The City Of Light.

Blackfish Hall.

The Cheers of the crowd shook the entire stadium as the sword pierced through a gladiator with a sickening sound, with another sound it came out of him, leaving what was once a man now a corpse. The people 'lucky' enough to be splashed by the blood celebrated even as their bodies shivered as it had been an interesting fight which they had enjoyed.

Armed men rushed into the pit with shields aloft and herded the surviving gladiator into a corner as other men rushed in to pick up the corpse from where they would probably take it to feed the Guard hounds, once they departed, a secondary gate opened to allow the gladiator back into his empty cage.

Another gladiator named and branded 47 stood in his own cage watching everything, scars marked all over his body and his face, they showed where he had been stabbed, kicked, cut, burned, bored and mauled by animals. One could say they were a history of his time in this place, he could barely remember a time outside of it, when he had been a normal college student before he was approached by a shady man who offered him a 'chance to leave all your worries behind and go to a new world', he had thought the man was crazy or selling something and hoping to see a show, had agreed and gone with the flow. He woke up in a young body unfamiliar to his own trapped in a cage and found out the man wasn't crazy and had sent him to a new world where he could leave all his past worries behind as agreed, but he hadn't warned him that the worries to come would be worse than the ones he had left

It had been Twenty five of this worlds years since he woke up here and in that time the only thing he knew were the walls of this Pit and his cage. When he woke up, by slowly asking the people around him he found out that he or the body he was in had been sold by his father for an extra drink and he was now a life slave, a person whose life was sold to the pits, unlike regular slaves and criminals who could leave if they won a specific number of battles he had been sold in such a manner that he wasn't supposed to win, he was to die cheaply for the peoples entertainment, yet luck had found him in the first few matches and fear had trained him until he could survive bringing him away from the pits on his own feet every time. From his various escapes and survival he had slowly become a crowd favourite garnering fans everywhere who couldn't wait for the day they got to watch him die, he would disappoint them for as long as he could, but no one stays in the pits forever, and he knew that his time was coming, if he couldn't escape he would soon die in the pits.

A guard rattled his sword against his cage yelling at him to come out already, he had been announced judging from the intensity of the crowds cheers, the chains linking his feet rattled as he walked out, they were long enough not to impair movement in the pit but they were far too effective in withholding freedom, he made his way into the pit and examined his opponent, a boy barely older than his body was when he had arrived here frightened and shaking, holding the weapon wrong too

He walked over to weapons rack and picked his usual weapons, a short sword and a shield. When he first arrived and was inexperienced he picked bows, staffs, spears, and different variations of swords but quickly found that if you want to experiment or learn in the pits, you die. If you want to look cool, you die. If you want to play fair, you die. So the most important thing is staying alive and anything that requires adaptation will kill you, with that lesson in mind he had always picked the short sword and a shield

The gates closed as he faced his opponent, the boy was doing his best to appear brave, it wasn't working but it did spring up some memories in him, of when he was first thrown into a pit much like this one without any weapons and everyone expecting him to die, unlike now his first battle had been a free for all and the last two people had dealt such damage to each other that they died leaving him frightened and confused, sometimes he wishes he had died that day.

He looked the boy over and saw if there was a chance of him surviving in this hell, If there was then he would wound him leaving him barely alive to claim victory by making everyone think he was dead, then the pit owners would scar his face and 'Re-Use' him in another fight. But looking at the boy, he could see that if he lived and was thrown into another pit with a more sadistic gladiator, the type who enjoyed the cheers of the crowds as they tortured their opponents, he could see if the boy met any of them even the weaker ones he would suffer he was a man of few words as there were no need for words in the pit so he said to him

"I'll make it painless." at which the boy angrily responded "Speak for yourself old man" and charged

Not bothering to get into a shield stance he used his strength advantage to forcefully push the boys sword to the side and stabbed into his chest whispering, "May your next Life be Better than this one." into the ears of the fallen boy, who shocked and scared but not in pain breathe his last.

The Crowd booed at the quick ending of the match, he would probably be flogged and starved for not having toyed with the boy, but he couldn't care, he kneeled and closed the accusing eyes even as the guard pushed him to a corner with their spears and shields, giving room for the boy's body to be taken. Once that was over, he was allowed back into his cage, to await his next match, but in the solitude he found himself whispering a question he hadn't asked in a long time

"When will it end?"

____________________________

The Tomb Of Alliel-ik-Gevas.

North.

Sheila walked low and slow with measured steps as she calculated the distance between the trap triggers in the great hall, the entire tomb had once been a grand estate belonging to a powerful mage who stories claimed had walked through worlds in his prime and had only been rivaled by the gods who had smote him just to show the heresy to their people

Tsk, damned gods. she scoffed in her head, she had always had a practical view of life, when she was on earth she had been an atheist and a firm believer that careful planning and preparation would allow someone complete any task unscathed, but that firm belief in planning and procedure had been shaken when she was sucked into this world as she examined what she had thought to be a Hebrew relic that the seller claimed had belonged to Solomon

She rolled to quickly cross the enchanted stretch of floor panels and jumped at the end of it, she was happy that she had gotten some small boosts in ability after crossing the portal as she had found that the physics and chemistry was different here causing most of her knowledge to be pointless but of that which wasn't had granted her a high level of skill at using magic because she could picture and image of what she wanted, yet the physics were different enough to make her unable to theorise the calculations necessary for spatial even reality displacement, and even if she did would she have enough power to fuel the process or identify which out of a factor of n was earth? That was why she came here, to see if anything she wanted to see if anything she found here was capable of that

Coming across a wide gap, she drew her hand across the air like she was drawing following which a green light highlighted the path her fingers followed as it formed an image in the air resembling a magic circle seen a lot in Japanese Anime which she had been a fan of. Completing the Circle she waved her hands forward causing it to scatter and slowly float forward, which caused an ice bridge to slowly form following the scattered runes, this method of magic was created by her to achieve complicated effects in real time, it was a mixture of Enchanting and Magic which allowed her to spend seconds on what would take ordinary magicians an hour. While ordinary magicians could cause elements and energy to move with will and the more powerful ones being able to do it with a single thought, but in order to cause it to create or shape itself they would have to spend hours perfecting their incantations to make sure they get it right, but her method is more like programming making the effects precise and the method quick as long as you knew what you were doing, but to make sure it wasn't copied by the other magicians she had met in this world she had used the English Alphabet then replaced the letters with symbols just in case, then had further used encryption methods like the Caesar shift cipher to hide its meaning.

At first, it had been difficult, costing her more time than this world's classical magic cost but as she grew accustomed she grew faster, till she was as proficient with her encryptions as she was English, she rushed over the platform she had just made by freezing liquid particles in the air and reinforcing with magic energy constantly running through it, the bridge was solid, but as someone deathly afraid of heights she didn't want to test that theory.

Navigating the physical traps with a trained eye from experience, she avoided the magical ones using glasses she had enchanted to spot enchantments but inspite of that she remained careful not wanting to put her life at risk, she continued on.

After quite a while, she arrived at what she presumed was the mage's lab and found an old skeleton the lying on the books as if it was sleeping, she crept past it careful not to make a sound and approached a bookshelf that was one of the many covering the room, she examined the bookshelf and sending a worried glance back at the skeleton lying there she pushed on a button hidden as a breast on a carving on the shelf, she let out a slight breath when she saw it didn't move after which she proceeded into the door revealed behind it, with a slight feeling of disorientation the cold that was habitual this far North disappeared and she found herself standing in a Large room with sunlight streaming through the windows and an impressive collection of items lying around, when she saw a few of them which she identified from their legends she was tempted to take the as they would improve her chances of survival, but any such thoughts were discouraged by her instinct which warned her that it was better to let sleeping dogs lie and only take the one thing she came for, her instinct had been able to help her survive in a new world where social order was somewhat lacking without getting enslaved, killed, or raped, so by her standards, she had pretty good instincts.

She made her way past all of them and found what she was looking for, The Mage's Staff. Most non magical and weaker magical people don't know, but most powerful mages fuse their staffs with their souls and knowledge, eliminating the need for Grimoirs and such because the staff serves such a purpose, the problem with the method is if someone gets their hands on your staff you become vulnerable to them, they have all your memories at their disposal and they can use destroying the staff to kill you

Using her enchanted glasses she examined the security enchantments protecting the staff with a little excitement, it had been Three earth years since she'd arrived here, and maybe she could finally return to the safety of her home on earth. Disabling the enchantments, she reached out to the staff and closed her eyes to examine its contents only for disappointment and anger to cover her expression, as she thought; 'the old fool mage had been able to walk worlds alright, this world!'

It turned out that the mage had been capable of teleportation using runes he carved into his body similar to the way she drew runes in the air he was able to move about freely anywhere in this world, but the procedure to acquire that ability had needed him to split his soul and endure excruciating pain, to be completely honest he had done it by accident from what she could see in the staff, she wasn't a masochist so she had no interest in excruciating pain regardless of the rewards it brings, since the teleportation although instant the runes had to be fed a constant stream of energy failing which it would become useless needing the user to redo the runes and endure the pain again.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

No Thanks.

She returned the staff to where it had been and was in the middle of beginning to examine when the place started to rumble causing her to turn around only to find that in her frustration she had triggered an enchantment while returning the staff

Fuck.

Grabbing the closest thing to her she shoved it into her bag without looking at it and ran, she was no longer worried about triggering an enchantment because they were all connected in a way that as soon as one blows they all activate, she dodged the falling debris, connected jumps using magic and pushed aside objects using energy pulses, barely making it out of the building she dived into the door she had entered through hoping to be taken back to the Ice castle but found herself lying on the other side of it stunned as the place she had just escaped from literally sunk into the bright hot yellow sand

She got herself together and looked around hoping to spot something familiar, she didn't.

She was lost.

Fuck.

_________________________

He walked the dream landscape, which appeared as it did only because he believed it to appear as it did, he was looking for the dreams from the eastern continent, so far east not many people knew about it, when he had first arrived in this world he had discovered that he had the ability to walk consciously through dreams, allowing him access to the minds of those dreaming, but dreams are a dangerous place to be, it is too easy to get lost in them forever

But he was bored, he had been imprisoned by a Nobleman whose wife he had been sleeping with and was sent to prison where he was supposed to spend the weekend, the King had made it clear that there could be no executions or long term imprisonments without his command, anyone else and they could just make the person vanish without the king hearing about it, but he was a close friend of the Kings Wife and as such was a notable figure even if he had no authority of his own

The Queen had been by when she heard he was imprisoned, but when she heard the reason she scoffed and told him she hoped this would teach him a lesson, It wouldn't ofcourse but at the moment he was insanely bored, so he decided to use his ability to playout the weekend

The Eastern Continent as he called it was a reflection of what people in his world called Xianxia as much as he could tell from their dreams, but the peculiar thing about them is that the entire continent seems to be in a sort of sleep walking trance, with only animals and plants being somewhat conscious, but all of the intelligent life he found there seemed to be stuck in a kind of dream state, he had no idea what caused it, but he didn't care, he just needed to feed off it a little and use that to create his own fantasy with him as protagonist as he always did

Maybe this time, he would become so powerful he would rule the Universe, he laughed as he entered his newly created dream saying "Fucking Xianxia"

_______________________________________

Tyler POV

It had been about three months since they arrived at Northhold, and a day less than three months since he went blind.

Yep, blind.

The first night he slept in the inn it was so comfortable compared to the hard ground and insects that he had slept deeply, deep enough not to feel the reaction his newly created magical eyes were having to the energy in his body, it had mutated the eyes and seemed to be in the middle of modifying itself somehow but had as a result taken away his vision. On the literal bright side, he could still see energy which allowed him to gain a bearing of his surroundings somewhat, but he could no longer see faces, colors and other such details.

Vali had simply grunted with disgust at the constant mutilation his magic seemed to perform and stormed out of the room, he had made sure to leave very early every day and come back late enough to not have to talk to him, He couldn't see Alexander's face but he could guess that it would be just as exasperated as Vali sounded.

Alexander had felt that since he was now blind, he needed to be kept as comfortable as possible and had started doing work around Town to raise money to keep him in the Noble's Inn. He did his best not to argue or complain since it was in fact his own meddling that had once again caused trouble and he couldn't correct it since he still couldn't access his energy, But he had found some other type of energy in the air, not as powerful or malleable as the one he used for creation inside him but it was something, and attempts to move it with his will were successful but the loss of his vision had further cemented his lack of faith in experimentation.

As some sort of consolation prize for the loss of his vision, his other senses felt heightened to abnormal levels, making him able to function as normal, he would've used it to argue as an excuse if he didn't feel so irritated at being unable to see.

The energy vision was confusing as he sometimes saw shapes where people said there wasn't anything causing him to look crazy, so he decided to ignore them but couldn't since without his actual vision he couldn't tell what was real and not.

With everyone doing their own things every day, he found himself extremely bored, so he decided to start taking walks around. Once again he found himself being followed by that girl he had seen on the first day, he couldn't see her but he could remember the nature of her energy

She seemed to be pretty bad at being a thief, as sometimes he could hear her coming as she followed him, she never tried to stay in his blind spot(Get It :sillyp1: [th_0chis.gif] , I shall reflect [th_090_.gif]  ), even if she thought he was blind she should still take care to make sure

As if to further cement his belief at her ineptitude, today she was being followed and couldn't tell, at some points it even seemed like the person was standing right beside her yet she didn't notice, until she was knocked into an alley where there were four other men waiting, to her credit though it seemed she had good instincts and instead of looking back at who had hit her she tried to manoeuvre her body midair to land outside the encirclement waiting for her, but it didn't work as the alley was originally narrow and the people below simply widened their position causing her to land in the middle of it.

The person who pushed her landed and the moment she saw his face she seemed to be painted with fear, he commanded the men to tie her up which they did, no matter how skilled she was, it was four men against one small framed girl, the result was obvious, though less obvious was that she was skilled enough to make the four men lose teeth and gain several cuts before they subdued her

The entire thing couldn't escape his energy vision, and even with the distance to the girl when the man who had pushed her began speaking he could hear them from where he had stopped, the man who pushed her began speaking

"Well, well Ishtar, fancy meeting you here, how have you been? and about the money you owe us?" he drew every word out in such a manner that it was dripping with sarcasm, which only served to fan the rage in the girls eyes

"I paid you your money, I just refused to become your slave."

The man seemed to get tired of exchanging words and changed his tone to one that seemed poisonous

"Shut up, you stupid bitch. Who helped you when you needed money huh? Who was the one who gave you a roof over your head when you stupid parents died? who taught you all those fucking skills you've been boasting about? and when I asked for something in return you decided to bail, i'm gonna have fun now, then my boys here will have fun, and when we're done i'll sell you to the boss for change"

*if you don't like 4th wall breaks just ignore the next line, I added it for my own amusement*

I sighed when I heard him, it seems that no matter what you do, you cannot escape the cliché trope, I mean, seriously author?(I ran out of original situations, mess with me and break the fourth wall again and i'll make you lose your little son in a chapter)

*over*

Looking back at the place, I wanted to walk away, I wasn't even sure what I would be able to do but if I did it would make me unable to sleep peacefully for some time. Not wanting to put my life at risk, I didn't walk up there and tell them to stop, I simply hid behind a corner and willed the energy I could see around them to move faster, it was something I had tried when I found out about the energy but I focused it around their bodies, simultaneously willing the energy just outside their range to stay dormant, it had the intended effect as I could see them moving to stop sweat from getting into their eyes, that was when I decided to come out

I walked at a measured pace to stop my legs from giving way under me and hide how terrified I was, I approached them from behind as they stopped trying to rape the girl having noticed something was going on, I got behind the man who appeared to be their leader and putting on the act I had used in Vjoirstead said

"You will find that my magic is not so easily shaken off" with my rapid aging, my voice had gotten deeper and more authoritative, and my face was now one that could command respect even with my silence so I got the desired effect, they spun around alert to find who had seen them as this alley was rather remote and led to nowhere, when they spotted me and the meaning of my words sunk in they paled, the rest of them tried to explain calling out excuses, the leader took a humble stance and started to speak causing the rest to go silent

"We apologize Sir Mage, please spare us." he didn't try to make an excuse and seemed to be the most frightened of all from the way his voice shook, I gestured towards the girl whose eyes had gone wide when she saw me, the men scrambled at my gesture to untie her, I then tilted my head towards them and stopped moving the energy around them causing them to visibly relax as they cooled down, I waved them away and they all scattered like scared rabbits

I turned around to leave, but wasn't surprised when I heard her call out to me

"Wait!" she rushed to her feet following me as she pat her clothes, "Thank you for saving me, don't mind my asking but what did you do to make scully and the boys so afraid? and can you see or are you actually blind?"

I hadn't used the heating trick on her so she had no idea what I had done, and she hadn't heard when the person she called scully had addressed me as a Mage so she was unreserved asking me, though she still kept a safe distance enough to bolt at sign of trouble

"Ishtar is it? Try to stay out of trouble." I continued walking after saying that, but she didn't seem to take the hint and continued to follow me asking questions all the way, by the time night fell she was walking right beside me telling me about something I couldn't be bothered to listen to as I walked back to the inn where we stayed, she was a very lively girl and maybe when I was in my younger form I would have liked her but now I simply found her tiring

We reached the inn and I expected her to leave, but she still followed me all the way to the room and tried to come in with me until Alexander bolted the door shut

The next day however, she was standing at the door waiting for me

It was going to be a long day.