I pushed myself beyond my limits and kept running.
And as result, I passed out moments later.
Somehow though, nobody attacked me when I was out.
Not the humans, who attacked our village, nor the wild animals.
I got really lucky.
After getting up again, I realized just how bad the situation was.
I suffered a lot of injuries, my weapon was gone and I was still exhausted even after sleeping a bit.
But I knew I had no time to rest.
I needed to get help.
To save uncle... and Will... and...
...
Wait...
Did Will even survive?
A realization struck me.
That last attack that helped me escape...
He probably had no intention to survive it himself.
He literally did it just to take as many enemies with him as possible.
...
I didn't even know him that well...
So why do I feel so devastated when I think about it?
Ugh...
From that point on, I did my best to push all the negative thoughts into the corner of my head.
Then, I continued walking through the forest without stopping to heal my wounds.
My objective was to get to Kinua's village.
I just had to push myself forward...
...
But even then...
A dark thought, I was not able to push away, appeared in my head.
What if they were attacked as well?
What would I do then?
The anxiety I was experiencing was overpowering.
And I still remember the terror I felt... when I saw the village for the first time.
I haven't actually visited it prior to that moment.
But despite that, I knew something wasn't right.
Even though the sun has already risen, it was all too quiet.
I didn't hear any voices or any other signs of civilization when I neared the place.
And as I got closer, my fears have been confirmed when I saw one of those humans in black leisurely walking inside the village.
Due to the mix of exhaustion and shock, I fell on my behind.
What do I do?
...
What in the world do I do?
|I had no answer to that question...|
After that, I wandered the forest, avoiding these humans.
They were looking for me, I was certain of it.
If they caught me, I would be done for.
On the other hand, if I killed them, nothing would happen.
I didn't know who was their leader.
I had no idea where they took uncle, Kinua and others...
Moreover... I couldn't even be certain they were still alive...
For several days, I lived in the forest constantly running and hiding from the hunters.
Sometimes I ran into a few and killed them, other times I simply avoided them.
But even then, I was still hopeless.
As I travelled through the forest, I realized the greater truth.
It wasn't just us and the Nouria foxman tribe.
All beastman villages I came across were attacked.
These humans were hunting our kind down, it seemed.
...
But how?
Were humans really this powerful?
Unbelievable.
I was always taught humans were way weaker than us.
Something was off...
As days went by, I was slowly falling into a state of complete despair.
At some point, I thought that someone else was able to escape them, but I quickly discarded that thought.
There was no way anyone else could have made it after all...
It was just me.
Everything depended on me.
Either I find out who was behind this and get my revenge...
Or I get captured and killed...
There was no other option.
...
Somehow, I kept going though.
I obtained a new weapon from one of my enemies' corpses.
And I continued training my magic and sword handling skills.
Of course this time... it was on live targets.
Since I couldn't cook meat, I mostly ate some berries and herbs.
But my lack of knowledge about vegetation would prove to be fatal.
I was careless and ate some fruits that seemed to be safe at first glance.
They looked smelled and even tasted like the ones I was used to.
But I soon discovered they were not safe at all.
My stomach started to convulse and made me gasp for breath.
In a few moments, I was lying on the ground, slowly losing my consciousness.
I collapsed in the middle of the forest.
...
Although it didn't end up killing me, I wouldn't get lucky twice in that sort of situation.
When I woke up, not only did my body feel really weak, but I wasn't in a forest anymore.
I was surrounded by iron bars while lying on a flat surface.
These humans must have found me when I was out cold.
While I was like that, it was easy to capture me and throw me into a cage...
|Luckily, I wasn't the only one in that cage...|
"Reiza!
You are awake!"
"Ugh..."
When my blurry vision cleared, I saw a wolfman near me.
But I didn't recognize him.
"...where..."
My stomach still hurt from before and I could barely talk, let alone move.
"These humans captured us and put us in these cages..."
After getting a better look at his face, I figured out who it was.
It was the guy who used to bully me.
The one I saved from that boar after his friend got killed.
...
But I forgot his name.
What was it again?
"They even split us all into different cages...
Along with... these..."
When I moved my eyes to scan the rest of the cage, I saw people of various other races.
One Ember catman, two Hexna rabbitmen and even one Nouria foxman.
But, that wasn't too surprising.
I saw it myself that other villages were attacked after all.
What didn't make sense, was that everyone looked exhausted and depressed...
But not this guy...
He looked way too happy for what our situation was.
"You know... I...
I thought you died..."
But after he said that, his expression started to look more like the others as he looked away.
I couldn't really reply with anything... and even if I could, I wouldn't know what to say.
I was never on good terms with him after all...
Last time we interacted at all, he was still the annoying prick.
I have no clue what happened to him after that boar incident...
Only a long moment of silence followed.
Neither me nor he said anything for a long while.
And the rest of the people in the cage weren't talking to begin with.
"I'm...
I'm sorry for all those things...
And...
Well...
You know...
What we have done to you..."
Suddenly, the silence was broken and words started coming out of his mouth like a stream of water.
"I was being really arrogant...
But in the end, I couldn't even handle that pig...
And even if Gibun died that day... I was saved... by you..."
He kept talking for a long time...
It was almost like he wasn't the overconfident jerk from back then, but someone else entirely.
I just kept listening to him without saying a word.
|However, at some point, I lost consciousness again...|
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
And the next time I woke up, I seemed to be in a different place.
It was a much smaller cage and this time, only I was inside.
The cage itself was cramped inside some dark room as well.
Luckily by then, I recovered enough to get up and properly look around.
And as I did, I realized that I could see in the dark much better than before.
There was nothing illuminating the room, but I could still make out several crates and other things lying around.
The first thing that came to mind was to break out of here.
Naturally, I grabbed the cage's bars and tried to move them with my strength, but they wouldn't budge.
When I did that though, I noticed strange bracelets placed on my wrists.
Inititaly, I ignored them and tried to blow open the lock with magic.
But I soon discovered something was wrong.
My own mana wouldn't move as I wanted.
Almost like it was stuck.
I figured it had to have been the bracelet's doing.
They must have had an enchantment on them.
Of course, I tried removing them right after realizing that.
But they held on too tight and using raw strength only made my wrists hurt.
As I was trying to figure out what to do, a surge of light came from the corner of the room.
|And out came a short black-haired human with a mustache.|
"Hey!
Why is she awake?!"
As soon as he saw me, he turned to his side and yelled at someone.
"I-I'm sorry sir!
I'll immediately put her to sleep!"
That came from a thin and tall human who rushed past the other one and made his way my cage.
But was stopped by the one who seemed to be his superior.
"No, actually it's fine.
At least I can take a better look at her."
The short man shoved the other one out of the way and put his face closer to my cage.
Afterwards, he put on a gross smile and talked to me.
"Hello there...
Are you ready to serve your new master?"
Before I knew it, I had pieces of flesh in my hand and the man was loudly screaming while covering his face.
"S-sir!
Are you okay?!"
"GHAAAA!
FUCK!
NO I'M NOT OKAY YOU RETARD!"
He kept jumping around for a while before calming down and running off.
But before he did, he left his servant with a few words.
"Put that bitch to sleep.
I'll teach her to behave later."
The servant then bowed to him and looked at me with a mixture of anger and fear in his eyes.
He then moved toward me and extended arm before showing me his palm.
After he did that... the world around me started to melt.
The colors of the man merged with the cage and light started to get distorted.
|Moments later, I lost consciousness yet again.|
Back then, I had no idea what he had done to me.
I didn't know a thing about illusion magic after all.
But that was the least of my worries, because when I woke up afterwards, I found myself chained to the ground in another dark room.
At that point, I realized I was starving.
I haven't eaten anything since those berries, which I don't even know how long ago it was.
But I couldn't even move, let alone look for food.
Like this, I have no idea how long it took until someone finally entered the room.
It was the tall man from before who put me to sleep.
Without saying anything, he put a small bag of some green berries in front of me and left.
Since there wasn't anything else to do, I ate some of them.
Even though they were quite gross, I couldn't help my hunger.
After filling my stomach, there was nothing to do again.
Once again, all I did was wait in complete darkness unable to move.
The man came two more times to give me some more food, but other than that all I could do was wait.
The chains were too strong to break and my magic was sealed.
I could only wait for what would they do with me.
Slowly... I was losing sanity.
----------------------------------------
Bonus:
Divinity can be in one of three possible stages... or technically four.
First, we have the divinity seed.
This is the stage at which divinity will be right after being created.
But even as the most simple and weakest of them all, it still allows you to do quite a bit.
Keeping your memories after death is probably the most important aspect.
The next thing, is the ability to break laws of the world you are currently in.
But, although it's possible to do, it's still pretty hard at this stage.
Next, the seed will sprout into a divinity sprout.
At that moment, you will be granted 'information'.
Information about the fact that you are a god and everything you need to know about divinity.
From the way it works, to the name and nature of your newly acquired unique ability.
Every god gains a different unique ability.
The strange thing is, every unique ability has a very specific name, as if someone picked it out...
Aside from the 'information' and a unique ability, breaking a world's laws will come much more naturally to you.
Lastly, the sprout will start to bloom.
When this happens, you can call yourself a true god.
With a divinity bloom, you can either abandon your mortal body in exchange for a spiritual one or you can make your old body immortal.
The next big thing is your ability to create new worlds.
You will be able to decide its shape, structure, laws, etc.
But even at this stage, the usual taboos apply.
In fact, the higher stage your divinity is, the more severe the backlash is.
The 'fourth' stage is dead divinity.
When you break a taboo too many times or you disregard your alignment, your divinity will die.
At that moment, you will lost pretty much all of your special powers.
The only thing remaining, is the fact that other gods will be able to tell there is dead divinity in you.
But that's hardly a benefit...
"Sometimes... I wonder if there is some god above gods...
I mean, who is naming these unique abilities?
It's suspicious..."
Aren't they just random?
"Haha...
No way.
They can't be random..."
Hmm...
So what is your unique ability?
"What?
You didn't figure it out?"
The ability to mess up everything you do?
"No!
...
My ability is called 'game full of fun times'.
And it allows me to manipulate time to some extent..."
Huh...
Wait.
So YOU are the reason Reiza goes back in time every time she dies?
"Yep, that's me.
Although for her, it's now automatic.
It was kind of hard to make it like that, but I'm quite proud I was able to automate it!"
Wait, why are you scared of that other god who came here then?
Can't you just send her back in time?
"I would if I could...
But it seems like gods are immune to my ability..."
Sucks to be you...
"And what's more...
Even if I revert time for the entire world...
She will stay where she is."
REALLY sucks to be you...