“Oh dear, oh dear. I’m just a bit shy, aren’t I? Yes! Yes, I am. Now then boy, I don’t plan on gracing you with my noble personage so don't turn around alright? I mean even if you do it's not like you will live long enough to see anything.” the clown whispers from behind Akiel. Akiel remains tense and motionless. The sound of light steps echoes in the long corridor. With a soft clicking sound and the squeak of the metal gate opening the footsteps continue. “Oh my, oh my. If it isn’t little Cedric. No one to remember you and no one to worry about your well being. And by now, no one willing to love you for what you are. The better man should have won right? What will you do Cedric?” the clown teases as he fiddles with the glowing chains. “Aha, here it is, the lock keeping you down here.” with an abrupt change in tone the clown asks, “Now, say that you will accompany me in my travels as a guard or rot in here. I’ll even take you to see her on the way.”
Cedric grunts and says, “Why should I trust you with my freedom clown? Just set me free and I’ll get you out, nothing more.” The jingling of chains stops and the clown replies, ”Not good enough. You see, although I’m a lower threat to his majesty, he detests me more than the sleeping slug in the back. How about this, swear that you will let me accompany you and will never sell me out and I will be content. Not even the majesty’s right hand can catch me if I wish to run, only through betrayal and schemes can I be caught again.” After a momentary silence, Cedric agrees and swears upon his soul. With another few moments of chains shifting and grunting the sound of heavy chains hitting the ground reaches Akiel.
Still looking towards the ascending stairway Akiel slightly tilts his head trying to catch a glimpse of the cell interior when a sudden pressure assaults on his throat. Feeling around his neck, he found nothing out of the ordinary. After convincing himself that it's just him adjusting to his body he continues to turn his head slowly. Just as he was about to see inside the cage, the gradually increasing pressure in his neck disappeared completely. For the second time that day, his vision swam as his head fell to the ground. Akiel watches his body continuing to turn around as his head settles on the ground. “Oh my, oh my. The boy sure has guts. He ignored my warning and lost his head.” the clown murmurs as he laughs to himself. “Hey clown, the kids still alive. You didn’t free -” interrupting Cedric the clown cackles, “Of course not! He can enjoy his stay in the royal latrine pit. The kid’s just not a human. You’ll see, he just a construct of some kind. No pain, no blood. He's actually hollow, I checked while placing mana wires around his neck.”
Stunned by the clown's words Akiel scrutinizes his new body, it looks completely human if you ignore the gray skin and cracks in the place of joints. Nothing in his groin area and his neck was severed cleanly. Akiel’s head was abruptly lifted and jammed back into place. With his orientation back in alignment, he stops floundering and turns around. “Follow me and don’t look back, Clown, you're letting the slug out right? You could let a few of the others out for a bigger punch.” Cedric suggests from beside Akiel. “My dear Cedric, the slug will eat everything else regardless of how much protection it’s under. Let’s leave a few morsels to buy us time why don’t we.” The clown replies.
Cedric grunts in affirmation, grabbing Akiel by the neck he bounds up the flight of stairs. In a matter of seconds, both were on the top floor. Akiel enjoying the lift thinks to himself, ‘What a day! Enter another world, check. Get lost, check. Follow a rat, check. Free some of the most wanted criminals, check. Get carried by a criminal, check. This really is the best first day in this world.’ Cedric looks around and mutters, “It should be out by now.” Following his words, the ground trembled and the clown voice screamed by, “No time, no time at all! To the barrier dear Cedric.” Cedric sighed and started running through the rows of cells, knocking people left and right out of his path. Using Akiel as an object he barrels through the aggregation of guards blocking the exit. Akiel squints his hollow eyes as he once again is flying through the royal lawn.
This time, he flies upward straight at the outer walls, energy filling every part of him. He felt as if he were indestructible, the only downside is his lack of bodily control and that he is about to smash into one of the sturdiest walls he has ever seen. Akiel smashes into the smooth purple walls head first while glowing bright blue. The loud cackling of the clown could be heard in the background, “I got a joke. Oh, yes I do. Listen! Once there was a wall that all the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t break through and neither did they want to. Then, it broke” Just as the clown said, Akiel’s body broke the wall and clashed with a transparent barrier. It flashed strongly and turned opaque as the concentration of magic increased but for a moment, a hole was formed.
Akiel limply falling outside the barrier felt a pressure on his head and heard wheezing close by. “Oh my, I’m free. Yes. Yes, I am. Cedric dear, refrain from throwing up here. We need to at least make it outside the outer walls first. The royal hounds will be on us the moment the slug is sealed again.” the clown's voice “Shut up! I know that, what about the kid?” Cedric wheezed from beside Akiel. “I don’t know, I can drop him here but I think we should show our thanks by dropping him somewhere in the forest.”
Akiel starts to faint while thinking, ‘Since Cedric is next to me the clown should be holding me. The forest doesn’t sound too bad. At least I’ll be free from having to serve criminals for the rest of my life. There's also the perk that the royalty will focus on them instead of me’
Opening his hollow eyes, Akiel finds himself nestled between the roots of an uprooted tree. Checking his body, he finds that his chest had been split and a booklet was lying on his thigh. Picking it up, he read the title, ”How to kill most of the world.” Flipping the pages he read various titles, stopping at the title “Quota”.
Underneath was a list of the different races in the world and how many of each need to die. Some races had specific settlements that need to be purged whereas some had specific settlements that were marked to be preserved. Under the human section, it stated that 90% needed to be eradicated and that only some of the primitive groups were allowed to live. No mage or alchemist was to live.
Flipping back to the first page Akiel reads the introduction. It said that this booklet would guide him through the process but finding the means to pull off the deed depended solely on him. To further assist him the booklets the last page is a built-in status page. Flipping to the last page he sees a neat but concise summary of his stats.
[Name: Akiel Don, Race: Construct, Material: Common Stone, Augments: None, Strength: 14, Agility: 12, Dexterity: 16, Durability: 12/15 Abilities: Eye of Truth, Mana Manipulation, Adaptive Regeneration, Remodel]
Looking at his body, Akiel mutters “Adaptive regeneration should have something to do with fixing the hole in my stomach. Remodel could be changing my body shape and composition and eye of truth could be an eye adaption or skill to detect lies or something. The only mystery is mana manipulation, I don’t know how or what I can do with it. Best case scenario I can use magic, making my job much easier. If I can’t, I’ll just have to find another way to cause mass destruction.” tapping on the skill names made the page change, All of the skills appeared with concise descriptions to their right. Adaptive healing had to do with fixing body durability by injecting mana into a raw source of material identical to the one used in his body. Remodel is a skill to incorporate new materials, discard unwanted materials and change the body shape. It also required mana manipulation. The Eyes of Truth kept its vague description, ‘see through the world and all magical phenomenon.’ It sounded imposing but had no instructions on how to use. Last was the mana manipulation skill that I assume all my skills depend on. Instead of some vague description, it said, ‘proficiency: unconscious manipulation equivalent to intermediate level 1’.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
After mulling it over Akiel came to the conclusion that he needs to feel his unconscious manipulation of mana and try to exert some control over it. Closing his eyes Akiel focuses on his hollow body. Why does his body move? How can I see? How is this body even alive? He tries to ask the most fundamental questions as he focuses on himself. ‘I’m a construct, I should be hollow so what causes my limbs to move?’ he thinks to himself. Focusing his hands as he flexes them he starts to discern a faint feeling. Grasping the feeling, he shifts his focus to other parts of his body as he moves them systematically.
After trying for the better part of an hour Akiel stops. ‘I’m almost there! I’m just missing the last push. If only I could feel denser mana I might be able to see.’ Deep in thought, while leaning back on a rotting tree stump, he shifts his upper body, causing the stump to collapse. His head rolls right off his body. Quick reflexes allow him to catch his head before it rolls too far. Inspiration strikes him as he holds his head up. His head may not have many muscles that move using mana but the equivalent of his brain should still be there!
Not bothering to put his head back on he sat cross-legged and focused on his head. At first, all he felt was a slight buzzing feeling. ‘More detailed’ he thought to himself. Scrunching up his stone face he concentrated harder. Gradually he felt a pull on his consciousness. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to follow the pull. Passing dozens of metaphorical objects he felt like there really was something in his head. As he was immersed deeper and deeper into himself, he passed thousands of figurative obstacles. Finally, he was able to see inside of himself! It seemed like there was a complex system of spider webs everywhere. Transparent threads pulsed white light sporadically in all directions.
The pull didn’t stop there but instead increased in strength. Faster and faster he fell into an abyss of ambiguity until finally, the familiar warping scene reappeared. This time, millions of tiny transparent threads encased him as a cacophony assaulted his senses. The intensity increased exponentially but just two long seconds after the start he was crushed into oblivion and reconstructed elsewhere.
With a loud shattering sound he shot into a familiar formless expanse of white.
*****
“Hey! Hey, Mortimer. I think I know this guy! He was here like a year ago or something. His name’s Jason, I’m sure of it!” Helios said confidently. “Helios please, put him down. We actually saw this guy almost fourteen hours ago. Also, his name is Akiel, Jason died already.” Mortimer replied as Helios unceremoniously drops Akiel. “Hey! Hey, Mortimer. Is this one dead too? I really don’t want to do the work myself this time. Last time everyone made statues of me to burn. They even gave me the worst titles. Instead of calling me a god they called me by Satan without any respect.” Helios asked worriedly.
Akiel groans as he flips onto Helios’s foot. With a short screech, he gets launched far away with a kick. After observing Akiel’s prone figure, Mortimer sighs tiredly, “Let’s go to the kid.” Akiel slowly gets up, checking his body condition. Surprisingly nothing broke off from his body. Even his head was attached correctly. Looking around he finds two beings making their way towards him. One was an armored humanoid, at least three times taller than him. It held a robust spiked mace and had flame tattoos all over his bare torso. The other was a monster, twice the size of the armored person. Two sets of horns stacked adjacently on an Ape like face. The horns curled back and projected to the sides, almost like a sheep but they stayed pointing backward. A humanoid torso combined with a reptilian lower half. White claws adjourned the four-toed feet whereas the upper limbs were humanoid with thumbs. The most eye-catching thing was a staff on it's back, as tall if not taller than the monster itself. It was thicker than he could wrap his body around. Completely white with ivy wrapped around it. On its apex was a translucent gemstone with some flakes of black energy fluctuating around.
“Hey, buddy! how‘d you get here? If you remember, I’m Mortimer.” the shorter being replies. “So you're the gods who made me executioner right?” Akiel asks hesitantly, still gaping at Helios. “Yea and you’re not dead Jason! I knew you would be okay!” Helios exclaims. Ignoring Helios, Akiel replies, ”I was trying to figure out how to use my skills. Through trying to sense my unconscious mana manipulation I was pulled here. At least that's what I know about what happened.” “I see. Well, what do you think Helios? I can only guess that he traced our divine energy back to us.” Mortimer askes Helios. Helios narrows his eyes, his whole attitude changed instantly, “You’re right for the most part. The only thing I need to add is that he traced us by delving into his mana base. Through our mana signatures that we left when we created his new body. Normally the ability to trace one’s own mana base would be protected by Jenson’s restriction but we created his body and there wasn’t a need for us to stop him from trying to return. On the other hand, we could have just taught him how to use his abilities in the booklet.”
“True. Listen, kid. We made it simple for you. Just think to yourself that you want that particular ability to activate and your mana should respond. It’s a part of you, it should just happen naturally. Lastly, don’t forcefully try to do something you can't without having mana manipulation mastered. Using mana incorrectly can damage your mana base and cripple your capability to use abilities. It’s like becoming permanently handicapped, only certain gods can restore you after that. Any questions before you leave?” Mortimer explains.
Akiel thought for a bit before looking the duo over and asking, “Nothing in particular but I do have a few questions. How should I even start the extermination when I don’t have any destructive powers? Where should I start? Also, what's with the lack of breastplate and his giant pillar?”
Instead of answering, both Helios and Mortimer examine Akiel in silence. After sighing, Mortimer replied, “Just because you don’t have powers right now doesn’t mean that you can’t cause destruction. For now, I suggest you make contact with a weak dungeon core. It might have just what you need. As for where to start, start small. Race should mean nothing to you as all races need to be reset for the most part. The other gods won’t cry more if you kill a few million more. Just leave a few alive, they get really petty after a purge. An example is my armor, the forge god refused to finish my armor since we purged the world while he was making it. The staff on Helios is a method to constrain his power, he ascended to godhood while enraged and hasn’t found a way to completely keep it calm. On good days, the excess power would only wipe a few countries off the map. On bad days, he could cause the world to implode from the massive amount of pure mana he releases. We have the god of nature to thank for it. She doesn’t like us but to keep nature thriving she spent a fortune on it.”
Reaching over, Helios placed his hand on my head and says, “Remember this feeling, it will help with mana manipulation once you grasp it.” One second Akiel was standing there looking at them quizzically, the next he was vaporized from the pocket dimension. A multitude of pixelated particles floated around where he was before fading out. “Hey. Hey, Mortimer. I have a good feeling about this Jason.” Helios whispers. “Why do you never remember their names? I honestly don’t care if it works out. At worst, we will have to do it ourselves and be despised for a few millennia.” Mortimer frustratedly asks. “You know why I don’t bother to remember names, they never live long enough for me to care. If he can kill off ninety percent of the world I’ll remember his name, happy?” Helios asks back. “Yeah. It’s the first condition you’ve given me in a while. Gives me something to look forward to. Anyways I have to go placate the life-loving tree huggers, I’ll probably promise that they can give a few individuals representative status. Either way, I’ll kill the anomalies if our chosen fails ” Mortimer concludes as he disappears from the pocket dimension. Helios squats on the spot, staring at the point where Akiel was vaporized.
*****
Akiel abruptly rolls forward hugging his head in the forest. Gaining his bearings, he placed his head back on. Remembering Mortimer’s advice, he concentrates his thoughts and thinks ‘eyes of truth’. “Wow……” he utters in shock.