Hello everyone! Welcome to the story! I would have some weird intro like "let me show you this new world that I made from a previously existing one" but I don't feel like it! So I'll stick with this kind of intro. Anyways, this is my first No Game No Life fanfic. However, this is not my first fanfic. I hope to improve my writing style as well as the content so please feel free to criticize my story to your heart's content. I'll take into account everything. Anyasy, I hope you guys enjoy this!
[Outskirts of Elkia: Dram Forest]
"Too slow."
A seventeen year old boy with maroon hair dodged to the side as an arrow flew past him and stuck into a tree.
"Stop right there!"
The boy, Sora, stopped. He turned to look at his pursuers.
Three male elves stood before him, armed.
"I thought the pledges prevented murder." Sora said to them.
"The pledges are meant for the Exceed." One of the elves replied. "They don't apply to a piece of trash like you."
"Still…" The boy said. "I can't believe you followed me all the way to Elkia. I didn't expect you to step foot in Imanity's territory."
"If you had stayed in captivity in the first place, we wouldn't be here. You made a mistake, coming back to Elven Garde with that girl." Another of them said. "Now, you have two choices. You can either come with us or you can die here."
"You want me to go back to Elven Gard so I can be examined and studied? No thanks. I much prefer being free!"
"Kill him!" The leader of the three yelled.
The elves drew back their bows. Green and blue glowing lines spread over the arrows.
"Homing magic?" Sora said, surprised.
"Die!"
They shot the arrows at him.
His red eyes flashed.
He jumped faster than any human could move. He planted his feet on a tree and pushed off, shooting in to the air, the tree falling from the force.
The boy looked down. He had jumped about fifty feet into the air. The three arrows turned upward, homing in on him.
"Like hell!" Sora yelled with a smile.
He tapped into the small magic reserve he had and held his hand out towards the arrows. With a thought he cast a spell to reverse the current spells placed on them. With another thought, he entered the targets into the spell and completed it.
The three arrows simultaneously turned back towards the forest.
"Do you think that got him?" One elf asked the leader.
"Yeah. There's no way he can dodge those forever. We shou-"
He was cut off as an arrow came down from above, curved and stuck through his neck.
The elf fell to his knees, clutching at his throat.
"What the hell!?" One of the two yelled.
His hands glowed green as he prepared some type of healing magic.
However, he didn't get the chance to use it. Another arrow came down and, just like the other, stuck through his throat.
"Dammit!" The remaining elf yelled. He held his hand up, a glowing white shield appearing in it. He turned and held it up. The arrow struck the shield and shattered. "You'll pay for this!" He yelled.
The elf turned and ran away through the forest.
Sora landed on a tree.
"I guess that's that." He jumped down from the tree and examined the two dead elves. He took a cloak from one and put it on, pulling up the hood. He took a sword from the other and strapped it to his hip, hiding most of it with the cloak.
[Elkia: Last city of Imanity]
"So this is Elkia, huh?" Sora said to himself as he walked through the streets.
Luckily he looked like an Imanity, so nobody paid him any attention.
"But really, our new king is really something."
He stopped as he heard a conversation. Two men were sitting on a bench outside a building, talking.
"Yeah." The other man said. "A lot of people challenged her to games for the throne, but she defeated every single one of them without breaking a sweat."
"New king?" Sora mumbled. "Oh right. I remember the elves saying something about that.
The word "king" triggered an idea.
He looked towards the palace and smiled.
"That's it. If I don't have any rights, I'll just have to obtain them myself."
The boy set his sights forward and moved in the direction of Elkia's palace.
As he moved past a group of men talking, his shoulder bumped one of them. Instead of ignoring it like Sora did, the man turned around.
"Hey! Watch you're going punk!"
Sora turned to him.
"Maybe if you weren't acting like a bum, hanging out around places like this…" He motioned to the tavern they were outside of. "Then I never would have bumped into you."
"What the hell did you say to me!?" That made the man angry. He took a step forward.
"Hey, let's not resort to violence here."
"Of course not." The man said. "We'll settle things like everybody does."
"A game?"
"Right."
"Well, according to the pledges, I get to choose the game, right?"
"That's right."
"Checkers."
A few minutes later the two sat at a table in the tavern. A checkers board was set up on the table.
"I've been playing board games since before you were born." The man said to the boy. "Looks like this will be easy."
"If you say so."
"So," The man said. "If I win, what will you give me?"
Sora found it strange that the man was asking him since he had challenged him.
"You can give me one order. I don't care what it is even if it's to kill myself."
"I wouldn't do anything that extreme, but fine."
"And? If I win?" Sora asked.
"Choose what you want."
"I'll take all the money you have on you."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
The man seemed confused but he just sighed. He raised his right hand and smiled.
"Aschente."
Sora raised his right hand.
"Aschente."
The man went into the game confidently.
However that confidence was crushed a few minutes later when Sora quadruple jumped his last four pieces.
"What!?" The man exclaimed.
"I believe that the deal was that I get all the money you have on you."
"I can't believe I lost to an outsider!"
Sora heard the man yell as he walked away, a large money pouch tied by his belt.
He walked into a tavern well away from the one he played the game at, and found a table in a corner. He sat, ordered a drink, and waited patiently.
After it came, he took a sip from it and put it down.
"How long are you going to sit there before you say something?" Sora asked.
"I was waiting for you to start a conversation."
The person who he had spoken to was a girl sitting at the table adjacent to his. She was sitting close to him. If she backed up, her shoulder could touch his.
She looked around the same age as him.
The girl wore a cloak similar to his, with the hood pulled up to hide her face.
"Thanks for helping me, Pluzzle." Sora said with a smile. "You didn't get caught, did you?"
"Of course not. Who do you think I am?"
"So…" He turned to her. "Are you going to tell me how you got past the elves this time?"
"Why would I do that? If I tell you, then I lose my element of mystery!"
"I don't underestimate your skills." Sora said. "You're one of the best players in Disboard."
"Didn't we say that we'd refer to ourselves as 'gamers'?"
Sora paused.
"Gamer makes us sound like we're excluding ourselves from the other races."
The boy put a few coins on the table and threw some on the girl's table as well. They both walked out of the tavern.
"You're not an Exceed, you know."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm a Witch's Toy. I know. You don't need to remind me every time we see each other."
"Hehe. Sorry." Pluzzle smiled at him.
He knew she was joking around. He didn't take it personally anyways.
"Now that I'm not stuck in Elven Garde anymore, we should see each other more anyways."
"That's right." The girl said. "So, what are you planning to do now that you're free?"
Sora stopped and the girl stopped next to him. He looked at the palace looming ahead of them.
"You just said that I'm not an Exceed, right?"
"Yeah."
"That means I don't have any rights."
"Yeah. So?"
"I heard that there's a new queen of Imanity."
"There is. Her name is Shiro. She's very young, but she's amazing at playing games. I heard that she came from another world. What do you want with her?"
"I'm going to beat her in a game."
"What?" Pluzzle asked, confused. "What do you want to win from beating her in a game?"
"I want the right to rule beside her as a king of Imanity."
"…" The girl stared at him for a few seconds. "Don't you find something wrong with a king of Imanity not being an Imanity?"
"It's no problem." Sora said. "Shiro will be the only one who knows that I'm a Witch's Toy. After I win, I'll pass a law that gives rights to Witch's Toys in Elkia."
"You're pretty crafty." Pluzzle said. "Why not just fake being an Imanity to everyone though, including Shiro?"
"…"
"Sora?"
"Don't you think there might be more out there?"
"Huh?"
"More Witch's Toys."
"What are you talking about?"
"I don't think I'm the last one. I'm sure that there are some survivors out there. If I pass a law that gives Witch's Toys rights in Elkia, I'm sure the word will spread fast. If other Witch's Toys hear about it, then they can come and live freely in Elkia."
"You're really not as selfish as you look, are you?"
"What kind of guy do you take me for?"
"A selfish genius."
"I'm not sure whether I should take that as a compliment or an insult, so I'm just going to ignore it."
"Are you sure you can beat her though?" Pluzzle asked. "If you're challenging her, then she gets to choose the game. She'll definitely choose what she's best at."
"That's the best part." He said with a smile.
"What…?"
"She doesn't know my skill at anything. The best she can hope for is to choose her best and hope that she's better at it than I am."
"I still don't see how that's a good thing."
"It means this will actually be a challenge."
"You really are an idiot, aren't you?"
"I need a challenge every once in a while." Sora said with a laugh. "The world would be boring if everything was just handed to you."
"Yeah and we know Disboard is all about not being bored."
"Let's get going, Pluzzle."
"Yeah."
The two continued their walk towards the palace.
[Elkia: Royal palace]
A young girl, around eleven years old, sat on a stone throne. She had messy light blue hair and golden-red eyes.
A girl around eighteen years old approached her. She had short red hair with a blue flower in it and blue eyes.
"Shiro." Stephanie said to the girl sitting on the throne.
"Yes?" Shiro asked in a monotone voice.
"Not that I have a problem with your way of living, but since you've ascended to the throne you haven't done anything…"
"That's not true. I've beaten everybody who's challenged me. That's why we're not constantly pestered anymore." Shiro was holding a cellphone in a panda case, a device from her world.
She tapped on the screen as she played a game on it.
"I meant you haven't done anything to improve Elkia!"
"I was going to leave that to you."
"You can't expect me to do everything you know! Of course, I'll help you in any way I can."
"Then feel free to help me by doing everything." Shiro said, relaxing.
"That's not what I meant!"
"Hey!" They heard a voice yell from outside the door. "You can't go in there without an appointment!"
"Come on! It's no big deal, right?"
"It is a big deal! There's a reason we have rules like this!"
"Why? Is the queen afraid of losing to some people, so she only chooses to have audiences with those who seem easy to defeat?"
That struck something in Shiro. She looked at Stephanie.
"Steph. Go let him in."
"What?"
"Just do it."
Stephanie ran up to the large doors and opened one a little.
A guard was arguing with a boy with maroon hair.
"Excuse me." Stephanie said, interrupting the two. "Shiro will see him now."
Sora and Pluzzle walked into the room, Stephanie closing the door behind them. She led them to stand in front of the throne then went to the side of the throne.
Shiro put down her phone and looked at the two, sitting up straight.
"What do you want?" She asked.
"She's so cute!" Pluzzle said. "Don't you just want to hug her, Sora?"
"Calm down." The boy said. "This is supposed to be serious, remember?"
"Oh, right." The girl said.
Sora looked at the girl sitting on the throne and smiled.
"I'm Sora. This is Pluzzle." He said.
"I'm Shiro." The girl replied. "This is Stephanie."
"Nice to meet you. I assume you already know why we're here."
"You want to take the throne from me?"
"What?" Sora said. "Why would I want to do that?"
"Then you aren't here to challenge me?"
"I am. However, I don't want to take the throne from you."
Shiro looked at him suspiciously.
"What do you want then?"
"I want the right to rule beside you."
Shiro and Stephanie looked at him with a bit of shock.
Shiro snapped out of it quickly.
"What do I get if I win?" She asked. She really didn't care about the prize, but she knew they both had to bet things of equal value.
"You can do whatever you want with me and her."
"What?" The girl asked, confused. "Why would I want that?"
"I guess you just think I'm an Imanity." Sora said. "Would it raise the value if I told you I'm not?"
Shiro briefly narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
"What are you?"
"A Witch's Toy."
Shiro was about to reply but was cut off by Stephanie.
"A… A Witch's Toy!?" She yelled. "T-that's impossible! There's none left!"
"I'm one of the only ones." Sora said.
Shiro looked at the girl next to her.
"What's a Witch's Toy?"
"A Witch's Toy is a being made from magic. It's now a forbidden type of magic. The user would use the magic to extract the soul of a living, conscious being and distort it. They would put the soul into a vessel they made, also using magic. This would create an entirely new being."
"Why did you seem so surprised to see him?"
"I believe we can answer that." Sora said. He nodded to the girl next to him.
"After the Great War, Tet banned the creation of Witch's Toys. It was not made into a pledge, but it was understood. The sixteen races came together and decided to hunt down and kill any remaining Witch's Toys."
"That's…" Shiro said slowly. "That's horrible…"
"That's why I want to be king." Sora said.
Pluzzle pulled down her hood, revealing long light blue hair and light blue eyes. Her wolf ears, the same colour as her hair, were also revealed.
"Sora needs rights." She said. "The only way he can get those rights is to implement a law giving them to him."
"A Warbeast!?" Stephanie exclaimed.
"She's cute, isn't she?" Sora said.
"No offense to either of you, but why would a Werebeast befriend a Witch's Toy?"
"I don't like the way everybody treated them." Pluzzle said. "It's terrible that they decided to kill them. It's one of the reasons I abandoned my race."
"You abandoned your race?" Shiro asked.
"Yes. I've been wondering around ever since." She replied. "However, some time after I abandoned them I started to hear rumors."
"Rumors?"
"The rumors were that the Elves were keeping a Witch's Toy." Sora said. "However, the rumors were quickly dispelled as nonsense. However, Pluzzle here had to investigate the rumors. She infiltrated Elven Garde and found me."
"Why did the Elves keep you alive instead of kill you?" Stephanie asked curiously.
"They wanted to study me." The boy replied. "There were still a lot of mysteries surrounding the Witch's Toys such as how they can use magic. The Elves didn't want to pass up the opportunity to study one up close."
"How old are you?"
"Does it matter?"
"I guess not…"
"I'll tell you some other time." Sora said. "Anyways, we came here for something important." He pointed at the girl on the throne. "I challenge you, Shiro, queen of Imanity, to a game!"
"If I understand you correctly… then you're not an Exceed. The pledges don't apply to you."
"I'm still a gamer." Sora said. "I'll play fairly. Now, if I know how the pledges work, then you get to choose the game we play."
"Find the truth." She replied.
"Find the truth?"
"It's simple. We'll take turns saying something about ourselves. The other person has to identify if you are telling the truth or if you are lying. We will tell the person next to us first to make sure we don't change our answers. The first person to guess incorrectly if the other person is lying or telling the truth loses. How does that sound?"
"Sounds fine to me." Sora said with a smile.
"Since you challenged me, I'll let you go first."
"Fine with me." He turned and whispered to Pluzzle, then turned back to the girl. "I am a girl."
"…"
Everybody in the room was silent for a minute.
Stephanie looked at Shiro who just stared at the two blankly.
"False." She replied.
"Correct." Pluzzle said.
Shiro didn't get what the two were trying to do, but she decided to ignore it.
The girl whispered to Stephanie then looked at the two.
"I'm from another world."
"True." Sora said without hesitation.
"Correct." Stephanie said.
Shiro was surprised by how fast he answered. He had no hesitation.
"I'm 130 years old." The boy said.
"True." Shiro replied after a moment of careful consideration.
"Correct." Pluzzle said.
"I'm 10 years old."
"False."
Sora replied without hesitation again. It would have been difficult for him to learn her exact age, so she was confused as to why he answered so quickly.
"Correct."
"You're pretty good at reading people." Shiro said.
"Maybe." The boy said. "I know I'm good at games. That's enough. My name is Sora."
"True."
"Correct."
"You don't seem to hesitate too much when it comes to something simple, either."
"Considering your reason for coming here, you had no reason to lie to me when you introduced yourself." The girl replied. "Everything I've said so far has been true."
"False."
"Correct."
"Don't make them all easy." Sora said. "I have the ability to revive myself."
"False."
"Correct."
"I'm a human." Shiro said. He should only know the term Imanity, so he wouldn't know what to answer immediately. She was wrong.
"True."
"Correct."
"I've died before."
Shiro had to think about that. He had stated that he had the ability to revive himself, which was false. That didn't rule out the possibility of someone else having the ability to revive him. It could be a trick in more than one way. She had only been in Disboard a few weeks, so she didn't know all the types of magic that existed there. It didn't seem to her like the boy was lying, but at the same time it seemed like he was lying.
Given what she did and what she didn't know, there was absolutely no reason for her to believe that there wasn't a type of magic that could revive people. She had read plenty of light novels back when she was in her own world and she had seen revival magic many times. This was a fantasy world, so she figured it was completely plausible. However, Sora was a Witch's Toy, a being made from magic. It didn't make any sense that he could be revived if he died.
In addition to her doubt, out of all the books she had read since coming to Disboard, she had not read a single thing about any race being able to use magic that can revive someone. Of course, if there was such a thing, the race who had that kind of power would probably try to keep it secret.
For once, Shiro was genuinely confused. She had to answer.
"False."
She knew the answer was wrong before the girl said it. The smiles on their faces gave it away.
"Incorrect."
"…"
There was a silence for a few moments after.
Shiro had never lost a game in her life. She had never met anybody who could match her skill. Despite that, this boy who she had just met beat her.
"I'm sorry that I used that." Sora said, getting her attention. "However, I couldn't afford to lose."
"I-I can't believe it!" Stephanie said.
Pluzzle walked up to Shiro and the girl looked up at her.
"Don't be down about it." Pluzzle said. "He was going to win no matter what."
Shiro shook her head.
"I'm not upset about it. Actually, I'm happy."
"Happy?" Sora asked, walking up to them.
"There's never been anybody else who could present a challenge to me. I'm glad that there's someone who can beat me. It makes playing games a lot more fun."
"I have a question." Stephanie asked.
"Yes?"
"How long ago were you freed from the Elves?"
"Years ago." Sora replied. "However, I've gone back many times with Pluzzle to search for information."
"Information?"
"Information about Witch's Toys." The boy said. "Actually, this time a few Elves followed me back. It seemed like they recognized me as a Witch's Toy. I'm sure they were ordered to bring me back."
"What did you do?" Shiro asked.
"I killed them."
There was a moment of silence.
"You… what?" Stephanie asked, shocked.
"I had to." The boy said. "They were trying to kill me."
"They can't do that." Shiro said. "Murder is against the pledges."
"Sora is not an Exceed." Pluzzle said. "Also, every race has an understanding that Witch's Toys should be killed on sight. It could have been a major problem if another race found out that the Elves had one."
"That's…" The girl didn't know what to say.
Sora broke the silence in the room.
"It doesn't matter." He said. "It's over now. I'll implement the law that gives Witch's Toys rights in Elkia."
"Don't you think that will attract a lot of attention from other countries once they find out?" Stephanie asked.
"That's the idea." He said.
"Just… What are you planning?" Shiro asked slowly.
Sora smiled.
"Imanity lost most of their land due to the last king, right?"
"It's not my grandfather's fault… but yes, we did lose a lot of land. Elkia is now our last city."
"So…" The boy said. "Be glad that we've decided to help!"
"Help…?" Stephanie asked, confused.
"We're going to take back all of Imanity's land!" Pluzzle said.
"That's not all…" Sora said. "After we do that…"
Sora and Pluzzle took a step back and pointed in the direction of the girls.
"We're going to take over the world!" They said together.
The two girls looked at the two for a minute. Then they looked at each other, then back at them.
"You're crazy…" Stephanie said.
[The next day: 12:00pm]
All of Imanity was gathered outside the palace. They looked up at a balcony as Sora and Shiro walked out, Pluzzle and Stephanie with them.
"As queen of Imanity," Shiro started. "I now share my power with a king."
Everybody started mumbling, but stopped when Sora stepped up.
"My name is Sora." He said, loudly enough for everyone to hear. "I have challenged your queen and defeated her."
That caused a lot of mumbling, but he silenced it by continuing.
"However, my intention was not to steal the throne from your queen. I wish to work beside her. We will work together to improve Imanity's standing."
That got a few cheers here and there.
"Imanity has lost a lot." The boy said. "Maybe it's because, out of the sixteen races, the Imanity are the lowest. The Imanity are incapable of using magic, and so, we cannot counter the cheats that our enemies use against us. Also, we are not able to cheat against them ourselves. Is that what makes us so weak? Is that we are losing?"
People looked down as he said that.
"It's not!" He said, getting everybody to look up. "You bow your heads because you believe that is true. We are not the weakest. We have no magic, no extra power to help us in games. That is what makes us the strongest. True strength is not one's physical capabilities or one's capacity to cheat in a game using magic. True strength comes from the wisdom that those without that kind of power have! During the Great War, the Old Deus, the Phantasma, the Warbeasts, everyone fought! In the middle of that war were the Imanity! Yes, we fought with those who had much more power than us. However… We are still here! We are still alive! We came out of the Great War because of our wisdom! We have the capacity to defeat anything that comes in our way because we can only improve! The strong sit back, letting their wisdom lessen because they believe that they can't be defeated! We are here to show them that they are wrong! We are here to take back all of Imanity's land! We're going to show everybody that Imanity can't be stepped on!"
Everybody started cheering.
Sora looked back at Pluzzle, who smiled and nodded.
"That is why…" Sora said. "Imanity now declares war on every other country in the world!"
The cheering grew louder.
"As the queen did before me, I now accept the title of king." A strange energy coalesced into a ball next to the boy. "We shall lead Imanity to greatness!" He grabbed a chess king out of the energy as it dispersed. The piece looked like glass.
"The Race Piece…" Stephanie said. "To see it again so soon…"
"Let us go!" Sora said. "This is the start of Imanity's quest! We will take over the world!"
[Two hours later: Throne Room of royal palace]
"I get that you want to take over the world, but why would you declare war so quickly!? Don't we need a plan? Don't we need preparations?"
Stephanie had been complaining for the last ten minutes.
"You really don't get it, do you?" Sora asked. "The new law will be announced tomorrow. I've already worked everything out. What do you think the other races will think when they hear about it?"
"I think they'll be very angry…"
"I'm sure they will be. "They'll suspect Imanity is supporting the Witch's Toys."
"Then why would you do that!?"
"I'm basically incorporating the Witch's Toys into Imanity." The boy said. "That means that the other races won't kill them unless they want a war with Imanity."
"You just declared war on everyone anyways."
"There was a point to that. We can't take over the world without war."
"Then why would a threat of war stop them!?"
"I don't mean that kind of war." Sora said seriously. "I mean real war. That means bloodshed and death. I'm sure you're quite familiar with that." He said, looking at Shiro.
"What do you mean?"
"You came from another world, right? I'm sure that war there was much different from what it is here. I doubt you played games to resolve things like everybody does in Disboard now."
"It was more similar to the Great War… Except less destructive."
"I thought so."
"The point is that they won't kill Witch's Toys on sight." Pluzzle said. "It's possible that they can be taken prisoner, but if that happens we have a chance to get them back."
"Exactly." Sora said.
"What's the point of taking over the world, though?" Stephanie asked.
"If we take it over, we can unite the sixteen races." The boy said.
"That's what you want to do?"
"Along with getting everybody to accept Witch's Toys, that is the condition for challenging the One True God."
"You plan to beat Tet?" Shiro asked.
"Of course. It's the ultimate challenge. I had a lot of time to think about this while I was in Elven Garde." He replied. "It's almost like it's all a riddle. I spoke to Tet once. Right before the Witch's Toys started being killed. He told me that if I wanted revenge on him, I should go to his home with a full team and challenge him."
"Full team?"
"Chess." Sora said. "How many pieces are there in chess, Shiro?"
"Sixteen…" She said slowly. "Just like the sixteen races. So, you're saying that we have to unite them and, if we do, we get the right to challenge Tet?"
"Correct and incorrect." The boy said. "There are seventeen pieces in a chess game."
"…"
The two girls were silent. Then their eyes widened as they realized what he meant.
"The player." He said with a smile. "Someone who isn't of the sixteen races. That could only mean one thing…"
"The one who will challenge Tet… Is a Witch's Toy." Shiro said slowly.
"Not alone though." Sora said. "With all of the sixteen races supporting them."
Shiro smiled.
"If you're serious about this, then I'll be serious too."
"Looks like it's time then." Sora said. "Tomorrow is when the game begins."
I have to say, this is a fun fic to write. I've always wanted to write a No Game No Life fanfic ever since I read the light novels (or at least the ones that have been translated). I hope you guys enjoyed the fic! I hope to keep writing more of this and I hope that I can improve it so even more people like it. For now, I'll see you later. Try to stay well.