CHAPTER ONE: MARTHA

It was just a normal day in the city, children were playing, men and women were going to work. The cityscape’s smog threatening to block out the sun. when suddenly in the sky there was a streak of light that caught the attention of all who looked to the sky, if only for a moment. A thin red streak in the sky marring the beautiful arrangement of clouds in the sky that morning and crashing down in a forest nearby. Few people cared to look at what wasn’t going to affect them, and the news couldn’t be bothered with the discovery of a space rock as they were currently interviewing a multi-millionaire on how he got his wealth.

In the crash besides a riverbed was a somewhat shrivelled up stone about the size of a bowling ball with an impact crater about as big as you’d expect. The small thin division of dirt between the crater and the river cooled, cracked, and burst, creating a miniature pond where the crater once was. Beneath the surface of the waters, the little stone cracked open and the waters were tinted slightly red. Soon the red int began to settle back at the bottom again and the read of a girl with blue hair began bobbing on the surface of the waters. “?” she looked around. “hmm…” she began to ponder in her head where she was and how she had arrived. “oh!” she looked down at the water she was sitting in and tried to reach out her hand to touch her head but instead of a hand a thin sharp membranous tentacle came from the surface of the water and touched her head. “Ah?” she was a bit surprised at first but when she realized he could feel her own hair she came to the realization this appendage was hers. She focused on it for a second and tried imagining it as a person’s hand. Holding it out in front of her face she watched as it started changing as if into the hand of a human, before slowly reverting back. “Ah… there’s no mana here…” this realization brought her to a startling discovery. “this reminds me of home…”

She then decided to sit under the surface of the waters to try to build up her own mana within herself and change the environment into one that created it by itself. So she began to concentrate inwardly. And as she did, she was subconsciously chewing on her own tentacles. The more she did the more human she became. She continued to do so with her eyes closed unaware of anyone watching her. An old man and his grandson just so happened to be on a fishing trip when they happened upon this sight. A blue-haired girl’s head bobbing un and down in a smallish pond eating tentacles over and over and over again that gradually began looking less aquatic and more humanoid. They backed up in fear and once they thought they were a safe distance they ran, screaming.

This brought the girl out of her daze. She opened her eyes and saw herself for the first time since she started eating herself in this new world. Her arms were normal her legs were normal and her body… oddly androgynous. “hmm… looks like I don’t have enough mana within myself to fix anything that complicated” she said lamenting her lack of strength. She stepped out of the waters and sat in a meditative position by the shore of the pond and held one hand in the waters as she contemplated. As she thought a simple set of clothes manifested themselves around her. A simple long shirt belt and shoes. She stood up.

“looks like I’m not as tall as I was before…” she lamented her lack of height and sat back down pondering about the situation she found herself in currently. As she did some school kinds passing through the forest on their way to their morning classes spotted her a ways away from the bridge. “oh” a brown haired girl with a halfway decent face, approached her. “did you get lost looking for the school?”

“school?” the blue-haired girl replied still trying to focus on creating a plot of land with enough mana to spread and sustain itself, in order to sustain herself. “Yeah, school you’re new around town yeah?”

“hmm…” the blue-haired girl replied giving an ambiguous nod. And tilting her head as if in confusion. ‘I suppose learning about this world I find myself in wouldn’t be too bad’ she thought. She got up and as she did the life that was springing up around her looked as though it would wilt and fall away but it seemed to struggle on and continue living if only for a little while. The blue-haired girl silently encouraged the land she was trying to saturate to fight to hold onto the mana she gave it for when she returned. Turning to face the brown-haired girl she accepted her invitation to go to school. “I’m Martha by the way what’s your name?” the blue-haired girl pressed a hand against her head as she thought and as she scratched her head she noticed a bump that she was sure wasn’t there before. ‘did I land on my head?’ she thought to herself. “um…?” Martha began as if trying to prompt her to answer the question.

“Sorry I got distracted what was the question?”

“your name what’s your name?”

“my name?...” the blue-haired girl began thinking to herself ‘what was my name again?’

“I believe I remember being called…” she was about to say Αφθαρτος The Consumer of Reality. “… Cory… yeah Cory Αφθαρτος .”

“Afthartos?”

“yeah.” She said with absolute confidence. “is it a weird name?”

“what were you lying about your name?”

“it’s just that I think my real name sounds weirder.”

“really is it that weird?”

“I don’t know I just got here today. But I assume it’s weird I mean it sounds more like a title than a name.”

“really now you have to tell me” the two were walking as they were talking.

“Αφθαρτος The Consumer of Reality” she whispered. “what?”

“it’s-”

“no I think I heard you the first time… but yeah that is a weird name”

“eh?”

“I mean it sounds like a movie villain.” The blue-haired girl began wondering what movie she was talking about while trying to figure out what a movie was. “so, where are you from anyway?”

“um…” the blue-haired girl began pondering ‘if I tell her the name of the kingdom I build after rising to power in the second world I’ve lived in she might think I’m weird

“very far away.”

“really who are you living with?”

“nobody I came here on my own.”

“what really you ran away from home?”

“no, no, nothing like that. I came here looking for someone.”

“you’re looking for someone who?”

“the man who made me the person I am today… I only met him once but I have to at least thank him. Without him, I wouldn’t have ever entered into this world…”

“Wow, that’s an odd way of talking about your father.” The blue-haired girl looked on with blank eyes contemplating whether or not to correct the misunderstanding. “yes… I’m looking for my father.” After their brief conversation, they arrived at school and the blue-haired girl registered for her classes on orientation day she arrived in her first class late and could only write in ancient Greek. She could speak English just fine she was just having a bit of trouble with switching between the letters. Also, when she arrived on campus the principal made her put on the school uniform’s shorts because she can’t just walk around in a shirt bare ass in a school. Once she finished with her morning classes and it was time for lunch she lined up with everyone else and had to leave the line because she didn’t have any money to pay for the school lunches. Lamenting her misfortune, she walked away from the line dejected. When she saw a familiar face. “Martha?”

“forget your wallet today?”

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“Yeah. I think I’m going to starve.”

“it’s ok just share some of my lunch my mom made too much for me today anyway.” From just looking at the lunch box the blue-haired girl figured that this city was near some sort of ocean just from the aquatic foods packed and made fresh. She ate with her and while it didn’t taste as good as her own arms and legs, she thought that sight might scare her new classmates away as it did the boy and his grandfather from earlier. “this world’s inhabitants have such weak stomachs” she whispered to herself. “what?”

“nothing…”

“So who are you staying with while you’re in New York”

‘New York is that where I am?’ “I’m not staying with anyone I’m just kinda here”

“What? Really? Uh… I’ll ask my mom if you can stay with me. You can’t be staying outside on your own in a city like this”

‘actually, I’d prefer to be on my own… that way I can eat myself in peace’ “how kind of you to offer, but you shouldn’t trouble yourself for my sake. You barely even know me anyway.”

“it’s true we just met today but I’d like to think we’re kind of close considering you opened up to me so quickly”

‘Did I really do something like that?’

“so, what’s your father like”

‘oh yeah that’ “I don’t really remember much because I was so small when I saw him… um… he dressed really fancy. Wore a big hat, and always covered his eyes. He even took me to a new exotic place I never knew existed. And then he left, and I’ve been looking for him ever since.” ‘As I’ve been in school and my mind has calmed down my memories slowly returned to me. I know who I am now.’

CORY’S POV

I was born an immortal jellyfish at the beginning of time on the fifth day of creation. Some time about six thousand or so years after I was born, reproduced, and began living a leisure life as an immortal jellyfish I was swept into the pocket of a fancily dressed man who was walking along the seafloor, looking for something. When he found it he placed it in his pocket and rose to the surface of the sea. My little body couldn’t handle the change in pressure and exploded. One of my tentacles accidentally injured the man and a drop of his blood entered my mouth. It burned but after the pain I regained consciousness and ate my destroyed body, recreating myself in the process. The man began walking on the surface of the waters barely giving a thought to the poison I accidentally stung him with.

He appears to have wings. I watched as the man smiled and lifted a hand to the sky and as he did I saw small red particles float up around him and into the sky. He began soaring as if the tiny specks of red were creating an updraft and carrying him skyward. I felt the change in pressure about to break me again, but my body resisted it this time. I’m just a bit swollen now. Before I realized it we were in space and the red particles began swirling around. I forget what happens next but when I came to, I was in a barrel of wine that was ageing in some sort of world I had never seen before. It was there I had my first taste of mana and it hurt me, deeply. As if the mana was burning me from the inside out. The only relief I had was when I ate myself. When I ate myself, the pain was dulled down if only by a little bit. When I ate myself, the pain went away if only for a second. I remember taking in all the mana around me and gaining strength. I remember emerging from that barrel and finding out my shape was not one people were too keen on looking at. I was mistaken for a monster time and time again until I gained enough mana to change my form from that of a large sentient jellyfish to that of a person just like them. Once I had achieved a human-looking body the people were still apprehensive and mistrustful of me in this new environment. It took a good long while to learn Greek too. So I made a couple of changes. Instead of the form I chose when I first took a human shape, one similar to the man that brought me here I took a more feminine shape as I was originally a female jellyfish anyway. People seemed more trusting of me but they also seemed to think it was easy to take advantage of me. And I’ll admit I wasn’t the smartest former jellyfish at first but I learned how to carry myself well in due time. I learned that while I looked like a woman the women are more trustworthy than the men. And as time progressed the things I was able to do got me labelled a demon and soon I had to leave the settlements I once briefly called home and move over to the mana filled lands of the demons where survival of the fittest was the rule that reigned supreme. The lands were filled with people who hated God and cursed telling themselves and others he wasn’t real but by the look in their eyes and the hatred in their hearts, you could tell that not only did they believe he was real, they hated him with a burning passion. I never really understood why you’d so forcefully tell people someone wasn’t real unless you yourself wanted him not to be real and thought if you yelled it enough it would become true. If something is true just let the facts speak for themselves. You don’t see anyone so adamant the shy is blue. “Cory?”

“Ah I spaced out there didn’t I”

“come on lunch is over, you’re going to be late for class.” Class was a bit boring after that. I took some time to memorize the English alphabet and the sounds the letters made so I could at least read in English because even though I could speak the language back in the world I learned how to write we used the Greek alphabet for every language regardless so it’s a bit confusing even if the letters do look a bit similar when some of them have different sound despite looking the same. I did learn a bit about the history of this world at least. And at least numbers are the same here as they were in my previous world. After class was over and school ended for the day I found it hard to find Martha so I told one of the teachers who was standing near the entrance that if Martha came looking for me to go find me where we first met. After which I went back to the little crater pond, sat in the same place I was sitting in before and started eating my own fingers in a way that it looked more like I had something caught in my teeth and was trying to get it out from an outside perspective. Even though I was still eating myself, because I was doing it more slowly I noticed a sharp decrease in the rate I was increasing my own mana and while I was lamenting this process the little plants that sprouted up around me looked like they were alive again. I gently caressed the strange-looking plants and by the time Martha had arrived the little one-foot radius circle of land I was sitting in was ready to live on without me. And I had enough mana to recreate my full outfit that I was wearing before coming to this world.

Martha was watching me from afar not wanting to disturb me as I learned later once, we arrived at her house and she told me about it. I wish she’d have told me sooner though because while she was watching me I used my ability to manifest clothes to recreate my full outfit. A deep dark purple dress over the white shirt I was wearing, to begin with, thigh-high leather boots, and fishnets, though the dress coved the boots down to my knees. The solid gold crown with fragments of a broken daemon’s horn from my previous world that were much harder and shinier than any blood red diamonds I could find to fit my gold/tungsten crown. Looking at my reflection after manifesting my clothes I put the crown away in the bag over my shoulder which looks plain but is in fact bottomless. Unfortunately, my weapons and all the things I remember putting in this bag seem to have been lost to the void when I came to this world I’m going to have to wait until my mana recharges enough to summon my items to my side as I did in my previous world when I was too lazy to reach into the bag and get them.

Ah, I wish I hadn’t taken for granted a world where mana was in the air I breathed and I could recover my strength without having to eat something that is already filled with mana though coming here seems to have taken up a lot of my mana, to begin with, I barely had enough to maintain my human form. Regardless once we got back to Martha’s house, she asked me about my clothes so I told her everything. “what?! You’re from another world?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“and you learned magic from this other world that wasn’t your world?”

“right.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“because no one will believe you.” I could see a look of pain in her eyes like she realized even if I was lying she had no way to prove what I was saying was right but she also couldn’t disprove what I was saying because she can plainly see and did see me change my clothes at a whim. When we were back at her house, I put the crown back on. A feature of this crown I hadn’t noticed before is that it passively leaks out mana and increases the mana in the wearer, now I can recover the mana it takes to maintain human form without having to eat myself. Her parents just thought I was some kind of kid who liked to dress up. So, they wouldn’t believe her if she told them the truth and from the looks of this world without magic, no one else would believe her anyway. “the man I’m searching for is not my father, but he reminds me of my father, I can’t even describe the face of my father it’s been so long since I’ve seen him. But this man I saw was clearly a servant of my father else he couldn’t have done what he did.”

“and who is your father?”

“my father is the one who created my universe, didn’t I tell you I was originally an immortal jellyfish. I and five days younger than the world I was born to.” Martha looked as if she couldn’t fathom a life as long as mine but as the first six or so thousand years were spent eating reproducing and eating myself, my life only really started when I met that man and drank his blood. “oh and if you try to tell people about it on the internet they’ll probably think it was some kind of joke you were making”

“I get that but if I share it on the internet someone will believe it.”

“I highly doubt that.” She looked pretty frustrated about the direction of our conversation. “well good night. I have to gain more knowledge about this world before I can see if this is where that man is now.” As I was about to go to sleep in her guest room and was about to take off all my clothes to go to sleep I was told it was rude to just sleep naked in a bed that wasn’t mine so I told her I’d still be wearing the crown when I went to sleep and she got upset and lent me pyjamas. I was a bit upset that I didn’t get to sleep how I usually did but I let it happen as it would be too irritating having to stay up much longer to fight for this so I just put them on for now and went to bed. I woke up naked anyway.