Chapter 1

I was isekaied to a dark fantasy world along with Bessie, my delivery van, and this is my tale.

That fateful day began like any other, I woke up after smashing the snooze button half a dozen times, got myself ready, and drove straight to the depot. The mornings were rather chilly at this time of the year, typical of a late UK autumn, this caused the roads to become slippery and made the job of loading the van full of parcels many times more demanding.

Whilst in the middle of loading my van, the depot manager marched towards me from the warehouse office, a parcel in hand and looking all serious. Normally, he would have just sent one of the office lackeys but coming to me personally set this day apart from the others.

“Hey Ben,” he exclaimed, coming to a stop near me.

“Hey, is everything alright?” I asked.

“Look, I have this parcel for you to deliver,” he said handing the parcel over to me.

The parcel didn’t look special, it was smaller than most of the ones I had to deliver and could easily be held with both my hands.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll get that sorted.” I nodded before placing it in the back of the van.

“Just make sure you do everything properly on the system for that one, I don’t want any more customer complaints,” he muttered before scurrying back to the warehouse.

The remaining parcels took another moment to finish loading before I set off.

***

The day had gone smoothly without any mistakes, I was about halfway through my route when it was time to deliver the special parcel. Having never gone to the address previously, I decided to use the navigation app on my phone to get there. It was close to where a few farms were situated, off an old country road layered with gravel, the navigation then made me turn into an obscured road which was neatly tarmacked.

Soon I was surrounded by woodland on all sides. The road began to bend around the hilly terrain like a slithering snake that looked like something out of a horror movie. A large iron gate soon presented itself. It looked like one of those electric ones that required a wireless key fob to operate.

I looked around trying to find the house, even with the trees having lost all their leaves, it was nowhere to be seen. Glancing at the screen, the navigation app was showing it to be a little further ahead.

With no intercom in sight, I parked up, switched the engine off, grabbed the parcel, and locked my van before rushing through a smaller gate at the side. My jaw nearly dropped to the ground when the mansion emerged from between the tree trunks, it was humongous.

KNOCK!! KNOCK!!

I waited patiently at the door almost out of breath from the walk up. There appeared to be no vehicles in sight and all the blinds of the property were closed shut, which led me to believe there was no one at home.

The longer I waited the more I started to believe it was a prank by the management to waste my time. There wasn’t even a phone number on the parcel, and no name either. I could have just left it there on the porch but if this had been some test by the management then that would have gone down as a failure.

Not wanting to lose my job over something silly, I marched back to the van, tossed the parcel on the passenger seat, and set off.

The journey back consisted of me cursing and swearing at those people for not being at home to receive their parcel.

***

The next few hours were spent trying to catch up on the lost time, with evening time looming in the sky above and the temperature plummeting, I knew it would be getting dangerous out on the roads, so I rushed to get the final deliveries completed. That was when…

RING! RING!

… my phone started to blare like a siren.

It wasn’t a number that was saved in my contacts nor was it one that I recognized. I sighed in annoyance, wanting to just finish my round and go home, I held off answering it. It took a few moments to scramble enough energy to slide the green icon to accept the call.

“Hello?” I answered.

The line was as silent as a mouse for a moment then a man’s voice broke the silence.

“Hey, is that Ben?” he asked in a posh tone, one you would expect from some member of the royal family.

“Yeah, that’s me, how can I help?”

“I believe you have a parcel of mine. It’s the house that’s out of the way… it says you tried to deliver earlier on, but we weren’t at home then. It’s very important that I receive that parcel today.” He explained.

“Listen here mate, I’m nearly finished for the day and need to get going… I’ll be back there tomorrow to redeliver it… just make sure you’re at home,” I explained in a stern tone.

There was no way in hell I was driving all the way there again and wasting more of my time.

“I’m sorry but that’s not good enough,” the man scoffed, “I don’t think you know who you’re talking to, I paid extra for that parcel to be delivered today, no questions asked. Don’t make me call your bosses and lodge a complaint, if you don’t mind, get that parcel to me if you want to keep your job.”

What an entitled prick! This guy had the gall to threaten me with my job. As much as I wanted to ignore this parcel and drop it off at the depo, I really couldn’t be bothered dealing with all the aftermath with management. With my finances being rougher than a bear’s ass I couldn’t afford to lose my job.

Letting out a sigh of frustration I replied, “Alright, there’s no need to do anything like that. Make sure you’re at home this time, I’ll be there shortly.”

I heard the man chuckle smugly, “don’t take too long, I have things to do,” he finished before the line went dead.

“I fucking hate this job,” I huffed out loud.

That conversation had made my blood boil like a kettle of hot water. It was times like that, that made me want to go back to university and finish my degree in engineering as I had spent the last few years working jobs I hated.

Annoyed, I turned the van around and made my way back towards that silly private road, it wasn’t long till I reached the bends and sharp turns. I wanted nothing more than to just put my foot down and leave a ton of marks on its perfect surface to get back at that entitled elitist idiot. Knowing that would also get me fired I held back the urge.

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

Suddenly, something sprung from between the trees, almost scaring me to the point where I nearly soiled my pants. The tires screeched like a crow as I slammed on the brakes before a cracking sound came from the front. It was too late, the fox I had hit flew into a bush a few meters ahead.

The van came to a halt before I noticed a dime-sized crack in the windscreen. The parcel, which had also gone flying, now rested on the dash expelling a weird red mist from the crevices in the carboard like an airsoft smoke grenade.

“Fucking hell!” I shouted at the top of my voice as the smell of rotten eggs hit my nostrils like a sucker punch to the nuts.

The day was already bad and not wanting it to get anymore worse, I snatched the parcel like a thief and tossed it outside. There was no telling what was inside but strangely enough, when I had touched it there was no heat whatsoever.

The box bounced on the ground a few times before I rushed to take a closer look at the crevices where the smoke was blowing out from. The smoke began to clear but I was still paranoid there could be embers burning in there. Lifting the cardboard from one side and being careful not to damage the tape, I took a little peek inside.

What the heck?

Inside the box, there was a strange stone that looked like one of those ancient Egyptian tablets that were made from clay, and a plethora of weird, crimson-colored symbols scattered on its surface.

Whilst fumbling around with the cardboard, my finger accidentally touched the surface of the stone and that was when shit hit the fan. The symbol began to gleam a blood red before a similar colored aura wrapped itself around me like a blanket.

Was that red smoke laced with some weird hallucinogenic drug?

The energy became thicker and began to swallow me as it whizzed around like a merry-go-round. My head became light, and I started to feel sick before I felt my body lift off from the ground.

That was the last thing I remembered before being knocked-out cold.

Chapter 2

My head rang like a church bell that had been hit by a sledgehammer. My vision was blurry, but it soon got clear, that was when I was met with the sight of broad daylight.

I wasn’t any bigtime genius, but it must have been well over twelve hours since I became unconscious, whatever was in that red smoke gave me a hangover like I had gone on a drug-fueled bender for two weeks straight.

Once the rumbling in my ears had faded away and my hearing returned, the familiar humming sound of my van’s engine blared nearby.

“Damn it, Bessie!” I grumbled.

Now, Bessie was a special kind of van, we had been through a lot together. A few years back, me and my girlfriend went through a nasty breakup, with my pockets empty and no place to stay, I converted her into a fully functioning camper van and used her as a home.

She was an older, less efficient, model but her ability to guzzle up all types of vegetable oil made her an invaluable asset on those rainy “no money” days. Her four-wheel drive system had gotten me out of many bad weather situations while on the road.

The space she offered in her large wheelbase cargo hanger was more than sufficient for my living area plus whatever space I needed for my deliveries… now, it had taken a ton of effort to convince the management at the company to let me use her but eventually they agreed due to a shortage of drivers.

I marched towards Bessie knowing full well her fuel was going to be borderline depleted. I had filled her tank to the brim a few nights ago, which would have normally lasted me the entire week but after that fuck up, I was lucky to even make it to a gas station now. Arriving at the instrument cluster, I stared at the fuel gauge.

What is going on here?

Surprisingly, the tank was half full, exactly where it had been moments before the crash. The only possibility that made sense to me at that moment was that it could be a faulty fuel level sensor, or I was still tripping balls from that red smoke. Within seconds the engine was switched off.

Seriously, just what I needed, more problems.

The thoughts of everything going wrong piled up in my head like a giant avalanche, with the final one being stuck out here in the middle of nowhere and not knowing when my fuel would run out.

My heartbeat began to race like a rocket, my breaths became short, and an uneasy feeling trembled across every bone in my body. It felt like I was stuck in a cold dark tunnel with no saving light at the end.

Fuck! Fuck!! FUCK!!!

Knowing full well that I needed to get my shit together so I could think straight became a priority. I expanded my lungs with deep breaths before slowly counting to ten after each exhale… that seemed to quell the negative thoughts and I was pulled back to my senses.

I can call for help on the phone… yeah, that’s right.

Patting my pockets profusely reminded me that I was holding it before passing out. I turned around and began searching the ground when I noticed the tarmac was now gone… an old, cobbled road was in its place. It was also a few meters wider as well.

What the heck?

Luckily, my phone was resting on the surface of a stone. Once I grabbed it and clicked the power button, the time shown must have been wrong or something because it was only half an hour ahead of what it was a moment before the crash.

A closer look in the top corner revealed no signal which wasn’t out of the ordinary out in the countryside. Knowing I would need to walk around to catch a signal I turned around to walk when I noticed a figure standing there. The suddenness of it all made me jump like a scared cat as I thought I was all alone.

They were just standing there, still as a stone, wearing a long dark robe with a hood that covered their entire face with an unnatural darkness. A pair of gleaming sapphire eyes were fixated on me as I scratched my head at the sight. Whoever they were, looked like they had just come out of some weird satanic ritual that you only see in Hollywood movies.

“Looks like you made it here in one piece,” A croaky old man's voice muttered from within the robe, breaking the silence.

It wasn’t all that uncommon for couriers to get robbed out on the road, even in broad daylight. This strange man’s presence had gotten me all worried about what was about to go down. I mustered enough courage to put on a serious face and tried to look as intimidating as I could.

“Hey, listen here mate, if this is some kind of weird kinky fetish you guys have for trapping couriers for your satanic rituals, I suggest you stop this at once.” I pointed at the van with my thump, “I’ve got a tire iron in the back and won’t hesitate to smash your head in if I feel threatened in any way, shape, or form.”

The figure let out a sigh of annoyance, as I had said something to hurt his ego before those strange eyes began to gleam more as they as they stared into the depths of my soul.

“Wait… you’re not the one I’m expecting,” he muttered.

“What?” I asked.

“I said I was expecting someone else, obviously not you.”

“Yeah, I got that bit, but what does it have to do with me? Why am I here in the middle of nowhere with some guy that looks like they have some weird devil fetish?”

The figure shook his head and got all passive-aggressive with his tone. “I assure you this robe is for your protection. I’ve had just about enough of your insults… we need to fix this.”

The figure lifted his arm from the side which revealed wrinkly, old man, hands before he began to wave it around in a circular pattern. Strange blue energy began to emerge from his palm in what looked like thin threads that radiated a majestic glow.

The threads converged at a point a few feet away from where he was standing and transformed into a large circle that was just a little bigger than the front end of Bessie. Blue energy began to fill the circle and spin like a washing machine before settling to a point where it looked like the surface of a calm ocean.

The way it looked reminded me of an interstellar gate from Stargate but a more compact version of it without the giant metal ring.

This can’t be for real, whatever was in that red mist was proper strong shit.

My mouth was wide open like some huge mouth whale as I witnessed this miracle unfold before me, that was also the time when I began to question whether I was alive or not, it felt like I was transported to a strange fantasy world like in those online web serials.

The figure took a few steps forward and motioned with his hand for me to move into the portal.

“Time is of the essence, you need to come with me,” he said.

Is this guy for real?

“Listen here mate, I don’t know who you are and what you have planned for me, but that shit looks weird as hell. If you think I’m going anywhere with you then you are mistaken,” I replied.

“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice.” He pointed the palm of his hand towards me.

A powerful telekinetic force lifted me off the ground as if I had a jet pack strapped to my back.

“Hey, put me down! Help, someone! Help!!!” I screamed at the top of my voice in case someone else was nearby and could help me out of this weird situation.

The only response I received from the figure was a shrug followed by a mutter, “It’s always the hard way with you people.”

That was when a powerful blast of energy crashed into my back and pushed me directly toward the watery surface of the portal. Almost instantly I felt a rush of cold air bit against every inch of my body, it was like going skiing in Antarctica without any protective gear.

Seconds later, another circle appeared, and naturally I flew through it.