So...yeah.
WELCOME TO SOMETHING THAT ISN'T ELDRITCH GAMER OR A BLADE BORNE TO KILL.
..And everyone's gone. Welp, it's a good thing I make these fics because I find enjoyment in them like the FILTHY CASUAL I AM and not for popularity.
Anyway, this story is going to be kind of confusing since a few crucial things before canon are changed. Also, I'm haven't read the Light Novel or watched the anime in YEARS. So, I'll be using the manga instead until I reach the end of that, then I'll start on the Light Novel.
So, the idea for this fic was at the back of my mind for almost about a year and a half and it resurfaced and would not go away. Now here it is!
Anyway, aren't GLAD this isn't ANOTHER Self-Insert again!?
Also, this first chapter was inspired by o Jordinio 0's fanfiction, Maelstrom Blade Dancer!, give my dude some love!
Chapter One: Stubbornness
BGM: Ain't No Grave by Johnny Cash
Fighting a war in the middle of nowhere.
Wasn't even his war in the first place. He was just a mercenary for hire, a nobody in this bloody field of bodies and sharp steel.
Black shoulder-length hair soaked in blood slightly invaded the vision of his blood red eyes. Despite only being sixteen he was pretty tall and well built for his age, being six foot two. All of the fighting had left his armor ruined, so took it off, leaving him shirtless. Dark, almost black, flame-like markings covered a good portion of his body and the left side of his head. Black pants, boots, and a glove covering his right hand were all he wore now, and in his hands was a large greatsword.
He was just a man sent to die for the goals of another. Just like everyone else here. Politics were a pain.
His name was Jack, just Jack. That was all the effort those bastards at the Instructional School took to name him. And just like all of the survivors of the destruction of the Instructional School he made use of the two of the few things he was good at.
Killing, and not dying. He was just too damn stubborn to die.
A soldier from the enemy side charged him, his blade aimed to slit Jack's neck. He dodged the slice, moving just out of reach for the man's blade, but now he was at Jack's mercy. He swung his greatsword with one hand, decapitating the soldier.
A blade like that should have been too heavy for any normal human to swing with one hand, but for those abducted by the Instructional School, being human wasn't an option. They were killers, assassins, and if you couldn't survive the training you were useless.
Jack glanced at his blood covered sword, he scowled, it was chipped and dull in a quite a few places.
He threw the ruined blade at an incoming soldier, caving his face in with its blunt tip. Jack grabbed a less damaged sword that was stabbed into one of the many dead soldiers on the field.
With his "new" weapon, he jumped back into the fray. Jack was like a whirlwind of death, blood and body parts flew everywhere.
No one could keep up with him, the sight of his sheer brutality was a sight to behold. He was resourceful, whenever his current weapon became too broken to use he grabbed another one from his dead enemies.
"What kind of monster is he!?"
One of the soon to be dead fools shouted.
"He's not human, there's no way a human being can be this powerful without a Spirit."
"I-Is he immortal?"
Shouts of disbelief continued to rise as he slaughtered his way through the enemy forces. The voices were just white noise as he carved his way through the front lines.
"What ridiculous claims," Jack thought as he swung his blade expertly through a man's neck. "I'm as mortal as everyone here."
Jack's push forward was interrupted as a blast of ice was sent flying past his face.
He turned to who sent the icy blast his way.
She was a woman that seemed to be in her mid-twenties, hair tied up in a ponytail, wearing red armor. What caught Jack's attention was the blue blade in the hands that froze the air around her.
The sword was all he needed to know that she was an Elementalist.
An Elementalist was a pure maiden that had the privilege to make a contract with a spirit. With being contracted to a spirit. Spirits took on the forms of many things, could be an insect, could be a dragon, hell, they could be made out of rock or plant matter, but the rarest ones looked human.
"Didn't know they brought Elementalists into this war, I'll have to get serious," the mercenary concluded.
Black and red divine energy began to emanate from his body and his eyes gained an ominous red glow.
Before the woman could react, Jack moved faster than her eyes could follow and appeared right behind her. He stabbed his blade through her, severing her spine and impaling several internal organs.
"H-How…?" the poor woman asked as she coughed up blood. "There's… no way a… man can be an… Elementalist."
Jack ripped his sword out of the woman, she fell onto the ground, dead.
The blood-chilling screams of a child tore through the facility.
"Amazing!" a man cried in glee and awe, he looked like some kind of mad scientist lab coat and all. "Simply remarkable!"
The man's eyes were filled with maniacal joy. The target of his sight? A young child, a boy, just barely six years old, chained to the wall, roaring in utter agony.
The child's features weren't very visible. His black hair was matted against his head, weighed down by blood and sweat. The boy was entirely naked, though not much could be seen of his body due to the blood oozing out of his very pores and orifices.
The scientist laughed madly. "This is incredible!"
His eyes stared intently at the whirlwind of pitch black power that roared throughout the room, the center point, the boy. It wasn't the black energy that made him unbelievably giddy. It was that he could see small bits of red mixed in with the black energy, almost like embers.
"He isn't merely accepting and adapting to Solomon's power!" the scientist roared in laughter. "He's dominating it instead! The other subjects didn't even last a minute after being exposed to Solomon's energy! Yet this boy! He's been at this for nearly an hour! How can this be!? Does he have some kind of healing ability?"
"...No."
The reply came from behind the scientist. It was an amused voice that made the scientist turn around in shock.
"Master?" he questioned.
Behind him stood a very tall man whose body was concealed in a black cloak, his face covered by a white mask, the two black holes in the mask didn't even reveal his eye color.
"The boy doesn't have any healing ability," the master explained. "Look at his eyes...that's no special power, this is pure willpower, he simply refuses to die."
The scientist blinked in confusion when he heard the tone of respect in his master's voice, but did as he was told and looked at the boy's eyes.
Despite his body seemingly being torn apart from the inside out as Solomon's divine energy tore through his body creating divine energy pathways, the child's burning red eyes glared at them with murderous, animalistic rage.
The scientist could practically see the grin behind his master's mask.
"With willpower like that, the boy might actually surpass Solomon himself."
"I REFUSE TO DIE HERE!" the boy shouted.
The energy around the boy stalled for a moment. Then it fully entered his body, the boy pulled against the chains, breaking them easily. An aura of black and red divine energy enveloped the child as its new master accessed his conquered power for the very first time.
As the last chain broke the child fell to the ground and passed out, his body pushed far past its limit.
"Get the child the best medical treatment we have," the master demanded. "Do not let him die, and take his name out of the Cursed Armament Seal program. I have plans for this one."
The master walked away without looking back.
Shing!
"Ah!" Jack shouted in pain as his back flared in hot pain.
The mercenary growled and threw his blade into the face of the person who injured him. Another soldier dead.
Blue flames consumed the wound, causing Jack to grimace in pain. After a few seconds of burning, the flames went away showing the freshly made cut along his back was gone.
Jack sighed in relief as the fire faded. The flames healed, sure, but having your wounds burn away hurt like a bitch, and he was very well acquainted with fire.
Rubia Elstein, the Calamity Queen made sure of it.
To be fair, she wasn't trying to kill him, he just got caught up in the burning ruins of the Instructional School, and she did heal him. The flame-like marks on his body weren't for show after all. So, as far as he was concerned, they were square.
Jack picked up another sword and began walking towards the enemy stronghold, he wasn't getting paid to sit on his ass after all.
The stronghold most likely had a few strong Elementalists in there. Troublesome, but work was work.
After almost everyone either left him for dead or abandoned him, this was all he had left to live for.
From the very day he was born, the Instructional School groomed him to be one of the most effective and efficient killers in the world.
This was his purpose in life.
To kill for others.
He'd sooner be damned than let anyone take that away from him.
It was done.
The enemy was dead.
They won.
Jack used his sword as support as he stood just outside the now concurred stronghold, countless bodies surrounding him, all various Elementalists and soldiers, and he did all of this without a Contracted Spirit. His breath labored as the cuts that littered his body began to be consumed by blue flames. Jack sighed as the flames dissipated and rolled his shoulders, smoke stubbornly clinging to his body.
A shadowy bird landed on his shoulder, it held a letter within its beak.
Jack took the letter out of the bird's beak,
"Must be from Greyworth," he concluded.
Greyworth Ciel Mais, the Dusk Witch. She was one of his more frequent employers, and one of the very few people trusted… even if she did make him crossdress when he was twelve.
Jack carefully opened the letter.
Seconds later, his eyes widened. "What in the unholy lordy loo!? Ren Ashbell is what!? She wants me to go where!?" he shouted in shock. "I sense some fucking shenanigans about!"
If it was revealed that the real Ren Ashbell was actually cross-dressing male and that said male was now knee deep in bodies and a semi-insane sociopath, then the hearts of maidens across the world would be broken and everyone would be mortified beyond belief.
But he knew that Greyworth would laugh her ass off at such chaos, and that he'd be there laughing with her.
"Welp, fuck it," Jack said as he scratched the back of his head. "Areisha Spirit Academy, here I come."
Chapter End