Chronus turns to Raze as the apparition forms quickly. Speaking up in a somewhat amused tone with a grin on his face.
“Your friend there has a very… eager soul. You took very much effort and none of my words reached you in the end. All it took for him were a few whispers and the promise of heroism with his friend. An idealistic one, that is.”
Raze shrugs in response. His body is starting to form more completely. “I’m not surprised. He’s a really cool guy. Not to mention he doesn’t have a whole lot goin’ on right now.”
Chronus holds up his hand. “We must discuss The Hero’s Contract.” Raze looks at him puzzled. Dark brown, nearly black hair coming to form.
“As you are likely somewhat aware, the process of sending one to another world isn’t a light thing. There’s… formalities to be taken care of. In this case, you must accept The Hero’s Contract.”
Raze nods. “Um… okay? So what’s the contract?”
Chronus points at Raze and a spot in his chest glows a rich bright blue color. Reverberating. “It is a contract of the soul. And it has only one term for you.” Chronus pauses for a moment and then continues. “Your actions that affect the world of Helenia, overt or hidden, must have the driving force of bringing it’s salvation.”
Raze interjects. “So I can’t do anything to harm the world itself. But that’s kinda… vague and not at the same time.”
Chronus shakes his head in response, speaking in a more serious tone than before with a steeled expression. “This is not like a contract on paper, with room for loopholes. This is a contract of the soul. If you know what you’re doing is going to help the world lead to it’s salvation, then it is allowed. But if you try to destroy the world, you will be ejected from it and wake up none the wiser.”
Raze nods along. “Alright, so I can’t fuck anything up. That’s fine. But what do I get in return for all this?”
Chronus chuckles lightly. “Ah, well. If you save this world, you will get to go home immediately of course. But, you will also come back with all of the memories and experience you have acquired. In addition to any skills or abilities you may have learned.”
Raze waves his hand. “Whoa whoa whoa. I’m goin’ to fantasy land here dude. By Earth standards, I’d be a walking bomb.”
Chronus nods. “If you lack the ability to disguise yourself among those who cannot even sense magic and can save a world on the brink of destruction, I will eat my entire robe for lunch.”
Raze nods. “So… he’ll have the exact same deal, right? Save the world, go back with whatever you learned?” Chronus nods yet again.
“He’ll like that, I think. To be honest this is probably more his dream than mine.” The apparition forms more and the entire outline of Raze’s body is now formed. Currently shrouded in darkness, his face begins to form. But it’s currently featureless. Like an unpainted doll.
Chronus floats over. “Your body as you already know is incompatible with this new world. The main aspect that makes you a perfect hero is that your body is compatible with all 3 of this world’s goddesses seeds. Your friend, and quite a few people on Earth, are the same way. A complete lack of magic at birth has left your adult body extremely malleable. It’s honestly startling. I expect not a single person your age couldn’t take at least 2 out of the 3.”
Raze rolls his eyes. “Oh boy, and here I was thinkin’ I was special.” Chronus lifts a hand to interrupt the thought.
“What makes you special is your Determination to complete a task. To you, this contract may as well be air. I expect you to have no issues. So long as you survive, anyway.” He looks over to the rapidly forming apparition of Raze’s best friend.
Chronus speaks up once more. “Your friend cannot go with you. It’s much too high-profile, and may cause discourse in the world. As such, I’ll have to leave you two in different locations.”
Raze yells out “But the whole point of asking you to let him come too was that I wouldn’t be alone!”
Anger flaring up, he continues on. “If he’s so far away, then we can’t work together, talk, or do anything!”
Chronus turns. “I will personally gift you both with three powers that the rest of the world lacks.”
Raze huffs out. “Oh yeah? And what are those?”
Chronus holds up one hand. “The first will be the ability to communicate with any sentient creature that can speak a language.” A vibrant orange sphere forms in his hand. He holds up his other hand now, and a brilliant violet sphere forms. “The second will be the ability to communicate with your friend at-will. Like a psychic link, you will feel his presence on the back of your mind. Let it in, and you will be able to speak as if you’re in the same room together.”
The two spheres split into two and float towards both of the still-forming apparitions. Vanishing into the bodies without even making contact or having any impact. Like a ghost going through a wall.
Raze feels over his chest with his currently shrouded apparition hands. “And what’s the third one?”
Chronus lifts his right hand again and says. “A little help. You’re both gamers right? A “HUD” as you call it is probably going to go a long way. You’ll know your limits down to the very integer. Whereas the rest of the world has to guess.”
Raze nods and watches as a bright green orb forms. The verdant sphere pushes into both of the forming bodies. “So what, I’m gonna see my health… mana… and all that business?” Chronus smiles. “I’m glad I found someone a little more bright this time around.”
Raze responds “This time around?”
Chronus lets out a sigh. “I admit, you were not my first choice. The previous hero I chose utterly failed. He had a promising start. Extremely so. However, in his overconfidence, he tried to battle enemies much before his proper time or training. As a result… he was slain. And when the world lost it’s hero, they despaired for a decade. Two generations have passed and many do not even remember him. The failures don’t get written about as much, you see.”
Raze goes silent and thinks for a moment. “Hey um… since we’re being split up anyway… Is any part of the world easier than the other? Like to ‘level up’ and stuff in.”
Chronus thinks for a moment. “The last I checked, the world is divided into two primary factions. They used to be at war, but the undead horde has ended that decisively. Now both just work on keeping their ground. But they lose little bits of land on the map with each passing year. It’s a losing battle with no salvation in sight.”
Chronus waves his hand and the window into Helenia flashes over several images. “The first one is the humanoid races of the world. Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, and much much more. They form intricate societies and like to play politics with one another. I’m sure you’re familiar with the concept.” Raze stares at many of the images and watches the entire view shift.
“The second faction is that of the monstrous races. Demi-humans, such as beastmen, make up a large portion of it. But there are many others. Such as lizardfolk, driders, and more than I can try to describe or account for. Many are intelligent and have formed societies, but they are far simpler by comparison.”
Chronus clears out the window’s image and looks back. “The monstrous races are particularly difficult for one sole reason. They have a strong distrust for humans. Due to the war predating the Eternal Eclipse…”
Raze speaks up. “The fuckin’ what?”
Chronus waves his hand and opens the window to a new image. The sun is blocked by the moon. Motionless, the land is covered with perpetual dim light. Not day, but not night. As if stuck in limbo. “My daughters control various aspects of Helenia. My daughter Sol, controls the Sun and is represented by flame. My daughter Luna, controls the Moon and is represented by water. And my last daughter Terra, controls the land and is represented by a tree. It’s their combined efforts that make the world a beautiful place. But they’ve been shackled.”
Chronus lets out a sigh. “Bound by forces I am not allowed to intervene with, they are restricted and unable to do… anything. The sun cannot move from its place. The moon cannot move either. And the land cannot receive her blessing, and is left to fend for itself against the creeping rot of the undead. What’s more…”
Chronus points at the solar eclipse itself. “The being, whoever it is, that bound my daughters, used their powers briefly to lock the sun and moon like this. In this exact configuration, he has charged it with the ability to raise up the dead. Simply put, anywhere the light can reach, a dead body will turn to the side of the horde.”
Raze scratches his head. “Fuck me. So it’s the standard zombie apocalypse problem. They kill you, and get more numbers. But if you kill them, you get nothing to show for it. And after a while… it gets hard to keep up with their numbers.”
Chronus turns away and rubs his hand over his face. “It’s a mockery of everything my daughters worked for. The celestial bodies are held in the sky like puppets, and the land is left to rot and die.” His voice grows increasingly low and grave. “If it weren’t for the laws of the Gods, I would have purged and cleansed all of Helenia a dozen times over already.”
Raze calls out. “Hey hey, settle down over there. I’m on your side now right? I’ll get it done. The idea of coming back with a bunch of magic and stuff sounds cool. I’ll give it my best shot.” He points to the second forming apparition. “And he will too, I’m sure of it. But… before he can hear this…”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Chronus looks back with a pained smile. “What is it?”
Raze lets out a sigh. “Can you send me to the monstrous side of the world? I don’t want him to have to struggle like that. I know I’ll be fine, but I want him to be supported.”
Chronus’ expression softens. “How altruistic of you.”
Raze laughs out. “Hey, it’s really for his own safety. I’m sure given the choice, he’d choose the monstrous side. But knowing they probably won’t support him and would leave him all on his own; I don’t want that. He deserves better. I can figure it out. I’m used to doing stuff all on my own.”
Chronus looks as the second apparition forms it’s outline and a gasp of air is heard.
“Ah, there he is. In a third of the time you took, at that. Might even be a record. May I ask what his hero name should be?”
Raze thinks to himself. “Hmm… well… if I had to pick… his name would be um… Ritz. His name is Ritz. He has used that as his name since like middle school online.”
Chronus waves his hand. “Hero Ritz! I, Chronus, wish to speak with you about a matter of divine importance!”
Raze glances over. “Seriously dude?” Chronus looks back with a ‘What?’ expression, puzzled. “I’ll fill him in.”
Ritz’s body forms up to roughly where Raze’s is. But now their faces gain features. Raze’s face has deep blue eyes, as if each iris is a sapphire. Meanwhile Ritz’s face has shimmering green eyes. Like a pair of emeralds in the light. Raze laughs out and looks over his best friend’s body. “Hey idiot, you shaved off what was it, like 200 pounds? Your 400 pound ass got left behind I see.”
Ritz lets out a huff. “Your dumb ass put on weight too. An extra 85 pounds since high school? That’s a bit much.”
Chronus gives the two a ‘now now’ gesture and Raze looks at him confused. “What? You can’t talk to your friends that way?” Chronus gains a puzzled expression again. “If you can’t insult your friends and not have them get mad, then you aren’t really that close of friends.” Chronus rolls his eyes and sighs.
“Humans confuse me to no end…”
Raze fills in Ritz and has Chronus display specific imagery per his request. Particularly of the Eternal Eclipse itself and it’s capability of raising fallen people, regardless of who they are, as part of the undead army. Scenes of soldiers being brutalized on the battlefield by their old comrades, just to be risen to do the same themselves.
Raze also shows Ritz the various races of the world, and tells him that he will be going to the more humanoid side of the world, while he will be assigned to the more monstrous side. Ritz lets out a minor protest, saying that he thinks the monstrous races look cool, but Raze tells him that it’s for the best and moves on from the subject.
Chronus switches the topic back to that of the eclipse. Explaining further. “The Eternal Eclipse traps the soul inside the body, which is used as a source of knowledge for the undead husk to fight against the living. Anything that the soul knew in life, it now uses against the living in death. That’s why when higher level magic users die, they are disposed of as quickly as possible.”
Raze looks over. “Disposed of?” Ritz adds in a comment as well. “How do they dispose of their dead?”
Chronus changes the window into Helenia and displays a funeral. A gathering of humans, dwarves, and elves. There are three small caskets adorned with various details. What stands out the most is that there is a flag over each small casket. From this perspective, the exact details are difficult to make out, but the flags are differently colored. The humans seem to focus on the blue one, the dwarves on the red, and the elves on the green.
“Ah. A bit too late to see the process this time unfortunately. Simply put, if the body is no longer capable of fighting or doing anything useful, the Eternal Eclipse seems to not affect it whatsoever. The most common method is body burning. Cremation is basically above and beyond, simply having a body burn into a charred husk gets the job done. Likewise, fire is extremely effective as slaying the undead it seems.”
Raze asks “How long does it take for someone to turn into an undead?”
Chronus quickly replies. “It actually depends on the race. The people of the world have discovered that the longer a specific race typically lives, in terms of years, the longer it takes for them to turn. A human is used as the average. They take just under a day to turn into an undead. A dwarf however, could take 2 whole days. And a full blooded elf could take 3, depending on what kind they are. Meanwhile, something like a goblin or a kobold could take under half a day.”
Raze adds in “What’s the shortest you’ve ever seen it take?”
Chronus has to think for a few moments. “The absolute minimum I have seen is for some type of mousefolk. They have a notoriously short lifespan. Even shorter than kobolds. It takes them 5 hours compared to the kobold’s 6 or so.”
Raze nods and thinks. “So nothing immediate. A few hours is a long time, but not that much at the same time. And if you live as long as a human, you’ve got less than a day to make sure everything is taken care of. Not to mention you probably have to conduct wellness checks on the elderly on a regular basis…”
Raze continues to mumble and think out loud to himself as Ritz marvels at his new body forming. Ritz comes through at 5’11” tall (approx. 180 cm) and has longer, straight dark black hair. Raze by comparison stands at 6’0” tall (approx. 183 cm). Both are larger in size. Their appearance is young, but their weights are in the 210-220 pound area (approx. 95-100 kg). Raze is on the somewhat heavier side due to his slight height advantage and larger upper chest.
Both of the bodies are fairly muscular, almost as if they’d been sculpted for the express purpose of being the body for a hero. Their skin starts to form more and gain color, the apparitions becoming unshrouded. Raze’s skin is a typical white skin color with a notable addition of body hair. Meanwhile Ritz’s skin has a subtle addition of brown pigmentation, but is overall pale and nearly white-skinned like Raze to the point where he could pass for being white instead of hispanic.
Ritz breaks the silence as their bodies continue to coalesce and form. “So, how does leveling up and stuff work?”
Chronus nods. “Good question. The levels of this world is on a scale of 1 to 20. Although things like children and small critters aren’t even considered to be level 1. And are technically level ‘0’. Think of level 1 as the average adult.”
Chronus continues. “I will bless you both with the rudimentary knowledge of magic. By this world’s standards, you will be like a freshly graduated mage. Compared to the rest of the world, you will be around level 3. You’re significantly stronger than the average citizen who can only passingly use magic themselves. However, due to the fact that you both have all three seeds of the Goddesses growing inside of you, rather than just 1 or 2, you will level up much faster than the average person here ever could. The number of people in the world of Helenia who currently have all 3 seeds growing in them is likely only in the double digits. It’s extremely rare. 1 is the minimum, and 2 is somewhat uncommon but not horribly so. Those with 2 seeds growing in them are labeled as ‘gifted with magic’.”
Raze breaks his train of thought and asks about magic in particular. “How does magic in this world work?”
Chronus uses the window into Helenia to display usage of magic. The first is a human housewife, who has a subtle glow of orange energy covering her. It’s extremely dim and hardly noticeable. “There are 2 primary ways to use magic. This is self-enhancement, or simply enhancement for short. You convert your body’s mana into a spell that enhances the physical body itself.” The image changes to a short goblin wearing leather armor with a green aura over his body. Running significantly faster than his pursuers. “It’s usage is incredibly varied. Pretty much anything on your body can be augmented. And the more mana you can pump into the augmentation, the greater the effect.”
Raze watches the window into Helenia change over. “And what about the other way? I assume it’s like shooting fire out of your hand and stuff.”
Chronus nods. “Something like that. That’s called ‘Evocation’ magic. Simply put, it is using the mana inside of your body to evoke magical effects into the world. Evocation magic tends to be much more costly compared to most enhancement magics. As a result, the common person tends to prefer enhancement magic by far. Meanwhile evocation is typically reserved for dedicated wizards and the like.”
Chronus lifts up a hand and starts counting off the schools of magic. “Abjuration, Conjuration, Destruction, Divination, Enchantment, Illusion, and Restoration. Those are the primary schools of magic. These schools can be combined for more specific spell effects. For example, abjuration magic defends the user in one way or another. Conjuration magic is the creation of items in the world, or mana creatures and objects. Combining the two, one could create, say, a magical barrier.”
Chronus depicts a large castle keep that is covered by a thin blue bubble. The view changes to a single undead creature beating it’s hands against the bubble and being bounced away. Unable to even make a dent or crack in it.
Chronus hums to himself. “This one appears to have been enchanted as well so that it only works against the undead. Each additional school of magic used inside of a spell increases it’s spell level.”
Ritz interrupts. “Spell level?”
Chronus nods. “Spells have levels as well. They are divided up by how much mana they consume. Spell levels go from 0, spells that are so easy that they do not even take mana from the user to perform, all the way up to level 9. The cost of each spell level is rather exponential. The average citizen can only cast 1st level spells, or maybe a 2nd level spell or two they may have learned. But they tap themselves out in the process.”
Raze thinks for a moment again before speaking up. “So where would we be? You said we’d be level 3, about. What level of magic can we cast?”
Chronus lifts two fingers. “You would be able to handle up to second level magic. The seeds are currently taking root in your body, but once they are done you will find your mana pool to be at 14. While someone at 1st level would only have a mana pool of 4. A single 2nd level spell costs 4 mana. Thus why I said commonfolk casting 2nd level magic would drain themselves for the day.”
Ritz interrupts again. “How do we get mana back?”
Chronus turns and answers quickly. “Resting. If you rest your body for an extended period of time, your mana pool regenerates itself naturally. There are additional methods, such as mana potions and elixirs, but those are expensive, and can have side-effects on the body. Meanwhile after a good night’s sleep, you will find your mana pool completely regenerated.”
Raze lets out a sigh. “And what is the level of the average foot soldier?”
Chronus off-handedly answers. “Most foot soldiers, regardless of race, are typically in the level 3 to 5 area. I believe most of the people in this world do not allow their citizens to fight the undead unless they are at least level 3. While soldiers with a few years under their belts tend to be level 5 and above. However, finding anyone who is in the double digit levels is a rarity. Soldier or otherwise.”
The two bodies finally form completely, and Chronus waves his hand. Clothing them both in casual wear. A thin white shirt and somewhat loose pants, in addition to socks and boots.
Chronus lets out a gasp and clenches his teeth. Grunting out as his hand goes to his face, covering his eyes as his breathing grows heavier. Shocking both Raze and Ritz.
Ritz calls out. “Are you okay?”
Chronus lets out a sigh and lifts his head. “I am overtaxing myself and overstepping my boundaries by quite a lot. But this much is nothing if it means saving my daughters. Regrettably, our time together will be very short from here on. And I’m afraid the time for explanation of Helenia is over. You will have to learn on your own once you’re there. I must now focus and teach you both how to defend yourselves against the undead.”
Chronus waves his hand and a wide assortment of basic weapons form into the air. Made of iron and rather traditional in their makeup. Something a blacksmith could make dozens of in a single day. Sturdy by design. Tested and true, one could find a basic infantry soldier with any of these.
Chronus steels his expression to hide the discomfort and pain. Standing resolute and tall.
“Choose your weapon, and I will teach you the basics of magic and how to use the mana in your body, and the mana in the air.”