The day I turned seventeen my life took a turn for the worse. Or the better, depending on your perspective. It started off just like any other day. I woke up, greeted my parents, and sat down for breakfast that morning. While I knew it was coming, it didn’t make it any better.

“Honey, you know what day it is right?” My mother asked.

“Yes Mother, today is my seventeenth birthday.”

In the Empire, seventeenth birthdays weren't the same as other birthdays. When the firstborn child reached the age of seventeen they were required to become a Paladin under the guild to combat the undead that plagued the world.

“Well you better eat quick so you can get ready and defend our world from those despicable undead.” My father said in his usual gruff voice.

“You just want to be free from your duty, and the faster that I become an Paladin, the faster you can retire.” Sighing, I spoke once again, “But you are right, it’s my duty to fulfill my obligation just like every other person in this country.”

“Thanks for the meal.”

“No problem, have fun!” My Mom said as I got out of my chair.

I ran towards the door and quickly swiped the sword my father forged for me. I continued down the path from my small village abode, towards the big city. After a few hours of running at a leisure pace, a thick fog started to roll in front of me. I stopped and thought to myself for a moment. I wasn’t too far from the city, so it would be a waste to return now, even though something about the fog felt off to me.

As I continued walking, I began to get a bit worried. There seemed to be no end to the mist. After a while a faint movement caught my attention in the distant gray backdrop. Instantly I raised my guard, something was wrong. And as if proving my suspicions, a Necromancer, surrounded by five skeletons and a zombie emerged from the fog.

“Arenam Damnetorium,” the Necromancer screamed out suddenly.

The fog proceeded to clear into the shape of a circle within the immediate area. The first skeleton jumped towards me, but I swung at it with my sword, slicing clean through its spine and causing it to evaporate. The skeleton left its essence where it fell, however, I could not observe it for long since the remaining skeletons came to attack me with ferocity anew. As I stabbed one through the skull, killing it instantly, another lunged towards me. Quickly, I pivoted my stance, narrowly dodging its attack. Losing its balance from my sudden action, the skeleton fell on the ground, I took this chance to end it. However, while I was preoccupied, a third skeleton took the opportunity to grab hold of me.

“Shit!” I screamed out loud as the skeleton pulled me to the ground in a chokehold. Struggling, I desperately tried to free myself from its grasp but its strength was unbelievable. Initially panicked, I soon calmed myself down and took advantage of the situation. Grabbing a nearby rock, I slammed it into the defenseless skeleton’s skull, instantly its grip loosened as it began to fade away. Quickly standing up, I recalibrated myself as the last two undead charged towards me. Exploiting their brazen and reckless approach, I smashed the hilt of my sword into the skeleton, sending it reeling back. Taking advantage of the brief opening, I swiftly thrusted my blade straight through its head. Taking a quick step back I then prepared to dispatch the remaining zombie who had gotten dangerously close. Using the momentum of his attack, I then redirected his blow and thrusted my blade straight through the zombie’s dead heart, sending him to join the rest of his kin. Finally, I was able to refocus on my main target, the Necromancer. Not wasting any time, I quickly dashed towards him until…

“OBICE!” The Necromancer cried out, as if furious that I managed to defeat his minions.

As soon as he finished the word I was hit with a massive invisible force. I got back up and tried to progress further, but something was blocking my way that I could not see. After the initial shock of the Necromancers trick wore off, I was able to faintly see a pale barrier between us. Before I could think of a method to get past it, the Necromancer began a chant.

“Fluunt ad me animae mortuorum, nam eradicata sunt corpora temporaria propter naturam tuae vitae falsae, confunduntur mecum et renascuntur.”

When the statement finished, the essence of the undead that I had killed flew at immense speed through the barrier and into the Necromancer. At first everything remained still, however, an ominous premonition overcame me. Like a calm before the storm, his body began to horribly convulse and shapeshift. Melted down to the bone, what was previously the flesh of a mortal, coalesced into a black wispy sludge. Floating up, the substance began to cloak the now bare skeleton of the Necromancer in a shroud of pure darkness. Horrified, I couldn’t help but take a step back. The sinister aura the Necromancer now emanated was far beyond anything I had ever felt before. Every fabric of my being screamed at me to escape yet I couldn’t. In the first place, I wasn’t even sure if escaping was possible. I had a suspicious feeling that the fog had taken me, well, wherever this was. I could only fight and end things here. Fortunately, I saw a way to do just that. Looking at the faint barrier between us, I noticed slight cracks where the undead essences had traveled through. Using my sword, I charged forward and struck at the cracked barrier. Like shattering glass, the barrier broke apart, much to the surprise of the Necromancer.

“How were you able to do that?” The Necromancer asked me in a layered wispy and demonic voice.

“I was able to see a faint image of the barrier and the damage that the essence going through it had caused.” I replied reluctantly while preparing myself.

“So he is the third generation, this is our chance to stop this here.” The Necromancer spoke to himself.

Suddenly floating towards me at a rapid speed, I could feel the malice and intent to kill emanating from his ghastly visage.

At that moment, I knew I was unbelievably screwed. In the face of overwhelming dread, time slowed to a halt and I couldn’t help but wonder, “Is this what it feels like when you're about to die?” However, before I could embrace my impending death, my perception of time suddenly returned to normal and instead of despair, I felt amazement as my sword was now somehow lodged into the core of the Necromancer. As he began to fade away, he whispered into my ear.

“The Undead shall rise, Anlett boy, and you shall rise to meet them.”

In confusion I responded with, “Everyone in the country does, it’s an obligatory service when one turns 17 until their child succeeds them.”

“You will understand soon, young one,” he replied to me as he then evaporated like the other undead, leaving behind a conglomerate of six essences surrounding his soul within a sealed orb. The orb then quickly changed shape into a sharp ovoid, aiming itself at me. Before I could even react, the ovoid launched itself into my right eye. Immediately, an unbearable burning feeling spread out from my eye. The pain was indescribable and for what felt like an eternity, I lay on the ground clutching myself, unable to even scream. Eventually the feeling began to lessen and when it did, I noticed the first changes. I was unable to see out of my right eye, however, rather than complete blindness, everything was covered in an opaque purple color. After a while, once the pain had completely faded away, I noticed that the fog had dissipated, I was standing in the exact spot where I had entered it, only now it was night.

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I decided that it would be best to continue treading along the path, the city wasn’t too far from where I currently was, and I thought it best to just make it there as quickly as I can. After about another hour I was able to see the faint lights of the City, it filled me with vigor, and I sprinted the last half mile. As soon as I stepped foot in the city the adrenaline from everything that had happened wore off, and I instantly collapsed.

***

Waking up, I was very surprised to find myself on a soft, comfortable bed. Looking around I saw a beautiful young woman with medium length black hair dozing off by my bedside.

“HEY where the hell am I?”

“Oh, you are awake?,” she spoke lazily as she rubbed her eyes and let out a cute yawn. “You are in one of the guild’s healing rooms, I found you passed out near the entrance of the city.

Before I could respond, a tall gorgeous woman boldly walked into the room, announcing her presence.

“Hmm? Lena, why are you here?” The lady who was attending to me asked the tall woman named Lena.

“I heard you stopped by the hospital, I wanted to make sure you were ok. So, why are you here? And who is this?” Lena responded with a hint of worry in her voice.

“Oh, him? I was on my way to complete a mission when I saw him pass out near the entrance of the city. I was just waiting here to make sure he was ok before leaving.” Asayo replied while getting up to stretch.

Attempting to stand up as well, I immediately felt light-headed and collapsed again. The last thing I saw before everything faded to black was the worried faces of Asayo and Lena.

My vision once again faded into black. Instead of a peaceful slumber my mind quickly shifted into a vision or a dream, I couldn’t really tell as everything seemed so real yet so abstract at the same time. It was just me standing alone in the middle of a field with the wind blowing fiercely against my face, causing all of the grain surrounding me to tear apart and float upwards. As I realized how strange the situation was, the wind suddenly stopped, dropping all of the grain to the ground. Suddenly an unnaturally large eagle flew above me, the screech it let out thundered through the field. I could feel the force from it vibrate through my entire body, causing my right eye to burst. Once again I was unable to see from my eye, but this time it was true blindness. A few seconds after darkness had enveloped my right eye, it began to expand, destroying the entirety of my vision. I could then see a spark of light from a distance that was rapidly getting closer. As quickly as I was in the darkness, I was once again back in the field, the same sequence of events played out once again. The amount of times it swapped from the field and the darkness and back all blended together. I eventually lost count, it could have been hundreds, thousands, or even millions of times that I went through the cycle. All I know is that eventually I became numb to pain in my eye, and got used to the constant changes in my state of vision. Eventually solace would come when my eyes finally opened once again to the sight of the one named Asayo watching over me. The vision in my right eye had not been fully restored but the opaque color lessened, becoming a little more translucent.

“How long have I been out?”

“It’s been a few weeks.” Asayo, the girl who initially saved me, responded.

“No, no, no, that’s not good! I need to get to the main guild office now. My father is probably wondering why he hasn’t been released from his duty.”

“Oh honey, you don’t have to worry about that. Because it's been so long since you were supposed to report to the guild for your official duties, you have already been assigned to a party. Fortunately, I pulled a few strings and was able to get you into our brand new party and as the official leader. Welcome, proud leader, to the Cat Dragons!” Lena responded excitedly as she once again walked into the room right on queue.

“...What the fuck. Wait, doesn’t there need to be seven members to form a party? Also, I was gonna wait for my friend and then form a party with him. And what about my family, do they know that I’m ok?”

“Well, for your first question, you already know two of us and you’ll meet the rest later. As for your second, I don’t know who your friend exactly is, but everyone who came to the guild to form a party has done so already. And as for your family, they have already stopped by multiple times to make sure you're fine, so you don’t have to worry about them for now.”

“Yep, I finally have a squad to fight with!” Asayo announced enthusiastically, or at least I assumed so. Her expression and voice remained completely neutral.

“Oh you gotta be shitting me! While I’m grateful that you saved me Asayo, does it make any sense that I’m suddenly forced into a party? And as the leader no less! Also I don’t even know you two, how can I be sure that you can fight? I don’t want to be forced into a party with people that can’t even pull their own weight!”

“Oh trust me honey, I’m plenty strong.” Lena replied in a self-assured smug tone as she approached me. Bringing her left fingertips up to the base of my chin, her hand slowly changed into a scaly claw, with an electric current crackling between her solid nails. Her deeply beautiful black hair became silver and cloud-like. Her gorgeous features contorted into a blue scaly dragon-like face with antlers protruding from the back of her head. As soon as I fully processed what I was looking at, she tapped me on the cheek, sending a wave of energy through it and forcing me to make a slight smirk. Her body then changed back to normal.

“You are just so cute when you smile like that.” She said seductively as she sat down on a nearby chair.

“I can absolutely fight.” Asayo said as she got up from beside me, her tone was cold.

Once fully standing up, she removed a strange charm from around her neck. Instantly a pair of cat ears emerged from the sides of her head, as her human ears receded. Along with her ears, a black forked tail emerged from behind her, and her eyes became sharp and catlike.

“...So you named our party, that I'm supposed to be the leader of, after yourselves.”

“That's your only comment about this? And yes, we did because we so graciously rescued you and nursed you back to health.” Lena playfully commented.

“No, I did those things Lena, stop lying to the boy. I was the one who rescued him and stayed by his side until he woke up. “

“Well I was the one who found our party members during that time.”

“Hmph, I know you already had everyone for the party in your mind. You were probably just messing around during that time and went to go get them last minute. I on the other hand had to wait here everyday for him to wake up. Do you know how bored I was and how hard it was to stay awake?”

I could feel the tension in the room building, and before the argument escalated any further, I decided to intervene.

“Hey, can you guys calm down a little. If we are going to be in a party together, we need to be able to get along, or someone is going to end up dead. And I don’t want that for anyone.”

“Well neither one of us can die really, nor can any of the others.” Lena casually responded to me.

“Well I can die, and if we all can’t get along, then that might just happen. Plus we all need to calm down, so that I can meet the others and then visit my parents, because they probably want to see that their son is awake and well.”

“Alright then, so are you ready to meet the girls?” Lena asked.

“Yep, let's get this shitshow started.”

“Well then, follow me, Leone.”