Here to be, to be Here
Volume I – Soul of the Crown and the Blaze of the Bird
Chapter II – Awakening
-o-O-o-X-o-O-o-
I opened my eyes – what viewed my vision was that of a green sky with white clouds drifting over that backdrop. It was a beautiful sight, one that I was fascinated by for a few moments. Blinking, I frowned as a sudden thought hit me.
'Since when has the sky been green?'
I thought to myself but quickly shook it off. Sitting up, I blinked my eyes several times, to get the sleep out from them. Afterward, I looked around my surroundings with curious eyes. From what I could tell, I was simply outside in a forest.
Forcing myself up, I decided that it would've been a terrible idea to simply stay here; and thus, I began to explore this new land, one that I didn't really recognize.
The ground beneath me was mostly solid rock, with patches of dirt here and there. Trees rose up around me, but most of them were dead. It felt very ominous.
Breathing out from my mouth into my hands, warming them up, I stopped in my tracks. ''It's freaking cold.' Hugging my body with my arms, I continued forward, veering slightly off the path that I had been going.
Well, there wasn't really an actual path; I just decided to change directions. Moving around the trees, which when I laid a hand against its bark, felt more like stone than anything else, I looked around, observing the weirdly shaped flowers and some mushrooms that grew to be the size of a dog. Pressing my lips together, I ignored these unusual sights.
As I walked, I began to hear something strange in the distance. Something similar to growling; howling, really. But it was too far away to properly hear.
Though while I say that, it felt far different than what I thought a wolf's howl sounded like. It was more guttural, rougher than I had expected. As if it had lowered the pitch of scratching a blackboard. Shaking my head, I attempted to dispel such thoughts, but the howls continued.
And they were becoming closer.
A shiver made its way down my spine as something similar to a scream ripped through the air – and I took off in a run.
A cold sweat spread through my body as my body steadily grew tired from the action, but I ran regardless of aches and pain, ignoring any stumbles I might've made. I didn't want whatever that was to catch me. Eyes wide, I ran, nearly tripping over the root of a tree, but I managed to catch myself just before I hit the ground. However, due to that, whatever it was caught up to me.
A monster that I couldn't describe properly.
It had long limbs and a head that stared at me with four pairs of eyes and a large mouth that had block-like teeth. It was disturbing.
It growled – or rather, laughed? – at me, causing me to stumble backward without looking. My eyes were as wide as saucers. I was afraid.
The creature took several steps closer to me, mouth opened and saliva dripping down. I could smell its breath from where I scrambled away from it – it wasn't very good. It reminded me more of rotten eggs and meat than anything else.
"St-stop!" I shouted in fright as terror began to seize ahold of my body. Throwing my hands forward as if the action would stop it, I backed up by pushing my body back with my legs against the ground. Ignoring the roots that hit against my rear end, ignoring how pathetic it looked, I pushed my body back to get away from this monster.
And then – I hit a tree. Turning my head to my left, I looked over my shoulder. A rock-hard tree was standing right behind me, blocking my path away from the creature that wished to feast upon my flesh.
"I-I'm not tasty!" I yelled at it, my voice hitting an oddly high note. The creature laughed as I approached. Raising a limb, it prepared to bring it down on me.
However, just before it could do so, a spear made of flames descended down from the sky and pierced through the center of the creature, causing it to freeze in place as blood spurted out from the wound. It bent its head back, blood dripping out of its mouth, and stared up at something in the sky, muttering something unintelligibly.
It turned its body around, preparing to fight whatever had shown up, but before it could do anything else, a second spear of flame made contact against its skull, exploding against it and burning its flesh off. The smell hit my nose hard, causing me to blanch, but I couldn't look away as the creature screamed in pain. A figure fell down from the sky, but I couldn't make it out well due to the flames that had blocked my line of sight.
Sighing, they lifted a hand and brought it down on the creature, causing the flames to spread throughout its entire body, and in less than three seconds, the creature had been completely burned away, leaving only the burnt ground beneath it. Nothing was left, not even its ashes.
The figure that had come to my rescue, was a man with blond hair and blue eyes. He wore a red suit jacket over a white dress shirt, and similar red pants and black dress shoes. His hair was combed to the sides of his eyes, with some strands in the middle being pulled back against his head.
Rolling his shoulders, the man stuffed his hands into his pockets and then noticed me. Huffing, he began to walk over – while I should've been scared of him, and I was, I only felt gratitude that he had saved me.
"Th-thank you!" I stuttered out my thanks, making the man stop advancing for just a moment, before continuing to close the distance between us.
"Of course, you have Riser's welcome," waving my thanks off lazily, the man stopped in front of me. Blinking, I realized that he wasn't going to help me up, so I scrambled up, using the tree to help me stand. "What are you doing out here? This is Phenex territory; it isn't a place for a lowly human such as you to frolic about as if you own the place."
"I-I'm sorry," While I didn't really know where I was since I had just been dropped down here, I had unintentionally made trouble for my savior – was a thought that I didn't really completely agree with, since as I said… I was dropped into an unknown place regardless of what I had wanted. "But I was left here on my own… Uhm, what was that creature?" The man, Riser I believe he called himself, shook his head, a sneer on his face.
"A disgusting excuse of a Devil. They're called Stray Devils, but Riser calls them walking corpses." I dumbly nodded, not really knowing what to say to that. Seeing my expression, Riser made a face, before sighing in frustration, hanging in his head down slightly with a grimace. "Apologies; Riser shouldn't be throwing his frustrations on you. I've had a… bad few days."
"While I don't know what had happened… I'm sorry–" However, before I could finish, Riser cut me off with an annoyed snort.
"You do not need to apologize at Riser's expense. I shall take you back to the Phenex manor; there, you should be able to find your way back to the human world, or whatever." With that, he turned around and began to walk away, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he did so. Realizing that he wanted me to follow him, I hurried after his quick pace.
It only took roughly thirty minutes for us to reach a rather large manor. It was much larger than any other manor that I had ever seen, not like I've seen many before. He led me towards its front, where I saw a fountain with a stone bird in the middle, with water shooting out of its beak. Thinking back, he had called this place the Phenex manor, so it must've been the statue of a Phoenix.
'This is the Phenex territory… but how did I end up here? What are Stray Devils? He said that they were Devils, but what's the difference? Is he… a Devil too?'
As we approached the doors, I decided to postpone asking him anything else. I didn't want to annoy him. After all, he was offering me a place to stay, at least for a little while, and a way to get back home. If I wanted to continue to be in his good graces, I had to avoid stepping on his toes.
It was clear from his place of residence that the man was rich; perhaps he was something akin to a noble? Either way, he was my ticket out of here… I can't lose this chance. However, I also had to pay him back. I couldn't simply take his help and then leave.
Nodding my head, I decided to do something that would help this man – somehow.