Chapter 1

The wind blew to the east, it too blew to the west. The waters in the rivers run towards the north, yet it too surges to the south. The sun shines brilliantly above al existence, yet the sky remains a dark shade of purple, as if no light was there at all.

A world of contradictions. Its name-, no, its existence remains mostly a mystery to most.

But there, standing in a plain of grass, where the winds blew towards and against each other, there stood a single boy.

He stood there confidently, his right arm holding his left wrist carefully. His hair was spiky red, with his eyes gleaming a shade of orange. He wore a simple white shirt and black jeans, ragged and dirty, but intact nonetheless.

His body was that of a teenager, perhaps in his late 18's or 19's. His true age however remains unknown.

Before him stood a mountain, and sitting at the bottom of it, was an entrance into the cave that inhabits within. That cave was his goal.

'Aah…I want to eat some flan…'

It's been a while since he last gorged himself with his favourite food. Well, it was more of a dessert, but he could probably survive for countless days if he just ate flan all day long. Now that's a dream he would love to see happen!

That aside however, pulling out an iron short sword from his scabbard and holding it in his right hand, he took a deep breath and stepped into the cave.

He wasn't carrying a lantern, which would usually spell out death when travelling inside a cave, but this was a world of contradictions, which meant that any place that would usually be light would be dark, and vice versa.

That was why, inside, he stopped himself to stare in wonder and awe at the spectacle of many glowing crystals growing out of the stone walls. The light blue translucent hue it gave the cave an exotic yet dangerous feeling.

Now, normally, inside a cave like this, one would expect some type of bat monster or giant rat or a sleeping dragon, but this was Neptunia, so all logic seems to have taken a leap of faith out of the window.

*Beep boop beep*

Because there, floating slightly above the cold stone floor, was a spherical object, with a black line traced horizontally on its centre, with a camera lens stuck onto it. They called this thing a…'Bit'. What Bit it was, he wasn't quite sure.

No worries though, because while their camera lens thingy could shoot out powerful heat lasers from afar, their detection system was absolute horse crap, so sneaking up on this one stray Bit wasn't quite that hard.

And…*Bam!* With his short sword raised in the air, he brought it down upon the unsuspecting Bit and stabbed through its robotic little core! A short sizzling sound was heard before all of its systems broke and shut down.

Normally, he would love to break this thing apart for its parts and sell it, but not now. He has a mission, and he didn't exactly have a backpack to carry it in anyways. The one he carried got eaten by a dragon he was fighting 2 days ago.

*Beep Beep Beep!*

'…Oh no…'

But, well, just as he was about to leave, the backup system of the dead Bit flared to life and sounded out, calling in for all reinforcements in the vicinity. With a click of the tongue, he made a quick sarcastic remark about dead things before he quickly left.

His mission was to find a conspicuous iron gate in this cave, break it down, search its insides for any clues about the whereabouts of his sister, and then hopefully leave by activating a portal device that was located there.

Let's just hope the device was still there, or else he was screwed.

Oh, and now there're lasers being fired off at him. Great.

The Bit reinforcements have arrived in great numbers and were now tracking him down. Those who have made contact with him fired off lasers from afar. Luckily, their aim was as bad as the stormtroopers, but even stormtroopers can get a hit in sometimes.

Dodging side to side, and occasionally turning around to block an incoming laser attack, he continued running through the cave system to find this damned iron gate. Like, it shouldn't be too hard, right? After all, a damn iron gate should stand out a lot in this situation.

But he's been running for about 10 minutes now, and no signs of the damn gate! It feels like he's been running in circles over and over again, and it was making him dizzy. Either that, or the increased heat from the constant laser fires was making his head fuzzy.

And to make matters worse, just as he was resting.

*BEEP BOOP*

"…Please wait-"

With no regard for his still recovering Stamina Points, the recently appeared giant Bit, one whose size was as big as a small car, turned its 'angry?' camera lens at him and fired a much stronger beam than normal, melting through the stone like its damn butter. He was able to dodge just in time, but his iron short sword got hit in the process and melted near instantly.

"…Hah…There goes my sword…"

But just because his sword was no longer with him, didn't mean his fight was over just yet.

Taking a stance he built on his own, his left foot standing just right behind his right one, he raised his right fist towards the giant Bit, while his left hand remained in his pockets. A moment of quick silence was exchanged between the two, before an armed laser was fired at him once more.

He simply stepped to the right and let the laser miss, melting through the stone beside him. His stance remained unbroken, and his stamina recovered.

With no words, he leaned forward, and charged towards it!

*Bam!*

His feet left the ground with incredible force, even cracking the stone below slightly. Dodging another incoming laser fire mid-run, he readied his fist and sent a strong punch towards it metallic body.

'…Ouch.'

But of course, that thing's made of metal, so the only one who got hurt was him in the end. He didn't give up yet though, as he used his left leg to kick the giant Bit back. Once again, his leg ended up getting hurt.

Quickly, he ducked down as another laser beam went flying over his head, cutting though the stone wall, which, judging from some explosion sounds from somewhere, hit a stray Bit or two by accident.

That was perfect however, as he now had a clean and unguarded spot to hit the giant Bit at. Gathering the mana he had into his right hand, a brilliant red flame flared and cloaked his entire right arm. Somehow, his sleeve remains unharmed, but I digress.

He scores another clean punch at the giant Bit, and this time, while it still did hurt his fist a bit, the flame burning on his right arm caused its metal body to melt a bit, creating a slight dent.

Seeing as it was injured, it became 'enraged?', and cancelled its floating device to try to crush the boy underneath it. Sadly, it just took too long to do so, and by the time the giant Bit hit the floor, he was already away, scoring another flaming hit on it.

And again, and again, and again. Hit after hit landed on the grounded Bit, making more and more dents as his fists pounded on the currently immobile Bit. In its desperation, it sounded its alarm system to call for its brethren.

*Beep Beep Beep!* It sounded, which hurt his eardrums a bit, but nothing too major. But he better finish this quickly though, since if he didn't, he'll be fighting an entire legion of laser shooting floating spheres, and that'd be bad.

'Let's see…I'm on 95%, huh…Meh, that'll do.'

Seeing as he still had only used up 5% of his entire mana pool, he might as well unleash a quick kill on this big guy. A [Special Move] as they call it.

He raised his right fist into the air, and a blazing fire erupted around his entire arm. This time however, unlike the vibrant red from before, the flame surrounding his arm was a slightly darker shade of red.

'Urk…Still hurts…' With that one last fleeting thought, he gathered all the flames into his fist, and landed one last hit on the giant Bit's metallic body. The flames from his fist burst out into the giant Bit, roasting its entire being alive, melting everything into a puddle of iron and copper.

A job well done!

That move was called [Hades' Wrath]. Normally, one would shout the name just to sound cooler, but honestly, his special moves all sounded a bit too chuuni for his liking, so he'll just stick with reciting the names in his mind.

And befitting of a special move, with its devastating power, also came a devastating drop in his MP pool. A sad thing indeed, as his MP immediately dropped from 95%, to an astounding 70%. An entire quarter of a hundred!

Anyways, time to move out. Staying here is just inviting himself to fight an army of Bits, so he'll save that grinding montage for some time later.

"…Hmm?"

As he was traversing his way through what seemed to be the same damn route as last time, he saw an odd dent in the cave wall. An almost…man-made dent, created to conceal something.

'Hide your secret bases better damnit.'

With that complaint, he raised his left leg, and charged his mana into it, causing a torrent of strong winds to gather around his left leg. Aiming it towards the odd dent, he spun in place, and kicked the odd dent as strongly as he could with his wind-strengthened leg.

*Boom!* The wall went flying back, and there, he saw it. A room made out of metal plating, built precisely and cleanly as to make sure to asymmetry existed. A single light bulb hung in the air, lighting the lifeless room.

Putting his leg down, he took his time and stepped into the room, looking around to see if there was anything of interest, Obviously, that large orange button with a white swirl logo on it at the wall there was suspicious enough, but if he had to take a guess, that's probably the portal device.

Aside from that, there were some notes about some kind of…crystal? He wasn't quite sure, but he couldn't read it, so it didn't matter too much to him. From the looks of it, it didn't have anything to do with his sister anyways, so he'll just leave the papers here.

So, with no further ado, he turned over to the orange button and resting his palm over it, keeping it there but not pushing it. After all, while it might look like a button, this was actually a sensory device, one that only activates if he, or his sister were to touch it.

It's a funny story actually. Her sister loved this logo enough to make it her go-to sign, so anything with this logo would be identified as hers. And to think it all started from a simple wish of wanting to buy a gaming console…ah, how it sure brings back memories.

After about, like, 25 seconds, finally realising that it was indeed him, the white swirl logo on the button lit up, and with it, a portal was made, forming seemingly out of thin air.

Now, if he recalled-

*BEEP BEEP BEEP*

"No time to worry, then. I'll just hope my legs won't break from this…"

With no more intent to stay in this world of damned contradictions, he leapt into the portal, leaving behind nothing as the portal vanished with him.

It was quite a fine day for the denizens of Gamindustri. The sun was shining brightly, but not overwhelming. The clouds were scarce, letting the light blue of the sky be seen from below. The winds were a nice breezy cold, as the plants and trees danced to the rhythm of the wind.

Overall, a good time to spend for a picnic or two.

But not for Uni! As the CPU Candidate of Lastation, and as a prominent adventurer in her city, she was spending her time going out to hunt a nearby monster that has been harassing new adventurers, scaring them to never again join in the wild.

She was a young girl with attitude, adorned with black hair, tied into two long twin tails by two black and light blue hairclips. Her authentic dress was also in a similar black and light blue colour palate, with her long socks and shoes matching the colour scheme as well, with the only contrast to all of this being her red eyes.

Of course, she wasn't a CPU Candidate and an adventurer if she didn't have any skill in battle. Mainly, she fights her enemies with the self-built rifle she usually carries around, with the occasional use of her hunting knife in close quarter-combat. Well, if the enemy survives to even get close that is.

Her mission today was to hunt a mysterious monster, said to take shape of a camel, yet with the head of a dragon and the speed of a horse on steroids. The reports said that it was found in the mesa-like area she was currently searching in. It wasn't something she wanted to believe in, but with increasing casualties every day, it was high time she stopped ignoring it.

It was then, that she heard a loud noise, like a plane crashing down towards the ground, the wind blowing against it as it fell. Taking out her rifle, she took a step back and put her guard up. If she had to take a guess, that camel monster was the one making all this noise. And judging from the noise it was making, it was probably a strong one!

Suddenly, of high velocity suddenly crashed into the ground several metres away from her. A trail of smoke and dust rose into the air. She took her aim at the dust cloud, trembling from both excitement and anticipation as her finger hovered over the trigger.

Then, a leg came out of the dust cloud, then two, then an entire body, all of them belonging to a…human?

"…Huh?"

Just like that, all her expectation just went sinking to the depths of the Bermuda Triangle. It was one hell of a landing, and all she saw was just some guy in a white shirt!?

Then again, this guy could be a monster in disguise, so she wasn't letting her guard down for even a second.

That is, until she saw his left arm, which was scratched and bleeding all over, unlike his relatively uninjured self.

"A-Are you okay?! You're bleeding!"

"…Huh? Oh, no, I'm totally fine. I mean, I just dropped from the sky and landed here on the ground with no major injuries, so no, I'm fine. Don't worry."

She…wasn't sure if that was sarcasm or not, but he seemed rather serious about that. In fact, it didn't even look like he knew about the injury on his left arm. He was just…staring, blankly into the air, his orange eyes looking slightly dimmer than usual.

"…What are you doing?"

"I'm bandaging you obviously! Don't even try to move yet!"

"…You're helping a complete stranger?"

The boy was rather surprised to see this hospitality from her. From the Gamindustri he knew, there was still much tension between the four major countries, and this was definitely not his home, so he expected to be attacked. But…Suppose times have changed.

But, if there was one thing that hasn't changed, it's the fact that this world was still crowded by monsters.

*Grrrrrrrrrrr*

"T-That's-!"

Before she could finish properly bandaging his left arm, it appeared. With its vicious dragon head, but oddly attached to the body of a camel, she wondered if she should feel afraid, excited, or just laugh from how ridiculous it looked.

Not that she had any time to choose, as the dragon-camel hybrid charged at them with intense speed, closing the gap between them near instantly. She stumbled to take hold of her rifle, but it was too late, as its dragon mouth opened and bit into the injured boy.

Except, its jaw never closed at all.

Moving both hands, even his injured left, he took hold of both ends of its mouth and held it in place, completely stopped its speeding charge. The dragon-camel stepped back in shock, and in that time, he gathered the wind to circle around his left leg, and kicked it back with incredible force, sending it flying into the rock several metres away.

It was also then he finally realised his left arm was bleeding all over.

'…Too weak.'

He was disappointed, utterly disappointed. The only thing that he did was shield himself with his left arm by creating a wind barrier to soften the impact. He only made use of his left arm for about 10 seconds or so, and even in that time, his hand was injured this badly. It was too weak.

But contrary to that, Uni thought otherwise.

"A-Amazing…"

She knew from the first moment they met that he wasn't a normal human. After all, for someone to just fall from the sky and land with only his left arm injured was…surprising. But even more, that kick he did, and the wind that surrounded it as he sent that dragon-camel flying…it was incredible.

But there was no time to waste, as the dragon-camel was quick to get back to its feet, before a volley of bullets were fired from her rifle and riddled it all over. She also threw in a special paralysing shot in between her firing, but that didn't seem to be all that effective.

This time, it was the boy's turn to be surprised. He had never seen a weapon shaped like that, and definitely not one that could shoot to injure the enemy from afar. Such an incredible weapon quickly piqued his interest.

Even then, the dragon-camel still stood standing, injured from the kick and the bullets, but standing nonetheless, angered and ready to fight.

"Provide support while I pound that dragon to meat jerky."

"Uh…Sure."

With those words said, the boy charged in with his right hand cloaked in blazing flames. Closing in, the two exchanged a battle of flaming fists and intense kicks, with Uni providing the occasional support fire from afar. Even then, it hardly felt he needed any help from her.

The dragon-camel opened its mouth and fired a string of giant fireballs, but the boy was quick to evade, stepping left and right as the fireballs exploded beside him. As he was evading, Uni shot a quick penetration bullet, just to see how it'll turn out.

Not much happened. The dragon-camel merely stopped firing for a second to recover from the shot. With that time, the boy jumped over the dragon-camel and hit it straight on the head with a wind surrounded left leg, cracking the ground below and sending it crashing into the stone.

The dragon-camel roared in pain, before its head turned over towards him and opened, ready to fire a full powered flame blast at him.

"W-Watch out!"

But her worry was unnecessary, as what happened next was…intense.

Seeing the quickly building flame in its jaws, he charged another quarter of his mana into his left leg, and wind formed to circle around it. But this time, it was much more powerful, like a small tornado spinning around his left leg at high velocity.

He simply pushed harder into the dragon-camel's body, and gathered all the circling wind into the soles of his shoes, before he finally let it all go. The wind exploded out in a violent burst, cutting and bursting through the dragon-camel's body. The [Ares' Chariot], as he called it.

The flames in its jaws sizzled out as the last of its mana. The lifeless head simply tumbled down onto the ground, its eyes no longer shining any life.

"W-Who…are you?"

"Me? I'm Ventus, just an adventurer with a mission."

And so, that day was the beginning of her adventures, where it would lead, she did not know.