*CRACK!*
The sudden sound of glass shattering signaled that an intruder had entered his domain, and Kolix couldn't help the sigh of annoyance that escaped him. "What do you want, Vinny?" Kolix asked tiredly. His words seemed to be the signal the intruder was waiting for, because only a second later a tall silhouette made up of stars and planets appeared before Kolix.
"How many times have I told you not to call me that?!" The silhouette snapped angrily, and for a moment the stars and planets changed into something else, but before it could fully take its form, it reverted back to its regular appearance.
Not minding the being in front of him, Kolix calmly answered, "Counting this time... 11,876." Vinny, as the silhouette was now called, did not appreciate his name, but didn't voice any other complaints. No matter what he said, it wouldn't change Kolix, something most everyone already knew about the cosmic being.
Kolix preferred simple names for the divine, rather than the ridiculous names they had all chosen for themselves when they first came into being. He had given them all their own names, and though some didn't mind, there were others who did, as to them it seemed like they were losing a part of them that made them who they were.
Kolix figured it was just because no one else but them could say the damn names and they wanted to feel superior. He didn't care though, it's not like they could do anything to him.
"Why am I always the one who has to talk with you?" Vinny whispered rhetorically, though Kolix decided to answer the question. "My guess is because you suck at gambling, which makes sense because from what I hear, you suck dick like a $2 dollar whore."
Vinny did not appreciate that answer, which only seemed to make Kolix smile at him. "That was eons ago when we were all experimenting! Don't forget, you too had an experimental phase!" Vinny stated, much to Kolix's amusement.
It was true. Eons ago, he had experimented with mortals like the others, though unlike Vinny and most of them, he never stopped, nor was he ashamed of it. He had lived about every life one could live in the mortal worlds, from an emperor down to a lowly little slave girl. Hell, he even experimented as a few animals, but those weren't nearly as fun.
Well, hunting humans as wild predators was pretty fun, but only for a little while. After spawning that weird creature that almost wiped out a continent, Kolix decided that mating with animals wasn't exactly healthy for whatever planet he did it on. That's not to say that ever stopped him from trying again, only he was a bit more careful about it.
"Ah yes, I do recall something like that. Though no one ever gave me the title of 'Cock Guzzler'. Tell me, how many mortals used you like a-" Kolix never got to finish before Vinny shouted "ENOUGH! I didn't come here to reminisce about old memories!" Honestly, Vinny wouldn't have come at all if he hadn't been suckered into it by the others.
Like him, none of the others wanted to speak with Kolix, mostly because he was a cunt, but also because he enjoyed getting inside their heads. Kolix was like the annoying older brother they didn't want, but they had him nonetheless.
"Do you have your champion?" Vinny asked, getting to the main reason he was here in the first place. "Has it been 100,000 years already? I could have sworn we still had 99,000 years before the next reunion. We should really change it to be every 1,000,000 years. If we see each other too often, these reunions might lose their whole meaning." Kolix said, earning an annoyed grunt from Vinny.
"Just make sure you have your champion within the next 100 years. And no cheating this time. We've all created rules to prevent you from doing what you did last time." Vinny stated, a list of rules appearing in his hand moments later.
Taking the list of paper, Kolix read over the rules with a smirk on his face. "In my defense, I didn't break any rule last time." He said, much to Vinny's obvious annoyance.
"You blew up every champion within the first minute of the game. Do you have any idea how long I trained my hero for that game?! 12,000 YEARS! He was the epitome of perfection, and you destroyed him before he had a chance!" Vinny ranted, clearly getting his complaints out that he had been holding in for the last 99,900 years.
It was true too. Kolix had spent weeks of constant research and experimentation to create a bomb that would make sentient blackholes that were almost invincible, which he had used for his champion. Did the others marvel at his creation? No, they were too busy whining about their dead champions to even see how great of an invention it truly was.
Now here it was, a rule banning such things from entering the next game. 'Spoilsports.' He thought, a little annoyed at some of the rules he saw on the list. He would have to scrap some of the ideas he had cooked up for the upcoming game, but it wasn't a big deal.
"Right then. I got the rules, so why don't you fuck-off back to wherever it is you came from?" Kolix said, done with the small reunion. "Just have a proper champion this time." Vinny said, then disappeared from view.
After Kolix was sure that Vinny was gone, he snapped his fingers and a swirling vortex appeared right before his eyes. Peering inside of it, Kolix could see a small shadowy creature huddled into a ball in a cave, a blue crystal slowly dissolving inside of it.
The creature before him was a Zetric, a demonic race of his own creation some million or so years ago. The race thrived on magic, and were unrivalled in the arcane arts. However, without magic they were little more than insects. With magic no longer in the world, the Zetric population had died out until there was only one remaining, which happened to be the one Kolix was currently watching.
"Knowing what you know now, will you be able to change your fate and the fate of another world?" Kolix asked, then waved his hand before the vortex suddenly changed.
----------
(Savrin Kincade POV)
Savrin lay on the cold ground of the cave, wondering how things had ever come to this. Not even 100,000 years ago, magic was flourishing throughout the world in a way that made one think it was limitless in supply. Oh how wrong that assumption was.
There were once hundreds of thousands of his species throughout the world, now he was quite certain he was all that was left. He had made sure of that.
The magicians had come to his kind a little over a millennia ago asking for help before the war had taken a turn for the worse, but he and the others had turned them away at the time. For too long he and the others had stayed out of the human world, thinking themselves so much more above them and the other races, they had not thought it worth their time.
Besides, with everything the mages had done to the other races and the non-mages, they had it coming. There was also the fact that the mages, elves, gnomes, and other races had not bothered to meet with the Zetrics in millenia, most likely because they feared them, so to ask for help when giving nothing in return sounded like too much work, an of course it was well known that the Zetrics did not like doing more work than they needed.
There was also the fact that none of the Zetrics thought the humans could be so much of a threat, Savrin included. How they proved them all wrong.
Lamenting about what had befallen himself, Savrin drained the last bit of magic from the mana crystal inside of him. He still had a few hundred crystals inside his storage space, but it was taking more and more crystals to survive each day. At the rate he was going, he would eat through his stock in just under a year.
Already he had scoured the world in search of anything that might change things for the better, but the war between the damn humans and mages had left the world a complete wasteland. Besides being the last of his kind, he was quite sure he was in fact the last living being on the whole planet.
As he lay there lamenting his past mistakes, a voice suddenly echoed about the cave. "Knowing what you know now, will you change your fate and the fate of another world?" Jumping up, Savrin tried to find the speaker of the voice when all of the sudden it felt as though he was smashed into by a wave of energy he had not felt in centuries.
'Magic!' He thought, hoping this wasn't another of his sick hallucinations. He had often dreamt of magic returning to the world in the past, but he knew it was all just a fantasy. With the war that had ravaged the world, the planet itself was incapable of ever supporting life, thus magic itself would have no reason to return. It was a fickle energy that way, doing as it pleased. It was one of the things he missed about it.
Anyway, with the new energy all around him, Savrin was confused. Looking around his little cave, he was momentarily caught off guard when he realized he was no longer in said cave, but in a forest.
Glancing all around him, Savrin found that nothing looked familiar to him, and that wasn't just the area he was in, but the trees and foliage as well. Never before had he seen trees such as these, which only seemed to confuse him. As he tried to figure out what was going on, the voice from before resurfaced in his mind.
"Knowing what you know now, will you be able to change your fate and the fate of another world?"
He repeated the words, and it was then that he came to the conclusion that this was a different world entirely from Genesis, his previous waste of a planet.
It was unknown what being it was that sent him here, but he wasn't about to complain. Still, it did not bode well that there was a being that much more powerful than himself, but thinking about that would only cause worries that were better left for the future.
Savrin didn't move from his spot for more than an hour, choosing instead to sit there and drink in the magic that he had missed for so long. After a little under 2 hours of just standing there, he took a deep breath, letting the magic roll off of him in a way he had never felt before. Finally opening his eyes, he got a good look at his new surroundings.
'What a strange forest.' He thought, taking the time to admire the magical trees and plants around him, which again seemed to blow his mind. He hadn't seen a magical plant in more than three hundred years, and now they were scattered around him by the bushels.
Whatever this new world was, he was pleased to note that the magical plants at least looked familiar, though the trees different. They were about ten times smaller than what he was used to, and there were far fewer as well. Still, if the trees were the only difference, it wouldn't be too bad.
Not wanting to disturb this sacred place, Savrin decided to wander around and see more of this new magical land he had been brought to.
After a few hours of wandering, Savrin found a small meadow with a stream running through it. Magical plants littered the banks of the stream, but they suddenly didn't interest him any longer, for he found something far more precious.
Grazing in the meadow, a beautiful white creature was staring at him with curious, intelligent eyes. Right away he knew what it was, though he could hardly believe it. The last magical creature in Genesis had been killed off more than five centuries ago, and never again did he think he would get to see another one of these.
"A Stick-Horse..." He spoke in awe. Unlike what he was expecting, the 'Stick-Horse' gave off the feeling of being insulted as it turned away from him.
"I guess the creatures here might not quite be the same as I remember them to be. You were only supposed to have the horn on your head, not one up your ass too." Savrin stated, then ignored the creature as he continued his exploration.
------
For a whole day, Savrin explored the forest he found himself in. The number of magical creatures residing in the forest was astounding, not to mention the variety of plants. Anyway, as he neared the edge of the forest, Savrin came across a massive castle that was practically flooding with magic, and he just couldn't hold himself back from exploring.
When the sky was dark and the moon was high, Savrin entered the castle, being careful to not make a sound or be seen. Letting a bit of his own magic sweep over the castle, Savrin felt a large number of magical beings, most notably children.
Elated, yet confused, Savrin moved to find out more about what was going on. As he checked the empty rooms, he looked over the papers he found stored around. To his delight he found the language to be the same as his previous world, so understanding the writing was actually not a problem.
After going through a number of the rooms, Savrin concluded that this was a school to teach magic, which was surprising to say the least.
'Back on Genesis, family's hoarded magic and only taught it to those who swore allegiance to them. I wonder what the catch is here.' He thought, not sure what to make of it.
Wanting to know more about the magical school, Savrin continued moving about the castle which he had learned was named 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry'. It was weird, he noted, how the magical beings of this world separated themselves like they had.
Back in Genesis, everyone born with magic were simply referred to as mages, then ranked accordingly based on their power and skill in the art, Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, and finally, Master. Based on everything he had read and learned so far, the mages, or witches and wizards as they called themselves, were sorely lacking compared to the mages of his old world.
While reading through history notes, Savrin came across something denoting Purebloods, Halfbloods, Muggleborn, squibs, and muggles. The terms were unknown to him, and after a fair amount of reading, he simply stared at a wall as he thought over the new information.
'They're all idiots!' He realized, wondering how the mages, or witches and wizards as they called themselves, actually managed to survive as long as they had.
'At least the mages of Genesis didn't kill each other!' He thought, finding it hard to believe that any group of mages could be worse off than those on Genesis.
After hours of browsing through information, Savrin departed the castle just as the sun was coming over the horizon. Going back to the forest where he had first appeared in this new world, Savrin thought over the words that had sounded out around him as he arrived here.
"Knowing what you know now, will you change your fate and the fate of another world?"
Repeating the words a few more times, Savrin couldn't help the sigh that escaped him. "I don't even know the full extent to how bad it is here, but I already know it's going to be a challenge…" He lamented, dreading what he knew was most likely to come.
Based on the words of whoever brought him here, this world was on track to follow in Genesis' footsteps, and if it did, he too would die. Knowing that he was going to have to involve himself heavily into this world, the being that was, Savrin Kincade began to shift his shadowy form into the appearance of a young human man.
When the transformation finished, Savrin looked nothing like the demon he truly was, rather he looked like a human in his late twenties or early thirties and had long dark hair that barely touched his shoulders.
Savrin wasn't quite sure what was an appropriate height to choose for the domineering persona he was building for himself, but chose to simply pick the height of General Alverin, the only being on Genesis to ever get close enough to actually injuring him who stood tall for a human at 6 feet 4 inches.
Sure it had only been a scratch, and he wasn't actually trying to kill the man, but the fact that Alverin could even stand up to him in a duel was impressive all on its own.
After the non-mages revolted, it had been Alverin to hold them back. Savrin could honestly say that the mages lost the war the day Alverin fell in battle. Granted, had he actually joined the war when Flaera came to him begging on her hands and knees, he could have ended the whole thing in a matter of a few days, but at the time he simply didn't care too.
The mages had brought it all on themselves when they enslaved those without magic, and Savrin decided that they were getting what they deserved. Had he known the end result would be the destruction of Genesis he would have stepped in long before, but there was no way he could have known about the weapons the non-mages had created.
Pulling water from the air around him, Savrin froze it in place before he checked over his appearance. The blue uniform with golden buttons on the front fit this appearance quite well, and after making a few modifications here and there, it was perfect.
The dirty brown leather belt had been replaced with a sleek black one made from a strip of the hide of Deathwing, an insufferable dragon who tried to take over the mountain where Savrin had built his home.
Savrin had been ruthless in dealing with the overgrown lizard, and only after skinning the thing alive as it begged for mercy did he finally allow it to die. Looking down at his feet, Savrin admired the tall black boots that matched the belt.
He didn't actually need to wear these accessories, but when he created them at the time it was more of a final 'Fuck You' to Deathwing. He had planned on giving them to some lowly little slave child at the time because the thought of some human walking over Deathwing had made him chuckle.
The buttons on the uniform were solid gold, and the sleeves only went down to his forearms, but that was all he really needed. The dark blue pants matched the shirt, and fit perfectly. They weren't overly tight, allowing him to move easily in them, but they also didn't hang about and make him look like a fool who couldn't properly dress themselves.
The pant legs were tucked into his boots, giving him a very militaristic look, but he was okay with that. If this world was as helpless as he thought it was, he would be fighting a war regardless. Anyway, to finish up his outfit, Savrin pulled a light blue cloak from his storage dimension and swung it around before setting it in place around his neck.
The cloak itself wasn't actually all that impressive, but the enchantments placed on it weren't too bad. Flaera had spent a good portion of a year building the damn thing for him, and though he could have built a much better one in just a few hours, he accepted the gift respectfully.
Though not a powerful cloak, it was the only one that really held any meaning to him, so he decided it would be a part of his persona in this new world.
(Image of Savrin)
Done with his appearance, Savrin moved deeper into the forest until he found a large enough tree for what he intended, then walked over to it before placing his hand on it. With the power at his fingertips, the tree bent to his whim as it's insides moved about, reshaping to his desire.
In a matter of moments a door appeared where he had been resting his hand, and after giving it a gentle push, it swung open. Walking inside, Savrin saw the beginnings of a home, temporary as it may be.
Though the tree wasn't nearly as big on the outside as the room he was in, Savrin paid it no mind as he moved about and placed a bed in the little room off to the side.
It almost brought a tear to his eye to see the bed, for due to the limited amount of mana in Genesis he had not bothered to create himself one, but with the influx of mana in this new world, he could justify it to himself.
Though he didn't need to eat to maintain his body like humans, Savrin needed to sleep at least 3 to 4 hours a day to keep refreshed. He could go for days without sleeping, but he had learned he was rather unpleasant to be around when that happened, so he made a point of giving himself a few hours so he didn't go on a murder spree because someone looked at him the wrong way. He did not want a repeat of that.
-----
A few hours later when Savrin awoke, he decided it would be best to get a bit more information about the world he was in, but rather than go read about it somewhere he felt it was best to get the news first hand from someone here. So with that thought in mind, he embarked on a trip into the nearest town, which he had learned was called Hogsmeade.
The first thing that really jumped out at him when he arrived in the little town was the large construct with multiple carriages attached to it. He remembered something similar to it being built on Genesis about ten thousand years prior to the war, but they hadn't been in use for a few millennia.
'If these people are still this far behind in technology, then there might be some hope yet.' He thought with a smile as he checked it over to make sure there was nothing really special about it. When he got to the front of the construct, he read the words, "Hogwarts Express" that were there for all to see.
Wanting to know a bit more about it, but also not wanting to seem too ignorant of the world, Savrin found someone hauling things into a nearby building from one of the carriages of the construct, and after getting his attention, Savrin tore into the man's mind and searched for anything about this construct in particular.
He could have probably viewed most of the man's life if he really pushed his power into him, but that probably would have left the human a mindless drooling mess who would never be able to do anything for himself again, and even then it wasn't certain he would actually be able to make sense of what he saw.
It was easier to just get surface thoughts or just the thoughts of one thing in particular. Pushing the man to focus on the construct, Savrin saw all of the man's memories about it, learning that it was called a Train, and that it transported the children attending Hogwarts too and from the school.
Leaving the confused man who came back to reality moments after his departure, Savrin headed to the Three Broomsticks Inn, a popular Inn and pub throughout all of Britain. Savrin of course learned of it because the man from the train station had the place at the forefront of his mind.
Apparently the guy wanted to go and look at the really attractive witch who ran the place, someone named Madam Rosmerta, and he also wanted to get drunk. Knowing that drinking establishments were great places to gather information, Savrin decided that would be his next destination.
It took only a few short minutes to arrive at the place, which didn't look that impressive from the outside. To be honest, none of the buildings really looked all that nice to Savrin, as he found that they were barely better than hovels.
'Surely these people can build better! The damn castle was thousands of times better than this whole fucking village!' He thought, not impressed in the least.
Stepping inside the Inn, Savrin found it to be warm, as well as crowded and a bit smokey, but it wasn't nearly as filthy as he had imagined it to be. Rather, it was quite welcoming, at least he suspected that's how these people saw it.
From how they were dressed and unhygienic they all looked, he felt that this place was probably a luxury to most of them. Looking around the large room he found himself in, Savrin saw a number of wooden tables scattered about with chairs next to them, a very unappealing bar that looked like someone cut a tree in half and called it good, and more than a few shrunken heads hanging about that were talking to people.
'I feel like I'm back in the stone age.' He thought, slightly repulsed by the whole place. Without even using magic, Savrin knew there were no enchantments around the room, which was quite disappointing to say the least.
'I didn't think it was possible for mages to fail this badly at using magic, but clearly I was wrong.' He thought before he moved towards the bar. Behind the counter was a curvy sort of woman with a pretty face, but nothing that really made him want to stare at her. She had thick curly hair, but her choice of outfit did nothing to enhance her figure.
"Hello there, love! What can I get for you?" The woman asked with a smile on her face, sounding quite cheerful. "What's your strongest drink?" Savrin asked, suddenly wanting to drown his troubles for the moment.
"That kind of day is it? Have some Fire-whiskey. First rounds on me." The woman said cheerfully as a mug appeared in front of him, foaming at the top. Downing the glass in one breath, Savrin tried to gauge if the stuff would have any effect, but he couldn't quite tell.
'Quite weak compared to Hell's Piss.' He noted with a frown as he remembered the almost legendary alcoholic beverage back on Genesis created by the Gnomes. Oh how he wished he had some of it here to drink.
For the next hour, Savrin consumed more than three barrels of Fire-whiskey before he felt it start to do something, but it was only a slight buzz, and he wanted more than that. "Don't tell me you want another one?!" Rosmerta guffawed, shocked at the empty glass he held out to her.
"Are you sure this is your strongest drink? Because I'm just not feeling it." Savrin said with a frown. He had been here an hour already, and so far he hadn't managed to get drunk, and the people drinking couldn't tell him the time of day, let alone anything actually useful.
One thing that he did learn but wasn't helpful, was that the mages, or witches and wizards of this world used things called wands to cast magic. Of course there were those who could cast some spells without them, but they were stronger with the wands.
Savrin wasn't sure what alchemic concoctions these people were on, but he knew that they were on something if they thought they needed little sticks to cast magic effectively.
"You must be some special kind of monster to be able to put that much Fire-whiskey back. Sad to say, I don't have anything stronger." Rosmerta said, giving him a half smile. He started for a moment when she had called him 'a special kind of monster', and he wondered how powerful the woman must be to have seen through his disguise, but when she continued he realized it was more of a compliment. Still, she had no idea how true her words had been.
"Do you have something I can look at to get some information?" Savrin finally asked after his moment of contemplation about how she had seen through him. "I got a copy of the Daily Prophet. Delivered first thing this morning!" She said cheerfully, her mood now much brighter than before now that she could actually help him with something.
Curious about the paper she gave him, Savrin began to read over it for anything interesting. After reading the whole thing from front to back, he frowned in thought.
'It says that the year is 1991. Does that mean it's only been 1991 years since this world came into being? And what the fuck are Death-eaters?' Of course there were other things Savrin learned from the paper, but it all left him with more questions than before.
"Are you finished there, love? We're closing up the pub for the night, so unless you want a room, you're going to need to pay your tab and go home." Rosmerta said, pulling Savrin from his thoughts.
'Pay? Oh yeah.' He had completely blanked on the idea of actually paying this woman for anything, but he realized this wasn't his old world and she had already seen his appearance. It wouldn't do to start off with a bad reputation before he even got started on fixing this backward ass world.
Unsure what kind of currency this world actually used, Savrin quickly looked inside his storage dimension and grabbed a few gemstones from his hoard. Well, technically the hoard belonged to over a dozen different dragons, but after he had killed them it effectively became his. To the victor belongs the spoils and all that.
Not knowing if the gemstones were worth anything, Savrin placed two of them on the table in front of Rosmerta, whose eyes widened in shock at the sight of them. 'Okay, based on that, then they're probably worth a lot more than a few barrels of weak liquor.' He concluded.
"What are you doing?!" Rosmerta whisper shouted at him as she quickly ran over to the table and covered the gems with a cloth.
"My apologies, but I'm lacking in other forms of currency at the moment, so I was hoping you would take one of these instead." Savrin said, shocking the woman even more before her eyes narrowed.
"Why are there two if you thought one would be enough?" She asked warily.
"I'll be coming here often, and I want you to keep a copy of each day's paper for me. Not just the day I come here, but a copy of every paper up to that point. If I miss a day, you will keep a copy of that day's paper for me. Do we have a deal?" He asked before holding out his hand to her.
For some reason she looked hesitant at first, but then nodded her head before shaking his hand. "It's a deal!" She agreed before she brought the cloth covering the two gems to a pocket at her side, the two gems going with it.
With that over and done with, Savrin decided that it was getting close to when the residents of the castle should be going to sleep, and soon he would be able to go and get some more information.
Sneaking into the castle was just as easy as it had been the previous night, only for some reason things were different this time around. As he moved through the corridors and down the halls, Savrin could swear someone was watching him, only when he checked with his own magic, he couldn't find anyone.
Rather than ignore his instincts that had kept him alive through more life and death situations than he cared to admit, Savrin tried to focus on where he was feeling the presence coming from, but to his confusion it felt like it was all around him.
Confused, Savrin walked over to one of the stone walls before placing his hand on it. A simple pulse of magic later and he had his answer.
"Well, hello there."