floating in the vastness of this monochromatic world, a drift through the endless void. No thoughts came to me for the first few minutes, my mind remaining blank as I watched the mist start to slowly swirl in front of me, like a phantasm in the shadows.

I wonder what the mist is doing.... I wonder where its going... I...

I try to move my head to the side to look around, and find that my body feeling surprisingly heavy. I felt a sort of resistance against me as I tried to move my head, as if I was floating in a vast ocean made of some liquid thicker than water. However, I manage to look around, finding the same inky black world all around me in all directions.

...Where am I?

That question solidified in my mind, drifting idly through my consciousness, though my mind would not register anything other than that. Despite this, I was aware of my surroundings. I could see the mist dance faster and faster in front of me, turning from a gentle swirl into a chaotic vortex of shadows. It was almost as if the mist was trying to imitate the appearance of the Milky Way.

Soon, the shadows invaded the seemingly endless emptiness, and they began to warp as well. Phantom gears, strings, moons and planets, stars, and even more shadowy apparitions of galaxies filled in the vast blackness. Black, gray, and white, in various shades and compositions, came together to make an innumerable number of things. Eventually, the monochromatic world seemed to settle into a shape it found appropriate, and new shapes stop coming into existence.

These new... things that came into being, like paintings were not static either. This was no painting, but a work of art that reminded him of clockwork. Everything moved at its own tempo, governed by forces he did not understand. It was seemingly discordant at first, but as he continued to observe, he began to grasp a sense of firm harmony linking each seemingly random motion.

It was... beautiful.

As if the world recalled something it had forgotten, small silver spheres started to appear all around, shinning like small stars that levitated mostly within the shapes created by the smoke. And then this … Space? Universe? Dimension? I don’t know what to call it… Well, the entirety of the space I found myself in, finally seemed to be at peace. My sense of time was lost in this place as I observed the universe unravel before me.

I don’t know for how long I observed the marvel that was around me. Seconds, minutes, years or eons, I could not distinguish between them. But that was okay. My observations, however, were interrupted by an ethereal voice. It was like a whisper that filled my mind.

“What do you desire?”

Who’s that?

For some reason that doesn’t seem to matter to me though. I can feel a vast presence beyond that whisper. How I know this I can not tell, only that I am certain beyond any doubt that its an vast entity capable of dwarfing the immensity of this endless space. Yet, I don’t feel threatened at all. Instead, I feel at peace. Soon, this sense of peace invaded my mind like a warm current of water, and the fog that covered my mind was gradually replaced by clear and serene thoughts.

“You will know in time. What do you desire?”

I stay silent for a moment, and 'stare' through the fog of my mind. I am not sure if it was because of the voice, but all at once I recall the entirety of my life. It was a harsh life I think, but I don’t hate it. I achieved a lot, like putting my younger siblings t through university. That in itself is a huge relief, as they could now surely survive in the harsh world they were in. A shame about not being able to see them grow more, but such was life. At least my savings would help them out for the short term.

I was proud of my siblings. I don't regret what I have done at all in regards to that. Rather, my biggest regret was that it, my life, was so short. All that work, all that studying and manual labor… to be ended by a simple knife in mere minutes. That’s kind of sad, isn’t it? If I had only adapted better to the situation… maybe I wouldn’t have died like that. If only I had been tougher. If I had been stronger, could have overpowered him safely. If I had been faster, I might have not gotten stabbed. If I had been more tougher, maybe I could have …

Ah…That's dumb. If I was tougher...tougher how? Grow skin like a honey badger? Make it hard like a rhino? Magically level up and get an iron body? Yeah, maybe then the knife would have been stopped by my thick leathery skin. Great plan, if it were possible. That sort of thing was the stuff of fairy tails and comics. If only I could level up in the heat of the moment like heroes do in all those fantasy stories…

“I see… I understand.”

Wait, what? But I haven’t said anything.

“I can hear what you are thinking. How else could I have a conversation with you when you can’t even talk right now?”

Ah. So that’s how it is.

“Now then… Lets grant your wish.”

?!

Instantly I feel the universe around me start to rush past me, accelerating. The greys and whites start to blur, the little bright spheres of light become streaks of white speeding around me. Or is it me that is moving at unbelievable speeds? I can’t tell. I don’t feel like I’m moving at all though.

“Let's see…” The voice says, starting to fade away slowly. “Ah yes, this one will work well. Very good. Now then, do remember you'll be needed in the place I'm sending you, so keep that in mind. I will grant you the power to fulfill your wish, though there is a price to pay because of the laws of that world. I'd rather not break it by forcing things too much, so you'll just have to adjust as best as you can, okay? Don’t worry too much about that though, I’ll try to reduce the cost as much as possible. Its going to be a bit disorienting at first but I am sure you can manage. Ah, you should get going. Off you go.”

And then, just like that, I accelerated roughly towards one of the silver spheres like a bullet. No, a bullet could not do justice to the sudden velocity I was subjected to. Either way, it was terrifying to move so quick, even more so when moving towards a sphere that seems to glow with a silver light. But as soon as I touched it, the sphere sucked me into it as if it was a black hole.

And then the world went dark one more time.

0-0-0-0-0-0-

When I woke up again, my body felt numb, and found myself in a room carved out of stone, dimly lit by the pale light of the full moon. The light filtered in through the large hole on the ceiling, casting shadows in my surroundings. The ambiance was gloomy, and quite creepy in my opinion. I mean… There were gray stone gargoyles standing on pillars that line the walls, small piles of broken up stone on the ground, and cobwebs extending between corners. It's just... eerie. Not to mention that there are skulls and bones around me.

It’s like I just got dumped in the ruins of an abandoned Halloween horror house.

Shaking my head, I slowly sit up, still feeling groggy from… whatever that experience was. I immediately regretted trying to move though, my body screaming at me to stop right away. My muscles contracted painfully, forcing me to gritted my teeth, as my vision wavered briefly. The pain was such that I found myself frozen, not daring to stand or even lay down again in case that triggered another wave of pain. My head feels heavy, though considering what just occurred, I suppose I can’t be expected to feel fine right away.

After just sitting there for what must have been at least thirty minutes, I had enough composure to start attempt to move again. The moment I tried to move, another wave of pain washed over me, but it was significantly weaker than the previous one. This time, it was more of a dull pain, as if I had exerted myself too much physically, rather than the searing pain that had burned my mind previously. If it was just this, I could bear walking.

Hm? I feel like I’m oddly calm. I wonder why? Well whatever. For now I should probably start moving. It would be good if I could get an idea of where I am.

Standing up, I felt that my body was oddly different. Perhaps even unbalanced? Though when I look at my hands, they seem fine. They do seem like they are just a bit smaller than what I recall, but then again, they seem…. Younger? That’s the feel they give anyways.

Looking down at myself, I am completely naked. There are several fading bruises and cuts along my limbs, and my chest has a large, odd scar dead center of my ribcage. It seems like my body has gone through quite a bit of abuse recently. In addition, I feel like my body is still odd... disproportionate maybe? Well, there is at least one part that is certainly large. It seems that I’m still a male at least. But that’s aside the point. I should find something where I can look at myself properly… and something to cover up myself.

-0-0-0-0-0-

I spent the rest of the night looking around, and I managed to find some ragged trousers that seemed to fit. Better than being naked I suppose. Anyways, it seems like this place is almost like a cross between a labyrinth, a village, and fortress of some sort. But it seems like it’s old. Really old and damaged.

How to define it… when I first started exploring, I discovered that I had awoken in some sort of rundown tower, thanks to a balcony that I found. The balcony was missing parts of the rail, but the balcony itself seemed sturdy enough, so I dared to step on it. From there, I could look down at the impressive construction of the structure where I found myself, as the sun began to rise beyond the horizon.

From the tower it looked like a small fortress surrounded by a dense forest in every direction. The outer walls of this fortress seemed to form a circle around the other structures, and appeared to be made of thick slabs of gray stones, and were covered in vines. But behind the outer walls, a fairly complex-looking set of walls and buildings create an almost labyrinth-like village made of stone.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

To be honest, it almost seemed like a village or ancient military outpost, designed to slow down intruders from breaking in through the outer walls. If I had to guess, though nearly all the roofs of these buildings were rather flat, it would make it easy to mobilize troops on the roofs and have them defend their positions.

If I had to estimate the size of this… village fortress, it might be about 400 maybe 500 hundred meters across. I don’t think it would be larger than that. However, given that the inside of the town was a labyrinth-like complex, I could imagine that trying to go from one end of this fort to the other would take some time, unless you were properly acquainted with all the paths… or unless you were lucky.

Something drew my attention though, despite my bafflement at the entirety of this place. Even from where I stood, I could see that this place had suffered at least one major attack in the past, if not more. I could see that several of the walls had large holes that clearly were not meant to be there, as if something had blasted through them. Some of the walls even show dark blotches that seem like scorch marks. Several such sights could be seen across the town. There were even several buildings reduced to nothing but rubble.

At that point, I slowly looked away from the scene with a frown, turning my back to it as I tried to find out more about where I found myself. However, now that I was more aware of the situation, I began to notice similar signs of a struggle in the walls around me.

There were scratches and chipped off sections on the walls, and scorch marks on them as well. Not only that, but dust lined most of the crevices, and there seemed to be ashes in certain areas too. I even found the charred remains of what probably used to be furniture, before it was burned to the ground.

This place was definitely attacked by something.

The idea made me feel edgy, and I fervently hoped that whatever had managed to take down this place was not around still.

Without warning, an image crossed my mind for only a fraction of a second. The image of harsh, brutal, man-like shadows that set fire to anything they could get their hands on.

I shuddered slightly at this image.

My imagination must be overreacting. Considering all that had occurred since my death in my other life, it wasn’t too farfetched to consider that my imagination was working extra hard.

Ah, before I forget, one more thing worth noting about this fortress was the building at its core.

The tower I woke up in seemed to be at the center of the town, but it was not a freestanding tower. In fact, the tower was part of what seemed to be the central building of the fort. The tower itself was not very tall, containing only six floors total, and it was connected to what seemed to be a sort of crudely built mansion.

Actually, even though I say it’s a “mansion”, in reality it gave more the impression of medieval barracks. Furthermore, the building itself only had three floors above ground, so it was not all that imposing on its own either.

For now, I suppose I’ll just call this place the core, since it's at the heart of the fortress.

It was while exploring the first floor of the barracks that I heard a sound that caught my attention. It was a metallic sound, the sound of metal lightly scrapping against metal.

Needless to say that I froze in mid step instantly when I heard this. This was probably because I had not heard any sound since I woke up, other than my own footsteps and the occasional howling of the wind that filtered itself through a hole on the wall. Therefore, the sound of metal stood out quite brilliantly amongst the silence.

For a moment I debated between searching for the source of the sound or avoiding the issue completely… but in the end, my curiosity won over my caution, and I set myself to the task of finding the origin of the weak metallic sound.

The self-imposed mission was brief though, as it only took a few minutes for me to find myself before a badly damaged door made of heavy wood that somehow was still functional, despite being scorched and scratched all over the surface. I knew instinctively that the source of the constant metallic sound was behind this door.

Bracing myself, I took a deep breath, and slowly pushed the heavy looking door. Surprisingly, even though the door was damaged and the hinges crackled in protest to my movements, the door gave away, splintering loudly at the hinges.

In other words, it was a poor excuse for a ‘silent and careful’ movement.

I wanted to curse out loud, but refrained from doing so. Instead, I simply pushed the door open all the way, and stepped inside the strange room. But I almost choked on the air I was breathing due to my surprise.

The room looks like a hurricane of fire blew through it, smashing whatever furniture the place used to have, scorching walls, and leaving the debris scattered around. But that wasn’t what caught my attention. It was the person that was suspended and bound by heavy silver chains that were attached to the walls and ceiling of the room. Attached to the pristine chains, were a number of paper tags with odd writing on them, giving the chains an archaic, yet mystical look to them.

However, the man did not seem to be in great condition, but given that he gave the impression of being crucified by the chains, perhaps that was to be expected. His white hair was matted and hanging low over his dropping head, his black suit was stained with rust-colored blotches and dirt, and his white gloves showed tears at the knuckles. Even his clothes hung somewhat loose, as if he had not been fed properly for weeks.

For a moment, I thought him dead.

I gasped unconsciously at the scene, wondering why would anyone be left in such a cruel state, without food or water. However, as soon as I gasped, the man’s shoulders twitched, and he jerked his head up slightly, just enough that I could see a pair of sharp honey-colored eyes stare up at me with predatory hostility. But all aggression melted away from his eyes a moment after our eyes met, and was replaced by surprise, and then wonder, before settling into a look that radiated relief from them.

Once more a memory flashed through my mind. A refined man, maybe in in his mid fifties, with metallic grey hair and a suit, a perfectly trimmed full-beard, and a gentle smile. It was the man in chains, with impeccable finesse and respect, bowing at the waist towards me in respect.

Alfred Belveder.

And then the image was gone.

Once again, my image focused on him, and I smiled. Somehow, I recognized this man, and in my heart, I was glad to see him. I could not resist calling out to him with a smile.

“Alfred.” My voice sounded alien to my own ears, being far too young for what I was used to. Yet it sounded familiar.

The man lifted his head bit higher, his face showing his beard and mustache, though they were certainly less well maintained than I recalled.

“Young master.” His voice was filled with emotion. “I’m relieved to see you are alive.”

Eh? Alive? What is he talking about?

An ominous feeling filled my heart for a moment, but I decided to put that aside for a moment. Questions could wait; getting him down from there was a priority. I took a few quick strides, to the nearest chain, and reached out to grab it roughly.

“Young master, wait!” Alfred shouted out, but it was too late.

I grabbed the chain and pulled on it as hard as I could. I briefly felt a tingling sensation in my hand, but it quickly faded into nothing. Surprisingly enough, the chain did not break, but instead it got torn off the wall, taking a chunk of stone from the wall with it.

The chain gave away suddenly, much more easily that I had expected, so much so that I tumbled backwards and fell on my rump. At the same time, the end of the chain that I just had torn out of the wall whizzed past my head like a bullet, smashing against the wall behind me hard enough to damage it.

“Huh?”

That’s all I manage to say as I look around with confusion. I had seen with my own eyes what had happened, but my brain was still working to understand it. No matter how hard I might have pulled, a heavy chain, weighted with a chunk of rock almost as big as my head, should not be able to fly across the room and damage another wall. And that’s if I ignore the fact that I tore the chain from solid rock as well.

I turned my head and looked at Alfred quizzically, but he looked even more baffled than I did. Shrugging off the situation, I stood up with a smile. This was going to be way easier than I thought.

“Alright, here we go!” I said with a grin, feeling childishly ecstatic.

Without further ado, I proceeded to systematically tear down the remaining chains. I did this more carefully than the first time, testing the amount of strength and regulating it to avoid getting my face smashed by one of those rock bullets.

At last, Alfred who had been suspended in the air by chains, fell to the ground. But before I could reach him to help him pull off he chains that still bound him, he let out a refreshed sigh, and smiled.

“My humble thanks, my lord.” He said with a bow of his head. Before I could even reply, his eyes turned serious and he started to force himself against the chains that still bound him. The muscles and veins in his neck swell as he applied force against the chains, and the chains started to creak under the unbelievable strain. A second later, they snapped altogether, small chunks of metal bursting out everywhere like bullets when the chains ruptured.

I could only stare dumbly for a second as he dusted his suit as best he could, seemingly no worse for the wear. My brain was drawing a blank as to what just happened. How did the malnourished man before me manage to not just break chains, but snap them like that?

“My apologies.” The sound of his refined voice brought me back to my senses. He was kneeling down on one knee, his head bowed. “This servant apologizes for being seen in such an unsightly manner. Thank you, young master, for freeing me from those enchanted binds.”

I could only nod at him in reply. I want to ask him a hundred things. Maybe more than that actually. Why was he chained up? How long was he there? If he could rip off the chains that easily, why didn’t he do it before? And that was just the tip of the iceberg as far as questions went.

It seems like I need to learn about this… world first.

And Alfred was going to help me with that.