Black, everything was black around me. There was no trace of light anywhere.
'Where the hell am I?'
Apart from not being able to see anything, I also could not hear any sound nearby. I did not understand absolutely anything of what had happened and my anxiety began to grow as time passed. As if that weren't enough, my stomach was upset, my body was numb and my mind was clouded. The situation was suffocating and claustrophobic.
I tried to stay calm and cool, but fear had already seeped into my body, subtly altering my reasoning. I had to start moving before my mind became completely broken.
'First I need to calm down a bit…'
I lightly punched myself on the forehead, trying to focus my thoughts. There was no night so dark as to block my vision in such a way. Nor did I think I had gone blind or had anything on my face to cover my eyes. Everything indicated that I was in a closed place.
I reached out my arm, trying to feel the ground and know what kind of surface I was on. What I found was not a hard ground, but a soft lump into which my hand sunk slightly.
"Waaaaaaaa!"
I immediately raised my hand as I heard that sudden scream, not quite understanding what had just happened. With my mind still in a mess, I moved back my hand and squeezed hard right there.
"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"
The scream was heard even louder.
"Ah!"
I made a silly noise after more or less have an idea of where I had put my hand. My brain restored its function and went back in time, until the moment my life turned upside down...
If my memory was not wrong, both the silver-haired girl and I were terribly beaten and her sword fell right in front of me… From that moment forward everything became terribly confused. What I did remember perfectly was that she passed out next to me. If she was still there...
'I think I'm in trouble…', I sighed, not realizing that I had forgotten to raise my hand and was still squeezing that lump.
"What do you think are touching?! Stupid, idiot, pervert!"
I scrambled to the side, trying to avoid a predictable blow. Thanks to being in complete darkness, if I kept quiet and hid, I could probably avoid it… or maybe not. A heavy kick, which many martial artists wish to have, hit me in the stomach. I ended up writhing in pain on the floor.
"Do you want to kill me?!", I yelled at her as soon as I could get up.
"It's your own fault!"
"Don't you see that it was an accident? We are completely in the dark, do you really think I was able to put my hand there intentionally? I just was here by chance!"
"You shouldn't be here!"
"You can't blame me for that… Fuck, how the hell could you be so precise if you can't see anything at all?"
"Don't compare my eyes with those of a simple human, I can see even if there is no light."
'What is this crazy girl saying?'
"There is no light on this planet!"
Hearing her screaming like the crazy she was, my headache got worse. I'd been trying to calm myself down, but her nonsense was doing the opposite.
"So, how easy is traveling to another planet…"
"It's not easy! Normally it takes a lot to jump between worlds, but my sword is special."
"Your sword…"
Remembering that completely black sword gave me a chill. The moment I touched it a strange smoke entered my body and…
'Ouch!'
My head pain increased as I thought again about what had happened in that instant.
—Moron.
I almost jumped on the spot when I heard a distorted voice. I foolishly looked sideways despite knowing that I couldn't see anything.
'What the hell was that? I have imagined it… right?'
Since I had touched that sword something seemed to be wrong with my head, but hearing voices was already disturbing.
'I'm going crazy… This girl is spreading her madness to me…'
But at the same time that I was enduring that headache, the clouds that filled part of my consciousness began to dissipate and the nausea disappeared completely. Still, I felt weird, like part of my body didn't belong entirely to me.
"Its name is Vurtalis and it has the power to open portals between worlds and let people travel from… Are you listening to me?!"
That girl finally realized that I had been lost in my thoughts and wasn't caring about whatever she was saying.
"Yes, yes… You were saying that your incredible sword can open holes in the space, or something like that… Anything else?"
"Of course. Vurtalis is a unique sword. It can absorb the power of its wielder and channel into itself, increasing its power."
It was at that moment that I noticed that something was changing. The darkness around me seemed to be fading along with the clouds in my head. I began to be able to see the faint shape of all around me.
"Its blade is so sharp that…"
And that girl still was speaking of her sword.
"Are you trying to convince me or just bragging about your weapon?"
I interrupted her, tired of listening to nonsense. I care nothing or less about that sword. What I really wanted to know was where I was and what was happening to me.
"Stupid, if you ask something at least finish listening!"
Every minute I could see better and, despite not being able to perfectly see, at least I was already able to distinguish the girl before me. Since I hadn't paid much attention to her in the forest, I slightly observed how she looked.
'She is quite tall, almost as tall as me. About 170 centimeters?'
She had a slender body that proudly wore a strange sleeveless dress without anything covering her back. It closed behind her neck and at the middle back, from where it extended into four pieces of cloth that hung freely down to her feet. Her lower part of the body was wearing tight shorts, which completely revealed her thighs, followed by something similar to stockings that went above the knees, and her feet were covered by some kind of dark purple boots.
'I have to admit that she is quite attractive…'
And of course, one can't forget that pair of fluffy and huge… wings… When I saw them I couldn't help but raise my hand and touch her feathers to check if they were real… which she didn't seem to like very much...
"Again?! Is it normal in your world to go touching a girl's body without permission?! Depraved!"
Right away, she knocked my hand away and threw another kick at me.
'Oh shit!'
Almost instinctively I jumped back, avoiding being hit by just a few millimeters.
"Eh? Did you dodge it? How have you…?"
"I'm starting to see a bit, so there is no way I'm going to stand still waiting to get kicked."
"But this is impossible, you are human!"
"Did you come to that conclusion by yourself?"
"No, stupid!"
"Didn't you come by yourself?"
For a moment saw a shadow under her eyes, which had turned into a demon's.
"Humans can't see in the dark!"
"Seriously?! I didn't know that!"
And now I saw the devil itself.
"One moment..."
Suddenly her expression changed and approached me less than a foot, without taking her eyes off me.
"There is not much, but I feel dark energy in your body. How is that possible?!"
"How the hell could I know?!"
I refrained from pushing her with all my might and just leaned back, covering my ears. She almost made me deaf with her scream.
"Maybe… Did when you touched Vurtalis absorbed a part of my power contained in it?!"
"I repeat, I don't know!"
And my headache, which was just beginning to fade away, came back because of her. I flopped down on the ground with my arm across my forehead. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and go home at once…
"Whatever, it's bad for both of us. Ah, I know what we can do! Follow me, we will go to my house."
"Normally I would be delighted by such a proposal from a girl, but coming from you it doesn't seem like a good idea…"
"Don't think I'm glad to have a human in my house!"
"Then, better let me get back to mine."
"I would be delighted to get you out of here right now, but for your sake, I can't let you go back like you are now, they will kill you!"
"Who and why?"
"Do you remember that girl from before? Her kin are called katryde, they are all crazy!"
'You also are…'
Of course I remembered her. There was no way I could forget her… especially that glare he gave me at the last moment. She certainly seemed to want to kill me.
"She's probably still around, and I doubt she's alone. You saw how she tried to kill me and didn't care much that you were in the middle. If you come back with that dark energy in your body there is no doubt that she will go straight for you. But don't worry, I'm sure my father will know what to do about it."
"I understand…"
"Then shut up and follow me without complaining."
"Yes, mom…", I replied, with a resigned sigh.
The truth was that I didn't understand anything and I didn't think I was able to understand anything she said, so I just gave up and decided to follow her. Not that I had many more options...
Apparently, we had fallen a short distance from her home, so we had to walk for a while. As time went on, my vision continued to improve until I fully recovered. At last, I was able to distinguish everything around me perfectly.
I was skeptical about the otherworldly part from the start but ended up forcing myself to believe it after a close look at everything around me. The terrain itself was not very different from my world, but the plants were nothing like the ones I knew. The grass was mostly red or purple, and the trees that we crossed in many cases not even had leafs, but despite looking dead, some had fruits.
I felt like I was in hell itself. Also, I couldn't really see anything that provided the slightest bit of light. There wasn't even a single star in a sky that seemed to have been swallowed by the night itself. My mental integrity was already at its limit for a long time and nothing changed to improve it. This whole place defied common logic.
'Where are we supposed to go? And more important, what will happen to me? Can I really return?', I wondered, nervously.
I lowered my gaze to her waist, where her sword rested, which, according to her, she could open gates between worlds. In the forest, I was attracted to it to the point where my whole body wanted it at any cost… Now, I was simply intrigued by its strange appearance, but it was still a chilling piece of metal that I preferred to get away from as much as possible.
I took my attention away from the sword and glanced directly at her face. The sour expression she wore had turned into a warm smile. That surprised me. Somehow, she looked even happy.
'What the hell is going through her mind?'
We advanced in silence. I couldn't help but constantly give her some sideways glares from time to time.
'She really is not human… is she?'
Bright red eyes and silvery hair that almost seemed to compete with the moon. Characteristics that one would never see in a human. Her appearance was somehow sinister and attractive at the same time.
'Well, if it weren't for those wings maybe she could pass for a human to some degree.'
After not much time she noticed my indiscreet glaze.
"What? Do you like my wings that much?"
She flapped her wings a little, proving once and for all that they were real.
"Or maybe you have a strange fetish with wings? Pervert..."
"No, is just that… they are strange to me."
"Right, I suppose people with wings are not very common in your world."
'They don't exist directly!'
"To all this, I still haven't introduced myself. I am Raidha Siphil, princes of the silphen."
Hearing the word princess it was as if something collapsed on me with all its weight. She could not be the typical pampered princess of the palace… No! She had to be a princess who goes to a catfight to another world and drag with her a poor boy who had nothing to do with her conflicts.
"Which reminds me that you haven't introduced yourself either."
"I…"
While I was processing the information and weighing the problems that this girl could cause to me in the future, she was waiting for an answer with her eyes sparkling in anticipation.
"... You can call me Drayd. Just Drayd…"
In the rush of the moment, I answered with the first name that came to my mind.
"Just Drayd, eh? What a weird name, ha, ha, ha."
"Yours isn't very normal either, Raidha Siphil."
And while she laughed happily at my self-proclaimed name, we continued walking with a very different atmosphere than when we met. Even a slight smile accidentally formed on my face.