Eat them, flay them, skin them or torture them.
Bring out any of the torture methods from the book.
Saw them, cut them, burn them and break them.
The defeat was destined for you filthy crook.
The sky hung over the raft, with the sun suspended in high noon. The sweltering heat was enough to kill someone heavily dressed. Due to the sun's current mood, the clouds were nowhere to be found.
In the middle of a calm sea, a boy lay on a raft built of pine wood. The raft had various facilities built upon it, a fishing area, a chair, a table, and several more things of diverse uses. Anyways, the boy looked young, around the ages of 9 and 11. He wore decrepit attire consisting of woven seaweed and bad ideas. His soot grey hair complimented his cerulean eyes to form a slightly good look. As if suddenly hearing a voice in his head, he started talking.
The voice was like a father figure towards the boy. It was with him throughout his life on the raft, teaching him to fish, to speak, and telling him stories of the world beyond the sea. The boy had always considered the voice as his caretaker, thus putting his absolute trust in him. But that doesn't change the fact he treats the voice more like a friend than a father.
"Well, of course, I do. And in return, you granted me a hidden power and perfect immortality right? Well, can I undo the contract? Immortality feels more like a curse than a blessing."
"Thought so."
The ancient child sulked. He has been alive for an unfathomable amount of time. Back then eternal life seemed like a good deal but living eternally has its drawbacks. Huge drawbacks. For one, the contract would last forever and he'd have to spend his entire infinite life doing the favors. And he's yet to start a single of them. To add to the drawbacks, he spent his entire life thus far living a repetitive life on a raft. He can't remember exactly how long it was but he'd say it was definitely more than a decade, and each day of his life is spent in 3 stages: catch fish, eat fish, and sleep. If he had to keep that up ad nauseam for the rest of his "life" then he'd rather die.
Over the many years, the boy has heard many stories from the voice. Stories of many strange contraptions, devices, and beings. Tales of gods that sundered the lands, tales of heroes defeating demons, and tales of… well, everything. Yet he never witnessed anything. His greatest wish was to find a way off the raft, but, in the end, all he ever saw was the lifeless sea, and the rough texture of the logs forming his raft.
"You know, you always tell me that I was learning all these things for a good reason, but the reason never came. When will I have a chance to do something other than sitting on a raft all day?"
He asked. Over the years the number of times he had asked the same question had accumulated beyond 1,000. Slowly, the meaning behind the question changed from "When will I get off this raft" to "When will my life have a purpose". He didn't know when the meaning changed, nor his feelings for the raft, all he knew was that he didn't want to live the life he was living.
<-Here's where your contract truly starts. >
"What?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a hustling and bustling medieval street. People were excited about the coming of a new hero. A cacophony of joyous cheers rang out in awe. The walls were lined with stalls hoping to sell or peddle their wares. Behind the stalls, were buildings made of cobble and wood. Buildings with a multitude of signs like "Inn" or "Tavern". Yet, the crowd was here for a different reason. Recently, this country was attacked by a powerful and malicious demon king, which summoned a malevolent army to terrorize the living. So the King has been trying, with the help of his mages and ancient texts, to summon a hero from another world. Everyone from every state gathered around the medieval castle. A huge magical broadcast was floating around castle walls. Deep under the castle grounds, lay a ritualistic circle painted with glowing paint. It was a strange magic circle, pulsating as if it had a heart, it looked otherworldly. Its location was equally uncanny, the underground basement of a castle. Then, the circle began to vibrate. A glimmering light danced from the circle. In its radiance, a brilliant flash erupted and the circle vanished.
Puzzled looks were painted on the crowd of people watching the broadcast. Suddenly, from the smoke, three voices resonated. All three sounded confused, but for different reasons. Out of the three voices, the third sounded the oldest (and wisest) among the three, the crowd recognized him as the grand sorcerer who worked to the bone to find magic strong enough to summon people from another world, such diligence had earned the public's respect. Then it became clear who was making the first two voices. The broadcast was swiftly adjusted to display two people in the corner of the room. The first one was a black-haired and fair-skinned boy with dark brown eyes. He was standing up with his back slightly bent, his eyes scanned the room to pick up any information it could get. He wore his hair in a way that could only be described as slightly wild, and he was dressed in a student's attire. With a confused demeanor, he looked at the other voice.
The second voice's source was identified. A grey-haired boy with cerulean eyes lay down on the floor in a relaxed position. The boy broke out into a gasp as he quickly straightened his back, sat up, and began to ruminate on his current circumstances. As if asking for answers to his current situation, he looked to the sorcerer.
A simple conclusion was drawn out by the crowd. The long-awaited hero had finally been summoned! Demons would finally stop terrorizing their country, the rivers would run with gold, famine would disappear never to rear its ugly head again. Finally, they would be saved.
With a voice resembling crackling chestnuts, the sorcerer cleared up the situation.
"Beyond the shadow of a doubt, the grey-haired person isn't the one we wanted to summon. But anyone sent by the goddess is a friend of ours. You may aid the hero in his quest."
Right off the bat, the boy's first impressions of these people weren't so good. He had heard from the voice at some point of the existence of people who believed in "Gods and Goddesses". He always thought that very belief was silly. Believing you would achieve salvation by simply being a good person and donating money at a "church". You could say he was an atheist but that would be contradictory. After all, he believed in a god, just not a traditional one. He believed in Voice.
Finally understanding the situation, the first voice mumbled to himself, "I… I got reincarnated?"
A person dressed in iron armor marched into the basement. As if rehearsed, the knights instructed Dawn and the other two people to follow them. They walked up a spiral staircase and finally came to a halt at an enormous door. The grey-haired boy and the other kid were feeling skeptical but opened the door anyway.
The setting is a throne room. The walls were towering and emanated regality thanks to its gold lining, paintings, lamps, and mosaic art. Guards were stationed around the room forming a line as if they were welcoming someone important and a mage broadcasted the scene using magic so that the many, many villagers outside could see the new Hero and the King. The King sat on a throne that stood above the two kids. The King emanated an aura of superiority. He sat at the very peak of the hierarchy. Usually, any normal person would be kneeling under the crushing pressure of the atmosphere but the grey-haired boy didn't understand hierarchies. Nor did he understand the speech the King was ever-so-earnestly giving. But under the instructions of the guards, he knelt.
"So… erm… Voice.. How exactly do I do the first favor?"
Completely ignoring the King's inspiring speech, he was busy chatting away with the voice in his head. He didn't understand the contract that was made many years ago, so he had to question the voice.
"Ok…?"
Walk him through till the end. If the timeline is alright then nothing should go wrong for him. Unless of course, sabotage. Deities usually like to screw with the timeline of a dimension to create mass extinction events. And let's just say I don't have many good relationships with evil deities.
The King raised his hand in a slow, yet condescending fashion and pointed to the summoned hero. In a voice that sounded ever so regal, said:
"Hero, you may pick three of the people inside this room. They will become your subordinates for your upcoming quest."
The black-haired boy bowed. He turned his head to inspect the room, turning his head and scanning his surroundings. It seemed as if he was trying to assess each person in the room. He saw many knights lined up in an orderly fashion which piqued his interest. Carefully, he walked by the line and, like a hawk, inspected the faces of each knight one-by-one. Finally, he settled on a knight that looked significantly burlier than the rest, the mage who was broadcasting the whole thing, and the grey-haired boy who was summoned with him.
"Yep. I have no combat experience whatsoever."
Swiftly, the boy replied to the voice with disdain. Although it was pretty lucky to get close to the dimension's center so quickly, the hero he was supposed to protect had some pretty bad taste. That prideful attitude and arrogant tongue might get his team killed.
"My name is Nikko Sol Tuceal, nice to meet you."
The young boy paused. He took a second to think, and then he asked,
"What's an alias?"
Up until now, in the past many years, The boy didn't even need to use names at all, much less an alias. In fact, he had forgotten the concept of names. The only person he spent time with for the past many years was the disembodied voice that spoke directly through his head and just simply called it "voice". Thus, the concept of names was foreign to him.
His thoughts were suddenly cut off.
"What's happening at dawn?"
Although the naming was abrupt, Dawn understood that the voice wasn't going to budge. Accepting the situation, Dawn decided to ask about aliases.
"So what's an alias?"
"Got it,"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was 5' in the afternoon. Dawn had broken off from Nikko's party to run a few errands that were given to him. The sun watched him from high in the sky as it cast its rays of warmth upon the citizens of the capitol. Buildings made of bricks and paint surrounded the streets and sheltered the citizens. With a lively attitude, he voiced his concerns.
"So erm… Voice? Although in the past years on that raft, you taught me the basics on living right?"
Using his knowledge from the various stories that the voice told him, he concluded.
"And this favor will be dangerous and might even lead to my death, correct?"
Dawn pressured and pressed, to realize it was all in vain. Voice was doing this on purpose in a way specifically to mess with Dawn. This kind of jesting was common among the two.
"Couldn't you at least teach me how to fight, or give me a weapon?"
His combat experience was limited to using a fishing rod and gutting fish. He had no idea how to swing a sword or fire a bow. The concept of weapons was also pretty foreign to him.
"How'd you know this stuff? I thought you were just some random voice going around granting people immortality?"
The voice always seemed to know the locations of things, without actually looking. He always wondered how this weird voice could do things like that. But he didn't give it much thought. After all, he knew he could trust the voice.
"Oh… ok?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a busy street. It was around 6' in the afternoon when the streets were filled to the brim with people looking around trying to find something to satiate their hunger. Something to remove the aches and pains of work in the morning before they have to go back. In these concrete paved roads, many hungry workers wander the area of this medieval town. With the pavements riddled with stall owners and barbeques, they quickly found what they wanted to eat. Suddenly, a vivid sound of smashing pottery is heard. A strange grey-haired boy just smashed a pot containing a strangely, blue-colored plant on the floor. Out of this pot, a black-colored ornate-looking, L-shaped object fell out. Its leather grip emphasized its ornate head. At the front of said head, was a hole. He picked up the strange black object with a puzzled look on his face and spoke to himself.
"Err, Voice. This IS a weapon right?"
He fiddled around with the strange object. This curious object was one that the voice had never mentioned before. Usually, the weapons that the voice described were simple but this weapon looked intricate. It looked like an object that couldn't be made with this world's current knowledge yet it was still here in his hand. This very object seemed to be an anomaly in the world. He just couldn't figure out how it works.
< I believe that this is what the people of the 21's century call a "WE M9A1 BERETTA" or better known as a "gun" >
"Two questions, firstly how'd something from the 21st century get here? Actually when exactly is the 21st century?"
To Dawn, this was how the voice usually acted. Keeping discreet, explaining little to his origins or the origins of his knowledge. The voice was wise, but he was a suspicious identity. How could he know all of this? How did he create a "gun"? All of this was too mysterious, but the voice had been with him ever since the beginning. There was simply no way someone who spent around many years of their life raising a child could be a bad person. Dawn decided to shift his focus to the "gun".
"Secondly, how do I use this? Do I just point this weird hole thing and just it fires? Wait what's this weird little thi-"
Bang! The gun fired straight through a nearby pot, launching soil and hard clay in every direction. The sound of furious ringing rang in Dawn's ears. Taking the full brunt force of the consequences of his reckless action, he wiped off some of the dirt and plant of his shirt and trousers. The feeling of bits of grub and worms was very unpleasant.
"Well, then I'll save the rest for later," Dawn replied while putting the gun away. He then started to walk back to the village center. The rest of Nikko's gang was waiting for him at a horse-drawn cart at the town square. It was supposed to be parked by a water fountain. After a little bit of wandering, eventually, he saw the cart.
"Yo Don! You got the swords and minor equipment I asked for? That is your name, right? Don?"
"It's Dawn"
Dawn replied accordingly. The party of 4 was packing up for a quest. The mage suggested traveling west as there would be way fewer monsters in that direction but Nikko declined. He explained how he had to "kill monsters" for "EXP points" to "level up". But nobody understood what he meant. In the end, they settled on traveling north and heading to a city up north known as Clore. It was going to be a lengthy trip, estimated to be around 2 weeks if they traveled continuously without rest. So they decided to take a shortcut through a forest named Lunarport which was well known for its bizarre occurrences at night. It's notorious for its reputation of people getting lost or disappearing inside the forest which is why not many people venture into the forest. Most of the strange occurrences happened in the middle of the forest nicknamed Harry's Pass. It is believed a rare species of trees that could teleport organic material grew in Harry's Pass but evidence of this claim hasn't come up yet. Especially since the locals of nearby towns keep it a secret because teleported tourism buys more. But since Nikko was with them they decided to go anyways. They also planned their route to go around Harry's Pass as a safety precaution to avoid anyone being teleported.
From their conversations, Dawn picked up a few points of information. One, the names of the other two party members were revealed. The mage was named Gantz and the guard was named Sykes.
Gantz was a pretty experienced mage who started magic school at the age of 12. She used to raise geese on a farm working with geese. She was a woman who looked between the ages of 20 to 30. Her auburn hair, dark-red eyes, fair complexion, and calm demeanor came together to form the image of a model mage. Her robes were a turquoise color, and she wielded a staff of wood and iron.
Sykes, on the other hand, was a knight. Dressed in an attire comprised of chainmail and armor, Sykes had an aura of an experienced knight. His blonde hair was covered in dirt and his emerald-green eyes seemed to say that he was an experienced veteran. The only thing that hinted at Sykes being a veteran knight more than his eyes was a long scar running between his cheek to his neck. Sykes enjoyed learning swordplay as his father had great expectations of him. Either way, they were probably going to be important.
The second piece of information was a magic power Nikko received when he got Isekai'd. Oh, and Nikko is now dressed in heavy armor and he wielded an iron greatsword. Whenever he is standing in sunlight or light in general, he gets magical light powers. He didn't necessarily specify what light powers but he gets it anyway. After that explanation of Nikko's power, the group set off on a long journey. Unfortunately, the area they were currently in was relatively dark, so the party had to hold lanterns to charge up Nikko's powers.
"Hey, hey, hey! Dawn, you're yet to say a single thing throughout this entire cart ride!"
Sykes said aloud,
"I mean, the discussion is the first time any of us broke a bone and you're yet to speak!"
"I live on a raft in the middle of the sea."
"Wow really? That's a very convincing joke!" Sykes said in the most sarcastic tone possible. The gang of four was on a horse-drawn cart heading to a northern city. Currently, it was moving through a dark, but glimmering forest. A distinct smell of humid air and a smell similar to sweet berries filled the air. The forest was riddled with life, unlike anything Dawn has seen before. The trees had twisted bark and purple leaves. The branches of these twisted trees ended with a strange fruit that glowed as if it was covered in bioluminescent paint. The forest floor had strange plants of many types and it was riddled with insects, small animals, and dead leaves.
The sound of chirping from insects and birds rang out through the forest, asserting their existence. Said birds seemed to feed off of the bulbs hanging off the trees. Dawn had heard of birds from the voice, but he had never actually seen one. Seeing these living things filled him with ecstasy.
He was used to an oceanic setting, so one with so much life was… So the group was passing time with conversations. Nikko wasn't in the discussion because he was too busy keeping watch ahead with his lantern. After all, Nikko was also very excited. He too had wished to be summoned to another world.
Although he had never experienced this feeling first-hand, he had read about it in a lot of ancient texts. He had always dreamed of being summoned to another world, so he was confident. He knew the first thing he had to do was either to make a powerful weapon namely a gun or discover and develop his powerful sunlight powers. This setting made him feel nostalgic. Oh, how he would miss those texts. A party of 4 traveling by horse-drawn cart. It reminded him of an Isekai Light Novel. Suddenly, an unsettling feeling swept over Nikko.
"Hey, coachman can you turn…-coachman?"
Nikko turned to face the driver of the aforementioned horse-drawn carriage. The coachman had a fatigued look painted on his visage. The coachman was a man in his late 70s with hair that was turning white and grey. He wore a straw hat and raggedy clothing and until recently, a calm demeanor. But now, he's asleep.
"Hey everyone let's camp out. The coachman's asleep." Nikko exclaimed.
Unpacking their supplies, the party began to set up tents and start fires. They decided to camp out for the night due to the coachman's fatigue. Although the forest canopy was too dense, the party knew it was night. Nikko, using his light powers, had constructed a sundial-like object made of light.
Eventually, the sundial struck midnight. Dawn was trying to sleep. He angled his body to get a view out of the tent and watched the forest. Nikko had created light alarms as a precautionary measure. In the event a bloodthirsty beast was to invade the camp, the light alarms would flash an intense amount of light at the sleeping party members. Anyways, he was feeling particularly alert. He had a strange feeling. An unsettling one. Almost as if he knew something bad would go wrong. Suddenly, he sighted something moving inside the forest.
Quickly grabbing his gun, Dawn got out and started to follow the mysterious figure. He didn't alert the camp in case the strange figure was just a hallucination. Embarrassing himself in front of his first companions in many years is something he'd rather not do. Running through the forest, Dawn came to a grinding halt. There, a strange astral entity stood. By a large purple tree with a glowing hole in the middle, was the thing.
"Do you know where we are?"
The astral being spoke. Its color was a cerulean kind of blue, similar to Dawn's eyes. There was a ghostly woman, dressed in a long flowing transparent dress. Her eyes were black beads and she emanated a calming aura.
"Do you know where we are?"
Dawn didn't know how he should've replied. He was too captivated by the woman. Walking closer, he felt something off.
"Do you know where we are?"
Dawn, I don't think you should do this.
Suddenly Dawn snapped back. He looked at the tree again and noticed the hole in the tree didn't seem to have an ending. Ignoring the woman for a bit, he went to inspect the hole. Bending forward, he looked deep into the hole to notice there was no end to it. The hole itself glowed with bioluminescent light and the woman started to sound agitated.
"Dawn watch out! You're inside dangerous territory! This is Harry's Pass!"
Dawn turned around to see Gantz and Sykes rushing towards him. Nikko followed loosely behind the party but then stumbled over. Suddenly, a sharp impact made contact with his back. Turning around, he locked eyes with the woman, who was now dressed in strange transparent rags. Unlike the earlier, she now seemed opaque underneath the ghostly cloak. The woman started to disappear as Dawn lost his balance and started to fall.
"Goodbye"
She seemed to mouth, but Dawn couldn't tell. He had already fallen too far down the rabbit hole…