PoV Diego
These demons were very different from what I expected. They were more similar to zombies than demons.
There weren't many on my side, thankfully. The disappointing part was how weak they were.
'How did those guys get so injured while fighting here?'
I was thinking of the insects I saw the day before.
That was the first thing that came to mind.
I noticed that the cut-off heads were still "alive," if they could ever be considered so, while the body was definitely not moving anymore.
Another disappointing part was that even when I missed their neck, if I managed to hit their helmet with enough strength, their heads would fly off.
Once I reached the metal gates of the graveyard, I noticed a bunch of figures lurking around me. They had a human-like shape, but the fog made it impossible to distinguish them.
As soon as I tried to touch the gate with my left hand, chains appeared from the ground beneath me and completely covered my left arm.
Their eyes started glowing in the dark. One of them stepped forward. He wielded a massive battle axe that was currently resting on his right shoulder, and he was fully armored in black armor with small gold and red refinements.
He was huge, probably around 1.90 m. The axe blade was split in half horizontally, and the insides were covered in small blades, making it look like a mouth.
'That's a bit too edgy for my tastes.'
"Are you sure you want to continue on this path, traveler—no survivor?" The dark figure had a very feminine voice.
"Yes!" I answered while keeping my eyes on the other figures. I was surrounded by what seemed like several dozen of those creatures.
"Even if you have to fight us?" She asked again.
"Yes!" I replied while trying to move the chained arm.
'It won't even budge. If I use it now, how long will it take until they figure out how that trick works?'
"Even if you could die at our hands? Is your curio- no, your greed—more valuable than your own life?" She kept asking pointless questions that quickly began to get on my nerve, but I still maintained my composure and answered with:
"Yes."
"How foolish to think you would throw away your life like this." She said this as she picked up her axe with both hands and took on her combat stance.
Thanks to my ability, I managed to get rid of the chains quickly and immediately charged her with my sword held in both hands.
The chains appeared once again, but this time they appeared behind me and took the sword away from me.
'So annoying. I guess I'll have to finish with my bare hands. A gun would've been more useful in this situation.' As I got closer, two spears fell from above, trying to impale me but failing to do so thanks to my ability. The girl in the giant armor tried to behead me using her ax, but once again it failed to harm me.
I simply punched her armor and broke my right fist. She seemed confused and didn't react at all to my second fist. The second fist passed right through her armor. Once my hand was inside her chest, I grabbed whatever organ I could feel at the moment and started squeezing it with my hand.
She tried to push me away, but it was too late. Her hands could not touch me, and she only managed to strip me of my shirt. She quickly lost consciousness and fell to the ground.
"What! How? " A voice in the background shouted in shock.
While most of the group were shocked, one decided to charge immediately.
"You fucking lowlife scum!" Shouted a man with the same set of armor. He was carrying a long blade that looked like a katana.
As he charged me, he was focused on trying to cut my legs and backed off every time I tried to grab, punch, or kick him.
"Calm yourself, Veiss; this is not an opponent you can fight without being focused. Ron! Ganil! Retrieve Dayana's body, then go help Veiss!" Another man yelled from afar.
'So they are able to see well in this thick fog, and, as I guessed, they figured out my ability. Well, even if you know what it is, I doubt they know how to counter it.'
A sudden hit to my left side interrupted my flow of thoughts. As soon as I tried to check what hit me, the katana wielder named Veiss tried to decapitate me.
Thankfully, I managed to react in time. As I tried to back down, Veiss was trying to follow me as much as he could.
After some back steps, I tried to step forward while extending my arms towards him.
He was saved by what seemed to be a pole that could extend itself and hit Veiss in the chest, throwing him away from me.
"Veiss! I told you to stay calm; if it wasn't for me, you would've died right there!" Shouted the same voice from before.
'This is starting to get extremely annoying. I need to end this as soon as possible.'
Veiss was able to get back up and charge again. I, on the other hand, was trying to figure out where the pole user was.
The katana started to emit light, and soon after, the light formed another blade all around the sword.
He yelled as he launched his attack, which consisted of a single vertical swing with all of his strength and, most likely, all of his magical power.
Once again, it failed to hurt me, but I realized that wasn't his intent as my legs were swept away from behind by the pole, and a spearman fell from the sky, impaling me on the ground. As soon as his spear came into contact with my blood, thorns spread out all over my body.
"I got you, bitch!" he said.
A couple of other figures then appeared from the fog, equipped with scythes, and proceeded to cut my limbs off.
I noticed then that they all had the same set of armor.
"You little monster, we won't let you die that easily after what you've done to Dayana," whispered the spearman while grabbing my neck and pulling me towards him.
"Come on, guys, is this really the best you can do? You're making it too easy for me to kill you all." I answered, and I was quickly met with a punch to the gut.
'I still can't see the last one. Oh, well, not that it matters.'
Or so I thought, but then some massive circles suddenly appeared in the sky. I noticed that the grip of the thorns was getting weaker as the circle was getting brighter.
'I think it's better to leave complicated things for later. For now, it's better to focus on the spear guy.'
It was at that moment that I used my second ability. My body exploded in a mist of toxic gas while it rebuilt itself. It's a strong ability that can only be activated upon receiving grave injuries or dying.
When I opened my eyes again, everyone else was on the ground, all of them coughing and trying to grovel away from the gas.
'I thought they were smarter than this. I guess they're not used to seeing this kind of weapon; now, let's see if I can draw the last one using these chumps.'
I thought while squatting down to get a better look of the warrior holding the sword that his eyes were bloodshot, and even though he was slowly suffocating and losing his vision due to the gas, he still tried to swing his sword at me. Since he swung it at an awkward angle, I was able to stop his swing by catching his wrist.
One of them managed to grab my left leg and try to bite it. I simply kicked him away and then started stomping on his face repeatedly until he lost consciousness.
As they were dying, I decided to get rid of their helmets in order to see their faces. For the most part, they seemed human.
They were extremely pale, so I decided to check their mouths and didn't find any fangs.
'I guess I watched too many movies at this point.'
They all had dark hair, pointy ears, small noses, and the same face; they looked like clones of each other.
The one I recently stepped on was holding a scythe. His face was unrecognizable.
The swordsman had a teary face and looked at me with anger. The spearman was the only one in the group with long hair.
The one thing they all had in common was how young their faces were. Teenagers, to be exact.
The pole once again appeared. It tried to push the spearman out of the fog. I grabbed the pole and tried to pull it away. I couldn't get the pole out of the user's hand but managed to stop him from rescuing his allies.
'At least he can't save his teammates, and that's what really matters here.'
Not long after, many squares filled the skies, and each square had a triangle in it.
'What's going on over there?'
That was all I could think before getting bombarded with lightning.
When I returned to my senses, I was lying on my back, naked, trembling, and cold.
My body was so weak at that point that even sitting up was difficult.
'I'm surprised I can still move. This must've been the third reset in a row. After all of that, it's a miracle I managed to die only two more times.'
The corpses around me were burned to a crisp, their armor heavily damaged, and some were even melting. The only thing capable of such a thing was most likely the small magical girl on our team.
'Valuable asset, my ass. If it wasn't for my ability, I would've died there because of her.'
When I tried to get back up, my body felt heavy and weak. I was trembling at each step, but in the end, I managed to stay still.
I fell a couple of times while trying to move around.
As I was looking for my weapon, I found it laying close to one of the corpses. It was completely shattered.
'Goddammit, it wasn't even that cheap as a weapon.' I complained as I tried to stop one of the many corpses lying around me.
"I guessed something like this was bound to happen soon. To be frank, I'm surprised it happened so early." The one speaking was a child-like figure that suddenly appeared and was now looking at the dead bodies.
"Congratulations for taking down the guardians! Do you want to accept your reward? I must inform you that if you take the reward, the future stages will become more difficult." He cheerfully said this while smiling at me.
I wanted to say no, but for some reason, all I could do was nod in silence.
"Well then, here's your reward. It's nothing special; don't worry."
The child-like being put a weird rock inside my body. This was instantly followed by a huge wave of pain. As I was convulsing on the ground, the being continued to speak.
"I strongly suggest you not take any of the guardian's weapons or armor. I may not care, but the other gods will eventually try to kill you, even if the law forbids it." The child kept talking.
"Ah right, I forgot, the guardian is a being whose job it is to keep you in the stage area. If you kill it, you can go outside the stage and complete other challenges present in the world, but then it increases the difficulty of the next stages and boosts the power of all the other guardians. Sadly for you, the first 10 stages do not have any other challenges."
After throwing the sword away, I started analyzing the weapons of the corpses.
"God, can you tell me exactly why I shouldn't take their equipment?"
"Well… The short version is that it's because those are soul-bound weapons, and they belong to me. If you wish to use them to their full potential, you need to get my permission first." He said this while hovering around me, all happy and smiling.
"Second, to get my permission, you need to make a deal with me, and the other gods wouldn't like that either."
"And what can they do to me?" I asked him.
The god's smile got even wider as the conversation went on.
"Nothing really. At best, they can try to convince someone to kill you; at worst, they can force someone affiliated with them to kill you."
"Why is that so?" I asked.
"The law forbids Gods from directly killing any type of mortal, and since this event is hosted by me and the God of War, they cannot interfere without breaking the rules I set in place."
"And the price of a deal is..."
"Is it to make sure your wish also makes my wish come true? How about this: I'll lend you their power until stage 50, then you'll answer me on whether you want to accept my deal or not?" He proposed a sweet deal that I simply couldn't refuse.
"Yeah, I guess it's worth the risk."
He gently put his hands on top of my right hand and left a black dot in the middle of my palm. Shortly after, all the weapons flew towards me and pierced my right hand, only to disappear shortly after. The process was quick and painless, yet tiring.
From the dot, ominous signs appeared all over my hand and covered all my fingers.
"The sword is called Dubir, the spear Frey, the scythes Reg and Seith, the pole Lesir, and the battle axe Fury. To summon them, you need to call them out loud. That's it for the basic instructions. You'll have to figure out the rest by yourself. Good luck!"
The god cheerfully winked at me before disappearing.
At that point, I simply let myself go, fell on my back, and closed my eyes. My head was a mess. God, guardians, soul-bound weapons—all these new things kept popping into my head, filling it with numerous questions with no real answer.
I was tired, and absorbing the weapon was more tiresome than expected. I honestly thought I was about to die when the weapons flew toward me.
'I'll take a nap now and leave everything complicated for later.'
I was so sleepy at that moment that I managed to fall asleep naked on the ground.
At some point, the temperature of the ground and the texture I could feel on my back changed.
I was having a weird dream about unicorns and giraffes trying to fuck each other when I suddenly heard Forren's voice calling my name.
'What is it now?'
I yelled inside the dream.
"Diego, are you okay?" He was yelling.
"Yes, yes, I'm fine. Don't worry. Just let me sleep for now, okay?"
'Can he hear me? It would be awkward if not.'
"Boss, you need to wake up!" Forren kept shouting.
"I'm tired. I died three times today, maybe more. I deserve some rest now."
"Boss, do you really want to sleep naked on the floor in the middle of the hallway?"
I tried opening my eyes, but they were completely shut. I could hardly move anything.
'Did I die again while sleeping?'
That was the first thing that came to mind.
"Valis, give me something to cover him with. Folarin, can you check him to see if he's in any danger, and if you can, please do something about his condition?"
I was too weak to stay awake, and I fainted again after that moment.
A sudden warm feeling woke me up, more like forcing me to open my eyes. It was a strange feeling that quickly propagated through my body, warming up every inch of it. This went on for a long time, probably half an hour or so of Folarin doing her best to heal my body, and from how she was clutching my arm, it probably didn't feel all that good on her side as well.
"He was fine, guys; there was no need to react like that." Said Valis.
"No, I wasn't. The reason Forren was worried was another one." I wanted to explain, but I didn't because my throat felt extremely dry and so did my lips.
"Boss, now you can rest." Forren reassured me.
"Anyway, how was it? I mean, the experience in the first stage." I asked.
"It was terrible. You both left us in the middle of the stage; what if something happened to us? Especially you, Forren. You were supposed to protect us!" Shouted Valis.
"Did you really do that, Forry? What was the point of the shield then?"
"No, boss, the fact is—"
She simply nodded back in response and kept healing me using her weird powers. It didn't take long for Folarin to put me back in a more stable state. I was still tired, but at least I had enough strength to move around.
When we went to the buffet, the hall was almost completely empty. Folarin decided to prepare our meals and proceeded to bring us a very disappointing dish.
She had increased the amount of vegetables on our plates while decreasing the amount of fried or sweet desserts. The only meat present was steamed chicken breasts. To accompany them, there was some rice, peas, green artichokes, and green beans. I almost puked my lunch after tasting the green artichoke.
"I didn't know the Great Hero was such a picky eater." Remarked Valis.
"What can I say? All I care about when eating is the taste. It's one of the few joys of life; sadly, I rarely get to eat real meat." I answered while taking a spoonful of rice with a piece of chicken breast.
"You won't get any more meat today. If you want seconds, I'll bring you some more rice. Since your body isn't in a healthy state, this is all you can afford to eat." Said Folarin.
'Green artichokes and peas? Shouldn't you give me something easy to digest then? What's with this odd diet?' I wanted to complain but kept my mouth shut to avoid making myself look bad in their eyes since we had just met.
"Then I'd like some more rice, please." I gently asked while handing her my dish.
She reluctantly took my plate and put some more rice on top of the vegetables I didn't eat, and then started mixing the two.
"Forren-"
"Don't you dare! Finish this first." She said this, slamming the plate in front of me.
"I think I-"
I was interrupted by a sudden fit of pain that appeared in my shoulder. She was the cause of said pain; I didn't really know how, so I immediately guessed it was magic.
"I almost died today. I'm not in the mood to deal with your childish attitude right now." Said the pissed Folarin.
The pain quickly spread from the shoulder and managed to cover my entire dorso. The intensity of the pain also grew with each second.
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Please stop whatever this is." I shouted.
The pain then quickly disappeared.
"It seems that everybody is going to complete the first stage by the end of the day, while the ones that have already completed it are preparing themselves to go out into the wild tomorrow." Said Forren after finishing drinking a giant bottle of water.
"If the group from your dying planet is still alive by tomorrow, I think we could add them to our group. What are your thoughts on the matter?" I said.
"I don't think it's a good idea. They will most likely try to kill me and Valis. We don't share the same views as them, and it will only slow us down and create unnecessary drama." Answered Folarin.
"Can they even resist their urge to mate?" Added Valis
"That… I can roughly understand why... Wait, you're from the same species, so what about you?" I said this while spitting out the green artichoke.
"We don't have any problems with that, although a vast majority of the mixed have problems dealing with ang-"
She stopped mid-sentence due to the visit of an unexpected guest. The guest was part of the first group that completed the first stage, a humanoid that resembled a wolf with white fur and blue eyes. His ears were pointing upward, his tail was relaxed, and his expression seemed oddly relaxed.
He was wearing some large pants, and he even managed to put them on wrong, with the back on the front. His fur was a bit dirty, but his claws were extremely clean.
"Pardon my intrusion; I was wondering if you needed a new pair of teammates. My brother and I were in deep need of new teammates. We are capable fighters and skilled hunters. We'll make sure that our presence won't weigh down your group." He said it without presenting himself.
"I don't see why not. In any case, where is your brother?" I asked.
"He's exploring the island. He should be back by tomorrow with the location of the cannon."
"Now that I think about it, tomorrow is the last day we have at our disposal to find it." I said to keep myself awake, as the conversation was boring.
"We should go and search for it." Said Valis in an excited tone.
'From where does she get all of that energy?'
After that, my memory became weird and fuzzy. I remember that we talked about what to do on the ground, and after some discussion, we decided to go to Valis's room, which was located in the main building, ergo the closest one.
I remember being thrown into a sofa while Valis was creating a group chat and checking the prices for tents and other objects such as ropes, knives, buckets, and lighters.
She sent a message to the group chat stating the prices: 600 c for a 200-meter rope, 5.50 c for 4 lighters, 30 c for each bucket, 120 c for a 2-person tent, and 40 c for a sleeping bag.
"Apart from the buckets, everything else is optional. I wouldn't recommend wasting coins on these overpriced goods, but I won't judge you if you end up buying them." She included it in her message.
She then started searching for survival guides in the forest but fell asleep before reading any of them. I remember that because I was right beside her, I clearly saw her crying while sleeping and calling out for help. It was a long, awkward moment for me, followed by the most embarrassing one. I tried to bring her to her bedroom, but my legs gave up on me, and we fell. When she woke up, she kept crying, so after a moment full of petting her, I carried her back to her bedroom, and shortly after, I fell asleep on the floor.
When I woke up again, Folarin and Valis were by my side. I couldn't really tell what they were saying, but they seemed happy.
As soon as they realized I was awake, they brought my dinner to me. It was soup.
"Your body works in strange ways; has anyone ever told you that?"
"Plenty of times, actually, especially when I lost my arm, and no matter how many times I died, it wasn't regenerating at its usual speed." I commented.
"Forren told us about your other ability." Said Valis.
"How strong were the guardians for you to die against them?" Asked Folarin.
"Not by much. I was caught off guard, and that's really it." I answered with honesty.
"It's weird… So many weird things are happening that it feels like my whole knowledge of the world was all a big, giant lie." said Folarin.
"There's probably plenty more to discover ahead of us." I added.
"Anyways, I'm off now. If you need anything, you can ask Forren." Folarin said before leaving.
The next few minutes were awkward ones, as the young girl with small horns could barely look me in the eyes while her face was slowly turning red from the embarrassment.
"Diego, thanks for before." She said it without looking at me.
"No problem, Valis. We're all a team now, a big family, or however you'd like us to be. You can confide in us if you have any trouble."
She remained silent.
"Have you talked about it with Folarin?" I asked.
"Not yet."
"Can you tell me what it is?" I asked.
"It's… nothing."
We remained silent as I finished my dinner. As soon as I finished my meal, I got up and started exploring the apartment, leaving Valis alone in her room.
The room I was in was at the end of a long hallway that led directly to the exit. In front of it was another guest room, much smaller, where Folarin was resting.
Each living room has its own bathroom, and Folarin's room was the only one large enough to house a bathtub.
As I was getting out of Folarin's room, a notification popped up on my watch. It was a message in the group chat from Forren; apparently, he discovered the location of the cannon and sent us the coordinates.
I then went to the kitchen, got some of those snacks that have chocolate cream in them, and went to watch something on the massive TV in the sitting room.
Since I wasn't in the mood to search for something, I just clicked the first thing that popped up in the recommended.
Apparently, it was a sci-fi action movie about my life. It was interesting to watch. They made me look like a crazy murderer obsessed with order and justice, with a cool grappling hook that made me fly around and some other cool things I've never done in my life.
'It feels weird to watch someone cooler than me live my life in a much cooler way. It surely is a bit uncomfortable, weird, and somewhat disappointing.'
They exaggerated some scenes and made me wear a super high-tech suit with a cool visor that enhanced my senses and provided astounding defenses. Unfortunately, that suit never existed during my time, but who really cares about that?
The interesting part was close to the ending when I killed my lover; for some weird reason, it was a male, and they managed to recreate a scenario that, although exaggerated, was very similar to what happened. I never really screamed while crying after doing that, nor had I really embraced him that night (I just hugged her), but everything was more or less accurate. From what I learned later on, the film was actually criticized a lot for the addition of that lover scene, which was based only on rumors.
The film ended on a cliffhanger, with me, the protagonist, meeting some strange figure that would later become the head of the R.O.H.A.N. group.
"Was it fun?" Valis whispered in my right ear while I screamed in shock.
"Kinda, it was a very weird experience, to be fair. Wanna watch the sequel with me?" I proposed while searching for the remote.
"I've already watched it, but I guess it won't hurt me re-watching it; give me a second and I'll call Folarin."
She quickly returned with Folarin, and together we watched the sequel.
The film was extremely lengthy; it followed my story after I joined R.O.H.A.N., and it followed my life until my last mission.
On the last mission, after Forren completely annihilated the pilots, the group dealt with the communication room, while I was the one that had to deal with all the mercenaries that were invited on the ship. The little Gale was non-existent in this film.
The other ships took notice of what was going on on our side and quickly bombarded us. Forren and the others fled on a capsule towards our allies that were coming to our rescue, while I died on the ship. After my death, my body transformed into some kind of weird shape-shifting monster and started attacking every ship it could set its eyes on.
At one point, I also assaulted the alien ship, where I was stopped by the magicians that lived there. There, I regained control of my body, helped the aliens evacuate the ship, and then blew it up in order to kill a special space parasite that was inside the ship.
"That's what?!" I shouted in shock as I was watching the transformation.
'My head feels dizzy because of how many things happened all at once.'
"Yeah, tell me who had to study all of that; thankfully there's video evidence of you transforming, so it's not something the film producers invented." Said Valis in a snarky tone.
"Well, then, I suppose telling you I wasn't completely human wasn't that shocking."
"Actually, it was. We all thought you were some shape-shifting alien, but instead you turned out to be a human, at least in part. The theory about you being man-made at the end was correct." Folarin commented.
At that point, Forren came back, and Valis immediately changed the channel on the TV.
"Let's all go back to sleep now. I want you ready at sunrise," he said before crashing on a nearby sofa.
'It must have been tiring for him. Yeah, I suppose it's about time we go to bed.'
The girls slept together in Valis's room, while I slept in the guest room with Forren on the ground.