Nick awoke with a start, his heart racing and in a pool of sweat. It was like a bad dream... But he had been through too much to think that it actually was a dream. Though, right now, he wished it was. Currently it was 4:50 in the morning on a Tuesday, it was hard for him to think of going to school after all that had happened.
Physically he was fine, mentally he was exhausted and shaken. There was no way he was going to get back to sleep if he tired to, he knew that much. He also knew that by now both Will and Zach were probably dead and he would have to live knowing that he got them killed. They wouldn't have taken that quest if it wasn't for his personal vendetta. Nick growled in frustration and slammed his fist against the wall beside his bed, sending out a loud thud that would surely wake his parents.
"Where... are we?"
For how long Nick and Azara had been partners Nick had never told her about being from another world, always making sure to let her go back to the underworld before he woke up. This time he was brought back unexpectedly, not given the chance to get rid of her. Ah, shit, this is just what I needed right now. To explain my ability to seemingly hop dimensions in my sleep. Wonderful.
"It's a bit hard to explain relatively because I don't know myself, but this is my home. A world without magic, a world of science and technology."
"No, this world has magic. It is not as plentiful as where we were before but I can feel the presence of magic. Why is this my first time hearing about this?"
"You are a lot less surprised than I expected..."
"Well, I have been alive a long time and seen a lot of stuff. Granted, this is my first time seeing something like this. My point is, even if I may be surprised I usually don't really show it. Now, can you answer my question?"
"It was just easier to keep it a secret, it is usually a pain in the ass to explain to someone that you are from a different world. You should have seen me trying to explain to the royal guard captain that I was from another world, that woman is extremely hard to convince of anything she doesn't already believe in."
"Yeah, humans are like that. Well, it isn't like I can choose not to believe you after actually seeing it myself."
"You're gonna have to go now, it will be a bit of a hassle if I have to explain to my parents why I am wearing an armored glove."
"Aw, you're no fun. I wanted to meet your parents." Azara fake pouted before letting out a slight chuckle. "Alright, I'll head back now. No more keeping secrets though or I'll make sure to put you in a bunch of awkward positions in front of your parents."
"Please don't..."
"We will see." And with that Azara left, disappearing after becoming engulfed in flames. As if on cue Nick's door swung open as his groggy mother walked in.
"What was that banging, dear?" Faith asked, rubbing her eyes.
"Ah, I rolled out of bed. Don't worry, I'm fine."
"Oh... Alright, well, now that I'm up you want me to get started on an early breakfast?"
"You can get some sleep, I'll just relax until our normal breakfast time."
"I don't think I will be able to get back to sleep but I will try. You should try to get back to sleep too, otherwise you might be tired at school." Faith left her son's room and closed the door.
Nick knew there was no way he was going to get back to sleep. He also wasn't too worried about being tired at school, so far he was a straight A student thanks to his homeschooling being a higher level than what he was currently learning in school. It won't do me any good to worry about Will and Zach now, they are either dead or imprisoned and I have no way to get to them if they were imprisoned. All I can do now is focus all of my effort on getting even stronger to one day take that woman out.
As Nick thought this images of his last fight rushed through his head, his demonic transformation. That form... It is different than anything I have ever experienced. I guess that is what I get when I let Azara flood me with her demonic energy. I wonder if some day I will be able to replicate it? I don't think it is out of the realm of possibility.
Nick sighed and stood up, heading to his bathroom to take a shower. A hot shower would wake him up and energize him, he needed it after last night. Even though he was technically fully rested he really wished he could just pass out and actually sleep for a couple of hours. While being able to travel to a different world at night had its many upsides it also had its downsides. With every blessing comes an equal curse, that is how the universe balances itself.
After an hour long shower Nick got dressed in his workout clothes and made his way to the home gym. He had enough time today that he could really push himself, It had been a while since he had truly pushed his limits. The weights in the home gym weren't that heavy to him anymore so it took a long time to actually get to a point where he felt that muscle tightness that meant he had a good workout. Regardless he never missed a morning workout, even if it didn't do much to build muscle. You use it or you lose it and Nick really didn't like the idea of losing any of the strength he had gained.
After a quick breakfast he rode his bike to school, the weather was finally tolerable enough for him to be able to do it without getting frostbite. The whole day at school he was out of it, though. He couldn't take his mind off of last night, when he got beaten to unconsciousness and his comrades had almost certainly been killed. If he had gone alone he would have been captured, he wondered if that would have been better than bringing two young men to their death for his own selfish desires. Those two dying was his fault in his mind and nobody would be able to change his opinion on that.
"I'm a fucking Idiot..." He mumbled to himself as he made his way back home on his bike. Once home he worked out again to take his mind off of his own guilt, though it didn't work for more than a minute or two at a time. YouTube proved to be a much better way to distract himself but even that didn't work too well. Eventually he went to bed, realizing that it was inevitable that he would have to go back to that world and face the consequences of his halfhearted crusade.
Once he came to on the hard, cold floor his body was instantly racked with pain from the injuries sustained in his battle. He instantly put his demonic energy and healing magic to work to fix all of the damage his struggle did to his body. The instant pain relief was enough that he was able to stand up without groaning in pain too loudly. After quickly looking around he was able to tell that nobody was around... but it was strange. There was not a single sign of the battle that had taken place.
It was like him and his party were never here, all the blood and damage to the floor was completely gone. If there was one thing Nick had to admire about his enemy it would be how fast they can clean and fix a place. But he had no time to admire their work as he needed to get out of here quickly and quietly before he was noticed. That is exactly what he did, too. He made a quiet dash for the front door, once outside he picked up the pace at the price of making a lot more noise.
It felt wrong to just leave like he was doing but he had no choice, no matter what he could try to do he didn't stand a chance against those people unless he got stronger. He would be stupid to think that he could survive against monsters like them on sheer willpower and good intentions alone. He had to improve a lot, that much was clear. And he knew that going to the gym by himself clearly was not enough to make him stronger. He would need to take drastic measures, throwing himself in harm's way and hoping he comes out alive in hopes of growing stronger.
Though, while he was willing to put his life on the line he realized it would be suicidal to try to take another A-rank quest at his current skill level. He would need to stick to B-rank monster hunting quests and maybe bounties when he got a bit more confident in his skills. He wanted to get strong enough to take on people like Sabrina and her guards so obviously he couldn't avoid quests just because they are dangerous. Though he knew at this point it was probably just his desperation talking, he would have to think more about it at a later date. Like when he got far, far, far away from this woman and her henchmen.
He quickly made his way back to the cart they brought here, a cart that was pulled by two horses. Luckily they had taught Nick the basics of how to drive the cart but he was by no means good at it. After a few minutes of fumbling around he eventually got the cart turned and back on the road to the capital. Now he just had to face his worst fear, being alone with his thoughts for hours on end. Though he figured he could just talk to Azara, it was better than silence.
Once Azara materialized on his hand in glove form she instantly started talking. "I see you got out of that place fine." She said, talking normally since they were alone.
"Yeah, it was a bit strange though. The place was fixed up and cleaned like we were never even there. Luckily there were no guards or anything there either so getting out was easy. I just need to hope that I can get far away from here and not get caught." Nick replied.
"If they don't know that you came back then you likely have nothing to worry about. But, hey, if all else fails you can just get yourself knocked out again!"
"Funny. If they know what happened last time they will probably try to capture me without knocking me out first. Or they will just kill me."
"What happens if you die anyway? How does that work with your whole situation?"
"You ask that like I would know..."
"Do you really know that little about your own ability?"
"All I know is that my body seems to stay in my bed when I go to sleep in that world and this one disappears when I go to sleep in this one. Though, there are a few exceptions. When I was in a coma on earth, my home world, this body stayed here even when I went to sleep because my body on earth was stuck unconscious. If I died in this world... I don't know, maybe I just wouldn't be able to come here anymore? I don't want to test it in order to find out however, I am working under the assumption that death is carried over between worlds."
"Probably the safe assumption. So that is all you know about your ability, huh?"
"Well, that and whichever world I am not in seems to move at half speed."
"That doesn't make any sense, but I guess it is convenient. It is quite literally like you are living two lives."
"Yeah, the fact that I can't exactly sleep is a bit exhausting in itself but you get used to it."
"Maybe it is like astral projection?"
"Astral what?"
"You know what an out of body experience is, right? It is kind of like that. Maybe you did it by accident and your soul travels to this world when it happens? Though it seems unlikely, I don't think it is possible to have a physical body like you have when you are doing astral projection."
"An interesting theory, probably the one that makes the most sense out of anything I have tried to come up with over these past few months." Nick sighed. "You can come out of glove form, it's strange talking to a glove. Not like we are near any towns or anything right now."
Nick's gloved hand burst into flames, the flames traveling besides him and growing in size until they revealed Azara in her normal humanoid form. "My body is so stiff, I hate being an object for so long." She said as she stretched, putting her feet up in front of her with a sigh.
"Yeah, well, it is a sacrifice you have to make for now. Maybe if I ever become a famous adventurer I won't have to hide you. A demon walking around isn't exactly going to put people at ease at this point in my adventure, though." Nick looked over at Azara, a thought crossing his mind. "What happens if you die?"
"What?" She asked as she looked at him with a confused expression.
"If you die. Or if any familiar dies, really. Are you just dead for good?"
"Not really, no. My soul never technically leaves the underworld so If I die my body is just transported back to the underworld to heal for a while. It is similar for other summons. There are some exceptions to the rule, I might tell you about those one day but not for a while."
"Huh, alright. Well, let's just hope neither of us die for now."
"Yeah, I can get behind not dying." Azara said with a laugh as the two of them continued on their journey back to the capital city.