Disclaimer: all the Burning badges (fire emblem) belong to Nintendo
"Perhaps, it was not the better choice to back the rebels when their goal was to topple the magically powered regime when you were also a highly capable mage," The echo addressed me
"…" I Don't even bother addressing the echo, since I know by now the echo is just attempting to teach me a lesson I already learned. Although, a guillotine is a surefire way to take a load off my shoulders.
"You really shouldn't put so much trust in people," the echo said from another… direction or something.
No point in listening just got to see if I can find another strand out of this void before I get stuck with wherever he slash she slash it decides to send me somewhere worse.
"If you just followed the rules things would turn out better for you," echo rambles on while collecting some energy in a form imitating my own.
The form copies my features from my straight dark brownish hair, to my scraggly red and blonde peppered beard. I hate those gray eyes the form makes. The pupil and iris are entirely gray which has disturbed both me and the people I had met in my journeys. I have been in this loop for so long I can't honestly say that is what my eyes originally looked like, but I swear they weren't like that before… before. Nevermind.
"This is new," I say in surprise at a new feature forming on the echo's face. A glowing gray mark with a gray dot encompassing where my right eye would be instead of just the iris and pupil. A half circle curves around my eye at a slant. The rim of the circle has three upside down triangles pointed away from the circle, one towards the ear one at a diagonal and the last straight down. Each has a circle in the middle of a triangle.
"Like the new look?" the echo asks with a smirk as it sees me observing the change.
"Isosceles all the way," I reply.
The echo pouts, a weird look on my face the way the echo does it. "Aww I expected more of a reaction to that." The form quickly perks up and leans towards me, "Good thing though since this is what you will look like in the new world."
Panic fills me as I try to reach out with my energy to try to find any connection to a world besides where the echo plans to send me.
"I am guessing that I will have some choice in how I look and what I can do in the new world," I idly comment on noticing the echo was just wearing the one-piece gray uniform it wears on the rare occasion I am given a choice.
"Eh," the echo shrugs, "not like the two of us have a choice in the matter. Honestly if I am lucky I get to go with you this time to give you insomnia."
Crud.
I remember back two lives ago where I was setup as an insane inmate and whoever was in charge sent the echo with me. The echo proceeded to recite the entirety of a saga called Sunrise. I wouldn't have minded the distraction of a story in that human rights violation of a medical facility, if the echo restrained from reciting while I was both trying to asleep and was asleep. I may actually be completely insane now, but I doubt any inhabitants of the realm I visit would notice. At least I took down the worldshifter manufacturing facility and that psychotic doctor.
"I love it when you're traumatized," the echo interrupts my trip down memory lane, "It makes my job so much easier when you forget to try and escape."
Oh, crud! Crud! Crud! Crud! Crud! I forgot to keep looking for a connection!
"Look all you do by escaping is endanger countless people and worlds," the echo attempted to display sympathy, "face it we are stuck in this loop and the best thing we… Oh! Time to go!" the echo jerks into a standing position, which is strange in a void with no up or down, as multi-colored energy surrounds the two of us. "Anyways this world is called uhhhh… nevermind the nation is a place called…" the echo adopts a confused look, "Wait this isn't right where is my information I can't send him in without any!"
What is going on? The echo never, ever, freaks out. I am starting to get concerned as the energy surrounding us turns a darkish purple. One thing I know in my experience with dark energy types is that if you don't know what it does you better hope you at least get out alive.
"NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO" the echo's form starts curving and spiking and quickly changes into a smaller figure that I don't have a chance to examine before letting out a essencecurdling shriek. As soon as the sound leaves the echo's mouth he slash… Oh nevermind! It instantly turns into a burst of energy and zooms out into the distant void.
The dark energy still surrounds me. Leaving me to wonder if the only thing it was supposed to do was get rid of the echo.
"Should I thank you purple… wispy… thing?" I force out as the energy shrinks around me.
Nothing happened for some amount of time besides the odd grazing of energy when it got to close. I did not know what to expect until I noticed something. I was trying to think of some other things like this energy I came across when my thoughts started to blur and when I tried to bring up a memory I could only mentally visualize a blank. I was in the middle of panicking until I remembered that there was nothing I could do to stop it anyways.
"I don't know why you're going easy on my head, but let's save some time and get it over with."
As soon as the words left my mouth the energy stopped swirling. The energy quickly closed on… PAIN! TOO MUCH! NO! WAIT I CAN'T! STOP YOU!
"Pah! a pitiful fight," the bandit mercenary spits on the corpse of his nearby Ylissean counterpart.
The merchant and his family cower near the overturned cart while the few bandits rummaged in the packages scattered across the road. One finds a package full of some clothes. He pulls out a light blue dress with a white lace collar some sewn designs around the hem.
"Oy boss don't you think Marcie would look good in this," the fighter holds it up to his body and twirls around gaining snickers from the archer who just found a purse of gold among some rags in the wagon.
The mercenary ignores the man and walks up to the merchant and his wife and daughter. The girl shrinks into her mother's side as the man begins to standup between the bandit and his family but is promptly knocked to the ground with the hilt of the mercenary's sword.
"I have to give you some credit Ylissean dog," the bandit addresses the grounded merchant, "Not many of Ylisse's merchants still employ these many mercenaries." He gestures to the five corpses strewn about the campsite, one getting charred by the nearby campfire.
"We still killed one of yours," the merchant comments on the bandit mage before getting several swift kicks to the stomach leaving the man curled on the ground in pain.
The mercenary composes himself ignoring the crying of the merchant's wife and daughter.
"All right, Jaker! Leon! Get rid of the rest of this scum and we will meet up with the others," the leader addressed his two companions.
Wait one companion? The mercenary looks to where the archer was standing but sees only a small green purse with gold pieces scattered on the ground. He readies his blade and begins to approach the front of the wagon when the Yllissean wench cries out against the mother's protests. He jerks his head towards the family and notices blood dripped onto the girl's brown tunic. He follows the trail up the bottom of the wagon to a bloodied gray claw gripping the wagon's side. A quick look above that and he saw a gray-haired… thing with a gray mark over its eye and pointed ears. He almost dropped his sword as the creature growled and lunged at him.
He never had a chance raise his sword against the threat as the monster's claws raked his chest and ravaged his sword arm. The mercenary's last breath was just leaving his body as the beast turned around towards the merchant family. It just registered the shock and terror in the merchant and his wife's eyes and the fear and awe in their daughters when it quickly lost interest looked towards the remaining fighter.
Being the sane man that he was, the fighter dropped the dress and started to back away from the creature that slaughtered his leader, and likely his friend, in a matter of seconds. As soon as the creature uttered a growl at him baring its inhumanly pointy teeth he turned and lunged for his axe. The creature was already on his back clawing away, but the man swung his axe around and the copper blade lodged in its side. He tried to pull the axe away, but he was forced onto the ground and his uncovered torso proved to be easier cut than the clothed mercenary and archer's. After the fighter expired the creature still proceeded to tear into the corpse in fury from its wound before it finally managed to calm down.
As the creature stood up the family watched as its bloodied claws gave off a wavy effect and gray scales gave way to soft slightly tanned flesh. When it turned around the merchant finally noticed the beige ragged shirts and pants it wore and realized he may be able to capitalize on this creature if it could be civilized, while the girl noticed that a young man only two years her senior took out three men that five caravan guards could barely take out, while this all went unnoticed to the wife who passed out like a reasonable person would.
Although, the family was thinking through all this the boy-creature-thing seemed to have calmed down and was surveying his surroundings. He noticed the mangled corpse of the mercenary and fighter near him and put his hand to his mouth in shock. Notably, his still bloody hand. When the boy slowly removed his hand and noticed the red liquid on his hands and the processed the fact that said liquid was now covering his mouth he looked from his hands to the family back to his hands. Without a sound his eyelids twitched, and he collapsed to the ground.
The merchant family looked at the collapsed boy in front of them for a minute.
"We're keeping him," the girl promptly said.
The father was in too much pain and was too tired to argue so he pushed the wagon upright with his daughter's help and loaded the boy into the back. He sent his daughter out to fetch the horses while he and the recently awoke mother collected their wares and discussed what to do with their new traveling companion.
Void Notes
It appears that this first chapter has been submitted. Amusing... I am not quite sure what powers my little monster will start to exhibit but a possible hint may be his scaly nature and his strange drive to kill the bandits. i leave assumptions up to you. Perhaps I may be interested in giving him access to other gifts, but very few indeed after all. I AM NOT THE ONE WHO BROUGHT HIM HERE.
Author Notes
Howdy! Scorin here! I sure hope you had had a fun time reading this chapter as I had in writing it. In all honesty I have no idea how my fic will turn out since I am mostly writing this for fun and I prefer to be a bit reactionary in my writing. I do have a basic idea for secrets and reveals but I don't like to restrict my ideas especially when I may come up with something that fits the story better.
I do plan on setting up a poll to help prevent my SI from becoming to Gary Stu so I hope that gets visited.
Next chapter may come out soon if I get around to it and well it is not going to be what you expect.