On a planet somewhere outside the Milky Way, a massive battle was taking place between hundreds of thousands of people and creatures. The melee and wanton slaughter filled the air with the stench of death. At the center of the battle was a young woman looking not more than 25 years old, with golden hair and eyes. Her hair would be shoulder length if not for the ponytail it was held in. What little of her olive tanned skin was visible contrasted with the bluish silver armor she wore.
The opponent she was fighting was a monster that was about 15 meters long and looked like a corrupted combination between a goat, a snake, and a human. Its snake like lower body was covered in black scales. Each scale had a blood red tint to it that only amplified its darkness. It had a human body and arms from the waist to the neck, and a goat head with curled horns similar to a ram’s.
As they continued to fight it roared its defiance. The heroine’s nose crinkled in response and she focused even more as the fighting wore on. There were numerous cuts on the corrupted beast showing the ferocity of the fight. Each of these wounds leaked a blackish, putrid smelling, ichor. However, no matter how many times this heroine wounded the beast she just couldn’t kill it. To make matters worse the wounds were healing at a visible rate. If one looked closely at the monster’s eyes they would be able to see a mocking glint.
As the battle raged on the heroine and her forces steadily pushed their enemy back. Even though the monster and his army were being pushed back it wasn’t taking any serious damage, though it was still being wounded. It would retreat with the rest of it’s forces to maintain a consistent front. The heroine would call down skills filled with the power of differen daos. Gravity, fire, earth, metal, and more types of magic assaulted the monster. However it was completely unphased by these.
As the forces led by the blonde heroine pushed the monster and its forces further and further back, a fortress came into view. When this happened the excitement was palpable with the different god like beings that were watching.
“This champion is truly amazing. We have never been so close to pushing the chaos out from a planet.” said one of the beings.
Right as it said that, a rift expanded inside the fortress. It grew rapidly to 30 meters in height and a red glow filled the air spreading as far as the eye could see. As soon as it reached it’s peak, the monster let out a laugh. It was a cold and desolate laugh that chilled the heroine to her bones. Before she even had a second to process what was happening the monster moved. It seemed like it moved through multiple portals in different locations so that only flashes of it could be seen before it disappeared and then reappeared in another location. It took less than a second for the 15 meter monster to move through the heroines forces slaughtering them by the hundreds and thousands. Finally stopping behind the heroine and pinning her to the ground while crushing her body.
“You never had a chance of winning Ileshea.” It said. “I only wanted to give the pretense of hope before crushing it so that in the future you would understand your position as my slave. Also those so called gods that you so desperately cling to. I wanted them to understand the futility of their actions. They cannot stop what is coming.”
As the monster finished speaking another hulking beast came out of the portal. After it another and another. They came out in ones and twos and with them smaller beings flooded out as well. The proceeded to capture and brand each of the people that were caught. However, most of the people there were still slaughtered mercilessly.
The god like beings that had pinned their hopes on this champion watched in horror as the monster picked up the heroine and started to carved a glyph into her neck that would enslave her mind for eternity. When this was happening a flash of light appeared and a spear materialized in Ileshea’s back. At almost the same time that the spear appeared the monster lashed out his hand and caught the interloper by the throat.
“You know Gisirian that you as a transcended being are not allowed to directly interfere with what happens here. Yet you still showed up to save your darling champion from an eternity of slavery. I have to applaud your spirit, however, I will have my slave. And since you sent her soul directly to the great cycle outside of our control, she is no longer viable, so you shall take her place. Though it’s a pity that the rules all you gods live by forcefully stripped you of your ascended powers when you interfere like this. It would have been truly amazing to make one of you with your full power my salve. Well it shouldn’t be too much longer before I can fulfil this dream.”
The man being held by the throat could say nothing as he dangled in the monster's grip slowly choking. Laughing the monster proceeded to start carving a glyph right in the middle of Gisirian’s forehead.
When this happened many of the beings that were watching withdrew their attention not wanting to watch the coming atrocities that they had become all too familiar with. They could only look to the next champion and hope for the best.
*~*~*~*~*~*
It’s a typical sunny day in St. Louis, Missouri USA. In an office building sits a man applying the finishing touches on the schematics for some small modification of the Boeing 737. The man is an average looking guy, approximately 5’ 9” or roughly 1.75 meters tall. He has your typical american spare tire but he hasn’t gone completely to fat. With brown hair and brown eyes the man appears average in just about every way.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
His name is Derrick Jones and he has been working this job for the past couple years. With a mechanical engineering bachelors and an electrical engineering masters he works on airplanes for Boeing during the day. However, this wasn’t always what he did and in truth he never really imagined himself working a 9 to 5 job. Derrick was more of a jack of all trades kind of man. He had also gone to school for massage therapy, and then a year after that decided to try computer programming. He spent a brief time as a DJ when he was younger and even attempted to become an ameture motorcycle racer. He finally got sick of things and joined the Navy for a sting where he worked as an electrician. Finally after getting out of the Navy he opted to go back to college and get a mechanical engineering and electronics engineering degree. In his spare time he rebuilds and restores classic cars, trucks and sports bikes. Once a month he helps with habitat for humanity and once every 6 months he will disconnect and go live in the woods for a week to reconnect with nature. Literally living off the fat of the land for that week.
Derrick was living the new American dream: crushing debt, great job that provides no satisfaction because of restrictions, over specialization, and micro-management. He is divorced with two boys and has to pay thousands in child support to an ex-wife who cheated on him and got full custody. He felt like there were only two things missing from a bad country song, his dog dying and his truck being stolen. Of course he didn’t have a dog but that was besides the point.
Today work had been pretty typical. Get to work accomplish a few minor things then spend half the day in meetings to debate the utility of said minor accomplishments and determine what needed to be done now. Shaking his head at the idiocy of the current systems, of… well everything, Derrick headed home. Since he had just finished his last project of restoring a 1957 chevrolet corvette, he decided to take it for a quick spin. He briefly thought about taking the 2008 Honda CBR600RR but he was just going to do some shopping for dinner and taking a bike that had been in an accident before just seemed like bad ju-ju. So grabbing a “For Sale” sign with his number on it he hopped in the classic corvette and headed to Wal-mart.
Thirty minutes later he made it out of Wally-Hell. “Seriously, I need to find a better store.” He said while talking to himself. Hopping in the car with his two bags of groceries he noticed a couple of pieces of paper on his window. “Hello!! Do people seriously not look at the sign in the window.” Yanking the paper from under the windshield wiper and shaking his head he started to drive out of the parking lot. Ten minutes later he finally made it to the light to get back on the road. The level of frustration that Derrick was currently feeling was ridiculous. Now ranting to himself, “There’s like 5000 parking spots 100 rows for people to go up and down and it feels like the movie National Lampoon’s European Vacation. ‘Look kids, Big Ben, parliament.’” As the light turned green he pressed hard on the gas just so he could get the hell out of this circus and back home.
The screeching of tires as they lock up sounded followed by the honking of a horn. Not just any horn, no. The horn of an 18-wheeler. “Oh SHII-” he said before the deafening sounds of metal meeting metal.
“-it….. What the hell?” Derrick questioned as he looked back at the semi that had turned his newly restored car into a speed bump. He could also see some of the hamburger he had bought for dinner on the car and road. However, there was a little too much and then it hit him. “Well, I guess that answers that question. So now what?” The shock of realizing that he was effectively dead hit him and he did like he always did in situations he had no choice but to accept. Which was to make a flippant quip and ignore any feelings he had while he processed. As he asked the last question he felt a small tug right around where his naval would be. Looking down incredulously to see what had happened, he felt something pull him like someone had tied a rope around his waist and attached it to a rocket going to the moon. The speed and pressure that he felt kept increasing, images were flying by like a bad willy wonka trip, though no smell of chocolate came to his senses. Finally whatever form of consciousness he had, went out.
*~*~*~*~*~*
“Azmera, is this really okay to take a soul that has no concept of cultivation, mana, or well anything that would be helpful, and use him as our champion?” asked a rough baritone voice.
“Aysus, I have told you that just because they don’t fight with magic or cultivate martial arts it doesn’t mean that they have nothing to offer. Their science and understandings have revolutionized their lives. Not to mention Ileshea. She was the darling of the cultivation world and yet she still failed.” Azmera replied with a beautiful and melodic voice.
“DO NOT MENTION HER!!!!” Aysus yelled as Azmera poked at his sore point. “Bah! Science. They are nothing more than a bunch of apes poking things with a stick and making fire. No concept of essence, or mana. Barely aware of psionics. How can such a barbaric species accomplish anything? At least choose someone who specializes in war. We need a true champion. I would even settle for one of those MMA guys.”
“Oh? Like your preferred martial arts and cultivators that sit like stones for decades on end. We have used mana and chi cultivators for the past 5000 years and look where it has gotten us.” Azmera replied. “While he is in the womb he will be dreaming of his past life so that he can remember his science. I have everything stored and asked Mophina to supply them to him. He will effectively have all his past memories. You would know this if you would stop meditating on everything in the universe and come to one of the strategy meetings.”
“Both of you cease this bickering now. It serves no purpose. This most recent loss has confirmed that we need something different. The choice has been made the time of choosing at hand and his soul meets all of the requirements. Either he will leads our forces or he will fail like all of the others before him.” A stern voice, that sounded very gender neutral, said authoritatively.
““Yes Kyarus.”” They both said respectfully.