“Boy, you really need to learn how to keep your mouth shut.” The voice was rough and hoarse. It was clear that it belonged to an older man, not a woman, let alone a goddess.

John trembled, overtaken by surprise and fear. He looked all around him, trying to pierce the veil of darkness with his eyes, yet the form of the stranger illuded him; but while he couldn’t see him, John knew for a fact that he was there, sizing him up in silence.

After a few of the tensest seconds of John’s life, the stranger finally emerged from the darkness, clad in mismatched armor and carrying two swords on his waist. His mostly white hair hung low enough to hide the upper half of his face, but it did nothing to mask his peculiar eyes which shone in a faint golden light.

“Another miserable office worker huh? that bitch certainly knew how to pick them. I think I had that same suit on when I came here too… fucking goddess.” The stranger spoke very casually, his neutral tone only shifting to one of rage and hatred when mentioning the goddess.

“h-hello, I’m—” John tried to speak but he couldn’t finish a single sentence before the stranger cut him off.

“Shut up and keep your name to yourself, I don’t want to know nor do I care. So, what was her approach like with you? You look like the stupid self-righteous type, so I guess she gave you the hero loved by all pitch. Don’t worry, I don’t judge, I said yes too you know.”

The stranger walked in circles around John, looking him up and down, examining everything from his height to his clothes until he got everything he needed.

“Hmmm, I’ll call you blue I suppose.” The stranger pointed at John’s tie, a blue spare he used only when the others were being cleaned. “You can call me red if you want, no wait, maybe black? Ah crap, it's been too long, I don’t remember what color my tie was anymore. Whatever call me whatever you damn want, or better yet, keep your mouth shut.”

John hesitated to speak again; the stranger had swords he seemed very versed in using while he was unarmed, and even if he wasn’t, he certainly couldn’t hurt the old man who, for all he knew, was the only other person left in this strange world.

“Did I spook ya? Sorry about that, I guess I lost all of my damn people skills over the years. Anyway, you must be confused but there isn’t much time to chat, If I felt your arrival here, then the accursed must have felt it as well.” The stranger started walking into the darkness, motioning John to follow with a flick of his wrist.

“w-wait, can you at least tell me what’s going on here? Where is Goddess Yuurena? Why is this place so run down?” mustering all of his courage, John stood his ground and refused to follow behind the stranger, probing him for information instead.

“Good lord, you newbies are all the same. I just told you, the accursed are probably on their way here as we speak you dumbass. What’s the damn point of giving you information you’ll be too dead to use.”

The stranger’s sharp eyes dug holes into John’s body, yet he held his ground.

“…haaaah, fine, I’ll tell you what I can on the way, can we get going now?” the stranger’s shoulders slumped in defeat, and after a tired sigh, he made John an offer he accepted with no any pushback.

Without the moonlight to illuminate their path, the maze-like halls of the ruins were too dark to see a thing, but the stranger was prepared for such a hurdle. “First things first [superior candlelight]”

John watched in amazement as three spheres of light appeared out of nowhere, enabling him to see the full horror of the ruins.

They were barely out of the remains of the throne room, standing in a destroyed hallway littered with withered bones and painted in dried blood. Each skeleton held a sword or another weapon in hand, too rusted and eroded to be usable, but coupled with their mangled suits of armor, it painted a grim yet fitting backdrop to the story the stranger was about to tell.

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“now then, let me explain to you what happened to this place. You see these dead bastards? These are the native people of this world, and they are the reason the two of us are stranded here.” The stranger kicked a skull to the side, clearing the way for him and John to proceed down the nightmarish hall.

“you see, this world was inhabited by four races. The humans, the elves, the dwarfs, and the demons. Sounds just like a typical fantasy story, doesn’t it? Well too bad this one doesn’t have a good damn ending.” The stranger halted his words and hastily picked up a sword, removing it from the bony hand of a long-dead knight and handing it to John. “Here, use this in case we run to anything before we get to the chamber of blessings. It's enchanted so it should be fine even after this long.”

The sword was heavy and difficult to wield, but to John’s surprise, it was practically in perfect condition once he whipped away the layers of dust that accumulated on it over the years.

“As I was saying, the Demons and Humans went to war, I don’t know why or who started it and I couldn’t care less, but eventually the dwarfs and elves joined in on the human and demon sides respectively… the war so brutal that it made World War two look like a goddamn skirmish, millions died on both sides before the scales began to tip in the favor of one side, the demon side. That’s when the goddess decided to intervene.”

John looked around him and shivered as he gazed into the empty sockets of the dead knights still clutching their weapons and shields, their despair petrified in time. He imagined the scene of the slaughter that must've taken place around him, the suffering and death of untold hundreds in these ruins alone made him realize how foolish he was to willingly come to such a world.

“The goddess took the humans’ side for whatever reason, so when things started to look bad, she summoned the first heroes from our world. The five fucking saints that turned to war around… what a joke.”

The stranger pointed to a painting hanging loosely on the wall, depicting five figures, undoubtedly the first heroes, standing over a battlefield littered with bodies of horned, human-like creatures.

“The war was not won, but the demons were driven into a corner. What the heroes didn’t expect was that in their desperation, the demons would create a weapon to rival them. They were called the Ascended, demons endowed with makeshift blessings, the perfect counter to the heroes.”

“Blessings?”

“Oh, so you were paying attention after all? I thought I was talking to myself… blessings are what separated the heroes from the regular humans of this world for the most part. The goddess endowed a minuscule sliver of her divine power to those she summoned, granting them strength beyond mortal limits. The demons managed to somehow copy this process and use it on a very select few of their own… and just like that, the oh-so-mighty fucking heroes were defeated in a single night.”

John was shocked to hear about the demise of the first heroes. It was hard to believe that they, who managed to single-handedly tip the scales of the war, were all disposed of in one fell swoop.

“And that’s how the cycle started, heroes were summoned, killed, then replaced… it’s all her fault… that bitch calling herself a goddess. She just—wait, something is following us.”

John turned around with cat-like speed upon hearing the Stranger’s calm words. Upon focusing all of his senses on the stretch of darkness ahead of him, he started to hear something. The faint sound of a solid mass softly pounding against the hard floor.

One of the light spheres rushed toward the location of the mysterious sound, quickly illuminating the visage of a terrifying creature. It was an amalgamation of bones, armor, and swords, all merged into a writhing, lumbering mass of death, bound together by viscous black liquid.

The monster was terrifyingly quiet for its size, sneaking towards the two with slow, yet steady steps. John was horrified, his heartbeat was like a drum so loud he was sure the stranger could hear it, but the stranger himself seemed calm, even relieved to see the abomination of bone and steel.

“Thankfully it's just one of these guys, they’re just restless souls acting out, nothing to worry about. I’ll handle it, you deal with the regular skeleton over there. They are dead but not mindless, how damn typical of Yaran knights to try to go for a pincer attack.” The stranger pointed his thumb behind him and another sphere rushed ahead to illuminate the area.

The light revealed another monster made of bones, but this one was no larger than the average man, just a moving skeleton, steadily lumbering towards John while dragging a greatsword behind him.

“I-I don’t even—” Before he could argue his case, John was once again interrupted by the stranger, whose tone hadn’t a ting of sympathy in it.

“let me guess, you never used a sword before, you’re afraid, you shat yourself… I don’t care, survival is a privilege of the strong, so get to work. That thing is slow but don’t underestimate its bursts of speed. Also, it might be able to use some of the techniques it knew when it was alive, so be on your guard, good luck.”

The stranger calmly walked towards his opponent of choice, leaving John alone to face the approaching skeleton with trembling knees.