Arc 7. Death to what came before
Road to a Hero:
Three Chances in Another World
Chapter 1. Freshly fallen snow
In Walgonia, there is a town located near the side of a mountain, with a stone wall placed around it. A few miles outside of the town, in the snow-covered area, is a small guild of three. All around the age of eighteen, a man dressed like a soldier holds a sword, leading his guildmates through the thick snow up a hill, overlooking a large white bear-like creature called a Winter Bruin. Then a woman walks to his side, dressed in a dark, thick, purple robe, holding a large magical staff with a red crystal atop it. Then lastly, another woman without any major tools, though she does have a bag wrapped around her side, which holds medicinal equipment.
She shivers, rubbing her hands together, while the man pushes past the cold wind and slides down the mountain, right at the sleeping beast.
“You idiot.”
The woman holding the staff aims it at the monster, focuses her mana on the crystal, closes her soft green eyes, and casts her spell.
“Ignum”
The crystal lights up, letting out the charged mana to form a small ball of fire, which blasts past the man and right at the beast's face. The bear awakens, roaring in pain as a result of the flames burning his face, though the flames quickly fade. The man drifts toward the side of the beast that the attack had landed on, due to the fact the bear’s eye had been injured.
Using this blind spot, he clenches his straight sword, takes an upright stance, and slashes the beast up the side of its neck. To protect itself, the beast begins swinging its large arms all around itself, trying to use its claws to strike its attacker. The man rolls out of the way, in a very stiff and robotic manner, leading the beast to easily catch him off balance. It pounces on him, opening its large jaw, attempting to bite his head off. He screams for help just as the mage casts another flame spell, sending a bolt of flames into its face. While it’s off balance, the man pierces the beast through the neck, causing it to fall on top of him. The soldiers' friends begin to chuckle while they slide down the mountain to help him lift the dead beast. As it rolls off of them, they begin to drag the monster back to their things, struggling to put it onto a large sled. While they do this, they chat amongst each other, ignoring the slightly shaking snow. While they pull the sled to the town, the snow begins to shift into a pile, which emerges right under the sled. A large arm made from the fluffy freezing snow flips the sled, tossing the dead beast over to coat the ground in its still-warm blood. They all begin to panic, especially the soldier. When he reaches for his sword, his hand slips off, putting his face to face with the now fully-formed snow golem. The mindless beast is about nine feet tall and sluggish in its movements. The mage takes advantage of its stubbly legs, sending a fireball toward it, blasting it off. Now the other girl finally shows her usefulness, screaming out.
“It’s a snow golem! Damn…if there’s one there must be others!”
She reaches into the back of her back, pulling out a book. She begins rummaging through the pages, trying to find something. And once she does, she holds out her hand, casting an offensive spirit art spell.
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“Glorow!”
An enchanted arrow made of mana forms in front of her, which is sent right into the head of the currently crawling mindless beast. Once it hits it, it disperses into the head of the beast, filling up its body, and causing it to sink back into the ground, leaving a skeleton behind. Then the snow begins forming underneath her, trapping her legs. She begins to sink into it, so the mage tries pulling her out, but the snow golem forms around both of them.
The mage is able to jump back, letting out a horrid scream at the unknown fate of her guildmate. Now, being off her balance, falls over, into the forming of another snow golem. Then once again, another forms right between the two, which all begin slowly trucking toward the soldier. The faceless beasts are completely silent, though the longer they live on the more they gain a complete form. Their uneven body begins to reshape, their face begins to form, and once they open their new mouths, only the screams of their trapped friends can be heard. He moves and lifts the front of his helmet off, trying to get a better look at the monsters, but that only makes things worse. With every second that passes, they grow stronger, his friends grow weaker, and he grows more scared. The morning sky overlooks this quite common sight, newly made guilds of freshly graduated fighters go out, trying to make a quick buck by protecting a new town or village, only to be killed by an unknown beast.
Now the soldier falls to the ground, accepting his fate, but a guardian angel appears in the sky, or a much for the fitting name, a phantom, an avenger filled with anger swoops down. A man with jet black, liquid skin, with silver pieces of armor rockets through the leading golem, causing it to fall to pieces. Before it can reform, the phantom begins to disrupt the corrupted spirits within the ground, causing the snow to stop moving. The snow golems feel the immense mana within the cloaked ghost in front of them, gaining their attention. As the wind begins to blow once more, it gives the soldier a better look at his protector. The avenger's hooded cloak begins to blow in the wind, causing him to become more imposing, and it also gives a better look at his face. A silver face mask held to its face by its gooey black skin, holding it in place. The face is fairly simple, with three black lines going down the mouth area, causing it to look like a skull. The soldier stands up, attempting to toss his sword to the figure, though it waves its hand and clenches his fist, causing a short thick blade to emerge from the silver vambrace on his forearm.
He seamlessly moves between the large golems, easily cutting around the soldiers' trapped friends. The cloak on its back begins to move, forcing itself through the thick snow, grabbing the soldier's friends, and tossing them to him. As he comforts his freezing friends, he watches the phantom leap and sticks onto the back of the golem, disrupting its mana, and causing them to disperse once more. Then once he does it to the other golem, he flips into the air, landing right in front of the panicking soldier. Now that the soldier can get a good look at the mask, he instantly identifies the identity of his savior.
Soldier: “The Phantom Knight! The Spirit of Walgonia! One of the Heroes of Walgonia! You’re Gr-”
The Phantom cuts off the soldier before he can finish his sentence by covering his mouth with his cloak. The Phantom then places his hands on the freezing woman, struggling to focus. After a bit, he’s able to heat up the spirits around them, allowing everyone to warm up. After a bit, they both begin to wake up, but once they do, all they find is their friend pulling them in the sled alongside the bear they had killed.
The mage: “What happened?”
The other woman begins to wake up, trying her best to remember why they had been attacked.
“Snow golems, we must have been walking over a past battlefield. The mana in the snow was right on top of the fallen in battle, their lingering souls aloud the mana to give life to the long gone minds, only thinking of killing.”
The Soldier: “Yeah, but we had a guardian angel on our side…or more like a ghost.”
In the sky, flying north on a large Earth-bound dragon is such a ghost, sitting on the dragon's saddle. He flows the pieces of armor off of his body, into a bag to his side, including his mask. He then lets the black ooze flow off of his body as well, being sucked into its cursed charm dangling on the necklace hanging from his neck on top of a yin and yang charm. The Phantom, now revealed to be a man, brushes his brown hair out of his face, sighing.
Gray: “Dumb kids...”
In his heart he couldn't help but save them, however, he was beginning to feel like it's just a waste of time.
End of Chapter One