I was certain that I had gone to bed in my own apartment, but I woke up in a mansion. For a moment, I simply stared at the tall ceiling filigreed with ornate gold patterns before sitting up to observe the rest of my surroundings. Everything in the room seemed expensive, from the impossibly soft bed sheets, to the thick curtains half covering the large window, down to the floor, which seemed to be made of some kind of marble and was mostly white with streaks of red.
There was a large portrait on the wall directly across from me. It showed a man more handsome than any I had ever seen dressed up like a king. Or if not a king, at least some form of nobility. He wore an expensive looking suit decorated with badges, brooches, and tassels, and there was a regal-looking cape on his shoulders. He had a crown on his head that I thought vaguely resembled the English royal crown, but with more jewels. Although it was only a portrait, when I looked at the painted man’s eyes, I could not help but feel as though the man was condescending me,
“Ah, Lucy, you’re awake!” said a voice to my right, causing me to jump.
I could have sworn that I had been alone in the room a moment ago. Had he been there the whole time?
I turned to look at him, and to my surprise, found myself face to face with the man from the portrait. He was dressed more casually than his painted form, just wearing a button down shirt and slacks, but I was certain that his clothes still probably cost more than my car. He was smiling at me, which made him somehow appear even more handsome than in his portrait, but at the same time, his eyes seemed even more condescending.
“Who are you?” I asked. “Where am I? How did I get here?”
“I am Pride,-”
Clearly a pseudonym, I thought.
“-you are in my house, and you are here because I summoned you here,” he replied, still smiling.
“I don’t remember being summoned.” I frowned, searching my memories.
“That’s because I did it while you were sleeping.”
“So you kidnapped me.”
“Yes, I suppose I did.”
I was a bit taken aback at his candid responses. I then mentally chided myself. This man had taken me to what seemed to be his own home and set me up in a luxurious bedroom. Clearly, he had no intentions of keeping any of his doings secret.
“Why?” I asked, recomposing myself.
“Because I have need of your unique talents. You are going to be my incarnation.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You are going to be sent to another world and there you will represent me and carry out my goals,” he said, his smile never wavering.
I pinched myself. This had to be a dream, right?
“I can assure you that you are not dreaming right now.”
“I can see that.” I grimaced. Then, I had a thought.
“How do I know this isn’t all some sort of elaborate prank?” I asked.
“This would take quite a lot of effort and money for a mere prank. And you are not important enough to warrant such expenses. At least not to the people of Earth.” He winked.
“But it’s easier to believe than believing that other worlds are real and that there are people who can move others between those two worlds” I said, ignoring the wink.
“So it is. Here, does this convince you?”
He snapped his fingers, and suddenly, he was gone, and a woman was sitting in his place. She bore a strong resemblance to the man, and was just as beautiful as the man was handsome. As I examined the face of the new woman, I noticed that my surroundings had changed. It wasn’t much, but the colors and patterns were all slightly different from before. Most noticeably, the sheets that had been red were now purple. The portrait on the wall had changed too and now showed the woman dressed like a queen.
Immediately in my mind, I narrowed my situation down to two possibilities. Either 1. I had ingested some sort of hallucinogenic drug, and everything I was seeing was fake and manufactured by my brain, or 2. I really had been magically summoned by a being who wanted me to travel to another world. 2 was unbelievable, but as I thought more about it, 1 was as well. I was not aware of any drugs that made such vivid and coherent hallucinations. I could see every little detail of the room. I could look down at the bedsheets and examine the finely woven threads, and the subtle patterns sewn into them.
After a moment’s hesitation, I decided that I would act as if option 2 were true. After all, even if it weren’t, and I really was just on some sort of drug, it would be a waste of the experience to spend the whole time denying it.
I immediately shifted my mind to better react to what was happening. The situation was not at all expected, but I was not entirely mentally unprepared. I had spent a lot of time– too much time, really– fantasizing about how I would react if I were suddenly transported to another world, or if the existence of magic were suddenly revealed to me, or monsters suddenly started appearing on earth, or countless other impossible scenarios. Though I hadn’t imagined this exact scenario, I was able to make a quick mental adjustment and started thinking pragmatically. I thought back to the earlier parts of the conversation, and had a realization.
“So when you said you were Pride…”
“Correct, I am Pride, one of the Seven Deadly Sins.” said the woman who had once been a man. “I am what you might call a god. Some call me a demon god, but there’s really no difference, and I don’t have a preference.”
Ah, so this is one of those, I thought.
“Am I allowed to turn down this job?” I asked.
“You are, but I will still send you to the other world and you will carry out my will anyways.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“So you’ll force me to do it anyways? Why have this conversation at all then?”
“I will force you into the world, but you will carry out my will of your own free will. It’s in your nature. And we are having this conversation because it is necessary for you to complete your duties.”
“When I finish doing whatever you want me to do, will you send me home?”
“I will not. However, if you succeed, you will be granted a wish, and if you so desire, you can use that wish to return to your home. And I have no doubts about your ability to succeed.”
Well that’s not too bad, I thought. But still…
“I see. Why me, though? Why not someone else? If you’re a god, surely you have countless followers and worshippers who would be more willing to represent you like this.”
“I do, but none of them are suitable. Not as suitable as you at least.”
“Why am I more suitable.”
“Because you are the single most prideful person I have ever seen who wasn’t dangerously delusional. You are the perfect person for the job. Even if I searched for a thousand years, I would not be able to find anyone else like you.”
“I’m not prideful.” I protested. “I am very humble.” As soon as I said that, I winced at the contradiction.
“Only outwardly,” said Pride with a knowing smile. “It’s the inside that counts. And on the inside, you have an extraordinarily large ego.”
“No I don’t. I have a very objective view of myself.”
“Yes, I know, that’s what makes you so special. You have so much pride without being arrogant or delusional.”
“I’m not proud,” I said, unwilling to accept it. “I’m just confident.”
“Confident in your own superiority,” said Pride pointedly.
I glared at her, unable to refute her words. I was angry, but my anger was rapidly dissipating. I did not like having my inner thoughts known or being said out loud, but at the same time, I felt validated. Pride had said that I was not delusional, which meant that my high opinion of myself was justified.
“So, do you have any more questions before we talk business?” she said.
“If I do use my wish to return home, will I return to the same time and place that I left, or will time have passed parallel to my time spent in the other world.”
“That depends on what you wish for,” responded Pride. “Anything else?”
I contemplated for a moment. It wasn’t actually a bad deal. I would get to explore another world for however long it took to complete Pride’s task, and then I could return to my original world as if nothing happened. And it could be fun. It also might not be. It would depend on what Pride wanted me to do there.
“No, the only questions I have left are related to the job.”
“Excellent!”
Pride clapped her hands, and suddenly the scenery changed once again. I found myself sitting in front of a large desk in an office every bit as opulent as the bedroom had been. Pride sat across from me, having donned business attire and a pair of half-moon spectacles. Pride leafed through some papers for a few seconds while I took in my surroundings before pulling out one particular sheet of paper and pushing it towards me.
“Why the change of scenery?” I asked.
“It’s no good to talk business in a bedroom,” said Pride. “Now, for the details of the job. You may have noticed that I, Pride, am just one of the Seven Deadly Sins. The others exist of course, and while we’re not enemies, we’re not exactly on the best of terms either. We can’t fight it out though, because it would be too destructive, so we have to settle for little games like the one I’m about to explain to you.
“Each of us Seven Deadly Sins have chosen an incarnation, and all of the incarnations will fight it out in the world I am about to send you to. The winning incarnation will have their wish granted, and the winning Sin will earn bragging rights and special privileges in the Realm of the Gods. The other incarnations will most likely be natives of the world. I would have chosen a native as well, if I hadn’t noticed you.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but Pride raised a hand to silence me and continued on.
“And no, choosing you is not against the rules. It’s not exactly following the rules either, but there’s no rules against it. Besides, I won’t be sending your body, just your soul. You will physically be a native, and as long as you and I don’t let anything slip, the others will be none the wiser for it.”
“I see. Do I need to kill the other incarnations?”
“That would definitely be the easiest way to win, though it’s possible through non-lethal means. I don’t really have a preference for which route you take as long as you win. If you win, I win, and if you win without killing the other incarnations, that just means more bragging rights for me.”
“What kind of world am I being sent to?”
“It’s what you would call fantasy. Specifically, a LitRPG fantasy, like those webnovels and comics you used to read all the time.”
“So there will be a System with status windows and levels and skills and things like that?”
“Yes, there is a System. It should help you be more efficient in your pursuit of strength.”
I thought about the stories I had read that involved Systems. Usually, the protagonist got some sort of overpowered skill or found an exploitable loophole in the System to allow them to grow much stronger and much faster than everyone else.
“Since I’m going to be your incarnation, do I get any special skills or attributes or anything like that?” I asked.
“Just one. You will get the passive skill [Pride] which will make you immune to all mental status effects and stat debuffs.”
“That sounds… useful I guess,” I said, mildly disappointed. “Is that all though? No stat or growth speed buffs? No powerful offensive skills.”
“No, none of that unfortunately. The rules state that each incarnation can only receive one ability from their patrons, and the abilities were all pre-arranged and agreed upon before the start of the game. However, I have prepared a little surprise for you in the body you’ll be inhabiting that should satisfy your desires somewhat.”
“The body I’ll be inhabiting… Are you going to kill someone so that I can have their body?”
“No, the body that you will be using is already dead. It will be mostly restored when you take it over though.” Pride winked.
“What do you mean ‘mostly’?” I asked, picturing myself as a zombie. “I’d better not become something gross.”
Pride scoffed. “Who do you think I am? I won’t have my incarnation running around looking disgusting and smelling foul. You will look fine.”
“Then what-”
“It’s a surprise. I think it will be more fun for you to find out on your own.” With that ominous statement, Pride continued. “Now, before you begin, do you have any last questions?”
“Yes. What are the other incarnations' abilities?”
“I can’t answer that. It is against the rules. I can give you a warning though. Whatever you do, don’t antagonize Sloth.” As she said this, for the first time Pride’s smile slipped away completely and was replaced by a more serious expression.
“Why not?” I asked impulsively.
“I just said I can’t answer that,” Pride said with an amused smile. “I think that I’ve now told you everything I’m allowed to tell you. If that’s all, then I’ll send you off now.”
“Wait, one more thing!” I called, but it was too late.
Pride waved her hand, and I was hit by an intense wave of pain as my soul was ripped from my body and sent hurtling into what seemed like a black abyss. I felt like I was moving at the speed of light, and despite having no more stomach, I felt sick. I remained like this for what seemed like forever, until suddenly, it stopped, and everything was still.
Then, the black void all around me was interrupted by a bright blue window that looked exactly like I imagined it would.
Welcome to Astraeus