As if on cue, a man clad in black armor suddenly approached me. He carried a scabbard which I presume contained a sword. "Halt", he shouted.
In that moment, as a proper black man, I knew the drill so without waiting to be told I went on my knees and put my hands behind my back because just incase.
"What are you doing", he asked, " Get off from the ground, I need you to answer a few questions if you don't mind".
In that moment, I knew that I liked this world which didn't judge by color. It was ten times, no! ... a hundred times better than Earth . But as if fate just wanted to rain on my parade, I suddenly turned to look and I discovered that I was surrounded by a lot of soldiers. My chest felt constricted and I think I was experiencing a panic attack.
"Wait. Don't attack", I shouted. "I'm not dangerous or anything, its just that I talk to myself sometimes"...' Talk to myself sometimes? , that was the best excuse I could muster. I seriously couldn't blame them if they thought I was crazy because I was so disappointed in myself for coming up with that hogwash of an excuse', I lamented.
The soldier who seemed to be in charge then turned and looked at his subordinates before turning back to me and saying, "I'm Henry, the squad Captain of the fifth Battalion in the Elven Kingdoms Knight army. Would you please follow me back to the barracks where we will ask you a couple of questions".
I knew that they were just being polite by asking but in reality I really had no choice so meekly I followed behind Henry whilst the rest of his squad flanked me. The crowd had long since gathered and occasionally I could here vague whispers such as, 'is he one of them, but they all came at the same time, how could he still appear after so much time had passed'. I tried piecing together that information but nothing came to mind so I ignored the crowd completely.
Several minutes and quite a distance later, we arrived at what looked like the outskirts of town since there hardly seemed to be any civilian buildings save for the large buildings which I guess were for the army personnel.
"Open the gates", I heard a shout from one of the men on tall platforms. "Sir Henry is back, report to the Colonel that the fifth battalion is back with a prisoner".
'Prisoner, I must have heard wrong', this was what I said to myself to console myself but the nail on the coffin was when Henry said to one of his men, "Take him to holding cell 3 on the 2nd floor. Make sure security is extra tight we wouldn't want anything to become of him now would we".
I anxiously looked around with a panicky expression on my face. Maybe the Captain saw my intention to run because soon after that he said to me, "I wouldn't run if I were you, you currently have 10 Mid Rank 4 Elemental Archers watching you. You wouldn't even take 2 steps before you're gone to the afterlife so just wait until we bring the colonel to interogate you".
I didn't need further in couragement to do as he said and I was escorted to the cell. About 2 hours later, a burly man entered the cell with an entourage of guards who without a doubt were intimidating. "Take him to the interrogation room Eritrea pronto",he said. This was clearly overkill on his part.
"Right away Sir", replied feminine voice. Since I was blindfolded I couldn't see her looks properly but judging by her voice I knew that she was a great beauty. After a short walk were I was manhandled like an animal I finally arrived at the room because my vision finally returned after the blindfold was taken off.
"Young man, I'm Colonel Rogers the Leader of the Luric City Knight Division. I'm sure you have met Henry the Captain of the 5th Battalion. Lets cut to the chase, who are you and why did you appear in the middle of the street in my city?".
I knew that if I didn't handle this properly then this guy was going to kill me right there and then so I did what any sane person would do, I told him the truth, from the accident on the train station to coming here minus the Faenry part.
" Mmm, I see. In that case you are one of the transmigrators", said the Colonel. "But how come you are so late, the transmigrators all came at once about 1000 years ago, how come you came so late?".
I could see that the Colonel was suspicious of me, how could I blame him when a single person suddenly shows up after everyone else. And after 1000 years at that too. But how could that be possible, I was only in the Abyss for a couple hours, was the passage of time different in there or had I heard wrong. As if to confirm, I heard Faenry in my mind saying, "The soul binding process took 1000 years Master but due to the amount of magic flowing in there, you didn't notice it. I was going to tell you but I forgot. Sorry", she said whilst scratching the back of her head.
"You forgot to tell me that I was stuck in that void for a 1000 years! How can you even forget something like that, even a mentally retarted person isn't as forgetful as you". As soon as I finished mentally scolding her, she materialized beside me and soon the water works started. "Acting cute won't save you this time, tell me why you didn't reveal this information earlier".
"Look at how you're acting right now, and in case you hadn't noticed you have quite the hot temper on you, its unbeffiting of you to insult a lady incase you didn't know", said Faenry completely dropping the 'I'm helpless please don't insult me' facade.
"Young man".
"Young man! ".
"YOUNG MAN!", shouted Colonel Rogers.
"I'm sorry, I kinda blacked out. I do that sometimes", I blatantly lied through my teeth. 'He's going to think I'm weird' is what kept going through my head.
"Can you let us perform a test on you to see if you really are a transmigrator as you claim" said the Colonel. He clearly wasn't believing anything I was saying up until this point. I didn't really see why they had to go through all this since it wouldn't really matter at the end of the day.
Once again I was left with no choice but what was I to do so I just shrugged it of and let them do their test. A tall man wearing blue robes came out with an orb and proceeded to say to the Colonel, "I'm Kaeser, an Elf High Rank 3 Light Mage. This here is a Gold Rank device which shows the true nature of a person through its color",he said pointing to the orb. "Since you are new to this young man allow me to explain to you how it does that, a person may alter their appearance but they cannot alter their aura. A Vampire has a Red aura, a Human has a Blue aura, an Elf has a Green Aura, alternatively Beastkin have Purple aura nomatter the animal tribe they belong to such as Wolfkin and Dragonkin, Orcs have a Brown aura and finally the great tormentors of the whole world...Demonkind. These abominations are humanoids which appeared about a 100 years ago before the transmigrators appeared and ravaged the whole world. They have abilities that are scary since they are more in tune with Mana than the other races. They spawned from Gehenna and have wreaked havoc on the world ever since then".
This was a lot to take in for me, I was amazed by the fact that there was magic earlier on but to think that there are also various races living together, except for the demons of course. I could already imagine myself amassing a harem worthy of a King that is if I didn't die.
"Young man please desist from spacing out", reprimanded the Light Mage.
"I'm sorry", I apologized. 'What is wrong with me lately', I mentally scolded myself since I didn't want to be labeled an airhead by these obviously powerful men.
"Anyways as I was saying, originally Ecstacia, our world had 4 continents. The East called Zendar is ruled by Vampire King Russell Black. He is one of the most powerful men in existence since he has passed the threshold of Rank 9 Aura Master and became a Mid Rank Aura Grandmaster. The West called New Rotterdam is under the control of the Tori Clan led by Spirit summoner EmJei, an ancestor who is also a Mid Rank Aura Grandmaster. The South is called Alvanier, this is where the most powerful woman in existence who is a High Rank Aura Grandmaster lives, her name is Lilian, a High Elf of the purest blood with royal lineage. In the North lived King Seedorf, a Dragonkin ruler who was a Low Rank Grandmaster but he was defeated by Alvaro, the Demon King. He is said to be on par with Queen Lilian and his 4 Demon Knight Generals are said to possess High Rank 9 Aura Master level power. If you think they are weak then let me tell you that if you want to defeat a Rank 1 Aura Master Demon, you also need to bring any race 2 Rank 1 Aura Masters, thats how powerful they are. The North has already fallen and the Demon Kings army is advancing ".
Honestly speaking I was now scared out of my wits, if the Demons were that powerful, what could a mere human like me do. After that train of thought the mage continued," Demons possess the rare ability Shape shifter. It is a dark magic spell exclusive only for demons which gives them the ability to shapeshift. 1 in 10 000 demons possess this ability to change into any person of any race they want. They use this spell to commit assassinations, spy on our armies and we suspect you could be one of them. Don't worry, if your aura is not Black like that of the Demons you will be spared but if you are, we have a High Rank 5 Aura in the vicinity who is Colonel Rogers".
I instinctively felt fear towards Roger's since I was afraid that being stuck in the Abyss could have changed my aura. When the orb activated, we all waited with abated breaths for the final reveal moment which could inevitably lead to my quick demise.