It was weird, Mira, the beast of a boy with a massive body was skinny and tied to something that appeared to be a bed with a bright light blinding him and a crazy guy going on and on about his power
"Who are you?" Mira asked the guy
"Oh, you understand my language? You can speak too? That's even more impressive than I originally thought! You truly are my masterpiece!" The man said as he lifted his arms up
"So... Are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on, or are you going to drag this as long as possible for the views?" Mira asked with a smile, he also believed his body was like that because of the prank
"Views? Nobody is spectating us, child! It's just me and you, and all the failed experiments if you count them" The man said as he pointed at a wall behind Mira
Mira struggled to look behind him but when he did he regretted it instantly
A pile of burned bodies lay behind Mira
"What the fuck is going on?" Mira said as he tried to free himself
"Stop struggling kid! You are still a newborn, you will damage yourself!" The man said as he untied Mira from the bed
Mira's legs were barely able to withstand his weight
"This... I died, what is this? Is this hell?" Mira asked while using the bed to stabilize himself
Memories of his death came flowing back into him, he remembered everything clearly now, he could even recall his life flashing before him, all the memories were memories of his childhood where he fought older kids who bullied another kid
"You... Then it's true, I managed to bring a soul from another world here... I finally succeeded in not only creating a ghoul but also creating it with a foreign soul! I might actually be a genius..."
As soon as the crazy man said all that someone broke through the facility by breaking the walls
"So that's where you were hiding?" A man with a knot around his neck asked with a smile
He had a certain aura around him that made Mira fall down and the crazy man back down
"The Hanged Man... What are you doing here?" The man asked while eating his nails out of fear
"Me? I was just wondering around and the loser they call king told me about some abduction cases, and by the looks of it you were not holding back huh?" The man said as he looked around at all the burned corpses
"L-L-Leave me alone! This is not fair! I finally was able to bring a subject to life!" The man said as he hugged Mira
"Get off me, bastard!" Mira said as he pushed with all his force the man away
But it was futile, his body was so weak that he could hardly move, let alone push someone
"I see... So your plan to create a ghoul without the power of arcana succeeded! What can I tell you, congratulations! But sadly I will have to dispose of you and the ghoul now!" The man said as strings started to fall from his fingers
"No... NOOOO!!! THIS IS MY MASTERPIECE! I WON'T LET YOU DESTROY HIM!" The crazy man yelled while spitting fire out of his hand
The aggressive tongue of fire consumed the man who claimed he would kill Mira but it seemed it did no damage
The man had the same strings that came out of his hand quickly rotate around him, this way preventing fire from even touching him
"Is this all? Just a simple Sun attack?" The man asked
"I-I have much more in store! ARUKANA!!!" The crazy man yelled
"Heh, you really are using arukana straight at the start? You truly are miserable as the king told me, Asure of the fallen!" The man calmly said as he got ready to attack back
Suddenly a huge scale appeared behind the crazy man, the left side of the scale quickly fell down and crashed to the ground breaking it in the process, and then a huge purple beam came out of the crazy man's hands
On the other hand, the calm man who broke in, gathered all his strings in a single spot and directly clashed with the beam, the strings formed a drill and with their intensive movement they were able to overpower the purple beam and hit the crazy man's right arm, tearing it apart
The crazy man fell to the ground while screaming loudly
"NOOOO THIS CAN'T END HERE! MY KIN! DO SOMETHING, SAVE ME!!!"
As soon as the crazy man said that a single string quickly cleaved Mira's legs making him fall to the ground
Mira also yelled from the pain
"NOOOO! DON'T YOU DARE DAMAGE MY MASTE..."
Before the crazy man could finish talking he was cut into multiple pieces by the composed man's strings
"And that's done! Now let's see... Hmm, you appear to be intelligent, that's rare!" The man said as he appeared in front of Mira in an instant
"I... I will fucking kill you, you bastard!" Mira said as he tried to get up
To his surprise, his legs grew back
"You really are a ghoul but something is different... You can talk and also don't attack on sight... Are you perhaps a hybrid? That's even rarer!" The man said with a smile
"I'm a ghoul? What the fuck are you talking about bastard?" Mira asked as he looked at his returned legs
"Well, we will both see!" The man said as he raised up his finger
Mira heard a sudden slicing sound, one that you would hear if a whip passed by your ear quickly, this distinct sound of something slicing the air
But in this case, it didn't only slice the air, but the whole mountain this laboratory was built in, the top of the mountain slid off and fell down making the whole area tremble
Mira looked up to the bright blue sky, he was relieved to see the light of the sun once more
"Huh? You ain't getting fried? So that means you are a hybrid right? I doubted this idiot could really create something like this, guess I have to take you to the king for questioning... So do you use any arcana?" The man asked as he offered a hand to Mira to get up
"Arcana? What the hell are you saying? What the hell did you two guys do? All those powers and..." Mira went on and on about all the crazy stuff he saw
"Calm down kid, after what I heard I can tell you are not accustomed to this world, it's only natural, you were just born not even a moment ago but for some reason, you are able to talk and understand complex topics such as morals... Hmmm did you perhaps inherit the mind of this body?" The man with the knot around his neck asked
"Hell no I am Mira Dom! I'm a kickboxer!"
"Kick... Boxer? What's that? I understand that you kick but the last part? A boxer? Are you kicking and boxing people at the same time? I thought you didn't use any arcana?" The man asked confused
"Look I don't know what this is but it's not funny, you have superpowers don't you?" Mira asked
"Well no ordinary man can slice a mountain can they?" The man asked with a smile
"Where I come from it's not normal, nobody can do that, not even machines can do that, and we are talking about the same machines that can destroy countries!" Mira said to that weird man
"Hmm, I see so you come from another world? Well, that's not a first, I mean The World might know something but this person is nowhere to be found for a whole century! You could probably find the answers about your arrival here on your own before finding them!" The man said as he looked confused
"The world? Is this a name? It sounds stupid if it is!" Mira said as he smiled for the first time
"I forgot you don't know anything... So the tale goes like this, one day God blessed us with 22 meteors, and each meteor fell on a human, a human worthy of Godhood, and just like that we were born, the 22 forces of the Arcana! You act friendly with me but I too am considered the most likely to attain a title that only those with Godhood in their blood have, but I guess I still have a long way to go. My name is John Lee but everyone calls me Babbacombe! If I remember correctly your name was Mira, right? Nice to meet you!" Babbacombe said with a smile as he extended his hand
Mira felt his power from the start but couldn't tell what it was
"Huh... I didn't think dreams could be so real..." Mira said as he shook Babbacombe's hand
"Get serious Mira, you are alive by God's will! So I wouldn't disregard this second chance by calling it a dream" Babbacombe said as he glared into Mira's eyes
They both stood there in silence looking at each other for a bit before Babbacombe spoke up
"Let's go! I have to take you to the king!" Babbacombe said as he walked away, he was dragging Mira with him while holding his hand
"Why do we have to go to him?" Mira asked confused
"Oh, I forgot to tell you. Ghouls are monsters, soulless and brainless and only appear at night, and to summarize how we treat them, there is a saying, 'A ghoul is only good when it's twice dead' You know what I mean, right?" Babbacombe asked Mira
"You mean they kill ghouls on sight?"
"Exactly, ghouls kill anything living in their sight, even themselves, they are truly the lowest of the low when it comes to undead creatures! But you? You seem to be a mixture of human and ghoul, let's just say you are an anomaly!" Babbacombe said with a smile
"My legs... I was certain you cut them before..." Mira said as he looked once again at his legs
"Hmm? Yeah sorry about that, I thought you were a ghoul-ghoul and decided to immobilize you so I could take you to the king later, but seems like you were not hostile after all, I'm telling you, ghouls are evil, nobody can stand the sight of one, if I didn't have the order to take you to the kingdom I would have sliced you into cubes as soon as I saw you!"
"I see... Now what if the king wants me dead?" Mira asked
Silence followed for a bit
"Babbacombe?"
"The king's word is bond, I can't really do anything but try to change his opinion if you are lucky!" Babbacombe said as he looked in front
...
Surprisingly Mira was quiet all the way to the castle, even though they walked through a beautiful town with houses that resembled traditional German houses with his hands tied nobody seemed to bother them or ask them what was going on, it was like this was a normal event
'Why am I so calm? Why do I speak formally with this idiot? Is it because he can kill me in an instant? Did death make me mature in some way? Nah who the hell I'm fooling? It's just that bastard's powers, it's not like I know him so even a small insult may make him mad, resulting in my death again... Firstly I have to figure out what is going on and then I have to find a way to get strong... I can't stand bastards like him walking me around like I'm some kind of pet...' Mira thought as he closed his fists in anger
"Here it is!" Babbacombe said with a smile
Mira looked up to see a prestigious castle floating slightly above ground, many waterfalls were falling from it, those waterfalls were probably the result of the rivers inside the castle area. It was Mira's first time seeing such a place, even though he visited many places when he was on earth nothing compared to the beauty of this floating castle
Babbacombe talked to many guards before getting access to see the king. After talking to many men he was able to secure a meeting with the king
"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Babbacombe asked with a smile
"The fuck you want me to say?" Mira looked scared after saying that
He forgot to be kind to him and just because of that his heart skipped a beat
"Hahaha, you are right! You must be very confused! But don't worry! We are about to talk to the king! He will explain this much better than I can!" Babbacombe said as he stood up
A guard finally called him to enter the throne room
"I know the king's appearance may surprise you but I have to ask you not to say anything offensive to him, he is very sensitive about this topic..." Babbacombe said as he placed his palm to his face
Mira was confused but he nodded
The huge doors to the throne room opened
A short fat man shaped like a pear was sitting on the throne awaiting them, he was escorted by two giants, each one of them was 4 meters tall at least
"Hahaha, why are you shaped like that? How do you even pee? Your hands can't reach your di..."
Babbacombe quickly used his strings to tie up Mira's mouth and also make his bow down
"Excuse me you majesty! He is Asure's experiment! A hybrid ghoul, even though his body has the qualities of ghouls he is mentally stable more or less and he is immune to sunlight, he also can grasp basic concepts such as math, complicated dialect, and manners, which I believe to be The World's work. What do you wish to do with him?" Babbacombe asked the king as he raised up his head
"Hmm... Can he fight?" The king asked as he saw Mira's body
As soon as the king spoke a burst of laughter was heard from Mira even though his mouth was wired shut, the reason behind Mira's laugh was that the king had an incredibly squishy voice that complicated his goofy figure
"I'm not sure king! His body is incredibly slim for a ghoul, hell even by human standards he is too thin, I can almost see the outline of his entire skeleton so I guess even if he did know how to fight he would be incredibly weak, plus ghouls don't have mana so him being part ghoul means he probably has no mana either, I mean I can't sense a mana wave or see some kind of aura from him!" Babbacombe said as he inspected Mira while his eyes glowed
"I see... Hey you! Can you understand me?" The king asked Mira
Babbacombe quickly untied Mira's mouth
"Y-Yeah..." Mira replied while trying to contain his laughter
"Can you fight?" The king asked
"I can beat up anyone here in hand-to-hand combat, no superpowers and all this crazy shit!" Mira said as he smiled
"Hmm, I see... Ponwer, escort him to the arena, you two shall have a friendly spar" The king said as he hopped off the throne
'Fight... What is this feeling? It's been long since everyone around me was so much stronger than me... Is this the thrill of survival? I thought I was numb to it after growing up in the mess I called home' Mira thought as he looked at his skinny palm with a smile
"His appearance isn't THAT funny" Babbacombe commented after witnessing Mira's smile
"There are no rules in an arena right?" Mira asked Babbacombe as he stared into him with a devilish smile
"Of course not" Babbacombe replied with a smile