*Darkness…*
'Eh? So this is the famous darkness that everyone experiences before reincarnation?'
'Cool.'
'I really can't feel my limbs.'
Aleron felt excited and shouted. "Yoohoo!"
But then he felt weird. 'I just heard my own voice.'
He felt even more weird as seconds passed. Some unfamiliar sensation crept on him before the darkness finally lifted its veil and light entered his eyes.
Aleron looked at the luxurious ceiling with gold-plated patterns and lights while his expression turned blank.
He could feel his heart, his eyes as they blinked, his breathing, and….
Aleron's right hand moved up and appeared before his eyes.
"I can move my limbs."
Just as he muttered, the brightness dimmed as he saw many people and uproar ensued.
"He awakened!"
"The savior finally opened his eyes!"
"Our Hero is here!"
Two knights in silver armor appeared to his sides before grabbing his hands and helping him stand up.
"I can move," Aleron muttered as he felt his legs and arms clearly, delight filling him.
"Hero!"
A sound boomed in his ears as Aleron looked around the grand royal palace, with a middle-aged king and queen five meters on an elevated ground while a bunch of people in various attire stood in the surroundings.
'So I didn't reincarnate, but got transported with my body here?' Aleron raised his eyebrows.
"Dear Hero, would you please put your hand on this crystal tablet so we can see the divine blessing you have received from Goddess Elysia."
Aleron, in his pajamas and wearing a smile on his face, eagerly put his hand on the crystal tablet.
'I guess my new life begins already.'
The crystal tablet showed his status, but Aleron swiftly heard a series of gasps.
"Impossible!"
"T-This can't be true."
The princess with long wavy blond hair rushed forward and looked at the tablet with focus and somber expression while the entire throne hall turned silent.
"No talent in magic. Average physical stats. Divine Blessing can't be used due to not meeting requirement…" the Princess muttered while her eyes widened with disbelief.
"Knights!" the King shouted, his expression ugly.
"Capture him and prepare for divine source extraction!"
The two knights beside Aleron grabbed his arms while the other two arrived and grabbed his legs.
"W-What are you doing?! What do you mean by divine source extraction?!" Aleron shouted and struggled to get away, but he was powerless against their grip.
Aleron's heart turned cold as he felt something bad was going to happen to him.
"Stop struggling!"
A golden-armored knight walked alongside the four that carried him and looked at him with a mean glare.
'What the hell is going on?! They called me their hero a moment ago, and now I am like their worst enemy?!'
While they took Aleron away, the murmurs and ruckus in the throne hall grew.
"Silence," the queen spoke with a severe expression, her long blond hair braided with hairpins and a tiara on her head.
The hall turned silent as all the nobles, officials, and knights looked at the King and Queen.
"My lord, the civil unrest is increasing due to the encroachment of the Demons from northeast Delvera Forest, so we shouldn't disclose this matter in public," the court magician said while caressing his beard and bearing a frown on his face. "We needed a hero, so we should give one."
"You all heard this," the King swept his glance across the hall. "We have summoned the hero of our kingdom. He is well and alive and will help us."
"Minister Rowen, send an elite team to find an unfamiliar, but talented young man by searching faraway villages and towns within our Kingdom's borders."
Queen narrowed her eyes and added, "We shall extract the divine source from this weakling and imbue it into another. We shall proclaim the new hero as our Kingdom's true hero."
…
In a stone chamber with a chilly atmosphere, Aleron was forcefully bound with ropes on a stone bed with eccentric patterns.
Only a few minutes passed before more people appeared in the stone chamber led by the Kingdom's court magician.
The court magician looked at Aleron with pity for a brief moment before he nodded at the other mages, "Let's begin. He will die after we extract the divine source, so no need to hold back. Just put your whole focus on the divine source and support me in extracting it."
Hearing that, Aleron's struggle finally ceased as his eyes overcame with despair due to not being able to free himself. 'No...'
He couldn't even speak anything because they sealed his mouth. Struggling was also futile as they tightly bound him. All his eyes showed was utter despair as he found out what his fate entailed.
'This can't be happening. I arrived in another world, but I can't live? I can move again in this world with magic, but I can't live?!'
'Why?! Why am I here then?!'
Suddenly, Aleron's thoughts were interrupted by a spike of pain that shot into his mind and then his body.
His eyes turned bloodshot and a muffled and soundless scream released from the vibration of his throat and sealed mouth. Aleron couldn't scream physically, but his mind was crying and screaming unrestrainedly due to this strange, but the most hellish pain he could imagine.
The divine source was in his soul, so the mages were fiddling in his soul without care for him as Aleron felt pain he couldn't block nor endure. It was as if his soul was getting pierced, burned, crushed constantly.
Unable to hold on any longer, his consciousness drifted away into darkness, and right after that…he heard a clear and crisp voice ringing in his head while the pain began to vanish.
[High Imaginary potential detected.]
[Compatibility rate: Beyond Maximum.]
[Settling in.]
Aleron was confused, but also hopeful.
'Whatever this is, I hope it can save me. Please, let this be my golden finger instead of another fecal matter. I am already, almost fucking dead.'
However, all he received was the darkness that enveloped his consciousness and his thoughts ceased to be.
Aleron completely fainted.
Meanwhile, the mages worked for an hour before they finally extracted the Divine Source and infused it into a magical and valuable palm-sized crystal before putting it in a luxurious wooden box.
"Knights," the court magician looked at four silver-armored knights and said, "Bury him in the garden under the Blood-Oak Tree. No one shall find his body."
The four silver-armored knights nodded while the mages left the stone chambers.
While the knights were unbinding Aleron, his eyes slowly opened, filled with weakness and daze.
But in his mind was a strange thing that overlapped with his vision.
—————————
[Ultimate Gacha System]
-Level: 1
-Gacha Points: 13
|-Summoning Banners-|
1. Lords of Arcane.
—> Summoning Ticket: 1
—————————
'W-what is this? Ultimate Gacha System?' Aleron thought, but his current weakness was threatening to send him back into darkness again.
He was feeling death all over again, but it was more painful this time. It took all of his willpower to remain conscious.
[Do you wish to summon?]
'Yes, summon!' Aleron answered, trying to hold on longer.
Aleron's eyelids closed as he couldn't keep them open while consciousness also got wobbly, but his willpower and desire to live kept him awake long enough to change his fate.
'Lords of Arcane…use its ticket.'
The four silver-armored knights were carrying Aleron toward the door when they suddenly felt a strange aura oozing out of him.
Startled, they dropped him on the floor.
*Thud...*
"What's going on?"
But soon, four of them saw a magical whirlpool with dark green and dark violet waves manifesting over Aleron. Simply looking at this aura caused the silver-armored knights to feel death.
"Who ar-"
*Thud…*
Aleron heard a few thuds around him as if people were falling and his eyes barely opened again.
He could blurrily see a figure clad in a black robe, with a pair of black curved horns on the figure's head and dark green eyes looking at him.
"S-Save me," Aleron blurted out with all of his strength before his eyes closed again.
But this figure's voice still entered his ears.
"As you wish, my lord."