Chapter 1 – the toilet in your dreams

Have you ever wondered what the heel of a Golem looks like? Not the jolly bastards of Jewish folklore that are almost cute. I am talking about 7-meter-tall monstrosities that look like a tiny mountain violently pressed into a humanoid shape. No eyes or mouth to signal any pain, only colorfully pulsating veins reacting to our attacks. Well, I just found out. It’s mostly plain and flat except the bright red shining sphere that is half sunken into the stony mass. I command my legs to get me out of the incoming bulldozer that is that monsters’ feet but to no avail. My legs and left arm where impaled when I previously tried to deflect the milky crystal points that are a razor-sharp and seemingly unbreakable substitute for fingers. It punched right through my white iron buckler and straight into me. I grit my teeth while trying to block out the ever-increasing waves of pain and the deafening sound of my violent heartbeats. I raise my right arm and clench my fist while I scrape together what mana I have left in my strained veins. The exhilarating sensation of ancient magic floods my body once more and a raging spear of light takes a meager but definite shape in my hand. I point it at the red sphere of the incoming Golems heel and let it fly. Even though jokingly thin and fickle, it still manages to topple the walking mountain as if hit by a 5ton missile. I found its weakness! Twisting my head left and right I see my rushing allies, emboldened by the first real chance to cause some proper damage. But good Lord, desperation and hope isn’t doing them any favors in the mental department, they are going for the upper body, not the sphere that I managed to crack a bit. My eyelids become too heavy and I struggle to keep them open. I manage to catch a flew glimpses of the Golem shooting out additional crystal points from its torso, relentlessly impaling my freshly recruited comrades. The blood loss and mana-exhaustion has finally caught up and gained the upper hand, I feel my consciousness drifting away to the sound of death and havoc. I came all the way to Germany to get killed by a tiny mountain, what a joke.

“Oi, wake up princess, you’ve had plenty of time to rest” I hear a chipper ethereal voice calling out to me. Am I in heaven? I open my eyes but can’t make out anything besides the starry sky and a sea of black with golden shining streaks both over and under its surface. I myself am naked, hairless, almost translucent even - I am beyond lost. “Oi, snap out of it, boy, and follow my directions, we don’t have all day!” the heavenly voice shouts authoritatively. I feel like in a fever dream, struggling to see, let alone walk straight. I can’t speak, can’t even move my lips properly, unclear if it’s a lack of ability or energy. Physics don’t make much sense either since I’m kneeling on an oceanlike body of water, that seems to run as deep as the Mariana Trench. Why do I even know that? I then feel the raw ecstasy of pure high-level mana seeping into me, slowly at first but awakening a brutal thirst I didn’t realize I had. I absorb the foreign magical energy with the greed and ferocity of a man dying of thirst, practically draining the unknown source for all it has. “You greedy little bugger, take a breather! You’re not trying to win a drinking contest!" the invisible man calls out annoyingly while starting to fizzle out with interferences. My initial drowsiness and confusion are replaced by an otherworldly, magical high. I clench both of my fists together, supercharging my whole body with the unknown but amazingly potent energy supply. I can not only use my magic again; I can even exceed my limits to an all-time high. The golden streaks react to my outburst of power by combining and practically forming a whole new path of gold, drawing me to it. I can’t resist, the alure is too great and I take off like a shooting star.

Now, flying is nothing new to me, I could usually stay airborne like this for around 5 seconds before crashing into the ground like a broken plane while puking my innards out. The required amount of both mana and physical endurance is insane, but here, in this weird reality, I feel almost limitless. “Boy, st-...killing every...list-...st-...it” the voice stutters but fizzles away again and again. I can barely make out anything that strange person is telling me. But I have no desire to answer, I feel as free and unbothered as I ever was, the unlimited seeming magic only increasing my fantastical high. After shooting through the starry sky towards the newly formed path of bright gold, I spot a Golem. My brain is trying to remember something but struggles to bypass the mental haze. Where did I see that thing again? I fly around it in an arc pattern while trying to figure this mystery out. Ah! Yes! I remember now. I was fighting this thing with the lads from the new company, although I wonder where those cowards are hiding again. I change my trajectory towards the Golem to discharge every bit of kinetic energy I have amassed during my flight. With this overwhelming power, I should blow it away in one piece. “OI, DON-….IT!” screams out the ethereal voice in a panicked way, as if speaking straight into my mind. “Yes, yes, I am on it, for the love of God!” I curse in my head, while not even being sure if I heard him right. I crash into the tiny mountain of a monster and feel the tantalizing rush of light and thunder magic courses through me, while the Golem is practically pulverized by the sheer kinetic force. My vision swims once more and I start to slowly sink into the water, as if the sea is accepting me reluctantly.

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I open my eyes, finding myself in a wasted hospital room. I am tied to a collapsed bed with heavy mana-infused steel chains, the walls around are battered like being exposed to a bomb. A paralyzing amount of pain rushes through my entire body while I can’t stop puking all over myself. The battered door swings open and an old man in a whiteish robe walks in, accompanied by a flock of nurses and doctors. “You cheeky little scamp, still alive, eh?” I recognize the voice, it is the same that spoke to me in my dream, just without the heavenly echo and luster I heard previously. I muster what little strength my drained body has left. “What is…happening?” I say while fighting a losing battle against another wave of nausea and the backlash of mana exhaustion. “Where…am I?” The old man only snickers in surprise. “You, my surprisingly still breathing friend, were scooped up from the horribly botched Golem-raid from three weeks ago.” My eyes dart around the room full of curious hospital-personal that keeps scribbling down notes while starring me up and down, as if I am some lab-rat. A sense of shame and helplessness overcomes me, while the sour memories of that lost battle drift back into my mind. I am getting more agitated by the second. “Release me at once, old man, or I’ll blow this place up!” I bark my bluff angrily into the room, causing the medical personnel to take a few steps back but not the old geezer. The clergyman only snorts a laughter “Look around you. Ended up a right old palaver, didn’t it? Besides, you are a spent bullet, boyo.” My headache is still torturing my brain but I start noticing the figments of my magic spread across the room. “Did I do this?” I ask skeptically. “Finally caught a whiff of your own brew, did you?" the old man replies ironically while turning to the staff. “You can pull a SGE – Specially Gifted Entity, right back from the dead's door. Just pump 'em full of top-notch mana, give their drained system a good jolt, and patch 'em up with the right kind of magic—best use the same type for a higher efficacy.” He starts explaining to the white scrubed audience that follow suit by writing everything down. One of the listeneres in the background, a jokingly beautiful tall student with bright eyes and dishwater blond hair, raises her hand eagerly. Without even given the permission to talk she interjects “but why did ze patient blow up like a grenade, Herr Lewis?”. The old man stares her down with a grinn and points at me with his ceromonial looking white gloves. “This greedy chap got a high level whiff of his own element, pure as the Queen's silver and started draining way more then he can handle. Sent him sky-high like a kite while his noggin was still wrestling with that nasty Golem trauma. Dreamt up a loo, he did, and tried to give it a go right there, in his sleep!” A small laughter breaks out in the audience, even I find the analogy funny but am too preoccupied with soiling myself to join in on the fun. “So ziz is an anomali zen, Herr Lewis?” the eager german student reitterates. “Spot on, my keen apprentice. It was sheer luck on his part, what with his tank running on fumes and all, plus the spot-on match between our elements. Made him supercharge his whole system and let rip on his imaginations, bloody rare that is though and plenty to discover yet.” He takes a final look at my pathetic display and winks a black man over.

"Clean him up. He’s done for, not a spark left to strike” while releasing the spell on my binding. The old man grabs the chain which slithers around his arms until it reached his waist, akin to an obedient snake. “And keep your mitts off the magic, unless you're keen on meeting your maker, sonny!” he adds while leaving the room, most of the medical staff following him quietly. The male nurse appproaches me while I struggle to reconnect to the laws of physics, unsuccesfully trying to move out of my tilted bed, I can’t even flex my muscles, let alone push myself up. The black male nurse is compact and stout, with a suprising amount of strength. He’s picking me up with one hand, while ripping off the sullied hospital gown with the other. I am dangling in the air, barely able to hide my manparts. “Don’t worry about it, friend” the nurse says in a comforting tone, “we will get you all cleaned up and back to resting right away!” while flashing me a bright white smile. “Thank you…” I muster, trying to downplay the awkwardness and helplessness I am enduring. “Not trying to sound ungrateful but I am missing a ton of informations here and its driving me crazy” I stutter while being almost manhandeled by the effeicient healthcare professional, despite my broad atheltic build. “It was all over the news, man, you and your whole group got crushed by that stone monster, most of you didn’t even make it out of that fight” he explains while carrying me over to a wheelchair. I remain unbothered by the mention of the deaths, I cant even remember how many people I saw dying at the hands, paws or claws of some brutish abomination. “That thing than went on to terrorize and level another village but was eventually stopped by reinforcemants” he carries on. I grab the nurses shirt while he is wiping me off with a wet towel. “… By the way…where are we right now?” I ask my caretaker, that only bursts out in a hearty laughter. “Landstuhl regional medical center in the US Ramstein Airbase – you and the others where brought here after being scooped up by the NATO SGE-Division ‘Gjallarhorn’” he explained while bringing me inside another clean and orderly room. “You will receive all the necessary informations in due time, buddy, for now, eat up and rest” he says in a kind but ordering way. He brings a tablet of food to my bedside and makes his way to the door, where he types in my name in the digital display and leaves the room.I grab the chocklate pudding and shake my head when eyeing what the nurse put in. “My name is Aureli, not Aurdery…” I murmur with a spoon full of the suggary deliciousness in my mouth.