A/N: One comment said something about making classes seem more like styles rather than classes! And having skills like martial skills rather than RPG mechanic-styled ones! Why didn’t I think of that… orz. I feel like I should just make a group book together with you guys instead. Anyways, I think I’ll start implementing the class as style thing without changing the other chapters, unless you guys say no. I hope you guys don’t mind the change and read this for future reading, but what can you do? Nothing, cause I’m the one writing muahaha. Well, I guess you guys could stop reading. Don’t leave me! Also, don't know when new chapter will be out. I feel like my wiritng quality has dropped significantly and I'm forcing too many things. Anyways, please enjoy and let me know what you guys think in the comments

Be warned: Might be too graphic for some readers

The guards could not move. Fear struck their minds when they saw Cyrus going through some sort of transformation. All they could see were blood red eyes and a smile that spelled their imminent deaths.

For Cyrus, it was if a switch was flipped. He no longer thought, he only did. And the smell and sight of blood was intoxicating.

The guard behind Cyrus had not seen his transformation, but he did see a dark red aura around him. One of extreme bloodlust, so thick it was visible even in the dark. Normally extreme bloodlust was not visible, but only in the most extreme cases could it be seen. Not that any of the common guards knew that. All they saw was a red mist around Cyrus and the eyes of the God of Death himself.

Cyrus lurched one step forward, then another. He kept lurching until he was in front of the two unmounted guards, who were halfway from the guard all the way in the back. The guards couldn’t move, their bodies wouldn’t listen. All they could do was watch Cyrus struggle to walk towards them.

Standing in front of the two, Cyrus swayed back and forth looking dazed. All of the guards held their breath not knowing what would happen. He stopped swaying and pointed his sword at one of them. He smiled, and then with one leap covered ten feet. Cyrus pulled his sword arm a little and thrust it out mid-jump. His sword went straight through the guard’s chest. The sword slid right through the armor with a screech noise and came out the backside covered in blood. The guard went limp on the sword and Cyrus let go letting man and sword crumple to the ground.

As for the other guard, he grabbed the man by the neck and held him up with one hand, as if the man was as light as air. 

Immediately, Cyrus threw the man down, and brought his hands into the man’s mouth. The guard screamed and cried, and tried to bite down but Cyrus’ hands were too strong. The guard was able to draw blood from the fingers that gripped his mouth, but could do nothing else. Cyrus pulled the jaws apart as hard as he could, ripping the jaw from the skull entirely.

The sound of bone cracking through the air brought the last two guards out of their stupor. Horrified but outraged, they gathered what remained of their wit. The one behind Cyrus charged with his sword and yelled, “Power cleave! Die demon!” The guard charged while the last guard brought up a bow and nocked an arrow. He attempted to aim at Cyrus but his hands were shaking too much for him to aim properly.

Cyrus stomped on the man’s head, crushing it with brute force, splattering blood all over. He turned around to face the guard charging him and smiled. He grabbed his sword and roughly pulled it out. Cyrus charged at the man and swung perpendicularly to the oncoming sword. He sliced right through the shimmering sword as if it were butter. After Cyrus had cleanly cut the sword in half, he continued to swing down and around to slice deep into the horse’s hind leg. The horse fell over whinnying but not able to get up.

Turning around, he slowly walked over to the fallen guard, who had fallen unconscious after hitting his head. Cyrus gingerly picked up the man by his head from behind which slightly bled from the fall. The man hung limply as Cyrus held him in front of his stomach. 

Cyrus turned the guard’s face towards the guard with the bow, who still had not calmed down. Then, he lifted his blood-covered sword up to the man’s neck and paused to smile at the guard with the bow.

“Don’t kill him you fucking bastard. Don’t you dare do it! I swear I will shoot you!” The armed guard had threatened Cyrus, but in truth, he still for the life of him, could not aim. “Please don’t do it. I beg you, he’s our captain. Please.” By now, the yelling had just turned to whimpering.

Cyrus only smiled and slid his sword deep into the unconscious guard’s neck, blood spraying the ground in front in a never ending fountain. Watching the bloody fountain finish, Cyrus tossed the body down and walked towards the last guard who was only thirty feet away.

“NO! Fuck you demon!” Not caring whether his aim was off, shot the arrow, which flew and miraculously hit Cyrus in his uncovered left thigh.

Cyrus only laughed and ripped the arrow from his leg, blood flowing down. But his wound was rapidly healing.

The last guard had seen all of his friends die mercilessly and had even managed to shoot the thing, but no matter what he did nothing could stop it. He couldn’t think, let alone move to escape. His horse whinnied at his rider, but it didn’t eve register. All he could do was stare in to the blood red eyes and see the future that awaited him. Blood, everything was bloody. And it was all from his body. That was what the guard saw in those eyes. A brutal death. His death.

By now, Cyrus was in front of the horse who also whinnied as if uncomfortable in Cyrus’ presence.  

“Please let me go. I have a family. I’ll just say we were attacked by bandits. Please… don’t kill me.” The guard shook uncontrollably as he pleaded with Cyrus for his life. But all Cyrus could hear was his heartbeat pounding in his head, but now it had become natural.

Cyrus just smiled, lifted his sword and thrust it through the man’s neck, quickly and efficiently killing him. More blood splashed onto his face, staining his pearl white teeth. He walked and he kept walking.  

Cyrus wanted more to kill. He wanted the thrill of the battle, the spray of blood in the air. The sound of metal clashing and the screams of the fallen. He wanted to see bodies fall one by one as he walked by.

“What, no. I don’t want to kill everyone. What am I doing? Get out of MY HEAD!” Cyrus fell to his knees and clutched his head. “I am death. My life is a battlefield and I will not stop until the rivers flow red.” Cyrus laughed maniacally, still clutching his head. “Get out!”

“Hello Cyrus, you seem to be having some trouble there. Let me help.” The mysterious voice whispered into his ears and he wanted to lash out, but something felt like it washed over his body. Something soothing, his head felt calmer and he no longer felt a desire for killing. His eyes slowly returned to their original azure blue color and his head no longer hurt. 

After several minutes, Cyrus let his head go and looked up. He saw a man in a suit that looked oddly like the founder of virtual reality and the CEO of the game, FU. “Jason Tollom?” Cyrus quizzically asked the middle-aged man in front of him.

“No, no. Well, technically, that’s just a person I created during my time on Earth. My name is better known as Scurra.” The man beamed a perfect smile at him. His short-cropped grey hair shined in the moonlight.

“I don’t understand. What do you want with me? Are you God or a God, I guess?” Cyrus couldn’t comprehend why the founder of the game would be here.

“All in due time Cyrus. Let me explain it.” The man waved and a table with two office chairs appeared. “Come, come. Sit. It’s more comfortable.” Once again, the man waved his hands and Cyrus was instantly cleaned of all the blood that had gotten on him. “Ugh, you smelled disgusting. So I febrezed you up! Sorry if you don’t like febreze, but they’re one of my sponsors, so can’t help it.”

Once they both settled down, he started to explain, “I am a God, yes. Although, there are many gods in this realm, such as the one that created the High Elves. Yes, they are real and this world is real, trust me on that. And I have an important thing to tell you Cyrus. I brought you here, into this world. One of the worlds that I help rule from the heavens, or wherever you consider gods to live. Now, I know you’re confused and probably don’t believe me. Well, unfortunately, it doesn’t matter and you’ll have to listen. Oh, and please don’t interrupt me. I can’t stay down here too long, per the rules.” The man’s faced creased as he chuckled loudly.

“As a higher god, who watches over many worlds, I can either be really bored or really busy. For millennia, I have been bored out of my mind. There’s always ‘the world is too peaceful or someone is too strong, blah blah blah.’ Unfortunately, as gods, we cannot interfere too much with the worlds. And don’t ask me why, it’s just a rule.” The man snickered at Cyrus and took a breath for pause.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Cyrus was very confused but he didn’t want to upset a man who could will office supplies out of thin air. “So, what does have to do with me?”

“I’m getting there. That’s why I went down to Earth, invented virtual reality using magic, and secretly created the game you played called Fantasy Unlimited. I wanted to see how people would play my game and I came across you. As you know, the game is very similar to this world. And you probably figured it out, the game was based on this world. Cyrus, I brought you here, because I know you no longer had much of a will to live. You had a few months to live at most and had no purpose. So I gave you a second life!” Scurra stretched his arms out, embracing the still world around him.

To Cyrus’ surprise, the world had completely stopped. Nothing moved, there was not even wind.

Cyrus tried to talk but Scurra just put his finger on Cyrus’ mouth and hushed him. “Ah, ah, ah. I said no talking right. I’ll tell you what I have to and then I really have to go before I get in trouble by the gods around here. So boring these ones are, not caring for any fun at all. Crazy right?” He pulled his finger back and Cyrus could not speak. He literally could not speak even if he opened his mouth, no sound would come out. “Heed my words! I’ve always wanted to say that.” Scurra just smiled at Cyrus as if they were best friends.

“Anyways, what I wanted to tell you was that, I noticed you struggling here.” He pointed to carnage behind him which Cyrus turned around too look at as well. What Cyrus saw made him cringe. He knew he had done it, but his mind registered the magnitude of the assault he committed. It felt like he was just simply watching a very red and interactive movie. There was blood everywhere and bodies, both of humans and horses, laid about.

“Don’t worry about those things Cyrus. They’re just weak, that’s why they died. In this world, the strong rule and the weak die. If you have power, you can do so much and have so much.” The man glanced over Cyrus’ aftermath and waved out a McDonald’s Happy Meal. “See what you’ve done? Now I’m hungry.” Scurra went on to eat his meal why Cyrus just looked with disbelief.

“Now where was I?” Scurra put a slender white finger to his chin after making the remains of his meal disappear. “Oh yes, so I noticed that you were struggling. I can help with that and other problems you may be having. But only on one condition. You must play my little game.” Scurra smiled, his blood red lips parting to show his perfect teeth once again.

Finally able to talk, Cyrus just glared and asked, “I pretty much have no choice right? Either I do as you say or I probably die. Fine, I have nothing to lose. But that doesn’t mean I will willingly let you do whatever you want with my life. And if I ever get the chance, so help me gods, I will kill you.”

Scurra laughed, wiping a tear from his eye. “That’s exactly the spirit Cyrus! Anyways, yes, you have no choice. But don’t worry, I won’t control everything you do in life. Even I can’t do something like that. Us gods are neither omnipotent nor all knowing. We just happen to have more power than any mortal being, as far as we know. But what I can have you do, is play my little game, like, say, cause a war or mess around with the other god’s toys on this world. Gods know that they love them so much, even if they’re weak and petty little things, the lot of them.” Scurra spit the last sentence.

Cyrus inwardly sighed. How could he go against a god? “So if I play your games, what will you do for me?”

“So, what I can do for you now since the other gods don’t know about you yet, is I can give you back your skills and your inventory.” Cyrus tried to talk again but Scurra stopped him. “Hush, I’m running out of time. Look, that is all I can give you, actually I’m going to give you access to arcane magic as well!” Scurra’s eyes had a dangerous glint in them as he smiled once again. “Although, since I have no power over that, you will have to learn it and it will take time but I’m sure you’ll have uses for it. It’s quite simple if you can apply your world’s logic to it it’ll be so fun! I can only give you the flow to mana, but the rest you must gain for yourself. With practice, who knows what you could do.”

Once again, Scurra had to pause to catch his breath after rapid-firing every sentence. “Unfortunately, I cannot give you everything without the gods knowing but that much I can do. For your inventory, I will give you this ring. It pretty much does what the inventory does and is limitless and you will have most of what you originally had like money and weapons. As for the skills, well you were the best at it so you know what to do. And magic, it’s more fun to let you figure that one out!”

Cyrus tried to butt in, but Scurra just ignored him, explaining things even if Cyrus wasn’t listening. He had wanted to ask about magic, but it was useless.

Scurra snapped his fingers, “Oh yes, I forgot. Here. Take this necklace. As long as you wear it, your Blood Elf heritage will be suppressed.” A thin and long golden chain with a blood red ruby in the shape of a teardrop floated down into Cyrus’ outstretched hands.

Cyrus able to get his attention again, asked, “How do I know it’ll work? And what happened to me earlier?” Cyrus asked pointing to the ring he now wore and the necklace.

“First, it will work. Not only did I make that, but it’s designed with a certain magic that applies similarly to VR, I mean how do you think I created VR? As for the necklace, let’s just say I borrowed it from a little friend who created the High Elves, millions of years ago. But should you lose it or take it off and you get… aroused, again, something similar will happen and who knows how much damage you would cause. Not that I would mind, but I can’t have you giving me up yet can I? You are a High Elf, and the description in the game already said that they were called Blood Elves. Well, it's true. High Elves have a penchant for killing once they get overly stimulated during battle. By the way, you’re the only High Elf in existence, so you must keep that a secret Cyrus, unless you want everyone against you. There are no High Elves remaining for a particular reason. Although the gods would not be able to harm you directly, they have a lot of influence throughout.” At this, Scurra paused to think about something but opted to not say it in the end.

“Every once in a while, you’ll receive a little message from me, like in the game.”

Hello Cyrus

All of a sudden, a message like the game popped up. Cyrus was stunned but what could he do, the man was a god and Cyrus literally couldn’t speak anyways, Scurra had shut him up again.

“It’ll tell you what result you need to achieve. As long as you follow the general guidelines, it should be fine for the both of us for you to do whatever. Play my game, and I’ll let you go eventually. I might even bring someone else too. Fair warning, I might have them come play with you!” Scurra looked at his wrist, even though there was no watch there.

“Oops, I overstayed my welcome. Good luck Cyrus. Oh and do try to enjoy your new life a little.” With that, Scurra vanished leaving Cyrus able to fully talk again and his surroundings back to normal. The chair and the table vanished as well, causing Cyrus to fall. 

Cyrus had sworn he could hear a snicker.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Cyrus wasn’t in the greatest of moods. Not only did he have to play some game with some mentally challenged god, but he had no choice. Also, he couldn’t find his horse either. The good news was that if Scurra really did stop time like Cyrus thought he did, then Aradhel wouldn’t have been waiting too long.

Walking on the road for an hour, Cyrus finally saw Aradhel on the side of the road, letting the horse graze while she waited for him.

Walking up, all Cyrus could manage to say was, “You ok?”

Aradhel nodded and seemed to have some questions, but Cyrus stopped her.

“I lost my horse, so we’ll have to share.” With that said, Cyrus climbed onto Ardhel’s horse and helped her up. Getting settled, they set out on the road again with Aradhel clutching at his waist.

Not soon after, a ding sounded in Cyrus’ ears and a blue box appeared in front of him.

“Gods damn it Scurra!”