Thanks for continuing to read. As always, suggestions are appreciated. I make no promises to how often I will write a chapter but I will do my best to make one every week if enough people are interested.

Thanks for putting up with my amateur writing and bad naming sense.

Please enjoy.

Chapter 2: Unlikely Assistance

“HA! Hahahahaaaaa!” Dusty stared at the man in a similar cell across from him who suddenly started laughing again. He glared at the man, already weary from three days in prison. The man across from him was known only as madman since he was too crazy to even give out his name. Apparently, he was a demon as well, which was why he was in a special cell, just like Dusty.

‘What makes us demons? We’re not different from anyone else around here.’ He thought. He had spent the last two days thinking of ways to get out of the dungeon-like prison. At first he had tried to get the attention of the guards who gave him food and water, but they ignored him.

They fed him unidentifiable food and gave him dirty water to drink. He hated them, but he had learned his lesson and wasn’t ready to go home. He would escape somehow, and he would make this world his. The childish delusions were gone, replaced by the analytical and serious side of him. They had waged war on him and he wasn’t going to let them win. Dusty hated to lose at anything, though he didn’t usually show it.

So he had planned for the last three days, trying to come up with an escape strategy while the madman continued to laugh at the world. “I can’t think of anything,” he sighed. “What about you Steve?” Yes. He named the man Steve because he didn’t want to call him madman forever and he didn’t have good naming sense

Steve rushed the bars, crashing into them with a grin and laughed “Not magic. Hahahaha. It’s not magic. So shiny bright!”

Dusty frowned, ”Thanks Steve. Helpful as always.” He went to sleep and continued thinking for the next few days, trying to sleep while Steve laughed his insane laugh. ‘How does he not get hoarse?’

It was around the sixth night full of laughter that he finally reached the end of his patience. “Shut up, Steve! I can’t take it anymore! I’d fucking strangle you if I could!”

He sighed and lay on his back. “I suppose that if I’m lucky, I’ll be as crazy as you soon Steve.” He couldn’t tell how long he was actually in the prison but he could estimate fairly well.

“So shiny bright” was the only response he received from Steve.

Wait. He said that before. What if Steve isn’t as crazy as everyone seems to think. There could be a meaning behind the things he said.

“What’s shiny bright, Steve?”

“Walls shiny bright.”

Dusty smiled as he looked at the walls where the markings were a dull glow at best. Maybe Steve knew something that he didn’t, something that no one knew.

“Okay, Steve. You said it’s not magic. What’s not magic?”

“Shiny bright. Too bright. Eyes hurt.”

Dusty thought about it for a few minutes before coming to a conclusion. He had read too many novels and manga to let a chance like this slip by. In some stories there were always things like innate special abilities that broke the rules of their world.

If he was right, Steve could somehow see magical enchantments as bright light. The poor guy probably felt like he was constantly in bright sunlight and for who knows how long. No wonder the guy lost his mind to this degree.

This time, Dusty was the one who started laughing. If Steve saw magical enchantments, then these magical runes didn’t block the effects of innate abilities. Which meant that if he had some kind of innate abilities, he had a chance of escape.

The first thing he tried was to make a portal. He held his hand up to the wall and tried to push it through. He spent an hour trying to open up a portal to the outside by imagining what places it would take him. Eventually he realized that he would probably have to picture a specific place in order to open a portal there.

He looked over at Steve and smirked. “You look like you could use some company.” He then attempted to open a person-sized portal into Steve’s cell. A grey, rectangular shape appeared in front of him with swirling patterns twisting about. The same thing appeared next to Steve so he put his arm through and could see it on the other side. He stepped through and was standing next to his new best friend.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Dusty grinned, ”You, my friend, seriously smell like shit.”

Steve smiled back, “Not magic.”

Dusty spent the next day practicing creating portals and mentally training. He tested out different ways of creating portals and learned that he didn’t have to be next to one end of a portal to open one. He could even change the direction something was moving in with a portal. He learned that he could open up to two portals at once and if he tried to close one around something it would spit out any object inside it before closing. He was disappointed to learn that there was no way of directly killing someone with a portal. He would need a weapon.

He began to plan seriously. He waited until what was probably late at night to enact his escape plan. He opened a portal into the middle of the hallway, the cells on both sides of him. There were two guards standing at a gate at the end of the prison but they were facing away from him, prepared for attacks from outside, not inside.

Dusty reached out to the side and opened a portal just large enough to fit his hand through. It appeared next to one of the guards. He slowly, carefully pulled a dagger out of the man’s sheath and then took at back through the portal with him.

He took a deep breath and concentrated he swing and slammed the dagger downward, creating two portals simultaneously. One appeared under the guard who was missing his dagger and the other was a tiny opening that appeared behind the other guard. The dagger slammed into the neck of the second guard, as the first appeared to fall through the ceiling and into a regular cell with three occupants. The men stared at each other for a moment in surprise before the prisoners jumped the guard and beat him unconscious.

Dusty spent the time freeing the other prisoners while he stared at the bloody corpse of the guard he killed. He didn’t have to do that. There were other ways of taking out the guards but he wanted to kill one of them. He knew that from now on he would probably have to kill plenty of people if he wanted to stay alive. He had heard that the first kill was the worst and wanted to have time to recover from whatever the effects would be.

He didn’t feel that bad. At most, he was concerned that the man had family that would attempt to avenge him. The blood didn’t bother dusty. He just watched it flow, waiting for the guilt and sadness to come.

One of the men watching him walked up to him and patted his head, saying “Those feelings will pass.”

Dusty continued staring for a few more seconds before responding. “That’s the problem. I don’t feel anything.” He sniffed disdainfully and opened a portal to the other side of the gate, which they all walked through and then began ascending the stairs.

They snuck onto the second floor, which was the guard barracks, and some of the convicts began slaughtering the guards. No one tried to stop them, though some of the men were a little disturbed. Dusty stared straight ahead, not slowing down as he marched towards freedom. If these people weren’t going to play nice, neither was he. He thought that he wouldn’t mind playing the demon if they were going to make him into one anyway.

He reached the top of the stairs and stabbed two guards in their throats using portals with two quick stabs. They were in the common room and office of the building on the ground floor. The few guards that were left panicked and tried to draw weapons but were quickly overwhelmed. Only one of the prisoners was actually killed in the fighting. Some were injured but it was mostly bruises and scrapes.

Dusty left the guardhouse with Steve in tow. “Follow me Steve,” he nearly growled. “I’m going to show them what a real demon is, but first, we have some business to take care of.” He took a breath of fresh air and continued walking without even a glance behind him.

Ignore this